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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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