I’ve organized Pagan community events: socials, mostly, a couple of rituals, and a Pagan Pride event. I have, over the last few years with schooling and work and a move to a new city cut down on my participation in face-to-face community. This has led me to the online Pagan community; I’m involved in e-mail groups and blog comments, then my own blog, and now listening to all sorts of podcasts. I’ve made friends with a number of folks in the Pagan community here in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, and South Africa. It was through some of my own writings on my blog that I was invited to write for this very magazine! And yet, in this technological era wherein a generation of social theorists has wondered and debated if the internet actually connects or disconnects us from community, the question becomes: Is the internet a tool in our community building, allowing us to reach out in new ways to our fellow Pagans, or a distraction that hinders us in our face to face efforts?

I decided to discuss the online and face-to-face aspects of community building with one of my friends, DarklyFey of The Dark Side of Fey podcast and the Live From The Red Leather Couch blog. Fey is a 40 year old Canadian pagan podcaster and mom of teenagers who has been pagan since the late 1980's. She has been involved in both the on line and off line pagan community since the 1990's. We became friends through an exchange of e-mails. I wrote to her saying how fabulous I thought her podcast was, and she wrote back and said some lovely things about my blog, and then because we both use Gmail, we were able to chat regularly (for a while) as we were both spending copious amounts of time online and share a passion for seeking and building Pagan community. Thus a friendship was born!

This interview was conducted via e-mail exchanges and online chat.

Pax: What is your Pagan Path or Tradition?

DarklyFey: I'm eclectic, but I am taking training with a traditional coven (Blue Star) and with The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids.

P: Please describe your online/internet participation/activities in the Pagan community.

DF: I'm a pagan podcaster, so I have a lot of contact with the global pagan community. I read pagan blogs and keep in touch with people from my tradition and coven through Facebook and Livejournal.

P: How did you first start participating in the Pagan community?

DF: The Internet! After years of feeling like I was the only pagan alive on planet earth, I got the Internet and immediately searched for pagans in my area. I found Fourstones Cyber Coven, and my participation in the Pagan Community began. It wasn't long before an in-person group was formed, and I've been hanging out with other pagans ever since.

P: If you are allowed to discuss this, was Fourstones simply a networking online, meet in real life group; or did they also do their Moons and Sabbats in chat/online as some Cybercovens do?

DF: Fourstones was both an online and in-person group that met at Sabbats. We also practiced cybermagic and ritual.

P: Please describe your face-to-face participation/activities in the Pagan community.

DF: Thanks to the Internet, I met Tameika and Fox, who run Spirits of the Earth Festival. I participate as much as I can in their functions, which happen live and in-person here in Ontario. I participate with my coven at least eight times a year as well.

P: From your observations, would you say that folks who are involved in online community are more or less involved in face-to-face community?

DF: I would say that online community generally leads to face-to-face community. It's been my observation that when pagans discover their path, or begin seeking, they start their search for in-person community online, and once they connect online, they try to move it to the next level.

P: What do you think are the biggest challenges to that evolution from online to face-to-face community?

DF: Location is the biggest factor. Sometimes, people connect with people that live too far away to meet in person. A second factor is honesty. Sometimes, people present themselves differently online for whatever reason, and when encountered in person, they aren't what they initially seemed to be. It's easy to pretend you're a much more experienced pagan online, you know? I've seen people with very little experience try and pass themselves off as elders.

So, location, and I guess, trust? Trusting that people are what they say they are, and taking that risk.

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