Let's talk about pagan cred. Because it's ridiculous, and there's way too much of it out there.
First, let's define pagan cred. This is a quality, measured by the insecure and dictatorial, that defines how 'pagan' you are. It's generally measured by other people, but there are things that can be done to beef it up, or if caught short, decrease it. Of course, anyone that actually cares is not going to call it this. They're going to complain about how "serious" someone is as a pagan, or talk about how "experienced" they are in whatever realm.
And there's also nothing more obnoxious than accidentally walking into a pagan cred pissing match with someone.
Now, the first time that happened to me, I A) never saw it coming, and B) it happened over email, which was a good thing for my response time.
I was running Pagan Student Union at my SUNY school, and it was nearing the end of the year, when I got an email from a transfer student for the next semester, inquiring about the club. Neat! She seemed interested in being very involved....a little too involved, actually, considering she offered to take the club over for me, sight unseen, because of her previous experience at her old school. Just in case the pressure and time was a little too intense for me, you understand.
I responded pretty much right off the bat, letting her know we were active, we met once a week, we focused on this that and the other. Also, that we had lots of opportunities for involvement....which did not involve me quitting out of the blue.
What I got back: "You know, hun, I've been talking to lots of elders in your area about this club, and there's a lot of work that needs to be done. You might not be up to the necessary leadership, but don't worry, I'm a Leo and we're very good at this kind of thing!"
Um. What.
Thank all gods for email. I took about two days, but asked her very nicely who she'd been talking to, what did she mean by "elder", and reiterated the idea, a little more plainly, that I was not stepping down based on two emails from a complete stranger.
Apparently, "elder" meant "anyone who's been a practicing pagan for 10 years or more." I did a quick count on my fingers and realized that, at 18, I was only 3 years short of being an elder. Cool! No one ever told me that before! (Where's a punctuation mark that means 'sarcasm' when you need one?) Hell, I was gonna make elder before I made legal drinking age!
What a load of utter crap. I can't even remember what I responded after that, but I think it was along the lines of "Well, we'll meet you next year, have a good summer", and then spent the whole summer slamming my face into a wall whenever I thought about it. (As a side note, karma is a BITCH - she moved down early, accidentally made friends with MY friends (non-pagans, small world), and then the housing authority randomly assigned her to live in my suite. I wish I was kidding.)
But this was, definitively, the first time I'd run into someone who was obsessed with cred. What you read, how often you read it, how long you'd been around, how much jewelry you owned - the list of things you could say or do to affect your rep as told by her was positively astonishing. But working with her, casually, for a year definitely helped prepare me to run into others.
Now, I have a few ways of dealing with it, dependent on situation.
1) You are talking to a new group that you are thinking about joining. Pissing match begins - well, we do this, and that, and if you don't, you don't count, also, we might not want you anyway since you're not serious enough. This is different than a polite "We seem to practice in different directions, maybe you should try Other Group for a better fit." The difference is - Are they sneering? If yes, it's about pagan cred. In this case, there's one easy, workable option. Leave. And never come back.
I like to hope that social Darwinism will help kill these little groups across time and space whenever I take my own advice on this.
2) You have just discovered a co-worker or other faint acquaintance is pagan! They start peppering you with questions, with a specific bend.
Frequently, you can give these people enough rope to hang themselves, which is nice. Last year, a nice older Wiccan walked right into it with queries on what I believed, how I practiced, etc, until she gave me a sympathetic little smile and said, "Well, dear, I've been practicing for 4 years now. How long have you been pagan?" "12 years." She never brought time or experience up again.
Patently, I'm not an elder. I'm 24. Someone needed to tell this woman that, though, and I was irritated enough that it wasn't going to be me. Regardless, my standard practice with the faint acquaintance who wants to flex pagan cred, is to let them talk until they accidentally get rude and shame themselves into shutting up, or at least being more polite. It works better than you'd think.
3) You are talking to someone, not group affiliated, and not someone you work with or is otherwise unavoidable. You get some leeway here.
• Do they honestly know more than you? Might be ok to let them blather on a bit before you walk away. Worst case scenario, you get some good book recs before getting so annoyed you roll your eyes and extricate.
• Are they up front, right out rude? Tell 'em to shove it. Fortunately, it doesn't happen often.
Of course, most of the pagan creditors fall into two camps; insecure eclectics and Reconstructionists of various flavors. It's not all reconstructionists that annoy the hell out of me...just the ones that tell me I'm doing it wrong. Hey, I'm not claiming to be practicing something from hundreds and thousands of years ago. I am quite up front that I am making up half this shit as I go along. The only part I'm doing wrong is giving the impression I care what other people have to say on the matter...if they're rude about it, anyway.
I've always wondered - do Obnoxious Reconstructionists ever realize how close they sound to Christian Fundies? Research is one thing, worthy of respect. Telling everyone around that they know what they're doing because they've studied the Eddas/Bhagavitas/Bible more intently than you is sort of a multi-religion pain in the ass.
With this post, I'm pretty sure anyone with "standards" who ever reads this will flee my blog forever. I'm ok with that.
Blessed Be,
Pennanti
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