7 Things We Owe Pagan Newcomers

Last updated on: October 2, 2018 at 6:13 pm By John Beckett

Recently someone asked me to write a post on “what beginners need to be aware of before joining.” I’m going to write that post sometime soon, but I think I need to write this one first. Mainly this is because most of the regular readers of this blog aren’t exactly beginners, but also because the question had a 1990s BBS “shut up and read the FAQ, noob” air to it.

Rather than telling newcomers how to behave, I think we’d be better off concentrating on what we can do to be honorable and welcoming hosts.

I do not use the word “owe” lightly. Hospitality is among the greatest of Pagan virtues, and it means more than offering food and drink. People come to us looking for a community where they can learn sacred traditions and explore the deepest questions of life. What will they find when they arrive?

Here are seven things we owe newcomers to Paganism.

1. A warm welcome

This is the most basic form of hospitality there is. Someone we’ve never seen before walks into one of our open circles – what do we do? If we’re like too many Pagan groups, we never notice them because we’re hidden away in the kitchen talking to our friends. That doesn’t make a very good first impression.

In 2015 I wrote Hospitality For Humans, which talks about how we can do a good job of welcoming our guests. Say hello. Introduce yourself. Ask questions and let people tell you about themselves. Tell people what they need to know to fully participate in the ritual. Accommodate special needs. And thank them for coming.

It takes courage to walk into an unfamiliar religious ceremony run by unfamiliar people. Respect the courage of your guests, and greet them warmly.

2. An environment safe from predators

What am I talking about? Go read So Long and Thanks for All the Abuse: A History of Sexual Trauma in the Pagan Community by Sarah Anne Lawless. It’s long – read it all. Read the comments too. Pay particular attention to “The Respected Elder” who was so clueless he didn’t realize he was being called out. It’s painful to read. Read it anyway.

Here’s a key quote:

Predators, pedophiles, molesters, rapists… we like to think they are not in our community. We like to think our bond of sharing the same spirituality nullifies their presence and that a spiritual person could never do harm. Time and time again, we are proven wrong.

It’s easy to point fingers at Catholic priests who molest children and rich young men who rape and get away with it. It’s much harder to deal with inappropriate touching, pressure to have sex, and outright assault in our own groups, when we have to either do the investigative work ourselves or turn it over to the police.

It’s also necessary.

Newcomers deserve an environment safe from predators – and so do long-term members.

3. Respectful boundaries

I still occasionally come across Pagans who say that Paganism is all about doing whatever you want, with no boundaries. But even Thelema moderates “do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law” with “love is the law, love under will.”

We need not develop our own Ten (or whatever number) Commandments. But any religion or group needs boundaries – it is the lack of clear boundaries that makes it so easy for predators to operate in our groups and gatherings.

Does your group have a statement on inclusivity and non-discrimination? Does it have a code of conduct that spells out what behaviors are not acceptable? Are these boundaries well-known? Are they enforced, gently where possible and firmly where not?

Beyond organizational policies, we also need respectful boundaries around our individual relationships. People’s personal lives are their own business – respect them.

In addition to boundaries of conduct, we need respectful religious boundaries. There is an attitude in our wider society of “deep down it’s all the same.” No. Our different religions have different foundational assumptions, different traditions, different goals, and different approaches. It’s not all the same, but that’s OK.

We owe newcomers a clear explanation of who and what we are, and just as importantly, who and what we aren’t.

4. Honest history

People still occasionally come into Paganism with the idea that we’re doing exactly what our pre-Christian ancestors did, or that nine million witches were killed during the Burning Times. We owe them an honest assessment of our heritage. Besides, the real history is interesting enough, and simply being old doesn’t mean a religion is meaningful and helpful.

We also owe newcomers an honest history of our individual groups and traditions. It’s fair to say that modern Druidry is 300 years old. But OBOD was founded in 1964 and ADF in 1983.

Sometimes the problem isn’t that we claim stuff is older than it is. Sometimes Pagans claim a tradition is a brand new thing when in reality it’s an offshoot of an existing tradition with a couple of tweaks. My own standard liturgy draws heavily from ADF’s Core Order of Ritual, with influences from OBOD and the Western Mystery Tradition, with a couple of elements that as far as I know are unique to our Denton tradition. Credit your sources, whether they’re old or new.

5. Clear expectations

What are your group’s requirements for membership? What are the requirements for initiation? Is the initiation a simple matter or is it an ordeal? What commitments are members expected to make and keep: personal practice, group practice, finances, anything else?

Mysteries must be guarded and sacred traditions preserved. But no one should have to make a major religious decision or commitment without plenty of time to consider if they really want to do it.

There is no one right way to structure a group or a tradition. Some have loose membership requirements and some have rather extreme demands. Every group isn’t intended for everyone, and traditions with high barriers to entry tend to be more resilient than open groups. But whatever the approach, we owe newcomers a clear presentation of our expectations.

6. Loving support

A religious tradition – especially a local group – is more than a collection of individual practitioners. It’s also a family – and families look out for each other.

We owe our newcomers the kind of support we give our friends and families. Perhaps Evangelicals can be forgiven for not caring about the people they don’t know in their 5000 member megachurch, but if a member of a 13-person coven or a 40-member grove has mundane needs, we owe them whatever assistance is wanted that we can provide.

The principles of hospitality and reciprocity apply. I’ve seen people who come into a group and immediately start making all kinds of demands. We don’t owe those people anything. But let’s take care of our own.

We also owe newcomers our support as they try to learn and figure out things for themselves. They will have questions. Sometimes we need to tell them the answer. Sometimes we need to tell them where to find the answer, or point them in the direction of the answer. Other times we have to say “I don’t know – what do you think?” Not always because they need to work through it themselves (though sometimes that’s the case), but because sometimes we genuinely don’t know and we need to be honest about it.

7. An unlocked door

We love it when people come to our public gatherings, when they want to join our groups, and when they start wanting to actually be Pagans. We don’t like it so much when they decide to leave.

But if people come to the conclusion that this isn’t really for them, integrity demands that they move on. We have no right to stand in their way.

If they’ve taken oaths there may be repercussions from abandoning them, but those repercussions are in the realm of the Gods. It is not our place to enforce them. Which is not to say that if someone abandons us and later wants to return we have to take them back. Maybe we do, maybe we don’t.

But if someone wants to leave our groups, our traditions, or our religions, our only proper response is to hold the door open for them and wish them well on their spiritual journey.

The Otherworld in a Dream – 4 Things I Learned

Last updated on: June 7, 2018 at 3:23 pm By John Beckett

Dreams have been a source of inspiration and information since the dawn of humanity – and probably before. Modern psychologists attempt to explain dreams in purely naturalistic terms, and most times that’s entirely proper. Most times.

The vast majority of my dreams can best be described as routine sorting and filing. I wake up and if I remember my dreams, I can easily point to a recent book, movie, or something someone said to me that triggered them. These dreams are sometimes interesting and sometimes strange, but they are entirely ordinary.

On rare occasion they are not. Perhaps once a year (on average – there is no regularity) I have a dream that can only be described as prophetic. They contain critical ideas, important information, or messages to pass along to others. They have a unique feel to them that clearly marks them as non-ordinary, but I cannot describe that feeling to myself, much less to someone else. But when I have one, there is no question that I need to take it very seriously.

My prophetic dreams are still dreams – the truth in them is presented in images and symbols, not in literal narratives. Interpretation is still required. But in a prophetic dream, the proper interpretation is never in doubt, and separating the message from the set decoration is simple and straightforward.

