Thursday, January 31, 2013

C is for Community

Here is my chance to talk about the issues that have been floating around the pagan blogs this past month. A little late, but I thought I would take sometime to reflect on what I really wanted to say about the whole thing.

I was surprised with the reactions people had to Star's original post. I was surprised, I had been reading her blog for awhile and was sad when she suddenly disappeared. But honestly it is her choice on what she wants to call herself and where she finds happiness is where she belongs.

But the really shocking thing was how this one post touch of the debate on if we still need a pagan community and who belongs in that community. There are a couple things that I took away from those first couple of days of postings.

1) Some where along the line some one decided the Wicca=Pagan. Never thought that before.
2) Apparently it is alright for me to make belittle your path and cast you out of the Pagan "umbrella". And it is alright if I label you. But the moment someone does the same to me, I can get angry about it.

After those first few days, and people cooled of a little, some really meaningful discussion occurred. People started using more rational reasoning. They started explaining themselves instead of attacking others. And it is apparent that things are going to start changing.

It may have reached a point where people stop just describing themselves as Pagan. It maybe time for individual traditions to start standing on their own.

But I don't think that it is time for us to abandon the idea of a Pagan community all together. I get most of my pagan community through the internet. Though it is not the ideal way to see things, I can still get an idea of what is going on. And I think that at this point there is still more that connects us than divides us. We all have different views of divine and different ways of showing our respect. And we can still discuss our ways and find things in common. We might also find new ways to enhance our own practice. 

To keep the community together, we just need to remember to respect each other. In the end we are human. We are all just trying to find our way.
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Thoughts? Is community something that is important to you? Any tips for newbies looking for community?

pbp2

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