#religious resources

[corupriesthood]

Hi! I've followed the priesthoods social media (here and FB) for probably 5 years or more at this point. I live on the East cost so I'm unable to participate in most rituals/gatherings and have found it incredibly hard to find information about particular practices/methodologies/philosophies the priesthood holds. I understand you don't have any training or educational programs specifically for aspiring clergy but what about followers?

Hello! :D It's true we don't provide clergy training, but depending on what kind of information, education, or resources you're looking for more specifically, there are some options:

Irish and other Celtic polytheisms in general? You can check out our resource page on our site or this response post. We base a lot of our own practices on what we can find in more academic folklore, archaeological, and literature studies and then extrapolate from there to accommodate modern needs, limitations, ethics, magical and spiritwork methodologies, etc.

We're currently discussing possibilities for virtual community-oriented events, too, which would allow more verbal conversations about polytheistic practice for those of us who like to geek out about that sort of thing. TBA!

What the Coru itself does? We did publish a very short book on some of the stuff we do, but disclaimer: we're not making any claims that its content is universally applicable or authoritative. It's just what works for us. :) Folks can use as much or as little as they like from it.

Clergy skills? I'm going to insert my personal opinion here and say that the best way to learn clergy skills is to prioritize training (and, if possible, actual experience) less in spiritually-specific skills like divination but firstly in "secular" areas: nonviolent communication skills, peer counseling, domestic violence and sexual assault education, basic mental health first aid, etc. Being an incredible medium or diviner doesn't mean anything if a person doesn't know how to talk to people appropriately or how to manage the power differential and consent issues between provider/client. You'll use peer counseling skills in pastoral service much more often (basically every time you meet with a client or talk to community in a pastoral capacity, really) than you'll use spiritually specific ones like divination.

Macha's Justice is a resource which has some deeper conversation about becoming a spiritual service provider. (Transparency note: MJ is unaffiliated with the Coru, but I'm MJ's founder and later joined the Coru, so this isn't an unbiased recommendation.)

In-person contacts and/or community? If you're looking for specific types of practitioners on the East Coast, we'd be happy to provide the contact info of anyone we happen to know who might be more accessibly closer to you. Drop us a line at info@corupriesthood.com and we can try crowdsourcing some contacts. :)

~ mc

[rrttalexander]

[the-jesus-pill]

You’ve got to forgive yourself for being traumatized and needing to learn how to function again. 

Recovery isn’t always nightmares and depression, it’s forgetting to eat, being scared of what others might see as completely normal things, it’s getting random panic attacks, not knowing how to take care of yourself, not knowing how to live like an adult, even if you’re twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, of feeling like you’re failing to function in a world where everyone seems to have their shit together. 

If you need help, ask for it. Go to forums and ask for advice. Take advantage of community resources. Buy pre-sliced veggies and fruits, eat instant meals if you can’t cook for yourself today. Hire someone. Ask a neighbor for a favor. Buy any item you think might make life easier, even if you feel like you aren’t ‘disabled’ enough to have it. 

Some of the depression posts (ie open your windows, take a shower, go outside, call a friend) are really helpful but they’re not always enough. I’ve found advice for spoonies, people with chronic pain or other disabilities have the best tips because they know what it’s like to be bedridden, out of energy, stuck in a brain fog. 

You may never return back to the energy you had when you were younger and you might always need to use crutches to help you through life. It’s the same with medication. 

Trauma is a real thing that happens to you, it physically alters your brain and it’s alright to have lasting scars. 

You’re not broken, your life is not over and you can still be happy. 

It’s not your fault.

[pink-sugar]

╰┈❥ Jesus Graphics !! ♡₊˚⊹

𖦹  ---- day 3 of @kiochisato's 2k event: edit a non-pink character to be pink 𖦹  ---- art credits: ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ ♡ 𖦹  ---- free to use with credit ! ꒷꒦⋆⑅

[creature-wizard]

If you're trying to get over your fear of Hell, I recommend Bart D. Ehrman's book, Heaven And Hell: A History of the Afterlife. Or if you can't read the book, you can watch his lecture on YouTube. As you learn how all of this stuff organically developed and evolved, you can see that there's no good reason to take anything conservative Christians say about eternal damnation very seriously.

[cute-resource-hoard]

lavender’s 5k event!! @lavendergalactic

Day 1 — A gift for a friend.

