My lokean Venting Space

Just because its okay for indigenous traditions. Doesn’t mean it’s okay for reconstructionist pagans i seen too many go into it for profit or power and other yeesh reasons. It’s not the same.

Over years of looking into this. There’s no great ethical way to buy animal parts online even non endangered. If they’re from a farmer 100% that wild animal was trapped in a nasty way and died in pain. You’re creating a demand and market where they will hurt wildlife more for profit

Some animals are not in danger but still at risk or recovering from being endangered. Just because its not on endangered list doesn’t mean it deserved to be trapped for parts to be sold. Same as above.

Honestly, spiritual, even foraged parts that died naturally if you reach out to them. They don’t want to be turned into an object or used. Respect the spirit.

To be honest most people use animal bones for aesthetic or as magical servants (with no exchange) and we should question that.

Also same for crystals. They are mined through slavery and mining operations are destroying the environment. You should think of where you buy

How i am a hypocrite (honestly)

Im not vegan or a vegetarian but probably should be with these views. But for food makes more sense than aesthetic of my altar

The trans inclusive group that allowed transphobic posts. Ignored and trans people trying to highlight how it was transphobic because they knew better. Trans people who spoke out treated like troublemakers afterwards.

Group that hired a mod who was a former cop and had punisher logo in their avatar. Overtime they started sharing resources from known far right controversial authors the group previously banned with no pushback from leaders. Lol long ago but i think this group was so paranoid about far right infiltration but allowed this! and treated people raising concerns as far right saboteurs.

The group that had BLM banner but would ban Black women whenever they tried to highlight racism in the group or elsewhere. Even with polite tones people were banned for being‘aggressive’. One of mods complained about ‘political correctness gone mad’ too

Trying to avoid details but if a mod says/sells something and you try to recommend progressive alts. They will remove your posts and misinterpret what you said so everyone treats you like a problem or silent treatment. I actually changed my whole view to open to closed after this. It really highlighted problem for me. Never join groups when mod has a shop.

Privately warning a mod I thought I could trust about sharing resources from a group that had racism red flags that they should check things out because I wasn’t 100%. They never disclosed they were on that groups council and could be close to person i was concerned about. I got scared of harassment and if i could trust them.

Anti racist and anti fascist group that removed any resources shared about white fragility and self reflection on biases.

There were other groups i heard who had scandals but i had left or not joined

Overall some inclusive groups felt very ‘you’re welcome but keep a lid on it. We don’t actually want to support you but you to support us’.

I just can’t trust these groups anymore or at least im tired of being the labelled troublemaker and not talked to like a reasonable person.

Pettiness reason i left a group

If a farmer hired a spirit and didn’t pay them as agreed they rebel, destroy the farm, and harass the farmers. Hobs turn into boggart and cannot be turned back. They will follow you to your new home to mess up the lives if those who betrayed them.

There’s also stories of solidarity. Fae Hairy meg was hired to replace workers at a mill who were fired because ‘meg could do all the work’. She trashed the mill until the workers were hired and paid.

Reminder that folklore spirits are not slaves and unionise. They rebel and are very powerful. Ive heard modern occults who tried this stuff say the same ‘dont pay the spirit, you’re fucked’

(Lead photo because hill and green buts looks like sleeping dog)

This is marshland or wetlands. These places can be fresh or salt water across Europe and other countries. Theres diverse types of wetlands and some have tides and islands.

It can be an area that is source of peat which was used as important fuel for the hearth fires in the past. So people could survive daily life.

From what i read, fens in England at least were settlements, secret islands, places to hide, outlaws and safe havens for avoiding people raiding, it had unique communities and sacred sites like monasteries over the centuries.

In the Fen country, it was the custom that whoever carried a split goose-feather was entitled to the help and protection of Fenmen in times of trouble. (16th-17th century)

Sadly most the big fens were drained out much of people living there lost their rural fen based culture. As they were only people who knew how to navigate the tricky marshlands and how to hunt, fish and forage there.

Fens support a rich variety of wildlife. Some fens can contain up to 550 species of plants; large numbers of dragonflies, and several thousand insect species and aquatic beetles. Many bird species live in fens including snipe, woodcock, curlew, and Cetti’s warbler. Look out for water voles and grass snakes too.

And

With a high peat content and water table, fens are highly diverse habitats, supporting many endangered plant and animal species.

Some examples of rare fen plant species are Slender Green Feather Moss (Hamatocaulis vernicosus), Crested Buckler-fern (Dryopteris cristata) and Fen Orchid (Liparis loeselii). Fens are home to a very special invertebrate community, with astonishing diversity in groups like, beetles, dragonflies, molluscs, moths and soldierflies. Among the vertebrate visitors of fens, we can find Water Vole, Bittern and several species of newts.

