Tumblr is the Devil
Over breakfast this morning I was having a lively chat with a colleague about our respective requirements for our formal students and apprentices (and by formal student, I do not mean someone who signs up to take one of my online classes, but rather someone who has formally contracted with me to be taught within one of the lineages I carry). My friend was surprised when I told her that one of the first things I do now is require my formal students and apprentices to delete any tumblr accounts they may have and to stay off tumblr completely for the duration of their training. I used to make this a strong suggestion, but over the last year it’s become pretty non-negotiable for me.(1)
Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to watch those ensconced in the tumblr community interact devotionally. I’ve seen the nonsense coming endlessly out of these sites (more so than on any other type of social media including Facebook and Twitter): the reification of pop culture as proper polytheism, the often complete lack of critical thinking, the shallowness, and the lack of reverence (and let’s not forget the tumblr wives of Loki…or Kai lo ren because you know, over there, they’re basically the same thing anyway. Sorry Tom Hiddleston. Sorry). I think that last – reverence or lack thereof– is what made me finally come to my decision: pretty much without exception of those I have personally experienced, I find that the tumblr pagan and polytheist communities encourage a lack of reverence.
Nor do I mean that this is something that is occasionally a side effect of participating in tumblr, I mean it is actively encouraged. The result is people who cannot maintain themselves in sacred space without feeling the need to crack jokes, to lesson the ambiance of reverence, to reduce to the lowest common denominator, the protocols of veneration.
I want to be very clear about something, and this is something that I try very hard to lay out to prospective students and apprentices before taking them on via contract, those of us working in our respective polytheisms – in my case Heathenry and cultus deorum, a little Starry Bull on the side—are not seeking to develop in ourselves the outlook, perspective, worldview, ethics, and morality of our current popular culture. We are looking to develop a polytheistic worldview in tandem with how our ancestors, born and raised in polytheistic cultures, would have approached the Gods, ancestors, and devotion. We are seeking to ensconce ourselves in a polytheistic perspective, to develop polytheistic ethics, and to grow in reverence and awareness of our proper place before the Gods. Anarco-leftists and co. , tumblr, and others can rail and rant and rave about that all they want. We will not be moved. We are not seeking to create ourselves in a post-enlightenment, post modernist image. We’re seeking to restore the values and traditions of our ancestors. It’s precisely the cultivation of those values and that worldview that I think tumblr most effectively damages. It panders to the populist voice of the lowest common denominator and to be clear: lie down with dogs, as the saying goes, one does wake up with fleas.
I believe (as did Aristotle) that it is important to cultivate relationships that encourage right behavior, that help us develop habits of reverence, of piety, of excellence in our devotional work. These things are habits. They are things that lie within our control, that we may develop or not. It is very, very difficult not to be affected by those with which we associate every day, and most of us are online an awful lot. I would venture to say that for the average pagan or polytheist, the online venues that we each frequent are a vital part of our community experience – sad but true, and true for almost all of us. I hear from people every day who are spread out across the country, across the globe who have no one else in their immediate area who is also a polytheist, or if they do, it may not be their particular polytheistic religion. It’s natural to want fellowship. I think we just have to be rather discerning about where we find it and one thing that tumblr won’t cultivate is just that: discernment.
Notes:
- I realize that there are artists who use tumblr solely for artistic sharing and such, and normally I would say ‘sure, that’s fine’ but more and more I think with a level of pollution such as I typically see on tumblr, it’s best to just cut that shit off cleanly, and not allow any means whereby it might infect. Any doorway is a possible hazard. So apologies to my artist friends out there!
They folks, for those interested, the piety possum buttons are available. I’m charging $3 a button, plus $2 shipping and handling. I’ll have them up on etsy soon but in the meantime, feel free to contact me at Krasskova@gmail.com if you want one. There is a limited supply.
Posted on August 27, 2016, in community, Polytheism, Uncategorized and tagged Asshattery, Community, Polytheism, tumblr. Bookmark the permalink. 58 Comments.
Gangleri's Grove 
I imagine right at this moment your tumblr anti fans are dissecting this as proof that you are the bad person they want you to be.
