| Learning to Fly |
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| Written by Administrator | |
| Sunday, 01 June 2003 | |
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--by Shea Thomas Hello class and welcome to "Levitation 101." Today we'll be learning the fine art and science of defying gravity. Did you all remember to bring your crash helmets this time? Great! Now, crouch down, grab your bootstraps...take a deep breath...and PULL! Please mind the ceiling fan. Okay. You caught us. This isn't really a levitation class. Obviously, you can't float about my basement apartment by tugging on your shoelaces. Yet, when I talk about projects as elaborate as Pagan community centers, I sometimes believe a brief discourse on "boot-strap" flying may not be entirely inappropriate. How so? Let's say I asked you to buy a pair of special flying boots for our next class. The catch is that these boots are still being made; and we have no idea of their eventual style, fit, or delivery date. An easy decision? I wouldn't blame you if you were reluctant. Buying things "sight unseen" with an undefined delivery date sounds to most like a recipe for disaster. And yet, when it comes to creating community centers, we often ask our communities to do exactly that. Regardless of how well we describe our intentions, means, and methods; the fact remains that we are still trying to generate support for something that does not yet exist. It cannot yet be seen. It cannot yet be touched. It cannot yet demonstrate its usefulness to the community. Understandably, this annoying "lack of reality" makes it difficult to drive home in an immediate way all the things a Pagan community center could do for the groups and individuals in our area. For our more pragmatic friends, it may even raise the question as to whether a Pagan community center is feasible. Certainly no one has created an open Pagan community center in this area before. Which begs the question: Is a center possible? Is the inertia for a project this size something we can overcome? Given the decentralized character of the Pagan community, was it a crazy thing to start? Our attics and basements, even with their low ceilings and ceiling fans, aren't that bad, are they? To this I can only say that the creation of a dedicated Pagan community center is simply too important a resource, and stands to benefit too many, to pass over because we happen to think it difficult. Indeed, I might argue that we should aggressively pursue the idea of a community center, right now, today, for those exact same reasons. A long journey is never made shorter by waiting. But before we get too comfortable with the idea that a community center is difficult, allow me to let you in on a little secret: "It's not!" The great irony is that with only modest effort, we already have the numbers to build a center. No buried treasure, leprechaun gold, genie wishes, or grants from Bill Gates required. According to the American Religions Identification Study (ARIS) released by the Graduate Center at the City University of New York in June 2001 - there are about .15 self-identified Wiccans, Druids, and Pagans for ever 100 adults in the U.S. If only 10 percent of this population tithed as little as $10 a month, 4.5 million dollars of additional community service funding could be mobilized each and every year. In the Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy series, the late humorist Douglas Adams defined the art of flying (or knack, really) as "learning to throw yourself at the ground... and miss." Eventually one of the characters does "miss the ground" when he is distracted in the midst of a fall and for a brief moment forgets about things like gravity, mass, and physics. Once this happens, he easily floats into the air. Sound a bit like magick theory? It should. Every day thousands of us around the world engage in craft work principally rooted in the belief that we can achieve a nonlinear result through an exercise of will. Do we always know exactly how (or even when) a spell will work? Of course not. Do we have faith that they work anyway? Absolutely. The process behind the creation of a center is really no different. Any large project will require us to temporarily suspend our belief in gravity, and contemplate, at least for a moment, the joyous possibility of flight. If we can do this, I am positive we will soon be able to vacate our collective basements and hold our next class in the much more spacious halls of a Pagan community center. It is something within our grasp. It is something already happening. In the meantime however... Do mind the ceiling fan. Shea Thomas is the current Chair of the Board of Governors for The Open Hearth Foundation, Inc. - a nonprofit 501(c)(3) Pagan community center initiative serving the Washington, DC region. Portions of this article first appeared in The Open Hearth Foundation Newsletter.             |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 23 November 2004 ) |
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