This post is inspired by Question #10 on this list.

I wonder what it really accomplishes to tell you that I’ve been practicing witchcraft for twenty one years now. What does it tell you? What doesn’t it tell you? Does it provide any of the nuance that an accounting of that twenty one years would? Does the number alone give you any inkling of the year that I was studying intensively and having great spiritual and magical experiences versus the year that I just floated along, barely even thinking of my Craft? Am I supposed to sit down and subtract years like the latter one from the total to be more ‘honest”? What about the years where I wasn’t even sure I considered myself a witch and explored other Pagan paths? Though those other paths usually had an element of magical practice as well.

So let me tell you what I think it should tell you. It should tell you that I’ve had twenty one years in which to have a wide variety of experiences, learn a variety of lessons, decide what’s really important to me, and be humbled by a glimpse of what I still don’t know and may never know (sometimes that lesson was reinforced through exchanges with Craft Elders who have been doing this even longer than I have). I’ve had enough time and experience to get beyond the “I know everything/I’m the expert” stage so many of us tend to go through at some point in our journeys. I’m experienced enough to have learned first-hand that even a baby witch just starting out can have an amazing insight or express something in a new way that I find marvelous and eye opening. I have enough experience that I might be able to offer insight and wisdom that those less experienced than me might find beneficial, but the wisdom to know that’s not guaranteed.

Finally, it should tell you that I have twenty one years worth of stories to tell. Some of those stories will interest you. Some of those stories will bore you. Some of them, you may find downright pointless. The fun is in the sharing of them. So bring your own stories, because surely you have some (many) of your own. Let’s take turns.