As I write this I feel like I am writing a eulogy, but I must face the facts and admit that I am not the same person I was back in the 90's when the Dark Wyccan came into being.
Back then the Internet was still just starting to become widely used and people were clambering to seek out and meet others of like mind. Social Networking as we know it today simply did not exist and we relied on the efforts of individual webmasters to build those communities. I became one such webmaster, with sites like Corporate Goth, NYC Pagan Resource Guide, Gothic Guide to Nail Care, and the Gothic and Pagan Personals. Each offered a place for various communities to take root, and I am proud to see how over 15 years later some of the friendships formed in those communities still exist.
The Dark Wyccan had made his mark on the world, and his little corner of the Internet was the better for it. But things change, and the Internet has certainly blossomed to allow for more effective ways to meet others and touch a larger audience more quickly. Many of his sites like the NYC Pagan Resource Guide and Gothic and Pagan Personals were retired since their usefulness had run their course, and his other websites remained as an archive of his former achievements.
The person who was the Dark Wyccan became the author John J.Coughlin, and even that person has seen enough change to consider his professional website as of January 2013 to be outdated and based on accomplishments of the past, not the present.
You see, I am not the same person I was 5 years ago, let alone 15. Prior to the coming into being of the Dark Wyccan, I was a boy just going with the flow. That's not necessarily a bad thing but in my case it was more like an ant on a leaf running down stream with no real control or direction, making the best of where it took me.
It was as the Dark Wyccan that I began to take up an oar so I could navigate the waters a bit and better choose my course. It was when I began to express myself as who I was, not who others expected me to be.
As the author John J. Coughlin I began to encourage others to grab their oars and not be afraid to choose their own direction, even if it was not the easiest path, and go against the current if that's what it took.
But now, after so many years trying to navigate the waters of life, I realize I am the captain of my own ship, and that I can plot my own course rather than just steer. So much has changed in the last 3-5 years that I am no longer just that author and in fact need to even work on a revised edition of my opus work, Out of the Shadows, to better reflect who I am now and what I learned to get me here.
So it is with all this in mind, and with a heavy heart, that I accept that I am no longer the person who was the Dark Wyccan. He is no more, but his legacy lives on. What this means for waningmoon.com I am not sure. Perhaps it will become an archive to former work or perhaps it will remain my sandbox for new ideas and eventually reflect who I am now. My web-related ventures are not my current focus tho it is clear at some point I need to do some housekeeping.
I look forward to what the future will bring, and to meeting the person I will become in the future... who will, perhaps sooner than one may think, retire the version of me talking to you now.
Weep not for the Dark Wyccan. He's in a better place.