Re: Why isn't Paganism really treated as a serious spiritual path?
Honestly? Have you seen the "witches" they hand pick for laugh value every Halloween to interview on the news as a "real witch" and then we have hucksters selling tarot card readings for $19.99 and spells in jars on ebay...teenagers in black lipstick talking about black magic and all this gets heaped on the pile of paganism long before anyone talks to someone who's dressed like a regular person and lives a regular life and doesn't just run about shouting "look at me! I'm special I'm a pagan!"
Frankly, I could care less if people think my beliefs are valid or not. I don't need a pat on the back to feel confident in my faith and I really don't even need any external validation at all at this point. But I do remember how it felt, wanting to be respected and taken seriously. The best way, in my opinion, to do that is one person at a time. I have many typically Christian types as friends, some of whom I don't take their beliefs very seriously internally, but I respect them as human beings enough not to tell them I think they believe a lie. And they do the same for me. That's really the best you can hope for; tolerance and respect of other people, if not respect of beliefs that they/you have already rejected as false.
Honestly? Have you seen the "witches" they hand pick for laugh value every Halloween to interview on the news as a "real witch" and then we have hucksters selling tarot card readings for $19.99 and spells in jars on ebay...teenagers in black lipstick talking about black magic and all this gets heaped on the pile of paganism long before anyone talks to someone who's dressed like a regular person and lives a regular life and doesn't just run about shouting "look at me! I'm special I'm a pagan!"
Frankly, I could care less if people think my beliefs are valid or not. I don't need a pat on the back to feel confident in my faith and I really don't even need any external validation at all at this point. But I do remember how it felt, wanting to be respected and taken seriously. The best way, in my opinion, to do that is one person at a time. I have many typically Christian types as friends, some of whom I don't take their beliefs very seriously internally, but I respect them as human beings enough not to tell them I think they believe a lie. And they do the same for me. That's really the best you can hope for; tolerance and respect of other people, if not respect of beliefs that they/you have already rejected as false.
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