I'm not Pottering around

OK, so call me a curmudgeonly old muggle, but I'm one Pagan who's not hitching a ride on JK Rowling's broomstick.

Pottermania seems to have broken out all over again, what with the near-simultaneous release of the latest Harry Potter movie, and the final book in Rowling's series. And this is all well and good. Kids read and enjoy these books--I have to brag that my eight-year-old grand-niece has already read her way through her first Harry Potter book--and it's a great thing to have kids eagerly awaiting a new book.

But I am frankly appalled at the adult members of our community who ape the whole Harry Potter thing. They remind me of Trekkies: fans who never quite outgrew their enthusiasm for another commercially successful phenomenon.  Yes, I know fantasy is a core element in our Pagan culture. And I quite agree with distinguished Baptist theologian Harvey Cox, who wrote in his famed Feast of Fools that fantasy is individuals' equivalent of Utopian thinking in the larger community.

But let's have our own fantasies and build our own intentional communities. We are a wonderfully creative well-educated intelligent self-actualizing community of artists, writers, thinkers, ritual-makers, dancers, musicians and social activists. We don't need to tart ourselves up in full wizard drag invented by Hollywood out of England. 

Frequently I see one elder of our community show up at Pagan events in full Hogwarts professorial regalia, selling an educational venture in which he's involved as the real life equivalent for youngsters who've been turned on by the Potter books. I cringe every time I see him so attired for I think he's marginalizing himself and the great contributions he's made to Pagan thought and community in the past.

OK, this is my bias. I think the most magical things we do, the best rituals we create, the most empowering social actions we take come from the work of our own minds, hearts and hands. I cut my own wand from the pear tree in my garden, carved my own rune staves from my favorite alder tree, and evoke the Goddess through terra cotta images I made in pottery class. When I celebrate the first fruits of Lammas next week, it won't be with store-bought Wonder Bread but with bread I've kneaded and baked myself.

I'm not afraid to claim the name of witch or Pagan, but please, not with any connection to Rowling's fantasy world. I think I--and the community--do more than well enough on our own. We don't need no stinkin' Nimbus 2000s.

Pagan Paganism Wicca Wiccan Harry+Potter muggle Hogwarts wizard  witch witchcraft craft Rowling Pottermania

Comments

[Sara]

"When I celebrate the first fruits of Lammas next week, it won't be with store-bought Wonder Bread but with bread I've kneaded and baked myself."

Amen to THAT, Sister. Wheat, water, salt and sweat makes the harvest loaf what it *is*. I too am of the mind that there is enormous power in DIY - old skool ritual prep infuses ritual and craft with a numinosity that's lost I think when we go for pre-fab.

-S

[Holly]

There are 'pagans' who talk the talk, and 'pagans who walk the walk. Some folk play at it, for some of us it is the way we live. My daughters' partner has 'Practice Tolerance' printed on the bottom of her adress labels. I love that sentiment. Perhaps some of the potter folk are still looking to find who they really are, how they fit into this world AND this faith.