My sister last night was talking to me and saying, "You need to be careful that your son does not repeat the things you say about the new age thinking, Wicca*, etc. As most people are scared of that stuff and he will get looked down upon by others." I thought about this all day, and was thinking about something. I talk to people all the time about different "taboo" subject. We talk about Tarot cards, Spirits, the afterlife, Ritual, etc. I find people are very open to this and it is more of something that comes up, then Christianity. In my post Witness life, I have found little to no criticism about from people from me being in New Age thinking. I don't exactly go around saying, "I practice what some have labeled as Witchcraft." As I am a private person and do not like others to know the personal details of my life. At the same time, I don't really talk about it to my son at all. He sees we have Dragon statues, posters and a few pentagrams hanging around. We do not do rituals like dancing naked in the moon light, and for the most part I know that someone would be hard pressed to examine my world and figure out what the hell was in my head. Most people always think we are still Christians. So here is the thing, do you think if my son was in school (as he will be one day) and someone asked him, "Are you Christian?" and he said "No", that would end his friendships and cause him to be an outcast? I know what it felt like to be an outcast as a child, I was a Witnesses who could not celebrate holidays and could not do any Birthday parties. My son does them all, to the max level and we look normal, dress normal, talk normal and so on. So I have a hard time thinking that my paranoid sister is right. I think the big difference is she lives in a small town of about 1200 people in the mountains and I live in an area with a university, community college and about a half million people. I just never thought about it that way, until last night and with almost ten years of this life style and my Witness background, you would like I would notice any looking down on me by others. What are your thoughts?
*to make something clear. I say I am Wicca, but study all sorts of new age thinking and only put that label on myself as it is the closest description to my thinking of any religion I have run across.