"I discovered Wicca 12 years ago through a college friend and it
changed my life, giving me comfort and acceptance
of being a woman and strength to achieve many goals."

This part sounds personal and internal, the best part of occult religions. Everything else you list sounds like annoyance with other folks. This is the big distinction, as far as I can tell. Perhaps removing yourself from the icky energy vamps, going more solitary, and just letting the Natural world relax and recharge you will help.
Ditch the labels and the judgments (to and fro) and find what it was that attracted you to the Craft in the first place: the connection with the Seasons and the Goddess.

I agree, but its awfully ahrd to share that sometimes when people are so caught up in their own limitations.

I've been a practicing pagan for over 12 years now, I used to refer to myself as 'wiccan' but it just seems to much of a stereo type of it's own, so now I just say I am pagan and leave it at that. I agree with the basic flow of most of this thread.
One thing that bothered me though when reading through random posts here in different areas, now I quite agree with everyone here, I got burnt out on the people for the most part too, I stay to myself other than a few friends I've met who do not follow my exact path, and we get along great, but where on earth did you get the idea that just because you were wiccan/pagan whatever that there were no bad spirits?
Satanists are rather odd, and quite frankly I ignore or avoid the vast majority of them myself, but why leave wiccan/paganism because you see bad "evil" if you will spirits?
Things are not always rosey, and there is good and bad in anything, including the spirit world, in all things there is balance. Now unfortunetially if you open yourself to things such as your friend did you can rather tend to call the negative entities to yourself. One would ask you to take another look at protective circles and cleaning out negative energies, and other such house cleaning and protective rituals and ask yourself why people do them.
I apologize, I'm a person that on occassion seems to come out sarcastic when I in no way mean to, and I might be now, but m'dear you should never have to have it proven to you or even to tell someone that "evil spirits exist". That is a given. There is good and bad in everything. What I would suggest though is that if you were harmed by those entities that you should have done a thorough cleansing of your home, put up protective wards to keep entities like that out, and I must say that it's a good thing your friend went elsewhere.
Honestly when learning about the occult one of the very first things you should learn is how to protect, defend and cleanse.
I really hope that your negative experience rather than hinder you as it seems to have done, helps you grow. I would also suggest you read a lot before you work with ritual again. Books by Scott Cunningham, and Raymond Buckland and many many other very good authors not only teach you how to keep negative energies from you and banish those that do find there way there, but ways to keep your home in harmony, how to foster good energies around you, and many other things that I believe should be a lot of what you learn at first.
Love and Light,
Anwaset

Ya know, I read this post and all the related posts and the words couldn't come at a better time.

I never realized people could be as evil or mean-spirited as I discovered when I connected to a certain Pagan community. I ran a store. spent A LOT of time doing this as I arranged classes, book signings, meetings, field trips, drum circles, readers, you name it. I also did a lot of marketing and meeting of the masses, including volunteering with the local inter-faith community. What did I get for my works? Pain. Granted I wasn't looking for recognition or praise or anything in return. Just some common courtesy would have been nice.

So it's really damn easy to stand back and say "there is good and bad in everything" and just go along with it 'cause that's the way it is. But when you are deep in the middle of it, in despair, sorrow, anguish, and surrounded by malicious people, well, thinking about how wonderful the world is... doesn't exist.

Then there are those who state you aren't truly Wiccan or Pagan if you don't do this or that, or believe in this or that. Or the book-smart people who can quote authors all day long but never give you a truly spiritual experience to relate. Not one word of insight. Not one one topic of interest. If the author said it, it must be true, right? Not. Those who only relate what we barely know from minimal archeology on Celtic worship or other forms of ancient Pagan practices. "It has to be done this way 'cause that's what they (authors) are telling us!" Right.

I could go on and on about how people act in the Pagan world, but as I have read, a lot of you have experienced it. It does have an effect on your religion, but not necessarily your spirituality. I still believe and follow a Pagan path, but tend to keep to myself. I got "burned-out" on Wicca though because I saw true hypocrisy in nearly the entire community, that it became nothing more than an empty religion, for those who used it as an excuse to be irresponsible assholes. Don't get me wrong, I still know some wonderful Pagans, but it doesn't match the shear numbers of bad ones I ran in to.

So now I don't call myself anything in particular. I am Pagan, yes, and I follow the nature path, leaning towards Celtic. Celtic Witch if anything.

I have very seriously considered starting a new tribe for those who truly follow Paganism as a spiritual path, and not a book-read path, or "do what you want" path or "excuse" path (Pagan standard time LOL), or a "my coven told me this" path. This tribe would be just for those who have had spiritual experiences, personal connections with the gods, goddesses, elementals, dragons, fae, whatever, or have questions regarding such (or say dream/meditation interpretation), not for what is "right" or what a book said/says, or what the coven says, etc. just for those who have had real experiences. Would anyone be interested in that?

Wait... I don't get a hat?