Back into the Fray?

[havenne]

I severed yet one more pagan tie a couple days ago. I had long been the list-owner for one group I used to lead rituals for, a job that kind of got dumped in my lap in a strange sequence of events. Yes, the truth is stranger than fiction, been there and lived to tell the tale! People have come and gone from this group but it has long been the

Comments

[drachenfang]

Well all I can ironically say is 'amen.' One can sit down with a paper on the nine noble virtues of Asatru, memorize it, recite it, restate it, write an essay on it, and then go out and violate every precept of it. The ideas of faith are nothing without the practice of faith.
As I was reading your post I thought about a concept of faith as nothing more than a moral compass to align oneself by. In concept there could be no deity or spirit and through the precepts of faith one could still know how to morally live. That precludes the faith part and begins to blur the line between faith and law though where law is concerned there is an external enforcement of it by others and where faith/morality is concerned there is internal enforcement by conscience or guilt.
In the end both of these factors guide us towards an ideal form of living that we have envisaged provided that they are functional. But again, if there is no practice of the form then the form itself is utterly irrelevant being all talk with no substance.
I suppose the next question that brings up in my mind is 'Where are you going with your faith?' 'You seem to be paving a road with ideas there so where does it really lead to at the end?' In the case of Mr. Direct line from Gardner then it leads to a bunch of random yobbo's whom people feel are somehow special and will give power to. I wonder if that is what this person really wants?
'Where are we going with all this', is definitely the question that concerns me most in pagan thought. It also leads to me to ponder next '..and who's driving us there?' I can almost envision the fingers of illuminati-like organizations through marketing and social insistence pressing the neopagan consolidation into one squabbling mass that will never get anywhere and fade into the new faith of pure materialism.
There is something that keeps us chained to our culture and blind to what we could become as a people. I wonder if it is just our own arrogance, ignorance, or the way we have all arranged the nests that we live in.
But then again my own view is skewed. There are many flavors of perfect worlds from 'Brave New World' to '1984'(Perfect in the state's eyes, not the protagonist's).
I think I will stick to my old guns and say that I am comfy enough in my beliefs to admit that I might be utterly wrong.

So how ya been?

[havenne]

Oh, I'm fine, actually; keeping busy. I should write the next installment in this story since the recons ignored most of my post quoted in my journal entry and did their best to tag-team me into submission. One more pissy reply and I was outta there since one of the people starting to beat on me was the guild owner.....Oh, I get into trouble with the Walk the Walk line everywhere I go, LOL. Some of these pagans act like they're downright threatened....put down my book? have an original thought??? what do you mean you believe something that isn't written in a book???? You'd think they all used to be Baptists (which is what Skip used to be before taking a dip into Gardnerian Wicca and finally landing as Archdruid). Long and winding roads lead some weird places.

Which brings me to 'where are we going?' and 'who is driving??' Good questions. I'm sure as hell not getting back on that bus. I met the people driving and they are scary pagan fundies, serious IRAB types and lore whores. Gotta indulge me in the pejoratives, I don't get to use them much . In the past couple days I found a pagan start-up guild over on Gaia and have quickly made it into 'crew' which lets me do moderator stuff - I have put up the first post for 'discussion group' and I'm off pulling the rickshaw. Here's hoping I rustle up some good action.

So, back at ya - how're you holding up? Isn't the school year just about over? Then what?