#because of this it's less any sort of meditation on actual christianity so it's not as insufferable to read as something like. idk. ben-hur

[butchjess]

a canticle for leibowitz a book that is like a vaccine in getting you to forgive fictional christians for being annoying. i love you religion prevailing after the world ends and then starts again i love you the cyclical nature of man and empires and nations

[sadsongsandwaltzes]

Hey! I’ve been following your blog for a while now and I’ve noticed we kinda have the same struggles in life. From one Christian woman to another, how do you deal with loneliness and waiting on God? I have a few things going on in my life - a new job I’m having a hard time adjusting to (I was fired for standing up for my convictions from my first job of nine years two months ago) and and there’s a man at church who was showing a mutual interest until something mysterious happened to him in February (he won’t talk to anyone about it and everyone from church said he’s been acting strange ever since). My mom wants me to move on but but I don’t want to give up on him quite yet. But she gave me a lecture and honestly, she just made me feel like more of a loser after church on Sunday. I need to give it all to God but I don’t know how! Like I can tell Him, but it hasn’t come from my heart, ya know? And I’ve been feeling so depressed and seeing my younger sister begin a relationship (something I’ve deeply desired my whole life) doesn’t help the sting any. So much loneliness and depression and I don’t know how to deal with it. Do you have any biblical advice on what to do? I’m sorry this is so long

Firstly, good on you for standing by what you believe, regarding your job. It’s very easy to buckle in those situations. So while it’s led to a more difficult situation, you did the right thing. Just wanted to give you props.

Now. As far as your main question. I can commiserate. But I am not the picture of someone who is necessarily “stable” and has it all figured out. A few years ago I might’ve tried to craft some sort of paragraph of Bible verses that you and I both know that you already know. But not now. So perhaps I’ll try honest commiseration instead. There are times my loneliness and heartache drives me to the Word and sincere meditation. There are other times it drives me to the bottle. I’m not someone who has it all together and has healthy coping mechanisms all the time. And I really don’t have an understanding as to how I get through it other than the Lord keeps me and pulls me through. Nothing, not even my own stupidity and sin, will separate me from Christ because Christ has me. So my ability to cope with these things ebbs and flows. The only constant is Christ. I can be drunk off my butt or stewing in anger at the Lord, and He’s still there. Lord, forgive me.

What I have very tangibly learned through that though is the necessity of prayer and the Word as a shelter. If you’re stuck in a cold, rainy storm, Christ is the shelter. He blocks the rain and the wind and He’ll get you through the storm alive. But He does not take the storm away. And you’re still gonna feel the cold.

And I think accepting the fact that there are times or aspects of your life where you’re gonna feel the cold has made it easier to actually trust God. Because I’m not expecting Him to remove the cold anymore. Just block what’s gonna kill me. And I know He will do that. Because He has my whole life.

I also think I’ve lived enough life and — particularly with relationships — have experienced enough times where I thought I knew what I wanted or something made so much sense to me at the time that I couldn’t understand why it wouldn’t work out. But then the Lord eventually showed me why. Helped me to understand. So at this point, when I’m in a situation like that, I’m still gonna mope and complain because I’m incredibly emotional and therefore my lows are extremely low, but I intellectually know the Lord will bring me through. Because He has time and time again.

Nowhere in the Bible does it promise that our lives on this earth will be easy. In fact, it guarantees trials. But the Lord also promises He is always with us. So take God’s promises for exactly what they are: nothing more, nothing less. Because God is not a liar.

I don’t know why God always let’s such heartache or stress happen. But I suppose if you need to learn patience, the only way you can do that is by being forced to be patient. If you need to learn to trust the Lord, the only way to say that is to be forced to trust the Lord. And a loss of a job and problems in your love life are two situations that will definitely make you feel as if you have nothing left but to simply trust and be patient in the Lord. The Lord is working on you. Everything happens for a reason.

If you want a piece of practical advice about loneliness that I’ve taken to since the last time I had a meltdown last summer over yet another disappointing guy: don’t pass up opportunity. Never. Not just relationally either. Since that happened, I’ve agreed to so many outings or trips or events I never would’ve had I not been so desperate for anything to do but stare at a wall alone and drink booze. Even the smallest things matter. I’ve never once regretted taking an opportunity — even if it didn’t go quite right lol — but I have always regretted passing it up. And I’ve made so many good memories and learned so many skills because of it. But even relationally, you have to put yourself out there. I know we all want God to just drop someone on our doorstep to fill the void or to fix the broken relationships in our lives, but that’s not how it works. Example: a few days ago I ran into a guy from high school at the store. He looked familiar but I couldn’t place who he was right away, so I kinda blew him off. But I finally placed who he was. And after stewing on it, I messaged him last night. He still hasn’t responded and I don’t know if he will or not. And this is not something I ever would’ve done before. But the only potential is for gain. Either he responds and I, at the very least, can maybe gain a new friend. Or he doesn’t… but he’s not someone I had in my life currently anyways so it’s not like I’m losing anything. It’s really scary putting yourself out there, but you have to. And even if the opportunities that arise aren’t exactly in the track you would’ve made for yourself… just take them anyways. It may be 1000000000x better in the long run than what you’re sitting and wishing will happen. And I’m not entirely sure if all of this is because I’ve gotten more mature, or if this is the foolish rambling of a lady with nothing else to lose. But I think it’s right.

If you want to beat loneliness, the only way to do it is to put yourself in situations where you can’t be lonely. And it’s terrifying. But that’s just the fact of the matter.

If you want simply biblical advice, I’ll leave you with: seek shelter in the Lord. And keep your mind on things above. Circling that back to the practical advice: stewing on the things of this earth and what *we* would wish would happen if *we* were god is part of what prevents us from truly living life and trusting the Lord. Think eternally.

I don’t know if this is what you needed to hear, but I really hope it is. Especially because I know I’m veering off the “here’s some feel good Bible verses and a heart emoji” response that most people give. Which is probably the response you were seeking. But I think this response is more honest and practical. And hopefully you can make something of it.

Trust the Lord. Seek shelter in the Lord. Remember the shelter doesn’t remove the storm. And through the storm, be taking the opportunities the Lord gives you. Because ultimately it’s His will, not yours.

You are in my prayers. And I know your pain.

[albertfinch]

WALKING IN FREEDOM FROM GUILT AND CONDEMNATION

Romans 8:1 - "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

Our captivity to guilt, shame and condemnation limits us. It keeps us from experiencing everything God wants us to receive by faith.

If we don't know we're clean, we will not have confidence before God to ask for anything in faith, to know that He is the one at work within us to accomplish His desires, or to actually believe that we can have the desires of our hearts. Our history of captivity says, "Don't you dare consider yourself righteous, holy, or pure. Don't you remember who you are? Only God is holy and good; you clearly are not. Your dreams, desires, and hopes are all sinful. Don't even think that God might fulfill them."

 

If we believe our own feelings rather than what Scripture says about us, we continue to live without freedom and without power. We live as if we are behind bars, even after the bars are gone.

 

THE CURSE OF RELIGION

Religion has told us that righteousness, our sanctification, is a long journey, a ladder to climb in order to attain a certain status that enables us to get answers to our prayers and walk in power. It puts before us an image of sainthood that we can hardly expect to achieve, or examples of a "man of God" or "woman of God" that only a few are worthy to be called.

Without walking in perfect holiness, our consciences are being continually bruised. Guilt and condemnation remain a constant battle. This battle consumes our energy and keeps us focused on something other than the faith and works God wants us to walk in, which is why the enemy would love to see us constantly preoccupied with it. He wants us to think we are still engaged in a battle that has already been won for us. This approach to righteousness, which we are always seeking but never quite attaining, is like bars of a cage that keep us longing for what's on the outside and regretting that we are still stuck on the inside. "Maybe one day," we think.

 

THE ANSWER:

So what is the answer to a conscience weighed down by sin, guilt and shame? How can we be free from sin and the hangover of guilt? This is where the enemy's great deception comes into play. If we are Believers in Jesus, born by His Spirit, we must believe what He says about us.

 

The New Testament always refers to Believers as saints and never as sinners? [The closest is Paul's reference to himself as the "chief" of sinners in 1 Timothy 1:15. But, Paul is referring to his old/past life as a persecutor of the Church.] Even Paul's letter to the Corinthians, a church with quite a few problems, addresses them as saints, holy ones, those who are sanctified in Christ (see 1 Corinthians 1:2).

 

WE ARE RIGHTEOUS IN CHRIST JESUS

2 Corinthians 5:21 - "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

The world may throw accusations of being "holier than thou," but the Bible doesn't. Holier than whom? God freely gives us His righteousness, and no one can get any holier than that. Nor do we have any right to declare ourselves less holy when He has given such a precious and priceless gift. He doesn't want us to be ashamed of ourselves and push the gift away. He wants us to know how absolutely clean and pure we are, to receive His righteousness, explore all of its implications and enjoy it fully.

"I just have a weakness in that area. It's inevitable that I sin." These sorts of comments are dangerous for Christians because they reflect a wrong belief that will cause them to sin by faith! Don't let these lies cross your mind or come through your lips. They are keeping you captive.

It is imperative to respond to these thoughts, feelings, and voices through affirming and meditating on verses of scripture that attack these weaknesses.  The Bible says we need to demolish arguments and everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (see 2 Corinthians 10:5).

 

DECLARE THE FOLLOWING AS YOU GO THROUGHOUT THE DAY:

"Yes, God alone is holy, but it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. I have been raised up with Him to new life. I am now as He is in this world. I have received His forgiveness and carry His righteousness. I am filled with His Spirit. He is my life now. He has declared me holy, and any accusation against me is a lie."

 

ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

[littleeyesofpallas]

I know i tried to put these thoughts in order once already... and I think I got about as close as I ever will with that. But my idiot brain decided to go back to it and try to make a big tiled diagram to organize it all. and of course I couldn't. There just aren't enough shared edges and coherent spacing for all the right thing to be adjacent to eachother.

But so long as we're revisiting this, there was a subject I tiptoed around before, because i knew if i indulged in it it would quickly derail yhe broader subject. But since this is otherwose mostly recap, ill indulge myself a bit, if only to add a little something new to this rant.

Ichigo's manji/swastika motif is pretty firmly rooted in the buddhist side of things, as is the manji's use in the term and concept of bankai in every functional reading of the manga for what it is... but then his black sun thing, even though it's barely present, loops back around to weird escoteric n*zi bullshit that they stole from hindu and buddhist iconography, which unfortunately retroactively realigns Ichigo's motif with n*zi weirdness, even if he doesn't ever actively play into any of it... And the n*zi bullshit of course is where the sternritter uniforms came from, which again makes it uncomfortably close in proximity, even if it doesn't ever seem to make any kind of statement of any of it.

But then Yhwach is obviously a play on Yahweh which is super awkward too, although arguably it's less any kind of a direct attempt at referencing judaism and just a proxy of the christian references. The angelic theme of the sternritter tying more into christian art than jewish, as well as the obvious catholic priest frock uniform influence. Yhwach being an obvious jesus analog what with the son of god, the miracle baby thing, and the blood sacrament bestowing schrift.

in fact his name was thankfully canonically romanized, but the katakana for it is actually Yuu-ha-ba-hha[ユーハバッハ] which is a real mess on its own. That's a German Wa though, japanized as "ba" which in turn indicates an approximation of an English V, not a W. Honestly I'm a little surprised Kubo didn't just opt to call him Jehova.

But then there's vague Louis XIV stuff, which is kind of out of left field. But the LichtReich:"Light Kingdom" mixed with Uryuu's Licht von Prinz:"Prince of Light" epithets position Yhwach as a King of Light, and and the ornate sun gates tied specifically to his royal palace tie his light motif back to the sun, making him a King of the Sun, which is where the obtuse link to le Roi Soleil comes in.

And really it all ties back in to sun imagery from every angle.

And by loose proxy the overt Backbeard associations with Yhwach also being something of a black sun motif. Like Backbeard he's the leader of a western invasion force, a parallel opposition of a Japanese supernatural/occult counterpart just like in the classic yokai manga, GeGeGe no Kitaro. He loosely borrows the aesthetic of abstract darkness and menacing eyes that are at this point a fixture of manga/anime villains just in general.

