the spinner's archive – Page 15 – over 10 years of posts from Morag Spinner

Mabon

Let’s face it, I was never going to write about mandrakes. What the heck do I know about them? Nothing, that’s what.

So, Mabon. IE, the Autumn Equinox, according to the Neo-Wiccan wheel of the year. It’s tomorrow, officially.

I don’t follow the WotY, but I do. It’s this sort of weird…thing. Solstices and equinoxes have always been important to me, from well before my finding paganism and Wicca. The most important one was Winter Solstice, because there was a giant festival of light on Granville Island, where I used to live. (Technically I lived in False Creek, but my place was literally like 20 feet from Granville Island SO close enough.)

So when I was growing up the solstices and equinoxes were basically secular holidays; the crowds mom and I were hanging out in were hippie enough that they were the main holidays that people celebrated together that had some sort of shared meaning. The solstices and equinoxes remain almost-secular for me, while the fire festivals have become the four festivals of the religion I’m building.

Ie, I sort of do celebrate the WotY and I sort of don’t. I celebrate all the holidays, but not in a Neo-Wiccan context.

And in the past several years, I’ve lost the sense of meaning the equinoxes and Summer Solstice once had for me. Winter Solstice remains strong, but the remaining three? I have no idea why they matter.

I was supposed to go to a Mabon ritual today and I had to bail because of the huge amount of work pressing down on me today. I have a big publishing order going out, so I need to finish those files, and I’ve got the ARC of Stranger Skies to get ready by Monday eve/Tuesday afternoon.

(Before anyone comments about my blogging when I should be working…this post took me 10 minutes. Going to ritual would take at least four hours. One is the length of my break. The other is not.)

I was hoping to sort of…re-discover what Mabon/Autumn Equinox meant to me, today. I don’t know that it would have happened at the ritual, but I figured going to a ritual would make it more likely.

I guess tomorrow I’ll spend some time reflecting and trying to figure out why the autumn equinox matters to me.

Time for some good old-fashioned omphaloskepsis.

Witch Skills: Shielding

Shielding is a pretty essential tool for — well, for witches, but also for anyone else, really. I’ve used shielding effectively against unwanted physical contact as well as unwanted energetic contact.

We’ve all met someone, or know someone in our friends circle, who is a total energy drain. Sometimes they don’t even know they’re doing it, but sometimes — they do. And sometimes, we can’t avoid spending time with them. Shielding can come in handy here.

Or, say you’re on an airplane and some douche won’t stop playing footsie with you. (Yeah, this happened to me.) Put up the right shield, and he’ll quit. He may even ask to change seats.

Someone launches a magical attack at you? Well, you’ll want your shields to be up.

Just have to spend some time with someone who doesn’t drain you, per se, but just…rubs you the wrong way? Pisses you off? Makes you break out your cursing supplies? Shielding will mitigate a lot of that, and prevent you from murdering someone! (Murder is bad, because it lands you in jail, and jail is no fun. I mean. Um. It’s bad because killing people is wrong? Apparently? Note: Morag would never ever condone the murder of another human being, and in fact wishes rainbows and kittens upon all people. — Morag’s Lawyer.)

The key thing to remember about shielding is this: keep it personal. I’m going to outline my own method of shielding, but if you try to duplicate it exactly when that imagery doesn’t work for you? The shield will not be as effective! Choose imagery that means something to you. It needs to be easy to remember and evocative.

Continue reading “Witch Skills: Shielding”

Santa as a Secular God

There are people who, when they find out Santa isn’t real, feel betrayed.

That…doesn’t compute for me.

I mean, I respect that in some cases there’s trauma there, of course. But for me, I never stopped believing in Santa. Even when I realized that my mom was the one putting the gifts in the stockings and under the tree (or in the clogs by the fire, for Sinterklaas Day).