— Lace Bordered Mask with Jewels and a Cross!

- ft. an example of it in use ^^

art found here, sorry i was unable to find the original artist.

[abby-howard]

Scarlet Hollow decision tree

People occasionally ask to see a decision tree for Scarlet Hollow, so a while back I put one together for episodes 1-4! It’s not comprehensive, as most scenes at this point have at least some variation due to any number of tracked variables, but it accounts for most of the really major deviations.

For those who don’t want spoilers but would like to hear about how we kinda structure the game: I like to talk about it as more of a braid than a tree, which is not a new concept or anything, but I feel like it helps other narrative designers understand how to limit the absolute vastness that you can get with branching structures. The narrative branches off at decision nodes, but instead of continuing down significantly different routes, it comes back together at key moments. So there’s a single narrative throughline to the game-- events unfold in the town and you witness them in some capacity, but your perspective on them, who you’re with, the options available to you, all these are impacted by other choices you’ve made along the way, including the character traits you chose at the start of the game.

It’s not necessarily easier than doing routes, since it means Tony and I have to keep track of a ridiculous number of little variations including one-off dialogue choices players have made AND steering players to the important narrative moments can be tricky, but I think it makes for an interesting player experience! People get so excited when, say, a line at the end of Episode 4 calls back to something they said when they first met Tabitha at the beginning of Episode 1.

ANYWAY, HUGE SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT, do not proceed if you don’t want to know about basically everything that’s currently in the game!

Things start to get a little hard to read from here on out....

Episode four had to be broken into four images and looks like spaghetti

I’ll make another one of these for Episode 5 after it comes out sometime next year! (I know that’s a bit of a wait but it’ll be worth it >:D)

[soath]

It is genuinely not surprising that Ashton has such a strong The Gods Are Going To Kill Us take on the situation, given what they specifically have seen and what they have to relate to. They're about two weeks out from 1.) getting done violence onto them by an angel and then 2.) being told they have a bit of a dead thing that the gods tried to kill inside them. Then they go and put a lot of effort into getting that dead scrap to wake up (with disastrous consequences illustrating how incredibly volatile its power is). Then they have their only religious friend blow up in front of them. Then they watch a movie trilogy where the only non-god main character is another earth genasi broken-walking-timebomb whose main purpose on the mission is to explode when the gods need him to. They don't see the Lawbearer weep for her son, they only see the Emissary, a child, crying because he's afraid to die. Then they go to Vasselheim, the city of the gods, and see the corpse of a Titan, the dead thing the gods killed, yanked out of the earth and puppeted by one wannabe god and now desecrated in death by the overconfident followers of all the others. They're making something beautiful out of it, they're living on it, and normally he'd be in favor of that but they don't even know its name. They're building new temples on the corpse of the old world, hollowing it out and starting fresh, and Ashton is a part of that old world. They cannot stop being connected to a power the gods seem to, at best, be willing to weaponize. That would make anyone paranoid; given their background it's impressive that he's not more combative, tbh.

[dollologys]

windswept dreams ... ♥︎

columbina rentry ! credit for the graphics is linked through the biggest graphic (click it !) & please do not remove it .

requested by ; no one .

songs/lyrics used ; all my own stuff !

graphics made by ; @horrorification on tumblr . (please message me if you want to be untagged/never tagged again!)

rentry.net/angelic-s ; definitely not mobile friendly i am scared to look at it on my phone ; only looks good on light mode . i know its not versitile but i saw the graphics and couldn't help myself they are so pretty .

[angeltreasure]

If you are on here and discerning religious life, I found a website that has a map of the whole USA with all the cloisters and men’s religious communities in it! I can’t say for certain if it’s 100% accurate to date, but it lets you look at the entire country and provides color codes each community before you on their pin to reveal their name and address. This can be a great way to save time and narrow down your search (or expand it).

[motherlove]

✚ Religious Agere｡ 

A flag for age regressors who are religious. Inclusive of all religions.

[lokavisi]

As we approach Yule and the winter holidays, we see a LOT of false narratives around the origins of the ways in which they're celebrated. And not in the ways you think. This blog lays out sources intelligently and logically to illustrate the facts of our human history, not false sentiments of anti-Christianity/Pagan superiority.

