{"id":341,"date":"2009-08-14T11:25:37","date_gmt":"2009-08-14T11:25:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2009\/08\/grumpy-musings-on-lineages-1.html"},"modified":"2009-08-14T11:25:37","modified_gmt":"2009-08-14T11:25:37","slug":"grumpy-musings-on-lineages-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/08\/grumpy-musings-on-lineages-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Grumpy Musings on Lineages"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been thinking about what
\nlineages mean and don’t mean in Wicca. 
\n<\/span>In a world where the Sacred can be approached from almost any direction,
\nwhat does being Faery or Gardnerian or Alexandrian or Reclaiming mean compared
\nto being self-initiated?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n


\nAfter all, traced back far enough,
\nevery lineage leads to someone who was “self-initiated.<\/p>\n

I think lineages provide a
\n“scaffolding” within which a person makes his or her own connection to the
\nSacred.  <\/span>They introduce you to a
\ncommunity which may or may not be spiritually aware, and almost certainly will
\nhave some people who are wise and some people who are fools.  <\/span>They introduce you to people who have
\nbeen where you are at one point, and presumably have accumulated considerable
\nknowledge to make your own path a little bit easier – at the cost of being
\ntempted to think there may be only one right way to do something. <\/p>\n

Lineages give us a sense of
\nconnection through time – as long as the lineage extends.  <\/span>This can feel really good.  <\/span>They can provide a fund of collective
\nexperience that has been passed on. 
\n<\/span>Some of this experience reflects wisdom hard gained, and some, to me,
\nreflects puffed up self-importance by those doing the passing. <\/p>\n

Some lineages have special
\nknowledge they pass to their initiates. 
\n<\/span>Most have special ways of doing things that are in essence well known by
\nbeing done in other ways in other lineages.  <\/span>Some of these things are closely guarded secrets.<\/p>\n

Whether a person is a part of a
\ngood coven is to my mind vastly more important than to what lineage they
\nbelong.  Second in importance is having a good teacher (unless the person gets deeply involved in the shamanic or occult aspects of Pagan practice, in which case reverse the order.)  Last, and by comparison not all that important, is whether the lineage is old or new  or the group is self-initiated.<\/p>\n

I<\/span>‘m in a grumpy mood regarding
\nlineages at the moment.  <\/span>An initiate in a respected lineage, and whom I know, was deeply disrespected  <\/span>by other
\nlineage holders in a new town to where she moved.  <\/span>They wanted to reinitiate her after she studied with
\nthem – to make sure she was up to whatever kind of snuff that mattered to them.  <\/span>I won’t mention identifying details because
\nit might cause her difficulties with idiots in the Pagan community there, but
\nshe wisely said “Forget it” and now circles with some Druids.  <\/span>Their gain, and in retrospect I doubt she lost anything important at all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been thinking about what lineages mean and don’t mean in Wicca.  In a world where the Sacred can be approached from almost any direction, what does being Faery or Gardnerian or Alexandrian or Reclaiming mean compared to being self-initiated?  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pagan-culture","category-pagan-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\nGrumpy Musings on Lineages - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2009\/08\/grumpy-musings-on-lineages-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Grumpy Musings on Lineages - A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’ve been thinking about what lineages mean and don’t mean in Wicca.  In a world where the Sacred can be approached from almost any direction, what does being Faery or Gardnerian or Alexandrian or Reclaiming mean compared to being self-initiated? 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