#no wiccan bashing in the comments

[musingmelsuinesmelancholy]

Would you say your spiritual beliefs have changed significantly since you first began exploring spirituality? Do you feel your core beliefs have changed or remain the same?

ooooooh hell yea! how horrified my 14yr old self would be at the shit I get up to now xD

I started out as a neo wiccan, super-duper new age. I'm talkin crystals, reiki, "smudging", rede thumping, love and light and pixie farts. There was some animism, I think I've always been one to an extent. I have very distinct memories of being angry at kids for "hurting" the plants outside the church at school and being absolutely horrified to hear that only humans had an immortal soul. Firmly rebuked that idea in my lil ginger gremlin heart, much to the priest's annoyance. Once I found wicca it validated those feelings of mine and allowed me room to explore them, though not to the extent I later would. Given that I was very fluffy when I began, around 2014, I was very much into (for lack of a better word) toxic positivity and I struggled to accept/acknowledge the darker parts of myself, nature, magic, occult/pagan history and spirits. While there was some animism there it was lacking nuance. It made me uncomfortable to try and reconcile this nature-based religion with the violent colonialist history of the country. So I ignored it.

I found, or rather was led to, traditional witchcraft in late 2017. This led to me fully embracing animism as the focus of my craft/spirituality and accepting all those dark things I had shunned. I moved completely away from deity worship. Tho, tbh, I don't think I ever really did believe in The God/Goddess. (I was one of those all gods are The God/dess types) I think it was more that I liked the sound of it, and I agreed that the divine feminine was sorely underappreciated rather than having actual belief/devotion. I was able to reconnect with my Maliseet relatives which was so instrumental in my developing a more nuanced approach to and understanding of animism.

Rather than craft being a religion it was a spiritual practice. A way to connect with the spirits and make things happen. I yearned for power, for witchcraft. It was how I survived living with my father, how I survived my ex's abuse and how I escaped. I was spite, hate and venom. Cursing, binding, dominating, sweetening and twisting.

My local lore as well as the lore of my ancestors' cultures informed my craft. I balked at the idea of worship. A witch makes magic, we do not bow. Why rely on a god when ours is the weaving of fate? What God would want such a cruel and twisted witch anyways... We have our devil(s), land spirits, the dead... our "little gods". I Didn't need or want a Zeus. After all, there was none of that in the lore. Coming from a catholic background I saw people begging God to fix their problems. Issues which, for the most part, could probably be handled pretty easily. I learned to see seeking solace and strength in religion as a kind of weakness.

Once I was free a vacuum was created. I had my relationships with spirit but I felt rather aimless.. I have reverence for my witch father, after all, it was He who opened the door, yet I felt a certain emptiness. There was no need for all this malefica I had been used to.

Eventually She appeared to me; all those hidden parts of myself were brought to light. I felt like a granite pebble. Hard and unyielding, to be worn smooth ever so slowly by the ocean. Try as I may to remain jagged the waves will win; I will be softened/polished... She opened me to love, not philia but rather something rather like agape. If you'll forgive my catholic terminology haha. I still don't understand. As I'm writing this, I'm in disbelief that I actually said that... that I actually truly feel this way now... This is new and not at all where I thought I was headed. I'm embarrassed that I ignored her for SO long and all because I couldn't find mention of what I was seeing/experiencing in folklore. Yet she was there, from the start.

I'm not sure where this will lead nor how it'll shape my craft. I'm exploring (and adoring) gaulpol. I'll have to, like my animism, learn how to practice it in stolen land. I'm unsure of how syncretic my craft will remain, as a large portion of it was informed by new England lore. My ancestors faith has always played a large role in my veneration of them.. then again they sent me messages/omens when I asked for guidance in identifying Her.. so perhaps neither of them will mind haha.

