We've not had one of these in a while, have we?

I've been busy, but that is not the reason. Politics has tainted paganism in my mind and I am working to re-establish the separation.

Paganism is about the relationship between you, the World, and the Divine. Politics is not a part of that.

This author is Officially Approved this week, but that doesn't mean anything about next week. Next week it may be old fashioned. The week after there may be some scandal as defined by Today's Morality that wasn't immoral when it happened. If it happened.

This isn't new. One of my favorite symbols is the wheeled cross. But it has white supremacist connotations, so I can't use it in "public" pagan discussion. Never mind that it makes more sense to me than the pentagram. It's racist. Off limits. Not allowed.

Sex play and flirting that was allowed a decade or so ago is now denounced. And everyone who participated is expected to abase themselves before the new morality.

As this leaks more and more into how pagans act, it's less about paganism and more about doing the "right thing." Enforcing the echo chambers. Closing out dissent or contrasting opinions. Expelling all that might be tainted by immorality or evil. Part of it is politics, but it goes beyond that.

Some pagans want to change paganism from an experienced faith to a revealed faith. Something with all the bumps and twists and turns ironed out. No unexpected surprises. Nothing not previously declared. No uncomfortable truths. No juice. No frisson. Everything nice and neat and perfectly defined.

The experience has been sanitized for your protection. Truth will be revealed, but only if you do as you are told.

It has been approved by the powers-that-wanna-be.

Not necessarily the gods.

It's politics, not faith.

Some things will be revealed. If you pay attention and ask the proper questions. In the proper order. And no more. Politics will advance you more in this new pagan faith than experience.

Except those people aren't really a part of paganism.

It's about your Journey. Not about their Story.

Paganism is about the experience. The juicy, sexy, messy, screwed up experience that you struggle to make a part of your life. It's about embracing the passion. It's about where the gods point you. It's about finding and living your own way.

Paganism is about the relationship between you, the World, and the Divine. It can't be revealed, it can only be experienced.

Will you live it?

Or will you avoid the taint?