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well, i did point out there’s a dearth of critical thinking there, or rather sentimentality and unthought out emotion masquerading as such. at least i’m keeping them off the streets and out of trouble. *hah*
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What’s to object to? She’s just saying that if you want to study under her you have to abide by this rule. She’s not legislating for anyone else, so if they find that restriction intolerable the solution is really, really simple: don’t study under her.
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Well, I’m sure the same people will object who also object to private religious groups setting their own rules (however abhorrent those rules may seem to others, myself included). Everyone has to agree with them or else their world falls apart.
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The student does not get to dictate terms to the teacher.
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exactly. But we’ve seen even in academia how this is a radical concept to some.
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The connection you’re able to draw to real-life behavior is very interesting.
I agree that our peers impact our behavior, but there are some really sound polytheists who use that site, including several Starry Bull members. The culture there may be maturing, but I understand your reasons.
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I haven’t seen it maturing at all. In fact, I’d say it’s going the exact opposite. I have no say over what Sannion chooses to permit those training in Starry Bull though, only what i require for my own formal students.
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I know! What a radical concept – you and I aren’t in lockstep agreement on every single thing. Mind. Blown.
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It’s enough that we agree on the shit that really matters – like prioritizing the Gods and that Marxism will turn you into a werewolf.
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Ah yes, but she didn’t say that anyone who uses Tumblr is *inherently* bad, she said that Tumblr seems to encourage the worst traits within the polytheist community. So some wonderful people may very well use Tumblr, but the thing is, it doesn’t make them immune to being – even subtly – corrupted by it. Or rather, by the values of the community who predominantly uses it. And I’ve seen that happen too. We are all of us influenced by those we keep company with, so it’s important to choose one’s company wisely.
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Subtly corrupted by it. I have noticed that when clusters of people join together. They tend to reinforce each other’s prejudices and other things. And eventually they form a group think that becomes the soup they swim in. Hence the wildfire reaction in some circles to the piety posse or how other pagan groups organised themselves.
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I don’t disagree; the reference to real-life behavior was particularly compelling.
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I think that actually happened in the Samurai Cat series. (Marxism turning people into werewolves.)
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That’s badass and I’ll have to look it up
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I feel a little attacked right now, because I’m one of those Tumblr types.
honorthegods is the same at wordpress as it is at tumblr…well, the WP account doesn’t have as many of the reblogs and classics in-jokes. I thought you and I had very similar views about polytheism, but maybe not.
Your post reminds me of an article written by Mary Beard, ridiculing today’s polytheists because we don’t sacrifice hecatombs, and no one, in her opinion, can worship Zeus or Athena without sacrificing hecatombs. And yet, the reality Beard denies is that somehow in 2016, hundred of thousands of polytheists are brazenly managing to worship Zeus and Athena without killing a single cow.
The Lokeans I know from Tumblr – and I admit I can’t possibly know all of them – are working hard at study and devotion. Some of them include Loki in their practice because he’s Odin’s blood-brother. Others are survivors of some kind of abuse that society condones or overlooks, and I can understand why they’d want the world to burn and start over. Other polytheists laugh at their god, accuse Lokeans of being poseurs because Tom Hiddleston is cute, call them fangirls and pop pagans…yet even so, their loyalty and practice remains true.
People don’t make fun of Christian or Buddhist nuns, but the season’s always open on ridiculing godspouses. It’s also popular on Tumblr to deride people who discovered polytheism by reading Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson books. Bullying, harassment, derision, and in general being a know-it-all are major occupations at Tumblr. Being a Lokean, being a pop-culture pagan, and being a godspouse of Loki is like being fat, or white: it makes you a target, and it’s acceptable, even in the polytheist community (who should fucking know better) to harass those, people, sneer at their practice, and deride their god.
I know Antinoans, Hellenic polytheists, Roman polytheists, and Heathens who are on Tumblr because 1) It’s a hellava lot more user-friendly than WP, and 2) Tumblr is the social media site to connect with a majority. It might seem like the wasteland, but the wasteland IS the best place to find questing knights.
I think it’s important to set a good example as a polytheist, and I try to do so. I only offer advice when someone seeks it, and I refuse to condemn anyone for “not doing it right”. I may unfollow them, but I don’t feel it’s my place to drive anyone away from the gods. If someone’s practice offends, I’m pretty sure the offended god is going to let that person know.
