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girl4music · 2 years

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BUFFY REWATCH - S06E14 - Older And Far Away

*Cut to the dining room. Tara and Spike standing next to each other*

TARA: “I just think we haven't thought of the right way out yet, that's all.”

*Reveal Xander and Willow standing nearby, and Anya sitting at the dining-room table*

SPIKE: “Well, we can't just stay put like cattle, waiting for that thing to pop out every time it gets peckish.”

TARA: “I'd say we do another spell, but I, I think we've tried everything.”

ANYA: “Well... that's not completely true, is it?

*Tara frowning*

I mean, not everything.

*Looks at Willow*

Not exactly.

*Willow looking nervous*

We're sitting here with an incredibly powerful witch... much more powerful than you, Tara, I'm sorry... only no one seems willing to say it.”

WILLOW: “I can't.”

ANYA: “No, see, that's not exactly true either.

*Angrily*

Not can't, won't!”

WILLOW: “You don't know how much I hate this. I don't know if there's even... anything I could do.”

ANYA: “Yes... and a good way to find out is to sit around and try nothing. That was sarcasm, by the way.”

SPIKE: “Look-”

WILLOW: “It's dangerous.”

ANYA: “And so is all of us dying!”

XANDER: “Will... look, I don't wanna gang up on you... but Anya kinda has a point.

*Willow looking anxious*

We brought you back from it once. We're all here, it's just one little spell,

*Spike shaking his head*

whatever happens, we can bring you back again.”

WILLOW:

*Firmly*

“No. I can't.

*To Anya*

If I start, I... I might not be able to stop.”

ANYA: “And whose fault is that?

*Stands up, walks toward Willow*

You know, if you hadn't gotten so much of this in your system in the first place-”

TARA: “Hey! You're gonna back off!

*Tara gets in between Willow and Anya, faces Anya down*

She said no, and that's it. You're not gonna make her do something that she doesn't want to. And if you try...

*Folds arms across her chest*

You're gonna have to go through me first. Understood?”

*Anya glares at her*

ANYA: “Fine. If you all aren't willing to get us out of this, then I will do it myself.”

*Anya walks past the witches and goes up the stairs*

‘Older And Far Away’ sees our Scoobies (and a bunch of other random people we don’t really care about) in a predicament brought on by a vengeance spell. Dawn unknowingly confesses her feelings with being alone to Halfrek, Anya’s vengeance demon friend, masquerading as her school councillor. Halfrek manipulates Dawn to wish for people to stop going away. This culminates in a Summers household lockdown. Nobody, whoever is in the house at the time, can leave Buffy’s house. It also happens to be Buffy’s birthday so, as you can imagine, quite a few people come to the house and stay long passed her birthday. When the Gang figure out that no one can walk out the door, they realize magic is behind it and therefore magic will be only what can get them out of it. Willow’s sworn off magic so she’s useless to the cause. But luckily for them there’s one other witch in the house. It’s Tara’s time to shine. Except… it doesn’t do jack shit. She’s not powerful enough… apparently. And it’s this that really bothers me about this episode. The fact Tara needs Willow’s help to be of any use at all to the Gang. Specifically the fact that she’s seen as the “the lesser” of the Wiccan duo because of it. That really infuriates me. Please allow me to go off on a tangent for now. Rest assured - I will bring the point I really want to make with this home where it belongs.

I would say that Willow became co-dependent to Tara when you consider the reason why she put a spell on her to begin with. It’s because she didn’t want to lose her. It’s very much akin to a child wanting to hold a flower in their hand because they think it’s beautiful and not realizing they’re crushing it. Willow doesn’t realize what she’s doing by putting a spell on Tara. What it means. What the implications of it are. Much like the dimension-shifting spell she attempts to put on everybody at The Bronze in ‘All The Way’ before Tara stops her, she doesn’t understand why it’s so wrong to do it. She thinks - believes - that she’s helping. And when she puts that Lethe’s Bramble spell on Tara to make her forget about their fight, she believes that she’s helping them. Helping fix their relationship rapidly breaking down due to all the fights they’re having about her abusing magic - but all it’s doing is destroying it even more. She’s so corrupted by her own magical power that she doesn’t understand that her using it in the ways she does is both a violation of the human mind and body. She doesn’t realize she’s taking someone’s autonomy or agency away by putting a spell on them. And in regards to Tara - that’s partially because she prefers Tara to be compliant to her worldview and lifestyle and submissive to her wants and needs. Wanting to continue to have that attention and validation Tara wilfully bestows upon her. But putting that Lethe’s Bramble spell on her to make sure that that doesn’t change means it’s no longer wilful. Means it’s no longer being given. It’s being taken. Which further means that’s it’s no longer love. It’s abuse. But it still stems from love. From being in love. Specifically from desperately not wanting to lose that love. Because she believes that without Tara’s love - she’s nothing. That she’s neither powerful or loveable without Tara.

There’s no doubt about it:

Willow abuses Tara because she loves her.

She loves her because Tara is the one person in the whole show that actually gives Willow the attention and validation she actually wants and needs. That makes her feel powerful and loveable. And so the moment Tara’s like “No, you can’t do this”, Willow’s essentially mentally whiplashed because up until Season 6 Tara hasn’t objected to her constant use of magic at all - from what we see as the viewer anyway. And perhaps that’s a fault on the writers part. Perhaps they should have shown that Tara was uncomfortable with it from the beginning of their relationship or midway through Season 5 at least. For me they leave it a little too late to show the character clearly objecting against it. So Tara leaves it a little too late to actually say anything to Willow so that Willow is aware of her concerns from the get go. Thus, the sudden objecting and reprimanding from Tara in Season 6 comes across to Willow as jealousy or hypocrisy. It doesn’t come across as concern or as love. It’s only now that Willow has chosen to go cold turkey with the magic use that she realizes Tara was only looking out for both her and for everyone else’s health and well-being in telling her that she couldn’t use magic in the careless and reckless ways she was or that she couldn’t abuse it for personal gain. And that’s why the moment when Anya attacks Willow for not even trying to use magic to get them out of the difficult situation they’re in, Tara steps in to defend her and tells her to back off. It’s because she realizes that part of the reason why Willow got to the corrupted place she did was because her friends just let her. Some of them even encouraged her. So Willow was receiving mixed signals all the time. She didn’t know what the right (or wrong, for that matter) thing to do was because there was no clear instruction on how to do it from her friends and there was no consistency on whether she should or shouldn’t do it. Tara realized that. In fact she realized that before anyone else did. That’s why she left her. Because she knew she was part of the problem. Willow needed to work that out for herself and to learn the hard way. Otherwise she never would have learned at all. So in a longwinded way, they told the story of a character who had to hit the lowest of the low to see through her own corruption to come out the other side and then to finally get back on top where she was most powerful. She had already learned the lesson by the point that Tara comes back to her. She learns it so well that she absolutely refuses to let herself be swayed by Anya’s attacking her for not using any magic to help them. It’s absolutely justified for Willow to use her magic in this situation because it is actually helping instead of just satisfying her own desires and she’s aware of that, but she’s still steadfast in her resolve regardless. So Tara knows she had to step in at that point to take Anya down a notch because she was out of line. And I know it was just because she was afraid and was going through a panic attack but somebody needed to tell her off. I could see that Spike was ready to go to town on her but I’m glad it was Tara. The voice of reason. The one that truly understands Willow’s side of the argument. And so the one who would step in front of her to defend her from verbal harassment and judgement from Anya. And, as I noticed immediately, defend her non-consent. Defend Willow’s not giving her consent. The very thing Willow has ignored and disregarded of Tara. This was an ironic turnabout but it makes total sense.

Tara has always been somebody that respects choice. And I would say part of the reason why it was so horrific for me to see what Willow does to Tara is because of this. Tara would never do anything near to it to Willow or anyone else - even if she was that powerful. And going back to what it is about this episode that really bothers me - I think she is as powerful as Willow by this point. She just chooses not to show it because she understands that absolute power corrupts absolutely. And while some people might see that as a weakness on her part… I see it as a strength. The fact she does not act in violence of any kind unless absolutely necessary. The fact she performs no offensive action whatsoever unless it’s in defence of either herself or someone else. The fact she is a pacifist until the very last moment when she cannot be or there will be lives lost. The fact she is purity personified. The fact that she represents the theme purity and that that is so underappreciated about her or that it’s viewed as weakness or uselessness. It angers me that she’s seen as powerless and that her spells need the aid of Willow.

The spell Tara attempts to do in this episode didn’t work not because she wasn’t powerful enough. It didn’t work because nobody other than the spell caster can override the spell that was cast,… as proven in the end. Which means that if Willow did intervene and did use her magic - it also wouldn’t have done jack shit! So the point I’m making here is that Tara being passive or not taking any control in any given situation isn’t because she’s not powerful enough to, or that she’s somehow “the lesser” of her and Willow for not using her “significantly weaker” magical power. It’s her choice. It’s her choice to not show herself as a powerful Wiccan. As powerful as Willow or Amy or even Jonathan. It’s her choice because she understands that actions have consequences. And she is very proud of Willow in this episode for putting her foot down on using magic, but at the same time, also has to be the person to tell her that releasing the brake every once in awhile, depending on the situation, is perfectly okay. To carry on with the metaphor - you’re just as in danger of a car crash by being in park as you are in exceeding the speed limit if every other vehicle around you is driving passed you and you’re not moving too. If you’re in stasis and everyone else is accelerating, you’re not helping either yourself or anyone else by not acting, all you’re doing is delaying the traffic. And so the mixed signals Willow’s receiving end in this episode. She now knows when to make a move and when not to. And once again - Tara shows her the way. And sadly, as wonderful as this development is for her, it only makes her double down on the belief that if Tara was not part of her life in any way - she’d be lost. She might know what to do but she won’t know how far she can go with doing it. The reason why is because her friends never make it clear. Thus, as much as I love her arc, the writing of it also never makes it clear. Instead the writers do a roundabout turn and drive off somewhere else. Somewhere out of focus from the departure point of power corruption. So I completely understand the frustration fans feel over Willow’s magic addiction storyline. They don’t make it clear what it’s meant to represent other than the character’s gone a bit loony and I understand that. I guess I’m just a fan that doesn’t mind it so much because I can piece the puzzle together for myself and that’s enough for me.

#buffy the vampire slayer #older and faraway #willow rosenberg #alyson hannigan #tara maclay #amber benson #anya jenkins #emma caulfield #magic addiction #consent #pacifism #choice #power corruption #purity #episode recap #buffy rewatch

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mira--mira · 2 years

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Mess of thoughts after the last post. Kinda heavy, religious trauma, misogyny, brief mentions of self harm/suicide attempt. Ends on an uplifting note though?

I think the thing that freaked me out with that post was I wasn’t expecting it. I grew up in the bible belt and christianity was, and still is, entrenched in everything around me. I’m used to dealing with it and most days it doesn’t bother me. I have a lot of good friends who are religious who showed me how to have a better, healthier relationship with belief and who respect my boundaries when it gets too much. I tell them ‘funny stories’ of the church I was in growing up and they stare at me in horror and I laugh it off and encourage them to laugh too as ‘can you believe this crazy thing? it’s wild right?’ and push aside any concerns that something’s wrong with my ‘funny stories’.

