June 16, 2024 • 27 mins
What if embracing community could transform your pagan practice? Join me, Matt Holloway, on this enlightening episode of "Old Gods, New Pagans" as we explore how building strong communal bonds can elevate your spiritual journey. We journey through historical contexts, examining the significance of pagan communities from family units to regional gatherings, and discuss how modern pagans can replicate these connections. I share my personal experiences, from intimate friend groups with diverse practices to larger organizations like the Pagan Project, which aims to promote public understanding and awareness of paganism.
Dive into practical steps for fostering and maintaining vibrant pagan communities, whether through shared rituals, unique altar setups, or seasonal gatherings. Discover the parallels between pagan communities and other religious groups, and learn how to balance solo practice with community engagement. We'll also discuss the power of online platforms like Discord in building global connections, and provide tips for maintaining relationships with non-pagan friends and family. To round off the episode, find out how you can actively participate in the Pagan Project through social media, volunteering, or simply sharing your experiences, contributing to a supportive and growing network.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hello everyone, I'm your host, matt Holloway, and
today we're going to discuss theimportance of community in
paganism.
Some topics we're going todiscuss the importance of
community in paganism.
Some topics we're going todiscuss.
We're going to discuss theimportance of community,
cultural preservation, education, social connection, some forms
of types of communities withinpaganism and information on
(00:40):
building and sustaining a pagancommunity, partnering in
existing communities and somechallenges and solutions
regarding that.
So let's dive in.
As I said, my name is MattHolloway.
I am the host of the Old Gods,new Pagans podcast.
I'm also the current presidentand director of the new
(01:01):
nonprofit, the Pagan Project.
Some more information forthat's going to come up later in
the podcast and, yeah, let'sget in.
So the concept of community inpaganism, first and foremost.
I just want to just kind of putthis out there before we even
get into the community aspect ofit.
Solo practice is very important.
This I absolutely want tostress.
(01:22):
Just because this episode isall about community doesn't mean
that solo practice is anythingless or not as good as community
practice or just overallcommunity.
Solo practice is personally myprimary form of practice, mostly
because I live in the BibleBelt and there's not many
(01:43):
communities around me, but alsobecause of my particular style
of animism, I spend a lot oftime outside by myself, in
nature and in meditation.
So solo practice is my primarypractice personally, but I am a
member of other pagancommunities, so just wanted to
(02:05):
put that out there.
That solo practice isabsolutely important.
So let's get into it.
Pagan communities it's like ingeneral, when you look at
historical paganism, this wasbefore, like the modern age and
all these things that we havenow the instant communications,
the world travel and such.
So for the most part, pagancommunities were their small
(02:28):
individual groups.
So you could start at the homelevel, so within a family, you
had your own pagan practices andtraditions and ancestral
traditions and things like thatthat were honored.
So you have your say, youhonored certain ancestors.
That's going to be really justwithin your family and if you
had, you know, extended familynearby, they may participate in
(02:50):
some of this stuff.
But that's going to be like areally closed, closed knit.
You know small group.
As you move out you've got thelarger community.
So you've got the encompassingall the farms in the area, the
village and such.
So you have your big group offestivals and gatherings and
then you've got the more, likeevery year, seasonal, et cetera,
(03:14):
like large types of gatherings,that would happen.
So in history you know you hadthese different functions of
communities that would offerdifferent benefits and kind of
outside the spiritual aspect,you know you get your local
farms that would help protectyour livestock.
If you had some sheep get out,you had cows get out, you know
(03:35):
these local farms would kind ofget together and help you out.
When it come to like outsidethreats, you know the whole
community would get together,the whole village, all the farms
in the area, everyone wouldband together to repel that.
So you have that aspect ofcommunity and then you have the
cultural identity of an entireregion.
(03:57):
That again is another largetype of community In modern
times that extends a little bitdifferently.
So we have our local community.
So if you live in an area where, like you, live in a more rural
area and you have these kindsof structures around you as well
, you know your small farms andoutlying areas that may come
(04:20):
together and help.
That's going to be more of asecular type of community
nowadays, just because of theprevalence of Christianity in
other religions as opposed tojust pagans in an area If you
are lucky enough to have otherpagans nearby, that would be
(04:42):
great.
But typically you might haveyour family unit that all have
your own spiritual paganpractices, but as a community
around you it may be less common.
That being said, in yourbroader general area, in your
town, your city, however, yourcommunity, you may have other
pagans that could get togetherand have bloats or sabbats, you
(05:06):
know, kind of celebrate thosetogether and then you have like
your regional stuff.
So in the US, here, you know,we structured into states, so
you have your individual state,would have like a big pagan
festival, or maybe the southeast, the southwest, the southwest
you'd have these larger paganfestivals and gatherings that
you know would be, you know,larger communities get together
(05:33):
and take part in that.
But with the modern pagancommunities you also have your
online communities and this is awhole different beast because
people from around the world canget together and share ideas.
Share, you know, and just youknow, spend time talking about,
you know, spirituality, just youknow.
Spend time talking about, youknow spirituality, spend time
getting to know each other.
I'm a member of three, mainlythree, pagan communities.
