Here’s a point that will cause storms of protest:
Remember back when you were first getting into Paganism or Metaphisics or Wicca? Remember how scared and tentative you were? Remember how you struggled to get what you needed from various sources, and you didn’t know where to look for something, and you were helped along by those who had been doing this for a while? How in some cases they gave you their altar tools to use in your rituals?
Payback time.
Remember when you come into the fullness of your knowledge, when those around you are coming to you for YOUR wisdom, to start paying that back. If you believe in the Threefold Law, heck if you just belive in the fairness of the universe, pay it to the next generation.
Don’t do it for kudos, or to have someone tell you how wonderful you are, or to put someone in debt to you, do it because YOUR teachers and the Elders of YOUR community did it for you. You have the time and resources now, pay it back.
Don’t give till it hurts, but give a measure of what you have gained. If that is knowledge, if that is books, if that is tools, then give back.
Like now, I’m considering sending a mortar and pestle to a new Wiccan because I can and she needs it. It won’t cost me an arm and a leg, but it will take some of my cash. And I remember my first mortar and pestle given to me by my step-daughter who had been Wiccan for about 4 years longer than I had. I still have it.
But it’s that kind of gifting that is important.
And pay it forward to those Elders you admire too. I sent the rosary to Carl not beacuse he asked or because he needed it, but because something inside me said “Do it”, and I admire him as a teacher and a person. So I did. It took time and it took energy and resources, but I’m glad I did it now.
Too often I see people taking gifts from others and giving nothing back. I’m of the philosophy that if I give a gift I’m not expecting something back, but I do expect that you will pass it along when you can. If not to me, then to someone else.
Just something to think about.
