Healing in the Bible Belt: Holli S. Emore, Executive Director of Cherry Hill Seminary, shares a remarkable story of how interfaith involvement can change minds and break barriers. After serving quietly at a local interfaith council in South Carolina, Emore protested at her religion, and only her religion, being listed as “other.” This led to a surprising show of support from Rev. Ed Kosak, Minister at Unity Church of Charleston.

“In the interest of understanding each other…of seeing the good in each other…of Interfaith, I wish to make an amend to the adherents of the Pagan faith. I speak strictly for myself. For years now, I, IN MY HEAD, have understood that Pagans are good people, moral people…that they are a legitimate spirituality. IN MY EMOTIONS, though, I have felt that they are satanists, that they sacrifice animals and people, etc. Also, in my head, I knew they never do such things. But in my emotions, I felt uncomfortable with them. For this judgment and fear, I make amends. After recently having worked this through cognitively and emotionally, I can unequivocally support our Pagan brothers and sisters. My hope is that others with my experience can cut through their issues around paganism after reading this. Or perhaps this can provide the intellectual framework to help people to do so.”

I recommend reading the entire letter, here. It is moments like these that reinforce the importance of Pagan involvement in the interfaith movement, both locally and on a global scale with groups like the Parliament of the World’s Religions and URI. Congratulations to Holli on being a catalyst for this breakthrough. For my part, I am currently making plans that will hopefully expose more non-Pagans to Pagan media, and help build bridges while making sure important dialog on issues that affect us happens.

Singing the Praises of Paganistan: Over at PNC-Minnesota, JRob Zetelumen writes an editorial ode to his local community, the Twin Cities of Minnesota, colloquially known by many as “Paganistan” due to its large and vibrant Pagan population.

“When Ken Ra had kidney failure, the community came together with a fund raiser to help in a difficult time, and a community member donated a kidney. When the local Pagan community center had financial problems, the community came together to raise money, and supplied the volunteers and leadership to keep the center going. Yes, a local Pagan community center; let’s not gloss over that. Paganistan has its own community center. It’s not a back room of a metaphysical shop, or part of someone’s home, or a Pagan-friendly organization which allows local Pagans to also meet there, but a space dedicated full time as a non-profit community center for the Pagan community. At this point, no other Pagan community in the United States (and possibly the world) can make such a claim. Other communities talk about it, and plan for it, but the Twin Cities has it. Paganistanis are the innovators.

The Twin Cities Pagan community has a name; Paganistan. Its residents are therefore Paganistanis. This name actually originated at Pagan Spirit Gathering. A group of Twin Cities Pagans was camped on top of a hill and local linguist Steven Posch referred to it as Paganistan. He then took the name home and used it as a reference to the area around Powderhorn Park, where many Pagans live. In time, it came to mean the city of Minneapolis, then the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Today it is used to refer to the entire metropolitan area. There are even people well outside the metropolitan area who identify as Paganistanis.”

This editorial comes in the wake of an effort to save the “Paganistan” listing in Wikipedia, an initiative that was recently editorialized at PNC-Minnesota. Whatever the context, this is a well-written paean to one’s local community, an exercise that might be healthy to repeat in other areas with large or thriving Pagan populations.

Witches Education League: A Salem correspondent for the Boston Globe spotlights a press release announcing the formation of a new Witch-oriented organization, the Witches Education League (WEL).

“The new league comes as two active organizations, the Witches Education Bureau and Pagan Witches Protection, merge, [Teri] Kalgren [W.E.L.'s vice president] said. ”There are many untruths about Witches and the craft, born out of hate, fear, or other issues causing these untruths to flourish and grow through the centuries,” the W.E.L. release said. “W.E.L. encourages all to ask their questions and to learn about one of Earth’s oldest religions.” The organization, which recently received nonprofit status, intends to continue with community services such as the annual W.E.B.-founded ”ask a witch, make a wand,”  where children are invited to make magic wands with area witches near Halloween, Kalgren said.”

The organization does not yet have a web site, though they do have a Facebook page. It is unclear what initiatives they plan to take regarding outreach and education, but I wish them well in this new venture.

An Interview with Thorn: Speaking of Paganistan, author and teacher T. Thorn Coyle will be there this weekend for a book signing and intensive. PNC-Minnesota has an interview up with Thorn about her visit.

