Paganism, Religion, Spiritual Development, Witchcraft

Learning to love liturgy

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In my previous post, I talked about how I love liturgical elements in ritual. This was not always the case. I was raised in an American Baptist church, and Baptists have historically not been huge fans of liturgy. Well, at least not by that name.1

I grew up thinking of something stodgy and unnecessary that Catholics2 do. To be honest, it seemed kind of stodgy and overly complicated. When I got to college and got involved in the more spontaneous worship of the charismatic church a cafeteria worker introduced me to, that opinion only grew worse. In fact, at that point, I started seeing the Baptist churches services of my childhood and teenage years equally stodgy and boring.3

Once I started getting into Paganism, my understanding of liturgy began to change and I started to gain an appreciation for liturgy. I think the firs step in that journey began when I started trying to write about the concept of mystery in Wicca. This was at a time when I was exploring non-initiatory Wicca and remember Scott Cunningham talking about mysteries and mystery traditions in his book. At least I think it was Cunningham where I first encountered the concept.

To help crystalize the concept in my head — and because I was already starting to develop a desire to explain concepts in my new spiritual tradition to others.4 So I decided to do this by writing an article5 in which I described Christian baptism as a mystery rite. I quoted the passage in which Paul describes baptism as symbolic of “dying and rising again with Christ” and suggested ways in which the rite of baptism might be performed to really drive that symbolism home in an experiential way.

At some point, i decided to share the article with a friend who was studying to be an Orthodox priest. He smiled and pointed out to me that I had unwittingly described the way the Orthodox church views the rite of baptism. He also mentioned that in the Orthodox church, the sacraments are often referred to as mysteries.6

Around the same time, I also started exploring other Pagan traditions as I was starting to realize that non-initiatory Wicca wasn’t really for me.7 One of the first organizations I checked out was Ar nDraiocht Fein, a Druid organization founded by Isaac Bonewits. I started working my way through the organizations Dedicant Program. I particularly spent a lot of time learning about the ADF8 ritual structure. I came to understand the purpose of each part of the rite and started to learn that liturgical elements had deep meaning to be explored and experienced. And I could appreciate how my Christian friends who came from Episcopalian and Catholic backgrounds had liturgies that offered that same sense of deeper meaning.

And while I joke about Baptists having liturgy by a different name, I do question the accuracy of that joke. While there was a structure to church services I attended as a kid, that structure seemed utterly devoid of symbolism or meaning. It seems to me that a proper liturgy needs more to it than letting you know when you’re going to sing a song, read from the Bible, collect the weekly offering, and so on.

I feel like my spiritual life has been greatly improved by gaining an appreciation and desire for some liturgy. How about you? Has your perspective on liturgy changed over time? If so, how? Let me know in the comments.

Footnotes

  1. Christian blogger Fred Clark once pointed out that Baptists have some sense of structure to their worship services, but prefer to refer to it by terms like “the order of worship” rather than “liturgy.” ↩︎
  2. Growing up, I didn’t have nearly the exposure to or understanding of the various Christian traditions that I do today. I did not realize that Episcopalians — who I only knew existed because my family drove past an Episcopal church on the way to our own church every Sunday — were similarly liturgical in their practice. ↩︎
  3. Okay, that’s not entirely accurate. I always found the church services of my first church stodgy and boring. I just discovered church services didn’t have to be stodgy and boring when I started going to the charismatic church. ↩︎
  4. Have I ever mentioned that I wanted to be a minister when I was a young Christian? That desire to teach and help others survived the conversion process. In those early years, that was occasionally to my detriment, as I would occasionally think I knew more than I did. At the same time, I also got frequently frustrated at knowing I went to be a “Christian since I measured my age with single digits who had all the answers” to starting over from square one. Ah, the joys of realizing you really are a mediocre white man and not liking it. ↩︎
  5. Alas, my attempts to find a copy in recent years have failed so far. It’s a shame because as I recall, it was a pretty good article. But I think I wrote it for one of the online diary communities I was on and my accounts on those sites are long gone. ↩︎
  6. My friend also shared my article with his bishop at the time. He said the bishop responded by announcing that “I was Orthodox and just didn’t know it yet.” At the time, i was kind of flattered. As I’ve grown over the past decade or two, I still find the comment somewhat flattering, but also roll my eyes at the inherent Christian supremacy of it. ↩︎
  7. Years later, I encountered initiatory Wicca and explored that as well. I found it much more appealing and feel like there is a certain kinship between it and my own witchcraft practice. However, I never became a Wiccan initiate for a variety of reasons. I’ve recently considered whether I’d like to pursue that again. It’s an appealing thought, but I’ve also realized that my life circumstances just don’t make it a good choice. But I reserve the right to revisit that decision periodically. ↩︎
  8. To me, “ADF” will always stand for the Druid organization and not the Christian supremacist legal advocacy and training group (and SPLC-designated hate group) whose names also use the same initials. ↩︎
Paganism, Religion, Spiritual Development, Witchcraft

