Everything Under the Moon

All of you,

Thank you so much for the wonderful help, ideas, and support. I have to admit that I haven't been on in a while. I was too nervous to. But this has all really helped me. I am working on moving all of the stuff I have, even though it isn't much, to my dads house. He has an empty room in the basement that used to be my moms, so he doesn't go down there anymore. It is really quite large and it is the PERFECT place to perform my rituals and keep my supplies. Sadly, i think I will have to keep my religion secret for as long as I am living with them, but I pray to the Goddess that it will work, and that my connection with The God and Goddess will grow,. I thank you all so much again!

Love,
SingingCanyon.

My mom is extremely catholic and it took me awhile to explain my beliefs to her. The way I convinced her to let me truly believe and practice was to tell her that if I don't learn and try it now, I might try it at a bad time later in life, although I don't think I'll ever leave Wicca.

All I can say is this: Attempt education, and if that fails, go undercover. I was lucky: once I educated my mom about what Wicca is really about, she was accepting and actually very interested. I didn't exactly tell her about the Witchcraft part, but that's more for her benefit than anything else - I wouldn't want her to burden herself with worrying about my immortal soul.

What Ravencry said about minimizing your tools is very true - while my room has begun to fill with candles, I still keep most of my stuff hidden between my end-table and my bed. I don't have an athame or anything else obviously Witchcraft-oriented. If Mom asks about the candles, I say "I just like candlelight." Same with incense. I keep my books in a box next to my bed - at the ready whenever I get a chance to read them, but not exactly lying out in the open. My BOS goes in a bag under the bed.

I forget whether it was Calafia or RavenWolf who wrote, "The only tools a Witch truly needs are body and breath." Much of what we do can be done with only hand gestures and spoken words. Where a book or Internet source says to use an athame or wand, you can use your index and middle fingers. A small cup will work great as a censer. I tend to speak very quietly during ritual, except when my parents are out. So there are many ways to be a "quiet Witch" without disturbing your parents.

Hope some of this helps.

Blessed Be,
Ether

I am so sorry that you are going through this. Unfortunately, not everyone is open minded about certain things. Religion is a hard thing to sway from if you truly believe that what you think is right. I am not a teenager, but I have been one. My mother was very abusive, negative and demanding. Things were done her way or no way at all. I am in no way saying that your parents are like that, but it does make things hard when you feel they are not listening to you or not seeing your independence. My son is 16 and he's not a Christian. Right now he struggles with what he believes and I try to help as much as possible, but the only one that can figure that out is him.
My advice to you is to see the magic in all religions. You don't have to agree with them or practice them, but they each hold something spectacular when seen from a distance. While I wish that every parent could let their child explore to find themselves, that isn't always the case. Your parents love you and they are trying to protect you from things they feel will harm you, in this case your soul.
I don't recommend telling them that you are going to do what you want, but I do suggest taking the time to really educate yourself about your religion. There are so many things to learn and now is the time to do it. You sound like a smart one and I think you will come up with something to work it out. Sometimes privacy and silence can be your best friend and it's also the perfect time to practice your visualization, meditation and work on your spell writing.
Believe it or not, there will come a time in your life when you'd do anything to have your parents there to protect you. Life is messy, scary and very mean and everyday is a fight, so enjoy being young for now. It doesn't last for long.

I still haven't told my mom other than that one time when she freaked. I still don't like lying but for now it is the best I can do. All of your suggestions have really helped me and I'm happy to report that I may have found a Wiccan store very near my house! Also I think I will be buying a few books and using the secret areas in my Dresser and nightstand to place them.
EtherStar, your advice is really helpful to me. As much as I like to make things intricate and meaningful I think I'm going to be forced to tone it down. Feh. Thank you all so much though!

Love and Bright Blessings,
SingingCanyon

Okay I posted something earlier but I ended up having to tell my parents, some of you are extremely luck but for thaw who think your parents wouldn't agree I would hold off....I hate lying and something I would just rather them hear from me instead of on their own but when I told them my mom burst in to tears saying I was going to hell and my dad, let's just say didn't use the kindest of words.(okay yes I know this is a comets oxymoron but I don't tell you how to live your life, lolI do keep mainly to my Christian faith but my mom refused to listen and almost homeschooled me. I had to hide all my stuff at my grandparents house except for a small pocketbook that is easily movable as well as hideable, it not as much as is like to have but it really helps compared to nothing. So again if you don't feel ready or don't feel they're ready, do NOT tell them, don't lie just don't bring it up.

Remind her of bad people who were christian (e.g. Hitler). He was christian, and he killed over half a million Jewish children. And don't forget to emphasize the children part.

you could always find the similaritys between the two religions cause i know there are some... it might help

ok so my parents are EXTREME christians and they're making me go to confirmation and in the christian confirmation class we learn about how horrible witches are and im just going to be so uncomfortable the entire time and i've tried to talk my way out of it but my mom wants to 'make sure i have the same opportunities as the rest of my family' (i'm the youngest)

and i just CANT bring up anything related to wicca or magic because even before i actually started practicing it (i started by just learning about it) and they found the stuff i was looking at (i, idiot that i am, saved word documents on my USB drive of wicca info i'd found online) they completely freaked out because they see all witchcraft as devil worshiping
my grandmother is definitely not helping my cause either because she is strict catholic - she has about twenty pictures of the pope in her house!! she has tons of rosaries and other things like that and every time she visits my family she practically preaches to me! but she doesn't even know that i was even interested in wicca in the first place!

i partnered up with a friend that also practices wicca so she knows obviously
but when i told a different friend that didnt do wicca, at first i though she was fine with it, but then a few days later she suddenly hates me and refuses to talk to me at all when i didnt even do anything!
and i'm just really confused right now i guess because wicca feels right to me . . . like it was made just for me but everyone i know is so completely against anything that has to do with it!

rly i dont even know why i'm posting this or what i'm even asking for . . . .

i just feel so trapped right now . . . i connect to wicca so strongly and a lot of things have been a lot better in my life since i started it just because of the confidence and strength that it gives me but i just dont know what to do!
and rly its a very long while before i can actually move out and decide my life myself

i hope you figure out what to do but we are here for you and maybe getting it off your chest will make you feel better, there r a lot of witches in the broom closet out of nesesity because there are familys that are not very accepting