As a queer trans woman who is also a Witch, I have mixed feelings about this thing, “Pagan Coming Out Day.” Religious persecution is a thing, absolutely, and visibility for minority religions is important. But I am very much unsure as to whether the Pagan community should have adopted the “coming out of the closet” metaphor from the LGBT community, or whether it was a simple case of appropriation.

It’s an easy metaphor to use - one of the earliest books I bought in my religious self-exploration was entitled “Coming Out of the Broom Closet.” But I’m not sure it’s accurate, and I think that it may block real interfaith work with other non-Christian religions (or more accurately, religious movements, since Paganism is not a single religion).

Despite my misgivings, however:

I am queer.

I am a trans woman.

And I am a Pagan.

Blessed be!

the new age, pagan, illuminati, spiritual, mystic, witches seek to destroy the christ and his followers and to blame all of the wars which in fact these cults have cleverly contrived throughout the centuries on the gospel, christ’s followers and judaism.

saenz (via saenzofthetimes)

Yup. You got us.

(I wish there was a sarcasm font)

And especially funny is claiming Judaism when Christian folks have been the most ardent through the centuries of either killing Jews or converting them to Christ.

Fuck birth-fetishism among Goddess-“honoring” people.

jadelyn:

This notion that birth is the greatest and most sacred gift of womanhood, even when it comes to women who don’t, can’t, or haven’t had children, this absurdly fanatical fetishizing of reproductive capacity…I am so over it, it’s not even funny.  It’s cissexist, narrow, limiting, inaccurate, wrong and fucking offensive as shit.

A woman’s life is divided into three stages: Maiden, Mother and Crone. The phases of menstruation — the building up and shedding of blood — mimics the waxing and waning of the moon. The three initiations of a woman’s life are menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. All women carry within them three powers: the power to give birth, the power to give life, and the power to give death.The three is everywhere, and everywhere sacred to the Goddess.

“Women have the power to give birth not just on a physical level but also on a spiritual level. A prospering woman is continuously giving birth — to her ideas, her dreams, and her visions.” ~Catherine Wishart, Teen Goddess


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MMC is also RIDICULOUSLY heterocentrist - it sacralizes a view of the world rooted in a time when being gay was outlawed by making full participation in womanhood contingent on opposite-sex sexual activity.

Our gods change, people. So should we.

I live in a land of fictional characters: Actually, since its been brought up: What DOES everyone think of the...

sonneillonv:

cannibalcoalition:

Actually, since its been brought up:

What DOES everyone think of the Maiden-Mother-Crone archetypes (in Wicca or otherwise)? Does it set an unrealistic example for women? What about its male counterpart? Does it put too much emphasis on gender roles?

Is it harmful?

I ask this because in…

I hate it because it enforces heterocentrism and cissupremacy.  I hate it because it so limited and prescribes the roles each person is expected to fulfill (seriously?  maiden mother crone?  There is SO MUCH MORE to women than that!).  I hate it because it sets ‘mother’ squarely on the side of women with no wiggle room to get around it.  Maiden —> Mother —>Crone.  Whee.  I hate it because setting up a binary to the divine is basically pasting a relatively modern notion of gender and sexuality onto a world that is infinitely more diverse than even we are (and we are more diverse than our society allows for).  It smacks of arrogance to think that the divine’s gender and sexuality should function the way humanity’s  sexuality and gender are presumed by the current boundaries of our society to function.  Thanks to this binary queer and trans* deities are often completely erased, if not co-opted by cishet people who proceed to belittle their TRADITIONAL queer and trans* priesthoods.  Z. Budapest’s rite of Lilith comes to mind, as does that group in California a few years back who did a sermon on Cybele which referred to Cybele’s transgender priesthood as pitiable self-mutilators.  A binary view of deity, and cissexist gender assumptions, enforce cissexism and heterocentrism in the Pagan community.  Demonstrably.  In real time.  Seriously, you can watch it happen.

There’s also the assumption that Cybele was the ONLY deity in the Mediterranean region to have anything to do with trans priests & priestesses…

Source: cannibalcoalition

trans-terrific: lobelia-limit: Wiccan on the Cheap Discovery: A cauldron for 3 dollars plus tax. The most difficult item to find and the easiest to overspend on is the cauldron. Your local Dollar General is currently selling miniature soup pots in the harvest decor section. They are 10oz in size and made of steel with porcelain enamel and come in a few colors like green, orange, red, and yellow. They are shaped almost exactly like a cauldron only they lack legs which can be made up for by placing them on something heat proof like a stone coaster. The are cooktop safe and oven safe which makes them very practical. Fuck yeah, witchery on a budget.
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trans-terrific:

lobelia-limit:

Wiccan on the Cheap Discovery: A cauldron for 3 dollars plus tax.

The most difficult item to find and the easiest to overspend on is the cauldron. Your local Dollar General is currently selling miniature soup pots in the harvest decor section. They are 10oz in size and made of steel with porcelain enamel and come in a few colors like green, orange, red, and yellow. They are shaped almost exactly like a cauldron only they lack legs which can be made up for by placing them on something heat proof like a stone coaster. The are cooktop safe and oven safe which makes them very practical.

