Growing up in magic, Love and trials in the dramatic theater Options

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.

Star you do bring up a nice point, as I was first writing, I almost wrote something along the lines, 'growing up in magic is the greatest gift... yaddah, yaddah' then I thought better of it. You're story shows why, it doesn't matter what background you come from, magic, or what one might call divinity is a choice that person alone can make, their mother can't make it for them, nor their friend, it's true some people make the choice without realizing it, but once they conciously acknowledge it they then realize this choice belongs solely to them. This girl is proud of herself just like most girls. She probably has never had that 'wake up' call to realize that it's her that needs to live that life, her parents aren't doing it for her.

Which brings me to my next point that poetic has brung up. He (sorry if your female poetic) was introduced to magic and given the choice to continue or not. In fact Poetic it may even be fortunate that your mother was so against it (or was she? muhahaha) since it made you that much more cautious as well as tenacious in your course. My definition of magic is pretty much this- the Art, it's a gift that you possess and may give to others. From my own experience I safely say that the beginning of magic is the end of 'fitting in' or being 'ordinary' and it's a struggle, a trial. Starting the struggle early surely has its advantages over starting it late. It's important to point out of course though that people who start very early often must face greater, and more intense trials than people who pick it up later on, and so if you've picked it up later please post a little about the beginning.

Personally I think it must be tough to live in a place like Texas which is kind of the anti-magic capital of the world and go through this, I grew up in outside San Francisco so I'll let you decide about the difference in view point. The trials we face are often defined by our geography perhaps.

Well anyway I hope to hear more people talk about what's it's like for them to grow up in magic.

This post has been edited by Bb3: Oct 2 2005, 11:45 PM