So I casually brought up witchcraft today in passing, I can’t remember how it came up, and my friend immediately looked worried. I explained that I expressed interest in the community and explained my mama’s past with witchcraft (if I explainde my current history, I’d have to unpack my worship of Noli, and introduce her to fictoreligions, so I went with my mama’s more “vanilla”, for lack of a better word, witchcraft). And she expressed a lot of concern.
Without expaining her personal history on here, it turns out she’s had negative experiences with witchcraft (and religion, hence I haven’t told her about my practice yet) and really does not want me to get “too into it”. So my question ultimately is, how do I coexist with her while respecting both my craft and her apprehension to witchcraft and religion? Because I don’t want to hide any part of me, she’s expressed before that she’d be supportive of anything I do, but I don’t want to bring those bad experiences back up for her.
We’re hanging out tonight so I’ll test the waters a bit with these ideas!
Funnily enough tarot is one of the main components of my craft, and I’ve been interested in exploring dreams! Tarot should be a safe starting point, I’ll update this ^w^
Hmm. Since she said that she’s supportive of you and anything you do, I’d say that gives you free rein to talk about anything, your spiritual path included.
That being said, since she’s your friend you obviously don’t want to say anything that’ll upset her.
If it were me, I would just be straight with her. Tell her that this is your path and it’s deeply important to you so it’s bound to come up in conversation, but also let her know that you want her to feel free to tell you if anything you say ever makes her uncomfortable. I think that’s as close to a win-win as you’ll get.
If she’s expressed a lot of concern and has a bad history around the subject - then I’d be careful for sure. Relationships like this are an act of balance - if you want to keep her as a friend, it’s important to acknowledge her wishes and respect her boundaries as much as yours.
Charging headfirst and being blunt like StarsForever suggests will likely end your relationship, when you consider her background. I wouldn’t do that, personally. It sounds like you don’t want to lose her.
The idea Sedim’s posed is the most tactful and respectful here - there are plenty of topics that are considered safe. Tarot, dream interpretation, crystals, even fantasy and choosing some magic-friendly things to watch. I’ve been re-watching Merlin and honestly that show would be amazing to show someone who has a negative view of magick. - Merlin (2008 TV series) - Wikipedia
There’s a lot of ways you could approach this and still keep her as a friend…
I wouldn’t expect her beliefs to change unless you display to her what a good witch looks like. It’s more pressure on you, but it may be worthwhile if you really value her as a friend!
