Global Paganism

For those of you who don't know this, there are Pagans living everywhere.  That's right, all over the world you can find Pagans.  Are we a huge group?  Well that depends on your reference frame.  To me one hundred thousand people is a lot of people, but in the terms of the world it's a very small percentage.  That's just an example, as I have no idea how many Pagans there are in the world, but I do know that we're now a global group.

For the past fifty or sixty years now Pagans have been inviting folks to explore Paganism, to see if it's a good fit for them.  Especially now that we are in the era of the internet, this has wide reaching consequences. Personally I think this is a great thing.  People are opening up to the idea of finding their own faith and making informed decisions   That's awesome!  It's a huge part of my personal practice, the right and ability to choose.  However, it comes with certain responsibilities and dangers that I'm not sure we've all faced up to yet.

There are Pagans now in militant fundamentalist areas.  There are Pagans out there in the world that live their lives in fear.  People that are afraid to practice their faith.  People burning or burying their altars and having to hide in doors from patrols for fear of being beaten, raped, and or killed for their faith.  Does any of this sound familiar?  I'm sure most of the Pagans that might stumble across this have studied the burning times.  If not I'm reasonably sure you've heard of them.  An entire era in history where Pagans were burnt at the stake, hung, drowned, beaten, stabbed, stoned, tortured, and otherwise had their lives ruined.  Many of us who have studied this say that it ended in the late nineteenth century, give or take depending on where you were.  This isn't true.  It's still happening today.

Particularly what comes to mind is a young woman in Syria, who was turned over to rebels as a witch.  She was beaten, raped, and killed.  What makes this worse to me?  It was public, in front of a big group of people, and no one did a thing.  Not only that, but there was no global outcry that I heard.  I stumbled across this while talking to some Pagan friends of mine on the internet.

This upsets me greatly.  Writing this over the course of the week I've swung between anger, disgust, and sadness.  Now it's mostly just sadness.  We live in  a universe that is 13.8 billion years old, on a planet that it is 4.6 billion years old, are members of a species that is several million years old and we still kill each other in the streets.

That being said, there are lots of great people in the world.  I'm hoping that some of them see this and realize, that as Pagans and as humans, we can't afford to view ourselves as anything other than a global society anymore.  To pretend that we're not just causes more hate and pain.  The greatest evil in this world is when good people sit back and let evil things happen.

So what can we do?  Well, first off we need to educate people.  The best way to combat intolerance and hate, in my opinion, is through education.  We need to teach our friends, our families, and our associates that we are all one people regardless of color, religion, sexual orientation, or any other defining factor.  A gay, black, Pagan man is just as much a human being as a straight, white, Evangelical Christian, and deserves just as much respect.  The second thing we can do is to start or donate to charities.  Two great ones are the Heifer Project, and Doctors Without Borders, but there are tons of great ones out there.  Make sure you research your charities carefully though, some aren't as charitable as they try to seem.  Third and last, we can pray.  We can all pray, and hope, and choose to live our lives with compassion and tolerance.  Light your candles, say your spells, tie your knots, blend your herbs, bow your head in front of a crucified Jew, or just take a moment to think about the global state of play.  However you do it, it's valid and important, because it raises awareness, and I believe it raises energy.

So go home and hug you families tight.  If you're safe and somewhere you can practice your faith without fear of persecution I'm glad for you.  If you're not, know that you're in my prayers and spell work.

Gods I'm getting mellow in my old age.  Time to go light a candle for folks and practice martial arts for an hour or two.

Until next time folks,  may the stars watch over you, the moon guard you, and may your heart guide you home.