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Neopaganism/9612.hierchy.do

To: soc.religion.paganism
From: "Doug O'Neal" 
Subject: Re: Wiccan Administration
Date: 26 Nov 1996 14:30:17 -0600

>>From jb154@prism.gatech.edu Tue Nov 26 15:17:44 1996
>>Subject: Re: Wiccan Administration

>Hierarchical organization is as old as Mother and Baby---not
>because anybody is trying to be mean to anyone else, nor for
>any indulgence in power for power's sake, but because it's
>necessary and it works.

>Does this mean the answer to *everything* is "because Mommy
>says so"? Of course not. However, it *does* provide a religiously
>appropriate precedent for covens whose members feel that they
>would be helped by establishing some sort of order and organization
>among themselves.

>I don't mean to offend here, either. If hierarchy isn't for you,
>fine, but your article seems to suggest that organization and
>structure are antithetical to femaleness, and as a woman and a 
>Mom and a Witch and Priestess, I feel the need to rebut that.

This is an excellent point.  I know that there are some excellent arguments 
against hierarchy, some of which I accept and believe in.  And hierarchy taken 
to the extreme is usually if not always a bad thing.  If you can organize your 
coven, group, etc., completely without hierarchy, go for it.  But, for one 
thing, I don't think that having person A coordinate meeting times, person B 
in charge of ritual planning, person C be secretary, etc., fits the definition 
of hierarchy.  That, instead, is merely pragmatism, that a specific job is best
taken care of by one person relatively independently of the rest of the group.
For another thing, speaking very cynically but somewhat truthfully, a lot of 
Pagans (and others of alternative beliefs/life-styles/etc.) claim that they're 
against hierarchy when what they're really saying is that they lack the skill 
and desire to actually do any organizational work.  Meetings thus dissolve 
into a chaos where nobody knows what's going on and nothing ever gets 
accomplished. 

								Doug

oneal@astro.psu.edu
http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/oneal/

"Let dreamers dream what worlds they please / Those Edens can't be found 
 The sweetest flowers, the fairest trees / Are grown in solid ground." 
					-- Bernstein/Wilbur, after Voltaire 

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