Adam Whitethorn is forming the South Jersey Pagan Society. Watch video
MILLVILLE -- Adam Whitethorn began studying the occult and "magick" when he was a pre-teen but it wasn't until he was in his 20s and living in Hawaii that he began to truly explore spirituality.
Now that he is back in New Jersey, he hopes to create a group of like-minded thinkers to share ideas and support each other. He's created the South Jersey Pagan Society in order to get everyone together.
"If I can outreach to people who are likeminded, maybe we can create this platform," Whitethorn said. "Maybe we can create an outreach community."
The 29-year-old first got interested in the occult, paganism and wiccan culture when he was growing up in Millville. Years later, when he moved with his friend Jazz Thornton to Hawaii, he began to explore spirituality -- starting first with meditation and getting deeper into ancestor worship.
"You realize that energy is real, you feel it when you mediate," Whitethorn said. "Whether you are Buddhist or whatever your religion or label is, when you get into meditation you start to feel energy. So that kind of sparked me back into my interest in the occult."
He eventually began meditating to Santa Muerte, a female deity representing death, and set up an altar to her.
Adam Whitethorn shows the altar he keeps to Santa Muerte, a female deity representing death. (Submitted photo) "(Adam is) extremely passionate and very dedicated to the work -- whether it's making the time to meditate or cleanse or do his stuff that he does," Thorton said. "It's something he'd faithfully come home from work and practice or any off time. He had his whole little set up in his room and all that and, if you're friends with him on Facebook, you see he speaks on it a lot."
While in Hawaii, he helped set up a group called "Hoodoo, Brujeria, Santeria & Conjure" to discuss different practices and methods. The way Whitethorn approaches spirituality, it involves studying different cultures and spirits - as well as respecting those cultures.
Identifying with spirituality and paganism has made it difficult dealing with people, Whitethorn explained. He has been targeted for abuse by people for his beliefs and have even had difficulty with friends who don't completely understand his beliefs. It's not about curses or devil worship. It's about communing with something bigger than yourself, he explains.
Part of the reason he wants to form South Jersey Pagan Society is to help find fellow travelers and maybe even help the communities they live in.
"I think it's important for a community to have diversity - it's how we learn from one another," Whitethorn said. "I think its important for us to be social as well because there's a lot of things that are quite frankly misunderstood and that's how discrepancies happen"
Anyone interested in joining his group can reach him by emailing witchy.whitethorn@gmail.com or by joining his South Jersey Pagan Society Facebook group.
Don E. Woods may be reached at dwoods@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @donewoods1. Find NJ.com on Facebook.