Author: lightgoddess
Posted: November 3rd. 2013
Times Viewed: 365
As a neophyte, I was taught that one's mundane life had to be in order for one to get his or her spiritual life in order. That is a concept that, instinctually, I understood, but I had issues grasping the concept in a real world setting. Until now, that is. It occurred to me that I haven't had very good examples of that, but that I also haven't been a very good example of that, either.
There is this thought within the pagan community that I have been exposed to that ‘real’ leaders must be near impoverished. Why? Why is that, exactly? Can pagan leaders not have a nice place to live, a decent vehicle, and be able to pay their bills without asking for handouts? Is there some unwritten rule that, as leaders and clergy within the pagan community, we must turn our back on materialism in all forms and struggle to make sure that our most basic of needs are met? Is there some unwritten rule that we must take into our homes any and all that are in need and ask for nothing monetary in return? Why? Why do we do this? Is it our duty to overextend ourselves to the point of breaking?
On more than one occasion, I have seen leaders in the community do this. I have seen them take in mouths that they couldn't feed. I have seen them quit jobs, on a whim, that were needed. I have seen them get in a bind and have to ask the community to help. I have been one of the ones helping, even when I didn't, necessarily, have it to give.
Another notion I whole-heartedly reject is that paying dues to one's church or group is akin to tithing. I wonder, often, if this is an excuse by the members of the group. Do the members of the group see their spiritual leaders living an unconventional lifestyle and not want to help out because, due to their own concepts (and if said leader is able) , they believe many of the money issues would go away if the leader simply got a regular job? From my own experience, people are reticent to help those who do not appear to want to help themselves. Alternately, maybe the members see the communal living situation and believe that one or more of the able bodied people living there could find work.
I have been there, living with some of my spiritual family, with no income and wondering just how I was going to contribute. Very quickly, I found a job and, very quickly, I worked out with them just how I was going to contribute, not just monetarily, but with sweat equity.
So, if our mundane lives mirror our spiritual lives, what does it say about those who give to the point of poverty? What does it say about those who take to the point that their leaders are impoverished? What does it say about those who prefer to take handouts to doing the work themselves, physically (if they are able) ? What does it say about those who refuse to do the 'Christian' thing to help out their leaders? What does it say about the few who see the need in their church or coven and seek to fulfill it, not out of some selfish need to be recognized, but because there is a need to be filled? More to the point, what does it say about those able-bodied people who refuse to work for pay and choose to rely upon begging and handouts as their means of income?
In my scant few years of group practice, I have seen various individuals within my own community quite selfishly use those who love them the most to get hand-outs simply because getting a job was not very high on their scale of priorities. Some individuals would get a job to ‘prove’ they were trying and in just a few weeks quit for some reason or another while other individuals would use those around them until the issue of a job was forced and then the individual would move on to use someone else.
Now, if what I have been told about the mundane mirroring the spiritual is true, I know some pretty spiritually selfish individuals. If this selfishness is the case, then how can these people call themselves Wiccan when the harm they are doing is evident? How can they look down their noses at our Christian brethren for tithing when they are asking for so much more?
As people adept at manifestation, why is it such a difficult thing to conjure a job? Is it arrogance or laziness? I have also come to realize that the gods help those who are willing to help themselves. If I need money and I have no job, then I do a spell to find work, but after that, I have to fill out applications and get my résumé to employers. Manifestation requires energy, and not just the energy raised in ritual. This thinking that the gods will provide without one having to actually do the work is rubbish. Within a community setting, the work ends up falling to those who have the means to get it done.
This level of selfishness leads to one or two people in a group stepping up and fulfilling needs, which need to be fulfilled. When this happens, those are the people who become the ‘go to’ people. They become the people who are asked for money and supplies. They become the people who are ‘special’ or ‘worthy’ or ‘doing the work of the gods’. These people end up being used. They end up angry and jaded. They end up with little faith in their fellow pagans. They end up with little faith in their own communities.
As pagans, we all strive for balance. When we put one part of our lives above another to the detriment of self and, ultimately, the community, balance is not achieved. We are not setting good examples. As we enter the darkest part of the year, maybe it is time to examine just how much we give and how much we take. Are those things balanced? Do we work as hard in the mundane as we do in the spiritual? Is our intent selfish or altruistic? Do we put our own wants and needs above the needs of others? Are we in balance?
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