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Virtual Paganism

As a professional writer, I count my computer as one of my most important working tools. As a Pagan, I count my computer as one of my most important altar tools. My desk also holds other sacred objects: an embroidered poem by Sappho, an incense burner, several Goddess images. I work a great deal of magic here and have experienced powerful spiritual moments here too.

For me, my computer offers a vital link to the world outside. It comprises a large part of my contact with other Pagans in both personal and professional areas. I conduct much of my research for current projects online. I publish my writing in a variety of online markets. Sometimes I just browse, enjoying the richness of the cyberspace environment. Even my activities in non-Pagan areas have led to important Pagan contacts.

Let's take a look at some of the things cyberspace can do for you. Would you like to share your ideas with other Pagans? Try a general Pagan newsgroup or mailing list. Are you looking for recommended reading lists? Try the World Wide Web and FTP (File Transfer Program) sites. Want to conduct an online ritual? Duck off with the rest of your coven into a private room or chat group. Do you need information about a specific tradition? Look for a Web page, newsgroup, or mailing list devoted to your area of interest. Can't find a place to buy altar supplies, books, or other Pagan essentials? Shop online through a Website or other catalog. How about travel to distant and fascinating places? Telnet! The Internet has an answer for every question. You can even use e-mail (electronic messages) to correspond quickly with friends or business associates, at a fraction the speed of snailmail (normal post) and a fraction the cost of telephone calls.

Even if you live near the buckle of the Bible Belt, you can enjoy daily contact with a thriving Pagan community -- online. To do this you need a computer (obviously) with a modem to connect with other computers out in the world. Some software requires a mouse interface. You may also want to invest in a second phone line specifically for the modem if you use it frequently, to avoid conflict with the regular telephone. These are the basics.

To access the Internet, a global network of electronically connected computers full of fascinating things to explore, you also need an Internet Service Provider, or ISP. Commercial providers include America Online, GEnie, and Prodigy. Their rates depend on the package you choose and how much time you spend online, with $20-$40 per month a reasonable average for low to moderate use; higher use gets very expensive very fast. Local providers usually charge less than commercial ones. Most ISPs provide you with software programs through which to access the Internet; the quality of these varies widely. Some systems allow you to use a nickname or Craft name as part of your e-mail address; others always display your legal name (unless you route everything through an anonymous server). Finally, if you teach, attend, or work at a university you may be eligible for a free account through the school; some corporations also offer free Internet accounts to their employees.

E-mail: This allows you to communicate with other people online. Some companies offer free e-mail accounts, and most Internet Service Providers include e-mail in their basic package. Through e-mail you can send messages to several people at once or forward a message sent to you on to someone else. Mailing lists also function as e-mail messages so you can enjoy them even if you don't have newsgroup or Web access. Now let's take a closer look at some of the other fun things you can do online.

FTP Sites: A file transfer program allows you to move all kinds of data to and from thousands of other computers. This is an excellent way to find guides to software and hardware, newsletters, archives, and other information on a wide range of topics.

Gopher Searches: Similar to an FTP, a "gopher" is a resourceful menu-driven utility for accessing and downloading data. Using a gopher is a lot like using a library database to search for articles or books. A gopher search can turn up things like reading lists, bibliographies, statistics, reports, even entire magazines.

Telnet: This allows you to login to remote computers around the world. You can telnet to bulletin board systems in other states or even other countries. This provides a way to find foreign language material on the Internet and to access services not otherwise available in your area.

Usenet: Here you can read newsgroups on just about every imaginable subject. Some of them focus on news, others on discussion. The overall topic may be broad, narrow, or miscellaneous. Newsgroups may or may not have a moderator to filter out inappropriate posts. Internet manners, or "Netiquette" suggest that you read each newsgroup for a few days before posting your first message. Called "lurking," this gives you a chance to determine the atmosphere of that particular group before joining in. You should also find and read the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list, which will almost certainly answer most of the questions you may have about the newsgroup.

World Wide Web: The Web contains at least a little bit about everything. A single site may have dozens or hundreds of pages. Web pages may include text, lists, tables; forms, order blanks, or other response/interaction options; photographs, line drawings, video clips; and music or other sound effects. Hypertext (highlighted words or phrases) allows you to access further information on that topic by using your mouse to point and click on the highlighted text. Because of this, you need a graphical browser program such as Mosaic or Netscape to get the most out of this resource; a text-only interface is only a short hop better than nothing. Finally, the WWW actually functions as a web; you can jump easily from one place to another and back again, following your train of thought. "Surfing" the Web lets you ride your stream of consciousness to exciting places with the click of a button.

Online Guides to the World Wide Web: the Web is a large and fascinating collection of places, but that very advantage can also be a significant disadvantage. Sometimes, the problem is not finding information, but winnowing it. To help with this, you may want to use the various indices, link lists, and review sites available.

Now that you know something about the options available to you, think about what you can do with them. If you just discovered Paganism recently, welcome to a rich and diverse community stuffed with abundant resources. On the Internet you can find teachers, news about upcoming events, details on religions you may want to try, and a feel for what different branches of Paganism are really like. If you have practiced Paganism for a long time, you can share your experience with newcomers, talk shop with experienced priests and priestesses from many systems, and further your knowledge of your Craft. If, like me, some aspect of your professional life touches your spirituality, you can find endless networking opportunities online; merchants post catalogs, event organizers troll for people to present workshops and panels, writers find electronic markets much easier to break into than print markets, and artists scan their work in to display in online galleries. You can find whatever you need here; you just have to know where to look.

