grimoire sounds cooler than book of shadows

Go to Wikipedia and scroll down to "references" or "sources" and look them up.

Go read online books from various of websites.

Go read the physical books about the practice.

Go watch YouTube videos and vlogs about the said practices.

Go talk to witches and demonolators, many of them can give you great advices.

Heck, you can even learn something from Reddit and Quora, and they will be much better and detailed than ChatGPT.

I imagine there’s a few who follow me who know. I also know.

But I have to stress that the way deities “sound” varies from person to person. Clairsenses interpret information based on a combination of a few things: the way our brains filter reality (which is different for everyone) + the symbolic meaning we derive from things (which is also different for everyone).

To put it another way, the way people experience deities is similar to how we experience reading a novel. You and I can read the same exact novel, with the same exact plot and the same exact characters, but we won’t imagine the characters looking the same way, sounding the same way, or even imagine the scenery that surrounds them in the same way. But we know we’ve experienced the same characters because they moved the same way.

Faith can move mountains. But it’s not the sheer force of your warm fuzzy feelings that moves the mountain with your mind. It’s more like you pick up a shovel and a pickaxe and get to work.

There may be times when you doubt whether or not you can move that mountain but you keep going anyways because you have faith that you can do it. And if you have a lot of people helping you, all the better. All the more likely that you were right.

it’s our job as pagans to respect others. i’ve met my fair share of christians who simply want to learn about other beliefs in a respectful way.

if a blog is affiliated with them in any way, it's nazi shit, even if the blog or their posts don't seem like it.

like these are on their official forums

the temple of zeus website is worded carefully to avoid explicit nazi bullshit, but it's there if you know how to read between the lines.

^'forced universalism' is juxtaposed against a 'realistic truth' of race

and 'open to all gentiles' HUGE red flag bc gentile just means 'not jewish'

their ethics page, written by the author of 'upholding the white race'

the most recent account i've seen affiliated with toz/jos is ladder-of-eros

1. OPEN ENROLLMENT BEGINS IN 2 WEEKS

2. OPEN ENROLLMENT WILL ONLY BE HALF AS LONG THIS YEAR

3. THE DEADLINE FOR OPEN ENROLLMENT IS DECEMBER 15TH THIS YEAR

4. INCREASED SCRUTINY MEANS IT WILL BE HARD TO SNEAK ON AFTER OE ENDS, FROM NOW ON

5. IF YOU MAKE UNDER $20,000 A YEAR IT IS WORTH APPLYING TO SEE IF YOU CAN GET MEDICAID!

and lastly:

6. NEVER EVER EVER EVER WORK WITH AN AGENT WHO WON'T SHOW YOU THEIR LICENSE!!!!*

*Jesus Christ the sheer amount of, not even fraud, but grift, completely legal ways to screw other people over, it makes my teeth hurt! Some names to watch out for (but not the only ones): Golden Rule, Manhattan Life, Philadelphia Life, First Health. Freedom life has 2 great plans and 1 Not Great plan, and if you're looking at them, PLEASE call me directly and I'll tell you which it is.

December 15 is the deadline for coverage starting January 1, but Open Enrollment officially ends on January 15. If you enroll between December 16 and January 15, coverage starts February 1.

DO NOT WAIT!! Do this sooner rather than later!!

Someone tries to dictate your beliefs and/or practice based on their personal experiences (aka UPG, or unverified personal gnosis).

They claim the gods will punish you if you don't go along with them.

They appeal to conspiracy theories to justify their beliefs. (See also Is the spiritual person a conspiracy theorist? A list of red flags.)

They make big, dramatic predictions (like claiming aliens will arrive on a certain date, or that the ancient gods will return and overthrow the government soon).

They claim to have a big, important role in the grand cosmic drama (like claiming they're the Archangel Michael and they're going to fight Satan, which will lead to the fall of the government).

They are extremely opposed to skepticism, critical thinking, and/or academia. Not merely critical where it's actually appropriate, but treating it like it's all pure evil.

They encourage you to cut off people who don't believe or criticize what they teach.

They are absolutely certain they can use mystical means (like astrology or tarot) to determine whether someone is a good or bad person.

They are absolutely certain they can just sense whether someone is good or bad.

They are absolutely certain they can use mystical means to find out what another person is thinking or doing.

They claim you were connected to them in a past life.

It might be meaningful for you to try to recreate and rebuild an ancient tradition based off of your research endeavors to make a point about history, but when it comes to religion and spiritual exercises, those kinds of things come up dry and impractical.

History isn’t created in a vacuum - it exists because the victor happened to write down the things that the oppressed people did for their own sake of indulgence. The victor in this context did not belong in the Norse or Scandinavian world and had very little appreciation for what was said and done to worship the Gods because they had their own agenda to fill.

It’s just like how Christians look at the Bible with a modern lens and try to practice it today when that also doesn’t work. We know for a fact that a lot of the Bible is based out of an ancient philosophies and principles that only existed at the time and not something that exists anymore. It was all written by humans only who only have the context they had back in the day to revere the Christian deity they think is legitimate.

Christians in modern day take it out of its historical application and make it a modern day religion and use whatever they can to impose whatever context they want on it. Otherwise it is empty and devoid of meaning in the modern day unless, of course, you need to be able to perform for others to impose your will. Why do you think the Christians have a difficult time hearing their deity? He’s probably not even around anymore.

Heathens and other practices based out of history are no better than Christians in this regard. You can’t have the same values and beliefs as the people who lived back then enough to know the Gods through those specific understandings. You can’t know the Gods that way.

You must know the Gods and then build your practice.

They will tell you what They want. They will give you the means to do so. You have to learn how to listen and those kinds of understandings are universal and practiced today in Eastern cultures. Removal of biased lenses, practicing mindfulness, being present - all of that eventually allows you to hear the Gods and meet Them where They are at.

In honor of Day of the Dead, here’s a repost of my comic about the San Francisco Columbarium and the man who spent 26 years restoring it.

Since I can't copy and paste the piece I wrote for the previously mentioned Loki blot, it occurred to me I can just post a link to the Google Doc. (Duh.)

For those that missed it, my kindred offers public blots to our community. One of the purposes of this is to educate folks about Heathen practices and deities. This is the piece I wrote about Loki for our blot yesterday. (You can read more about the blot experience in my previous post.)