A Real Introduction I Guess

[snake]

I suppose I should properly introduce myself here. I'm a mixed woman in Oakland, and I've gone all over the world looking for spirituality and folk tradition before recently coming back home to my own family, friends and neighbor's traditions. I come from a family of "superstitious" people that were psychic and read cards and did little things that could be called folk magic. My mother really discouraged it as being "hillbilly" but my grandmother is still happy to talk about these things. I'm fascinated by everything that everybody does and I just love chatting up people I meet on the street.

[catherineyronwode]

Welcome to the forums -- you are a person much after my own heart, an amateur folklorist as well as a practitioner of rootwork.

[J Simulcik]

In the beginning, I felt much like your mother does. Folk magic was one of the things I had to "escape" when I left the rural area I grew up in and went to college. Over time, I grew wiser (at least I think that's what all this grey hair is for at my age!) and enrolled in Miss Cat's course to help me get back on track. Your mother may some day come around as well.

[snake]

I almost went to UC Berkeley's Masters in folklore program, but then I decided I was done with school, so I took my sociology degree and ran. For me, folklore and folk magic seems more real because it's more grounded in everyday experiences. I'm done dealing with academics, but I'm still wanting to learn.