teaaddictedwitch

teaaddictedwitch, 4 months ago

@khthoniaa This is a fantastic idea! Can we start a thread of recommendations of such books and resources for others to find?

teaaddictedwitch, 8 months ago

First of all, I'm not only Jewish, I come from a background in both the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the OTO. I'm very, very, very familiar with both HOGD rituals as well as Thelemic rituals as well as how much Crowley basically did a copy/paste of HOGD and swapped out Hebrew for Greek.

So when people claim that the Book of Shadows is "entirely Thelemic and Jewish ritual" they either have no clue what's in the BoS, no clue what is a Thelemic ritual, and/or has no clue what anything from Jewish mysticism looks or sounds like. Ditto with alleged Hindu or Buddhist anything. And I minored in Religious Studies with a focus on Eastern philosophies and mysticism plus at one point in my early days took refuge so YES, I know what to look for there too.

Any amount of cultural appropriation with the Kabbalah was proliferated by the Golden Dawn, NOT Thelema. Thelema got it from the GD and the GD was heavily influenced by Eliphas Levi AKA Alphonse Louis Constant who was an author of many books on Kabbalah and even tried doing Jewface with his (badly translated into Hebrew) pen name.

As both an Alexandrian and a Blue Star initiate, there's absolutely no Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, etc. in any of our rituals. Not an ounce of Hebrew. None

People not familiar with any of these things and only possessing the most dubious of information have been running their mouths with their wild conclusions.

These same people likely think Crowley founded the Golden Dawn when he was only 12 when it started. He was a member at one point in his early 20s & had nothing to do with its inception.

There are way too many people of varying amounts of experience and background who know nothing of Western occult history.

Meanwhile I get gentile non-initiates screaming their heads off at me that I'm allegedly appropriating from my own culture in a tradition they're not even an initiate of but somehow think they know more than me, an actual initiate.

I need folks to spend some time unpacking that. Like, a LOT of time. Take all of the time you need. Go on.

Onto the next part in the thread:

teaaddictedwitch, 8 months ago

Some fun, non-oathbreaky comparisons on rituals. Your standard traditional Wiccan circle has a massively watered down but obvious similarity to the Golden Dawn's Watchtower ceremony. It's also been compared to its LBRP.

Neither of these things originated with Crowley, btw.

There's only one thing.

So, about that Rede.

But first, a side note. Most of this thread's rants you can also find in my blog post "A Tale Of Two Wiccas: Tackling Misinformation": https://www.patreon.com/posts/tale-of-two-77427625

So if you're interested, check it out. I get even more interesting in there.

But oh yeah, about the Rede.

There are some key facts about it that most get wrong:

1. it didn't originate in trad Wicca nor is it a part of the tradition
2. it doesn't mean law, it means "advice"
3. it doesn't mean what most think it means and it's often misquoted
4. it bears the most resemblance to Thelema than anything

Also, the Wiccan Rede came from Doreen Valiente in the 60s from a speech that she gave. While Valiente herself became a Gardnerian initiate in the early 50s, the Rede itself was never was a part of traditional Wicca to begin with. The Rede is simply eight words: "An it harm none, do what ye (you) will."

"An" is an antiquated term meaning "if" which can be readily found in Shakespearean writings, and "rede" simply means advice or guideline. There's some very obvious influence in here from Thelema's "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law, love is the law, love under will."

BUT! (big but here) Without a substantial amount of understanding into the concept of "will" in relation to Thelema's philosophy around it, the entire meaning and purpose of the Rede is lost.

And most don't really know or understand it. At. All.

So what does it mean?

The whole thing simply means "So long as you're not harming anyone (including yourself!), (you're) follow(ing) your true will."

Anyone solely going on about "harm none" and focusing on those words alone as the sole takeaway of the Rede has failed to understand both it and its original intent.

The "do what ye will" part is nowhere near as simple as just "doing whatever you want."

Again, this topic alone is its own blog post. Maybe several. I've debated doing it a number of times and I really, really, really should. Cause look at this thread so far. LOOK AT IT. Marrrrvel at its beauty, its length, its extreme extreme of both hyperactive and inattentive ADHD while rambling about a hyperfocus.

I also find it interesting that "rede" is a much weaker term than "law" and yet many people have described the Rede as a "law"--which is inaccurate.

Also, the expanded version that people often associate as being "the Wiccan Rede" was actually published later on in the 70s (!!!)

It was published as a much longer poem in Green Egg, and you'll often find it in posters in pagan shops, etc. The actual Rede is just eight words long. Again, nothing to do with anything that originated in trad Wicca.

And that's literally the ONLY THING that's vaguely Thelemic.

But moving on...

(next part)

teaaddictedwitch, 8 months ago

So, about that "threefold law."

It's not a thing in trad Wicca. It didn't even exist until Raymond Buckland first published it in 1968. This is yet another case of individual initiates being assumed as speaking for their entire tradition as a whole when they voice their personal philosophies.

On a side note as an initiate, I sincerely hope that someday the same is not done about me and anything I've said over the years. Unfortunately given how things tend to get interpreted I can readily picture otherwise. "River said it therefore it's part of xyz tradition." I mean, maybe flattering BUT

Anyhow, lastly, CAVEAT DISCLAIMER ETC:

I'm not arguing for or against any of these beliefs or ideas, just clarifying their origins & purpose as well as their alleged importance (or lack thereof) in trad Wicca and history. That's all.

Also, whatever people do within their own personal practices and beliefs is entirely up to them. Also whether or not either of these concepts originated with traditional Wicca is irrelevant to determining their meaningfulness, importance, and/or usefulness.

And on a more personal note, I personally find the actual Rede to be extremely beautiful and useful--just horrifically misunderstood.

Some folks may be shocked at that coming from me, but if you read what I said and you get it, well, you get it.

teaaddictedwitch, 8 months ago

Oh, I want to add a few more thing that isn't obvious to most folks: trad Wicca is orthopraxic (based purely in what you do, not what you believe), has autonomous covens, and has no "Pope of Wicca" or anything like that. What individual practitioners do in their spare time isn't necessarily reflective of the tradition and some covens tack on stuff that isn't in the actual tradition itself.

This has likely contributed to why people hear and read what initiates say and write and think "Oh that must be part of the tradition." lol no, def not the case.

teaaddictedwitch, 8 months ago

Also to address other things: yes, original trad Wicca is heteronormative, queerphobic, and transphobic in addition to being misogynistic. A lot of folks have deviated from that but we still teach where we came from.

My own trads have a lot of trans and/or non-binary folk in them, self included.

teaaddictedwitch, 8 months ago

We draw from other polarities and dualities instead: sun and moon, light and dark, day and night, parent and child, siblings, etc.

Also the fertility of crops is just as important cause we'd literally die without it 😅

teaaddictedwitch, 8 months ago

And for my fellow Jews, Yom Kippur starts Sunday at sundown

teaaddictedwitch, 8 months ago

I know some folks are having issues accessing the poll, so let's try having it here:

If I were to put out an official announcement next week (likely Sept 18th) on when my next class cycle is, which set of dates would be enough advance notice?

Note: all classes have prerecorded closed captioned weekly lessons sent out on Mondays with breaks for major holiday times.

You can select multiple options.