(05:56):
One is a private community.
It's just a group of friendsthat kind of get together and
it's not so much to talk aboutspirituality but we know we all
have common spiritual interests.
But it's a place that we canhave our other discussions and
just kind of cut up and have funand know we're in a good place
with everyone.
So we know we're not going tobe judged for our pagan beliefs
(06:19):
and that sort of thing.
So we can kind of get togetherand just cut up.
And not everyone in thecommunity is the same type of
pagan.
We have Norse pagans, celticpagans, animists, wiccans.
We have a whole group of peoplein there and everyone respects
everyone else's spirituality.
And then I'm part of other pagancommunities that are
(06:41):
specifically about the paganism.
One major one is the One forthe Pagan Project.
It's a nonprofit that myselfand a few others have founded,
put together and we're workingon building Just a little kind
of shout out to the PaganProject.
We are working on a couple ofthings.
One is to build publicawareness about paganism so the
(07:05):
public at large isn't as leeryof what we are.
We can kind of dispel some ofthe common myths, stereotypes
etc and just create an overallpublic awareness and education
on paganism.
Another part of that is to be aresource for new pagans Out
there on the internet now thereare so many mixed messages.
(07:27):
You have all these differentpagan groups pulling people in
all kinds of differentdirections and new pagans have a
lot of trouble trying to reallynavigate that world.
And on top of that you haveproblematic pagans that will
(07:48):
spread their white supremacistvalues or they try to close down
open practices, or they arespreading information about
closed practices openly whenthey really shouldn't,
appropriating certain cultures,different markings, etc.
So we want to be the overallresource to help New Bagans find
their path, without theconfusion With that we are using
(08:14):
.
We're bringing together a listof content creators, mentors and
just overall allies of thepagan community to, you know,
create this large community ofresources and people, the
biggest resource a community has, and it's the knowledge of its
people.
(08:35):
All right, so let's get into theimportance of community.
There are really three mainaspects to the importance of
community, in my opinion.
One of those is spiritualsupport and growth.
Communities can get togethersharing rituals and ceremonies.
(08:55):
So you know, with thatspiritual support and growth,
you know they can learn fromeach other.
So if, say, we have a largercommunity and five of us that
have practiced together, youknow have a ritual that we do
and a way we do it.
You know we can perform thatfor other people and teach them
about those traditions and whywe do things the way we do and
(09:17):
such Like.
For example, one thing about myspirituality that I like to
share with others is my type ofaltar.
It is kind of based on theNorthern European style, the
North style of the Horga, the,basically a pile of rocks, and
(09:40):
whereas I live in Florida, werocks are a very rare commodity,
with the exception of somelimestone that might get mined
up.
Um, so the way I have my altarsis, when I cleared this
property that I live on, I leftstumps in place at a certain
height to act as an altar.
So I have these stumps reallyaround the property that I use
(10:06):
as altars in certain aspects,like I have some that face the
south, some that are in themiddle of my garden, etc.
So you know, sharing thoserituals and sharing those
ceremonies with others so thatwe can learn from each other is
a big aspect of community.
Another really important aspectof community and I'm going to
(10:26):
kind of lean and explain likethe Christian side of things is
you know, with Christians youhave your local church.
It's a big community oflike-minded individuals that can
say they can go to a movietogether and they know they all
have the shared values and theyhave that sense of belonging to
each other.
You know, for the pagancommunity that connection and
(10:49):
belonging is also important.
We can use these types ofcommunities to build friendships
that will exist outside ofpaganism and we can create these
support networks so that wehave people we can turn to in
times of need, times of sorrow,if we just need a shoulder to
cry on.
We need a friend in certainsituations that share our values
(11:11):
, that won't be trying to saypray for us and lay hands on us
and try to get us to do otherthings that really just exist
outside of our current practices, our current beliefs, our
current situations.
So having that sense ofcommunity around paganism is
really important and it'll help,you know, overcome those
(11:32):
feelings of isolation because,again, while my personal
practice is mostly solo practice, you know sometimes I do feel
quite isolated just because inmy area there aren't that many
pagans.
I've met a couple and you knowthey have different beliefs and
practices that don't reallyalign with mine so we don't
really really aren't able toconnect that strongly, but we do
(11:54):
have that friendship because ofit and it's nice having that.
Another important aspect ofcommunity is the cultural
preservation and educationaspect of it.
You know being able to passdown these traditions and
knowledge, as I mentioned before.
You know being able to like,share um and educate others
about paganism.
You know being able to like,share and educate others about
(12:15):
paganism.
You know having like a publicritual, a public ceremony and
having the public attend.
That may be not pagan, they canobserve and they can learn
about our culture and they canbe educated regarding.
You know the specifics aboutthat.
So three of the main importantaspects of community, in my
opinion, are the spiritualsupport and growth sharing
(12:38):
rituals, learning and growingfrom others.
The social connection and thesense of belonging, overcoming
those feelings of isolation andcreating those support, networks
and friendships.
And then the culturalpreservation and education
aspect passing down traditionsand knowledge, educating others
about paganism.
