Similar to and overlapping with the issue of accessibility is the issue of Pagans dealing with chronic illnesses. This seems like a less explored topic. The Mighty, an amazing site created to empower and connect people facing health challenges and disabilities, has 4 articles when you search "pagan" and only one of those was an author describing themselves as Pagan. There was 1 article for "Wicca". I couldn't count the number of articles that come up when you search "Christian". Given how many Pagans have chronic health conditions, there's definitely room for more exploration of this topic. Here are some people who have started the conversation:
"Physical restrictions due to a chronic condition can make it difficult to feel as if you're connected with the Goddess (or Deity or general energy or nature etc). Conducting rituals indoors because cold weather makes your pain worse, you can feel cut off from the Earth and it's energies. You can feel cut off from other Pagans and the community at large because it's difficult to get out and get to meetings. And because the level of pain you're in is unpredictable, it often means you have to cancel plans at the last minute.
"This can be disheartening. You can end up feeling like you're not a proper Pagan. ...
"Illness isn't something that should steal your faith from you. There are things you can do. As in every other part of your living with a chronic illness, it can mean cutting back on what you do to save your energy."
"Doing something may help you more than doing nothing. If you don't have a practice you can do on your worst days, it can be really easy to get out of the habit of checking in with your spiritual life (and feel even harder to pick up when you do feel better in the future.) Doing small things – especially things you set up in advance and use when you need to – can help a lot."
- "Chronic Illness and Pagan Practice"; Jenett - Seeking: first Pagan steps and tools
"No deity or Wiccan police have come to me and chastised me for not studying or working as much as Person B. If you need to take a few days away, do it! If you can only study 5-10 minutes a day- hey that's 5-10 minutes MORE than you knew before you did that, right? If you can only meditate a couple of minutes, well guess what! That's a couple of quality minutes you just spent to better your mind and body. If you only have time to study by listening to Wiccan audiobooks while you're driving to work or picking the kids up or fixing dinner- do it! That's time that you will spend learning."
- "Chronic Illness and Wicca"; Country Hippie Crossing
