I saw the news yesterday that The Witches’ Voice - best known as Witch Vox - is closing down their site at the end of the year. If you didn’t know, WitchVox was a community of pagans and witches where articles were written, voices were heard, and communities came together.
Notice 11/15/2019: The Witches’ Voice Inc will be retiring the witchvox.com website in late December of 2019. Its time has come. If you have any articles or poetry posted here please collect/copy them to your computer*. Over the past couple of years site traffic has dwindled down to a few dozen visitors/posters a day. In anticipation of site retirement we stopped taking any sponsorships donations on 7/1/2018. Next month we will pull ALL data offline and safely archive it. The extremely active Witches’ Voice facebook page featuring Spirit news and information will remain as an online presence.
This is a sad time for our community because WitchVox is a wonderful resource for anyone looking to find a community in their area or build one. Seeing that the traffic to their site has dwindled down to almost nothing is very upsetting because it means that no one is taking advantage of the resource that is available to them. I know with the invention of social media, everyone was quick to jump to the new platforms. I still think, however, that WitchVox was underutilized by our community and they still have things to offer that no one else does.
According to their Vox Clock, they’ve been on the web for over 22 years!
WitchVox closing their site has made me think hard (again) about why community is so important, even if you practice a solitary path.
Sense of belonging
Being part of a community, no matter how you label yourself, helps you feel like you have a place where you belong. This is important in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and helps you lead a fulfilling life. When you have a sense of belonging in regards to a part of you that mainstream society doesn’t understand, you feel better about yourself and your path.
Information Access
Think of your community as a library. In a library, there are hundreds of books on just one subject, right? There could be five books on the topic of energy work, and that’s a good thing! When you bring a community together, you - as well as everyone else - have access to a wealth of knowledge. You also have a different perspective to bring to the table, and that is how minds grow.
Support System
Sometimes things happen along your path that you can’t control or that you don’t understand. This is when your community comes in! If your family doesn’t follow the same path as you, it might be difficult to go to them when you are having an issue with your faith. Maybe you’re trying to interpret a message from you Gods. Maybe you cast a spell and it isn’t working in the way you expected. Having a community there at your disposal that is willing to help you and answer your questions is priceless.
Why do I care?
I’ve been in this community for a long time. WitchVox was one of the very first websites I ever visited when searching for people in my area. As I’ve grown older, I still check WitchVox periodically for their articles and group finder. Part of the reason I do what I do on my own website is to help build a community. I didn’t have access to something like that when I first started walking my pagan path, and I don’t want that to be the reality for everyone else. Every new listen I get on my podcast, every new subscriber I get on my YouTube channel, every new visit I get to my website - those are all people who may not have access to a community in their area, and I believe that an online community is just as valid as one in the real world.
My advice to you…
Take advantage of any community you have at your disposal. Don’t be afraid of judgment and ask your questions, teach other people, and open up and make friends in your community. Having people there for you is worth so much in this life, and if you aren’t taking advantage of what you have while you have it? You might turn around to regret it later.