To me, Santa continued to exist — he just got my mom to do his work for him. There was a short period of time during which I was confused, but it cleared up pretty quickly. (This is nothing like how I felt when I realized my bio-sire was the tooth fairy. There was betrayal there — but that has to do with the long history of my bio-sire being a lying bastard.)

This is rather similar to the gods, honestly.

They’re not corporeal, but we do Their work.

English: Santa Claus with a little girl Espera... — English: Santa Claus with a little girl Esperanto: Patro Kristnasko kaj malgranda knabino Suomi: Joulupukki ja pieni tyttö (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I still believe in Santa. He’s the Spirit of Giving. Parents do his work, and children leave him offerings. His devotees dress up as him and spread joy to children in malls — how is this different from dressing up as the gods in ritual to help other pilgrims find answers? (It’s not. Not really.)

When I have kids, I have every intention of raising them to believe in Santa. Giving him cookies and milk (and making a carrot cake for the Easter Bunny!) will prepare them to give offerings to the gods in ritual. Teaching them that their parents do the will of Santa (and, again, the Easter Bunny) once a year prepares them for the idea that humans do the will of the gods. The pageantry of Mall Santas will prepare them for pagan clergy and ritual wear. Whether or not my future ogrelets remain in paganism when they grow older, I’ll at least be giving them a foundation wherein they won’t be traumatized when they find out that Santa isn’t a corporeal being.

Kore: Accepting the Past, Preparing for the Future

This is an article I wrote for Immanence Magazine earlier this year, though I don’t know if it made it in or if the magazine even came out in the past few months. I’ve decided to use it as my Kore post for the Pagan Blog Project. It’s written for a non-pagan, lay-audience, as an attempt to help people use Kore’s lessons in their own lives.

Kore, later known in Her myth cycle as Persephone, is not only the goddess of Spring but also the goddess of Transformation. In Kore’s myth cycle She has little control over what happens to Her: kidnapped, taken away from Her home, and forced to live in the Underworld. A place anathema to the Goddess of Spring and new life.

Within this paradox, however, is serendipity. Kore brings new life to the Underworld. She brings the power of transformation to the lonely dead, and in doing so, changes Herself into Persephone.

She accepts Her past and changes Herself and Her outlook in preparation for the future.

Kore’s lessons are ones we would do well to heed in the present day. We live in an ever-changing world. Preparing for the future — accepting the power of transformation into our lives — will help us thrive.

To further connect with the Kore’s mysteries, expand your comfort zone. Push your own boundaries; find out where and what your limits are. Discover what your Underworld is and learn its secrets. Once you’ve completed your Descent, you can begin to change — yourself and the place you find yourself in.

You can do this with visualization. Our personal Underworlds are usually abstract concepts — for a long time mine was depression. Create a picture in your head of your Underworld — what does it look like? What are the smells in that place? What do you hear? Is it silent? Use all your senses to create a more concrete version of your underworld — create a room that represents this place you have Descended to, this place that is anathema to you, as the Underworld was anathema to Kore. Once you have a clear picture in your head, start to change it to make it more you. Think of it as interior decorating for your soul.

Clean the place up a bit — visualize yourself sweeping out the cobwebs, opening the windows, letting in some light. Paint the walls your favourite color. Hang up some art. Burn your favourite incense. Add some throw pillows.

Take your time. You don’t need to do this in one sitting. Give yourself a few weeks to change your personal underworld into a place that welcomes it — bring the pure power of transformation into yourself and breathe new life into the dead lands. You can invoke Kore’s power and bring it to your own life.

When you have changed the underworld, you will have changed yourself. With Kore’s power of transformation, you can accomplish anything.

Reading Project: The Spiral Dance and Evolutionary Witchcraft

This is probably a sacrilege for a Reclaiming witch to say, but I’ve never read The Spiral Dance from cover to cover. I think I’ve got about 3 chapters in every time I’ve sat down to read it again, then put it down for far too long so that by the time I pick it up again, I need to start over.

Same for Evolutionary Witchcraft, though I think I’ve gotten quite a bit farther in that book. I have problems reading non-fiction books in general these days (thanks, University!), so it’s probably no surprise this extends to my religious studies.

