I've been thinking a lot lately about the whole issue of coming out of the broom closet. We had a brief discussion about this before my last Witchcraft One class. Some of my classmates were out to coworkers but not family and some vice versa but I haven't been able to come to a decision about this.

Lots of my friends and people I know have been asking me what I've been doing with my time lately. Other than my new job, the things that I've been spending most of my time on are learning witchcraft and my blog. I haven't exactly been able to just blurt that out. What do I tell them then? It's easy enough to fudge something for purely social aquaintances, but I feel like I'm being deceptive when I'm not honest with people who are close to me.

Strangely enough, despite her Baptist upbringing, I think my mother will be cool with the fact that I'm a witch. When I first started reading tarot, I expected her to tell me something about how it was evil, but she was actually very interested. She told me that she was psychic when she was young but she rejected her gift because it scared her. I must have inherited some of my abilities from her. I'm not really close with my mother, so an opportunity to talk to her about this hasn't presented itself. I'm feeling inclined to call her just to tell her I'm a witch. It will feel good - Yay! I've told someone!

It's when I try to imagine the respone I will get from certain other people in my life that I stop to think about what the consequences might be - and the thought there actually might be consequences is sad and scary at the same time. I'm anticipating that certain of my friend's will not take the news well and reactions will vary from laughter to derision.

I don't want to hide my spirituality. Whether it discovered me or I discovered it, this path that I'm on is my truth. I would be denying that to pretend otherwise. How do you reconcile the need and the desire to be true to yourself and the equally real need and desire to be accepted?

The answer that if someone truly cares for you they will accept you no matter what is too facile. The issue is more complicated than that. I'm eager to hear how others have handled coming out of the broom closet - what you said, what they said, what the outcome was. I'm also eager to hear from others who are still struggling with this as I am.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:59 AM