Ritual style preferences: Exploring a journal prompt from chapter 1 of “Changing Paths”

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Earlier this week, I decided to start reading Changing Paths by Wiccan author Yvonne Aburrow. I’ve decided that as part of my effort to get back into blogging, I’m going to take one or more journal prompt Yvonne asks at the end of each chapter every Friday and blog about it here. This week, I’ll be covering a blog prompt from chapter 1, which is titled “What is Religion?” Here’s the prompt I chose:

What type of ritual do you prefer? Formal or informal, structured or spontaneous? Are you drawn to liturgical, celebratory, or magical styles of ritual?

To explore this question, it’s helpful to briefly summarize the types of styles of ritual Yvonne mentions and what they’re characterized:

  • Liturgical rituals are communal rites that are often structured and formalized. Yvonne suggests that they are designed to “avoid outbursts of emotion or spontaneity.
  • Celebratory rituals tend to be informal and involved elements of spontaneity. They note that these tend to be intended to release or unleash power.
  • Magical rituals involve wielding power and directing it toward a desired end.
  • Ceremonial rituals are those in which power is honored and existing power structures are maintained.

As I think of these styles, I find all four styles — or at least elements from them — appealing. I certainly like the familiarity of certain liturgical elements whose symbolism and meanings I can fall upon. Yet I’m not big on “avoiding outbursts of emotion” or embracing a total lack of spontaneity. So I prefer repeating a ritual structure that has been carefully thought out and contains deep meaning for me, yet leaves space for moments from the heart and the interjection of Divine (or human) ecstasy into a particular rite as well.

Of course, it’s no surprise that I like magical rites. After all, magic and witchcraft goes hand in hand (especially if a witch like me who thinks that the very process of connecting with the Divine and/or other people is magical in itself). I also feel that the magical aspect of ritual is what moves me from a mere participant or servant of the Divine to a co-creator with other humans and event he Divine themselves.

Possibly the least ritual style I’m interested in is ceremonial ritual. I’m not a fan of honoring power and maintaining existing power structures. Perhaps it’s just the connotations I personally have with the phrasing Yvonne for it, but the description of ceremonial ritual screams authoritarianism and I tend to be staunchly anti-authoritarian.

And yet, I want to pause and explore my assumptions in my assessment. After all, there are structures that I do think are worth preserving and even necessary. The thing is, I think those structures aren’t authoritarian. And I realize that the idea of non-authoritarian and non-authoritarian structures often feels like an oxymoron, but I do think they exist. We just tend to refer to them by other terms, like “networks” and “communities.”

So could there be a ceremonial ritual that celebrates community and mutual commitment and is designed to strengthen community ties and bonds behind people. Or to put it in terms of Heathen practice, would a Sumble focused primarily and building bonds n the community be seen as ceremonial? Or would it fall under a different style? I’d love to hear people’s thoughts in the comments.

Magic/Magick, Religion, Witchcraft

Musings on significance and meaning

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“What is the significance of…”

“What does it mean when…”

Over the years, I’ve seen many questions that begin with each of those phrases. This is not surprising. It is a well established fact that many humans have an innate tendency to find significance, meaning, and even patterns where there actually are none. There’s even a term for this.

To give a more concrete example, I’d like to share something I posted on social media yesterday:

I’m reminded that a lot of people don’t realize that our calendar is entirely arbitrary. It’s useful, but arbitrary. So it makes it interesting to me when people try to find meaning in it. Things like “there are two blue moons this year! What does it mean?!” It means that an entirely arbitrary calendar lined up with the lunar cycles in a mildly peculiar way.

