Are you Pagan enough?

You are Pagan enough

I have been reading around the internet on various message boards and other places with
Pagan focus, of late and what I keep coming across is the attitude of youre doing it wrong
or you shouldnt be doing this, or you cant do it that way, or you can only do it this way.
And you know what, this bugs me, a lot. It makes me roll my eyes and wonder why and how
Some people can be so closed minded that they are unable to put themselves in others
shoes, or unable to conceive that, actually there may be a different way of doing it, and that
that different way, while not working for them may well work for another.

The other reason this makes me roll my eyes and bash my head against the wall is the fact
that within Modern Paganism there is no central authority or liturgy or governance or papal
throne to tell us how it is, it doesnt exist, zip, narda, nothing, thus those that are stating
that you should or shouldnt are actually going about it all wrong or in the word of so many
other Pagans out there.. YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG

Of course with no central authority, liturgy, governance or Papal Throne there is no doing it
wrong, instead there is doing what feels right. Now if you join up with a group, grove or
coven of a particular tradition there will be rules and indeed a central type authority even a
coven Book of Shadows which will need to be adhered to. Of course you will have
permitted to adhere to these rules and authority by the initial step of joining said group,
grove, or coven. It is a social contract thing. However if you are a solitary or, you no longer
wish to belong to or take part in that group, the rules etc of that group no longer apply.

Paganism in its many forms is after all a religion of assent. That is you assent to be a part of
that religion or spirituality or group and for as long as you associated with that religion,
spirituality or group you identify yourself that way. I.e. I am a insert tradition here Wiccan,
because I am a member of this insert tradition here Wiccan group. Whereas if you stop
associating with that group, you no longer identify with whatever religion or spirituality it
was. Ie, I used to be a Wiccan of insert tradition here but I left and now I am a Buddhist. In
the example the person is no longer assenting to be Wiccan of whatever tradition but
instead assenting to be Buddhist. Ostensibly with communities of assent a person chooses
to belong or not to belong.

So back to the should and should nots, one of the other ways of defining what something
actually means, cause you know the hugest flameings happen around terminologies and
authority, *this is me once again rolling eyes* is majority consensus, that is, what most of
the people agree to, be it this statement x or that interpretation of x.. For example.. Wiccan
Witch Wicca Witchcraft. As far as I can tell there is a group of people out there getting their
panties in a bunch over these terms and how they are to be used and not be used, and there
are a bunch of people out there who use these terms interchangeably and there are some
people in-between. A sliding scale if you will.

Language like many things in this world is quite fluid and living. English is a living language
thus prone to change, and change of meaning, for example, arse! Now about 8 years ago,
when hanging out with a group of friends, when the comment arse! was said, it meant that
an error had occurred , someone had forgotten to bring their wallet, or someone had
dropped their phone, it was said when misfortune occurred. However when a new friend
was introduced into the group she had a new meaning for the word. How she used it was
that whenever anyone said arse, it meant that they had spotted a tight perky look worthy
specimen of arse and that we should all look at it. Quite a different meaning from the
original one of misfortune. As you may be able to guess the transition of arse from one of
denoting misfortune to one of sight to behold, was a very quick one, and one that expanded
out beyond the core group of friends to that of associates and acquaintances and
occasionally hangers on. It is also interesting to note that this new usage, while it continued
for a couple of years did eventually fall into disuse, actually the word arse itself also pretty
much fell into disuse.. arr younglings so fickle.

Right then back to Wiccan Witch Wicca Witchcraft. When a person is first starting out or
discovering this path of Magic and Paganism, they are bombarded with a variety of words,
which at first glance seem to denote the same thing, namely Wicca and Witchcraft, but
sometimes Pagan and Paganism, or Druid and Heathen, etc etc. These seem at first glance
to be the same, especially Wicca and Witchcraft, in fact, some of the literature and books
can be quite misleading, I mean to say that guy Gardner, who wrote the first book used both
Wicca and Witchcraft and it seemed that he was using them to denote the same thing. And
now there are a whole bunch of these other books using the word Wicca and Witchcraft
seemely as an interchangeable word. Also when I surf onto the internet and go onto Pagan
message boards, or text achieves, often the Wiccan and Witchcraft stuff is on the same
page. (Go use the Google oracle and find out) And given that my friends do not react with
such disbelief when I say Wiccan, as they do when I say Witch, I might be more incline to
use the word Wicca, Are you getting a picture here? You should be, in fact I bet many of
you older Pagans out there have memories of similar instances, where they used the word
interchangeably partly because you didnt know any better and partly because you were still
figuring it out, and partly because it was the most common word in use of the day...

