Holy Madness

So, a few weeks ago, a Facebook friend posted an article titled, ““5 things that aren’t as magical as you think they are”

It sparked an interesting discussion. That alone was cool, but now I’m stuck in isolation (thank you global pandemic), and I’m turning my original comments into an essay. I’m bored. Y’all are subjected to my thoughts now.

So, the author of the article makes some good points, (expressed in atrocious writing, but that’s sadly expected these days). But much of it I only half-agree with. The author took a very simplistic, reductionist view of the subject matter in my opinion. Some of these points are actually correct …. Somewhat. As I said, it’s a very black-and-white view, and life is very rarely either/or. Humans often like simple, either/or thinking, but sorry, Life is complicated and messy (doesn’t Covid-19 prove that??!!!). The author’s condescending attitude is really the worst part of the article. I think she is really addressing a certain type of person that she probably runs into frequently in the pagan community in her area, that it sounds like she is (understandably) fed up with, but I don’t think her complaints apply to most serious students of Paganism.

While on the Facebook conversation I briefly touched on all 5 of her points, in this post I’m really only going to address the first one: mental health issues. It’s the one I have the most experience with and the strongest opinions about. First of all I should say that I absolutely can’t stand when people imply or outright say that I’m less spiritual somehow for taking psych meds. That is absolutely a HUGE problem in the Pagan community. I think that kind of meddling in someone else’s health is just as bad as the paternalism in the health care system and the way pills are often automatically shoved down someone’s throat. Everyone has the right to advocate for their own health.

But … There are several ‘buts’ that go with this statement. And a few of them are big ‘but’s.

I absolutely disagree with her about depression and anxiety being a not sign of being “too spiritual for this world” or however it was that she put it. Modern society is built to generate anxiety, it goes against all our instincts and how we evolved to live, and every generation is getting higher and higher incidences of depression and anxiety (by percentage, not number). It’s not a sign of health to be well-adjusted in a sick world.

Modern culture is soaked in miamsa. It’s hostile to piety in any form (see my essay about how people of faith are portrayed in media to get a better understanding of what I mean). Cruelty is institutionalized and even lauded as a moral good. We are in a serious crisis, culturally, and that was before Gaia sent this plague from our collective shadow to wreck havoc on us. With all of us now forced inside, we are facing ourselves and unable to distract ourselves with work and constant activities. And oh boy, does our culture have problems with stillness. Too much stillness will make us realize how empty our lives really are, how much we are longing for SOMETHING, something we can’t name. Usually this feeling is crushed with sex or alcohol or something else to numb the pain if we can’t run from it, but the fact is we just have to move through it
Spirituality isn’t always (or usually, really), fuzzy feelings. It’s work. It’s hard. It’s backbreaking.

It’s not just about spirituality and religion. It’s about being human. We are built for intense short term stress like running from a tiger, not the long-term, forever hanging-over-your-head stress of insane student loans killing your chance of getting ahead. Your limbic system interprets that as a tiger chasing you, ALL THE TIME. Of course we have fucking anxiety!!

This other part Is going to be controversial. Sometimes, madness is a sign of being touched by the Gods. Why do we always have a God of madness, in every pantheon? Because it’s not just a human experience, it’s a human NEED. My first breakdown can easily be attributed to experiences with Dionysos and Anubis that I wasn’t entirely ready for at the time. There were other things going on in my life, yes, I am bipolar and at the time I didn’t know that and was unmedicated, yes, but …. The big “but” here …. there is a danger to real Divine experience. The Gods can break your head open, literally, and it can be crushing and terrifying experience. Our fleshy meat brains can’t contain Their glory and magnificence, and even a glimpse of it can be too much. But if you manage to come out transformed, reborn in Their power, remade, it’s the most beautiful thing ever.