There’s nothing wrong with looking for significance or meaning, either. However, often there is neither until we imbue something with our own meaning and significance. This seems to be something some people don’t realize and maybe even be uncomfortable with. They seem to think that some external source — perhaps even some sort of authority — must declare that meaning and significance. Or maybe they’d prefer that such meaning and significance be an inherent property of the universe.

As someone who sees witchcraft as the act of creation (literally making us co-creators of the world we live in and are further building), I welcome the idea that we tend to imbue events and things with meaning and significance. It is essentially part of the creation process, where we imprint our own view of significance and meaning on the world around us, both as individuals and collectively. In fact, I’d say it’s an important part of defining and envisioning the kind of world we want to both create and live in.

Online Life, Paganism, Podcast

Reminiscing about podcast interviews I gave

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In my previous post, I mentioned that I had been a guest on four different podcasts over the past few years. I also realized that I had never posted links to all four of them or talked about them. I thought I’d take a moment to do exactly that in this post.

The very first podcast I was on was The Wormhole Manifest, which first went live in December of 2021. I actually got this particular interview because a mutual acquaintance, Frankie, had been on the podcast herself and recommended me as a potential guest. So Wormhole Matt contacted me and set something up.

Entering the Wormhole with Matt was probably the wildest and most random podcast interview I ever gave. This is because Matt’s podcast has a very loose focus and tends to cover alternative lifestyles. This was fun because we got to talk about things like popular myths about Paganism and witchcraft as well as pop culture references to witchcraft and my thoughts on them. Matt and I have talked about doing a follow-up episode where we focus on witchcraft in pop culture. Assuming he’s still interested in that, I’m the one dragging my feet at this point. I feel like I need to get caught up with a lot of recent pop culture portrayals (I have yet to watch American Horror Story: Coven even) before I can do such an episode justice.

The next podcast I recorded for an interview — though it was the third one to be released — was for the Poema Podcast. That podcast is hosted by James Prescott, who I know through Twitter and online deconstruction spaces. His podcast focuses on spirituality and many of his guests — myself included — have been former evangelicals discussing new ways that they have found to embrace and explore spirituality. My interview with James aired in June of 2022.

While I was waiting for the Poema podcast interview to be published, I did another interview, this time for the Thereafter podcast, which came out in May of 2022. Thereafter is hosted by Meghan Crozier and Cortland Coffey, both of whom I also knew through Twitter and online deconstruction spaces. In fact, I used to participate in Meghan’s deconstruction book club. This interview focused primarily on my journey out of evangelical Christianity and Christianity in general and how I found a new spiritual home in Paganism as a devotee of the goddess Freyja. This is probably the interview I am proudest of because it’s the one I found myself feeling most confident during.

After that, I went silent. I’m not the kind to go seeking interview opportunities (though I’ve considered changing that) and no one was approaching me. Then earlier this year, friend and grief counselor Mandy Capehart tagged me in a threads post letting me know that her colleague, Kim Evans-Handy (aka The Mocha Widow) was looking for guests to interview on her podcast for a series about how people from various religions and cultures viewed death and the grieving process. I contacted Kim and we set up an initial meet and greet. That went well, and we scheduled a time to record an interview, which she released back a March of this year. I’ve already done a separate post reflecting on my experience and feelings about that interview, so I’ll try not to rehash much of that here. What I will note is that this was an interesting and different interview than the other three (and I tried to keep each of them unique) in that it was not so much about my personal spiritual journey. Instead it was focused (or at least was supposed to be) more on a particular subject and how I viewed it based on my spiritual path. I’d love to do interviews on other focused topics like that if I ever run across a podcast that covers a topic I’d be interested in and feel I have something to say about.

Of course, the other thing that made this interview stand out from the first three was that it was the first time I appeared on a video podcast. The previous three had all been audio-only podcasts. I didn’t realize this one would include video until about a couple minutes before we began recording. Fortunately, my hair didn’t look too unkempt and I don’t think there were any (noticeable) stains on my shirt. But I learned an important lessons: Next time I agree to appear on a podcast, I need to verify the intended medium for the episode ahead of time!

Overall, I’ve found that I enjoy being a guest on podcasts. I’d love to be guests on more of them, and I’d absolutely do a follow-up episode on any of the four I’ve already been on. In fact, I did appear on another episode of Thereafter, though not as the episode’s guest. Cortland and Meghan had to record the introductory segment and discussion of recent social media happenings (“TwitBits”) the same night they recorded my interview. One of the things they planned to discuss (I don’t remember what) was something I had some knowledge about, so they invited me to participate in that recording as well.

