I've just created the first Wicca group on Vox. Here's the link.

Tags: community, vox, wicca
Mood Swing: geeky

I am creating a mini-site on my site specifically for S.A. Pagans. It will have a full menu highlighting areas of interest. This is what I have so far as categories:

Meetups, Yahoo Groups, location of SA pagan Community Forums (such as MySpace, LJ etc), Pagan Night Out (PNO), S.A. Pagan Pride Day, Open Circles/Group/Covens. Frappr map.

Each topic will have its own menu header; each Meetup and events such as PNO will have its own page (with writeup by the Organizers). Open groups will have a basic overview and requirements, written by the group leaders.

The link will be http://www.seshen.com/sapagans It's not yet up, but this be an easy way to send folks to one site that organizes different areas under one place. NOTE: I will NOT be listing individual web sites or commercial sites at this time. It's strictly community oriented.

When I have things more set up, I'll let you know. If you're interested in being a part of it, please contact me off-list. Please let me know if you have any questions, suggestions on this project. Thanks!

Tags: community, san antonio pagans, web site

It was for stalking, and one other felony that escapes my memory at the moment. I look at all the posts recently about supporting his wife, who was "fired for being a witch," and reflect upon what REALLY transpired. Honestly, she was a school bus driver who espoused sucking blood. I would NOT trust her around my children. And now, this fellow who "dares to be different" turns out to be a common felon.

I believe that the pagan community really needs to step back and take a good re-look at the idea of "unconditional, universal acceptance and tolerance." Too often, it means that people ignore their basic gut instincts because they don't want to appear intolerant. That's not only against common sense, it's unnatural. Nature gave us intuition for a reason, and people who proclaim to study and respect nature need to embrace that. Psychos need to be shunned, period. There's no "we have to tolerate all beliefs" about it.

Tags: beliefs, bias, community, intuition, nature, pagan, pc, tolerance

dark_witchcraft profile updated and completed (unless someone comes up with a really good suggestion I hadn't thought of).

Now to decorate. I love to decorate. I don't know if you'd noticed that.

Tags: community, mod, witchcraft
Mood Swing: creative

Continuing on the general thread:
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My own Tradition has added, "an it cause harm, do as you must." Because you CAN'T always do your true will. So at that point, you have to make a conscious decision that someone might get hurt in the process of you doing the right thing.

I believe this applies well to pagan community. We tippy-toe so much around what might be considered sensitive issues, statements, viewpoints, that we end up neutralizing ourselves as independent, creative individuals. And that does us no good.

Tags: community, pagan, pc

Related answers in the intro post for pagan_community (a new forum with potential)
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2) Who are we? When you think of Pagan Community who do you think that includes? Who (if anyone) do you think it excludes? I define "community" in the dictionary sense; a group of people living in the same locality, having common interests, that interact with each other through a variety of mediums. This would include geographical location and regular on-line forums, as two main examples. "Community" today can include both local and global.

3) What do we want? Why do we need community? What do we expect to do for it and what do we expect it will do for us? We need community because man is basically a pack animal. Even loners reach out for occasional interaction. We expect, IMHO, mutual support in terms of social acceptance, comfort, guidance and other basic human needs.

4) How do we make it happen? What do we need to create, copy, or steal to build a healthy pagan community? "For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack".(Kipling). A healthy community must have healthy individuals. We need to provide support and compassion for wounded spirits while not enabling them to continue being crippled; we must help them overcome what holds them back or weakens them. Let’s get away from the "group therapy" method of tolerance and not be afraid to disagree or make any sort of strong statement or stand. By the "universal acceptance" toted as the pagan standard, we often end up creating infighting instead. This leads to people taking sides, back-biting, separating into little cliques, and much more trouble then if people were encouraged to simply be themselves and be judged on their own merit. It’s divisive under the mask of being "inclusive." In a nutshell, more people need to worry less about everyone else's human nature and study up on what that REALLY means vs what they'd like it to be.

Tags: community, pagan