When I give a talk or run a workshop I like to try and make everybody welcome. I feel it's the least I can do as a thank you to them for actually turning up (and hopefully staying until the end!)

Call me naive, but I thought everyone felt this way. However, last week I heard about what I shall call 'magical arrogance' from someone (naming no names) who once ran a magical workshop. Apparently, on finding out that one person in the audience was something of a novice, the speaker promptly evicted them, not even allowing them to remain as a spectator.

Now I'm sorry, but if you want to restrict your audience to magical adepts, then I think you should make this clear at the start. Better still, make it a members only group. To single a member of the audience out in this way is, in my view, wholly wrong.

For a start, it's unpleasant, and unneccessary. But it's also hugely arrogant. I always hope my audience goes away feeling a little happier, a little more knowledgable, than they did when they arrived. I certainly never intend to cause anyone in the audience to seethe or start chewing the carpet.

I suppose this sort of elitist attitude spills over into many other walks of life. But I must admit that finding it within paganism has been something of an eye-opener.