What is Pagan Fashion to you? Have you ever thought of the concept of Our Religion and Spirituality being expressed through what we choose to wear?
A lot of us do express our beliefs, be they spiritual, political or philosophical, through the clothing and accessories we put on. I was a Teen Witch. I started my practices around 14 and I wore a lot of black and stars to show how different I was. A lot of folks new to the craft do this, and have since the 60's and 70's.
When it comes to Pagan Fashion there really is only two complete fashions that we can draw from in an non-festival environment. Goth and Hippy. We either go the black and darkness route or the broom skirt and fantasy graphic tees. At festivals we can be a little more open with our clothing, or eccentric might be a better word.
Paganism is a religion of Personal Expression, of Ritual Drama and of Mystery. Our choice of expressive clothing is often just silly. When I think of Pagan Clothing I get images of Ren Faires, long robes, cloaks, sarongs, and classical era costumes. Those are all well and good, but I assure you not many people will walk down the street every day wearing something like that unless they want attention.
What garments come to mind when you think of Pagan Clothing?
What do you like the wear to express your spirituality?
What do you wear at festival?
What are some things you would like to see if someone set out to make clothing for Pagans?
What sort of themes would you expect or like to see from a modern Pagan fashion designer who wanted to do both an Urban line as well as a Festival line?
What sort of clothing do you wear on a day-to-day basis that you think could be given something of a Pagan flair? How? Simple graphic or texture? Some embroidery?
I look forward to your comments. Please pass this blog along to others you think may have an interest in Pagan Fashion. I really would like some input in this areana.
I am the young scholarly type, and with that comes a lot of re-thinking what Wicca is. Coming from a lost standing tradionally religion that fed me lines about the sin and taboo of questioning religion, I often find that I have a great fire for it.
I have, in the past, blogged about such contenplation in an open forum of sorts, on a personal blog with the hopes of having members of the Pagan Community speak on these topics.
Today, here on CovenSpace I will repost one of those topics, and perhaps, if it does well, I will repost other such blogs. If all of those get enough turn around, perhaps I will then contenue to post them.
With that being said, I give you, "An it Harm None"
I know this is an exhausted topic, so bear with me. NeoWicca holds this more as a Tenet than Traditional Wicca, but NeoWicca is growing to the point that this topic is on the minds of we young in the Craft. Some extremist (which I realize are the crazies of any religion) use this half of the Rede as a prime excuse to be spectators in the world, fearing to act for the inevitability of causing harm. On occasion they forget the second half, "do what you Will" in which the scholarly claim that it harkens to us from Thelema's law of True Will. (Honestly, I don't know. I've heard that the two are in no way related, which I think is silly to say.) Others have gone on, like the Lycian Tradition in Southwest America, and added further clauses such as "If it harm, do what you must." Yet still some do not take heed of this at all saying that magic is a tool to be used. If you piss off a witch and she lashes back, it's your own damn fault. That is of course to say that the witch lashes out in defense or retaliation as opposed to being the one that struck first, or if the retribution was even warranted. So, dear contributors, I ask you for your wisdom on this. One thing I love about being Pagan is that my Elders generally don't turn to the old, "Because that is what the Bible says."
I personally prefer to live by another line in the poem, "Live and let live; Fairly take and fairly give." But does this line talk about retribution or only favor?
