This is a rather serious post, and may feel rather negative. At the end, I'm ranting. Feel free to skip it. Lately, I have a pretty baleful outlook on my fellow Pagans and Witches. Many of them seem awfully dysfunctional -- unable to maintain healthy relationships, support themselves, and to make the attempt to "coexist" with anyone unlike themselves. Com'on, people, you have the gift of powerful magick -- your life should not be a perpetual trainwreck. A caveat -- I am a Libertarian, I believe in second amendment rights, and personal responsibility. I believe rioting and looting is wrong. I believe I have the right to defend my property. Thus, I was "outcast" from a couple of large Pagan groups for voicing my opinions. I was accused of racism -- untrue -- your ancestors' physical adaptive traits have no bearing on your success. Effort and hard work DOES. But people don't wanna hear they've failed -- they want to attribute their personal foibles to someone else.... Meanwhile, I see people accepted into the "community" who break the law, act sexually inappropriate at festivals / gatherings / conventions, and who blatantly steal from others. (Note- it's not a community unless it has a volunteer fire department.) I see many individuals whose relationships are always a mess, whose children have a variety of behavioral problems, who lack discipline, and who are constantly broke -- while buying every book, all the silver jewelry, and who have no inkling what they're gonna do after retirement. I realize there are temporary setbacks. I know these problems exist in other "communities". But Pagans seem to have a disproportionally high instance of screw-up tendencies. Not just mal-adaption to a bad environment -- they just seem to be continually in trouble -- and wanting others to come to their rescue. Usually the very people they're disparaging... It's quite disturbing for me. A friend calls Pagans who are just dabbling in the traditions "PLAYGANS" meaning they just play around, or that they're like the Plague. As may of you are aware, I think doing curse-work is a bad idea. It can spread to others than the target -- which is like a psychopath shooting into a crowd. It rebounds. It's just plain irresponsible. Yet I see a lot of Witches justifying curses and hexes for the smallest, most trivial reasons. It's just wrong. The final straw came when a person who runs a large MI Pagan festival told me that my husband, Dave, is "not a hero -- he just went to Iraq to shoot 'little brown people'." First of all, Dave has been nothing but supporting of various Pagan groups. Financially, physically emotionally. And financially. AND FINANCIALLY. Second, do you know what Dave was doing in the Persian Gulf? Cleaning up a dictators' mess. I give you "the Highway of Death", Route 80 in Kuwait, pictured above and to the left. Saddam Hussein bombed this road as nice, ordinary people were driving to work, school, and the market. Many women and children were killed. See the school bus in the photo? Their corpses lay there for 3 months in the hot sun. Dave recovered their bodies in a manner respectful to Muslims, so the victims could be identified and buried properly. So just shut up, people who are so "woke" they're a joke. I'm sure I'll return to the Pagan "community" after a while -- but first I gotta wash the bad taste of PLAYGANS out of my mouth. |
A.C. Fisher Aldag
Chronicler of Cymric Folklore, Granmother and grouch. Enjoyer of good food. Archives
October 2024
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Publications
Common Magick from Llewellyn Worldwide
Witches & Pagans # 38 & # 39 from BBI Llewellyn's Witches' Companion 2022, 2023 & 2034 from Llewellyn Worldwide Llewellyn's Spell-a-Day Almanac, 2025 from Llewellyn Worldwide |
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