For my next trick, I&#39;ll need a volunteer...

Thank you two for that link... I felt compelled.

Subject: Thank the Gods for Idiots, Entertainment Ensues

Usually stupid people make the news. This is living proof of that theory.

Most Wiccans (I am not Wiccan myself, but I know quite a few) do not burn refuse during rituals. They do burn things, but it is 9 times out of 10, either Incense or the occasional branch in a campfire-esque setting. You know, things that coexist with nature, not help to destroy their habitat.

They do not scream at the top of their lungs when people are asking them to stop. Usually, they do not even have any sort of electronics in the consecrated circle, Let alone headphones that deaden your senses to the elements around you. It is called Magic for a reason..

Thank you for showing the closed-minded masses that all Pagans are ignorant and mostly crazy. - This is not the case...Usually. Within every sect, there are the crazies..

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I've used headphones.

Things work better for me with them.

Bitch still crazy.

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What do you listen to with them, during your rituals? are you in a heavily populated/densely concreted area?

so they really help you focus? i've found that they are always a hinderance to my rituals, major loss of focus...

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I was before moving here...Atlanta's not nearly as densely urban as Philly. And I'm largely a creature of technology and the city, so I don't really see technology and magick as being at odds.

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i've always been in suburban areas, it seems. nothing really urban about any place i've lived.. more and more, the trend has been close to large roads. I've learned to mentally block those sounds out during my meditations.

As for technology, I love it too. I just see the way most people consider technology, as largely a buffer between nature and humanity these days. Maybe when there are more..."green"(?) tech's out there, in the future, my mind will recompile itself on this front.

Some Magic uses Tech. Some Tech can use what is perceived as Magical (therefore it is, to those involved). I see them as similar but different, and unfortunately not at parallels of each other. Yet.

The more we learn to emulate nature and its order, the more we can understand it. The more we can understand it, the closer and thinner that dividing line for me, will be.

In a setting where there is a large populace, i can see using some tech to drown it out, for some applications of magic. Other forms, i've found, almost require your full attention to every detail around you, to even begin thinking about manipulating it.

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Some Magic uses Tech. Some Tech can use what is perceived as Magical (therefore it is, to those involved). I see them as similar but different, and unfortunately not at parallels of each other. Yet.

For me, it's simply a part of how I process. Magick is a part of existence for me, or it instinctively Should Be, and I have a very hard time expressing how forms of Technology fit into this. It's not just a tool, and something to mesh with my Working, but a way of looking at things and a part of my interaction with Everything.

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True for everything. But like anything else, if she is allowed to speak loudest to any who will have her, she'll become "the Voice of Wicca."

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quite true indeed. look at the fundies and evangels, most people who are non-christian actually think thats what its all about. sad days, we live in.

if you know of any forums where different minded individuals gather to share their thoughts on these types of subject, and DON'T get enraged... care to pass the link?

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There used to be at Key23, which has now flip-reversed, and is a newsletter site, now.

Other than that, not much.

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Irreality.net has not been rage-free, but better than anywhere else I've been at handling it and/or making it easy to just not talk to the asshat members. It's more occult-y than Pagan, but not exclusively by a longshot.

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n3m3sis42.livejournal.com

Dunno, Jewish people usually have the sense to keep their damn mouths shut, so I'm okay with them speaking for me.

I guess that's pretty much the only group I fit into... I'm sort of a square peg.

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Even then, there are many who would lump you in with people whose company you'd probably despise.

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n3m3sis42.livejournal.com

I mostly think that's their problem and not mine. I spend too much time being neurotic about the things I do to make myself look stupid to be bothered with obsessing about one more thing. ;-p

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True, but when they make judgments about you that can affect you, it's your problem. Hence, the inherent danger in people categorising token as type.

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Anyone who believes those kinds of sensationalist blurbs does not have an opinion worth the winning.

This is true in nearly all arenas.

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True enough, but they still have the ability to influence your experiences in many negative ways.

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Eh...not so many as it seems at first glance. Legislation is about the only thing left to them, besides throwing beer cans. And more and more pagans are voting, thanks to better efforts within the community. And working through the community to provide strong examples of sane, responsible, educated pagans is something many of us are doing every day to counteract this kind of rubbish.

If we all got worked up every time some poseur made an idiot of itself, we'd never have survived adolescence.

That's all this is, on a bigger stage.

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In a sense, yes. But those numbers aren't as high, yet, as they could be, and I think that the damage that could be done, in the meantime, needs to be recognised and planned for, in higher profile.

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What additional damage are you picturing? :)

There are huge public campaigns, awareness drives, etc, through groups like Dogwood Local Council on a pretty regular basis. Not as many big name pagans are going on the news lately, since public attention has been on other things, but i'm sure it will be going through a cycle of that again soon. NightFall's mom did a lot of work with the public on that order in the nineties. What other high profile actions are you thinking of?

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Specifically more news coverage of the inherent diversity of religious and magical practices.

There have been a few more articles on it recently, but, as with anything else, one person screaming into a microphone, claiming to speak for everyone can shove a lot of people several steps backward.

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Hah! Well, unfortunately it's not for puny mortals like us to decide what the networks, or their advertisers, rather, choose to air. The only religious diversity that sells right now is Muslim-Christian appreciation.

It's really kind of sad that the O'Reilly Factor is resorting to that kind of fluffy sensational crap to grab for viewers. They'll have Paris Hilton doing a weekly segment, next. I guess it IS Fox, though, after all.

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Well, as someone I know noted, yesterday, that's pretty much their overriding agendum: Make whoever they disagree with look terrible.

The Washington Post had a pretty big spread on the diversity of "Paganism," a couple of months back, but it is so rare to hear someone accepting that at the same time as they accept the diversity of Christianity's 22,000+ denominations.

Paganism is "diverse," or pejoratively, "Divided," but any of the accepted monotheisms are obviously whole and unified.

Harrumph, etc. But that's why we post these things.

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raidingparty.livejournal.com

What the hell am I supposed to do or say about "Christianity"?

... that was part of the problem with Pragati, actually.

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