A few nights ago I visited the Otherworld in a dream. At first I thought I was dead – I met several people I know who are dead, and the environment made it clear they were not visiting our world. I had no memory of dying – in the dream I assumed I got hit by that runaway beer truck I often joke about, or perhaps simply died in my sleep. But immediately on waking I realized I wasn’t dead, and I hadn’t been dead. Neither had I intentionally journeyed into the Otherworld, as I sometimes do. I was pulled into the Otherworld, though I still do not know who pulled me there.

I also immediately knew that I had to write about this dream, which I almost never do. Someone needs to hear this message, though I have no idea who that is.

Dreams are the most unverified of unverified personal gnosis (UPG). If this doesn’t make sense to you or if it simply doesn’t resonate with you, feel free to ignore it. It’s probably not intended for you.

But if something in it rings true, you might want to pay attention. I learned four important things when I visited the Otherworld in a dream, and three of them are messages for someone else.

The Otherworld is just like this world, only different

This is not news.

Particularly in the Celtic traditions, the Otherworld is often described as being very similar to our world. Many times visitors didn’t even realize they were in the Otherworld until they saw something or someone that doesn’t belong in our world.

I began my visit in a house. Not the stone houses of Skara Brae or an Irish cottage with a thatched roof, but a very ordinary 20^th century American house. When I went outside I saw lawns and trees and driveways and all the other things you’d see in a residential neighborhood. Then I went into a generic office building or perhaps a hotel where everyone was gathering in a large meeting room.

Does this mean the Otherworld is just like American suburbia? That sounds more like Hell than the Land of the Gods and Ancestors! No – the specifics are merely set decorations. The important point is that it wasn’t Iron Age Britain or Viking Age Norway.

Pagans – and I include myself here – often visualize the Otherworld as rural and pre-industrial. That’s understandable – that’s what things looked like the last time our ancestral religions were widely practiced. And it reflects our desire for a simpler time… a desire that overlooks the benefits of modern sanitation and other technological advances.

There is no harm in engaging in a little pleasant anachronistic dreaming. The harm comes when we assume the past was a Golden Age so great that the afterlife must surely look and feel exactly like it. That causes us to devalue the present and undervalue the future.

The Otherworld looks a lot like this world. Our world, here and now, for better and for worse.

[For another take on this, see Modern Fairyland, or Experiencing the Otherworld as a 21st Century City. Morgan Daimler wrote it today, partially in response to this post.]

Everything’s going to be OK, for everyone

Many of us grew up being threatened with an afterlife of eternal torment if we did the “wrong” things, or even if we believed the “wrong” ideas. As much as I’d like to blame that on Christian fundamentalists, they didn’t invent the idea of an afterlife full of punishment. The Egyptians promised a place in the Duat for those whose hearts are as light as a feather, but oblivion for everyone else. The Greeks (or at least, some of them) offered the Elysian Fields for heroes, but a rather dull afterlife for the masses and torments in Tartarus for those who particularly offended the Gods.

I cannot speak for every religion and every culture. It may be that there are many Otherworlds, or that there is one Otherworld with many realms – just as our world has different regions and nations.

But mixed in with the honored dead (and a couple of other not-dead folks like me) were a few people I did not expect to find. A couple of them I would gladly chain to a rock and have an eagle eat their liver for ever and ever. But there they were.

I didn’t feel threatened by them. They may have hurt me or others in this life, but they couldn’t hurt anyone now – and we all knew it. They were clearly disoriented, as though the reality and impact of their actions finally sunk in. No more “it was necessary” or “I was just following orders” or “I have power and you don’t.”

Was their punishment a heavy dose of empathy? Was this the beginning of divine rehabilitation? Or would they be reincarnated with only slight improvements to their ethics and characters? I do not know. I just know that this was a beginning for them, not the end. They were not OK and they weren’t going to be OK any time soon, but they would be OK eventually.

Eventually.

The work goes on

I moved into another large room with many doors in the walls. Did the doors lead to different parts of the Otherworld? Or to new incarnations in this world? Both, I think.

The doors were all closed and none were marked, but I knew I could open some of them. Others I knew I could not open – yet. And I very much wanted to open them. Learning how to open them would – will – take time and work. Sometimes “time and work” means study and learning. Sometimes it means spiritual work: meditation, prayer, and devotion. Other times it means work: planting, tending, and harvesting; building and maintaining.

If you want to open a door, sometimes you have to find a key, sometimes you have to make a key, and sometimes you have to break the door down.

Will this work be done in the Otherworld or in this world? Again, I think the answer is both. There is some work that can only be done in this world. But the Otherworld is more than a place of rest and reunion.

Here and there, the work goes on.

I’ve always been a Pagan

The first three items are for everyone, or at least, for everyone who’s interested. The fourth is specifically for me.

Ever since I started practicing Paganism, I’ve wondered how I’ll react when death becomes imminent. In times of great stress, we tend to fall back on what’s familiar, and especially on what we learned as small children. When death is near, will I feel pulled to abandon the religion that has meant so much to me for most of my adult life? Will fear drive me back to the religion of my childhood?

In this dream, I thought I was dead. But I never questioned my Pagan beliefs, practices, and thinking. I spoke with a dead relative who was a dedicated and orthodox Christian – we briefly discussed our religious differences, in the same polite tone we used to discuss our differing thoughts on politics. I never even thought about reverting to Christianity in any of its forms, much less the fundamentalist form of my childhood.

Back in March I examined the question of how someone from a Christian family in a Christian environment became a Pagan. I speculated that for some of us, Paganism isn’t a choice, it’s an orientation. As I wrote at the time

There has always been something inside me that said “Nature is sacred.” There has always been something that said “there’s more to life than what can be measured and quantified.” I’ve always known the Divine has a feminine side, that the world is full of spirits, and that magic is real.

For me, this dream confirmed that theory.

I never get the whole story

One of the frustrating parts of oracular work is that I never get the whole story. I get messages to deliver, but not what the recipients need to do with them. I get orders to engage in tactical operations, but not the strategic objectives behind them. I’m told to build a gateway, but not where the path will ultimately lead.

The Gods have many virtues – transparency is not one of them.

I don’t know why these pieces of information are important. I don’t know who needs to get them. I don’t know what they (you?) need to do with them.

If this resonates with you, I encourage you to explore it further. If you have your own dreams or visions or thoughts about the Otherworld I encourage you to share them, even if they’re different. Especially if they’re different – many of us may have different pieces of the same puzzle.

If this doesn’t speak to you, don’t give it another thought.

I just know I had this dream, and it was prophetic, and I needed to write about it.

And so I have.

The 4 Best Posts of 2015 You Didn’t Read

Last updated on: December 19, 2015 at 2:27 pm By John Beckett

Some of you read and share everything I write. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In general, the blog posts that do well (i.e. – the posts the friends of the regular readers like and share) are posts that talk about current events, that build up Paganism, or are controversial. While I frequently weigh in on hot topics, I leave being controversial for the sake of being controversial to other bloggers.

Not every post is intended to go viral. The Nine Things I Think series isn’t well read, but it lets me cover shorter topics without adding filler. Reviews don’t do particularly well, but if I like a book or an album I want to tell everyone about it. I write what the Gods tell me to write and what I feel like I need to say, and after that it’s out of my hands.

While I’ve come to accept that sometimes the Pagan community just doesn’t care about something as much as I do, there are times when I find myself screaming “this is important! Why are you not reading this?!”

Here are four posts from 2015 I think have some really important concepts in them, but that weren’t well read. Take a look at these summaries, and if you didn’t read them the first time, check them out now.

