Monday, February 19, 2018

Everyone Is the Hero Of Their Own Story

Blessings Darlings!

In a Facebook group the other day (yes, one of the vile swamp of dysfunctional ones - those are where I get inspiration for many of my rants) someone was going on about doing a prosperity spell, but to be careful to 'not let the greedy'.

Someone with a home, not living on the street or in a shelter.
Someone with central heat and air conditioning
Someone with food security.
Someone with a phone or computer than had constant internet access.
Someone with electricity.
Someone with at LEAST a refrigerator/freezer.
Someone not living in Detroit or on Native American land, so had clean water and plenty of it.
Someone with a working water heater.
Someone with a working stove.
Someone with enough education to read and write.

And she was addressing others like herself.
People in the upper 15% of income worldwide.
Which is almost everyone in the US - my pitiful $5000 for 2016 put me in the top 25% of world-wide earners.
With my ACA benefits added, I was up to the upper 15% of income world wide.

I was a bit gobsmacked.  And I made a mistake.  I tried to point out to here that even the folks she would consider 'greedy' are the heros of their own story.  They pretty much uniformly feel that all they do is Right and Just and Proper (okay, a few see themselves as the antihero of their own story, but by that they only mean that they are not a CONVENTIONAL hero - but they are a hero nevertheless.)

Back to my mistake - I forgot that in her story she was the hero.  Pointing out that compared to the rest of the world, she's and probably everyone else in the group are exactly the greedy folks that she felt shouldn't use prosperity spells was, to say the least, at odds with her hero story.  Because there will always be people making more than she makes ... and never mind that the same thought is in the mind of those 'real' greedy folks she was condemning.

Sometimes I'm an idiot.  Most of those times it's when I expect average white pagan folks to not see themselves as being the most economically and socially and religiously oppressed folks on the planet. 

Sigh.

Frondly, Fern




Thursday, February 15, 2018

Most FB Support Pagan/Witch Groups Are Vile Swamps of Dysfunction

Blessings Darlings!

I enjoy discussing religion, politics, magic, gardening, prepping, cooking, food, science, and a whole lot of other stuff.  And if there is a topic, there are probably hundreds of Facebook groups for that.  Some of those groups are good, and promote great discussions, and everyone learns new things and grows.  But those groups are really bloody rare.

They seem especially rare for Pagan and Witch topics.  Discussion and citing sources and backing up claims of history and, OMGs, asking for success stats with a magical technique! are almost universally frowned upon.  Instead of having groups aiding in folks maturing,David Wolfe getting a real education (David Wolf and Natural News, etc, being considered really fucking BAD sources of info), aiding folks in setting goals and holding them accountable for taking (or not taking) actions towards those goals, the bulk of the groups are termed 'support groups'.

In these groups, every claim, every fleeting thought ever random dream or day dream, is unquestioning accepted as capital T Truth.  David Wolfe and his ilk are believed.  Alistair Crowley's spirit IS living tn the tree in front of your house.  Disagreeng or challenging things that are not factual (like, history or chemistry) is called 'being negative' or 'being argumentative' or 'attacking'.

And both plagiarism and down right piracy of the work of others Pagans and witches is allowed, hell, in some it's even encouraged.  Certainly those who speak against the practice (yup, like Yours Truly) get booted from the group by folks who misquote the laws about those topics to cover their pasty white plagiarizing asses. 

Instead of promoting growth and maturing of the people in those groups, they are enabling disconnect from the world that they need to be living and doing magic in.  Dismissing science, the herbal concoctions some folks prescribe are risks to life and health.  By pretending to be sharing information but hiding the source of it, the leaders of those groups are controlling the people in the group and hoarding information, so that the members can't vet the sources and read more by those that are generally considered to be actually good. 

Such groups are made by admins who pretend that their members will gain strength by being kept in a play pen and spoon fed their entire lives.  Now, as above so below, right?  If you take a 30 year old adult, limit them to a 'safe' playpen, spoon feed them random pureed and always pre-cooked food ... what efect is that going to have on the human body?  Confine it, deny it raw food, exercise, the cleansing effect of sunlight (hush, Amorella, we know YOU don't need sunlight, but you work nights), and fresh air, 

The result isn't going to be pretty.  And certainly not strong and healthy.

Are there good FB pagan and/or witch groups?  Yes.  They are rare.  The Morrigan's Cave group is very different than the Answering Her Call....the lore of the Morrigan group.  You will have to join many and dump virtually all of them, to find great groups. 

It's worth the effort to be an actualized adult rather than a controlled child.

Frondly, Fern