Living

Column: Conjuring the Magic of Pagan Study Groups

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A few words from Steven Posch have stood out in my mind since the summer that I heard him utter them at a large Pagan festival many years ago: “Pagans are the people of the library.”

Those words resonated with me because our communities hunger for knowledge and the wisdom to use that knowledge well. Many Pagans descend upon their local bookstore or favorite online purveyor of word-wares enthusiastically and often. Most are striving to better understand the philosophies, cultures, histories, signs, symbols, religious practices, and magical procedures, past and present, that constitute our chosen path. Some of us pursue our studies solo, while others join groups; a significant number of us have a mixture of individual and collective pursuits. Our groups have a variety of foci that we explore within various organizational structures guided by a range of principles.