I am a Pagan Heretic

Or, more to the point, I guess I’m a Wiccan Heretic…or really a Neo-Wiccan Heretic…or a Hippie Pagan Heretic…maybe more a New Age “love and light” Pagan Heretic.

I love working with those in the general Pagan community because I greatly enjoy sharing my experiences and knowledge and I enjoy helping those that are looking to either start their path or enhance and grow it.  What I often dislike is the increasing amount of people that I encounter, especially on the Internet, who are either “McWiccans” (those of the “I just read two books on Wicca and did an initiation and therefore I’m a High Priest/Priestess” variety), “Love and Light Pagans/Wiccans” (“But the Goddess is all about love and the Gods just want to love us and us them and for everyone to love everyone else.”),  and “Fluffy Bunnies” (often they can fall into the same place as the “Love and Light Pagans/Wiccans” but the big difference here is that these people, unlike the former, just don’t want to educate themselves because it might be too hard or it might seem unnecessary; the former are often educated about the other views but opt to ignore them).

I would have to say that my views on the issue of “Fluffy Bunnies” are pretty well mirrored in this article on the website Wicca: For the Rest of Us.  But just to be sure that my thoughts specifically are expressed, no, I don’t think I’m better than one of these individuals, nor do I think someone is a “Fluffy Bunny” because they disagree with me or are new to the Craft.  But when someone essentially decides that they have come to a point in their path, at anytime, but especially only a handful of years into their practice, and tell me they have learned all the need to, I have to wonder what their issue is.  How anyone can be on this path and at any point in their life essentially declare they “know it all” is just a mystery to me (little “m”, not bit “M”, though I’m starting to wonder if all this should be one of the modern day Mysteries).

There are just fundamental things I don’t believe in and don’t agree with from both the perspective of personal experience and training, both formal and of my own doing.  I don’t believe in self-initiation, I don’t believe the Gods are our help-mates, I don’t believe that faeries are cute little winged creatures hanging out in my garden, I don’t believe that one can be a Witch and yet never actually practice magick, I don’t believe that Wicca is a “DIY” religion, and I don’t believe that the Craft is meant for everyone.

I had a really great “Ask A Witch” question that I didn’t answer on the blog and actually addressed with the individual privately because it was obvious to me that this person was very upset about an encounter they had with a group of individuals online who gave her a lot of trouble for calling herself Wiccan when she wasn’t part of a coven, wasn’t part of a Tradition and was a newly practicing solitaire.  After I had explained to the questioner about why these individuals said the things they did this person, who’d only been practicing for less than a year and was in what I often call the “honeymoon phase” of the Craft was enraged.  She said she was now sold on never joining a coven because she didn’t want someone to tell her what to do or believe and that she would become a High Priestess on her own and these people who told her she can’t be Wiccan could be damned.  The conversation between us continued for a little while as I tried to explain that, in a traditional sense what she’s doing isn’t considered Wicca by some, but either neo-Wicca or neo-Paganism.  Does the label really matter?  Yes and no.  In my opinion I don’t think you should call yourself something that you clearly aren’t just for the sake of using a term you find familiar or that you think will make you more inclusive somewhere.  So that’s the “yes” part, because the Gods know that walking into a group of Gardnerians and telling them you’re Wiccan and you’ve only ever been a self-taught solitary could prove of a very, well, interesting discussion.  On the other hand, no, it doesn’t really matter what you call yourself if you are following your path honestly and you’re following your heart and soul.  I guess it boils down to knowing that certain people might not agree and might even become disgruntled at your claims and your practices when you share then makes you aware and prepared.  After a while our discussion ended, she understood what I was talking about and she somewhat understood that other side of it but, being new and never having spoken to traditional practitioners before, nor knowing really anything about British Traditional Wicca, she was already a little bit at a disadvantage in a sense going in.  Hopefully her experiences from here on will be better.

I guess in the end, for me, it comes down to a few things.  If you don’t practice magick, you’re not a Witch, because that’s what a Witch is and what a Witch does.  If you don’t follow the Wiccan Rede, believe in the God and Goddess as each other’s consorts and as the source of all creation, you’re not Wiccan.  If you don’t take an active part in working with your path, connecting with and honoring the Gods, then I don’t understand why you came to the dance in the first place.  I do believe that we need to build relationships with deity and with the specific Gods that we partner with.  I don’t believe that it is respectful to just ask them to come and do something for us with nothing in return and no time spent getting to know them.  Why this is a concept that baffles and even upsets some people, I haven’t a clue.  Why there is this idea that the Gods are laying in wait for us to call on them for something just confuses the hell out of me.

I guess the only other thing there is to say is that when I write, whether it’s here, in one of the other blogs, in lessons I create, or in books I work on, I am always writing from a place of personal experience and knowledge.  I’m not regurgitating the almost dogmatic crap that has come to be known as “Wicca” these days.  I write and teach about what I know, what I have experienced, what I have studied and put to the test and found to be true.  Does that win me fans?  Not all the time.  Some people don’t want to have their “happy place” put to the test by someone else’s beliefs and opinions.  So in the same way that some authors incite frustartion in me, I get to do the same to others.  It’s never on purpose, and it’s never my goal, and when it happens I often have to pull myself back, realize this isn’t my issue, and not own the anger, confusion or frustration of someone else.

So I guess I’m a bit of a neo-Witchy-Lovey-Wiccan-Heretic because the definition of “heretic” as “one who dissents from an accepted belief or doctrine”, especially in this circumstance, is most certainly me.