Let’s have a quick chat about why I am not ready to embrace labels as part of my path quite yet but that one day I hope to have something that I can identify with. As many people already know I have SOME labels that I freely embrace and they feel quite comfortable. Things like: gay, kitchen-witch, son, brother, uncle (guncle if you please), and all of the mundane work labels that come with my job. What I am not comfortable embracing is the title of Druid or Wiccan as of yet.
I feel like this topic is a bit of a hot topic as of lately. We hear it in Pagan podcasts, read it in blogs, and even outside of Paganism we see that there is a strong cultural shift towards embarking on a nameless path, if you will. The nameless path is something that I think is dynamic and really one of the major trends that prove to me that the world is progressing. However, despite this amazing shift in perspective; I still want to belong somewhere and you would think after fifteen years I would have found that by now. Truth is my friends, I haven’t and that makes me a bit of a pebble in the shoe of how things ought to be.
Now I don’t know if there are many other people in this world who feel the same way I do but I like to think the world is big enough that plenty of people are suffering from an over stimulation of information. And that is exactly why I feel like I have not chosen a label for my path as of yet. You’re probably reading this and thinking, “Tyson, you’ve already labeled yourself a Kitchen Witch. Isn’t that enough?” Well, yes and no. A massive part of me feels incomplete without the cherry on top of my labeling pyramid…and oh yes you are getting a diagram that will better explain my thinking process on labels. Fair disclosure, please know this is not how I view other Pagans, Witches, or people who follow any Spiritual path. Your road is your own and much respected by me.
So let’s swing this train of thought back around and get back on track. I was saying that I feel like I suffer from an overwhelming amount of stimuli and for me that is largely to “blame” for my not choosing a major label. When I left Christianity it was on relatively good terms. I mean, it probably wasn’t best to be an assistant altar-boy with a hickey on my neck that came from another boy…..but far fair for me to say who really cared about that part. The point is that I was able to exit the faith with a family that was really quite supportive. This positive impact didn’t really give me a sense of pressure to find what it was I really wanted. I did have a hunch it had to be within the esoteric / occult section of my nearest Barnes & Noble (kind of kidding here….but seriously this section is pretty much my idea of perfection).
I studied numerous faiths that are within the Pagan tent (looking at you John Beckett, this terminology is PERFECT). I studied Buddhist schools that spanned Sri-Lanka, China, Japan, and here in the United States. I even tried to give Christianity a fair shake again but it just didn’t shake back. At this point I really am rambling about what all I have done and studied but now you see what I mean by an over saturation of information that is readily available! And my dear reader, I still can’t get enough of what is out there!
So what is a Pagan (maybe this is a good label area to start with…) to do without a home or major label? Well, in my case I just keep on keeping on and I keep absorbing as much as I can. I’d recommend this nameless path, this no-cherry-on-top approach to anyone. This is because spirituality is evolving and if there is something I have picked up along the way it is that nothing stays the same. We all change and we all evolve and so too should our spirituality. We grow wiser and in some cases that wisdom settles into a comfy label where it then shares a wealth of information. The thing is, at 30, I’m just not there yet.
As always, walk your path with integrity and light.
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