But also the Soul King himself being a vaguely christlike martyr, and a buddha figure, and like buddha the source of powerful reliquary of his enshrined disembodied bodyparts, which in turn somewhat loosely loops back around to christian reliquary practice as well.

But then the limblessness also sort of ties into Daruma and the bodhidarma? Along with eyes that grant wishes, and a specific sort of thick facial hair, and a withered limbless inert meditative state...

And that one Bleach Brave Souls Spirit Society AU throws some Amaterasu into the mix, because why the hell not...

Again, I didn't really find a geometrically satisfying way to put this all together into a single coherent diagram, but maybe having some of these isolated themes all placed side by side will help intuitively illustrate what it feels like I just have to take so many more words to outline than seems necessary...

(there are upsettingly not actual good detailed looks at YHWACH's obviously eagle motif sword somehow...)

A thing that kind of confuses me —and stay with me here becauase this is going to be a bit of a leap in tangential thinking— is that bits of Ichigo already lightly reference classic super heroes: early chapter covers as well as the shinigami substitute badge itself reference Superman and the S-shield*, and in the context of Mashiro being a supersentai and kamen rider reference, Ichigo's name is likely at least partially a reference to Kamen Rider Ichigo(the retroactive distinction given the original kamen rider after the introduction of Kamen Rider Daigo.)

*and guess what oops another sun motif in superman. it's often not as central to Superman himself, but funny enough the sun thing usually factors more into parodies of Superman like Apollo or Hyperion or Sentry...

And if you're unfamiliar, the origin story of the original kamen rider is that Takeshi Hongo is abducted by SHOCKER a remnant of the n*zi's still active in Japan that experiment on him to turn him into one in a line of super soldiers against his will. The experiment is a success but he turns on his abductors with their own technology and wages a war of revenge and "Justice"(in the literal, lex talion-esque sense of the word) against the evil organization that ruined his life.

And it has since been a kind of unspoken world building rule that every kamen rider since, even as their themes settings and host of powers and villains change, is given or inherits his powers from the same source as the villains(being made by the enemy's experiments, having stolen enemy tech, being part of a race of monsters, etc...) but having his heroism defined not by the source of his powers, but by the conscious and deliberate choice and dedication to fighting evil.

So, point is... when it turns out that Ichigo is struggling with his powers coming from the enemy he's actively fighting, that he didn't choose for himself, where the ultimate moral is that so long as he can use it to protect the people he cares about, it shouldn't really matter where it comes from... When that enemy faction and Ichgio's own powers both start brushing shoulders with very overt n*zi imagery, it actually becomes weirder that Kubo didn't make said imagery more explicit.

Does that make sense?

Like, sure, if he had had the manji as a symbol strictly associated with bankai and the buddhist themes of enlightenment and dodged any sort of overt n*zi parallels that would be one thing. But to then make this whole dynamic with the Quincy and use all this imagery, but then not do something that very clearly outlines itself as

"guy with n*zi powers rejects his powers' benefactors to use them to fight n*zis; Just like in Kamen Rider!"

feels... weird? Not "wrong" per say... and not even "suspect" exactly... I don't really know how to pinpoint it. But if the Quincy as n*zis had just been a side effect of the Quincy as SHOCKER as an extension of Ichgio as Kamen Rider, then ALL this could've been much more easily swept under the rug. And we were kind of already right there, so why not?

[serpentstole]

Luciferian Challenge: Bonus 1

Since I combined the 13th prompt with the 12th yesterday, here’s one of the bonus question.

What do you think is best about Luciferianism?

I don’t think I can make a blanket statement about what’s best about Luciferianism in general. The religion is incredibly personalized, and while I believe its core values and ideals are admirable, I don’t actually think they’re exclusive to Luciferianism. I think it’s one of those things where if you check enough off of the list, and you’re drawn to the label, you’re a Luciferian. If you don’t or aren’t, you can end up as damn near anything else. However, I’m perfectly happy to explain what’s so great about it for me, as I’ve been giving it a lot of thought during this challenge. 

Something I will state outright is that what I’m about to describe is specific to my own special brand of Luciferianism. While I would not be at all shocked if it overlaps with others, I don’t make any claims or statements that should be forced onto literally anyone else who shares my religious label.

I’m prefacing this because my Luciferianism has a bit of an odd relationship with Christianity in a way I’m not ashamed of, but that some people might find peculiar at best and uncomfortable at worst if they’re someone who endlessly strives to separate or distance the two. 

If that’s not a dealbreaker for you, and you’re curious to hear more of how that works and why it’s so valuable to me, the full explanation can be found below the cut.

I appreciate you sticking around! I struggled with how exactly to begin this part, so I’ll start with a big dramatic statement and then over-explain it from there. 

My Luciferianism is impossible to completely untangle and separate from Christianity, and this is despite my tendency to remind people that the name Lucifer appears precisely once in the Bible, and is not meant to refer to a fallen angel. 

The biggest thing that drove me away from my Lutheran upbringing was the worship. I did believe in God, and His potentially all knowing and powerful nature, but I genuinely cannot remember a time as a Lutheran when worship felt genuine to me. I thought angels were fascinating. I loved a good deal of the music, the sound of the organ, the stained glass… I even had some fondness for the community, as the one I was in wasn’t terrible and I spent a great deal of time in it as one of the children’s choir’s few members, and later as an acolyte. But I didn’t really want to be a Lutheran. It didn’t feel how I knew it was probably meant to, even going into confirmation classes. I’ve always believed a person should be passionate about their religion, if they have one, and that your deities should be a figure you look to in times of celebration instead of just in times of strife. 

As time went on, I also began appreciating the trappings of Catholicism. Don’t get me wrong, I have some issues with the church as a whole, but there’s a reason everyone keeps stealing the aesthetic, right? They certainly put a church together far prettier than the ones I grew up in, they kept much more of the Latin, I like the meditative nature of a rosary… and I ended up forming a relationship with a few saints, despite my religious affiliations.  

I had a pagan’s love for Dionysus, for incorporating magic into my everyday life, and for seeing the world through the mindset of an animist. I also had no interest in worshiping God, though the belief in Him remained, and I was kind of just apathetic when it came to the divinity of Christ. However, I do have a deep appreciation for saints in the sense that they’re powerful dead and ancestors of sorts, and angels will continue to be fascinating to me even if it turns out I can work with them less and less. In regards to both, I strongly believe in approaching a spirit on their own terms, and have no issue with incorporating prayer or verse into how I petition the aforementioned saints.

Luciferianism kind of just… has room for all that, given just how loose its requirements are. The figures that are at the center of my practice are undeniably Abrahamic in origin (which I will finally use in the sense that figures like Eve and Azazel are found in a number of religions that share those historic roots) and my typical understanding of Lucifer is a blending of Christian folklore and the long dead religions that came before it. 

The result was that I’m kind of steeped in Christianity and its aesthetics the way a vampire from a gothic horror is. All the pieces are there, but there’s something wrong with it.

And I love that for me?

So I don’t call myself dual faith, because I tend to think that requires some level of worship of or loyalty to both sides, but I like existing alongside Christianity. On the fringes, in a way. My Luciferianism merged my polytheism, my animism, my love of the occult, and also my appreciation of figures like Lucifer and Azazel and Eve in a way that I don’t think any other religious label would have allowed for. Not to mention that all the while it also spoke to the ideals and values I hold dearest. 

Though I’m still sorting out the finer points of how I view the deities and spirits I work with (partially on account of how our relationship is still growing) I’m very content as a whole.

I could only go into so much detail without making this monster long, so if you’re a little confused by or curious about any part of it, please do shoot me an ask instead of wondering or making assumptions. Even if you worry it’ll come off as a touch rude or confrontational to ask questions about it, I don’t mind.

[swearingintengwar]

I am once again rambling about my sad Yukio headcanons

So, first off, disclaimers. This has even less foundation than my usual vibe-based headcanons, the root of the whole thing was literally just my Angst Gremlin brain saying "hey, you know what would be really fucked up?" and me running with it. Also, I'm neither fully caught up on canon nor any sort of Christian let alone Catholic, so please forgive any mistakes in here.

Content warnings: hoo boy. The big things are that Yukio a. has a very weird and not exactly healthy relationship with religion and b. is suicidal, but there's just so much going on here that I don't know how to articulate, the only warning I can feel sure is comprehensive is "everything and the kitchen sink". TREAD CAREFULLY.

Anywho. Here goes nothing.

The way I tend to write Yukio, he's a fairly devout Catholic, though out of roughly equal parts genuine belief and childhood nostalgia. But it's cold comfort for him, because he's thoroughly convinced he's damned. He already hates himself deeply, he's already shown a willingness to be morally gray if it gets the job done, and if some past writing research hasn't misled me the Catholic church doesn't tend to look too kindly on the way he's fairly sure his life will end. Add in being the direct blood kin of Actual Literal Satan and it feels pretty plausible he'd think he's hellbound.

He still wants to be a good person if he can, but not for his own sake. He's put himself aside as a lost cause. All that's left for him are the people he loves and the promises he's made.

So he holds to the moral code he learned at Shiro's knee in the monastery, but he doesn't confess when he falls short because he thinks he'd be wasting the priest's time. He prays, but not because he expects his prayers to be answered - he prays to meditate and calm himself, to give thanks for what good things he has, and to remind himself of his purpose in life. And he goes to church, to sing and listen to sermons, but he always attends early in the morning. If there's a midnight mass, he goes then. When Rin asked why, Yukio said he likes the quiet of early mornings, that it's easier for him to focus and pray when the world around him is still asleep. But that's only half true.

Yukio goes to church before anyone he knows wakes up, so nobody notices that he's stopped taking communion.

And yet, there's still a strange comfort in his faith. It's the last thing he can keep from his brief childhood, and it's one of the few things he feels certain about anymore. His life is hitting rock bottom, a lot of the people he looks up to are turning on him, and he himself is fairly sure he's going mad - but here, at least, he knows where he stands.

[doctorslippery]

1. Omnichrist Self-Deliverance Activation Front: Born of a therapeutic exercise wherein several people who believed themselves to be Jesus were put in a room together to discuss their mutually exclusive claims to messiahhood. They came out with the conviction that not only were all of them Jesus, but that every other human being on Earth was also Jesus and had yet to realize it. Aggressively missionary and rapidly expanding, its self-actualization rhetoric appealing in particular to younger single mothers. The Activation Front has been accused of kidnapping and cult-style conditioning, however these accusations have been deemed baseless by panels of experts who may themselves be Activation Front members.

2. Dark Marxism: A contrary offshoot of Marxist analysis which holds that Capital is in fact a god incarnating itself through digital technology and totalizing cybernetic systems of control. It further holds that resistance to this god is blasphemous, and that the only place for humanity in the coming order is to usher in and behold its world-devouring glory. Espousing Dark Marxist beliefs is currently trendy among young finance and tech professionals.

3. Wealth-Hack Immortalism: A combined religion and suicide pact that emerged from an anime imageboard. It argues on the basis of many-worlds theory and quantum immortality that if adherents make a sincere attempt at killing themselves because they don't have enough money they will be translated into a universe where they gain enough money that they will no longer intend to kill themselves (leaving a corpse behind in this world in the process). It also has a culture of cryptocurrency investment and pump-and-dump scams. Drops in the price of favoured currencies are blamed on "ascended brothers" trying to convince their remaining peers to follow them to immense wealth, popularity, and romantic success with women. Those who fail to kill themselves are shamed as "will-mogged" and "genetically destined to be wagie" by their peers.

4. Les Fleurons Glorieux: An ultra-nationalist Canadian civic religion founded by a follower of Helena Blavatsky in the late 19th century. They claimed to channel the ghost of Sir John A. Macdonald, as well as the principality of Canada, who told them to gather true patriots to be the heroes of coming centuries. The Fleurons venerate this principality as a necessary national intermediary to God, as well as a pantheon of great Canadian figures. Their lobbying led to Ontario government buildings being required to have a shrine to the principality of Canada maintained somewhere within (often on a top shelf in a less-used closet). Politically the Fleurons lean towards federalism and autarky. Fleuronic rites include poetry readings, parading the flag, wearing turn of the 20th century clothing, reenactments of the defeat of the United States in the War of 1812, and ceremonial fur hunts.

