Another (set of) Question(s) To The Pagan Folks In The Audience...

[badstar]

Do you have a "Pagan" name or a "Magic" name?

Do you use it in public?

Do you find that a lot of the pagans in your area use magic names? Do they use them more than their given names?

If you don't have a magic name, do you ever get od reactions for not?

I'm just curious because a few weeks ago, I was talking to someone from the community at a gathering, we'd met a few times before at rituals at the Grove, and seen each other around town...she asked me to remind her what my name was, so I did...and then she asked if I had a magic name. When I responded that I didn't, she looked at me as though I had just grew a 3rd arm or something. Not the first time I'd had such a reaction. It was a little weird. So just curious of anyone else has seen this.


To everyone else: feel free to Nod and Smile. Pagans Are Weird :-P

Comments

Fuego...

[jackgreen60.livejournal.com]

Perhaps Fuego is your magick name. Just a thought.

Jack in the Green

Re: Fuego...

[fuego.livejournal.com]

it could be taken as such, but i guess i don't think about it because it's very commonplace to me...and i see magic as a very organic thing- really, to me everything is magic, if everythgin is magic then so is my nickname...but it's also no different...y'know?

[liritsvoice.livejournal.com]

*confused and sputtering*

but... fuego.... you do have a magic name!!!! or a playa name, anyway, which many would consider magic. and thats one better than me, cause i dont even have a playa name. :-(

seriously, tho, some questions for ya: how do people acquire a magic name? is there a ceremony? is it a communal decision, or something spiritually bestowed by the higher ups, or something personal? just curious. :-)

[purplelover13.livejournal.com]

I first dedicated myself to Wicca, and took my own magickal name.

I then renounced this name last year when I shed the Wiccan path that no longer fit my life.

I pledged myself to a different Goddess, one in a completely different path, and during this ceremony, my Priest gifted me with my magickal name. He has followed this path since birth and I was given a very special name. It means a lot to me. (I'm named for his grandmother)

I hope that answered some questions. Mostly it's based on the specific path that's being followed, being pagan is similiar to being christian in that there are a multitude of varieties.

[witchie1.livejournal.com]

I have a magick name but in my tradition it is considered secret and sacred. Only my coven knows and addresses me by that name. I chose my name as it was special to me. I was introduced to the Lord and Lady by my magick name in a sacred rite when I gave my commitment to my path as a Wiccan. Having a magickal name is a personal preference or one given to you by your group. Hope that helps :)

[purplelover13.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do have a Magick name.

No, I don't use it in public. Only the Priest(my best friend) and 3 good friends who were present at my formal declaration know it, plus my step-mother who is also pagan but follows a different path.

Yes, all of my pagan friends have a magickal name. Some use them in public, others don't.

[ravenshrinkery.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have one. I use it in public where appropriate. I don't have a "private" magickal name, but I understand why people do. I didn't have any sort of ceremony in choosing one, but I did have a specific instance that made me settle on "Seeker Silverhawk".

I've always been a Seeker of sorts. No sense hiding it. The Silverhawk part came from one day seeing a pair of silver-winged hawks flying near a waterfall that was my place of worship growing up. Settled the matter pretty nicely, and it stuck.

I don't use the name very much, generally it only comes out in company that prefers to go by them. I'm just more comfortable going by John :).

[blaisepascal]

I have a magical name, chosen by myself and adopted at my 1st degree initiation.

My situation is weird, since when I searched for a magical name, I came up with, as meaningful, a name which was already my middle name. After repeated rejections (as I didn't think choosing my existing name was really kosher), and repeated returns to that name, I decided to accept it.

After my initiation, I talked with my mom (yes, my mom is/was also pagan), told her the name, and why I had chosen it. It turns out she gave me that name originally for exactly the same reason I chose it. (cue Twilight-Zone theme here).

I don't tend to use it much, in Circle or out, as my real first name is so ingrained in me as an identity (with Blaise Pascal, my nom-de-computer, a close second) that it is hard for me to identify with my magical name.

A fair number of the pagans here use magical names, and some use them more than their given names in general; others rarely use their given names in circle but use it in public; some hardly ever use their magical names, but have them.

My real name is odd enough that I don't get odd reactions for using it instead of my magical name. In fact, my magical name would get odder reactions as it is an extremely common "mundane" name (as well as that of an Archangel, or in my case, the middle name of a fictional human raised on Mars). My real name sounds more like a magical name.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Ah...a Heinlein fan? Or have you just read that one book?

Yes, it is a very common name and I am related to so many of them that I pretty much refuse to date anyone by that name

[liritsvoice.livejournal.com]

hmm, i *thought* i heard a heinlain referrence in there! :-)

[blaisepascal]

I've read all that I know of (or, I've read all that I've been able to find). I do consider myself a Heinlein fan.

Specifically, I considered that particular character as the ideal I want to aspire to, which is why that name kept resonating with me.

It wasn't until after I chose it did I find out that my mom chose that name for me after that character as well.

[chronarchy.livejournal.com]

No magical name here. Most people around me have one, but they tend to use their given names.

I do get odd reactions. Especially since I resist them so much and so hard for myself. I tend to use the word "useless" for them, as they apply to me.

Others might have a use for them, but I don't. Besides, the name "Michael" is really the perfect magical name. Claiming to be a certain archangel by the same name is one of the most powerful things a magician can do, aside from claim to be Moses or Solomon or Adam or perhaps Jesus.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

you know, that doesn't surprise me at all, based on what I know of you so far.

As I mentioned in an above comment, I see everything as magic. It's just..part of everything. Life, the world is magic. So if everyhting is magic, then my name is too. Renee means reborn...that's a fairly magical concept if you ask me. Fuego, my nickname...means fire- Pretty Damned Magical (but its origination as my nickname has nothing to do with any sort of magica working. at least, not outside of my normal realm of activity. Playing with fire? Magic like no one's business! hehe) . Any other name that I were to give myself would be no different, and in my mind it kinda borders on turning it all into a role-playing game. I'm not role-playing. I don't need another identity.

This is fast becming its own post.

incidentally, a few months back in a fit of silliness and boredom I gave myself a magical name one day...Lady something-or-other Moondrivel. I'll have to find it and perhaps i'll try it out on the next person who asks me what my magic name is..hehehehe

Now I'm just being silly.

[ranger-hotsauce.livejournal.com]

"To everyone else: feel free to Nod and Smile"

Will do. Silly pagans.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Yeah, okay Ranger Hotsauce

:-P

[ranger-hotsauce.livejournal.com]

A nickname bestowed with the intention of teasing me. Not the same thing at all.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

no it's not, but the point is that you're weird too.