When you realise that you're not the same as everyone else it starts you thinking as to why you're different.

Hogbear

In my personal ancient history when I realised I was gay I was still a practising Christian. My church told me it was wrong to have these feelings about men but it also said that’s the way god made me and he loved everything he had made. All a bit confusing!

I came to terms with being gay but in doing so I lost my faith in the church, I still believed in God but I just did not believe in his church on earth.

Over time the drive that made me explore what made me attracted to other men drove me to explore my spiritual nature. I found I still believed in a great spirit that surrounded and included everything on earth but also the universe as a whole.

I realised that I could no more understand the workings of this great mystery than my finger could understand my eye. I was part of the great mystery but such a small part that I could not see the whole.

I looked back at how societies had explored their relationship with the universe before the narrow concepts of Christianity had told us what was right and wrong. I found out about Archetypes, constants in belief from the pregnant mother and the horned hunter image of the most ancient man.

Stonehenge

They struck a spiritual note within me. I found that the old beliefs had been revived in the form of modern Paganism but that was an umbrella term that covered a number of different faiths or paths, from Druids to Wiccans and to people like myself who were exploring the idea of a Great mystery and how it can be expressed in the form of a God and Goddess and the four elements of earth, fire, water and air and how the fifth element of spirit unites them.

This exploration of faith stems from having to look at the world through the eyes of an outsider, a gay man in a world that is straight. I am not saying that being gay we have a extra spiritual ability but the fact that we are on the edge of society gives us a special view.

Virtually every pre-Christian culture from the native American to the Celts recognised the special nature of those on the outskirts of the normal society.

Are gay people accepted in the pagan community?
To a large degree I would say that being gay in the Pagan community is not such a big issue. There are some who believe that gay people don’t have the right energy for certain rituals or that we should conform to the roles laid down but they are not the majority.

In part I think it's because most Pagans have gone through the same sort of exploration of self that gay people have had to do. A Pagan is an outsider in a world that is for the most part believes in one God (whether it is Islamic, Jewish or Christian).

To believe that there is more than the ONE god and that the gods have a female side makes you explore more of yourself . It also opens you to new ideas and makes you accept that not everyone is going to share your view.