Exploring New Media: A Pagan Perspective

Jason Pitzl-Waters —  March 3, 2011 — 7 Comments

One of my distinct pleasures at this year’s PantheaCon was moderating a distinguished panel on how different modern Pagans are using, utilizing, and benefiting (or not benefiting) from new media. On the panel was author, organizer, and teacher T. Thorn Coyle, Star Foster, Managing Editor at the Pagan Portal of Patheos.com, Brandi Palechek, Online Marketing Specialist at Llewellyn, and Christine Hoff Kraemer, Department Chair, Theology and Religious History at Cherry Hill Seminary, each exploring how they use and navigate new media in their respective careers.

PantheaCon New Media Panel

The new media panel. Photo by Heron Herodias.

The entire panel was recorded, and T. Thorn Coyle has graciously posted the audio through her Elemental Castings podcast. You can directly download the show, here. I think this presentation is particularly vital right now because much of the talk goes beyond mere introduction to the topic and explores issues of money, promotional benefits, e-publishing, trolls, and piracy.

I hope you’ll download the podcast, and give it a listen. I think it can spark some needed conversations as our community becomes ever-more enmeshed with various new media technologies. Thank you to PantheaCon for hosting the panel, and to all the panelists for giving of their time and experience.

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Jason Pitzl-Waters

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  • syncreticmystic

    I'm listening to the panel now and sorry that I missed attending in person. As always, you're covering topics which don't get touched upon nearly enough.

    -Soli

  • http://military.pagannewswirecollective.com Lori Dake

    I don't listen to podcasts often, as I'm not a news radio type of person. But this one I gave a good listen to this morning, and I'm glad I did. Love it, love it, love it! I love the hard questions were asked, especially about the discussion of money.

    It's true no one wants to talk about Pagans and money, and it's really unfortunate. We need to earn a living just like everyone else, and for a lot of folks in the community, it's one of the only taboos we have. Overall, we're a very educated, talented and worldly group, and the common belief is those traits equate to prosperity and success. Sadly though, many Pagans I know are anything but prosperous and/or successful, and I really have to question why that is. Are we not permitted to have nice things and live comfortably? If that's the case, I'd like at least one citation please.

    I'm not saying we should all be garish, greedy whores, but the Gods do not demand we become martyrs for our causes and beliefs. I for one leave that to the religion I ditched. They can keep it. While true happiness cannot be bought, money makes reaching that happiness a lot easier, because it relieves a lot of the mundane problems we face. Bills need to be paid, groceries need to be bought, and hard drives occasionally need to be updated and replaced. And hey, a bit of extra scratch to get to a Pagan fest, gathering or convention every now and again is good for the spirit.

    I hope more people touch upon this very topic and more, because there is also a contradiction about money and greed in the community. From what I've come to know over the years, Pagans in general are very subjective and selective. They have no problem jetting off to Stonehenge for the Solstice but scoff at donating $5 at an open Circle. They'll eat their share of the potluck but offer a fun size bag of Doritos in return. They'll also be the same ones who cover their cars in bumper stickers about saving the planet but don't even use canvas grocery bags.

    So yep, thanks for the podcast. :) I hope other people listen in as well.

  • Bookhousegal

    I think the first thing 'Pagan New media' needs to do is to drop crashy and overstacked comments software *yesterday.* :)

  • http://johnfranc.blogspot.com/ John Beckett

    I just finished listening to this podcast – it was an excellent discussion on an important topic for the future of Paganism.

    Charismatic leaders created the first generation of modern Paganism and authors created the second generation. The third generation is being created now by bloggers, podcasters, musicians, artists and other folks whose works are largely promoted and distributed via New Media.

    The discussion on money was good. If we want to have religious professionals in our movement (and I'm well aware that some Pagans do not) we have to have a way for them to make a living.

  • henry buchy

    In reply to John Beckett:
    Ah but see, the first two generations professed the concept of sef dedication, self initiation, and self declaration as 'priest'. One is one owns spiritual authority. Now, there's a call for professional clergy? and folks wonder why it doesn't fly right away?
    Professional clergy in other faiths depend upon tithes from a congregation, or they hold down a regular job in addition to their pastoral duties. In the past there was patronism, one had wealthy benefactors which tithed, built temples, colleges etc. All that led to the types of institutionalisms, hierarchies and sacerdotalisms of the past.

    • http://johnfranc.blogspot.com/ John Beckett

      I wasn't around in the first generation, but my understanding is that they did not profess self-dedication and self-initiation. Rather, they insisted on one-to-one or many-to-one training – thus the emphasis on "lineage" by Gardnerians and such. Now, they definitely did profess the priesthood of every individual, something I think is a good idea. It was the second generation – the authors who taught via their books rather than face-to-face – who promoted self-initiation.

      If Paganism is to grow much larger than it is now, if it is to be a sustainable religion, if we are to have anything resembling the influence on the wider world that the mainstream religions have, we must develop religious institutions (organizations that are bigger than any one person and that can survive through multiple generations) and religious professionals (dedicated individuals who can spend more time on teaching, writing, and thinking than those of us who hold down "regular" jobs). We have to figure out how folks who do that – folks like Thorn Coyle – can make a living.

      That need not turn into hierarchy. I can respect the work of those who have gone farther than me and learn from them without following them blindly.

  • henry buchy

    Many of the first 'gen', lead the second gen in authoring DIY books.
    There was a traditional infrastructure, it fell along the lines of the various pagan denominations- lodge,temple, coven,kindred, hearth etc.
    That infrastructure was discounted over the last 30 years or so. In favor of what now? A call to institutionalise along 'mainstream' infrastructure? To be as those religions which most folks left for the denominations of paganism.
    For me, having witnessed it all, there is a type of irony here. All the reasons why most folks left the 'mainstream' religions were the institutionalisation aspects. All the reasons the traditional infrastructure were disparaged were for similar reasons. Now there's a call for institutionalising under the guise of paganism dying out,lol , and by many of the same folks who decried the old traditional infrastructures.
    Don't get me wrong, I am not against the idea of a confederacy of denominations under the heading of paganism. They need to grow from the bottom up, not the top down. They need to be communal, literally not 'virtually' and supported by "muscle" power, sweat and work not just by funding.