My craft began very terrestrial, and it will continue to be so, but it has become much more focused on water and stars than I would've thought. I always thought of the heavens as more the purview of ceremonial magic. One thing that's stayed 100% consistent is the imposter syndrome and fears/feelings of inadequacy xD

Good lord I fuckin rambled huh? TLDR yea shits changed, always been a dirty soil lovin animist from the sticks. THank you for the ask bud! Sorry about the novel that shit is wicked long

(I hate that when I'm tired the fuckin Mainer comes out)

[thenightling]

About a year ago I joined a Facebook group called "The Trailer Park Pagans are at it again" (now called "The Trailer Pagans are at it again!") and it was funny. It poked fun of racists in Pagan communities such as the antisemitic Asatru, or racists who burn themselves in their meth lab and think it was the work of a vengeful God answering their invocation.

And for a while it was fine. Pagan bigots need to be taken down a peg. There was one "True American Pagans" club being mocked by them that had red, white, and blue pentacles, and were disturbingly exactly like bigoted Southern Christians but were Pagans.

But then "The Trailer Park Pagans are at it again!" started to post out-right hate for any and all Wiccans. And when I commented about something silly I saw posted in a Wiccan group several of them turned on me for simply being IN a Wiccan group and told me I'm "One of the people they mock." Umm... No. I was invited to "The Trailer Park Pagans are at it again!" group when it was originally to attack racists, antisemites and homophobes hiding in Pagan communities, not bashing the Neo Pagan equivalent of hippies. "But they culturally appropriate!" Well, wait until you learn the history of ALL Neo Paganism. There's a reason that "Neo" is there.

Apparently a large faction of them deemed all Wiccans to be "Trailer Park" and don't seem to get that the "I'm Neo Pagan, and if you think Wicca counts as a form of Neo Paganism, you're an idiot" is suspiciously like "Catholics don't count as REAL Christians."

I actually have seen that a lot. "You're ignorant if you think Wicca is Neo Paganism." No, it literally defines neo Paganism. It's a paganism that's new. It's cobbled together from old world beliefs but so are all flavors of Neo Paganism from Asatru to Hermetic. None of them are pure to their original forms. The modern Asatru was conceived in the nineteenth century by a bigot (and that's why so many neo Nazis have latched onto it). Even the Poetic and Prose Eddas aren't complete and were modified by the Christian monks that "preserve" them.

So the group shifted from attacking bigots to attacking Wiccans, and then it drifted to targeting people who claim to have psychic abilities like Empathy. Why? They don't harm anyone. It's true a lot of people I've met who claim to be empaths are actually really, really bad at reading the emotions of others, or even showing compassion but in general their beliefs aren't hurting anyone.

And there's also uncomfortable classism. Where if you are poor and pagan you should be mocked out-of-hand even if you've never wronged anyone in any way and practice accurately to the beliefs you connect to.

And finally, there's now just plain anti-Pagan content all together. Christians joined it just to bash non-Christians, all Pagans, and I dare say, maybe even other Abrahamic religions.

A group that was originally to call out bigots in the Pagan communities has become nothing more than a hate group, itself.

I hadn't left that group because I kept hoping that they would revert to what they had been when I joined them.

But not anymore. I don't think it'll ever be what it once was. I'm going to leave it tonight.

I still believe in the Wiccan Rede. And take seriously the rule "Harm no one."

It feels good to announce my leaving that group. I'm not announcing it in that group. There's really no point. It'll just be mocked. But I did feel I should state it elsewhere and acknowledge how dirty I felt staying in a group that was shifting toward blatant and unjustified hate for "The other."

The group did originally have good intentions of calling out and mocking bigots but I think they lost their original motivation and may not have noticed the drift.

A friend of mine was in a Nordic lore group that went from talking about a shared love of Norse mythology to blatant antisemitism that went unchecked. She finally left when a post about Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology was met with "He culturally appropriated!" and "As a J-- he must have had an ulterior motive!" and "typical zionist stealing from us!" etc, etc. And no mod stepped up to stop it.

That's how the deterioration of The Trailer Park Pagans group felt.

[thesquishywizard]

Has anyone got any good reccomendations for witchy youtube channels?

I kept having to drop people and now I haven’t watched anyone in about six months because I got so annoyed. So if you know anyone who does not do any of the following, please let me know

Appropriate from other religions or cultures that aren’t theirs’

Assume everyone who is watching is a straight girl

Assume everyone watching is wiccan

Bash other religions repeatedly (comments why they personally don’t follow a certain faith is fine)

Encourage unhealthy practices (eos on skin, not seeking medical advice or trying to access therapy)

Thank you!

