PaganSquare.com - WitchesAndPagans.com PaganSquare is a community blog space where Pagans can discuss topics relevant to the life and spiritual practice of all Pagans.
I gave a presentation about Ariadne's Tribe last weekend at WitchCon, and one of the attendees asked me the question:
How is Ariadne's Tribe different from the Minoan Brotherhood?
I feel like I didn't answer it very thoroughly, so I asked the Tribe to help me craft a more comprehensive response. Why would I need to ask them for help? Because not only am I (obviously) not qualified to join the Minoan Brotherhood, but I've never really investigated it.
...
If you look closely at the Ariadne's Tribe logo above, you might see something different about it compared with earlier versions (besides the addition of some lovely lilies from a fresco found in the Minoan villa at Amnisos, that is).
The difference? We're now just Ariadne's Tribe - we're no longer using the phrase "Modern Minoan Paganism."
...
“She hath a grip of all the Craft.”
(Andrew Mann, of the Queen of Elfhame [1591])
“Tradition” is Witch for “denomination.”
For its own good reasons, the collective intuition of the modern Craft has seen fit—you'll pardon the expression—to organize itself into various Traditions.
Some among us strongly identify with a particular Tradition; some of us define ourselves by our Tradition.
There's nothing wrong with that. In some ways, this constitutes a strength.
But there's a difference between letting ourselves be defined by a given Tradition, and letting ourselves be limited by that Tradition.
The Craft is, always has been, and always will be, bigger than any given Tradition.
Were there no witches before Tradition X? Nonsense. There have always been witches. There were witches before there were Traditions. Traditions are made for witches, not witches for Traditions.
The Craft is more than the sum of its Traditions.
No Tradition embodies the fullness of the Craft.
We can build a cherished tradition in the simplest of ways.
One of my absolute favorite childhood memories from the holiday season was my Christmas stockings. I felt more strongly about them than I did about the gifts under the tree, though please don’t think my parents skimped there.
There were little toys in the stockings, but I don’t recall a single one of those toys. What I remember, with sweetness, is that every year my stocking held a couple of tangerines, a handful of unshelled nuts, and a few, exquisite, small, Italian nougat candies, each candy in a tiny box that seemed oh-so-fancy to me.
