Slapdash phrases and Assumptions in the Pagan Scene

[saint dreya]

missmagpie

Assumptions that everyone else is less advanced than you are.

That pisses me off to no end in certain Pagan circles I attend. There are some people who are just so bloody vocal about how spiritual they are you just want to give them a smack upside the head and tell them to shut up and let the intelligent people speak. Really. Some people are just so loud to make up for a small, self-conscious, insecure person inside.

It gets worse when they think they're such a wonderful spiritual guide that they decide you need their help.

i seem to have a problem the other way around. i meet people at the grove and they assume that just because i'm the librarian, i've read every single book in it ( redface a fact i wish to change) and am somehow supremely knowledgeable about everything having to do with New Agey cripe...

and i finally met my first "Starseed" *shudder*  

[Aesi]

Stranger: "You have a lot of demons following you."

Me: "I... wha?"

Or:

Random comment from a moon-bedecked individual on bus: "I can see where people stand on the line between black and white. I think you're more white than black."

Me: "Err.... thanks?"


I can't tell the difference between someone who can actually "see" and someone who can't. The people who made the statements above may have been genuine. But odds are that they were full of crap like 90% of the Wiccans, Pagans, Spiritualists, Satanists, etc., I've known have been.

The former manager of an apartment building I lived in last year was a woman in her seventies. She was devoutly and conservatively Christian. Violently anti-gay, anti-witchcraft, anti-... you get the idea. She liked to tell me how I'm going to hell for playing Final Fantasy, reading Harry Potter, and writing roleplay. One of my roommates, a woman who proclaimed her Asatru connections in the same breath with the duty owed to her boyfriend by a Mafia boss, informed our landlady that she is the descendant of druids! eek Wow... You never saw an old woman make such a flip, lest she break her back. Suddenly, she possessed the power to see spirits, to read Tarot, to make the lights flicker and the water sputter. She started asking my roommate for advice about druidic symbolism and if her ancestors would like this crucifix better than that one or how to use the elements in candlemaking. Being led happily by my twisted roommates into less innocent practices than fake mediumship, she still lectured on how evil my games and books were.

These are two assumptions which bother me the most. 1) That introduction to mysticism or spiritualism automatically grants power and 2) That you are a better person just because you're playing around with bigger things.  

[TeaDidikai]

Aesi

I can't tell the difference between someone who can actually "see" and someone who can't. The people who made the statements above may have been genuine.

Two words to live by when dealing in the Pagan Scene- "Test Them." wink  

[Pelta]

TeaDidikai

Two words to live by when dealing in the Pagan Scene- "Test Them." wink

Surprising how many people do not live by that rule.

The automatic follow-on from the last assumption I posted is the assumption (disgustingly prevalent in a lot of pagan circles in Ireland) that everyone young is fluffy. A lot of people I know complained about this. Granted, it may be based on experience with lots of young fluffies, bu I know plenty of fluffies waaaay older than I am.

So the automatic jump to 'guide the young fluffy' is even more annoying when older people think they're more spiritual than you.

Granted, that hasn't happened in a while. But then again I look a lot older than I am.  

[spaceprincess18]

What I really love are scenarios like this:

Me: Yeah, I'm going to the Pagan Pride fair this weekend.
Other Person: Oh, You're Pagan? Cool, me too, hey can you interpret my dream?...I was walking along and...[insert rediculously long explanation here]...so, what does that mean?
Me: You had too much pork at dinner last night?  

[jaden kendam]

missmagpie

TeaDidikai

Two words to live by when dealing in the Pagan Scene- "Test Them." wink

Surprising how many people do not live by that rule.

The automatic follow-on from the last assumption I posted is the assumption (disgustingly prevalent in a lot of pagan circles in Ireland) that everyone young is fluffy. A lot of people I know complained about this. Granted, it may be based on experience with lots of young fluffies, bu I know plenty of fluffies waaaay older than I am.

So the automatic jump to 'guide the young fluffy' is even more annoying when older people think they're more spiritual than you.

Granted, that hasn't happened in a while. But then again I look a lot older than I am.

Although I am thirty, I still get this s**t. Even after they find out what generation I am. Dumbasses.  

[Fiddlers Green]

Also, the assumption that ( the annonymous, posturing wannabe teacher in question) they are fit to guide any persons on any path, as opposed to just their path, and the ones they have researched.... that grates on me...
Yes, it's great that you are in a well established Kindred, and that you have been Gohdi to Thor for 15 years, but would you kindly cease blathering about what a good Yezdic should be... rolleyes  

[Kuroiban]

Hi, I'm still alive... whee

Anyway...I'm sort of annoyed with how there seems to be nothing by "all knowing mentors" and "please show me attention I'm really cool apprentices". I'll admit being eager to learn more; the desire to expand your understanding of things and your knoweldge is (typically) a high virtue to most (not all) Pagan religions...but not everyone needs to look for someone to go be there Obi-wan...and there certainly are a very small number of Obi-wans!  

[Aesi]

TeaDidikai

Aesi

I can't tell the difference between someone who can actually "see" and someone who can't. The people who made the statements above may have been genuine.

