I feel that void too. A vacuous emptiness caused by the lack of connection within our current society. Dating has been reduced from a serendipitous adventure to a swipe of a finger on a tablet. True connection has been superseded by a selfish need to prove one’s worth through vacation photos on Facebook and carefully manipulated profiles on LinkedIn. The pressures of our culture have warped our relationships and clouded our desires.

I believe such unfulfilled longing to be symptomatic of a disconnect with our own ‘humanity’ and our place within nature. In our world of big data it seems that every aspect of our life has been reduced to a statistic used to further our own unhappiness. What could be more sterile and inhuman than a number? In the undercurrent of my daily activities lies a treasure trove of data to be used by others. What I purchase, what sites I visit, all recorded to help companies decipher my ‘desires’ in order to sell me more. How Orwellian does our society need to become before we realize this does not make us happy?

Paganism is my antidote. Paganism is raw, unstructured, and unorganized. Even among other Pagans we rarely find consensus and agreement deciphering our path. There is no book of rules other than the ones we write ourselves. The pagan practice is unabashedly human. It is oftentimes illogical, holding conflicting ideas in equal reverence. It is the opposite of data, it is the opposite of sterile, and it is gloriously sublime.