'You're Doing It Wrong' vs 'Do Whatever You Want'

I catch up on things regularly from the sidelines. I may not be involved or consider myself a member of the community anymore, but I still keep tabs on what's going on sometimes simply because the communities I am a member of indisputably overlap with others I've distanced myself from. And in certain forums this means that the goings-on of Community A almost always impact the goings-on of Community B. There's no way to avoid it and I like to know when I need to get the umbrella out.

Sometimes, though, it leads to discoveries like this:

The irony of the Pagan Tag. People tell you that nobody can dictate what you believe or how you practice. Then, the second you do something they don't approve of they harass the shit out of you. Better not have any gnosis that goes contrary to their scholarship. Better not practice in a way that doesn't conform to their reconstructionist path. Better not show any interest or have experiences with deities from closed cultures. You know, because gnosis and personal experience are fake if they do.

Truth be told, this conversation gets rehashed at least once a year- usually initiated by someone who wants to do [x] problematic thing who's angry at the community for telling them they can't or that it's wrong; someone will always inevitably become angry about the fact that a certain community has two primary mantras they uphold on a regular basis:

1. That a practice is personal and no one can tell you how to practice
   
   
2. That's not right / you can't do that / you can't believe that because [sources].

On the outside, sure. I can see where it would be ironic and even hypocritical. After all, these two statements appear to contradict themselves in every way. But from the depths, it's understandable and logical. There is actually no contradiction between the assertion that "beliefs and practices are personal and no one has the right to tell you how you can or cannot carry those out" and "you're wrong". This is because "doing whatever you want" does, always has, and always will come with the limitation of "within reason".- be that limitation applied to your actions via religion, law, science, society, or other means.

So yes. You can very vaguely and technically do or believe whatever you want. However, that doesn't mean your actions or beliefs are right, or that there will be no consequences for doing it that way- even if you technically (and very vaguely) have the right to do so. There is a line that has always existed, and which has always been drawn very clearly in the sand.

Speaking on Religion...

In light of a lack of scientific (and other) evidence to support of disprove things, you are fee to do and believe as you choose- spiritually, religiously, or otherwise- when it comes to certain areas of religious practice and belief. So long as your beliefs and actions do not cross that very clear line, then no. No one has the right to tell you what you may or may not do, or whether your practices are right or wrong.

Religiously speaking, that line between "can do whatever you want" and "face consequences for doing what you want" gets drawn very definitively once your beliefs and practices are racist, discriminatory, sexist, or just scientifically and archaeologically [sic] incorrect. Whether or not you want it to, these things (science, sociology, psychology, etc) will always invariably trump religious belief- especially concerning UPG or whether a practice is "right" or "wrong".

As Gary Ryan Blair says:

Everyone has the right to believe and accept what he or she wants, but reality doesn’t discriminate. Reality is not different for different people. Not once has reality excused anyone for good intentions ignorance or stubbornness. Reality shows no mercy, accepts no excuses, and issues no pardons.

In other words, yes. You may believe that Hekate is a Triple Goddess all you want, and you are technically free to do so. But that won't make her one, make your beliefs correct, or make them untouchable. Why? Because- again- science [sic] trumps religious belief and faith at all times. And in this case, archaeological evidence explicitly shows that there was never any semblance of such a belief in antiquity. In fact, the ideology surrounding he existence of a Triple Goddess figure didn't exist prior to the works of poet Robert Graves, scholars like Marija Gimbutas, and more- all of which have definitively been proven to be false.

Ergo, if you still believe that Hekate is one such figure (or aspect of), you are sorely mistaken- and yes your beliefs do indeed constitute as "wrong". You must then either recognize that you are wrong and change your beliefs accordingly (preferably to reflect that actual antique view of Hekate as believed by the Greeks who- for all intent and purpose- created her), or continue believing it despite this evidence. Either way, it is not the people telling you "you're wrong" who are wrong. It is still your beliefs which are because archaeological and other evidence has disproven your belief.

You'll have to deal with that eventually, whether you want to or not. But it's better to do it sooner rather than later.