Conspicuous Consumerism to QAnon Conspiracies- the “Spiritual” Community’s Epic Fail

The time to reckon with the failure of the “spiritual” community is long overdue. To clarify, I am not anti-spirituality. In fact, spirituality has long been an integral part of my life and even my work. Spiritual belief and ethics, a connection to Divine Source and the tenets of pagan/Wiccan and some aspects of what has come to be (erroneously) considered “New Age” spirituality have been a beacon guiding me through some of the most challenging experiences of my life.

This, I came to believe in childhood, is one of the core functions of spirituality and thus should be a central feature in any spiritual community with integrity. Yet just when it is needed most, this type of community seems to be in short supply.

When I was first drawn to Earth centered spirituality and polytheism, it was nothing like the trendy cash cow it has been in recent years. The internet was not as prevalent then- I hadn’t even heard of it at the time, and books on the subject were highly specialized and only found in massive bookstores or specialty New Age shops. My local library had two books on this subject.

The message behind most of what I read was that spirituality was not an excuse to bury one’s head in the sand, and was not a replacement for mundane responsibilities, but…