Who and what?

Salve! So I was looking at the two replies above, and the only “in-between solution” I could think of would basically be the adult equivalent of a youth group book club on Zoom. I picture people getting together at like, I dunno, 8:30 PM on a weeknight (I’m spitballing here) and the format would run something like: Hey, how’s everyone doing, and then literally, we would all start pooling resources. We’d record the session, and there would be someone present to keep notes and organize them afterward. The initial goal of meetings like this would be to see where people are actually learning their information about the faith. The secondary goal would probably be to integrate people’s actual experiences with religio Romana into a more cohesive Roman Republic. Like I hate to be blunt, but we can’t just rely on the comments sections on Facebook, and I’m worried (though this may be my own uninformed impression, and I welcome correction) that things like FB are the beginning and end of our collective experience.

Also, I understand that for those who are already taking steps to do this (though way better informed than me just rambling here), it is probably a frustrating, start-and-stop process that begins and ends and begins individual by individual. Additionally, this is an international organization, so the opportunities for us to see each other in person are minimal at best, even in a non-COVID world, but we can make it work. Look, Jewish choral music in Poland after World War II was single-handedly revived by a woman who only had one person show up at the first rehearsal, and now that choir exists and performs to this day. If they can do that, WE can get ourselves educated and organized.

(Sigh.) SO, one of the simultaneous advantages and disadvantages of participating in a religion which could be termed “new” (less derogatorily than “alternative” or “New Age”) is that there is plenty of room for interpretation. We have all the freedom in the world to explore our faith, however we wish. In the mean time, we want to be respectful of the Gods, of the tradition, and of ourselves.  Ritual practice, prayer, and theology inevitably change over time. I’m often surprised and delighted to learn about how much this “new” faith has grown, that there are temples in the States I didn’t even know about until recently, that there are more overseas. We’re on an uptick, which is slow but steady, and this is cause for celebration.

I agree with what Publius Iunius Brutus said about the accessibility of information. Not only is it heavily academic, but it’s also expensive. As in, like, expensive. All the good stuff is giant research papers. Which is really cool, but then it creates the impression that this religion is only accessible to those who want to put in the time to read. This is not a new problem, for a faith-based/intellectual/creative organization to have a reputation for inaccessibility and exclusivity. I’m pretty easy: I’ll take whatever ritual format and history books and blog posts I can get and improvise the rest the cows come home, but not everyone’s like that. Some people need the structure and simplification in the here and now. However, I don’t believe this is an impossible task. I think it’ll just take time. We may have to suffer our religion through a break-in period, however painful, while we figure things out in real time. But it can be done.

I’m a yes-man: I would rather see spiritual activity which may or may not be entirely correct, than none at all. If we spend too much time doing nothing for the sake of accuracy, then we’ll stagnate- as individual cultores and as a community. I understand that Roman tradition demands a high degree of perfection. However, there is a difference between striving for perfection for the sake of honoring the Gods, than not honoring them at all and thus ignoring them.

But then also, like, I get it: this is all part of the human experience, and we want to feel good about it, right? Like we want to be proud of what we’re doing. It’s up to us to do a good job. We have only ourselves to fall back on, and that can be scary, but it’s also exciting!

I’m really curious to see where the Academia Minervalis goes!

Like, come on people, let’s do this thing! Also I got like super off topic!