Being Something Other Than Human

I used to be a member of a Pagan social networking site that I will not name in this post. It was an awful place, and I left. The one good thing that came out of it was meeting by boyfriend.

Anyhell, on this site I encountered many people who claimed to be extra speshul and yuneek. They weren't entirely human; oh, no, they were wolves, fairies, vampires,or otherkin.

Get a fucking grip, people. If you really, truly believe that, then you need serious help. I am sorry, but that is some of the most ridiculous bullshit I've ever heard. Oh, shit, I forgot the dragons. Forgive me.

Please stop confusing a spiritual path with a D & D campaign. Thanks.

I'm sorry for the short post, but I've been very busy lately. Busy, stressed out, and unable to keep normal hours. I shall return shortly with crap Pagan music and other topics.

Auras

The aura is a field of luminous energy that surrounds a living thing. The perception of the aura is often linked to the third eye in Indian spirituality practices. It is also popular with Pagans, Wiccans and New Agers around the world.

Different authors attribute different personality traits to the colors of a person's aura. There For mare many books and websites that claim to teach you to be able to see an aura, but of course many people claim it as a "gift". If you want to get in good with a New Ager or a Pagan, tell him/her that you see his/her aura as orange (confident), emerald green (a healer), or turqoise (another color associated with healers). Watch how quickly they agree with you.

For more color information, visit: http://www.reiki-for-holistic-health.com/auracolormeanings.html

Being Ill

This one is going to get my arse burned if anyone feels like reading and/or commenting, but it's true. Take a survey of the Pagans you know. How many of them suffer from one or more of the following:

Depression
Bipolar Disorder
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Fibromyalgia
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Now how many of those people claim those disorders keep them from holding down a job? How common are those disorders, really? Are they honestly so common that such a large number of Pagans would be suffering from them?

Now think about the people you know who are from other faiths. How many of THOSE people claim to be suffering from one or more of the maladies listed above? Okay, maybe you're saying there are more of 'them' than there are of 'us' so it isn't as easy to find a Hindu with PTSD or a Mormom with Chronic Fatigue.

Now I want you to ask yourself about the diagnoses. How many of the people you know were diagnosed by an actual doctor? No, Dr. Google doesn't count.

Sage Spicerack, you may be saying, do you have a point? Yes, yes I do. I'm writing this because I know an awful lot of self-diagnosed Pagans. What's the problem with wanting to have the most fashionable or the most obscure disease of the day? Well, besides the negative attention seeking, a lot of people in the Pagan community use their ailments as a reason to not seek gainful employment, even if the problem is very slight and totally manageable.

What makes me qualified to write this bitchfest? I was diagnosed BY PROFESSIONALS as having bipolar disorder. Guess what? I take my meds regularly, I need to see my doc sometimes and get things adjusted and yeah, I have bad days. Buuuuut...I have a full-time job. A stressful one, at that. I don't sit around the house dreaming of ways to get on disability. Is this a problem in the Pagan community? Well, it's a problem in the one I came from. What about yours? What are your thoughts on this?

EDIT: I would just like to point out that this article is NOT directed at people who are legitimately ill and who are physically or mentally incapable of holding down a job. This article is directed as the people with whom I have experience - people who try to get on disability because they do not want to work. They will have whatever disease might get them on disability at the time.

It's a Witch Thing

Today's entry is inspired by another blogger I follow. She wrote in her "Stuff Christian Culture Likes" blog that a popular response to good things happening in one's life is met with the phrase "It's a God thing".

Pagans and Wiccans are no different. When good things happen, or when people ask too many questions that the Witch in question cannot answer, one response is "It's a Witch thing. You wouldn't understand." A variation is "It's a Goddess thing."

So, if a spell seems to have worked (because there mustn't be any coincidences), it's a Witch thing. Why do Wiccans and Pagans do the things they do (such as spell casting, working skyclad, hugging trees, etc.)? When people ask about the rede or mixing pantheons, tell 'em, "It's a Witch thing. You wouldn't understand."

On second thought, don't say that. If you don't know the answer to a question, just say so. It doesn't make you any less of a witch, I promise.

Cigarettes

Yup, Pagans love their ciggies. While not all Pagans/Wiccans/etc. smoke, a little time spent at any gathering or moot will prove that many of them do. For a group of people who claim to be into natural remedies and health for their bodies and the planet, an awful lot of Pagans can't resist these air-polluting, lung-soiling little sticks o' fire.

Maybe it's just being so close to the element of fire that is so appealing. Perhaps some people feel they are getting in touch with their faux Native American roots by using a plant that is sacred to so many traditions. Who knows. Just make sure you hold your next open circle outside, weather permitting, so people don't have to keep going outside for a puff.

Most Pagans are careful not to let their butts litter the ground, however, which is more than I can say for most people.

Chakras

I'm going to try to not be so wordy from now on. I've been wanting to talk about chakras for a while, though. I still have more to say, but I didn't want to go off on a huge tangent. Oops.