(This has been in my drafts for nearly a month XD So its more like seven months now)

[reksxia]

OK guys, opinion time. By bashing me and the way I look calling me ugly, and repulsive then saying using the internet as a form of validity if someone is attractive or not. If I was fat n ugly like she is wouldn't I get hate on my Instagram? How come people leave positive comments n like my photos if I'm so ugly? How do you measure the laws of attraction if the internet isn't a way of measuring them? Honest opinions please. #redbubble #graphicdesign #highaf #photography #insta_photo #vaporwave #reddit #tumblr #twitchtv #blogger #vlog #perthphotographer #young_artist_help #young_artist_sharing #young_artist_help #artistsoninstagram #deviantart #perthisok #globe #jeans #doublerainbow #rainbow #deppression #mentalhealth #madartmag #deppressionmemes #deppressing #wise #wiccans

[thenightling]

Re: Castlevania drama

So apparently Confessavia decided to block me because they “looked through” my blog and saw “anti-SJW content” (SJW = Social Justice Warriors, for the handful who don’t know what that means)  and the recent (and ironically 90% joking) feud with Cisphobia and I. 

Edit: You know, if you’re going to block someone without just cause, you probably should check to make sure the incidents you reference weren’t from an event from twelve hours after the blocking.  I and Cisphobia didn’t interact until after you blocked me and it ultimately ended in the meme equivalent of a playful dance off.  But nice effort in seeking reason to justify mistreating someone who never wronged you.  

The blocker also claimed that my response to their post was dramatic (that was the idea... It wasn’t an attack on them, it was just meant to be a little segway into a rant because of other crap I’ve dealt with here on Tumblr...) and they also said that there is... no one on Tumblr who calls Dracula Problematic.

  (Ha-f---king ha!)  REALLY!?  YOU RUN A CASTLEVANIA BLOG AND NEVER SEEN THAT?!?

...HOW?!

There are Once upon a Time blogs that call Rumplestiltskin problematic, even now, even though the series finale literally had him ascend to Heaven! 

There are people on here who call The Shape of Water problematic.  And at least two people who called Daredevil problematic / Ableist (A blind character) for calling another character (who wanted to kill people) “Crazy.”  

This is Tumblr!  Don’t you know EVERYTHING is problematic on here?!

Ironic.  Funny how someone who doesn’t even know me leapt to such incredible conclusions about me as a person and was so swift to judge and condemn me...

_______________________

My response to this:

Um….  okay….

Before you leap to conclusions about a person’s personality, you probably should have noticed Cisphobia and I were mostly just f–king around with each other and joking by the end of the “argument” and responding to each other with anime memes.   And I never actually disagreed with their intent.

However if you had searched my blog and searched under “Fred Saberhagen” or “The Dracula Tape” “Dracula” or even “Castlevania” there are most certainly conversations from people who called Dracula, and depictions of Dracula problematic.

How the Hell do you search my blog and NOT find me defending depictions of Dracula against people who bashed the character?!

Here is a response I was forced to give after someone went on a long rant against The Dracula tape (a novel by the late Fred Saberhagen) and The Dracula series by the late Fred Saberhagen.  This has happened at least three times but this was the first.

https://thenightling.tumblr.com/post/147441223978/addressing-issues-with-the-person-reading-the

(And that was immediately after the late Fred Saberhagen’s widow joined Tumblr so she had to read people bashing her husband’s book series because the narrator was “problematic.”)

There’s another post (which I can’t seem to find right now) where someone bitched about how it must contain the “Sexism of the seventies” in Saberhagen’s The Dracula Tape (because it was published in 1976.  As if people forget when Interview with the vampire was first published...)

And at least one post talking about how “Creepy” it is he watches a teenage girl sleep in An Old Friend of the Family (also by Fred Saberhagen).  Umm...  He’s Dracula, it’s kind of supposed to be a little creepy.  Even if he is narrating and trying to make it sound romantic, you’re supposed to read between the lines because he’s most the most honest of narrators.