Of course it’s your right to demand a certain level of conduct from your students. I, personally, find asking someone to delete their Tumblr account and stay offline akin to those boarding schools that don’t permit students to have personal computers or to listen to modern music – but that’s your prerogative.
The world has changed a lot in 2000 years. Messages can be sent and read in seconds. Western women can leave their homes unaccompanied, can own property, and vote. Slavery is against the law. Yet strange cults, like the Branch Davidians, manage to exist in the cracks of our society, forcing people to do all kinds of things because someone on a power trip decided that’s the only way to worship some god properly.
I believe our gods live, and I believe that personal freedom is one of the qualities they value and encourage among humanity. Human history shows a progression of expanding rights for individuals. If someone came to me, and asked what I thought of a teacher who told them to delete their social media accounts because the values there will corrupt their discernment and relationship with the gods? I would advise them to find a different teacher. We have to live in this world. If scrolling through the dash at Tumblr is going to ruin someone’s relationship with the gods, that relationship wasn’t very strong to begin with.
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I think you’re kind of missing the point because you’re personally offended. For one thing, she didn’t say “delete your social media accounts” she said “delete your Tumblr” which is different, and much more specific. (Though frankly, if I were to take formal students, I might very well tell them the former rather than the latter, because I remain unconvinced that social media does anything for a spiritual practice other than provide distractions. But I digress.)
She didn’t say that all modern things are evil, or that the world hasn’t changed. I mean, FFS, she’s writing this on the internet, it’s not like she’s a luddite. But as to your last sentence… we’re talking about people who are in need of a teacher, people who might not necessarily have strong relationships with the gods yet, people who are looking for guidance. So yeah, they’re going to be easily influenced – and frankly, *everyone* is influenced to some degree by the people they converse with the most frequently. To suggest removing the influences that are only going to degrade a practice (one that you are actively being requested, as a teacher, to help form) does not seem out of line to me. And I’ll point out that most serious traditions that train spiritual specialists require some version of this (often a lot, lot more difficult and severe, such as cutting off all contact with the outside world). It says a lot about the pagan community right now, I think, that even the idea of cutting off one single social media site seems too much to ask. I would suggest that you and others really question why you’re so resistant to that idea.
I also think it’s a bit ridiculous to compare making fun of pop culture pagans (a choice) to making fun of fat people (not a choice). Must we be so cautious of other people’s precious feelings that we can’t even criticize an approach we feel to be blatantly in error and contributing to a weakening of our traditions? People are free to disagree of course, but I hardly think it’s some kind of intolerance. There is a point where you can be so open-minded your brain falls out.
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Dver, Brava. Every single thing you wrote. Every single word. Brava.
I should also add that I otherwise encourage students to maintain blogs, twitter, what have you.
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And I’ve seen more than enough of the kind of intolerant polytheistic pontification that has caused people with good intentions to abandon polytheism for good.
There is NO ONE in our community who can say with authority that they know the exact words, gestures, and details of EVEN ONE ritual practiced in antiquity. NONE of us has a direct line of information to the past. We are ALL trying to reconstruct religion from scraps of documents and bits of junk discovered at archaeological sites. There is not a single person in our community who has authority over anyone else, and no one has any referent power unless someone else gives it to them.
The current trend of tearing down other people’s practices and beliefs reminds me of nothing but Christianity in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, insisting on some arbitrary orthodoxy in order to achieve status and power over people. Is that the kind of community we really want to have? Isn’t right conduct more important to our gods? Aren’t the gods the judges of right conduct? Isn’t it more important to build up our community, than to constantly knock it down? Do you think the gods approve when people who claim to follow them deride sincere polytheists, ridicule the sources that inspired people to seek the gods, drive them from the community because they don’t understand where they’re coming from…and are too busy pushing their own personal agenda to event TRY to understand?
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I think that it has to do with groupthink that the internet promotes. For example, the piety posse rose from tumblr to make fun of certain people’s ideas of piety and what that entail. Not a discussion of piety but a reaction to something- the terms then get couched in terms of “human freedom. I believe it is difference of thinking and approach.
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There is far too much criticism and ridicule of other people, and too little reaching out, trying to understanding, encouragement, and building up. If we’re just a bunch of know-it-alls, we don’t have a community. We just have a bunch of know-it-alls…and that’s not going to last, or become something better.
