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Apr. 15th, 2009 08:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mdehnersI Know, I Know. But seriously, when a term becomes so "Inclusive", does it have any true meaning anymore?
A friend on his blog was complaining about how his religion was portrayed in a TV show(Wicca) recently. IMO the problem is that the term is pretty much meaningless anymore. Back in the late 70's, what he considers Wicca would not have been so by those IN WIcca at that time. By the early 80's those without Lineage(ie: folks who belonged to covens that ran the gamet from being founded by those who failed their Initiations to those created whole-hock from their Imaginations)demanded to be called "Eclectic" Wicca. 'Course, by the 80's the behavior of many made the term one of derision and they began to use the term we used for them when I was Wiccan "Pagan". Since the original problem remained, now Pagan is the term of derision and Wiccan is now "In" again. Fashion......
When a term is too nebulous and Includes ANYTHING, it defines NOTHING. I was one of those who fought in the 80's and 90's(even when I'd long left the religion)for the term Wicca to refer to the Modern religions that had at least 4 of the original 6 Mysteries that Gardener formulated. Most folks I've run into that call themselves Wiccan don't make that definition. We lost and so the Inclusivites won. The term is forever without substantive meaning.
This is why I tend to get "pissy" with certain Universalists who define Asatru far beyond the perameters of it's modern creators. Heathen is like Pagan....anything from or Inspired IS. I've been through this battle before and seen the Evil losing wrought allowing Utgarders to define my religion. This time, however I'm too old and tired to do more than I already do. And since the battle has pretty much been lost....
Truth,
Pat
A friend on his blog was complaining about how his religion was portrayed in a TV show(Wicca) recently. IMO the problem is that the term is pretty much meaningless anymore. Back in the late 70's, what he considers Wicca would not have been so by those IN WIcca at that time. By the early 80's those without Lineage(ie: folks who belonged to covens that ran the gamet from being founded by those who failed their Initiations to those created whole-hock from their Imaginations)demanded to be called "Eclectic" Wicca. 'Course, by the 80's the behavior of many made the term one of derision and they began to use the term we used for them when I was Wiccan "Pagan". Since the original problem remained, now Pagan is the term of derision and Wiccan is now "In" again. Fashion......
When a term is too nebulous and Includes ANYTHING, it defines NOTHING. I was one of those who fought in the 80's and 90's(even when I'd long left the religion)for the term Wicca to refer to the Modern religions that had at least 4 of the original 6 Mysteries that Gardener formulated. Most folks I've run into that call themselves Wiccan don't make that definition. We lost and so the Inclusivites won. The term is forever without substantive meaning.
This is why I tend to get "pissy" with certain Universalists who define Asatru far beyond the perameters of it's modern creators. Heathen is like Pagan....anything from or Inspired IS. I've been through this battle before and seen the Evil losing wrought allowing Utgarders to define my religion. This time, however I'm too old and tired to do more than I already do. And since the battle has pretty much been lost....
Truth,
Pat
