The journey begins...

Am I a new pagan? Am I an old pagan reborn? Have I walked this path before - countless times before - asking these same questions? The answer to these may not be known until I walk in the fields of the Summerlands and they hearken back to the ages old questions "Where did I come from?", "What am I doing here now?" and "What's going to happen next?". Phrased another way, these are the Mysteries of Birth, Death and Rebirth.



Each religion and philosophy wrestles, in their own way, to find an answer. Each crafts myths, stories, parables and lore to explain the Unknown and Unknowable to it followers. They mollify the dread fears of those who have suddenly come to the terrifying conclusion that life, at least this life, is not permanent. They dance around the questions, ever more smoothly than ice-dancers, of the Innocents who ask, with eyes wide open and minds open even wider the questions of Life itself.





I have come to my path through a long, circuitous route, as I imagine many people do. I have studied and belonged to several sects of Christianity. I spent three years studying with a Tibetan master, three years with what can be best described as a Jungian self-help group with overtones of Joseph Campbell and three years studying with a druid group whose focus was on the pre-Arthurian Avalonian era.

All of these have great, great merit. Most left left me wanting something more or, at the very least, something different. I do recognize that the longing has more to do with my lack of patience with one path or the other but ultimately, my practice suffered from inactivity.

Throughout these paths, as far back as I can remember, there have always been Ravens.