The Terrible Dangers of Nice

Inspired by events over the years within and outside of Paganism I'm tempted to write a book called ‘The 13th Godmother.’

A number of psychological/spiritual books are based on fairytale narratives following the journey of a young man or woman who experiences some kind of curse, makes mistakes yet overcomes all to become regent of their own life. The 13th Godmother - a witch, since fairies are pretty, benevolent creatures - curses the young innocent out of pure evilness. She reduces Cinderella to a drudge or attempts to kill Snow White or sends the innocent to a monster. She steals a baby and locks her up in a tower. She gives the little mermaid exactly what she asked for.

The witch character in the Sondheim musical Into The Woods tells the rest of the characters a little about themselves, their indolence, their greed, their need to blame someone for their problems.

Told a little lie, stole a little gold, broke a little vow. Did you?

Had to have your prince, had to get your cow, have to get your wish, doesn't matter how.

You're so nice, you're not good, you're not bad, you're just nice.
I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right, I'm the witch. You're the world.

Paganism used to look critically at tales of ugly old witches and came to understand this character as the person who has the power to initiate; the person who lives beyond the mundane world; who manages to live in the worlds of the unknown and unknowable; who represents the deep magical power of the unseen and unspoken to whom people turn when they have no where else to go. Insult her at your peril! Particularly, don’t insult her intelligence. I can’t imagine why Sleeping Beauty’s 13th Fairy Godmother gets cross when the king says he couldn’t invite her because he only had 12 gold plates.

Well, Paganism in general has embraced the 12 younger sisters and rejected anything that isn’t light and airy and easy. We have a massive investment in Being Nice, of ignoring problems that many non-Pagans find astonishing and sometimes outrageous, such as some of our children behaving disgracefully, some of our men behaving boorishly and some of our women pathetically. What hope, then, of finding Pagans who can function as a Priestess or Priest, taking responsibility for the journey of another’s soul?

Here comes the wailing: 'The Pagan individual is responsible for their own soul! How dare you suggest otherwise!'

Whilst this is true, it is only true when things are going pretty well. If it is true, how do we account for Soul Loss? How do we align ourselves with the historical Druid? What on earth do we think we're doing when we light a candle for someone, or ask someone to light a candle for us? What happens when a person becomes unable to care for themselves? Pagan practice - as opposed to what we say - suggests that either such people are no longer Pagan or no longer worth thinking about.

Much of the investment in being nice has been pushed by Pagan authors who find that success brings a strange curse all of its own: they have to write books about how nice they are and how nice things should be because books about things not being nice - unless it’s voyeuristic - don’t sell. Druids never did that nasty human sacrifice. Witches only do nice spells. Shamans tiddle about in the Otherworld and never get lost. Too many write more and more unbalanced books and articles and blogs and overexpose themselves or else . . . well, they won’t die, but after so much investment in a public character it might feel like it.

There’s no point in challenging people. You get killed off and life has its own way of sorting things out. The beautiful Pagan boy who dances through life gets old and, having never bothered to do anything other than dance finds that when he can no longer dance he’s on his own. The fluffy Pagan girl, who remains a girl into middle age suddenly finds her life is a mess. The man who fashions himself on the Dagda finds he’s only put up with because his hospitality never ends, so he'd better keep doling out the goods. The group that is blinded through staring at the sun finds that all kinds of things they were told were going on, but which they ignored, have taken on monstrous proportions.

Not surprisingly, those of us who demand a little more find ourselves cast in the role of the Evil Witch. We aren’t invited to the Christening. We are treated with contempt for wanting to know how people who can’t control themselves believe they can control energies that are uncontrollable. Asking for sources of knowledge beyond ‘I saw it on the telly,’ means having to put up with opprobrium.

Groups and individuals have a terrible investment in straining to maintain their opinion of themselves. History suggests that the need to find a scapegoat is universal. Such is the genesis of the Ugly Old Witch.

Logistics

We get together at each of the festivals, every six weeks, meeting across the country, in tents, people's homes, youth hostels and anywhere else that's dry, cheap and friendly. Feel free to suggest a venue.

The Hedge School is funded by donation and each meeting is funded by Magic Hat. This means that after site fees are paid you pay what you can. If you have a large income you can help fund someone on a low income. No one will be turned away if they can't afford the suggested fee of £10 a day. The fees go towards our communal food and pay the organisers expenses. No one makes a living out of the Hedge School!

Children are part of community and are welcome. But they remain the responsibility of their parents. This means that parents may not be able to attend ritual or magical work and will be expected to entertain their kids if they start getting bored. This may mean that the parents will sometimes have to miss events.

What we do is dictated largely by the time of year. However, one thing that we will do at least once is a sharing circle, where each of us speaks and is listened to. You might be surprised at how powerful they can be. The purpose of a sharing circle is to be here now, to be truthful and to change.