I’ve made a decision that this has to change, especially as my actual religious practice is on a major hold while I live in my dead Oma’s house, so I’m starting a bit of a reading project. I’m going to give myself roughly 28 days — or a moon cycle — to read each chapter of The Spiral Dance and Evolutionary Witchcraft, starting with the new moon of November 3rd. Between November 3rd and December 3rd I’ll read the first chapter of each book, and — to hold myself accountable — I’ll post a short recap here on the blog for each chapter, talking about my thoughts on the chapter, etc. Posts will be under the Reading, Project: The Spiral Dance, and Project: Evolutionary Witchcraft categories.

Nov. 3rd is the closest new moon to Samhain, which I still sort of view as a new year’s, even though I’m not Neo-Wiccan anymore. And it gives me a month and a half to read the introductory text of each book and mark chapter beginnings with post-it notes.

It…also gives me some time to find back my copy of Evolutionary Witchcraft, which is here…somewhere. Just not on the shelf, where it should be.

Emboatening (and embovining) for Opet

I’m not Kemetic, but I’m participating in Opet this year via the Emboatening Crew on Kiva.

Sort of?

Basically a bunch of Kemetic friends mark Opet by charitable giving; they call it “emboatening the boatless”. They created a team on Kiva to focus their efforts on loaning money to people in need of boats. You don’t have to be Kemetic to join the team, so I ended up joining because helping people is part of my religious obligations too.

Especially with cattle.

Cattle on the alp (Photo credit: Darkroom Daze)

Both Brighid and Morrigan are associated with the action of giving cattle to the cattle-less, which is why They can be interpreted in a modern sense as Goddesses of Social Justice. (Cattle as a symbol of wealth; helping erase class differences and end class warfare by making sure people have what they need.)

When talking with Danny about emboatening he came up with the term “embovining”, which I then told the rest of the members of The Emboatening Crew. The description of the group was changed to embrace embovining, emgoatening, emsheepening, and more.

I was able to do this because Kiva is running a promotion right now where if you join, you get a free 25 dollars to loan to someone. If you recruit someone via your referral link, they get a free 25 dollars and you get a 25 dollar bonus for signing them up.

I don’t currently have enough of my own money to participate, but I was able to donate 50 dollars from my two bonuses: one for signing up, one for recruiting Danny.

So if this is something that interests you, please use my referral link to sign up and we can both help people get boats, cows, sheep, houses…the list goes on. (The link earlier in this post is also a referral link from me, and it’s for joining the team as well.)

Not sure what Kiva is? Here’s a brief description:

We are a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world.

Learn more about how it works here.

So it’s sort of like Kickstarter, only you get the money back and the perk is that you helped someone in need. Pretty awesome.

-Morag

Personal Boundaries and Public Displays of Religion and/or Spirituality

This is a topic that comes up fairly frequently whenever you get a bunch of pagans together. It’s bound to; we live in a society that continually privileges Christianity over other religions or spiritual beliefs, and as such it will privilege the presence of public displays of Christianity over anything else.

This post isn’t about hating on Christians, for the record; just stating that they hold a certain amount of privilege in Western society, just like cis het white men do.

Anyway. This conversation comes up, usually in reference to things like door-to-door proselytizers, or people saying “Jesus loves you” as casual greeting, or crossing themselves casually, or people being even more aggressive with their faith in public arenas. Invariably, personal boundaries become part of the conversation, and often someone will begin arguing that your personal boundaries are wrong and you’re being rude to not let people smother you with their faith; those poor people with all the power in our society, cut them some slack.

I believe it’s rude to be aggressively religious in public areas. That said, everyone’s personal boundaries or definitions of what, exactly, is “aggressively religious” are going to be very different, and what I find rude, aggressive, or even triggering you may find just fine and dandy. In discussions about public displays of religion, it’s not productive to state that peoples’ boundaries are wrong or need to be justified. They are what they are, and you need to respect them.

