Vuya!Pagan

Vanilla Sunset: Photo: Arias Afrik
The weekend finally arrived and that meant logging off one side of my life and logging in to the next!

If you missed me rambling around twitter, facebook and my Vuya Blog last weekend, that would be because the South Coast had over 100,000 visitors and over 20,000 motorbikes for Africa bike Week, and absolutely HUGE event sponsored by Harley Davidson that involves, live music, street markets, entertainment, exhibits and plenty (and I mean PLENTY) Motorbikes.

So I was covering the event for my website (my other website), tweeting every moment, snapping photo's of the sexy bikes and almost past out in orgasmic extasy at the Odin/Thor Harley on display in the "Cage".

I was planning to update my blog on Friday evening but well not everything happens as planned so here we are.

I've been stumblin' around the internet, finding new and interesting bits and bobs to occupy my mind, one such site is the Underwater sculptures by Jason Taylor. I've seen his work before but every time I stumble on the haunting images of his statues just standing calmly in the blue waters I'm hooked again. mildly claustrophobic, so scuba diving was a challenge for me, I get horribly sea sick, but scuba diving I went; I HATE the back roll off the boat, I detest "double tank" dives and I'm terrified of the hectic beach launches we often have to do; but dive I did! Why? I'm a fire sign for Gods Sake! What the hel do I want to do under the water? I've come to the conclusion that its really not about pigeon-holing myself into an elemental character, but rather an all encompassing expedition into what the world has to offer!

I also spent a bit of time trawling my pagan twitter account. Only to be horrified by the realisation: Is everything for sale?

I look, specifically at my pagan twitter account stream and what do I see? 15% off magical items, Sabbat Sales, classes and lessons for sale.

Now let me explain something quickly; in my other life, I use Social Media as an advertising tool too; however the rules for social media are pretty clear, you gotta sell without "selling" if that makes sense. And its starting to annoy me that everywhere I look I see Paganism For Sale - buy this book, buy this tool, pay for this course and pay for that entrace.

I hear you ranting in the recesses about "covering my costs" and "I'm also allowed to make my living" but when you've been around as long as I have you realise that these are really just excuses. I'm not saying people have to stop charging for stuff, I'm saying you really need to change the way you pitch it all. Isn't there a way that you can "talk" to your customer base, without "pitching" in every second tweet?

It just seems to me that Paganism is up for sale and it makes me wonder how on earth that adds value to our future. Maybe I have different ideas about what is valuable. And so I applied my Facebook mantra to Twitter this time with a well executed "Ja, whatever." and moved on.

I also showed a buddy an article on Steven Cohen. Remember him? The South African Choreographer who did that performance art piece dressed in a corset, antlers and high heeled point shoes? I don't have anything interesting to say about him, only I wonder what happened to him. Makes me think of some Pagans in SA who do their damndest to get things done on our behalf only to be pushed away. We had better be careful, one day we'll find ourselves WITHOUT people like this at all, and THAT my friends WILL be a disaster.

Ah well, there's more weirdness for me to investigate before my weekend is over, and I return to my normal business life, so I bid you all adieu, until next weekend (or the next time I have a free moment :)