Il Tre.

[badstar]

In late winter 2002, an organization in Lancaster started a series of public forums on being Non-christian in Lancaster county, which I was very interested in attending. Speakers from the community included a Pagan, a Unitarian Universalist who never said fat out, but made it pretty clear that she was atheist, a Jew, and a flat-out atheist. The atheist was from Chambersburg or somewhere in that direction....they couldnt find anyone in lancaster who was willing to stand up and publically proclaim to being atheist. They had originally planned to have someone from the Muslim community, the planning for this all started well before Sept 11, but after that, the speaker backed out and no one else was willing to step in. It was here that I first encountered other pagans in Lancaster- woohoo! I got my time mixed up and ended up arriving while everything was still being set up, so I ended up volunteering to help set up some chairs or a table or something, and in the process began speaking to one of the organizers, shortly after which smeone that she knew came up and invited her to an upcoming Spring Equinox ritual at the UU church in Lancaster, and turned to me and said "You're invited too, of course." as if I'd been a part of things all along. I went of course. I was really excited to be able to meet more people and have some sort of interaction in this context. I remember being there, and when all was said and done, on my way home, thinking "Yeah...that wasn't quite what I had in mind, but I can work with it." It wasn't what I was expecting, though admittedly I didn't really know what I expected. It was somewhat sily...not in a "haha" way, but in a non-substantial way. Their Summer Solstice ritual was much better...that was one where things kinda clicked. After that, the lady who was organizing these rituals moved out of state and there was no more of that. A few months later, in early September I attended the Lancaster Pagan Pride Day where I met still more people, most of them whom I would never have any sort of regular contact with or anything, but might be someone I'd see around town, and recgonize and stop and chat for a bit. It was around this time that I started feeling that, maybe I wasn't entirely happy in Lancaster, and I wouldn't be there forever but in the meantime, it's not all hostile faces and boredom. I got on a couple of email lists...and then Kathleen started holding a study/discussion group in her house, which I started attending. Kathleen was Wiccan, but we discussed all manner of topics, and I learned a good random bit about this and that. In January 2003 I started going to the Full Circle group rituals with Kathleen. This only continued for 6 months unti I moved to Baltimore, but in that short time, with only a single meeting each month, I realy felt that I had found something, and was really sad when I came back to my parents' then-empty house after the June ritual, only a few days before I moved.

Shorty after I moved to Baltimore, I started surfing around the web, checking out different groups in the area. Sent an email to a number of them. Only ever got a response from one. I ended up speaking to someone from that group once on the phone. That went over very badly. He asked me what questions I had, and I asked him to tell me a little about the group. He immediately freaked out and went into a rant about how rude and disrespectful it was of me to have not had a well-thought-out list of questions prepared. My response that I knew nothing about the group, there was not enough on the web to come up with anyhting but the most general questions and if he'd tell me a little that would give me a better basis for question-asking. This wasn't acceptable, I was rude, blah blah blah. So I said thanks and hung up. For about a year, I would check out various group websites from time to time, I made another few halfhearted attempts at emailing the contacts..but never heard anything, so I eventually gave up. I don't think I ever actually did email Cedarlight...not sure why. One day I decide to try again. There was one new group listed on the Witchvox site...I dropped them an email wice, a couple of weeks apart...depsite their enthusiastic assertions that everyone was welcome and to email for infrmation on meeting and whatnot, I never recieved a response.

And then one day I just decided to go and pay a visit to the only group I had never tried to contact, and the only one that listed their meeting location online that I could find. That was November 2004. I walked in and was greeted by Caryn, who introduced herself as the "Senior Druid and High Wonkydoo." The rest, you've probably already read in my "Cliffs notes" post. Since last November, I've been at the Grove every Sunday with only a few exceptions. This coming Imbolc marks a turn of the wheel of the year for me to celebrate the Sabbats with the Grove. I've been involved in ritual planning, I'm now working on the Dedicant's Program, coordinating monthly Full Moon rituals, and have plans to take up the Clergy study program when I've completed the dedicant's program.

What have I gotten myself into?