In ancient times, a shaman had to cure themselves of a disease, to go literally to death’s door and come back. Some might find this arrogant, and maybe it is, I don’t know, but the more I get into spiritwork, the more I’m starting to see my first breakdown and the impossibly deep, dark hole I clawed my way out of as a shamanic initiation. I am always afraid of going back to that place, and while I have been hospitalized once again since the first time, I would describe my other dark spots as “smaller”, I’ve never fully gone back to that deep dark place in the Underworld. (A note: I am not a shaman yet. That is a *very* SPECIFIC title that I have not yet earned. I do not want to portray myself as something I am not. Words have a power and magic all their own. I’m studying, but I’m just getting comfortable calling myself a spiritworker)

Now. The difficult part with this…. How do you tell the difference….??? Good question. Not an easy one to answer. That takes time and experience. A lot of experience. I don’t want to medicate away all my emotions, but my meds make my mood swings manageable. They make it possible for me to live a life. Most importantly, I can’t serve the Gods if I am constantly unstable. Serving the Gods and revitalizing their worship is my most important mission in life. I’m absolutely certain it’s what I was put here to do.

I’m reading a book called “Redefining Madness”. I’m not very far into it yet, but its fascinating. It’s written by a psychiatrist who noticed something interesting about patients he was treating for schizophrenia. Those with the best recovery rates saw their psychosis as something spiritual, and were able to frame it as meaningful in some way, and those were the ones who did best. Even if they were super poor with no support system, they did better than the rich ones who had everything going for them. And, recovery did not mean returning to who you were before the psychosis. It meant understanding that we evolved this ability for a reason, it does something possibly beneficial if you let it. You have to let it transform you and craft yourself into something new. How Dionysian is that??? Some of the schizophrenia patients have now been living for years WITHOUT ANTI-PSYCHOTICS, AND WITHOUT RELAPSE. That is something shocking to the psychiatric community. It shouldn’t be possible, right? But it is. It has been. It will be. And maybe it’s because we are completely misunderstanding the PURPOSE of mental illness. Now I would never, ever tell anyone to just stop taking their meds (all the case studies in the book were done under the management of a doctor), but this goes back to advocating for your own health.

It’s interesting that I am writing about Holy Madness here, when this blog is dedicated to Athena, the Goddess of Rationality. She has not been very active in my life for the last few years. I had wondered if She was gone completely. For the last few years, Odin has been the most active Holy Power in my life, and I expect that to continue for a while. While They are both Gods that rule over intelligence and the mind, in many, many ways, Their energy is pretty much polarized. So I had wondered if Athena was done with me. But I have received divination that I still belong to the Owl-Eyed Lady, but that there is a lot for me to learn with Odin and others of the Norse pantheon.

Thinking about my experiences with Odin makes me think about my experiences with Dionysos. They are ecstatic, earthy Gods of Holy Madness. And you might think that Athena would not want anything to do with Them. But in Orphic Myth when the Titans tore baby Zagreus apart, it was Athena who saved His heart so He could be reborn as Dionysos. They have little interaction in myth, but this detail hints at a deeper interaction between the two. This idea, that madness is valuable, even sacred, is something that our overly rational society is extremely uncomfortable with. But it’s something that Polytheists need to get over, frankly. Because religion isn’t just found in the ivory halls of learning and in dusty scholars debating theology. It’s felt in the blood and the bones, and sometimes that leads you down the path of madness. That doesn’t make it any less sacred.

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A Call to Unite in this Time of Crisis

So I’m sure that many if not everyone reading this right now is experiencing some level of anxiety about what’s going on with the Covid-19 virus, and those of us who are empaths are feeling the anxiety of the collective as well as our own. It’s a scary time and we have to try not to give into that fear. I’m going to be doing a simple candle visualization every night until the new moon to hopefully stop the suffering caused by this plague. Some nights I’ve added longer prayers or offerings to Apollo, Hygeia, Eir, or Asklepios, but every night I am at least burning a candle and visualizing an end to the crisis. Please join me in this if you are able, I think repetition will be more powerful than one big, fancy ritual done once. Let’s pull together on this!

