I have taken part in rituals, feasts, and Sabbat celebrations, and I have worked “magic” both alone and in community. I have seen how everyday people can move natural energy to create needed change, and the result is magical indeed.
While many of the people who are part of our school community don’t identify themselves as Pagans, with them I have found a safe place to celebrate, affirm, worship, and praise the Goddess as she manifests herself in her purest form: through our children.
Resources for Pagan Parents
Carson, Anne, ed. Caretaking a New Soul—Writings on Parenting from Thich Nhat Hanh to Z. Budapest. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press, 1999
McCleary, Patrick. “PaganDad.” http://www.Pagandad.com/.I love that McCleart’s subtext is “Leading the Next Generation Forward Through Faith.” I think that says it all.
Starhawk, Diane Baker, and Anne Hill. Circle Round: Raising children in Goddess Traditions. New York: Bantam Books, 1998.
Wigington, Patti. “Your Rights as a Pagan Parent.” About.com http://Paganwiccan.about.com/od/yourlegalrights/a/Rights_Parents.htm.
WitchVox. “Pagan Parenting.” http://www.witchvox.com/_x.html?c=parent.
This page is filled with tons of articles, resources, opinions, and links that will make you feel rich and connected.
Life is what you make it, and Dallas Jennifer Cobb has made a magical life in a waterfront village on the shores of great Lake Ontario. Forever scheming novel ways to pay the bills, she practices manifestation magic and wildlands witchcraft. She currently teaches Pilates, works in a library, and writes to finance long hours spent following her hearts’ desire—time with family, in nature and on the water. Contact her at [email protected].
Illustrator: Rik Olson
*Starhawk. “A Working Definition of Reclaiming.” Reweaving. http://www.reweaving.org/tradition.html.
Reconsidering the Spectre of Pagan Standard Time
Susan Pesznecker, On-Time Pagan
Imagine this: You spend hours, no, days planning the perfect ritual for your coven, including an agreed-upon start time of 8:00 pm that coincides with everyone’s home, kid, pet, gym, and work schedules. BlackBerries and iPhones are synched. As the lead organizer, you’ve poured heart and soul into the preparations, and at 7:45, you’re garbed and ready, haunting the front door and excited for the evening to begin. Problem is, no one else has arrived. Eight o’clock comes and goes … 8:10 … 8:25 … Finally, at 8:30, someone shows up and then others begin to trickle in. By the time all the key players have shown up, it’s 9:15. The ritual that should have been over by now—leaving plenty of time for fellowship and a table of cakes and ale—hasn’t even started. You want to go ahead and start, but others insist on waiting for the remaining stragglers. In the meantime, one couple looks anxiously at the time and announces they only have a babysitter for another forty-five minutes.
You’re madder than h…. Well, you know. And you’re a victim of Pagan Standard Time.
What is Pagan Standard Time? Somehow, somewhere along the line, an unfortunate urban myth took root within the Pagan community. Referred to as Pagan Standard Time or PST, it goes something like this: If you’re an hour late for a ritual, circle, class, or other event, you’re on time. If you’re two hours late, you’re still on time. If you don’t show up at all, that’s okay too.
Huh?
No one seems sure how or when this mythos got started, but it appears to coincide with the development of the Neo-Pagan movement. But why? Why are Pagans (and presumably Wiccans, Druids, Chaos Mages, Faeries, etc.) willing to treat members of their communities so shabbily?
It may date back to the modern beginnings of Neo-Paganism, at least here in the United States. The most visible parts of religious America consist of mainstream religions; many of these are fundamentalist and most look askance at those following Earth-based traditions, criticizing them for not following the mainstream status quo. Pagans, in response, may have rebelled with, “Oh, yeah? We’ll just show you exactly how non-mainstream we can be!” This could easily have led to the hippie-style, self-doctrinal approach of ignoring schedules, clocks, and agendas and refusing to comply with any sort of structured obligation.
Speaking of structure: some Pagans feel that timepieces and any sort of framework or schedule have the potential to interfere with the natural flow of energy raising, ritual, etc. These folks eschew timepieces, preferring a loose, organic process and allowing each stage to happen as it will, following the universe’s flow and rhythm. Alas, as busy as people are today, there often isn’t time for this kind of natural unfolding, which is exactly why rituals and events are usually scheduled for a specific time and in a set place.
A practical line of reasoning supporting PST might have to do with energy disruption of watches and electronics. Simply said, when magick is in the air, electronics and digital items often fail for inexplicable reasons. So, some ask, why court disaster by wearing them? The result is predictable: if no one knows what time it is, it’s pretty hard to stay on schedule.
Alas, as busy as people are today, there often isn’t time for this kind of natural unfolding, which is exactly why rituals and events are usually scheduled for a specific time and in a set place.
The online Urban Dictionary defines Pagan Standard Time as either “fashionably late, when preceded by a definite hour,” or “within half an hour or so of” a specified time. The Llewellyn Online Encyclopedia describes PST as “a joking reference to the common experience of Pagan rituals starting later than planned or announced due to not having preparations completed or awaiting participants who are arriving late.” The Arcane Crafts witches Annual takes the “joke” idea even further, suggesting a schematic for a clock that runs only on Pagan Standard Time. The prototype has no second hand because “no Pagan runs on THAT tight a schedule.” The clock features the traditional minute and hour hands but also has a third “Pagan hand” that runs at half the speed of the others. The clock face has thirteen hours instead of twelve—effectively adding two extra hours to
