#actually pagan

[actiwitch]

(Edit: whoops this became a long ramble)

Met a norse pagan family at work the other day.

The couple had rune tattoos and some of seemingly Frigg and Thor. And a daughter. I dont know why but that made me very happy.

I asked if they are Norse Pagan and they said yes and they'd assumed I was too from my necklace (I always wear my mjolnir pendant.)

We rambled about it for a while and how annoying it is white supremacists steal our religious symbols, or how the religion gets twisted as a whole. How beautiful the practice is. The two own a tattoo shop. The mom has a huge Freyja tattoo on her back.

Their child is four and ofc doesn't care whatever we are talking about and wants to go back to [the activity I help them do at my work] so the conversation ends lol.

But Idk. It was very special to me. It's very special meeting other Norse Pagans-- and there's more than I thought there were, honestly. I joke that there's 3 options for every person I see with rune tattoos:

1. Doesn't really know what they mean.

2. White supremacist.

3. Norse pagan.

There's certainly overlap, but like. Pretty much that's it.

Still, there's a LOT of people who it seems Norse Paganism is, if not their religion, at least something important to them as a subject (or at least KNOWN). The amount of rune/norse tattoos I've seen is enough to quantify a lot of us. But also people commenting on my pendant. "I like your Mjolnir necklace" etc.

Maybe I'm looking into things too deeply but most people don't know what Mjolnir is. Or at least not the name. I think? I don't know. Sus.

But the fact that I, at my little random job, have run into a number of other Norse Pagans makes me happy.

It's beautiful seeing others live their lives. I think it's just that I've never seen it before, at least not in any personal experience. It's beautiful seeing this couple who runs their shop clearly inspired by and in worship to the Gods, and raising their child under those beautiful practices and prayers to Frigg and Freyja for her protection.

It makes me happy.

[punk1nl0v333]

happy samhain! (observed between october 30-nov 1, celebrating the harvest and the best time to contact spirits since the veil between the spirit realm and our realm is the thinnest!)

and of course, happy halloween :)

[chaosclover1999]

how interact w/ witchcraft safely as some1 who experiences psychosis and delusions? i was raised doing witchcraft but i never rly learned how 2 do that in a way that was safe 4 me and had 2 stop bc it was giving me paranoia spikes, i keep trying 2 start again but even when im not actively trying i keep worrying that it's possible 4 me 2 accidentally do a spell or smth, if u guys hav any tips that'd b great

[whereserpentswalk]

The nazis that you see in movies are as much a historical fantasy as vikings with horned helmets and samurai cutting people in half.

The nazis were not some vague evil that wanted to hurt people for the sake of hurting them. They had specific goals which furthered a far right agenda, and they wanted to do harm to very specific groups, (largely slavs, jews, Romani, queer people, communists/leftists, and disabled people.)

The nazis didn't use soldiers in creepy gas masks as their main imagery that they sold to the german people, they used blond haired blue eyed families. Nor did they stand up on podiums saying that would wage an endless and brutal war, they gave speeches about protecting white Christian society from degenerates just like how conservatives do today.

Nazis weren't atheists or pagans. They were deeply Christian and Christianity was part of their ideology just like it is for modern conservatives. They spoke at lengths about defending their Christian nation from godless leftism. The ones who hated the catholic church hated it for protestant reasons. Nazi occultism was fringe within the party and never expected to become mainstream, and those occultists were still Christian, none of them ever claimed to be Satanists or Asatru.

Nazis were also not queer or disabled. They killed those groups, before they had a chance to kill almost anyone else actually. Despite the amount of disabled nazis or queer/queer coded nazis you'll see in movies and on TV, in reality they were very cishet and very able bodied. There was one high ranking nazi early on who was gay and the other nazis killed him for that. Saying the nazis were gay or disabled makes about as much sense as saying they were Jewish.

The nazis weren't mentally ill. As previously mentioned they hated disabled people, and this unquestionably included anyone neurodivergent. When the surviving nazi war criminals were given psychological tests after the war, they were shown to be some of the most neurotypical people out there.

The nazis weren't socialists. Full stop. They hated socialists. They got elected on hating socialists. They killed socialists. Hating all forms of lefitsm was a big part of their ideology, and especially a big part of how they sold themselves.

