Losing my religion was the best thing that ever happened to me.

[Astreja]

I studied Wicca, paganism, Taoism, pantheism, etc. trying to find a belief system that I truly felt was right for me. Everything was hollow and nonsensical.

Sounds like the path I took too.  I started out as a fangrrl of Athena in pre-teenage years, did a high school project on Hinduism, and wrote a modern-day-Jesus character into a story.

I then spent a couple of years with tarot, astrology and Golden Dawn ceremonial stuff; explored Judaism, Christian Science and Jodo Shinshu Buddhism; and spent 10 years in Nichiren Buddhism.

The last little bit of woo-woo was actually pretty funny, and led to My 'Net persona as a somewhat snarky Norse Goddess.  It came about indirectly as a result of a D&D group that I had hung out with in the early '80s.  Someone else in the group gave My daughter his old D&D stuff, including some Dragonlance modules and graphic novels.  For reasons that remain a mystery even to this day I fell head over heels for Raistlin Majere and started doing DL-themed costumes at a local science fiction/fantasy convention.  Someone saw the glow-in-the-dark arcane stitching I had put on the hood of some very nice black velvet robes, and asked "Are those real runes?"

I had just made up the designs, but I had to know.  Studying the runes led to Óðinn and the rest of the crowd from Asgard, and the Eddas, and a few years as a moderately serious solitary Norse heiðin, before giving My head a good shake and going "Wait, what?"

I still have those black robes, BTW.  And a bag of runes.