The majority of Pagan blogs that I’ve found teach the basics of magic and discuss what it’s like to be the only family to celebrate Samhain in the Southern Bible Belt. While I absolutely feel that these experiences are important to share, they aren’t really a part of my world, so I don’t follow any of these blogs too closely. Instead, what informs my reading are blogs that question religion and philosophy, search for a place for old magic in a modern world, and engage in other religio-spiritual defining thought- and physical-practices. One of these blogs is the Rogue Priest.
In my mailbox today I read a post where he discusses Why More People Aren’t Pagan, including why he gave the title up. He also includes reference to a post by John Halstead at Allergic Pagan about why he’s embarrassed by Pagans.
I wanted to address these topics because I feel it’s important in studying your religio-spirituality, be it Pagan or otherwise, you consider the larger picture.
Some people hate labels, and they have good reason. But labels serve a function in our society – they let us communicate quickly with each other complex concepts that would take ages to describe. But if the label that you’re using isn’t describing what you want it to, then you’d have good reason to find another, better label or to make one up that suited you.
I highly recommend you read the articles I posted above – they express very valid and not uncommon viewpoints in the Pagan community, at least, as I knew years ago. I confess – I haven’t been an active part of the Pagan community in a long time, outside of the internet. I could easily blame that on my location – I’m an hour away from any town with a Pagan community to interact with! But it’s also partially because I’m not a social person – I don’t crave the need to connect with other people in a social atmosphere the way most people do.
I also don’t quite fit in. Like the Rogue Priest (Drew Jacobs) and John Halstead have expressed, Pagans can be a little too “love and light” for my tastes. That is one reason I specify that I am a shaman – I travel roads both light and dark and count them both as equal. My Shadowself is as important as my Lightself and were I to neglect one, I would become incomplete as a human being. My Gods are amazing, awesome beings… who encourage natural cycles, balance, and self responsibility. Sometimes bad things happen to good people and that’s just the way it goes and there’s no amount of “love and light” that is going to stop that – but with a connection to the Gods, you may receive the guidance, strength, and resources needed to move through to the other side.
On the other hand, my primary background is in the metaphysical or new age community. I DO use a ‘ball of white light’ in my meditations. I’ve studied chakras and leylines and crystal healing. I’ve learned that there are many ways to manipulate the energy of our world and not every occasion calls for ritual – sometimes a good visualization will do just fine. John Halstead complains about this ‘ball of white light’ in his article and calls it “New Age drivel” and, I’m afraid, I do agree to some point. But for me it’s a complaint of purpose and function rather than the actual methodology – just what were the practitioners of the circle protecting themselves from? And since they were in ritual, wouldn’t an offering, sigil, or group chant be more effective? Isn’t that an excellent time to invite the God or Goddess to reach down Their mighty hands and hold the practitioners in Their palm?
If you read Pagan publications, you get an impression of a personal nature religion that is tough as steel, ready to fight, and where every action taken is a form of worship or dedication. That is what I think of when I think of Paganism. But according to Drew Jacob and John Halstead, Paganism is becoming more of what I used to condemn Wicca for being – “Yahweh in drag.” With this stark difference in literature, discussion, practice, and public face, one wonders where the disconnect comes in. Are the public Pagan rituals playing a political game, dressing up to be as harmless as possible? Catering to the lowest common denominator? Keeping things at a 101 level instead of more advanced, stronger, and more rigorous 601 level (likely because of not knowing who would be involved)? Why the disconnect?
Or am I part of the “Old Guard,” fading into old age and obscurity to be replaced by the new, young, and innovative? Is this a new Pagan world, one where my ways are eccentric curiosities? Or maybe ‘Pagan’ was never the correct label for me and I’ve been accidentally misleading people all along out of my own ignorance.
It’s an interesting topic, and one I would love to hear more discussion of.
I’m so glad you wrote this, Fae. Thanks for the shout out.
I should say that (unlike John) I have nothing against highly symbolic ritual imagery, balls of white lights, etc. I think that stuff is groovy, though it’s not what I do or feel moved by. As you said, a religious label is only useful if it communicates something about what we practice or believe; when I used to call myself Pagan people associated me with beliefs and practices I don’t share.
By the way, based on what you said about balancing the light with the dark you may enjoy Sarah Lawless’ post How to See in the Dark: A Practitioners’ Dialogue on Working with Darkness in Magic.
Thanks again for a great read.
Thank YOU for writing such wonderful posts! I confess that sometimes I feel I’ve become stagnated in my path and your blog is part of what propels me forward.
After writing this blog post, I realized that what I tell people has changed from “Pagan with heavy Nordic leanings” to “shaman” instead, so I suppose I have given up the label of “Pagan” as well. My magic is about blood in the sand, tossed chicken bones, and ancient runes – trance like drums and journeys to far off places and less circles and blessings and two verse chants for a parking space. I think I’m at a stage where I’m embracing more of the chaos side of magic than the ordered side, but that’s a topic for another day.
I will definitely check out Sarah Lawless’ post! Thank you so much!
I remember back when. Sometime in the late 80’s, early 90’s, joining together with friends to form a circle, a part of a greater coven. Initiation. Practice and community and then… longing.
