Technopaganism - Using New Technology to Study Old Religions

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Let's talk about some of the other things that have changed in Paganism due to the Internet.

How many of you have ever heard someone say, "I'm studying the path of my ancestors!" And then when you ask them what ancient texts they've read, you get kind of a blank look and some head-shaking, because they haven't read anything published prior to 2005? Well, never fear! There's no excuse any more for not having read old texts, sacred scrolls, or out of print books.

One of the best sites out there is called simply Sacred-Texts.com. It includes digitized versions of books on religion, mythology, folklore, occult studies, and other esoteric work from all over the world. Just as an example, some of the items you can find on there include:

• The Vedic Hymns
• Agrippa on Natural Magic
• Various translations of the Talmud and the Koran
• The Poetic Eddas
• The Gardnerian Book of Shadows
• Leland's Aradia
• King James on Daemonology
• Frazier's Golden Bough

They're all there, in their entirety, online for you to read and download and learn from. Twenty years ago, if you wanted a copy of one of these works, you'd have to scour bookstores for it, and even then it was kind of iffy whether or not you'd find it.

Let me give you a brief example of how the Internet has changed the way people learn, and what they're able to learn. I have a friend -- an online friend, I've never met him in real life -- named Scott in Tennessee. He had been looking for an out of print book, and finally found it through an internet search. The problem was, that the only place that had the book was a shop in London, England. Not only that, they wouldn't ship the book to the States, and they didn't take credit cards.

Scott posted a message to one of the Internet communities he's part of. Within two hours, a Pagan who lives near London responded, saying, "Oh, I happen to walk past that shop every day on my way to class, I'll stop in and get the book for you." The guy in London bought the book. Scott sent him a Paypal payment for the cost of the book, plus shipping, and the guy in London dropped it in the mail. Within two weeks, he had the book in hand.

If it hadn't been for Scott's ability to do an Internet search, to post on a Pagan community board, and even to have money transmitted by Paypal, he'd have never gotten that book.

Another great resource is out there for Pagans interested in American folk magic and hoodoo. How many of you have ever checked out Luckymojo.com? There are books online, many of them transcribed from writers who have been dead for decades. The works of Harry Middleton Hyatt, who was an extensive collector of American folklore and rootwork, are all on there. Books by Cat Yronwoode, as well as correspondence courses in folk magic. All these are things that wouldn’t have been available twenty or even ten years ago.

Now, are there drawbacks to learning information online?

Oh, dear gods, yes.

Technorati is tracking something like 125 million blogs at last count. That's 125 MILLION. Do you think every single one of them contains accurate information? No. There's a ton of misinformation out there on the Internet, and that is why it's so important to not only learn and read, but also, going back to the concept of community -- we have to interact with other people, so we can hash through these ideas and figure out who's telling us good information and who clearly doesn’t have a clue.

Plus, bear in mind that ANYONE can post information on the Internet. I get emails all the time from people -- and it's mostly folks new to Paganism -- who ask for clarification on something they've read online, on some site other than my own. There's no vetting process to post on the Internet, and there are certainly people out there who are writing about Paganism and Wicca who couldn't magically cast their way out of a paper sack.

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