Christian Misunderstandings of Paganism

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TheWhiteWitch
Posts: 34
Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 7:57 pm
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Christian Misunderstandings of Paganism

Post by TheWhiteWitch »

I decided to search the web for what a certain familiar reflects on yourself. I was curious because, my spirit animal is an owl but my physical familiars are rats. Anyways, I searched "what familiar animals reflect about you" and I got found this site that made witches and a beautiful bond between man and animal into a satanic thing. This site was completely dramatasized and crude reflecting witches as something to fear and redicule. It made me feel dirty. Reading it made me feel like I was doing something dirty and was a bad person. I know otherwise and know this is a very beautiful religion, but to feed the public such outrageous "facts" makes my stomach turn. Normally, this wouldn't bother me. I know there are a lot of false advertisers out there, but today a friend pulled me slightly out of the broom closet and called it a sin and actually feared me a little. It's this sort of media that creates this sort of image for us witches. Calling familiars "demons" and creating fear in the church and public. Rant over. :x
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SirisDerp
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Re: Small Tantrum

Post by SirisDerp »

With every religion, there will be naysayers. There is a wide variety of people with a vast amount of interests and set of beliefs. You can't please everyone and, unfortunately, being a pagan is a minority group. This makes it easy to target and paint in a darker picture than what it really is.

It'll happen. If your friend is truly your friend, through education the both of you can reach an understanding. Your friend may never agree with your religion yet, maybe, they can accept your beliefs and not attack you for it.

There will always be those bad eggs who are completely boxed off and refuse any contradiction to their values. Try not to let this discourage you. You're not there to please them.

This is about you're personal happiness, not theirs. Keep your chin up. Fighting!
Vesca
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Re: Small Tantrum

Post by Vesca »

The other day I came across a book that basically sets about to explain to the reader that Satanism (in the fundamentalist definition) and Wicca was the same exact religion. I read the chapter on "why" it was the same religion, and there really was no explanation given aside from "it just is."

Those people how have an axe to grind are going to find a way to get their "message" out there. Whether it's accurate or not, whether it's hurtful or not. There's the compulsion, so out comes the book/web-page/news-feed/ etc...

It's frustrating, but ultimately (for me) it's really sad. That these people have so much hate and fear in their lives that they can't simply let others live without their projections of fear.

I do have trust in the majority of people who have a working brain that they'll be able to spot the discrepancies and inaccuracies with these kinds of resources. It's only those who are looking to validate their own already-existing fears and suspicions that will stop researching once they find a website/book that tells them what they "already knew." And those people would be close minded and criticize or refute any evidence or arguments to the contrary even if you sat a world-reknowned scientist in front of them to tell them otherwise.

For the rest of humanity, I assume even if they don't know the details of witchcraft or pagan traditions, that they at least have been exposed to the term(s), the idea of crystal healing, aromatherapy (essential oils/incense/candles), feng shui, meditation, cellular biology, electro-magnetism, astrology, psychics, fortune-telling, herbalism/horticulture, homeopathic medicine, gardening, belief, faith, prayer and tradition.

Some will be red flags to some people, some won't even seem any more or less "weird" when compared to things like astronomy and physics. But as time goes on, as more websites and blogs are made, as more stories are published, as more books come out and tv shows and movies are made (even if they are a bit sensationalized), the more people will become aware and eventually more open and accepting.

And I, on a personal note, severely doubt that paganism is actually as "rare" as people think. Not everyone may identify with it as their belief, there are a lot of atheists out there who don't follow any particular form of religion, there are a lot of Christians who believe in psychics, premonitions, even fortune telling; and there are a LOT of people who simply don't have the opportunity to vote in those surveys (the actual methods of collecting that kind of information across the country need to be seen for what they are, and because of how they must be carried out at this point there is definitely a margin of error in there and likely quite a bit of bias).

I'm also going to throw this in there, because I secretly (ok, not so secretly) get a sense of satisfaction from seeing it. My husband was raised Catholic in a Catholic country, but wherever I look and in every holiday I witness and take part of, the local traditions that are simply "tradition" are all steeped in "pagan" (pre-Christian) traditions. There really is no escaping the past, even if someone comes along and pastes the face of someone else over it. It remains the same beneath.
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