Her Hidden Children: In Praise of Teachers, I Wanna Be A Minority & Are We Hiding From Each Other

Last updated on: June 5, 2010 at 10:45 am by Star Foster

Her Hidden Children: In Praise of Teachers, I Wanna Be A Minority & Are We Hiding From Each Other 2010-06-05T10:45:37-04:00 Star Foster

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’ve got three things on my mind and while I have ample coffee I’m going to try to express my thoughts in a semi-orderly fashion.

The first is something that I find weird in Paganism, yet it’s not really exclusive to us. We have a whole wealth of wise folks that influence our community that are unknown to the greater Pagan community. They are priestesses, priests, teachers and elders that never publish essays or frequent forums. They touch our lives deeply and never appear on book covers or in newspapers.

I’m loud and opinionated but I’m no teacher. I’m not suited to that calling and so I serve my community as best I can: by talking incessantly about things that I find important. I am no good at teaching, training and nurturing people on a spiritual path, but because I “talk out loud” on Patheos some people have assumed I’m a teacher. Not so.

We have a strange dynamic in our community since, oh, the 1980’s. Sunfell calls it the third wave of Pagans, the “book Pagans”. We tend to place a lot of credence in authors, and perhaps less in our teachers. Paganism isn’t a static thing, we’re not a “people of the book” and our teachers are the foundation of our traditions.

Personally, I’m incredibly grateful to have living, dynamic teachers who are called to teach and excel at it. I try to keep my tradition our of my writing on Patheos because I’m not qualified to speak for it by any means, but I really appreciate my High Priestess and High Priest. Appreciate the living flesh-and-blood teachers in your life. They keep the hearth-fires burning according to season.

Thing number two bouncing around my noggin is our growth. I’ve had countless conversations where someone mentions that Pagan religions will never become major religions, or that the modern Pagan movement will never become mainstream and we wouldn’t want it to, either!

Um, there seem to be more of us. Have you noticed that? Lisa Simpson defended Wicca on The Simpsons. We’ve delivered the opening prayer at state legislatures and had an active US president mention us, albeit unfavorably. What will the new census reveal? What if we’re growing faster than we’d previously thought? What if we are becoming a major movement? What then?

The next thing on my mind is Pagans in hiding, not just from an outside world that will not understand them, but from other Pagans. I discovered recently that I had lived near a Pagan group for a year in a small town and never knew it. Recently learned there’s a private lending library in my town run by a group that prefers to stay on the down-low.

I don’t hide from other Pagans, and have actually made an effort to be more publicly Pagan short of sporting fairy wings and occult bling. I do try to avoid conflict where I can, although I won’t back down from an attack, and I try to generally be the sort of person that when people learn I’m Pagan it makes them rethink their stereotypes and prejudices. However, I do understand the desire to hide from other Pagans.

Let’s face it, as a tolerant and inclusive community we can attract a few nuts. It’s one of the reasons teachers screen students and groups screen initiates carefully. When I opened up my Facebook profile to be completely public after starting here at Patheos it was reluctantly and warily done. So I understand the impulse to hide.

However, if decent, honest, hard-working ordinary Pagans don’t go public then all the public sees are the nuts and crackpots. Harvey Milk said people’s views of gay people would change once they realized they knew a gay person. I say people’s views of Pagans will change once they realize they know a Pagan.

Now I’m off to do laundry and get another cup of coffee!

networking

Paganism

Pagan

Previous Post

June 5, 2010

Summer Solstice- Hear the Goddess Talk

Next Post

June 6, 2010 Wyrd Designs - Loki: At the Hearth Fire

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category alexandrian asatru astrology ATW Audio books btw ceremonial magick chaos classics community conversion cosmology dianic discordian druid dvd eclectic equinox ethics family feri festivals film Fully Inclusive Events gardnerian gender issues glbt heathen hellenismos history humor initiation interfaith magick meditation Military movies music mysticism myth networking news Open Thread Pagan Pagan 101 Paganism passings polytheism Polytheistic Religion polytheology praxis Reading List religio romana review ritual sabbats santeria service solstice symbols tools values wicca witchcraft

Select a Month July 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which Psalm prophesies the coming of the Messiah being rejected?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Psalm 118 Psalm 1 Psalm 51 Psalm 137