5. Crucifixion Truthism: A branch of American Evangelicalism with even closer than usual political ties with Israel. Its central tenet is that it is not the Jewish people who are to blame for Christ's crucifixion, but rather Palestinians, and so any treatment of them by the Israeli government is justified. Several Truthists have been implicated in "demolition tours", vacations where they rent armoured bulldozers and drive them through the Gaza Strip.

6. Immanentized Virtual Utopianism: A religio-techno-political project kicked off by a collective of "tankie" hackers inspired by Cosmism. Rather than the outer space of Cosmism, they were convinced that human salvation lied within the inner space of virtual reality. They pooled their resources and technical expertise to begin construction of a commune-facility where everyone could be plugged into a majestic simulated reality (as well as feeding and waste disposal tubes) where all their needs and desires could be met without limit. Despite early success with their invention and patenting of the "saccadic mouse" the full dream of the commune has yet to be realized, and is currently realized only in the upper echelon playing solar-powered video games all day while their acolytes roll them to prevent bed sores from forming.

7. Eternally With Herism: A support group-turned-religion that sprung up after the election of Donald Trump. E.W. Herism maintains that Hillary Clinton is both the incarnation of the transcendent maternal principle, as well as the true winner of the 2016 American election. However due to peoples' lack of faith in her we were cursed to perceive an illusory world where she did not. Practices to perceive this true reality include guided meditation, imbibing deliriant-infused wine, and ritualized brunch. Since the election of Joe Biden many adherents of E.W. Herism believe that due to their diligence the illusory world has graduated from hell to a sort of purgatory.

8. Psychophenotypism: Suddenly erupted into existence and popularity on a forum for the involuntarily celibate during an argument over "taking the pink pill" and "transmaxxing".  It teaches that what we know about biology is a lie created to hoard "sexual market value", that the shape of the body is determined primarily by one's own mind, and that biofeedback techniques and pseudo-cognitive behavioural therpaeutic exercises could bring about a more complete transition than hormones and surgery. A helpful set of infographics was quickly put together to explain all this.

Several charismatic leaders appeared within the Psychophenotypic movement, who began to feud over the feasibility and desirability of "interracial transitioning", as well as hatred toward illiberal political beliefs for denying "the autonomous individual will". These feuds escalated into identity theft and physical violence, which attracted a subculture of anomie-afflicted street brawlers to bounce between the newly formed Psychophenotypic sects.

9. The Lord's Reclamation Brigade: An Australian heterodox Christian sect and designated terrorist group. They believe that all non-Christian religions (and many Christian sects which do not agree with them) worship the Devil, and that their sacred sites must be destroyed and replaced with churches to reclaim that part of the world from the grasp of evil. The LRB gain international notoriety for an attempt to plant dynamite on Uluru, and "forced baptism" attacks on people of Middle Eastern and Indian descent that have resulted in two drownings to date. Despite police crackdowns the sect has survived due to its decentralized internet presence and recruitment from a wider "kiddie pool" of non-violent fans of the sect's video interpretations of current events as signs of the end times, and public appearances and statements of Australian politicians interpreted as secret signs of either support for the LRB or diabolic influence.

10. Retrotemporal Jǫrðism: A neo-neopagan faith invented whole-cloth by a twitter user with the pseudonym (((Einstein-Rosen)))BridgeGroyper, who claimed to have been sent back in time from a "based ecofash future". Jǫrðism promoted outdoor exercise, an unprocessed diet, avoidance of pornography and masturbation, and belief that white people are the true indigenous population of all continents. Its founder claimed that this all was necessary to bring about their own timeline, wherein humanity lived in harmony with nature in "localist cottagecore hamlets".

The faith suffered a crippling blow after (((Einstein-Rosen)))BridgeGroyper led a wilderness retreat for top Patreon donours to "rediscover [their] primordial whiteness". On the retreat the founder was attacked and eaten by a grizzly bear, which was in turn killed and eaten by some of the donours, who contracted trichinosis. After this event the faith split between true believers who believed the camping guide was an impostor and a "fed", and the Apostles of the Temporal Flesh who believe that currently existing nature to be a collection of Jewish GMOs which must be exterminated and replaced with the true biosphere lying in wait in the hollow Earth.

[feminist-propaganda]

The Star Wars Saga Is A Meditation On Single Motherhood

It recently dawned on me that the entire story line of the Star Wars saga is built on the lives, loves and tribulations of 3 generations of single mothers. There are monsters to slay and aliens to find and planets to explore, yes, but if you think about the powerful message in the movies, you’ll come to realize it was mostly a reflection on the status of single mothers, the outcomes of their offspring, and the conflict that lives forever in their descendants.

Each trilogy, once reframed, becomes the story of one woman, who finds herself in a situation that is as old as time. She is with child, but the person who planted the seed in her is not by her side.

Shmi Skywalker or The Good Single Mother

In the Phantom Menace, Jedi Knight Qui Gon Jin meets Anakin Skywalker, a slave boy with a talent for repairing machines. The Jedi knight is impressed with the child’s abilities. He’s knowledgeable, intuitive, and most importantly he’s also kind and thoughtful. When a sand storm threatens the group of travelers, Anakin takes them to his own home and offers them shelter. 

We meet Shmi Skywalker, who in many ways is the archetype of the good single mother. She is not just quiet. She has completely erased herself. She has no personality, apart from being Anakin’s caretaker. She expresses no needs, no desires, no dreams. She simply loves Anakin, and when she sees an opportunity for him to leave the desert planet ruled by the Huts, she doesn’t stand in his way. 

In a now famous scene, Qui Gon asks her about the child’s origins and Shmi famously responds “There was no father”. The line continues: “I carried him. I gave birth. I raised him. I can’t explain what happened”.

The immaculate conception myth refers to the idea in Christianity that Mary, much like Shmi, was impregnated by some magical force, a holy spirit. Both are parabols: images we use to discuss painful topics. Single motherhood has probably always been a part of the human experience. Jared Diamond explains in “Why Is Sex Fun?” that in terms of evolution, it is more rewarding for human males to be “super spreaders “ rather than “good fathers “ . The “good father” gene does not pass down to future generations, because in effect, not sticking around to raise the child is a better strategy for a human man to pass on his genes to the next generation. Not convinced? Just count how many women have been impregnated by a rapper like Future (8 last time I checked). If you’re not into hip-hop, you can think of the offspring of the Mongol Genghis Khan

The purpose of the parabol is to provide an image, to extract ourselves from the technicalities of onr person’s story and to instead talk about all single mothers at once. Indeed, single mothers come in all shapes and sizes. Some are widowed, some are abandoned, others are lied to, and some run away from abusive environments.

Shmi raises her son the best she can, and her love for him is unconditional. She doesn’t bat an eye when he is freed while she is to continue her life as a slave. She doesn’t even seem to mind when Anakin leaves the planet and never returns to free her, even after he marries into some serious money. 

But the story of Star Wars tells us that Shmi’s relationship to Anakin, because it was so fusional, because it was all that he had, led to his undoing. In Episode 2, when he senses she is in danger, he jeopardizes his mission to protect Padme to go rescue her. When he eventually finds her, he is so upset about her ultimate death that he commits mass murder, targeting the Tuskan riders of the sea of Dunes.

When Yoda first lays eyes on Anakin, he senses Anakin’s pain, he is just a child whose been ripped away from the only human that’s ever cared for him deeply. The turmoil inside the boy is palpable, and Yoda advises against training him. 

Padme Amidala or The Bad Single Mother

Anakin develops feelings for Padme, and in Episode 2 the pair decide to secretly get married in the lake district of Padme’s home planet Naboo. Their relationship is very intense. Both share a strong sense of civic duty: Padme was elected queen of the Naboo when she was just 14 &  Anakin is a keeper of the peace. They care deeply about issues such as how the galaxy must be governed, how much action needs to be taken versus when diplomacy must be prioritized. 

Their strong sense of service has made them lonely young people. They’re far away from their families, surrounded by advisors, servants and droids - not friends. 

They jump into their relationship with an eagerness that suggests it is their original caretakers they crave for.

Padme becomes pregnant while the Clone Wars are raging, and immediately Anakin begins to experience trouble with his sleeping. He imagines Padme is dying in childbirth, and the visions haunt him during the day. His fear that she will die ultimately leads to his decision to join the Dark side of the force. Senator Palpatine has manipulated him into believing that Sith Lords have discovered the power to prevent death itself. 

Just like his mother before him, we need to look at Anakin’s story in terms of symbolism. It isn’t really about his specific experience with fatherhood : it’s about the universal conflict that men feel towards their own offspring. Even the way it is announced to him, in the Senate chambers, barely hidden from the rest of the Coruscant elite, implies some sort of entrapment. The columns around them seem to be like a cage that is closing in on his life. He is in the middle of the Wars - he should be celebrating his victory over General Grivious, but instead he is stuck with his wife and he has to absorb her anxiety & reassure her. 

Anakin makes a weird, forced smile and says : “This is a happy moment.” But neither Padme nor the audience believe him. Nothing about him feels happy, he isn’t relaxed: he is tense.

At the end of Episode 3, Anakin attempts to kill Padme when she condemns the mass murders he’s committed against the younglings in the Jedi temple. Hr uses for the first time his “strangling” trick, which becomes his signature move in the original trilogy. 

Palpatine makes Anakin believe that he’s killed Padme, but the truth is somewhat more nuanced. She dies of heartbreak shortly after giving birth to twins. For anyone who thought this was corny, it’s actually been proven by the scientific community that heartbreak reduces your life expectation (it diminishes the size of the telomeres in your body cells, which is the molecule that helps replicate your DNA). 

As Lisa Feldman Barret wrote in How Emotions Are Made: 

Emotional harm can shorten your life. Inside your body, you have little packets of genetic material that sit on the ends of your chromosomes like protective caps. They’re called telomeres. All living things have telomeres—humans, fruit flies, amoebas, even the plants in your garden. Every time one of your cells divides, its telomeres get a little shorter (although they can be repaired by an enzyme called telomerase). So generally their size slowly decreases, and at some point, when they are too short, you die. This is normal aging. But guess what else causes your telomeres to get smaller? Stress does. Children who experience early adversity have shorter telomeres. In other words, emotional harm can do more serious damage, last longer, and cause more future harm than breaking a bone

More severe cases involve patients actually dying of a broken heart, the myocardia just collapses under the weight of the sadness the human feels.

The original trilogy should be re-viewed with all of this new information we have. In the 80s, when Empire Strikes Back came out, the “I am your father” line became instantly iconic. But the plot twist was more like an “Oh My gosh!” moment rather than a profound reflection on fatherhood. The audience sympathized with Luke not because his father had been absent and negligent, but because his father’s job was to serve a fachist leader. It was the actions of Darth Vader as a political servant that were questioned, not his refusal to nurture a smaller being. 

Padme is the opposite of Shmi. She is the archetype of the “bad” single mother. The bad single mother is the single mother who can’t deal with the situation and checks out of it. She collapses under the weight that she feels on her shoulders. She can't get over the heartbreak, she can’t find the will to live. 

Society tends to punish the Padme’s just as much as it praises the Shmis. Television programs like “Teen Mom” are set up to shame the young deviants into adopting the correct behavior. The purpose of the show is to judge these young women into becoming self-sacrificing mothers.

Leia Organa - The Non-single Single Mother

Leia Organa is Anakin Skywalker’s daughter. She is raised by an adoptive frailly on Alderaan after she’s separated at birth from her brother Luke. Much like her mother, she becomes a dedicated public servant, a trusted leader and a beloved public figure. 

She is raised by a wealthy family in the central galactic systems. The Organas teach her the ways of the elite political class. As an adult she serves the cause of the Rebels, and when she meets Han Solo in Episode 4, the mediocre smuggler fascinates her. 