Consider taking a class or attending a workshop about the Internet if you get the chance. I once caught a wonderful workshop called "Paganism on the Internet" at the Ozark Avalon harvest gathering. Walking Stick discussed online rituals and then took us surfing to popular Pagan websites. Many community colleges and some libraries offer courses, sometimes free of charge, in computer and Internet use; some even have public access terminals. If you already know about the Internet, why not teach a class of your own, online or otherwise?

I love working in cyberspace because it feels like home to me, a world where (to quote one of my favorite songs) "symbols have the power to become the things they name." [1] I'm not a programmer like my mother, who teaches computer literacy, but I can comfortably use software and hardware to produce professional material. I especially like electronic publishing because, as a relatively new field, it doesn't have the rigid boundaries and often-bizarre industry standards of the paper publishing world. Some of my Pagan writing gets reprinted online in places like Kestrel's Nest. I also write for online markets in other areas, most notably speculative fiction. You, too, can find ways of using the Internet to enhance your personal, professional, and spiritual life.

Learning to use the Internet and its many resources properly takes time, practice, and patience. At first, you may have trouble navigating from site to site in cyberspace and locating what you want. You could discover that you require different software to accommodate your needs. You may find that certain physical problems make it difficult for you to interface with your computer for long periods of time. Don't worry; a little ingenuity and perhaps some advice from a friendly electronics expert will show you how to work around them. For instance, my vision problems mean I need a large screen and programs that I can customize to display light letters on a dark background. You might need a special keyboard, mouse, or chair to make computer use fun and comfortable for you; hunt around, the market carries a wide range of technical assistance products. You may come to realize that you need to purify and consecrate your computer as a ritual tool in order to use it comfortably. Above all, stick with it. Soon you will feel as much at home on the Internet as you do in front of your altar.

Resources

  • E-mail: A number of free, often web-based, e-mail services exist. One option is Bigfoot, which also offers a variety of directories and search options. Another option is to download one of the many e-mail clients available; personally, I recommend Pegasus Mail.
  • FTP Sites:
    • Astronomy (useful for anyone interested in astrology or applying cosmic events to their ritual work): nic.funet.fi
    • The Monster FTP Sites List (a master list of all known FTP servers, with brief notes about what files are located at each)
  • Gopher Sites:
    • Games & Fantasy (fun to play with, occasionally includes games from ancient cultures done up as computer versions): gopher.micro.umn.edu:70/1
    • Whole Earth Review magazine (not overtly Pagan but with a similar feel, and environmentally friendly): gopher.well.sf.ca.us
  • Mailing Lists:
    • The Avalon List (run by the House of Kerridwen for the Towers of Avalon and the Sisterhood of Avalon). To subscribe, send e-mail with "subscribe avalonlist <name>" (where <name> is the name you wish to be known) to listserver@dreamsunlimited.com. More information is available at the Towers of Avalon Website.
    • FIRE (religious freedom activist list) For further information, contact list manager Danica.
    • jap-l (Discussion of Judeopaganism, Jewish Pagans, Jewwitches and related topics) To sign onto this list, write to Renee Rosen or visit The Jewish American Pagan list Website.
    • Pagan Digest (discussions of anything pertaining to Pagan interests, mailserver also stocks extensive annotated reading list). To subscribe, send e-mail with "subscribe pagan" as the text to mailserv@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu
  • Newsgroups (your browser may be able to access these directly, depending on your setup and your ISP, or you may prefer to use a free-standing newsreader):
  • World Wide Web Sites:
  • Online Guides to the World Wide Web -- my Loyal Webcrafter and I recommend the following (but don't limit yourself to these!):
    • Avatar (Pagan-oriented search engine)
    • Deja News (archive of Usenet posts)
    • The Free Site (a comprehensive list of reviews of shareware and freeware available on the web)
    • HotSheet (links to other resources, broken down by category, such as Culture, News, or Reference)
    • Inference Find (one of the best multi-search engines I've found)
    • Internet Now! (one-stop access to all aspects of the Internet, including FTP, Gopher, Telnet, and Usenet newsgroups, as well as a long list of websites and other resources indexed by subject)
    • The Mining Company ("500 expert guides to mining the net on thousands of topics")
    • Needle in a CyberStack - the InfoFinder (a one-stop collection of www search tools by category)
    • WebRing (access to nearly every web ring in existence)

Citations

All electronic addresses are courtesy of the following sources:

  1. Personal search and experience online.
  2. Rainbow Wind magazine September 1996, edited by Sophia X. Pharou. Reprinted with permission. Contact Editor, Rainbow Wind, Box 8275, Lexington, KY 40533-8275
  3. Handout for Walking Stick's "Paganism Online" workshop at the Ozark Avalon Harvest Gathering. Reprinted with permission.
  4. Pocket Guide to Getting Started. 1995, Netcom. No "do not disseminate" notice; quotes fall under fair-use anyway. Contact 3031 Tisch Way, San Jose, CA 95128

[1] "World Inside the Crystal" from cassette _Plus Ca Change ... The More Things Change..._ by Kathy Mar (THOR Records, 1988). return to text

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"Virtual Paganism" copyright 1996 Elizabeth Barrette, first posted to Sisters of Avalon listserv, revised for web publication September 1998.

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Winter's Pages Art on this page is from the "Whiteflower" set, at Winter's Pages. The "New" animated gif is from 2Cool Animations.

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The URL for this page is http://www.worthlink.net/~ysabet/spirit/vpagan.html and it was last updated on November 23, 1998.