Two words to live by when dealing in the Pagan Scene- "Test Them." wink

sweatdrop Eh, don't really have good guidelines for definining genuine abilities. People who talk up and down about what they can do, particularly of the sort who do so with no provocation or topic intro, bug the crap out of me anyway, so I haven't bothered with trying to separate the ones who at least know what they're saying from those who are trying to look good. It doesn't matter to me if they can actually do anything. Good for them if they can, but doing and saying are different.  

[Henry Dorsett Case]

Aesi

sweatdrop Eh, don't really have good guidelines for definining genuine abilities. People who talk up and down about what they can do, particularly of the sort who do so with no provocation or topic intro, bug the crap out of me anyway, so I haven't bothered with trying to separate the ones who at least know what they're saying from those who are trying to look good. It doesn't matter to me if they can actually do anything. Good for them if they can, but doing and saying are different.

I tend to live by a simple rubric - those who start off conversations with predictions of your doom, the color of your aura, or how powerful they think you are before they even know your name are all fakes until proven otherwise. If they refuse to prove themselves and get offended by challenges, they're fools.

This also explains why I don't have a lot of friends in the pagan scene - the educated pagan scene, yes. The popular pagan scene around me thinks I'm a hidebound fuddy-duddy who's oblivious to their obvious talents. I think I'm going to start pretending to put on a DragonBall Z-style scouter, look at them, and say "My God! Your power level! It's over NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAAAND!"

How many pop-pagans d'you think I can start to get to believe in the Abrahamic Satan simply so they can believe that I am he?  

[TeaDidikai]

Kuroiban

...but not everyone needs to look for someone to go be there Obi-wan...

Bingo. Couldn't agree more.  

[Pelta]

Henry Dorsett Case

I tend to live by a simple rubric - those who start off conversations with predictions of your doom, the color of your aura, or how powerful they think you are before they even know your name are all fakes until proven otherwise. If they refuse to prove themselves and get offended by challenges, they're fools.

I would be put off by anyone who started a conversation with the color of my aura. That's like, "Hello! You have red hair! Can I talk to you about it?" That's the point you start gently sidling away... Weirdo.

Even in experienced pagan circles there tends to be an awkward silence whenever someone mentions something asinine like that.

You also tend to get a lot of awkward silences whenever paganism and magic is brought up amongst younger pagans. Try it some time. I'll bet you can't get them to actually vocalise the word "magic." Some of my friends (though I love them to bits) are like that. It's like The Great Unspoken Word. They get shifty and do conversational backflips to avoid saying it. These aren't really fluffies either; just not quite fully comfortable with themselves yet.  

[jaden kendam]

Aesi

TeaDidikai

Aesi

I can't tell the difference between someone who can actually "see" and someone who can't. The people who made the statements above may have been genuine.

Two words to live by when dealing in the Pagan Scene- "Test Them." wink

sweatdrop Eh, don't really have good guidelines for definining genuine abilities. People who talk up and down about what they can do, particularly of the sort who do so with no provocation or topic intro, bug the crap out of me anyway, so I haven't bothered with trying to separate the ones who at least know what they're saying from those who are trying to look good. It doesn't matter to me if they can actually do anything. Good for them if they can, but doing and saying are different.

Well, as I tell people, if someone gives you a "reading" and it sounds like a bunch of fortune telling, and the only evidence they give of who is giving you the message is saying, "the spirit has a grandmother like feeling", then chances are they do not know jack s**t.
Also, if they tell you that your friend who died in a car accident was not an accidental death and you know who is responsible, then chances are, they are money grubbing liars who are only thought of intelligent because they are famous.

*A random item to the first three people who can tell me who I am talking about*  

[jaden kendam]

missmagpie

Henry Dorsett Case

I tend to live by a simple rubric - those who start off conversations with predictions of your doom, the color of your aura, or how powerful they think you are before they even know your name are all fakes until proven otherwise. If they refuse to prove themselves and get offended by challenges, they're fools.

I would be put off by anyone who started a conversation with the color of my aura. That's like, "Hello! You have red hair! Can I talk to you about it?" That's the point you start gently sidling away... Weirdo.

Even in experienced pagan circles there tends to be an awkward silence whenever someone mentions something asinine like that.

You also tend to get a lot of awkward silences whenever paganism and magic is brought up amongst younger pagans. Try it some time. I'll bet you can't get them to actually vocalise the word "magic." Some of my friends (though I love them to bits) are like that. It's like The Great Unspoken Word. They get shifty and do conversational backflips to avoid saying it. These aren't really fluffies either; just not quite fully comfortable with themselves yet.

I get people who come up to me and ask me if I would like to know why my health is all screwed up. rolleyes  

[Deoridhe]

TeaDidikai

Kuroiban

...but not everyone needs to look for someone to go be there Obi-wan...

Bingo. Couldn't agree more.

A bunch of the pagan books and forums I read when I was but an ickle nub said, "When the student is ready, the teacher will come." After being ready for a long while and no teacher coming, I finally gave up. 3nodding

I mean, it would ne NICE if I could apprentice myself to a vitkar and learn basic bindrunes and rune rows that have demonstrated their unambiguity, but I doubt it'll happen. I may end up BEING that person, however, which is very odd.