There has been a lot of rumbling undercurrent in the spiritual communities of late.  The topic du jour appears to be how a certain form of paganism has become a trend.  At this point, we’ve all seen numerous posts:  borderline washed out and airy, an emphasis on the most sparkliest of sparkly crystals, and messages of “all love & light” and “positive vibes only”.  It’s A Thing.

But most of the angsty focus seems to be on the trendiness.  And hell yes, it’s gross, and yep, it needs to be called out.  But I can’t help but think we are doing a disservice in behaving as though this is new.  Religion and spirituality have ALWAYS been trends.  It’s how they start.  It’s how they spread.  It’s largely a popularity contest, and always has been.

People like going to church, to coven, to gatherings, because humans are social creatures.  We enjoy talking to likeminded people about similar interests.  And anyone can “find” faith, religion, spirituality, god, or gods at any time, but if your main motivation is in fostering a “witchy lifestyle” rather than doing the actual day-to-day work of following a spiritual path, then yes, you are a huge part of the problem.

Spirituality is not about how pretty your rocks are or what fucking filter looks best.  It’s not an emergency medikit you keep shoved under the bed in case of disaster.  And it is not something that you abandon when shit gets hard or you don’t get your way.  The Universe is not conspiring against you.  But it’s sure as fuck paying attention every time you claim that bullshit.

There is this thing where it’s almost taboo to call someone out on their false religiousness.  We are inundated with cries of “You don’t know how they feel, or what they do when you can’t see them!” whenever anyone dares.  And no, we don’t know what anyone thinks or feels.  But we know what WE feel when you use spirituality only as a shield, or a gaslighting weapon, or to gather “likes”.  And often times, even though we know there is a fundamental wrongness, a severe lacking of depth…we ignore it.  We allow you room to speak even though we know you have nothing to say.  Because it’s easy enough to ignore, and it makes you shut up faster.  The root issue is not the trend, it’s the shallowness of the spirituality.  And our acceptance of such.