Ineffable Experiences.

[Striga]

Amazing what a few raccoons can do...  

[Striga]

Go for the eyes! Go for the eyes!  

[ShadowSharrow]

Boo!  

[Henry Dorsett Case]

I don't know, but it's probably my fault. If you want, I can let go and float away.  

[Fiddlers Green]

Taken from another thread in this guild...

TheDisreputableDog

To me, that doesn't seem to be the point, nor answer Eshmasesh's question.

That quote suggests a few possibilities:

1. The party line that Wicca was invented with Gardner is not correct and it actually is ye Olde Religion.

2. Gardner fudged things in his materials to give himself an air of historical legitimacy.

3. Just because the word Wica was used in occult societies predating Gardner's publications does not necessarily mean that these societies were either Wiccan or carrying forward in unbroken tradition since the Burning Times. After all, Seax-Wica != Wicca despite similar word choice, and the type of people who participated in occult societies were probably also the type who could look up an old, unpopular language and steal a word to describe themselves--or they pulled a word out of a hat and it was only after the fact that its "etymology" was mapped onto any historical language.

I don't have any other resources with which to make a claim as to which of these is most likely.

I find it ironic, that one of the earlier groups of cultural pillagers and salad bar mystics (take what you want and leave the rest, context be damned) has actually managed to spark controversy over legitimacy...
and it is legitimacy in their own b*****d grand-child.

I've tried to keep this in for awhile, but since I am failing, I guess this is the best place to put it...

As much as this is guilt by association, I find the thought of any (philosophical) progeny of one of Crowley's flunkies (Gardner in this case) having legitimacy to be absurd.
The rampant mystical pillaging that Crowley and his fellows in the Golden Dawn committed immediately cause me to suspect anything that any of them, or their disciples may have had a hand in creating... especially when it is trying to be packaged as "Olde Ways" or "Traditional".
These insufferable pseudo-scholars and charlatans already had a long history of plundering traditions and ways and then creating thrice damned Chimerae containing admixtures of every mystical concept that wasn't nailed down (and a few which were).

The very idea... the grand irony... that one of their misbegotten mystics could shepherd someone and aid them in creating the single most contentious topic (regarding legitimacy) of this day causes me no end irritation.

Where were the wagging fingers and inquiring minds when the Hermetic Order was melting down Kabbalah, Gnosticism, "Egyptology", "Norse Traditions", and Roman via Catholic ritual? Where were the accusations when Crowley swiped François Rabelais' Thelema? I mean, honestly, by then, given the mileage Baron Francis Dashwood had put on it for his "Hellfire Club" shouldn't someone have realized that this wasn't mystical innovation... it wasn't an enlightened breakthru... it was just a usefull name for his Yoga/Kabbalah self indulgence kitche? But wait why just steal names, when we can rob dead philosophers? I mean, surely Epicurus isn't using his spare thoughts anymore, he's long dead... Stealing names is a proud tradition of this lot of despoilers.
And with the Victorian habit of plundering other societies (both physically and intellectually) and then applying the "obviously superior" observations and understanding of a pack of spoiled, drug addled white boys who wouldn't know the difference between a Hittite and a Rroma if the two were arguing before them, we can be sure that all of the sources are accurate, and all persons were propperly initiated into the societies they were robbing.

But then again, Unicursal Hexagrams are pretty, and that's what's important when creating something... make it sell. Make it seem beautiful and mysterious, ignite the jealousy and envy of the outsider, all the while playing a half-a** game of pseudo-secrets... Because really, if it were going to be completely secret, how could they have sold their books or rended the donations from the pocket books of the poor saps they were suckering.

Or better yet, to create an new secret society to assuage the bruised ego of someone who got booted out of even the Hermetic Order.

Well if I can't be in your cult, I'll just go and make my own equally perverse and half-assed "mystical and ancient" religion. rolleyes

Todays hatred was brought to you in part by the letter W and the number 43, which has visited upon my nation equally offensive pseudo-scholarship.  

[TheDisreputableDog]

If the occult fad-fans of today do it, why assume their predecessors were immune? Especially with so much evidence to the contrary trend.

---

I guess it's time to change the bulb.  

[ShadowSharrow]

So Wica is all fictional or it is connected back to the prechristian pagan worship.

I Think it is somewhere in between and honestly it is something that you can only figure out for yourself as it is one of the mysteries.  

[Henry Dorsett Case]

You gave up the fight
You left me behind
All that stands forgiven
You'll always be mine
I know that inside
All that stands forgiven...
I want this song played at my funeral, since there's a part of me that knows I will be leaving by my own hand.  

[TheDisreputableDog]

Streetlights go off and on when I walk by or I'm in the area.  

[maenad nuri]

TheDisreputableDog

Streetlights go off and on when I walk by or I'm in the area.

They always do that for me too.  

[Fiddlers Green]

We have above ground power lines, and the vast amount of fog in the area causes them to constantly emit crackles and sputters and a soft bluish glow. 3nodding  

[Striga]

Nobody dances anymore.
Nobody takes chances anymore.

(with the exception of Nuri, of course)  

[Henry Dorsett Case]

The ratchet unlooses the spring for the spinning drum, made dull and not dull to be made BLACK. Covered in the remnants, palms hot and stinging, I feel alive and in control.  

[ShadowSharrow]

Getting your arse pinched by a God!!!  

[TeaDidikai]

Nuri

TheDisreputableDog

Streetlights go off and on when I walk by or I'm in the area.

They always do that for me too.

Likewise.