As for new appearing on other podcasts. I guess that would require me to find other podcasts and possibly expressing an interest in appearing on them. I have a few hang-ups about that I’d have to get over first, but I’m absolutely considering it. Of course, I’m not sure how open most podcast hosts are to people contacting them about being on their show. I feel like the ones I’ve been on would be pretty open to it, as long as the person inquiring actually fit the theme of their show. So trying to get on a cooking podcast to talk about love spells probably wouldn’t go so well for me, for example.

Meta-Blogging, Personal Development

Musings on this blog and life in general

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This blog has been running on a self-hosted instance of the WordPress blogging software since I migrated over from the (also self-hosted) Movable Type software back in May of 2013. I’ve never regretted the decision to make the move and actually love WordPress. It’s handy, versatile, and easily-extended platform.

Though for the past few months, I’ve been having trouble with their JetPack plugin. The worst of the problems is that every now and then, when I do a plugin, the whole system would have to go down. Then I’d have to deactivate Jetpack and possibly even disconnect my blog from the WordPress.com site and then set it all back up.

Well, tonight, I managed to resolve those problems. it was pretty easy to fix in the long run. It was mainly a matter of contacting my hosting provider and having them enable another extension to PHP for my server. Then I also found out that my PHP configuration was limiting memory to a ridiculous number, which I was able to fix myself. And now, I have a happy blog that plays nice with JetPack again. Cool!

Of course, having spent the time to sort through that, I feel like I need and want to get back into blogging. That’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while, to be honest. After all, I felt really energized after writing blog posts participating in the #OcculTea conversation. Then again after appearing on The Mocha Widow’s podcast.

What I struggle with is how to keep up the steam. And if I’m being honest, I feel like this has been a recurring problem for me. I look back at the number of abandoned — and it feels like failed — projects I’ve started up:

I think the only thing I’ve been able to stick with has been microblogging at sites like Twitter (I will never call it “X”) and Threads. And that’s mostly because (1) it’s easy to come up with something that’s only a couple hundred characters long to say and (2) I’m often just silly there. A blog requires something longer and more serious. (As do many of the other mediums I’ve experimented with in the above list.)

Of course, I think another thing that helps me on those particular sites is the engagement. I almost always get some feedback on Twitter and Threads. But when it comes to my longer content, whether it be a blog or a YouTube video? Not so much. And that’s a bit discouraging. I won’t deny that or apologize for feeling that way.

However, it’s also more than that. Engagement energizes and inspires me. When I get feedback, it often makes me think of other things I want to say. When I don’t get such feedback, I often feel like I’m stumped wondering what else I actually have to say. The engagement keeps me thinking.

This is something I realized after doing the Interview with The Mocha Widow. i jokingly thought to myself that I’m a much better guest than a podcast host myself. Though maybe that was the mistake with my podcast. I wasn’t inviting guests on, but merely trying to fill the show with only my own thoughts.

In some ways, that’s also why I often miss diary communities like OpenDiary, which is where I got my blogging start (though we didn’t call it as such over there). We read each others diary entries and commented on them. And often we replied to comments on the other person’s own diary. We had whole conversations going there. (Weirdly, I feel like sites like LiveJournal and Tumblr have tried to recapture that community feel, but it just doesn’t seem the same to me.)

I’m not sure how many people really see this blog by comparison. It’s standalone. There aren’t diary circles I can submit posts to. There aren’t other bloggers on the site looking to join in. So part of the trick to get engagement hear is just to get people reading what I write here in the first place. And I’m not entirely sure how to do that anymore.

I also think I need to work on getting more inspiration by engaging in things myself. For example, I haven’t read many books on Paganism and witchcraft lately. I mean, it had probably been a full year before I borrowed a Kindle Unlimited copy of Essential Asatru last month. So I think getting back into some appropriate reading might help give me new things to talk about. Or maybe even just new perspectives on old things I’ve talked about before.

I do know I’ve been thinking I’d like to start reading some of the Pagan theology books I started looking up. So that may be a good place. Plus I have all the Icelandic sagas and other source materials for Norse/Germanic culture and religion that I still need to read. Maybe that will help get the creative juices flowing as well.

And as always, if you’re reading this, you are more than welcome to leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments. After all, as I noted earlier, I thrive on engagement/feedback. So how about providing some nourishment for your friendly neighborhood wyrd-worker?

