Editorial - Defending Eclecticism and Fluffiness

So, we're coming closer to the Spring Equinox (otherwise known as Ostara or Eostre), when light and dark, day and night, are equally balanced, and when Spring finally comes into full swing. People get happier, we give each other chocolate eggs, start planting for the agricultural year, and feel warmer days getting closer. Generally, it's one of those nice festivals, where everything is love, light, sweet little Easter chicks and cute, floppy-eared rabbits.

So what on Earth does one write an Editorial about at this time of year? How swell everything is? How pretty all the flowers look? When I sat down to write this Editorial I was stumped - Ostara is just such a fluffy time of year. What could I write about without boring everybody or causing them to vomit?

Then it hit me. What's wrong with things being 'fluffy'? What does the term mean anyway? Why don't I write about 'fluffiness'? So I did.

'Fluffy' is a word usually used in a derogatory way by Pagans, but it has many different usages - it's best to not get them mixed up, because you'll find yourself in a linguistic puzzle. So, here's my view on the different usages of the word 'fluffy', and my defences of each. After all, the people we consider to be 'fluffy' must have some guts to be themselves in the face of the rest of us sneering down our noses at them.

Love, light, peace, and bunnies

One usage of the term 'fluffy' is a description of somebody who considers everything to be love, light, peace, and bunnies - everything in the world is beautiful; human nature is inherently good; the people around us only have our best interests in mind; and all the evil people in the world just need some love. Okay, so too much of this view is annoying, but let's ask ourselves this question: is it really hurting anybody? On the plus side, you know that this bunch of people aren't likely to blow up buildings, take part in car bombings, and engage in other such unsavoury activity (unless they're hypocrites, but then they're not real fluffies after all.) These are the Flower Power people, the Children of Peace, and we need them just as much as we need the people who see the darker side of things - the black humourists, the pessimists, the satirists.

And who knows, maybe the fluffy's world really is love, light, peace and bunnies? Who are we to dictate their world to them? Hey, good luck to 'em if their life is that good. Either this will continue and their life will be peaceful and nice, filled with love (and perhaps a little jealousy on the part of the pessimists?), or they'll get a shocking wake-up call. Either way, nothing has been broken and nobody has been hurt.

But maybe for this fluffy, love, light, peace and bunnies is not how the world is but how the world should be, and again - what's wrong with that? These are the people who try to unite nations, free people from captivity (even if it's only metaphorical captivity). Good on them. They are trying to give something to society in their own way. Just like Damian Hurst decided to give to society by shoving half a cow in formaldehyde. The difference being that the fluffy's contribution is going to be a lot more useful than half a cow suspended eternally in it's un-decaying state of death...

It says so in this book. It must be true!

We all complain about these people - they read a $ilver Ravenwolf or Edain McCoy book and take it as gospel, as the truth about neo-Paganism. They don't bother to question it. This goes against a lot of what Paganism stands for: questioning what you're told, examining your beliefs, not falling blindly into another dogmatic trap. Pagans aren't sheep. (As I've found out - you can't herd Pagans.)

But ask yourself one question - how many Pagans do you know that started out this way? Probably quite a few. Heck, I did! I was 15 years old and lost amidst a bewildering plethora of occult information! Now ask yourself a second question - how long did it take for these Pagans to recover? Chances are, they pretty soon snapped out of it and started questioning what they had read so far.

It's a phase, folks. One that we learn from and grow out of. It's the first stage of questioning; the Thesis part of Aristotle's famous triad leading to knowledge: Thesis - Antithesis - Synthesis.

Eclecticism

For some reason, not only has Eclecticism become akin to fluffiness these days, but it has also become a dirty word in the neo-Pagan community. People look down on it and stereotype it as a Celtic Atlantean Egyptio-Christo-Buddhist Faerie Warrior Goddess Shaman. Many feel that being Eclectic is to ignore each culture's traditions; to insult them by taking their practices and beliefs out of context. Of course, much of this is based on one's view of deities - the hard polytheist would see it as 'sacrilege' to include deities from different pantheons in the same ritual, while the soft polytheist who sees deities as aspects of the human psyche won't see it as such. But the above view of Eclecticism is also based on a false assumption as to what Eclectic Pagans actually do. Let's start with some interesting information about the term 'eclectic' (which I shamelessly stole from the Merriam-Webster's Word for the Day daily email. Don't read too much into that, folks.)

'Eclectic comes from a Greek verb meaning "to select" and was originally applied to ancient philosophers who were not committed to any single system of philosophy; instead, these philosophers selected whichever doctrines pleased them from every school of thought. Later, the word's use broadened to cover other selective natures.'

In this 19th century example from a poem by Arthur Joseph Munby, for example, the word is applied to literature lovers who cull selective works from libraries.'

"Hard by, the central slab is thick with books
Diverse, but which the true eclectic mind
Knows how to group, and gather out of each
Their frequent wisdoms...."

The Eclectic Pagan finds something they like in a tradition, but instead of just taking it and putting it in a wrong context, they are inspired by it, and create something themselves based upon it. They create their own path by looking at universal features of religion and spiritual practice, and taking inspiration from them.

They may also not want to stick to one path, so for one ritual they may focus on Celtic deities, whilst for another they may focus on Greek deities. (Instead of only working with, say, Egyptian deities.)

After all, the 'true eclectic mind' says, why narrow or limit Truth and Wisdom? It is obvious, if one looks at the panorama of world religions and mythologies that each path has value, insight - sometimes a different insight to the next path. So why pin yourself down to one path? And even if you are a hard polytheist and choose to work almost exclusively in one way, why not allow yourself some time to experience other ways and be experimental? After all, I've never met any Gods who were angered by a desire for Wisdom (as long as there's no fire-stealing, apple-eating, or war in heaven that is!)

I think, when we draw ourselves out of our own chosen path and take a look around us at the many other paths, we begin to get a feeling of the commonality of human experience; the universality of spiritual needs and views; the beauty of religious diversity; and above all, the inspiring struggle of mankind to find some truth in this mad world - the desperate climbing upwards of a race of beings intent on becoming more than they really are...

And herein lies the beauty of true Eclecticism - whether one calls it fluffy or not.

Happy, peaceful, light-filled Ostara to y'all, with plenty of bunnies, chicks, and chocolate on the side!

Blessings,

Kim Huggens