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And now random thoughts from ten years at Patheos Pagan . . . . .<\/p>\n
Before we go any further I need to take you back to 2012, an era when abortion was still legal, Obama was President, and people still cared about long-form writing. I\u2019ve always hated the word \u201cblog\u201d but in 2012 blogs were still a pretty big deal. In the Pagan world, there were few online things bigger than writing at Patheos Pagan, and for good reason. <\/p>\n
DISCERNMENT<\/strong><\/p>\n When I started here Patheos hosted the Wild Hunt<\/a>, then the most read blog in Pagandom. It was also home to then superstar Teo Bishop<\/a> (Matt Morris<\/a>) who had been on the Mickey Mouse Club when he was younger, and had written songs for a variety of big-name musical artists. I think T Thorn Coyle was here then too, and Viviane Crowley, two of the most lyrical and thoughtful writers in the history of Witchcraft. It was a heady time, and I was a part of it. <\/p>\n It was always pretty clear that Bishop was a seeker in his writing<\/a> and new to Paganism. His prose was so uplifting though that many people forgot the seeking part. Seekers are not settled practitioners, and they are often still feeling things out, and doing so in public. People like what\u2019s shiny and new but they always forget to read the \u201ccontains small parts\u201d warning on the box. It shouldn\u2019t be a surprise when someone new to our path chooses to go somewhere else, just like it shouldn\u2019t be a shock when someone barely out of high school disappoints you on social media. The word discernment gets tossed around a lot in magickal spaces, but the truth of the matter is that we often aren\u2019t very discerning. <\/p>\n (And for the record, I still think Matt is great; I have an award he made for me hanging in my office.)<\/p>\n BEST OF INTENTIONS (OR ANGER IS HARD TO HOLD ONTO)<\/strong><\/p>\n There\u2019s a link to an article about Bishop leaving Paganism in that above paragraph, and rereading the comments on that article brought both a smile to my face and a bit of melancholy. One of the comments on the article was quite laudatory and began with \u201cgreat insights.\u201d The person who wrote it no longer talks to me, and has published articles on their website that basically feel like character assassination (directed at me). Wanna hear something weird? Despite the rather personal nature of a few articles, I feel the individual in question most likely has the best of intentions. It takes so much energy to hold onto anger, and I\u2019m just not very good at it. Case in point . . . . . <\/p>\n From about 2013 to late 2016 (and it seems so very silly to write now) I thought that John Beckett<\/a>, John Halstead<\/a>, and I were engaged in a very real \u201cdebate on the Pagan umbrella\u201d here at Patheos Pagan. Not all of our posts were related back then, but various ideas seemed to easily bounce back and forth and we often took inspiration from one another. It was fun because we each had very different perspectives, but there was a thread of connection there . . .<\/p>\n If you are actively involved in \u201cthe Pagan blogosphere\u201d you know that Halstead and I\u2019s current relationship is non-existent, but I still have very positive feelings about the days when he was an active part of this online space. It still saddens me that our friendship came to an end, and the give and take of ideas with it. Hold still while I engage in a series of cliches, but I\u2019m sure the bridges that were burned were destroyed with the absolute best of intentions, but I guess I\u2019ll never understand the why of it. (And John Beckett and I are fine, we have a Cernunnos anthology we edited together coming out this Summer-hopefully!)<\/p>\n I often find myself lamenting the friendships I\u2019ve lost as a result of this platform, but I\u2019ve gained so many more than I\u2019ve lost. It\u2019s hard to imagine a world without Laura Tempest Zakroff, Phoenix LeFae, Thorn Mooney, Gwion Raven, Martha Kirby Capo, Vincent Higginbotham, and Astrea Taylor in my DM\u2019s. I also write books as a direct result of my exploits here. Patheos Pagan and this blog have given me a lot of gifts. <\/p>\n IS THERE A FUTURE FOR LONG-FORM WRITING?<\/strong><\/p>\n My time on this platform has taken a major backseat to book writing, but my lack of \u201cblogging output\u201d is also directly related to a changing online media environment. I think long-form writing is valuable, but now we live in a bubble of TikTok, Instagram Stories, and provocative Tweets. I don\u2019t think any of those three things are inherently bad, but it saddens me that they dominate the media landscape to the exclusion of expressions with more nuance. If it feels like I\u2019m just shouting in an empty house I\u2019m going to be less likely to write with frequency. Do I think \u201cblogs\u201d are dead? Not at all, but I do feel like they are getting lost in the shuffle. <\/p>\n Pagans have done a pretty awful job of preserving the more immediate past. There should be an online archive of Pagan magazines from the 1970\u2019s through the mid-90\u2019s; nothing close to that exists. Who knows how much we\u2019ve lost? What happens when the media platforms close up their blogging sites? Will our debates on the \u201cnature of the Pagan umbrella\u201d be preserved? Since 2009 Patheos Pagan has documented the growing pains of the magickal community in real time, I hope that document will exist in perpetuity. <\/p>\n Anyways, it\u2019s been a great and frustrating ten years. I\u2019m eternally indebted to Star Foster<\/a> and Christine Hoff Kraemer<\/a> who were the original channel managers of Patheos Pagan (and Star especially, she brought me in and named this here blog). Thanks to everyone who has written at Patheos Pagan during my time here, and I\u2019m especially thankful for the friends I\u2019ve made while in this space and all the comments (yay and nay) over the years on the blog. <\/p>\n Here\u2019s to another ten years. <\/p>\n My ten years writing this blog have been a profoundly life changing experience, complete with the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":493,"featured_media":14652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[788,792,93],"class_list":["post-14648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-witchcraft"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/212\/2022\/05\/urlxowrjkfkaf.jpg\")
Of course it didn\u2019t last long. The Wild Hunt soon resumed being an independent media space, and Teo Bishop didn\u2019t just leave Patheos, he left Paganism (though on good terms). Bishop\u2019s departure from Paganism resulted in a lot of handwringing amongst many Pagans, and I\u2019m not sure we as a community ever learned the right lessons from the experience. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/212\/2021\/02\/44146417_10156663710213232_8361021184539623424_o-1024x683.jpg\")
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Find Jason Online<\/a><\/span><\/h5>\n
My Patreon Starts at Two Bucks!<\/a>\u00a0\n
The Witch\u2019s Book of Spellcraft<\/a>\u00a0\n
The Horned God of the Witches<\/a>\u00a0\n
Transformative Witchcraft: The Greater Mysteries<\/a>\u00a0\n
The Witch\u2019s Wheel of the Year: Circles for Solitaries, Circles, & Covens<\/a>\u00a0\n
Raise the Horns on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 Jason\u2019s Twitter<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
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\nPictures Of Magickal Stuff<\/a><\/span><\/h5>\nWitch With Books Podcast<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
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