many felt unsafe walking alone

I did not attend Pantheacon, though not from a lack of desire. It was more of a lack of…being on the West coast with a great excess of money and and time off.

However, many of my friends and peers did go…and I’ve heard some accounts of things that were quite disturbing.

Thanks for shining a light on some of the problematic things that went on there.

A Crisis of Faith and/or Social Justice

One of the things I’ve had trouble with is deciding upon the tone of my blog. It’s probably been at the center of a lot of my writer’s block, and definitely been a certain creator of stress when it comes to what and how I write.

I care a lot about justice, equality, social responsibility. All the same, that’s not what I started this blog; originally it was just a big mash up of whatever I was thinking about at the time, slowly turning into a collection of worked filled with both my thoughts on spirituality and a lot of spelling errors. I gained a larger readership then I ever expected, which led to a personalized mandate to be worth the time of reading. So every time I end up talking about spirituality less in favor of social justice issues, I’m not completely comfortable with it.

Not, to make myself totally clear, because I’m afraid of the questions such discussions raise. I am no stranger to dialogue based turbulence, and I’m completely comfortable with that familiarity. I have my own personal gnosis regarding uncomfortable truths and how they intersect with veneration of Loki. To that end, letting a question go unresolved because the truth involved might rock a boat borders on sacrilege. Oh there is a time to make the point and a time to lay the groundwork, but just ignoring the situation and hoping it goes away is selfish, stupid, and just plain backwards to me.

I called Meta-genetics a personal gnosis at best because, sacred cow or not, that’s the truth of it; it’s not a science. I will be honest and tell you all that I agonized on how to write that text, but I did it because I was sure that it was important and I was sure that not addressing that problem would burn me far worse. It would bother me worse to just passively sit by while people used the presence of melanin as a way to judge someone’s spirituality. That was a Heathen matter close to my heart. I did it before, I’ll do it again. No shame. No issues.

Where my hesitation comes in is that I’m not certain what to say or do when the issues I see are only tangentially related to modern Heathenry or less. While the people who scornfully respond with “this isn’t a Heathen issue” can really go fornicate with their own dang selves*, I’m also not trying to stuff anything down anyone’s throat. I’m a spiritualist first, and I’ve tried to make my blog a reflection of that. I feel dishonest when I lead with social justice over Heathenry, because that was never my goal.

Let’s also not forget that the social justice community hardly needs another white, heterosexual, cisgendered male to tell people the way things work in this world. I am not ashamed of those aspects, just as I’m not ashamed of being right-handed or a baritone, but there are too many people listening to people like me talking about the inequality suffered by people who are nothing like me. I’d say that I have a knack for expressing social justice issues more often then not, but I prefer coming into help other people express themselves.

I like it when other people get the chance to use their own voice to talk about their problems, while I play goalie for them.

So, if there seems to be a lack of a “social justice content” at any point? That is somewhat purposeful. It does not imply I don’t care, have shifted my focus from that work, or because I’ve had a personal change in priorities. When the subject
is firmly in a Heathen wheelhouse and I feel I have something meaningful to say about it, I’ll say it.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around how the founder of the AFA could come out in support of PEGIDA**, and expect to be taken seriously when he gets offended over contentions of racism**.  I am absolutely dumbfounded how the Covenant of the Goddess could take an issue with the phrase “Black Lives Matter”, and not get why that’s insensitive at best and frog-chewing stupidity at the worst***.  They only thing that has kept me from weighing in on that stuff at length has just been my work schedule, parenting, and this nagging feeling that I’m not balancing things properly.

So allow me to throw that last one over board; when I have the time to speak…you’ll hear me.
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*By the by, any person who has EVER venerated Tyr in a direct fashion and wants to say that over reaches over law enforcement upon any person is not a Heathen issue? That person might want to take some time to make a long term comparison between their ass and a hole in the ground before they pass judgements about what any person declares as a Heathen issue.

**Short Version: When an organization is blaming all of society’s ills on fragments of a single religion, and the founder of that organization cosplays as Hitler as “a joke”?  That’s a problem.  When they have signs at protests that beg Vladamir “Kill the Gays for Being” Putin to “save them”,  that’s another problem.  Comparisons that utilize Nazis are no longer hyperbolic and/or lazy; they’re apt and on point.  You just can’t tell me an organization’s aims are peaceful when their prayers are held at the altars of genocide.

***: Short Version: Yes, all lives are supposed to matter…but when POCs can be shot on flimsy, false, or non-existent pretenses by law enforcement figures who never suffer consequences for their actions?  That’s a problem.  They’re not saying “Black Lives Matter More Than Yours”…they’re saying “Black Lives Matter Just As Much As Yours And It Would Be Nice If American Society Started Acting Like They Got That.”  It’s not complicated.