The #1 focus on magick is a connection with nature and the interconnectedness of everything. And this I have instilled in my daughter since she was able to comprehend it, as was done with me when I was a child. This is something I continue to do as often as the opportunity arises. I don't teach religion as much as I teach awareness. Awareness of her own emotions, her thoughts, and her surroundings. The simplest things such as asking her what plants and animals "helped" to make the dinner on her plate. Going outside and just listening to the wind, insects and animals and learning about them. Seeing the beauty in nature and emphasizing the respect it should be given. The cycle of life. etc.
Once she turned 3, I started asking her questions and "pondering" the answers with her. Me: Why do the leaves move? Could it be nature spirits? Her response: "I think its wind". Me: "Do you think? I think your right."
Since she was 5 our discussions have included the "source". I told her some people believe who created all of this was a "big father", others believe its a "big mother", and still others think it's both. Her response to me at five was "I think its both because its teamwork!" Out of the mouths of babes, I'll tell ya!
I believe with children the "why's" have to be answered before they can grasp magick. I let my daughter know what I believe, and then give her the perspective of other beliefs, and then we discuss what makes sense to her.
I read her myths and she asks me "is that true". I'll ask her "do you think its true?". And we then discuss it. The only thing that really hurts us as parents is television and how it portrays magick. This makes children think that is what magick is supposed to be like and then they are disappointed and disbelieving when they don't witness it from us (ie: levitation, fireballs and the like).
Raising her to have her own mind and the difference between tv magic and real magick has caused her to be a skeptic toward magick, which I didn't foresee happening. But raising her this way has given her a strong sense of spirituality, which I am sure in time will allow her to grow into a confidant young woman. I'm sure when she reaches an age where she can comprehend why magick works (the mind and will and manifestation), then she will be more open to it. But for now, since it doesn't make sense to her, and I raised her to use her own mind, until she's convinced, she'll be a skeptic.
I have made some progress though. She is a little environmentalist, and has been alarmed that we are having a draught. Plants are dying and tree leaves are falling. I found her in her room, facing her window, with the rainstick I helped her make last year. Her eyes were closed and she was rocking the rain stick back and forth slowly. After she was done (which was nearly 10min) I asked her what she had been doing. She told me she was "metiday-ding" on rain and the wind and asking the gods for help. Whoa! I was shocked. I never taught her to do that...That night it did rain a little and she was thrilled, but not enough to end the draught. I never mentioned the "m" word, just told her I was proud of her. I think I understand now why my family never connected what I was taught with any defined words. It prevents comparison with television and other media that paints a false picture.
As for seriously teaching her. I've only gone lightly over meditation, working with stones and dowsing. I taught her a protection chant two years ago for keeping away any night monsters, and she is involved in cleansing the house and sabbat rituals. I think it depends with the child itself.
Thank you. It made me think "aw" too when she told me. Certain moments in a parents life with their child they will always think back and smile, and that is one of mine.
Well if/when I have children I'd teach them at the youngest age they can learn because I believe it will teach them life skills along with teaching them something they may or may not (As I wouldn't push it on them) use for the rest of their life
But as Raven said if they can understand then they can learn and the part with the asking the gods for rain had to be the cutest story ever
There's naturally a lot of concern about not wanting to thrust your spiritual beliefs onto your kid, but I'd like to mention that I totally had the opposite problem growing up.
My dad isn't religious and my mom is anti -religious, and so I was raised without much in the way of spirituality - I did a summer Bible-camp thing because I lived near a church but not near any children my age, and I'd go to the church Fall festival and other little events with neighbors, but that was it.
I am a very spiritual person and I am in fact ruled by Jupiter in Pisces with both Mars and Saturn in Sagittarius - I need spirituality like a hamster needs a wheel (that is, I will go sort of stir-crazy without it). The obvious response would be that I could learn about religions on my own at the library or by asking my parents, but this is based upon the notion that I understood that religion was what I wanted.
