Diversity is one of those funny things. There never seems to be enough diversity in any community to reflect all the many different intersections within society. Ideas of diversity are often limited to race, ethnicity and gender in larger conversations, and yet there are so many more variations and flavors to the many different types of people, ideas, experiences and circumstances. It has become more of a buzz word in many spaces, such as the workplace, academic institutions and even spiritual spaces – an expectation instead of a reality in some circumstances.
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The sheer nature of experiential spirituality allows for people’s differences to have a place within the community dialog, and when it doesn’t it is noticeable. I tend to crave diverse environments, and when there is a noticeable lack of diversity in a specific area, I notice it pretty quickly.
Diversity can be vital to the sustainability of any given community because it challenges our thoughts and stretches the boxes that we construct within our own limited exposures. Diversity supports growth. In The Benefits of Diversity, What the Research Tells us, authors D. Smith and N. Chonfeld talk about quantitative and qualitative research on the impact of diversity in higher education and within organizations. Data continues to point to the importance of diversity and the benefits that diversity has on the development of a community, and the individuals within it. “Our review reveals important links between experiences with diversity and increased commitment to civic engagement, democratic outcomes, and community participation”.
The ability for people to grow and learn through the experiences and connections with a myriad different types of people benefits our ability to think critically and have a larger world view.
So what does diversity look like in the Pagan community and how do Pagans feel about the layers of diversity that we do have? I spoke to four different types of Pagans and Polytheists to ask these questions. John Beckett, Niki Whiting, Sabrina Taylor and Lorrie Patrick; all different people from different flavors of practice with different backgrounds. Some of these people are writers, or college students, and have different socioeconomic statuses. All of them are connected to our Pagan and/or Polytheist communities.
I asked three questions of all three people interviewed:
1. What areas do you feel we are the most diverse in our communities?
2. What do you enjoy about the elements of diversity that the Pagan and Polytheist communities have?
3. What areas of diversity would you like to see our communities grow in?
The answers to these questions were quite diverse in themselves, and show a snapshot of how simple and yet how complex diversity can be.
John Beckett
We are most diverse in our religious and magical traditions. When I first began exploring Paganism in the early 1990s there was Wicca and Druidry and that was about it. here were other traditions (Thelema, for example, is older than Wicca) but if you were new and didn’t know anybody, you didn’t have much of a chance of finding them.
Now there are more traditions than you can keep up with, and with the internet and especially with social media, a seeker can find pretty much exactly what they’re looking for. The problem now isn’t that there’s not enough diversity, it’s differentiating one group from another.
I like going to Pantheacon or Pagan Pride Day or just surfing the internet and learning something new and different about how to form and maintain relationships with the Gods, ancestors, and spirits of Nature. I like learning about religions and cultures that were thought to be dead that are being revived and reimagined here and now. And I especially like to see Gods that were forgotten being worshiped again, perhaps for the first time in thousands of years.
I’d like us to become more aware of the wide diversity that exists in the Pagan and Polytheist communities. We’re not all the same, and that’s OK. I’d like to see a deeper appreciation of our diversity of beliefs and practices, not just to avoid cultural appropriation (although that’s certainly important) but to form and demonstrate respect for our differences.
And I’d like for us all to learn to listen better, so we can help seekers find the tradition that calls to them and not steer them toward a tradition we think they “should” follow based on their appearance, name, orientation, or other categorizations. The Gods call who They call. – John Beckett
Niki Whiting
I don’t really know how to answer that question. I don’t think I’m capable or qualified to do so! My communities are relatively small and most active online, which skews my reality. What I see online, what I witness at PCon, and what I saw at Many Gods West are quite different!
The one thing I’ll say is that overall we do a good job of fostering and supporting LGB folk. Some communities are better than others about the T in that equation.
Overall, I love the spirit that is present in both communities. In my limited experience I think the polytheist communities are doing a better job of discussing a wide array of social, environmental, and economic justice issues, and also of listening to diverse voices.
I was pleased to see just how gender variant the attendees at MGW were. Attendees also came with a variety of social needs and several had mobility issues, and all were accommodated in a very organic way. If those people are in our wider communities I feel very hopeful for inclusion and continued diversity in both Paganism and polytheism.