Those are huge things and a lotof that is what we are trying
(12:59):
to do with the Pagan Project and, as I mentioned before, there
are different levels ofcommunity and paganism.
Levels of community andpaganism we can, you know, kind
of start at, say, the localgroups or covens.
If you're in the Wiccan side orthe witch side of paganism, a
(13:19):
lot of the local groups arereferred to as covens.
Those smaller groups you knowallow for shared rituals, a
shared sense of belonging.
Closer knit friendships andsuch would kind of work along in
with that.
When you expand out from that,you have, like, your festivals
(13:40):
and your big gatherings.
So you have your like seasonalgatherings like bealtain and
sawin and all your bloats andother sabbats and such you know
people can get together forthose like um seasonal festivals
.
If you follow the wheel of theyear, you have four or eight
festivals that you canparticipate kind of on a, I
(14:01):
would say, a medium-sizedgathering.
And then you have yourlarge-scale pagan festivals.
That's more of a generalizedfestival that encompasses
sometimes it's one specificflavor of paganism.
So it might be a big Norsefestival or Celtic festival or
Druid festival or Wiccanfestival, or it may be just an
(14:24):
over-encompassing, just largepagan festival that we've seen a
lot of that bring people fromall these different paths
together to share what they knowand to share their own
practices and experiences andreally just kind of get around
people of the same ideas andideologies.
(14:45):
Then you have again your onlinecommunities.
I mean, it's like the role ofsocial media, online forums.
Servers like Discord are greatavenues for finding online
communities.
So, like Facebook groups orYouTube is you know, you can get
into these communities andstart meeting these people to
(15:05):
form these things.
And then, like, we have Discordservers that are an amazing
aspect.
We have discord servers thatare an amazing aspect.
It kind of takes the old schoolway of you know thought of
forums where people can kind ofchat or chat rooms, and really
kind of puts it all together.
So you have, you know, like, alot of Servers have different
chat rooms for different topics.
(15:26):
You know, for just shooting thebreeze, the Pagan Project
Discord is one that I'm a littlemore active in, just because
we're trying to bring some morepeople in and we're spreading
that knowledge and helping eachother out as we go along the way
.
We've had people from aroundthe world join that server, yeah
, and we have academics, we havepeople that have been
(15:49):
practicing paganism for decadesto people that have just started
.
So we have a wide range ofpeople from all different walks
of life, all different walks ofpaganism, kind of coming
together and sharing theirknowledge freely, openly,
without the fighting.
That's one thing that we justreally try to keep out of.
(16:10):
There is the drama.
So it's a really good umlocation to have those online
communities and we can connectworldwide.
It's so great when you haveonline communities because you
know people from different walkscan really share these ideas.
(16:34):
So if you have the ability, ifyou look in your local area, try
to find a local pagan covenstudy group of like-minded
individuals to see if there's agroup already available.
You can use social media tofind that.
You can do an internet searchfor that sort of thing and if
you can't find anything,consider starting your own.
(16:55):
If you have some experiencewith paganism and you feel like
you can lead others, try toconsider starting your own local
group.
If you can find the existingcommunities.
Join those Online communitiesis a great place to start
because as you start makingconnections in these online
communities, you'll find peoplewho may be in your local area.
It was actually kind of aninteresting thing for me that I
(17:17):
was in an online community justchatting it up and happened to
mention where I was from and Ifound out there was somebody who
lives like an hour down theroad from me in a random online
community that you know I neverwould have met this person
otherwise.
So it's kind of really neat toget in these online groups and
then eventually you'll findother people and meet them.
(17:39):
There are some challenges inonline pagan communities because
you have so many people comingtogether that there is a higher
chance of disagreements andpeople just fighting.
That could happen.
That's why it's important tofind a good pagan community.
You know, start talking topeople about it, talk to the
(18:01):
members of the community, seewhat they like about it, what
they don't like about it, and gofrom there You'll learn pretty
quickly whether or not a pagancommunity is a good community or
not, depending on how themembers act.
If you see a lot of drama inthat community, you may want to
step back.
If you hear a lot about thatcommunity in the wider community
(18:23):
on things, you may considerstepping back.
And if you have anyone in thatcommunity that claims to know
everything about a pagan path orclaims to be something like a
reincarnated god or goddess, youcan start picking up on these
(18:45):
red flags and you may considerbacking out of that group.
Or, you know, maybe viewing itfrom like a 30,000 feet kind of
mindset and just kind of standback and observe and see how
that community interacts and seeif it's going to be a good
enough community for you.
Or see if, like, the topicsreally interest you and it's
something that you want to be apart of.
(19:06):
Or see if the topics reallyinterest you and it's something
that you want to be a part of.
Something at the Pagan Projectwe're working on is to identify
good communities from differentpaths so that we can partner up
with these communities to beable to point people in the
right direction, to good qualitycommunities.
So check us out.
(19:27):
At the Pagan Project we'reworking on this over time.
We don't have any connectionsyet, but that's something that's
on the list of things to do.
By the time you hear this itmay be already put together.
Summarize you know a lot of thekey points in this is the
importance of community andpaganism.
