Book Studies in Beginners' Groups

I was invited to join a Beginners’ Group on Facebook.  I did so, partly out of curiosity.  It (so far) seems like a sensible group, it’s not filled with pointless memes and the love, light and unicorn farts that so many manage to nauseate me with (not to mention give actual beginners the totally wrong idea).

A book study was raised, with a request for suggestions about which book should be studied.  I said I was being cheeky, but could I suggest mine?  It was passed over for Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham.  The main reason, it was a book that most of us (who weren’t beginners) already owned.

Now, let me make this clear right from the start, I’m not in the least bit offended, I understand the reason for this and this book is one of the most recommended books for beginners.

BUT.

It very quickly became clear, reading through the discussions, that most people had issues with the material.  Some of it quite historical and things that had been building up to rant level just waiting for an outlet for several years.

You see, while I was being cheeky and surreptitiously trying to promote my book (apparently something I don’t do nearly enough of) I also believe that this kind of book study would work best if everyone is somewhat unfamiliar with the material presented.  Make it a level playing field if you like.

When there is a book like Cunningham’s, every one has heard someone else rave over the bits they like, rant about the bits they hate, or just comment that it’s a bit lacking.  The popular opinions as to the worthiness or lack thereof are so well known that I find myself wondering if all of the people commenting are actually commenting on what they found worthy, lacking or thought-provoking or if they’re mindlessly regurgitating other people’s thoughts.

Most people seem to be so worried about the good opinions of random strangers over the internet that they won’t speak out against the flow of ‘popular’ opinion.  Want to test that theory?  Try saying that you’ve found any value in something (anything - even her fiction) written by Silver RavenWolf!

I haven’t bothered to participate in this book study, partly because I had too many other commitments - PaganFest took up most of my time when this book study was beginning - and because I’ve reviewed this book elsewhere already.  I also feel this book has been done to death. 

Now if someone wanted to do a book study on my book, something new and unfamiliar to most people, I’d be rapt.  I’d also be glad to be invited to answer or discuss any criticisms, I promise I won’t get stroppy, the main message of my book is to think for yourself not to become a mindless follower of my philosophies.

Blessings

Debbie

Misused Words

There have been a number of pictures and memes doing the rounds lately that point out commonly misused words or phrases in the English language.

So far, I'd have to say this is my personal favourite:

 

Now, at some stage or another, I'm sure most of us have been guilty of using some words wrongly.  Sometimes it could simply be a case of you've never seen it written down and are going completely by ear.

And sometimes it's just that maybe you didn't pay enough attention in school.

With kids, we're constantly correcting them on their words and while they may get frustrated, we usually manage to stop them saying things like "catched the ball" or "buyed it from the shops".  Our teens we work on the over used words that lose all meaning - "Like, actually, I mean, you know?"

Sometimes with adults it can be a little harder.  But generally, intelligent adults will look it up, feel embarrassed and make a point of not misusing that word in future.  "To be pacific, if it's any constellation to you..."

Why is it so different in spiritual circles?

There are a number of Hindi words that are commonly misused and I know there is no way to change it - that horse has well and truly bolted.  But when I have found myself educated on what the word (and underlying concept) really means, I have made a point of not misusing that word (or concept) any further.  Isn't that the right thing to do?  I don't see the sense in continuing to use it to mean something different "Just because everyone understands what I mean."

Karma.  Most commonly used to mean do bad things and bad things will happen to you.  Sometimes used to mean much the same thing but do bad things in this life and your next life will be crappy.  It turns out that both are somewhat incorrect.

A chap in several groups I frequent was raised Hindi, this is a bugbear of his.  He tirelessly explains (over and over) that it's not that at all.  Karma is tied to Samsara which is a purely Hindi concept.  If you're not Hindu, you don't have Samsara and therefore no Karma.  To break it down even further, it may be your Karma to be a shit in this life, there are lessons for your soul to learn by being a shit.  You might think (as many do) that by not being a shit and doing good things you are earning good karma but this is not the case.  You'd be going against your karma and therefore it would in fact be bad karma.

I really wish I'd saved one of his patient and polite rants to share it verbatim here.

Devas is another misunderstood term.  Deva means 'deity' - the feminine is Devi which means Goddess.  (And a source of amusement for me when my Indian friends couldn't pronounce the 'b' in Debbie and ended up calling me Devi).  This is the root from which Divine, Deity and similar meaning words in many European languages has come from.

