Provoking Thoughts
So You Call Yourself an Elder?
For any of us who have found this path on our own, we know how hard it can be to find someone to work with us in learning our craft. In some ways it can feel like the impossible task to find a qualified person in the community that teaches or mentors.
I was recently speaking with a fellow Wiccan, with whom I am currently mentoring, and she told me a story that really bothered me. We have spent many nights talking about how hard it is to find someone to work with who is trustworthy and not psychotic. She was talking about a time when she was actively searching for someone in the community to learn from and she spoke with an elder in the Pagan community who was doing readings at a local shop. When asking about locating elders in our community she was told that many of the elders are “going or have gone into hiding” because of the influx of “newbies” joining the path with misguided information.
Upon hearing this story I was immediately shocked and then it made me angry to hear that someone said this to my friend as if it was ok. I mean, isn’t that what is wrong with the movement as it is right now?
Needless to say, it was a discouraging experience for her and I can only imagine the others who have asked the same question and gotten the same result.
It is right that the Wiccan community is growing by leaps and bounds right now and, as a result, there are many out there who cannot find an appropriate teacher to study with. This is one of the many things that can lead a person to be “misguided”, so to speak, because they are going to books that may or may not be accurate and some are settling for teachers who are not equipped to teach.
I am one of many who have found themselves in a situation with a “teacher” who was deceitful and misleading. After over a year of study with this person I got the information I needed. After investigating a little and mustering the courage to move on, I rescued myself from an unhealthy situation. It was not at that moment but years later that I came to the realization that I had something very valuable to pass on to others.
It was through that experience that I learned the value of healthy mentors and elders in the Pagan community. There is a need and the need continues to grow.
You can find information about invocations, goddesses, quarter calls, circle casts and whatever in books and on the internet but what about the ethics? Where do you find that in a way that it is completely and thoroughly explained? That is one of the major roles of the teachers and elders in our communities.
Elders have a duty to the community at large. So, in my humble opinion, if someone is quick to call him or herself an elder but not willing to teach in the community something doesn’t add up. There are many ways to contribute to the community and they can’t find any?
Let us follow this thought through for a moment here. If more people continue to come to this path then we have the reality of a steady growth in our “religion”. We currently have a large population of our community that is untrained and have not had the opportunity to be taught by real life elders.
If this cycle continues we can fast forward to a time very shortly in the future where it is that same group of people teaching the newer groups coming in. And before long we have total chaos and a large division between the foundation of Wicca and what is being taught and practiced. If the mysteries of the craft are not passed along, they will be lost.
In twenty years our path as we know it could be long gone.
So, with that in mind, we have more at stake than a little bit of our time. So let’s look at what is needed to act as an elder or mentor in our community.
A genuine sense of self and your own spiritual
Appropriate knowledge and training
A small commitment of time
A willingness to give back to the community
A commitment to the divine to pass on trustworthy and honorable information
Humility
If you are one of those elders who are in hiding, I am calling you out. We need you here. Your people need your knowledge and wisdom. As they say in AA, “you give it away to keep it”.
Maybe those who are unwilling to support others in our community shouldn’t complain about who is misguiding who. Why don’t we ponder that for a while…
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author bio:
Rev. Cyrstal
I am a 29-year-old Pagan mother, been married for seven years. I am very close to my family and my parents. I work full-time in the drug and alcohol treatment field. I have been a practicing Pagan for about four years. I consider myself to be an eclectic Wiccan/Pagan. I try not to limit or label myself. My passions in life are my family, enjoying a good book, learning what life has to offer, connecting with my spiritual self, giving back to my community and spending time with good friends.