This series explores how to deal with destructive people within your Coven or Pagan group. There is a class of people who are driven to tear down things which others have built. Sometimes such people can get into, or come into contact with, your Coven. I've called these people "trolls", making use of the very powerful and very old European image of forces which are destructive and chaotic - yet easily outwitted, if you know a little about their ways.
The problem of trolls has been endemic in Paganism for decades. Looking back at tales and correspondence and other evidence from as early as the 1950's, one can detect the peculiar scent of trolls wafting up even then. What is it about Paganism and the Craft which seems to attract trolls so irresistibly?
Vulnerabilities
Trolls look for particular traits and situations which they can use to their advantage. There are common aspects to Pagan groups which make them attractive targets for trolls, and which make it difficult for such groups to respond to troll attacks.
For one thing, as discussed in the previous article, there are aspects of Pagan philosophy which trolls find it easy to manipulate in their favor. If uncovered, trolls will defend themselves with inappropriate recourse to concepts such as subjective realities, the Wiccan Rede, running one's own recovery, constructing one's own ethical code, counter-accusations of authoritarianism, and so on. The previous article discussed ways of dealing with these misapplications of Pagan principles. Here are some more weak points which Paganism presents to trolls:
* Small groups. Trolls like small groups. It's relatively easy to become a big fish in a little pond. Since trolls are driven to feel important, a group of a dozen or so people is ideal.
* Anti-authoritarian. Pagans have a natural distrust of authority, and a great deal of independence. Trolls can use this to breed suspicion of a group's leaders, suspicion which a troll can feed and nurture.
* No bureaucracy. Often, there are no checks and balances within a Coven structure, and very few within larger Pagan organizations. For example, there often are no formalized rules of evidence or fairness. This means trolls can start unsubstantiated rumors, and can often be believed without ever being asked for any kind of proof.
* No ethical standards. There are very few Pagan elders' councils or ethics committees. There is no centralized place to whom to bring complaints about trolls. There is no body with the power to stop, or even impede, their activities. And, since Pagans dislike authority, if there was such a body, most Pagans would go somewhere else!
* Tolerance. A tolerance of differences is one of the hallmarks of Paganism (or at least, that's one of its goals). Trolls can present themselves as simply being "different" from other people. They can present themselves as being "picked on" because of those differences. They can accuse others of being inflexible for holding to opinions which differ from theirs. They can generate a great deal of sympathy this way.
* Self-help. Many Covens are set up to assist the personal growth of their members. If caught in their dishonest and destructive actions, trolls can pretend to acknowledge personal problems, commit to dealing with them, and then simply continue doing what they've been doing. After all, you wouldn't kick someone out who had promised to try to do better, would you?
These are some of the points which make Pagan groups vulnerable and attractive to trolls. These are things which are very deeply embedded in Pagan culture and the structure of Pagan groups. We're not likely to change most of these: Pagan groups are not suddenly going to become ten or twenty times larger, we're not going to start trusting authority, no one is going to construct a PanPagan Ethics Council in the foreseeable future - and if any of these things did happen, Paganism wouldn't be Paganism any more. So we have to find ways of dealing with trolls in spite of the weak points. What would be better still is to turn these weak points into advantages, and use them to strengthen a Coven rather than make it vulnerable.
Some Helpful Features
Paganism also has some strengths which make it possible to respond effectively to trolls. In fact, many of the aspects mentioned above also make it easier to deal with them:
* Small groups. Working in a small group make it more difficult for trolls to stay hidden for long periods of time, especially if the people in a Coven work together closely and often. In larger organizations, it's easier for trolls to get lost in the crowd, or to hide their true nature, and so to spread rumors underground.
* Anti-authoritarian. Though a Pagan distrust of authority often makes for a receptive audience for trollish attacks on Elders, this also makes it a bit more difficult for trolls to gain the power they crave for themselves. Even becoming a Coven Leader is seldom very satisfying for a troll.
* No bureaucracy or ethical standards. Though the lack of checks and balances or ethics councils means you can't call upon wider authorities to help deal with a troll, this also means you as a Coven Leader have much more of a free hand. You don't need anyone else's permission to take the steps you feel are needed, and you don't need to deal with any red tape or formal procedures. Trolls tend to burn their bridges and then move on fairly rapidly.
* Tolerance. Though trolls can use Pagan tolerance to defend themselves, this goes both ways. The unjustified slanders which trolls level at other people really won't generate as much hatred toward their targets as the trolls like to think. Few people will really care, writing it off as "differences," even if they believe the trollish tales.
* Self-help. If a troll tries to use a Coven's "self-help" orientation as an excuse to avoid changing, the Coven's Leaders can just as easily call upon the concept of "tough love." You don't condemn an addict for backsliding; but you also don't enable the addiction.
And in dealing with trolls, there is at least one aspect of Pagan theology which gives us a great advantage over some other religious paths. Pagans do not feel there is any need for "salvation," and we feel no requirement whatever to see to the "health" of other peoples' souls. Some other religions discourage ministers from ejecting parishioners, believing that people who don't follow their sect will go to Hell - or will be subject to some other impediment. They also feel that a person ejected is a soul lost, and kicking someone out marks a failure on the part of the minister. It is a very serious thing to be separated from such a church, and it may be nearly as serious for a minister to resort to these steps. Excommunication is really much less common than one might think.
Pagans, however, don't have this handicap. There is no doctrinal reason to avoid getting rid of troublemakers. Pagans do not believe you have to belong to any particular sect or Coven in order to be "saved," nor do we believe there is any particular advantage in associating with people who want to harm you. Ejecting someone from your Coven does not count against you in the Race to Save Souls, since we don't run in that race. And being ejected from a Coven does not condemn a person to the Christian Hell. It merely gives them the opportunity to find a path elsewhere which is more suited to their own goals and temperament. This is a Good Thing.
Oathbound Aspects
In general, I've been dealing with general Pagan groups and Pagan topics, and not with topics specifically connected to Oathbound traditions. That's because the problem of trolls is a general Pagan problem. Most of the features of trolls, most of the ways they cause damage, and most of the techniques for handling trolls, are common throughout Paganism. The concerns and patterns apply in nearly any Pagan environment, and that includes the Oathbound trads. There are some specific problems and opportunities, however, within tightly-knit and Oathbound Traditions. Here are a few thoughts on that.
One of the things which draws trolls to Oathbound groups in general is a trollish love of secrecy. The game of "I know something you don't know!" is almost irresistible to a troll. It may well be that Oathbound trads get more than their fair share of trolls for this reason alone. Add to that the mystique which some of the big-name Oathbound trads seem to have among the general Pagan populous, and it's probable that established Covens in these Traditions become targets of trolls more often than most any other Pagan path.
A fear in kicking someone out is that the person may no longer feel bound by Oath. Members of Oathbound traditions are very protective of their Secrets, and the idea that a former Covener might publish or otherwise spread sensitive material around is a very real fear. But in general, the tendencies of a troll are to hurt people, not institutions. Few trolls see any advantage to Oathbreaking, especially since revealing Oathbound material means they can't play their secrecy games anymore. Besides, most traditions have ways of handling Oathbreakers; if yours does, don't let the fear of someone saying too much prevent you from ridding yourself of a troll.
One advantage the larger and longer-lived Traditions have today is their stability, which allows them the luxury of being cautious. There was a time, not so long ago, when the Craft was hard to find, and seemed on the verge of dying out. No more; today, the number of Covens and active Elders is great enough that there need be very little fear of Witchcraft dying out any time soon.
These long-lived Trdaitions can begin to be a lot more picky about whom they train and how they train them, and they can take a lot more time in assessing someone's suitability for their Path. If it's made plain that someone has to wait years before they can even think about being a Coven Leader, a lot of trolls will get bored and move on - the power they crave won't be handed to them for a long time. And if Coven Leaders move people along slowly and take the time to get to know them well, a troll will find it very difficult to keep his or her trollish features hidden.
On the downside, this very stability makes the established trads into attractive targets in another sense. Trolls are forces of chaos. They instinctively hate and fear anything which looks firm and stable, and they'll examine such a structure closely for any possible weaknesses. A Tradition's Elders who have been around for a while are particularly juicy tidbits, and a troll would consider it quite a coup to bring such people down. Remember, troll attacks are generally directed against people, not groups. The groups end up being hurt because Pagan and Craft Covens are usually built around the Coven Leaders. But the trolls set their sights on the Elders and Leaders, and their hatred of authority figures means that if someone has been active long enough to be respected, that's exactly the sort of person a troll would want to hurt.
This means Craft Elders are people against whom trolls often direct their attention. This means it's vital for Elders to learn how to handle trolls. Learn to recognize trolls for what they are; learn to respond to trollish activities with decisiveness and surety. Your confidence will shake the troll's confidence. Trolls like impressive targets, but only ones which they think they can hurt. Throwing themselves against a brick wall makes them look silly, and that robs them of all their power. That's a death knell for a troll; most of their strength comes from intimidation, and it's hard for someone who looks silly to seem intimidating.
Large and established Traditions have another potential advantage. They tend to be close-knit and clannish, they gossip and talk amongst themselves. They have the potential to allow Elders to lend each other confidence and advice. When someone is being targeted by a troll, it's an incredibly painful and draining experience, in ways which someone who hasn't been targeted may find it difficult to understand. It would be very useful to form a Society of Survivors of Trolls (SSoT) to give aid and comfort to those in need. The support of one's peers is the best source for the confidence which is needed to handle a troll.
Such a group could also help to inform others in the Tradition about the dangers of trolls, and the techniques for handling them. This sort of general education in the theory of trollhandling would be of enormous value. According to legend, sunlight turns trolls into harmless lumps of rock. Throwing light on trolls renders them powerless. Knowledge and forewarning is the light which robs trolls of their ability to cause damage.
A few years back, our Coven had the misfortune of having to deal with a troll, but without the benefit of knowing very much about them. As experience is by far the best teacher, the lessons we learned are etched deeply. From that perspective, it was a valuable thing to live through. Still, there were people who had dealt with this particular troll before, and it would have been nice to have had a strong warning. Another possible function of a SSoT would be to warn others about specific trolls.
There's a danger here, though. Trolls become very skilled at manipulating the rules of any organization to their advantage. They are very good at causing factionalization and argument, very good at getting people to stop communicating with each other, and very, very good at making spurious accusations against their targets. Any group such as our theoretical SSoT might well itself fall prey to trollish attacks. Trolls would be only too happy to use such a group to savage one of that group's own members. That is, a troll would eagerly join any SSoT and use it to start rumors about other people.
This is part of a more general problem of handling trolls in Pagan organizations larger than a single Coven - legal Pagan churches, umbrella organizations, festival committees, even trolls who go public on the Internet or in published books. I'll explore some of those issues in the next installment.
Copyright (c) 2002 David Petterson
May be recirculated as long as this information is included
