Right, so you've read, you've practiced a little, but sometimes it seems really out there and overwhelming.  The idea of energy, having it coursing through the earth and through every living thing... pretty amazing?

So many beginners shy down from things like this, because it just seems like so much to take in.  It just seems like it's too much to handle, as if Wicca was a huge responsibility.  Most people don't understand how one can not just be "into" Wicca, but to live it every day.  It seems like so much to understand.  I get e-mails asking me things like this.

What needs to be done for people like this, is first of all, they have to lose that whole divine grandeur that the Christian God has - the stern, father-figure staring down from the heavens, judging everyone all the time for their whole lives, giving his followers the idea that he's all omnipotent and omnipresent and all that.. the all-powerful, respect-demanding God.  That's going to have to go.

To begin living Wiccan, one must realize that the Goddess and God are not huge, all-powerful beings that we should bow down and worship, lest they burn us to a crisp.  They are not to be feared at all.  They should be welcomed like a good friend or relative.
Another thing that I feel is important to understand is the utter importance of Nature.  Christianity teaches that Man controls and owns Nature.  This is SO not true!  That is like saying we have control over our parents when we are young.
Here is something that really put the whole Nature-respect thing in my head, more than anything ever had before.  Some of us have heard that chant, "The Earth is our Mother." Think of this... we are born, live, and die on this planet.  We breathe its air.  We grow our food within its soil.  We build our homes and raise our families on its surface, and when we die, we are buried in its depths.  I think there's WAY too many people out there who don't realize how important the Earth is to our survival.  I've even met people who say "Why?  We'll have populated other planets by then."  That's not really the point, is it?

Wicca is not bowing down to some almighty force who poofed us into existence.  It is about understanding and appreciating the forces which we need to live.. the sunlight, the earth, the wind, the rain...  It's not hardcore worship, it's just a way of saying "thanks" for being alive.