Access and money for access. Many of the people involved in our communities are not wealthy. We make sacrifices to attend gatherings and groups, to tend our shrines and altars. But many people with more than one hurdle are often left out of such gatherings. How can we make these events and gatherings more accessible?
How can we reach out to communities that might otherwise be sympathetic but see Paganism as a white, hippie enclave? I think polytheism has a better “in” in this regard. There are many traditions that don’t consider themselves Pagan but are or can be approached from polytheism. Many of these traditions come from indigenous cultures or Afro-diasporic cultures – groups that are tremendously important to the United States’ history and culture, but often get left out (sometimes by their own choice!) in the overwhelming European milieu of modern American Paganism.” – Niki Whiting
Lorrie Patrick
What I have noticed in my limited exposure is that we all seem to come from very different backgrounds particularly where and how we were raised. We seem to have a great deal of diversity among us not only in what part of the country or world we grew up in but varying socioeconomic status, religious backgrounds, how and by whom we were raised, and the life experiences that have brought us where we are today.
I enjoy this diversity because I feel we all come together due to a common thread but still have so many different things to offer one another which hopefully helps us to learn and grow.
My hope is that our communities continue to have open dialog about their differences. That we can recognize them, embrace them and use our shared knowledge to strengthen the community in every way possible. – Lorrie Patrick
Sabrina Taylor
I believe that the Pagan communities are most diverse when it comes to online communities. I think many different factors play a part in this. Due to location (I live in Seattle) I rarely run into other Pagans of color except at festivals and larger community gatherings.
I enjoy the fact that many of us bring an element of social justice to our communities and spiritual backgrounds, either due to who we are as people or what we experienced growing up due to being a minority.
It would be great to see more diversity in pagan leadership organizations as well as within our community’s media. – Sabrina Taylor
When I think about the reasons I was initially drawn to the larger Pagan community I think about the different conversations, and vastly different types of people with whom I got to connect. While it is very apparent that diversity within some areas of our community are slow to develop, I still find that other areas of diversity have been just as important in the connection that I, and many others, have within modern Paganism or Polytheist communities. It is my personal opinion that any community should be made up of all different kinds of people. My ideal community would be made up of Black, White, Latino, Multi-Ethnic, female, male, transgendered, gender queer, heterosexual, bi-sexual, gay, meta-sexual peoples of all different socioeconomic statuses, from all different types of regions, from different age groups, different abilities, with the many different experiences and engaging in many different types of spiritual practices.
The more that our communities can identify, embrace and celebrate the various forms of diversity we have, the more culturally competent our communities become. Increased opportunity to break out of the mold of groupthink allows for innovation, enhanced understanding of cultural nuances, and cross-cultural interconnected relatability.
We need to continuously ask ourselves where we excel, where we need to improve, what faces are missing from our circles and how can we support diverse spaces that encourage health of our overall spiritual communities.
There was a section that stuck out to me in reading What Do Leaders Need To Understand About Diversity on the Yale School of Management website. “Here’s the key: If you want diversity of thought, you have to bring in people around you who have diverse experiences. Differences in race, gender, and socioeconomic background are three characteristics, but so are differences in learning style or differences in professional field. And I’m not suggesting that any one of those points of diversity is more potent than others.”
It is important to celebrate where we are great and examine where we need to improve, while fostering an environment that promotes healthy engagement in our myriad differences.
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We really need to do more than talk about this, IMO. We need to ask: whose voices am I uplifting? Who am I talking with about scholarships for under-represented people? Who am I asking to sit on my panels? If I’m asked to an event or panel, I can also ask, “are there any trans women, people of color (fill in the blank) on the panel?”
Diversity doesn’t just happen by our wishing for it. We need to find ways – whether large or small – to act.
Thank you for writing this piece, Crystal. It is an important topic in so many realms, not just Paganism(s).
“whose voices am I uplifting? Who am I talking with about scholarships
for under-represented people? Who am I asking to sit on my panels?” These were questions Rhyd Wildermuth, PSVL, and myself asked when putting together MGW. Diversity won’t “just happen” and so we worked to expand the platform as best we could.
I still kind of have to quibble there. There’s learning, there’s good hospitality, there’s *sure* not room for turning people away over minority status, but, wait a minute, *yeah* people *just happening* to be ‘seeking the old Ways’ kind of *is* actually how this just happens to just happen to happen.