The nazis were not the supervillians you see on screen, not because they didn't do horrible things in real life, they most certainly did, but because they weren't that vague apolitical evil that exists for white American action heros to fight. They did horrible things because they had a right wing authoritarian political ideology, an ideology that is fundamentally the same as what most of the modern right wing believes.

[tielt]

I wonder if they were burning people at the stake that they dubbed 'witches,' and people were like oh that's the cool new thing and the really edgy among them started covens.

[lokavisi]

Not to mention that the Triple Goddess "archetype" reinforces gender roles/stereotypes and sometimes bioessentialism when placed in the "right" hands.

[reejindeed]

[gratiae-mirabilia]

“[insert aspect of Christian holiday] has PAGAN ROOTS 😱”

yeah and St. Paul had killing-Christians-roots lol. we baptized him, we baptized your pagan traditions, we’ll baptize you too

[stitchtehzombie]

Some witch: * fills a glass jar with crystals, herbs, salt, and glitter, then chucks it in a bush in their local park *

The jar: * breaks *

The salt and glitter: * spills into the soil *

The soil: * becomes infertile *

Plant: * dies *

Some animal: * gets hurt on the broken glass *

Another animal: *chokes on the lid ring *

The nature spirits: "what the actual fuck"

The witch: "why isnt my spell working :(((("

[furorsopher]

hello fellow pagans, specifically chronically/mentally ill ones but this applies to everybody!

quick reminder, that samhain may be one of the - of not the - most important holiday for us, but just because it’s so important, you shouldn’t overexert yourself too much when it comes to celebrations.

it’s a struggle for a lot of us to recognise that physical/mental disabilities/illnesses don’t stop for our spiritual new-beginnings. the next days you will feel that exhaustion. you’ll probably regret having celebrated and won’t have a good start in the new cycle.

samhain stands for honouring what we have lost and celebrating that we can move forward after resting. so your celebration of samhain can also be a long nap. maybe changing sheets in your bed if you can, getting take out or making something to eat that wont steal all your spoons but fuel your body.

and on the first of november, take a breather. slow down with nature. you are a part of nature, allow yourself to act like it.

you shouldn’t just have to survive. you should be allowed to live. take samhain as an opportunity not only to honor things around you, but yourself, if you can.

[houseswife]

y’all remember that episode where they were filming a serious documentary about a patient and they interviewed wilson & he took the opportunity to just slander house as much as possible. like just straight up lie with a straight face for the #meme of it. drag that man’s name through the dirt. he thinks he’s so funny I HATEEEE his ass <3

[belovedlotus]

never worshipped apollo nor contacted him (i wanna do it but I’m intimidated lmao) but this is how i imagine him to be

[sarenhale]

Lamest fucking thing ever that Christianity had to spread outside of Italy in Europe. We could've had Àsatru norse gods worship, Slavic paganism and Finnish nature worship and other super cool shit like that but nooooo. Jesus I guess.

(To specify since I don't want anyone getting offended over this: Worship who you want, this isn't a anti christianity post, I just think that it's really sad and lame that the spreading of christianity historically led to the complete erasure of a lot of countries' native history and culture, and wish it could've gone differently)

[gods-and-accolades]

Sometimes I just have to think about how wild deity work/worship really is. Like what do you mean it’s 10pm and I’m sat on my bed in my pyjamas with a biscuit and a fluffy blanket while also talking to a divine being???

[skaldish]

Y'all. If clouds are sheep, then the storm-clouds are goats. And this is why Thor's chariot is pulled by goats.

[murchadhchanges]

I wonder what conversations they had in that cave.

I wonder if when Sigyn's arms shook and burned, when stinging sweat dripped into her eyes, if Loki sung her stories and spun her winding jokes to make her laugh.

I wonder if she sang back to him as she had to remove the bowl to empty it, if she reminded him of fields of flowers and the sun on their skin, of days without pain, and soothed him through the worst of his trembling.

I wonder if they cried together, if Loki couldn't help wrapping his fingers around his bindings, getting as close to his child as he could. I wonder if they spent hours, silent, sitting together in their grief.

I wonder if they laughed together, if they reminisced in the past and planned for the future, if they knew that this would not be forever.

I wonder if they processed anger together, if they softened together, so they knew that one day in the far future, they would be able to forgive if not forget.

idk i just wonder about them a lot