I have been horrible about updating this and keeping to my spiritual development. For awhile I felt like perhaps I was losing interest in witchcraft, but the recent trip I took to see my parents combine with my experiences at the Berkeley Pagan Festival this year have reminded me how much witchcraft speaks to my soul and brings me comfort.
At the festival I remember being quite moved by a specific speaker who was talking about how other people who don't understand witches and pagans tend to judge us unfairly when all we want is to live in harmony with what nature gave us and happily worship our gods and our trees. (That's the simplified version that I remember.) Then I spent three weeks with my parents in Washington. This being my very Catholic parents. My dad is less strict than my mom, who thinks that every idea that doesn't line up with Catholicism is "new age" or "occult" even though I doubt she really knows anything about witchcraft or paganism. I have made it no secret that I have pagan friends and I'm sure it makes her a bit uncomfortable, but every time she starts going off about Wicca, witchcraft or paganism I feel uncomfortable as I know she is unfairly judging something she doesn't not know much, if anything about.
That being said, now that I'm home and with Litha fast approaching I feel as though I need to renew my own commitment to my spirituality and Litha provides a perfect opportunity for this. Sadly this year I do not have access to a fireplace and I'm not sure my landlord would appreciate me lighting a firepot in his yard, so my celebration will have to rely less on large scale fires (would be so cool) and more on observances, small fires, and things that represent fire. Thinking about how I can go about doing this makes me feel at peace with myself and isn't that what religion and spirituality are supposed to bring out in you?