Being Pagan *does* kind of mean accepting the Gods do Their own recruiting. What’s up to us is to do our best to do well with who turns up.
I wasn’t referring to proselytizing in any way, shape, or form. I was talking about putting on an event and working hard to do what Thorn suggests: think about who is speaking, what the panels are and who is on them; making sure communities outside of our own bubbles are informed and feel welcome; and make sure that people with mobility and financial constraints have access to the event. Etc.
I’m not sure how that’s supposed to change our demographics. Or relate to this article. I can’t go to panels, can’t even go *home.* (Honestly California sounds like a circus sometimes, honestly. Things quickly devolve to broad arguments about “PC” and how actually-despicable TERFists are but I still wonder exactly why a pre-op transwoman actually wanted to be undressed in a vagina-centric space to begin with. I mean, one of the so-basic we-don’t-say-it-much rules of witchcraft is ‘Start where you are.’ It comes between ‘Breathe’ and ‘Did you remember to breathe.’ Sometimes it does seem like conferences in California are just like clickbait generators. (That would cost a month’s rent at the door, never mind getting there, by the way) Meanwhile my local community’s trying to keep a roof over everyone’s head and I might need to leave because I’ve got zero effective civil rights in this state.
I don’t get it.
Kind of where California Pagan conferences stop making sense. I’m from somewhere one could be more open about being Pagan, eventually, but in most of this country, if someone of any color comes up to you and asks ‘What church do you go to,’ the answer is “I didn’t say.”
I really don’t comprehend why you would have an issue with events attempting to be more open and inclusive – including financially – in order to foster diversity (including economic class diversity).
This isn’t about being PC. It isn’t about proselytizing or recruiting. It isn’t about scaring up a new controversy for controversy’s sake. It’s about acknowledging that many Pagans of Color, or Trans Wiccans, or Polytheists with disabilities, or… are excluded because the dominant culture within our own ranks hasn’t slowed down, taken a breath, and asked, “wait a minute, what and whom are we missing here? And why?” The dominant culture doesn’t often ask, “What are my biases and blind spots and how do those lead to exclusion?”
Often, folks are missing because they feel unwelcome for various reasons – be it financial hardship, lack of accessibility, micro-aggressions, or outright hostility.
Often, folks are missing because no one bothered to ask them to attend, and what they might need in order to feel welcomed.
I most certainly have said nothing against ‘events being more open and inclusive,’ Thorn. Opening is just a door. You can’t force various numbers to want to enter?
Niki, I had a convo with Rhyd about that very thing, before MGW. I’m glad to hear that it was at the fore in planning. We need more of that.
Also, this bit is for you, Thorn. I mean, you know something that hurts? You, not without reason, are fighting your local police. Or the idea of police. And challenging the national Pagan community in some ways as if somehow those of us who are white *are* the police.
I’m not.
Would have been, though. Wouldacouuldashoulda. My first memory of my own father is him coming home in riot gear smelling of tear gas. Saying when he thought I was too young to hear how it wasn’t right. But I heard.
He was not a chief because of *me.* Me being non-cis. Forget about me even qualifying…(Which I could do at age twelve anyway) …but just because I existed. Therefore I am not a cop and….also my father was not in charge of cops for a long number of years. He would have done better but that is just not how recent decades went. This can’t be undone.
May you be blessed.
Think I have been. Blessed… And sorry. This is not how it was supposed to be on that count.
Best lesson I ever got in shamanism, btw, courtesy of my Dah and the Mass DLET: “In this job you’re going to see people on the worst night of their life. Every night. If you start to think that’s what people are, you will crack.”
(Also, be careful in confrontations, …between the drug war and stop-loss of reservists which many had to be in recent decade, it’s possible many police officers are twitchy.
A good set of questions with promising answers. I find the only problem with our membership is not encouraging diversity but rather finding enough diverse folks who want to participate (at least in Kansas). Thank you for hosting this discussion.
I think especially in Kansas or the South it’s hard enough to accommodate those who *do* feel like going through all Pagans do never mind have enough energy and resources to go look for and train *more.* Never mind feel all guilty if to be honest we’re all pretty wiped as it is. Being pale of complexion *doesn’t* somehow mean I actually run this fricking state.