In the now famous scene from Hoth in Episode 5, Leia declares her love for Han Solo right as he’s about to be frozen in carbonite. The ultimate bad boy responds his chilling, because realistic  “I know”.

Han is nothing compared to Leia. He drives a broken down ship, doesn’t have any morals or even a simple code of conduct, much less a cause that he’s dedicated his life to. He has nothing to offer her, and is definitely not in her league. But still, in Episode 6, the pair become an official item.

The last Trilogy was an opportunity to explore Leia’s experience with motherhood. By now we know that Leia’s grandmother was a “Good single mother”, she completely sacrificed herself to protect her son & more importantly she never questioned her status of sole caretaker (remember the “there was no father“ line). We also know that Leia’s mother was a public servant, and a passionate woman who allowed herself to fall deeply in love with a sensitive young man with a non existing support system. Leia’s mother was the “bad” single mother: driven only by her career (Queen of the Naboo, later a Senator of the Old Republic) she did not step up to the task when her destiny revealed itself to her.

Leia seems to share her mother’s taste in reckless young men with a lot of attitude and no emotional security to offer. It’s the excitement she craves, not the tranquility.

Her fate will be the same as her foremothers. She has a child with Han, but when she sends him away to be trained by Luke, she loses them both.

Their dialogue in Episode 7 goes like this: 

Han Solo : Listen to me, will you? I know every time you... Every time you look at me you're reminded of him.

Leia : You think I want to forget him? I want him back.

Han Solo : There's nothing more we could have done. There's too much Vader in him.

Leia : That's why I wanted him to train with Luke. I just never should have sent him away. That's when I lost him. That's when I lost you both.

The last trilogy develops Leia’s character in a way that allows her to be something else than just a single mother. She loses her husband, she even loses her son to the dark side: but she never loses herself. Leia doesn’t allow her condition to define her. She becomes a leader of the Resistance even if it means going after her son’s New order. 

In Episode 9, Leia even destroys her son to protect Rey - the symbolism is that she’s overcome her role as a mother, she’s rejected the notion that she must sacrifice everything for her son even if it goes against her own self interest (like Shmi). She also rejects the idea that her partner abandoning her is the end of her. It isn’t. Unlike her mother, she finds the will to live, and to lead the next generation of freedom fighters and peace keepers.

The saga ends on a hopeful note for all of us single mothers out there. It comes with a message for us : we don’t need to choose between the austere Shmi and the weak Padme. We can instead decide that this “single mom” problem is kind of like beauty : it lies in the eyes of the beholder.

Single moms don’t need to think of themselves as failures, they don’t need to live in modest conditions, they don’t need to beg society's forgiveness for merely existing. They don’t need to be ashamed. 

Single moms don’t need to erase their brains and their lives, and sink into an ocean of denial either. They don't need to be obsessed with their careers or caught up in romantic entanglements that are only going to exhaust them.

Single moms can just decide that they’re women, with beautiful, inspiring personalities and kind, loving hearts. Mothers are first and foremost, the leaders of the young, the protectors of the realm and the makers of the future. It’s not that it doesn’t matter that they’re alone. It’s that they don’t have to be alone at all.

[rotationalsymmetry]

Christianity, Orthodoxy, and Problematic Content

Morning, world. I just woke up, so we'll see whether I can actually make this coherent or not. Christians tend to (not all Christians, but an awful lot of Christians) be very concerned with having the exact right set of beliefs, or "orthodoxy". Which English translation of the Bible is the best one? Is salvation achieved through faith alone, or faith and works? Exactly how is the end of the world going to play out? Religions don't intrinsically have to focus that intensely on right belief. For instance, I hear that Buddhism is much more concerned about what you do (meditation etc) than what you believe. This is specifically a Christian thing. So it makes sense when Christians get very worked up about what sorts of books their children read and what movies they watch and what movies they listen to, sometimes to the extent of marking vast swaths of popular culture as off limits. Everything (in this worldview) either helps Christians become better Christians or it tempts them to evil. There's no "well, maybe this particular book is good for some people and bad for others" or "maybe everyone can decide for themselves" or "maybe talking to kids about evil will give them the tools they need to not be tempted by Satan", there's only right and wrong. There's been something kind of bothering me about the way people talk about "problematic content", and I just figured out what it was yesterday evening. When I think of media that way, it's a patchwork: on this show, this episode had a really compassionate and solid portrayal of a disabled person but this other episode handled disability in a way that really bugged me, and here's how I think it does on racial representation, and here's how I think it does on female characters, and yeah there's a lot of annoying heterosexual romance as though the shows creators think it's mandatory but also this one episode was clearly using metaphor to talk about queerness in a way that really resonated... So when people talk about "problematic content" as though any given work is either entirely problematic or not problematic at all, and as though it's going to hit the same way for every person (no room for eg some queer people to love Rocky Horror and others to find it annoying and weird) and as though it's a quality of the work itself rather than something that happens in a wider context (for instance, Frozen being created in a context where Disney already had an awful lot of "princess" movies with all-white casts, and in turn in a wider context of white characters in general getting far more representation than people of color, so that it's less about Frozen as a single work and more about the wider pattern of racial representation throughout the entire culture) ...then it's kind of like, are we even living in the same world here? Because your assumptions are not my assumptions. And they rather sound like assumptions that take the basic worldview of conservative Christianity -- good and evil, right belief and heresy -- and just changing the paint job. But there doesn't have to be orthodoxy. There can, and should be, heterodoxy: people understanding the world in different ways, people believing what makes sense to them based on their own lived experience (and thing is, people tend to have different life experiences from each other, even if you can find commonalities) and their own ability to reason, people tolerating different worldviews. You could be wrong. Statistically, every one of us is wrong about some things, even some things that we feel absolutely sure about. It is fundamentally good, not just acceptable but good, when not everybody agrees on everything.

[dailyaudiobible]

02/17/2021 DAB Transcript

Leviticus 4:1-5:19, Mark 2:13-3:6, Psalms 36:1-12, Proverbs 10:1-2

Today is the 17th day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you, hump day, as we move to the center of one of the 52 weeks that we have. I guess there’s 52 hump days, 52 centers of every week and here we are at another one crossing through the middle, heading into the back half. It's wonderful to be able to share some time together around this Global Campfire to just step in, step in and out of all the other stuff that's going on, and just take our place, relax, exhale, allow God's word to speak into our lives. And, so, let's continue the journey. We began the book of Leviticus yesterday. We will continue that journey today. Leviticus 4 and 5 and we’re reading from the Common English Bible this week.

Commentary:

Okay. Well…I got a great idea. Let's talk…let's talk about something we like to talk about. Let's talk about sin. Let's talk about sin, our probably favorite, one of our top favorite subjects to talk about, right? Sin. It’s like a confusing word. We know when we've done but it but it's unclear like exactly what the parameters are. So, let's begin by just trying to come to some sort of maybe common understanding about what we’re even talking about because there’s plenty of definitions for sin and…but…but it seems like from a biblical perspective sin is basically doing what we know we’re not supposed to do before God. And maybe even a better way of understanding that is simply asking ourselves, “could I have done that in the name of Jesus? Like, could I have done that representing the king and the kingdom?” And that makes it stark enough for us to go, “okay, now I know what we’re talkn’ about. Now I have some handholds here to understand what we’re talking about.” God has an order to things. We see it in the Scriptures, but we see it in the natural rhythms of life itself. And this perfect order, like if we were to say, “the way things were supposed to be” or “the way things that…the way things are supposed to be”, like perfectly in order according to the Lord's will, then that would be called shalom. So, in effect. Sin is willingly interrupting shalom, whether in our own lives or whether in the lives of others, but sin is destructive, it leads to destruction because it separates us from God. And, so, if we want to perpetually live separated from God, then we are talking about the worst possible scenario that could ever happen. So, it actually is a big deal, it will kill us and separate us from God. So, kind of like a very, very toxic poison. If you have children you probably…like if they’re young children, like toddlers, you probably don't let them play under the kitchen sink, right? Probably because there's some toxic poison under there of some sort that is to be used for different purposes besides ingesting. And, so, we would want to impress upon our toddler that that's off limits, that opening those cabinets is not allowed and if they persist we might even spank their hands, or we might even put them in a timeout, like we might punish them in some way so that they get clear because if they get into that cabinet and we don't catch it, and they drink that poison it's gonna destroy them. So, hopefully we’re kind of on the same page here. This is largely what we’re talking about in the book of Leviticus today. It just comes in the form of sacrifice, and we just have no way really to relate to animal sacrifice in most of the cultures that we live in. And, so, we come to this point in the Bible, this kind of notorious point in the Bible we’re you’re like, “what is going on here? I don’ relate any of this. What does this have to do with my life? This is so boring. This is like laws and rules and customs that nobody lives by anymore. What's the big deal here?” And, so, this is where a lot of checking out happens and so we miss what's actually going on, a discussion about the results of sin. And as God is weaving this into the culture it's tedious, it's a tedious thing. So, we can just glaze over, yawn, and go, “I don't…we don't have to sacrifice animals. Thank God. Jesus is the last sacrifice” and just brush the whole thing off not understanding that there’s something really really deep going on here. Imagine that you did discover that you were…you were sinning whether unintentionally or whether you absolutely in rebellion did something that you knew you were not supposed to do and that you definitely could not do in the name of God. If…I…I mean I was gonna use like our…our…our pets as an example because that would be the closest example, we can get to to bring context, but let's just skip that. Let’s just say we had goats or we had sheep or whatever and we fed them every day and we talked to them every day and we brushed them and we knew them and they were kind of part of the fabric of our family culture and they were…they were part of the story, like we got milk for our children or we made cheese whatever…whatever…whatever. Imagine that you have to go select one and that you…you have to select the perfect one, like your favorite one, like the best one, the most perfect thing of them all, and you have to take that and you have to put your hand on it before the priest, you have to put your hand on its head, and you gotta take a big blade and you have to slice its throat, right? And you have to bleed the blood out and the life leaves them and then…then it's brought before the altar. Like if you had to do that it would be a stark reminder that sin is costing something. It's costing something beautiful and perfect. It's costing because it's…because it's destroying. And, so, this animal serves as a stand in for what is deserved. So, I don't know how to make this more clear other than like that would be hard to do right? Sin is the blade at your own throat. We’re not beginning to read the story of the bloodthirsty, angry, vengeful God. We’re reading the story of a God who wants us to starkly, clearly understand what will destroy us and separate us from Him, which is the last thing that either one of us wants. It's a deterrent. It's a…it's like a road closed sign - don't go down this path that leads to destruction. And let's remember, nobody had to sacrifice anything if there wasn't sin. And let's remember that that is the work of Christ. And we can think about animal sacrifices as barbaric, but didn’t we just read the crucifixion a couple days ago in the book of Matthew for the first time this year? How much more barbaric can we get? And what we are observing is the last sacrifice for sin once and for all. So, as we continue this journey let's…let’s do…let’s stay rooted to the story. Like, I know we’re reading the law in the book of Leviticus and I know that the law is like I said, it’s not riveting reading, but it is not purposeless reading either. So, let's stay rooted to where the journey is taking us and where God is leading us.

