- Highlight
- #1
@Vitriol came up with one of the best threads I had seen in the Tumblr subforum in a long time, so that got me thinking about what kinds of craziness I can find beyond just Tumblr and I already found a shitload of different Wicca forums to look at. The amount of potential in this topic is huge in terms of finding some really funny stuff. It was a good thing that he suggested that a CW version of that thread be created so I'm going to share what I've been able to find thus far through all the different wicca forums I found and places like JREF.
This blog post had me cracking up and I'm going to just quote some of the excerpts from it. It's about how this teenager thought of himself as a witch:
Dear Sir,
I know this is outside the JREF's general purview, but I would like to hear your feelings on the matter. I'm a single mom living in San Francisco. I have a 13-year-old son who is very intelligent, very sensitive, and very imaginative. So imaginative is he that, about six months ago, he picked up a book on Wicca and took to believing everything it said. The book is called To Ride a Silver Broomstick, and it is by a woman named Silver RavenWolf. It's ridiculous. It says, among other things, that you can bi-locate yourself via "astral projection" and meet and converse with spirit guides and fairies.
I'm not tremendously upset by this, because I understand that 13-year-olds need to experiment, intellectually and emotionally. (And dare I say "spiritually"?) It's just that, until now, my son has always seemed like a sprouting young humanist. In my position, what would you tell your son? And isn't there a risk of coming off as overly restrictive, or even punitive? I assume you have some experience in gently arguing people out of New Age mindsets. I have very little.
Thank you,
Betty, The Chemistry Teacher
Part of the JREF's response to this letter:
Yes, Wicca is worryingly woo-ful. But unless there are extenuating circumstances that your letter failed to mention, you shouldn't be too worried. A lot of folks who are raised skeptical can't imagine how convincingly a professional woo-slinger can sling woo until they come face-to-face with it -- and in that confrontation, any 13-year-old is at a significant disadvantage.
And that's the nut of it. 13-year-olds are inexperienced, naïve, trusting, and more than a little crazy. When I told Randi of your dilemma, he said: "Tell her not to worry. One expects 13-year-olds to believe strange things. He'll grow out of it." In fact, he'll likely grow out of it sooner if you respect and support his interest in Wicca and avoid turning it into a generational stand-off. Instead, consider turning "spirituality," or whatever your preferred term might be, into a thing you and your son explore together. Don't raise objections; ask questions. Give him the tools to think critically, and in time, he'll probably use them. (If not, having a happy, healthy Wiccan son isn't the worst thing in the world.)
Here's a really old thread from the JREF forums about people wondering if there are any wiccans living in Japan.
There's a lot more sperging in that thread about wiccans and a bunch of other weird stuff about Paganism and Shinto too.
Here's a shitload of Wicca and Pagan forums that I haven't looked yet but I'm sure there's a ton of content in them worth talking about:
http://everythingunderthemoon.net/forum/
http://wicca.com/forums/
http://www.witchway.net/forum.html
http://blackcatwiccaforum.co.uk/content.php?s=6cf6922be23a7708415b660f83775211
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=58
http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/
http://www.topix.com/forum/religion/pagan-wiccan
http://www.witchforum.net/
http://wiccaplus.com/forum/
http://www.justwicca.com/forum/
ED page: https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Wicca
Some of these forums have some of the ugliest layouts I have ever seen, like this one:
This blog post had me cracking up and I'm going to just quote some of the excerpts from it. It's about how this teenager thought of himself as a witch:
Dear Sir,
I know this is outside the JREF's general purview, but I would like to hear your feelings on the matter. I'm a single mom living in San Francisco. I have a 13-year-old son who is very intelligent, very sensitive, and very imaginative. So imaginative is he that, about six months ago, he picked up a book on Wicca and took to believing everything it said. The book is called To Ride a Silver Broomstick, and it is by a woman named Silver RavenWolf. It's ridiculous. It says, among other things, that you can bi-locate yourself via "astral projection" and meet and converse with spirit guides and fairies.
I'm not tremendously upset by this, because I understand that 13-year-olds need to experiment, intellectually and emotionally. (And dare I say "spiritually"?) It's just that, until now, my son has always seemed like a sprouting young humanist. In my position, what would you tell your son? And isn't there a risk of coming off as overly restrictive, or even punitive? I assume you have some experience in gently arguing people out of New Age mindsets. I have very little.
Thank you,
Betty, The Chemistry Teacher
Part of the JREF's response to this letter:
Yes, Wicca is worryingly woo-ful. But unless there are extenuating circumstances that your letter failed to mention, you shouldn't be too worried. A lot of folks who are raised skeptical can't imagine how convincingly a professional woo-slinger can sling woo until they come face-to-face with it -- and in that confrontation, any 13-year-old is at a significant disadvantage.
And that's the nut of it. 13-year-olds are inexperienced, naïve, trusting, and more than a little crazy. When I told Randi of your dilemma, he said: "Tell her not to worry. One expects 13-year-olds to believe strange things. He'll grow out of it." In fact, he'll likely grow out of it sooner if you respect and support his interest in Wicca and avoid turning it into a generational stand-off. Instead, consider turning "spirituality," or whatever your preferred term might be, into a thing you and your son explore together. Don't raise objections; ask questions. Give him the tools to think critically, and in time, he'll probably use them. (If not, having a happy, healthy Wiccan son isn't the worst thing in the world.)
Here's a really old thread from the JREF forums about people wondering if there are any wiccans living in Japan.
There's a lot more sperging in that thread about wiccans and a bunch of other weird stuff about Paganism and Shinto too.
Here's a shitload of Wicca and Pagan forums that I haven't looked yet but I'm sure there's a ton of content in them worth talking about:
http://everythingunderthemoon.net/forum/
http://wicca.com/forums/
http://www.witchway.net/forum.html
http://blackcatwiccaforum.co.uk/content.php?s=6cf6922be23a7708415b660f83775211
http://www.spiritualforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=58
http://www.thewhitegoddess.co.uk/
http://www.topix.com/forum/religion/pagan-wiccan
http://www.witchforum.net/
http://wiccaplus.com/forum/
http://www.justwicca.com/forum/
ED page: https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Wicca
Some of these forums have some of the ugliest layouts I have ever seen, like this one:
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