Witches' Weekly and general stuff

How did you choose the specific path you're on?

I'm currently a solitary eclectic Wiccan, book-taught. Necessity chose this path for me, essentially. I have not had much chance to work with different groups and different paths due to lack of transportation, and so I've basically read everything I could get my hands on for the past four years. I don't have any draw to any one particular cultural-variant of Paganism (Celtic reconstructionist/Druid/Norse Paganism etc.), and so I'm still looking and reading and practicing as my fancy is struck.

What do you feel you contribute to the pagan community?

I contribute very little to the local pagan scene. However, I'm active online, and I hope to be more active via Pagan@OSN, providing desktops and Q&A answers. I contribute to discussion in various LJ groups + an LJ coven of my fellow fannish pagans.

How long have you been an active member of the pagan community?

Online? About two years, I'd say. About as long as I've been getting serious about learning and practicing.

In other news, sunflwgal and I had a ball at the Janet Farrar/Gavin Bone lecture tonight. I ended up buying two books to read: Progressive Witchcraft: Spirituality, Mysteries, and Training in Modern Wicca and Eight Sabbats for Witches-- both were signed by the authors. The lecture was very small, only about 20 of us in all. For two hours, they basically took Wicca back to its roots, debunking all of the myths surrounding the formation of Wicca, and it was incredible for explaining just what Gardner did, what he stole, what he made up, and why he did so. All of the steps in forming the Gardnerian BOS were talked about, as well as the coven politicking that lead to a succession of HPS. Gavin Bone did much of the talking, and he also talked about how he came to Wicca. There were also fun anecdotes (Doreen Valiente used Garder's books to prop up her bed and basically called much of the old BOS shite, "Gardnerian" was conceived as a curse, the "Forest Coven" was actually a group of spoiled rich occultists and on and on. I kept being struck that Wicca's living history was right in front of me. I read all about it, but they lived it.

Janet Farrar had a no-nonsense air and proceeded to sweep all of the BS out of the way before getting to the intro about the book, which is about Craft evolution, the need for training but not dogma, and dedication to Deity. They reject the "all Gods are one" notion, and it's going to be something I look forward to reading more about. They were warm, and took many questions. My question was about their greatest hopes and fears for the new generation of witches. They said that they fear lack of training, a group of witches brought up on all pop culture and no actual wisdom. It is necessary to note that by training, they did not mean always within a traditional coven structure-- they repeatedly emphasized that solitary study and questioning is very valuable. Gavin mentioned that a witch should be able to be so well-studied that he or she can perform any given ritual on short-notice, so well should they know their own art. They also are hopeful that the new generation of Wiccans seem intent on breaking down barriers between religions and creating faiths that are workable and non-dogmatic. I'll probably post thoughts as they come to me, but overall, I had a lovely experience. And I want to look like Janet Farrar when I reach her age-- she's very well preserved and quite beautiful.

Toni and I had a ball drooling over books and other pretties. I also got a small blank book to copy correspondences into, and a beautiful dagger to use as an athame for now. Toni and I plan to do more pagan stuff together, like a trip to Cedarlight Grove soon for a circle. We made a pact that since we can't go to the circle this weekend, the next time these two offer classes/circles in our area, we're going. More and more I crave group work. It was good to talk Craft stuff with somebody. ;)



And I know that I have lots of pagan friends on this LJ, but to those of you who don't really know much about Paganism/Wicca/Witchcraft, please feel free to ask me any questions you might have, no matter how simple you might think they are. I'm cool with answering them. :)