Brigid Amor
There are certain things that make the pagan and/or wiccan community a bad place to live in my opinion… Why don’t we chat about them below?
Remember: my thoughts, not yours.
Please don’t:
-Do yourself up in neon hair, black from head to toe and pentacles flashing off every available body part in order to be “truly [insert variation on dark, rebellious etc. here]”
I’m sorry but this really makes me mad. If you ask just about any person who isn’t associated with any facet of the craft how they envision someone who practices paganism etc. you’ll invariably get a description of the above. Does anyone wonder why the general public has such a low opinion of pagans if several of them are dressing in such an extreme way?
Okay, I know I’m about to get a flurry of e-mails for the above comment. Here’s the thing: I don’t have a problem with piercings, neon hair, tattoos and copious amounts of black. I really don’t. However, this is as long as it’s done for the right reasons and doesn’t come with pentacles just to be rebellious. I find that, unfortunately, this style of dress often comes with the less educated, more mouthy sect of pagans that seem to want to worship whatever they choose to worship because it goes against society and they can do it loudly. I’m not saying that this applies to everyone who dresses like this but I can tell you that people that dress that way for such reasons really bother me.
-Go looking for Christians to bash or jump on
Why oh why would people who consider themselves to be a persecuted, misunderstood religion and profess beliefs in equality and tolerance work to cultivate a negative image for themselves by further spreading hate? It drives me wild that pagans of any sort run around persecuting “fundie christians” based on history like the Crusades (which none of the living Christians today had anything to do with- I promise) or by quoting anti-whatever statements made by overzealous Christians. This makes absolutely no sense! In past, Christians may have made mistakes but pagans are making mistakes right now by trying to bring them down. Yes, I’m quite aware they’re still making mistakes… Good for them… Don’t yell at them- either ignore them (your best option) or educate them in the errors of their ways. If you’re going to do the latter, do it gently, do not bash them and stop if it is requested. If you’ve read all of this and hate me for it, I leave you with a quote by Booker T. Washington which might just be appreciated by a pagan audience:
"I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him."
-Harp about the burning times ‘til kingdom come
It pains me to even talk about this as the amount of "never again the burning times" images on pagan sites these days kill me. Instead, read a better article than I could ever write about the Burning Times here at Covenant of the Goddess’ website regarding exactly why “the great hunt” has very little to do with neopagans and especially wiccans who don’t take their roots from earlier witchcraft anyway. If you’re willing to be open minded, I forward you to whywiccanssuck.com’s article on the same topic which really does give a well balanced argument on the topic and point out a lot of very important points that nobody seems to have noticed before or has chosen to ignore. My point in pointing out these articles is simply this: stop trying to make wicca or witchcraft or paganism or whatever you want to call it into a religion of martyrs based on something that really has nothing to do with anyone living right now except for the actual descendants of the christian women who were called witches and burned at the stake.
-Assert that paganism today (and wicca especially) is the same as it was “thousands of years ago”
This debate is really like beating a dead horse… Read this (article at the Wikipedia) and stop arguing about it. Witchcraft and wicca are related but they aren’t they same- enough said.
-Accuse others of being “fluffy” wiccans
I really wish this term would just go away. Why? Simply because it’s derogatory to begin with and can as easily be applied to someone who is just beginning in the craft and doesn’t know anything as to someone who dances around a may pole in a dress made of wheat, chanting ecstatically to Hecate. It’s a stupid term with no real concrete specifications and really makes anyone who utters it sound like a “holier-than-thou “, “know-it-all”, uber-witch, with a may pole shoved up their rear that does nothing to increase their knowledge of the craft. Either way, it’s not a nice way to be or act when part of something that advocates kindness to all.
-Try to convince others that they’re less witchy than you because “you know more”, have more witchy stuff and can do more stuff than them.
Your parents didn’t make fun of you as a baby when you were learning to walk. They helped you along and educated you in the different ways to do things without trying to inhibit you at all. In fact, if they had treated you badly, it would’ve been considered rather inhumane of them. By telling anyone else the above, you are being inhumane and unkind. Just let everyone to their own path and let them be. It’s okay to share what you’ve learned but dancing around in the manner of “I know something you don’t know” negates any learning you may have accomplished in other’s eyes. You may not agree with everything they think and everything they learn but that’s okay. Differences in opinion are part of what make the world interesting.
-Jump on beginners who want to know “how spells work”, whether they work or how they might just go about doing a spell.
Take questions for what they are and let people to their own path. If somebody wants to learn how to do a spell, send them to a good webpage or book if you don’t feel comfortable with telling them. Please don’t bog beginners down in long winded sermons about karma and the three-fold law. It’s up to them to figure things out just as you did. You may feel like you’re protecting them in some vastly noble deed but you’re only hindering them from what they must experience and learn on their own.
-Wander around yelling “I am a/an [insert pagan tradition here], and you sir, are scum” or anything to that effect.
This point is in the same vein as my previous point in that it has to do with my wish that people would just leave each other alone. Just as there isn't one church in the christian tradition that is acceptable, there are no "supreme" sects of paganism. Just because you’ve studied a path doesn’t make it the only valid religion and it doesn’t make you an expert. It makes you the follower of a path or religion (whatever you want to call it.)
-Ask me to sign petitions to make the government of the United States to make wicca an “officially recognized religion.”
Sorry guys, you missed your chance. Wicca is *already* a recognized religion in the United States. The U.S. government may put it’s foot in it’s mouth every so often and say something it shouldn’t but that doesn’t make wicca any less a legal religion. This said, please *stop* sending me petitions on this subject and please *stop* sending me articles about what some government says about wicca. First of all, I’m Canadian, not American as the Canadian flag on the main page attempts to point out. Secondly, I don’t really care what the government says about wicca, primarily because I’m not wiccan and secondly because in my opinion they can say whatever they want as long as it’s not particularly extreme and they don’t start taking away any rights. It’s my religion and as long as it’s my prerogative as to how I practice it, the government can yodel about wicca all it wants because it doesn’t bother me.
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