You're looking at sharing ideas, sharing knowledge, learning
(19:50):
from others, creating thosebonds of friendship and
overcoming really the isolationthat comes with the new pagan
path, because, as new pagans,you know when we come out of the
broom closet, so to speak, eventhough in a previous episode I
recommend against certain thingslike um, burning bridges for
(20:14):
you from your previous friendsand family, um, particularly the
Christians or other Abrahamicbeliefs, because when you burn
those bridges, you end up likedestroying those friendships.
So in that case you can expandyour isolation and sometimes it
happens.
But try to be thoughtful whenyou do come out to your friends
(20:38):
and family and try not to burnthose bridges, because isolation
as a pagan is a real thing andsomething we're trying to
overcome.
But keep that in mind.
So pagan communities are areally important way of limiting
that isolation.
So, all that being said, mypersonal thoughts on the topic
(20:59):
is again strengthen your solopractice.
Find these local communities,find a good online community,
because we live in a digital age, we might as well embrace it.
Being a nature first beliefsystem, we want to try to
isolate ourselves from so muchtechnology sometimes, but
(21:19):
technology is here and we shouldembrace it and use it as a tool
to our advantage and buildingthese communities.
Embrace it and use it as a toolto our advantage and building
these communities, and Iencourage everyone to engage
with a current pagan communityor look into building your own.
If you don't have anyonelocally, you just have like two
(21:43):
or three friends you know,formally form a group, you know,
make it a thing and starttrying to find more people and
invite them to your group andstart building that community
Something again that theChristians do really well with
churches.
You know, with being pagans, wedon't really have temples
everywhere, because most of ourpractice is just in the woods,
(22:04):
outside, at our homes, so wedon't have those really
dedicated places to build thosecommunities, which is something
that could definitely change.
Witches do it pretty well withtheir covens.
They start building thesesmaller communities of people.
So I think we, as pagans,should start working harder on
(22:28):
building our communities.
We can start with the onlinecommunities and go from there.
And for all of you that are ina community or have had good
experiences with a community orbad experiences with the
community, I highly encourageyou to seek me out on social
media B-C-O-R-A-T-H, on prettymuch all the places YouTube,
(22:52):
instagram, facebook reach out tome or the Pagan Project and
start building.
You know, just telling us youknow about what your experiences
with these communities are,your thoughts, ideas on building
a community.
We want to hear from you.
So, yeah, that's all I reallyhave to say on the importance of
community today.
(23:12):
Definitely follow along withthis podcast if you don't
already subscribe, Please do.
We have a lot more contentcoming out, a lot more
information.
This podcast as it's, you know,kind of like a personal project
of mine, helping new pagansfind these paths and to kind of
learn and build onto it frombasic foundations.
(23:32):
I will be partnering a lot withthe Pagan Project, since that's
a large part of my time thesedays, so this will kind of
connect in with that a lot, andyou'll hear a lot of mentions of
the Pagan Project.
We're trying to do some reallygreat things.
(23:53):
So you can head to the paganprojectorg and show your support
.
There's a link at the top thatjust says support.
You can fill out an applicationto volunteer as a content
creator, as a mentor, as apromoter, to help get the
message of the pagan project outthere.
If you have skills, uh, talentsyou think would help the pagan
(24:13):
project whether that's you knowyou're, you have um experience
with education, you want tobuild, help us build um
educational content or build uma curriculum you know for new
pagans.
Or if you are really good atgraphic design or video editing
or you're excellent in front ofa camera and you want to help us
(24:35):
make content, uh, definitelyreach out to us and, on the
volunteer form, tell us what youhave.
There's a box there that you canjust really boast about
yourself.
So you know, tell us what areyour strengths and weaknesses
and how that you can use yourabilities to help us.
Uh, there's even a check markin there, like I'll do whatever
I don't know.
Just tell me what to do andI'll do it.
(24:55):
Um, though, that's important aswell.
So if you want to click that,go for it.
Um, we currently have a fullboard, but there is also a point
on there where you canvolunteer to be a member of our
board of directors and part ofour council.
Definitely fill that in andtell us again what your
strengths and weaknesses are,because we're also building
(25:16):
different committees that, eventhough you may not be a voting
board member, we definitely wantmembers of these committees to
build out these services, tobuild out our public awareness,
our programs, even financing andfundraising.
If you have strengths in that,we definitely want you along for
the ride on that.
So please go out there, fillthat up.
(25:36):
If you can provide a monetarydonation, there's a section in
there for that as well.
We thank everyone for being thebest part of what we do.
We do everything with the PaganProject, or me with this
podcast, just to help new pagans, and that's because when I
first started this path, therereally wasn't much out there for
(25:58):
me.
I learned a lot from likeTikTok and YouTube and later on
I found out that a lot of what Ilearned was BS.
So we're trying to filter outthe BS and just provide the core
information and help pointpeople down the correct path
with a good, solid foundation.
So, yeah, follow along thepodcast.
(26:21):
Check us out at the PaganProject.
You can go there.
There's all the socials andsuch on there.
The Pagan Project has alsostarted a Patreon account.
It's got some neat little perksin there.
There's some merch.
So, yeah, check us out.
That concludes this episode.
Thank everyone for being thebest part of this.