In the Vedas and the Upanishads, there are 33 Devas mentioned.  Some are personifications (or deified personifications) of forces of nature and some are (deified) personifications of moral values.  The Vasus are the forces of nature - they are or represent; Earth, Hot Fire, Wind, Space, Eternal, Moon, Sky and Stars.

Somehow in modern usage, deva has come to mean the spirits of the land and plants around you.  I've read of this in books and heard it said (although not that commonly).

Again though, when the error is pointed out the response is "it's a widely used term known to mean this".

At what point does this sort of thing become okay?  If you know a word is incorrect, why would you continue to use it?  Am I a prat for pointing it out or are you the prat for knowingly misusing a word?

Blessings

Debbie

Announcing The Common Sense Spell Book

My book has been published and is available from a number of places.  Shortly, it will be available from Cauldrons - when I get in the copies I had to buy that is - and I will even autograph them if that's what people want :)

It's been an interesting process.  Actually writing the book didn't take very long.  I was inspired and it all flowed from there.  Then I spent several months re-reading, editing, adding snark and removing it again, adding fluff and removing it again, getting excited, getting arrogant, getting depressed and doing my own head in.

Then I sent it to Luana for proof-reading.  It took a while.  I know she was busy and was doing it as a favour but that just about drove me crazy.  I would frequently be thinking that it must have been such total rubbish that she was having to totally rewrite it and was maybe procrastinating because it was so awful or she was dreading telling me how bad it was.  Yes, I am my own worst enemy.

The edits really weren't that bad.  There was some rearranging to do and that was fine, I hadn't really given a lot of thought to the structure.  Some of it was Luana still getting my message across but in a far less brutal way than I'd said it.  Let's face it, I'm generally pretty blunt when I write.  There were also a few things that I'd worded quite vaguely and badly and they needed to be clearer.

But now it's out there and I'm equal parts excited and terrified.  I haven't yet had my first review (although part of the marketing package I've paid for includes several reviews from critics of my choice).  I now have my author's copy and it's strange seeing it all together in actual print.  I'm excited because it's out there.  I'm terrified because it's out there and part of me just wants everyone to love it.  I know that's unrealistic.  I know that I'll ruffle more than a few feathers with my treatment of ethics and witchcraft and that's one of the reasons I thought this book was needed.

It's available from Amazon and Book Depository and the Xlibris website.  I've found it on a few others too, but for me the other most note worthy was on Scribd where it has a preview and is the only place I've found it available as an ebook so far.

I'm open to any reviews.  If it's terrible, tell me and tell me why.  If you like some of it but hate other parts, tell me and tell me why you didn't like those bits.  If you love it, tell me that too.

Blessings

Debbie

Hallowe'en Time Again

*Sigh*

It's Hallowe'en again, with all it's related dramas.  We have Southern Hemisphere Pagans saying it's not Hallowe'en because it's Beltaine.

Well, no, that's not actually true.  Hallowe'en is a Catholic/Christian vigil for the night before All Saints Day.  It's Hallowe'en on October 31st regardless of where in the world you are, it's just not Samhain for us on that date.

Then there are the Pagans who find traditional, historically correct depictions of witches offensive and use Hallowe'en as their soapbox to bleat about it. Let's get real for a moment.  Before the 1950s, when Gardner redefined it, witchcraft meant malicious folk magic.  The cunning folk of the past thousand years that we're trying to reconstruct or emulate would have been horrified at being referred to as "witches".  Many of the spells I've been reading in old books are protection against witchcraft.  Please note - not protection against bad witchcraft, or against evil witchcraft or against black, malicious, malevolent or anything else witchcraft - just protection against witchcraft.

Just because one group have chosen to use a word does not automatically give them the right to redefine it for everyone else or for the rest of history.  It is not religious discrimination or bigotry to depict or define witches as evil, ugly old hags - it's the correct traditional meaning.

Then there is this kind of rubbish - while yes, most of the principles are sound, I'm still struggling with the whole dictating what treats are suitable to give to random children coming to your door.  But I also have issues with this asshattery again while agreeing in principle.

To be honest, I struggle with the whole Trick or Treat thing at Hallowe'en anyway.  Maybe it's because here in New Zealand it's only just starting to be done.  In my 40 years I've seen two trick or treaters come to my door - ever.

