I had an ex g/f in a LTR who was a witch & she had two friends (sisters) who were also witches. They would do seances & talk to their spirit guides while I was in the other room. They could talk to spirits & the one could see the spirits of people who were dead. They definitely seemed to be the real deal & it was interesting to say the least. She is now a respected person in the in Wiccan circles or for people who seek out her services.
@ScreamingFox I have found over the years that I kind of have to remain solitary. My practices don't mesh with any one group anymore. Either they are all in that seems extreme to me, or they have a different perspective than I can agree with. It's the problem with so many treating it like a DIY religion. There are bases and foundtations. Most Wiccans tend to follow them, ironically. Everyone else just slapdashes things together, making it hard to find community or covens in the following.
After years of following religion I got sick of hearing the platitudes; God’s plan, something better ahead and you don’t get more than you can handle. So I began to search around and found a belief based on me, put me in charge and found my church was in nature.
I have taken some things from other religions for my purposes, developed my rituals, plan for my own self care but most importantly realized I have a place in the universe.
@SageWanderer I used to have moments where I would panic and wonder if I was wrong and dooming myself to some weird hell when I die. But then I realized, all I can do is be kind and have courage. To follow the Golden Rule, "If it harms ye none, do as thou will" and act in those parameters. But I also take no shit.
That has been the thing that got me through. I am a good person. I wanted to be a good person for god but constantly sinned. He would never be happy with me. So i should live for me to be a good person and screw whatever anyone else wants me to do. It has been the best path I have taken.
Yeah; the Bible is just a book of fairy tales anyway... (and not a good one)
I'm not a sorcerel, I'm an alchemist (main field of academic study); I don't use maikana circles (FMA), I use a mortar and pestle (also alembics and vials and so on). I have experience in field medicine and pharmacology, toxicology, and in volatile compounds (have had some really close calls too).
I'd be willing to wager half a million silver coins that if the corpse of Jesus were to be found, and a toxicology exam on his remains performed, it would come back positive for high amounts of some kind of psychoactive drugs, mayhaps even hallucinogenics. That's if there's even a corpse to find (is there tangible proof of his/their existence at all?).
Anyway, my SC (second in command), Aylee, she's a Sýijxꜵ (a Pagan tribal magus whose status is obviously powerful but unspoken-not even to me). Also, do not mispronounce or misspell the name, or face their wrath, I am not kidding; they are people you don't wanna mess with.
@FoxyQueen Eh, I wasn't implying that there's a hierarchy; pretty sure that all of them are equals and equally powerful, equally capable of making their enemies miserable (the inverse for their allies). Of course, there are always groups of individuals that are best not trifled with... ... I myself, am guided by the æther, the stars, and my instincts. (sometimes with the aid of others' expertise where mine lacks) ... Yeah; I was raised to question everything.
@samueltyler2 It's called dopamine, yeah, that's alchemy basics, really (or chem 101 if you prefer). Yæ, verily; It likely would of been mine as well, but I didn't the chance proper to find out. Not elaborating here.
@Amyrakunejo It's funny. The only "vengeful" magic I partake in is putting a name or a pocture of a person who sends me into a volatile rage in a black box that has mirrors inside it, close the box and put it away in a dark corner of the house that no light reaches. It makes me feel better putting them in the box.
Otherwise, my spellwork is all for me. I don't want to waste any valuable intention on someone else I dislike. The more I focus on them, the less power I have.
I still have those books in my bookshelf, even though a few of them are now problematic. I learned all about the spiritual movement in the late 1800's-early 1900's
Problematic in what way(s)? I don't know if it's related but the second part above makes me think of how "spiritual" camps of that era like Theosophy and Anthroposophy had elements of racism (which is just another reason I can't stand the now-normalized scam in winemaking circles of "biodynamic" wines ... you can make a sustainable / regenerative agriculture / organic wine without the BS of biodynamics, and even better, it can then also still be certified vegan in addition, but biodynamics will always call for using animal parts for kooky nonsense).
@BlueGreenGrey Well, like, Gardener started a witch cult and Doreen Valiente left and tried to bring that to light, so that is a bit problematic. Scott Cunningham ended up being an extreme racist, but his magical herbal book is still considered the best. A lot of sects were basically sex cults, like Buckland who incorporated BDSM into his teachings. So yeah the neopagan history is rife with issues, unfortunately.
Isn't it horrible that religious wars killed more over the years than any other cause of war? Religions were "invented" to make people comfortable, but tend to tell you what not to do, rather than how to do right.
@samueltyler2 I did some extensive research about the Crusades for a story I was writing and honestly, that whole deal was a bunch of BS. England had zero reason to invade a country that was actually allowing them to freely travel on their pilgrimage and providing places to stay and eat along the way while providing the English with protection from bandits. The English thanked them by deciding it was better if England owned the roads and the commerce. Gross.
@FoxyQueen That is hardly the worst example. But, doesn't a lot of it sound very much like every other war, look at Russia saying that they were threatened by Ukraine!
@robingoodfellow My energy is better spent simply moving on. Lol He can happily live in his cold world of science and facts and miss all the truly beautiful, magical things in life that don't need a scientific explanation.
Like, I know rainbows are refracted light from a water particle, but that doesn't take away the fact that knowing that one little particle made something so beautiful and magical. In fact, the odds of that happening make it even more magical.
It is possible to have both exist in the same space.
@FoxyQueen this is literally all @BlueSkyKing ever does, this kind of comment is his sole reason for existence, he must have it saved in a document ready to copy and paste, and must have some sort of alert set up to detect posts he can pounce on and preach. He is one of a handful of SW users everyone might as well block, if there were shareable block lists here (like you have on, ironically, Bluesky).