Around The Blogosphere, Online Life, Paganism, Podcast, Religion

Thoughts on a podcast interview I gave bout death and grief in Paganism

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This morning, Kim Evans-Handy, aka The Mocha Widow, released the episode of her Grief Unleashed podcast where she interviewed me to get a Norse Pagan perspective about death, what might happen after we die, and the grieving process for surviving loved ones. I’d encourage you to check it out.

I greatly appreciate Kim for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts on this subject. (Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shout-out to Mandy Capehart for making me aware of this opportunity and putting me in touch with Kim.) Kim was a delight to speak with, a great listener, and asked probing questions.

Overall, I’m extremely happy with the interview and the things I’ve said. However, as someone who sees life as an opportunity to constantly grow and improve, there are things I might have said or done differently in retrospect. For example, I might have cut the tangent about initiatory WIcca and what initiation is much shorter. I had originally only brought up the existence of the two “flavors” of Wicca because I was talking about reincarnation and wanted to point out that my own understanding of reincarnation (as near as I can tell as a non-initiate) tends to coincide more closely to the views of practitioners of initiatory of Wicca rather than those held by those practice non-initiatory Wicca. But Kim asked for a little details on what initiation was like (which would be a better question for those who have actually gone through it than me) and the rabbit that is my mind was off like a shot.

Similarly, I wish I would have taken more time to talk about the more common Norse Pagan view of the afterlife, involving people residing with one of the various Norse deities (with Odin in Valhalla or with Hel1 in her home are the two most commonly known possibilities.)

Shortly after I gave this interview on March 3, I found Essential Asatru in the Kindle Unlimited library and read it. The author, Diana L. Paxson spends a significant amount of time talking about the importance of honoring the ancestors in Asatru, and I wish I had thought to mention that as well during my interview. After all, some Heathens/Norse Pagans even believe it is possible to communicate with ancestors and even seek wisdom from them (which seems to be a pretty common view among many religions and cultures, to be honest). This seems pretty relevant to the topic we were discussing. But this is the problem one faces when one has a lot they can talk about an a limited amount of time to talk. If I had said everything I could possibly say, there’s a chance we’d still be recording.

As I said, I think it was a fantastic interview overall and I hope people find value in it. I just think that if I were to do it again, I might try to find ways to cut the parts where I was educating the audience about Paganism in general a little shorter and made more time to cover death and grief and Pagan perspectives on it. After all, that was the central theme of the interview and what was most aligned with the podcast’s intent.

Notes:

1In Essential Asatru, (which I mention in this post a little further down) Diana Paxson notes that some Asatru do believe in some sort of reincarnation and that certain readings of the lore support such a belief. So my tendency toward believing in reincarnation doesn’t make me a total outlier Heathens/Norse Pagans after all.

Online Life, Witchcraft

My Contribution to the OcculTea Conversation – Topc 4: Capitalising Off Community

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The fourth and final topic for the #OcculTea conversation is “Capitalising Off Community.” In this blog post, I will offer my thoughts on the prompt questions provided.

Do I consider online communities as equally valid to in-person communities?

I want to start my answer to this question with the obvious disclaimer that this is my personal opinion. For me, online community and in-person community serve overlapping but distinct purposes. Primarily, I see networking and sharing ideas as something that I seek in both online and in-person communities. However, when it come time to actually work magic and honor my gods communally, I personally prefer to do that in person. So for me personally, both types of community are valid, despite serving different purposes for me.

Having said that, I recognize that other have found ways to work magic and/or honor their gods through online community. As I am a strong believer in “not yucking other people’s yum,” I honor that those people have found a way to do so meaningfully.

How have online occult/witchcraft communities impacted me as a person & practitioner?

Personally, I think online occult/witchcraft communities impacted me more when I was first starting back out. You know, back in the dark ages when we had to use Yahoo Groups and web-based message boards because no one had invented Facebook, Twitter, or any of the other social media sites. At the time, I was still living in a rural part of Pennsylvania and I didnd’t know many witches, occultists, or Pagans near me. So I relied on the Internet to meet like minded people, discuss the things I was learning and the thoughts they inspired, and feel note quite so alone.

Today, I think I still benefit greatly from making connections with others online and getting exposed to a much broader array of ideas and views than I might find in my local community alone. So there’s still the same benefit, but I don’t think I need it quite so critically as I did twenty or so years ago.

