My story in a nutshell: (Or "How I Came to Paganism"
)
I was raised as a Catholic - baptized, first communion, confessions, Sunday school, the whole nine yards. I was never comfortable with it. Nice story, but after all the years and versions and interpretations...who really knew what was true and what was not? (No offense to any Christians....this is just
my opinion.) Then there's the whole birth control/abortion thing which really ticks me off, but I'm not going there because it's an argument waiting to happen and no one can win it. The whole organized religion thing, repeating the same verses of prayers over and over each week like mindless drones just bothered me. Anyway, when I was around 16 I started asking questions of some older relatives about my two great aunts. I'd never known them as they both died in a fire shortly after I was born. They had been known as the "village witches" in our community and were remarkable healers. One aunt possessed powers of telekenisis (the ability to move objects without touching them) and was famous for making the dining room table hover above the floor when guests were invited for dinner or card games. The other aunt had "visions" of things that were yet to happen, and apparently was very accurate in what she foretold. I've heard their seances were absolutely frightening! When they died, their house stood empty for 16 years until a couple from out of town who didn't know the history bought it, repaired it, and moved in. They still live there and have said it is haunted, but they have learned to live amicably with whatever else calls it home. When we were children we would walk by the house very quickly on the way to my grandmother's house because we'd heard the stories of it being haunted.
So, as I got older and really began to fight the Catholic upbringing, I eventually just put my foot down and said "no more!" No more Sunday school, no more weekly mass, just no more. This bothered the heck out of my mother who was very firm in her Catholic beliefs. I started finding out what my aunts were really all about. Were they really witches? Well, yes. But not the Hollywood version with pointy hats and shoes that ate small children on Wednesdays. They had incredible knowledge of herbs and how to use them, and they believed in a different religion....one that followed the cycle of the moon and the seasons of the year and revered nature and life and its cycle. The telekenisis and ability to see the future seemed to have been a random occurrence. No one else in the family has developed it, although there are a few of us who have "glimpses" or forerunners, but you will find such things in many families.
I began to feel a bond with these two women. Learning more about them and what they believed in felt more right than anything I'd ever learned or done. I felt like I had finally come home. It is an undescribable feeling, but I just knew that finally my life made some sense and I was where I was meant to be all along. I have never looked back, never questioned if what I believe or do is the right thing, because I know it is right for me. I've been through a lot of discrimination and name calling, and it doesn't matter. Small minded people fear what they don't know. I don't flaunt my beliefs, but I certainly don't hide them. I wear Pagan jewellry, attend Pagan celebrations, and openly discuss my beliefs with people who are genuinely interested. I do tire of having very young people ask (mostly online) if I can help them become a witch. One of the beliefs I hold is not to influence another's path, so while I sometimes provide access to proper information, I will not "teach". I've never really categorized myself, other than being a solitary traditional witch.
Some time after my mother died I was discussing this whole thing with an older aunt who told me that when I was born, the aunts looked at me and told my mother "She will be the next in our line." She said no one ever told me that because my mother was completely against it and perhaps that is why she was so adamant about the Catholic upbringing. Unfortunately, I'll never be able to discuss it with my mother.
I remember when I was about 17, my best friend and I were looking through my grandmother's attic and found a solid oak, hand carved witch board. (Ouija board) We smuggled it out and took it to my basement laundry room where there were no windows, lit a candle, turned out the light and began to ask if any spirits were there. The planchette began to move quite quickly, spelling out names. The names were people in my family, people my friend didn't know...some dead, some living. When I asked the spirit its name, it spelled out a three letter word. Didn't make any sense to me, but this spirit went on to call me "witch". My poor friend was totally spooked. We nervously laughed about it later, and my mother asked what we'd been up to. I told her and she turned completely white when I told her the name of the spirit....she said "that's what they called your great aunt"....her nickname was this three letter word. We told my mother the witch board was gone, but we'd really hidden it. We had a lot of strange things happen in the house over the next year or so, until I found the board again. I took it out of the house and stored it carefully in our tool shed, and the weird stuff stopped....doors opening and closing, things being moved or gone missing, laughter in the halls at night, knocking on the windows, cold drafts....typical stuff.
So, here I am 17 years into this journey. I consider myself Pagan. I believe that the male and female exist in everything. I worship the world around me and find great joy in the smallest things in nature, things that most people I know don't even see. I celebrate the Pagan holidays, but also the non-Pagan ones with my friends and families. The cycle of life and the wheel of the year never cease to amaze me, and I have been known to cry at the beauty of the full moon. I suppose I have one foot in the past, with the aunts and all those before them, but I like it that way.
"Spells" are really nothing more than prayers...rituals performed to ask for guidance or help or simply to celebrate one's beliefs. Nothing strange there....you'll find that in every religion, just done differently. I think it is difficult to neatly categorize those with Pagan beliefs. As Punkin said, many people lean toward their heritage and therefore classify themselves as Celtic, Druidic, Norske, etc. I lean toward Celtic and identify with their heirarchy because that is where my roots are.
So, even though I've babbled my brains out here, I probably still haven't answered your question.
I, too, would suggest that you begin with your heritage as a starting point and select books that deal with it.
Well, I'm back!
Actually, I sort of wanted the amethyst one. It's SO pretty! I wonder if I dare... 
Heck, I don't even have one - for that matter I don't have a lot of the gadgets of Paganism (I have an altar though) but it doesn't keep me from being a happy person who talks to animals, plants and the occasional volcano (we have a dormant one here that's coming back to life).