Their earliest memory in church wasn’t the nice lady who made all the church function’s t-shirts talking about a woman she knew who was so nice and kind but she mentioned something about jesus and the woman told her she was wiccan and wasn’t it a shame that she was going to burn in hell?

They didn’t have the ‘fire-and-brimstone’ preachers who spoke passionately about the devil as much as christ and warned that any thought, any hesitance, any doubt was the devil trying to tempt you. You can’t trust yourself. You’re weak and mortal. If you have doubts you have to beg god for forgiveness and listen to the church. You should have never doubted the church.

Their denomination wasn’t one that prevented women from holding any position of power in the church. Youth-group leaders were the ‘highest’ they could be, they couldn’t even run the adult sunday school lessons. Because women were born from adam’s rib and eve ate the apple first. It was all her fault, she deserved the pain and agony. Women still deserve to be punished today. Lilith? We don’t talk about lilith and even if we did, she’s more proof of women’s inherent wickedness, refusing to submit to her husband. It’s a woman’s place to listen to her husband. She is his helper, he her master. To obey him is to obey to the church, to obey god.

They didn’t live in fear of doing one single thing wrong, forgetting to ask forgiveness, and being damned for all of eternity. There was no punishment a parent could give that would match an eight-year old’s fear of damnation. Every doubt was from the devil. Every ‘this makes me upset, I don’t like being here’ was temptation and it means something is wrong with you because no one else reacts like this. Would your parents even love you if they knew you were so young but the devil was already tempting you so much? Listen to the church. Revelations was one of the most popular books preached. What if the rapture came and you were left behind? It could happen at any moment, have you asked forgiveness today? The anti-christ is said to be a man, but it could be a woman. What if it’s you? What if you don’t even know? What if the signs are as small and innocuous as trick-or-treating or reading books about magic and witchcraft? What if there’s something fundamentally wrong with you? “Serve like peter or serve like judas” god knows everything, has everything planned. You have free will, but do you?

Their denominations were open-minded and inviting. “Everyone is welcome” the church said but only on condition. There are no homosexuals here. Bisexuals do not exist. They’re depraved and sinful and our community is holy and pure. Not one of our women has gotten an abortion, they’re not sluts who spread their legs for every man that asks. They’re not tempted. They’re pure and abstinent, not one has a sexual thought until marriage, until their husband, who they should be with forever, decides to take their innocence and deflower them. A woman’s sex life is like a rose, you know? Every partner, a petal gets plucked. What man would want a plucked flower? Men are never held to the same standard. This is what a good woman should be, so why do you have sexual thoughts? Want physical pleasure? You should be ashamed. Pray for forgiveness, for the thoughts to go away. This, more than anything else, will be your damnation. When they don’t, grow desperate, make deals. It’s not self-harm if you’re not cutting your wrists. It’s not a suicide attempt if you’re not hospitalized and no one knows you tried. No one else has this problem. There must really be something wrong with you.

There is nothing wrong with you. You’re a child, a teenager, and you should never have grown up with this mockery of ‘love’. It’s all about control. Understand that and everything falls into place. You don’t have to beg and plead and make deals with their abusive god who never loved you anyway. Women are human. You are human. There’s nothing wrong with loving a woman, or a man. There’s nothing wrong with wanting pleasure or prioritizing you in your own life. Their holidays are taken from pagan ones and no one even read the damn books before they decided to condemn them for a single word. Man did not create woman, woman created man. Christ forgave all sins, but eve’s were still too great? How convenient. Misogyny at the rotten core, the same thoughts for thousands of years, with nothing new to say except new ways to tighten the shackles and drag you down. You’re not a vessel. Not a ‘non-man’. Or unfinished thing. Other women are not your enemy, they never were. You’re exactly like them, all the other girls. You should be proud of that, embrace it and find connection instead of constant unfulfilling competition with no victor. They’re hypocrites, they demand their book be read literally, the trumpets and angels, the wall falling down, the world consumed by a lake of fire and the mark of the beast but they ignore the slavery, the rape, the food prohibitions, and the fucking law on mixed fabrics. Don’t believe there’s something inherently wrong or evil with you. Every doubt is the devil if you’re trying to maintain control, they took advantage of your youth, your naivete. Trust yourself to learn right from wrong, never let anyone demonize you for asking a question again. There is nothing wrong with other beliefs. There is nothing wrong with your emotions, how scared they made you feel and how it still bubbles up from time to time, an albatross you may never fully let go. It’s getting better. Measure your progress by that. It was the hardest lesson for a child to learn: the adults were wrong. There is nothing wrong with you.

#personal #vent #heavy #originally i was going to delete this after i wrote it i just wanted the catharsis of getting my emotions out #i decided not to in case someone else can benefit from the last paragraph #even if it is a stream of consciousness mess #but i don't want to talk about this #pls don't reblog

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tintentrinkerin · 3 years

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nothing on my tongue but hallelujah...

Rating: Explicit

Pairing:

Jared Padalecki/Jensen Ackles, Jared/various, Jared/Alex Calvert

Warnings:

Gangbang, Barebacking, Jealousy, Top Jared Padalecki, Bottom Jensen Ackles, Religious Cults, Power Dynamics

Summary: Jared's Cult, the "Church of Grace" is a peaceful and harmonic little community in the South. Then young Jensen appears and rocks the Cult leader's world - moreoever, it rattles Alex awake, who's been sure to be his leader's most loved member.

Written upon request

Word Count: 9.9k

Read below the cut or on AO3

Kudos are love <3

The Divine Five Pillars of “Church of Grace”

Obedience

Purity

Community

Free Love

Kindness

The “Creed”

I believe in God, the Father and the Almighty,

who created the world, the people, the seas, the animals and the trees.

I believe in God’s son, who is his true Vicar on Earth

For he brings joy, love, community, kindness and hope.

I reject the Devil and his kin. I turn my whole existence to

the true Vicar of the Holy Father.

I hereby swear to follow the five divine rules of the Church

and give myself into the hands of God’s most graceful creation.

May He and God’s Angels lead me into Paradise.

Amen.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

Siddharta Gautama

Through true honesty deeply believe that all sentient-beings are one.That all beings have the same true nature, wisdom, virtue.

If people knew how much effort it took to get an orgy going, they probably wouldn’t even bother and settle for porn instead.

Jared and Alex had to plan every monthly “gathering” very thoroughly, especially, when new recruits and adepts arrived. The new boys and girls would maybe chicken out at first, but that wouldn’t be punished. Later, yes. At their first time? No. Jared was very kind to those he found. In other communities they’d be punished right on spot. But Jared, no no, he wasn’t that barbaric. He wanted everyone to feel happy and included. Everyone had to use the headquarter’s communal showers or baths after they had an extensive cleansing plan, to purify their body and also a very intense work out session. All for purity’s sake. Jared loves purity.

The garden behind the Church of Grace’s headquarters was around 400 acres, enough space to celebrate free love, the holy spirit within all of us, and most importantly, worship the true Vicar of God on Earth. Forget Jesus.

Jared was pleased when he saw his usual very busy adepts who were about to be initiated in the second step of Priesthood. They were so eager and they had a fantastic taste in decorating. There will be a bonfire, it’s May 1st after all, one of Jared’s favorite dates for a gathering. Pagans used to celebrate Beltane, well, they still do. In tiny groups, the Wiccans and the Druids. He has no affiliations with them, but as a shepherd of his sheep he needs to be informed. Wise. He wants to be the one who can answer all their questions, give interpretations. His interpretations. His view of the world. And in his world, only his Church will bring them peace and harmony and closer to God’s grace and mercy.

The bonfire wood is piled right in the center of the garden, the part of the garden that members are allowed to see and walk on. Around the bonfire a lot of big wooden logs are placed for the followers of Jared to sit on. As soon as the fire burnt down a little bit and some chalices of holy wine were emptied and some delicious weed was consumed, the orgy might start. Jared will let the believers start first. There’s always a couple or a single horny person that will start wooing a person of their interest. Jared will join later, when the ecstasy is palpable and the adepts play the drums, letting the mass of naked bodies find their rhythm. Behind the huge pile for the bonfire, there’s Jared’s seat. A massive chair made of dark wood, polished, carvings all over. Still a thing someone could find a little too pagan, but Jared doesn’t care. The truth is what he speaks, not the others. And the truth is, that people still are just the same as in the early Middle Ages. The same things struck them with awe, and it’s not churches in white marble and Jesus hanging from crosses. Nature and it’s forces, the hidden desires. Intimate, primal and authentic. That’s his motto. No nude angel chiseled out of porcelain will make people feel this kind of raw euphoria and devotion as a bonfire and some drums do. Let the drums shake their cores and make their blood rage. This is how you make people feel their primal truth, and then, they’ll realize why doing this once a month is so freeing. They will get back to work, back to Jared’s mass, satisfied and their needs soothed. Then they will happily obey, stay pure, pray and make the community itself a functional unit of people with the same values.

And their money. It’s always gonna end up in such a community running itself, on donations, the members’ money and other things.

When the sun sets, the members of the community sit down on the wooden banks or logs, or they bring a white towel to sit on. Jared counts the members and everyone is there. Alex sits beside Jared’s chair, obeissant.

The white flowy cult dresses start billowing in the wind. Jared sits down on his chair, with a graceful flowing movement. He’s dressed in white too, linen, see through even when dry. When he sits all the heads turn to him. In the twilight of the remaining sunbeam, you could think, Jared just descended from heaven. He likes that idea. He raises his arms and in his strong, rough voice he proclaims “Brothers, sisters, it’s time for our monthly celebration. You cleansed your bodies, you prayed and did good service to the community. Now is the time to reward you, my brothers and sisters. Let’s have the holy communion, break bread and offer it to your neighbours, offer wine to your friends. Connect.” There’s faint applause and Jared puts his hand down. “No need to applaud, my dear sister, tonight, we celebrate you and your devotion and purity!”

He turns to Alex, dressed in white linen trousers. “Brother Alex will light the fire and then, brothers and sisters, enjoy the bread and wine, let your spirits flow and find your matches for tonight!”

The crowd cheers and they end the chorus with a loud and enthusiastic “Amen!”

“Amen!”Jared echoes and his voice layers upon everything else.

When he sits down and Alex lights up the fire he watches all these people, the four new recruits. A young cute redhead girl, she looks like condensed sunshine - a young boy, looks like he’s here because the redhead is here (he’d be weeded out tonight) - another redhead, looking fierce. A snake. He might take a closer look at her - and then, there is Green Eyes. The boy that Jared picked himself. Usually one of his lower assistants would pick them but this time, Jared had to intervene. He needed these assistants to weed out the no go’s just before Jared could even see them. He couldn’t check on every person willing to join, they needed to make a first sighting and then the few ones who might be of Jared’s interest, would be invited to meet the True Vicar himself. Usually, that was 10 out of 200 or even less. And Jared was just as rigorous with ditching the foul seeds. But Green Eyes was his favorite all along. Those eyes…

Alex breaks the loaf of bread and offers it to Jared. Of course, he’s on his knees and only looks up when Jared takes the half of the loaf and gives him his blessing.

