Out of the Broom Closet

Out of the Broom Closet I come. Sure I have been "out" as a Contemporary Pagan since sometime back in High School and publically a Witch for all of my adult life, but in regards to this blog, I have always kept my wording careful. It has been purposeful subterfuge. Well, I have decided I don't care about the list of reasons for such anymore.

I'm not just a Witch; I'm Wiccan.

There I said it. However, from here on out I'm likely to say "one of the Wic(c)a" as opposed to Wiccan though. As both an Alexandrian and Gardnerian initiate whom has passed through the pentacle, I prefer it. Also for full "out of the broom closet-ness," I'm also an initiate of the Eternal Harvest, which is a related Witchcraft Tradition but not British Traditional Wicca (BTW).  I never planned to be involved with more than one Tradition, but I move every few years and know that I work best in a group, so it just kinda happened that way. Nor do I plan to become involved with any others. I, however, digress.

The thing is that there is so much misrepresentation and misinformation abound about our practices and lore. More than I've cared to wade through on most days. For example, take the Rede. It is woefully misunderstood and usually championed as some ethical ideal that is impossible to attain whereby all actions that cause any harm of any form is against one's religion. The thing is, the Rede is permissive in nature and denounces nothing. All it is really saying is that if something is harmless then you can do it, and that's it. Everything else falls on the Witch to weigh against their own sense of morality.

Furthermore, due to the abundance of misinformation, Wicca gets a lot of flak and I didn't really want to bother with having preconceived notions tossed upon me.

Now, with all of that said, there are many things in this blog, past and future, that are not representative of Wicca. After all, this blog encompasses my Craft, which, as all Traditionalists are, is quite eclectic in personal practice. Yes, you read that right. Traditionalists are eclectic in their personal practice. Personal practice isn't coven practice though, so there is that.

So there you have it, for those that did not already know, I'm one of the Wicca. Now back to your regularly unscheduled program.

Boidh Se,

-SM

"Lost in a thicket, bare-foot upon a thorn path."

Camp Feather-Tree

This past week, I slept in a tent on the ground, cooked over a fire, and the rest of the whole salt circle of primitive camping. No internet. No phone. No anything other than maintaining camp, hiking, and whatever whim I and the family were carried upon. I sang to the directions, had disagreements with yellow-jackets, and sent my kids off snipe-hunting—they did not catch one. We declared the site “Camp Feather-Tree” in honor of the large collection of feathers we began finding daily and sticking in the tree near our tent. The primary purpose of this trip was camping, not “getting away” or the like, but with the trip came Witchcraft.

Bugs

It is hard to meditate with a bug crawling up one’s nose. This is of course as obvious as the smell of burning asafoetida. Yet, too often we don’t meditate because of the metaphorical bugs in our nose. Establishing a regular and disciplined meditation practice is not easy. As Witches, we like to do things, cast spells, make talismans, etc, and meditation is a lot of doing nothing. For this reason, when we sit the mind quickly busies itself with any and every passing thought. These are the figurative bugs in the nose. Don’t fight them; just brush them to the side. I know, easier said than done. We are not these thoughts, the nature of Self changes no more than the sky changes when clouds pass by the mountain. The trick is to just sit and to return to the breath without getting upset when the mind wanders. That is what the mind does, accept it. As for literal bugs in your nose when mediating, remove them and go meditate in the car.

Snipes

When I was a kid, my Dad and Uncle sent my cousins and I out into the woods banging two sticks together three times followed by shouting “snipe, snipe, snipe” over and over in the attempt to lure and catch a snipe. What is a snipe you might ask? Or maybe you too went on such an adventure. Well, a snipe is a flightless bird that lives wherever you are camping and no one has ever caught one… or seen one… or photographed one. But they make great pets and you should totally grab two sticks and go hunt one. The only thing is there are no snipes; which is fine, because the point of snipe-hunting is not to catch a snipe. This is just like how the point of Witchcraft is not some goal of enlightenment. The point is the hunt, the journey, the crafting of one’s life, the banging of two sticks together. Make the journey the point and you’ll find that enlightenment has been there all along and that any goal otherwise is just a snipe.

Unpacking

The trip was good. I got to come home and finally feel like I had gotten in touch with the spirit of the land here. I am, however, still unpacking the various lessons of the trip. Perhaps I’ll post them up as the water settles.

Boidh Se!

-SM

“Lost in a thicket, bare-foot upon a thorn path.”

