I think one problem is the cat-rat farm of fallacies of association. I think it should be possible for a pan-pagan organization to have Wiccan rituals as one of many services, but we've gotten to the point that, if a group has Wicca-style rituals, it's a Wiccan organization.
Right. And my beef isn't that there *are* Wiccan rituals put on by these sorts of umbrella groups, but rather that anything non-Wiccan is....part token minority representative, and part side-show (look, you too can be a well rounded and tolerant Pagan, just by attending this ritual!).
I had a hard time getting past that with SpiralScouts, for instance
Right. But I think most people take that too seriously as far as SpiralScouts is concerned, and one of the things I've personally focused on as things have developed is to try to move from being a Wiccan scouting group towards being something more universal...
...in fact, I owe a producer from TLC a phone call to follow up on some emails we've exchanged, the first of which started with the statement, "I heard that SpiralScouts is a Pagan group for children," which to my mind says 'kiddie coven.' My response was, "It's at least somewhat misleading to say that SpiralScouts is a Pagan group for children - we have families from many different backgrounds in our organization, including Jewish, Buddhist, and Christian. It'd be more accurate to call us an alternative scouting organization based on Pagan ideals."
Right. And my beef isn't that there *are* Wiccan rituals put on by these sorts of umbrella groups, but rather that anything non-Wiccan is....part token minority representative, and part side-show (look, you too can be a well rounded and tolerant Pagan, just by attending this ritual!).
I had a hard time getting past that with SpiralScouts, for instance
Right. But I think most people take that too seriously as far as SpiralScouts is concerned, and one of the things I've personally focused on as things have developed is to try to move from being a Wiccan scouting group towards being something more universal...
...in fact, I owe a producer from TLC a phone call to follow up on some emails we've exchanged, the first of which started with the statement, "I heard that SpiralScouts is a Pagan group for children," which to my mind says 'kiddie coven.' My response was, "It's at least somewhat misleading to say that SpiralScouts is a Pagan
group for children - we have families from many different backgrounds in our organization, including Jewish, Buddhist, and Christian. It'd be more accurate to call us an alternative scouting organization based on Pagan ideals."
Reply
Leave a comment