Changing Paths challenge day 30 — reflections.
The most amazing autobiography I have ever read was Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Carl Gustav Jung.
It discusses how he arrived at his psychoanalytical theory — but the bits I found most fascinating were about his childhood and his occult experiences.
If I hadn’t had access to books about mythology and King Arthur and Robin Hood, I might not have become a Pagan, and my life would’ve been very different. The book that I count as the one that made me realize I’m Pagan is Puck of Pook’s Hill by Rudyard Kipling, but I’m sure all the mythology and other stories helped too.
The power of stories to change and challenge a person’s worldview is immense. My worldview was definitely informed by reading A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin, Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, The Writing on the Hearth by Cynthia Harnett (now sadly forgotten by most people), Mary Stewart’s Arthurian trilogy, and The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. And of course the Narnia series by CS Lewis, and many other books depicting a magical mythopoeic worldview. Ursula Le Guin’s science fiction was and remains extremely important to me.
Read the rest of the post, including photos of my childhood library, at the Changing Paths blog
My books are about inclusive Wicca and witchcraft; how to include LGBTQIA people, disabled people, and BIPOC people in ritual and witchcraft; embodied spirituality; and the inner work of ritual. My latest book, Changing Paths, is a companion guide for people changing from one religion to another.
Readers of Changing Paths may wonder why I chose not to address theological questions like the existence of God, the afterlife, and related questions.
The first part of the book is aimed at people seeking to leave a variety of high-control traditions, which could be anything including fundamentalist Christianity, fundamentalist Islam, high-control new religions such as Scientology, and even high-control versions of Paganism.
For each of these traditions, the theological arguments are different, so rather than devote a large amount of space to them in the book, or write yet another book about why a supreme creator deity does not exist, I wanted to write about extricating yourself psychologically from harmful religious traditions.
Changing Paths (the Kindle edition) is now available for pre-order!
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The Kobo edition of Changing Paths is now live:
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Stay tuned for the paperback announcement.
Changing Paths is published by 1000Volt Press and will be available as a paperback on April 11, 2023.
I had a wonderful chat with Hana the Suburban Witch yesterday for her podcast, and today she has posted a wonderful review of Changing Paths (she was one of the advance readers and is quoted on the cover).
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Dowsing for Divinity 