This is an old ritual I wrote years ago, honoring Asklepios, Son of Apollo, one of the Greek Gods of Healing. Anyone who wishes may use it.

And I was not aware of this when I recorded the video, but Galina is holding a contest on her blog to win the healing God prayer card sets, by writing prayers or creating art in honor of ANY of the Healing Deities. We need Their assistance now more than ever, and it’s a great way to also keep Them at the forefront of our minds. I love the idea and I will definitely be entering. More information available on her post here.

CFS – Anthology of Polytheistic Monasticism

Passing this on because I hope it gets a lot of submissions. Its definitely not my own path, but I’d love to hear from Pagan monastics, and I know that they exist.

Gangleri's Grove

Polytheists who identify as monastics are invited to submit personal essays about their experience and practices to be included in an as-yet untitled anthology intended to heighten awareness of this form of Pagan spirituality. The editor is Janet Munin, editor of Queen of the Great Below: An Anthology in Honor of Ereshkigal. Danica Swanson of Black Stone Hermitage is serving as a consultant.

We are looking for vivid personal accounts and thoughtful reflections, not research papers.

Possible topics include:

  • How a person came to and/or currently lives out a monastic vocation
  • The joys and challenges of monasticism
  • Monastic theology
  • Your Rule of Life or other monastic disciplines you’ve adopted and what their impact has been
  • Interviews with polytheistic monastics
  • How monasticism differs from or overlaps with other spiritual identities or practices
  • Living in community vs living as a hermit
  • Balancing a monastic lifestyle with the need to earn a living…

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Thoughts on Energy, Empathy, Shamanism, and my future in the Pagan Community

I’m just finished reading Sophie Reicher’s “Spiritual Protection: A Safety Manual for Energy Workers, Healers, and Psychics“. When I wasn’t working I had the luxury of just ignoring my empathic gifts and simply centering, saging and saying a quick prayer before going into public. Now I have repeatedly been put into situations that have basically made me energetically-sick afterwards. A few weeks ago after my shift was over I held a crying, near-suicidal co-worker for 20 minutes …. It was an emergency situation and I had no choice but to let my shields down in order to give her energy and I know that I took some of her pain. She seemed a little happier, or a least better, when I left, but I definitely suffered for it. When I got home I felt heavy and tired when I hadn’t been at the end of shift, in fact I had been quite upbeat. I slept for 2 hours. I should have showered to cleanse her depression off of me, but I simply didn’t have the energy, I only saged and took a nap. I don’t want to be a shaman or a healer but I don’t seem to have been given a choice. Being in the world again has meant that I am in situations where I am constantly being bombarded by other people’s emotions and it’s exhausting.

Reading the book has also made me realize that I’m not as good at “basic” stuff like grounding as I thought. I am also working my way through “Neolithic Shamanism: Spirit Work in the Northern Tradition” by Galina Krasskova and Raven Kaldera. I actually started this book early last year, but I got spooked and stopped. There’s no way for this work to not change you, and I don’t want the responsibility that comes with my gifts. I wasn’t ready then. I’m not sure I’m ready now. But I didn’t have a job then, and I wasn’t driving. Getting a job has forced me to develop my gift a least a little, at least enough to properly protect myself.

I feel strongly that my purpose is to teach, and I’m comfortable sharing my knowledge through my writing and in similar ways. But I also have this draw to other more mystical ways to serve the Gods and to seek knowledge, and I keep having these thoughts, and then censoring myself, saying things like “No, that’s arrogant. You can’t possibly be a shaman, you know what comes of hubris. Don’t self-aggrandize like that. Be humble.”

I don’t know if it’s because I think I CAN’T, or if it’s just that the weight of the responsibility to so many Gods and spirits scares the shit out of me.