And I use that as a dovetail. Can we talk about something else for a quick minute? I know we’ve been talking already for a few minutes but today…today is a very important day that ties in with all of this, a very important day on the Christian calendar. Today is known as Ash Wednesday and this inaugurates a season known as Lent, a season that leads us right up to the day before Easter, 40 days from now. And most years I point this out and I say generally the same story, which is I didn't grow up knowing anything other than the name Lent. And Ash Wednesday, I mean, I grew up seeing people with black smudges on their foreheads, occasionally moving around a city or a store or whatever, but not really even understanding what the point was. Maybe you have that smudge on your forehead today because you’ve gone to an Ash Wednesday service somewhere or maybe you're familiar with the fact that this day inaugurates a season of repentance and lamentation of considering deeply what sin cost and where it leads. Everything that we just talked about. Jesus becoming that final sacrifice, that it cost the life of the precious beloved Savior is something that we should contemplate and meditate upon because it's our sin. So, for centuries and centuries and centuries brothers and sisters all over the world have entered into this time of lamentation of fasting of repentance. And we may…you know…if we’ve never observed Lent or ever even understood really what the…what's going on, then we may consider…well…it's when you fast something, right? You decide you’re…you’re not gonna eat chocolate. That was like the most popular thing that…that I had I ever heard…like I’m not gonna eat a candy bar, I’m not gonna eat sugar for Lent. Or fasting social media for Lent. Or I'm going to fast certain foods for Lent or certain behaviors for Lent. That's great, that's fine, it's important even. When we fast something that we crave then every time we crave what we are fasting it is an inherent reminder of why we are fasting, and we can press in to that. But I have to tell you, it's maybe even less about fasting candy bars and more about understanding that this is a season in the year that is leading us to resurrection day. And resurrection day represents all things being made new within us again, that the resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead, restored us to God, but sin separates us from God. And, so, really, to embrace Lent is to put everything on the table, not just candy bars. It’s to put everything on the table with open hands and say, “God I embrace this season that is leading me to all things being made new, but a season that reminds me that sin leads to death. And, so, I'm opening my hands and I'm loosening control over my life and saying what is here that is separating me from you? Identify that and show me how to walk away from it. Even things that I think, or thought were good habits and behaviors. Like Anything that is distracting me in some sort of way. I'm…I'm allowing you to take out of my life whatever needs to take…be taken and I'm allowing you to put into my life what needs to be there. And I'm allowing you to rearrange the things that are in my life so that they are aligned with the way that you would have me go in this next season of life.” So, this is a season to slow some things down and not be so frantic, to give some space to contemplation, some space to consideration, quiet consideration about what it took to give us the freedoms that we take for granted and still understanding that sin only leads one place and that is death. So, that's a little about Lent. Maybe you've never observed Lent in any way before, it was a little weird or whatever. Maybe it's not so weird. Maybe that the trajectory that the Christian calendar gives us, to contemplate the…the important parts of our lives helps us after the same fashion that the law that we’re reading the book of Leviticus, where everything that these people do reminds them of something deeper. Lent actually does this. And, so, maybe something to consider as we move through the next weeks toward new life toward resurrection through the end of the winter and moving into the springtime here in the northern hemisphere. Lent let's us sit with where we are and hope for where were going.

Prayer:

Jesus, we thank You. We thank You in advance, we thank You continually for Your sacrifice, for Your love that is so profound that it is really impossible to articulate. We’ve been trying to find the right words for thousands of years and we've said many many beautiful things, but it's still beyond us, Your beautiful life sacrificed in exchange for our rebellion. And as we enter into this season, we want to sit with it. We…we ask Your Holy Spirit to make it stark and clear to us what's happening when we when…when we participate in sin, because when we participate in sin against our brothers and sisters, against You, we are perpetuating darkness, we are bringing the darkness and allowing it to have its way with us. Your sacrifice informs us that that is not how it has to be. So, come Holy Spirit. Show us where we are. Show us what's going on inside. Show us the things that are drawing us away from You and toward destruction. Help us to own these things instead of blaming somebody else or some other set of circumstances. Help us to own our lives, own our sin and repent because we know that we are ashes to ashes and dust to dust. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Song:

Worlds Apart - Jars of Clay

I am the only one to blame for this Somehow it all ends up the same Soaring on the wings of selfish pride I flew too high and like Icarus I collide With a world I try so hard to leave behind To rid myself of all but love, to give and die To turn away and not become Another nail to pierce the skin of One who loves More deeply than the oceans More abundant than the tears Of a world embracing every heartache Can I be the one to sacrifice Or grip the spear and watch the blood and water flow To love you - Take my world apart To need you - I am on my knees To love you - Take my world apart To need you - Broken on my knees All said and done I stand alone Amongst remains of a life I should not own It takes all I am to believe In the mercy that covers me

Did You really have to die for me All I am for all You are What I need and what I believe are worlds apart And I pray To love you - Take my world apart To need you - I am on my knees To love you - Take my world apart To need you - Broken on my knees On my knees I look beyond the empty cross Forgetting what my life has cost Wipe away the crimson stains Dull the nails that still remain More and more I need you now I owe you more each passing hour Battles between grace and pride I gave up not so long ago So steal my heart and take the pain And wash the feet and cleanse my pride Take the selfish, take the weak And all the things I cannot hide Take the beauty, take my tears Sin-soaked heart, make it yours Take my world all apart Take it now, take it now And serve the ones that I despise Speak the words I can't deny Watch the world I used to love Fall to dust and blow away

I look beyond the empty cross Forgetting what my life has cost Wipe away the crimson stains Dull the nails that still remain So steal my heart and take the pain Take the selfish, take the weak And all the things i cannot hide Take the beauty, take my tears Take my world apart, take my world apart I pray, and I pray, and I pray Take my world apart Worlds apart

[hyperewok1]

For Nyomi - Past 12, Present 11, Future 10. For Remi - Past 10, Present 14, Future 1. For Jillian - Past 3, Present 3, Future 8. For Jerrica - Past 11, Present 13, Future 7

Nyomi: What are some of their biggest regrets? Her affair with Orias, among other exs to varying lesser degrees. Not heeding her master's lessons during the war after he died, even if she'll still rationalize most of the actions taken on the battlefield as justified (she might regret the collateral damage of some those decisions, but rationalized as justified nonetheless). Running away after the war and killing Orias when that part of her past caught up to her. Killing a Republic marine commander who tried to betray her to Zakuul for the dubious promise of his troops' safety. A few incidents involving alcohol in between most of those other incidents.

What’s a typical night’s sleep like for them? Better than it used to be in years past, usually, though still occasionally aided by a whiskey nightcap. But most nights she meditates if she needs to relax beforehand, especially during a mission or protracted crisis (fortunately the war in general isn't enough to keep her up at night anymore, as long as that turn of events doesn't get worse). She still doesn't sleep too much and always get up early for morning drills and meditation, even if she's not dealing with the occasional lingering flashbacks during that prior night.

How do they want to be remembered after they die? As a resolute defender who made the best of hard choices in wartime, but also as the kind of Jedi who isn't needed anymore, in her ideal future galaxy where the last traces of the Sith have been eradicated.

Remi: What did they dream of doing when they grew up? How and why did it change, if it did? Remi wanted to go out and see the world in adventuring, which she was fortunately able to do, though she outgrew notions of Big Damn Heroism well before she became a mercenary, which then taught a further dose of the real world to give her some more responsibility and respect for the adventuring life. So, of course, she didn't expect to be chosen by a god like Big Damn Heroes often are in the songs. So things have changed pretty drastically now that she's partly responsible for trying to save the world.

What matters most to them right now? The quest, Alisaie, the rest of the group. In no specific order, given that said order would be very, very difficult to make a call on. Also a bit of vengeance is steadily rising in priority. 

Briefly describe their life in the future, regardless of how far into the future this is. There's some theological talks to be had with an assortment of people and also divine beings at some point in the future. Remi very much views her oath to Tritherion through the specific quest she was given, and then more so once she ended up vowing 'everything else besides that' to Pelor and Ziriel. Remi is very open to continuing the wandering hero thing with Alisaie, if ideally with smaller stakes at hand. But she's not about to try and get out of whatever obligations Ziriel might put on her after the Quest has been fulfilled, though she's certainly hoping that continuing a general do gooding will keep various divinities happy. So she might be doing some more wandering hero-ing, she might be called to another uppercase-Q Quest, and either way she probably won't be putting down her sword any time soon.

Jillian: Describe their family. Who raised them, and who had the most impact on them? Did they have any siblings? Who were they closest to? What were the family dynamics like? Jillian had two perfectly decent parents trying their best to build a life on the rugged frontier after coming from somewhere back east some years prior, which meant she was obliged to help out as soon as she was old enough to walk and do chores, especially as an only child. Her father was probably a little bit more impactful in not obliging the period typical gender roles, since an additional hand to ride around with the herd and shoot at predators was most definitely needed. She was close to both of them, and hadn't been planning to leave anytime soon despite getting married. She and Isaac building a little cabin for themselves somewhere on her parents' land, but otherwise they were still working with each of their families to do communal cattle herding things. After all, her parents taught her to support the people around herself, and that no one should or likely could face the whole world by themselves. (Fortunately she eventually re-learned that lesson in a different context.)

Do they belong to any factions or groups? Why and how did they join, and how do they feel about it? Nope. Being from some frontier Protestant church, she doesn't have any sort of wider institution (and presumably not every Catholic priest is in the know just because they're in the same club) to rely on beyond the general notion of 'I sure hope the preacher in the next town is the good kind of Christian, and also knows about the spooky'. Which is a very interesting part of her dynamic compared to my other assorted paladin-y characters, who have had varying amounts of formal training and memberships in some sort of order to provide them with an education and support system.

Would they become a mentor figure for anyone? Maybe, pending on types of mentoring. Jillian originally felt like she needed to give Aloy a hand or two in learning how to survive in the Wild and also Weird West, though she also underestimated her, especially the bit with the thunder cannon. She and Isaac originally expected that children would come sooner or later, though that's debatable for multiple reasons now. She's certainly not expecting to take any kind of apprentice in terms of smiting, and would be very hesitant to even if she would have benefited greatly from a teacher herself. But she would think that's something between a theoretical Bearer and God, assuming that someone else can be granted the amount of power she has at the same time, or that it could be passed on with her input, etc. (I have yet another partly written thing where she talks to someone more knowledgeable and is told an implication that each blessed person is unique in their own circumstances.)

Jerrica: Were there any events in their childhood that led to phobias or other fears? A general childhood School of Hard Knocks gave her a careful respect for various the dangers of life, between gangsters and city guards and the sea (recent events gave her a definite phobia of the open sea), but nothing genuinely terrified her and she enjoyed the adrenaline of assorted dangers. Cultural superstitions taught her to fear the Outsider and the Void, but that only became genuine once all those ghost stories were proven true. Or at least some of them were, and thus the issue is she doesn't know which ones still aren't true. Part of the fun with her and also Jillian is how much they decidedly do not know about the supernatural things they're obliged to deal with, and thus are liable to jump to conclusions or assume their preconceptions must be true because one other  supernatural thing has been proven true. Fortunately Jillian has at least has seen enough that she doesn't assume everything supernatural is witchcraft (and thus preconceived as dangerous) like Jerrica does.

What’s the worst (in their mind) way their current situation could end up? Other than the fact that she got Mina back and at least initially she seems okay, Jerrica doesn't want to think about how it could get any more worse. She's stuck in Dunwall with an Outsider's Mark and little more than the clothes on her back and the contents of her pockets, most of the whaler crew cult is still alive and actually has an assortment of rich and powerful patrons, and there's also the Abbey to worry about. Having a patron of her own and a couple of fellow 'witches' is certainly helping, but still.

Are their friends still a part of their life? Are there people they are no longer in touch with, or newly important people? Jerrica's certainly planning on killing every last member of that whaling crew regardless (or especially because) of how close she was to some of them. She's also pretty miffed at her parents for giving up Mina, though she'll probably ease off on that in time and find some way to send them money, but she isn't about to reveal herself in the short term, and the long term is still up for debate. She feels honor bound to stick around with Viola and Delphine until their respective vengeances have been satisfied (much less the help she could use with her own), which could all take awhile, and planning all that vengeance is hard enough, much less considering the farther future.

[thelanternlight]

Source

Witchy Asks!

Hello fellow witches! Here’s 50 Witchy Asks written by the-lunar-vixen. Please follow if you enjoy them. Blessed be!

1    What type of witch are you?

A gay one.

2    What deities do you like to work with, if any?

Angels, faery, guides, Mother God, Father God, Christ, saints, and ancestors. I'll also work with deities from various religions as they pertain to a spell or ritual (e.g. I may work with Hathor for a love spell).

3    Have you ever created your own spell?

Absolutely, most of the spellwork I do is original at least to some extent.

4    What’s your favorite time of year?

All the year is beautiful and wonderful for a myriad of reasons but Springtime is sacred to me.