Fish Is Not Just Fish (August 2015, #111 in readership). This post starts with my experience of ordering fish in a restaurant in Sweden and trying to get past the language barrier to figure out what kind of fish it was. The story illustrates the fact that not everybody who says “I’m a polytheist” means the same thing, as the comments sections of a couple recent posts demonstrated. Differences matter, and so does clarity around our differences.

Reading it again after four months, I see this isn’t my most succinct writing – I probably should have cut it back by about a third. But the story is good, the point is critical, and it’s got what I think is the flat-out coolest photo of the year. This was taken in the New Orleans Aquarium in 2010, and the only photoshopping was turning the contrast up a bit.

Deep Magic (December 2015, #113 in readership). It may be unfair to put this post on the list, since it’s only been up for a little over two weeks. But it didn’t get a good start and it shows no signs of having a “long tail,” so I’m including it.

Deep Magic is a spiritual model of the way the world works, in the ways that we actually experience it. Here’s a key excerpt:

The materialistic worldview has led to viewing everyone and everything as things, whose only value is their utility to humans. This approach has brought us technological wonders. It has also brought us climate change, environmental desecration, slavery and oppression.

Deep Magic sees everything as inspirited beings with inherent worth and sovereignty. It sees the world not as a hierarchy of ownership and control, but as a reciprocal network of mutually supportive relationships. And it understands that while we can control nothing, we can – and do – influence everything.

Who Sets the Boundaries? (August 2015, #115 in readership). This post was inspired by two presentations from Many Gods West, one by Sobekneferu on “Worshiping Deities Whose Mythology Was Written by Their Antagonists” and one by Elena Rose on “Loving Our Monsters.” Like Deep Magic, it asks us to reconsider our basic assumptions about the way the world works, and in this case, about the way the world should work.

A casual look around the Pagan and polytheist communities reveals a greatly disproportionate number of people who have been marginalized, excluded, called monsters, and physically attacked as monsters by the boundary-makers of the mainstream society … And yet, these are the people the Many Gods have chosen to restore Their worship.

Will we let other people define us and set boundaries for us, or will we insist on setting our own boundaries?

This Land Is Your Land (October 2015, #126 in readership). More than just about any other group of people, Pagans understand the need to honor the land and to live in relationship with the land. But the vast majority of us who live in North America don’t have the same deep ancestral connections to the land and the spirits of the land as our friends who live in the Eastern Hemisphere. And we are rightly concerned about how we came to hold this land and the way our not-very-distant ancestors treated the people who were here first.

But the history of humanity is the history of migration – it’s what we’ve done ever since our ancient ancestors started wandering out of East Africa. We’re here, we’ve been here, and we’re going to be here a good while longer. It’s time we started acting like we belong here.

Start forming relationships with the land where you are. Not with some elemental concept of Earth (though there is value in that as well) and not with some vague idea of The Planet, but with the land and the spirits of the land where you are.

And listen to the YouTube of Woody Guthrie singing “This Land Is Your Land.” We never sang the fourth verse in elementary school.

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me.
A sign was painted, said “Private Property.”
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing,
This land was made for you and me.

Thank you for reading and sharing, for commenting here and on Facebook, and for generally supporting Under the Ancient Oaks. Next week I’ll talk about the posts you did read: the Top 10 Posts of 2015.

The Wheel of Fortune and the Limits of Divination

Last updated on: July 1, 2025 at 9:14 pm By John Beckett

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Am I busy? You could say that. I’ve been busier, particularly in the mid-2010s when I was doing everything I’m doing now only about three times as much of it. Yes, I was younger then, but mainly I didn’t have all the “background noise” we have now. The arc of the moral universe was still bending toward justice and we (or at least, I) thought Obergefell was just the next step, not the peak.

Seriously, don’t underestimate the amount of energy it takes to just keep moving forward in times like these. Cut yourself some slack. Keep moving and keep fighting and keep living your life your way, but cut yourself some slack while you’re doing it.

But yes, I’m busy. I’m approaching a major crossroads of life with my paying job, with my public-facing religious work, and with my geopolitical environment. I have plans for all those things, plans that are supported by long-term magic, short-term magic, and ordinary effort. A lot of ordinary effort.

Part of that ordinary effort is monitoring my progress towards my goals, identifying threats and devising countermeasures, and staying on the lookout for things I might have missed.

This is where divination comes in.

Asking the cards what I’m overlooking

Divination cannot tell you what you should do. It can show you where you’re headed. Then it’s up to you to decide if that’s good or not, and if it isn’t, where you should go instead. Divination is like turning your headlights on when you’re driving at night. It can help you see obstacles in the road while you’ve still got time to avoid them instead of running into them head-on.

Tuesday night was a regularly scheduled divination night for me. After considering everything I’ve written so far, I asked “what am I overlooking? What am I missing that would significantly impact my plans?” That was specific enough to get a useful answer without being so tightly constrained I’d end up with an answer that was precisely correct but impossible to put into a meaningful context.

I used the Celtic Cross layout. I know some people don’t like it, and I don’t use it all the time (I’m using a lot of three and five card spreads these days). But for a question that needed plenty of room for an answer, it was the right tool for the job.

The reading was overwhelmingly positive. I’m not going to share the whole spread. This is private, and some of you are good enough readers to pick up more than I want to share just yet. But mainly, I don’t want you wasting your time trying to interpret my reading when you could be spending that time interpreting your own readings. But I will say it showed I have a good plan, I’m making good progress, and achieving it is very probable.

The one challenge to all that was the Wheel of Fortune in the “crossing it for good or for ill” position.

photo by John Beckett — the Wheel of Fortune in Waite-Smith (left), Robin Wood (right), and my new favorite deck – but only when reading for myself – the Dark Wood Tarot (center)

The Wheel of Fortune

Some cards are in your face – think of The Tower. Some cards are subtle – think of The Star. Some vary widely depending on the question and their relation to other cards in the spread. We have to be careful to read the cards in front of us and not rely exclusively on consensus meanings, especially if we’re reading with a deck that doesn’t exactly follow the Waite-Smith system.

But between the usual meaning of the card, the artwork on this particular card, and its position relative to the question I asked, this card’s meaning could not have been clearer.

The one thing I’m overlooking right now is random chance, some low probability event that could pop up out of nowhere and throw a wrench into my plans.

The limits of divination

Divination does not and cannot show you what will happen in the future with certainty, because the future is not fixed. What a terrible world this would be if it was.

Divination – good divination, anyway – shows you the most likely outcome, given the path you’re on and the direction you’re headed. But you have free will – if you change directions, you’ll end up somewhere else. And so does everyone else.

More relevantly to this question, low probability events can and do happen. Closer in, these things are easier to see. Further out, they’re almost impossible to predict.

When I was a kid, the nightly weather forecast was good for tomorrow and that was about it. Now the five day forecast is usually right and the ten day forecast is still really good. Better technology and better predictive models have greatly improved weather forecasting. But long range weather forecasting is still not much more than a guess. There are simply too many variables for even supercomputer modeling to be useful in predicting daily weather that far out (predicting average climate is another matter).

I can see the potential obstacles in my path for the next couple months. I can see big things that might interfere between now and completion. But I can’t see every little thing that might go wrong.

So given that, given the limits of divination, what do we do?

Trust in your own abilities

We begin by understanding that low probability events are just that – low probability. I like my odds. Now, it’s not time to ease up – there’s a lot of ground to cover between now and then. But there’s being prepared and then there’s being paranoid. I occasionally end up on the wrong side of that line. I’m trying not to do that now, and I hope you won’t either. Whatever your circumstances, put your energy toward what you think will happen and what you want to happen. I have a friend who used to have a bumper sticker that said “the best way to predict the future is to help create it.”

