Ok, then...

[_damiana_]

Well, you see... I've been into magic since I was a little kid. I talked to animals, I played outside and... well, it's hard to describe, but I've just always been drawn to magic. I loved magic books, and my mom had a friend with spell books that I would read, I loved Harry Potter. I was all around in love with magic. So you can imagine how excited I was to find out there was a real true religion for magic! Over the past almost four years, I've been reading about it, and learning, celebrating Sabats with my friend (who is equally interested) and things like that. But I have the problem that my family is Catholic, and so I don't have the support or help of my family. My mom is the only one who knows how serious I am, and she tells me to keep it to myself in my bedroom. So I have no one to guide me, and I don't know anyone who lives around my town who is a practitioner. I'm not sure how to really "start" persay and I need help with that. I mean, reading around in the forums, I find that I know about a lot of the things that everyone is talking about, and I can answer questions that are posted, but I myself have no clue where I stand in my magical life.

Can anyone help me out at all?
Blessed Be, and thank you.

[Silverm00n]

That depends, are you looking to just practice magic? Because then you can look into ceremonial magic. Or are you looking to learn magic as part of your religious practices? I don't know what your path is so I'm not sure where to tell you to look? But if you have books, you can do the excercises in there. Start small by making energy balls, and raising energy. What exactly are you asking help on? Because you don't need magic to celebrate sabbats and esbats.

[_damiana_]

Hehe, yeah, I guess I wasn't very detailed in that... Sorry. ^^

Well, I'm not sure what exactly to call what I've been reading about. I know I want to learn magic for religion. So far, I keep a Grimoire, I celebrate Sabats, I've done plenty of reading. I think Ecclectic (sp) Wicca... that could possibly be it.

Well, I need help at my starting point for a definite, solid religious practice. I'll be trying the energy ball excersize tonight (I have something about that in a book of mine), but I also read about a Teen Rite of Passage. Should I do that first? I just need to know how to make a definite entrance.

I'm REALLY terribly sorry if I'm making this complicated, but I'm very confused myself... I hope I made some sense, and I REALLY appreciate the help.

[Silverm00n]

Ok, well since you're on the Wiccan path, and eclectic at that, you can do simple studies at first. Like make a copy (if you haven't already) of the Wiccan Rede to put in your BOS. Examine it, study it, and then write down what it means to YOU. Break it aprart piece by piece and go through each section. Then you can journal things like, why you want to practice Wicca. I would hold off on the teen rite. You can do a similar ceremony to the dedication rite. Basically it's just a commitment that you make to yourself and the God/dess that you will study as much as you can for the next year and a day.

I recommend reading books by Scott Cunningham, Raven Grimassi and Christopher Penczak. They have plenty of excersices in their books that will help guide and teach you. Don't worry about not having a mentor. Most people don't anyway, and most are solitare practicioners. You should def read up on grounding, shielding, and centering. I'll dig up some info concerning those areas and post either later tonight or tommorrow afternoon.

Most important, take your time, there's not quick way to follow this path, and even after you thought your read everything there is, you will always find out that you still really don't know squat! LOL, it takes time, and you must be consistent. Plus you have all of us on here, I'm sure that most of us are still on or where in the same boat as you whether it's about Wicca or general Paganism. Remember, most of the "real good" stuff that you will learn on any of these paths is nothing that you will find in books.

[_damiana_]

Thank you very much! I was reading farther into this book of mine, and I found the ritual you're talking about. The year-and-a-day one, correct? Well, I think I thought that's what the teen rite ceremony was at first. I'll save that one for when I'm 16 though. Hehe.

Thanks so much, though, again! I really wasn't sure what to do... I'll be sure to get to the bookstore ASAP. You're lots of help.

Blessings!