Can we talk about burnout and/or boredom in the craft?
It feels like I haven't been expanding myself lately. I spend a good bit of time preparing events for our community every month with three other members. Our paths are all different so we take turns leading the events. I partially started doing this thinking I would find others who follow a similar path to mine and we could do group work together (not as a coven but as a circle).
So I guess I'm just whining and wishing for what used to be. I like the accessibility for those who need it, but all in all, there's a lot going on now that has paganism up there with Christianity when it comes to mass marketing crap.
There are a lot of corps making big money off the supplies you buy who aren't even pagan or care about your practice, the quality, etc.
And talk about a loss for the experience.......one of the main reasons people aren't getting anything out of group ritual anymore is because it's so sterile that it's hardly recognizable as anything other that Easter/Christmas Catholic services.
@KentuckyConjurer I totally sympathize with your views on commercialization and monetization , and its one reason I stay on the fringes of the community nowadays. The other being I'm an old curmudgeon (Initiation in '82) and I just burned out on all the earnest young things lol
Group work is amazing with a good group, but my solo practice has become very pared down and based on what is available to gather, rather than buying stuff. I'm enjoying it, its amazing in a different way,
I love going into the woods and looking at formations to find an altar setting, seeing what the plants are doing and how they are interacting with the space and how that influences the work.
It's becoming a lost art. I'm thrilled you are in it, too!
@KentuckyConjurer This all honestly reminds of me of what eventually drove me off witchblr.
I joined in search of community, and with the thought of freely sharing what was (at the time) a decade and a half's worth of learning and experience. What I got was people calling me a TERF cuz I used the term "baby witch", being told my correspondences were all wrong, and a whole lot of shit encouraging ppl to ingest essential oils (FFS do not do that)
I'm not Wiccan and I guess a lot of Wiccan traditions or some start calling quarters in the east and I started in north and got called out for it. Like I rarely call in my own practice but was taught to start north way back in the day. Now that I'm older, it's like.... there isn't some war going on between the elements that one MUST start north or east or they aren't showing up. 😂 I know some traditions in the southern hemi start in the south!
@KentuckyConjurer Yeah, I mean I am a scientist and herbalist by trade and ingesting essential oils is basically like using a nuke to kill a house spider.
@KentuckyConjurer Yeah I'm not wiccan either although I was trained for a time in a Gardnerian coven. That was my other gripe, everyone assumes witch = wiccan, and that love and light and no curses is the only way to be.
I had a pretty active ask-box and got kind of a reputation as being a Muggle Witch. Bit like Granny Weatherwax, why use magic when some other way will do?
And then there's the whole thing where ppl think witches are all herbalists and it's like no... those are separate.
And that witchcraft is always religious (it is not).
I'm just so tired, of young ppl who won't do the work or put in the time. (I got called privileged once for saying that witchcraft is work)
We have a lot in our area who are older new witches. Many leaving the Christian faith after what's happened in the world over the past 5-8 years.
We get a lot of "I need someone to mentor me".
It's a practice because of all the trial & error to see what works for you, jives with your body & energy, etc. & how do you know that without experimentation. BUT I think that ties back to what you are saying about people thinking it's always religious, & in religion, you are given this set of rules & tools to do/use. There isn't a lot of room for experimentation there. & I think that makes a huge difference in how people approach the craft.
@KentuckyConjurer Oh 10000% ppl want to just be taught and absorb the rules without having to think about it.
I think that's why a lot of folks are drawn to wicca. There's more of a rule structure, there's a hierarchy, it's (in general) pretty comfy for folks coming from christianity. I always got pushback when I would talk about how there is no sacred text, there are no churches and pastors telling you what to do. What works for one person might not hold true for you.
@KentuckyConjurer Oooohhh, man I don't know. Are we including people who use the label but have zero actual connection? Cuz there's a lot of those in both camps, lmao
My practice is solitary, too, with the exception of my social justice group. We do energy building sessions and group work, which I greatly appreciate. We plan it all out in advance so that everyone has a contributed part of the work.
That said, most of my other work is so incorporated in my daily life that I couldn't really share that practice....it's living.
But oh how nice it is to find someone wants to wander the woods and work with you.
I've incorporated making your own supplies, items needed, wild gathering, building altars where you stand type of events and people really turn out for them, but at the end of the day, it feels like that community is gone.
I guess the punk DIY, zine making, crossed over into my witchcraft practice and now I can't unsee what's going on.
And that has created a burnout/boredom for me in the craft. Part of the magic has always been making what you need...infusing that....substituting when needed. Do we need supplies like candles? Cords? Cauldrons? I totally see the need for those supplies to be sold. But all in one kits, corporate mined stones, etc. eh.
3/
I do love my hexing group and we get together every 2-3 months to work, and I always leave it feeling like we've made progress, learned from one another, and the exercise of raising energy together is always amazing. We've got some good stuff in the works for this year.
BUT, maybe because I've been practicing for so long (since the early 90s) I feel really disconnected from current witchcraft communities. I sound like an old lady here, but I grew up making most of my supplies with the exception of a cauldron or metal tools I wanted to use.
I think the consumerism culture inside witchcraft is choking me out.
@KentuckyConjurer I feel disconnected from the large community too. I find it ironic that the community has such rampant scarcity consciousness. They'll spend on supplies and trinkets and then bitch that a teacher wants $20 for their workshop on a topic they spent years mastering and that they're giving their time to teach and share.
Yes!!! We run into that, too. We are a 100% volunteer group and rent shelters for events and rarely do people chip in on that either. The thing is, when we charge for workshops, they come and pay. But we have to enforce that instead of a donation basis.
I think there is a lot of, "well, I could just look that up online." 🙄
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