![]() It was being organized so the dance would go man-woman-man-woman, with one gender going one direction, the other the other. I will never forget a May Pole dance ritual in Washington state over 20 years ago. Even so, I was very aware of her presence. I attended a group ritual here in Sebastopol for the first time in several years because I thought enough time had passed that a conflict I had had with a member of the group putting it on had melted away. I also know they rarely do.įor this reason I personally do not go to rituals where I have had ‘problems’ with people there and I think there might still be ‘energy’ over the issue, either on my part or the other person’s part. I know from experience that deities can override this barrier on occasion. When I am distracted by worries, animosities, or anything else, I am to that degree removed from the common space the ritual’s participants are attempting to create. Perhaps later in the ritual very different emotions will need to be generated, but they need to be done so within a context that holds and focuses them, a context that requires centeredness and focus. For the same reason, the HP and HPS need to be calm and centered. Dissension among participants defeats the most basic prerequisite for a successful group ritual. That is a part of basic “ritual 101.” A great many Pagan rituals are a collective focus on a common purpose. Years ago I was taught that there must be harmony among participants for a ritual to work. ![]() NeoPaganism is a religion of ritual far more than a religion of belief. Religion is a very big one.įor this reason I will begin my analysis of this controversy by stating some facts about Pagan ritual and religion in general, and only then get to the politics. But in their mundane capacity they do not give it meaning. For many of us Pagans the mundane is thereby sacralized, but as this happens its dimensions are seen and experienced as only a part of a greater whole that gives them meaning. Spirituality and religion gives us a context where the mundane, or some aspect of the mundane, will not become all important, as it so easily otherwise can. It attracts power junkies and self-righteousness addicts like sugar attracts ants.įor me, spirituality and its organized form as religion is where we seek and hopefully find a context bigger than politics, money, career, family, ego, and the other matters that taken together create mundane life. Walking it is necessary at times and it is tricky all the time. Politics in the best sense is conducted along that thin but vital line between persuasion and agreement and force and coercion. ![]() This power can be physical, but it can also take many other forms. Even so, politics always involves exercising or seeking to exercise power over those who disagree. This is politics as a necessary human endeavor, and not just power tripping and manipulation. When the personal moral strength we get from religion is combined with a concern for power to realize our values by pushing them on others, the road to misunderstandings, and then to anger and even hatred, is opened wide with few of us wise enough to tread it successfully.īy “politics” I mean discussing and deciding on the values our broader community must abide by on pain of sanctions, whether they be the violence of the state, or condemnation and shunning those who disagree within smaller communities and organizations. It creates boundaries of separation where there were none and exaggerates boundaries that already existed. Why is it always destructive? Because politics usually involves conflict and conflict has a powerful tendency to elevate will and power over persuasion, example, and heart. Sometimes it may be necessary, but it is always destructive and so can be justified only to prevent a greater destruction. Because I think that allowing politics to enter into religion is always a bad thing whenever it happens. ![]()
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