I particularly appreciated this quote in their conclusion: "[I]t’s easy enough to show that the claims are wrong and then in turn that makes it look like Pagans and NeoPagans trade in propaganda, conspiracy theories, and uneducated claims - it makes all of us look bad. But to me, more importantly, when someone is starting out and wants to learn, misinformation builds walls, hurdles, and snares that they won’t know how to navigate at the start of their journey."

So before we go around teaching ourselves and others false information upon which to build our practices and worldviews, let's take the time to educate ourselves, yeah? I admit I have yet to get through *every* source listed in this blog as there are many (I am working on it, though!). I just believe this is vital information and have no desire to wait to share it.

Knowing what we celebrate, how we do it, and the why of it all is important, no matter the origins. Embracing our history and our modern practices need not be mutually exclusive. I hope this information strengthens and blesses your winter practices and celebrations this year. 🌟

[fadinhas]

My Heart Will Always Belong to You

[katetorias]

there is a special place in hell where the people still supporting israeI’s actions will go. how can you sit halfway across the world, in a house with electricity, with water with food, and watch as people get massacred for their land, their attackers making it clear that the intent is to kill them all; soldiers making tiktok dance videos and eating big meals with their acrylic nails, civilians dressing up and mocking dead paIestinians. all the while the people being attacked don’t have anything. only more dead. how can you sit there and still think there is a war being fought here. and now communication from gaza is blocked. this isn’t a battle. it’s a genocide.

supporting it doesn’t make you ignorant, or an asshole. It makes you actually evil.

any pain I can feel from seeing these things is absolutely nothing compared to the people it’s happening to. it is a privilege to be safe enough to write any of this. we need to keep talking about this, we need to see the day where Palestine is free

[fbfh]

omg could you do leo valdez with ocd reader 🥺 ... i love how you write him smmmm!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

OF COURSE BABES. first of all for anyone who doesn't know there are a lot of different types of OCD, and no matter what type or types you have, you could not find someone more supportive than Leo motherfucking Valdez. OCD is hard to have and hard to treat and guess what???? he's gonna learn everything he can about it and work with you to figure out how to help you when things are bad and good and all the little uppy downy in between parts.

adding a read more so this doesn't trigger anyone (cw: mentions of contamination, checking, vague mentions of intrusive thoughts, religious ruminations and magical thinking, please do not engage with this post if it could trigger you!!! I love yall <3)

if you have the contamination kind and you're always stuck feeling like nothing's clean enough, Leo understands. He'll take over for you, he'll cast eyes over things and remind you that you did what you're supposed to do and help distract you with something else. He knows to check dates on the groceries he buys you, knows how to help you feel better without accidentally enabling your compulsions.

if you have checking compulsions like relocking doors and making sure the stove is off and appliances are unplugged, he starts doing the closing up routine at night for you. you have a house rule that you're only allowed to check things two times, then Leo will check once for you if you need him to, then he helps you move onto something else. If you're worried that the stove is on and it's going to burn down the house, he never fails to make you laugh by promising to be the one to deal with all the insurance guys.

"Worst case scenario? We pull off the greatest insurance scam in history and retire early to the Swiss alps."

he says it so casually that it never fails to make you laugh, it takes the sting and the stress from your thoughts a little.

if religious ruminations or magical thinking are more your thing, Leo actually knows exactly what to do about that. he pulls out a golden drachma and cuddles with you while he fidgets with it.

"I can get a direct line to any god. If one of them starts beefing with you, I will personally handle it." he kisses you. he mumbles against your lips, and he smiles when he gets you to smile. "I'll also remove every screw, nut, bolt, and support beam in their entire palace and turn everything into breakaway prop furniture."

when your intrusive thoughts get bad he holds your shaky hands and promises that he won't ever let you do anything that could hurt you or someone else, he goes through your affirmations and grounding exercises with you, he reminds you that thought crimes are not crimes.

no matter what your symptoms are or how bad they get, Leo's love for you and deep knowledge that you are an amazing, wonderful, incredible person never wavers. he loves you. he loves being with you, he loves helping you, he loves being the one to care for you. Leo loves knowing that he's able to support you, to ease your burden and make sure you don't feel like you're alone. and you're never going to be alone, because nothing could ever scare Leo away from you. he just loves you too much.

[creature-wizard]

"I'm in a bad place and need to get out, what can I do?"

