When I practiced it,I preferred solidarity.It is an interesting field of spiritual study.

It has changed my life by helping me with personal responsibility for myself and my growth (spiritual, emotional, physical, intellectual). It has helped me to grow in my understanding of myself (#1 rule - Know Thyself) and my place in the world around me. I am a member of an Initiatory tradition and am accustomed to working in a coven. However, I cannot over-emphasize the "Perfect Love and Perfect Trust" angle. This is crucial to a working, healthy coven and individuals within that coven. It is so important to know that you are safe, respected, and valued - especially if you work skyclad. You don't want to be around people who may have just shown up for the nudity, cakes and ale, or those who have negative energies and agendas there. You want to be around respectful, mentally and emotionally healthy, mature people. For that reason, I have worked as a solitary since moving. I prefer a "Perfect Love and Perfect Trust" coven, but I'd rather work solitary than be in a coven without that grounding.

I took a class on religion this last semester and our prof had a few Wiccans come in and talk about the religion. I do not practice myself, but I do stick up for it when I hear people say it is devil worship.

I'd like to comment that, in my opinion, Wicca, like any real religion, is, first and foremost, a personal path. This means that, before anything you do with a group, you first make sure you have your personal foundation: a living relationship with God/dess. I suspect that many people look for a coven thinking it will fill a void in their hearts, which exists only because they think spells, candles and ritual are the substance of the Wiccan religion rather than merely its clothing. Yet those things are useful only as means to the end of communion with the divine. Why do people make this mistake? Often those who taught them don't know any better, or they came to Wicca with the wrong notion of what it means, or - as in other religions - they are running from themselves and don't want to face what they must to benefit from an encounter with the divine. Many covens are wastelands of politics and pettiness. True religion is knowing the gods. All else is window dressing.

Wicca brought to my life a sense of spiritual fulfillment - something that I thought felt was strongly lacking for 20 years when I was Christian. Before being Wiccan, the lack the spiritual fulfillment truly affected me in a terrible way to the point where I was diagnosed with clinical depression simply because they (parents, priest, and shrinks) could not figure out what else could be wrong with me - I think, overall, some people are a bit more spiritually inclined than others and I am definitely one of those people (so not having the path that was right for me was affecting me not just spiritually but physically, mentally, and emotionally as well). I have not had one bout of depression since I converted and I simply feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of me or like a giant hole in me was filled. I prefer solitary work for two main reasons: a) the covens that I know about that are close enough to be able to travel to to worship with have a too large a percentage of fluffy bunnies in their group for me to feel comfortable enough with them, and b) the type of witchcraft that I practice doesn't put emphasis on the tools that you use so much as the actions that you do, which tends to not go along with many covens that I'm aware of. However, I do travel to the nearest major city to celebrate Beltane and Samhain with Pagans from all over the area every once in a while in order to pick up new things, be with like-minded people, and (let's admit) it's just fun to worship in groups sometimes.

Ever scince I became Wiccan, I have been much more open minded, and alot happier, I am no longer an angry person at everybody that doesn't believe in god... I am very glad that the god and goddess have shown me a way I can go without being so hateful to everybody.