I had no freaking clue. I knew something was missing in my life and that I found current explanations of the world to be less than satisfactory, but as a child I totally did not understand that there is a genre that deals with these things, and it is called religion. And even after I understood that much, I still didn't understand enough to work things out on my own. All I knew about religion was "Bibles contain it or something," and I had only the most totally vague awareness of other faiths (Buddhism is eastern or something, Hinduism is from India, Native Americans believe in animal spirits, and everyone hates the Jews for no apparent reason). I remember once asking for a Bible as a gift purely because I had no where else I knew to look.
While you're obviously not going to raise your children in such a religiously sterile environment, it remains true that limiting their knowledge serves only to make them less aware and self-sufficient. A person will be best prepared to decide if they believe in and wish to practice magick after they've learned about it. In trying to protect me from oppressive religion they overcompensated and simply restricted me from another direction, and surely you can see that I would have been better off taught about religion and then left to my own devices.
There are a lot of things we need to protect children from, but knowledge generally isn't one of them. As we peeked at with WhiteRav3n's daughter, children can be shockingly wise and astute in observation and reasoning. Think about it - they're learning the entire world from scratch, and look at what a fabulous command of it they have! Children are inexperienced and their thoughts are simple, but that is not at all the same as being unintelligent or having inaccurate perceptions and ideas.
It is also important to realize that children are, by and large, incredibly willful. We as adult authority figures too frequently think of them as bending to us because we set and enforce the rules, but have you ever noticed just how much we need to enforce them? Though we always win that typically does not stop the child from ever challenging the our rules and otherwise misbehaving. That is, in reality, almost frightfully willful. Having never won, they continually attempt to assert their wills in defiance of these odds.
My point with these last two topics is that children are both very able to understand spirituality and magick, and very capable of coming to their own willful conclusions about what believe. Unless you present your way as being the only truth or otherwise limit the exploration of other paths, most children aren't terribly at risk for just blindly following your faith and practices. I also wish to mention that I've read a lot of things written by Wiccan parents and only a minority of them have all Wiccan children; most of them have some children who were raised with Wicca but who have elected to follow some other religion or no religion. I don't know if this is an accurate picture of the Wiccan community, or perhaps just people interested in writing about Wiccan parenting, but being able to successfully raise your child to choose their own faith is at least not totally uncommon.
And finally, I want to make it clear that when I say that children can choose their own faiths, I'm not just speaking hypothetically. I work as a substitute aid in special education classrooms and I've worked with all ages, and I have watched as these kids choose their own faiths. Because what we teach in special ed. is so comprehensive and deals so much with just learning how to live like a normal human being it is not uncommon to end up having to help a student reconcile their religious views and some problem in their life. I've therefore truly watched, and indeed helped out, the gears turning in a student's head as they formulate and decide upon their beliefs of God, of right and wrong, of free will, of the nature of sin.
Tell them what you believe, tell them what others believe, and insist that the believe what they will. I promise they can handle it.
Wow, Chiron, well said. My parents were exactly the same. My dad couldn't have cared less (due to having it forced on him by his mother, I'm sure) and my mom's an atheist. You've given me a lot to think about. Thank you for sharing and bringing up good points.
I started learning magic right after I turned eleven. I have Christian parents, but they believe that intent and prayer mixes (like our spells) are powerful and can manifest what they do. You can teach your kids whenever you feel that they are ready, but don't wait too long or they could end up like some of the "vampire" fluff bunnies on here that believe in shape shifting and venues in bottles.
No I've been explaining to both girls they can't be mermaids and what's real and what isn't. I hate to ruin it for them, but I'd rather do it now than have teenagers who believe that stuff.
Rav, "asking the gods", yes! Asking is the key, and what a child! She will go far.
As far as teaching kids, I don't know, really. It helps to know how much they understand, and it sucks to have to say to not share with other kids, as this can cause problems with peers. My daughter had a reading assignment and was suppose to bring a book to school to read to herself. She brought the Bible and you thought the school would have fallen apart by this! The assignment was to read "a book", not make a report. Because of this, I would consider when and what to teach when dealing with the young ones. If they are old enough to understand, then by all means do what you think best. I thought I'd share this as I am unsure when is the "right" time to start teaching...
