You Might Be A Thalian If...

Since one of the prime rules of Thalia is that, well, there aren't hard and fast rules, there are almost guaranteed to be exceptions to all of the following in our current membership. However, in our experience, if you can say 'yes' to several of the following, you're likely to fit in with Thalia. Conversely, if a lot of the following just don't sound like you, you might be happier with a different group. Now, there's not a thing wrong with that - diversity is good. How boring we'd be if we all enjoyed the exact same things! But if besides being interested in the usual things about Wicca (the cycle of the seasons, the Lord and Lady, magic, nature, and personal spirituality) you also think the following list describes you pretty well, you might be a Thalian if...

You are flexible in how you do things, from ritual to your daily life.

Sure, it's a neat idea to have the traditional Nine Sacred Woods for your Yulefire, to be able to have the dramatic impact and connection with those who have gone before you, but you're not going to get stressed if all you have is a DuraLog - after all, that's made with recycled materials, so it's appropriate in a different sense. There's always another way to do something.

Your view of Deity is flexible as well.

You are likely to believe that at some level, all the Gods and Goddesses are one. Or perhaps you believe that They are individual, but like us are also interconnected. Or perhaps you don't even know for certain that the Gods exist, but something about welcoming Them in ritual works for you anyway so you do it. You don't get hung up about one particular pantheon or of personal interpretations of who a God or Goddess is; you might have Deities or pantheons with whom you connect well, but welcoming the Greek Goddess of hearth and crafts and the Egyptian God of smithcraft and craftsmanship in the same ritual makes sense to you - they may not be in the same pantheon but they complement each other. And you aren't offended that we've used 'fictional' Deities in ritual before. After all, the name isn't important - the reality behind it is. And who defines how old a story must be before it is myth?

You see ritual as a creative experience.

You tend to like dramatic, poetic, or emotional rituals - formality has its place in dramatic impact, but rote just because it's the way it's always been done doesn't mean as much to you as finding a new way to evoke the emotional impact of 'knowledge sweeping in on the gusting winds of the East'. You also see ritual as a place where some playfulness can be fun. Invoking the West at Midsummer with squirtguns? Why not? Music, drumming, poetry, storytelling, play, meditation, all can be used when it seems appropriate.

You see magic and ritual as a way to learn more about the Gods, about yourself, and about the other people you do ritual with.

Magic to you is largely a method of self-transformation; self-transformation begins with self-knowledge; and working with others gives both you and them a support structure for those sorts of transformative experiences. You understand, however, that no matter how much of a family you can become with the people you Circle with, the final responsibility for your own healing is yours. No one else can heal you, and you can't heal anyone else. All you can do is provide the foundation for each other.

You are looking for a spiritual family.

You want the people you worship with and practice magick with to become a family, with all that family means: this includes the joys and sorrows, pain and healing, love and anger. You don't believe that family is all "sweetness and light", however; you agree that you have to take the bad with the good. You also believe that family also means acceptance – acceptance with no strings attached. If your family accepts you, you accept them, whether you agree with them or not -- not because you want something from them in return.

You're not looking for absolute answers.

Heck, around here we don't even have all the questions, let alone all the answers! You aren't looking for someone to tell you what to do or what to believe; you're not looking for a guru to follow. You are comfortable with the idea that sometimes the answer is "I don't know," and you like the idea of finding your own beliefs along with a bunch of other people finding theirs, rather than having something spoon-fed to you.

You pretty much believe that as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else, including the one doing it, just about anything goes if it promotes love, joy, respect, healing, or growth.

You can get along with people who live a lifestyle different than yours. A homosexual couple doesn't bother you; neither does a bisexual triad, nor the heterosexual monogamous couple with two children and a picket fence. If it brings them joy, if it works for them and doesn't hurt anyone else, it's okay. Sure, sometimes your gut reaction can be bad, because experimentation is scary, especially when you were brought up to consider so many things wrong, but you recognize that as fear and not morality. Life is too short to either get politically correct and expect everyone to want to practice 'alternatives', or to get self-righteous and fuss about what someone else is doing.

You like stories.

You like stories a lot. You at least like reading them - fantasy and science fiction are the most common, but anything from mysteries to romances to textbooks can be interesting - but you're also likely to like to participate in them in some way. Whether you act in plays, write, play role-playing games, participate in historical reenactments or SCA, or just remember playing 'let's pretend' as a child a lot, stories are fairly central to your existence. You might even be able to find a bit of the floor of your house under the piles of books.\

Your sense of humor is perverse and pervasive.

You either make puns, or quote Monte Python, or know all the words to a Tom Lehrer song, or sing along with Weird Al, or some other similar form of silliness.

A Final Note