Ritual, work - communal cooking, keeping the site tidy and safe, wood gathering, whatever needs doing - teaching and learning are done by everyone. We eat meat, butter, cheese, eggs and bread, and drink bog standard tea and milk. It's not obligatory to eat this way but if you have special dietary needs you'll need to bring your own alternatives.

Hedge School Philosophy

We aim to offer somewhere for Pagans to learn more about Paganism and their place in it.

Somewhere where individual skills are recognised, supported and built on.

A place where Pagans who think they want to offer help to other Pagans - as chaplains, priestesses and priests or in other consequential ways - can explore what might be a vocation.

Where those who are already functioning in those roles can find peer support and refreshment, a place to relax and review their work, and share their skills.

We aim to work in a balanced way with both darkness and light.

We don’t offer qualifications or certificates.

We do offer training and experience.

We don’t believe we have the power to save the world through meditation, what we eat, where we live, what we drive, whether we recycle or not or in any other way.

We do believe, very sincerely, that we are part of the natural world rather than having any power over it.

We believe that the only thing we can have power over is ourselves.

How We Work

We work with Deity, most often described as the Goddess. She is both Brigid and Beansidhe. Her son and consort is the God.

And we recognise that other Pagans perceive Deity in other ways.


We work with the wheel of the year, celebrating Samhain, Imbolc, Beltaine, and Lughnasagh, the equinoxes and solstices.

And we recognise that other Pagans work with other festivals.


We work in circles, with elements and quarters.

And we recognise that there are other ways of performing magic and doing ritual.


We work with people who are interested in taking their magic, their Deities, their service and their lives seriously.

And we take rest, restoration, play and relaxation very seriously.


We work on the basis that community is a Pagan virtue, one that has more responsibilities than rights, where the group has more importance than the individual.

And we know that sometimes people need time alone and community support in order to function well in, with and for community.



We're not perfect, we're not sure what perfection might look like, how or even if it might be attained.

And we believe the thoughtful, friendly search for something that might be good enough is a worthwhile way to spend time.

Hedge What? Hedge Why?

Hedge Schools began as a way for rural Irish people to gain a basic education. Reading, writing and maths were taught and if the teacher had the interest or aptitude, they could also teach history, Latin or whatever else took their fancy. The equivalents of Hedge Schools have existed throughout history, from the Krifó scholió in 15th century Greece and Pit Schools of enslaved African Americans, they came into being when people could not access formal learning.

Paganism is being taught everywhere by everyone. Never have the Mysteries been more accessible and in plain sight! At a time when the greatest light is shining on all kinds of information, from how to grow your hair longer to learning secrets from fairies via blissful gatherings in summer fields, so the Shadow has become ignored. It too is in plain sight and will become more grotesque in order that it may be taken note of.

Most Paganism as it is practised today is fairly useless to anyone who isn’t already happy, healthy, well off and fairly well connected. Most Pagans gain their understanding of Paganism from books, some of which are absolutely dreadful. The majority of individual Pagan teachers have learned that being popular is entirely dependent on making people feel good about themselves at all costs. Their identity and often their income depend on it.

There’s a fine and important line between unconditional affection and not giving a damn which is most obvious in the way that children are brought up. Parents set loving boundaries and endure occasionally being disliked because they don’t want their children to turn into brats. Paganism, in whatever form it takes, has boundaries of behaviour based on traditions of loyalty, generosity, reciprocity, honour that are seldom discussed outside of Heathenism. It’s good to encourage a person to find their own way through life, but again there’s a thin line between that and the equivalent of putting them out on the street to fend for themselves.

Patronising? Potentially. And a Patron is someone who takes an interest in, watches over and protects someone. In this relationship there is, of course, the potential for smothering and abuse of power, which also occurs just as forcefully in groups where no one takes a particular interest in, protects or watches over anyone or anything at all.

Hedge school aims to make these dynamics open and clear as possible, to foster relationships of clarity and honesty, where being robust is of equal value to flinching sensitivity and where both attributes can work side by side rather than becoming mutually exclusive. We aim for genuine, careful teaching of tried and trusted magical ways of being, supporting individuals through that process face to face. Small groups, intense work, deep processing, thorough understanding.

Our Way of Being

The ideas about the ancient civilisation which it has left loose in the public mind are certainly extraordinary enough. The term "pagan" is continually used in fiction and light literature as meaning a man without any religion, whereas a pagan was generally a man with about half a dozen. The pagans, according to this notion, were continually crowning themselves with flowers and dancing about in an irresponsible state, whereas, if there were two things that the best pagan civilisation did honestly believe in, they were a rather too rigid dignity and a much too rigid responsibility. Pagans are depicted as above all things inebriate and lawless, whereas they were above all things reasonable and respectable. They are praised as disobedient when they had only one great virtue - civic obedience. They are envied and admired as shamelessly happy when they had only one great sin - despair.

Heretics
G. K. Chesterton 1919

The Hedge School likes Chesterton's take on Paganism. At times we may expect too much but we believe this is less insulting than expecting too little of you.

