The relentless wheel of time - the trap of deja vu.

Ok, I can say that I've been walking the planes of this existence for quite a while. And I've been walking the virtual planes of existence for quite a while also... not long after the internet started to become the WWW (figure of speech, of course). Oh my, has it been that long? (shivers)

And I can say that I've been lurking on the virtual paths and pathways since the Western "new agers" (for lack of a better term) had started to timidly poke their heads out of their closet, and they did that first in the virtual space. Of course, it was a blast, as for the first time they could meet people who believed in (approximately) what they believed and who, at least, shared the same shunning from a exceptionally fundie Bible-belt style society.

The times have changed. The "new agers" have evolved, have redefined themselves, books have started to be published, more and more openly some did their exit out of the closet into the "mundane" REAL world. Society is more open, accepts now many many things that weren't accepted 20 years ago.

And still... it is baffling that the same questions appear in the virtual groups of pagans. Maybe baffling is too nice of a word. The number of people who bust into paganism without even reading a minimum "basics" of the whole thing, most of the times without even bothering to read the English grammar for that matter, without looking in what was previously discussed, keep going on and on and on with the same questions, starting over and over the same discussions.

It gives you a feeling of "deja vu", to the point that one feels the hairs on their necks trying to reach a fully vertical position, like the fur on the back of a dog when they see a wolf. It's frightening. What is even more frightening, is that other people keep responding, over and over and over, to the same and same questions and contribute with tons and tons of answers and debates to the same discussions.

So what? you will ask. This happens all the time, in all the types of groups. Of course, I would answer. BUT. There is a "but" (only one letter "t" please). It is exactly because we are supposed to be pagan. We are supposed to be involved with a type of religion that is in tune with nature, nurturing Mother Earth, promoting balance and understanding - no, not to the point of "make love not war", far from that. But still. It is a complete mystery for me how someone who says they are pagan to the core, can spend countless hours in exhaustive elaborations that are totally useless and pointless, in front of a computer, locked in their house. How many people argue and debate the benefits of using sage over basil in cleansing a house, when they have only seen sage in the form of smudge at the witchy store of the neighborhood and basil in the spice rack in their kitchen, and maybe, oh, just maybe, in a picture on a website - but if they were sent out to pick up some basil to make a smudge, not only they wouldn't know how to make it, but they wouldn't be able to figure out which is the basil in a flower bed. But the same people will hammer on you with endless quotations from online books and articles. Or they will start demonstrating you why witchcraft is a religion or why a wiccan can be a witch but not all witches are wiccans (or was it viceversa? just a joke).

People. 20 years ago it was understandable that some that have just discovered that there is a whole world of a new religion out there and that there is such a thing as real witchcraft - didn't have a clue that in other parts of the world witchcraft was practiced for centuries and millenia, and they couldn't care less that the fundies in the US were booming "the BIble says: you will not let a witch to live"; practising their traditional witchcraft without giving a hollow penny that some Joe or Jack thinks that a Christian witch is an oxymoron. 20 years ago the question "is witchcraft a religion" could have brought some understanding - those were the times when almost nobody on this side of the Atlantic had access to learning material. 20 years ago, being confused about all this "new Wicca thing" and not being able to find much information about it would have made a question like "does wicca equal witchcraft?" seem quite allright.

But not now. This is the year 2008. The bookstores have whole isles of book on the pagan religions of all sorts, flavors and shapes. History of Wicca and of many many other traditions. If you don't have the opportunity to leave the US and personally visit this beautiful world around, to see what else is out there and was out there before you woke up to the whole pagan/witchcraft thing, at least have the common sense to step out of the national borders at least in the virtual. And have the common sense to use the "search" function of a website, of a discussion site, and who knows? maybe you can even discover google. At least you won't give the impression you give.

Will this have any impact? Yea, probably it will stir the mob - seems to be the latest fashion on Paganspace - a virtual space that had started so nicely and so promising, and for the last past weeks has been downgraded to just another socializing-bashing-newbs wanabe pagan network, like there are hundreds, if not even thousands out there.

And the same questions are asked over and over, and they are answered over and over, by people like in a fever of typing as much as they can to make their opinion heard as much as they can.

And outside the birds are singing, the trees are green, and the Gods and Goddesses, are waiting, patient, maybe someone will remember that they are still there, the reason that makes all these people call themselves "pagan". But it doesn't happen. Because the word of the day is:

Stop. Pay troll toll.