From: usr77@pil.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.pagan
Subject: re: a novice asks
Date: 30 Sep 92 08:33:50 GMT

Re: Re: A Novice Asks...
By: lib1p #0 @rosie.uh.edu (Tammy Stark Blandino) USEnet      

A personal and highly unofficial FAQ...

1. Find some good books. I recommend starting with Real Magic, by
P.E.I. Bonewits. It's a pretty good overview of magick and has
thumbnail sketches of the belief structure of most pagan
religions. It also has an EXTENSIVE bibligraphy, after reading
the book, you should be able to figure out from it what you want
to read next and possibly what pagan religious traditions fit you
best. It also has contact addresses for pagan groups. Get the
latest edition! (contact addresses go out of date REAL fast.)

Drawing Down the Moon (Adler) is a description of the pagan
community. Get the latest edition! More contact addresses for
pagan groups.

Spiral Dance (Lady Starhawk) Wiccan beliefs / practices / magick
... some good psychic exercises...

See if you can find an occult (if you're REAL lucky) /
metaphysical / New Age bookstore in your town... I don't know
your area, check the bookstore listings in your phone book (you
MIGHT have to go to the nearest major city to find one, depends
on what part of the US you're from.)

Mail order sources for these books are:
Llewellyn Publications
1-800-THE MOON
(ask for their mail order catalog... wide range of books, etc.)

Abyss
RR1 Box 213 Chester Rd
Chester, MA 011011-9735

(recommended to me as a place with a better selection.)

2. Find some good people. If you're responding to a post on a
pagan/magick/occult sub/conference/newsgroups (name to fit
whatever network you got this from), see who's posting from there
locally and E-mail them, find out what they're into. If there
aren't any and you know the sysop/sysadmin (e.g. if he's a member
of the Religious Right, ask someone else!), ask for one or ask
for a list of available subs/conferences/newsgroups/echoes and
figure out which ones you want and ask for them.

Check (paper) bulletin boards at occult/New Age/metaphysical
bookstores. Also, subscribe to some pagan magazines. Circle
Network News is a good place to start. (address in the next rev
of this FAQ) It's whole purpose is to help pagans network with
each other. Place an ad on the bulletin board at the shop or in a
magazine like Circle Network News. Never put your home address in
this kind of ad! Get a P.O. Box. or a box at a private mailbox
company Never meet someone you don't know in a private place.
Meet in a public place like a cafeteria or restaurant or library.
Find out if there is a generic pagan group for networking
purposes in your area.  The shop or magazine can help here too.
Also write to nationally recognized groups like:

Covenant of the Goddess
PO Box 1226
Berkeley, CA  94701

Council of the Magickal Arts.

(address in a later rev of this FAQ)

They can help you find other like-minded folks. I wish you the
best of luck in your search for yourself.

3. Another contact resource is the on-line computer bulletin
boards and services such as Genie, Compuserve, etc. All of the
above generally carry on-line bulletin board listings, either as
transfer text files or set up for online viewing. BBS listings are
carried in computer tabloids and other computer publications
(preferably local for finding local systems), check paper
bulletin boards at computer stores, once you find ANY local
computer bulletin board, you can start calling the BBS numbers in
the listings until you either find a BBS with pagan discussions,
either local or networked or a sysop/sysadmin/friend in the
computer room you are comfortable enough with to ask to carry
networked pagan discussions from whatever source

Pagan discussions are carried on networks such as Icenet,
VBBS-Net, Fido-Net (rare), WWIV-net, Usenet where you can find
the alt-magick and alt-pagan newsgroups on Usenet, (good luck on
finding locals THERE, though) and PODS is mostly occult/pagan...
if you find a local BBS that carries PODS, you're in business.
See if any BBS in your area carries a BBS list file called
OCCULTnn.ZIP (nn is revision number)

4. Practice what you find in the books and see in the on-line
posts. If it doesn't work, keep trying. If it doesn't fit you,
try something else. Don't be afraid to ask for help, learning
magick, like learning computing means asking lots of "stupid"
questions, we all have to start somewhere.

Part of this document is from an anonymous contributor.

Bright Blessings and the Goddess Blessing go with you
A.Lizard

--------------------------- end of quote -----------------------
Hi, "anonymous contributor"... Tammy, I left your name out of the section
I quoted because I send this to a LOT of people across several different
networks, and not all people who ask questions like this have a sincere
interest in the answer... thanks for your portion of this... 

Bright Blessings ... especially to you, Tammy...
                                                 A.Lizard
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