Not a creative title, but a true one.

This is my first post as a Pagan blogger on Beliefnet.  I am honored with the opportunity, and hope my words will be of value to both Pagan and non-Pagan readers alike.

I have been a Gardnerian Wiccan for nearly 25 years while simultaneously being a political scientist.  My posts will reflect both dimensions of my life.  It is sadly appropriate that it does, as our Founders’ efforts to defuse the explosive power of religious discord and intolerance are now challenged as rarely before.  At the same time, since the 60s in particular, our country has witnessed a rapid growth of non-Christian spirituality to add more spice to the mix of secular modernity and Christiana and Jewish traditions.  For the Christian right, this seems to ratchet up their anger at those of us with the ‘wrong’ beliefs.

At a time when self-described ‘culture warriors’ do all they can to demonize those whose views differ from their own, it is important that we Pagans speak up.  While the roots of our tradition are far older than the Abrahamic paths, 1500 years of suppression have resulted in a society that is in many respects quite alien to our sensibility and understanding.  I hope to explore this cultural as well as political dimension to our loves in the modern world, a world that deeply denies that Spirit is in any way immanent in the world.

I need to emphasize that this is A Pagan’s blog.  We are a spiritual tradition whose members are held together by common practices far more than by common beliefs.  It has always been so in Pagan cultures.  From Classical times to the traditions of African Diasporic religions of today and those of our indigenous peoples as well, broadly Pagan traditions have always been of this nature.  NeoPagans be they British traditional Wiccans, Celtic Reconstructionists, Asatru, Druids, or any of many other new traditions, may appear bizarrely eclectic and turbulent from a scriptural perspective, but we fit right in with our own history.  We do not much fight or argue over dogma, unless someone ventures to speak for us all on those matters.  I do not want to try.

But we do fight and argue, and I am sure some of that will occur here as well.  But not so much on that issue.

I look forward to the opportunity to help speak for our broadly Pagan traditions and look forward as well to my readers’ contributions.