Issues with an Inactive Local Pagan Community?

[Astralwolf37]

I've really been trying to get active in my local pagan community lately, however it seems very...inactive and troubled. The local unity council just stopped hosting the monthly open circle in favor of "fun things" like Ren faire trips! (Possibly some drama and burnout?) We had one group study that just disbanded and another failed to really get a start.

I heard mention of one forming coven hosted by a college student without Priestess standing and no certain tradition to follow (I'm not really that elitist, but seems sort of like, "here, let's try this now!") I've been able to find no information on any active, established covens in the area. The last I heard was of one that disbanded around 2004, if memory serves. They used to be the PR agents for the local pagan community- in the news and everything. Now, poof, gone. No trace of very active groups for rituals on Yahoo, Witchvox or Meetup.com.

I went to the local Pub Moot last month to hear about a revolving door of organizers for the event, meet mostly a hodgepodge of older folks I have little in common with, and participate in a loose ritual that felt rushed. I was given a phone number for a study group that was no web presence and meets at someone's house (I'm very paranoid in this day and age). There are several very active groups in the area sort of... one to two hours away.

I do come here for a reason other than to vent, however. My question is if this is a more widespread issue among pagans everywhere, or if it sounds like we just had some bad seeds burn everyone out. Are people just busy? Maybe I'm being too judgmental and harsh? Not looking in the right places? I do live in a smaller metropolis in the Midwest, flanked by two hotbeds of liberalism two hours away. Maybe it's just a bad area for this sort of thing?

If anyone else has noticed this in your area, what do you think causes it? Are we just hard to lead by our very "walk to a different beat" nature? Are our lives too hectic now? Can people get online what they once had to meet for?

It's a large, resounding issue for modern paganism and I'm interest to hear some views.

[orchestrion]

Re: Issues with an Inactive Local Pagan Community?

I'm talking to one Brit Trad coven a few towns away. I'm in the same boat. The pagans on campus here who are the most active pagans in the town I'm living in are drama prone, mean spirited and ridiculously immature and uninformed. I'm really not sure what it is- I think you just have to find people you jive with.
Have you tried witchvox? It's a great website. That's where I found the coven I'm talking to about training with. (edit: Belatedly saw that you mentioned that, sorry.)

[Yazichestvo]

Re: Issues with an Inactive Local Pagan Community?

At my university, there is a small group of pagans. However, I'm feeling increasingly detached from them. I feel outnumbered by witches and occultists who are inspired by the neo-Wiccan path. We used to have an Asatruar and an ADF member, and even a practitioner of some African diaspora tradition (I think it was called "Lakumi" or something similar sounding.) Now the whole group just isn't as interesting to me as it used to be. From what I've heard, most university groups tend to fizzle out once the main people have graduated. I think it takes a very special group of people to actually bring a diverse family of pagans together.

[Gardenia]

Re: Issues with an Inactive Local Pagan Community?

I think it takes a very special group of people to actually bring a diverse family of pagans together.

I agree, and this is one of the main issues I've seen time and time again from people talking about their local communities. Think of all the different pagan traditions out there, and all the people just doing their own pagan thing as well - it's no surprise that trying to get them all into a group, trying to form rituals that have at least some appeal/meaning for all the different folks attending, etc. would be quite difficult. (A lot of groups just end up going with something Wiccan-ish, which doesn't work for a lot of people.) Likewise, while the number of pagans in any area might be a decent amount, if you're looking for a specific tradition, or a group that's run a particular way, they may not be as easy to find.

Sometimes, if there isn't what we're looking for already out there, we can try to get our own thing going - which sounds like what that college student's trying to do, I mean, if there is no one who will step up into a priest/ess role, you sometimes have to work with what you have... Otherwise, you're stuck with traveling to a larger area, or just not having any sort of group.

All that said, I know a lot of pagans who find the Unitarian Universalist church does well in filling that desire for group spirituality, even if they don't specifically have a pagan group (which a number of the churches do). May not be exactly what you're looking for, it's not for everyone, but it can be worth looking into if you have one near you.

[Witcher]

Re: Issues with an Inactive Local Pagan Community?

I think it is widespread. Even the most liberal and welcoming liberal Christian denomination has some sort of structure with which to work. Pagans kind of lack this. It's like herding cats. My local Pagan community is quite fractured. I've been searching for a coven for a while and only recently found an Alexandrian lineage coven and only five members are active in it, sadly. Oh, and two of those only infrequently.

What Gardenia said about the UU church is very true in my area, at least. A large percentage of the local Pagan and witchcraft community go to the local congregation which has a CUUPS group, which is focused on earth-centered, contemporary Pagan paths within the UU umbrella. I've not been drawn to it but I know it works for a lot of people.

The problem I seem to run into is that most of the groups around me are talking groups, kaffeeklatches, or book clubs. They don't actually do anything together in terms of ritual or rite or worship. This is very frustrating, I know, but I think that there are great groups out there they just are harder to find because of the diverse nature of contemporary Paganism.

[Maythe]

Re: Issues with an Inactive Local Pagan Community?

