Tag: pagan values 2012

#paganvalues: a vision for future Pagan infrastructure (USA, anyway)

#paganvalues: a vision for future Pagan infrastructure (USA, anyway)

This is the post I’ve meant to write all month. But I think that what I’ve said earlier had to be said first. While I did not explore my financial values in terms of my Pagan beliefs in the depth I originally intended to, they have been quite thoroughly explored elsewhere. As it is, I think I might be able to speak with greater clarity on the subject of money and how I handle money in accordance with Wiccan values of revering nature and looking to nature first for life guidance, doing as little harm as possible,  and honoring my truth/true will (not an explicitly Wiccan tenet, that one) after I complete my work on Money Drunk/Money Sober and the Prosperous Heart. If I have learned one thing about myself in all my self-work of the past decade, it’s that my attempts to do all my work all at once is ultimately my way of NOT doing the work. So now, in time- in time.

So this is where I wish to present – or re-present – my vision for Pagans in the US. I am not speaking for other countries not just because of legal and cultural differences, but because for Pagans outside the US, populations are either a)so small/or so isolated that you still need safe ways to get in communication with each other or b)at least the British Pagans have their own ways of handling these things suitable to life on a somewhat crowded island, but not as fitting for life on a very, very large continent.  One big example is that in the US, getting land is actually relatively easy – unless you’re in Hawaii, which is an island, where of course actual land and property ownership comes at a premium. Also, just as culture is not homogeneous across the British isles (just listen to the the accents!) it’s REALLY not homogenous across the American continent – and that’s before we turn our attention north to Canada, let alone south to Mexico. For every recommendation I make here, there will be an area of the United States where it’s just not safe to do it, or where it’s already been done and failed, or where there’s a whole lot of community integration work that needs to be done, first.

A lot of this also calls for those willing to do so to rethink their place in overculture. We are still part of it, and I am not of the Pagans as counter-culture generation. I’m part of the Pagans as subculture generation. I suspect that the Pagans coming after me will be something else altogether in relationship to overculture, based on their own collective will and karma.

All that stuff I said about working on yourself first? It still applies. I’ll explain when I get to it.

The big picture: create a Pagan foundation

I think the next big thing for the current multi-generational Pagans to do is to create a foundation. By foundation, I mean one of those organizations that have random fancy parties to raise money for AIDS research and are often brought up in movies to demonstrate that the millionaire romantic lead is not such a bad guy. Those are the stereotypes for them that I know, anyway.  I’m guessing other people have them in a similar mental index file. The United Way is an example of a foundation – it is the virtual Borg of nonprofit foundations, it tries to assimilate everything.

Not getting the land, or establishing another school. Creating a foundation. Creating more than one foundation would be great, too – one for every geographic region, or specific organizations dedicated to raising funds for specific causes. The foundation then raises money for the people that want to get land, etc.

This is by far the most Pagan-heretical thing I have or likely will ever post. It proposes central organization. Please note that it does NOT propose central authority, although some must be conferred to those selected to manage funds, etc.

Why?

Foundations allow for long-term growth. One of the biggest problems with most Pagan organizations is that they are constantly running out of funds. This pools funds for multiple causes into one organization that can steward the donations through careful investment, and disburse the funds to Pagan causes on a regular basis. This will not eliminate the need for Pagan organizations to do some of their own fundraising and volunteer drives, but it will relieve the burden in significant ways – and align Pagan causes with what most nonprofit groups already do.

Foundations are key to creating a better cultural infrastructure for Pagans.