Boundaries are things that are pretty important to me, as you know; they’re part of that whole Sovereignty thing that I talk about. And I’ve had my boundaries violated by people on a religious level often enough that it’s become a bit of a hot-button subject for me.

Some back-story [content warning: abuse]: from the time I was a kid until I was in my teens, I used to cross myself every time I saw a roadkill animal. I wasn’t Christian; during half that time I was explicitly pagan. But I felt the need to pray for the animal so they would find peace in whatever afterlife waited them, and I felt I needed an action to go with that prayer. The fastest thing, the easiest thing, the thing that came naturally to me, was crossing myself.

I made the mistake of doing this while my bio-sire was driving. I don’t actually remember what happened or what he did, because most of my childhood I can’t actually remember, explicitly. I do have implicit memories of that event, however, and they are full of misery, fear, and pain. He surely yelled at me, for that was his m.o.; he may have also hit me. I don’t know.

When I was in high school, a friend of mine and I were surrounded by her neighbors and prayed over, vociferously, for a least twenty minutes. It was terrifying, and we couldn’t escape.

One of my ex-boyfriends was Christian, and he was abusive. He continually disrespected my faith verbally and physically by denigrating it in conversation and putting things like Coke cans and his keys on my altar. He made it very clear that he thought of me as a pagan whore who was corrupting his pure Christian soul with my devil-influence.

(Before him, I dated a lapsed Mormon and a lapsed Catholic. They both also held some ideas about paganism and witchcraft, and while I won’t say they religiously abused me like this guy did, there was abuse present alongside those ideas, meaning the end result is I associate those ideas with abuse.)

My latest ex (the romantic, non-sexual poly relationship I was involved in) was dating a Christian for a fair amount of time and he was a complete asshole with his religion, to the point where she and I had to hide our relationship because he was so vehemently against polyamory (because it was ‘against god’s will’ or something). I had to deal not only with the bullshit he dealt to her (which was very reminiscent of what I went through with my Christian ex) but also what he dealt to me — ending in his never being welcome in my home again, because he so obviously disrespected my faith.

Those are the key events in my history that contribute to what I’m saying on this subject.

What we come down to, really, is trying to answer these questions: how do we navigate our own public displays of faith without infringing on other folks’ personal boundaries? Is there a way we even can?

I obviously cannot answer these questions; I am only one person. I can speculate a good starting point or two, however.

A good yardstick for this sort of thing is assessing whether or not your public display of faith is going to necessarily force strangers (or even friends) to acknowledge your faith or you. Is it something that everyone can easily ignore if they so wish? If it isn’t, why is it necessary that your display take that tack?

For example, let’s talk about things like Pagan Pride Day. Pagan Pride Day is an event that happens in places like public parks, normally. The park or a portion thereof is rented out for the day by the local Pagan Pride Day organization; vendors set up; there is usually a ritual or several in a designated area of the park, where different pagan faiths can show the public what their faith is all about. People are invited to participate. There are huge banners that say “Pagan Pride Day”, so it’s instantly clear what the event is.

Folks at these events often say things like “Goddess bless,” or “Blessed be” or “Merry Meet” in casual greeting. There’s often a lot of pentacle bling, and you may see people engaged in lively theological debate. There may be symbols you don’t recognize, or some that make you feel downright uncomfortable.

Pagan Pride Day could easily infringe on peoples’ personal boundaries — even folks who choose to go to the event.

Here’s the thing: Pagan Pride Day is not on pageant wagons, wildly meandering through town, forcing the populace to watch mystery plays about the gods. It’s not wandering into peoples’ homes and forcing them to acknowledge the presence of pagan religions. It’s not even forcing people it shares the park with, or people who may come by the park on that particular day, to acknowledge it. You can pass by Pagan Pride Day walking your dog and completely ignore all the people in fairy wings calling to the Greek gods with strident tones. No one is going to drag you kicking and screaming into the event and force you to participate. (And if they do do that, or if they try to force you to check it out, report them to the event organizers. That shit ain’t cool.)