And

The draining of the Levels was a disaster for biodiversity. This area was once home to a dazzling array of wildlife. Beavers and salmon bustled in the waterways, while lynx and wild horses roamed on dry land, among many hundreds of other species. "The Levels once had huge populations of eels, wild boar, tree frogs, you name it,"

And

Look out for several orchid species, including early and southern marsh-orchids, common spotted-orchid and marsh helleborine – some sites also support the rare narrow-leaved marsh orchid or fen orchid. The small and delicate white flowers of grass-of-Parnassus can be found along mown rides or in small-sedge fens. In the Norfolk and Suffolk broads, look out for very tall nettles that are stingless and scarce species such as cowbane and greater water-parsnip. Also in the Broads, look for the spectacular swallowtail butterfly laying its eggs on tall, prominent milk-parsley plants and the Norfolk hawker dragonfly hunting over reed-fringed, unpolluted, freshwater ditches.

I’ve walked on bogs and wetlands and one false step and your leg goes into absolutely icey cold water. If you know wetland plants you know to be careful where you step. Some bugs in these places bite and swarm too.

Ancient people built walkways through these places

Eating bittern eggs was just one way in which the Neolithic inhabitants of this region survived in what was then – 6,000 years ago – a very different place. They lived on the islands and hills of the Levels and built wooden walkways to travel between settlements across the wetlands. One of them, the Sweet Track, was built in 3806 BCE and was found in 1973 perfectly intact in the peat, which is acidic and extremely low in oxygen, meaning it can preserve items for thousands of years.

Read over how landscape, wildlife and history and how it shapes deities like Fenrir as part of wetlands ecology.

The norse pagan or heathen version is more complicated.

Overall the religion is still very unknown to us as it essentially stopped being worshipped and changed completely with knowledge lost completely. Any and all mythological texts were written centuries after conversion and adapted over that time to match that era worldview. The archeological evidence is more reliable but it doesn’t say enough to really recreate it exactly. There’s still too many gaps over time and location too, beliefs could have been looser between houses and tribes. Plus our lives are not the same as it was centuries ago. If i time traveled in my own country i would be a cultural stranger that far back.

As a lokean I often hear ‘you cant worship loki he’s evil’ but thats based on text thats not reliable. Archeology evidence is showing mixed signs where we do have potential objects and talismans. We do have place names and personal names and linguistics and later folklore that paints complex pictures of the god/spirit.

Same with giants. As someone growing up in uk giant folklore isn’t all ‘evil’ there are many where they appear as guardians over certain towns. Only considered bad to rival towns. Like loki some archeological or texts paint a more complex story. Especially since gods decended from giants (maybe too copying greeks and titans)

Loose reconstruction within pagan spaces is worse place to use dogmatism or ‘x is evil’. We often do not know. It helps to cite or argue why your perspective where possible

Also not everyone practices historic reconstruction. If your space does you need to make that clear and establish rules for upg. You need to explain your flavour of reconstruction and of you yourself decided rules (and not pretending it’s ancient law)

One of best phrases I heard from once at a talk was something like‘the best demonologists/satanists started out being the most devoted Christians’

Its idea that people who grew up within the religion and within cultural spaces that feared demons the most. Have a much better or interesting time when switching over to exploring “the profane” or shadowy side of their religion. They approach this new belief with respect and knowledge of the space it exists in. Their new beliefs and practices evolves out from a better cultural starting point. Instead of overstepping or creating lore slop. Demons are not other or outside the house of that belief system but under the same roof and spiritual journey means facing or exploring these fears and spirits. Challenging yourself on whats deemed bad or evil and checking yourself.

This does being up thoughts on cultural appropriation and demonology or dealing with any switch of exploring what’s considered dangerous or bad in another religion. I think it alludes to do your research and respect the religion’s cultural stand point. Maybe seek a guide who grew up within it and first did this switch themselves for better insights that won’t disrupt centuries of lore. Be part of the natural evolution of it. Some demons have pre existing religions where they were not ‘evil’ demonic worth researching as reconstructing the past and how these spirits were changed over time. There’s ancient philosophy’s in demonology on how it is acceptable/normalised or rules worth researching too.

We know norse gods and some myths existed before snorris creation of eddas. Even Loki is having more archeological evidence.

How much you trust what they say or do is up to you. How you feel what is legit or con is up to your own measurements and judgement.

In some cases you could argue if spirit is conscious or fate is echoed and connected to everything. Even someone with no initiation could perform an act that contains that connection or echo unknowingly. How do you measure that? Or discern real from not real or spiritual to nothingness.

More the I think about it the more Thor makes sense as Queer god or Queer affirming spiritually. Having Thor be your protector is very comforting and i find he has very open caring attentive vibe.