“May you be blessed by our Lord and his Angels,” Jared says very formally. Alex looks up, his face has tiny sprinkles of ash on them already and his robe turned transparent from the sweat. He’s decent. Will he try as the first one today? Like always?

“May you be blessed by your Father, Our Lord and his Angels,” Alex replies until Jared gestures to him to stay up.

“Amen.”

Jared eats and then receives the wine from Alex too. That’s a golden rule. As his personal assistant, Alex receives the blessings from Jared. Just after him, anyone is able to be blessed by their Master. They share half of the bread, they will need the rest later. In this community it is not necessary to receive Jared’s blessing to consume the holy communion as his liberal practice says that any true believer in their community, on one of the 12 holy days of their community “gathering”, can offer and receive blessings from a brother or a sister. Jared’s happy about that, because blessing 120 people would make him pass out drunk and he can’t have that. He is in control. And he needs to stay in control, too.

Around him, the wine, the food are eaten and some herbal cigarettes are lit, the thick smell of weed is everywhere. Four cult members responsible for music start playing the drums and flutes now. Quietly still, just a hint that soon, the gathering will start with their original purpose. The physical and mental connection of the members with each other. Jared can already see people who are done eating, wine tipsy and a little herbally relaxed. Hands wander under togas and robes, simple shirts and wide hippie trousers. Alex stays with Jared, looking down on the obedient sheep doing what they’re supposed to do. The fabric in his crotch is tenting. One look in Alex’ face tells Jared everything.

“You won’t give up, huh?”

Alex shakes his head. “No. I will never give up.”

Jared now stands up and stretches like a cat that has just awoken and now is on their way to do some mischief. “Boy, all of you try so hard, but none of you can take it.”

“It’s about receiving your mercy,” Alex says, now sounding a little sulky.

Jared heads towards the bonfire where some couples (or more) are intertwined with each other, laying on the bare grass, sitting on logs or they found a nice spot on the white towels everyone brought. Right in the center, around the fireplace, it is too hot to sit there. Jared makes his rounds, ruffles some hair here, kisses a girl there, even helps a young girl settle on her lover’s cock.

“There you go, sweetheart,” he coos, “that’s how you show your love and devotion.”

She would be too tight and small for him though. All the women here would surely love to try again and again, but none of them would be prepared for his cock.

When he is done doing rounds around the bonfire he sits down on an empty white blanket and just like it’s natural, the free members gather around him. The drums start playing a hard and catchy rhythm.

The psychology behind music and rhythm. His members really know how to play a mass of people and put their bodies in the right directions. Alex joins and everyone respects Jared’s assistant too much to try and get Jared before him. In absolute devotion, Alex pulls Jared’s white linen pants down to his naked ankles, then off his naked feet. The participants murmur and gasp, such a delight every time. Jared didn’t wear boxer briefs or anything else underneath and so, everyone can admire his massive cock. It’s big, the erection growing strong and hard and the tip bounces against Jared’s toned six pack, above his belly button. Even Alex with his long filigrane and very skilled fingers can’t wrap around the shaft fully.

They all watch, not even Alex dares to touch him yet.

“You. Alex. Claire. You were such a good team last time. Would you show me how perfectly you harmonize?”

The blonde girl blushes deep red and Alex first raises an eyebrow. It’s clear who he wants, but he would never deny one of Jared’s commands. And that’s what it is. A command.

Alex pushes Claire on all fours, one strong hand in her hair and presses her down while he sucks on two of his fingers and then penetrates her with them. She squeals and giggles, but before Alex fucks her he knows he has to give his true interest a show, and he will. While fingering her he presses his face between her buttcheeks and starts sucking. The scene gets very loud with pleasure noises very soon and another guy asks to accompany them.

Jared supports himself with one arm and the other he uses to stroke his cock, throbbing and hot, he loves it when his followers put on such a show. He’s leaking some precum already and a boy next to him looks at it. Greedy and inexperienced. Jared doesn’t let him taste yet, and instead the nameless boy bends down to kiss Jared’s very muscular thighs. Another follower starts doing the same on the other side, everything with Jared stroking himself slowly. He wants to enjoy every minute of it. His toes are sucked on, submissive followers suck them like it’s his massive member. The first brave adepts gather around them too and Jared can’t help but smile. People stroke his hair, kiss his neck and leave their marks, but what Jared really needs is someone taking his cock like a champion. He knows he’s intimidating. Thick and lock, and even grows bigger when hard. The first adept who is bold enough to come forward is very much welcome. He has himself oiled pretty well, he smells flowery and when he sinks on Jared’s cock (just the tip!), he freezes.

“Oh… God”, he hisses, “oh my f… so big…” Jared smirks, his hands on the twink boys hips. Such a beautiful boy, Jared would love to fuck him and fill him up, but it looks like he is already failing at the tip.

“Go slow, my dear,” Jared says nonetheless. A guru can hope.

Two hands on his shoulders push the boy farther down and he cries out, half in pleasure, but also in pain. The hands disappear and the young man on Jared’s cock looks like he’s about to cry.

“It’s too much for you, hm?”

The boy nods and gets up, legs shaking. You can tell he never had a guy fuck his ass before, bonus points for using oil as lube. He might try again after he gets used to it with another cult member. He stammers an apology. Jared pulls him down for a second and presses his thumb on the boy’s forehead.

“I bless you, brother.”

It’s a ritual, it’s a necessity, or the boy will maybe consider leaving. But most of the boys, like Alex, stay close to Jared and try it again and again and again. Some people are overachievers, maybe one day it will be successful.

The boy mumbles an Amen and then strolls away, looking for another group he can find a place in. Jared still feels the tight ass of this boy and, damn, how much he loves it when they’re tight, maybe an anal virgin even, and he’s the first to fuck them. Another brother sucks him off, but he also has trouble swallowing more of Jared’s wand than just the tip. His sucking is superb, ambitious even. Drool runs down his throbbing cock, damn, he even makes delicious sounds! Jared’s head falls back and he wishes he could blow his first load, but all these attempts of his followers just leave him just ‘almost coming. The man takes him deeper now but is interrupted by heavy gagging and he has to give up. Now it’s Alex who claims to be next. Alex is the kind of guy who acts like a passionate lover with anyone, even though he only craves Jared’s attention. He’s open and gaping already, must've gotten into a very nice threeway with Kathryn and the other member. Alex sinks on Jared’s cock, his back pressed against Jared’s sweaty chest. Alex is able to take more than just Jared’s tip after extensive dilating practice or when he’s been fucked already by two or more of his brothers of the Church, but that leaves Jared only semi turned on, too. He feels loose, not as tight as when he tried it the first time and cried for several minutes because Jared’s dick almost tore him apart. It’s enough to make Jared cum and bless Alex with an intense prostate orgasm, but still Jared is not satisfied. When Alex leaves and some others follow him to the pool, he sits down again, crotch still throbbing, his need still not satisfied. Around him the orgy is at its peak, no one is alone by now, everyone is sharing their love and energies. Jared is gifted, his cock is ready again five minutes later and he mounts that ginger woman, the adept. But she winces when he’s halfway in and Jared has to pull out. She’s biter and a scratcher, her thick accent is sexy and he makes her cum multiple times with his tongue and fingers, but he holds back now, he waits for the perfect one. Someone to form a union with. A tight one, but skilled and resilient. A man that can take his cock and even if it hurts a little, push through.

Jared sinks down on one of the blankets, lies down and stares in the clear starry night, a follower brings him a pillow and others massage his thighs and arms, his feet. God, yes, his feet are so sensitive. Another guy shyly asks if he may be of service and when Jared opens his eyes and looks up it’s Green Eyes. He hasn’t seen the boy since the beginning of the orgy. Jared immediately hikes up and shoos his other followers away.

“Sure, sit with me.”

The boy with the forbidden pretty pouty lips, the rough voice and piercing green eyes sits down, facing the self proclaimed Vicar of God.

“You want to be of service, what was your name again? I’m sorry that I have to ask, I am terrible with names – most people change theirs after initiation anyway and that’s what stays in my memory.”

Green Eyes looks at him. “I’m Jensen.”

“Hello Jensen. I’m glad you came to our monthly free love gathering. Is that the kind of religious practice you seek?”

A girl offers them some bread and a chalice of wine, plus some mushrooms on the side.

“It would be an honor, Jensen, to break the bread and drink the wine with you. Mushrooms are not mandatory if you’re allergic to that kind.”

Jensen grins and echoes the girl’s “amen” and gives her a smile. It’s gotten a bit quiet around them, some followers watch Jared and his new recruit very, very closely.

“I don’t want to break the protocol, who is supposed to break the bread and offer it?” Jensen asks with a shy grin. Jared chuckles.

“We do not have a strict protocol, not on these special nights when we celebrate freedom and harmony. And free love. When we surrender to our primal instinct, you understand?”

Jensen nods seriously. “Yes, I get that.”

He rips off a piece of loaf then a second and offers one to Jared without the ceremonial motto. Jared ignores that (at least today) and receives the bread. “May you be blessed by our Lord and his Angels,” he says, presses his thumb on Jensen’s forehead and mumbles an “Amen”. Jensen echoes again, then takes a bite. When he’s done Jared offers him the wine with the same motto, and this time Jensen copies it, even though the Vicar is addressed during that sentence with “May you be blessed by your Father, our Lord and his Angels”. He will learn that, Jared will make sure of it.

No one dares to come any closer after they’ve been offered shrooms, bread and wine. Some couples, or whole piles of copulating people don’t care what’s around them but some very devoted followers of Jared’s doctrine watch their Messiah and the new man very closely. Some are envious. Some are in awe of these two beautiful men sharing the body of Jesus Christ (strictly speaking Jared’s ‘brother’, just a few thousand years earlier) in such a manner. Jared’s tanned body glistens in the light and sparks of the bonfire and his hair started curling a little lately. Several people’s eyes turn wet. Given the beauty of their leader. Or given the fact there’s a new boy in town. And this boy is too pretty for his own good.

The wine is dry and aromatic, nothing you would just chug down and Jensen and Jared empty four chalices which are refilled by a maid that was brave enough to disturb her leader and the new recruit. It’s gotten chill and the bonfire shrinks and shrinks, some members of the Church try to revive it for a little longer and throw thick and heavy branches on it, along with brushwood that would burn easily and then transfer the fire over to the branches.

Just like in the 16th up to the 18th century – this is how you build a pyre to burn witches.

Jensen carefully, even a little shy now, lays a hand on Jared’s leg. The leader is surprised, given his attitude and behaviour he didn’t count on Jensen to take part in the orgy, he seemed more the watching type. The bonfire reflects in his intense green eyes and Jared feels an aching towards his new recruit.

Now he realizes that Jensen’s white shorts are tenting. The way he looks up at Jared, through his thick blonde eyelashes it’s absolutely acting. Jensen is not that shy. Maybe a little.

“The others told me…” Jensen started, “that I should under no circumstances give in to your… advances. You would, how did they say… tear me apart…? I wonder why…”

Jared snorts as an answer. Amused. His followers keep saying this to either see if someone’s brave enough to come forward right in their first few months here or if they’ll chicken out.

“Well!” He has to laugh again. “Look, I think you’ve… you’ve watched a little without participating in this celebration, right? You’re still dressed, to my dismay!”

