i really like the phrase you have coined, "open source religion", as well as what you said about it.
Sam Webster founded the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn in 2002. It disbanded in 2019.
I just started reading a book by Jon Hanna, What thou wilt; Traditional and Innovative trends in Post-Gardnerian Witchcraft (2008). From what I've read so far, what the author calls Innovative Witchcraft includes open source approaches.
In 1973 I first succeeded in making direct contact with some practicing Pagan witches. The first witches I spoke with gave me a referral to another group who took a largely open source approach to post-Gardnerian witchcraft. The group had been in existence for about five years when I encountered it.
This organization, known by the acronym NROOGD, was what used to be called a "bootstrap" witchcraft tradition, meaning that it laid no claim to a lineage from any previous group or teacher, nor access to secret teachings known only to a few (apart from proprietary information developed within the group by its own efforts). NROOGD's ethos limited such proprietary information (AKA secrets) to the details of initiation rituals, information about members, and insights about working the rituals which required hands-on practice. Everything else could be revealed to anybody who wanted to know, as could the methods by which it was arrived at.
NROOGD's public sabbats, which were regularly attended by more than a hundred people, were designed in such a way as to effectively constitute publication of research. I believe NROOGD was directly responsible for the adoption of Robert Graves' Triple Goddess theology by most of the post-Gardnerian witchcraft community, but explaining why I think that would exceed the length and scope of a blog comment.
open source religion
Sam Webster founded the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn in 2002. It disbanded in 2019.
I just started reading a book by Jon Hanna, What thou wilt; Traditional and Innovative trends in Post-Gardnerian Witchcraft (2008). From what I've read so far, what the author calls Innovative Witchcraft includes open source approaches.
In 1973 I first succeeded in making direct contact with some practicing Pagan witches. The first witches I spoke with gave me a referral to another group who took a largely open source approach to post-Gardnerian witchcraft. The group had been in existence for about five years when I encountered it.
This organization, known by the acronym NROOGD, was what used to be called a "bootstrap" witchcraft tradition, meaning that it laid no claim to a lineage from any previous group or teacher, nor access to secret teachings known only to a few (apart from proprietary information developed within the group by its own efforts). NROOGD's ethos limited such proprietary information (AKA secrets) to the details of initiation rituals, information about members, and insights about working the rituals which required hands-on practice. Everything else could be revealed to anybody who wanted to know, as could the methods by which it was arrived at.
NROOGD's public sabbats, which were regularly attended by more than a hundred people, were designed in such a way as to effectively constitute publication of research. I believe NROOGD was directly responsible for the adoption of Robert Graves' Triple Goddess theology by most of the post-Gardnerian witchcraft community, but explaining why I think that would exceed the length and scope of a blog comment.