To keep it secret or not?

I have only told the people closest to me in life about my religion. People always get the wrong ideas about wiccans and think they are evil and eat children or sacrifice animals. They are too ignorant to learn more about it before forming an opinion and I feel like I have to hide half my life just to be safe. I wish we could live in a world where people wouldn't judge us on our religion and belief, but lets face it, wiccans and pagans have always been put down and we always will until some sense gets knocked into the world.
-AliRose

I am unsure of when to tell certain people and when to just leave it alone. I don't tell anybody about it unless they ask me and when they do i don't go into specifics unless they ask me. Like one of my friends asked me and i told him he was a little put off by it at first but he asked me what it was, and wanted to know the truth about it so i told him. At first he thought that all wiccans and pagans did was sacrifice animals and worshiped the devil. After i explained it to him he was very open minded about it, he is not into any of it but i can talk about it with him without it being a big deal, i have a few other friends i can talk about it too also but not many. Now i grew up in a very strict christian family and my mother knows nothing about it and neither does any of m y family except for my sister, brother, father, and my fathers girlfriend. My father and brother are both wiccan as well, which i didn't know until a year ago. I would love to tell my family and rest of my friends but all the discrimination i feel like i can't. Maybe someday we will live in a world where this won't happen to us but for now i doubt things are going to change, i think there will always be people trying to put us down. So for now i am in the broom closet with most of the people in my life, but i am happy that i do have those few people in my life who know and have never treated me any differently because of it.

I know your pain, sesa.
Its always hard to step out of the broom closet.
When I did I lost my two best friends.
So that being said, be aware that some people will not agree with your path and you may lose friends or family members because they simply aren't open to it.

You can tell close friends and family members if they have an open mind to stuff like Wicca. I know the feeling of just wanting to shout "I'M WICCAN!" at times, I am so happy in my religion I wanna tell everyone.
But normally when I tell people they just stare at me.
Thats another thing, get used to the strange looks when people find out youre a witch.
The world can be very judgmental and harsh and witches go through a lot of shit now a day.
So just be careful who you tell and be aware their might be people who don't agree with your path and for those, they aren't worth the breath

I'm new at believing in Wicca. I believe in a mix of christianity and Wicca. I've only told my mom, but I think, I'm gonna tell my best friends. Where I live most people are openminded, but I don't think, many believes in magic and Wicca.

My family is Christian but I think of myself as Pagan; It's a personal belief and most people don't know about it but I'm perfectly fine with it!

You know, it's amazing. When someone says that they practice Wicca, you get strange looks and lose some friends and family, since the stereotype of a witch is a cauldron, animal and human sacrifice, casting hexes on others, and devil worship. But when someone says that they practice the Catholic religion, no one bothers to bring up the fact that thousands, if not millions, of men, women, and even small children were hounded, MURDERED, and that it was sanctioned by just one person.
So, just where is the logic with that? Just as humans were ignorant about it back then, so they still are. Yes, there will be some people who accept the way you live your life, and those who won't. Just remember that does who won't have just lost a good friend.

It is sad to think about how many people will give their backs to you, and then there are those lucky enough to not loose anything.

I'm not usually one to open up like this, but it's best to keep it a secret. However i'm glad 5 of my friends don't mind, but someone overheard and made most of the school make fun of me that year.I'm not wiccan,but it still hurts, but that's over now

one of my cousins make jokes about wiccans and it hurts so much i just want to yell at her to stop that by saying all the stuff shes saying shes bashing me but i cant otherwise my whole family will know and i feel like they will just disown me, i hate having to hide who i really am but with some people i have to and i feel like that will never change

I don't mean to offen anyone by saying this, but from an English point of view, the USA is pretty oldfashioned, and that will deffinetly have some effect. How people a brought up will affect how they react to it, so I would reccomend keeping that in mind before telling people.
I'm not wiccan, but I am a practicing witch, and I'm lucky enough that most people here are pretty understanding. I don't tell people if they don't ask, but those who do know don't really care much. Besides having me devine the answers to some rather stupid questions, like 'how well equipped is so-and-so?', and the occasional good natured joke about if it's possible to use magick to cheat on exams.