woolandcoffee:

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I hate vegans, veganism, and the demonization of animal agriculture as a universal bad. Fucking fight me.

And let’s be real – at this point isolating one thing, like destructive animal ag practices, and blaming it wholly for climate change is ignoring the true problem which is capitalism. Most, if not all, of the practices destroying our planet can be traced to capitalism. You can’t just treat symptoms of the disease, it won’t work.

Sweet Brighid’s buttery fingers, someone in the audience just made a comment about the horrible health risks of eating meat, made disparaging comments on our “reliance on meat,” and said that it’s easy for us to all have a plant-based diet. All these opinions, of course, are based on documentaries produced by anti-animal ag people/groups. It’s really not that black and white folks!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I hate vegans, veganism, and the demonization of animal agriculture as a universal bad. Fucking fight me.

And let’s be real – at this point isolating one thing, like destructive animal ag practices, and blaming it wholly for climate change is ignoring the true problem which is capitalism. Most, if not all, of the practices destroying our planet can be traced to capitalism. You can’t just treat symptoms of the disease, it won’t work.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I hate vegans, veganism, and the demonization of animal agriculture as a universal bad. Fucking fight me.

Watching the election results here at home. Curses at the ready, witches.

Might have to start spear-heading my own faction of the slow fashion movement focusing on the joys of utilizing traditional fiber-ways and methods of clothing production; the ways that slow fashion can be used to further anti-capitalism and anarchy; discussions of how the destructive capitalist system can be appropriately dismantled; placing the blame for the violence of capitalism where it truly belongs; and not shitting on people for lacking the resources necessary to bring slow fashion into their homes. I literally had the slowfashionoctober instagram account say to me today that in a capitalist system if the consumers don’t consumer synthetic fibers, capitalists will stop selling them as though that were something even remotely achievable under the current set-up. I am dead tired of trying to explain to these people that, barring some kind of miracle that magically makes every person wealthy enough to exclusively purchase cotton, that is not going to happen and expecting it to is a fool’s errand.

Journal Entry #2

Starting to realize that my path lies more in animism. I am still a Gaelic polytheist, but I am realizing that involves less deity worship and more approaching things from a Gaelic viewpoint (in as much as that makes sense). This breakthrough has been a long time coming, and I think I’m going to struggle with figuring out what to do next, but I think approaching my path from an animist standpoint is the right thing to do. Try as I might, the only deity I have made a lasting relationship with over the years has been Brighid. That has been a strong, fulfilling relationship, and I have never been able to find anything similar with any other deity. However, I have developed similar relationships with my familiar and with certain plant and animal allies.

Now just to figure out how this looks and how everything should fit together.

Journal Entry #1

The main reason why I feel so behind (stagnant?) in my path is that I get so easily overwhelmed. How many gods do I worship? From which pantheons? What kind of magic should I practice? What tools do I need? What should be in my Book? Do I include this, do I do that, do all these things work together? I get so caught up in all these questions and the need for clear, defined answers that I compromise by not doing anything at all. I could be fostering deeper relationships with deities and spirits, but I don’t because I get hung up on which spirits and through what framework. I could be further along in developing my skills as a witch, but I’m not because I get hung up on what magic to work, through what framework, with what tools. It’s an exhausting process that I know I put myself through. The crazy thing is I can sort of see where I want to end up, I just can’t see a clear way to get there. What I need to do is just take the first step. I need to refocus on what actually works for me, what I know for certain about my practice and then go from there. Things I know for sure are:

– I am an animist. First and foremost, I acknowledge the spirits all around us. Perhaps this needs to be my initial jumping off point for all other things.

– I am a Gaelic polytheist. This has been a good fit for me, and has provided a good framework for me to operate. I don’t work with all the deities (and perhaps why this fit works so well is because in many ways the Gaelic deities feel less like deities and more like major spirits?), but I don’t feel I need to. Brighid is primarily who I work with. I have also been working on developing a way to work with An Cailleach, and am beginning to develop a way to work with An Dagda.

– My practice needs to be local. As an animist, and as someone who sees their deities are intertwined with the landscape, it is important to me to ground my practice in where I am. Right now, that is the PNW.

– I see myself as more of a folk/hearth witch. I do not see myself engaging in ceremonial or more traditional Grimoire work. My magic is folk magic, and I have to figure out what that means to me.

– I want to develop a collection of tools that I can use to help facilitate my practice. I have come to the conclusion that this is something I must figure out for myself. I have to decide, outside of any other framework, what works best for me. Right now I am feeling the need to create a stang and a broom. I actually already have the stang almost complete, and have plans for how to make my broom. Then comes figuring out how best to use them.

– I want to really and truly learn the ogham. The more I learn about it, the more I see how it would fit firmly into my life. I need to become more serious about my studies.

– I want to establish a more routine practice. This will likely go a long way to help me feel more grounded and secure in my practice.

With Samhain approaching, I feel that now is a good time to rededicate myself to making my spiritual and magical practice a greater part of my life. Now is a good time to start figuring out how best to walk my path so that I don’t feel so stagnant. I think I will use the above list as a jumping off point. It roughly captures the things I know for sure and the things that I know for sure I want to do. The one big thing that is not on that list is my practice with Hekate. I keep a shrine to her in my apartment, have honored her off and on, and am certainly in awe of her, but I struggle with how she fits into my practice. Part of it is that she lies beyond the Gaelic pantheon and that bothers my mind which likes tidy categories. Part of it is that a lot of what I seek from Hekate, I already find with Brighid, and I feel Brighid far more strongly than I feel Hekate. Perhaps the thing to do for the moment is to pack up Hekate’s shrine and put it away until I can figure out where she fits into my life.

Either way, I think I know where I’m starting.

I have really and truly had it up to here with millennial bashing. I can’t even put into words how ignorant and spiteful it is to be watching the current political climate unfold and still be bitching that millennials (who are now in their mid-20s to mid-30s btw) are lazy, entitled, and have no idea how the world really works. I think we’ve cottoned on, thanks. Basically, fuck any any ignorant motherfucker who still thinks that millennials are ditzy morons who just don’t get it. We’ve had our eyes wide open longer than you’ve ever had to.

It’s only the second week of October, why is the Christians stole Christmas from pagans discourse already starting on my facebook feed? I am a beautiful soul who has done nothing wrong ever in my whole life and I Do Not Deserve This.

You can put that man on the bench if you want, but if you think I’m giving him any respect, any credence, any force of law, then you thought wrong. The Court has no army. It only has as much power to speak law as we the people give it. That walking mistake of a man can issue as many opinions as he likes, but as far as I’m concerned, they won’t be worth the paper they’re printed on.