Over the past couple of years, I’ve been experiencing changes in my chosen spiritual community. I was involved in several active groups for a number of years, including being co-leader of the local SpiralScouts circle. These days, I’m doing less group ritual work and more solo and one-on-one magick. This goes along with how I’m pursuing my calling, which is focused on writing and other forms of creativity. It’s like I’m returning to my roots as a solitary witch who reaches out to the community through the written word and individual contacts, as well as periodic networking with other solitaries.

Part of the process has been rethinking what it means to be in service to community. In the Pagan world, we often think of our clergy as leading covens, teaching classes, facilitating handfastings, or doing interfaith outreach. These are all valid and necessary roles. Yet there are as many ways to serve one’s community as there are people doing that work. Writing articles and books, creating websites and message boards, offering healing to an ill community member, taking care of a patch of land – these are just a few of the ways we may offer our help. Everyone and everything is interconnected, so any action we take that reaches out with helpful intentions has a ripple effect. The key is to offer part of yourself, with love, to another being.

In fact, community service is most effective when you’re doing something you love to do, something that calls to your soul. We may look to the way others serve their community, and in the process devalue our own gifts by taking them for granted. We hear about an acquaintance who volunteers at a hospice, reading to dying patients, and we think “wow, that’s so amazing. I could never do that – I’m just too sensitive.” We forget that every spring we go out and clean up trash and fallen branches as we walk our favorite trail. Yet our acquaintance might look on that task with admiration and even envy, because a knee injury limits her ability to hike. Each of us has unique gifts, and we bring them to all of our interactions in community.

We also constantly serve as role models for others, on many levels. As we move along our path, we not only model our actions and attitudes, but also energies and images on a more subtle level. Whether we know it or not, we are a beacon, shining our individual light into the universe. If we’re doing a lot of solo introspective work, perhaps clearing our energy system of old patterns and healing our broken places, that work will show. Even if we’ve confided in no one but the Goddess, others will sense our positive energies and respond accordingly. On a subconscious level, they may be inspired to explore their own inner worlds, or listen more carefully to what we have to say.

Pagans who have done work in covens, particularly if they started their journey in that setting, can feel set adrift when they find themselves doing much of their magick alone. They may feel that they lack a spiritual intimacy that they have felt when working with a group, and can be unsure of how they fit into the greater pagan community. Yet after all, we are all ultimately solitary practitioners, finding our own path of connection with the Divine. As we connect with the universe, we realize that everything is connected; we are all part of the web of life. When you shovel your elderly neighbor’s walk, you are doing community service. When you smile at a stranger or open the door for someone, you are reaching out and having positive effects beyond the moment.

When figuring out how to best serve your community, you might want to ponder these questions: What things do I most love to do? How can or do those things have a positive effect on others and the world? What are the ways that I already reach out to other beings? What does my heart say? Sit in a quiet place and ask yourself these questions, breathing deeply and opening your heart. Wait for answers to come to you, or do some stream of consciousness writing on the subject. Before sleep, ask for information in the dream realm. You already know the answers, deep inside. It’s just a matter of listening, and then taking the actions that inspire you and feed your joy while fulfilling another’s need or wish. It might just lead you in a wonderful new direction.

“Vocation happens when our deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.” - Frederich Buechner