Tag: wikipedia

A few #paganvalues blogging tips

A few #paganvalues blogging tips

Posted on by diana

: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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#paganvalues: the place of religion

#paganvalues: the place of religion

Posted on by diana
His Religion and Hers
His Religion and Hers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There was that survey years ago that had some religious leaders freaked out because Americans began describing themselves as “spiritual, but not religious.” There was a lot of “what does that mean?” and arguments that unless you took part in religion, you couldn’t possibly be spiritual. The meaning is pretty clear: these people believed in a higher or other power, but did not need a church, nor did they need a list presented of “this is right, this is wrong, and this is what to be selective or conveniently amnesiac about.”  The churches also knew exactly what it meant – you can’t keep doors to a church open without butts in the pews.

I am religious AND spiritual. I actually need rituals and prayer as part of my daily life. I feel this as a physical thing, not as a “should” theoretical thing. I have warmed to the theory that religious belief is a neurological condition. Note I do not say “illness.” If it doesn’t interfere with your health, it is not an illness. However, having a mix of humans biologically inclined towards religion and those inclined towards the here and now makes sense to me in the “let’s look into every genetic permutation possible to see what makes the Best Human!” My interpretation is, of course, intuitive and thus likely invalid in the harder discussions of the science. But when it comes to religious faith as we’ve socialized it, you either feel it, or you don’t. It just isn’t reasonable or fair to demand another person believe as you do; it’s like forcing someone else to eat when you’re hungry or go to the bathroom when you need to relieve yourself.

Religion is supposed to be a foundation that helps you get through life, not one that orders you who to be right down to what you think and who you love.  While most people don’t think of it that way, it’s not necessarily something you choose. Sometimes more than one religion might choose you at the same time – yes, that happens. People CAN be bi-religious. It’s religious slipped out of its proper place in life that makes it a problem.

Religion does NOT

  • Solve your problems
  • Guarantee an afterlife
  • Guarantee an afterlife you will like
  • Make you a better person just by espousing a belief
  • Define absolutely right and wrong
  • Guarantee an outcome you’ll like
  • Save you

Any religion that claims final authority on absolutely everything is lying to you. Religion ain’t God.

Religion Does

  • Give you one (or more than one, if you practice simultaneous religions, as some in the East do) or more than one possible ethical approach to a situation
  • Offer counsel, in scripture if you use scripture, or divination if you use divination, when the shit hits the fan
  • Organized religion often uses illustrative story to help people find their own ways in daily relationship; disorganized religionists often draw from mythological stories and even from the monotheist books for those same stories and reasons for them
  • Offers certain prescribed actions that, while not necessarily “reaching God,” can help build a daily sense of calm when dealing with life’s challenges

Religion will never have an objective, practical reason to it in and of itself. It can help organize communities, and in its proper place it offers counsel and guidance. In its improper place, its leaders demand control over your behaviors not just in a ritual/worship context, but when you are in private – even in your bedroom. A controlling religion is not a good one, but it is mighty common. There are versions of this among Christians, Pagans, Muslims, Hindus – and it’s often due to that slipper slope where religious leaders believe they should be taken as the authority of God/ess Him/herself all the time, absolutely, and not just in a ritual context.

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In response to Paganism on Wikipedia

In response to Paganism on Wikipedia

Posted on by diana

... too much paprika!

I posted a response to Pantheon that either didn’t get posted or hasn’t been seen yet, and I do feel like I have something to say about the matter. I’ve identified as Pagan – Wiccan, specifically – since 1996. In that time I’ve seen a lot of changes within the Pagan community, but one thing that remains consistent is a one step forward/one step back mentality when it comes to adapting to the changes in mainstream culture. I think this mentality – and trying to break through it – is what’s really biting us on the ass when it comes to achieving actual documentation on Wikipedia. It’s a good thing that we’re starting to share our history with a wider audience, but I think we need to make it mean more to that wider, non-Pagan audience. In the long run, the question of Wikipedia is the question of outer Western culture, and one that marketers exploit like mad: “What have you done for me lately?” Continue reading “In response to Paganism on Wikipedia”

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