One fact that hasn’t sunk in too deeply to those on the outside looking in on modern Paganism is that our culture includes many different points of view on the topic of spiritual eclecticism. While some groups and individuals feel free to incorporate “whatever works”, others try very hard to find or reconstruct a singular tradition and are loathe to incorporate elements that they see as outside their cultural/religious boundaries. Today, many modern Pagans (myself included) fall somewhere in between these two poles. So I found it interesting that Pagan author Amber K seemed to take a shot at Pagans with a traditional bent in a recent article on Yule.

“People drawn to paganism tend to be “spiritual mavericks” because it’s a religion that is open to incorporating many beliefs, she said. “The fact is, if anything seems useful or true or good to us as individuals, we’ll incorporate that into our spiritual practice,” she said. “There are also pagans who don’t do that, who swallow a very set sort of beliefs and practices that are pretty rigid, but I would have to say the majority are pretty much wide open to spiritual truth wherever you find it.” That flexibility is one reason Kim Pennington-Dozier, a Jemez Springs resident, says she was drawn to paganism.” (emphasis mine)

I wouldn’t have noticed this if it weren’t for the “swallow” remark, and the subtle insinuation that the more tradition-bound Pagans are somehow denying spiritual truths in other faiths. Was she taken out of context? It can be hard to “hear” the intention in pieces like this, so perhaps she meant no insult? In either case, this brings up some interesting issues for the future of journalistic coverage of modern Paganism. More often than not, the “eclectic” Pagans get interviewed more often (for a variety of reasons) giving the impression that the entirety of modern Paganism is eclectic in nature. As modern Paganism continues to grow journalists will start to pick up on the divide between eclectic and traditionalist urges within modern Pagan faiths.

We are at a point now where we could establish the talking points for these idealogical differences within modern Paganism. If we don’t, we run the risk of having both sides of the ongoing debate stereotyped and defined by those who report on them. A good start would be avoiding comments that seem to inflate your viewpoint at the expense of those who don’t share it.