I’m still working on the Earth chapter exercises in Neolithic Shamanism. I’ve read ahead a little into the Sun chapter, but I don’t feel like I’ve mastered grounding enough to move on. I’ve been visualizing mountains as my shields, and I switched from hematite to smoky quartz for my grounding, and so far that has had far better results, less panic attacks at work and such. But more practice and experimentation is needed.

I’m going slowly. I don’t know right now if I will finish the entire book. I know I need to ground in this world like crazy to figure a lot of things out and I guess we will go from there. I also know that I do not take good enough care of my body, and that is something that is absolutely essential for any kind of diviner, engeryworker, or what have you. It’s part of the reason that I am temporarily stalled on the Earth chapter. I’m working on that. I have a regular prayer practice but not a regular exercise practice. I haven’t even been eating regularly. I haven’t had the motivation the last few months, I don’t know why. But disrespecting our bodies is disrespecting our souls, I need to work on that more. I’m trying.

I don’t know if this is relevant to the topic at hand, but I have noticed that I seem to have almost an “awakening” or “Paganizing” effect on people around me that consider themselves nonspiritual or even atheist. My Dungeon Master (from my DnD tabletop game group, you pervs) doesn’t consider herself Pagan, but has constructed an altar to Freyja and Bast and tells me she is exploring her spirituality directly because of my influence and my passion for my religion.

My boyfriend considers himself nonspiritual but open. I sense a yearning in him, a hunger, and it’s almost like he wants to believe but his logical Westernized mind won’t let him. He asks questions and is nothing but respectful, even when it’s something completely forgein to him. The longer we are together, the more “Paganish” he becomes. He took a test to see which of his chakras were the most active, and he was surprised how accurate it was, even commenting that several co-workers had said the exact same thing that the test result did. ( it was Stargirl the Practical Witch’s Chakra personality test on YouTube). He’s even started carrying crystals. Although I’m sure he’d laugh it off as a favor to me or something.

He recently asked me to read his runes, but I told him I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. The messages that come through can be harsh and I’m not sure if he wants that message to come through me. If he asks again, then maybe he’s actually serious. I’m going to wait and see.

Even at work, where no one knows I’m Pagan, but I have self described myself as a “big hippie weirdo”, I attract people asking me questions about crystals and essential oils. I end up supporting people who are in crisis in their lives. Without any of the traditional terms, I end up guiding people in their spiritual lives. I’m glad to stand as something of an example (I hope) of someone at least trying to live in Right Relationship with the God’s, spirits, and the land. But I don’t know how much I want to serve the Pagan community vs the Gods and spirits. I’ve had many experiences where the Pagan community ended up being ungrateful and self-centered, and I burnt myself out trying to run a public Temple that was donation-only. Newsflash: rituals, classes, divination, and energy work are ALL WORK, hard work, and all cost money and all deserve compensation.

I don’t know. I’m at a weird place right now in figuring out my future.

Btw, if you are local, I will be reading runes on Sunday June 2nd from 1-5pm at Mystic Beads and EarthWear in Niles, Michigan. You are welcome to drop by and see what the runes might have to say about your wyrd.

Reveiw of Girls Underground Oracle Deck

I’ve been meaning to do this review for a while and simply haven’t gotten to it.

Kate Winter has created an Oracle deck based on an archetype she identified decades ago which she calls the Girls Underground. In her own words: “ [these themes] are often from novels and films, but the idea is so old it can be found in ancient mythology, and later in popular fairy tales. They involve initiatory journeys – often literally underground – in which a girl or woman explores a perilous Otherworld with several companions, confronts an Adversary, and learns the lessons necessary to reach her goal, ending up transformed.
The original inspiration for the idea was the classic 80’s fantasy movie Labyrinth (and to a lesser degree, Alice in Wonderland) and fans will recognize many of the elements of Sarah’s journey in these cards.” (from the Etsy shop, here)

The earliest mythological version of the Girl Underground archetype could be considered to be Persephone, but with Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland a whole new type of story came into being. As a teenager I was obsessed with Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. I’ve watched Sarah defeat David Bowie’s Goblin King more times than I care to count. Mirrormask, written by Neil Gaiman and produced by Dave McKenna and the Jim Hensen Company, was another Girl Underground movie that played at my house practically on repeat.