I’m not exactly sure what you are getting at here, Friday, because your comments kinda wander all over the place.
However, if you are trying to say that pagans – especially pagans of limited financial means – in the far more conservative parts of the United States have a tougher time just trying to gather a community together – and hold it together – than in, say, San Francisco, I’d say that’s a fair statement.
That said, you and I take advantage of the Internet: a really nifty device that can instantaneously link us to the entire World. This is a huge chance from earlier times, when most pagans connected through printed periodicals, books and an occasional festival or gathering close enough to attend.
Since we ARE connected through this device, it makes expansion possible: of ideas, of connections, of process. I may be out in the ‘buckle of the Bible Belt’ here in south-central Kansas, but it doesn’t mean our community cannot expand, support seekers who are of a different culture, race or sexual orientation.
One form of diversity that I’ve been working on better understanding & adapting to- is making Paganism(s) more accessible in different formats- both for folks with disabilities as well as people with different educational & literacy levels. I’m pretty bookish, but I don’t expect everyone to be! The druid grove I’m part of forming has quite a few seekers who are older, so respecting and incorporating their knowledge & experience is key. We need to get away from the assumption that people who are new to Paganism are in their teens or twenties!
The thing is I don’t think we can *force* *racial and ethnic diversity.* As a Pagan community, we are not averse to learning from other cultures, but in a sense we’re much like if someone tried to put back together a ‘Native American religion’ umbrella faith. Just a different continent and region with just as many actually different cultures and faiths as North America had over time.
When it comes to definitions of what’s our heritage, that gets complicated, of course, but as much as we like to learn from others we don’t see things or operate the same way as, say, Afro-Carribbean traditions, however friendly the relations, (And honestly, even in areas where ‘race’ isn’t a big deal there’s simply a big demographic factor where black seekers have a much easier time finding and getting into Afro-carribean trads… cause that’s the assumption.)
To my experience, Pagan communities tend to be about as racially and ethnically-diverse as, well, people were in the area about where and when they were young teens.
If groups don’t *mix generally,* it’s not like there’s Pagan missionaries knocking on other people’s doors trying to ‘go convert this group’ or ‘go convert that group.’ That’s just not how we go about things. With *anyone.*
I’ve ended up in the South and people self-segregate in ways that start long before anyone dares turn up at a *Pagan* meetup, really. (Honestly the only time anyone black did down here, they seemed disappointed it was mostly a planning meeting for exhausted people and didn’t stick around… quite probably Christians hoping for converts or something, or someone expecting fireworks from a social… cause you couldn’t get any conversation out of them. )
I mean, most Pagans are closeted here and way too many black folks seem to make sure to pepper everything they say with ‘Jesus’ talk, maybe as some sort of defense, before you’re even sure you should let *them* know *you’re* Pagan, never mind go ‘recruiting,’ which we don’t do anyway.
I’ve also had racist non-Pagans turn up at the local college organization’s event and think it was a free-fire zone for actual racist slurs….and well, they go tthe rough side of my tongue over *that* even as a newcomer myself. (No they weren’t invited back, either.)
So much of this doesn’t *mean* anything in Pagan terms anyway, even regarding our ancestors. Someone classed ‘black’ could *easily* have more Italian, or Nordic ancestry, than I do, for instance, but people *ignore* that even if that’s a really big thing to them. And it’s *not* even what’s important to people in European Paganism any more than …it matters in your own life.
I mean, as a queer person, never *mind* spirit-touched I was raised to think my largely-Catholic ancestors would *hate* me. (I mean, maybe at the *time* but that all looks different when you’re dead anyway.)
It seems to me one of the big reasons a lot of people insist ‘Pagans don’t get the race thing and go recruit more of people called racial minorities,’ …We’re actually not about that and don’t go recruiting anyway. If we fail at hospitality or forming *tribe* (Cause the ‘we’ isn’t ‘Europeans vs everyone else *either,*) that’s on us for *that,* not somehow failing to redress world culture and American society. We’re the other guys. A diverse *lot* of ‘other guys.’
One of the first things to accept as a European Pagan is that anyone *can* be one of us, but not everyone *must.* That’s part of how we’re ‘the other guys.’