“Workshops are always a mixture of experience and theory. I try to get people singing, dancing, and moving when possible, mostly because I find that I learn best if my body is engaged, and most other people do as well. But intellectual engagement offers context for the work at hand, so there is always time for questions, writing, and sometimes I end up expounding a bit, particularly when I feel that there is a question several layers beneath the one that actually got asked! Guided meditation, energy work, and some kick-ass ritual are usually also involved.”

For more on Thorn’s teachings and thoughts, do check out her always-insightful and thought-provoking blog (and podcast).

Unsung Pagans: In a final note, I’d like to point to Star Foster’s post reminding us which Pagans keep our communities thriving and surviving.

What keeps Paganism thriving is not authors. It’s not bloggers, or journalists. It’s not those giving workshops or appearing in television specials or writing academic papers. It’s teachers and community organizers. People who don’t publish, or receive much recognition from the larger community. These are the people who organize your Pagan Pride days, who show up to meet and greets rain or shine. These are people who patiently teach meditation 101 and basic protocol over and over, year in and year out, to seekers without compensation. People who open their homes so that Pagans have places to celebrate their rites, or who run shops catering to all Pagans while staying out of all the politics and drama. Clergy who say “Call me anytime, that’s what I’m here for.”

Why not take the time to thank the unsung Pagan heroes/heras in your community?

That’s all I have for now, have a great day!

In the United States, we have achieved what is possibly the most hyperindividualized culture in the history of our species. Some of the effects of this have benefited people, particularly minorities of various sorts who, while still facing oppression, are able to find more footholds for asserting their unique identities amid the masses. However, we’ve taken the archetype of the Rugged Individualist to such an extent that most of us no longer really know how to function as a cohesive community. More and more of us no longer live in the same state, let alone city or neighborhood, as our extended or even nuclear families. The average American moves over a dozen times in their lifetime.

Culturally, we feel rootless as well. Dissatisfied with mainstream (generally white) American culture, more people, neopagans included, are seeking connection with other cultures as a substitute for strip malls, reality television, and the aggressive competition associated with hyperindividualism. Unfortunately, this often results in varying degrees of cultural appropriation, in which an individual draws whatever isolated elements of a culture’s practices they prefer, while ignoring the context provided by what they’ve left behind.

I can personally speak only from an American perspective. However, while we’re not in a situation where “As goes the United States, so goes the world”, neopaganism has developed largely in individual-based Western cultures, and neopagan religions retain that influence to some degree, even when practiced in more communal settings.

I’ve run into countless pagans who want to form “tribes”, “families”, or other sorts of communities. Some may want to create intentional communities on land that no one yet owns; others just want some connection in their city or region. Many are inspired by the Temporary Autonomous Zones created in the context of pagan festivals, and wish they could extend that permanently. Unfortunately, community doesn’t just happen overnight. Nor can it be forced or even necessarily planned neatly. It’s an organic thing that happens at its own pace. Wanting to have a community doesn’t automatically confer the social and practical skills necessary to make it happen.

We aren’t used to being part of a community because our culture has slid so far into individualism. We’re used to being in groups of people, we’re used to making friends and other relationships, but we have a tendency to isolate ourselves outside of our preferred social circles. Many Americans today, pagan and otherwise, couldn’t tell you who most of the people who live on their street are—something that was very different even a couple of generations ago. Some of the pie-in-the-sky plans for intentional communities I’ve heard cooked up over the years have included “pagan communes”, self-sufficient and detached from “Christian America”.

Community requires interdependence with a variety of people, not just the ones we like. Yes, often communities are formed out of reaction to a lack of safe space due to being a minority of some sort. However, what keeps us from being able to create that safe space in the form of pagan-centric community is the intense focus on the self. We can see this in the common sabotage of attempts to create covens and other small groups, as well as other organization efforts. One or more people, miffed that the project isn’t going their way, will instead turn their actions towards destroying it out of spite—putting their own needs over that of the group as a whole. Personal disagreements take precedence over the greater goal. It’s not just isolation from non-pagans that is problematic—it’s the fact that we’ve been conditioned to prioritize our own needs over the needs of others to an unhealthy degree, even to the point of damaging one-on-one relationships.