But what if the proverbial black swan pops up? What if something nobody saw coming happens? I know a few people who predicted 2020 would be a difficult year, but nobody predicted the worst pandemic in a century (one or two said they saw it and didn’t say anything for fear of frightening people – I struggle to believe them).

Something similarly unexpected could interfere with my plans. Or your plans. Or anything else we read in our divinations.

If that happens, we’ll do what we did in 2020 – we’ll deal with it. We’ll figure it out as we go, because we’re capable and resilient. Yes, I’m sick of that word too. But it’s still necessary.

I’m working Plan A. I have Plan B and Plan C, even though I don’t expect to need them. If I have to go to plan D or E or F I’ll figure it out when it happens. And I’m confident I can do it if I have to, because I’ve done it before. Getting old isn’t all bad – the wisdom of experience is helpful.

The warning of the Wheel of Fortune prepares us to see

Unlike what some skeptics (and some whose religions forbid divination) say, the fact that divination can’t tell us precisely what’s going to happen doesn’t mean it’s useless. I was already confident my plan will get me where I want to go. The nine positive cards mean I’m now more confident and I can rest easier. That’s helpful.

But also, the Wheel of Fortune serves to remind me – and us – that life is never fixed, that stuff happens, that Murphy’s Law cannot be repealed. With that in the front of my mind I’m more likely to notice small things so I can address them before they become big things.

Divination can’t tell us everything. But what it can tell us is immensely helpful.

We’ll see how things go…

New ADF Archdruid: Rev. Jan Avende

Last updated on: May 3, 2025 at 10:13 am By John Beckett

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As a Druid who is a member of ADF (Ár nDraíocht Féin) I am happy to spread the word that we have a new Archdruid: Rev. Jan Avende, who was elected by popular vote and began their service on May 1. I’ve gotten to know Jan at several ADF events over the years and I’m very happy about this.

From the ADF press release

With nearly a decade of priestly service under their belt, and nearly two decades of involvement with ADF, Rev. Avende has a depth of work to bring to the table. They have served several positions within ADF, including Vice Archdruid, Initiate Program Preceptor, Regional Druid for the Heartland Region of ADF, Chief of the Bardic Guild, and many other roles serving our international membership.

Adding to their resume include two years of work as a prison chaplain, a year as a hospital chaplain at OhioHealth’s Grant Medical Center (Level 1 Trauma Center), and they are nearing completion of work for eligibility to become a board-certified chaplain. On the local level, Rev. Avende has also been a Grove Priest of Three Cranes Grove, ADF, in Columbus, Ohio, for nine years, managing much of the day-to-day liturgical and spiritual needs of their local community, both in the Grove and beyond.

Their M.A. in Education has also served them well on this journey, leading to the publication of three books on ADF Druidry: The Spiraling Sun, a Winter Solstice Liturgy; Kindling Sparks: A Religious Education Program for Young Pagans; and co-authoring ADF’s free-to-the-public training program, The Hearth Keeper’s Way.

Rev. Avende is also the first person to serve as ADF Archdruid who is not a cisgender man; when asked about this, they stated, “We all know the face of modern Paganism is changing; I hope that I can be part of showing that modern Druidry is open, welcoming, and inclusive. We have a long way to go, but every new face, every different person, every connection is meaningful, especially to those who haven’t experienced that connection before.”

photo by Cathy Beckett — Rev. Jan Avende officiates at the ordination of Rev. Lauren Mart (left) – 2018

My interview with Rev. Avende

What brought you to ADF in the first place?

I actually found out about ADF before I started college at The Ohio State University, and was looking for Pagans to meet in person once I moved away from home. This was in the early internet days, and I ran across the LiveJournal community for ADF dedicants. I ended up chatting with ADF members there, and finding out that several of them belonged to The Ohio State University’s Pagan Student Association, including Rev. Michael J Dangler (an ADF Priest and founding member of Three Cranes Grove, ADF, the ADF grove in Central Ohio). I joined and eventually ending up leading the Pagan Student association through the end of my undergrad, and it was a really formative experience for me. I met lots of different flavors of Pagans that way, and really expanded my worldview of what kinds of spirituality exist under our umbrella.

My own path began from a Hellenic Recon perspective, but throughout my time with the Pagan Student Association, and getting to know the Three Cranes Grove community, I settled in and found that ADF-style Druidry really dovetailed with my personal beliefs, values, and practice. Even more than that though, I found community with the Cranes, and can’t imagine life without them now.

What inspired you to pursue leadership roles within ADF?

I already had experience in leadership outside of ADF, and so when I joined, my grove encouraged me to get involved with small positions first, as well as taking on leadership roles within the grove. I served as the Chief of the ADF Bardic Guild for awhile, and as the Secretary for Three Cranes Grove. A little later, when I began serving as the Heartland Regional Druid, was when I really felt myself called to do more for the organization. Being a Regional Druid allows you to travel and meet people beyond just your local community. It wasn’t long after serving as a Regional Druid that I pursued Initiation and Ordination in ADF, because I realized this was well and truly my home, and I wanted to be a part of serving these people.

Leadership has always been about people and reciprocal relationships for me, and with hospitality and ghosti (reciprocity) being so integral to ADF’s practice of religion, it makes sense to me why I’m drawn to serve as a leader here. I want to be in the places where I can help people feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves. In some cases we experience that as “the divine” or “the sacred”, but in other ways it’s also what unites a community. Paraphrased from what I wrote in the ADF Hearth Keepers Way manual: “When we join this community of ADF, we become one of the many flames that feed its hearth fire. That fire within each of us becomes a star, lighting up the night sky we share. With our fires burning strong together, we each burn brighter in our practice and our faith.”

Which I hope not only answers the question of “why leadership?” but also the question of “why ADF leadership?” This is my home. These are my people. And I want to do all I can to grow and tend and care for this community.

One of your primary goals is to help ADF’s membership feel more connected to the organization. Can you talk about one or two things you think will move us in that direction?

#1 – Get the new website off the ground and released. I know, I know, we’ve been trying to hype up this whole “new website” thing for almost as long as I’ve been part of ADF, and I’ve seen its progress through many iterations, so I totally get the skepticism, but I’ve now also seen and explored around the beta site and it is freaking amazing!

It will be our own self-contained social media and learning management system all rolled into one, without having to worry about our data or our money going to anyone except ADF. Having a place like this that feels modern and private, and already uses an interface that many people are comfortable with, I think will help us by leaps and bounds to deepen our connections to each other and to the organization as a whole.

We’re a diverse group, spread across time zones and continents. If we can connect with videos and pictures and status updates all internally, in addition to our regular email list communications, I think that can only help bring us together.

#2 – A culture of trust. All organizations have turbulence, and they all have to go through very common phases of development (I am heavily informed by Tuckman’s model). In the grand scheme of things, we’re still a young religious movement, meaning that though we may have worked through the Forming stage, and weathered a lot of the Storming stage, we still have little pop-up storms as we work into the Norming stage.

This is not a “one-person” problem, and it can’t be a “one-person” solution. Acknowledging this process without judgement, and as a normal progression of groups, will allow us to solidify our Norming stage, and move into Performing, where leaders are actively involved and the group is focusing on common goals.

We need to build rapport and trust with each other to make that happen. All that being said, my skill set, values, and philosophy lead me to want to help our members feel motivated, trusted, and involved in the group they’re a part of. Through our own surveys sent to members, we’ve found that most people join because they want to be part of a group of like-minded people learning to do similar things. I plan to explicitly encourage that by creating bite-sized, low-stakes volunteer roles that allows each member the opportunity to share their unique knowledge and talents and be a living part of what makes us a community.