Check us out on social media.
(26:43):
They'll be linked in thepodcast notes.
Definitely follow, subscribe,share these podcast episodes
with people you think it mayhelp.
We have episodes so far we'reat like maybe six or seven now
explaining your beliefs toChristians coming out of the
broom closet.
We have a section on animism,basic paganism, cultural
(27:05):
appropriation, appreciation, andcoming up may dive into some um
content on divination, maybesome modern druidry, um.
So yeah, follow along, we'llcheck that out, thank you.
Hello everyone, I'm your host, matt Holloway, and
today we're going to discuss theimportance of community in
paganism.
Some topics we're going todiscuss the importance of
community in paganism.
Some topics we're going todiscuss.
We're going to discuss theimportance of community,
cultural preservation, education, social connection, some forms
of types of communities withinpaganism and information on
(00:40):
building and sustaining a pagancommunity, partnering in
existing communities and somechallenges and solutions
regarding that.
So let's dive in.
As I said, my name is MattHolloway.
I am the host of the Old Gods,new Pagans podcast.
I'm also the current presidentand director of the new
(01:01):
nonprofit, the Pagan Project.
Some more information forthat's going to come up later in
the podcast and, yeah, let'sget in.
So the concept of community inpaganism, first and foremost.
I just want to just kind of putthis out there before we even
get into the community aspect ofit.
Solo practice is very important.
This I absolutely want tostress.
(01:22):
Just because this episode isall about community doesn't mean
that solo practice is anythingless or not as good as community
practice or just overallcommunity.
Solo practice is personally myprimary form of practice, mostly
because I live in the BibleBelt and there's not many
(01:43):
communities around me, but alsobecause of my particular style
of animism, I spend a lot oftime outside by myself, in
nature and in meditation.
So solo practice is my primarypractice personally, but I am a
member of other pagancommunities, so just wanted to
(02:05):
put that out there.
That solo practice isabsolutely important.
So let's get into it.
Pagan communities it's like ingeneral, when you look at
historical paganism, this wasbefore, like the modern age and
all these things that we havenow the instant communications,
the world travel and such.
So for the most part, pagancommunities were their small
(02:28):
individual groups.
So you could start at the homelevel, so within a family, you
had your own pagan practices andtraditions and ancestral
traditions and things like thatthat were honored.
So you have your say, youhonored certain ancestors.
That's going to be really justwithin your family and if you
had, you know, extended familynearby, they may participate in
(02:50):
some of this stuff.
But that's going to be like areally closed, closed knit.
You know small group.
As you move out you've got thelarger community.
So you've got the encompassingall the farms in the area, the
village and such.
So you have your big group offestivals and gatherings and
then you've got the more, likeevery year, seasonal, et cetera,
(03:14):
like large types of gatherings,that would happen.
So in history you know you hadthese different functions of
communities that would offerdifferent benefits and kind of
outside the spiritual aspect,you know you get your local
farms that would help protectyour livestock.
If you had some sheep get out,you had cows get out, you know
(03:35):
these local farms would kind ofget together and help you out.
When it come to like outsidethreats, you know the whole
community would get together,the whole village, all the farms
in the area, everyone wouldband together to repel that.
So you have that aspect ofcommunity and then you have the
cultural identity of an entireregion.
(03:57):
That again is another largetype of community In modern
times that extends a little bitdifferently.
So we have our local community.
So if you live in an area where, like you, live in a more rural
area and you have these kindsof structures around you as well
, you know your small farms andoutlying areas that may come
(04:20):
together and help.
That's going to be more of asecular type of community
nowadays, just because of theprevalence of Christianity in
other religions as opposed tojust pagans in an area If you
are lucky enough to have otherpagans nearby, that would be
(04:42):
great.
But typically you might haveyour family unit that all have
your own spiritual paganpractices, but as a community
around you it may be less common.
That being said, in yourbroader general area, in your
town, your city, however, yourcommunity, you may have other
pagans that could get togetherand have bloats or sabbats, you
(05:06):
know, kind of celebrate thosetogether and then you have like
your regional stuff.
So in the US, here, you know,we structured into states, so
you have your individual state,would have like a big pagan
festival, or maybe the southeast, the southwest, the southwest
you'd have these larger paganfestivals and gatherings that
you know would be, you know,larger communities get together
(05:33):
and take part in that.
But with the modern pagancommunities you also have your
online communities and this is awhole different beast because
people from around the world canget together and share ideas.
Share, you know, and just youknow, spend time talking about,
you know, spirituality, just youknow.
Spend time talking about, youknow spirituality, spend time
getting to know each other.
I'm a member of three, mainlythree, pagan communities.
(05:56):
One is a private community.
It's just a group of friendsthat kind of get together and
it's not so much to talk aboutspirituality but we know we all
have common spiritual interests.
But it's a place that we canhave our other discussions and
just kind of cut up and have funand know we're in a good place
with everyone.
So we know we're not going tobe judged for our pagan beliefs
(06:19):
and that sort of thing.
So we can kind of get togetherand just cut up.
And not everyone in thecommunity is the same type of
pagan.
We have Norse pagans, celticpagans, animists, wiccans.
