As Dr. Vandana Shiva proudly proclaims, "I am no
longer employable by the Other Side", and good intentions don't often buy
dinner. If you are choosing to make your way in Right Lifestyle,
which is often a component of your spirituality, there are really few
options available to you, because the small fraction of our culture
that isn't toxic and actually set up for people like us have many times more
applicants clamouring to join than could ever be supported. If you
wish to learn a traditional or green profession or craft, and practice it full
time with honour and dignity, perhaps as part of your spiritual practice
instead of just as a hobby, you are almost totally out of luck. Or at least, until now...
I make my living following the old ways as a professional
witch, largely in traditional healing, helping those most in need. It has taken
me many years of dedication, research and experience to learn how to
earn a living practising as a traditional witch in a modern context, even
with training from mentors and learning how to teach apprentices the craft. I know many more folks who can only do it on their off hours,
especially women, who often don't even expect to get paid for their expertise.
And most can't take the time out of their lives to dedicate
themselves to the more advanced learning about their craft. However, there
has always been a group that can dedicate their lives to a traditional
profession or the work of a particular Goddess or God and never have to worry
about housing or their next meal. They were what the Old English knew as nonnes, or
traditional European nuns (and monks) whose Orders the Christians took over, if they didn't outright purge them. In many of the traditional
extant Orders, you can still see remnants today of
the original pagan dedications and offices that were retained
after the Christian usurpations, though most are written off now as unique
historical curiosities.(1) Whether in their pagan or later
Christian incarnations, most of the old abbeys in Europe were
matriarchal (2), and, as the original Universities, taught all manner of
scholarship.(3) The title of Dean is still used by the heads of both Abbeys and
Universities. Some were also warrior training camps for women and men (4) and
were centres of justice. The Abbeys and nunneries trained nonnes,
which also translates as nurses, as a profession and as a spiritual calling and housed cloistered communities as well as
hospitals, travellers' hospices and convalescent homes.(5) While the
pagan community is reClaiming so many of its traditions, as far as I know these
professional traditions and communities are rarely even discussed, much less
significantly revived.
I used to have repeated arguments with others in the pagan
community on this topic, though in the past few years, curiosity and
hope are beginning to replace the sneering. "Why should WE need an
abbey?", some said with a snort. "There are plenty of Buddhist and
Taoist monasteries around.." Well, we are neither Buddhist nor Taoist,
although most of us get along quite nicely with them, of course. For a religion
to be more formalized, to grow and permeate more areas of a culture or a group,
it needs full time members who are dedicated to practising, refining, writing,
recording, studying and teaching. Though we do have quite a few of those, they
usually have day jobs, rather than being a full time professional community. We
have a great many of what could be termed lay sisters and brothers; those who
are devoted and dedicated to living their lives in the Way, but we have no
priest 'class', as it were. So, though we do have a professional priesthood of
sorts, we have not yet created spaces to support them full time, or train and
hone them, or even facilitate professional community environments of
librarians, educators and other academics. It is vital to our religion to
establish these communities, and not just as teaching venues, but as places
where we can totally immerse ourselves in our religion, and not only for short retreats. But for years. They are already becoming a reality. I was
in contact with an abbess of the Cybeline abbey in New York for some time. They already
have a large community of nuns with hospitality, retreat centres and
libraries. Though there is room for dedicating to one Goddess in particular,
like mine, because that's just for me, a similar kind of
non-deity specific community can appeal to far more people under the
auspices of Pagan Humanism, where everyone can hear the call in their own way,
yet we can work under one banner. Conserves resources and coalesces talent,
doncha know...
