Well, I did it...I finally came out of the broom closet to one of my friends. Actually, my other Wiccan friend and I talked to her together. I was nervous, but she took it really well, and we ended up spending the entire afternoon talking about what Wicca is. She had a lot of questions about rituals and holidays, and I loved being able to talk to her about it and share with her something that's been a part of my life for so long.

Then today she asked me why I felt the need to tell her about Wicca at all. My instinctual answer was "well, when I'm open about it later you'd be confused if you didn't know", but I don't know if that's the real reason. Why is coming out of the broom closet such a big thing? Why am I nervous about telling her, and why do I even feel like she needs to know my religious beleifs? When you make a new friend, one of the first things you find out is their religion, but why is that?

Maybe we think that religion says something about who the person is, that religion reveals something deep about their personality. That could be true for people like me, who chose their religion on their own with a great deal of thought and soul-searching. But most people's religion is determined by the family they're born into. So religion is more like hair color - for most people, it doesn't reveal anything about who they really are.

Maybe it's just that we're so used to other people caring what religion we follow. We're used to people telling us that they want us to follow their religion, or that our religion is wrong. So we automatically assume that our religion is of importance to other people.

If so, then maybe it's time for that to change. I firmly beleive that each person's religion is for them only, and for no one else. What I beleive is up to me, and it doesn't harm anyone else. No one else has a right to tell me what to beleive, and really, it shouldn't even matter. There's no reason for anyone else to care what religion I follow, because it has no effect on them.

So how does this affect me now that I'm going to be more open about my religion? I still want to let my friends know that I've changed my religion, because it's something I'm excited about and I want to share it. But maybe I'll be less nervous about telling them, because I realise that my religion is my own, and any decisions I make about it shouldn't upset anyone else.





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