Faith in the Goddess is Growing

Ebryon:

"Unfortunately for Wiccans and the like, their flame was extinguished. How bright it burnt when is full flame is a matter of academic debate."

This is why real 'faith' scares you.

Probably also why you fear for your own faith being 'extinguished' if it isn't *enforced* everywhere.

Pagans know better, kiddo.

You've already done your worst, and here we are again. Always have been here, whatever you said or did. You may mock or be in denial, or you may understand that the universe just ain't wrapped around what you think or read.

I'm sure you're kept up nights by some idea someone really wants to burn your holy books, as you've 'extinguished' so many other faiths.

If you think these things are faith, or can be destroyed, or, for that matter, 'obeyed,' ....you have no faith.

And you can't 'extinguish' what you can't see.

And you were wondering how, just now, right?

Why?

I think the numbers are even bigger than they appear in the most recent survey- while nearly 2 million households is nothing to sneeze at, certainly, a lot of people decide not to tell a pollster about their spirituality because of the stigma that it still carries. People still fear for their jobs and keeping their children. I know for a fact that there is at least 200 Pagans of one stripe or another in my area alone.

I think the appeal has to do with being encouraged to decide for oneself about Divinity while learning how to transform yourself from the inside out, heal from past hurts, and develop a relationship to Nature.

Unfortunately for Wiccans and the like, their flame was extinguished. How bright it burnt when is full flame is a matter of academic debate.

Now, practitioners are left with a reanimated hulk. That's okay, it works for many new religions, some of them quite successful by the numbers game.

Hmmm, many words but no statistics!! And please break it down into the thousands of pagan cults. It might simply be new cults of some new pagan level of voodoo or "tree-hugging" that somehow is growing because of the ascent of some witch in "hillbilly" country.

Thanks, Starhawk, for being one of the people on the forefront of the Pagan movement. I read "The Spiral Dance" in 1986, and have considered myself to be a Pagan ever since.

Paganism is growing and changing (of course!) The people who started the movement in the '60s and '70s are becoming Crones and Sages, and new leaders are emerging to take their place. The average Wiccan - if there is such a thing - is no longer the granola-munching hippie, but the Gothy teenager, the soldier, or your neighbor who cleans up the trash on the street and has the nicest veggie garden on the block. We're still committed to Mother Earth, but we're more likely to be wearing a business suit (or camoflage) than tie-dye these days.