It’s time for a personal post. If you’ve been in my world, you know that I used to post about my personal life all the time. I’ve cut back now to focus on writing my books but even earlier this spring I would share about my life at least twice a month for the full and new moon.
You might not have understood why I theme these “moon” posts. Well, it’s because I honor the moon in my spirituality. Today’s title for the post is speaking about the “broom closet.”
For many years past I identified as a witch, a Wiccan or a pagan. This is a special kind of spirituality that honors the earth, goddesses and gods of many cultures. It is ceremony based and it is believed that individuals can influence the way that their lives happen with these ceremony, prayers or spells. This is because we are all powerful and divine in our own life.
Witches used to have a bad rap. I still love witchy stuff, (cauldrons!) but the identity may limit me today. I’m aware. I recently wrote about my spiritual journey including many of my past struggles for an interview with my teacher Flora Peterson.
Flora recently certified me as a Certified Ethical Intuitive Consultant, which means I have been tested for accurate and ethically sound readings. She’s also a super star in the pagan-spiritual world because she openly talked about being a witch on youtube while living in the midwest years before many people like me had the courage to tell anyone.
On Saturday I am working (playing, really) with my friend Pamela Chen. We are performing an earth-based ceremony for the Winter Solstice live for all to see online. We are both huge fans of Harry Potter so we are going to be bringing lots of messenger owl imagery into the guided meditation. The purpose will be to clear the old and set an intention for the new year to come.
I do similar ceremonies every two weeks, it’s a staple for my practice, but I have never performed a ceremony on live video, let alone video. This to me is the real coming out of the broom closet. I’ve been spiritual for a long time, but to be honest, I’ve been scared that if people know that about me I will face dismissal, judgement or shame. I graduated from a very good college and I have traditional smarts, I just also believe in magick 😉 (That’s how witches spell it sometimes)
I want to live in a world where all people are tolerated, and equal even if they believe different things. So I think I will be part of the change and take advantage of the new technology we have to spread information. Now if anyone wants to know more about me, they will find this ceremony on youtube and they’ll know “witches” aren’t that scary. They are like every one else, just a slightly different style.
Below is an excerpt from my upcoming interview with Flora describing my spiritual path and how I’m a lot less attached to the word “witch” than I used to be. I consider writing to be the crux of my spirituality, not any particular deity or guide, etc. My current religion is three pages of writing a day.
Still Goddess and earth-based spirituality were important steps, the door way that led me to myself, to wholeness and to where I am now. So I am forever grateful for that and I am committed to curing misinformation around witches, wicca, witchcraft, earth-based religions and pagan people.
Have a happy solstice, and remember if you want to join us on the solstice live you are welcome! Click here to RSVP.
The replay will also be available on my youtube channel.
Here’s the excerpt from my interview with Flora Peterson. She asked me “What brought you to the spiritual path you are on now?”
My name is Sofia Wren and I was born on an island. As a little mermaid, I played with rocks on the beach and tried to jump over waves.
I’ve always been sensitive, and drawn to Mother Nature. My Momma was the Ocean.
I always loved books, and after reading fantasy novels I decided to become a priestess with magic powers.
Other kids thought this was strange. That didn’t feel good. Something happened then, where I lost myself in the crowd. No one saw the real me until ten years later, when I started to write again.
I had been so afraid of what people thought of me, that my creativity had dried up. I hated the way a few bad eggs called me “witch” in the hallway.
I think I had read about kids getting beat up and my home life was rocky, too. I was so afraid all the time. For years. I threw my Wicca books away or hid them.
I hid in the front of the class with my hand up, and tried to have every right answer. I was even scared when people called me Hermione. I didn’t want to be a target, so I followed the rules and avoided the spotlight.
But after I graduated Bryn Mawr College with a degree in Political Science, I knew that field just didn’t fit me. I had to get serious and figure out– who am I anyway?
That’s when I had to go back to the ocean, to mother nature. I finally had to heal the loss I had never processed, the death of my mother which happened when I was three.
It felt like people kept leaving me at 22. After my heart broke in a serious way, I could not survive without my spirituality. I really wished I had a mom, a mother goddess had to do, though. I needed that love and connection, because in the process of reclaiming who I was, I also lost close friends who had liked the old and fake me better than who I really was.
And so I found myself at the counter of Harry’s Occult Shop in Philadelphia asking for help. I was prescribed crystals and oils, and I began keeping an altar again, pulling Tarot cards, and reading the books on Wicca, Witchcraft and Paganism that I had hidden so long ago in middle school.
As an adult goddess and earth-based spirituality were my doorway to myself. But looking back, I can see that treating writing as a spiritual healing practice was also always a huge influence. After finishing the Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, I discovered I had a secret dream to be a high priestess. I signed up as a First Degree Dedicant with Sacred Mists online college. I am now taking my High Priestess exam.
The program there is very open, and guides us to pick a deity to research, meditate on, and work with for at least a month before moving on to the next lesson.
Over time I found myself drawn away from the Roman and Greek myths I had always loved, to connect with Celtic deities, then Arch Angels, then Ascended Masters and Spirit Guides. I studied the work of Sonia Choquette and found a local teacher as well. I became drawn to the program at the Quantum Success Coaching Academy which is based on the Law of Attraction.
So although I thought it was so important to be allowed to be pagan as a teenager, entering that door as an adult led me much further away from it than I would have imagined. Once I got access to the Goddess again, and was allowed to heal that connection within and without myself, I then became drawn to the sacred masculine, and healing that within and without me. And then I connected to my own personal power, the creator inside of me, that mirrors every face of the divine imaginable.
As a writer, I see the divides dissolve between me, and the faces of the divine. I write stories and characters that are part me, but part something else entirely. Wisdom flows on the page that is the wisest I could ever come up with– is it the divine? Is it me? It is both.
I call this Sacred Writing, and it’s my main spiritual practice. I write every day, all kinds of things, it keeps me sane just like meditating does. I wish I had done both as a teenager, but eventually I found my way to write a beautiful world into being.
Writing as a spiritual practice is something I look forward to teaching to other people in the years ahead, especially sensitive and introverted people who need to get in touch with their power, voice, and confidence to change the world around them with their message and unique story. I love using cards and ceremonies to help people make that connection but I definitely hope my clients write their insights down, too!
Click here to learn more about Sacred Writing.
