help needed

queera

Hi all. Ive never been to this forum before, but was told about it this weekend. Im on the an fainne mailing list so some of you may recognise me from there. Just a quick intro - my name is Ciara, Im a pagan and practice solo witchcraft in the reclaiming tradition (starhawk). Through my spiritual path, I began wondering if I could actually study or research this area and see what kind of an impact it has on peoples lives in Ireland. I wanted to create awareness and understanding of spiritual practices which are outside of the norm, and see how people are affected and how their lives are enhanced by them, like mine has been (e.g. Starhawk's reclaiming tradition has its roots in activism in the global justice movement and in feminism, and has been hugely empowering for me to practice). I began a PhD (Im in year 2 now) at NUI,Maynooth and am beginning the phase of talking to people about their experiences. My goals are mainly to find out has anyone else experienced profound change in their lives directly because of their spiritual path. Im looking for people to speak to me about their lived experience of paganism/shamanism/witchcraft or whatever combination of spiritualities that makes their own system of belief. Im hoping to get a picture of peoples lives and hopefully the people who will end up benefitting from research like this will be people like us, embedded in a cultural and spiritual community but misunderstood (often) by the larger community. If anyone is in the Dublin area and would be willing to help me with my research (I dont pay, as it is supposed to be a free exchange of ideas, plus Im a student and cant afford to, and am relying on people who embrace knowledge production and want to be a part of contemporary research in their area of interest! But coffee/beer is on me!!) then please PM me and say if you would be able to meet me or even engage in some email dialogue if you are outside the dublin area. Although if you were keen to participate I could come see people further afield!!:D
Thanks for your time in reading this. Hopefully Ive gotten accross how Im coming from a perspective of deeply committed scholarship. Im not a researcher with a labcoat coming into something cold, Ive been spiritually minded for the last 15 years and actively practicing for 5.
Anyway, this post has been long enough!
Many thanks
Blessed Be
Ciara

Talliesin

Editting to remove email addresses. As a rule we prefer not to have them in posts. PM should work just as well.