Spirituality and Rationality

Over on Yahoo!Answers recently, one questioner asked for advice on how do reconcile personal spiritual experience with rational skepticism that Wicca is "corny and fake."

Now, I am presuming that he's not considering those personal experiences corny and fake. Rather, I'm guessing the concern can be boiled down to certain practices that he has read or heard about that he finds corny or fake.

The answer is deviously simple: don't do those certain practices.

First of all, there's a lot of nonsense out there written by people who have been Wiccan for a weekend, or who have modeled their practices off of Charmed, or whatever. Second, ritual is only as effective as what it evokes within you. Even if a highly respected writer suggests a certain ritual, it won't do you a lot of good if you're agonizing over the way it feels fake to you.

Religion is not an all or nothing arrangement. Accepting Wicca as your path does not mean you have to believe and act exactly like every other Wiccan. From my perspective, such an approach is completely contrary to an esoteric path, where the true messages are learned on your own, not through someone's book or lecture.

Religion does not have to be contrary to rationality and common sense. An open mind means you're willing to consider new options, not that you accept and believe every option with which you cross paths.