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This is a response to honorthegods, not virginia, but wordpress is being wonky …
And … ?
If you think this policy is wrong, provide an alternative. Be open and inclusive and share what you have with all comers. Why are you putting so much time and energy into criticizing her for holding views different from yours? If you aren’t willing to accept the conditions she lays down, then don’t. No one is forcing you to get rid of your tumblr account. Hell, she even said the prohibition was only for the duration of your time studying under her, so you could start it up afterwards. Really think about what you’re saying – if you don’t trust her on this, how can you trust her on other things? Why would you keep going to a doctor and ignoring their medical advice? It’s no different with a spiritual mentor. You either listen to them, or make your own way in the world. There’s a lot of unexamined privilege and arrogance in dictating the terms by which one hopes to receive knowledge, technique, power, etc. Xenia places obligations on both host and guest. Respect that.
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Because I’ve seen far too much derision of “Tumblr types.” And yes, when someone is so petty as to decide that no one who has an account at a certain can possibly understand how to practice a religion, I start to question their authority,their privilege, and the authenticity of their worldview.
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I would love to sacrifice hecatombs. Maybe mary beard will pay for them. Gods know our community won’t.
I’m not criticizing YOUR practice. I don’t care. You’re not one of my students. This is a requirement that is only relevant for someone thinking about studying under me. Isn’t it better that people know that up front?
I’m not looking to attract a multitude of students. I”m looking to attract the very best. If someone can’t give up tumblr in order to pursue excellence in their work, then we have nothing to do with each other. If you’re not willing to listen to me on this, how can i be sure a student will listen when we get into the serious shit? Shit that has ramifications and can fuck them up big time spiritually and in every other aspect of their life. This isn’t an academic class: it’s spiritual apprenticeship. Rules do apply and have in every single tradition back through time. The deeper you go, the more rules there are.
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and this is where we differ, honorthegods. There are those of us who are lineage carriers and we are absolutely responsible for the integrity of those lineages and THAT takes precedence over anyone’s feelings. THAT and serving the Gods well takes precedence over anyone’s desire to piss away time on the internet or anything else. Someone doesn’t like my approach: they are free to find another teacher. I’ve never held students by force. What i have done is maintained high standards and i will continue to do so because this is not about US. It’s about the Gods and seeing our traditions into the next hundred years. The integrity of those traditions and training up people rightly within them of utmost importance. I don’t give a fuck if that offends you or anyone else.
Traditions have standards and if someone isn’t willing to meet minimum standards, they are free to find other traditions. Same with teachers and students.
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oh please. we reach out all the time. But what we don’t do is lower our standards and that we will never do.
When I approach a tradition to learn and train, i assume that i will be taught to do things the proper way within that tradition. I do not assume that the way I’m already going about things is correct. If i can’t tolerate correction then i’ve no business going into a new tradition.
You are free to do whatever you want, however you want it within the bounds of your own practice. No one on this thread or any other here as far as I know has said that is not the case. But once you step into my House, and contract with me for training within the traditions whose lineages I carry, that’s a game changer and everything does not in fact go.
Why are there rules and boundaries? OH i don’t know. A matter of respect for the Gods, for the ancestors, for the traditions for which those ancestors were the guardians, whose guardianship has passed to us? Obligations to the Gods to carry cleanly that which They have entrusted to our care. because protocols and the scaffolding of veneration are important within these traditions for the cleanliness and safety of the practitioners. Because this is not a kumbaya circle and feeling jerk, but an actual body of living traditions and there are consequences for approaching the Powers and because it does in fact matter if someone is pissing around or doing things properly.
and you are basically telling me not to have standards for my own students. That’s never going to happen.
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“Why are there rules and boundaries?”
1. Because people need to learn discipline in order to function properly in a given tradition.
2. Because one must do the time to get the prize so to speak. When I went to nursing school I already had 12 years as a paramedic under my belt as well as working for a cardiologist for a time and working in an urgent care. Did this mean anything to my nursing instructors? Nope. Not a thing. I was specifically told to shut my mouth and to act like I knew nothing. I did the same number of hours in clinical, went to the same nursing assistant program, and had the same classes as everyone else. (I did graduate with honors though thanks to my experience)
3. Because the teacher gets to make those rules and set those boundaries. Just like parents do (on a greater scale than teachers) for their children. They don’t have to make sense. They are the teacher’s prerogative.
