Leadership Skills
I have been dancing around this topic ever since the Discussion Group went three rounds (and more) on it. The self-made group has no template to follow and, wanting to avoid that 'making it up as we go along' feel to circle, pagans, especially look for justification, validation, attachment. Of course, I think, they also end up with the sort of leader who has their own reasons for being out front, up on the podium, or ordering the mechanics.
The group I was alluding to several posts ago, where I piped up with my usual 'I'm still here', has shown no further signs of life. Their leader, attending to a birthing daughter, did not participate in Spring Equinox festivities but, when it came time to announce the arrival of the new grandchild, did not post the news to the group elist. No, the news appeared on the main area pagan list which not everyone in the group is subscribed to. Makes me wonder what this leader finds important: the social connections to her own group and presenting her human side to them, or being one of the local pagan movers n' shakers.
There are the needs of a group and then there are the needs of the individuals within that group. I suspect that the needs of this particular leader are not in tune with the needs of her fellow worshippers. Words may fail me somewhat here as this is a group with by-laws that mandate the sharing of responsibilities and power, separating the religious and secular, the spiritual and mundane leadership duties. It is set up like what we often see in mainstream churches (as, indeed, it is a pagan 'wing' of an otherwise Christian organization). I think the leader does not have enough adherents left to successfully pass around the work.
So I guess I have questions. Much of paganism has been hierarchal, with a few exceptions, elevation dependent on attaining an 'inner circle.' Even in spiritual life we need to manuver and politic to gain position, spend money on classes, initiations, books, memberships, and generally grease the palms of a few elders. The model is familiar, copied from the mainstream. We can dream about escaping into democratically-organized groups, advancement a reward for merit and study and time well-spent on the path but......so many make it in the world on the palm-greasing, the special arrangement, the 'who you know', that it is hard to leave it behind. Do we really want to share? Do we really want to elevate the needs of others to be on a par with our own needs? I think we run up against individualism and cannot find our way past.
The group I was alluding to several posts ago, where I piped up with my usual 'I'm still here', has shown no further signs of life. Their leader, attending to a birthing daughter, did not participate in Spring Equinox festivities but, when it came time to announce the arrival of the new grandchild, did not post the news to the group elist. No, the news appeared on the main area pagan list which not everyone in the group is subscribed to. Makes me wonder what this leader finds important: the social connections to her own group and presenting her human side to them, or being one of the local pagan movers n' shakers.
There are the needs of a group and then there are the needs of the individuals within that group. I suspect that the needs of this particular leader are not in tune with the needs of her fellow worshippers. Words may fail me somewhat here as this is a group with by-laws that mandate the sharing of responsibilities and power, separating the religious and secular, the spiritual and mundane leadership duties. It is set up like what we often see in mainstream churches (as, indeed, it is a pagan 'wing' of an otherwise Christian organization). I think the leader does not have enough adherents left to successfully pass around the work.
So I guess I have questions. Much of paganism has been hierarchal, with a few exceptions, elevation dependent on attaining an 'inner circle.' Even in spiritual life we need to manuver and politic to gain position, spend money on classes, initiations, books, memberships, and generally grease the palms of a few elders. The model is familiar, copied from the mainstream. We can dream about escaping into democratically-organized groups, advancement a reward for merit and study and time well-spent on the path but......so many make it in the world on the palm-greasing, the special arrangement, the 'who you know', that it is hard to leave it behind. Do we really want to share? Do we really want to elevate the needs of others to be on a par with our own needs? I think we run up against individualism and cannot find our way past.