Tuesday 2 August 2011

Fraternity and Sorority and developing a strong sense of group identity....

Not too long ago I was priviledged to be invited to a stag party for a very good friend of mine. I was going to be officiating as high priest at his fandfasting (a pagan wedding) and as such the stag weekend took on additional signifcance, the animistic principles inherent in the event name having specific relevance to the beliefs of those involved. as a group we took ourselves off to the Welsh Gower coast to an area of woodland. We were going to spend the weekend in the woods being taught by a local outdoor pursuits company to build shelters, friction fire light, nap flint, fish and track game. We arrved and began by setting up a camp adjacent to a range of caves that archaeological investigation has revealed to have been in occupation for about 15000 years. The sense of place and history was almost overwhelming, and as we began to gather firewood and prepare shelters, and the group began to work together with clearly defined common aims we began to get a sense of purpose and achievement.

I come from a grammer school background, a single sex boys school where there was a strong focus on team sports, particularly rugby union and I must confess to missing the sense of team spirit and bonding that came from a game well played. I enjoyed winning and the school team was successful, but I more fully embraced the ethos of playing to the best of ones ability and drawing the best from the team-mates around you. I was also at this time in my life heavily involved in the equestrian world working at livery stables and exercising and competing peoples horses. The equestrian world is heavily female dominated and as such I found that I was quite happy in all male, predominantly female and fully mixed groups in a working environment, but the only one I really miss is the all male group setting. Having spoken to female friends who have a similar background I have found that they have similar feeling, missing the sense of sorority and community, that they had at school.

Of course, I am seeing this with rose tinted glasses. As a high achiever, and what my American friends would call a "Jock" I was held in some regard by my peers and probably had a better time at school than many, but even allowing for this bias, I feel that the strength of the bonds I built at school take some beating. So, given that I miss that fraternal bond quite significantly, what am I doing to address this? I considered joining the freemasons, both as a means of recapturing that sense of belonging and brotherhood, but the associations with the ceremonial side of the magic that I practice (many of the forerunners of the ceremonial magic movement of the late victorian era were masons and many of the rituals that we practice have a masonic flavour as a consequence) so I decided to look for that same feeling through experiential paganism, establishing a strong group of male pagan intellectuals specifically to practice as a male coven group and to discuss the deeper male aspects of the pagan paths.

So far it seems to be working, but only time will tell if it is successful long term....my guess is that that depends on the egos of those involved.....

No comments:

Post a Comment