I mean, going forth and recruiting is most explicitly *not* our job. Building something *is.* And shame on anyone who turns away anyone if we build it and they come. Dig?
We have to be willing to be uncomfortable, for to stay comfortable we remain with what we know and what is safe for us. We have to give up our fear of the other and admit that we only imagine, that we don’t know if, the other is dangerous to us. We have to listen more, talk less, and put aside the BUT word but in our response. We have to understand that something we don’t like may be wrong for us, but not wrong for someone else. We must seek out those we don’t know and don’t understand, not wait around for them to show up. You cannot gain diversity in a passive way, it requires each person to actively seek it.
Former editor of ACTION
Uncomfortable with what? Seems to me *we’re* the ones most don’t know or understand. I live in the South. If black people come to my door with Bibles and crosses and ask direct questions about what *I* believe I have to simply say ‘You need to leave, now.’ It’s not cause I’m ‘uncomfortable with black people’ it’s cause my landlord waves crosses too.
Let me put it this way even within the Pagan community, I know plenty of people that ever have much of anything to do with those not in their tradition, or their religion. How many Wiccans do I know who know nothing about any other Pagan and Heathen religions much less Pantheists Traditions. Yet these people will have foolish assumptions about all of these other religions that they must be, or should be must like Wicca. They will even claim these others are practicing their religions work and that they should be more inclusive, that is more Wicca like. I use Wicca as an example because that is my tradition. Now I used to be like that a bit like that, at least completely ignorant on other religions and traditions..
When I started ACTION, it was strictly within Wiccan traditions and mostly about the organization that sponsored it, AREN. But AREN decided there were enough other traditions and religions that it was tie to expand to reach out to others. I still remember my first Heathen forum and what some of the thought with me being Wiccan. Getting my first interviews of Heathens was slow because they had to learn to trust me. I soon realized I could not even come up with logical questions about something I knew nothing about, so I asked the people willing to me interviewed to direct me to online background material. What they directed me to was what they thought was important, so now I could form logical questions about those things, and let the explain it. I kept my opinion out of it it was not my story but their.
I did this with each new interview each new tradition, each new religion, and magical tradition for I ran into. Druids, Ceremonial Magicians Hoodoo and so forth. Each I asked for background material, and each pointed me to what they felt was important, and that was what I asked about and they explained. But I had to seek them out I had to ask and I had to listen. If I had waited to just run into those kid of people, it never would have happened at all, and I would not of gotten the education of the variety of our greater community. Nor would my readers.
It is not only about religion I am a seventy year old crippled Marine Vietnam Veteran. Old men get ignored and fade into the sidelines. Many tie they prefer that because they don’t understand other people. For me that is an excuse to talk with those other people and ask the about their lives. So I run into a 18 year old guy with tattoos all over him and various things planted in his body, I ask him what they mean how much they cost, how much did it hurt, and the sit back while the person tells me all about it.
I do this with people of any age, any color, any economic level and the sit back and listen. Some don’t respond but there are a great many that have never had anyone ask about their life. I also listen to lonely people, hurt people when I can. I can trade stories ad experiences when that helps. but at this stage of y life mostly I am available to listen.
Here is the strange part I am not by nature a sociable person. I need hours of time to myself each day. Yet I ca do this for an hour at a time. I can listen to their stories, or tell stories, if they want to hear them. I remember what it felt like at each age of life, and use that to start with the common problems of that age, but also the benefits that I might have missed at that age as well. I will ask their opinion about things. Teenagers, kids even twenty somethings are not used to old people listening to them and asking their opinion.
This is how I give back to my society my community and this is as much the practice to my goddess and my god as my ceremonies, and meditations. I am working to become the elder that i wish I had had when I was younger. It does not cost any money, I can pick when and where but I can give a person if needed one hour of my time. I this country if is often easier to get people to give you money than time. Somehow the unnecessary and unexpected good is more fun than that done out of duty.
Now I am rather frail walking with my walker. I forget things, drop things without noticing. But there always seems to be someone there to point it out and make sure I don’t lose anything. I probably feel safer and happier at this stage of life then any other stage of my life. I doesn’t matter where I am at, or who is around me.
