Be Thou the One and Renew The Light

I wrote on this issue as part of a prior blog entry but perhaps it is time to tie this together with other threads from this blog. To be a witch you must first live a witch's life meaning if you are all words and no deeds, you are not a witch, a Pagan or practicing a religion, you are just a blowhard poser.



The last Pagan Emperor of Rome and devotee of Cybele, Julian, charged Pagans to "Be thou the one" referring to doing public works and charity and thus providing a living example to the rest of the world. We live by this at the Maetreum. As far as I can tell, other than a few other groups like the New Alexandria Library, the so called Pagan blog-o-sphere is dominated by those who do nothing in the real world except write. When they write they mostly ignore those who are doing. They often oppose Pagan infrastructure because they have no damn idea on how to make that happen. They gather a bit of food at Pagan Pride events and pat themselves on the back for doing something to help those in need but how many actual lives do they save? Who do they take in that are homeless? Where are the gardens and solar panels and wind generators of these so called defenders of the planet?



When you read those so called Pagan blogs, be aware of a few things. These people appointed themselves spokespeople, no one elected them. They gather at large so called Pagan events like the Pantheacon that are far out of the reach of the average Pagan in terms of expenses where they debate whether or not Paganism is a religion, who is more oppressed than who, and anoint each other “leaders” without actually doing a damn thing in the real world. They act as gatekeepers on what Pagans and Pagan groups are worthy to be discussed. If you look a bit more closely, they are largely 20 and 30 something males and the women who cowtow to them. These are today's Pagan “thinkers”.



They have almost zero respect for Crones who have little of value in their eyes until they are safely dead and thus can no longer stand up to bullshit they spread about who they are. “By their deeds you shall know them”... and they have almost none.



Real Pagans are out there but you would never know it by cruising the net and they are harder and harder to find as a result of these posers. Online witch groups often contain no actual witches as in those living a witch's life. So called Pagan online leadership groups are overrun with those who never actually led anything and taught by those who only credentials of leadership are teaching about it. Zero real world experience, almost no actual practice of anything resembling rituals and religion.



I call foul on this
.
If you want to claim a leadership role, be thou the light and actually do something in the real world or shut the fuck up and stop poisoning the well for seekers. If you claim to be a Pagan leader and you cannot point to at least ten lives you made better by your direct actions, you are not a leader, you are just some random asshat with opinions and everyone has those.



I have spent most of a long and weird life in service to others with zero regrets. What will you be able to say when you are my age?