Right now, for instance, prison and military chaplains that happen to practice a Pagan religion regularly need sources of legal support. A foundation can raise funds, or can act as a referral body to connect that chaplain to that legal assistance. Other things that a Pagan foundation can help build over time that we need now, and may well need in the future:

  • Creating education teams to work with local police forces. It’s high time they start going to actual occultists when they need an occult expert.
  • Pagan retirement – most retirement homes are aggressively Christian, and some still try to prevent their elders from enjoying active sex lives AND often force them to attend Bible study. It’s why so many Jewish people try to get in specialized retirement homes – it’s not just about the diet.
  • Pagan funerals and funeral services – we have a very open market for funeral homes, funeral services, and Pagan-specific grief counseling. THERE IS A NEED RIGHT NOW.
  • Assisting Pagans with specific concerns with their wills, healthcare, etc. that might not always be covered well in overculture.
  • Pagan chaplaincy support – while the idea of paying Pagan clergy is still quite controversial, it’s less controversial to give them legal support when it’s a situation of someone in power just not applying the first amendment to something he/she doesn’t like. Legal fees, sometimes even protection for people in especially volatile areas, are a serious and semi-regular occurrence.
  • Pagan organizational training – a place to get training on how to apply for 501 c 3, working with social services, volunteer management training, organizational financial management.
  • Pagan financial management – even opening a credit union specific to Pagans has some potential, but that concept is a few decades off yet.
  • Funding for current and future Pagan seminaries, scholarship funds to send Pagan children to mainstream and Pagan oriented colleges and universities, establishing legitimately accredited colleges that also have Pagan and holistic-friendly aspects to the curriculum.
  • Pagan mental health support, where magical thinking is not viewed as a disease, and where byproducts of shamanic experiences are treated as seriously as any other trauma and not as a psychosomatic instance.
  • Creating a Pagan volunteer corp that can also use skills learned while volunteering in mainstream resumes – this may mean a sort of veil name – “The Veiled Volunteer Corp,” or something.

A foundation should also operate as a de facto Pagan community center, and provide a welcoming environment for those seeking help in different ways. It should, however, not blend with a for-profit business, although it should cultivate relationships with some businesses and corporations over time. (That is how fundraising works.)

This of course can not and should not replace what’s already out there. I make this suggestion because stuff that used to work for pulling it together with Pagan orgs just isn’t any more. Culture changes with every new wave of technology, and while people may feel more connected than ever on Facebook, I really think Facebook actually makes it infinitely harder for people to reach out and find one another. We may have scads of friends, but we know less people and we meet less people than we ever did before.  It really keeps people in a circular pattern where they can’t reach beyond their immediate circle to see what else is out there, and so it turns into the same combinations of personalities with no new input for anyone. We once had Witch’s Voice as a central information source, but now it’s very, very scattered – so we need something.

Of course, after all my talk on doing the work on yourself first, proposing an organization sounds a bit mad. I get that. Here’s my reasoning:

In Gretchen Rubin’s the Happiness Project, she explains that happiness is not a sense of ecstasy. It is a sense of engagement with what you are doing while you are doing it. Happy people are engaged – not high. She also mentions talking to a friend who grew up with hardcore activist parents. They explained the secret to their sustained success participating in activism movements: “If you’re going to join a cause, you have to do it for YOU.”

Ultimately, people contribute most and best to what serves their self-interests. Not every person’s self-interests are bad – some are quite, quite good. I’m a feminist out of pure self-interest. I vote mostly Green Party and Democratic because a)I like continuing to breathe and think that keeping rain forests around are in my personal long-term breathing interests and b)because I live in a somewhat dense urban population, I like living there, and crowded places require more government oversight than do less crowded places, like Montana.  If people start seeing their Pagan community activities as things they do for themselves – and not “for the community” which is a vague and rippling concept at the best of times, they will choose activities better suited to the truth of their hearts, burn out less, and make bigger changes while physically doing less/spending less time on these efforts and thus making themselves as individuals sustained and more sustainable over time.

If we do this for ourselves – for the retirement home we WANT to be in, or even just for the parties and campouts  –   we’ll be doing it for the right reasons.

#paganvalues – our screwed up money problems

#paganvalues – our screwed up money problems

The talks about money this year have been fascinating, and warming to my heart. At last! Progress! That said, this is partially a vent, but also intended to get across an attempt on untying the knot that has us all bound up in the self-imposed portion of the Pagan financial consciousness crisis.