We have a whole group of peoplein there and everyone respects
everyone else's spirituality.
And then I'm part of other pagancommunities that are
(06:41):
specifically about the paganism.
One major one is the One forthe Pagan Project.
It's a nonprofit that myselfand a few others have founded,
put together and we're workingon building Just a little kind
of shout out to the PaganProject.
We are working on a couple ofthings.
One is to build publicawareness about paganism so the
(07:05):
public at large isn't as leeryof what we are.
We can kind of dispel some ofthe common myths, stereotypes
etc and just create an overallpublic awareness and education
on paganism.
Another part of that is to be aresource for new pagans Out
there on the internet now thereare so many mixed messages.
(07:27):
You have all these differentpagan groups pulling people in
all kinds of differentdirections and new pagans have a
lot of trouble trying to reallynavigate that world.
And on top of that you haveproblematic pagans that will
(07:48):
spread their white supremacistvalues or they try to close down
open practices, or they arespreading information about
closed practices openly whenthey really shouldn't,
appropriating certain cultures,different markings, etc.
So we want to be the overallresource to help New Bagans find
their path, without theconfusion With that we are using
(08:14):
.
We're bringing together a listof content creators, mentors and
just overall allies of thepagan community to, you know,
create this large community ofresources and people, the
biggest resource a community has, and it's the knowledge of its
people.
(08:35):
All right, so let's get into theimportance of community.
There are really three mainaspects to the importance of
community, in my opinion.
One of those is spiritualsupport and growth.
Communities can get togethersharing rituals and ceremonies.
(08:55):
So you know, with thatspiritual support and growth,
you know they can learn fromeach other.
So if, say, we have a largercommunity and five of us that
have practiced together, youknow have a ritual that we do
and a way we do it.
You know we can perform thatfor other people and teach them
about those traditions and whywe do things the way we do and
(09:17):
such Like.
For example, one thing about myspirituality that I like to
share with others is my type ofaltar.
It is kind of based on theNorthern European style, the
North style of the Horga, the,basically a pile of rocks, and
(09:40):
whereas I live in Florida, werocks are a very rare commodity,
with the exception of somelimestone that might get mined
up.
Um, so the way I have my altarsis, when I cleared this
property that I live on, I leftstumps in place at a certain
height to act as an altar.
So I have these stumps reallyaround the property that I use
(10:06):
as altars in certain aspects,like I have some that face the
south, some that are in themiddle of my garden, etc.
So you know, sharing thoserituals and sharing those
ceremonies with others so thatwe can learn from each other is
a big aspect of community.
Another really important aspectof community and I'm going to
(10:26):
kind of lean and explain likethe Christian side of things is
you know, with Christians youhave your local church.
It's a big community oflike-minded individuals that can
say they can go to a movietogether and they know they all
have the shared values and theyhave that sense of belonging to
each other.
You know, for the pagancommunity that connection and
(10:49):
belonging is also important.
We can use these types ofcommunities to build friendships
that will exist outside ofpaganism and we can create these
support networks so that wehave people we can turn to in
times of need, times of sorrow,if we just need a shoulder to
cry on.
We need a friend in certainsituations that share our values
(11:11):
, that won't be trying to saypray for us and lay hands on us
and try to get us to do otherthings that really just exist
outside of our current practices, our current beliefs, our
current situations.
So having that sense ofcommunity around paganism is
really important and it'll help,you know, overcome those
(11:32):
feelings of isolation because,again, while my personal
practice is mostly solo practice, you know sometimes I do feel
quite isolated just because inmy area there aren't that many
pagans.
I've met a couple and you knowthey have different beliefs and
practices that don't reallyalign with mine so we don't
really really aren't able toconnect that strongly, but we do
(11:54):
have that friendship because ofit and it's nice having that.
Another important aspect ofcommunity is the cultural
preservation and educationaspect of it.
You know being able to passdown these traditions and
knowledge, as I mentioned before.
You know being able to like,share um and educate others
about paganism.
You know being able to like,share and educate others about
(12:15):
paganism.
You know having like a publicritual, a public ceremony and
having the public attend.
That may be not pagan, they canobserve and they can learn
about our culture and they canbe educated regarding.
You know the specifics aboutthat.
So three of the main importantaspects of community, in my
opinion, are the spiritualsupport and growth sharing
(12:38):
rituals, learning and growingfrom others.
The social connection and thesense of belonging, overcoming
those feelings of isolation andcreating those support, networks
and friendships.
And then the culturalpreservation and education
aspect passing down traditionsand knowledge, educating others
about paganism.
Those are huge things and a lotof that is what we are trying
(12:59):
to do with the Pagan Project and, as I mentioned before, there
are different levels ofcommunity and paganism.
Levels of community andpaganism we can, you know, kind
of start at, say, the localgroups or covens.
If you're in the Wiccan side orthe witch side of paganism, a
(13:19):
lot of the local groups arereferred to as covens.
Those smaller groups you knowallow for shared rituals, a
shared sense of belonging.
Closer knit friendships andsuch would kind of work along in
with that.
When you expand out from that,you have, like, your festivals
(13:40):
and your big gatherings.
