My Wild Urban Priestess Path
I'd like to tell you that I am descended from an unbroken lineage of witches, a magical bloodline that stretches back through the centuries, passing down ancient wisdom, rituals and spellcraft. However, that would obviously be nonsense. The truth is something far less mystical.
I was always drawn to nature; to trees and oceans and the wild spaces. However, Paganism and Witchcraft and Goddess were not on my radar. That all changed the day I accepted a job in a bookshop in London when I was twenty-two. I was put in charge of the Mind, Body, Spirit section and out of curiosity, I took home an intriguing book called 'The Spiral Dance' by Starhawk. It is not an exaggeration to say that book changed my life. Starhawk opened my eyes to another way of seeing the world - a world in which the divine was female, a world in which deity was not God but Goddess, a world in which everything was connected and that magic was truly possible.
I devoured every book on Paganism and the Goddess on the shelves. I found out about the Goddess Conference in Glastonbury and the following year I headed down to that bizarre and beautiful little town (a place where you can easily buy fifty crystals but not a hairbrush) and I found a vibrant community of women and men. I was hooked and I knew that I'd found my path.
I have attended the Goddess Conference almost every year since then. I have joined (and left) a number of witches' covens. I have trained as a Priestess in Glastonbury. I am a self-initiated Priestess of Aphrodite. I have withdrawn into myself and practised as a solitary witch and I have now emerged and am now training with the Mount Shasta Goddess Temple.
I call myself a Wild Urban Priestess because I am a city-girl (I live in London and I love it) who lives a modern life, however I was born in Cornwall and I feel Goddess most strongly when I am in a field, in the sea, on the moors, at the top of a mountain. Nevertheless, Goddess is everywhere and there is just as much magic to be made in front of my television as there is to be made in front of the ocean.
To me, being a Priestess is not about believing in a deity or worshipping a being that exists in some other dimension. There is no heaven and there is certainly no hell (unless you include the M25 on a Friday). There is no holy book of rules. In some ways I would describe myself as an atheist-priestess. I do not believe that Goddess is out there, judging me and watching my every move (and if She is then I hope She also enjoys ten hour marathons of Doctor Who and Friends). Goddess is something I experience - Goddess is in every breath of wind, every sip of water, every rumble of thunder. She is you and me and every living being. She is the web of energy that binds the whole universe together and She certainly doesn't give a sh*t about which consenting adults sleep with each other.
I hope you enjoy my ramblings ;)