What other goals do you have for your time in office?

The other goals I have are more to do with administrative streamlining.

Ian Corrigan likes to say that ADF started a religious hobbyists club, but out of that we’ve really grown into a fully functioning non-profit religious organization. Some of our processes still reflect the club mentality (and no shade, that’s where we started, and it’s true to our roots. But to become a thriving tree, we need to tend the growth we’ve had since we were a small sapling), and I’d like to see us really examine non-profit best practices, especially as they relate to religious governance.

I’m not exactly sure what this will look like yet, but I think it’s time we start having those conversations and doing that research. Again, we have a lot of talents and knowledgeable people in our organization who can help with this process, and we owe it to our predecessors, ourselves, and our descendants to make sure ADF thrives.

Survey after survey shows that Christianity continues to decline in the United States. But most people who are leaving aren’t converting to another religion. Instead, they’re becoming “spiritual but not religious” or “none of the above” – maintaining some high-level beliefs and practices but not actively participating in any religious group. How can ADF best respond to this trend?

ADF has long walked the line between “this is our firm identity” and “your practice can fit here too,” which I still think is a good place to be: we should be inclusive of people’s identities and practices, but also be able to say “this is what makes us ADF.” Part of this is shifting the language we use when speaking. We need to talk about what we are, rather than what we aren’t. I don’t want people to get the impression that we’re at odds with other faith traditions, especially other traditions also fall under the Pagan and polytheist umbrella. Now more than ever our communities need solidarity, and to understand that we don’t have to practice and believe exactly the same way in order for us to work together to ensure our safety and continued existence as a movement.

I think the best way to approach this is through each person (but especially our more visible and public members) authentically doing whatever their practices are in a way that others can see, follow, and resonate with.

I’ve done this myself with the #PrayerADay Project. As a former English teacher, I firmly subscribe to the idea of “show me, don’t tell me.” People will seek meaning as they are called to, and if they see us in ADF doing things that bring us meaning, they may want to give it a try. And if they do, we can be ready to welcome and teach them, and help them find the meaning they seek, even if we’re only a stop on their spiritual journey.

And also, what can ADF do to demonstrate that there is still value in being part of a local religious community?

I think your local religious community can be your village. They’re not just who you celebrate huge rites of passage and milestones with, but they’re also who you have consistent interactions with: who you share weekly or monthly dinners with, whose mail you check when someone goes on vacation. Your religious community is something that if you support it with the gift of your presence, it will support you in turn when you’re in need.

ADF is a religion with reciprocity as a core value. We are all, always, in relationship with each other and the world around us. Our local community can help keep us rooted in that place, even as our pocket friends and far-flung communities help keep us flexible to meet the changing times. I think there is definite value in a local community (and I’m not just saying that as an extrovert), but it’s a both/and kind of situation.

My local community feeds my soul in a very different way than my online community does, and I need both of them to thrive. ADF with its in-person groves, hybrid groves, and virtual groves helps to feed us on all those levels.

You are the first Archdruid not directly connected to the founding of ADF over 40 years ago. How does this perspective help you plan for the future of the organization?

It really resonates with one of our common liturgical phrases: “As our ancestors did before, so we do now, so our descendants may do in the future.” I think being in the middle section, “doing now,” really helps give me the perspective that this can and will outlive me, but that I have work to do to make it so.

I may be a convert, as many Pagans still are, but I’m raising my children in this religion. I’m creating and publishing Pagan religious education materials for families. I’m trailblazing to become a board certified chaplain that will actually be endorsed by a Pagan organization. My goal, my vision, is to make the path for others as clear and smooth as I can. I hope to never raise barriers behind me, but only work to break them down in front of me.

When you found something, it’s hard to know if it will survive, and truly the best indicator of that continued existence is when it moves beyond you. I am that indicator for ADF, and that gives me great joy and hope, but also great responsibility and obligation that this progress doesn’t stagnate with me. With every step I take, and each point of change and progress, I’m documenting and planning so that when I eventually hand off to the Archdruid who comes after me, they’ll be ready to help us fly.

Finally, what’s your big, long-term dream for ADF? When you look forward not just to the end of your time as Archdruid but to the time when your generation of leaders has completely passed the sickle to the next generation (and the generation after that) what do you see?

I see us as a thriving community that knows we can operate with our ethos of shared practice and values binding us together. I see us as a place where Pagans of all paths can come to get training that is recognized by governments and professional organizations. I see us working on an interfaith level with other large Pagan and polytheistic organizations. I see us growing in numbers so that you won’t have to worry about being without local community where you live, because there will be a grove wherever you are.

If you want your kids to be given a foundation in values and encouragement to use those values to discover their own beliefs, you’ll find it in ADF. If you want the training to become a military faith group leader, or chaplain, or professor of religion, or counselor, you’ll find it in ADF. If you want a to find a grove in any new city you move to, you’ll find it in ADF. If you find yourself marginalized, and you need a warm-hearted and inclusive community to stand up for your human rights and dignity, you’ll find it in ADF.

Reading Tarot For Wisdom And Guidance

Last updated on: August 30, 2024 at 6:15 pm By John Beckett

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Whenever I read or teach Tarot, I always emphasize the importance of beginning with a good question. Vague questions lead to vague answers. Forming a good, relevant, precise question is halfway to solving the problem, whether you’re using divination or working with strictly mundane methods.

But sometimes you need more than a yes or no answer. You need more than a picture of what the future will look like if you continue down a certain path.

Sometimes you need to know what you’re missing, either because you’re overlooking something important or because something important is being hidden from you. You don’t need Tarot to tell you what to do (never surrender your autonomy to a deck of cards or to the spirits that may or may not be speaking through them) but you do need to know what your options are – including options you may not know exist.

Sometimes you need wisdom and guidance.

It’s similar to when you discuss a problem with a friend. You don’t expect them to solve your problem for you and you don’t want them to tell you what to do. You want to hear a perspective that’s different and more objective.

Divination can do that. And, if you or your reader are skilled enough, it can tell you things neither you nor you friends have any way of knowing.

I had a situation like this recently. It involves my paying job, so I’m limited with how much detail I can share, even without naming any names. But this worked out extremely well, and I think it’s worth walking through the process even if can’t tell the whole story¹.

A problem at work

A couple weeks ago I was notified about some changes that were coming at work. They weren’t earth-shattering (no layoffs or anything like that) but they would negatively impact me in ways that were somewhat unique to me. It wasn’t personal, but it was harmful to me. And there was nothing I could do about it… on the surface anyway.

I haven’t heard a lot from the Morrigan recently. My understanding is that she’s been very busy in the Otherworld. My understanding is also that that’s getting ready to change, but that’s another topic for another time. But one of the things she said to me earlier this year was “why are you trying to handle ‘all this’ with only mundane means?”

I’m an engineer. I’m biased toward tangible, this-world action – particularly in times of stress. Tangible action brings tangible changes. Magical action improves the odds that the change you want will happen. Tangible action is more reliable than magical action. Except that sometimes the level of tangible action needed to fix a problem simply isn’t possible. Or you don’t know exactly where to apply tangible action.

This was clearly a situation where magic was needed. But what magic should I use, and what should be my target?

This is where divination comes in.

The Dark Wood Tarot

This is a bit of a rabbit hole, but it’s part of the overall process, and I figure I’m better off telling this part of the story up front.

I keep telling myself I have all the Tarot decks I need, and I keep finding new decks I want. Earlier this year I ordered the Dark Wood Tarot because I love Abigail Lawson’s artwork. I never really expected to read with it – there’s very little I can’t do with Robin Wood, Celtic Tarot, or when necessary, Waite-Smith.