Pagan Pride Day is an event that you choose to go to. And if it becomes uncomfortable for your personal boundaries regarding religion, you can choose to leave.

Bottom line, Pagan Pride Day is easily ignorable by people who are not interested. (Or, it should be, and has been in my experience. I have not been to every Pagan Pride event ever, so, obviously, your mileage may vary.)

The same goes for things like outdoor rituals or a church. Easily ignorable. Easy to keep the edges of your boundaries away from those things.

The things that are not so easily ignorable? People coming up to you and giving you a flyer. People knocking on your door to proselytize ~~at eight a.m. on a fucking Saturday~~. People greeting you by saying things like, say, Jesus loves you. And on.

I think, really, when we get down to it it’s the same sort of thing as it is with all other sorts of boundaries. You have to ask yourself: does my need for this person’s attention trump whatever they’re doing right now?

Slightly modified for this subject: does my need to express my faith trump this person’s right to avoid displays of faith?

I mean, let’s not forget — freedom from religion is just as important, if not more so, as freedom of religion.

But, again, I must stress: I don’t have all the answers on this subject, and it’s a bit thornier, I think, than most discussions of personal boundaries and interactions between and among humans. Some of us display our faith without thinking — we have the privilege to be able to do that without worrying about how others will react.

If you’re Christian, you have that privilege and freedom de facto in most spots in Western societies. If you’re not, there are still regional differences that can allow for that privilege. F’ex, I don’t have to worry too much about people freaking out at me for being openly pagan. The place I live in is liberal and hippie enough without being so liberal as to be anti-theist, generally speaking. But when I’m crossing the border to attend Spring Mysteries Fest, I often just say we’re going to a church event, because saying you’re pagan at the border can lead to you being banned from entering the US if you’ve got a particularly bad-tempered border-guard. It helps that Spring Mysteries is held by the Aquarian Tabernacle Church — a name that sounds decidedly Christian (if a bit hippie).

Even though I do have the freedom to be openly pagan in most places where I live, I usually keep my faith fairly private. A, it’s rude to be aggressively religious in public. B, it’s no one’s business but my own.

That said, with the crowds I run with most people assume I’m pagan or atheist regardless what I say about my faith. No one has assumed I’m Christian for quite some time now. So I don’t often feel the need to correct said assumptions.

At this point in my life I’m pretty lucky in where I live and the circles I run in that I don’t have to worry about my personal boundaries and people’s religions clashing, so I don’t have many more answers on this subject.

Do you have any ideas about how to navigate these waters? What are your experiences with personal boundaries and expressions of faith? Let me know in the comments; I’m curious to see what others have to say about this.

Doctor Fluffbun, or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Being a Fascist Meanie Poo Poo Head

Movie still - Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learne... — Photo credit: Belinda (miscdebris)

I used to be a fluffbunny. I was; I was Doctor Fluffbun, PhD in FluffyBunniness. I fully admit that I used to cling to wilful ignorance; I used to refuse to learn anything real, because it hurt my feelings to have my beliefs challenged.

It’s not a comfortable thing to admit to. It’s not enjoyable to say that I have been anything less than the perfect specimen of homo witchiens snarkiens you see before you.

I cut my teeth on Silver RavenWolf’s Teen Witch and Barbara Walker’s The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. I read The Moon Under Her Feet as if it were historical fact, not fiction. The Burning Times were real, and I had many sparkly pentacle gifs that said NEVER AGAIN.

I eventually learned that those books were not good sources for fact, and that The Moon Under Her Feet was inspiring fiction that had little, if any, basis in reality. This wasn’t an easy journey, to get rid of my fluff; it was a long hard slog that required the combing of many tangled mats. Revisionist history is pernicious stuff to get in your fur.