What are some of the dangers of the current phenomenon of capitalising off the witchcraft community? Have I been personally affected by this, or have I witnessed someone else be affected?

I think one of my biggest concerns is that there seems to be a lot of consumerism in many parts of the online witchcraft community. Or maybe it’s just the parts I’m mostly exposed to. One of my constant concerns is that newer witches or would-be witches might be left with the impression that being a witch must be expensive by it’s very nature. I think this would be a great tragedy, because we don’t need that kind of classism in witchcraft.

I also want to note that this is not a problem unique to online witchcraft communities. I know people who have been left with a sense that they need to buy a lot of “stuff” to practice witchcraft due to interactions with in-person communities as well. I think the only problem with online communities is that it’s easier to spread that misconception much more broadly online, thereby discouraging more new or future witches.

Should there be paywalled communities and online courses?

Have I mentioned lately that I loathe yes/no questions? I think most of them rquire an answer that is far more nuanced than a simple “yes” or “no.” And this is absolutely one such question.

I think that developing and maintaining a healthy and helpful community takes a lot of time and effort. Preparing and teaching a course similarly takes time and effort. And I think that people who provide something of value to others deserve to be compensated for their time and effort. Also, in the case of an online community, it costs money to rent or self-host the servers that allow the individual members of the community to connect with one another. It seems reasonable to ask members who benefit from that community to chip in to cover those costs.

Having said all that, I’m also aware that this creates another potential for one’s financial status/class to dictate whether or not you get access to such communities and courses. As a result, how much money a person has to spend can impact the quality of their online witchcraft experience. That’s not something that I’m entirely comfortable with, either.

The best solution for this conundrum that I can currently think of is for those of us who are able to do so to help out those who may not be able to afford access to some of these communities and courses. I’m going to use a recent example from another community I’m a part of to illustrate what I’m talking about here. Earlier this month, two podcasts that talk about deconstructing/leaving evangelical Christianity held an event about purity culture, the issues with it, and positive steps people who have escaped purity culture can take to reform how they think about sex and human sexuality in general. There was a fee to attend this event, but numerous generous people donated money to help pay for people who could not afford the fee to attend the event anyway. In the online witchcraft community, I envisioning doing something similar, even to the point of setting up one or more scholarship funds of a sort. This is not a perfect solution, as even such scholarships probably wouldn’t be sufficiently funded to pay for everyone who needs the financial help.

Fortunately, I suspect there will also be those people who provide information, and opportunities to both learn and connect at no expense. As i said, this isn’t a perfect solution, but I will not let the perfect be the enemy of good.

How does one ensure the authenticity of courses/workshops/memberships/etc. as a financial investment?

I think the problem of ensuring whether a particular course, workshop, or community is authentic is a problem regardless of whether there’s money involved. It might get more complicated if you’re considering which courses, workshops, or communities to sign up for when you have a limited amount of funds to pay for them. Even so, I think the answer remains the same. Individuals will need to research the presenter/community organizer and what they are offering and determine whether they find the information/community trustworthy and worth the asking price.

Online Life, Witchcraft

My Contribution to the OcculTea Conversation – Topic 3: Imposter Syndrome and FOMO

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The third topic for the #OcculTea discussion is Imposter Syndrome and FOMO. I had to look up what FOMO stood for. so let me save any reader from having to do the same thing: “Fear Of Missing Out.” I want to start this post by pointing out a post I wrote on Tumblr back in October about my own existential crisis over trying to be a content creator. I think that many of the things I talk about there fit well with this discussion. I will likely refer to some of the same themes as I address the prompt questions for this topic.

When I follow other creators in the community space, does it make me feel genuinely inspired and empowered or does it create feelings of FOMO and being less than?

I feel both inspired and intimidated when I look at what other creators are doing and saying online. I’m inspired as it makes me want to work harder and develop my own practice more deeply. At the same time, I find myself wondering if I really have anything to offer as a creator. And I wonder how some of you manage to come up with things to say/write every day. I just don’t feel that chatty.

Of course, some creators I follow aren’t doing the kinds of things I want to do anyway. I follow a lot of people who talk about how they practice witchcraft and even offer a lot of how-to advice and guidance. Personally, that’s just not something I want to do. So I can look at those particular creators and not feel intimidated or set off my imposter syndrome simply by acknowledge that we’re doing different things.

