Over at Angels in the Whirlwind Peter Vaughn posted "Paganism is the New Christianity."
I made a feeble, nitpicking argument over his singling out Wiccans for this honor, but in general I agreed with his post.
What is going on with Pagans? Paganism, witchcraft, magick are all about individual exploration of ourselves and our universe. How can we get so caught up in ritual and, dare I say it, dogma that we become judgmental of others?
Such huge strides have been made in the last few years.
The broom closets are emptying fast.
More and more people are not afraid to talk about earth centered spirituality, the goddess, celebrating the seasons, walking away from dogma and pettiness and establishing their own path to the divine with out intermediaries.
Pagan authors and speakers and teachers are coming to the attention of the media and being treated with respect and not as crackpots.
Healers are talking about their beliefs and techniques and not maintaining the silence that made them suspect previously.
Life coaches and motivational speakers have so much metaphysical talk in their speeches that our beliefs are becoming mainstream without us lifting a finger.
How then can we turn around and act like the dogmatic, patriarchal religions that we have so roundly criticized? How can we be judgmental about who is supposed to be allowed to join in the public discussions? Wiccans and Druids only? What about Chaos Magicians and Ceremonial Magicians? What about Christian and Jewish Mystics...who have more reason than pagans to stay hidden? Name your tradition, is it going to be welcomed into a larger public community of pagan?
Or are we going to self destruct because we cannot shake off the trappings of "religion" and the bigotry and discrimination that goes with it?
image found here
I have found what you are speaking of in my own community here. It is disheartening.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this.
p.s. Your new graphic is darlin'!
ReplyDeleteThanks! :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat post!(love the new page design!!)
ReplyDeleteIt does smack of fundamentalism, but it also smacks of newbies, proud of their "new" beliefs yet still acting out their previous training.
ReplyDeleteI take some comfort from the fact that people I consider leaders in the Pagan community, teachers, speakers, authors, healers; for the most part would rather be caught dead than engaging in this behavior.
What the rest of us must do is show through example that KNOWLEDGE of other paths enhances our own, rather than threatening it.