Cover of "Women's Encyclopedia of Myths a... — Read with copious amounts of salt. Preferably entire mines-worth. (Cover via Amazon)

Once I became acquainted with critical thinking in the field of religious study (I had it elsewhere; gods only know why I couldn’t apply it to my witchcraft), I became a champion for educating other folks in the same boat as I’d been. This is true in other areas for me as well (feminism, f’ex), so it’s not too surprising.

What’s different, however, is the level of burnout. Yes, as a feminist activist I get so fucking tired of constantly educating people; it is not easy to do on a constant basis and often I just want to flip tables and say screw it, let’s watch the world burn.

However, there’s a certain coping mechanism there that doesn’t seem to exist in the same vein for me dealing with constant fluffball questions or statements from other pagans. Or maybe I’m just prioritizing — feminism, after all, is literally about life or death. There isn’t quite the same sort of gravity with pagan religions in North America.

You get tired. The same questions, the same misconceptions, over and over again…even though FAQs and primers have been put together, and are pretty easy to find…even though the info is out there. Hell, how did I find info on why Silly Feathered Puppy was such a shitty resource? I looked it up on the Google machine! (Or perhaps Yahoo; this was years ago.)

My point is — it’s not as if this info isn’t there. And with each repetition I must make of various points, hoping to educate folks, my softness gets worn away and I become shorter and blunter with my words.

This, when applied directly to people who are drowning in fluff, does not always go well. Because like I said above — having your beliefs challenged is painful. Often those of us who spend the time to try and teach others are shouted at, screamed at, and called Fascist Meanie Poo-Poo Heads because we’re so MEEEEAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNN when we tell people, no, Hecate is not a goddess of eroticism and no, there is no Ancient Irish Potato Goddess (though Brighid might qualify as a modern one; She does like French fries, in my experience).

Deal with this on a regular enough basis and you stop giving a shit that people think you’re a FMPPH — integrity matters too much.

But couldn’t you be kinder when you educate people, Morag? you say. Certainly they’d then see the errors of their ways!

Ahahahahahahahahahaha. Clearly you have never fought the bunny.

Most FMPPHs have tried to be nicer with our wording, while still being firm with correction and education. Rarely does it work. We still get yelled at for being MEEAAAAAAAANNNNN and then the bunnies hop all over the internet, yelling about how MEAN those MEANIES are with their LOGIC and their FACTS.

Here’s the thing about being Doctor Fluffbun: you will do anything to cling to the fluffy little tail upon your backside. This is why the definition of “fluff bunny” is someone who clings to wilful ignorance. When we talk about fluff bunnies or educating the ignorant we are not talking about folks who just genuinely don’t know any better and, once educated, make an effort to change what needs to be changed. We are talking about the folks who cling to bad history and lack of facts even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

When you’re dealing with woo this is more frustrating than if you’re not. So much of pagan religions requires a bit of suspension of disbelief; a willingness to believe whatever crazy shit your friend is talking about, whether or not you experienced something similar last week; there must be a willingness to see all the weird stuff we do as normal, or there’s no point in talking to each other about it. (And honestly, I think that must be true in any religion, but perhaps moreso when you’re dealing with folks who are godbothered, or people who work magic. Etc.)

So when you get Doctor Fluffbun coming in and refusing to let go of all the just outright false stuff they’ve been taught, and refusing to label any of their beliefs as UPG — screaming from on high that the universal peaceful matriarchy was the TRUTH, dammit, it REALLY HAPPENED and if you DON’T BELIEVE THAT you’re a SUPPORTER of the EBIL PENIS PATRIARCHY; or yelling from the rooftops about how ALL gods and goddesses are simply facets of THE GAWD AND GAWDESS and how if you don’t acknowledge this TRUTH then you are DELUSIONAL because it’s REAL and we got this knowledge from the Atlantean Dolphin Masters, who brought The Wicca to Europe….

Well, you see where I’m going with this.

Wilful ignorance, run unchecked, leads to fundamentalism and bigotry: telling people what they should or should not believe. Telling people what the truth is regardless of facts to the contrary.