My issues are that we spend the entire year teaching our children not to take sweets from strangers, but on that one night, we're supposed to totally contradict ourselves and send them out to demand it?

And then if you don't like what you get for your demands it's okay to commit acts of vandalism?

I find this a bit of an issue.  Maybe it's because I'm the mother of a child on the autism spectrum - I can't have "sometimes" rules.  The rule is either this or it's that.  If there is one loophole then the rule is invalid.  I don't think this kind of consistency is a bad thing for any parent - regardless of whether or not your child is autistic in any way.

I've read the Celtic history and some that were worse than that too.  I know the practical history.  This was the last night of hijinks before Winter had you closed up indoors.  If all of your food for the coming winter wasn't prepared and stored properly (or if you hadn't saved enough) there was a high chance you'd die before spring.

Given that these are no longer issues in our society, is it still a relevant thing to celebrate? 

Given that I've been hearing stories about poisoned or drugged "treats" being handed out by sickos for the last 20 years, is it a safe thing to celebrate?  Even with parental supervision.

Given that we're constantly complaining about the sense of entitlement youth seem to have, that kids today have no manners or respect for anything, why would we encourage it even once a year?

Either way

Happy Hallowe'en :p

Isms and Oppressive Societal Systems

So my day has just been soured with a discussion about the power of -isms.  Racism and sexism to be specific.

When I say soured, well, let me summarise the discussion:

A black man made light-hearted jest about how he'd spent last week surrounded by 8 menstruating women - and survived.

He got a barrage of abuse about how it was a terribly sexist thing to say and perpetuates the oppressive system of gender stereotyping.

I shouldn't have to explain to you how dehumanizing the 'crazy hormonal woman' trope is.. I shouldn't have to tell you that sexism banks on the 'irrationality' of 'hormonal' women in order to make us seem less logical and more emotional, ie more 'crazy'.. It's not funny even when men think it is.. Don't forget that you will never have your hormones used against you to make you seem less sane and capable of rational thought..

I was left looking at this and saying "Wut?!!"

Maybe it's an older woman thing but we use men's hormones against them all the time.  It's a commonly acknowledged 'truth' that men are like linoleum - if you lay them right the first time, you can walk all over them forever.  At least half of the media advertising that is aimed at men is designed purely to get them thinking with the wrong head and if that isn't using their hormones against them what is?  Sex sells and it sells to men most commonly.

It continued and the original chap was cast as the Terrible Misogynist Oppressor making jokes at women's expense - worse than what I've just posted above.  I commented at this point.  I felt that this woman was projecting her own issues and that commenting on a fact doesn't not equal prejudice.

Apparently letting the little -isms slide because it's come from someone who "doesn't really mean it" is what enforces the big -ism mindsets and institutionalises the oppressive systems.  This is offensive to the educated and empowered women out there.

As a strong, educated and empowered woman, I found the rampant sexism in this woman's post to be more offensive than his observation.  Let's be honest, when we're menstruating, women usually are more moody, sometimes irrational and sometimes just downright crazy.  My teenage daughter went through a patch of going into a violent rage with only the merest provocation (and sometimes none at all) when she was pre-menstrual.  Denying these facts - or implying that they're faulty through some sort of "everyone knows" pseudo-science - is to demean us as women.  And the hardest thing for me is that women are the worst for doing it.

I struggle with the way women are expected to be in the workforce.  I remember a woman I worked with who had every fourth Monday off work.  It didn't take a lot of guess work to figure out why, but she was quickly labelled as 'unreliable' and 'needed to get it sorted' and 'it's not an excuse for anything these days, there are all sorts of medicines and products that allow you to just soldier on.'  Why should we?  Why should we pretend that it doesn't happen?  Why are we expected to be the same every day of the month when the truth is that we aren't?

When did we become so de-feminised? (Yes I think I just made up a word).  It's come from many of the feminists, sadly.  To so many in our modern society, equality with men has come to mean we're the same as men, indistinguishable without some sort of genital examination.  That's just not true, it's not fair and it's dishonouring us as women.

This dreadful conversation then went into the realm of totally crazy - she can't be sexist, she's a woman.  Just like black people can't be racist.  I was then further insulted by being told that I was going by dictionary definitions rather than academic ones and better educated than me people understood the underlying truths of those statements in ways that I really was just not smart enough to grasp.  (Not quite those words, but that was the message).

