Linda's Story
Why I am a Pagan... Well, it all starts with my Grandmother on my Father's side. Her name was Mabel Hansford, and she lived for the first 20 years of her life in Romania as a Gypsy. Mabel met my Grandfather, Clarence Aubrey Sheldon Howard..lol... when she traveled to England with her group. It was love at first sight, and she became Mabel Howard shortly after. My Grandfather was offered an opportunity for a good job in America, so they arrived here with great expectations. Mabel had three children, two girls and one boy.. That boy was to become my father. Mabel and Clarence settled in to a house in Noank, and eventually Clarence died and Mabel opened up shop. While Clarence was alive.. (he was a devout Episcipalian), Grandma Mabel acted the part of the good Christian wife, raising the three children in their father's faith. But, after he died she returned to the Romany ways.. I remember sitting at her knee in her ecclectic house, watching her read the Tarot for her clients... and tea leaves... and palms. And, she was quite accurate and had a large following. My aunts did not follow the Romany path.. one became a devout Christian Scientist, and the other became a practicing Catholic. My father, however, was all Gypsy. He was a quiet man who played the guitar, read everything he could get his hands on concerning the occult, and worked as a truck driver for most of his life. He had a wild side which would emerge when he drank to much... that was when the dancing and singing started..lol. My mother, on the other hand was a Quaker, and later became a Baptist. She did not flaunt her faith however, and was really more about the extra curricular events. She loved to cook.. and be the boss... so church life worked well for her. I was exposed to Sunday School at the ripe age of 4. I remember it well. I went into the church.. saw Jesus hanging on the cross with the crown of thorns.. headed for the coat room closet, and stayed there until they coaxed me out with a sugar cube. Why? I told them "If you do that to people here, I am not going to stay. I bet you do that to little girls too" After a reasonable assurance that I would not be crucified, I went back to church the next Sunday. They passed around the bread and wine.. and said "Drink of the blood, and eat of the flesh." Back to the coat room closet I went. It was one trauma after another.. the story of Noah and the ark had me crying for days for the poor little kittens and puppies who died in the flood, the story of Moses horrified me when I found out that they killed babies, etc, etc, etc... So, it was decided that perhaps it would be better if I did not go to church until I was old enough "to better understand the concepts taught". I never understood... and I really never returned.. except if I had to go on special occasions. Sundays were my dad's and my day to hang out. He taught me how to play the guitar, we read Edgar Cayce, Losang Rampa, Chariots of the Gods, and talked about everything under the sun. My mom soon got tired of telling him not to corrupt me.. so corrupt me he did! I married two Christians, and found out that I made a really lousy Christian wife. But, through it all I still practiced my Grandmother's ways.. I prescribed herbal remedies for my friends, read Tarot on the sly, and read books on metaphysics and the occult by the truckload. I found a couple of little shops in New Hampshire where I would go to get "fixed' on occasion. Moving back here was a freeing experience. I got a job at Mystical Horizons, met Julian, started Angelquest, started Clan of the Silver Dragon and Celtic Circle.. and just blossomed outwards to where I am now. Pagan and Proud.... Love and Light.. Linda

My Pagan Story... LOL. Sit down. It's a long one... I've always felt a soul too old for this body. I've always been an outcast and oddball in the group ever since I was born. I have to talk about my family first so you can understand the magickal heritage. Plus I take pride on it too... LOL. My Mother's 4 grandparents were all from Andalucia, Spain, where most of the population are Gitanos (Gypsies). My father's grandmother was one of the very few pure Taino (native american tribe of the Antilles - in this case Puerto Rico) survivors that stilled lived in "indieras" which were almost like tiny reservation/concentration camps. My dad's grandfather was half black/half white and was one of the great fighters of the abolishment of slavery in Puerto Rico (his name was Segundo Ruiz Belvis). With this blend of magickal mix that is 1/3 gypsy, 1/3 Taino and 1/3 african I consider myself a very proud magickal MUTT... LOL. I was born in a family of 4 sisters. My parents were raised catholic because "it was the right thing to do" but none of their parents went to church unless somebody was getting married, baptized or dead. My grandfather (my Mom's dad) worked his whole life on the sugar cane fields cutting sugar cane and had a second job at a Hacienda growing produce there. On his spare time he was a loving father, husband and grandfather and althoguh he was very poor he always fed the whole entire neighborhood and his family of 12 (yes there was no TV and he was very handsome puertorrican with black hair and gorgeous blue eyes) as his mother did (my great grandmother). They both read the Spanish Tarot (La Baraja or Cartas) and had the ability to scry on anything made out of clear glass and a bit of water. My greatgrandmother (his mom) was a midwife, which for many cultures are considered to have magickal abilities. They started a spiritual support group that consisted of four family members that will help others by doing tarot readings, natural herbal medicine, dream interpretation and helped others that had ghost hunting issues. Unfortunately my grandfather crosses over when I was 5 years old and none of my aunts or uncles carried on the magickal heritage even though at least half of them had the gift. My mom didn't carry on either but my sisters and I have different gifts. None of them use their gifts because they are devoted catholics and choose not to use them because is a sin. I respect their decision but I was the ODD BALL and decided to carry on the tradition. Without having anyone to help me understand what I went through I started chanelling at the early age of 3 from what I can remember. I would devour notebooks drawing things I couldn't understand. My parents and sisters were very freaked by the fact that I could read and write and draw at age 3. And I could draw accurate portraits of people by age 4. Then the chanellings started kicking in. I was very suceptible during my sleep and didn't know how to shield myself and I chanelled from pirates yelling because they couldn't remember where their treasure was hidden, to family members that were already deceased. I always felt like an old soul trapped in a little girl's body and I felt very frustrtated to know that I had no choice but to wait until I grew up to be able to be myself. I tried everything, from being a good catholic, switched to Methodist, Baptist and then I tried again to be a good Catholic. My childhood was difficult and the fact that I had a schizofrenic and paranoic father that was severly alcoholic didn't help. One day I couldn't take any longer and ran away and joined the Army. I thought that being by myself would help me discover who I was. But it made me feel even more lost. In the army I met my husband Ralph. I have dreamt of him before when I was 14. And we clicked right away. No we know is because we've met in other lives. We had two beautiful children and very slowly we started evolving as a family spiritually, mentaly and emotionally. It was not fun, and it was slow and it took a lot of hard work. But we're very proud of the results. The final straw in my Christian path was when one day I decided I was going to give Catholic church one last try. We started going to the St Patrick's Church in Norwich. Went once, went twice, by the third time I entered the church and as I looked at the image of Christ in the Cross and the Virgin Mary I felt like somebody grabbed me by the neck and tried to strangle me. I felt so out of breath that I burst out the door scared to death. It was almost like somebody grabed me by the arm and pulled me out of there too. I left Ralph and the kids there and Ralph asked me what the hell had happened. I told him I couldn't be there anymore, I didn't belong there because I felt like a hypocrite because that really wasn't my path. Three months later I met my friend Kathy who is a Wiccan and even though I knew a bit about it it was a full awakening to me. I got initiated as a Wiccan at Linda's Full Moon Circles and I've never looked back ever since. Later on my husband joined the Clan by his own accord and we're a very happy Wiccan family. It hasn't been easy. We've encountered many obstacles and tests but we've also evolved so much mentally, spiritually, emotionally, in all senses. And we've never felt this pleased with ourselves. We're whole. And glad to be able to share it with people that understand us. And I would like to thank Kathy, Linda and Jules and the Universe with our guardians and protectors for allowing us to meet again in this lifetime. I am happy to have you guys in my life. Love and Light! ... Ilia