Jensen blushes, one hand on his crotch. Now, this reaction is a little more honest.

“I can, I mean…”

Jared laughs louder now and then lays his hand on Jensen’s, that is covering his erect penis.

“Don’t make it awkward, Jensen, it’s fine. Not many participate in their first orgy and you are not obliged to, either. This is about free love. Father gave us free will for a reason. Because without free will, there is no love on this Earth.”

There’s one streak of Jensen’s chin long hair, it’s styled but now the hairspray or the gel isn’t working it’s magic anymore. Jared brushes the strand behind Jensen’s ear. He’s closer to the recruit now and Jensen’s hand under his pulls away for the messiah to feel what’s underneath.

“Regarding your concern about ripping you apart… I would never. But as you can see…”

Jensen’s eyes fixate on Jared’s growing cock and he gulps visibly.

“Yes, I…”, he looks up again, doe eyed and his mouth slightly opened, his pink silky tongue wets his lips.

“You have the face of an angel, do you know that? I wonder what hides behind that…”

Jared’s voice is low and rough now, he groans when under his fingers Jensen’s cock jumps.

“Jared, but… what if I can’t--”

“Shush, I’ll prepare you for it. And we have masses of oils. We’ll go slow. Very slow.”

A whisper erupts amongst the witnesses, their leader and idol! – wooing Jensen. A newbie. Some figures in the dark hurry for more oil, whole cans of it, juices, towels and fresh clothes. This is a choreography of duty to care for Jared. Everyone knows this is an occasion they won’t be able to witness that often. So far only one person could take Jared’s cock and fulfill his most aching wish.

It’s Alex’s now hated duty to bring it all over to the blanket where Jensen climbs in Jared’s lap, panting faintly between two very passionate kisses. There’s fresh bread, more wine, water from the Church’s own well, fresh clothes for both and a big bottle of lube, oil based. It will stain every inch of fabric it’ll meet. Jared doesn’t even look up at him when he retreats, but he throws a ‘thank you’ in his direction. As soon as Alex is out of reach he is forgotten.

Jared takes his time with this one. His commune members are in such harmony with each other already that prolonged foreplay isn’t necessary, but of course encouraged. Jensen is vocal, moans in their kisses and Jared loves the effort and the devotion he shows already. Jared pulls Jensen’s clothes off and bathes in the glow of this beautiful sight. Jensen’s skin is flawless, soft. It’s a joy touching him. Jensen pulls him in another kiss and arches in the leader’s strong arms - so responsive, in every way!

“I want to try it,” Jensen then whispers, shakily.

“What exactly?”

“Take you. Suck you.”

Jared chuckles and gets up, pulls Jensen along on his lap. Jensen’s hand is big, he has deliciously thick fingers and Alex would appreciate some good fingering from him. He should introduce these two a little later

Jensen slides between Jared’s legs, who’s supporting himself with his arms to be able to watch Jensen try and gag on his cock. Jared senses some of his sisters and brothers coming closer, silently, to not interrupt them in their exploration ritual. He can’t blame them for being curious, and this is the exact purpose of their monthly gathering. Enjoy each other freely.

Jensen’s mouth waters and when he opens his lips, a thick streak of drool runs down his face and chin. He doesn’t hesitate to bend down and wrap his lips around Jared’s tip.

A moment of breathless silence from everywhere.

Jensen. slides. deeper.

Jared moans and his head falls between his shoulder blades, so that he can see the clear starry night sky.

He will stop now, it’s too much. Oh God it’s too much, he can’t do it, Jared thinks, and then he starts praying Please let him go deeper.

Jensen’s mouth feels tight, soft, and hot and he produces so much drool, it makes it messy. Perfectly messy. Jared’s head falls foward again and he watches Jensen taking him inch by fucking inch. Jared’s cock disappears in Jensen’s tight throat to the root. Jared stays perfectly still and tries to not even move a hair’s breadth. Jensen’s hand slightly presses on Jared’s stomach and then pulls away slowly. Painfully slowly, while working Jared’s incredibly thick shaft with his tongue. As soon as he’s able to look up to Jared everyone can see streaks of tears in his angelic face and his flushed cheeks. He keeps on working Jared’s tip, circling the bundle of nerves under the tip and then, with a high pitched gasp, pulls away completely.

He looks over to Jared and smiles. “Did I do good?”

Jared nods. It’s been ages since someone took him completely. It takes all of his willpower to not grab in Jensen’s hair and force his mouth down again to suck him off.. and then fuck his recruit’s face. He would gag and whine so pretty…. Jared needs a moment to breathe in and out very deeply, call himself to reason.

“You are perfect,” he says, his voice shaky. “By the Angels, you are the best.”

Jensen blushes even deeper and looks away. He notices the other believers have gathered around them. Jared combs through his hair. He feels that Jensen now really is shy.. that’s not a show.

“Don’t bother, my dear. They won’t touch you if you don’t want to. I’m here for you and only you. Okay?”

Jensen nods. “So I really did good? Did no one before me take you that deep? I mean it’s a bit tricky but -”

Some of the watchers moan.

“Did I say something wrong?”

“They all tried, dear. And failed. I guess you just earned yourself a title.”

Some of the watchers lurk in the dark, some are illuminated by the fainting bonfire. The sound of drums is gone. Jared watches Jensen look around and get used to it, after all. Then he turns to Jared and grins.

“I will work to keep the title then…,”

Jared pushes his delicious mouth on his cock again, and yes, fuck, holy fuck YES, Jensen can take him. He takes him so deep that Jared can feel his throat tighten and contract, but he’s not gagging in the bad way. Tears fall and drool runs down his reasonably thick shaft. Jared’s hand grips in Jensen’s hair and pulls. Jensen utters a surprised but pleased moan and keeps going faster and faster. One hand sneaks around Jared’s balls and massages them. Jared’s hips buck up and Jensen needs a break for a second, deep, hectic breathing, his teary eyes, the rest of the bonfire glistens in his eyes. Jared has a hard time holding back his possessive nature when Jensen just worships him like that. Faint and aroused moans around them show Jared that the others enjoy Jensen’s show as well. Some couples even have started fucking. Girls stand close by, rubbing their swollen and wet parts.

“Look around,” he orders Jensen, “look around, how much love you spark.”

“Your voice… so deep… so much deeper,” Jensen is still fighting for breath. It makes Jared only crazier.

“That’s you, you do that to me.”

Jensen’s hand is still stroking him. Jared would be ready to come just now, preferably he’d shoot his massive load right in his throat, but what he wants even more, what’s the source of the deepest aching is the longing to finally be inside someone fully. He wants to ram his cock in Jensen up to the root and make him come first, then Jared could let go.

“You’re close,” Jensen whispers and presses a kiss on Jared’s lips. “I swallow if you’re into that…”

Jared’s answer is a low and growl. “What I really want…”

“Let me guess… you want to fuck me? Here in front of all these people?”Jensen sounds out of breath, thrilled, over excited. His hands are shaking when he pulls himself on Jared’s lap.

Jared holds him close, his raging, painfully hard cock pressing on Jensen’s asshole. It’s slick from all this spit, but he wouldn’t dare to just enter him now, without warning. Without giving him something to chew on while Jared has to push his way in.

“Free love. My pleasure is their pleasure,” Jared manages to say. He’s very proud to have that uttered in a manner that makes him seem still in control of himself.

Jensen laughs quietly and then climbs down Jared’s lap. He stands up. And everyone can take a look at this beautiful body, shaped by God to strike people in awe. His own cock is thick and looks just delicious, Jared might want to get a taste one day, too. Then Jensen turns around and lowers on all fours, his perfectly shaped ass in Jared’s direction, head down, almost submissive.

“Make your pleasure my pleasure,” he whispers, only Jared seems to hear it.

Men and women formed a crescent around them now, the opening pointing to the dying fire. Jared licks his lips while he squeezes a very lavish amount of oil in his hand. He doesn’t cover his cock yet, he will help Jensen first. He enters him with one finger and Jensen bucks away first, in surprise but then lowers himself on the finger, starts fucking himself with it. His broken and sweet moans make Jared’s blood boil and also the participants around them start jerking harder. One hand gesture from Jared, and his followers stop. They shouldn’t finish before Jensen does, that’s just and right.

“More,” Jensen demands, looking behind him with big teary eyes. His pupils are tiny and the iris of a thick and rich green. Jared gives him more. Jensen literally sucks the second finger in and when Jared starts massaging his prostate from outside with his thumb, Jensen cries out, stretching more and swallowing Jared’s long fingers to the root. He gasps tiny “oh god’s” and “fuck’s”. And then Jared isn’t able to hold the urge back and test if Jensen really is what Jared needs. Someone who fits him. He covers his long member with a lot of oil and also spreads generous amounts around Jensen’s anus.

“You think you’re ready, yeah?”

Jensen nods. “Positive.”

He even grabs his buttcheeks and pulls them apart, Jared has perfect sight of his slightly mouthing, dilated hole and all he has to do… He gulps violently, but then places his tip on Jensen’s entrance and sloooowly pushes in. Inch for inch. Jensen has to let go of his buttcheeks and his hands press on Jared’s hips.

“Holy… sh…”, Jensen huffs, “Is swearing even allowed?”

“Too much?”

“It’s a lot, but not too much… fuck…”

Jensen breathes heavily but slowly, as slowly as Jared goes, his hands don’t push against him anymore and Jared can slide in even deeper. He’s amazed by how Jensen’s hole just swallows him, inch by delicious inch. He’s tight, extremely tight, thanks to the thick oily lube he won’t be hurt. Quite the opposite. Jared pushes in, freezes and rubs over Jensen’s back, soothing him. Jensen doesn’t need that much soothing though, after a few seconds of Jared holding perfectly still and just twothree inches away from going inside all the way he sinks against Jared’s hips, taking him fully with a low, needy moan that seems to last an eternity.

“Please… move…” he moans, while Jared still holds Jensen’s hips and stares. Just stares in awe.

He really did it.

Jared can’t believe it’s really happening, that he feels so close to someone, again, finally, after such a long time. As he doesn’t start moving, Jensen rolls his hips back and forth, his back stretches and his hands clawing in the blanket. He just fucks himself on Jared’s member, doesn’t wait any longer and the moans he utters are - there is no other word -- they’re downright vulgar. It shows how much he lets go and it washes Jared away, his fingertips dig into Jensen’s hips as he meets his recruit’s pace. Now Jensen cries out, the words and moans just drop from his lips, he wants more, and Jared can feel how greedy he is.

The audience around them is a choir of pleasure sounds, each of them takes Jared up so high he feels like he’s more than drunk. More than high. He feels like he’s elevating.

“Jared… Harder!”

Jared fucks him harder. Jensen around him stretches and clenches like he wants to milk him dry, make him cum, but not now. It’s too good to let it end too early, he’s been starved too long and he wants to enjoy every second of fucking this angelic but oh so slutty adept. No one ever met his pace, wanted to be fucked harder and harder, no one asked to be sore, but Jensen does.