Also check out this Casltevania post where this poor person who wanted a fan fic of Dracula and Lisa reunited in the afterlife was told by other “fans’ that he is damned and it’s never gonna happen- they can never be reunited, ever.   They were bullied about it so I stepped in.

https://thenightling.tumblr.com/post/181241099958/he-will-never-alucardtepesfahrenheit-shame-on

There are other Castlevania fans who were asked to mark their Dracula posts with “Child abuse” . There are people who headcanon that Dracula was a very abusive dad in Castlevania because there are some Alucard fans as protective of their cinnamon roll as Marvel Loki fans. (Yes, I once got a request to tag an Odin post as “child abuse... just for mentioning Odin...).    

Here’s my rant response I wrote in regard to some Youtube comments upset that Dracula in Marvel comics “is no longer straight.”

https://thenightling.tumblr.com/post/183667354468/draculas-bisexuality-in-pop-culture

There’s a Mina RPer on here who bashes anyone who happens to like the 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula because she hates the idea of Dracula and Mina as a couple and tries to shame everyone who likes it, even if they know it’s not in the novel.

There was also someone who joined my Gothic horror group on Facebook (A man I’ll call a white knight) who was very protective of Winona Ryder’s Mina to the point of diminishing the character’s agency to “protect” her and insisted the Gary Oldman version of Dracula “took advantage” of Mina and in his protective / defense of Mina went on rants that made her sound like an idiot and damsel who didn’t know what she was doing or under a spell for most of the film and needed a “Good” man to tell her what to do and think, it was offensive in its sexism disguised as feminism. 

Check out how many people comment on clips from the 1992 film or write essays about Dracula and how he’s going to Hell, completely ignoring the DVD commentary...

But sure, no one calls him problematic... ever... that never happens.  Nope.  (Sarcasm intended.) 

And back in 2011 I started to do online RP depictions of Dracula on IMVU and I, myself, dealt with people coming into the RP room with characters who can “sense who is damned and who is saved.”  Not only did I deal with people certain he would burn in eternal Hellfire but when I’d tell them that sort of power to sense eternal damnation or salvation was too extreme I’d get responses of “lol, he’s Dracula!  It’s not like Dracula can be saved.” Arguing with me when I mention that the idea of his soul being saved / him ascending to Heaven was actually an aspect of Stoker’s original novel as Mina talked about saving his soul which brought the other heroes to tears. And so they were relieved by the look of peace on his face when they killed him (in the novel).    

But okay…

Again, all this happened because I made the mistake of agreeing with the post on Confessionvania’s blog and going on a rant in my agreeing with them... Somehow they (and another person) drastically misunderstood I was being supportive in their stance.  There was ...nothing to disagree with...

You (person who blocked me) made a lot of false and wrongful judgements about me but I don’t have the will right now to defend myself. So have a good day.

PS, let it be known I am pro-Trans rights and am a member of the LGBT community (Pan romantic demi).  I’m a woman. I believe in true equality of the sexes as intended by Mary Wollstonecraft.  I’m somewhere between buddhist and Wiccan in my spiritual beliefs. I am what is considered legally blind (poor eyesight) and have no clue what my paternal racial background is.  But I really shouldn’t require a checklist to be considered a human being here on Tumblr. And yet here we are... again...

Funny how someone can read through my blog, decide I’m a bad person, and the reason for my rant was imaginary and miss all of that, as well as several posts that were in defense of Dracula...

Ah, well.  I don’t like defending myself against strangers but I also loathe misinformation.  So here’s the truth as I perceive it, for better or worse.  Take it or leave it. 

Edit: Note.  I just checked the time stamps.  The Castlevania Confessions blog blocked me BEFORE Cisphobia and I played our little trollish game.  So nice try in attempting to use that as the excuse for blocking someone who never wronged you...   I guess you searched my blog for justifications after the fact and didn’t check to see when things were posted when attempting to use them as righteous reasons to mistreat others.

That’s all right.  I have no interest in liars.  And now the world knows you to be one.  That’s justice enough.