Pagans/Wicca/Witchcraft/VOODOO: Do you prefer to label yourself or not?

I use many words to describe my beliefs depending on the conversation. I am pagan, witch, many variations of witch, sorcerer, brujo (spanish word for witch), christo-pagan as I am also christian (catholic trad.) and a few others that don't come to mind right now.

I practice an old belief system that is is similar to hoodoo, practice hoodoo magick, what would be labeled new age and other traditions as well. If my priest would ask me, I would let him know. I am not ashamed of my faith and my practices which are not very differen't from what a priest does.

The term most used for me would be Pagan and Witch (and christo-Pagan) which basically sums up what I do. People hear pagan and/or witch and they quickly know what I do or believe in (roughly).

I've never heard anyone introduce themselves with long winded names as they are only included in ending of letters, answers and stated at witch gatherings occasionally but only as a reference or to let other's know that you claim some authority in the subject and that you do belong to a group with formal training and initiation as reference.

As you can see one of the answers has already called witches or wiccans crack users because of the term used. Honestly, I don't blame him because I have met many people, Young and Old, that sometimes role play with these words or truly believe that they can do the extraordinary things they claim to do. One imaginative mind told me that his aunt threw him a ball of energy which he quickly captured in his hands and threw it back to her times three causing her to slap against the wall and ever since then his aunt respected him and never dared pull a stunt like that again. It's unfair for us to be thought of as crazy because of these few individuals but it seems that there isn't an established group out there that doesn't suffer stupidity. Not the stupidity of those with imaginative minds, but rather the ignorance that exists abundantly in those who believe those with the imaginative minds to be true representatives of the craft and all the practices. Imaginative minds keep the world interesting and full of wondorous art, while ignorance only tries to step on other people's belief systems based on their personal research which is usually someone who made a comment or some hollywood production.

So these are the titles I use and I use them proudly and do my best to represent and clean up the nasty thoughts that exist about us out there. Like any good and true muslim, christian, jew or any other religion we do our best to live in harmony with the world while silently, without any shame, pray to our chosen diety.

Blessings,

Shadow Storm

If I feel the need of a label then 'eclectic pagan' suffices.

It shows that I have a spirituality, but that this is not aligned with any of the mainstream religions. It shows I weave my path from diverse threads.

I'm just a wanderer really. Stopping to smell the flowers or to pick up whatever strikes me as interesting on my way.

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It's not Voodoo/Hoodoo. That makes it sound like it's the same thing. A Priest of Voodoo or Voudou is called a Houngan. A Priestess of Voudou is called a Mambo.

I personally was Initiated as a Witch, so that's what I call myself.

I prefer not to use long-winded, useless, unnecessary, unending titles...like "Silvermoon Raven WolfGlow, High Priestess of Such and Such coven of ThisNThat Tradition". People don't need your resume of "Witchyness" to know you're a Witch/Pagan/Wiccan/Asatru/Whatever/etc, etc, etc...

I go by Witch (though my own long-winded, unneccessary title would technically be Solitary-Eclectic-Pagan-Deist-Witch). I'm a simple person. While the term Witch was used as a derogatory term centuries past, I reclaim it as a term of strength, and power...labelled on people who refused to be bullied into practicing a "faith that was never their own"*. people who prefered not to conform to the mainstream organized religions and preferred to remain true to themselves...practice what they believed and remained individuals. While it may have lead to their deaths, they never abandoned what they believed or practiced...and I choose to claim THIS word in honor of them.

I practice what I believe to be "Traditional" witchcraft. I follow my instincts, research, and make use of trial and error. This makes my path mine, and mine alone. Some may follow a similar path, but our paths will never be identical.

I label myself as Dark Pagan. I believe in the greek and Roman gods. Plus I follow the path Of twilight. I walk the Twilight Road to Dawn. I walk in between Light and Darkness. I accept Darkness and I lived in Light/.

I really don't like having to label myself, because I feel that my spirituality goes beyond any title that I could give it.

But for the sake of convenience when talking to others, I refer to myself as Pagan.

I'm assuming that since you wroite 'Voodoo' you are referring to New Orleans Voodoo.

I prefer not to have a label attached to myself. I was born into the 'Vodou' pantheon as my mother was African. It does incorporate much that it has obsorbed over many thousands of years including Hoodoo.

I stay away from the new age thing though.

You mention you go to church? So i'm guesssing that you've never been into the djevo? Of course African slaves were forced, often under sentence of death to be baptised catholic and praise their God and saints. We soon found that many of your saints were ours, just masquerading under the catholics names. Hence they became incorporated into our faith so that our belief structure lived on.

Just Pagan. Nothing more, nothing less. I seek knowledge and answers in many places and take only what speaks to me to heart. I'm eclectic I guess but I prefer just simply Pagan.

in front of Christians who i am positive are strictly that way i just give them the label that they would probably give me and see how they take it :P

Done it a few times this girl was always talking about her beliefs i told her and she was interested in it, and now she is actually a verrry good friend of mine

other times didn't work out so well

I label myself as an eclectic pagan. I am curious what your priest thinks of you acknowledging other gods and goddesses and still claiming catholicism. - I am not bashing you, just curious how you manage to meld the two.

** yep, I agree with you no god worth worshiping would have a temper tantrum over how you practice your faith. Thank you for satisfying my curiosity. 8^)