5    Do you have a witch you look up to?

I think I have teachers that come and go in my life. They can be famous or not famous, witches or not, etc. Currently I'm loving Ember Honeyraven.

6    What makes you feel powerful?

Balance and freedom. Knowing that I'm on the side of what's good and right.

7    Do you have a favorite myth?

I'm an author and storyteller so I have many, many favorite myths. Off the top of my head I love the stories of Medusa, Apollo, the Christian Creation myth, Germanic and Scandinavian folklore, Anansi and his stories, Arthurian legends... the list goes on, but yes I LOVE stories. I think have so much meaning and wisdom to share.

8    Which famous/fantasy witch do you relate to the most?

I've grown up watching witches in movies, television, reading about them, etc so I've related to witches one way or another since day one. The Charmed Ones (all four) were role models for me when there were no role models for little, effeminate weirdos like myself as a child. The Sanderson Sisters were person heroes to me and I tried to emulate them from the very first time I saw the film; in fact those three are perhaps the original witches with whom I related the most. Since then there have been SO many wonderful characters in entertainment and in real life that inspired me so incredibly much that they've become a part of me.

9    Are you a wiccan?

I am not.

10   What’s the most unique item you’ve ever used in a spell?

I guess a dildo? I think 'unique' is a relative term.

11   Do you own any witchy books?

Apart from my personal book of spells I've owned many books on witchcraft but have parted ways with the majority of them. I'm currently trying to downsize the amount I have currently as it happens. Anybody want some free books?

12   Which misconception about witches annoys you the most?

That magic isn't real and this is all nonsense. I think it's especially irritating when people of other faiths criticize my own as if a prayer is anything different from an incantation. In fact I would argue that spells direct energy in a more concentrated way to affect change than simply petitioning a deity.

13   Have you ever created your own sigil?

You bet. Sometimes you just need something original and unique for the rite/spell.

14   What element are you most drawn to?

Water.

15   Do you have a familiar?

Some people use the word "familiar" interchangeably with "pet". I do have a pet but she's not my familiar. Other people define "familiar" as "spirit animal" which I'm not entirely sure is correct either. I'm in a bit of a gray area on this subject, but I see question 17 below touches on it as well.

16   Are you a part of a coven?

No. I've tried working with others to do magic but I think the synergy/chemistry has to REALLY be on point to do effective magic. Very often there's a clash of philosophies or practice that sort of spoils things all too easily whereas working alone allows me to concentrate so much better.

17   What’s your spirit animal?

Again this is a vague term that means different things to different people. I consider my spirit animal to be more or less my "familiar". When I was younger I was walking in the woods one evening praying really hard about something that was weighing very heavily on me. Then suddenly I looked up and there was this gorgeous and perfectly white stag looking back at me. He stood there for quite a while before slowly walking off again and the whole situation had such a profound sense of meaning to it. I saw the stag a few more times until finally, late one night while I was walking through the woods by a lake under the glow of a bright full moon I saw the stag one last time on the far side of the water. Ever since then the white stag has been sacred to me. So that's what I consider my spirit animal/familiar. It's a guide of sorts, a good omen, a sign, a representation of Spirit/Soul/God-energy and Self. I identify with it. So that's my spirit animal.

18   Do you do tarot readings?

I do indeed!

19   What’s your favorite witch movie?

I have several, but Hocus Pocus has been my favorite since I was a wee tot.

20   How many crystal do you have?

I actually don't really know. I don't go out and buy crystals but sometimes they come into my life and then go when they've served their purpose. For example, I had a beautiful large quartz that my grandmother had bought me from the nature store when I was a kid. I loved it so much. But one Halloween night I was doing a ritual with a friend of mine in the woods and ended up losing it. Interestingly, that friend was pursuing me romantically unbeknownst to me while also hooking up with the guy I was hooking up with and also really liked (ugh, gay culture). And during that ritual I was speaking with my grandfather (husband to the grandmother who bought me the quartz that I lost that night). So what does all that mean? I have no idea. But I figured all things considered maybe it was just time to let that thing go, along with other things that night.

21   What’s the most unique item on your altar?

I don't really have the privacy to set up an altar but generally I like my "work area" to be neat. Everything has a purpose and a meaning and a function. If I need to burn something I have the item/items, the cauldron, the lighter, oils, and anything else needed for what I'm doing. So nothing in particular stands out as "unique"... unless... Well I do have a small copper cauldron with a handful of dirt from my grandmother's house that I've kept for almost twenty years now. I guess that's unique?

22   Have you ever enchanted anything?

Oh god, yes, lots of things. I've enchanted things so as to protect them, or so that the item will protect someone else or some place... I've enchanted things for love, or to keep something or someone away. I've enchanted things to help in a greater ritual or spell. And so on.

23   What’s your religion?

I was raised Christian Baptist but following one horrible experience after another I've absolutely left that faith well behind long ago. I don't have a particular religion in the sense of organized religion. I'm spiritual and I cast spells. I also believe in science. I don't call myself a witch but I do everything a witch does.

24   Do you have a favorite crystal?

"I could no sooner choose a favorite star in the heavens".

25   What are some of your favorite spells?

Oooo I'd have to say I'm rather partial to love magic. I'm particularly good at it too.

26   What do you like to do to cleanse your space?

After physically cleaning a space I like to use the Violet Fire to cleanse an area as well as cleansing using a broom and a wand and/or athame.

27   When do you feel the most powerful?

When nature and I have our little moments. When the wind is warm and strong. When I'm out in a storm. When I can "feel" things growing during the Spring. The silence of a frozen winter night in the woods... Also when I'm cooking. I fucking LOVE charging a pot of boiling ingredients with good juju.

28   Do other people know you’re a witch?

A few people close to me know I practice witchcraft. Others think I'm just a little bit daffy.

29   Has one of your spells ever gone wrong?

Definitely. Mostly when I was still learning and practicing. Like this one time in sixth grade I cast a spell so that a popular girl in school would like me and we could start dating. Obviously since I was gay I didn't really want to be with her, I only did it because I wanted to be cool (although I did like her and we ended up being fairly good friends until we went to different high schools). That spell backfired and I ended up 1. not getting the result I intended because I was doing it for the wrong reason and simultaneously trying to force another to do something against her will, and 2. I ended up having one shitty fucking love life for the longest time.

30   What outfit makes you feel the most witchy?

Oh I love me a good cape. Even just walking around with a long blanket around me.

31   Have you ever tried astral projection?

Yes, successfully, several times. I like to use it for meditation. Often I go to the artic sea where there's just ocean, ice, and darkness.

32   Do you have any enchanted jewelry?

Probably.

33   What does your altar look like?

A space on the floor where I cast a circle and set up my stuff.

34   Have you ever seen a spirit?

YES! I've seen fairies, spirits, ghosts, shadows, sparks, heard voices, etc.

35   What’s your favorite spell sachet?

I can't say that I have one.

36   Do you have a favorite sigil?

I'm especially fond of the Sigil of Venus.

37   What’s your astrological sign?

Sun sign Virgo, Rising Pisces, Moon in Sagittarius

38   Have you ever interacted with a deity?

Well, yes, of course... per the previous questions.

39   What color are you most drawn to?

Purple.

40   Do you believe in past lives?

Without a doubt.

41   Where do you like to practice your craft?

Wherever I have privacy and calm.

42   What’s your favorite season?

Springtime, as mentioned previously.

43   Have you ever cursed someone?

That's not what my magic is for. Yes I'm familiar with the how-to, but no I don't partake in that kind of thing. The "worst" I've ever done is cast binding spells to keep someone from harming me and/or even coming into my presence.

44   How long have you been a practicing witch?

I'm telling on myself now but I'd say about 24 years practicing in earnest.

45   What drew you to witchcraft?

A natural inclination.

46   In what moon phase do you feel the most powerful?

The Moon itself does not change with the phases of its shadow. The phases are representational, of course, and its symbology can be evocative and meaningful, but otherwise the Moon is what it is. Therefore I'd have to say I personally feel most connected or at least most aware of the Moon when it's full. Else, I would say when it's waxing as that's when most of my spells are done simply because of the type of spell I usually work.

47   What’s your favorite holiday?

Wisterlimas, and then Halloween. Although I love all the holidays.

48   Do you know anything about your past lives? (if you believe in them!)

Yes, wow, I've done extensive work on discovering my past lives. I've lived in San Francisco at the turn of the century, in Scotland, England, France, Japan, China, as a woman, as a man... It's all very fascinating but you can't delve too deep because it's simply not necessary. You're not really *supposed* to know about your past lives. That defeats the purpose of the great forgetting once you're reincarnated. Yes, you can revisit the major themes and lessons learned, but one shouldn't really fret too much about what happened in the past.

49   Have you ever done an energy reading?

Certainly. I think most people do energy readings even when they don't know they're doing it. There's "reading the room" or "getting a bad vibe". There's also reiki and the like. And healing work. And of course magic is all about directing energy so to achieve a specific goal.

50   What time of day do you like to practice your craft?

Usually at night but it has more to do with the individual spell. Astronomical positioning is also important as well as weather, season, personal mood, day of the week, et al.

[albertfinch]

WALKING IN FREEDOM FROM GUILT AND CONDEMNATION

Romans 8:1 - "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

Our captivity to guilt, shame, and condemnation limits us. It keeps us from experiencing everything God wants us to receive by faith.

If we don't know we're clean, we will not have confidence before God to ask for anything in faith, to know that He is the one at work within us to accomplish His desires or to actually believe that we can have the desires of our hearts. Our history of captivity says, "Don't you dare consider yourself righteous, holy, or pure. Don't you remember who you are? Only God is holy and good; you clearly are not. Your dreams, desires, and hopes are all sinful. Don't even think that God might fulfill them."

If we believe our own feelings rather than what Scripture says about us, we continue to live without freedom and without power. We live as if we are behind bars, even after the bars are gone.

THE CURSE OF RELIGION

Religion has told us that righteousness, our sanctification, is a long journey, a ladder to climb in order to attain a certain status that enables us to get answers to our prayers and walk in power. It puts before us an image of sainthood that we can hardly expect to achieve or examples of a "man of God" or "woman of God" that only a few are worthy to be called.

Without walking in perfect holiness, our consciences are being continually bruised. Guilt and condemnation remain a constant battle. This battle consumes our energy and keeps us focused on something other than the faith and works God wants us to walk in, which is why the enemy would love to see us constantly preoccupied with it. He wants us to think we are still engaged in a battle that has already been won for us. This approach to righteousness, which we are always seeking but never quite attaining, is like bars of a cage that keep us longing for what's on the outside and regretting that we are still stuck on the inside. "Maybe one day," we think.

THE ANSWER:

So what is the answer to a conscience weighed down by sin, guilt, and shame? How can we be free from sin and the hangover of guilt? This is where the enemy's great deception comes into play. If we are Believers in Jesus, born by His Spirit, we must believe what He says about us.

The New Testament always refers to Believers as saints and never as sinners? [The closest is Paul's reference to himself as the "chief" of sinners in 1 Timothy 1:15. But, Paul is referring to his old/past life as a persecutor of the Church.] Even Paul's letter to the Corinthians, a church with quite a few problems, addresses them as saints, holy ones, those who are sanctified in Christ (see 1 Corinthians 1:2).

WE ARE RIGHTEOUS IN CHRIST JESUS

2 Corinthians 5:21 - "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

The world may throw accusations of being "holier than thou," but the Bible doesn't. Holier than whom? God freely gives us His righteousness, and no one can get any holier than that. Nor do we have any right to declare ourselves less holy when He has given such a precious and priceless gift. He doesn't want us to be ashamed of ourselves and push the gift away. He wants us to know how absolutely clean and pure we are, to receive His righteousness, explore all of its implications and enjoy it fully.

"I just have a weakness in that area. It's inevitable that I sin." These sorts of comments are dangerous for Christians because they reflect a wrong belief that will cause them to sin by faith! Don't let these lies cross your mind or come through your lips. They are keeping you captive.

It is imperative to respond to these thoughts, feelings, and voices through affirming and meditating on verses of scripture that attack these weaknesses.  The Bible says we need to demolish arguments and everything that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (see 2 Corinthians 10:5).