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exactly and if someone isn’t looking for that, they don’t have to work within that tradition or with that teacher.
not to mention the teacher is responsible for the student. Wyrd wise, morally, spiritually, before the Gods, the teacher is responsible so if a student fucks up big time because of influence from tumblr or wherever it’s still the teacher’s burden and responsibility.
I’m really glad you brought that up about the medical field because it’s the same thing in art and dance and engineering and any other technical field you’re going to get into. This is how you learn a craft and it’s true in religion as well.
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Lineage carrier? Really? Where did you find a direct line from antiquity instructing you in the rituals verbally passed from priest to priest? Because that’s the only way “lineage” happened in antiquity, and Christianity broke that line of continuity.
It doesn’t seem likely that our traditions will last into the next hundred years, because too many polytheists would rather discourage and ridicule each other than to build each other up.
The gods are the only authority as to whether someone’s practice is correct or not. Perhaps you should reflect on the concept of hubris.
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Perhaps, dear, I’m doing *exactly* as my Gods bid. Yes, lineage carrier and if you don’t understand that, then we might as well be speaking completely different languages.
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Not all lineages stretch back unbroken to antiquity. Some are emerging today – just as they once did in the past. The integrity of the tradition is more important than people’s precious fee fees.
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and better that our traditions die a second death here and now than be built upon polluted foundations.
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This is reminding me of that show we watched, where a bunch of girls were considering becoming nuns and a couple of them completely flipped their shit because they wouldn’t let her have a cell phone, talk to her boyfriend, or wear makeup. yeah, i probably wouldn’t want to give up that much autonomy either but that’s why I’m not trying to become a fucking nun.
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Yep. I wrote about that here: https://krasskova.wordpress.com/2014/12/13/the-sisterhood-wtf/
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Part of it, Sannion, is that people feel entitled to everything. Well, you’re not. You’re not entitled to immediate entry into every tradition. you’re not entitled to initiation, you’re not entitled to quite a bit of spiritual and religious stuff, and neither am i, not without preparation, training, divination, and bowing to the requirements of the tradition. If I find i can’t do that, I go elsewhere instead of whining about how I’m being denied.
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And no one is saying that the only way to access the Gods and Spirits are through these lineages. They Gods and Spirits choose whom they will, and no one can stand between them unless the devotee allows that to happen. But on the other hand, if you want to access the Gods and Spirits through a particular lineage or mystery current than you damn well better be prepared to observe rules and norms set down within that tradition. Because that’s the real hubris – not someone clearly articulating their personal boundaries.
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I am so done with this. The proof of your practice will be whether it flourishes. If you think the best way to do that is through ridicule, derision, and controlling behavior, good luck.
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A perfect example of what I see in the community now: not agreeing to allow anything and everything within our own traditions equals ridicule and derision. good luck with that, buddy. you’re right: the proof will be in our practice. good luck.
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Thank you! And may your own efforts be equally blessed, that the Gods and Spirits may be honored through a diversity of ways! Death to the one-way ideology! Viva la difference!
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“And I’ve seen more than enough of the kind of intolerant polytheistic pontification that has caused people with good intentions to abandon polytheism for good.”
If a stranger writing words on the internet can make you abandon a religion, then that says way more about the quality of your devotion than the meanness of the writer. I mean, really, this is a spiritual calling, not an extra-curricular club in high school.
“There is NO ONE in our community who can say with authority that they know the exact words, gestures, and details of EVEN ONE ritual practiced in antiquity.”
So since we can’t know every single thing in exact detail, we can’t even put together some basic understanding of the theology and ritual protocol behind an ancient tradition? That’s simply ridiculous. Not to mention, there are plenty of *living* polytheistic traditions in the world, where we do know everything about them, so we can definitely extrapolate some general guidelines and be able to discern the difference between a religion and a fandom. And people are welcome to argue about the validity of where we draw the lines, which they do all the time, but to suggest that there should be, and can be, NO lines simply because we don’t know the precise way every ritual was done in ancient times is just a meaningless argument. Then we might as well say all religions are one, because anything and everything should be accepted as part of every religion.
“There is not a single person in our community who has authority over anyone else, and no one has any referent power unless someone else gives it to them.”