His moans are so loud his voice breaks and trails off, chokes on his own sounds. Jared loses it at this point, he grips in Jensen’s glossy hair and pulls him on his knees, closer to his body. Pounding his ass now makes beautiful wet sounds. Jensen leans on Jared’s chest and reaches for the prophet’s ass to push him deeper. And deeper.

“Can’t get enough, huh?”Jared growls, his hand in Jensen’s hair is pulling stronger, the other on Jensen’s hip holds him steady. “Want every inch of me?”

Jensen nods, sobbing. “Yes, never been fucked so good… just how I need --” He can’t even finish the sentence, Jared’s mighty deep thrusts make his voice fade into a cry. “Oh, God!”

Jared needs to slow down just for a bit, give himself time to breathe and hold back the orgasm that’s building up. He’ll shoot a massive load for sure, he wants it to be worth it. He bites Jensen’s neck and feels the violent shudder. They cling onto each other, hands in hair, fingernails scratching and leaving red trails.

“No, no, don’t stop now… I’m so close,” Jensen huffs, turns his head to Jared, their lips meet and Jared kisses him until both are too breathless, too close to be gentle or patient.

When Jared picks up his pace again it’s only a matter of a few seconds until Jensen cries out and sinks back on all fours, hiding his face in the blanket. He doesn’t have to touch himself to cum, with a loud and guttural sound he spills. And spills. It’s such a mindblowing orgasm. Everything about it is perfect. Jensen’s moans, how he pulls out handfuls of grass. His clenching asshole around Jared. The amount of cum he splatters on the sheets. Jared bends forward, pulls Jensen’s face up and turns it to the crowd.

“Let them look at you,” he hisses, “share the love.”

And then Jared cums, grunting and thrusting as deep as he can. His cock pumps and pumps masses. He’s never come so hard, so long, so satisfying. For a couple of seconds he doesn’t know anymore where he ends and Jensen begins, that’s how good and intimate it feels. Jensen’s tightness squeezes him tight and makes it impossible to move or pull out.

Jared collapses on Jensen’s back. He’s dizzy. He needs a moment.

Around them the noises turn from moans to grunts. Heavy breathing. Jared gestures to the watchers to stop jerking. He wants to have Jensen for himself for another moment when he pulls out. Jensen winces underneath him but his face just shows blissful exhaustion. Jared loves to watch his cum pouring out his partner’s holes and it’s no different tonight. Not after this divine intervention. Not after he’s been blessed with such a partner.

It’s a lot. Jensen turns his head to Jared, his face puffy and red, strands of wet blonde hair on his forehead. And now there’s the hint of a smirk.

“Did I do well?” he asks.

“I think you know…” Jared replies.

His hand strokes Jensen’s still half hard cock and Jensen moans. So sensitive. Next time, Jared might return the favor and suck that pretty cock.

“Your brothers and sisters want to show you how much they enjoyed watching you.”

Jensen looks around, then back to Jared.

Now the smirk is undeniable.

“Let ‘em come.”

Jared gets up, his muscular body beaming in the light of the moon and embers of the fire. He feels like he’s about to rise above anything and anyone. This union has given him the deepest peace he could ever feel. He still feels painfully hard and when he looks down he still is. His glossy cock perks up, but he won’t take Jensen a second time and risk really tearing him apart.

Jensen is on his knees, arms stretched forward like a satisfied lioness, sticking out his freshly bred ass to the audience.

“Children. Time to welcome Jensen in your midst.”

Alex approaches Jared to wash him off with a fresh wet cloth and a sponge while the others gather around Jensen. No one touches the recruit, after Jared united with him, but he will be showered in attention and much more.

Two days later, Jensen is still a bit sore.

He didn’t sleep much on the night of the celebration, he’s been too hyped, too high from the rush of alcohol, adrenaline and sex. Especially the sex. He can still feel Jared’s massive pole in his ass and everytime he gives in to the memory he shudders and feels his white robe tent.

Everything in this commune is white. The community houses in which the members live, white. The Church, white. Jared’s residence, white. The only thing that seems to be different is the massive wooden chair in which Jared sat during the celebration and watched his followers unify.

The blankets are white, the towels, the plates. Purity is an important pillar of this group, and everyone who’s not familiar with the customs might argue that collective orgies aren’t really pure, but Jensen knows better already. Purity is based on keeping your body healthy. The diet here isn’t vegan, but the community has their own farm. 120 people need food and water. Most of them live and work here. On the farm where vegetables and fruits are grown seasonally, or they take care of the cattle, pigs and chickens. Others help keep the houses intact.

Days are warm, the nights are pitchblack, there’s a lake and a river closeby. Women wash the clothes of the community. There is no “mine” and “yours” in the Church. There is only “we” and “us” and “our”.

Jensen has his own room, because the morning after the orgy, after the morning prayers and morning sports, in the great hall at breakfast, Jared proclaimed that Jensen was indeed heaven sent. Chosen by the Angels. That makes him special enough to have his own room for a while and it helps him acclimate in this environment. Most new members need that. They come from their picket fence life in the suburbs or the pulsing lives of a big city. They had day jobs, night jobs, family, addictions and almost everyone of them has been materially wealthy.

Everything that keeps them away from living a pure, devoted life with God is taken away here. Jared provides everything they need.

Some take a week to find their place in the community, some struggle for years. Some pack their bags as soon as they realize that the sense community here also consists of freedom in love, friendships. Children are born in this community and are raised by everyone, not only their genetic parents. No one here claims to own someone or something.

Well.

At least they say so.

Alex’s room is - as it’s appropriate for his position - in Jared’s residence. This morning he decided to cut his shoulder long, honey blond hair and trim his long beard.

Purity doesn’t mean to be shaven clean or have short hair. Purity comes from the heart, free will and the ability to love. Alex doubts he is quite pure at the moment. The community is free of the toxicity of a material life - in the community, you don’t aspire to climb up ranks. There are simply only three ranks. The community, Alex, Jared. Jared is their natural leader, it is supposed to be like that. Alex is chosen. Alex is confident.

He was. His heart is full of love for the cause and for Jared.

Until a few nights before he looked in the mirror every morning and smiled at his reflection. Because the reflection showed him a confident young man of faith. Full of love, not bound but blessed with free will.

Then, his heart started to hurt.

Now he hates his blue eyes, he hates his long hair, he hates the beard. He hates that he isn’t able to provide Jared the one thing he ached for.

It feels like an inconsistency of Jared’s teachings. Or Alex just isn’t at the point of enlightenment he always thought he was. He finds the fault in himself rather than Jared. But he likes it most thinking that it’s Jensen’s fault.

Jensen with the dazzling green eyes that tantalize Alex. And his damn ability to merge with Jared. Something no one in the community ever could provide.

Alex hates that someone other than him satisfies Jared in any way.

When he looks in the mirror he sees the man who came here all these years ago when Jared’s predecessor was still alive. The man who crashed here after drugs and sex addiction ruined his life.

Growth is something that never stops. And any day you don’t work through your struggles puts you one step further away from divinity and back into the life of materiality and toxicity.

Jared mustn’t know.

Alex stares blankly in the mirror while he shaves his beard off. Completely.

It takes a few days generally for the community to calm down after such a night. Jared knows that. He feels sore himself, but in a good, satisfying way. His community is thriving, they have new members. Fresh blood. The prayers are inspiring. Jared insists on holding the divine services all by himself. These days he’s beaming with love and the rich and satisfying feeling of being connected. This is Jensen’s merit. His sensuality, his sexual aura, everything about him reminds Jared of the Archangel Michael, the fiery son of God who guarded Eden. Everything about Jensen seems to set Jared on fire. And not only Jared. The others feel it too. The women, the men, everyone stares when he passes. It takes Jared a lot of introspection, prayer and exercise to not just drag him back in his bed. Jared is known for being considerate, kind, and balanced. He leads these people on their path to God and divinity, he is their idol. The true Vicar of the Holy Father. Preferring Jensen in his first month here would weaken his own strong will. He’s sure this man is sent by his Father to heal his hurts, but he needs to care for his community first.

Jared must not be selfish. He obeys the Lord and he will follow His guidance wherever it may take him. When he knows that his community is safe.

After morning’s prayer and exercise Jared retreats to the communal bath. Alex prepared everything like always. He’s shaven clean and his hair is way shorter than before. While Jared sinks in the hot tub, Alex hesitates to accompany him. He looks bitter. Some of the old worry lines reappeared. Jared makes an inviting gesture.

“Come in, Alex.”

Today, Jared notices, it sounds like more than an order.

Alex first shakes his head, but then looks up and his face softens. The lines disappear. He undresses and joins Jared for a bit.

Jared pulls him on his lap, it’s unusual for Alex to be physically distant. He recognizes his assistant has a razor cut on his chin. He runs his thumb just right under it and Alex inhales sharply.

“Why did you shave your beard?” he asks.

Alex looks away, bites his lip. His tooth gap is adorable.

“I didn’t like it anymore.”

Jared frowns.

“Do you doubt yourself?”

A scoff. Jared knows he just hit a nerve. Alex never scoffs at him.

“It’s just hair,” he replies. Now he even sounds a bit defiant.

“Alexandros.”

Alex stiffens. Jared has a habit of calling him by his full name when he fucks up, just like a mother would.

Jared cups his face and looks straight in those bright blue eyes and he sees the vulnerable boy that Alex still is. His progress is phenomenal, but part of him will always stay in the darkness he escaped.

Alex writhes but doesn’t honestly struggle against him.

“Your looks are not important. Be careful with your heart.”

A faint nod. Jared kisses his forehead, then his lips. Suddenly no writhing, no defiance, no stubborn behavior. Alex is pliant. Good.

“I have to go”, Alex mumbles, “I have to prepare our departure to Seattle… Our original flight was cancelled…”

Jared nods. Actually he has no desire to attend this event, but as the leader of this religious community, he has to fulfill some duties. Like going to charity events. It’s not that he hates charity, quite the contrary, as a son of God, it’s his pleasure and deepest wish to make the world a better place, but he hates the whole attention. He hates being compared to apocalypse cults or worse. His teachings are as pure as they can get under given pretenses and the struggle of humanity to overcome the Great Tribulation.

Alex knows. “I know you don’t want to go. But I will make it worth the trip.”

“You always do.”

Alex gets up with slightly shaky legs and a very impressive erection. When he jumps back in his clothes he even turns away. Suddenly he is so shy. When they’re back from Seattle, Jared will have to hold some very intense prayer and service sessions with Alex. He seems in need of healing. And that’s what Jared was chosen for. Provide for people like Alex.

Alex isn’t gone for five minutes when Jared hears a shuffling behind him.

“Did you forget something, Alexandros?”

Someone’s clearing their throat and it’s not Alex. When Jared turns around he sees Jensen standing in the entrance, blushing and looking at his feet.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to… umm, am I disturbing you?”

Jared’s face lights up and he turns around fully, crossing his arms on the brim of the pool. Jensen is in his white robe, bread crumbs along his collar. He probably just ate breakfast. His hair is messy.

“Not at all,” Jared replies, “usually, I don’t have guests when I bathe but you’re welcome to join today. You’re new, you can’t know.”

Jensen frowns. “Alex doesn’t count as a guest?”

“No. He is wherever I am, unless he doesn’t want to be.”

Now Jensen’s eyes glow.

“Like now?”

