I think a lot about how "our kinds of people" aren't necessarily - even predominantly - found in pagan environments. Certainly with what I do, being a kind of Solar path animist/nature-centric thing, I have a tonne of affinity with...ramblers associations, gardeners, environmental groups, local historians.
Paganism/new age/occult is so broad, that you can go to a meetup and be surrounded by people who are into angel healing, crystals, UFOs, Egyptian god energies, and so on, and that's Fine. But I go to my Extinction Rebellion meetings, and someone has brought home-made chutney from their allotment, and someone else has brought honey from their own bees, and everyone their is profoundly sincere and in love with nature, and some of them are willing to go to prison for it, and I feel like these people are on my frequency. Esp in what I'm writing now, about Walking as a pagan practice - you don't have to "do" anything, just walk - and that's clearly a thing that a lot of non-pagans do too, and in exactly the same way. Walking as an act of reverencing nature and being present in it.
Obviously I can bash out a Third Planetary Seal of Jupiter to communicate with the arch-celestials, if I have to, but I wouldn't necessarily see someone who made that the center of their work as "my people".
For me, the appeal is very much family. I like the idea of having the same group of people in my life long-term, and creating these alternative communities is a traditional role of religion. I want...there to be a bunch of people who come over to help me paint my basement, or to do the cooking the first month we have a baby; and I want to age with people, and feel invested in their lives as they are in mine; I want to be there for community elders and do their shopping and take babysitting shifts for new parents; I want to grow as an inidividual because I'm surrounded by people on a similar path; and I want to do the things which groups can do which individuals cannot. For example, get a Suma account and order container-free wholesale goods. Buy solar panels.
These kinds of community are absolutely standard if you're in a "normal" religion, and I'd like to cultivate them in ours, you know? Especially because so much of the pagan spirit is outside of the circle, is just baking and growing things and going on walks.
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Paganism/new age/occult is so broad, that you can go to a meetup and be surrounded by people who are into angel healing, crystals, UFOs, Egyptian god energies, and so on, and that's Fine. But I go to my Extinction Rebellion meetings, and someone has brought home-made chutney from their allotment, and someone else has brought honey from their own bees, and everyone their is profoundly sincere and in love with nature, and some of them are willing to go to prison for it, and I feel like these people are on my frequency. Esp in what I'm writing now, about Walking as a pagan practice - you don't have to "do" anything, just walk - and that's clearly a thing that a lot of non-pagans do too, and in exactly the same way. Walking as an act of reverencing nature and being present in it.
Obviously I can bash out a Third Planetary Seal of Jupiter to communicate with the arch-celestials, if I have to, but I wouldn't necessarily see someone who made that the center of their work as "my people".
For me, the appeal is very much family. I like the idea of having the same group of people in my life long-term, and creating these alternative communities is a traditional role of religion. I want...there to be a bunch of people who come over to help me paint my basement, or to do the cooking the first month we have a baby; and I want to age with people, and feel invested in their lives as they are in mine; I want to be there for community elders and do their shopping and take babysitting shifts for new parents; I want to grow as an inidividual because I'm surrounded by people on a similar path; and I want to do the things which groups can do which individuals cannot. For example, get a Suma account and order container-free wholesale goods. Buy solar panels.
These kinds of community are absolutely standard if you're in a "normal" religion, and I'd like to cultivate them in ours, you know? Especially because so much of the pagan spirit is outside of the circle, is just baking and growing things and going on walks.