My friends? They’re Christian actually. I actually don’t have any friends who are Wiccan. There’s a gal at work who used to be Wiccan, now she’s agnostic. There’s another gal at work I talk to who is Pagan. But no Wiccans. I don’t know why no Wiccans, but no Wiccans. To me that’s all right, as I am a solitary anyways.

My friends are tolerant of me, although a couple of them are less tolerant of my faith than others are. My best friend still harbors hope that I will return to the flock of Christianity. She’s surprised that so far that hasn’t happened. I’ve been studying Wicca for 4 years now and I’m happy. I think she’s finally starting to see that.

However, I do admit, sometimes it would be nice to talk about Wicca with someone who understands it because that’s who they are as well. That’s right people, being Wiccan is not WHAT you are it’s WHO you are. Being Wiccan means embracing all that is YOU and celebrating all that is YOU. You aren’t afraid to be different, you aren’t afraid to be yourself, for THIS is how the Goddess & God created you. You are doing what you do best, you are being YOU.

Well, at least that’s MY perception of it anyways.

You know, being of what some people like to call an “alternative faith,” I have noted that in some cases there can be a problem when it comes to having a job. For instance, although it is not actually legal to deny someone employment based on their religion, there are a few companies that do it anyways.

A local trucking company is one of them. A friend of mine went for an interview there and during the course of the interview, the owner of the trucking company asked him about his faith. Now my friend is a Christian, so he told the owner that he is Christian and what church he attends. The owner told him that was good, that he only hired good, God-fearing employees. If you didn’t have ties to a church, you wouldn’t be hired.

Businesses like Chick-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby also have a stand towards faith…. both are closed on Sundays with the purpose of giving employees “time for worship and family.” Last time I saw the sign on Hobby Lobby’s doors, worship was literally before family. But both businesses make sure they are closed on Sundays to allow their employees time for church. But what about those of us whose holy days aren’t just on Sundays? What about those of us who have our days scattered throughout the week? We have to ask for our holy days off, and you don’t have to give them to us. While you can’t legally fire us for asking for a day that is a holy day for us, you can still deny us the day off. I know this because it’s been done to me.

Another sticking point is that I have seen several cases of workplaces telling one employee to remove their pentacle necklace, yet allowing five or six others to keep their crosses or stars of david on their necks. I remember clearly my ex-roommate’s supervisor telling her boss that she wasn’t comfortable with Nich wearing the pentacle necklace. Her boss was actually smart about it though and told the woman that it was a religous symbol, a symbol of Nich’s faith, and that legally they could not ask her to remove it. At least he made sure he followed civil rights laws.

I’ve never had any problems relating to my faith at work. I count myself lucky. I’ve been reading about people creating “safe haven” communities for Wiccans and Pagans. I often wonder why. I’ve never experienced anything that has made me fear for my life or anything else when it comes to my faith. Have you?

Now frankly, they can’t be too harsh about religions because their patients are certainly not all Catholic. However, they can be a bit on the annoying side. When you register as a patient you have to give a religious preference. If your faith isn’t listed, or you don’t have one at all, you’re listed in their system as non-denominational. I know this for a fact because that is how I am listed in their patient system. Wicca and Pagan are not options.

Working there however, was pretty straightforward. I wore my pentacle necklace on many occasions. Rarely did anyone actually understand what it was, and those who did just shrugged it off as if to say to each their own.  One would have thought that someone of my faith wouldn’t have been able to work in a Catholic run hospital, but really, I don’t think the church has as much to do with it as it used to. Sure, they have the priests and the nuns, but they also have Native Americans who come in there and perform various rites and ceremonies over ill or dying patients who are of Native American descent. Nothing is said to these people. Then again, they aren’t employees.

The only problems I ever encountered was trying to get my holy days off. Very rarely was I able to take a day off on the day of a Sabbat and frankly, since they weren’t recognized as holidays, with the exception of Halloween which wasn’t technically a holiday to them, I usually had problems getting the nights in question off. Other than that, I never encountered any problems with being employed by the hospital and being of an “alternative” faith.

I have noted in a few Yahoo! Groups that I was part of, but am no longer part of due to the contrary nature of the groups, that one of the biggest problems with the various online Wicca schools is that people see the front pages and have “bad feelings” about them.

 One lady in particular focused her attention on WitchSchool.com after a friend of hers brought it to her attention. This friend’s girlfriend was taking classes at WitchSchool.com and he felt that her safety was being compromised. He felt that the people at WitchSchool.com were taking advantage of her. Many people responded to this woman’s call for assistance about the direction of WitchSchool.com. Almost every one of them said that it was bad, based on a few paragraphs that were offered as a free preview of one of the courses, and the fact that they charge money.

Well, the course text isn’t in full context when read like that and can easily be misconstrued. As for charging, if you have the means to keep a website that gets that many visitors and uses that much space and bandwidth going without charging your users any fees, be my guest! But it’s a sound decision to charge when the costs are necessary to keep the site up and running.

To my idea, each person needs to find their own path and their own way to that path. If you don’t like WitchSchool.com or any of the other various online Wicca schools, then don’t choose that school. Find a different one. It’s all about YOUR spiritual path and what form that path takes. Not what someone else’s does.

I was going to do a Viral Linking Meme here, but I did it with one of my other sites already, and frankly, I can’t think of more blogs to add to my list of people to tag at this point. Besides, very few people actually read this blog, but I am going to have to start blogging here again as I was actually asked by someone at Gothic Peach what it was like to be Wiccan.

Now there’s an interesting question, what is it like to be Wiccan. Well, it’s interesting to say the least. I’ve discovered that the majority of people, clergy people included, have no clue what my pentacle necklace means. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I hear “oh, that’s a pretty star necklace you have there.” My response? A smile and a “thank you.” If they don’t understand the meaning behind it, I am certainly not going to place myself in a position of telling them about it, unless I know that they are open minded and it won’t turn into an argument to end all arguments.

Being Wiccan to me, means changing your life for the better. Learning that your actions, whether intended to do so or not, can have an affect on other people. It means finding your faith in a manner that is right for you, not in the manner that someone else tells you that you should.

I’m going to try to post more here later, including what it’s like to work in a Catholic run hospital as a Wiccan.

In this episode of Living the Wiccan Life, WitchSchool.com speaks with Raven Grimassi. Enjoy.

Here is what is listed officially as Episode 1 of Living the Pagan Life. Enjoy.