This is the last installment of a four part series on physical infrastructure in the Pagan community. In this post I am focusing on festivals, conferences, and other multi-day events. In almost every culture and every community there is the custom of the gathering of the tribes. Modern pagan festivals, gatherings, and conferences are our equivalent of the gathering of the tribes. For simplicity sake, I'll refer to all these sorts of events as gatherings. In earlier posts in this series I spoke about the value that comes from seeing each other, working with each other, and having places that we can call our own. What makes gatherings different from these other kinds of infrastructure is that they involve large groups of people. Why is that important? For the most part, we are relatively isolated from each other and see only a handful of people at a time that share some commonality with our path. Seeing a multitude of Pagans together is transformative.
This is part three of four of a series on physical infrastructure in the Pagan community. In this blog post I am focusing on temples, libraries, and land-based projects. For the sake of simplicity I am using the phrase temples, libraries, and land-based projects, but as you read this post also think of retreat centers, community centers, and other sorts of venues as well. There are currently a small number of Pagan temples, libraries, and land-based projects, for which I am grateful but there are not enough.
This is part two of four of a series on physical infrastructure in the Pagan community. In this blog post I am focusing on Pagan bookstores and related businesses. For the sake of transparency and disclosure, I'll say that I am the co-owner of a metaphysical bookstore (Bell, Book, & Candle in Dover, De) so I do have a personal interest in this matter. I will also say that it is a labor of love and that there are any number of other ways that I could make a better living with much less work. If my partner Jim, did not have a good job with benefits, I would never have considered a metaphysical store as a reasonable option for myself. This is an artifact of the often strained relationship that the Pagan community has with money and finances. The ambivalence and misgivings related to money and material goods within our community will be a continuing thread throughout this series of blogs.
This is the beginning of a four part series on physical infrastructure in the Pagan community. Although there are many types of infrastructure that deserve discussion, I'll focus on three types in my next blog posts that I think have the greatest importance and greatest urgency at this fork in the road. I will be talking about:
The memory of Bell, Book and Candle on 9/11 brought me to tears. If ever there was a time when I longed for infrastructure, that
Additional information
Free PaganSquare Access
Recent Blog Comments
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...
Erin Lale
Here's another link to a pagan response to the Atlantic article. I would have included this one in my story too if I had seen it before I published it...
Janet Boyer
I love the idea of green burials! I first heard of Recompose right before it launched. I wish there were more here on the East Coast; that's how I'd l...