And it went around again to institutionalised -isms and oppressive systems and then white privilege.  And I was insulted based on being a white woman, but it wasn't racist because "people of colour cannot be racist".

What is now being taught in university is that the isms can only be instigated and perpetrated by the Oppressive System, since any examples of said behavior by the oppressed are reactionary.

I bowed out of the conversation at that point.  If this is what Universities are teaching, the Gods help the next generation - they'll need it.  I'm not the oppressor, how is it reactionary when aimed at me?

The "racist and white privilege" complaint brigade (and worse, those who make claims to being educated and smarter than the rest of us) seem to have missed something.  The couple of hundred years of American slavery is apparently the Ultimate Oppressive System.  We can't possibly compare it to many more years of Feudalism or Vassalage or Serfdom or the Pogroms or the Inquisition or the Holocaust.  We can't be playing games of "more persecuted than thou", we can't even see the "ethnic cleansing" between black tribes that is currently happening in Africa as being remotely similar.   No one can complain about any of these things or even discuss them, unless you're part of the oppressed.

All of these isms and this kind of reactionary (or should that be over-reactionary) responses are missing a simple concept.  One simple thing that if people could grasp the world could be a better place.  But they don't, and then we either have the silly overdone histrionics like the conversation that spawned this blog post, or we have apologetics from people who see their own race or gender as the root of all evil and I find myself feeling embarrassed for them whenever they start apologising for how they were born.

What is this simple concept?  We're different and that's okay.  It's okay to notice that we're different and sometimes to celebrate our differences.  It's not okay to treat someone as less than you because of those differences.  Being pro-Women doesn't have to mean being anti-Men.  Being proud of your race doesn't have to mean you're discriminating against or oppressing other races.

I attended a friend's Pacific Island Graduation ceremony.  This was a special occasion held at the Christchurch Town Hall for the Pacific Island students who were graduating from University that year - it was organised by the Pacific Island group on campus and the only requirement for membership to that group was Pacific Island birth or parentage - ie, Samoan, Tongan, Fijian etc.  This was separate from and in addition to the standard graduation ceremony that all students have.

My friend commented that she felt a little sad because if she'd been a white New Zealander she wouldn't have had this extra ceremony.  She also commented that she felt sad that you could never create such a group - it would immediately be labelled as racist and white supremacist and you'd be getting death threats.  And she was right.

But it can't be racist because it's not white folks doing it.  Just like women can't be sexist and other such idiocies.

I read a Ruth Rendell murder mystery.  Race was a huge part of the plot.  There was a comment that has always stuck with me. 

How would you know when someone is truly not racist?  When they're told that the person they want is that black fellow over there and they have to ask which one.  The one with the yellow tie. 

So being not racist is to be colour blind too?  How can you tell the colour of a tie if you can't see skin colour?  Is being aware that there is a different skin colour being discriminatory about it or oppressing that person?

I don't want the world to be Melting Pot like the song says.  I like that we're all different.  I don't see being all the same as a worthy goal for humanity.  If we were all the same the world would be a boring place.

I like that men are men and women are women and all the variations in between.  I like that men and women are different, they look different, they think differently, they have different strengths and weaknesses, they smell different, they often react differently to situations, to threats and to emotional events. 

I like that black people are different to white people and different again to those from Asia and the Pacific Islands and Australian Aborigines.  I like that Germans are so fundamentally different to Italians in so many ways.

I love learning about these differences, I love finding the similarities too but I don't believe that those differences should be ignored or we should pretend those differences don't exist.  I think our differences make us special.  I know that there will always be those who think that different equals a threat, but there are fewer of them now than there were.

It's okay to be different.  It's okay to celebrate those differences.  It's time we did more of it.

Random Spring Musings

Another Body Mind Spirit Festival is over.  As always, I'm left with things to mull over.

Some things have come from the festival and some have come from other things going on in my life right now.

As always, I love to meet the people who read this blog and follow our internet presence.  I love it when those people come up to me and tell me that they liked my post on this or that, or that they bought a Kyphi incense from us through Trade Me and absolutely love it.

