Pagan Tropers Unite!

Well....that is just.....:C

Sorry men, I must be hard for you right now

No worries. I don't even know how I feel about it because of all the complicated history we have.

Seeing as I can only sleep for about four hours a night right now, I've been talking at Hades instead. He's surprisingly eloquent about the nature of grief, especially the conflicted kind.

I was wondering if any open-headed godphone-staticless pagans here had experiences with syncretism and epithetical oddities?

I'm thinking of syncretic deities in particular, although if you've been able to experience originally foreign deities firsthand in the world that you know best through local correspondences and local seasons or whatever, that would also be interesting.

I don't know if epithets is the right word for sort of splintered deities. For example, when Nike is considered a separate-but-associated minor deity aspect of Athena, is that an epithet?

Epithets are just alternate names or add-ons to the name, like nicknames. They do not necessarily convey that any different aspect of deity is being described, though they may be specific to moods or associations of that deity.

The Greeks are kind of a special case—the different epithets were often tied to different regions, so they can have very distinct differences in which aspect of the deity is most prominent.

Also my head kind of trolled me today: I dreamed a good portion of Frozen's "Let It Go," woke up with it stuck in my head, and then I remembered today was the Winter Solstice.

edited 21st Dec '14 7:43:03 PM by Sharysa

Double post, sorry.

edited 21st Dec '14 10:35:44 PM by faemonic

Thanks, both of you. I've been getting thwapped by some psychopompic thoughtform that's sort of a mix between Hela and Morrigan, so I've been wondering if there is this sort of oversoul death goddess who might be known as Hela over there and Morrigan over Eirenn ^note And, I don't know, La Calavera Catrina in Central America maybe but in that case why wouldn't I have encountered, like, an evident syncretism of Kali and Izanami considering that I actually live in Asia?, but there also being Hela who is Hela and Morrigan who would be the Morrigan.

The regional Grecian paradigm might be the next rung up my Wittgenstein Ladder to divine mystery.

Happy Conventional New Year, everyone!

I'm just stuck at home watching everyone else have fun on TV while Mom makes rice-cakes, but at the same time I'm glad I'm not out in the ridiculous wind of the Bay Area.

edited 31st Dec '14 11:51:41 PM by Sharysa

How would you go about finding out if somebody is pretending to be Pagan for attention, rather than actually believing in Paganism?

It's hard to say. Paganism varies enough that there's no consistent shibboleth you can use to sort the sincere from the bogus. I find it's usually best to give people the benefit of the doubt.

If they're sincerely being pagan but ALSO want attention from it, they're most likely fluffy-bunnies.

Edit: OH MY WIZARD GOD, THIS ARTICLE.

edited 9th Jan '15 11:30:25 PM by Sharysa

So where on the sliding scale of Fluffy Bunny to Stinking Badger do you sit?

Not sure why cleverness and wisdom are diametrically apposed.

I think I'm a little closer to Bunny than Badger. I don't think of Paganism as an endless party of white light, but I tend to have a low opinion of cynicism in general. I think a lot of newcomers start out as Bunnies because it's such a surprise and relief to them to learn that modern Pagans are not the depraved devil-worshipers that conservative Christians characterize us as.

I think "cleverness" is being used there to mean "superficially knowledgable, but lacking depth of understanding", i.e. "just enough to be dangerous".

I saw it more as "lightning wits vs. patient understanding." Neither end of the axis fully possesses what the other one represents.

... y'know, that I think fits better

The closest analog for me is a Golden Gecko mixed with a Fuzzy Sheep, seeing as my honesty nearly got me thought of as crazy by The Cauldron. According to some people, though, I SOUND like a Badger (in mundane as well as pagan matters) because I can get pretty sarcastic and dour when I want to be.

In practice I'm definitely a Tenacious Turtle hopefully becoming an Owl, or at least a Coyote. The only common threads among the various gods going "HEY DUDE WHAT'S UP" are: 1) Bear/animal-worship, 2) shamanism, and 3) performing arts. The only thing I can really do at this point is keep on trucking and trying not to freak out at new developments.

Speaking of new developments: The Bear showed up a couple days ago, and he talks in normal sentences, as opposed to single words or REALLY short sentences. This is apparently because I got stoned enough at my friend's party a few months back to get rid of some spiritual blocks I had. (He also told me not to eat a WHOLE weed cookie the next time I get high, not that he needs to.) And then Dionysus said that things are in motion to happen right now, and not just the obvious physical-world ones like my college's play being produced by a professional theater and me hopefully graduating in the fall.

Dionysus is actively not telling me what's up because 1) he doesn't want to freak me out, and 2) it's fun watching me squirm and try not to keep asking him.

I hate that bastard.

As a more mundane thing, has anyone seen Exelixi whether through Internet or real-life?

I'm not likely to be their mother or priestess, so that's just not my problem. The pretense only becomes a real problem to me if they start to express it in harmful ways, like, use the attention that they get to cheat people out of money, or manipulate them into sex, or disrupting conversations that would otherwise be developing into spiritual epiphanies for other people who are supposed to also be participating in the conversation and not just listening or adulating the pretender.

The thing is, all those things could even be done by someone who was sincerely, profoundly captivated by Paganism but just going about it in a very wrong way. My point is that someone else's inner world and drive to soak in people's attention to the point of devouring their souls is...their problem, up until the point that it has any actual effect on the world that we share.

At its most benign, it's just a difficult lesson in healthy boundaries. If you feel that they're overreaching their boundaries, then call them out and shut them down. If you feel they're culturally appropriating from your own culture, then call them out and get space away from them if they refuse to get it. If other people don't have healthy boundaries, then they and the pretender deserve each other.

This isn't to say that the victims should be blamed for being deceived, if or when that comes up. Of course it hurts to be honest about something so personal with someone who wasn't honest with you, and it isn't fair because it's isn't wrong to pay attention to people or be honest and kind but it is wrong to lie to people. It's just that all that's left is to deal with it as it happens.

But it's just that I consider it a really unhealthy ambition to out people like that, because it's really just pointing fingers and jumping the gun, like, "You can't be a real pagan because all pop culture paganism is fake! You can't be a real pagan because urban paganism is a contradiction! You can't be pagan because you're too loud about it. You can't be pagan because you're too quiet about it. You can't be a real pagan because I'm sick of hearing how your family isn't pagan and the situation just doesn't change so you probably only invented this all to feed your persecution complex..." and so on and so forth.

edited 27th Jan '15 3:57:11 PM by Faemon

Here's some interesting news. Ásatrúar in Iceland are building an actual temple to the Norse pantheon.

Hey there folks.

I'm not very good at divination, so I was kind of hoping to ask if someone could see if a person that is causing me much turmoil is divinely protected, and how to make sure that said person doesn't bother me again.

If someone could do that for me, that'd be great.

You have to summon a wee bit harder than that, lass. Lots of summoning going on these days, and I'm a busy one.

Dinnae you have my facebook anyway?

Sharysa is looking for you Exei....

edited 7th Feb '15 8:20:21 AM by TairaMai

Yeah, she seemed kinda worried.

Oh, she's who you were replying to! Never mind, I'm a spaz.

Good to see you again, though, ya old reprobate, how the hell are ya?

edited 7th Feb '15 4:55:05 PM by FurikoMaru

That was a bit freaky (if slowly timed :D ).

Also, I asked here because Facebook is being dumb and your name's not showing up anywhere. I hope it didn't randomly defriend you. That's happened with other people a couple times. P Ming!

Shimegi: Why do you think your tormentor is divinely protected? Are they really bad Karma Houdinis, or do they seem uncanny at manipulating people?