CLEAR AS MUD

I have sat and watched with interest lately at some of the labels, and conversations around people’s various paths and knowledge of them.  And I am trying to see where they are coming from, but its a little muddy.
So the first one I see is someone who came into a group I frequent, who labels herself as a High Priestess of a Satanic organization as well as a “dark” pagan. And yet when she came into a pagan group not known for swallowing bullshit, she posted generic McWiccan  elemental spells as well as directions to make a witch bottle for protection.  Now I am not too sure what tenets her organization adheres to..it’s a “secret” society but it advertises for new members on FB..social media.  Yeah..I couldn’t exactly get my head wrapped around that either.  So I looked at her name to give me a clue as to what she is about, because names are important..gives me starting point of reference.  The first part was Baphomet.  Now this name creates a lot of controversy even in the pagan world as to the origins, with everything from the Knights of Templar, the Freemasons as well as Elphias Levi’s “Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie“ written in 1897 that became a standard for reference in modern occultism.   While it certainly has a LHP bent, it doesn’t really have a lot to do with satanism as a whole, although some groups use the symbol drawn by Levi as a way to differentiate themselves from anything remotely connecting them to other parts of the occult such as wicca .  The second part of her name is Sekhemet.  Sekhemet is an Egyptian goddess.  Her name means “powerful one”.  She also carries the  name, One before who evil trembles/  Now I ask you…would any self respecting satanist saddle themselves with such a name?  I think not.  Most, if they choose a name to work with ritualistically do not make it public outside their group.  I know several people involved in satanist groups, some Luciferian, some part of the LeVeyan  group.  In fact back in the 60’s, Anton LeVey formed the church of Satan that still carries on today today in some form or fashion.  He in fact was not truly a satanist.  He didn’t believe in deity at all, but then as now in some cases, the group pulls in money, celebrities and the sex is good.  Satanist groups as a whole have differences in beliefs much as pagans, but to use the names she’s gifted herself with as well as speaking of the “devil” which is actually a christian construct rather than worshiping Satan or Lucifer(two different entities) speaks volumes at their lack of knowledge.  They can’t even claim to be a theist because truthfully, I am not sure even they know who or what they truly believe, since they’re tossing out generic spells, that can be found online on many wiccan sites.  As for “dark” pagan, I’m going to go with that it includes that which  deals in chaos magic and LHP(left hand path) kind of thing.  In truth, one needs balance, so pagan is universal without assigning any form of light/dark to the verbiage imho.  If one is a chaos practitioner, or even hermetics, then that would be a label for the path that majority would recognize.  It’s just a little difficult to understand what the description “dark” encompasses since there are many pagans who practice differently and some of us are just as apt to pull in rootwork for practice that others who wont cross that line would find “dark” and yet we do not define ourselves as such.  But when questioned as to origins of said path, said “HP” pulled her posts and packed her altar then left in a huff because all comments directed were “malicious”.  OMDayum..a sensitive “satanist”! That is a rare bird indeed.  Most know their history, their beliefs and are not shy about letting you know how “young” your path truly is…kind of arrogant, but that’s their way.

The other conversation I became aware of this week was in another group.  I was part of it, then left because some of their admins have a way of deleting threads if they get too “hot” for their tastes..I smh over this because, 1.  We’re adults, and are supposed to be able to stand it.  And 2.  it’s the internet ffs!  One can always walk way from the computer, click another page..whatever it takes to ignore some asscricket. But I have some on my friend lists that frequent this group and I find the stalker feed amusing at times to read what they are commenting on.

So the conversation started off general and then somewhere in the middle, one made a comment that Wicca and voodoo were similar.  I almost spit tea all over the laptop(not first time I might add).  WTF? Do you really mean what you just said?  Apparently he did because he then stated that he had a few drinks one night with someone who practiced voodoo and they compared the similarities.  ~Headdesk~Now there was someone knowledgeable about Vodun in the conversation itself and he tried to dissuade said individual that this made no sense because voodoo itself depending upon the part of the world its from has many components, has been around forever and Wicca is a made up religion about 50 yrs old or so.  The argument was Wicca is similar to Voodoo. The source that is immanent in all things, is too vast for humans to comprehend in its entirety. Since it is incomprehensible, it is approached as a God and Goddess, male and female, so that we can build relationships with them in a way that our minds can comprehend. The rebuttal was” We comprehend God just fine; we just view God as being that which is upholding and reworking creation, too vast to be distracted by individual people needing to bug Mama or Papa for things like a new job.

We believe God created the spirits and the Angels to serve us as we serve them; we give prayer and glory to God, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty he’s given us department managers instead of the CEO’s phone number.

There is no similarity between the religions in that regard.” (Many thanks to Matt for his clear answers). So having a drink or two with someone who may or may not have experience in voodoo may or may not  be the best way to judge similarities of paths.  In fact, There are many differences that would keep some from following either path, but that really comes down to personal taste or connection to deity in my opinion.

Whenever I see those who make statements such as those above, or see people gift themselves with names, labels or claim expertise as “teacher” without putting forth the effort to truly learn, I want to smack them on the back of the head and tell them that they are part of the problem. “What is pagan”  is a question often asked and its a convoluted mess to try and answer for those who do not comprehend..  We’re all different to be sure and as such will arrive at different destinations as per our experiences, but for those who come behind us seeking, why cloudy up the water and churn it into mud?  Why not leave a clear marker of where you’ve been, showing what worked for you, what didn’t, what you learned from both examples and why you moved on? To me that makes much more sense than trying on the emperor’s clothes while he isn’t home.  They don’t fit, make you look like a clown and you have no right to them.

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