It’s mostly when I look at the creators that talk more about magical theory and/or theology that my imposter syndrome tends to activate.

For the most part, no. I need a reason to read a book (or jump off a bridge, for that matter) other than “everyone else is doing it.”

Now having said that, I have considered that I might need to start reading more books again to get further inspiration and ideas of things to talk about. But I’d rather choose those books based on whether they say anything I wish to engage with rather than whether they’re popular.

In this sense, I think I’ve made peace with the fact that I’m never going to be a “big” creator or influencer. I’m simply going down roads that don’t seem to have the draw as others. My issue is more about whether anyone at all is interested in the things I want to explore and talk about (and whether I really have anything original and/or of substance to say about them).

When practising my craft, do I find myself comparing what I do to what I’ve been seeing people do online?

Only in the sense that I often feel like I lack self discipline and consistency. But these re things I struggle with anyway. I think I’d be concerned about regardless of whether I see other people who seem to have much better consistency and self-discipline. it’s just that seeing them makes me more conscientious of my pre-existing concerns, struggles, and insecurities.

In what ways do I combat imposter syndrome?

I try to remind myself that I am my own person and it’s always dangerous to compare myself to others.

What would my practice look like without the social media influence of other creators?

For the most part, I think it would look exactly as it does now. Though some of my ideas may not be as well fleshed out without the ideas of other people to help get me thinking.

Online Life, Witchcraft

My Contribution to the OcculTea Conversation – Topic 2: Influencer Authenticity

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Today, I’ll be tackling the prompt questions for OcculTea topic #2, which is Influencer Authenticity. Of course, I’m not sure I’d consider myself an influencer, but authenticity is important to me. So bear in mind that my thoughts on this post will almost certainly Expand beyond authenticity on the parts of influencers. So with that basic introduction and disclaimer out of the way, let’s get on with the questions.

Out of what I share on social media, how much of it is staged vs. reality?

I’m not sure I fully understand this first question and I suspect that I think it’s setting up a bit of a false dichotomy as well. I think that staging something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not real, though I acknowledge that this is the colloquial understanding of the concept. But to give you a counterexample, consider the time that my local Unitarian Universalist church invite my (eclectic) coven to speak to their middle school kids during religious education. One of the things we were invited to do was to describe our basic ritual to the students and even give a demonstration. That ritual was staged in a sense. And yet, it was legitimately our ritual and I think conducting it in front of that that class had many of the same results as when we performed it at our covenstead the full moon prior to it.

I will note that I generally don’t discuss the specifics of my practice online. (I’ll note that this is something Yvonne Aburrow and I have in common.) I tend to talk more broadly and about much theory. I also like to get into theology. About the only things I have shared about my practice is that I have shared some of the prayers I have written for devotional purposes. And I think reciting those prayers is a willful act filled with meaning whether I do so on or off camera.

Do I think there is an element of censorship in online spaces? How do I decipher what is “appropriate” to share online vs. what to keep privately? Is this based on “social media etiquette” or a personal preference?

Based on the follow-up question, I get the impression we’re primarily talking about self-censorship. I tend to share things that meet the following criteria:

  • I have a basic right to share it (That is, it’s not something I was given in confidence)
  • It is something I feel comfortable and safe sharing
  • I have no ethical qualms about what others might do with it if I share it or how it might impact them

Have I ever encountered or heard of grifters in our community? Do I recognize them? What are significant signs of grifters in the community?

Beyond the “spellcasters” that advertise their services (usually on Quora), I don’t think I have encountered any grifters. There have certainly people I’ve encountered who make me wonder how much I trust what they’re saying, but event hem I’m typically not convinced there’s an intent to deceive or defraud there. I have no doubt such people exist, however.

What tools are helpful to decipher misinformation, and how can we as a community prevent widespread misinformation?

This is one I think we need to take a certain amount of care with. There are plenty of witchcraft traditions and other occult and related practices out there. I’m not an expert on all of them by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, I doubt I’m an expert on any of them! After all, even my own practice continues to develop and evolve over time.

Sometimes, I wonder if people are quick to discount something as “misinformation” when it’s really “something different from what their own tradition teaches.” In that case, I think that we need to be more accurate and say “this is contrary to my own tradition.” And yes, if someone is passing something off as being part of or a teaching of a particular tradition and we know this is false, we need to call that out as misinformation.

