Jun 19, 2016
Why do none of the local UU churches (all of whom work with the local Pagan communities) have ASL interpreted services >.<
seen from United States
seen from Peru
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Türkiye
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from Switzerland
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Singapore
seen from Norway
seen from Germany
seen from Singapore
seen from Serbia
seen from Serbia
seen from China
seen from Germany
seen from United States
Why do none of the local UU churches (all of whom work with the local Pagan communities) have ASL interpreted services >.<
So, my 5 year anniversary of working with Loki is coming up next month. And I just . . . have so many feels.
On the one hand, I look at all the things I want to learn and go “I am bebeh. I dun no nuffin bout nuffin.”
On the other . . . 5 years. Years.
It’s just so weird to think about.
Dad: “So, what, you’re just going to sit around with your pagan group, summoning Satan, and then you’re going to drive home?”
Me: “I love how you said ‘summoning Satan’ and ‘drive home’ in the same way, as if summoning Satan is just as bad as drunk driving.”
Can we take a moment to appreciate the Heathens who will argue that Eostre was totally a goddess, while simultaneously denouncing Loki as a god.
Pagan question:
Why is it "offensive" to blow out a candle?
People routinely tell me that I'm an "old soul"
That I've "been here a few times before." It's always said in a positive way, as if it's a good thing that my soul is here on this Earth, in another human body. And it's so weird to me. I don't really think too much about reincarnation, and the only thing I really believe about it is that it doesn't happen nearly as often as people think it does. I do, however, think it sounds absolutely horrible. Having to be born, learn to eat, talk, walk. Having to regain my independence again and again. Having to deal with sickness, heartbreak, pain, loss, death over and over. I don't really consider it a compliment that after I died, my gods didn't take me into their halls. I don't really consider it "neat" that my soul didn't go to rest, instead getting shoved into another body and having to live life all over again.
Still pretty miffed about last night.
I’ve been with this group for about three years now. In that three years, I can count on one hand how many times we’ve had a ritual that wasn’t Neo-Wiccan/eclectic. While there’s nothing wrong with Neo-Wicca or eclecticism in and of themselves, going to those rituals can get frustrating and tedious when you’re a single path practitioner. So, it’s kind of a big deal to us (few as we are) when there’s a ritual aimed for a single, particular path.
Now, for every ritual, the officiator (for lack of a better term) tells everyone what’s needed for the ritual itself, and whether to bring your own offerings. If the officiator doesn’t say “bring things for the altar!” the unspoken rule is that you can’t put things on the altar. I have literally never seen this be an issue in ANY Neo-Wiccan/eclectic ritual I have been to -- it’s always been an unspoken and respected rule.
It’s also been an unspoken (and respected rule) that you arrive on time, (we generally put the arrival time an hour before the ritual actually starts,) and that if you’re going to arrive significantly late, you either don’t come at all, or you don’t enter the ritual space.
We have several people in the group who cannot stand for long periods of time, so we always have chairs in the ritual space. However, the only people who sit, are the people who need to. Everyone else always stands.
So. Flash forward to last night. Fakey Bad Odin Man held a Northern Traditional rite for the Rokkr gods. He explained in the group that Norse Paganism and Wicca are different in the way they approach ritual, and gave a few common differences, so people would know what they’re getting into. (Some people refuse to do a ritual where a circle isn’t cast, or the elements aren’t called.) He also explained that he is a devotee of Fenrir, and for rites that involve him, he wears a wolf pelt. He asked that if anyone isn’t comfortable with any of that, to not come.
So, I’m one of the first people to arrive. The woman who hosted (not the officiator) was still getting things together -- making room for the food, setting out seating, ect. There are 4 other people there, and I (despite arriving at least a half hour after them), am the only one who offers to help her with anything. (And she actually accepted my help, so they can’t even use the excuse “we asked and she said no!”)
Some dude shows up, and asks if he can put these circle things (I have no idea what they were) on the altar. FBOM asks if they’re offerings, and the dude says no, “they’re altar decorations.” FBOM tells him no, and the dude, in the most condescending voice, “do you even know what these are?” FBOM replies that he studied ceremonial magic for 15 years, and he knows exactly what they were, and what they do, and they have no place on a Norse altar, for a Norse ritual.
So, by the time we actually get to the ritual, I’m already not happy. FBOM starts the ritual by explaining what is going to happen. I happen to glance around, and notice that there are 4 people (Circle Dude among them) sitting down. Considering there are only about 12 people there, 4 sitting down is pretty noticeable. It’s also people who have never sat at any other ritual. Now, Norse ritual tend to be pretty lax (in comparison to the Neo-Wiccan/eclectic ones I’ve been to), and it’s not generally considered rude to sit during ritual, but it’s still pretty petty, and pretty obvious they’re doing it to be obnoxious.
We get to the part where we give offerings, and this woman comes up and gives an offering to “Love” and goes on this big schpiel about love. I was ticked that she decided to give an offering to a) an abstract fucking concept and b) not a Norse entity at a Norse ritual. But FBOM had said “give offerings to whatever”, and it’s not my ritual, so I bite my tongue. She then decides to give an offering to the “Native Spirits”. Now, everyone had been putting their offerings into a bowl filled with dark beer. FBOM stops her, and asks her to put that offering in a different place.
When the ritual is almost done, people show up and (loudly) come into the ritual space (FBOM said the ritual would start at 7:30, and these people showed up at 8:20).
So, the ritual finally ends, and people bombard FBOM. The person who wanted to honor the Native Spirits got confrontational about not putting the offering in beer, because she “has Indian friends” and therefore “has a different perspective about the alcoholism Indians face” so so should totally “have been allowed to put her offering where she wanted.” She also complained about how “long” it was (our Samhain ritual was almost twice as long as this one, and she had no complaints), and why couldn’t he have just “combined some of the gods together. They’re all the same anyway,” and how we shouldn’t keep “dividing cultures” by making rituals all different.
Someone else kept asking “why do wear a wolf pelt” and when FBOM explained that he considers Fenris among the Rokkr gods, he’s devoted to Fenris, and Fenris is a wolf, so he wears the pelt to honor him. And the guy kept going “okay, but why a *wolf* pelt?”
The people who run the group were also not happy, so there may be some consequences for these people’s behavior but . . . really?
I think my one of my favorite parts of TAC Ostara article was the “Everything about Ostara, save the Christ part, was taken from heathenry”
as if “the Christ part” is some little footnote on the holiday and not, I dunno
the entire fucking point.