“Are you interested in answering the three questions I like asking everyone I meet?” he wants to know.
Cross and Pentacle: Two religions at the crossroads
I was a Jesus Freak, a passionate theologian, and a Southern Baptist minister. I worked hard to convert pagans. The pagans won.
Discovering magic as a witch with an intimate knowledge of western christianity I explore the juxtaposition of these two faiths. Christianity and paganism alike are undergoing dramatic changes with parallel trends, conflicting challenges, and a growing concern for interfaith dialogue.
Annika Mongan
Born and raised an evangelical Christian in Germany, I joined the Jesus Freak movement as a teenager and became a passionate evangelist and worship leader. No one was surprised when I went to the US at age 19 and came back a tattooed and pierced fundamentalist Christian, betrothed to a "Chrispie" (a Christian hippie, that is). I was a virgin the day we married. Five years later I graduated bible college with highest honors and post traumatic stress disorder. I deepened both my theology and trauma on the road by traveling the country in a big yellow school bus. For three years I lived as a nomad, playing music and leading bible studies, from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine. I learned that Christianity in America encompasses a wide range of beliefs and practices, from Amish groups casting demons out of school busses to Roman Catholic priests breaking into government buildings. I saw Jesus in the oddest places. And then everything changed and I ended up a polyamorous Witch in a Pagan community in California.
I'm writing in a hobbit hole, off the grid, on a mountain side in Northern Washington. The setting couldn't be more perfect. There's still some snow covering the ground at our elevation, steep sagebrush hills framing the horizon, a shimmering mountain lake reflecting the setting sun. I want to write about joyful things or find beauty in difficult things, but the only words that are coming to me are “I am so exhausted.”
"The abuser won. Everything is back to the way it was before."
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I am writing again (obviously). But the simple act of sitting down and letting my fingers dance across the keyboard took months of struggle. Last year I would panic at the mere thought of writing. I thought I’d never publish another word, ever again.
Writing isn’t something I can do casually. Some writers can kick back and type out page after page in a single afternoon, but I’m not like that. For me, writing is a gut-wrenching, soul-baring practice. I cannot write without reaching deep inside of me. Often I end up encountering aspects of myself from which I would rather hide. Writing peels away my defenses and confronts me with the secrets I keep from myself.
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This is exquisite - so glad to have your voice back in the commons my dear. -
Good for you! I also have struggled in the past year trying to reestablish my writing voice. Although my situation was drastical -
Thank you, Carl, I appreciate it!
I’m lying in bed with my lover when the power goes out. The only light in the room is now coming from the moon’s reflection on the snow outside the glass doors. We look at each other, wondering if we caused the outage. We were running a lot of appliances in our room here at Yosemite Falls lodge, we may have blown a fuse.
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So it begins. My Facebook feed has officially become at PantheaCon feed, interrupted only by an occasional Bernie - Hillary banter. Today l join a couple thousand folks at one of the most well known and diverse Pagan festivals.
I arrived a day early and already ran into more old and new friends than I can count. But it wasn't always like that. PantheaCon was my first large Pagan event and I went by myself, knowing hardly anything about the convention. In retrospect, here's a few things I'd do differently (or not), if I were a new Pagan coming to PantheaCon.
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As a reasonably old Pantheacon hand, this is really good advice for newbies (and the rest of us who likely learned the hard way- b
[No spoilers here. I haven't seen the movie, so this is 100% spoiler free]
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