Jared grins.

“You are a cheeky one, aren’t you?” he asks.

Jensen stands there, looking at him like he’s about to say ‘yes’, but ultimately doesn’t.

Jared gestures. “Come in already.”

Ruffling of clothes tells him that his recruit followed his wish and now gets undressed. A moment later Jensen slides in the water beside Jared, about an arm’s length away. His cheeks turn pink.

“Are you well?”Jared asks, just as the caretaker of his people, he is always worried about them. Always ready to provide care if needed or wanted.

Jensen’s teint turns even brighter. Ah. The orgy. It was surely his first time.

“I mean, I think I got a little rough with you there,” the leader admits.

Jensen shakes his head a little, a shy smile and a dreamy gaze show that Jensen might indeed be well. It would be reassuring to hear it though.

“No, no, it wasn’t rough at all but I would lie if I said I don’t still feel you inside me. It was a very world-shaking experience.”

“Uh-huh,” Jared replies, “it was.”

The memory alone makes Jared’s body fill with a need to do it again. Just right here. His pliant and slick body, how hot and tight and damn, how responsive and eager he was to take his cock. And that he succeeded!

Jensen turns to him, comes a little closer to get in touch, physically and Jared is very fond of the idea to have him close. Without a word, Jensen’s hand under the water’s surface, lays a hand on Jared’s thigh. Very close to his member. Flaccid. Yet. And still very big. Jared knows he’s gifted with this large cock and people who can take it, they won’t want anything else after they’ve tried it.

“I wondered, why, umm, everyone treats me like I’m super special, you do too…” Jensen’s eyes are fixated on the tiny waves his hand causes when he strokes along Jared’s thigh. “What makes me special?”

That is a very interesting question and Jared needs some time to think about it. Take deep breaths. It also shows that his new member has not ingrained all of the lore of the Church of Grace. That’s normal. No one knows it by heart after joining so recently.

“Being special is a gift from the Lord, my Father. Everyone is special in their unique way. Take Alex. He’s devoted and tough, loyal and very good at organizing things. Ruth and Judith, you probably crossed their paths already, they’re the best cooks I’ve ever been blessed to taste. Also they are very skilled in sculpting. Everyone is special. Some special things seem to be common, like, so many people on this Earth are talented cooks, tailors, musicians, yogis. And you, you are special, because you give me a feeling of unity in such a primal way, it may seem succinct or superficial. What is it worth, being able to take me? It might not be special to others, but to me this is a thing that brings me peace. And this peace, I can multiply, share it with my people. And by the Lord, it’s not only your physical perks. The way your brothers and sisters here look at you. Some are jealous, but most see in you the most important addition to the community in years. You have a spark in you and you will do great things for the Church. I’m sure of it.”

Jensen stares and Jared notices the slight squint of his deep green eyes. His utter beauty is a gift to humanity already. He radiates purity. If he knows that?

“Is that understandable for you?” Jared asks. He lays a hand in Jensen’s neck and gently squeezes. Pulls him closer. Just an inch but it’s enough to feel Jensen way better and catch his vibes.

“Yes, it is,” Jensen says, “I’m glad this community welcomed me, I’m glad I met you.”

Now he wraps his hand around Jared’s shaft, which is still too much and he won’t be able to embrace it completely.

“I was worried, I am worried, it will be the only time to be close to you.”

“You will be close to me every day. At the service, at the monthly celebration. We share everything here.”

“But, can I be alone with you, just like now?” Jensen huffs, his grip tightens. Jared is just a man, his body reacts and he grows hard, so big that the tip would break the water surface now if Jensen let go.

“I’m a man of my people, I will not deny you. To be honest, yes, I invite you to be with me.”

It would be so easy to lift Jensen up and let him sink down on his cock. It would be amazing to feel him right now. But he is still a little sore. Complete physical unity has to wait.

“Jared…” A sigh. “What you made me feel that night… I think I felt closer to my true self than ever.”

“I’m glad this is helping you. There will be a lot of occasions for you to discover your deepest self, your fears, your worries… Everything will come to light and I know, you will overcome, you will shine and rise above your plain human being.”

Jensen’s hand moves now. He knows how to touch a man, strictly physical. It's a mechanical reaction after all, but when Jared looks deep into these green eyes he discovers his own need and how much he suffered without a mate that would be close to him.

“Tell me, how do you like it… I feel it, I need it… you need it…?”

“I long for it.”

Jared wraps his hand around Jensen’s to guide him with the strokes.

He wants it to build up slowly, and his hand on Jensen’s neck holds him steady, whispering his instructions to keep eye contact, when to slow down and when to get faster. And Jensen is all in with it, he’s passionate, his tiny moans and curses, just from seeing Jared, make it extra hot. Actually Jared doesn’t need to climax here, because the mere anticipation of his partner is more than satisfying. They sink in a kiss when Jared’s instructions turn into a breathless staccato of ‘yes like that’s. He’s noisy when he comes and jerks in Jensen’s hand, forceful first but rapidly turning lazy and soft.

“Teach me more,” Jensen whispers, his face burning red, making his freckles pop even more.

Jared's head sinks on Jensen’s chest.

“About what?”

“About, what you like, how you like it… how we… connect… unify… Physically, I know… I can do that,” Jensen bites his lip.

“But you don’t know how it works spiritually?”Jared asks, placing a kiss on Jensen’s freckled shoulder.

“Is that a stupid question?”

A headshake. Why should it be? But Jared knows, Jensen is insecure, he longs for answers and guidance.

“Believe me, you didn’t ask a stupid question so far. You crave unity?”

Jensen nods.

“Just like you do.”

“I would love to show you more of it. But I will have to go to a congress in Seattle in three days. Alex and I will be gone and you’ll be on your own for a couple of days,” Jared replies. There is indeed some longing in his voice.

“Oh, that is… it will be long and I’m new, I…”

Jared clicks his tongue while he combs Jensen’s hair. “You don’t have to worry, everyone will take care of you. They will do what I’d do. You will be shown around.”

Jensen shakes his head. His muscles stiffen just lightly.

“That’s not my worry, but- I wish I could be with you.”

This causes Jared’s eyebrows to raise. He wants to be with Jensen, too. Show him the world that Jared lives in and help with the settling. It’s hard to find a place in a community. Jared also fears (and hopes) that Jensen found a way in his heart.

“You are with me. And you will be. You belong to the community now.”

Jensen winds.

“I mean… could you… I would like to go to Seattle. With you…”

“And Alex,” Jared corrects.

“And Alex,” Jensen confirms.

There is no reason to say ‘no’, but there is also no reason to say ‘yes’ that is justifiable. Jensen is new. But he’s shown commitment and he wants to learn. They would bond. Jared wants it. Badly.

“Will it put your heart at ease when I say yes?”

Jared smiles and it’s a knowing one. Jensen smiles. He also knows.

“Yes, it would.”

The way Jensen smiles and blushes is cute, maybe a little staged. Jared’s not an idiot, he knows that Jensen is wooing him. Trying to impress. Wants to appeal. He already does, there is no need to be overly pliant. Jared enjoys the attention though, who would judge him for it? He presses a kiss on Jensen’s lips and their hug turns closer, just like the last minutes of touching didn’t exist. Jared wouldn’t complain about that, either.

“Thank you,” he utters before he can think it through.

“For what?”

Jared squeezes Jensen’s growing cock.

“For giving me - peace.”

Peace is not the only thing Jared wants to thank his disciple for, but Jensen’s soft moan drowns any further thoughts. He wants to merge. Now. He doesn’t want to wait. Not for them to be in his room or Jensen’s. Just take him here.

Alex listens to the quiet conversation that turns into moans and splashing, Jared’s deep and ground shaking grunts. He would be a big fat liar if he claimed to be untouched by it, even Jensen’s soft noises make him rock hard. But what he feels in his heart and what he feels in his body, these two things diverge wildly from each other. He shoves a hand in his pants and hates himself for it. But who he hates more is Jensen. He will take Jared away from him.

That mustn’t happen.

Alex has to do something about it. Soon.

#j2 #j2 fanfic #sin is sinning #supernatural rpf #part 1 of 3

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aktiophis · 4 years

Text

Timing by the Stars: Days, Hours, and The Moon

This will be the first in a little miniseries of posts on astrological timing, specifically as it concerns the making of Talismans, but the principle could equally be applied to a one off ritual. Originally, I was just going to write one post but it got quite unwieldy to talk about so many different concepts all at once, so instead I’m starting at the beginning. I’ll get into more complicated things whenever I feel like writing them frankly, and I’ll probably edit this post with links when I do. (This part alone is long enough Jesus Christ)

It can be useful to think of the election you choose for a Talisman to be its time of birth. Someone born with a very dignified Venus will most often have an easier time doing Venusian things, to be very, very broad with the astrology. But the gist is; planet is more better=person is more good at planet things. Naturally, then, a Venus Talisman made when Venus was very strong and well placed will also be very good at Venus things, and thus good at whatever it’s purpose is. This is the basis of talismanic magic using astrology.

First, though, I’m going to talk about the barebones of astrological Talisman timing, namely the days and hours. I’m including the moon also because it’s the other key consideration for astrological magic generally.

The Days and Hours

[Credit: Digital Ambler]

It isn’t a coincidence that the planets in Romance languages are named after the planets. Even in English (and I would assume other Germanic languages although I’ve never checked, but if they don’t I’d be very surprised), the Gods for each day line up with their Greco-Roman approximate counterparts. As such, each day has an affinity for its namesake planet. That’s why so many spells call for a Friday, and so many curses for a Tuesday or Saturday. At the very most basic level of astrological timing, with no knowledge of anything else, this is how you would time a spell or Talisman, probably at some auspicious time like dawn.

Something not as well known by non-occultists is the concept of planetary hours. Unlike civil hours, these aren’t regular in length and have nothing at all to do with what time it says on the clock for the most part. Planetary hours are divided into two sections. Here are some points to get you the gist before we continue:

The planetary day starts at Dawn, so even if it’s 2:00am on Tuesday, you are in a planetary hour of Monday

The first hour of the day always corresponds to the planet the day is named after, in our example, at Dawn on Tuesday the first hour is Mars

There are 12 day hours, and 12 night hours. The day hours begin at sunrise and end at sunset, while the night hours begin at sunset and end at the sunset of the next day.

Each day hour is exactly 1/12 of the time from sunrise to sunset, and the equivalent for night hours.

The hours cycle in the Chaldean order, which is ascending mean speed:Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon

As you can see, there isn’t much the same between civic hours and the planetary hours. You can calculate these by hand, but if you’re like me and use them a lot there’s no need to bother because there are dozens of apps. For those curious, the Placidus house system can also be used to find the planetary hour, as each half of a house corresponds to a planetary hour. I deeply dislike using Placidus for natal astrology but for that reason I sometimes use it to find the planetary hours (not the houses, though).

These two things are the most basic considerations for Talisman making. For a Solar talisman, the hour of the sun on Sunday. Bam. Specifically, the first hour is often considered the best because it coincides with dawn/sunrise, i.e. the daily birth of the sun and illumination of the world with spiritual light etc. but any of the correct planetary hours will do the trick.

