Although I laughed off most of Mr. Smith’s tirade of impotent rage and delusion, one of his statements actually stuck with me:
And your only real allies worth speaking of are pariahs.
Of course, I don’t consider these people “allies” because I’m not pushing an agenda or fighting a war – I call them fellows, coreligionists and friends – but otherwise he’s right.
We are pariahs.
People who are rejected, reviled, pushed to the margins, made to feel like there’s something wrong with them and they don’t belong – in the wider society as well as most pagan and polytheist communities. I jokingly refer to the Bacchic Underground as an island of misfit toys – except it’s not really a joke.
Most of us are queer in some respect: gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, demisexual, asexual, transexual, metagender, furries, tops and bottoms and every other configuration you could imagine. Hell, we even have a couple straights.
Plenty of us are on the autism spectrum, are bipolar, have chronic depression or a plethora of other psychological and social disorders.
Many of us have physical disabilities of one sort or another. Indeed, when we put on the big Dionysos ritual at Many Gods West people were astounded by the steps we took to accommodate folks’ diverse needs, including having chairs available and sending people around to make sure they had food and water and weren’t overwhelmed by the intense spiritual and physical activity of the ritual. Several mentioned how much it meant to them that the person embodying Dionysos-Pentheus in the ritual required a cane, as that opened up a whole new understanding of the deity for them.
We have folks who are Latino, Black, Asian, American Indian, Filipino and other under-represented minorities I can’t name because I don’t really know since that isn’t the kind of thing we ask about when a member is considering joining.
Likewise we value ideological diversity. We have liberals, conservatives, libertarians, anarchists, communists, traditionalists, monarchists, Trump supporters, Hillary supporters, people who couldn’t give two shits about politics (or represent a different political spectrum since they’re from different countries) and plenty of others. Again, I don’t really know the full demographic breakdown because we don’t require that kind of litmus test for entrance.
A lot of our members are young and inexperienced, yet their voices are heard. A lot of them are poor, but we value their contributions. We don’t denigrate our laity – or dismiss our mystics.
How do all these different people with such different identities and backgrounds manage to come together and coexist peacefully?
Because emphasis is not placed on identity.
Everyone who loves and honors and wants to share their thoughts, experiences and devotional activities for the Gods and Spirits of the Starry Bull tradition (as well as any others they worship) is welcome among us. (Hell, you don’t even have to be part of the Starry Bull tradition to belong, and about half of our members don’t.)
The virtues that guide this group are respect, hospitality and participation. People get enough shit for who they are, what they believe, what they do, etc. elsewhere, and so we don’t bring that crap into Bacchic Underground space. We give to one another the love and support so often denied us elsewhere.
These are my people and I care for them deeply, fiercely, even if and often because everyone else considers them outcasts and pariahs.
So you can have your mainstream neopaganism – my place is with the freaks in the Underground.
