In these days of mindless, meaningless, quick, simplistic “See Spot run” rituals that require little to no reading or thought, it is a joy to engage in work that exhibits depth, complexity, and genuine meaning, knowledge, and understanding. It’s just so sad that so many pagan practitioners these days are really only interested in talking the talk — not in walking the walk, in doing the hard work of the Mysteries.
I see it all the time.
But then again, education has been so incredibly “dumbed down” in this country that I have to wonder just how many so-called pagan practitioners are actually even capable of doing the hard work of the Mysteries. The average reading level of an adult in the United States lies somewhere between the 5th — 8th grades, and has for years now.
Rates of literacy itself in the United States depend on which of the various definitions of literacy is actually used. To fudge the figures, governments may, in fact, label as literate those individuals who can read a couple of thousand simple words that they learned by sight in the first four grades in school.
But, in reality, between 40 and 44 million adults, or roughly 20 to 23% of adults in the U.S., are limited to reading at the basic or below-basic proficiency levels, while approximately 32 million adults in America are considered illiterate; about 14% of the entire adult population cannot read, period.
According to a relatively recent study, the U.S. now ranks 14th in the world for its level of education, which represents a significant decline from 1990, when it ranked sixth. Yet, instead of returning to “old-fashioned” values and raising standards and expectations when it comes to education, this nation continues to “dumb down” and cater to the lowest denominator.
However, just because something is simple does not mean that it is coherent, competent, or revelatory, that it actually conveys genuine meaning, knowledge, and understanding, that it communicates anything of value whatsoever. Even a parrot is capable of repeating simple phrases and gibberish; even a small child can point and click.
As the God Lugos has advised me on more than one occasion, it is the responsibility, the quest of the seeker ever to “Dig deeper!” To be satisfied with only the surface, the simple, the swift, the undemanding of time and effort is to make the very same mistake that virtually all the Grail questers made and that ultimately resulted in their failure to achieve the Mysteries and to attain the Grail.
In light of all this, there is much nowadays that, however unintentionally, has reinforced my belief and my confidence in my own personal brand of spirituality, and reaffirmed for me the rightness and sureness of my Path. I don’t want to be a sheep. I want to be a goat — curious, exploring, fearless, unafraid of challenges and the steep, difficult, precarious tracks that lead to the snowy pinnacles of windswept mountains, or the misty, hidden, serpentine paths that wind from Cauldron to Grail.
Blessings!
APs Rhianwen Bendigaid