For the most part, I think a far more important thing to teach people is to learn to trust themselves, apply critical thinking skill, and figure out what their practice is and looks like. That way they can look at new information and decide whether they find it helpful and consistent with their own practice.

How does a large following impact the perception of the creator? Does this immediately make them an “expert”? Or are there other assumptions as to why they may have a large following?

Personally, I think the size of a creator’s following tells us more about their ability to cultivate a social media presence and following that it does about who they are as a witch or occultist. At most, it might tell us that what they are offering appeals to a lot of people. But again, this goes to my point that there are a lot of practices and traditions out there. A creator may have a witchcraft practice that I or someone else has no interest in for various reasons. I didn’t become a witch to follow the crowd. Though I’ll gladly go with the crowd if they happen to be going in the same direction I’m interested in going too.

How does one maintain the balance of authenticity and content creation?

I struggle with this. It’s probably part of the reason I have trouble creating content on a regular basis.

Witchcraft

My Contribution to the OcculTea Discussion – Topic 1: Impact on Community

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Yvonne Aburrow over at Dowsing for Divinity made me aware of the OcculTea community discussion regarding witchcraft online, and I naturally decided I had to throw my own pointy hat into the ring. (Who knows, maybe this will be the impetus I need to really get back into blogging or even doing YouTube videos. We’ll see.) As an aside, I’d highly encourage you to check out Yvonne’s own post on this first topic, as they always have interesting things to say.

The first topic and the focus of my blog post is titled “Impact on Community.” The organizers have provided a handy series of prompt questions, which I will spend the rest of this post exploring.

What is my personal reasoning/inspiration behind sharing my practice online? What am I looking to achieve by participating? Do I seek to educate, learn or connect?

I think that my reasons for sharing my practice online include all of those things and possibly more. I want to share information and insights. I want to explore ideas with other people and see what we can come up with together. One of us may have a thought, which might inspire a thought for someone else, and when we share these thoughts, I think that everyone is enriched through the experience.

Even in cases where we may not see eye to eye on certain things, I think that understanding our respective views can help us understand one another and even our own views a bit better.

How do I believe social media, as a whole, has impacted the community?

One positive thing I think it has done is given many of us the ability to connect with like minded people that we may have been isolated from before. Prior to social media and the Internet in general, people were limited to interacting with whatever other witches they could find locally — and some of us lived in places where that was not a large group of people. We often relied on going to large gatherings and conferences — assuming we could afford — to have a few days a few times a year where we didn’t feel quite so alone.

And not to start up the “coven vs. solitary practice” argument again (which I think its a false dichotomy anyway), I think it provided ways for many of us to connect and socialize with one another that didn’t automatically mean we were seeking to worship or work magic together. (Though plenty of people do both of those things online too!)

How do I think social platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have each impacted education/sharing information?

I think such platforms have provided a way to share information and learn things from sources other than books. Not that I have anything against books. But they are not the only way to learn things. And to be honest, I got tired of picking up books that for 80% of the book said the same things the last five books I read said. Paying full price for 20% (at most) new thought and information didn’t seem smart.

I also think videos by nature of their format can be more focused than most books. It can cover a single idea (well, at least the basics) in less than five minutes. To me, that’s getting the 20% of the new information without the repeat information. I like that a lot.

I also think such platforms allow more people to get their ideas out there. It takes a lot of work and skill to write a book and get it published. Anyone can put up a video on YouTube and TikTok. I mean, how hard can it be? I’ve done it. And it’s not just the people who are skilled writers and have 240 pages worth of knowledge to share that have things worth hearing about.

Is consuming witchcraft content becoming a substitute for practice?

Honestly? I think that’s been a problem for a while. I think we as a society have conflated knowing about something with being able to do a thing. I remember someone on the old Yahoo Group Amber And Jet (a group specifically for discussing British Traditional Wicca) talking about the difference between teaching (which typically involves imparting facts) and training (which typically involves walking someone through actually doing something) and how many Seekers need to understand that difference.

So while I think treating the consumption of witchcraft content as a substitute for practice is a concern, I don’t think it’s one that can ultimately be blamed on social media or witchcraft content in general. I think the better question would be what can we online witches do to encourage people to actually start a practice or continue with their current one. I’ll leave that for everyone to discuss in the comments if they’d like.

The thoughts of a gay witch living in upstate New York.