I noticed the other day, that there was a whole lot of alphabet soup in my Google Reader. Let me explain, I started seeing a crap ton of posts and blogs posting about different topics, but all starting with the same letter. So, either everyone got a magical See N Say for Christmas last year, or there’s a trend happening. After a bit of investigation, I realize that they’re all participating in the ‘Pagan Blog Project‘.
Oh, this sounds interesting.
Ok, yeah. Looks pretty neat, I already follow the Pagan Blog Prompts, comes in handy when I’m feeling not so inspired by things happening around me, at least it helps me blog about something. So, I started tossing the idea around of going ahead and doing the Pagan Blog Project thing, write an alphabet themed post every Friday. Thing is, I’m not quite sure what I’d blog about is what the project is really aiming for, unless they’re open to it being my version of the ‘Pagan Blog Snark Project’, but I’m still thinking about it and I think it would really keep me in the habit of writing something semi specific at least once a week. Break up the monotony of my rants, and fluff stomping. Also, less chance of lala being the completely sporadic blogger that she is.
Anyway, I still haven’t decided if I’m going to actively participate in the project or now, however, I did run across the blog title of one of the blogs in the project, and I want to respond, or blog my thoughts, just based on the title alone. Now, I want to make it clear, I’m not criticizing the blog, or the author, and I haven’t read the post. Again, it’s the title that caught my attention.
“D is for Defining your path as an eclectic pagan”
Ok, I’ve always said that I believe ‘Paganism’ is the path to self discovery. It’s a nice, big umbrella that allows for you to figure out what you really believe. No big deal really. But, are you looking to define yourself and your path for your own purposes? Or is this about sticking a label on it so that you can define yourself for the benefit of others? Or, are we looking at this as being a self-help type advice blog to other seekers who need help defining themselves? (Yeah, maybe I should read the blog, lmao)
But as my questions start to pile up, I keep going back to the ‘eclectic’ part. Now, normally I have to say, I’m not the biggest fan of most electic practitioners. Why? Because it’s quite obvious that they’ve gone to the grand buffet of all things ‘pagan’ flavored, and couldn’t decide what all went together to make a complete meal. Really, no problem when you find things that complement one another, but I’ve seen SO MANY wicclets and fluff balls combine deities who don’t really get along, and practices that also counter act, or contradict one another, and then say, well, I’m and Eclectic Pagan, or even throw the W on there to give it more credence and value, that it makes me want to run in the opposite direction whenever I see that damned word that starts with the evil ‘E’!
I want to shout, pick a Flavor and stick to it! You’ll actually start to learn a little more than just scraping the surface of things. I’m starting to wonder if Eclectic is the new, Jack of All Trades, or Dabbler in all Paths, but Mastery and understanding of nothing…
I don’t know, what are your thoughts?
Carp out, and you guys let me know if you think I should take part in the alphabet soup game!