By the way if those people coming to your door with Bibles are JWs, ask them to put you on their do not call list. I am on the local do not call list of the local JWs. Save a lot of wear and tear. Now other Christian groups I have no advice. In my little shop I do have a sign, quite visible, that says:
This is My Shop
My Home and
My Sacred Space
Therefore no Preaching
Unless by Me!
Now ministers will break out laughing when they see it. I do have to sometimes explain it to amateurs. But mostly it prevents problems, and saves wear and tear on me. I am wandering, so it is time for this old geezer to get to bed. Thak you if you have read this far.
Welll, for a start: ” How many Wiccans do I know who know nothing about any other Pagan and Heathen religions much less Pantheists Traditions.” … I don’t know.
Why is that on *us?* Any of us? Especially in context of what *I* said there? I mean, make no mistake, as Pagans we *like* to know of many traditions and cultures, but who says we *have* to, for that matter? (Usually of course required reading but ….What if it wasn’t? Who says we’re obligated?)
Well for starters through their ignorance, Wiccans have a bad reputation with many other of the other religions and traditions for being pushy and superior, telling others how they should do their religions, what they should believe.
They are even known for being ignorant about Wicca itself. Things like claiming Wicca is ancient religion. Such as not understanding that the Wicca Rede is advice, but not a law, and that the Rule of Three does not necessarily work quite that way, but is only a warning that what is sent out might come back, sometimes it might not, and that both the Wicca Rede ad the Rule of Three were not part of the original version of Wicca. Most of the words, circle casting, calling quarters, was borrowed from Ceremonial Magic. There is no documented evidence that any of it was borrowed from any older form of Witchcraft.
Also the fact that “Witchcraft” was not a religion, Witches were not priestesses and priests though out most of history, that they most certainly got paid for their services and did not do it for free. They also freely did positive and negative magic, without doing cleansing the area, casting circles, calling quarters, calling on gods or goddesses, doing much, if any, ceremony, nor having special tools, or robes. They could and sometimes did attach bits of the local popular religion to what they did for the comfort of their customers, or for their own safety, when it was seen as dangerous to operate outside of the local religion. By the way Witchcraft was often illegal in most Pagan periods as well. It is also impossible that most of the people arrested for Witchcraft, in the Christian period were Witches at all. Most of them were just other Christians. That includes Salem, Mass.
If some are going to claim that Wicca means Craft of the Wise, it would help to get educated and act like they were knowledgeable and wise. instead of like dumb ding-a-lings. It would help to be honest and for most admit that they are not High Priests and High Priestesses as so many falsely claim.
Even myself, with 31 years of practice, would never claim to be a High Priest, as after the first year of training, I never met another High Priestess of my tradition to train me. They are sort of in short supply in my part of the country. However I have continued to study what is available to me in books, as well as history of witchcraft in law, history, and theater. But no, I do not go prancing around claiming to be a High Priest. Real ones have done far more study, and far more practice in areas that I know nothing about.
Friday: Off topic, but coming from a Marine Corp family, you might find this interesting. The youngest Marine to die in the Vietnam War was:
PFC Dan Bullock died on June 7th 1969. He had enlisted into the Marine Corp. Sept 18 1968 as a member of Platoon 3039 he graduated from Paris Island boot camp on Dec. 10, 1968. He arrived in Vietnam on May 18th 1969, assigned as a rifleman in 2nd Platoon, Fox Company Battalion 5th Marines, 1st Marie division and was stationed in An Hoa Combat Base in Quan Nam Province. He was killed instantly by small arms during a north Vietnamese Army night attack. A street he lived on in Brooklyn since age 11, Lee Ave, was renamed for him.
