{"id":569,"date":"2009-03-16T16:08:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-16T16:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/03\/pagan-teachers\/"},"modified":"2009-03-16T16:08:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-16T16:08:00","slug":"pagan-teachers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/03\/pagan-teachers.html","title":{"rendered":"Pagan Teachers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a> This week\u2019s topic on The Witches\u2019 Voice<\/a> is Teaching and Teachers. I\u2019ve read the first three essays and I recommend them, for different reasons. I\u2019m going to comment on one of them in more detail in a future blog post.<\/p>\n

Teaching is a big deal in many Pagan groups (especially in Wicca) because until maybe 20 years ago, it was the only way to learn. There were very few books on Pagan and Wiccan practice, and the ones that were available were difficult to find. Plus Wiccans tend to place a big emphasis on lineage, and that\u2019s something you only get from a teacher.<\/p>\n

As someone who is more than a seeker but not quite an elder (advanced seeker? junior elder? what does eight years of dabbling and another seven of serious practice qualify me for?), I\u2019m in a position to see this issue from both sides. I\u2019ve had people ask \u201cwill you teach me?\u201d But when I asked what books they had read so far, every single one of them said \u201cnone.\u201d I told them all to go read Scott Cunningham\u2019s Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner<\/a><\/em> and get back in touch with me when they finished it. Exactly zero have come back to me. There is some basic groundwork that can easily be done on your own, and it is not reasonable to expect anyone to tutor you until you\u2019ve shown the initiative to take those first steps.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there is a real limit to what you can learn from books. I went looking for a CUUPS group in early 2003 because I knew I had reached my limit as a solitary. I\u2019ve benefited greatly from Dolores\u2019 Tarot classes, Summer\u2019s consciousness classes, and from the paid (and none too cheap) class I took on beginning shamanism some years ago. I joined OBOD because I felt like I needed their formal training.<\/p>\n

Denton CUUPS has no formal tradition (in the Pagan sense) and no standard practices. We teach new members our organizational history and structure, we encourage them to read through our old rituals, and we plug them into new rituals with small parts at first, then larger ones as their skills and desires manifest. But if someone comes to us and says \u201cteach me how to be a Pagan\u201d we really aren\u2019t set up to do it.<\/p>\n

The same thing happens in the wider UU church. If someone comes to our church, we can offer them our Sunday morning worship and our adult discussion RE class. But we can\u2019t offer them a UU equivalent of an Evangelical Bible study class or a Buddhist meditation<\/a> practice. I discussed some of this back in January<\/a> \u2013 Rev. Diana and I started a conversation on it, but it died out when Rev. Bill got sick and we haven\u2019t been able to re-start it.<\/p>\n

As UUs (both Pagans and the larger church), I think we do a good job of welcoming people where they are and giving them a safe space to explore and practice. We do a decent job of pointing them toward instruction and training if they ask for it. But we do a poor job of actually providing that training, and an even worse job of helping people figure out what they don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

I wonder \u2013 how could we do a better job of teaching our newcomers?<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s topic on The Witches\u2019 Voice is Teaching and Teachers. I\u2019ve read the first three essays and I recommend them, for different reasons. I\u2019m going to comment on one of them in more detail in a future blog post. Teaching is a big deal in many Pagan groups (especially in Wicca) because until maybe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPagan Teachers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This week\u2019s topic on The Witches\u2019 Voice is Teaching and Teachers. I\u2019ve read the first three essays and I recommend them, for different reasons. 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