We aim to be respectable and reasonable, meaning that we can communicate with people, including Christians and other non-Pagans, as friends, and don’t feel the need to shock and thrill ourselves or anyone else. We’re content to be human beings rather than believing ourselves to be somehow different, special (and secretly therefore better than other people.) All of us struggle with life, with not feeling really very good at it, and that’s highly respectable work. It may be the purpose of our existence, and is certainly central to that most human of feelings, empathy.

Civic obedience for us means that we eat well at the right time, that we’re all warm and safe and that workshops and other events happen on time. Living outdoors can be tough and tiring as well as joyful and inspiring; planning ahead, chopping carrots, working together is more important than going down the pub, not eating and letting the fire go out. Illegal drugs, being drunk when no one else is or demanding a whole group meeting are unwelcome. Being happy is not our aim. No one seems to know what happiness actually is, often confusing it with some kind of pseudo-peak experience. Personal contentment via satisfying meetings, increased knowledge and verifiable, consequential service is certainly one of our aims.

We recognise that unhappiness can be a spur to action and so we welcome people who feel despair. But we also expect you to be in control of yourself. If you start behaving in a manner that we believe is out of your control we will stop you and help you return to a place of safety. We won’t encourage you by calling you a shaman. Neither will we become scared and reject you. We aim to have balanced interactions with the Apparent and Otherworld’s so that we can function well in both. A little liminality will be disorientating but being able to take care of ourselves seems a good basis from which to help others. This attitude is expected from everyone, which means that offering pearls of wisdom and comfort when someone is in the middle of struggling with themselves is seldom appropriate. More often than not that urge is a signal to ourselves that we have reached a place of discomfort in ourselves and need to shut the distress down.

Paganism has taken on distasteful aspects of the New Age which are very close to Evangelical Christianity. When someone becomes even mildly unhappy someone else will pop up to tell them the equivalent of ‘It’s your own fault, if only you would listen to the song of the tree (or Jesus) and realise that you are not who you are, you are stardust and we are One (in the Spirit) and I am better than you, because you are unhappy and I am constantly on a high.’

Psychobabble is not acceptable at Hedgeschool. Sharing circles and communal living bring up many difficult feelings; the formal nature of sharing circles and the routine of communal living contain them. Sharing circles offer an opportunity to carefully and in our own time explore the tender places in ourselves, places of dishonesty, shame, weakness as well as celebrating the genuine wonder of who we are. For that to happen we need to feel we can trust each other, that confidentiality is understood, that our honourable and frightening struggle will be respected. We have to be trustworthy ourselves, in a fundamental sense, before we can offer that to each other. Psychobabble is the antithesis of being trustworthy. We are very alert to how power is used, an absolute fundamental of Paganism.

The Hedge School is not a democracy. People who take responsibility for the Hedge School have the final say in how it is run, it’s best to be clear about that from the beginning. We aim to be collaborative and cooperative, to welcome and share talents so that we can all learn from each other. But Hedgeschool isn’t a permanent community, in plain terms there isn’t the time to work in a genuinely democratic manner and to promise anything else might make us sound more wonderful but it would be a lie. Working through the feelings this brings up for us all is part of the purpose of a sharing circle, exploring our relationships with authority: our own and others.

We function on the understanding that Paganism is a religion, just as Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism which also manage to hold any number of practices, are also religions. We spell it with a capital because it’s a proper noun.

There are any number of Pagan groups, workshops, camps and gatherings where hanging out, spending much of your time pleasurably drunk and being a Mage or an Elf is entirely proper, good fun and possible. Hedge School is for people who want and can offer something more. We know that not everyone wants to be like this all the time but when you feel the need for this kind of experience, here we are.

Paganism Today

Paganism has reached an interesting point in its evolution. Running parallel to a massive increase in the number of books on witchcraft, druidry and general ‘alternative spirituality’ is a huge increase in the number of people setting themselves up as experts in these matters. Never mind that their only qualification is that they've read half a book and bought a velvet cape, the yearning for spiritual meaning and purpose is so great and so unsatisfied that they soon have a following.

Very often, no harm at all comes from putting your trust in what these people have to offer. Some mispronounced ritual and portentous dressing up isn’t the end of the world. Serious seekers will soon lose interest and people who are interested in being seen to be against Christianity are at least kept occupied.

But when service is expected of these people, they fold. Suddenly the difference between ‘alternative spirituality’ and ‘religion’ become very clear. They are unable to do what is expected of a serious practitioner of Paganism, a person who is expected to function as a psychopomp, in both Jungian and classical terms, to help the soul transform.

Many offer their services to the distressed for a fee. This usually involves drums, drama, rainbows, white light and other unverifiable business that anyone can say they’re expert in. But when a Pagan moves from being able to contact a shaman/witch/druid herself to being isolated through illness or other circumstance, they will be very lucky to be caught and held by another Pagan at all, let alone one who has the skills and support to work meaningfully with them.