Pagans for Peace Tradition
By: Sam Wagar
Date: July 7, 2009
The Pagans for Peace Tradition is a more-or-less British Traditional Wiccan Tradition founded in 1992 in Abbotsford, British Columbia. It was founded by Samuel Wagar and three of his Third Degree High Priestesses. Wagar (Maphis) was initiated in Reclaiming/Fari in August 1985 and worked together with covens he founded in Toronto, Vancouver and Abbotsford, drawing from a variety of Wiccan and related Pagan and magickal sources from 1986 to 1992 before recognizing that what his covens and Initiates were doing was different enough from these sources to be declared a separate Tradition. Although a great deal of the standard Alexandrian/Gardnerian liturgy forms the basis of their ritual, the magickal current which Pagans For Peace is drawn from is Fari. Strong influences from Ceremonial Magick and Voodoo as well as Wicca are found, and the Tradition continues to evolve.
Pagans for Peace is distinguished by a strong emphasis on the fifth element, Spirit, which they define as "Acting in the world to make real the spiritual insights derived from our work." Explicitly left-wing (for the most part,) and requiring public service as part of the spiritual path, Pagans For Peace Initiates have run for elected office, started churches and religious retreats, taught public Wicca classes, and volunteered extensively for a range of political causes and groups, not always as "out" Witches.
Otherwise, Pagans For Peace practices in covens with an Initiatory system of 3 degrees, skyclad, uses the Great Rite in actual as an option for Third Degree, is gay positive and multi-polarity oriented rather than polarity simply, and eclectic and polytheistic in its approach to the deities.
As of July 2009, Wagar knows of 10 Pagans For Peace 3rd degrees, 12 seconds and 25 firsts, in the cheerful expectation that not everybody has reported all they have initiated to the lineage recorder. Pagans For Peace covens and Initiates are found in three provinces and the United Kingdom. For more information, contact Samuel Wagar by email..