The short story.

I am a fellow seeker and aspiring mystic following a winding path of Druid wisdom and intuitive magic. Seminary taught me how to translate various faith ideas into sacred language I can understand. I possess few answers but relish every question, certain only that I am blessed as a queer and trans individual. When not in the forest or in my head, I can be found in the joyous company of my spouse and our cats in our little home near the mouth of the Anacostia River.

The longer story.

 

I was raised in a Southern Baptist church and struggled with the church from an early age. I must have been 8 or 9 when I was first questioned after Sunday School why I was not yet “saved,” why I had not accepted Jesus into my heart? I was horribly confused. I had accepted Jesus into my heart, surely. I had prayed, and asked, and felt deeply connected to a spiritual truth that is still beyond my ability to understand. Even so young, I could feel I had done what was necessary. 

Sadly, the church folks told me I was wrong and still shameful with sin. My young mind could not fathom why my personal relationship to Jesus was anyone else’s business. Why I needed to go in front of the whole church, in a positively terrifying white dress, and prove something.

So, I just never did it. 

I realized I was queer a few years later and it was clear that church was no home for me. 

I would struggle with my faith because of my childhood experience of church, but my experience there is essential to how I was formed as a person of faith. If the convictions of the Southern Baptist church had anything to offer, it was to feel a connection to the spirit deep within yourself and build a relationship with it.

Over the years, I devoted my personal and academic pursuits to how we tell our stories and form our bonds, and I have found insight in a myriad of places. My experience in seminary deepened my faith by, perhaps ironically, leading me back to the Paganism of my teenage years, where as an adult I found Druidry and a more complete sense of where both my faith and my gifts lie. 

The cycles and science of the natural world provide models for my faith. It is in and from nature that I draw my deepest understanding of Spirit, and while my practice is strongly influenced by Druidry, I understand my spirituality to be broad and ever-evolving.

My spiritual home is built and rebuilt every day, each time I light a candle or shake someone’s hand. It is anywhere there is earth and water, a breeze or the heat of the sun. It is everywhere there is good food and good conversation.

Education & Affiliations