fun-gal-infection-mule asked: i am so confused right now. i know all this stuff i am just confused about wicca or something i guess. the problem with some people is that they say that wicca = all witchcraft or all paganism = wicca and stuff, right? And the "burning times" or whatever, that refers to when they burned supposed witches, right? and some wiccans are all like "that was against MY PEOPLE AND CULTURE" when really it was more about sexism? And what is with the samhain/halloween stuff?
Ooookay, I’ll try and go through these all quickly.
- Lots of people say that “Wicca” and “witchcraft” are synonymous, but there are many witches who aren’t Wiccan. I’ve never seen “all pagans are Wiccan”, but it doesn’t surprise me. (They’re also just demonstrably wrong.) There’s a lot of debate over who *is* Wiccan: by the strictest definition, Wicca is an initiatory religion where you have to be able to trace your coven’s lineage back to Gerald Gardner; by the loosest valid definition, anyone who self-identifies as Wiccan, and presumably follows a very similar set of beliefs to British Traditional Wicca, is Wiccan. But even by this definition there’re plenty of people who aren’t Wiccan who are pagan and/or witches.
- You’ve got the “Burning Times” right. It was when they were burning “witches”, and really it was just an excuse to deal with women who were causing problems. Had nothing to do with witchcraft at all and most certainly had nothing to do with Wicca.
- Samhain and Hallowe’en are on the same day, and a lot of new Wiccans look at that (and the fact that fundie Christians talk about how it’s such a ~pagan holiday~ because it has its roots in pagan traditions) and scream cultural appropriation/offense. It’s bullshit; they’re more like sister holidays (and Hallowe’en is cultural/secular, not religious).
Holy crap, guys, 300 followers!
Y’all are awesome. And I apologize profusely for the dashboard spam when I get bored in the next month or so and browse for Samhain/Hallowe’en posts.
Shinto Wicca/ Oriental Wicca
This was just brought to my attention, I happen to be outraged, but I thought I’d pass along a link to the site.
—-
- sees it labelled ‘Oriental Wicca’
- goes to site, sees ‘Far East’
How much do you want to bet this is a bunch of white people?
ohgods on further reading there’s so much conflagration of chinese and japanese terms
callan-the-misandrist asked: Oooh! I have a story! I have a fluffy bunny friend who has taken it upon themselves to "witness" to anyone who will sit still for more than five seconds about "Sam hayne". Their lore is atrocious and they blame Christianity for Samhain becoming Halloween because Christians "couldn't handle the beautiful truth behind this holy day."
(At least, I am assuming they’re in that camp.)
Anonymous asked: I had my wiccan friend going off on someone that wanted their daughter to be a witch for Halloween, saying that it was cultural appropriation. After laughing my ass off, I apologized to the woman and did my best to explain to my friend why they were an idiot.
AHAHAHA
oh my god everyone please send me your stories regarding this sort of thing
I’ve had a shitty day and this made me laugh until there were tears
Anonymous asked: But seriously. I think people need to realize that Halloween and Samhain ARE TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS???
WAIT REALLY
MY MIND
BLOWN
but yeah, no, I’d love for people to realize that but en masse I don’t think that’s going to happen
the best part is that you have two camps doing it — evangelical Christians who don’t understand history and fluffy Wiccans who don’t understand history
Anonymous asked: I found your last anon to be "offsneive" to my brain. Anyway, that level of stupid is offensive to me, I'd like to know what we should apologize for.
I’m about 99% sure they’re kidding, although it’d be bloody fucking hilarious if they weren’t, tbqh
Fluffy pagans like to complain that witch costumes are religiously offensive and that Hallowe’en is a direct and intentional attack on (usually) Wiccan beliefs.
beccaelainepuddentane asked: So you would agree that there is no underlying racism in Neo-Paganism? Just that there are some people, like in all religions, who use it as a way to spread their racist ideologies?
There’s a lot of underlying racism in a lot of what people take to just be part of Neo-Paganism - there’s a LOT of appropriation. There’s also a lot of racism and classism in pagan organizations and in stores (which is one of the main reasons pagansofcolor exists), so I wouldn’t say it’s people trying to actively spread racist ideologies — a lot of it is just people being passively racist.
But yes, I would agree that Neo-Paganism, in and of itself, is not racist. It’s just very very very easy for it to become racist, and pagans need to be aware of that.