One thing to note is when I start getting into more complicated electional stuff, you might find a great election that isn’t in the right day or hour. By no means disqualify it because the day doesn’t fit. If Mercury is at the most powerful it will be for the next few months after but it’s a Friday and the hour of Mercury doesn’t fall within this very specific timeframe (Like say it’s Cazimi in Gemini, in its bounds conjunct the midheaven, or something, Idk), do it anyway honestly. You’ll never get everything to be just as you want it, and frankly days and hours come every day/week, and some things only happen once every 20 years.

The Moon

[credit: Honestly no idea]

That’s right, it’s not just for Wiccans! The state of the moon has been a big consideration for ceremonial magic, folk magic, you name it, for a long ass time. Even in astrological Talismans not concerning the moon, as the planet associated not only with magic but also with collecting and reflecting the ‘astral light’ onto the Earth, the condition of the moon is an important consideration.

Anyone who has read a 101 book on magic will have seen that “waxing to increase something, waning to decrease” thing, and that’s the gist honestly. For Talismans though, you want a waxing or full moon. The talisman might be protection against evil, but f you did it when the moon was a waning crescent it wouldn’t be the evil decreasing so much as the protective Talisman. I’m not going to discourage people from doing stuff in a waning moon, I do all the time, just be aware it’s not necessarily the best, especially in the case of Talismans and astrological magic. To be quite frank I feel like this can sometimes be overlooked as a factor, but if it’s an important thing it can wait until the moon is growing

Now, with just that and the days/hours you’re honestly pretty much set, but I’m writing this to eventually get onto more complicated things so there are some more bases I’d like covered.

The Lunar mansions are the obvious thing to talk about next. The Zodiac Wheel of 12 signs is intrinsically a solar schema for astrology. The beginning of the Zodiac at 0 Aries is at the moment of the Spring Equinox, when the days are equal to the nights. All of the cardinal signs, in fact, are so called because the next season of the year begins as the Sun enters them. There is, however, a similar system for the moon, of 28 mansions, each of just under 13 degrees, starting also with Aries. The Picatrix is what I’d direct you to if you want to read more about them specifically, especially since I haven’t used them in very much in practice.

The mansions were widely used in Arabic astrology, apparently quite often in electional astrology generally, not restricted to magic (as a side note, by all means study in the hour of mercury and treat-yo-self in the hour of Venus, even without magic. Tune into the rhythm). One mansion might be good for travel but could also cause strife between friends, while another might bring ill health but be good for buying livestock, that type of deal. It’s always worth checking if the time you have in mind for a Talisman happens with the moon in a favourable mansion for that purpose.

I will touch on this passingly because it really belongs in my next post, but if the moon is in a hard aspect with Saturn or Mars that can also be a bad omen for an election, although if the moon has good aspects or is particularly strong otherwise I would personally still do the thing because otherwise I would probably only do astrological magic once a year waiting for the perfect time.

Void of Course

This is something that frankly puzzles me to no end because half the resources I could find when I first looked into it clearly were using the phrase without having a clue what they meant, and the other half gave me a number of different definitions. I personally use the definition as given by the medieval astrology guide, whose site I’ll link at the end, because it makes the most sense to me.

All definitions of a Void Moon stem from the same basic idea, which is that the Moon will not perfect an aspect to another planet any time soon, sort of as if the moon is running in the dark on its own. The most common modern definition says the moon is void if it doesn’t perfect an aspect before leaving the sign it’s in, which basically means it happens every couple of days like Clockwork. I use a different definition (when I even remember to consider it) that is, the moon is not within orb of perfecting an aspect, without consideration as to the sign. So, by my definition, if the moon was leaving a sextile aspect with Saturn at say, 29 Aries, and was applying to a trine with Venus, even if it didn’t make a perfect trine before entering Taurus, the moon wouldn’t be void of course, because it was still in an applying aspect at the time. More broadly, I only consider a moon Void when it isn’t applying to an aspect (look into moiety for more on what I mean as far for more details on application). I encourage you to come to your own conclusions about this though, so don’t take my word for it.

[credit: Skyscript.co.uk]

A Void moon is generally bad for magic because to be literal the moon isn’t really doing anything much, at least as far as aspects go. That being said it isn’t something I look at unless I’m planning an important thing and I wouldn’t stress about it unless you were doing an important thing too. To be frank I often forget to even check what the moon is doing even for some slightly more important stuff.

And that is about it or what I wanted to cover, I think. The next post will probably be about Essential and Accidental Dignity, which was really what I wanted to write about in the first place, but here we are.

TL:DR

Time for the day of the planet

Time for the hour of the planet

Time for a waxing Moon

Avoid the Void moon

Some Useful Links/Sources (Some I didn’t even reference but they’re still good so I’m including them)

The Picatrix

www.sykscript.co.uk

www.Medievalastrologyguide.com

Secreti Geomantici (Great little geomancy book, also has useful things on timing. Thanks @nightjasmine for reminding me about it)

Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune, Chris Brennan (not about magic but this is just a great book on astrology overall, especially Hellenistic)

www.Rennaissanceastrology.com (I have issues with some of Warnock’s work, but his information is accurate and his site is great for these purposes)

(Looking back I suppose I could’ve just made a post of resources but I’m in too deep now).

#astrology #astrological magic #magick #magic #witchcraft #talismans #Just waiting for someone to say a void moon is good for calling on void energy or some shit #God if I've forgotten anything I'll just put it in the next one this was low key exhausting

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sons-of-the-morning-star · 3 years

Text

I've put this off long enough

This is Chapter/Episode 2 of Sons of The Morning Star: Habilitation

It is a very nice morning in the Wagner-Thorn-Langdon-Kline-Young house, FROM THE OUTSIDE, AT LEAST.

Inside, emotional tensions are high, with Michael and Lucius having another glare down, Jack struggling to get Dog to let go of a plate, and Damien struggling to get Adam out of his room. It has been less than a week, and the news don't know about the future Senator's new home life.

Yet.

Damien gives another knock on Adam's door, trying his damndest to not lose his mind.

"Adam, come on. We're about to eat breakfast, the food's gonna get cold, and you need to eat. GET. UP."

"I'll eat later," Adam calls from on his bed, though if this was an actual TV show, we'd only see Damien at the door. "Leave me alone."

Damien groans, "Fine." With a twitchy eye, he joins the others for breakfast.

Michael and Lucius avoid each other as best as they can while Jack smiles at Damien, successful at getting his plate back.

"Still no luck with him. He won't come out."

"Let him starve, then," Michael scoffs. "Maybe Crowley and Azriel can come pick him up and adopt him."

"Aziraphale," Jack corrects.

"Whatever."

Jack deflates, but finishes his breakfast and turns to Lucius.

"So anything interesting planned today?"

Lucius writes a message and slides it to Jack. 'Just a couple meetings. Nothing special.'

"Well, you'll always have us to call, if you get bored. And Damien."

Lucius groans as Damien grabs his things.

"Okay, I'm heading out. Michael, Jack, please don't kill each other and make sure Adam eats, got it?"

Both nod, though Jack is more enthusiastic, and Damien turns to Lucius and gives him a one armed hug.

"Have a nice day at work, honey!"

Jack and Michael burst into a fit of laughter as Damien dodges a punch from Lucius and leaves the house.

Lucius leaves soon after, telling the two to keep an eye on Adam and Dog, and to keep the radio on incase they hear anything new.

Michael nods and Jack full on agrees, waving his phone to Lucius and offering again that if he gets bored, he can call.

Lucius leaves and Michael gets up and grabs his coat.

"Where are you going? We're supposed to stay here and keep an ear out for any news."

"Lucius is not our father."

"He is now. And Damien," Jack states matter-of-factly.

"Neither of them are here. And what will you do to stop me from leaving? Flood the continent? Cause a plague? Start a world wide famine?"

When Jack doesn't have answer, Michael smirks and leaves.

If this was a TV episode, the camera would follow and face Michael as he leaves the house and revels in his small victory, and would show that the window to Adam's room is opened, something for astute viewers to notice.

CUT TO LUCIUS!

Lucius is having a time of it as he can barely concentrate, but still tries to listen.

It TOTALLY has to do with the fact he is now a father.

One of his campaigning partners is talking about people's sightings of people with wings and graffiti of pentecosts(THAT'S the evil, devil, Satan symbol, not a pentagram. A pentagram, the avatar/profile pic for this Tumblr, is a wiccan, pagan symbol for protection) on court houses and churches, when his phone rings.

He puts it on silent, and shows himself doing it, but he still gets phone calls.

His 'staff' tell him it's okay, and he opens a FaceTime-esque call from- guess. Just guess.

"Lucius? Is that you? Can you hear me?"

Lucius nods as he fights the growing urge to smash his cellphone on the ground.

"Michael left. He told me not to bother telling you, but I am anyway because he's not listening at all."

"Mr. Wagner, who is that?" One of his campaign advisers asks.

Before Lucius can hang up, Jack shouts out, "Who are you talking to? Are you working? CAN I SEE!?"

More advisers speak up and Lucius cringes as he turns his phone and reveals Jack, who's covered in flour and chocolate and some peanut butter; a surprise for Lucius when he gets home.

"Who are you?"

"Jack Kline," Jack replies. "Lucius adopted me and the rest of our broth-"

Lucius hangs up, turns off his phone, and tosses it on to a near by table with coffee and refreshments on it.

'What were you saying about all the vandalism recently?'

His staff, however, isn't listening, now more eager on the fact that Lucius has adopted someone, or multiple people, and taken them into his care.

"Mr. Wagner, what if we show the public you're caring these orphans? Your brothers? We have heard complaints lately that you're coming off as an 'iron fist' sort of guy."

Lucius is literally speechless, groaning into his hands as they pitch more ideas, even noting that if he stops the vandalisms and shows his 'soft' side to the public, he'll get more supporters.

CUT TO DAMIEN!

On the topic of these vandalisms, Damien has to take pictures of the symbols for the newspapers and online articles, noting that he could draw some better than what the 'artists' have done.

One in particular makes him freeze, and makes the hair on the back of his neck stand on end:

A message written in white paint and surrounded by crosses and with what looks like blood underlining the letters. Beneath it is a bowl, a really large bowl, of water:

God help the sons of the devil. Save them from damnation, or let them battle for eternity.

It unsettles him, to say the least, and he goes to wash it off with the water.

ONLY TO BURN HIMSELF AS HIS FINGERS DIP INTO THE BOWL.

Yes. Someone put HOLY WATER under this message.

Damien resolves to simply take a picture, with his phone not his camera, and leave, running into Michael.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be home watching Adam and Jack!"

"Sorry, Brother dearest, I don't really HAVE to listen to you."

"If I get home and the house is in ashes-"

"Relax," Michael shrugs as he begins to walk away. "Knowing Jack, he probably doesn't even know how to blink."

He chuckles, but stops as he passes by the creepy, holy water message, not looking at it, but feeling the holy water and the crosses.

And the blood, which he inspects, and finds is from a lamb.

It goes from bad to worse when they notice a pair of men striding toward them.

Damien leads Michael away, warning him, "Ignore them. Hopefully they just walk away."

Neither do, even when the two begin walking faster.

When the two males start gaining, and when one unsheathes a flaming dagger, the brothers make a run for it, but the men give chase.

