Changing Paths challenge day 26 — wobbling
Spiritual wobbles can happen when your spiritual path becomes out of synch with your religious community. They can be dry spells, when it feels as if the source of your spiritual life has dried up, or the wobble can propel you out of your old path and into a new one. It depends how severe the wobble is.
Changing Paths challenge day 25 — wandering
Wandering, like wavering and wondering, is a good thing. There is a whole genre of songs in German called Wanderliede, about hiking.
And as JRR Tolkien wisely remarked, not all those who wander are lost.
Changing paths is a wibbly-wobbly thing. During the process, I was all over the place. It was like having the bends (you know, the thing where a diver rises too quickly to the surface and gets cramps) or being on a giant scary roller coaster ride.
I left Unitarianism in the end because of archetypes. The archetype that fits me the best is that of the witch, and it’s an archetype that sits uncomfortably in the Unitarian path. (The combination may work for others: didn’t work for me.)
I left Christianity because of its exclusivist views on salvation and the institutional homophobia.
And when I left Paganism for a while in 2007, it was because of it being excessively heterocentric / heteronormative, and other reasons too lengthy to get into here.
Although Unitarianism / Unitarian Universalism wasn’t my path, I still value many of their ideas and values. They’re green, they’re LGBT+ inclusive or at least welcoming, they were the first to ordain women ministers (the Universalists in 1860, the English Unitarians in 1904), among the first to welcome LGBT+ people (1970 in the UK). Many 19th century Unitarian ministers were opposed to slavery, most notably Theodore Parker. They don’t believe in original sin. They frequently refer to God as She or Mother (and have done since the 19th century). They respect other faiths as valid paths to the divine. They characterize their path as a free and responsible search for meaning. They also have really nice hymns. And they welcome Pagans and have an organization for pantheist, Pagan, and Earth-based spirituality. Iolo Morgannwg, whose prayer is used by OBOD Druids, was a Unitarian. There are many connections between Unitarian and Pagan ideas.
The Changing Paths challenge for May 2023. Feel free to skip a day or post something different from the topic of the day, but if you do the whole thing, I think you’ll arrive at a new perspective on your path.
Continue readingJames Gardner Davis has written an amazing reflection on changing paths in response to my guest appearance on the Missing Witches podcast.
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My books are about inclusive Wicca and witchcraft; how to include LGBTQIA people, disabled people, and BIPOC people in ritual and witchcraft; embodied spirituality; and the inner work of ritual. My latest book, Changing Paths, is a companion guide for people changing from one religion to another.
I had a wonderful chat with Hana the Suburban Witch yesterday for her podcast, and today she has posted a wonderful review of Changing Paths (she was one of the advance readers and is quoted on the cover).
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Dowsing for Divinity 