However, I'm feeling increasingly detached from them. I feel outnumbered by witches and occultists who are inspired by the neo-Wiccan path.

I get this in my local community - I'm the only regular moot goer who's a hard polytheist and I'm the only regular goer who is not wiccish. The other people are really lovely people but when I was asked to call a quarter at the annual convention's closing ceremony and I pointed out I don't believe that stuff they were shocked *despite the fact I'd given a talk on Heathenry just a couple of months ago*! It feels increasingly like they're in their own little neo-Pagan bubble in which everyone believes pretty much the same thing. It's so frustrating. Fortunately there's a healthy gang of polytheists the next town over who I hang out with (actually I suspect wiccish types feel similarly over there :P )

Another big part of the problem we have in our town is no-one has the time and energy to organise this stuff. It's the same stalwarts doing this every year, all of whom are pretty quiet and unobtrusive types and therefore not much good at rallying everyone together. Several of the committee are elderly and those who aren't have busy life stuff going on.

[Ula]

Re: Issues with an Inactive Local Pagan Community?

Yeah the only local pagan community here is a wiccan group who are all friends and run a shop together. They don't do rituals or anything. If I didn't work full time I would consider trying to do something but it's hard to know where to start, what will work, who to trust.

[Astralwolf37]

Re: Issues with an Inactive Local Pagan Community?

Thanks for the level, understanding feedback! Sometimes my frustration gets the better of me. In my head somewhere there's an eclectic neo-pagan coven that's been running smoothly for decades, has open circles and zero drama 10 minutes away, if only I look in the right direction. Not going to happen. You've also added perspective to the one vague group ritual I've participated in...it has to be hard to come up with something general enough to encompass everyone who just decides to show up that night.

It also makes sense why we're so scattered, now that you mention it. I myself came to the path so I could do my own thing, but a group would be nice to bounce ideas off of and have a little bit of community. It's like wanting total independence, but a group of people to be independent with! lol. Bit of a paradox, really, but people seem to make it happen here and there. It's especially foreign when you grow up with the strict religious groupings of the church and then are on your own in adulthood. I'm slow to want to start my own group because I'm actually one of those quiet types mentioned above. I've never had a leadership role in my life and don't really want people's spiritual life as my guinea pig.

Thanks for the suggestion of the UU Church. A few months back I actually tried a couple services at a local one, the parent church I believe, and found it to be very close to Christianity, but without the word god. Not a fan of sermons and hymns. The messages seemed just as dogmatic, though this time liberal dogma. Then they did an elemental chant because it was Earth Day and it just felt disrespectful to the elementals because no one was doing it with any deeper knowledge or understanding of the elements. I actually went home that day and felt the need to do a serious cleansing and devotion to the quarters because it felt so flippant (I work very closely with the four quarters, closer than with anything else). But that's just me. I didn't find any satellite pagan groups, either, but I should probably keep looking at other UU churches,so thanks again for bringing that up!

Worse comes to worse, that's what message boards are for. I've been a solitary for eight years and it's worked so far.

[Witcher]

Re: Issues with an Inactive Local Pagan Community?

Astral, I can understand the reticence about the UU. I mentioned it because my local one has a CUUPS organizations and it has helped some Pagans I know. I have a friend who is a very liberal and very spiritual person who went to a congregation a few miles away and the sermon was entitled "Ganesha...is Jesus." I kid you not. After the hour-long confusing sermon there was a hymn to Spring and a ritual to Kali with a huge cross in front of her...it didn't go over well.

[Ananta Androscoggin]

Re: Issues with an Inactive Local Pagan Community?

Remember, "You're Unique, just like everybody else."

You can also (I think) check for UU locations via the CUUPS own website Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans.

It's quite possible that at the UU church where you experienced the elemental chant, they would welcome someone with knowledge and experience in that area to join in and take part in planning and/or leading such future kinds of rites.

When we finally bought our own place to live, we made sure to find somewhere with a small bit of acreage, and happily found such a rural place just a few miles from the second-largest (according to some) urban mess in the State of Maine. There seem to be quite a few Pagans, with some groups, locally. We wanted to be able to provide a place with Sacred Space to the urban Pagans, which we ourselves had never found previously. The result was the Groves of the Greene Man's Denne {seriously out of date thanks to clinical depression}, which we began letting other Pagans know about in 2005. However, so far, there have only been two groups and one workshop-leader who have made use of the space. A couple of years ago, I began printing out some "mini-flyers" to hand out (at Maine Pagan Pride Day, for instance) but the results of that have also been lacking.

I'm beginning to consider just organizing a basic "Intro to Modern Paganism" workshop to go over several weekends, and hold them here, but getting the word out may or may not be the problem. I know I can put such a thing on my own website, on the Maine Earthtides Pagan web-calendar, and on the MPBN tv/radio statewide web-calendar, but as to locally, I have yet to try the local paper's Religion page editor to find out if it'll be a fight to be included or not.

[Ula]

Re: Issues with an Inactive Local Pagan Community?

More than a whole community I would just like to find a mentor. Someone who has practiced for years that I can observe. Especially for runes and blots.