And then as I was doing a series of readings around a specific issue, I felt the need for a fresh voice. So I grabbed the Dark Wood Tarot – the cards were still in order. I shuffled them, asked my question, and drew cards.

I was shocked at the clarity I got. So I kept using the deck, and I kept getting very good results. In a few months it’s become my go-to deck for reading for myself. I expected the fantasy / goth / horror themes to be too fantastical, but there’s something in it that really speaks to me. I haven’t tried reading with it for someone else, but for me it’s doing great.

The Dark Wood Tarot uses the Waite-Smith system, but some of the artwork is very different. You have to read the cards in front of you and not just recite consensus meanings from memory. The very nice book that comes with the deck can help, but at the end of the day you have look at the pictures and figure out what they’re saying in the context of the question you asked.

And I still needed a question. I knew I needed guidance, but guidance for what? After a bit of thinking, the question went something like this: “given this situation, and the fact that I need to keep this job until I can retire, and the problems this change will cause, what’s the most effective way to eliminate or at least minimize the harm to me?”

I didn’t need the Celtic Cross, but I needed more than what one or even three cards could provide. So I decided to draw five cards.

The reading

King of Pentacles. I’ve always had an affinity for this card. It shows a man who’s practical, grounded, and who handles wealth well. And he’s a king – he’s in charge. This reminded me to be myself, to work from my strengths, and to act like I’m in charge, whether I am or not.

Four of Wands. This Four of Wands is rather different from the same card in Waite-Smith – this one shows a troll under a bridge. This implied that there are dangers lurking in this situation and I should watch out for them.

Two of Wands. Here the meaning is more similar to Waite-Smith – at least for me in this situation. “You hold the world in your hands” – implying that I have the capacity to take care of this, even though I couldn’t see how at the time.

Justice. Sometimes one thing stands out when you draw a card. The first thing that caught my attention was the red on the skirt of the Lady of Justice – it looks like blood. What our mainstream world calls “justice” is often bloody. This warned me that trying to reverse the decision by appealing to fairness was unlikely to be successful and would probably have negative consequences.

King of Swords. Could the message “make good, prudent decisions” be any louder? I don’t think so.

The interpretation

So out of five cards I got two kings, telling me to be myself, make smart decisions, and conduct myself as though I have all the power even though I don’t (and if you think “as though I have all the power” means “be arrogant and demanding” you don’t know much about true power and leadership). I got two wands, reminding me to use magic and to remember that I have more power than I think. And I had two warnings to pay attention and choose my words and actions very carefully.

Is that vague? Of course it is. I wasn’t expecting the cards to lay out a plan guaranteed to work in five easy steps. But it told me what I needed to know.

This reading looked very favorable. Both the cards I drew and the absence of the cards I didn’t draw (no Ten of Wands, Nine of Swords, or Gods forbid, The Tower) gave me hope. It told me to take tangible action, but to do so carefully and diplomatically. I didn’t know what that meant at the time, but it would become very clear later on. And it reminded of the message from the Morrigan: “you have magic – use it!”

The magic

I had plans for a big working at the August full moon. And then the day before the full moon, I got sick. With Covid. I was out of bed the next day, but I didn’t have the energy or the focus for an elaborate working.

But the need was still there. And the full moon was still there.

So I did what I could: a visualization that focused on protection from the effects of this change. I added prayers for protection, and for help with the magic (“add your magic to mine, I pray”). And after that, I came up with a secondary working for the day the changes went into effect.

No eye of newt and toe of frog. No summoning spirits to go fix it for me. No sigils, which are my usual magic of choice. Just a clear vision of what success would feel like, and a strong desire for that success.

The results

I went into the office on the first day of the big change, mentally and emotionally prepared to deal with it. I’ve dealt with far worse – I could deal with this.

I hadn’t been in long enough to do my secondary spell when an unexpected opportunity presented itself, one that would for all practical purposes undo the change – for me. I made a formal request (carefully and diplomatically) within an hour. On the fourth day I got a favorable response. On the fifth day the change and the problems it would cause for me were eliminated.

Magic works best when you have a specific target. At the same time, magic needs to focus on the ends, not on the means. I had no idea these means were even possible. But both my magic and my mundane work left me open to them.

That night I gave special thanks to the Gods I follow.

How much of this was the work of the Gods? How much was my own magic? How much was a favorable chain of unexpected but ordinary events? I don’t know. And I don’t care.

What I know is that the problem is gone.

For now. There’s a chance this problem may arise again in a few months. So I have more magic and more mundane work to do to keep that from happening.

But for now, I’m celebrating a magical success.

Reading Tarot for wisdom and guidance

Tarot couldn’t fix this problem for me. It couldn’t tell me exactly how to fix it. But it told me how to approach the problem, it warned me to watch out for complications and unintended consequences, and it gave me confidence that I could fix it.

I still had to do the mundane work. I still had to make a specific request, and make it skillfully enough to convince the decision makers that it was the right thing to do. If I waited for the Morrigan to hand it to me, the opportunity would have disappeared and I’d be stuck with the problem.

Know what magic and divination can do, and what it can’t.

Tarot can’t solve your problems for you. It can provide wisdom and guidance so you can solve them for yourself.

¹I do my best to keep my spiritual life separate from my professional life, for reasons that should be obvious, unfortunately. But if you catch in me person at a convention or gathering or such, I’ll be happy to tell you the whole story.

The Devil and Mary MacLane

Last updated on: February 18, 2024 at 11:06 am By John Beckett

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This post was inspired by two books: one fiction, one non-fiction. The first is about a 19 year old woman who – in 1901, in Montana – wrote about her love for her “anemone lady” and her longing for the Devil. If you guessed that was the fiction, you made a reasonable guess. And a wrong one.

Our first book is I Await The Devil’s Coming by Mary MacLane. Her original title was too much for 1901 – it was published as The Story of Mary MacLane. It’s the diary (though she rejected that term, calling it instead a “Portrayal”) of a young woman who was frustrated by the limitations of living in a small Western town, and by the limitations of being a woman in a male-dominated era.

The book is out of copyright and is available for free on Project Gutenberg. The physical book is in print and available for purchase from the usual outlets. I encourage you to read at least a few pages of it. Her writing is quite good. I’m a man born 80 years after her, living 120 years after her book was published, but what she has to say is relatable to me, and I imagine to many of us who are dissatisfied with a world that panders to mundane preferences and prejudices and leaves us out in the cold.

Here’s the opening entry:

I of womankind and of nineteen years, will now begin to set down as full and frank a Portrayal as I am able of myself, Mary MacLane, for whom the world contains not a parallel.

I am convinced of this, for I am odd.

I am distinctly original innately and in development.

I have in me a quite unusual intensity of life.

I can feel.

I have a marvelous capacity for misery and for happiness.

I am broad-minded.

I am a genius.

I am a philosopher of my own good peripatetic school.

I care neither for right nor for wrong—my conscience is nil.

My brain is a conglomeration of aggressive versatility.

I have reached a truly wonderful state of miserable morbid unhappiness.

I know myself, oh, very well.

I have attained an egotism that is rare indeed.

I have gone into the deep shadows.

All this constitutes oddity. I find, therefore, that I am quite, quite odd.

And an excerpt from the second entry:

I wish to acquire that beautiful, benign, gentle, satisfying thing—Fame. I want it—oh, I want it! I wish to leave all my obscurity, my misery—my weary unhappiness—behind me forever.

I am deadly, deadly tired of my unhappiness.

