Dear gods, have I been waiting for this since I began affiliating myself with Neopaganism. Finally, finally booksellers are getting with the reality of things and shifting the categorization of our religious books to recognizing them as legitimately religious. This is a story that was brought to my attention courtesy of the Wild Hunt last night, and you can read the original article from an insider's expertise right here. For ages, our literature has been stuck in the "New Age" section under a header that used to be "occult" but then switched to "Mind, Body, Spirit." Finally, we're moving where we belong: the religion section. Or at least the keywords Paganism, Neopaganism, and Wicca are. I think this is fantastic progress and can't bring myself to quibble about the less populous demographics within Neopaganism not being on that list just yet. The author of the article brings up some penetrating questions in response to this change that I think are worth discussing here, among a few others:
1) Will our books now be bought by the Religion buyer instead of the New Age buyer? Might this entire thing backfire in the brick-and-mortar bookstores?
2) How do we feel about officially being being branded as a religion?
3) Will this have any noticeable impact on our status as a legitimate religion in the eyes of outsiders?
Thoughts? Insights? Rants?
1) Will our books now be bought by the Religion buyer instead of the New Age buyer? Might this entire thing backfire in the brick-and-mortar bookstores?
2) How do we feel about officially being being branded as a religion?
3) Will this have any noticeable impact on our status as a legitimate religion in the eyes of outsiders?
Thoughts? Insights? Rants?