One thing that needs to be taken into consideration when practicing a pagan faith, or creating a syncretic ecology of practices is cultural appropriation.

A big reason I left Buddhism was because there’s a lot of misrepresentation of the Dharma in the West, as well as a lot of exploitative appropriation of the Buddhist religion. Westerners, especially secular liberals, love Buddhism because it appears to be a peaceful, more enlightened religion than the Abrahamic religions we are used to here. Due to that, there has been a lot of people rushing to fit Buddhism into Western ideas, and that carries problems. The Dharma has been “whitewashed” to appear secular, metaphysically neutral, and most of all marketable to a middle/upper class intellectual audience. These are wrong. Buddhism is certainly not secular, it definitely poses metaphysical claims, and it can’t be put into a simple peg without doing a lot of trimming. Western attitudes to Buddhism also tend to ignore that, much like Christianity, Buddhism can be very violent and savage.

Ultimately, I left Buddhism because while I have a deep appreciation for it, I felt that my approach to it came from too alien of a perspective to fully practice it in good faith. The Western theological canon felt more natural to me because I live in a Western nation and I already have the metaphysical grammar of the West encoded into my thinking. This way, even though I am not participating in mainstream Western religion, I’m staying “within my yard”.

The same goes for indigenous practices and other non-western religious traditions. If you are building a pagan or magical practice, and are studying indigenous spirituality that you are not born into, try and remember a few things:

• Are you just appropriating the aesthetics and language of these traditions, or are you deeply learning about their lives and view of the world? Are you calling Mother Earth “Pachamama” for the heck of it, and is there an analog within your own tradition that you can use?
• Are you drawing parallels between your practice and indigenous traditions that are not really there, or are you allowing indigenous traditions and spirituality to speak for itself without having to be compared to yours? Sometimes we are excited to draw parallels between traditions, but that can often lead to a “flattening” of the traditions being compared, and it can erase a lot of differences and nuance within them.
• Are you in contact with indigenous groups that you are learning from? The internet has a lot of information about indigenous and non-western practices, but that doesn’t mean it is complete or fully accurate. Often, language barriers and Western bias impose a lot of limitations on what is researched and published, so don’t assume that online information is the final word. Learning from groups in person and respecting their living knowledge is always the best way to go.
• Are you just taking away from these traditions, or are you sharing a stake in their well-being? There’s a difference between paying $2500 to go do Ayahuasca in the jungles of Peru, and being part of their communities. A lot of “indigenous knowledge” being marketed to Westerners is little more than psychedelic tourism. How does your participation in non-western and indigenous traditions affect their physical conditions and lives? Unlike pagan Greeks and Nordic Vikings, the people of these traditions are living and breathing, and are often subjected to exploitation and oppression. Keep that in mind, and remember that a lot of their traditions are specific to their communities, language, and environment before you bring that into your apartment in North America or Europe.
• Do you really need to follow these non-western and indigenous traditions, or are you just attracted to something new and interesting? What traditions within your own region and language domain are you ignoring or leaving unlearned because you’re interested in indigenous faiths? Learning about non-western and indigenous spirituality is fascinating and enriching, but that doesn’t necessitate that you convert or even practice it. A lot of the time, the best we can do is learn and keep a respectful distance. Just because you don’t incorporate indigenous spirituality into your practice doesn’t mean that you can’t learn from it and grow as a person. It just means that you need to be mindful and respectful. And remember that the Western canon is also full of strange and fascinating knowledge. You don’t need to pluck the fruit from a tree that feeds someone else, when you have plenty of fruit at home already.

What do you all think?