THE CHALLENGE BEFORE US - Written by Jess Jones

 

THE CHALLENGE BEFORE US
by Jess Jones-Head of Advocacy Council

When we consider all that we have been through as an Occult community, the difficulties of acceptance, struggling just to be valid we have reason to hope for our future.  This journey has ingrained in us a sense of fierce individualism which has been fundamental in our character, both as a community and as individuals.  It has been source of our strength and the motivational factor of our awareness.  It is an underlying truth, that as we journey, we discover that the very things that have brought us to where we are become the issues needing to be overcome in order to progress forward.

This current crisis of a pandemic has revealed some important and structural concerns that underscore the challenges that we as a community must contend.  Far too many of our community members are in isolation and because of their situation without resource or support, even now.  Our groups and their leadership have fallen far short of providing support to those in need within our community and have turned away from the concept of the obligations of leadership.  There is a culture within our wider community of a lack of connectedness or sense that members who fall into crisis or difficulties are more easily discarded than assisted.  We confront the conflicted perception that the power of online groups must be curtailed and at the same time a dismissive response that these groups mean little to our lives.  This has created groups that are self-protective and internally focused with little to no consideration of marshaling resources to support individual members or to participate in a wider concern.

It is understandable that as we now near the vaccine and solution to the immediate epidemic we might feel that we have made it through and that we have passed the crisis of our community.  I must share with you my belief that as difficult as this has been, we have not yet confronted the issue or challenge that will confront our Occult community.  From all areas of our Community and from wise people of a myriad of Occult discipline I am hearing that we have as of yet to face the challenge that will define us as a people for years to come.

While I cannot say what this challenge might be, what form it will take, or how it might impact us as a community I can say that we can find the means to strengthen our response, ensure a readiness to react to any given crisis or existential threat we will confront.  We must learn the habit of community, change the expectation and obligation of what it means to be a leader.  Our current general construct within our groups and affiliations must move beyond the idea that groups are the personal domain of individuals who see the function and purpose as an extension of their own focus.  Internal leadership must take on the challenge of creating an environment that promotes the support and assistance of individuals and come to see themselves as responsible to the collective membership.  Somehow, we must create memberships that promote a sense of connectedness beyond a simple and nebulous affiliation.

We must find the ability to move beyond the tools that have brought us to this point and grow to that space where we can assert individualism in a way that is not divisive or self-defeating. Be assured, those forces and counter purpose endeavors who would see us diminished have already done so.

We are a people who use Magic
We have learned to see the mysteries of our Occult Mind
In our hands we hold the tools that free and empower us
We are equal to anything that we must confront
We stand unafraid
We are a people that use Magic