strundu-ul:

supernachtkuchen:

spiritscraft:

glegrumbles:

There’s something we need to talk about.

A lot of older poltheists are gunshy. Maybe not in the way you think.

I have watched a number of older friends and acquaintances shut down their blogs or stop talking about their experiences and relationships because of shit that happens. Not things that happen between themselves and their gods, mind. Things that happen with the community. Similar experience has made me extremely hesitant to ever give details about particular areas in my life.

Here’s the gist of it: there are a fuckton of people who lie like hell. They are in it for power and prestige and position. They are in it to control you, and in it for your praise. There are people who trawl around through the blogs of other polytheists and harvest experiences and data, then turn around and utilize that data to present themselves as experts, and use that presentation to manipulate the hell out of you. Yes. Well-known blogs. I’m not going to name them, but you might be able to fathom a guess, and yes, well-known polytheists have shut up or outright deleted their blogs to try to stop the data harvesting and subsequent abuse, and some of these same people have badgered people via email looking for information to harvest to their advantage, only to receive silence in reply once people have caught onto them.

Be skeptical. Don’t trust people simply because they are presented as authorities. I have horror stories regarding Heathen “authorities”. A lot of people are not out to help you or make things easier for you, but to control you and feed into their egos. This is true in many areas of life, but especially in the religious community,

A lot of the people you want to talk to are avoidant as hell because they have bad experiences of predators weaponizing their words to prey on people. A lot of the people who are easily accessible are looking to prey on you. Be cautious. Be skeptical. Protect yourself.

This is true

You say “protect ourselves” but you don’t say how or name the threats or list known-to-be-safe blogs and authors. You say they will manipulate us, but you don’t tell us how to see that happening and get out of it.

You want to know how to protect yourself from these people?

Don’t connect your religious writing to your real name. Use a pseudonym and a fake birthday and a fake job. Have a separate email and facebook specifically for these accounts that is totally unconnected from your “real world” identity. Don’t reveal personal details like where you live or how old you are or where you went to school. Remember that online purchases reveal your real name (and possibly shipping address) to the person you buy from.

If you have profound spiritual experiences, don’t share them with strangers unless you’re fully prepared for someone else to come along in six months and copy-paste your writing onto their own blog. Remember that on the internet, “private” information rarely remains that way. Posts in locked facebook groups, LJ flists, untagged posts, etc. can and WILL be screen-capped and/or shared by the people who have access to them. And just as nothing on the internet is truly “private”, nothing on the internet can be truly deleted.

And remember that being a Big Name Pagan is profitable and those BNPs often have a vested interest in making their blogs as compelling as possible, even if that means stirring drama or making wild claims or manipulating other people.

Learn about discernment. Learn how to spot lies and manipulation. Read up on cult indoctrination, and about how cult tactics are often used by average people looking to manipulate others. Read up on the ways that con-artist preachers take advantage of their congregations.

Study lore and religious writings and different magical practices and look at other people’s claims with a skeptical eye. Does it seem like a scam? It probably is! Does it seem outlandish or unbelievable? It probably is! Listen to your gut feelings on these things. It’s totally okay to decide some BNP is bullshitting about their mystical Loki adventures or whatever. You don’t have to believe in someone else’s experience.