Notable Area Pagans Speculate on 2011

I sent a request out to several Pagans I considered notable, experienced, and yes, maybe intuitive enough to speculate on the coming year with some degree of accuracy. I asked three questions:

  1. What is your intuitive vision for the future of the Pagan community for the next year?
  2. If a Tarot card, or another archetypical symbol would reflect your vision,  which would it be and why?
  3. How will Paganistan look different in a years time?

Responses I received in no particular order:

Susu:

1. The financial squeeze for many should result in a tighter embrace of our collective of our ties to each other.
2. The symbol I see is the spiral cycling in and out simultaneously.
3. Paganistan’s  population will grow as the gods of the dominant religion continue to fail the people.

Murph Pizza:

1. This past year, I saw a lot of conflict over really unimportant matters. I see in the coming year people waking up and reconnecting with each other and what we have in common. With Republicans ‘winning’ this last election, I see a hiatus in conflict and a re-assessment of values and what is important to focus on.
2. I get visions of two cards, first the Strength card. I imagine her as she slowly closes the lion’s mouth. a turn from potential problems and to a gentle peace. She is strength, not defiant but courageous. Then also the Chariot card. Wheels have been stuck and spinning, not accomplishing much, but starting to get out of a rut.   Hungarian proverb:  “If you only have one ass, you can’t sit on two horses”.

3.I think we will see more joy. We have been through a rough patch and things will settle a bit. This seriousness will give way to more laughing with ourselves, and each other.

JRob Zetelumen:
I expect the next year to be very much like this year has been. Some will grow, some will decline, some will squabble, some will reconcile. Paganicon looks like the stand-out event to watch.

Bress:
1. I see a deeper need, and a deeper understanding of what needs to be done…but, will the greater Pagan Community answer?!  Not even within the Gods’ finest scrying bowl, could one divinate that answer accurately.
2. I would say; the alchemical symbol for saltpeter…It is a circle with a single line cast vertically in its center.  Because we are all part of one great Pagan Community, being the circle.  However, we are distinctly divided into two groups; those who are in the service of this community, and those who consistently complain about how bad the service is.
3. We seem to forget that as ‘Paganistan’ we have not only a reputation to uphold amongst ourselves, but also, set a living example by which other Pagan Communities gauge themselves.  Measurable change can come within the turning of a Wheel’s cycle, but we have to want it!
Spiral:

1. I see change and conflict, a resurgence of old issues never dealt with the first time around re-emerging. The same story, next verse.  Conflict often revolves around personalities, and their authority to represent the vision of the community. No one really does represent our community vision, but the claims of those in the Pagan public eye get our attention.

2. The Chariot; Leaders with two horses each going in seperate directions, but seeking one path to travel. Our ‘Pagan culture’ is broad and welcoming, but sometimes doesn’t have as much depth as we would like or expect. The volatile question, does Paganistan need ‘more’, or need ‘better’? The answer is yes.  We will struggle with eldership issues, what it means to be an elder and also what is expected of them, and accorded to them.

3. I see a more political focus around issues, then a deepening of religious expression may be in the air.

Veronica Cummer :
1. Working more closely on building a foundation that will take us further into the future, including forging a tighter bond with the local spirits of the land.  This feels necessary because of the transformations that are coming, and because such change is never easy or simple or safe.  If we are going to be vanguards of the future for ourselves and for this region, then we need to strike out ahead of the rest and hold fast to each other and what we believe in that best serves where we live.
2. The Star is the Tarot card of the coming years.  It’s about pouring out “water,” which is inspiration and creativity among other things, onto both the land and the sea…basically, making sure that things come into their proper balance.  Witches are meant to be agents of change, but also agents of balance, of making sure that this world and the Otherworld, the above and the below, work together as they are best meant to.
3. We will realize even more clearly that we need a definable quality, something that we share, as Witches and Pagans who live in the same place.  This really should take on a more conscious clarity, a name if you would.  We don’t always have to agree, but we need to agree on something.  The one thing that we do share is being here, living on this piece of land, and that should take on more of a life of its own and we should share in that commonality as best we can.
Domyno:
This year in Paganistan, well this is about a lot of things that have effected people directly in the last couple years in the community, well not so much the awakening, but the acceptance of whatever it is they have awakened to.  I think it is going to bring a lot more room for resolution, and compassion and working alot more together as a community.  Its also going tocreate a stronger unity in a lot of different areas, so I am really excited!