What makes a Tradition (1) ?

I've been surfing today on the topic of Traditions. It's one of my hobby horses. One of my big questions is what makes a Tradition ?

I do belong to a Tradition, and it is 'traditional' - ie it has a traceable history and origin and has been practised for a number of years by a number of people and those people have a consensus on what they should be and are doing. How long is long enough for something to be considered a Tradition, though ?

One of the sites I visited claims an eighteen year old history. Is that long enough ? It doesn't feel or sound long enough to me (not knocking them, though). Yet Traditions have to start somewhere... ? And what is the relationship between something 'traditional' and what we call a 'superstition' ? And how does 'superstition' relate to Magick ?


Here's what my current dictionary (Longman Active Study Dictionary, 2005) says:

"Tradition - a custom, belief, or way of doing something that has existed for a long time"
"Superstition - a belief that some objects or actions are lucky or unlucky"

(It doesn't have a definition for Magick (with a 'k').


I don't have the answers. If I did, I wouldn't be posting about this topic. The reason Tradition bugs me is because there are so many socio-political wranglings that go on about it amongst the pagan / wiccan / witchy communities, and people are so inclined to slag off each other's 'Traditions'.


I believe that many in my Tradition would pooh-pooh a significant amount of the material put out by the younger 'tradition' I mentioned earlier and be quite critical (even scornful) of the general 'tone' of that 'tradition'. I don't actually hold with that sort of behaviour, even if I might agree with the idea that my Tradition somehow has the right of it.

The reason people might have for doing that, though, is probably that they feel somehow other people claiming the badge of a 'Tradition' de-values their own system of beliefs. In a way it's a function of the 'My god is better than yours' atttude which prevails between the other major religions of this world.

How I talk to my Higher Being(s) is not anyone else's business, and that it works for me is good enough, and the same goes for you as far as I am concerned. So I won't point and laugh at you and yours, and I won't let you point and laugh at me and mine either.

But there's still that word out there... 'Tradition'.