I figured I'd make a post with all the resources/tips I've collected to help people get out of shitty situations so far, since it's easier than linking to a bunch of posts each time.

Seek out appropriate resources. This can include support groups (online or offline), helplines, and the like.

If you're in the US, you can call 211 to help you find resources.

Crisis Text Line offers services to the US, Ireland, Canada, and the UK.

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is a US service offers a lot of information for sexual abuse survivors.

The Trevor Lifeline is a service for queer youth in the US.

If you're a minor, you may wish to read How To Escape Abusive Parents: A Guide For Minors.

If you're an adult, you may wish to read How To Escape Abusive Parents: A Guide For Adults.

You might search on Qwant for like something like "resources for people in abuse" or "abuse resources help" or "domestic violence survivors resources".

Ask people for help in finding resources. If you can't find anything on your own, there are other people who know where to direct you. It might take awhile to find what you're looking for, but keep asking.

A WORD OF CAUTION: there are many predatory spiritual groups and conspiracy theorists out there who prey on abuse survivors and mentally ill people. You will often see these people claiming that channeling or hypnosis can help you remember past life memories or repressed traumatic memories. This is nonsense and quackery.

Relevant posts of mine:

Hypnosis is unreliable for memory recovery, and this is one way we know.

False past life memories among the starseed movement

Here’s the trouble with hypnotic regression…

If you're on a website that claims to support cult survivors and you see any of these names in the citations (and make sure you check the citations!), leave immediately - all of these people are far right conspiracy theorists. (Unfortunately, many people today are unwittingly perpetuating the BS of Fritz Springmeier in particular. See this and this for more info on that.)

Change who and what you surround yourself with. Start associating with different people/groups as much as you can. Get hobbies to fill your time. Unfollow blogs that reinforce the beliefs you're trying to get away from, and follow blogs that provide a healthier alternative.

You might follow blogs like:

A Kind Place

Trauma Survivors Helping Trauma Survivors

Compassionate Reminders

Trauma Survivors Activities

Reasons For Hope

Bluest Fluff

If you're trying to rebuild your worldview without conspiratorial/culty elements, go take a look at my Resources page.

Remember that your first job is looking after yourself. You don't owe the group. You aren't responsible for the group, or for anyone in it. It might feel that way, but it's vitally important to acknowledge when you're unqualified or suffering burnout. You might feel like bad things will happen if you leave, but that's a fear, not a fact.

You also don't have to justify your departure to the group. You can just leave. If you feel that you must give a reason, you can offer something as simple as "I need to take some time to focus on my mental health" or "I'm really busy lately and don't have time to spend here." If they throw a fit over this, that's honestly just more proof that you need to get out.

If any practices the group taught you actually helped, you can keep doing them. If doing affirmations helped you, keep doing affirmations. If listening to so-called healing frequencies actually made you feel better, you don't have to stop listening to them. If you were practicing something like the Law of Assumption, you can carry on with a lot of that under a psychological model rather than Neville Goddard's wacky metaphysical model. (See this video for an example.) If it genuinely helps you and doesn't hurt anyone else, by all means, keep doing it.

You might look at my Manifestation Without Woo posts:

Manifestation Without Woo: Changing Your Brain

Manifestation Without Woo: People React To Your Projections, & Your Projections Affect Your Perceptions

Manifestation Without Woo: Setting Reasonable Goals

Manifestation Without Woo: Make It Fun!

Manifestation Without Woo: What If It's Not Working?

Get some critical thinking skills. In order to keep yourself from falling into another bad group, it's important to develop your critical thinking skills.

Learn to apply the Five W's (who, what, when, where, and why) when encountering any information.

Learn common logical fallacies.

Learn the difference between fact, opinion, belief, and prejudice.

Don't equate emotional reactions with some kind of innate or higher moral guidance.

Ask yourself if you're "thinking for yourself" or being led to believe you're thinking for yourself.

Know what emotional manipulation tactics look like.

Watch out for these behaviors in any new group you join.

Yes, there are ways to confirm the age of an old text without having the original text itself.

Learn how propaganda works.

Watch out for these red flags in spiritual groups.

And watch out for this red flag.

Understand that belief doesn't have to be binary.

So yeah, hopefully this'll give folks some actionable advice. I can't promise it's going to help each and every person out there, but hopefully it'll give a lot of you something that will help.