Alone With The Gods

As the Slow Movement almost oxymoronically picks up steam, I wanted to throw Paganism into the mix as being a relatively unacknowledged, but important tributary in the growing river of this vitally important cultural movement.

For those who don’t know, the Slow Movement got it’s start in Italy when Carlo Petrini founded Slow Food to protest the opening of a McDonald’s near the famed Piazza di Spagna in Rome.

This simple step planted the seeds of what has become a cultural revolution against the cult of speed and the acceleration of just about everything. Recently, journalist Carl Honoré wrote In Praise of Slowness, an acclaimed book about the Slow culture movement and it’s many offshoots.

But where does Paganism fit into this you ask? Right smack dab in the middle I say. The Slow culture movement is about living with meaning. It’s not simply a refutation of speed but a mindfulness of enjoying each moment. This notion may manifest in cooking a meal using local ingredients, or reading a book, exercising with greater care or simply turning off the television.

Regardless of the activity, the idea is to live more fully or, as I have alluded to before, to become more human by taking each moment for what it is instead of simply rushing through life desperate to fit more stuff into less time.

I’d argue that this is part of why Paganism, and more specifically Wicca, has seen the explosion in popularity that it has. As people grow more and more aware that something is missing from their lives, Wicca and other esoteric spiritual paths fill a giant void as we try and unplug from the matrix of technoculture.

As more and more people refute speed and embrace slow (mindfulness), paths like Wicca, other forms of Witchcraft, Buddhism and even New Age approaches are offering a bit of a spiritual oasis in the desert of Big-Screen-Mega-Church Christianity which offers little more than a fast-food approach to spirituality: fill up quick and get a stomach ache later.

By taking the road less traveled, Paganism and Witchcraft offer something far more holistic: a religious framework that requires participation, time, effort, intention and a healthy dose of time spent engaged in their spiritual practice.

Spending the time purifying a space, casting a circle or sphere, reciting words of power or spells and then performing each subsequent ritual with care and attention is as slow as it gets. There’s no hurrying in Witchcraft. And if there is then you’re not doing it right.

So why is this important? It’s important because the tide is changing for many people. And as strange as it may sound at first listen, being a Pagan or Witch or Hermeticist or even an esoteric Christian is at the foundation of a new way of thinking and living. They all succeed where Christianity continues to fail by giving people a means to an end and a way to engage directly in their spirituality instead of simply being a passive spectator in a crowd of people looking at their watches.

And while no one is clamoring for mass conversions to Paganism, what I am arguing here is that perhaps maybe, just maybe, esoteric spirituality can influence how we all practice our faith and in turn how we can live with more meaning and purpose.

I think this is something we can all get behind.

My friend over at Birch Grove tagged me as part of an interesting meme called the “Joys and Trial of Religion.” So, here is my response.

I begin with the rules, as originally written:

1. You have to use your own belief system for the meme. No fair using someone else’s to make a joke or satire. Being humorous about your own religion is encouraged!
2. You have to have at least one joy and one trial. More are encouraged. And no, they don’t have to be equal in length, but please be honest.
3. You have to tag at least one other person. More are appreciated!
4. Please post these rules!

Here is my version of the meme:

The Joys and Trials of being a Solitary Witch with Heavy Feri, Gnostic and Hermetic Influences.

Joys:

1. Being able to draw from a vast ocean of inspiration and resources including poetry, history, myth and song.
2. The beauty of affiliating with a path that uses language like, “God herself” and “Cast yourself. You are the spell.”
3. The Divine is clearly visible in any path that encourages expression and creativity as a remedy for dogma.
4. Working with energy and being able to understand the role it plays in magick, spells, prayer and our own place in the cosmos.
5. Reconnecting with nature and the earth.
6. Having truly remarkable things happen to me that defy explanation.
7. Gnosis.
8. Incense really makes me happy.
9. So do candles.
10. Finding the Sacred in the smallest moment.
11. Not having to deal with the insane guilt that is inherent in the notion that we are born sinners and all teetering on the edge of falling into an even more silly notion of eternal damnation.
12. Making fundamentalist Christians just a bit uncomfortable.

Trials:

1. Having to explain myself and defend my beliefs when they come up. Especially when most people lazily like to lump everyone into over simplifications and stereotypes.
2. Knowing that upon explaining myself I’ll have to hear a lot of crickets chirping.
3. Having to admit that I’m not really a fan of the drum circle. (sacrilege to some).

So there are mine. I guess I’ll tag the Gnostic Witch, even though I don’t know her, I sure do love her domain name and her site.

The Spring Equinox is upon us. Today is a day of balance, when equal parts day and equal parts night give way to light’s triumph over darkness.

This is a time of rebirth and awakening.

What better time to renew our commitment to ourselves as we make our way down our varied paths? And if we’ve stumbled, stopped or staggered, this new found light will show us the way and help us find sure footing.

For me, the idea of light giving way to darkness is also about what Victor Anderson referred to as knowing ourselves in all our parts. In other words, looking at ourselves both in light and shadow.

Because to be fully realized at human beings, to be complete, whole and to grow, we must embrace our fullness. That includes the often misunderstood Jungian Shadow.

This is where power resides. If we aren’t whole, we are mere fragments of who we could be. And while this is hard work, even sometimes unpleasant and painful, it is an essential part of growth in the Craft.

And what better time to begin again, than right now, as Ostara moves us forward into the beauty of spring and rebirth and endless possibility.

This is my wish for everyone.

Here’s a question: What’s up with all the really narrow mind pagans?

How does this happen. You’re a Pagan. You’re a Witch. A Magician. You’re a Polytheist. An Alchemist. You worship God and Goddess. You practice magick and cast spells. You radiate with energy and understand how we all fit together under this blanket of stars at the edge of infinity.

Yet, more than I could have ever fathomed, within this same group, this maligned, misunderstood group, exist an entire subset that make the same condemnations, the same blanket statements of prejudice that I’ve heard from the most holier than thou Christians and low grade bigots.

Why?

Sure, we’re all human. And I’m the first to admit that I’m far from perfect. In fact, as I write this and look back at my life perhaps I’m a bit of a hypocrite too. But then it comes back to the timeless occult idea: intent.

It is my intention to live and play well with others. To appreciate their collective differences and celebrate the wonderful diversity we encounter as we walk our collective paths. Because they are wide enough for all of us.

As Witches, we should all expect more of ourselves. We should know better. We are the wise ones. The keepers of timeless knowledge and power. We are the ones who look within. We should respect all others who wish to do the same regardless of race, sexuality, gender, economic class or cultural barriers.

So may it be.