Kate Winter has been researching this archetype for years, and I have ardently followed her other works and writings. So when she announced last year on Kickstarter her intention to make a divination deck based on her experiences with the archetype, I was happy to contribute. I am proud to have been part of bringing this Oracle into the world, even if only by a small part.

If you’re wondering how it works as divination tool, it’s excellent. I received it around the winter solstice, and I have already used it so much I have begun to wear out the book. But that may also be because I spilled red Gatorade on it at one point …. Oh well, let’s pretend it’s blood, it fits the Otherworld theme much more.

I’ve found the advice to be practical and applicable to both real-world situations and my spiritual Journey. This is an incredible tool and, to my knowledge, completely unique. I think that it would be useful for anyone, but if, like me, you’ve ever identified with Sarah in the Labyrinth, Alice in Wonderland, or any of the other numerous Girls Underground, then it will probably be especially so for you.

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Picture: This deck uses storytelling and plot points instead of art and imagery, so its a bit unusual, but that’s one of the things that makes it so interesting. As a writer I appreciate the power of the naked word and just the storyline itself. It works extremely well, more than you might imagine.

Heathen Author and Priest doxxed by Antifa group

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I was planning to write about the Ostara ritual I attended on Saturday, and a review of the amazing Pagan and witch shop it was held at. Sadly, their thunder has been stolen by something that happened to a dear friend of mine yesterday. The article I had intended to spend today writing will still be coming, hopefully in the next couple of days. But unfortunately, as the picture says, my ancestors, Gods, and spirits will not allow me to be quiet in this matter. Not to mention common human decency, even above my friendship with the person in question.

Galina Krasskova has been doxxed on Twitter.

Her work address and home phone number has been made public. Worse, at the time of this article’s writing, Twitter is refusing to take it down because it “doesn’t qualify” as abusive speech under their rules, even though it meets all their points. I suspect that the real problem is that the doxxer is an Antifa liberal and Galina is politically conservative and famously pro-free speech, anti-censorship, anti-Marxist, and anti-communist. Which is somehow a bad thing, in today’s political climate.

Folks, this is a terrifying precedent. It’s been said before, but this is clearly McCarthy-era Red Scare tactics updated for the modern age. How many of our grandparents dreaded hearing this question: “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the communist party?” Only the pendulum has (perhaps inevitably) swung the other way. Those of us in the Pagan community who are too young to remember the horrors of the McCarthy era should stop talking for a few moments, pretend we actually value the input of our elders (because a great number of us clearly don’t), and listen. Maybe pick up a history book or two. It didn’t turn out so well the first time, did it?

Whatever your politics, whatever your opinion of Galina, doxxing someone is clearly wrong. I wouldn’t doxx the TridentAntifa people, although a small, dark part of me thinks that maybe they’d think twice about doing it to someone if it happened to them.

Probably not though. They’d see it as more proof of oppression in their righteous struggle against “The Man” or something. In Jungian terms, I think they have failed to integrate their shadow and to realize their own capacity for evil. This lack of shadow work leads to their rage and anger coming out in dangerous ways that are damaging to other people and themselves. I can acknowledge that a part of myself wants to do the same to them and NOT act on that impulse, because it’s wrong and evil and hurtful. But I digress.

For those of you who don’t know, although if you are reading my blog I suspect you will, Antifa is a title for a loose collection of grassroots anarchist anti-fascist groups that have been officially labeled domestic terrorists by the FBI and Dept of Homeland Security. Here is an article saying just that. Everything they do is anonymous, they cover their faces during their riots so they have no accountability, yet in their “unmasking” of people they deem to be racist they are revealing personal information and encouraging violence. This is not only cowardly in the worst sense, it is terrorism, plain and simple, and needs to be called out for what it is.