Yup. You are completely right. So why are you getting so bent out of shape? If Galina has no authority over you – and she never claimed to anywhere, and in this post precisely was talking only about the authority she has over someone who has willingly submitted to her as a student – then why can’t she express an opinion about what she thinks is good or not good spiritual practice? She’s not holding a gun to your head demanding you agree and obey. She’s writing. A blog post. On the internet.
“The current trend of tearing down other people’s practices and beliefs reminds me of nothing but Christianity in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, insisting on some arbitrary orthodoxy in order to achieve status and power over people.”
First of all, it’s NOT arbitrary, don’t you understand, to us this is fucking *important*, it’s what makes this a real religion or not, a polytheism or not. But for you, it seems that having ANY standards, is having too many standards. And in what way does this give her power and status over people? Really? How? Again, writing on the internet. No actual power. People revile her in some corners, so questionable on the “status” thing.
“Is that the kind of community we really want to have?”
Better than one so concerned with validating everyone’s point of view that it becomes a meaningless collection of people just there to socialize. Better than any kind of deep spiritual development as a religion atrophying and dying because no one is allowed to question anyone else’s feelings about anything.
“Do you think the gods approve when people who claim to follow them deride sincere polytheists”
If I was deriding sincere polytheists, that would be a concern. I don’t think the gods care one bit what I say about people in love with a Star Wars character, because that has literally nothing to do with the gods.
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*slow clapping*.
I wish i’d written this comment. What she says.
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I wish I was as articulate as you. Fantastic reply.
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This comment section is really cementing for me why Tumblr and their world views are pure scum.
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Well said to this post. I’ve yet to walk away from looking at the tumblr pagan section without feeling a strong desire to bleach my eyes. I avoid tumblr entirely now.
In my experiences godspouses aren’t the ones ridiculed; (besides the fact that you are a godspouse yourself Galina!) rather, those who seemingly operate without a shred of discernment or employment of critical thought are acknowledged as having those traits rather than blindly being accepted as the special snowflakes and high authority that they wish to be seen as.
Gods forbid that someone should have their FEELS hurt! I’m friends with atheists who openly acknowledge that they think my beliefs are fantasy. As someone else pointed out, if I abandoned my gods because of what others thought I’d be a piss poor devotee indeed.
I have to raise an eyebrow at the offended person above. They seemed to prove exactly your point without even trying.
All teachers ask different things. If people are offended by your terms no one is forcing them to be your student. Simple as that.
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exactly. it is that simple.
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I am amazed that somehow the whole thing got misread. I think that honorthegods may be reacting to all the tumblr criticism and decided to unload their frustrations on Galina. I think that since many polytheists are self-taught and are being re-enforced by other polytheists who are also self-taught, that they don’t know how to react when someone have a strict application of how to do their particular religion.
I remember reading years ago Sannion’s writings about how he went from doing wicca rituals to Greek ones and the process involved. I think that perhaps in the tumblr case, it may be people who are at the early stages of their religious development. It could also be people who have problems with being told what do in religious contexts.
This reminds me of trigger warnings that people put everywhere. I have a specific trigger – meteors from the sky. I don’t expect the TV news to say trigger when discussing a near miss by a meteor. What I have learnt from my stint in the mental hospital is that we all are responsible for our own mental (spiritual) well-being. We can decide to remain ill or struggle to become well. Few make it to the well-side since it involves becoming an adult, with responsibilities for yourself. I see this struggle happening in the polytheistic world of the internet.
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Lack of reverence… I mean, there are a lot of Lokeans on tumblr and I do wonder why Lokeans should show reverence… It would be completly out of character. Maybe Tumblr is not the devil, but Loki and you don’t care to understand Loki beyond the devilish person Christianity painted him as. If I wanted an authority other than my gods, about my religion, I probably would be Christian. If my teacher can’t stand discourse about their teachings, why would trust them?
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I have found legitimate Loki’s folk to have an intense sense of reverence. teh most devout and reverent person I ever knew was Loki’s. Tumblr Lokeans ….do not represent Loki’s folk well. There’s also a difference between using humor to take down power and making stupid ass jokes.