See now I believe that the main reason that I always referred to myself as a Witch, was
because way back when I first started out, I very quickly became unimpressed with those
that referred to themselves as Wiccan, and many of the books that were available in New
Zealand were lacking something and because I felt this magical path as being something
much more serious than those oddly dressed, bawdy, uninformed, non-thinking Wiccans
over there I would be a Witch thank you very much, and that would be Witch with a capital
W.. Recently I have attached Priestess to that title but that is a whole nother story

After a while I did settle on the title of Witch and have never really changed it. Eventually I
came to the understanding that Wiccans were part of a tradition of some sort, and Witchs
where solitary, along the way I can remember understanding it Wiccan as a religion and
Witchcraft as a practice, also that Wicca was the religion that all Witches practiced. A lower
case w referred to historical witches, and a Capital W referred to Modern Witches, and
several variation on those ideas, understandings and terms. All very complicated when you
first start out, and it did take some years to understand, to feel the difference and to be
comfortable with how I labelled myself.

Now thats really is the curx of it all, labelling yourself, because not only is Modern Paganism
a religion and spirituality of assent, it is also one of self-labelling. And given that there is no
central authority, liturgy, governance or papal throne, you can pretty much label yourself
anything you want moonbeam starflower. *cough* As an aside to this the understanding of
the labels have also changed over the last 60 years or so. This was pointed out to me by a
good friend Grail. Way back in the 50s and 60s, a person gave themselves the title of
Witch and then went and joined a coven, and studied hard, (i guess you could add here
became Wiccan?). Now days, however, you do not call yourself a Witch or Wiccan until you
have joined your coven or studied for at least several years. It is reversed, people scoff at
others who have deemed themselves Wiccan or Witches and are only just starting out and I
wonder if its because of the change from a strong group or coven emphasis, to a strong
emphasis on the individual. But alas that is also whole nother story.

Back to this self-labelling thing. Often the label that you start off with changes and grows as
your understanding of your magical path also grows and deepens. Some may start of as
referring themselves as Wiccan, and then a few years down the track they opt for Pagan, as
they are no longer practicing as much or no longer feel the calling they once did. Others
change and add titles and labels such as, priest, priestess, high priestess,
Gardnerian, Alexandrian, Traditional Wiccan, Hedge Witch, Urban Witch, traditionalist,
cabalists.. Gosh they are quite endless as well as the many woven paths that are available to
a magic worker or spiritual explorer.. or plan old Pagan. Some even come to the conclusion
that it is not the label that is important but how one lives ones life. Although a label can
help in finding information such as books and webpages, and it can also give you a direction
that to head in , one that you are perhaps being called to.

In practical terms, and what this post is all about, when a newby arrives on your blog or
message board, and uses the word Wiccan, and you have decided that to you, a Wiccan is a
tradition and that you must be initiated etc etc or however you use the word.. do not jump
down their throat about it, and come across with the almightily authority on high, cause it is
your way and only your way is correct, because as mentioned before YOUR DOING IT
WRONG and you end up doing a couple of things.

1/ You end up looking like a completely close-minded, egotistical, bigoted, idiotic, prat..
CEBIT.. and 2/ You will end up not just sending the original enquirer fleeing for the hills, but
a bunch of other people like me who have been around for a while, know what they know
and are happy for the most part to share that, and also understand that what they know
might not be knowing for others. And frankly having someone else shove their
interpretation of every word down your throat is really off putting. There are better ways of
dealing with this.

So ask yourself, is the original enquirer asking a honest question, but have used terminology
that you do not agree with? So perhaps they have come up said the dreaded Im a solitary
Wiccan, and I wanted to know if I can include roman pantheon in my daily devotions? Quite
often these questions are short and lacking on context but still there is no reason to flay
them alive, instead it would be more useful to engage them in further discussion with the
added bonus of non judgemental information about the roman pantheon and not to tromp
all over this persons beliefs with your big cauldron of goo.. The phrases, how I see it or in
my opinion, or variations on that would be much more likely to be read, by your original
poster, and others who also come along to ready what you have written. Who knows it
might even spark an interesting thread about the original topic and has now morphed into a
deeper discussion or into a completely different direction.

So remember folks There is no central authority, liturgy, governance, or Papal Throne within
Modern Paganism, this means that everyone has the right to believe whatever it is that they
believe even if we do not believe it. And starting out a conversation with YOUR DOING IT
WRONG or shouldnt and should, will get you nowhere and just make you look stupid.

And finally, if what you are doing , what you believe and what you practice speaks to you in
the centre of your heart, and makes it sing, you are so doing it right, no matter what anyone
else says.