I was drawn to Unitarian Universalism because a Pagan friend recommended it as a safe place for Pagans who wanted a "church home". It was described as a space where people of many faiths can worship together. Which sounds complicated, but really the services don't feel overcomplicated. They mostly focus on what it means to be human and compassion for others. That's a bit of an oversimplification, to be fair.

My real introduction into this congregation was through it's Pagan goup. More than anything, I needed a space where I could connect in person to people who hold similar beliefs and practices. I love that the group is eclectic. I love that we can discuss spirituality and religion without many assumptions being made. It's wonderful to share in ritual with them. As a whole, the people at the UUC are nice and everyone's supportive of each other.

And yet, I often feel a disconnect. It could be that we've only had a handful of in-person events for the past two years. Or maybe it's also because I'm the only active member of the group who is a polytheist and worships deities some consider "dark". (There may be others, but they're not often present during our discussions.) It's difficult sometimes to click with them on a spiritual level when we talk about our paths.

It kind of hurts feeling like I'm still somehow the odd one out: The weird one among the group. It leads me to having tone down what I disclose about my own beliefs and practices so I don't risk being "too much" for the others. Even then, I sometimes worry I've said too much.

Don't get me wrong: I don't intend on leaving the group or the UUC. The connections I make there are important to me. The people in my Pagan group feel like a family. It's just a fact that even chosen family doesn't always "get it" when it comes to certain things.

It's a common enough theme in our discussions when the Pagan group is helping with a Sunday service, such as for Beltaine or Samhain, that we "tone it down" for our non-Pagan members. We usually use a shortened version of our rituals that leave some things out. To me, our rituals are tame already. There's no invocations of deities that results in "horsing" or possession, or other "heavy" ritual work. Not that I would necessarily want to partake in these practices with my group. That would be too personal for me. My "heavy" work is private or occasionally shared with someone I am intimately close with. Besides, I get the feeling that some of those practices are something most of them would be uncomfortable with, anyway. Still, it would be nice to be able to openly talk about such things in a general way without fearing judgment from them or causing them discomfort.

It's an odd feeling to sit among others who also follow an "alternative" spiritual path and still feel like the weirdo. It's strange to realize that we sometimes view certain subjects so differently even when the surface of our conversations sound like we're completely on the same page. There's nothing wrong with that. It just makes it difficult to ascertain whether we're actually talking about the same thing, or if we're discussing separate concepts with shared language.

All of that said, perhaps what is needed is more openness. Not too much, mind you. I'm not setting out to divulge all of my secrets. It may be that I need to speak up more when I feel uncomfortable with feeling like I have to hide.

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