There are articles everywhere, warning parents about the negative influences of the occult on teens.
And then there are teens everywhere, frustrated by the small-mindedness of their parents.
I grew up going to church every week. I was not allowed to eat breakfast before communion, and I only sat down for about half of the two-hour church service. For a growing kid, these religious practices were the things I dreaded every week.
To me, church was a muddled mess of browns and boring greys, like the backs of the pews I ended up staring at. The stories in the Bible didn't speak to me, Satan scared me, but so did the paintings of saints on the walls of churches. Sunday school was the epitome of boredom.
None of this has anything to do with the day I picked up a deck of Tarot cards.
Aggrippa, Crowley, Solomon's Keys--I studied everything I could get my hands on. But the hole in my studies was the part where there was any mention of Christianity. Any time one of my books said the word God, I shyed away from in instantly.
That was my disillusioned teenager stage.
Now, even though I'm still fourteen, I plan on studying Western Esotericism and Occult Philosophy in college, and hopefully becoming a Mythology Major. I recognize that I am very young, too young to decide what I am going to do with the rest of my life, but I think I know what I want, without any outside influences or corruptions of my mind.
It pains me to hear people speak so badly of Pagans. Though I don't practice any of their spells and rituals, I certainly agree with them that, yes, nothing should be harmed, and oh, any energies you send out return to you threefold. It makes more sense than symbolically eating the flesh and blood of a Jewish zombie every Sunday morning.
I'm sorry. That last bit was unnecessary.
I don't want to say, Christianity is bad, Pagan's are good, because I practice neither. But I want everyone to accept that Witchcraft and Paganism are legitimate religions that deserve the same respect as Buddhists and Jews and Muslims and everyone else who seems to get along fine.
I am the teenagers everyone seems to think are wrongly led, and crying for attention.
I just wanted to tell everyone that I don't feel mislead. I feel great. I don't believe in anything right now--what I do believe in is rigorous studying of other religions. I'll be learning Hebrew soon, maybe I can tackle a little of the Torah.
When I read articles, people complain about the occult's negative influences on their kids and how it tears families apart.
What tears families apart is when someone doesn't feel accepted.