When I was a Witchling I used to read a Pagan and\/or Witchcraft book for at least 30 minutes a night before going to sleep. I felt rather smug about this too, because I thought that by doing so I was dedicating at least that amount of time to the Craft on a daily basis. During that period of time I settled down with Scott Cunningham\u2019s Living Wicca<\/em> (the less well known sequel to Wicca: A Guide For the Solitary Practitioner<\/em>), and Cunningham\u2019s words in that book served as a wake-up for my own practice. I don\u2019t remember exactly what was written in that book but it was something like \u201cyou should practice the Craft everyday (and reading books about the Craft doesn\u2019t count).\u201d It was like a slap in the face, but a welcome one. <\/p>\n Pagan faiths are generally about what we do, and not what we think. I practice Wiccan-Witchcraft not because I like reading about it, but because it\u2019s what I do<\/em>. My faith doesn\u2019t live in books, it lives in the magick circle, in the natural world, and truly comes to life when I call to the Watchtowers and invoke deity. Books have helped me get to the point of casting a circle and calling to the Lord and Lady, but they aren\u2019t doing<\/em>. <\/p>\n Over the years I\u2019ve practiced a lot of Armchair Paganism. There have been times when the only rituals I participated in were at festivals, and away from those festivals I pretty much ignored my deities. There were no covens or even solitary practice during those times, just a few scattered rites that were more about an extended community than growing my practice. I\u2019m not going to beat myself up about it today (what\u2019s done is done) and we all go through dry spells, but looking back on it there was a lot of wasted time in there. <\/p>\n The Blogosphere is Not Paganism<\/strong><\/p>\n It feels like I\u2019m shooting myself in the foot here, but the Pagan blogosphere is not Paganism. It\u2019s a giant organism about<\/em> Paganism, and can help facilitate the doing of actual Paganism, but it\u2019s not Paganism. I naturally think blogs have value and contribute to our community, but they also take us away from the natural world and time better spent communing with deity, nature, and the energies that give our lives meaning. <\/p>\n If you find yourself more worried about what\u2019s being said in the blogosphere than your own personal practice you are probably spending too much time engaged in Armchair Paganism. It\u2019s an easy thing to get sucked into, no doubt about that, and it happens to me just as much as it happens to anyone else. Passionately caring about one\u2019s ideas is great, but spending hours a day defending those ideas is not the same as putting them into practice. I get a lot done at this keyboard, but very little actual magick happens here. <\/p>\n When my writing opens up a door that leads to more doing, then I think I\u2019ve accomplished something in this space. I don\u2019t feel that way when a post generates an 80 comment backlash. It might surprise people to know that the most read things on this blog are generally my rituals, holiday histories, and articles on individual deities. I\u2019m proud of that because those are the types of articles that lead to practice. <\/p>\n Writing Rituals is Important, But Not as Important as Doing Them<\/strong><\/p>\n A couple of weeks ago my coven got together for no particular reason. It wasn\u2019t a sabbat, or a full moon, it was simply a Friday night and we hadn\u2019t had a ritual in awhile. All day I had sort of meant to write a ritual for the evening and never got around to it (hockey playoffs are kind of distracting right now) and once everyone arrived I guiltily admitted that I had chosen to watch tv instead of working on something for the coven. <\/p>\n But there was no reason to feel guilty, because once we got into ritual space everything was great! We generally use the same set-up in ritual every time we meet so a lot of the ritual was done before we even got into the room, but the purpose of Witchcraft is not to simply recite flowery words, it\u2019s about raising energy and directing it towards certain things, and we don\u2019t need a script for that. <\/p>\n Ritual writing is not inconsequential, and certainly public rites are worth a bit of pre-planning, but how much time should we really be spending on these things? The Lord and Lady do not care if my calls to them are perfectly rhymed or not (though I\u2019d argue that they like to be flattered), that\u2019s a personal choice. I don\u2019t need a fully formed ritual to practice Witchcraft, what I need is to get off my butt and into sacred space. <\/p>\n Sometimes We Worry Too Much About Theology<\/strong><\/p>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong, I like theology. I think it\u2019s important to have a fairly clear picture of why you believe the way you do, but ultimately that picture is yours and yours alone. I once heard deity called \u201cThe Ultimate Mystery\u201d and it\u2019s a turn of phrase I highly value. We might know our own deities, but in the end, we don\u2019t know everything, and probably never will. The nature of goddesses and gods is not something that can be written about in absolutes. Personal understandings on the nature of deity help us make sense of our own reality, but they don\u2019t apply to everyone else. <\/p>\n I\u2019ve read some wonderful articles defending the Neo-Platonist worldview, but I\u2019ve also read some fine articles that make a strong case for polytheism. There are Pagans who argue for a more atheist-viewpoint, and some of their arguments are compelling. I believe what I believe, but I know that I can\u2019t offer absolute proof that my interpretation of things is the proper one. <\/p>\n There\u2019s value in sharing our ideas and experiences about deity, but I\u2019m not sure there\u2019s a whole lot to be gained by the circular \u201cI\u2019m right, you\u2019re wrong\u201d arguments that grow like weeds online. The time spent arguing could be spent much better communing with the deities and ideas we are arguing about! Whether or not Cernunnos is a stand-alone god or part of a greater whole doesn\u2019t really change how I honor him. I find the personal gnosis of other Cernunnos-worshippers beneficial, but what\u2019s beneficial about it are their experiences with Him, not so much the cosmology of it all. <\/p>\n And As Cunningham Pointed Out All Those Years Ago, Books Don\u2019t Count<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes this makes me sad too. I wish that reading about Pagan and magickal things counted as actual practice, but they generally don\u2019t. Sure, sometimes I stop in the middle of a book and take a moment to feel the sacred powers around me, but I\u2019m not reading while I\u2019m doing that. Reading facilitates Paganism, but it\u2019s not the same as practicing Paganism. <\/p>\n More so than any other bad habit associated with my personal practice it\u2019s reading that gets me into trouble. I once thought that simply reading about Witchcraft was the equivalent of practicing Witchcraft and that assumption was completely wrong. I\u2019ve only truly begun to understand my practice and tradition because it\u2019s only been in the last five years that I\u2019ve continually gotten out of the armchair and into the circle. There are no substitutes for daily, solitary, and coven practices, not even reading. <\/p>\n Don\u2019t think for a second that I\u2019m arguing that reading is a waste of time, it\u2019s most certainly not! But it needs to be balanced with putting what we\u2019ve read into practice. Words on a page (or screen) are just that if they aren\u2019t being used in magick, ritual, and practice. <\/p>\n So What\u2019s Next?<\/strong><\/p>\n The only way to overcome Armchair Paganism is to do what you do. If you find power and majesty in the natural world then get out in the natural world, and that certainly includes short walks around the neighborhood or whatever catches your fantasy. Nature is more than waterfalls and forests, it\u2019s always around us. And I\u2019m of the opinion that our deities are always around us to, and to interact with them we just have to call their names and reach out a little bit. Practice doesn\u2019t have to involve lots of tools or even a circle, all it requires is a little effort! <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pagan faiths are generally about what we do, and not what we think. Paganism without practice is “Armchair Paganism” and I don’t think that’s really the point of it all. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":493,"featured_media":7178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[20,788,792,22,94,93],"class_list":["post-7170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cernunnos","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-wicca","tag-witch","tag-witchcraft"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Gathering Twigs\" by Simon Bening. From WikiMedia.](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/212\/2016\/05\/Simon_Bening_Flemish_-_Gathering_Twigs_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg\")
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