So if my option to counteract fundamentalism and bigotry and, well, basically just being a jerk is to don my FMPPH hat, hard-won after recovering from being a Doctor Fluffbun myself, then I have to admit: I love being a Fascist Meanie Poo Poo Head. (and I’ll ride that all the way to the ground.)

Home from Neverland

I got home from Pirates and Faeries late Monday evening. I’m still in recovery mode. I also talked about my Cill shift over the weekend at Milk, Honey, and Fire, and about worshipping at the temple* over at Seafoam and Vanilla.

*I mean sex. I’m talking about having sex in Aphrodite’s Temple. Just, you know, as a heads up. …pun really not intended there.

I’m a bit talked out about PnF; I suppose I could use this space as a forum just for my bitching about whatever went wrong over the weekend (because nothing is perfect; PnF is no exception to that) but I’ve done enough bitching to the Ogre, so I’m kind of bitched out.

Huh, there’s a phrase I never thought I’d say/type.

Something I’m thinking of doing for a future (though probably not next year) PnF is to be a Temple Maiden. Temple Maidens are in charge of setting up and taking down Aphrodite’s Temple, and I feel I should be doing more in service to Her. I dedicated at Spring Mysteries and while I’ve been doing what She told me to…I’m still feeling like I should be doing more.

Mind you I’m not really sure how one goes about becoming a Temple Maiden, and knowing how pagan communities can get there might be more issues becoming one than I’m foreseeing. Remaining optimistic, however, and putting it on the list of things to do when I have the capability. (The other part of being in charge of such a big thing is to take care of a lot of Temple items over the year, show up early to set up, etc…it’s definitely a commitment, and one I most likely won’t have the ability to meet next year.)

This is also an expression of me wanting to do more in my community, which is weird, but I guess expected…we’re settling into building our own household now, and part of that for me is creating community ties that will help us build said household (and, eventually, that will form a support network for our future ogrelets). Not just spiritually; mundanely too, though you can guess by my blog title that those two are pretty entwined things for me. Getting farm fresh eggs from close friends a few klicks away is as much a part of building community ties as taking a larger part in the events I participate in is.

But I’m taking baby steps, because a big part of the reason I don’t participate in anything is because I am so godsdamned tired all the time, and am basically constantly drowning in overwhelm. I’m not actually sure how it got to be September; I’m pretty sure yesterday was New Year’s Day.

On that note, I’m getting rambly, and thus it’s time for bed. Yes, at 8 in the morning; PnF fucks my sleep schedule for at least a week.

-M

The Looooorrreeeeeee (or, how there’s no goddamn dichotomy between pop-culture paganism and people who are ~~serious~~ about religion)

Fair warning: this post contains quite a bit more swearing than I usually let rip on this blog. Also, one animated gif, at the end.

Ok, seriously guys. Can we stop? Can we please just fucking stop?

There is no dichotomy between people who utilize pop culture philosophies, ideas, characters into their religion and people who don’t. Not using pop-culture in your religion doesn’t make you any more or less serious in your worship/devotion/whathaveyou than using pop-culture in your religion. As with all things, the seriousness of the person practicing religion has everything to do with the person, and not their methods.

People who [say they] stick like glue to The Looooorrreeeeeee(TM) and eschew modern interpretation because it’s somehow less ~*~pure~*~, as if the ancients had figured out EVERYTHING and we modern folk are just too broken by advanced technology to understand ~*~real religion~*~, do not have anything up on anyone else (except maybe a head start in the Biggest Douche in the Universe contest). Sorry, no.

Bottom line: use pop culture in your paganism or fucking don’t. If it works for you, great. If it doesn’t, also great. If saying “So Say We All” during ritual feels too silly to you to be useful, then don’t say it!

Continue reading “The Looooorrreeeeeee (or, how there’s no goddamn dichotomy between pop-culture paganism and people who are ~*~serious~*~ about religion)”