I wish this Portrayal to be published and launched into that deep salt sea—the world. There are some there surely who will understand it and me.

Can I be that thing which I am—can I be possessed of a peculiar rare genius, and yet drag out my life in obscurity in this uncouth, warped, Montana town?

It must be impossible! If I thought the world contained nothing more than that for me—oh, what should I do? Would I make an end of my dreary little life now? I fear I would. I am a philosopher—and a coward. And it were infinitely better to die now in the high-beating pulses of youth than to drag on, year after year, year after year, and find oneself at last a stagnant old woman, spiritless, hopeless, with a declining body, a declining mind,—and nothing to look back upon except the visions of things that might have been—and the weariness.

I see the picture. I see it plainly. Oh, kind Devil, deliver me from it!

Her “Portrayal” was published the next year, in 1902. It sold over 100,000 copies and brought Mary MacLane the fame – and the exit from Montana – she so desired. As you might imagine, it was particularly popular with young women.

Her second book My Friend Annabel Lee (inspired by the Edgar Allan Poe poem “Annabel Lee”) was published the following year. Sales were good, but nowhere near as good as her first book. Her third and final book I, Mary MacLane: A Diary of Human Days was published in 1917, also with lower sales. The Wikipedia page on Mary MacLane suggests that it was “overshadowed by America’s recent entry into World War I” and that’s at least partially true. But in her introduction to the 2013 edition of I Await the Devil’s Coming, book critic Jessa Crispin said that what was new and shocking in 1902 was simply more commonplace by 1917 – the world caught up to Mary MacLane.

Mary MacLane died alone in her Chicago apartment in 1929. She was 48.

Plain Bad Heroines

The second book that inspired this post is Plain Bad Heroines, a 2020 novel by Emily M. Danforth.

In 1902, two students at a private girls’ school in New England find The Story of Mary MacLane and fall in love with it – and with each other. But then they’re mysteriously killed by a swarm of yellow jackets, which leads to more deaths and the eventual closure of the school. In the present, a young writer researches their story and writes a best selling book about it, which is turned into a movie – a movie whose production is haunted.

The title Plain Bad Heroines comes from Mary MacLane. In her Portrayal she complained about unrelatable characters in “girl-books” and then said “I wish some one would write a book about a plain, bad heroine so that I might feel in real sympathy with her.”

I’m not going to review Plain Bad Heroines. If you want a full review, Goodreads has 5000 of them. I will say that while the ending seemed rather rushed (which is odd in a book that runs over 600 pages), the story had me so engrossed I lost all track of time while I was reading it. If I do a Top Novels I Read This Year feature again in 2024, it has a very good chance of making the list.

What’s important here is that Emily Danforth was inspired by Mary MacLane and so she included Mary and her book in her own novel. And because of that, I learned about a fascinating woman and decided to write about her.

And now you know about Mary MacLane and I Await The Devil’s Coming.

Good writing enriches us all.

The Devil in Montana

In the United States, the further west you go, the less religious people are.

It’s always been this way. New England was settled by Puritans and later by Catholics. The South has always been solidly Protestant and remains so to this day. But the West was too busy and too isolated to get very deep into organized religion. There are exceptions – most notably Mormon Utah – but this is generally true. And at the same time, the whole country was – and still is, to a large extent – culturally Christian. It is odd to hear someone speak kindly of the Devil.

Mary MacLane grew up knowing the Devil and his stories, but she did not grow up to fear him. She wrote:

I am ready and waiting to give all that I have to the Devil in exchange for Happiness. I have been tortured so long with the dull, dull misery of Nothingness—all my nineteen years. I want to be happy—oh, I want to be happy!

The Devil has not yet come. But I know that he usually comes, and I wait him eagerly.

I am fortunate that I am not one of those who are burdened with an innate sense of virtue and honor which must come always before Happiness. They are but few who find their Happiness in their Virtue. The rest of them must be content to see it walk away. But with me Virtue and Honor are nothing.

I long unspeakably for Happiness.

And so I await the Devil’s coming.

The world created by the followers of the Christian God was unsatisfying to Mary MacLane – something else I and many of you have in common with her. She had a good classical education, and she mentioned Aphrodite briefly in I Await The Devil’s Coming. She knew of other Gods. But her devotion was to the Devil. Witches understand why, even if most of us make other choices.

From people who persist in calling my good body “mere vile clay”; from idiots who appear to know all about me and enjoin me not to bathe my eyes in hot water since it hurts their own; from fools who tell me what I “want” to do: Kind Devil, deliver me.

Mary MacLane in 2024

What would Mary MacLane think of our world today? A world that has many more opportunities for women, but also a world that is trying to reverse the progress of the 20^th century.

And, as Jessa Crispin said in her introduction, the world caught up to Mary MacLane. Lucifer has his own TV show and witches have gone mainstream. It’s easy to think that if Mary MacLane was 19 years old in 2024, she’d be just another edgy girl with a YouTube channel.

It’s easy to think that, until you read her book. She was a good writer, and good writers are always in short supply. More than that, her depth of feeling and her longing for a more meaningful life are relevant in any era. Maybe she would have a YouTube channel or a TikTok. Maybe she’d be a novelist, or a journalist, or a performance artist. Probably she’d be a witch. Whatever she was, she’d be relevant.

Because talent plus passion plus determination is a recipe for success in any century.

Did Mary MacLane make a deal with the Devil?

Let me begin this section by clearly stating that Faustian contracts simply don’t exist. Your soul is the essence of who and what you are and it can’t be bought or sold.

But there is a long tradition of people making deals with various supernatural persons: with Gods, with not-quite-divine spirits, with the Fair Folk (don’t make deals with the Fair Folk!). Beyond that, there’s the old warning to be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.

Mary MacLane wrote:

Kind Devil, if you are not to fetch me Happiness, then slip off from your great steel key-ring a bright little key to the door of the glittering, gleaming bad things, and give it me, and show me the way, and wish me joy.

I would like to live about seven years of judicious Badness, and then Death, if you will. Nineteen years of damnable Nothingness, seven years of judicious Badness—and then Death. A noble ambition!

I Await The Devil’s Coming brought Mary MacLane well more than seven years of fame, and more than a little wealth. She never connected with her “anemone lady” but she had numerous lovers, both women and men. She died at 48, but she lives on through her books, which are in print once again.

Perhaps the Devil really was kind.

For Further Reading

Mary MacLane Wikipedia article.

To Be Mary MacLane by Penelope Rosemont, The Paris Review.

Mary MacLane by Julie Buck, Women Film Pioneers Project.

Me, Me, Me, Me: Butte’s Bohemian, Mary MacLane Montana Women’s History.

The Future of Paganism

Last updated on: December 13, 2023 at 7:52 pm By John Beckett

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It was not so long ago that the Pagan community was bragging about being the fastest growing religion in the United States. We talked about public temples and paid clergy, and we put some work into building theological and philosophical foundations for what our Pagan and polytheist religions would become.

And now? Some of that work is still going on. But even where it is, it’s being done in an environment where organized religion as a whole is shrinking at rates that would have been unimaginable even ten years ago.

My expectation (though it was more of a hope than either a data-driven projection or a divinatory prediction) was that as people left Christianity, many of them would make their way into one form of Paganism or another. I expected people to congregate in three main areas: polytheism, witchcraft, and non-theistic Nature worship.

That hasn’t happened.

Instead, the vast majority of people who are leaving Christianity are becoming “none of the above.” They maintain a few vague, high-level religious beliefs. They still celebrate Christmas and maybe Easter. Spirituality – whatever they think that means – is still important to them. But they no longer identify as Christian and – here’s the big point – they rare attend the services of any religion. They’re not looking for a temple or a shrine or a grove to replace the church they left.