So you have your like seasonalgatherings like bealtain and
sawin and all your bloats andother sabbats and such you know
people can get together forthose like um seasonal festivals
.
If you follow the wheel of theyear, you have four or eight
festivals that you canparticipate kind of on a, I
(14:01):
would say, a medium-sizedgathering.
And then you have yourlarge-scale pagan festivals.
That's more of a generalizedfestival that encompasses
sometimes it's one specificflavor of paganism.
So it might be a big Norsefestival or Celtic festival or
Druid festival or Wiccanfestival, or it may be just an
(14:24):
over-encompassing, just largepagan festival that we've seen a
lot of that bring people fromall these different paths
together to share what they knowand to share their own
practices and experiences andreally just kind of get around
people of the same ideas andideologies.
(14:45):
Then you have again your onlinecommunities.
I mean, it's like the role ofsocial media, online forums.
Servers like Discord are greatavenues for finding online
communities.
So, like Facebook groups orYouTube is you know, you can get
into these communities andstart meeting these people to
(15:05):
form these things.
And then, like, we have Discordservers that are an amazing
aspect.
We have discord servers thatare an amazing aspect.
It kind of takes the old schoolway of you know thought of
forums where people can kind ofchat or chat rooms, and really
kind of puts it all together.
So you have, you know, like, alot of Servers have different
chat rooms for different topics.
(15:26):
You know, for just shooting thebreeze, the Pagan Project
Discord is one that I'm a littlemore active in, just because
we're trying to bring some morepeople in and we're spreading
that knowledge and helping eachother out as we go along the way
.
We've had people from aroundthe world join that server, yeah
, and we have academics, we havepeople that have been
(15:49):
practicing paganism for decadesto people that have just started
.
So we have a wide range ofpeople from all different walks
of life, all different walks ofpaganism, kind of coming
together and sharing theirknowledge freely, openly,
without the fighting.
That's one thing that we justreally try to keep out of.
(16:10):
There is the drama.
So it's a really good umlocation to have those online
communities and we can connectworldwide.
It's so great when you haveonline communities because you
know people from different walkscan really share these ideas.
(16:34):
So if you have the ability, ifyou look in your local area, try
to find a local pagan covenstudy group of like-minded
individuals to see if there's agroup already available.
You can use social media tofind that.
You can do an internet searchfor that sort of thing and if
you can't find anything,consider starting your own.
(16:55):
If you have some experiencewith paganism and you feel like
you can lead others, try toconsider starting your own local
group.
If you can find the existingcommunities.
Join those Online communitiesis a great place to start
because as you start makingconnections in these online
communities, you'll find peoplewho may be in your local area.
It was actually kind of aninteresting thing for me that I
(17:17):
was in an online community justchatting it up and happened to
mention where I was from and Ifound out there was somebody who
lives like an hour down theroad from me in a random online
community that you know I neverwould have met this person
otherwise.
So it's kind of really neat toget in these online groups and
then eventually you'll findother people and meet them.
(17:39):
There are some challenges inonline pagan communities because
you have so many people comingtogether that there is a higher
chance of disagreements andpeople just fighting.
That could happen.
That's why it's important tofind a good pagan community.
You know, start talking topeople about it, talk to the
(18:01):
members of the community, seewhat they like about it, what
they don't like about it, and gofrom there You'll learn pretty
quickly whether or not a pagancommunity is a good community or
not, depending on how themembers act.
If you see a lot of drama inthat community, you may want to
step back.
If you hear a lot about thatcommunity in the wider community
(18:23):
on things, you may considerstepping back.
And if you have anyone in thatcommunity that claims to know
everything about a pagan path orclaims to be something like a
reincarnated god or goddess, youcan start picking up on these
(18:45):
red flags and you may considerbacking out of that group.
Or, you know, maybe viewing itfrom like a 30,000 feet kind of
mindset and just kind of standback and observe and see how
that community interacts and seeif it's going to be a good
enough community for you.
Or see if, like, the topicsreally interest you and it's
something that you want to be apart of.
(19:06):
Or see if the topics reallyinterest you and it's something
that you want to be a part of.
Something at the Pagan Projectwe're working on is to identify
good communities from differentpaths so that we can partner up
with these communities to beable to point people in the
right direction, to good qualitycommunities.
So check us out.
(19:27):
At the Pagan Project we'reworking on this over time.
We don't have any connectionsyet, but that's something that's
on the list of things to do.
By the time you hear this itmay be already put together.
Summarize you know a lot of thekey points in this is the
importance of community andpaganism.
You're looking at sharing ideas, sharing knowledge, learning
(19:50):
from others, creating thosebonds of friendship and
overcoming really the isolationthat comes with the new pagan
path, because, as new pagans,you know when we come out of the
broom closet, so to speak, eventhough in a previous episode I
recommend against certain thingslike um, burning bridges for
(20:14):
you from your previous friendsand family, um, particularly the
Christians or other Abrahamicbeliefs, because when you burn
those bridges, you end up likedestroying those friendships.
So in that case you can expandyour isolation and sometimes it
happens.
