Witchvox Article

Author: Vetch
Posted: April 29th. 2007
Times Viewed: 2,837

Now, I had something of a bad experience recently regarding adult bias towards teenagers. I put up a request on Witchvox for practitioners to help me with my research into different forms of Neo-Paganism, which would help make the book I�m writing more accurate.

Obviously, as I�m a Druid, I know next to nothing about ceremonial magic and the advice of someone who actually practices it on what to read and their interpretations of it in a modern light would be really useful.

But after I started a promising correspondence with someone, they fobbed me off by saying they didn�t want to talk to me because I was under 18. Apparently, despite the link to my profile on the original request, they hadn�t looked into my age as I had theirs. They decided that I must be selling myself �under false pretences� by saying I was writing a book, when I was instead looking for information for my own personal satisfaction.

And this made me angry.

Why? Because the assumption was that a teenager isn�t smart enough or mature enough to embark on such a major project. I had been completely honest from the start about my age.

So it got me thinking, and I realized that a lot of adults tend to disregard teenagers as people who haven�t yet made up their minds, as children whose bodies have developed but whose minds are still hanging back amongst their old playthings, unable to reach adult maturity until they hit the �Golden Age� of eighteen. I got that from my parents when I told them about my apostasy from Christianity, and they still regard it as a phase even after a year.

But I have made up my mind. I�m an anarchist, studying schools of thought in that political spectrum because the UK�s government is incompetent and I wouldn�t support any of the parties.

I�m a Pagan because I studied Druidry and decided it fit with my worldview, compared to Christianity�s relative intolerance of dogma. I decided I wouldn�t align myself with the feminists because the ones that end up emailing me are misandrists who object to the fact that someone with a woman�s body doesn�t want to believe their �primacy of women� spiel or that men should be ground underneath their heels.

I�m not homophobic, racist, sexist, or discriminatory to childfree couples; if I�m bigoted against anything, I�m bigoted against bigots.

I think that a lot of adults need to get off their high horses and realize that while a good portion of today�s teenagers are indeed their worst smoking, binge-drinking, promiscuous fears (indeed, my parents� friends and acquaintances are surprised at how conservatively behaved I am in comparison to their own teenagers), not all of us are.

Yes, some teenagers come to Paganism with strange ideas distilled from Harry Potter, Buffy and Charmed, and go away disappointed that they won�t develop telepathy or be taught how to set things on fire with their minds.

But that�s not all of us.

Some teenagers come to Paganism and Wicca with a genuine desire to learn and be part of a fulfilling religion that offers spiritual shelter from the wars between organized faiths on the �one way or no way�. Here, there are no particular sanctions on behavior � if you need a blood transfusion, go right ahead.

If you want to eat meat, go right ahead, but we�ll support you with our happy vegetarian lot if you decide eating animals is icky and cruel. If you want to be in a feminist group because you�re uncomfortable about going naked around guys, there are people for that. There are non-vanilla groups and Goth groups and people who like every kind of music.

The non-judgmental, accepting attitude is the best thing we have. It�s what will make us a real religion, worthy of being honored alongside faiths that do place limitations and restrictions on the freedom of their followers. But we risk losing that if we tell our young seekers that they aren�t as intelligent or mature as the adults because they�re under eighteen.

Despite my age, I think I�m well qualified to write a book about Paganism and the development of the occult schools of thought from their Renaissance origins. I have an insatiable desire to learn and my own money to buy the materials I need, and I work in a bookstore where I not only can find the titles I want with publisher�s lingo but also have contacts with publishing. So I know how to get my book published when it�s done.

I�ve spent the better part of two years reading into everything connected with the subjects I want to write on, and I�ve spoken to more forgiving older Pagans who have made helpful suggestions of what to include and what to leave out.

When I go to university, I�ll have access to those libraries. I�m a teenager, so I know how to write down the important bits of our real history without getting bogged down in difficult, complex language.

And I�m a Pagan � who better than me to write about Paganism?

I understand that some grown-ups won�t want to be �involved� with under-18�s because they fear reprisals from parents and monotheist religions, followed by flying accusations of �corrupting� some angry Baptist�s innocent children. They don�t want to trust their knowledge to people who might abuse it, or later defect to fundamentalist Christianity and use what little they understood in a stewpot of lies that damages the face of Neo-Pagans struggling to get their vilified religion recognized by dubious governments. They want to be sure they can vet prospective students first, so they understand the religion, and won�t be put off by the bits that aren�t sugar, sweetness and light.

But believe it or not, there are serious scholars like me who know the difference between Reformed and Reconstructionist Druidry, and the African tribal beliefs from which Voudou and Santeria arose.

And if you don�t mind, some answers to help us make this community completely well educated on historical accuracy would be good, because we�re your future.

Without us, Neo-Paganism won�t last a hundred years.

Vetch

Copyright: None, unless you count my objections to angry feminists using it elsewhere on the Internet to ask for me to package up my ovaries and mail them to them. Any teenager may use this article so long as they remember to put my name on it somewhere. If they want an essay written on the same topic with their OWN name on it, please email me and I will consider ghost-writing one for you. Arigatou.

ABOUT...

Vetch

Location: Tunbridge Wells, England

Author's Profile: To learn more about Vetch - Click HERE

Bio: Vetch is a (not academically recognised) scholar of contemporary faiths and new religious movements, with interests in the Sengoku Jidai (Muromachi Japan) , Classical and Modern Druidry, primal shamanism, ceremonial magic, Wicca, Japanese culture and language, and enjoys writing her non-fiction book "Axis Mundi", planning her fiction novel, writing poetry, and drawing manga. Vetch is a self-confessed anarchist student, a counter-feminist (with objections to any feminist who calls herself such without holding to the original values of equality, rather than matriarchy) and a Neo-Druid, who plans to join OBOD when she's 18.

Other Articles: Vetch has posted 15 additional articles- View them?

Other Listings: To view ALL of my listings: Click HERE

Email Vetch... (Yes! I have opted to receive invites to Pagan events, groups, and commercial sales)

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