How can you protect yourself from PST fallout? If you’re attending someone else’s event, ask specific questions about when the action will really start and plan accordingly. Throw a camp chair, a thermos of coffee or tea, and a good book into your car and you’ll be all set to wait out a late start. If you’re attending a seminar, class, or other public event, do your best to follow the schedule. Remember that the teachers and presenters are usually donating their time and often their own money as well. They may have traveled a long way to get to the event and may be paying for hotel, food, babysitter, boarding the dog, etc. Honor their efforts by respecting their itineraries.
Practically speaking, with the technology available today, there’s no reason to ever be late. By planning ahead, knowing the schedule, and using the capabilities of one’s favorite smart phone, laptop calendar, wristwatch, or sundial, we’ll arrive on time—or even early. By arriving on time, we show respect for the magick and our fellow magick users. Let’s set aside the shabby practice of Pagan Standard Time—our magickal community will reap the benefits!
Resources, Accessed August 2010
Jung, Fritz. “What is a Witch War?” Witchvox.com. http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usfl&c=wars&id=2093.
Llewellyn Worldwide. “Pagan Standard Time.” The Llewellyn Encyclopedia. http://www.llewellyn.com/encyclopedia/term/Pagan+Standard+Time.
“Pagan Standard Time Clock.” http://www.turoks.net/Cabana/PaganStandardTime.htm.
Tyler, Aldous. “Unchecked Pagan Standard Time (PST) Erodes Pagan.Community Viability.” http://mabon-fest.grouply.com/message/309.
Susan “Moonwriter” Pesznecker is a writer, college English teacher, nurse, and hearth Pagan living in northwestern Oregon. She holds a masters degree in nonfiction writing and loves to read, watch the stars, camp with her wonder-poodle, and work in her own biodynamic garden. Sue is Dean of Students and teaches nature studies and herbology in the online Grey School of Wizardry (greyschool.com). She’s the author of Gargoyles (New Page, 2007) and Crafting Magick with Pen and Ink (Llewellyn, 2009) and is a regular contributor to many of the Llewellyn annuals. Visit Sue on her Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/
susan.pesznecker.
Illustrator: Bri Hermanson
Should You Do Magic for a Cause or Donate Money?
Lupa
When popular Pagan author Isaac Bonewits was dying from cancer in 2010, members of the community around the world participated in two separate rituals to help him. The first, the Rolling Thunder ritual, was created by Isaac’s wife Phaedra as a way to build up a cascade of healing energy for him. People were asked to perform their healing rituals at 9 pm in their respective time zones in order to create a continuous flow of magic for the stated intent.
The second ritual was the Rolling Coin ritual. On the full moon in July, Pagans were asked to donate what they could to help the Bonewits family cover expenses for medical and other bills. Isaac’s family had quite a bit of debt, not surprising given that even those cancer patients with insurance can still be expected to pay staggering copays, nevermind the costs not covered by any insurance.
I don’t have, nor do I believe anyone has, accurate numbers as to how many people participated in each ritual. However, anecdotally speaking, most of the comments on the Rolling Thunder ritual were of the “I did it!” variety, while many of the comments regarding the Rolling Coin ritual said “I wish I could, but…”
While this was a pretty high-profile example, I’ve seen this pattern occur countless times over the years I’ve been a part of the Pagan community. People are very quick to light a candle or say a prayer, but ask them to open their wallets, even for a few dollars, and suddenly there’s a murmuring of “Can’t, sorry.” And anyone who’s ever put together a Pagan event knows how hard it is to get people to dedicate even an hour of their time in volunteer work.
This leads me to wonder whether “sending energy” is a cop-out to make people feel better about not giving more tangible, recordable help. When you encounter a need, is it better to do magic for the cause or donate monetary help?
What Do (Or Don’t) We Have to Offer?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m well aware of the economic situation in the world right now. And it’s common knowledge that neopaganism is not a demographic with a particularly high median income (though there are more white collar and other well-paid workers in our ranks than some may assume), but we’re not all starving artists and baristas. And not everyone has the time to do things like event organization, between work, family, and so forth. So these criticisms don’t apply across the board.*
It also seems as though there are a lot of hands stretched out for money these days. Whether it’s Pagan businesses struggling to stay open or individuals losing their jobs and needing help covering mortgages and other bills, a lot of folks are in dire straits.
Perhaps that’s why so many perceive themselves as unable to donate money to any cause. Often it feels like we’re having to count our dollars just to make sure there’s enough left to still be eating at the end of the pay period. So we may not like letting even a few of those dollars slip away to something where we aren’t getting anything in return. (Why else do you think so many nonprofit groups sell T-shirts, stuffed animals, and other tangibles to make money, despite also taking donations?)
Volunteering takes, obviously, time. And if you’re working a couple of jobs to make ends meet, or if you work and have children, or otherwise are really busy, it may feel like there’s simply no time to offer people you may
