I would be interested in looking at the article. I don't know if I could be counted an expert (13 years as Pagan, maybe I'll get it right someday), but I like reading. I am not so keen on writing, much as I do it all_the_time (I can't stop!).
Fluffies drive me nuts, too. I'm not BTW, but I can only imagine it must be irritating as Hel to deal with the various New Wage $ilver Rabidfluff-wannabe bunnies spreading misinformation, as they do everywhere. (I may be considered "doing it wrong" in my religious tradition for UPG, but I try to make sense and in any case my UPG is informed. YMMV.) :/
I’d love to have you read my stuff! I’ve been following some of your writings online and I’d be honoured to know what you think. As for being a pagan expert, oh yeah, you definitely count in my book. UPGs are useful and good and even more so when we know that is what they are and can state them as such. It may be that all our perceptions of the gods and/or magick started out as UPGs of a sort. :-)
I think the internet is going to pretty much kill paganism and magick, unless those of us who are entrusted with the currents and egregores of these systems start taking stronger measures.No, the bunny forums really are a very tiny fraction of modern paganism -- they're just the most visible online. Which is, remember, a very tiny portion of paganism. I remember looking for pagan online groups from my local area... there aren't any
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“No, the bunny forums really are a very tiny fraction of modern paganism -- they're just the most visible online. Which is, remember, a very tiny portion of paganism. I remember looking for pagan online groups from my local area... there aren't any.”
I know, you are absolutely correct. And you know I know this, after all, my Order has an extremely limited web presence and has decided to go even further underground for a few reasons, as you probably know. I know how things get at this time of year, too, I think it just takes me by surprise at times, especially when I get so used to dealing with pagans on & offline the rest of the time who get it… or try to. (Although I do mostly shelter myself from the fluff.) I think I am just fed up with having my arse chewed by arrogant, pigheaded idiots this past month who insist that there are no right an wrong answers in paganism-the same sort of idiots who inform me that my traditions don’t count because they require hard work & oaths, and that as a Hellenic Polytheist-according to their
( ... )
"I was actually thinking of starting a forum like that, something that long-time, experienced well-rounded pagans and magicians could guide and contribute to and assist with."
I'm not sure whether you remember, but I had a similar wish to set up a site like that. Sort of a magazine with contributions from experienced practitioners of various paths, and a forum that would be a place that people could come to know and trust for reliable, non-fluffy information and guidance. My problem with this is that I'm not well known and trusted enough in my own right to put something like this together on my own. If you are interested in persuing this though, I'd be more than happy to offer my help. I have some experience with forums (php and vb) and my partner is a full-time geek who I might be able to borrow from expertise wise :)
I do remember that you wanted to do this, and I think it is a good idea. One thing that occurred to me is that it could be set up as a beginner’s forum (not wholly for beginners, but majority marketed that way) but the way you could get most of the members is by having them “brought in” by other members in good standing. (At the beginning the “members in good standing” would be those who you find to write and moderate, after the “egregore” builds, the students would bring in others. Make it exclusive and private, but not quite like it is with traditional training-just sell it that way. In other words, appeal to the nature of all these sorts to be “special”, and the site to be unique, and invite them in. (And you are more than welcome to have use of my book reviews; I can give you copies of them non-formatted for LJ for posting purposes
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It isn't "The Firefluff Firefly Academy" is it? That's the one that wants to boot me for the cardinal sin of knowing more than its puppetmaster "Lady" Iris Firemook. (Typo in name deliberate, she is a mook. Listen to her podcasts-she is so smarmy and condescending. She’s like a snake oil salesman dipped in aspartame.)
I wonder why it is that those who insist so loudly and broadly at being addressed by royal titles have done the least to deserve them? Oh that's right, it is part of the act they use to impress the marks. Those who insist upon such appellations forcefully & publicly usually never have what it takes to rightfully earn that title through love, respect, honour, integrity and Will.
Anyway, if there is another online “skool" (other than Firefluff and tWitchskool), I'd be happy to join. I really have worked hard lately on some solid, helpful information and don't screech at the posers the way I do here. :-)
I googled Firefly Academy. Now my head hurts....we teach for eclectic practitioners that may either desire to be solitary or to work with a group. With this considered, each person defines their own exact ethical code by which to live, however guided by the understanding of the Wiccan Rede and other writings. I must mention that I was taught by a coven, yet I do not follow or teach the ways of any specific tradition. You may find that this lecture is tainted with my own beliefs and practices. "Tainted?" Teaching what you know is a "taint
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These schools, we really need more reviews of them like the terrific one that juliaki did with tWitchskool. It might be an idea someday to set up an "online witch/pagan/magick schools" blog and discuss them in depth, and public so prospective studnets can see what is wrong with them. There are so bloody many; I've recently had a tangle with Michael Tsarion's fluffy newage shite and some other silly outfit calling itself the "Esoteric Arcanum". How can there be so much shit in the world?
Honestly, I'm happy that paganism was as public as it was in the mid-90s. Growing up in a small town with nobody with similar views, and in a family not particularly interested in helping me find information on such things, it was a HUGE relief to find I wasn't the only one. I'd honestly rather deal with fluff bunnies than to have numerous perfectly solid people left stranded with no information. I know many, many nonfluffy folks who would be in a much worse place if they hadn't had some starting place.