A diagram of cognitive dissonance theory. Diss...
A diagram of cognitive dissonance theory. Dissonance reduction can be accomplished in various ways, broadly including the addition of more, consonant elements, or else changing the existing elements. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of things that has bothered me about the Pagan religious movement since I was about 28 – after practicing from age 19 – is that many groups talk a big line about owning our issues and resolving our personal problems, but then we don’t. We really, really don’t. If you operate on the adage about insanity being doing the same thing over and over expecting different results, then it is everywhere. Everywhere you see people having the same conversations over and over, repeating the same conclusions, clinging to the exact same beliefs in the face of changing situations. Tradition of the stability-creating kind suddenly becomes tradition of the stagnating kind. “Think this.” “Don’t do that in private practice– it’s not in our tradition.” “You’re not legitimate to the Pagan community unless you’re endorsed by our tradition.” In a somewhat recent conversation, I was told “Well, my tradition doesn’t have dogma but it does not allow x.” To which I responded, “OK, so if someone DID x, and they don’t have dogma, what would happen?” No answer. “Not allowing x” IS dogma. Some dogma – like “abusing a minor is not acceptable,” is necessary yet unnecessary. But don’t say you don’t have dogma when you do – that’s where cognitive dissonance begins.

This is not the only inconsistency, but one of the more recent. It’s been horrific to watch, especially as our most inconsistent, cognitive dissonant, flat out crazy ideas in Paganism are expressed about money. This is especially true after the economy tanked and I had to see one plea after another for financial assistance posted. Those will probably not end in my lifetime. Continue reading “#paganvalues – our screwed up money problems”

A few #paganvalues blogging tips

A few #paganvalues blogging tips

:pv:

Blogging Heroes
Blogging Heroes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last year heralded some of the most lively interaction to date on the Pagan Values blogject. So much that it even coaxed out some beginning bloggers. And it should! If you wish to blog about Paganism, you are talking about your values every day – there is no separating your values from who you are, after all.

To help people get even more out of their blogging experience during the Pagan Values project, here are a few do’s and don’t’s:

Do:

  • Post your link to the blogject entry for 2012.
  • Read the links that other people post – you can find plenty to argue with, inspire, and examine.
  • Post your link at the Facebook group page, and comment on the links of others.
  • If you choose to discuss another person’s post in the content of your post, link back to it.  If you’re really going to commit to the spirit of exploration and debate, you’re going to have to risk people finding you – especially if you post links to a public site.
  • Leave relevant-to-the-post comments on the blogs you visit.
  • Answer questions left for you in comments.
  • Revise your post for grammar, spelling, etc. Nothing is ever perfect, so making small changes after it’s published is normal and to be expected.

Don’t:

  • Expect people to agree with everything you post. Different Pagan religions = different values. There are even differing values within the same religions.
  • Post blog comments anonymously. This isn’t 4chan.
  • Make unsubstantiated claims.  A fact is something you can look up in a library or if you must, Wikipedia. An opinion is the sort of thing you just can’t look up.

Fact: Dogs were domesticated from wolves. Notice that I embedded a link to a respected and accurate information source, PBS.

Opinion: Pop music sucks. It may very well suck to you, based on your inner neurology. But that’s not a fact (directs glare at my partner, who likes to do this to annoy his sibling.)

  • Set out to prove something. This is about self-expression, and exploring where the communal lives in the Pagan community, not about satisfying an image of yourself.

But I’m blocked!

That’s OK. This is Pagan Values month – but it’s not 30 days of blogging. Very few people have 30 posts on any one subject in them. Most aspects of Paganism involve work – and this is an expression of my personal value: if you’re going to do spiritual work, it should be work you take pleasure in. That can be hard work, or light work, but it must engage you. If you find this blogging process engaging, and find that it continues to be engaging, wonderful!  If you find it stressful, then it’s OK to stop at one or two. If you’re afraid, then write down the reasons you’re afraid, and answer them with all the logic you can muster – and then celebrate it when you hit the publish button.

There are many other blogging trips and tips I’m happy to share over on the Facebook page. I’m an avid WordPress user, so I’m all about writing and scheduling posts out, using automatic methods of sharing, and creating in-text shortcuts so I can spend more time consistently writing new stuff. If you want to talk tech and toys, just open up a discussion on the Pagan Values Facebook group.

Happy blogging!

 

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