Who Qualifies as an Authority?

Oh what a lovely hot button that one is. Is an authority an elder? Does an elder have to be old? Who has more authority -- someone with years of experience, someone with credentials from college, training programs or workshop attendance hosted by a celebrity, or someone who demonstrates comprehension and knowledge of the subject matter?

Here is my short answer -- An authority is any one with more knowledge than you on a particular topic regardless of age, years of experience, or credentials.

Let me address the questions above, one by each:

• Is an authority an elder? I'm a firm believer that age alone does not an authority make. I have met very wise young people and very unwise old people.
• Does an elder have to be old? No. Although culturally, the term elder usually references the aged among them, in some instances this can be more like a seniority ranking within a group or organization. Familiarize yourself with how the term is being applied in each particular instance.
• Who has more authority -- 1) someone with years of experience, 2) someone with credentials - i.e. from college, training programs or workshop attendance hosted by a celebrity, 3) someone who demonstrates comprehension and knowledge of the subject matter, or 4) someone who has earned respect as one well versed in a particular subject? Lots of variables to address on this one.
  
  With regards to 1) years of experience, while this is something to give consideration to, it is my opinion that the quality of those years is more prevalent than it is the number of years.
  
  On the issue of 2) credentials -- credentials alone does not an authority make. There are many college graduates out there that are failures and there are some that are very accomplished. The degree doesn't make the person an authority, it just shows they have successfully completed a course of instruction (which I indelicately refer to as *ass in a class time*). Likewise, certificates of completion for training programs are only worth the paper they are written on IF the person demonstrates knowledge and abilities to back it up.  Workshop attendance would be the least credible to me. That is to me much like claiming that because I stood in line in a coffee shop with Stephen Baldwin and he smiled and said "hi" to me while he ordered his coffee with exactly *6 squirts of peppermint* that he and I are acquaintances. We most certainly are not. (And yes, this incident did happen when I lived in New Orleans. He was in town for a trial against Kevin Costner and his attorney was in the same building I worked in.) So, unless the workshop was extensive and you had lots of one-on-one interaction with the celebrity, I probably won't give much merit to it with regards to it making one an authority. However, I will think it was cool that you had that experience.
  
  3) and 4) would carry a lot of weight in my eyes as far as credibility goes but even then, I would not honor them as supreme unquestionable fonts of knowledge - I would still be discerning and question and test it against what resonated with me and what didn't.

Personally, I love to share what I know and I give what I have to offer either freely here through my blog and on my YouTube channel or via the books that I have authored and co-authored. If some find it helpful, that is wonderful. If my offerings have no meaning for others, that is fine too because in the end, being an eclectic Wiccan is about keeping that which resonates and discarding that which does not. It has never been my intention to be an all knowing guru and I am not offended in the least if others disagree with my beliefs.  I set free the knowledge I have to share to be found by those who will have it. Some of what I have to say may may be taken to heart by a person whereas other things I share may have no meaning whatsoever to that same person. And that's okay. My ego is not tied to this. I have utilized the very same process in my own journey, cherry picking if you will, from the various authors and resources at my disposal.

The bottom line is, only YOU can decide who qualifies as an authority in YOUR eyes. Someone you are drawn to may be discounted by others. So be it. It doesn't make the person or their information any less important to you unless YOU decide that it should be so.

My best advice on this would be to listen to many, decide which of their offerings have merit and appeal, take what want and leave the rest.

Bright Blessings and Blessed Be
Rayven Michaels