Polytheism without borders

Something that Ruadhán said recently has got me thinking:

And, to be perfectly blunt, most of the “co-religionists” I’ve personally interacted with, explicitly or implicitly (through their actions toward others) seem to object to the community that, in all fairness, was of generally equal importance in ancient times. They object to the community that a crave.

…and the only people unintentionally fostering community are those who at least claim to have given up on it due to histrionic tiara-chasing within “the community”, which they clearly object to.

I don’t know if he exactly had me in mind when he wrote that, but it definitely fits.

You see, I don’t give a shit about the Hellenic polytheist community.

Or the Heathen community.

Or the Celtic community

Or the Kemetic community.

Or the Neopagan community.

Or any of the other communities that are out there and primarily interested in their own self-perpetuation.

But I do care about religious community, perhaps more than I should. It’s not something I need. I can go into the woods and worship just fine on my own and if I want to do more formal ritual with others I’ve got Dver and Galina to do that with. (And boy do we do good ritual together.) So I’ve got everything I could possibly need and then some.

But I want something more, because I’m a Dionysian and we always want more.

You know what’s funny, though? I’ve already got that too.

You guys are my community, and it’s a wonderful community to be a part of.

Let me tell you about this community. It’s polytheism without borders. Not without standards, but definitely without borders.

You see, it’s a community of people who love their divinities and love other people’s divinities and want to see all divinities being honored properly and abundantly. It’s a community of people who are deeply engaged in worship and want to make that worship as powerful and beautiful as possible.

We don’t discuss politics and our personal issues and our hobbies when we’re together. If we want to socialize, we’ll go socialize somewhere else! We come together for the sole purpose of honoring our divinities and other people’s divinities and helping our fellow community members do that as well. We share knowledge and resources and help get the word out about the awesome things that other people are doing to honor their divinities and lend a hand whenever we can.

We aren’t concerned with who’s in or who’s out – because the only “in” is doing stuff and as long as that stuff is pleasing to the divinities that’s all that really matters. It’s a community of people who are fed up with politics and infighting and talk, talk, talk and want to find people to do stuff with. We don’t always see eye to eye and some of us do stuff that’s radically different from the stuff that other people are doing, but we don’t get overly concerned about that. Because it’s more important that people be doing their stuff and when you’re all up in other people’s stuff, you aren’t doing your own stuff.

This community is open to anyone who is doing stuff for the divinities whether that stuff is hardcore mysticism or keeping a well-ordered house and raising your children to love the divine. All this stuff is important and necessary and no one should look down on anyone else in the community as long as they’re doing their stuff.

Nothing I’ve just said is new. In fact I’ve written very similar posts at least twice before that I can remember and gods only know how many times it actually was, as I have an awful habit of repeating myself.

The reason that I’m mentioning this today is because I think it’s time to take it further.

We’ve got a pretty good track record of doing stuff and we’ve come to each other’s assistance many times before.

But this community can be more and can do more. I see the potential in you guys and it profoundly awes and humbles me.

The problem is a lot of you are hurt and shy from bad experiences with community in the past. You’ve been burned and you’re understandably reticent to put yourselves out there like that again.

Or you’ve got ideas but you’re not sure how to make those things happen. You lack the technical know-how and the resources.

Or you’re just starting out and don’t really have a solid idea what your stuff is yet, let alone how you can help others do their own stuff.

And that is where the idea of a community of polytheists without borders comes into play.

I see it as a kind of religious time banking system, except not so strictly organized. Basically what I want is for people to be able to say, “Hey, there’s this thing I’d like to do for my divinities — can anyone help out?” And for others to step forward and say “Sure! What do you need?” because they know that when their time comes around to do something for the divinities, there will be others willing to assist them.

Think how much more could be done for the divinities if we all pitched in. How much greater that work could become.

Even aside from such noble and altruistic notions, think how fucking cool it’d be to just be around that constant surge of devotional activity, to have all this new and interesting stuff to read and see and participate in.

I’ll leave you with a story and two questions. Once the Skythians had a wise and capable king, a man by the name of Skílouros who devoted his life to improving the lot of his people. However, as he neared his end he began to fear that all of that work would be undone since his numerous sons were constantly fighting amongst themselves. So on his deathbed Skílouros invited them in and gave each in turn a bundle of rods and told them to break it. No matter how strong the son was — and they were Skythians, so you know they were strong — he couldn’t do it. When the last one had failed, Skílouros took the bundle back and removed one of the rods and it easily snapped in half. He did this with another and another and soon the bundle was gone. Then Skílouros said to his sons, “Hold fast and you will remain strong. Allow yourselves to fall out and be divided and you will become weak and easily conquered.”

So my questions are:

What do you need?
What can you offer?