We must confess to a certain ambivalence about accepting the label "Pagan". A respect for History urges us to do so, because the very word was invented to specifically cover the traditional, non-Judeo-Christian faiths of the Roman Empire. But, of late, this term has been redefined in popular culture as if it were a synonym for the New Age, a movement that the ancients probably would have regarded with apprehension at the very least. There have been times when we would have been there with them on this one. We do tend to shy away from the community, a bit.

In fact, we've found that the most pleasant activity for Networking purposes that we've found so far isn't even to be found at a specifically Pagan event. Open mike nights for writers provide a far more comfortable setting and seem to attract the sort of crowd that we're looking for. Unfortunately, most of the "Pagan" events we've been to, haven't.

We could give you many excellent examples by way of illustration, but we're tired of the subject, so one will be enough. In one article, we recount some of the joys that came to us as a direct result of our past connection to the Council for Pagan Liberty and Interfaith Cooperation, as we came into contact with a well-established local Wiccan group and its allies.

This story does raise an unhappy question : if discussing an issue as simple as this lead to such trouble, what would have happened if we had tried to work out a real issue? Clearly, an open door policy proved incompatible with group effectiveness on this occasion.

Consider this our answer to the question, "Gee, why have you guys been so darn secretive?". Because we don't need the headaches. It also answers another frequently asked question : why are you using all of these pseudonyms? Why have one person have several pen names, or have one name turn out to be a consortium? The answer is, "to keep the (expletitive deleteds) guessing".

A problem which we've already mentioned, which makes its appearance repeatedly in these accounts, is the willingness of well-entrenched members of the community to deal with arguments that they don't like by trying to keep others from listening to those who make them and reading what they have to write, through a variety of forms of character assassination. The virtue of doing things our way for a group starting out, is that our would-be assassin never quite knows who he is sniping at. "Do I attack this person or that?" If he guesses wrong, instead of isolating the person he doesn't wish to have heard, he's picked a new enemy, who may do unto him as he would do unto others. While our would-be censor dithers, his would-be victim(s) have a chance to be heard, rendering the censor's future efforts (once he has sorted matters out) far less effective.

Maybe someday, it will be once again fashionable to listen to both sides of a dispute before making up one's mind, but clearly, that day is not today and this is how one sidesteps the efforts of the local gossips. It's just that simple. Please don't ask us about any of this, not the story linked to above or any other bit of past politics, if you drop by. We tell these stories here (and wherever else) in print, so we won't have to be reminded of them by telling them in person. We'd really like to put this nonsense (and the people who inflicted it on us) behind us, and move on.

In particular, if you see somebody here identified by a pseudonym instead of by his real name, please do not ask us who he really was. If he wishes to let things die down, why pick on him? If he doesn't, there is enough detail here that you'll be able to figure out who he is. Either way, the point isn't to bash any specific individuals, but to give the reader a sense of what a particular experience was like and to give her something to think about, as she makes her own informed decisions.

(Note : experiences like these did, in part, motivate our original, indirect system of meeting new members, for a variety of reasons. As the events at the Council serve to illustrate, there are far too many in the community, who will attempt to disrupt that which they can not control for the "community" to be a good place in which to build a group. Given this, we're going to tend to be a little guarded about identifying ourselves or opening ourselves up to the "Pagan Community" in the future. When the community can not bring itself to condemn such a gross breach of trust as that committed by the group mentioned here, we would maintain that it is no community at all, and we miss little by keeping to ourselves as we do).

Instead, we will focus more on literary events, philosophical reading circles, and the like, as we seek to escape the Pagan ghetto. Now that less of our time is being taken up with the sort of nonsense we've been discussing, we'll have more time to do so.

Occasionally asked question :

Weren't you guys threatened with legal action a few times?

Actually, we've been threatened exactly once to date, as of May, 2000 (1), by the owner of a local bookstore. There was no follow through, though. The case would have been memorably groundless. The alleged basis for it was that the owner thought we were friends with somebody else he had sued ("Frank" from the Prima Nocturne Incident), and were supposedly going to continue one of that man's community projects. Occasionally, we'll hear rumors of other threats, but invariably they're just that - rumors, started by yet another Wiccan community member with an excessively vivid imagination.

We get the feeling that, lacking real news, some people like to invent it, and eventually, they start recycling their old material. As people have heard of us, but scarcely anybody has actually met one of us (as we're not that numerous), we're a convenient addition to somebody's tall tale. What are the odds that one of us will drop by, to contradict the story?

What can we say? It seems to us, at times, that half of the Wiccans out there joined because they wanted to be characters in a movie, and feel a little frustrated when they discover that, in actual fact, the real world is not the set for the show "Charmed".

Us? We just want our little reading group.

Click here to return to the Table of Contents on "... and sometimes we stumble" or the main page for the Almond Jar, unless you'd like to read some thoughts, either about the human factors that cause the community to be plagued by absurdities like these, or what followed the incident of the "Temple of Prima Nocturne", and what we learned from it. It definitely gave us something to think about, even if the guilty parties themselves never seemed to spend much time doing so.

(*) The branch page, for the Almond Jar, in which political and other less than pleasant (or entertaining) material is put, ie. where you are, right now.

(1) A year and a day later, the bookstore owner remains the only person to direct that ridiculous threat at us. Considering how many genuine lunatics we've met here, to stand out from that crowd is no mean feat.