In a civilized society, we can have discourse that upsets us, have conversations that make us uncomfortable, and we can have friends we disagree with! I’d call all those things *necessary* to personal growth.

So, I spent some time reading the thread in question this morning, which was at points rage-inducing, absurd to the point of hilarity, and ridiculously sad. It was so upsetting I frequently had to take breaks. Throughout the entirety of the thread, Galina’s words were purposely taken out of context, to the point where I wondered about the author’s reading comprehension skills. Throughout she is accused of supporting violence (but Marxists and Antifa equate free speech with violence, that’s all this means) yet say things like, “she really doesn’t like it when Nazis get punched in the face” – uh yeah that’s called not creating a culture of violence, which is something you JUST ACCUSED HER OF TWO SECONDS AGO. If you have to resort to violence to win an argument, you just lost the argument. No matter how righteous your position. Not to mention Antifa calls anyone who disagrees with them a Nazi these days.

Particularly upsetting, not to mention factually wrong, was when they said that she doesn’t care about poor people and doesn’t want them to be able to pursue higher education. Yet since 2010 Galina has funded a scholarship for improverished women WITH HER OWN MONEY. I think that shows that she does care, in fact they are assuming that they know everything about her from her current financial state and that she has never struggled, which is not true. Antifa (and Marxists in general) are so quick to spend other people’s money, to prove they “care”. I wonder how often they donate their own earnings to charity, or if they become miserly when dollar signs suddenly enter their own bank account. Perhaps they think the government needs to force people to share their wealth because Galina’s inherent generosity is antithetical to their natures and they assume everyone is as selfish as they are. This is an example, I think, of our culture’s deeply, deeply unhealthy ideas about money, but that is an entire different tangent.

You might assume from these statements that I am politically conservative. I am not. I am left-leaning, a “classical liberal” if you will, although I am staunchly pro-free speech and pro-2nd Amendment, which I suppose for the modern Pagan community makes me “alt right-adjacent” or some other nonsense. (Now watch that sentence get taken out of context!!!!) Not that I should have to prove that I am “liberal enough” to defend Galina, or anyone’s, right to privacy. For the love of everything that is holy, when did it become normal for private information like addresses and phone numbers to be published as the price for having a unpopular opinion, political or otherwise? We either believe in freedom, or we don’t. It is that simple.

Not content to attack just Galina, they go after her friends as well. Another Pagan whose work I closely follow, Kenaz Filan, was similarly smeared and called a white supremacist, and all manner of vile and hateful screeds was attributed to him, taken, as usual, out of context or flatly made up. Although he has been accused of it before, Kenaz is the FURTHEST thing from a white supremacist. He is actually initiated into Haitian Vodou and has authored several books on the African Dispora and the worship of the Orishas. (I hear the cries of cultural appropriation already).

Why the race-baiting, then? He simply refuses to be ashamed of being white. He acknowledges that no race is better or worse than another, but each has it’s own beautiful culture and tradition.Those cultures and traditions are worth preserving. Ancestors are worth venerating. OF ALL PEOPLES, ALL RACES, AND ALL TRIBES. That is somehow controversial these days. Because venerating your white ancestors is “problematic”, you are supposed to be ashamed of them. Karl Seigfried, writing at the Wild Hunt (the same author who caused a massive backlash among Heathens when he compared Trump to Loki) recently suggested we deal with white supremacy (and there ARE racists stealing our symbols, and we DO need to deal with them) by gutting our traditions. One of his vile suggestions was not honoring ancestors anymore. What the ever-loving FUCK? Ancestor veneration is at the heart of ALL paganisms and polytheisms, including African religions if you’re really going to be so low as to drag race into this. I don’t know how someone can be Pagan and abhor their ancestors so much. It just doesn’t compute. Why are you even here? Muslims aren’t asked to throw away the hijab or the Qu’ran wholesale because of violent Jihadists (and they shouldn’t be), so why are we expected to “adapt” our traditions to “modern values”? Modern values like consumerism, secularism, politics before everything, SJWs, and whatever it is that causes the 24/7 news cycle are the problem. Or at least part of it. We are trying to reconstruct old religions that were/are more in touch with nature and the Gods, and we can’t do that by throwing out everything that makes us different from modern Western secularism.