Chakras are the wheel- or flower-like vortices of energy that, according to traditional Indian medicine, are believed to exist in our bodies from the crown of the head to the tailbone. Each chakra is thought to influence or even govern specific bodily functions. Practitioners of both Hinduism and New Age Spirituality (and many Pagans are more similar to New Agers than either group might admit) believe the chakras interact with the body's ductless endocrine glands and lymphatic system by feeding in good bio-energies and disposing of unwanted bio-energies.

Since there is an incredible amount of chakras from the traditional perspective available on the internet and in the more archaic vessels of information known as books, I will only discuss the Pagan and New Age point of view regarding chakras. For these groups, the chakras are usually flower-shaped, and each chakra is associated with a different color and sound. When a person is suffering from a physical malady or several ailments, it is often thought that the chakras are out of balance. Fortunately, it is easy to re-align one’s chakras, if one is a ‘professional’. The so-called professional may incorporate crystals, lights, and even tuning forks and singing bowls into the therapy, and charge the patient hundreds of dollars.

Check this quote from healing.about.com: When your back or hip gets out of alignment you will make a trip to the chiropractor's office for a spinal adjustment. Similarly, a healer trained in manipulating the energy flow of energy can assist you in getting misaligned chakras back to functioning properly. It may take one or more appointments with a practitioner to get your energy levels up to par.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the chakra system, here is a quick and dirty guide:
Red – Base of the spine. Earth and grounding.

Orange - Spleen: Located just beneath the navel, and related to our sexual and reproductive capacity.
Blockage manifests as emotional problems or sexual guilt. (A person who claims you have blockage in this chakra could possibly be up to no good.)

Yellow – Solar Plexis. Emotions. Blockage manifests as anger or a sense of victimization. (Obviously, no one gets angry for any other reason than a blocked third chakra.)

Green – Heart chakra. Blockage can manifest itself as heart problems or problems with the immune system. It can also manifest as a lack of compassion. (If you’re having heart problems, please see a cardiologist, NOT a chakra ‘specialist’.)
Blue – Throat chakra. If this is blocked, it supposedly means you are not communicating your emotions properly. Apparently it manifests as a slight strangling sensation…

Indigo – Third Eye chakra. The pineal gland. This is where psychic abilities manifest.

Purple – Crown chakra. This is the one that connects us with god.

Do the chakras really exist? Possibly. There is a lot of wisdom in the ancient traditions of Asian cultures and their medical practices. Some therapies have proven effective, such as acupuncture. Still, it is important to remember that physical and mental ailments are not necessarily connected, and not being able to communicate your emotions doesn’t mean your throat chakra is blocked. If someone you know and trust is telling you this, take it with a grain of salt, then see a medical professional, especially if you are experiencing serious health problems, such as heart problems. If you are being given advice on your chakras by someone you have never met, there’s a pretty good chance that person wants to make some money off of you.

Many Pagans like to talk about realigning chakras. Sometimes they incorporate chakras, Reiki, and crystals into one big spiritual mish-mash, no matter what their chosen path. There are plenty of chakra meditations to be found, not only for balancing the energy fields, but for strengthening them or even just learning more about these mysterious energy fields. It's just another way in which people take old knowledge, mix it with a few other facts and a lot of crap, put a modern twist on it, and insist it's part of their Old Ways.

Calling People Fluffy Bunnies

Maybe you were wondering when I would get to this topic. Maybe not. Either way, it's a long overdue topic. I am talking, of course, about a term that I truly despise: fluff(y) bunny.

Many experienced Pagans/Witches/etc. out there (as well as quite a few of those newer to this whole thang) love to throw this term around. What, precisely, does it mean? Do they know? Chances are they do not. They probably have their own definition of the term, which is why it seems to be applied to so many people.

For some, a fluffy bunny is one who believes only in the lighter, whiter, brighter side of the occult. These people think even the darkest goddesses are big sweetie pies who have been misunderstood. Try calling Kali a big sweetie and see what happens. No, seriously, try it. The people who are calling our 'white witches' fluffy bunnies believe that in order to accept the light, you must also embrace the dark. If you can't harm, you can't heal, for example. I can see that. I tend to see everything in shades of gray rather than black and white, but I think that it's important to know about the less kind aspects of spell casting. I mean, if you're going to do it, you should learn everything you possibly can, even if you don't plan on using it. But I digress.

Other sources refer to fluffy bunnies as InstaWiccans - people who pick up one book and automatically think they are experts. The 'natural/hereditary' witches. The ones who call themselves witches or Wiccan/Pagan just to turn a few heads. The ones who are in it just for the fashion. Check out this site for more: http://wicca.timerift.net/fluffy.shtml

One bit of information from that site that I want to stress here is this: Being new does NOT make you a so-called "fluffy bunny". Honestly, calling anyone a fluffy bunny makes you sound pretentious and obnoxious. The people who meet the criteria aggravate me just as much as the people who use that damned term. Instead of rolling your eyes and calling someone a fluffy bunny (because YOU'RE so very experienced and already know everything about light and dark magic, your path, etc.), why don't you set a good example and actually talk to the person and at least attempt to teach him/her something? If the person won't listen, then you can roll your eyes as you're walking away. Or, I don't know, grease her broomstick or something.