Why do you always default to Christianity? Are you saying there’s no authority in any other tradition the world has ever seen? I’m pretty sure Buddhist monks, Tibetan shamans, native american medicine people, ATR folk would find that baffling. It depends on the issue: there’s plenty of things that I would encourage lively discussion about and then there are some things that are not up for debate. The student doesn’t come to the teacher to have their mistakes reinforced after all. That is what tumblr is for.
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“The student doesn’t come to the teacher to have their mistakes reinforced after all.”
This. Exactly. I don’t think people get this anymore. I don’t think they can stand the idea that anyone might have more knowledge or experience than them in something, that the teacher/elder/etc. might have an insight that doesn’t make sense to them yet. Do you go to college and then tell the teacher what her prerequisites and curriculum should be? Ok, well these days, maybe you do, since campuses seem to be more about the students laying down all the rules about what they will and will not even listen to, rather than opening their minds to what the professors might have to offer. If you don’t think this person has at least a general idea of what they’re doing, and some wisdom to impart to you, why would you want to be their student anyway? And if you can’t trust in them just a little, enough to, say, set aside a totally frivolous activity that does not actually injure you in any way but is merely a small deprivation, with the idea that just maybe, they might have a good reason for it… then you aren’t really seeking their help. Which is fine. But it’s ridiculous to then criticize their methods.
I just don’t understand people these days. I was really, really fortunate to have some people guide me (not a formal apprenticeship, but still) when I was first getting into this stuff, and also to have the accumulated wisdom of centuries of mystics and devotees whose writings I could study. I didn’t just throw the books away the minute I came across an idea that challenged me. I figured hey, these people did this for their whole lives, maybe they actually know something I don’t, maybe I should try it out and see. Amazingly, I actually learned some important shit that way. And yes, ended up discarding some things as well, but only after long practice and discernment, not just a childish reaction to the idea of authority or discipline.
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There’s a difference between pushing boundaries as a sacred obligation, and being unceasingly irreverent in every situation because you forgot you were even dealing with gods anymore. Wayland has a great post about this here, in relation to Loki, where he talks about how you can’t even break taboos if no one in the community has them anymore: https://fromthelabyrinth.wordpress.com/2015/12/17/too-casual-a-climate/. At this point, frankly, it would be a bigger breaking of boundaries if Lokeans were entirely serious and pious.
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Did you see this on The Wild Hunt: “The Secret LIves of Teen Witches on Tumblr.”
I have not yet gotten up the courage to read it. 🙂
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ahhhh yeah, gonna skip that one.
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I read it. What it reminded me of was the many groups on Facebook where they swap spells, etc, but haven’t a clue as to how it works. I have traversed several tumblr sites researching pop culture paganism. It I’d mostly self taught with pockets of people who know stuff. However thr pagan sites are much like the sites here that people rail about here. They are more reactive though.
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Cesspool. I think that’s what you meant. I quit Tumblr a month or so after I joined several years ago. Only, it was the very small chicken community on there and their deadly advice that made me quit.
If your potential students can’t give up that one incredibly unimportant thing, well that’s not your problem. They can go somewhere else. It shouldn’t be your job to teach them and combat the stupid they decide to believe.
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I did want to offer an alternative point of view. I discussed this with my very Republican and Trump supporter husband. He reacted the same way as hoonorthegods. That it was a restriction of freedom. That students learn discernment from reviewing these sites. He said that the person sounds like they set themselves up as an authority for other religious people. I know that is not meant here, but to a casual observer, it looks like what the GandR people rail about – an abuse of power. I present this since it for me gives insight as to the reaction by others. Which highlights the divide between the two groups.
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Fortunately or unfortunately I have internet data restrictions and cannot use tumblr much as it eats up that data. I use it, but like my twitter it is a mirror of my wordpress. So far however, any interaction I’ve had with tumblr has been annoying and distracting for the wrong reasons. It has its own culture of ‘social justice’ which is always aggressive and looking to ‘call out’ something otherwise considered innocuous.
As an artist, most posts liked and shared are my art, especially art with sexual themes. (Most my followers are porn sharers because of this), anyway, apart from spreading my name and website around, developing a reputation, **EXPOSURE**. It has been pretty pointless, I don’t see anyone sharing my images buying my work and contributing to my rent. That said, for artists these are tools and like all tools they can be good or bad and depend on the propose. Like you don’t hammer a screw, or screw a nail, in my experience tumblr it feels like am hammering a screw.
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