Today I am going to be covering the topic of education, specifically in terms of educating yourself about spiritual topics. Those of us interested in the vast subjects today are lucky because there are so many resources available to us. In the last 100 years we, as a species, have truly come a long way in terms of both thinking openly and bringing information to the masses.
Books - self explanatory, these are probably one of the most used sources. Unfortunately, the cost of books continues to increase as booksellers struggle to remain open. We have libraries where one can check these things out for free, although the selection tends to depend on a variety of factors. Still, books are extremely popular because they often provide exercises and lists of other books to check into in order to continue learning about specific subjects.
Websites - When I first started my journey with Wicca in 1998, I could easily count the useful websites with my two hands. A lot of the information out there was directly rehashed from Cunningham, Gardner, Adler, Buckland, Valiente, and Ravenwolf's books. Now the internet has exploded with blogs and social media. Everyone has an opinion these days and people are more than willing to share how they do things.
YouTube - I list this one because it has been profound in my personal spiritual journey. As I mentioned in the websites section, the resources of this video community have become better as the years have gone by. I tend to mass devour videos by adding anything of interest to my "watch later" playlist. One of the best aspects about this website is that there is a great variety of people sharing their practice with others.
Face to Face - While it may not be possible for everyone, in many larger communities one can find Pagan Forums to meet others of a like mind. Learning in this manner is reminiscent of the early days of Wicca when Gardner, Sanders, Farrar, and Buckland used covens and taught people one on one. This avenue of learning is rewarding for those that seek a real world community.
In ending this post, I want to mention that it can be useful to utilize all of the above methods for education. I have personally dipped into each of those categories and have found all to be rewarding in their own right. I encourage you to expand your mind by looking into other ways of education that I haven't previously mentioned, such as through online study groups, web forums (if you can find a good one without infighting/drama), correspondence courses, and so on. The point is to learn and where that comes from isn't as critical as the process of exploring personal beliefs and either changing them or building upon them.
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