The Pagan Community

The Pagan Community

I have been pagan all of my life. Yet I have dropped into and out of communities and moots for the most part. The only time I can really say I had a positive experience was when TK and I ran a pub in North Wales back in the day (thanks Steve).The local Pagan Federation used our pub and they were a lovely bunch. I did hear that the whole thing imploded not long after we lost the pub.

At a Mind Body Spirit fair I meet Willow who at the time ran the local moot. She was lovely, more faery than human but I was busy as a new Mum (moots tend to be evenings and in pubs here) and I was still teaching and doing my thing.

I did some readings and healings out of a shop (pagan) in Crewe and met some important people in my life. Yet the bitching and in fighting and dark magickal stuff really put me off. Then a woman called A____ brought down Willows moot (you will do it my way Alexandrian put me for a long time) and Willow got really ill and retired. 

So I began to avoid Pagan Federation moots, I tried a  few times, I really did, but I either didn't like the vibe or I got put off by the "do it my way" lot. It didn't stop me meeting pagans.

There is a whole world of pagans who don't go to pagan events, don't go to moots or so on. They don't wear their faith on the outside bare the odd necklace or crystal. They have no need or desire too. Yet we would be draw together. 

The thing is, the "mainstream" pagan community that I have been around doesn't get that it is a clique. 

The off shoot groups from the larger moots get cliquier and cliquier. When I started to publishing books I kind of figured I would have to re-join the pagan community. Yet here I am! I have had three copies of their magazine and the same names and same ideas pervade the magazine all three times. Oh the art work is different and there are interviews and so on but there seems to be so little diversity.

Not that the people are all from the same path, just it is always the same few people. It is a national magazine I do not believe we don't have more than 5 contributors! 

I did not find my teacher at a moot, no we met getting in trouble together on a pagan forum (who knew quoting Shakespeare was copyright infringement ?Oh wait it isn't). We were friends on Yahoo for years before we meet in person. 

I look at "my community" and they seem to care more about "the right fit" rather than faith or light.

Most of my students I have not met at pagan camps or moots but in a supermarket, or LARP event, or at gigs. The pagan community would literally double in size if it opened it's mind and arms more. If they met in cafes or coffee shops as well as pubs. If they didn't seem to have an alt dress code, (most of the time some folks seem to think that dressing as weirdly as you can for a moot is a great idea!)

The folks I have met at moot and liked are dressed in jeans and simple t-shirts or twinset and pearls. 

Not the ones shouting in sequins or simply just shouting.

I am a pagan. Always have been. I am knowledgeable and interested and smart and I feel excluded.

I don't go camping any more (my illness really hates the cold and in the UK it is always cold or wet, or cold and wet) and I don't go to pubs at least not unless I am on holiday or something. I do go to coffee and tea shops, book shops, might even do a road trip to a sacred site or too.

Being pagan is not about who you know, what you wear, what books you have read, or what bands you listen too. Magick is not about that stuff either. I am disappointed and frustrated that they don't see it. I know I might feel differently if they allowed me into the clique but in all honesty I am not sure if I want to be in it even if they did.

The most magickal people in my life don't go to moots. Some have never even been to one. They don't tend to wear gothic clothes (and if they do they are smart goth). They tend to be lawyers and teachers and nurses, students. They tend to have PTA meeting or shift work. They have children or fur babies (or both) and have no idea who they could become with some support or a great teacher. These are students, my teachers and friends. 

They deserve a community too. Which is why I guess I keep making them!

Bright Blessings xxx