Pagan Humanism solves the issue of the different pagan
paths very elegantly. As a University structure run by professional
nuns and their families, the individual Path of each practitioner is
actually irrelevant to the functioning of the abbey, be they Druid, Odinist, Yogini, or atheist. In a University, there are
oodles of disciplines working side by side, and each finds fulfilment and increases
their own knowledge, but they are all working together. And this in particular
is where Right Lifestyle professions, disciplines
and education comes in. A pagan abbey must, as all abbeys have in the
past, support itself. They are incorporated today, and like
most corporations, can generate income by providing goods and
services, especially those that are in keeping with the
spiritual pursuits of the members. The old Abbeys for example provided
beer, liqueurs, linens, medicines and other highly skilled
products to the community that the practitioners would create while
practising and teaching their Path. For a modern abbey, my preferences are
for herbal products, a winery, a brewery, and retail health/pagan
stores, mostly because I know how to do those. But it could be wool or
meat or milk or wheat or flowers...Whatever. Hel, there are Christian convents now that support themselves by having the nuns do tech support. Not
to mention the monks who manufacture Christmas fruitcakes...
I've had training in all the areas that my Goddess is matron
of, but only the Enlightened achieve total perfection, and I'm not yet Graced
with that yet. Although I feel well rounded in my tradition, I need to interact
with other experts on a regular basis, and help people train and perfect their
respective crafts, as well as collaborate with those who can share
what they know of my Matron, helping me to achieve a better understanding
of Her. So. A dedicated space where one can devote one's life to
voluntary simplicity, learning and using one's knowledge for humankind's
benefit, perhaps providing a space to those who are ill, helping them to achieve full health while practising one's art
and spirituality, all without worrying about how to make one's daily
bread... Mmm. Though some interest has been expressed for this kind of
co-ordination and professionalism in the pagan community for a few years now,
it has yet to really manifest. In fact, I would join it if I could find one
that suited my needs. But if you can't find it, make it, is my motto...
Our business model operates on personal
voluntary poverty and is a modern version of a self-sustaining religious NPO/Ecovillage that, for
example, will create a space for crafters to follow their path in a spiritual
manner while also managing to funnel surplus product to consumers, without
undercutting other professionals. I specialize in herbal still
room work, and there is only so many experiments and demonstrations I
can store or give away. And they have a limited shelf life. So for me, having
an online and physical shop was a necessity to continually hone my
craft, encourage experiments, and keep the ingredients fresh and rotated.
For fibre artists for example, having a space for them to get rid of
their projects is almost a requirement to keep doilies and quilts from crawling
all over furniture in an attempt to escape. Taking their profession
and skill to the next level by generating income to help sustain
themselves and create more art is a dream most aspire to. Having a community to
do that, with other professionals and teachers, in a sacred space, is something
many would dedicate their lives to. I know I have craved it since I was a
child, and I'll be damned if I have to be Christian, or Buddhist, or Taoist
to do it, either. Why can't pagans have those goodies, too? We used to, and we
can again.
The Shaker community (6), for example, who are nuns
and monks (and who have the lovely aphorism "Hands to work, hearts to God, which I adore..), used to commonly have entire families joining at once and living in
the community or dedicating themselves to the lifestyle. Once consecrated when
adults, however, they were full monks and nuns in
the Christian tradition and could produce no more children, which is
one of the reasons for their slow decline in numbers, despite their appeal as a
spiritual community. Pagans, however, don't usually require celibacy. In fact, it
is traditional for most pagans, and pagan orders of nuns, NOT to be celibate. Not
only do most pagans find the enforcement of celibacy to be unnatural in humans, it's not
even the usual procedure in most women's spiritual communities
in antiquity. It only becomes the usual enforced restriction in
the West when the patriarchal Christian structure takes over our sites and
orders. With many pagans using sexual energy and the sexual acts
as necessary forms of worship, and as a sex
positive spirituality in general, there is little enticement to
encourage celibacy as a discipline for
pagan dedicates. Even our cloistered communities can be, then, as
traditional pagan communities usually have been, family friendly and
supportive of partnerships, relationships, and human intimacy. Which makes
us even healthier and more appealing than the celibate communities.
And I'm not leaving my husband and kids behind while I devote myself to my
spirituality and sacred work. Why should I? They are part of it, and reflect
it.