Erecting a Temple Under the Mother’s Moon

Today is the Full Moon, by lore and definition the Mother’s Moon started yesterday and extends into tomorrow. My recent move has pretty much settled and I am eye-balling tonight or tomorrow night to break open the Temple, seed the space with the energy of the previous, and erect the banner of the current. It’s a process that I’ve done several times, each with its own nuances of place, and yet for some reason it feels significant and different.

During my last Tour of Adventure*, I set up my Temple space myself in the manner I had learned from the Coven I was a member of in Atlanta. This time though, my Wife/Priestess/Working Partner and I will establish things. Sure I’ll still have my own personal altar and area, but overall this is a terribly exciting development where the two of us collaborate once again on a Temple Space. Whether or not we declare it an eventual Covenstead of a particular Tradition has yet to be determined, but there is plenty of time for that.  

For those that don’t know, my background in the Craft is Multi-Traditional. This means that I have been initiated into and have practiced more than one Tradition. It’s not something I sought out, finding my tribe after each move has just led to that. Such is the way of the nomadic Witch. This ritual is important in that context though. Without going into too much detail, because this is a blog and not a one-on-one personal conversation where I prefer such discussion, through recent developments just prior to the move I became Elevated beyond initiation to one degree or another in every one of these Traditions. This means that when this Temple is set, it will be done so from a place of authority beyond the level of the student in all three Traditions to which I hail lineage.

This leaves me with a lot to think about. Do I want to seal the Temple in one particular Tradition? None? Attempt to tap into all three’s egregore? Can all three even be tapped into simultaneously without creating something new or in opposition?

I don’t have the answer to all of these questions. Nor do I feel that I need the answers to them right now. Not everything of the Craft needs to be or should be thought out prior to action. Often, and intuition tells me this is one of those times, the form of the practice should grow organically. Instead of trying to understand the flow of the river, sometimes you just have to jump on the raft and experience it. I think we’ll keep the plan simple at this point; call our Allies, put down the Four Corners of the World, and see where the rest goes.

Boidh Se!

-SM

“Lost in a thicket, bare-foot upon a thorn path.”

*Tour of Adventure- I move every three years or so over vast distances and so have come to think of each stint as an adventure with its own story, characteristics, and lessons.

Beltane is NOT about Sex!

It is that time of year, Beltane is at the gate and the blogs and memes are a plague all about us on the meaning, practice, and traditions of this holy day. This blog is no different in the respect that it is about Beltane. It is different in that it is not about all that stuff. Instead it is about a common mistake that is made in that regards. I am not saying that you make that mistake or that all of the various articles do, but it is made often enough that there is the danger of falling into that trap. So this is my way of saying, “Hey, there is a large pit over there. Don’t fall in it.”

Our Craft at the core of its essence is about experiencing the mysteries of existence that cannot be easily communicated. That is the point of all of our rituals, mythos, and practices—communicating the incommunicable. However, modern Western society is awash with a habit of concrete and or literal thinking and often we also get into that habit. Mystery traditions don’t work that way though. So, with that said, we are brought to the whole point of this post.

Beltane is not about sex. You see, sex is the symbol, not the point. As the symbol it makes the reference to the point. It infers towards the mystery— connotation as opposed to denotation. Saying that Beltane is about sex, without recognition of the role of sex as a symbol, is like mistaking the finger for the object it points towards. Nor can anyone tell you what the symbol points to in any concrete term, that’s why we call it a mystery.

So this Beltane when you are delving into the inner spiritual terrain of life and experiencing all it has to offer, make sure to celebrate, rejoice, love, have mirth, enjoy sex, and take pleasure in doing so, but keep in mind that the symbols of the holy day are not the reference.

Boidh Se!

-SM

“Lost in a thicket, bare-foot upon a thorn path.”

The Problem of Accountability

We have a problem in the Contemporary Pagan community. It’s a structural problem and not one easily overcome. You see, we have an issue with ethics. Bear with me, I’ll explain as we go. First to set the primer a bit, we are not alone in this issue. As a New Religious Movement (NRM), it is a trait we have in common with other NRMs, and like them the issue is engrained in our structure and is both crowned in stars and simultaneously soiled in mud. Finding the balance of how to correct things, the chewing up the meat and spitting out the bones part, is and will remain a challenge.

