The Ramblings and Wanderings

I have just as much issue with thoughtless Pagans who blindly follow whatever they are told or read, who run off into the bush to do some spell or ritual without properly understanding the whys and wherefores and meaning behind them, as I do with armchair Pagans who only read, think and theorise but never get off their ass and DO something.

Because both, in my not-so-humble opinion, are missing out on half the equation.

If you practice and pray and ritualise lots without understanding the theory behind what you are doing, you don’t know shit.

And if you theorise and philosophise endlessly without actually practicing, you also don’t know shit.

There is a balance that must be achieved. And yes, so long as there is a balance, you can lean more one-way than the other (I’m more of a practice girl myself)

The Pagans and Witches who run off and, just as an example, go out into the woods and cover themselves with flying ointment hoping to get that deep spiritual experience without doing their research, without understanding the whys and the wherefores, will almost always at some point learn the hard way. (Yes, I am speaking from experience here)

But those armchair pagans, what happens to them? Other than their ass growing fat that is. Do they ever learn the hard way? Maybe so, when they one day find themselves with nothing but ideas, can you be spiritually fulfilled by just ideas? I dunno, but I don’t think so. Not really, deep down.

Now don’t get me wrong, both camps have something to offer. The thinkers give us the material we work with after all, and the practitioners give the thinkers somebody to actually try out their theories and research. You can’t have one without the other.

It’s all about balance.

I’d like to see more armchair pagans come out and play in the woods, and I’d like to see more practitioners sitting in the library. I’d also like to see more actual cooperation, dialogue, discussion and sharing between the two camps. Folks who are in the middle make great bridges as well.

Imagine how fully and maturely Paganism and Witchcraft would grow then … beautiful isn’t it?

“If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow.”
~ Rachel Carson

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