I may be a non-practising Pagan.

I have never attended a rite with anyone else but my immediate family, and I do not follow any set procedures, routines or times when it comes to “communing” with Divinity.

A non-practicing Pagan is defined as a person that self-identifies as Pagan but who does not attend or perform regular rituals and who follows no regular routine of rites.

But is this a fair assessment?

Is a Pagan made by the rites and rituals he/she attends and performs?

The average practising Pagan, according to Witchvox, observes ritual a mere 8 times a year. A smaller group of practitioners, often Wiccans, also turn out for Esbats, and a seemingly trivial number of “diehards” attend/perform ritual on the 13 New Moons as well. This means that a considerable number of Pagans are celebrating the Divine 8 or 21 - or at best 34 times a year. At the most, this is less than 3 times a month - less than the standard weekly worship tradition of Christians, and much less than the weekly worship tradition of Muslims (merely a quantitative and not a qualitative observation).

Doesn’t that, in a very broad sense, qualify many Pagans as “non-practising”? Shouldn't the goal be to commune with the Divine on a regular basis? But then again, does it really need to be done in a fully ritualised fashion each and every time?

My spirituality is defined by intent, and not by mandated procedures for I accept the sacredness in and of all creation.

So isn’t a spontaneous “hello” to the Divine - creating an instant of timelessness which allows us to slip between the mundane and the spiritual - enough?

No routine, no special time, just our spirit telling us that the now is indeed the right time and the right place to commune with Divinity for surely the time and the place is always right.