Alice Mitchell `13

She’s a caring soul, and always friendly.  It’s no surprise to hear she was a Girl Scout Gold Award winner, the highest honor a girl scout can win. If you didn’t know, Girl Scouts are dedicated to serving their world, friendliness, and compassion.  This is Alice.

“I was born Catholic, but my family stopped attending mass when I was about 4, and instead we developed our own spiritual ideas.  Mass was replaced by nature walks in the botanical gardens, where I fell in love with the outdoors.  By senior high school, I was Pagan.”

And what does it mean to Alice to be a Pagan?  ““My Paganism developed out of certain beliefs about death and has continued to grow.  I work on listening to nature and being open to the environment around me at all times, whether I’m walking to class or in a car.  Openness to the Goddess is extremely important to me.  Everything in my environment has a lesson for me and I need to be attentive to learn those lessons, even if they’re as simple as slowing down in my hectic life to take time and appreciate something small that would previously insignificant.  Worth can be found in every organism, person, and place, because they all have energy of the Goddess within them.  My faith is bound to grow as I do and I look forward to seeing how the religious aspects of my life mature.”

When asked the common question of whether she is more religious or spiritual, the answer is quick and confident, “Religious.  For me, if you can put a name to it, that’s religion.”  Then I asked her tackle the hot topic of faith at Beloit College.

“I’ve grown a lot since coming to Beloit.  Personally, I pray a lot.  I have an altar in my room with pictures and objects as a reminder of who I am and what the world is.  I’ve done tarot, but not a lot.  I’m always up for trying something a little bit different.

“I think faith is kind of an abstract sphere with a lot of concepts being contained in the shadows of the unknown.  People here ask a lot of questions I wouldn’t think of, which uncovers some of the aspects of my faith that were previously unexplored.  Like some of the things you’re asking,” she says with a laugh.

When I ask her what Pagan living really is, Alice tells me, “Take everything with a grain of sacredness; it is the goddess’s creation and it has her energy.  I try not to act cruelly towards anyone or demonstrate ignorance to an organism; I make an effort to be observant of every living thing.

“I’m inquisitive and always growing in my faith.  Let’s talk more.”