Fuck yeah, witchery on a budget.

(via trans-terrific-deactivated20121)

Source: apprentice-librarian

thepaganveil: widdershinsgirl: thepaganveil: Except there are Pagans who do worship Satan or consider themselves Satanists. Reblogging because apparently people like thisshitaintpagan believe that this never happens. Because apparently to some people, “don’t ask me if I’m a Satan worshipper because it pisses me off” is the same thing as “satanic pagans don’t exist.” Asking if an individual is a Satanist and being able to say “I am not a Satanist pagan, please don’t ask me again.” is different than all out saying, “Don’t ever ask me if I’m a Satan worshiper because no Pagan is,” which is what this image implies. I understand that there are people who do not wish to be considered a Satan worshiper, and it is indeed wrong to assume that all pagans worship Satan, or all Satanists are pagan, but it is also wrong to deny the existence of and insult Satanists who consider themselves pagan.  19 times out of 20, if someone asks a Pagan if she worships Satan, he’s not asking because he genuinely wants to know what her cosmology and religious practice are, he’s asking because he wants to establish a religious superior-inferior positionality with himself in the “superior” position. THAT is why asking if a Pagan is a Satan worshipper is offensive. Not because of anything in particular wrong with Luciferianism per se, but because the assumption set behind the question, the vast majority of the time, is insulting and belittling. Is that sufficiently clear? Everything on this list is a microaggression of some form or another. Except #6 which is a full-blown macro-scale aggression.
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thepaganveil:

widdershinsgirl:

thepaganveil:

Except there are Pagans who do worship Satan or consider themselves Satanists.

Reblogging because apparently people like thisshitaintpagan believe that this never happens. Because apparently to some people, “don’t ask me if I’m a Satan worshipper because it pisses me off” is the same thing as “satanic pagans don’t exist.”

Asking if an individual is a Satanist and being able to say “I am not a Satanist pagan, please don’t ask me again.” is different than all out saying, “Don’t ever ask me if I’m a Satan worshiper because no Pagan is,” which is what this image implies. I understand that there are people who do not wish to be considered a Satan worshiper, and it is indeed wrong to assume that all pagans worship Satan, or all Satanists are pagan, but it is also wrong to deny the existence of and insult Satanists who consider themselves pagan. 

19 times out of 20, if someone asks a Pagan if she worships Satan, he’s not asking because he genuinely wants to know what her cosmology and religious practice are, he’s asking because he wants to establish a religious superior-inferior positionality with himself in the “superior” position. THAT is why asking if a Pagan is a Satan worshipper is offensive. Not because of anything in particular wrong with Luciferianism per se, but because the assumption set behind the question, the vast majority of the time, is insulting and belittling.

Is that sufficiently clear?

Everything on this list is a microaggression of some form or another. Except #6 which is a full-blown macro-scale aggression.

(via thesavagedaughter)

thepaganveil: Except there are Pagans who do worship Satan or consider themselves Satanists. Reblogging because apparently people like thisshitaintpagan believe that this never happens. Because apparently to some people, “don’t ask me if I’m a Satan worshipper because it pisses me off” is the same thing as “satanic pagans don’t exist.”
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thepaganveil:

Except there are Pagans who do worship Satan or consider themselves Satanists.

Reblogging because apparently people like thisshitaintpagan believe that this never happens. Because apparently to some people, “don’t ask me if I’m a Satan worshipper because it pisses me off” is the same thing as “satanic pagans don’t exist.”

(via thesavagedaughter)

Overconcern for Satanic Pagans’ feelings

Once again, I don’t get it. People, no it is NOT OKAY to assume that any given Pagan is a Satan worshipper. Seriously, it ISN’T. And saying that it’s not okay does NOT erase the existence of Satanic Pagans. It acknowledges the existence of those of us who are not, and says that our existence is valid of itself, without reference to Satanists.

So seriously sick of this crap. I don’t assume that any given Pagan worships Hekate. So why is it ok for some Fish-head to assume that my lack of regard for their god-on-a-stick means that I worship Satan, just because some Satanist somewhere might get his balls twisted?

Weekly Focus Question: Patron Gods and Goddesses! (Part One)

kingofwands:

What does it mean to have a Patron God or Goddess?

Not all fun and games, that’s for sure!

You are bound to Them, just as They are bound to you. It’s more than a mutual understanding and respect — there’s just a little more demand, a little more adoration. Okay, a lot more. But it’s not just a relationship you decide on a whim to have. You are in it for the long run.

With that said, it’s not all demands and hard work, either. Hekate was the first person to greet me with comfort and reassurance when I woke up after my surgery. Patron Deities demand much of you, but Their rewards are equal to Their demands. I think we overlook the rewarding aspects of a Patron because they tend to be subjective and we like being taken seriously, but I’ve found that for races well-run, paths well-chosen and lessons well-learned, Patron Deities will be VERY rewarding.

(via paganstudygroup)

Source: kingofwands