Path took me wide and far from here to LA, to NYC, Guatemala for a year, Tarot was ever my friend and finding in my return, in my experience, in retrospect the growth that had happened between myself and the “label” and the realization of growth, that was the spring of new knowing.
In the years that followed I know longer used words like Wiccan, and loosely held the word pagan, but always kept Witch. A center because it described the tools, skill, experience, and exploration of the invisible (yet tangible in some emotional/mental sense) worlds of my self; and so the “universe.”
I dropped labels, and still do when I encounter them as best I can. Sometimes they represent challenges to my own expansion. Heart beats.
I realized at one point when I had taken a very “new age” point of the journey that my labeling was a wall, an expectation to be overcome.
Recently I have had the joy of real spiritual experience. With a TBN Christian spiritual person and I was challenged, by my self, my views. Again from the perspective of Witch, crossing hedges if you will, and in conversation with people I had never thought to find common ground. We are deepest friends. A bridge where I had never thought possible.
Thought… Labels set goals, hurdles, hedges. As a witch I access my inner knowing, my abilities to cross them, to seek, and to know.
Knowledge is not to be feared, the limits to be questioned, the experience to be embraced.
It isn’t all “light” unless we speak of the light of consciousness… but that doesn’t discount that which is what we can explore, the unknown, the shadow, and darkness. Challenging “present” I know the beginnings of my self:
Above and higher.
Lower and deeper.
Centered and present in the middle world, I blend three paths of knowing.
yes.
Yes.
Yes?
I am so envious of your travels (and of Drew’s)! Someday, I am going to have a rambling gypsy RV with my hunny and my cats, but until then I’ll be reading your adventures!
I like your viewpoint of labels and things to be conquered and overgrown… eventually, overthrown. It’s like they give us a direction to aim for, take root in, spread all we can, and then journey on. They are useful for some things like that, but they should never make you uncomfortable.
I love your experience with a TBN Christian (I don’t know what TBN is, though). I feel that our relationships with our world, magic, and our gods are stretched and strengthened when they can be explored and we do some of the very best exploration with people of other faiths. What makes Faith in a path truly strong is not never questioning it, but questioning it every chance you get!
PS, great blog. Wonderful writing. You found a new reader. 🙂
“Are the public Pagan rituals playing a political game, dressing up to be as harmless as possible? Catering to the lowest common denominator? Keeping things at a 101 level instead of more advanced, stronger, and more rigorous 601 level (likely because of not knowing who would be involved)? Why the disconnect?”
My answer, based on my own experience with public ritual, is: Absolutely.
For a number of years, I was involved with a couple of different groups which presented public ritual. Certain rituals and festivals would draw hundreds of participants, and the annual festivals involved extended, hours- (even days-)long ritual dramas. Over the years, those of us performing in the rituals continually sought to improve the quality, depth and dramatic impact of what we were presenting. The rituals became ever more powerful and effective, and we constantly got positive feedback from those who attended.
However, our pursuit of deeper meaning, more potent symbolism and greater magickal effect led us to explore, more and more, the darker (or Shadow) aspects of myth and spirit. We found this worthwhile and valuable, and so did many attendees. However, a vocal (in some cases, attention-seeking) minority of attendees labeled it frightening, and the Powers That Be, for whatever reason, deemed it important to bow to the fears of the few, and called for a “watering down” of the rituals in question.
Whether this was in order to keep the rituals accessible to a wider audience, or out of fear of public criticism or even litigation, I cannot say. In any case, in both groups, the dramatic presentations and rituals (and in one case, the overall administration of the organization in question) underwent drastic change.
I am no longer associated with either group, and am pursuing my own spirituality along other paths. Most of my fellow presenters from those days of powerful magick and ritual drama have also fallen away from involvement in the annual rituals – though those still go on, and we hear that many people find them satisfying. I can’t help but think, however, that these are the people who – either because they are new to Paganism (or paganism) or through personal inclination – prefer to remain in the spiritual/religious shallows, and not venture into the deeper, darker waters.
I’m so sorry to hear about the groups you used to be involved in. I know the rituals I’ve attended in the past always seemed to be very basic, very beginner, but I can see why that would be an advantage. And there are a lot of people out there who feel fulfilled by a very cursory survey of religious practice. Those who really want to dig in and explore the mysteries are fewer and further between and so you have to weigh the needs of the many with the needs of the few. It’s a hard thing and one I’m glad I don’t have to do!
Have you thought about getting together with your fellow serious students?
Oh, you needn’t feel sorry for my experiences; by and large, they were very positive experiences of personal growth. I was just sad to see the groups in question suffer what I perceived to be a diminishment due to the fears, limitations and complaints of a few.
And yes, a number of the others who were involved in those powerful experiences have gone on to found their own groups, with which I have had the good protune to work. I’m pursuing my own path, but I also enjoy the benefits of an extended community of similarly-minded folks with whom I have built a history and trust.
Oh, good! I’m glad to hear that you’ve gotten together with some of the others. It sounds like you actually have a very satisfying practice right now, so that’s really good! Groups are such complicated things, though. I suppose they have their place and that place is different for each of us.