Hi Erin,
It's very hard to get anywhere spiritually and have people take you seriously at first. Even harder when you're in a position such as you are.When I first found this path I was lucky to have a cousin who was also curious and searching at the time. She was the other founder I talked about in the Coven we formed in my original post.
My Mom was very understanding, but I didn't tell my Dad anything about it for a long time. He's a great guy, but sometimes the way he doubts unexpectedly eats at me. He knows now, and sine I really came "out of the broom closet" when I married 6 months ago, the whole family knows now and he has begun asking me questions. For the most part, he just wants to know I have faith in something, that I believe in a god or goddess or supreme being of some sort comforts him.
Now, I have some terrible family members who were very nasty to me after my handfasting, but I put them in thier places. It took me a long time to get comfortable and come out in the local community back when I was in Reno. You meet some very colorful people in all cultures, races and religions. I have met not a few very quirky folks who are pagans. LOL Some of whom have become the best friends I know.
I think it's great that you don't let the thoughts of your spiritual path being a joke get to you. That's the best thing you can do for yourself. It can be hard though when your partner or a close loved one just doesn't seem to understand. One thing that has helped me is to just tell someone who is dumping on me about this choice, that what you are doing is so very similar to mainstream religion overall. In traditional religions and ceremonies, they sup wine, and eat cakes, though they are a bit different, they also light candles, and use prayer to commune. Yes we add the Athame, which does kinda freak out some people, but once explained most people just get more inquisitive. Of course there's more to it than those few examples, but those examples do sometimes open up the doorway for communication to flow more freely and opens the mind.
Blaze mentioned yesterday about having me help get discussion topics started. I was hoping to catch you and ask about that and where to go from there. Please let me know :) Have a good day!
~Tara
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