I miss the old days, and I’m going to sound like a really out of touch, semi-grizzled “old timer” when I say this but I started seeking other pagans in the early and mid-eighties. It was harder back then, but not as hard as it was for earlier generations- by my time there were some fantastic books as foundation sources, there were a few occult bookstores in my town, there were magazines and mail contact lists and I had the blessing of my parents and extended family to openly pursue these things. On down side, it still wasn’t as wide-spread as it is now, so to find that “right” group or “correct” materials, you had to really scour high & low. Technically, that is the same today, but with the way communications & travel are so open now, and especially with the internet, it is a different beast. Back then, we worked & studied alone often, that was given, but we knew that they way to learn properly was to do so in a like-minded small community of others. Today, there is a glut of information, most of it bad, so people drown in fluff. Plus
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I left “public” paganism in the mid nineties and went into private Golden Dawn lodge work as I was getting very put off by the attitudes of the people that were approaching the coven and the study group. Paganism and magick were no longer goals for those with a burning passion; they had become stops on the Contiki Tour of Cultural & Spiritual Oddities, a rite of passage for those people who embrace “alternative” as a fad or fashion. One especially funny thing I remember, my leaving the coven coincided with touching my first $RW book (To Ride a Silver Broomstick, IIRC). I’d never even seriously looked at $RW books in the newage smelleries as potential resources or as possible library additions, I’d changed course for books on “high magick” and the like. If you’d asked me then, I wouldn’t have been able to elucidate the issue I had with the $RW book, it just put me off, vehemently. (Even though I was a 2nd degree witch at that point, my knowledge of Wicca was not the best, and even my knowledge about other paganisms and
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Yeppers, I've been using lupabitch's excellent site as a resource; that was where I found some of the magazines. :-)
I'm thrilled that you are willing to check out my little article, that means a lot! I am just wrapping up the last section and need to do a bibliography; I also have some graphics I created for it that just need a slight "finishing touch" or two. I'm just too utterly useful these days! ;-)
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Fluffies drive me nuts, too. I'm not BTW, but I can only imagine it must be irritating as Hel to deal with the various New Wage $ilver Rabidfluff-wannabe bunnies spreading misinformation, as they do everywhere. (I may be considered "doing it wrong" in my religious tradition for UPG, but I try to make sense and in any case my UPG is informed. YMMV.) :/
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I know, you are absolutely correct. And you know I know this, after all, my Order has an extremely limited web presence and has decided to go even further underground for a few reasons, as you probably know. I know how things get at this time of year, too, I think it just takes me by surprise at times, especially when I get so used to dealing with pagans on & offline the rest of the time who get it… or try to. (Although I do mostly shelter myself from the fluff.) I think I am just fed up with having my arse chewed by arrogant, pigheaded idiots this past month who insist that there are no right an wrong answers in paganism-the same sort of idiots who inform me that my traditions don’t count because they require hard work & oaths, and that as a Hellenic Polytheist-according to their ( ... )
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I'm not sure whether you remember, but I had a similar wish to set up a site like that. Sort of a magazine with contributions from experienced practitioners of various paths, and a forum that would be a place that people could come to know and trust for reliable, non-fluffy information and guidance. My problem with this is that I'm not well known and trusted enough in my own right to put something like this together on my own. If you are interested in persuing this though, I'd be more than happy to offer my help. I have some experience with forums (php and vb) and my partner is a full-time geek who I might be able to borrow from expertise wise :)
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(The comment has been removed)
I wonder why it is that those who insist so loudly and broadly at being addressed by royal titles have done the least to deserve them? Oh that's right, it is part of the act they use to impress the marks. Those who insist upon such appellations forcefully & publicly usually never have what it takes to rightfully earn that title through love, respect, honour, integrity and Will.
Anyway, if there is another online “skool" (other than Firefluff and tWitchskool), I'd be happy to join. I really have worked hard lately on some solid, helpful information and don't screech at the posers the way I do here. :-)
Reply
"Tainted?" Teaching what you know is a "taint ( ... )
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These schools, we really need more reviews of them like the terrific one that juliaki did with tWitchskool. It might be an idea someday to set up an "online witch/pagan/magick schools" blog and discuss them in depth, and public so prospective studnets can see what is wrong with them. There are so bloody many; I've recently had a tangle with Michael Tsarion's fluffy newage shite and some other silly outfit calling itself the "Esoteric Arcanum". How can there be so much shit in the world?
Reply
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I left “public” paganism in the mid nineties and went into private Golden Dawn lodge work as I was getting very put off by the attitudes of the people that were approaching the coven and the study group. Paganism and magick were no longer goals for those with a burning passion; they had become stops on the Contiki Tour of Cultural & Spiritual Oddities, a rite of passage for those people who embrace “alternative” as a fad or fashion. One especially funny thing I remember, my leaving the coven coincided with touching my first $RW book (To Ride a Silver Broomstick, IIRC). I’d never even seriously looked at $RW books in the newage smelleries as potential resources or as possible library additions, I’d changed course for books on “high magick” and the like. If you’d asked me then, I wouldn’t have been able to elucidate the issue I had with the $RW book, it just put me off, vehemently. (Even though I was a 2nd degree witch at that point, my knowledge of Wicca was not the best, and even my knowledge about other paganisms and ( ... )
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I'd also be willing to vet the article for you.
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I'm thrilled that you are willing to check out my little article, that means a lot! I am just wrapping up the last section and need to do a bibliography; I also have some graphics I created for it that just need a slight "finishing touch" or two. I'm just too utterly useful these days! ;-)
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