In the last several weeks I've seen links and posts buzzing around in the Pagan social media realm related to the topics of dishonorable leadership, the warning signs of a bad magickal group, cult awareness, and so forth. This is nothing new and indeed at least once a year there seems to be a flurry of this kind of interest. One of the earliest Pagan writers on this topic was Isaac Bonewits, founder of Ár nDraíocht, who in 1979 created the first version of his Bonewits Cult Danger Evaluation Frame. It was quite good and updated versions of it are readily available online. Certainly wherever human beings are involved, there is the potential for all manner of dysfunctional behavior. I certainly think that we should be vigilant and on guard against systems, groups, or individuals that make the fulfillment of their needs paramount over our personal spiritual development. On the other hand, and this is where this blog post is headed, our fear over the potential for exploitation has its own unhealthy cost.
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Let me start this comment by saying that I agree with the primary sentiment that we ought not to be overly afraid of having teache
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This is exactly the sort of discussion that is needed. Thanks Gwendolyn! I think it is important to create formal relationships i
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The amount of mis- and dis-information out there does make it more difficult to parse out informed teachers for one's chosen path
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From my typical position of naivety, I can't recall ever having been warned away from working with a teacher. This attitude expla