Monday, August 15, 2011

Appropriate Responses

 A post over at Deep Woods Tea Party sparked some ideas in my head. In concert with some recent bits of conversation, I felt like writing about a topic near and dear to my heart: Watching Pagans go all Chicken Little over stuff that a: isn't really worth the fuss. b: isn't any of their business. c: all of the above.

Every incident, every entity, every potentially crossed condition, must be met with guns blazing and scorched earth scenarios. Bad day? You're hexed and you need to literally counter-hex the feces clean out of their colon, NOW, before they really get you.


Appropriate Responses.

1: Assuming your  "problem  " is a place, is it inhabited?
If the location is some random place out in the middle of nowhere that is uninhabited, and generally not used/frequented by yourself or anyone you know, then it's really not an issue. "Something Must Be Done", you assert. No. It's none of your business, leave it the hell alone. It's minding it's own business. The -more- rural or wild the location, the less business anyone has going in and starting a pissing contest.

Why? Because it's going to win. You can't reasonably camp out at The Bluff every day, all day, straining against a tide that inevitably rolls in, flows back out, and rolls in again.You'll end up slowly acclimating to it, and eventually being overrun by it. Congratulations.

1a: Place, but Inhabited.
"We must neutralize the bad aura!" Er... must we? I mean, if it's a bad location in a bad part of town, just goddamned avoid it. But if it's unavoidable, then take a look. Is it really something occult, or can it be explained by power lines, bad neighborhood, or black mold? And do you really have any business messing around there? If it's an inhabited location, it's generally a good idea to get the permission of the owner - because, sometimes, they're the only person with spiritual authority in that space. Are you comfortable enough with your assertion to actually approach the land-owner and tell them all the specific, sticky, details to -get- their permission?

1b: Natural Feature/Nature Spirit, but "Evil"
If you stick your dick in the bear trap, it will get snapped off. Want to keep your dick? Stay out of the bear trap. Don't care what your personal moral judgments are on the thing. It's a building, or a gully, or a scary old tree. Leave it alone. Don't poke it, don't try to banish it like you've got the right (because you might, or you might not. And if it's "not"... I pity the results).You, Practitioner, are not the Chief of the Secret Police of spooksville. Some entities get warped by damage done to their home - imagine buying your own home, and having a natural disaster rip it away. You rebuild, things get better... then a few decades later some smartassed kid and his friends, wearing dime-store police costumes, came in and tried to evict you

2: If it involves a person, is it someone you have/had conflict with in a mundane sense?
 We pagans, each and every one of us, have our flaws. And a really common human flaw is assuming one's trifling complaints with another human being are, in fact, portends of something greater.We like to justify our actions under righteousness. "Oh, maybe I don't like Heather, but I swear - she's CURSING people, I have to stop her By Any Means Necessary!"

2a: Involves a person you don't know.
Don't mess with it. Mind your own, motherfucking, business.

12 comments:

  1. Oh, GREAT post! I'm so tired of hearing about how every other person thinks they have been cursed by so and so or persons unknown, a house is haunted, etc. etc. I'd love to copy this and just hand it out!

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  2. Yeah. I reached some of those conclusions not long ago.

    Some of the "naturally occuring, but evil" (lol) spirits are occasionally just really fucking offended by the antics of, err, us.

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  3. You know post like these make me think you live in an incredibly entertaining/drive-me-fucking-crazy community. Maybe I just have the good fortune to be oblivious to this sort of shit in my community, and they do at times drive me batty, but wow just wow on all of the above.

    As a slight aside. I love your writing style.

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  4. @Witch of Stitches - I don't claim to know (or usually care) about the validity of anyone's claims. What I question here is the validity of their actions. "Assuming it's true" - is it their business, y'know?

    @Faust - These conclusions are very old, but very often revisited the more I interact with the local Pagani.I say "evil" because... that's the word I'd use to get it through to others. Unseelie-of-the-Lake? Insane, but not evil. But that's not how they might see it.

    @theprimalheart - Entertaining, yes. Insanity-causing, YES. In order to go to the local metaphysical fair, one needs to be armed to the teeth.

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  5. The problem isn't limited to Pagans, of course. I recall someone I know, who, having just learned to banish, was determined to banish a ghost from a very old Church. When I asked "why?" he was completely stymied, just had no answer, since clearly I wasn't going to accept "because I can." And, no I really didn't think he could do any more than piss it off, thereby creating a new evil entity...

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  6. Wonderful post. It's always a mark of a narcissist when one feels the world is out to get them because there's a fly in their $6 latte.

    Being completely on my own I often think I'd trade a little bullshit and drama for the community it'd offer.. but at the same time, there's no one here to hex me but myself. And most days, I'm so grateful for that.

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  7. Yes. This.

    "I'm soooo attuned to everything and that's how I know there's a spirit here that must be vanquished or we shall be accursed!" And then you ask if they introduced themselves or communicated what's going on or asked permission and look at you like you just sprouted a second head.

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  8. @amaranthine3 - Trust me, the community is not worth the drama. I stick around in my community to try and get it out of the drama. I understand I'll suffer for that. Curses are sadly common.

    @peeps - PERMISSION? GOSH, we're the grand-high-poobah-self-appointed-third-degree-high-priests of Lawndale! We do wut we wawnt! (said in the voice of a 14-year-old on Jerry Springer). Ahh, sarcasm, thou art my refuge.

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  9. And some wonder why so many practitioners are solitaries... cripes.

    I hate suggesting to people that they grow up and check the narcissism at the door, but sometimes it is that simple. That never goes over well, btw.

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  10. I absolutely love this post! It's not only funny, but speaks truth many forget, or simply just don't want to hear.

    I used to be one of those that kinda (not always, but when my panties were in a wad) wanted to stick my nose (since I don't have a dick) into bear traps. I learned awhile ago that, not only doesn't it work, it just isn't appropriate.

    Nice job!

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  11. Some folks are so busy looking for the drama-laden magic, that they miss the real magic going on right under their damn noses. I guess they think the drama is more exciting. I find it tawdry.

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