Two, technically, but they function as one:



"Followers of Aphrodite"     : http://pagan.meetup.com/687/

"Followers of the Olympians" : http://reconst.meetup.com/53/



The second meets 30 minutes after the first starts, in the

same location. While the group would follow something akin

to reconstructionism, it wouldn't be hard Reconstructionist

putting it on the boundary of the Pagan and Reconstructionist

categories, and establishing it that way seemed to be the

best way of dealing with its hard-to-pigeonhole character.



We'll see if people are interested. I hope so, and it's worth

trying, but to be honest, I'm not completely optimistic. People

who've tried to run meetups have often reported problems with

non-participation, memberships that aren't willing to do anything

until "things start moving", not bothering to think about the

fact that the reason why things aren't moving is because

everybody is sitting around waiting for things to start moving.



But, like I said, we'll see.





Antistoicus

Progress on that ...



One new person has signed up for one of the two meetups, and

has RSVP-ed, and so apparently is interested. I've already gone

on record as requiring a quorum of six to hold a Meetup.

Otherwise, the thing would have that uncomfortable "blind date"

feel to it. I'll give it a few months, and if I can get the

siz RSVPs will be delighted to hold the Meetup, but I'm

still not optimistic. Not that this should keep anybody from

signing up and RSVP-ing, as both are free.



             http://www.Meetup.com/



If things don't work out, I'll probably just dump the Recon

meetup and replace the Pagan meetup with a Conservative Pagan

meetup. It's a question of what it is that people are interested

in, and willing to put an effort out for. While other Pagan

lists are just lingering, in some cases looking very much

like something waiting to be put out of its misery, the

Conservative Pagan lists are slowly but surely taking off.



Personally, I'm not completely surprised. Political Correctness

primarily worked by terrorizing people into silence, so a lot

of the lurking and slacking we see now may be little more than

a conditioned response in a Liberal-domainated community.

Conservatives, however, had the good sense to reject the

confrontationally paranoid PC ethic from Day One, and to reject

it firmly. This has made for a much more warm and comfortable

social atmosphere, one that encourages spontaneity.



Also, while Liberalism seems to encourage the true believer

to make endless demands of others, often with little concern

as to how reasonable those demands are, Conservativism

has encouraged more of a spirit of self-reliance. The

difference is that while a liberal will show up to a

participatory event and wonder why all of the work hasn't

already been done (by whom is never made clear), the

conservative knows that work gets done only because somebody

does it, and "if not by me, then by who" he asks himself,

just diving in and doing what needs to be done, and there is

nothing more participatory than a mailing list.



It's the difference between a political view that would turn

us all into dependents of the state, vs. one that wants

children to really grow up to be adults, and the expectations

such views create as to what is to be expected out of the

individual by others, and by himself. I think that this

is where the real future of Paganism is to be found. I'll

keep this list up for a possible future time when an

expanding Conservative Pagan community, looking for new

places to meet online, discovers it.





Antistoicus