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Paganism’s Priest Problem
I know several adults who aren’t sure whether they were raised Pagan.
Their parents weren’t Wiccan initiates or members of any Pagan organizations. They didn’t explicitly self-identify as Pagan, but they didn’t describe themselves as non-Pagan, either. And every year, they celebrated the Solstices and Equinoxes at home, taught their children that nature was sacred and that divinity need not be only masculine, and made use of Pagan parenting materials (especially Starhawk’s Circle Round).
Paganism is a broad, loose movement. The edges aren’t cleanly defined. Where, exactly, does Paganism end? Where do the New Age movement, feminist and environmentalist culture, and the liberal agnostic milieu begin? Formal, organized traditions anchor Paganism — Wiccan lineages, Druidic groves, and reconstructionist worship groups. But they form the nucleus of the cell, not its outer membrane.
For people like my friends’ parents, the issue is that there aren’t that many options for Pagans who don’t want to be clergy. Wicca in particular is proud not to be a religion of the masses: every initiate is a trained and qualified priest. By the time you get your second degree, you’ve spent years honing your devotional and esoteric skills. And even non-Wiccan groups tend to cater to the same sort of high-commitment person who might otherwise join a coven. It’s difficult to…