Perhaps where the lines are getting crossed is that no one has really defined what "The Problem" *is*, just their own problems.
Well, here's my take on it:

People. The majority of people don't want to focus on a spritual path, they want to focus on the life they see in front of them.

Paganism is dealing with a large influx of this majority, as well as the minority of folks actually looking for a strong spiritual foundation. It comes down to Exoteric vs. Esoteric seekers.

The Exoteric seeker wants a handful of platitudes that they can understand without much thought so they can focus on the 'mundane' world, whereas the Esoteric seeker sees the 'mundane world' as a proving ground for spiritual growth.

Exoteric seekers, however, are looking for the 'easy' way to things, and think that magic is it. They haven't got a clue how much time, effort, study and deepth of spirit they actually need to start working the 'higher' magics, the ones that bring about such powerful changes in the world around them. They hardly, if ever, see that this higher magic is all around them, all the time, because they focus too much on the platitudes without understand what they're looking at.

Esoteric seekers, on the other hand, get glorified way too much. They're just ready to focus on their spiritual side. It doesn't make them any better or any worse than the guy who just wants to figure out how to get his car working.

Too much of the "pagan revival", as I like to call it, is disoriented, orderless, and a sea of misinformation, lies, and truth all churning side by side. It goes beyond chaotic, as chaos, at least as I understand it, is a much more complex form of organization. It's too easy to get lost in the molasses, bogged down and confuckled by everything that's happening. There really isn't a way to provide the stability and sense of order that our Exoteric seekers are looking for yet. We've got too many new folks who want the "quick fix" that they think magic provides without the bothersome ethos and theology that goes with it.

What you end up with is a whole bunch of confused people thinking that half of what they hear is true and everything after that is automatically false. With so much of the paranoid "let's look good" media focus, they hear a lot of stuff that simply ain't so. We are all human in form and that brings with it the whole human bag of issues. That means that a pagan is no more "enlightened" than a Christian, or a Buddist, or a Muslim, or, or, or ...

Add in the number of "quick fixers" (many of whom don't like to admit that they have 'issues' themselves) attracted to paganism simply for the magic and you get even more confuckled newbies trying to lead newbies, passing along their personal issues as if they were Divine Will or whatever rot they chose to call it.

Now, I'll admit, I've found a lot of Truth in fictional works. However, I chose not to live my life by the entire text. I just simply add the concept to my growing list of "Things to Ponder" and let it be. But if you find something in a fictional work that speaks deep down into your soul so much so that you chose to name your path after it, don't expect everyone to take you seriously. You're going to need time to :

1)develope your path into something more than just a deep understanding of the work
2) prove your path's validity to those who chose to learn more about it and
3) let people forget that it was based on a fictional account or prove the validity of that fictional piece as a cornerstone of faith.
Why? Because too often such paths turn out to be a case of the confuckled leading the blind.

Notes

(ex�o�ter�ic
Pronunciation: "ek-s&-'ter-ik
Etymology: Latin & Greek; Latin exotericus, from Greek exOterikos, literally, external, from exOterO more outside, comparative of exO outside �more at EXO- Date: 1660
1 a : suitable to be imparted to the public �
b : belonging to the outer or less initiate circle
2 : relating to the outside : EXTERNAL )

(es�o�ter�ic
Pronunciation: "e-s&-'ter-ik
Etymology: Late Latin esotericus, from Greek esOterikos, from esOterO, comparative of eisO, esO within, from eis into; akin to Greek en in �more at IN Date: circa 1660
1 a : designed for or understood by the specially initiated alone
b : of or relating to knowledge that is restricted to a small group
2 a : limited to a small circle b : PRIVATE, CONFIDENTIAL )

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