I’ve found over the decades that there is a lot of generic information out there and not a great deal of specific experiences being shared. I can understand the reason why from a few different angles. First, it’s easier and more convenient to not have to contextualize everything you post or follow up with clarification posts. Second, it’s prudent to protect yourself physically and magickally by not having your personal business out in the open. Third, some things are simply meant for an individual and wouldn’t apply to anyone else’s experiences.
But I think our community deserves more than a million Paganism 101 blogs.
I’ve been a practitioner for over 25 years. When I research in the Paganosphere, I’m looking for specific things that I can absorb, learn from, and model my own techniques off of. I’m also looking for people to connect with, even if it’s just through email. Community isn’t transactional, it’s reciprocal. And each article I post is a bid for connection.
It’s up to modern practitioners to document their own experiences, their own techniques, and their own contexts. My context happens to be focused on learning from my ancestors, who were Christians of the Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Baptist varieties, with a few folkways sprinkled in here and there from unknown sources. I struggle to respect cultural boundaries while also seeking to understand the universal underpinnings of specific practices. I’m sure I’m not one-hundred percent correct in doing so. But that is all part of what makes up my path. And that’s just my familial heritage. That’s not even counting the wild, wonderful world that is my spiritual heritage.
One of the goals of this blog is to bring more of my individual Craft practices into the light of day and share them with the world so that the people who need to have that knowledge end up with it. That necessarily involves discussing the not-easily-quantifiable and the sounds-totally-batshit. But if I am to honor my oath to preserve the Craft, that means more than just teaching. It means leaving a record and having faith that the correct people find those records.
And that, dear reader, is so much juicier than yet another Paganism 101 blog.
Over the next several posts, I intend to draw a thumbnail sketch of my practice as it has evolved, including experiences that cannot be scientifically explained and beliefs that can only be described as spiritual rather than religious. I hope you will join me as I both reflect on my path and turn my gaze forward to what’s next for me as a practitioner.
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