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I was thinking recently while going through some of the old books I used to like. Now I am reading a lot of Cunningham's work and putting away the Conway and Ravenwolf stuff that I realize was a bushels of bunk. However looking back I remember how I found the first Cunningham book was dry and uninteresting but Ravenwolf was more suited to me, at the time. (To make one thing clear this isn't about my preaching the virtues or defaming other authors) But if I hadn't looked at the less reputable authors first I might not have started to look into witchcraft and from their gain the scope and acquire a desire to learn from the more reputable authors as well as more serious communities and people. My topic is as to how one's tastes and ideas about magic and witchcraft change as they (for lack of a better word) mature as one studies and practices continue.

I originally started around 14 or 15 with DJ Conway's Celtic magic. however I found it hard to relate to those deities and I wound up mostly working with elementals and thus began the Ravenwolf phase until I was about 17 when I had started looking into eclectic paganism and then I found the Hellenic deities more relatable, and I felt a stronger connection, being of Greek descent, so I started to revere them at that time I started to read more and started talking to people and looking more into Scott Cunningham books that before I had put on the back burner. and after that I learned about the history altering aspects of silver, so I started reading Cunningham and "topical books" (i.e. books about pendulums, spirit guides, meditation, specifically rather than trying to cover all the aspects possible) in the past year or so I have retrained myself to say I am eclectic pagan rather than Hellenic, because I don't really know or by extension follow the ways and traditions of that group.

That is sort of what I am trying to say, that as people mature those who started with the whole "teen witch/fluffy" mindset may find that they look into other books and online resources and find that the books they used to regard may not make much sense with a new perspective.

To try and clarify I am wondering about how some people mature they "evolve" from the "teen witch/fluffy" stereotypes into more eclectic pagan (or whatever other) ideologies. (I also recognize that some don't) how things that made sense to us at one point seem "silly" in retrospect.

post scripta:
quoted words/phrases mean that I am unsure how to say something exactly these words are the closest I could come up with

That is true. The thing I am going for is how as someone progresses (regardless of age) they come to points when they might think "I can't believe I used to think that" or "why in the world did I do this that way". The "maturation" for lack of a better word that one goes through after gaining experience and scope. I'm sorry if I seem to be changing my topics all the time, it is more of I am having a hard time quantifying this topic. I guess I could just have easily called it "growth" or even "I can't believe I used to..."
It was just something that was on my mind after talking with someone who started in witchcraft/paganism as me, however they seem to talk about how I used to think of magic and the ways we used to work, and I had a real "why did I even..." moment