The Pagan movement is not dead – far from it. We are still growing – people are still becoming Pagan in the same ways many of us became Pagan. But the “Pagan wave” we hoped for isn’t coming.

So now what?

I’m not interested in trying to read the tea leaves – I have no skills with tasseomancy. But as an old saying of indeterminate origin says, the best way to predict the future is to create it.

Instead of trying to figure out what will happen, I want to talk about what we want to happen.

What do we want our religious and spiritual future to be?

We will never be united

I occasionally see people say something like “if we’d just put our differences aside and come together for the common good…” It’s a nice thought.

It’s not happening.

The history of the modern Pagan movement from the Golden Dawn to Gardner and Sanders to P-exit has been one of division and schism. Some splits have been over theological or metaphysical differences, while many more have been personality conflicts between leaders whose charisma was exceeded only by their egos.

This is not a Pagan problem. This is a human problem. We will work together when we have to, or when we can see a clear benefit, but the idea of “just come together” is a fantasy that isn’t going to happen.

Beyond that, many of our differences exist for good reasons. Polytheists, pantheists, and non-theists have very different ways of understanding the world and relating to it. We may be able to work together to do Pagan Pride Day once a year, but we’re never going to worship together at every holy day. We don’t even recognize the same holy days.

Our plans for the future cannot require that people do what we know they won’t.

It can’t be something other people build

The mainstream religions have a way of seeping into alternative religions. Not just their language and stories and doctrines, but also their expectations of what a religion should look like. And the mainstream religions (both Protestant and Catholic) have created the expectation that religious organizations and events are something other people do – and that other people pay for.

Services? Planned and led by professional ministers. Facilities? Built by previous generations. Community outreach, whether for social justice or for evangelism? Done by the very devout, or by paid staff. And all this is paid for by the contributions of about 20% of the members.

If you want a Catholic church or a Baptist church, all you have to do is show up and take a seat. At some point you’ll likely be asked to contribute money or time or both, but the church will go on whether you do or don’t.

Until it doesn’t – many churches have never come back from the pandemic drop-off and some are in danger of closing.

Pagans don’t have that legacy. For the most part, we haven’t built the facilities and organizations the mainstream religions have. Plus if a typical core group is 20% of membership and your membership is 100, then your core is 20 people. If your membership is 10, your core is 2 – and that’s a very different situation.

Whatever you want for the future has to be something you’re willing to help create and support.

Paganism on three levels: one, two, or all three?

I love large group rituals. I love leading them and I love participating in them (on the rare occasions when I can be an ordinary participant). They’re a ton of work to plan, facilitate, and present, but when they’re done right, they help people experience the Gods and magic and participate in community in a way that can’t be done alone.

My deepest and most meaningful religious experiences have happened in small groups – three or five or nine people in someone’s back yard, working spells and pouring offerings and opening ourselves to the presence of the Gods and spirits.

The core of my Paganism is my daily and weekly spiritual practice: meditation, prayers, and offerings. If I just practiced my religion on the high days, or on the full and dark moons, or even both, it would be a weak religion. This is something I do every day, and I recommend everyone find something they do every day.

What we want has to be balanced with what is possible. Support for large public rituals – and especially for the organizations required to facilitate them – was never particularly high in the wider Pagan community. It’s been even less since the pandemic. I don’t think we can build a Paganism around large public rituals. And that saddens me, because I love these organizations and rituals so much.

I think we can build a Paganism around small groups and individual practice.

The Gods are still here

Whether the Old Gods really went away with the coming of Christianity is a matter of debate. That They are here now is not.

And They continue to call individuals.

I saw something on social media a few weeks ago where someone was complaining that “Gods don’t call people – people approach Gods.” At the core of their argument was the fear that people are trying to make themselves feel special (or worse, “chosen”) and imagining messages from deities that aren’t really there.

While I understand that concern, the vast majority of people I’ve encountered who are called – in any sense of the term – have responded with humility and reverence, and with a desire to learn and grow in relationship and in service.

A few have been called to found priesthoods and temples and shrines – that those orders are still small does not mean they have failed. Many more are simply honoring their Gods and serving Them in ways that don’t generate headlines.

Is that enough? It sounds awfully small, but I can assure you that if the Morrigan wanted more, people would know it. She’s not known for being timid.

Not all Pagans are polytheists. But for those of us who are, maintaining and strengthening our relationships with our Gods is a foundation we can build on.

We’re in a golden age of magic and witchcraft

We’re living in a very magical time. More people are practicing more magic today than ever before. Information and instruction have never been easier to get – or less risky. The currents of magic are stronger than they’ve been in centuries and they’re only getting stronger.

Magic is something that is often done alone. Think of the witch in her cottage deep in the forest or the alchemist in his laboratory. Or less mythically, our own personal magic with herbs and stones, candles and sigils, visualizations and prayers.

Contrary to what many people seem to think, the key to skill with magic is not finding some archaic book of long-forgotten secrets. The key is actually practicing magic, building skills through repetition and building wisdom through trial and error.

And also, experimenting with new magical systems and techniques, then sharing your findings with other practitioners so they can learn from your work – and then expand on it themselves.

This is an area where our reluctance to embrace institutions isn’t a serious obstacle for growing our traditions. We simply have to do the work, and then do enough networking to share what we discover and learn.

Online friends are real friends

I’m a big advocate for local friends and local communities. If you need someone to take you to the doctor or to take care of your cat while you’re on vacation, you need someone physically close to you. If you want to have a Maypole at Beltane, you need several someones close to you.

But what if you live in a remote area and there aren’t a Maypole’s worth of Pagans within driving distance? Or if there are, but most of them are so exhausted from trying to live through “all this” that coming together even for one of our most popular sabbats is just too much for them?

Our online relationships are real relationships. If it wasn’t for the internet I wouldn’t know people like Jason Mankey and Morgan Daimler. At least I’ve met them in person – I’m still waiting to meet Cat Heath and Lonnie Scott and a bunch more people.

There are some online-only Pagan groups that do the kind of things in-person groups do. That’s one way of doing it. My own model is more about relationships and networking – supporting my friends in their work, and calling on them when I have a need in their areas of expertise.

Our Paganism doesn’t have to look like a church. It doesn’t have to look like a virtual church either.

What do you want to do?

I frequently struggle to focus on this question in my personal life.

I often worry about what I want to have, forgetting the truth that we live in a society saturated with advertising and that things don’t bring happiness. I worry about what I want to be, forgetting that I am what I am and that changing that requires action. Focusing on what I want to do usually takes care of the other questions – and it’s something I can control.

When it comes to Paganism, polytheism, witchcraft – however you describe your religious and spiritual practice – what do you want to do?

What are you willing to do?

The future of Paganism is not what I thought it would be – what I wanted it to be – ten years ago. We’re not going to see a re-emergence of the temple religions of ancient Greece and Rome. We’re not going to see modern polytheist religions structured like the Catholic Church – or like the Unitarian Universalist Association. That’s probably for the best anyway.

I’m not advocating for a particular model or structure or plan. I’m not saying we should or shouldn’t take this or that approach (although I have noted a couple of approaches we know won’t work).

Contemporary Paganism is like ancient Paganism in that both are organic religions. They grew / are growing from the bottom up. What we read and see in the lore we have took centuries to reach the state they were in when they were wiped out by Christianity.

We’re still in the early stages of modern Paganism.

The future of Paganism is very much undetermined. It will grow out of what we do. It will be what we make it.

What do you want to make it?