I'm always a little surprised by this and I do feel a little weird. When I am writing, I'm sitting at my computer, in my home in the lovely North Canterbury rural countryside.  I have no real idea of audience.  There are all the masses of "internet people" that I'm in contact with.  Some I don't think I'll ever get the opportunity to meet face to face but I still have a relationship with. There are my friends who read, comment (although usually they comment on the links I put up on facebook) and sometimes we chat about my posts over the phone.  But mostly, when I'm writing, I feel as though I'm talking to myself in a thinking aloud kind of way.

So it is a bit weird when someone I've never met before tells me that they were looking forward to meeting me because they follow my stuff.  It's also a little weird when someone that I've gotten to know through Coffee Meets and Festivals asks about how things are going in relation to things they've read in this and my other blog.

It's weird in a good way, but still a bit weird for me.  Sometimes I consider the impact of my words but a lot of the time I really don't.  This was brought home to me when I did a reading for someone I'd read for a year earlier.  She said "I was thinking recently about what you said last time". Well bugger.  That messed with my head for a while.  I talk a lot.  I try to explain and illustrate some of the points I'm trying to make in a reading.  It hadn't occurred to me that the person I'm reading for might take away the things I say and be still pondering them a year later.  That feels like a weight of responsibility in an aspect that I hadn't considered.

The task I believe the Gods have set before me is to make people think for themselves and question everything.  That includes everything I write which leads to the next thing I'm musing about.

My book.

I've gotten Luana's edits back.  I've reviewed them and made some changes and there are some we need to discuss.  The publisher tells me I can have it in time for Christmas if I can get it to them by the end of the month.

I spent a few months staring at my manuscript, making the odd tweak here and there, having a few down moments where I believed it all to be shallow and naive and a few arrogant moments where I insulted anyone who was going to read the book.  I couldn't think of anything to add that needed saying or that would be of value to the overall book.

Until I sent it to Luana.  In the last couple of weeks before she sent it back, I thought of several very salient points that I'd missed.  One I'd always intended to include but somehow had missed it completely and then missed that I missed it.  Others were things I should have thought of, but just didn't.

This makes me nervous about what else I may have forgotten that I'll only think of once it's published.

I'm also part of a group that fights Pagan Plagiarism and Copyright theft.  Recently, one of our members stumbled across a group that had over 400 books for download in their file section.  Every single one was still under copyright.  That this was blatantly illegal and harming the authors was raised with the group.  There were excuses made of "I got all of these as public domain, so it's okay" and "I'm just trying to help people and make things easier" and "so a library is wrong too then?"  Then it turned nasty.

If you aren't sure what constitutes Copyright theft, piracy or fair use; Fyre Lyte Rioter made an excellent blog post explaining it all here.  And it's worth reading through the comments, there is a wealth of links and information as well as common objections too.

In despair, many authors and publishing firms were contacted.  Suddenly group membership swelled with the addition of a lot of well-known Pagan authors.  All of whom explained (patiently to begin with) that this was illegal, these files must be removed or legal action will follow.  Then it got really nasty.  A pirate site was named with the comment "why bother, you can get all of this from here". (I am deliberately NOT naming the site btw).

I went to have a look at this pirate site.  I saw the brag page about all the legal threats they've received, including the copies of all of the cease and desist letters and legal correspondence.  These threats came from Microsoft, Disney and Warner Bros to name just a few.  This site also brags that they have removed 0 torrents and will remove 0 torrents - regardless of the threats.

So I agonised over whether I wanted to expose myself to that kind of thing.  I know I'll never be rich from writing books but to have a little to make it okay for me not to have a 'real job' and not put so much pressure on my husband would be ideal.  If that little is being sucked up because someone can download it for free (and believe that they're doing nothing wrong) where would that leave me?

There is also a feeling of naked vulnerability with publishing.  I write all sorts of things here but I can edit or delete them.  I can refine the post if there's something I've missed or something that is too offensive.  I can tidy up little mistakes, I can make it easier to understand a point that was vague.

I can't do that with a book.  Once it's out there, it's out there.  I can't recall the copies to fix or reword something and I can't remove a chapter that may get taken the wrong way and expose me to abuse.

I want it out there, but I'm feeling a bit afraid too. This is one of my "feel the fear and do it anyway" moments.

The last thing I'm going to ponder out loud here is PaganFest.

As many of you know, we're holding our 'annual' PaganFest in January.  I handed out plenty of fliers to people over the weekend.  My wonderful helpers popped them in bags with sales too.  We all talked to stall holders, to interested people and to anyone who'd listen about PaganFest.

