Validation seems to be one of the biggest issues in the community. When one is uncomfortable in one’s own skin and in one’s own path, then a person tends to try to define themselves in relation to those surrounding them and in defining in such a manner, they tend to look at things and other people as better or lesser than themselves.
The need for validation comes from lack of faith and fear. New people don’t want to be viewed as vulnerable to someone else who might have “powers”. To new people, it’s almost having to choose to walk amongst wolves. You don’t know what it REALLY going to happen and whether you will meet postive or negative people or energies. Many new people are self-defensive in the face of the unknown.
Then you have those who trained in some method, but they do not have deep faith in their beliefs. Perhaps, another path will have more. Perhaps, this path or tradition is made up. Perhaps, I am just playing sci-fi in a circle. And because self-doubt creeps in from lack of faith, then most people go back to that point of trying to define themselves and their beliefs in relation to those around them again.
Traditions and paths are tools that we use. They are not definitions of us. Sometimes we forget that, eh? There may 10, 100, 1,000 or a million witches, pagans, paths, traditions out there. But regardless of how many, there is only one witch like me. Is that egotistical? No. It’s confidence and faith. It doesn’t mean that I am better or less than another, just simply that I am what I am without basing my belief on whether someone else acknowledges that or not. It’s nice sometimes, but not a requirement for faith. There’s a difference between the two. Somtimes we just forget that.