These one-on-one relationships are the building-blocks of community, which also requires starting small. Relationships have to be established and built up over time if the people involved are going to survive the stressors of being in close proximity on a long-term basis. The most naïve daydreams I’ve seen often include a bunch of people who have little, if any, connection with each other, other than perhaps being friends with the ringleader(s). If your biggest concern is making sure that your needs get met, and you aren’t all that invested in the needs of most of the other people in your “community”, are you really going to be willing to temporarily set aside your needs in order to listen to everyone else’s as a way of facilitating group communication?

Conversely, “community” doesn’t always have to include every single member of the community all the time. Some of the strongest moments of a community are when one person with a problem simply knows that they can go to another person and get a solution. An example is the practice of borrowing a cup of sugar; we’ve so lost track of interconnectedness that very few of us feel we have an option in that instance beyond going out to the store, or doing without. While one’s pagan community may be scattered far enough apart across an area that borrowing that sugar may be difficult, there are other small but significant interactions that can still happen.

And it’s these small interactions involving trust and communication that are the building blocks for making community happen on a larger scale. I’ve been privileged enough to be able to go to festivals at permanent pagan sites, and observe the interactions among long-term residents, volunteers, and other staff. They get to be human beings, with errors and problems, but there’s a cohesion that’s impressive to behold. It took a lot of time, and weathering a lot of challenges to temper those relationships. But it can happen.

Admittedly I can only speak so much in practice at this point. I don’t live in an intentional community, and much of my time is taken up with personal pursuits (the Master’s Degree That Ate My Life being a primary one). However, that Master’s degree will be in counseling psychology, from a program with an emphasis on community involvement—not just taking on the clients who are most like me. And in my personal life, I’m attempting to make the first steps in creating an environment in which community can hopefully develop; last month, for example, my husband Taylor and I hosted a pot luck and swap meet in our home where people not only shared food but excess resources. Granted, our collection of “resources” looked more like the fodder for a yard sale, but it was a start. And while I’m not yet the greatest gardener in the world, I’ve planted some extra onion sets in anticipation of a barter with a friend of mine who raises quail. It just so happens that a large portion of my social circle happens to be pagan—but my goal isn’t necessarily a specifically pagan community.

That’s where I’m at right now, and I’m fine with that. I have a lot of individualistic tendencies to move past, and I have a lot of practical and relational skills I need to develop. But I can also learn from those who have made community—whether pagan or otherwise—so successful, and I can put those lessons into practice. And that’s what I’d suggest to those who want to build community: learn from those who have made it happen. There’s work to be done, but it can be done—it is being done.

“Marshall University’s Pagan Association, which once received national media attention, no longer meets on campus. Marty Laubach, professor of sociology at Marshall and faculty advisor for the Marshall Pagan Association, said no one from the association has contacted him this semester and the members may no longer be together as a group. He said the association most likely did not drift apart due to conflict within the group, but because members have become more involved with their studies. George Fain, former president of the Pagan Association, worked to establish the pagan group at Marshall in spring of 2007, Laubach said. A September 2008 story in The Parthenon reported that Marshall received national media attention for recognizing Paganism as a religion.”

While some would still question if this is development was truly “newsworthy”, I think it does convey an important truth about modern Paganism: that small Pagan groups often disband or drift apart, and that this is a normal thing. It is an important fact to know, because journalists used to the congregational model of worship might think a group disbanding might be sign of ill health within the faith itself. Instead, it is just a side-effect of our strong individuality. Indeed, according to the Pagan group’s former faculty advisor, we’re “notoriously” ephemeral when it comes to working together.

“Pagan groups are notoriously unstable,” Laubach said. “Smaller groups come and go very quickly. Groups will last as long as the people can get along together.”

This isn’t to say that there aren’t Pagan groups and organizations that have managed to exists for decades, to the contrary, just that the typical expectations for what constitutes a “healthy” Pagan community varies widely from what might be considered healthy within a Christian or Jewish community. A “typical” Pagan community might see a few groups that have survived the years, as well as an ever-rotating and shifting assortment of ad-hoc groups and short-term alliances that change as the needs of the particpants change. So the Marshall University Pagan Association ending might not be news, but it’s the kind of “not-news” that may trigger some better reporting on Pagan communities in the future.