Back to the PBP. Summer officially ended in Calgary today when the temperature dropped from yesterday’s high of 23 down to our high today of 8. I guess that my waiting for fall was in vain. We get summer and winter here. Meh.
The cooler weather and the evil threat of snow for tomorrow means that I’ll be inside more, and I’ll have some time to get caught up on the PBP – hopefully before it’s over.
For the letter O, I’m going to touch on Opinions. There are always new folks out there looking for a guru or high priest/ess to lead them into the ways of Paganism/Witchcraft similar in fashion to the way that one would go to a church and seek advice from the local priest/minister. This time of year, especially, seems to attract more seekers than any other.
It’s easy to think that the people you come into contact with on the internet are of a similar stripe to those religious leaders that we’re used to in the mainstream world. The truth is that anyone with access to a computer can create a blog or a website and set themselves up to look just like some manner of high muckity-muck, and there really is no way to prove or disprove their claims.
Paganism and Witchcraft are often secretive and solitary paths. Most of the folks you run into online are relative newbies themselves. To paraphrase a friend of mine, there is a difference between 5 years of experience, and 6 months of experience repeated 10 times.
Not to say that there aren’t elders/leaders out there. There are plenty, but not all of them are actively teaching or even interested in passing their practise along at any given time.
Being a seeker is a tough business. If you’ve left one of the mainstreams faiths, then you know that just because someone preaches a specific path or experience, doesn’t make it universally true. Everyone’s faith comes down to a mixture of belief, experience and opinion.
And in my opinion, everyone’s path is meant to be unique. You may practise in the same style and use the same spiritual cues as others, but your experience, your connection to the unseen world (whether or not you believe in deities, etc) will be different from everyone else’s.
No one can do the work for you, and everyone who writes about Paganism/Witchcraft/whathaveyou (even me), is working from a personally held worldview – an opinion. And the only way to develop your own is to get out there and touch the universe with your own two hands.
Think. Study. Read. But most importantly, do.
A Less Travelled Path 