Eclectic Elementals: The Magic & Spirituality of the Elements
This is not a specifically named, established path like Asatru, Kabbalah, Hermeticism, Kemeticism, Wicca or Santeria. Yet the Elemental Path can be adapted to any practice, traditional or modern, and the Elements are indeed present and utilized in all practices and systems. It can also be, as it is for me, its own completely original, self-contained and self-defined path. It is the path of peeking behind all the named and well-presented curtains; of getting to the heart of All and of connecting to and honoring the mystical, essential building blocks of everything in existence, from the planet to our souls.
So What Does It Really Mean to be Pagan Now?
I was just accused of being a “fake pagan” and a “fraud”. Here is why. On cursed social media, I came upon a post which was about how dudes like “John” scream and whine that certain groups are offended by everything, but how about how offended John is, right? He can’t see the words “feminist” or “vegan” or “trans” etc. without getting offended. I made this comment: “Well, to be fair, there are a lot of people in a lot of those groups who are indeed triggery snowflakes who are indeed offended by everything.”
And THAT, apparently, meant that I am a “fake pagan” and a “fraud”. Why exactly, though? What did I miss? So I’m a fake and a fraud, huh? My dedicated, decades-long spiritual practice comes under attack by an anonymous stranger because I point out that some groups do indeed contain very easily triggered people. Was that false? Was I wrong? These are rhetorical, of course it was not false. And it DEFINITELY did not make me a fake pagan or a fraud.
So I asked myself a question. “What does it mean, then, to be pagan?” Especially in this incredibly woke and delusional and backwards world. Everyone knows everything and everyone is going crazy, yet no one thinks THEY themselves are the crazy one. But anyone who disagrees with them, even if it’s the majority, is a bad guy. Is fake. Is a fraud. Is an undeserving human being. Who decided that one has to be woke to be a true pagan?
What’s a pagan? “Pagan” is nowadays defined as “(especially in historical contexts) a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main or recognized religions.”
I fit that definition, except I wouldn’t even call them “religious” beliefs, so much as spiritual. I am very anti-religion. And I have been a devoted practicing pagan for almost half my life now.
So what made me a “fake” pagan? Am I fake because I don’t kowtow to delusions? Because I’m not especially “PC”? Because I eat meat and I think that some feminists have actually made things worse for women? Because, and here is potential blog suicide but I just don’t care anymore, I know that men are not women and women are not men?
White people aren’t allowed to “identify” as black, and white people aren’t shouldn’t wear Native American war bonnets, right? So why the hell, again rhetorical, is it ok for a man to identify as a woman? To appropriate, in fact, MISappropriate true womanhood and femininity? It’s not. It absolutely is not. The feminine is sacred, the divine feminine is real, and I don’t understand why it’s now so ok for our abusers, rapists, murderers etc. to misappropriate us, to wear our bodies and gender as a costume. I’m allowed to be disgusted by it. Most of us sensible pagans and feminists realize that men shouldn’t be able to make laws about women’s choices and bodies, but apparently it is A-OK for men to tell us what womanhood even is, that THEY can be just as much of a woman as one actually born with the parts. Care to explain that massive hypocrisy to me?
I don’t need a MAN to tell me, no matter what he has done to himself. I am a woman. A real woman. A real, bone fide, natural-born, happy-to-be-woman woman. I will not bow down to men who tell me they are women. They are not. No amount of mutilation or drugs or delusion will change your male genetics.
Now back to the fakeness. Can one only be considered a real pagan if they kiss every delusional ass in existence? Is this what it means to be pagan now? To cater and pander to delusion, to illness, to what actually is verifiable fakeness? I’m supposed to honor and respect fake women when I know the truth of the divine feminine? No. Never.
None of these social issues really has all that much to do with paganism anyway. Granted, there is a lot of overlap between spiritual/religious belief and social beliefs, there always has been. In fact, one’s religion breeds the rest of their beliefs in every other area. This is why we need a separation of church and state, something else that is desperately lacking along with logic and common sense. I can easily say that no one is a true pagan if they just live with their head up their ass and hate all facts and reality.
I said it once, and I’ll say it again...many of these minority groups are indeed very filled with very loud, delicate snowflakes and it’s a problem. And it’s becoming a problem for paganism. What kind of pagan are you? Do you understand and respect nature? Do you accept nature? Do you love and honor yourself as you are, as what you were naturally born? If you bow to the trans discourse, do you still have respect for people, especially women, who do not and will not bow to it? Do you vilify meat eaters? Are you the kind of feminist who thinks that men and women are the same and that everything and everyone should be/get/do the same? Well I’m not that kind of pagan. I’m not woke. But I am awake, and I am a true pagan. Always have been at heart and always will be. And so is every pagan who sees, knows, and accepts truth and reality.
Copyright © 2024 Meredith Everwhite - All Rights Reserved
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I feel it necessary to state, unequivocally, that anti-trans points of view are not an essential part of Paganism. As a trans Pagan myself who helps to coordinate a Pagan organization that has had queer and trans initiates in leadership for most of our almost 20 years of existence, we are but one example of of a trans-affirming organization among many, many others. If you've found your way here without a lot of information about Paganism, this author is but one voice within the chorus that is modern Paganism. I find the notes sung in this article discordant, and pray that more affirming voices help carry our melody forward.