Our collective issue is not that we don’t have ethics or teachings within our various practices. Nay, not at all. In fact, Contemporary Paganism is saturated with numerous principals, tenets, and virtues. The personal delving of our own inner morality tends to be something that we are good at teaching. This is part of our practice’s appeal, the individualistic and personal nature of the movement. In contrast, as a collective we suck at Professional Ethical Accountability and Standardization. As an aside note and for full disclosure of this discourse, there are some organizations within the scope of Contemporary Paganism that have bodies of governance and enforcement of standardized ethics for both their leaders and priest/esses. However, their influence does not extend beyond their own borders. As such, whether we like it or not, the whole of our movement must contend with the good and the ugly that results from the nature of the beast.

To really dig into the root of the issue, it is prudent to know more about NRMs and the traits that Contemporary Pagandom have as a result. Just as there is no strict definition of religion academically speaking, there is no strict definition of what exactly is a New Religious Movement. It is an oversimplification of the nuances thereof to simply state that NRMs are nothing more than a religious group whose beliefs and/or practices are deemed deviant within the larger culture. Though not all NRMs follow the same pattern of organization, there are some mutual family resemblances that take the understanding of the base definition and narrow it enough for a common framework.

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(1) A district alternative in belief and/or practice:

Cultural deviance is nothing more than behavior that differs from the established norm of the overarching society to which the individual or sub-group are counted amongst. Deviance is relative then to the culture, society, and group based upon the shared mores thereof— it’s all about group context. There is, however, no objective context by which deviance is defined.

In regards to Western society, Christianity and the Abrahamic Faiths have dominated religious culture for thousands of years and so many of the particulars therein have become synonymous with Western culture, for example, the assumed religious paradigm is that of orthodoxy vice orthopraxy. In the Western context or religious beliefs and practices, NRMs are considered deviant. Considering this, Contemporary Paganism differs distinctly from our own overarching society in both practice and assumed beliefs. In short, we have this family resemblance.

(2) Relatively small:

Google just how many of us there are and you will quickly get mixed results. The truth is, when we compare our numbers, regardless of the numbers, against the scale of the world’s largest religions we don’t even make the top ten list. Take a look at just the West or the U. S. and you’ll find us still far down the list.

(3) A Charismatic and/or authoritative leader:

Just like my earlier caveat, there are some organizations within our greater movement that have structures setup to prevent this. They have bylaws, elections, etc. Also it is not true of all decentralized groups or individuals but for the majority of Contemporary Paganism people tend to follow the latest personality, big name teacher, authors, and shop owners. Whether any of these people like it or not, some do and some don’t, they are the individuals that stand out and attract groups about themselves.

(4) Emphasize subjective experience and personal subjectivity:

Almost the entirety of our community, though we are beginning to grow beyond this phase of movement development, are comprised of converts. Remember that religions grow in two ways, conversion and birth-rate. Want to appeal to those seeking religious truth? Make it about the individual and their specific journey. It does not take an academic to see that we do this.

(5) Boundary demarcation that stress conformity:

The concept of self, or self-concept, from a psychiatric perspective is defined as “the totality of the individual’s thoughts and feelings with reference to themselves and can be characterized in terms of diverse dimensions, different regions, different planes, etc”. Not to be confused with the ego. In short, it is how an individual sees themselves in a multitude of various ways. It is the total sum of the individual’s internalized dialogue within the self-defined frames of the experience of the external world. For example, an individual can include both the identity of being a mother and a sister in their concept of self but their own order of importance placed upon each of these roles refines the whole of their self-concept.

Just as the mores is the cultural expression of the group, the concept of self is the individual expression. Likewise, religion is a core factor both in the overarching cultural identity and the individual’s subjective identity. It has been suggested then that the alluring force of New Religious Movements drives from the concept of self when the desire for a spiritual life exists but the larger cultural interpretation does not concur with their internal dialogue of self. The complexity of the concept of self found amongst some NRMs members is entangled in interpersonal relationships that are other-dependent or of strict independence. This desire fit in while being separate has been found to exist amongst the majority of New Religious Movement members here in the West.

As a NRM comprised largely of converts, it is our business to teach, with classes even, exactly who we are, what we do, what we believe, and how to be one of us. It is about identity and we draw the line in the sand that says this is us.

(6) Self-viewed as authentic by long tradition:

Holy crap. Anyone that has been around our community for ten minutes has run into this. Our early history is chopped full of nothing but stories of being direct descendants of the ancient past. I am happy to say though, that most of the Contemporary Pagans I know today, and the movement as a whole, have left any such fantasies long behind. We do, however, allow scholarship of the past to inform our practice today.

