I'm always keen to hear the experiences of people who grew up in a magical atmosphere, or even about what happened to people their first couple of years involved in the Work. This thread also is about the stereotypes that often portray magicians and the bunch as a bunch of sexually obsessed goat sacrificers.

It's all too natural I'm afraid for the youngsters growing up to be pressured not to believe in such things as the occult by their parents. Now I've always been involved in these kind of things and none of my immediately family have ever been upset by it, but at the same time they aren't all exactly open to the my ideas and beliefs either. This has often led to trouble, since there's really nothing more annoying than an unbelieving heathen to the teenage witch.

I'm in my mid twenties so I'm not that far removed from today's youth, but I realize things are way different as when I was a teenager no one owned a cell phone expect for a parent. So things are radically different, equally different are people from the generation before me, growing up in the 60's or 50's and living a magical lifestyle was really against the grain.

I'll stop myself before I write a short story but all in all I've found that jealousy, pride and overextravagance are the largest pitfalls for those who have started on the path whether they be young or old, however I think these things are often more intense if you start at that tweener age of 10-21, it's a little easier if you start before or after these ages.