The very interesting blog, You, Me & Religion interviewed me recently. You can read the whole thing here.
Here’s an excerpt:
The gradations here are between people who do the same rituals more or less the same way most of the time, and people who do different rituals more or less every time. It’s not that Gardnerians are never spontaneous, but we value hereditary (we inherit our tradition from predecessors), lineage (we know who our initiators are, and their initiators, and their initiators, and so on), and a structured way of doing things.
To a great degree, this is a matter of personal preference. I tend towards structure, stability, and the comfort of the known in many ways throughout my life. I’m a Taurus; I like earthy, stable things. I think there are a great many practical advantages to orthopraxy: Practice makes perfect, don’t reinvent the wheel, create a web of energy through repetition. All of these things are powerful. I recognize that there are also powerful things in a much more heterodox (or heteropraxic) style of religion. It’s not like I have never made up a ritual on the spot!
See, we have this advantage: In Paganism and Wicca, there is no belief that only one path leads you to the Gods. Since no one holds the keys to heaven hostage, we are all free to worship as we choose. My orthopraxy doesn’t invalidate someone else’s free form, do-it-yourself, wild style. We’re equally Pagan.
