Pagan Soup: Season of the Witch, Church/Jail, and Culture/Religion

I have been under the weather and now I feel better I’ve got several things I want to touch on. So I’m going to try to breeze through them quickly.

What Church Wants To Be A Jail?

One thing I’ve only seen one person bring up in this church or jail story, is what church wants to be equated with jail? Seriously? And what religious organization wants to develop, staff and implement a rehabilitation program for criminals? Pagans have a hard enough time just keeping basic services for law-abiding Pagans running. Do we have what it takes to run a rehabilitation program? Do we even want to?

The Weird Relationship Between Culture and Religion

Gus diZerega has an interesting column going up tomorrow. Part of what he is discussing is the difference between being culturally pagan and religiously Pagan. I find this interesting, because I tend to have better conversations with religious Christians than cultural Christians. A religious Christian takes issue with the foundations of my faith, but does not have an issue with my being serious and dedicated to that faith. A cultural Christian may have no issues with the foundations of my faith but really take issue with my seriousness and dedication to it. For instance, a religious Christian would get why I need Yule off from work and other responsibilities, even if they don’t agree with it. A cultural Christian might think Yule is cool, but am I really going to take off work or miss a shopping outing for it?

So is this something that happens in Paganism today? What is the relationship between religious and cultural Pagans today? I don’t know if diZerega would agree with me on this, but I think we do have the phenomena of cultural Pagans today.

Season of the Witch

Once upon a time, the Pagan community was mainly comprised of and driven largely by Witches. Gardner, Sanders, Cochrane, Buckland, Valiente, Leek, the Farrar’s, Cabot, Budapest, Starhawk, Sheba, Martello and many more were the impetus for the Pagan movement as we know it today. Today that dynamic has changed, the importance of Witchcraft, particularly Trad Craft, within the larger Pagan community is now merely one shaping force among many. A lot of those early Witches have passed on, and they’ve taken all their stories with them.

This October I want to focus on Witchcraft, how it helped shape the community we have today, the legends it gave us that inspired us and the stories from Witches themselves of the lives they have lived, the people they knew and the way they remember it. Maybe you have a story you’d like to share. Maybe you once had lunch with Doreen Valiente, or you can remember visiting Gardner’s museum. Maybe you remember having to hunt down occult shops and go on a long quest to find a teacher or coven. Maybe you remember what it meant to be a Witch in the 60’s and 70’s. If you have a story to share, let me know. sfoster at patheos.com

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