Lastly, bringing another of Galina’s friends into this, they attacked Pagan author Raven Kaldera as transphobic, which I find beyond hilarious because Raven IS a ftm transgendered and intersex person (he was born with an intersex condition, raised female, and eventually transitioned to male). They seemed particularly offended by Raven’s use of the term “Third Gender Issues”, but hey, let’s censor the very language and expression of the people YOU CLAIM TO WANT TO PROTECT. Guess you only wanna help out the trans people that toe your party line. They also fail to point out that he is talking about himself and only himself, and that many of the statements they reference in their condemnation he had made 20 years ago, before the current accepted PC language changed and evolved. Guess it’s his fault for not having a time machine. The lunacy is simply stunning. This is somebody who is everything you guys should *like*, since you’re all about identity politics and only identity politics. But he’s friends with someone you hate (for some reason), he believes in freedom, and worst of all, he’s white too …. Gotta throw the trans baby out with the white bathwater, I guess. I really do not know what goes through these people’s minds sometimes.

You might not believe this, but I am *TIRED* of doing political posts. I don’t *WANT* to be political, I don’t want to cause conflict or division. I want to focus more on theology. Good Gods, I want to focus on worshipping my Gods and building our communities. But this is wrong. It turns my stomach, it’s just disgusting. And sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade. Or a terrorist a terrorist.

One day they might come for me, but I’m not going to be silent up until the point that they do. This Heathen bitch will go kicking and screaming.

Odin help me. I can’t believe that with my anxiety issues I am putting this out there. But fuck it.

Come and get me.

FB removes Othala automatically now ….

So you may have seen Galina’s post about how a half dozen Heathens have had pictures featuring the Othala rune removed. I’m one of those she’s taking about. I tried to make the one saying “home, faith, folk” my cover photo when I heard about this. It was less than 10 minutes before it was removed for “violating community standards”. NINE minutes. NINE.

 

What’s so offensive about these? There is nothing hateful about our sacred symbols, and we should NOT be ceding them to white supremacists or sacrificing them on the altar of PC culture.

Those of you who have followed this blog for a few years might remember that when I owned my own land, I had this rune drawn on my cabin door. I guess according to Facebook, that makes me a racist now. :rolls eyes:

Othala means home, heritage, family, folk, tribe. ALL TRIBES. It has nothing to do with the color your skin, NOTHING to do with hate or dominance. By removing these photos, Facebook is not only discriminating against Heathens, but is actively ALLOWING the debasement and defilement of our symbols by ignorant uneducated trash.

Othala is Not a Hate Symbol

Absolutely agree with Galina. It’s sickening and infuriating to see hate groups prevert our symbols, and we should *NOT* stand for it.

Gangleri's Grove

1200px-Runic_letter_othalanI saw someone on Facebook today opining that the tattoo they’d gotten so proudly to honor their Gods was now being taken over by a neo-Nazi group. No. Many things can be corrupted and coopted but it doesn’t change the inherent nature of those things. It may alter our perceptions, yes, but othala remains othala, a conduit to a rune spirit of tremendous power, one that has nothing to do with our contemporary politics. It is only lost to hate groups if we allow it to be.

This rune is the rune of lineage and tribe, of tradition, of connection to our forebears, of right order. By that latter, I mean sacred covenants (with Gods, ancestors, land) in place and active. It is a rune of protection, of nurturing and nourishing the family, community, and all tribal bonds. It is that which keeps a community healthy, hale, and whole.  Those…

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