Flourishing, pagan groups get organized

[joefree1]

Flourishing, pagan groups get organized

Mainstreaming of beliefs includes a scouting club

By Matthew Hay Brown
sun reporter
Posted October 31 2005
In a quiet room at the back of the Westchester Community Center in Oella, Ostara Hollyoak organizes the half-dozen young children and their mothers into a small circle. The youngsters settle down as she lights a thick green candle at their center. She leads them in a pledge.

"I promise to serve the Wise Ones," say Caleb, Hannah, Holly and the others, "to honor and respect the Earth. To be helpful and understanding to all people, and always keep love in my heart."

The Saturday morning meeting in Baltimore County of Spiral Dance Circle No. 101 has begun. For the next 90 minutes or so, the boys and girls ages 4 to 8 -- joined by a couple of younger siblings not old enough for membership -- will share pictures showing where they feel closest to nature, listen to a Lakota Sioux creation myth and then break for a party.

edit ...

The diffuse nature of the community, the lack of a centralized authority and the private character of practice make them difficult to count. But analysts estimate that the number of pagans active in the United States has grown from perhaps a few thousand in the middle of the 20th century to between a few hundred thousand and a few million.
More ...
http://www.southflorida.com/news/bal-te.md.pagans31oct31,0,2209768.story?coll=sfe-guide-headlines2

I'm thinking that we're now around a few million at least.
B*B,
joefree1


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PaganWarrior/

"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God."
- Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)

[roguevalley]

1. this is wonderful. I am so glad to hear this.

[Hekate]

2. I'm stunned -- a few million? us?!

Am so glad I dropped by tonight before logging off. There is HOPE in my heart.

Hekate

[Walt Starr]

3. Organization is the key to recognition

When with my group in Cheyenne, our recognition by the state lead to a prison ministry which I participated in.

[Dervill Crow]

4. I don't mind not being recognized.

It seems very frustrating and demeaning that we have this need to defend our religion.

I'm very ambivalent about this issue. I'm not crazy about Falwell, etc., thinking that my religion is not as valid as theirs, but there is NO religion that they think is as valid as theirs.

I love the idea of a prison ministry, however. Like the bumpersticker says, "Freedom of Religion Means ALL Religions." Not sure if it is still happening, but they used to have esbat rituals at the Oregon State Penitentiary led by an acquaintance of mine. (Without the athame or sword, I'm guessing.)

[Walt Starr]

5. A note on the athame

We're all born with one.



What got me was how the Baptist Minister who was chaplain of the penententiary took to our beliefs. Once I started making the comparisons about spells being prayers and how we simply have more ritual to our prayers he started getting it.

I think he really came to understand that our recognition of the Divine in the form of Goddess and God was really as valid as any other, at least under our constitution.

[Dervill Crow]

6. And you can take it on an airplane. n/t