But try to be thoughtful whenyou do come out to your friends
(20:38):
and family and try not to burnthose bridges, because isolation
as a pagan is a real thing andsomething we're trying to
overcome.
But keep that in mind.
So pagan communities are areally important way of limiting
that isolation.
So, all that being said, mypersonal thoughts on the topic
(20:59):
is again strengthen your solopractice.
Find these local communities,find a good online community,
because we live in a digital age, we might as well embrace it.
Being a nature first beliefsystem, we want to try to
isolate ourselves from so muchtechnology sometimes, but
(21:19):
technology is here and we shouldembrace it and use it as a tool
to our advantage and buildingthese communities.
Embrace it and use it as a toolto our advantage and building
these communities, and Iencourage everyone to engage
with a current pagan communityor look into building your own.
If you don't have anyonelocally, you just have like two
(21:43):
or three friends you know,formally form a group, you know,
make it a thing and starttrying to find more people and
invite them to your group andstart building that community
Something again that theChristians do really well with
churches.
You know, with being pagans, wedon't really have temples
everywhere, because most of ourpractice is just in the woods,
(22:04):
outside, at our homes, so wedon't have those really
dedicated places to build thosecommunities, which is something
that could definitely change.
Witches do it pretty well withtheir covens.
They start building thesesmaller communities of people.
So I think we, as pagans,should start working harder on
(22:28):
building our communities.
We can start with the onlinecommunities and go from there.
And for all of you that are ina community or have had good
experiences with a community orbad experiences with the
community, I highly encourageyou to seek me out on social
media B-C-O-R-A-T-H, on prettymuch all the places YouTube,
(22:52):
instagram, facebook reach out tome or the Pagan Project and
start building.
You know, just telling us youknow about what your experiences
with these communities are,your thoughts, ideas on building
a community.
We want to hear from you.
So, yeah, that's all I reallyhave to say on the importance of
community today.
(23:12):
Definitely follow along withthis podcast if you don't
already subscribe, Please do.
We have a lot more contentcoming out, a lot more
information.
This podcast as it's, you know,kind of like a personal project
of mine, helping new pagansfind these paths and to kind of
learn and build onto it frombasic foundations.
(23:32):
I will be partnering a lot withthe Pagan Project, since that's
a large part of my time thesedays, so this will kind of
connect in with that a lot, andyou'll hear a lot of mentions of
the Pagan Project.
We're trying to do some reallygreat things.
(23:53):
So you can head to the paganprojectorg and show your support
.
There's a link at the top thatjust says support.
You can fill out an applicationto volunteer as a content
creator, as a mentor, as apromoter, to help get the
message of the pagan project outthere.
If you have skills, uh, talentsyou think would help the pagan
(24:13):
project whether that's you knowyou're, you have um experience
with education, you want tobuild, help us build um
educational content or build uma curriculum you know for new
pagans.
Or if you are really good atgraphic design or video editing
or you're excellent in front ofa camera and you want to help us
(24:35):
make content, uh, definitelyreach out to us and, on the
volunteer form, tell us what youhave.
There's a box there that you canjust really boast about
yourself.
So you know, tell us what areyour strengths and weaknesses
and how that you can use yourabilities to help us.
Uh, there's even a check markin there, like I'll do whatever
I don't know.
Just tell me what to do andI'll do it.
(24:55):
Um, though, that's important aswell.
So if you want to click that,go for it.
Um, we currently have a fullboard, but there is also a point
on there where you canvolunteer to be a member of our
board of directors and part ofour council.
Definitely fill that in andtell us again what your
strengths and weaknesses are,because we're also building
(25:16):
different committees that, eventhough you may not be a voting
board member, we definitely wantmembers of these committees to
build out these services, tobuild out our public awareness,
our programs, even financing andfundraising.
If you have strengths in that,we definitely want you along for
the ride on that.
So please go out there, fillthat up.
(25:36):
If you can provide a monetarydonation, there's a section in
there for that as well.
We thank everyone for being thebest part of what we do.
We do everything with the PaganProject, or me with this
podcast, just to help new pagans, and that's because when I
first started this path, therereally wasn't much out there for
(25:58):
me.
I learned a lot from likeTikTok and YouTube and later on
I found out that a lot of what Ilearned was BS.
So we're trying to filter outthe BS and just provide the core
information and help pointpeople down the correct path
with a good, solid foundation.
So, yeah, follow along thepodcast.
(26:21):
Check us out at the PaganProject.
You can go there.
There's all the socials andsuch on there.
The Pagan Project has alsostarted a Patreon account.
It's got some neat little perksin there.
There's some merch.
So, yeah, check us out.
That concludes this episode.
Thank everyone for being thebest part of this.
Check us out on social media.
(26:43):
They'll be linked in thepodcast notes.
Definitely follow, subscribe,share these podcast episodes
with people you think it mayhelp.
We have episodes so far we'reat like maybe six or seven now
explaining your beliefs toChristians coming out of the
broom closet.
We have a section on animism,basic paganism, cultural
(27:05):
appropriation, appreciation, andcoming up may dive into some um
content on divination, maybesome modern druidry, um.
So yeah, follow along, we'llcheck that out, thank you.
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