Mark’s Story

I’ve always been interested in alternative things. In college, I got interested in Wicca but never followed through with it. I was more focused on the “real world” at the time, not following a spiritual path. 

I’ve had a lifelong connection to nature. If I was angry, sad, depressed, or whatever, I’d go out and just listen to nature. It would calm me, and help me focus and come up with a plan to get through whatever was bothering me.

But my real journey into witchcraft started with my wife, Michele. We met on an online dating site. Being 800 miles apart, we weren’t supposed to see each other’s profiles – we were too far away. But through some glitch in the system Michele saw mine, and messaged me. I don’t take that as a coincidence. When she explained her spiritual beliefs, everything she said sounded so logical. She gave me a path to follow that made sense to me.

Michele was afraid of how I’d react. But I said, “Cool, teach me, tell me about this.” She got me the book Wicca for Men by AJ Drew. Another one we had was the “Big Blue” Buckland book. 

The first ritual we attended together was at Fly-by-Night. I didn’t know what to expect. Being in a new situation with people I’ve never met makes me anxious. But once the ritual started I felt calm and comfortable. The basic idea of the goddess and god made sense to me. That’s how nature is. You need two sexes to create life and keep it going. Why wouldn’t our deities be two instead of one? We felt really energized on the way home from that ritual. I had to stop the car so Michele could get out and ground. 

On Samhain 2009 we made a candlelight labyrinth at Grigg’s Dam and invited people. We started with that one ritual and decided to build it from there. We wanted to do more for the community, so we founded a Pagan church. Some friends joined us and helped us get nonprofit status.

I remember after one of our rituals I was drumming and Michele was playing a Native American flute. Another lady from our church was there with us too. We were just messing around and we created this beautiful sound together, the three of us. I looked at Michele and she said, “We created this moment.” It felt really powerful. 

We wanted to do some things differently. We made a volcano out of a pizza box and paper mache, and we did a ritual for Pele. I had a spot to put a candle in the mouth of the volcano and it didn’t want to go out. It seemed like it wanted to catch on fire. 

One time when I was calling the South I actually breathed fire. I put a little bit of corn starch in my mouth, then spat it out toward the candle flame. The corn starch caught fire and made a cool stream of flame.

For a while I worked in lawn care. We had to cut down this big tree in an apartment complex. I remember when we made the first big cut on the tree it started leaking sap. It looked like it was crying, and it depressed the crap out of me. Ironically, we ended up moving into an apartment that was in the same complex that tree had been in. I could open my front door and look right at that stump where the tree had stood.

At one point Michele had to quit work because of her back, and we were having serious financial troubles. I’d been paying child support for my kids. I would get notifications from time to time about the child support and I’d just throw them in my drawer. Then a few months later I opened one; it was a check – an overpayment. I started opening them all and I had over $1000 worth of checks from overpayment that I was chucking in my drawer. Coincidence or not, I just think there are things that we have no clue about. We connect through our magic, our rituals, our meditations, and I believe there is definitely something at work out there. 

We had the church from 2010 to 2016. We decided to let go of the church so Michele could concentrate on her health. But the people that are closest to me now are people I’ve met on my spiritual path. 

I think we need to be out there educating people about Paganism. We’re getting too divided, kind of like the Christian churches. I think the more organized we get the more we act like organized religion. So many people insist that their way is the right way and no other way is valid. I think everybody should walk their own path. If you try to do what somebody else does you’re never going to find that connection. You have to do what’s right for you.

I’d like to see some kind of unity within Paganism, though I’m not sure how that’s going to happen. We go to festivals and everybody puts their differences aside; but then it seems like when we get back to the mundane world the differences creep back in. I’m very open to whatever makes people happy. If it’s getting you what you need in life, if it’s healing you and getting you through your bad times, that’s great.