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These resemblances are not all-encompassing though, for it is the over-arching culture that provides the context. For example, in Japan Zen Buddhism would not be considered a New Religious Movement but in the survey book Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America it is listed as a NRM within the context of 1980s America.

Our own manifestation of the NRM phenomenon is one with a decentralized structure and organization. There is no overarching organization or hierarchy, though we do have organizations that have hierarchies. There is no board of leaders or head of the religion institution. There is no institution.

On one hand this is a glorious thing of pure beauty. The sheer nature of being decentralized allows for maximum personalization and a plethora of religious expression without the confines of strict orthodoxy. I love this aspect. LOVE IT. The array of religious expressions that exist within the confines of our community are a thing to behold in wonder and glory. It is crowned in the stars.

Likewise, there are trappings that come with decentralization. As a whole, though not always within individual organizations: No one vets our leadership. There is no body of standardized training. No certification of quality. No institutionalized accountability. In many ways, this is not a problem. In regards to ethics, it is. In this regards, our feet are soiled in the mud.

Let us take the case of Kenny Klein. He was a leader in the greater Contemporary Pagan community beyond the boundaries of his Blue Star Coven*. After his 2014 arrest many came forward with stories of his past behavior that were clear red flags.  Go read more about it here. Would a board of professional oversight and ethics have prevented victims and his continued leadership? I dunno. But there isn’t one and so we will never know. Nor can I say that the creation of such an institution is recommended.

The bottom line here is that we must recognize and contend with the fact that there is no person other than ourselves to hold one another accountable. I don’t have an answer to correcting the issue either. All I can offer is the advice to speak out, vote with your feet, and be the first line of accountability for in our decentralized movement there aren't any others.

Boidh Se!

-SM

“Lost in a thicket, bare-foot upon a thorn path.”

*There are many great Blue Star folks out there and he should not be the litmus test for their character.

You are the SUM in the Flesh!

Although I have done some work on the Temple lately, unpacking boxes and moving things around, I have not established any altars as of yet. Today, I will set up the Ancestors first. No my Gods and Goddesses, not my various patrons, or a work space, or even a dedicated space for the Family Altar and Deities. The Ancestors are first.

The Ancestors are first because they are the root from which the whole tree of my life has grown, without them I would not be. You don’t have to have liked your departed kin in life, or even have gotten along, for them to always, and I mean ALWAYS, be there for you spiritually and magickally. They have passed unto the last great initiation and no longer hold judgment or the bias of life. They have your back—always. For you see, you are the SUM of their incarnation in the flesh.

Your Ancestors have an invested interest in your well-being and success. This is why they will come and give their best advice (which you may not always like), work on your behalf, stand as front-line guardians against anything that opposes your prosperity, and much more. By dedicating space for them, you give them a physical space to “sit” and be involved in the affairs of your life.

You don’t even have to know who your Ancestors were to tap into a relationship with them. If there is blood in your veins then you can reach them. Additionally, not all Ancestors are “of the blood” and may be tied to the particular land upon which you live or link through your lineage and or membership with an established group. All of these are important to have some basic relationship with. It doesn’t need to be complicated. Simply by giving them offerings of dark bread or red wine will do wonders. As you lift them up, so too will they lift you.

I’m not going to dig too deeply into the intricacies of working with one’s Ancestors, but if you don’t already work with them, it may be time. Start with just one, and have a bit of tea.

Boidh Se!

-SM

“Lost in a thicket, bare-foot upon a thorn path.”

Gateway of Eternity

Listen to the rhythm of the beat. Whether it comes by drum or rattle doesn’t matter. Or if it is in the resonance of a chant or the stomping of feet doesn’t matter. Listen to the beat and let the time between echo into the background. The rhythm does not have to come by instrument but can be the swish of the broom when cleaning, the pounding of one’s feet when running, or even the breathe as it pauses on the in and out. It doesn’t matter; just find the rhythm and focus.

Focus upon just the moment of the stroke. Grasp for it just as is slips between the proverbial fingers of the mind—ever changing. Each zenith passes into the past to be refocused upon the next. Hold space for the beat and nothing else, focus there. Allow the beats to become one, to become a gateway through which your awareness steps across the abyss of the personal into that of the eternal.

Boidh Se!

-SM

“Lost in a thicket, bare-foot upon a thorn path.”