DECLARE THE FOLLOWING AS YOU GO THROUGHOUT THE DAY:

"Yes, God alone is holy, but it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. I have been raised up with Him to new life. I am now as He is in this world. I have received His forgiveness and carry His righteousness. I am filled with His Spirit. He is my life now. He has declared me holy, and any accusation against me is a lie."

ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY

http://afministry.ning.com/

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

How do I write a world where non-earth religions (I’m creating them) are both diverse, and also common place to see people participate in multiple religions’ festivities or rituals. One, because there’s distance to actual religion and entering common lifestyle. Example like on earth plenty of non Christians are holding Christmas parties, it’s a common thing and not overtly religious. Two, or why not because of the diversity, religions simply mix together. Like on earth why not have fasting like Muslims do simply become a common lifestyle custom alongside Buddhist meditations also being common lifestyle customs. Three. Like two, but why can’t someone on earth be both Muslim and Buddhist?? Does that even make sense?

I only gave you real life religions as example only, for ease of explaining, not at all what I’ll use.

Also in this kind of world, how would you see religious tolerance? Can it honestly really be in harmony? How about the bigots? There’s still got to be some won’t there? Especially when daily lifestyles, or simply in the architecture and design throw all sorts of religion in their faces they can’t avoid unless they live under a rock.

Feral:

I’m not sure what the question is here. Should some people in your world participate in religious festivals that do not align with their beliefs? It’s certainly possible, and it depends on the religion in question. Christianity is inherently an evangelical religion; “witnessing” is the call of every Christian, so Christian religious activities tend to be geared towards welcoming non-believers with the intent on making them believers. Not to mention nearly all Christian festivals were the festivals of other religions that Christians reshaped into their own. And not to mention the commercialization of Christmas specifically has fundamentally changed how Christmas is viewed by Christians and non-Christians alike; I’ve heard it said, and am inclined to believe more or less, that even Christians in Victorian England really didn’t celebrate Christmas until Charles Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol.” So, Christmas, for example, is of such mixed ancestry and exists in such a way as to be welcome for outsiders to “celebrate” without already believing in the underlying religion. It’s very important to keep in mind that this happens in culturally Christian regions or where Christmas has been so commercialized that people couldn’t even tell you its religious significance; and a lot of people of minority religions really fucking hate it - it’s insulting to be told that displaying a hanukiah at work is against company policy because you can’t have anything overtly religious on display when you’re surrounded by Christmas trees and listening to Christmas carols like “Oh Holy Night” piped in over the sound system. So you’ll want to keep in mind that some people will view a religious festival that’s “ubiquitously” celebrated as a dominant religion being forced on them at the expense of their own religious identity. You’ll also likely have religions that don’t proselytize and have absolutely no interest whatsoever in non-believers participating in their holy days - they’re holy! They’re meant for the people who already believe.

I’ve already briefly touched on why some religions would have a problem with non-believers crowding in on their holidays, but it’s worth repeating - not all religions are like Christianity. I’d go so far as to say that no other religions are like Christianity in this particular way. As for your examples regarding “Muslim fasting” and “Buddhist meditation”? People do fast. People do meditate. And it has nothing to do with religion. A lot of what makes “Muslim fasting” Muslim is prayer and dedication to Allah; if you’re removing that religious aspect of it, then you’re just fasting. And fasting is part of a number of religions, so it’s really hard to say which religion it comes from once the religion has been stripped away. As for meditation, meditation gained a lot of traction in the West because of the explosion of yoga. Which is a religious practice in Hinduism and Buddhism (and Jainism). It’s just been stripped of the religion, and like with fasting, meditation is found in many religions around the world; it’s just not that unique.

So, Buddhism is quite famous for being adoptable into other religious practices. Like if you had asked “why can’t someone be Muslim and Hindu?” my answer would have to be a run-down of the many fundamental theological reasons why those two religions are incapable of coinciding in a single person’s beliefs; however, Buddhism or Buddhist practices can be practiced alongside most religions. It’s non-theist, so there’s no creator deity that could contradict the beliefs of monotheists, polytheists, and atheists. Buddhism and Christianity have this whole huge long history, and Buddhism and Catholicism specifically dovetail really nicely together. What you’re talking about is syncretic religion, and it’s pretty common worldwide and throughout history.

The answers to all of those questions depend so intimately on how you build your religions and what their specific beliefs are. Some religions are naturally exclusivist, or you might have soft polytheism. It’s your world and your religions; we cannot make these decisions for you. If you want fundamentalism and bigotry to be a part of your world, then you can build your religions in such a way that those things would naturally occur. If you want harmony across religions to be a part of your world, then you can build your religions in such a way that that would naturally occur. You can even have it both ways! A world is a big place, and how people interact with their religion and the religions of others depends largely on where in the world they are and who else is there with them. A cosmopolitan culture where you have everyone brushing elbows with everyone else will have people developing a tolerance and softening their hardline views that would not occur in a more homogenous society where one religion is dominant.

Delta: A note about bigotry and prejudice: In geopolitics on earth, religious intolerance tends to be about one of two things: first, the majority religion (in the western world, Christianity) feeling compelled to force itself on other populations who do not share their beliefs. Examples of this include the Spanish Inquisition and, to some extent, “evangelical aid.” In Christianity, evangelicalism is a very important concept; sharing the religion is almost as important as a person’s personal faith. Off the top of my head, as Feral discussed, I can’t think of another religion with quite the same focus; so, by eliminating this element of religion, a huge amount of conflict could be eliminated if practitioners weren’t compelled to make all their acquaintances agree with them all the time. (Which is not to say all Christians just walk around proselytizing all the time, but it is fairly common in America; though I understand it to be somewhat less common in Europe, which through both culture and law has become more secular; more on this later.)

Second, it’s also about not wanting to concede power or control. A huge motivating factor behind all the Medieval Inquisitions, including the Spanish Inquisition, was the effort to curb what people in power considered religious heresy or just straight-up religious differences. They thought it was their place to dictate a group’s religious beliefs. Spain in particular was trying to stop the spread of Islam through the growing Ottoman Empire, which comes down to Medieval geopolitics as much as it does the religious differences between Islam and Christianity. Modern Islamophobia and religious conflict falls in this category a lot, too. But if your religions weren’t tied to more extensive geopolitical conflicts, you won’t have politicians using them as leverage to take and keep power like we do, so you could reduce religious tolerance that way, too.

Finally, secularism, which doesn’t directly address your question, but I wanted to mention it. In China, the official Communist Party has been somewhat infamously aggressively secular because religion was seen as a potentially rebellious force. Soviet Russia had similar experiences, both particularly with Muslim populations with whom they have political differences with besides, religion in this instance becoming a motivating factor for rebellion.

This is different from someplace like France, which aims to simply be neutral. Europe, overall, does not share the same public religious zeal that places like Israel, America, and Saudi Arabia have, but that doesn’t mean the conflict isn’t there.

Utuabzu: Something worth considering is are these gods real in the world you’re building? If the gods are demonstrably real, religiousness will be a lot more common and people are probably going to be more accepting of those that worship different deities given that any claims about them being false are easily refuted. Another thing to consider is the difference between philosophy and religion. In the West, Christianity fills both slots for many people (Judaism and Islam also do for some). In much of Asia, however, philosophies like Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Yoga (the Hindu philosophical school, one of six major Hindu schools), etc. are practiced in addition to a more localised traditional religion, often comprised of a local pantheon of gods and some degree of ancestor worship. To some degree, even Christianity is sometimes treated like this, see the Chinese Rites controversy for example. It is entirely possible to have people simultaneously believing in local animistic deities (local forest/mountain/river gods), regional major deities (Sun god, moon god, justice god etc.) and one or more universalist philosophies. Add in the possibility of mystery religions (closed faiths that do not publicise their theologies and often don’t accept converts, see Mithraism, the Orphic Mysteries, or for a modern example, Yazidiism) and ethnic religions that don’t seek or don’t accept converts (see Judaism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism), and it is very possible to have a wide variety of beliefs coexisting in a society. If they’ve been coexisting over a long period, one would generally expect most people to be aware of the major festivals, ceremonies, etc. of each, and while some may be open to all and treated by non-believers as more of a cultural festival (probably the animist ones), others may be believers-only, or invitation-only. Some festivals might be shared by several religions, because they either come from the same root, or both revere the same prophet/saint/whatever, or both worship the same deity, or maybe just had similar festivals happening at roughly the same time and though mutual influence ended up doing them at the same time. It really depends how you’ve built these religions and what their stances on non-believers are, how long they’ve been coexisting and how orthodox/orthopraxic (emphasis on believing the right things vs. emphasis on performing rituals correctly) they are.

[torque-witch]

So, im a baby when it comes to witchy stuff, BUT I am learning! I promise I am! I was/am raised by VERY Christian parents who are very against Wicca or anything not Christian and are also very homophobic. My question is: Do you have any ideas where I am able to continue this practice in secret? I have more stuff than intended and am unable to set up any sort of proper altar or properly learn stuff. There's only so much that watching YouTube and researching can do, without experience. Thanks😊

Hey there!

I grew up with very strict Christian parents too, so I feel for you there. I didn’t really believe that witchcraft was real either, but I still got grounded for roleplaying Harry Potter. It struck me as so odd because obviously no one can cast visual spells out of pieces of wood and cause explosions and all that sort of stuff. So why was it so wrong to pretend that was real? But when you’re 12 you don’t really understand the actual connotations of witchcraft, and no one really wanted to inform me either.

That being said, I didn’t start practicing non Harry Potter witchcraft until I was already moved out of the house and in college, so for that reason I can’t give you definitive fool-proof advice. But, I would like to sort out some of the more practical ideas here.

 -- You do not need an altar in order to practice witchcraft. You don’t really need any specific tools either. All you need is yourself. So in that sense, your practice can always be secretive.

Tools, are, however very helpful for beginners in terms of having something tangible to work with, so I understand the desire for these things.

The other barrier here is, what kind of witchcraft have you been researching? Wicca is very specific in practice, whereas it does generally require tools to perform rituals (although you can get creative about these things like using less obviously witchy items to represent the elements). Traditional witchcraft deals a lot with spirit work and particularly different tools and methods, and general witchcraft can go just about any direction. So giving you really specific advice is a little bit hard without context.

In general though, your secrecy is going to be dependent on your personal safety first. If you run the risk of being caught and punished, if you run the risk of being abandoned, if you run the risk of your parents undermining your personal privacy - I would really think twice before deciding to practice under their roof. It sucks, but these are things that can be out of your control and unfair to your personal beliefs. You may not be able to challenge these things with outside support. 

Some resources and suggestions for you:

1. Practice non-verbal spells

2. Practice one-word spells

3.Explore guided meditation

4. Research plant properties

5. Garden

6. Explore and learn about your local flora and fauna

7. Experiment with sigils and invisible ink

8. Experiment with vision boards (they blend in!)

9. Read fiction books or watch animated shows to spark new ideas about how you can practice witchcraft

10. Keep an online journal you know is safe from prying eyes

11. Construct an altar in a video game like Animal Crossing or Minecraft

12. Learn how to construct altars in astral spaces or meditation spaces

13. Learn how to do dream work

Links to check out:

Practicing in a Small Space

10 Daily Witchy Things You Can Do

Secret Altars

100 Secret Witch Tips

Witchy Uses for your Phone

Sigils for Secrecy

My Privacy will be Respected Sigil

Discreet Masterlist

I do hope that you find the time and space to be able to practice even a little bit, but don’t fret too much. Stay safe. You will have your freedom to practice as you will in due time <3

[tabithalovesstuff]

Witchcraft Asks #1-105

I hardly ever get asks so I'm going to do this all at once, I'll also repub the original after this too, tag you're it!

