Between the Worlds

The Seventh Conference on Current Pagan Studies is now over. It was a thrill and an honor to hold the space for our key note speakers, Selena Fox and Patrick McCollum, and our twenty some presenters. Kimberly Hedrick shared some of her research, and it turns out that there are now an estimated 1 - 2 million Pagan practitioners in the United States. If you are not staggered by that number, consider that it is far more than the number of Scientologists, and getting close to the number of Jews in the America. Some ten years ago I noted, using some of Helen Berger's research, that the Pagan population was doubling about every 30 months or so. Just imagine where our numbers might be in only a few short years.

But today, millions of Pagans or not, I return to work, to the - as some call it - mundane world. In this Default World (as the burners call it) I have to deal with the dominant over culture (thank you, Macha, for familiarity with that term). I reflect that it is a shame that I must make such a demarcation, drawing a line between a world where soul and imagination is near at hand, manifest, juicy, and delicious, and the world where we care only about numbers, what you can do for me, and what money might buy. Certainly I am not the only one to feel this, and to yearn for a way to always have at least one foot in the imaginal, fluid, polytheistic perspective. I worry about how I will sustain the enthusiam and pale clarity of percpective that this conference, this gathering of wisdom, has invoked.

This conference also gave me chace to write and present, allowing me to break through one of the darkest and pernicious writing blocks I have yet experienced. The warm reception with which my presentation was received, and the kind comments directed toward it, did much to reaffirm my ability to speak to issues in a manner that is both psychological insightful and lyrical. I feel renewed.

Perhaps, just perhaps, if I focus myself through my writing in just the right way, I can perserve this current state of apperception. Perhaps by creating a blog for myself, and using it to connect myself, my thoughts, to others in my beautiful community, I can sustain myself against the onslaught of the logic choppers, and keep one foot between the worlds.