Another necessity, though a less joyous one, is the requirement
of many of our community members to have a safe space to practice
their spirituality in support and comfort, since many of us had have
conflict with our families of origin or society at large over our
belief system. Though some of us manage to find covens and other smaller
groups to express ourselves in safety, many more do not have access to such
resources, nor do they feel comfortable at the level of intimacy such groups
usually require. An Abbey provides professional mentorship and community in a
safe, healing environment where the novice or practitioner can feel comfortable
in their faith and life choices, without judgement and in security.
Wendy Griffin, PhD suggests that our professional
priesthood has already sprung up, but poses the question, do we want an
educated one? I fundamentally agree with that assessment. Abbeys
solve that problem and many others in a most elegant manner. Modern pagan
abbeys based on traditional structure, both virtual and brick and mortar,
can provide:
* a professional academic community with continual
interaction and peer environment, with libraries, research and publications
* training, mentoring, discussion
and maintenance of full-time professionals in traditional pagan paths
and pursuits
* a sacred and supportive community for worldly
or cloistered professionals and laity to dedicate
themselves temporarily or permanently to spiritual
devotions
* vectors to provide services and goods to benefit the
community and the world
* a safe haven for pagans and non-members who feel the harm
of the world to rest and heal.
The Abbey of the Green Flame and the Copper Horse Abbey,
both under the auspices of Dìsir: An
Order of Traditional Aboriginal and Pagan Humanists, are two such
entities that are already formed, one dedicated to green witchery and healing and the Celtic
Aboriginal tradition, and the other to pagan horse magic and traditional
animal medicine. I hope the few already in existence will soon be joined by many more, as we
reClaim our heritage of sacred communities, spaces,
professional academic knowledge and Right Lifestyle which we, as
a mature tradition, both crave and deserve.
Footnotes:
1) "St. Brigid's double monastery at Kildare was built
at a location previously sacred to her pagan namesake, and the inner sanctuary
of the Kildare Church also contained a blessed fire perpetually maintained by
the nuns of her community. Some have speculated that St. Brigid herself once
served as the last high priestess of a community of druid women worshipping the
goddess Brighid, and that she led that entire community into the Christian faith."
http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic_saints/brigid.html
http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic_saints/brigid.html
2) "Kildare was ruled by a double line of
abbot-bishops and of abbesses, the Abbess of Kildare being regarded as superior
general of the monasteries in Ireland."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigit_of_Kildare
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigit_of_Kildare
3) "Brigid's most famous foundation is at Kildare, established on a
generous grant of land from the king of Leinster. It is generally thought to
have been a double monastery, housing both men and women, with Brigid presiding
over both communities. Double monasteries were a common practice in Celtic
lands, later taken by the Irish to the continent. Brigid made her monastery a
remarkable house of learning for both men and women, including an art school
devoted to for the creation of highly decorated handmade copies of scripture
texts and other holy writings."
http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic_saints/brigid.html
http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic_saints/brigid.html
4) "The, training of a warrior was a long task, frequently undertaken by
warrior women who were responsible for teaching boys the arts of combat and of
love. Specific titles were given to these classes of female warriors such as
BAN-GAISGEDAIG (BAN-meaning woman and a derivative of GAS which means young
warrior) and BAN-FEJNNIDH (which combines BAN with FEINNIDH meaning 'band of
warriors') so it seems they were classed according to age and experience,
possibly starting their training as very young girls. "
http://www.pabay.org/skyeviews.html
http://www.pabay.org/skyeviews.html
5) "More than anything else, however, Brigid is renowned for her
hospitality. The poor and the infirm come in their multitudes. She makes
provision for the sick, tending to them with her knowledge of contemporary
medicine. Kildare becomes a place of holy pilgrimage for all, from the
prominent and powerful to the lowly and forgotten."
http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic_saints/brigid.html
http://www.allsaintsbrookline.org/celtic_saints/brigid.html
6) The Shakers, an offshoot of the Quakers, were one of
"a number of utopian experiments in communal living that strove to
construct a society in which people could live in perfect harmony surrounded by
the bountiful plenty of Mother Earth. The Shakers were one of the most
successful of these attempts"
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/shakers.htm
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/shakers.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment