TechnoCraft Elevator Pitch

I recently agreed to write at least one article for a new Pagan magazine focusing on men’s voices due out this year around the winter solstice.  The deadline is still over a month away, but as I thought about what I would write, I was reminded that I’d need a small author’s bio.  I also realized that I would want to talk about my ideas as they pertain to my tradition of TechnoCraft.  However, I realized that despite having owned this domain for quite some time, I’ve never actually taken a moment to try to explain myself or that term before despite this being the primary motivation for the purchase of the site.

That deficiency ends today.

At my first (and so-far only) Pagan Spirit Gathering in 2011, I attended a workshop about a technique called the Pentacle of Belief given by Mark Mandrake who wrote an article about it for Circle Magazine Issue 107 (Winter 2010).  He designed the technique as a way of constructing a spiritual elevator pitch around five specific points: deity, ecology, mythology, cosmology, and ritual.

Three of these points–deity, mythology, and ritual–are fairly self-explanatory.  But, the other two bear some explanation before I make construct my elevator pitch for TechnoCraft.  With respect to the Pentacle of Belief, ecology is not (necessarily) about the environment or the scientific definition of that term.  Instead, it is meant to help build an answer to two questions:  why am I here and how do I live.  It is a discussion of the way that your faith helps you fit into your world and its systems.  Cosmology, on the other hand, is a description of that larger world and systems.  Even more, it can be a way of distilling them into a more simple understanding that speaks to you as a person.

Thus, without further ado, my pitch:

TechnoCraft reveres the exchange of information, essentially the point of many technologies, as one of the highest forms of righteous action.  Through it we can seek to create change both within (via self-reflection; essentially sharing information with ourselves) and in the world around us. It is, therefore, connected strongly to deities of change and transformation that people have worshiped in various cultures.  Further, light (and by extension, darkness) are often used as metaphorical vehicles and the solar calendar of solstices and equinoxes are held in high esteem.

What do you think?

I’m going to be returning to this topic with a planned series of posts for the next few weeks.  I’m going to continue to use the Pentacle of Belief as an organizational structure, using each of the five points of the pentacle as the basis for a post.  I’ll also be expanding a bit on my choice of deities (or their choice of me, depending on your point of view) as well as the meaning of light and darkness within the tradition.

Stay tuned!