Many people were keen and said they'd be there or they'd try to make it.  Sounds wonderful.  Except this happens every time.  Everyone is really keen when they hear about it.  Everyone tells us that they'll be there, that they can't wait and that this is the kind of thing they'd been wanting to see in our region.  Somehow, that ends up being maybe two new people each time.

There are people who run it down - stuff gets back to me you know.  Of the four people running it down that I can think of off the top of my head:

• One has never been to anything we've run.  Ever.  In fact, I held the first ever conversation I've had with this person yesterday.  I've heard plenty of what they've said about me though.
• One has been to one PaganFest.  The people associated with that person expected us to bend over backwards for them, mucked us around, insulted most of the other attendees and have the cheek to bitch about it afterwards.
• One attended one PaganFest (a different one).  I think she expected to be treated as a celebrity but she took drugs, made a total fool of herself and insulted not only us loudly and repeatedly throughout, but everyone else attending.  And then started shit-stirring and trying to cause trouble afterwards when most people saw through her tragic and pathetic little empire building attempts and games.
• The last became the Festival's pariah at the one PaganFest he attended.  His understanding of social etiquettes was a bit lacking, but his ritual etiquette was non-existent. 

This all reminds me of when I first started to run coffee meets.  I tried Meetup.com, but didn't like the way it worked and then began to run them under the NZ Pagan Centre.  The first coffee meet consisted entirely of myself and four friends in the corner of an empty pub.  The second coffee meet was attended by a local Pagan Shop owner.  She came along because she'd been told that all we did was sit around and backbite everyone else in the community and wanted to sort us out.  Given that the only attendees to the only previous one had been friends, there'd been no chance of eavesdroppers and we ended up making plans for an open sabbat and talking about what our kids had been up to, I was rather baffled and at the time horrified as to how she'd heard what she did.  It was like being in High School again.  Unfounded rumours and needless trouble making.  I'm saddened that adults and alleged Elders are still capable of this kind of behaviour.

We would love to see more people come to our PaganFest but don't want anyone to feel pressured.  Please don't tell me you'll be there if you have no intention of going.  It's your loss, not mine and saying what you think you should say to make me feel better just doesn't work with me.

If you hear stuff about it, check with us.  I can put you in contact with people who have attended every single one and are brutally honest about our failings and our successes.

Blessings

Debbie

You Can Lead a Horse to Water...

For some people, this will be a clarification of my Spiritual Food posts.  I know this will make others angry and offended and that is partly my intent.  If you do happen to find yourself getting angry at what I say, ask yourself why it makes you angry?  Did it touch a nerve?  Did I strike too close to home? Did I challenge your perceptions of how it works or who you are?  Or am I genuinely wrong?

There’s a thing that happens in the Pagan Community.  Actually, there are a couple that I am going to talk about here, but we’ll start with the one that has inspired this post.  Spiritual Trends.  Because of the isolated nature of New Zealand Paganism, we don’t tend to see it often here, but with social media sites, I see it happening overseas.  For a while it was Goetia.  Now it appears to be the African Tribal Religions. 

There is one young woman that frequents several groups and I’ve seen this meme used to describe her (and it fits).  She has also inspired the coining of a term – the Google Pagan.  She flits from one path to another studying and learning (Gotta catch ‘em all!).  She can often be a good indicator of which way the trendy crowd is heading.

This is apparently a reason to point and laugh.

At no time does she put herself out there as an expert in any of these paths or traditions.  If someone says something that doesn’t make sense to her, she asks the right people if it’s correct or to clarify it for her.  Sometimes she will jump on the bandwagon and join in the general ridicule or running down of someone ‘exposed’ as a ‘fraud’ but I put that down to her youth and mob mentality.  Let’s face it, most of us get caught up in that kind of thing at some point.

For this and for the fact that she is young, I applaud her, even if she does grate on my nerves sometimes.  She is making an effort to learn what Spiritual Path best suits her before she settles in and commits to one.  I think that’s a thing worthy of respect.

Now with the trends that come and go, some of it may be the same thing and some of it may be fads and fashion.  Superficially spiritual people will always be around.  It’s not new and I can’t see it ever going away.  Some will find a deep and true connection with that stuff they only found because everyone is into it right now, and some will move on to the next one.

