What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

[Tylluan Penry]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

I suspect Mr Penry and I are far too anti-social to join a commune.... a hermitage maybe

[magusphredde]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

I think there is a difference between a Pagan-based community and an institution ... One is more of a generic cross section of society and has a fair diversity (farmers, doctors, merchants, law, etc ...) ... An institution to me would be more along the lines of an educational environment such as a tertiary learning environ ... It could run year 'round ... Might include various classes on differing forms of divination, dead language classes, herb-crafting, hunting, environmentally friendly building and living, etc ...

[GypsySeaWitch]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

I'd probably start a Pagan Community Center where pagans could take classes for affordable prices, covens could rent rooms for private rituals for cheap, members could have access to a library of books on all sorts of topics, people could attend large Sabbat celebrations for free, and pagans could join on volunteer projects the center has decided to participate in like food drives, picking up litter, donating to wildlife organizations, Wicca awareness projects, free tutoring for children, and etc.

Yeah, that is my dream. Now if only I could win the lottery......

[PharaohKatt]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

A year-round boarding (6-12) and day school (pK-12) with a summer program for conventionally schooled kids that promotes experiential learning, community service and outdoor education--something of a cross between Oak Grove School and some of the Quaker schools I've seen, with some student-run community-based entrepreneurial programs similar to the program at Our School at Blair Grocery.

That's a really cool idea! I have a huge passion for children and education so that's definitely something I'd get behind.

I'd probably start a childcare centre based on theories of attachment parenting and child-centred practice.

You know, I might actually do that...

[GypsySeaWitch]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

Guess I missed the OP on the self sustaining community. I love that idea! That has always been one of my day dreams. Not sure which role I could play in one though. Again I need to win the lottery and add this to the list of things to start if I do.

[Zeno]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

I'd build an orgy hall, obviously !

[Monk]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

A quote from Magusjinx comes to mind " like herding cats ".
I agree with Tylluan, I don't usually join anything because I generally don't play well with others. But I do like the "concept" of a Pagan community that is self substantiating. It would need a strong leader or at least a small dominant committee to run things and this in itself would keep pagans like me away.

[ChainLightning]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

You and me, both, Monk.

[Roknrol]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

You and me, both, Monk.

All this time I thought you didn't join things because people couldn't stand the smell...

...fuckin' dwarf...

[ChainLightning]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

All this time I thought you didn't join things because people couldn't stand the smell...

...fuckin' dwarf...

To be honest...

Think back to when I first started coming to this particular Pagan community. I didn't have much interest in doing anything more than reading. I came out of the shadows a few times, when I had questions, or answers for someone else's questions, or someone was just looking for opinions and I felt reasonably safe in stating mine. I didn't want to be a boss, I didn't want to be the center of anyone's attention, a leader, a mentor, teacher or in fact anything that required a bit of socializing.

Nothing's changed. I don't lead because I want to. I lead because people follow me. I don't teach because I want to help people learn, I teach because I have some modicum of knowledge and it shows. I'm still anti-social. I'm still a sociopath. Just that now I am part of a community, I own a portion of this one.

We are and have been extremely lucky in the running of this community. It's been run by committee, by majority and by the members, really, for as long as it's been in existence. If I had to shop for a Pagan Commune? I would never even HOPE to find a community like this. Ever. I'm a realist as well as a cynic. I don't play well with others and I have this deep aversion to power hungry people and their politics as well as that omnipresent contempt for people's imagined authority.

If I'm not the authority over *me*? I want no part of the group. That actually leads into why I kept expecting to be banned, from this place. I don't really do what I'm told to, very well. I clash with people WAY too often. Particularly people with some sort of authority. Or too much stupidity. Or both.


*Fuckin elf! Watch yer mouth. There's ladies and children present.

[AzazelEblis]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

I can't help but see where Chain is playing better with others simply for having practice at it.

Maybe if all of us antisocialites got together on a common principle, we could, like, do something - maybe even something big. You know, for this little group of New Religious Movements to be more than just choose-you-own-adventure quasi-spirituality in mass isolation... New Age and Pagan stores have been hit hard by the recession, and groups are feeling the pressure. Were these years all a bunch of Self-aggrandizing Silver Ravenwolf fluff, or did we form a community that is capable of cohesion, and thus affecting even those outside our communities in a positive way?

One way will prove it was all just a short lived fad faith - history is littered with these. The more closely we follow the other way, the more we cement these faiths into existence. Strong communities survive the death of individuals, no matter how great. Instead of loving or hating Isaac Bonewitz or the like, why don't we help his/their successors? Afterall, it is the first follower who sets the terms of leadership. Will your faith stick around, or will it be remembered in the Past-Tense, as glorified LARPing?

Community centered individuals will nurture a better future for your faiths. Chain is just one example - even as an antisocial person, he's shown himself to be able to contribute towards this community. This is the first quality we need in leadership, whether we're talking about temples, activists, small local groups, or internet forums. (no one said these institutions had to be grandeoise! Smaller can be more manageable!) Yet, I see so many of the people with this sensibility step aside for power-hungry idiots to run this into the ground!

Tyluan and all, I understand that you see the potential for abuse, for pride to take over, and for so much bull. But the fact is, the only institutions I see forming are those which do little to help your faiths, and the lack of accountable institutions leaves no-one to truthfully tell our stories and hold our values once we're gone.

[Hawkfeathers]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

A rehab center.

[Ananta Androscoggin]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

Maybe if all of us antisocialites got together on a common principle, we could, like, do something - maybe even something big. You know, for this little group of New Religious Movements to be more than just choose-you-own-adventure quasi-spirituality in mass isolation... New Age and Pagan stores have been hit hard by the recession, and groups are feeling the pressure. Were these years all a bunch of Self-aggrandizing Silver Ravenwolf fluff, or did we form a community that is capable of cohesion, and thus affecting even those outside our communities in a positive way?

Congratulations, I think you have coined a new Oxymoron -- Mass Isolation indeed!

[ChainLightning]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

Congratulations, I think you have coined a new Oxymoron -- Mass Isolation indeed!

He's got a point, though. Is PF, or something like it, potentially the answer to sustaining some sort of institution based on a common principle?

It's true that we all are hiding, in isolation, but have come together in this group (at the same time) and have developed a sense of permanent, stable, well established community, of family, even, that is the core, the very roots of a long-lived institution.

[Caelia]

Re: What sort of Pagan Institution would you set up?

Congratulations, I think you have coined a new Oxymoron -- Mass Isolation indeed!

It seems that way until you read articles such as this where similar issues are addressed:

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=uspa&c=trads&id=14566