Now the unexpected part, he had changed his birth certificate from Dec. 21, 1953 to Dec. 21 1949. He had enlisted at age 14 years, graduated out of boot camp before his 15th birthday, and died in Vietnam at age 15. A rather remarkable Black teenage boy and warrior.
http://tinyurl.com/ngtrwsm
This really is a wonderful and deeply impactful topic in the Pagan community. But there is something the Pagan community really needs to establish before the freedom of diversity will ORGANICALLY happen. Truly, the Pagan community is in it’s very makeup, diverse. But that diversity is as far as the INDIVIDUAL. I think there’s more diversity and creativity found online and in such platform as found online or in because of not only the organization but the understood upon order of the chosen platform. What I mean is, there’s rules, structure, order to the particular forum, chat room, website as decided upon by it’s creator. In real life, the Pagan community is VERY individualistic really. Individualism is not bad, but all of history has shown that communities thrive when there is an established structure and agreed upon order to things. It’s the same as a parent deciding rules for a child, people feel more confident when they feel a part of a structure, a BUILT UP community. In the real world of Paganism, there isn’t any structure. There’s no established council or leaders. Community in any area is hard to come by outside the books and online forums out there. Before the community can become diverse, the Pagan community really needs to come together and figure out it’s rules, it’s boundaries, it’s world-views, it’s philosophies…diversity will know where to take over from there. Truly.
A TREE WITH MANY LEAVES WILL NOT GROW IN THE AIR>>> IT NEEDS A PLACE TO CALL ITS FOUNDATION.
I’m a part of a Pagan community here is the Hampton Roads of Virginia and there is a shop where we all call the community center. It’s large and allows many things and events to take place in. Its not because we have this place that we see diversity here, but because we have a flesh and bone structure (place, people, leaders) that inspire things to happen and for people to be drawn to this central place.
Anyway, I’ve been putting a lot of words in replies, but a lot of what’s been coming out of California from people I respect, as well as, well, look at this nation, ..has been bugging me.
Still keep going back to being really uncomfortable about the idea that somehow it’s on us as a Pagan community to somehow redress racial and ethnic inequalities in the overculture by somehow forcing our own demographics somehow.
I think that’s wrong. I don’t think that’s our task. I think that’s possibly our *reward* if we do what we’re supposed to well.
When any given crunch-time comes, there’s no sense bellyaching. You go with the team you’ve *got.* And whoever we are, this is the team we’ve got now. Whoever and wherever we are.
Friday, I’m sorry but frankly you are missing the point! The point is that there are ALL these members of the Pagan “community” but the very “community” they are a part of does not attempt to include them or make them a part of that which they do. It isn’t about finding people or converting people, or Any of the things you have gone on and on about, the issue is making those who are already Pagan welcome and hearing their voices no matter what walk of life they live in! The article and all those who contributed Did make that point very well!, for which I am greatful because it is an important point well worth making! And it is a valid one, and one that anyone who wishes to be part of and proud of a caring group of people (which in this instance has been termed a community) should want to see. perhaps Inclusion would express the idea more accurately, but to be inclusive organizers and others who promote, select, publicize and draw attention to individuals must insure that they do not repeatedly call on their own. Hence the term Diversity. And why are you so horrified at the concept that all those who belong to your community should be permitted equality and a voice in it? That is what is being suggested here, that there be a true effort to welcome and make part of the whole those members who up until now have been over looked and left at best on the fringes, at worse completely forgotten.
A lovely well thought out article expressing a wonderful sentiment. That said, how incredibly sad that as you strove to list All Those you wish to see included and represented in your great gathering of diversity, not in Anyway did you suggest anyone with any form of disability should be in that list. The deaf the blind, and those with other physical challenges are still not thought of, not included even on a list of those who ought to find recognition and representation in a diverse inclusive Pagan community, … a poignant, painful comment on how society in general and the Pagan community in particular fail to even register that there are those with physical impairments. Only one of the people you interviewed mentioned the disabled (Thank you Ms. Whiting), and you too completely over looked that there is such a community. And this community is one that struggles with profound limitations, challenges that are part of daily life, of all those you describe they are among the ones who could most do with a hand extended, contacts made and help finding people to turn to. To the best of my observation this is an area in which the Pagan community is exceptionally backwards.
Holy derailment Batman! There may be *some* valid concerns that this Friday person had, but it’s so wrapped up in defensive & reactionary nonsense that it’s not adding anything to the conversation. This is why people don’t comment on Wild Hunt & Patheos, because of a few loudmouthed fools ruining the pot. If you havent been to Pantheacon (neither have I) don’t judge it on the basis of a few controversies and assume all Californians/West Coast folks think alike. If you don’t like others assuming things about you because you live in Georgia, then walk your talk. Focus on your own community, instead of complaining about other people’s. On how to be inclusive and following your values and spiritual path.