Public Paganism

I recently read an article on Patheos about gatekeeping in paganism. This brought to my mind the tension between initiatory pagan groups and the need for public paganism. What I mean by public paganism are rituals and workshops that are designed for solitaries or "at-large" pagans or for those who want to learn about paganism. Initiatory traditions are a huge part of pagan history and practice. However, there is no clearing house online about initiatory covens that are accepting new members and having that online would really be the only place one could find them. Maybe at a pagan festival a person could hook up with an initiatory tradition, but it would be hit and miss.

It is wonderful if anyone is interested in an initiatory tradition and can find a coven or group to join. However, that is not the reality of most people's lives these days. I personally believe that paganism has important relevance to the public given our worship of nature which could be the ground of important work towards stemming climate change impacts and move us towards more sustainable living as culture.

To critique language we use to identify ourselves, as the Patheos article discusses, to me goes against what Paganism stands for which is validating anyone's experience of the Divine as long as it does not hurt others. "Do what you will, as long as it harms none." Instead of gatekeeping, we could use our energies to deepen our thealogies/theologies in our various traditions to better meet the needs of pagans of all kinds. Paganism is a craft and a practice and it is a religion. As a student of religion, I absolutely see paganism as religion in the sense of the origin of the word religion - to re-link. Until we take ourselves seriously as a religion, we cannot help the culture envision a new way of being.

As my post about pagan places discussed, in order to manifest public paganism, we do need spaces for that to happen. We need organizations dedicated to public paganism in local areas who would benefit from connections to national or international groups. Here in Sonoma County, Reclaiming is doing some of that work. It would be great to have more variety of offerings to show the diversity of pagan practice and belief. What do you think of this? I would love to hear more people talk about this.