1. Are you solitary or in a coven? Solitary

2. Do you consider yourself Wiccan, Pagan, witch, or other? Witch, I kind of consider myself pagan too but not as much since I don't consider my practice a religion

3. What is your zodiac sign? Libra sun sign, Sagittarius moon, Virgo Rising

4. Do you have a Patron God/dess? Nope, I don't really believe in any of the Gods lol

5. Do you work with a Pantheon? Nope

6. Do you use tarot, palmistry, or 
any other kind of divination? Tarot, and I want to get into pendulum too but I've been too broke to buy one

7. What are some of your favorite herbs to use in your practice? (if any) I don't practice with herbs 🤭 mostly cause they are hard for me to get lol

8. How would you define your craft? I generalize it by saying I'm a Eclectic Secular Witch that specializes in energy work and tarot

9. Do you curse? If not, do you accept others who do? I don't really do curses, how ever that is because I haven't had the need to do one, I think its fine to do them as long as you know what you are doing

10. How long have you been practicing? Technically I started in Middle school, but I've only truly started to get into it and truly practice for the last 2 years (but if you count when I started then 8 years)

11. Do you currently or have you ever had any familiars? I do not, i have pets they just aren't attracted to magic enough to be a familiar lol

12. Do you believe in Karma or Reincarnation? Yes to both

13. Do you have a magical name? No I don't, I feel like my real name is enough

14. Are you “out of the broom closet”? Technically, I don't try to hide it but I don't talk about it a lot so not a lot of people know I'm a witch.

15. What was the last spell you performed? I know some witches don't count these but I did an emoji spell for the coronavirus

16. Would you consider yourself knowledgeable? More or less, I feel like I'm decently knowledgeable but not enough to be a teacher or leader

17. Do you write your own spells? Yes I do

18. Do you have a book of shadows? If so, how is it written and/or set up? I do have one, its a very personal one that includes more than just magic almost like a journal. I write down information I want to be able to look back at as well as any spells and rituals I write myself and tarot readings for myself, and sometimes dreams.

19. Do you worship nature? I do

20. What is your favorite gemstone? Opal

21. Do you use feathers, claws, fur, pelt, skeletons/bones, or any other animal body part for magical work? No I don't, I wouldn't be against it though

22. Do you have an altar? Yes, kind of. Its really messy rn and doesn't really look like an altar

23. What is your preferred element? Either Earth or Air, I'm always stuck between those two

24. Do you consider yourself an Alchemist? Not at all lol I've never made any sort of potion

25. Are you any other type of magical practitioner besides a witch? Nope, though I do have an interest in cryptozoology but I don't know if that counts

26. What got you interested in witchcraft? Tbh I wanted to turn myself into a mermaid or a wolf (which is why I started in middle school lmao)

27. Have you ever performed a spell or ritual with the company of anyone who was not a witch? No I haven't, just cause I focus so much on energy work, sometime I find other people's energy distracting

28. Have you ever used ouija? Yep, nothing really happened though

29. Do you consider yourself a psychic? Not really, maybe to a certain extent.

30. Do you have a spirit guide? If so, what is it? I feel like a Deer is my spirit guide

31. What is something you wish someone had told you when you first started? I need to lower my expectations and I need to focus on feeling the magic over going through the motions

32. Do you celebrate the Sabbats? If so which one is your favorite? I try to! Doesn't always work out for me lol, I really like both Litha and Samhain

33. Would you ever teach witchcraft to your children? Yes I plan too

34. Do you meditate? Yes, but not as often as I should

35. What is your favorite season? Winter, I feel like all seasons have their perks though and living somewhere with one season would suck ass

36. What is your favorite type of magick to preform? Energy magic, as a witch that doesn't have good access to supplies (and space) it is the easiest for me (I have a post all about energy magic on my profile too)

37. How do you incorporate your spirituality into your daily life? Energy magic makes it really easy, like brushing my teeth or hair, taking a shower, even making food can all have a magical element to it

38. What is your favorite witchy movie? Honestly? Casper Meets Wendy lol, or the Halloweentown movies, or the Twitches movie

39. What is your favorite witchy book, both fiction and non-fiction. Why? I haven't really read very many witchy books ngl

40. What is the first spell you ever preformed? Successful or not. Again, this was back in middle school, I did a spell on the full moon to turn into a werewolf. Obviously not successful

41. What’s the craziest witchcraft-related thing that’s happened to you? I did a cleansing spell on my dorm room my freshman year of college once a week cause I had a toxic ass roommate and she requested a room change before the end of the semester because of a "bad smell" that no one else could smell but her.

42. What is your favourite type of candle to use? I don't use candles, because I'm not allowed to have them in my school dorms, I want to get into candles more though

43. What is your favorite witchy tool? My tarot cards lol

44. Do you or have you ever made your own witchy tools? Nope, I want to though

45. Have you ever worked with any magical creatures such as the fea or spirits? Not really, I dabble in it here and there though. I would love to work with the fae more though

46. Do you practice color magic? Yes, all the time

47. Do you or have you ever had a witchy teacher or mentor of any kind? Nope

48. What is your preferred way of shopping for witchcraft supplies? Online, I mostly use stuff I find around my house or on the ground outside though

49. Do you believe in predestination or fate? Not fully, I think every person is born with a long list of possible fates and the paths you choose in life determines where you end up

50. What do you do to reconnect when you are feeling out of touch with your practice? I try to do free tarot reading on here or meditate more, sometimes looking through my book of shadows helps too

51. Have you ever had any supernatural experiences? Yeah I've had a few

52. What is your biggest witchy pet peeve? When people try to say there is a certain way you have to practice and some forms of witchcraft "aren't real witchcraft" just cause they don't practice in that way

53. Do you like incense? If so what’s your favorite scent? I do, I don't really have a favorite, I like trying a bunch of different kinds at once

54. Do you keep a dream journal of any kind? I kind of write my dreams down in my book of shadows, I don't keep up with it very well though

55. What has been your biggest witchcraft disaster? I can't say if I've ever really had one. I did a job spell and even though I got an interview I didn't get the job, and then was unemployed for a few months until after college semester, then I got hired at my old job. In the spell I said I wanted to be hired somewhere that was as good as my old job so my spell brought me right back to it

56. What has been your biggest witchcraft success? The cleansing ritual story I mentioned above. Once that roommate was out of my life I was so much happier lol.

57. What in your practice do you do that you may feel silly or embarrassed about? Speaking incantations, sometimes I feel like I'm talking to myself lol

58. Do you believe that you can be an atheist, Christian, Muslim or some other faith and still be a witch too? Yes I do, especially because I am an atheist

59. Do you ever feel insecure, unsure or even scared of spell work? Not scared, but definitely unsure and insecure. Spell work is tricky, especially writing my own spells, I feel like I'm not doing them well enough

60. Do you ever hold yourself to a standard in your witchcraft that you feel you may never obtain? Yeah sometimes, I get so bad about actually practicing and I want to get to the point where I practice every day and I always celebrate the Sabbaths and have a wide variety of crystals and learn astrology and so much more

61. What is something witch related that you want right now? I still need to do the money spell I wrote awhile ago, but it has to do with enchanting work uniform and I'm kinda unemployed rn

62. What is your rune of choice? I don't have any experience with runes, sorry lol

63. What is your tarot card of choice? The Star

64. Do you use essential oils? If so what is your favorite? No I dont

65. Have you ever taken any kind of witchcraft or pagan courses? Nope

66. Do you wear pagan jewelry in public? I would if I had any, but I don't lol

67. Have you ever been discriminated against because of your faith or being a witch? Not really, but that's because not a lot of people know about it, I definitely feel like the people that do know don't take it seriously

68. Do you read or subscribe to any pagan magazines? Nope

69. Do you think it’s important to know the history of paganism and witchcraft? I don't think it is. I suggest it definitely but it isn't required. Its a lot if history to break down and you don't need to know the history to practice

70. What are your favorite things about being a witch? I like the feeling of all the things in the world around me, which I feel like you only get from the training you go through when learning witchcraft. I also enjoy the ability to cleanse my environment and myself

71. What are your least favorite things about being a witch? No one really takes you or your craft seriously, and because of some people taking parts of the craft, I feel like being a witch is almost seen as some joke

72. Do you listen to any pagan music? If so who is your favorite singer/band? No I don't, unless you count instrumentals that raise your vibration

73. Do you celebrate the Esbbats? If so, how? I honestly am not sure if I do or not, I don't think I've heard any of the holidays I celebrate called that? I celebrate the pagan wheel of the year holidays so if those are apart of that then yes 😂

74. Do you ever work skyclad? I do sometimes

75. Do you think witchcraft has improved your life? If so, how? Very much so, even though I still struggle with depression and anxiety, witchcraft has made it so much better than it use to be and I feel like I'm happier since I started practicing, my view of life has become more wholesome

76. Where do you draw inspiration from for your practice? Nature mostly

77. Do you believe in ‘fantasy’ creatures? (Unicorns, fairies, elves, gnomes, ghosts, etc) honestly yeah I do, for sure

78. What’s your favorite sigil/symbol? Don't have one

79. Do you use blood magick in your practice? Why or why not? I would, but I haven't in anything so far but that's just cause I haven't felt like a spell needed blood magic

80. Could you ever be in a relationship with someone who doesn’t support your practice? No I couldn't be, I don't want to hide parts of myself from someone that should know me better than anyone else

81. In what area or subject would you most like your craft to grow? I want to explore astrology more and include that more. I also want to do more spell work and ritual work

82. What’s your favorite candle scent? Do you use it in your practice? Again I don't use candles, I do have a air scenter from Bath and Body works and I had a Pumpkin Spice Cupcake scent that was soooo good

83. Do you have a pre-ritual ritual? (I.e. Something you do before rituals to prepare yourself for them). If so what is it? I don't, but that's because I don't really do rituals, I want to get more into them though

84. What real life witch most inspires your practice? I don't know any real life witches tbh

85. What is your favorite method of communicating with deity? I don't work with them so...

86. How do you like to organize all your witchy items and ingredients? I keep them all on the shelf below my altar, my organization skills lack a lot though

87. Do you have any witches in your family that you know of? Not that I know of, my family does come from Ireland though (within the last 3 generations too) so it could be possible

88. How have you created your path? What is unique about it? I created my path through growing up and becoming more aware of my surroundings, and as I matured I understand more and more what witchcraft is really about. And I did it all on my own which is what I think is unique about it

89. Do you feel you have any natural gifts or affinities (premonitions, hearing spirits, etc.) that led you toward the craft? If so what are they? I feel like I am clairvoyant to a certain degree, and I've always had above average visualization skills

90. Do you believe you can initiate yourself or do you have to be initiated by another witch or coven? I feel like you can initiate yourself

91. When you first started out in your path what was the first thing or things you bought? Nothing because I was a child with no money lol

92. What is the most spiritual or magickal place you’ve been? I live in Colorado when I'm not away at school and the entirety of the mountains are pretty magical

93. What’s one piece of advice you’d give someone who is searching for their matron and patron deities? I am definitely not the person for this question lol

94. What techniques do you use to ‘get in the zone’ for meditation? I like to sometimes put on gentle music or nature sounds, quiet every thought that comes into my head

95. Did visualization come easily to you or did you have to practice at it? It came really easily for me, I think its cause I use to read SOOOO much as a kid

96. Do you prefer day or night? Why? Night, idk why I just feel more at peace at Night

97. What do you think is the best time and place to do spell work? This depends on what the spell is, but generally sometime in the evening in my room is the best 😂

98. How did you feel when you cast your first circle? Did you stumble or did it go smoothly? I definitely stumble, I still struggle with casting circles

99. Do you believe witchcraft gets easier with time and practice? I think it does, at least I feel like it comes more naturally with time and practice

100. Do you believe in many gods or one God with many faces? None of the above

101. Do you eat meat, eggs and dairy? Yeah I do, all the time

102. What is your favorite color and why? Green, I've just always loved green since I was a kid idk why

103. What is the one question you get asked most by non-practitioners or non-pagans? How do you usually respond? "What do witches even do?" I usually just say its complicated, because it is complicated lol

104. Which of your five senses would you say is your strongest? I want to say my hearing but I feel like my taste is pretty good too

105. What is a pagan or witchcraft rule that you preach but don’t practice? Always cast a circle and ground yourself before a spell. I am really bad at it lol