While I understand some of the frustration that the older, more serious practitioners feel, I don’t understand all the moaning and at times outright hostility that they express.  I will have a chuckle at the girl who chose her Deities based on how expensive their altar statues were (seriously, she did and then set herself up as a teacher).  I hear someone refer to Bast as Bastet and it sets my teeth on edge – not everyone is aware of Budge’s mistakes – but I don’t get angry about it.  I don’t see a need to denounce these people as fakes or post angry status updates.

So someone isn’t following your path in the right way, how does that affect you exactly?  You don’t accept it when they express their disapproval of what you do, why should your disapproval of their practices matter?  Does it diminish your own ability to do your thing?  Does it reduce popular opinion of your path?  If so, why does that matter to you?  Are the Gods somehow limited by it?  Is there not enough Deity to go around? Why do you behave as if it’s a threat?

Perhaps it may be that the credibility of your path is threatened?  Why does this matter?  Who is your spirituality for?  Do the opinions of the uneducated masses make that much of a difference to you?  If so, why?  Are you doing your thing for you or for an audience?  Is it to make money off those who haven’t achieved your own lofty heights? 

Are you perhaps offended on your Gods’ behalf?  Do you not think that the Gods are more than capable of taking care of Themselves?  Do you think it’s wise to presume to speak for the Gods?

So anyway, this leads to the next thing that is also part of this thing.  Gurus.  Plastic Tent Shamans.  Psychics with access to Special Secret Angels.  People who claim to be able to teach you to become A Living God.  Or have the secret information to help you Win The Jackpot. Or have The Secret Wisdom Passed Down in Secret For Hundreds Of Years that only special people can learn from them, if they can keep the secret. Or even have The Secret that will totally remake your life.  All for a fee of course.

These people are a problem.  Most are exploiting the gullible.  Some may believe the stuff they teach but I don’t really see that happening.  I see fakes and frauds with their get-rich-quick schemes.

There is obviously a call for it, there are clearly folks in society who fall for this kind of thing or it wouldn’t still be happening.  It’s like the Nigerian money scams, the email lotteries and the cryptic facebook statuses to raise awareness for whatever the cause is this time.  If people didn’t fall for it, they wouldn’t keep doing it.

These people cash in on the latest trend in Spirituality and try to convince you that they can provide you with all you need to achieve perfect happiness, wealth and pull with the opposite sex, with the added bonus of calling it something magical (or majyqual or whatever the latest silly spelling is) or spiritual.

What can you do?  You can warn people, but the ones who are going to take notice are unlikely to be the people who get sucked in.  You can educate, but same again – the ones who are genuinely interested in the education aren’t likely to fall for the hype anyway.

One of these was raised on a group I’m in.  Folks were watching the (2 hour!!) youtube clip of his presentation and pointing out the flaws, inconsistencies and downright idiocies of his teachings.  Mostly (because this is an intelligent group) people were having a laugh at it and taking the piss.  But a few others were getting really worked up about it.  When I raised the points above I heard stories of someone’s uncle who’s been rescued from two cults already and is currently missing and assumed to be in the clutches of yet another nutjob cult.

This was supposed to make me shut up, but I thought it illustrated my point.  This uncle is clearly searching for the ultimate fix, is gullible enough to believe all the hype and rescuing him is not going to make the slightest lick of difference to him – he’s proven that repeatedly.

Does that mean we should sit back and do nothing?  No, I’m not saying that at all.  But you can’t make people see reason, no matter how hard you try.  You can point out the fallacies, you can point out the dangers and warning signs but as with anything in life, the ultimate decision is with the individual.  To a particularly paranoid ‘guru’, this will be fuel.  This illustrates their points about the hidden elite subculture that is trying to keep you all down *coughcoughDavidIckecough*.  People seem to love feeling persecuted in this way.  “It’s all a conspiracy, they’re jealous, they’ll lose their power if everyone can do it so they’re trying to stop me sharing it all with you”.

Seriously though, what can we do?  I’m over all the pointless anger and ineffectual posturing about this kind of thing.  I don’t see that it achieves anything useful.  I’m all for a bit of natural selection but to know something is wrong and to do nothing makes you just as responsible.

Can anyone help?  I’m fresh out of ideas on this one.


I was going to post links to some of these ‘gurus’ websites, but realise it would give them increased traffic and that would be counterproductive.