Pagan Monasticism

[qos]

One of the most recent evolutions of my spiritual path is exploring Pagan monasticism. 

I've always felt drawn to cloistered life: a life spent focused on spiritual practice and devotion. When I was younger I suspected the attraction arose from my very early exposure to the cool nuns of "The Sound of Music," but when I finally recognized that I have a spiritual vocation, I began to suspect that it was an early indication of my path.

I never seriously considered joining a Christian convent, even when I was Christian. I was Protestant, had no interest in subordinating myself to men, or giving up sex. But I've continued to feel drawn to that lifestyle.

A few months ago I discovered that there is a small but growing group of Pagans who identify as monastics. There are two formal orders, but most are solitary practitioners. Some dream of creating monastic houses for communal living, other prefer to be hermits. Obviously Pagan monastics don't enjoy the support of a large institution, as Christian and Buddhist monastics do, so there's a fair amount of conversation about how to balance the vocation with the realities of making a living. Personally, I like the model of the Beguines, independent women who formed communities, often with their own homes, who engaged in trade and the professions to support themselves but were still strongly oriented to spiritual life and service to the poor.

I was fortunate to connect with Danica of Blackstone Hermitage, who is not only relatively local to me but shares some personal connections. Her site has a lot of information, and spending time with her feels like I'm receiving spiritual direction. Her apartment is set up as a shrine. It's immaculately clean, and most of it is focused on devotion. I want my own apartment to be like that: a space dedicated primarily to devotion and other spiritual work. 

I belong to two Pagan monastic groups on Facebook, and there are ongoing discussions about how to connect with each other and how to engage more with the wider community so they know we are here. I've decided that I'm going to focus on deepening this practice over the next few months, continue to learn, and then propose teaching a class about the subject at the next Pantheacon. Hopefully there will be others there who I can network with -- as well as connect with other folks I've met over the years, often through LJ, who I haven't seen in a long time.

Here's a post by Danica about her monastic practices.

Comments

[queenofhalves]

very interesting!

[blackstone_hermitage]

Thank you so much for the kind words about my Hermitage, and for linking to my site! Although I don't really think of myself as a spiritual director per se, I'm glad to hear that my work has that sort of effect for you. I'm grateful for the time we were able to chat. I'm sure we could have gone on and on if there'd been more time. I think - and hope! - we'll have other opportunities for religious fellowship visits as time permits.

I'm also very glad you're going to be writing more about polytheist monasticism. You definitely have the skills to do this work well.

I'm particularly excited that you're going to propose a class on polytheist monasticism at Pantheacon. I'll go out on a limb and say that I have a hunch that your proposal will be accepted.

With luck, the Polytheist Monastic web forum will be active soon, so we can talk about things like this in more depth. The Facebook groups really aren't delivering much in-depth conversation these days. Facebook has changed the algorithms to hide most posts, and few people engage anymore, so the group dynamics have changed a lot. I'm going to try to preserve some of the discussions that happened on the FB group in the early days after it first launched in 2016. Maybe with permission from the contributors I could port them over to the new forum, where they'd be easily searchable. Makes me sad that so many of the rich discussions of the early days just faded into oblivion because they're on Facebook, where posts have such a short half-life.

Speaking of the web forum, I'd better get back to work on it now. I'll keep you updated, of course!

[qos]

I know you don't think of yourself as a spiritual director, but conversations with you have that kind of impact. You help me deepen my awareness and understanding of, and commitment to, my path, and your own work gives me ideas of things to try in my own.

Looking forward to the forum launching!