A Grove of Ashes and Aspens

Now Playing: Rejoice the Adorned by Falconer

While loneliness is a more commonly expressed sentiment within paganism, the melancholy that can be experienced is also important to consider. Though there is overlap, they are not the same. Hear me out.

So when considering pagan loneliness, it is to consider the isolation that comes with the faith. It is the lack of people who truly understand the ways one’s pagan faith connects to other aspects of who they are, and through this, how their faith connects them to the world around them in a way that may not be immediately obvious. And this can be very comforting to some.

But pagan melancholy is a beast of its own. Where loneliness can be a comfort when the world becomes too much, melancholy often brings out the worse sides of the mind: the doubts, the insecurities, the anxieties. At least in my experience, it brings out the things many of us wish to forget.

Forgetting is not always a bad thing; ignorance is bliss, after all. However, the melancholy that comes from one’s pagan path can be overwhelming and all consuming. My own experience with it is weird. (Though, that’s how it always is, isn’t it? :P)

In my experience with loneliness in paganism, it sucks, but it’s also a form of comfort in a way. While I do wish I had more people in my life who understood what it’s like, I do also enjoy having something that is just my own. Having a personal faith that is just my own can be very nice.

When it comes to the melancholy, that’s where it gets complicated for me. It’s not fun to be in that state of mild sadness without a direct cause aside from just a vague pagan sense to it. With no obvious cause, there’s no obvious fix, and that gets tiring. But there are ways to deal with it. I tend to use music, but others will have different ways of dealing with it.

It can just be really tiring, but it’s not all bad. At the end of the day, I enjoy my practice, and there are so many ways to enjoy one’s practice.