Out of the Broom Closet (Book Review)

In an attempt to figure out how "out of the closet" I should be when it comes to Wicca, I bought a book called Out of the Broom Closet; 50 True Stories of Witches Who Found and Embraced the Craft. What a great treasure of short stories! Before I went to bed every night I read a couple of them. Some were incredibly touching and other were quite straight forward and what I would expect. The nice part, being a Canadian, is that many of them were based in Hamilton or Montreal. Some of those people had eventually started the Montreal Pagan festivals or Hamilton's Pub Moot. These are events that I actually know about and have heard about. So often these books are American and I have no idea what they're referring to if they mention events or places.

Recently I started wearing a pentacle ring all the time. I was nervous to do so but I thought, "what the heck!?" I used the example of one woman in this book, when she was approached in a bathroom by a co-worker and asked if her symbol was satanic. She simply responded that Wiccans don't believe in the devil. So, when I was in a similar situation and someone asked me if I worshipped the devil (I'm still quite offended by this, as most of my work is to help people) I used the same line . . . but then I got all these questions about, "How can you not believe in the Devil? If there is a God there must be Devil." I simply explained, "Yes, there is evil in the world but it doesn't have to take the form of a Christian Boogeyman." I understand that I was probably challenging this person's core values but why do conversations around religion always have to be so awkward . . . especially with some Christians.

There were quite a few very touching stories in this book. Some to do with death or illness and one in particular dealing with a boy who had a horse that dealt with mental and physical abuse from his father. Both the boy and the horse were abused and they bonded because of this fact and when the boy grew older realized that he felt the love of the God and Goddess through this horse named Dan. It was a very sad story but I'm glad to hear that people find places of strength through extreme violence in their lives.

It was also nice to hear of stories similar to my own where people grew up in the Catholic church and had to work through all of the dogma they were brainwashed with . . . mind you, many Catholic traditions grew out of Paganism, so that' part is okay, I got ahead there. I would highly recommend this book if you're contemplating being more open about your spiritual beliefs and want to quit hiding them. I found it quite motivational!