"What the hell is they're problem!?" Michael snarks, "Why are they following us!?"

"Just keep running!" Damien barks back.

They round a corner, and Michael throws a ball of fire, hitting the unarmed male in the arm, the fire making him howl more than the average person.

The armed male, however, manages a slash across Michael's chest, just enough to leave him heavily wounded.

With Michael now useless, Damien slings him over his shoulders and races for a store full of people, using some telekinesis to throw a stream of water in a foutain to throw off the armed man pursuing them.

He stops when everyone is staring, the man, who I'm aure you've realized by now is an angel, stands in place, unaware of what to do.

"Go 'head," Damien eggs on. "Do it. You can kill us, but wanna try doing it infront of everyone here!?"

The angel eyes all the people, who are whispering and have their phones out, before glaring at Damien and a now standing Michael, sheathing his dagger, and storming away, miracling around a corner to avoid detection.

Both breathe a sigh of relief as they take a seat.

"Any idea on what just happened?"

Michael huffs and rubs some hair out of his face. "Take a guess. Why do Crowley and Aziraphale want was to stay together?"

TV perspective time as the camera zooms in on Damien, who looks over at the wall the angel vanished behind and then down at his feet.

With growing dread music, CUT TO JACK!!!!

Jack is humming as he takes out a tray of chocolate chip cookies, where we that he's also baked 'Welcome Home' cakes, pies, cupcakes, and just about anything else he can think of; don't worry, he made sure to keep the kitchen spotless.

He sets the cookies on the stovetop to cool and admires all the pastries, which makes Aziraphale applaud; he decided to pay Jack a visit because he's the most pleasant, and is closest with Adam.

Speaking of whom, Jack notices the time and calls out to him.

"Hey, Adam! You getting hungry?" He knocks on Adam's bedroom door, ever the good big brother. "I can make you a sandwich, if you want. Grilled cheese, PB and J, bacon-lettuce-tomatoe, even a breakfast sand..."

Jack opens Adam's door to find there's no Adam or Dog in sight and the window is wide open.

CUT TO LUCIUS, who's screaming into a bathroom sink full of water because his campaign officers won't shut up about painting him in a good light to appeal to people's emotions.

He pulls his face out of the water and dries off, growling on frustration when he gets a call from Jack(possibly the hundredth call that day).

This time, when Lucius answers, he sees Jack running with Aziraphale beside him.

"Lucius, hi! How's your day? Great! We're fine! I don't know where Adam is, so Aziraphale and I are looking for him!"

It hits Lucius like a ton of bricks as he writes, 'I thought he was in his room!?'

"So did we, dear boy," Aziraphale replies. "However, he must have left while no one was looking!"

Lucius starts to wonder why no one's kept an eye on him, until he realizes who ALSO left the house and hangs up on Jack, who objects to the action, to call Michael.

CUT TO MICHAEL AND DAMIEN! The two are having lunch in the food court of the mall to shake off the adrenaline of being chased by killer angels, when Lucius calls.

Michael, reluctantly, answers and waves at him, not talking because his mouth is full.

'YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO WATCH ADAM AND JACK! WHY DID YOU LEAVE!?'

"Calm down, Lucius," Damien groans. "In case you haven't noticed, we've been having a bad day, too."

'Where are you!?'

"Having lunch at a crowded mall because we got attacked by angels."

Lucius furrows his brow in confusion and Damien sends the picture of the creepy graffiti he found.

"Saw it while I was working on an article. Guess we're not as evasive as we thought."

As Lucius inspects it, Michael explains, "The red is lamb's blood, and there's holy water in the bowl. I think someone or something doesn't want us around."

Lucius shakes his head and writes/sends/signs, 'Do either of you know where Adam is? Jack said he ran away.'

"And where's Jack?"

'Looking for him with Aziraphale.'

"So now Jack AND Adam are gone?" Michael gapes.

All three jump out of their skin when Crowley shouts, "WHAT!?" and throws open the bathroom door.

Michael hisses out of emotional-esque pain and Damien groans into his hands as Crowley takes the phone from Lucius and gets really close to it.

"Where are those two right now!?"

"Like we just said, we don't know," Damien replies. "Adam ran away with Dog, so Jack and Aziraphale are going-"

"AZIRAPHALE'S OUT THERE, TOO!?"

Crowley drops the phone on the floor, something we see from Michael's and Damien's perspective, as he shouts, "Hold on, angel, I'm coming!"

With Lucius, the Wagner senator picks up his phone and gulps as he puts all the pieces together:

The message sent by Damien was written by angels, who know that all five brothers are on Earth, and are now planning to wipe them off the face of the planet, whether because of the grand plan or because each can cause the apocalypse, or because Jack and Adam fucked up bringing the apocalypse.

Eother way, he writes to Damien and Michael to, 'FIND THEM NOW.' and hangs up before he sprints out of the bathroom and out of the building, telling his lead secretary to cancel every single one of his plans because of a family emergency.

Now, I lnow what you're wondering, "Where's Adam right now? Did Gabriel get to him first?"

No, silly goose, he's fine.

Adam is walking through the streets with dog at his side, growling at anyone that gets too close. He's been crying for a while, but has stopped now because he just wants to walk and not think about London, which is hard because it's everyone's favorite subject at the moment.

He also wants to get away from his new brothers for a little while. In his mind:

Lucius is not around at all, and when he is, he's kimd of creepy with the whole "not talking" thing.

Damien's too pushy and doesn't give him space to be emotional or get used to his new environment.

Michael's just an asshole- not his words, but true all the same.

And... well, there's no real complaint with Jack. He's okay.

But not even Jack's good nature can change Adam's opinions on the rest of his new brothers.

It doesn't help that Aziraphale and Crowley can't just adopt him, either, because they don't know how his powers fully work, hence why they gave him to the other four.

Too lost in his head, Adam does not notice a trying-not-to-be-angry Gabriel walk up to him from behind, hiding a bottle of holy water as he says, "Hello, Adam."

Adam turns and pales. "Gabriel!? What are you doing here!?"

"I just wanted to check on you. See if you were ready try again with armageddon, all things considered."

Adam backs away, now very disturbed. "Stay away from me," he stammers.

Thank goodness Dog is more observant and bites the bastard, which gets Adam to focus and makes him realize NOW is a good time to run like hell.

He smacks Gabriel with his backpack and flees with Dog following. Gabriel is behind as he clutches his hand before giving chase, cursing that he can't miracle to Adam, that power being taken away from him since his 'falling out,' so he's left to run to chase after Adam, which draws a lot of negative attention, I must say.

Doesn't matter, though, because Adam is simultaneously loosing Gabriel and seeing that he's gaining on him.

That's when a hand grabs his arm and pulls him into a nearby store, throwing him behind a shelf of souvenirs, i.e. knickknacks and plushies, and a rack of keychains.

Gabriel looks through the window and bamgs his forehead against it before leaving, scowling as he trudges away.

Adam watches him as the male that pulled him whistles at the pouting angel.

"I knew Gabriel was always too eager to wear his big boy pants. Glad to see he hasn't changed. Evn though I knew he wouldn't."

Adam looks up at him, a sort of short, kind of stumpy man that looks kind of like if Aziraphale had actually taken being an archangel seriously; culry hair that's a dirty blond-ish, brown, alert eyes that see nothing and everything all at once, dark, sharp clothes, and a know-it-all smirk as he holds a hand out for Adam.

If you watched the show Lucifer on Netflix, you know EXACTLY who this guy is.

Dog doesn't growl at this guy, sensing that he's not going to hurt them.

"Sorry to scare you like that, Adam. I'm your uncle, but please just call me Uriel."

Adam lets Uriel help him up, now really confused.

"How do you know my name?"

"Father's talked a lot about you and your brothers, and I just wanted to see you myself. See just how busy my brother got while he visited this planet." Uriel looks out the window and fights a smirk. "Speaking of brother..."

Cue Jack and Aziraphale racing down the sidewalk as fast as they can before Jack spots Adam and sprints into the store with Aziraphale on his tail. Both are tired, both are a litttle sweaty, but they're so happy to see Adam is okay.

"Adam, there we are!" Jack cries as he and Adam hug and Jack spins him as they do. "We were so worried! I didn't hear you in your room, I'm so sorry!"

Aziraphale lants and simply gives a wave before pushing both boys behind him.

"Uriel."

"Aziraphale. Nice to see you."

The two have a stare down before Aziraphale asks, "Are you going to lead us to a trap or some kind? You know as well as I do there isn't any sort of plan to-"

"Don't talk to me about plans, Aziraphale. I'm the guy who actually MAKES them."

It silences Aziraphale and the brotjers a little on edge.

"Anyway, your brothers will be walking aroumd the corner a block away in about five minutes in the same direction you and Aziraphale were running down. Better get going."

Jack nods and thanks Uriel, leading Adam down the street.

Aziraphale eyes Uriel for a little bit before following the boys, to keep them safe.

Uriel's power holds true as the three meet Damien and Michael.

They all catch each other up as they walk to try and catch a bus.

There are angels in the city and a lot of them don't want the brothers around.

"But Uriel helped me hide from Gabriel. I don't think he wants to hurt us," Adam wonders.

Cue some major confusion from Jack and Michael not wanting to deal with all this because, "We've already got London and the Southwest to worry about. We don't need a bounty on our heads."

The brothers don't have time to think on it because every parent's worst nightmare happens when an angel strides up behind them and throws something down, maybe a holy water bottle and powdered salt to make the brothers back away before flying off with Adam.

The only one to see it happen is Aziraphale and Dog barks at the sky where his master was taken.

The brothers compose themselves and are silent as they realize what's happened.

Not all is lost as Michael gets a text from Crowley on his phone: an address to an old church that was closed down because of poor funding and evrn worse staff that didn't practice what they preached.

Transition from a taxi cab to A few minutes ago and a jet black car SPEEDING down the street fast enough to make Crowley proud, which he is, as Lucius gets filled in on the situation by Damien.

He's actually heading to what could be a very solid guess to where the angel has taken Adam, and Crowley shouts at him to, "Step on it!" when Aziraphale brings up Gabriel and Uriel.

Funny he brings up Uriel, because Lucius has been following him wherever he appears, the archangel having told him about finding Adam and that Lucius needs to trust him to keep Adam safe.

They wind up at an abandoned church, which Crowley hisses at and makes Lucius gag from the sudden nausea, and the senator steps out, gesturing for Crowley to wait in the car.

"Be careful in there."

Lucius gives a thumbs up and leaves, though, TV perspective, the camera would linger on Crowley as he notices a car approach through the rear view mirror.

CUT to Lucius carefully walking up to the church doors as he forces back coughs and gags as he tries opening the door. Key word is tries because it's locked, though he does here someone complaining about how, "The brat has sharp teeth," and, "He won't stop kicking."

To which Gabriel replies, "Just hold him down and keep him quiet."

Stealth time as Lucius ditches the door and walks to the side of the church and climbs up a pipe to reach a window, damn near falling to his death as the pipe gives and falls and leaving him to grab onto and dangle from the leadge of the window as two angels come to inspect.

Lucius scrambles inside and just barley avoids getting caught as he hides against the wall, having a clear view of the inside of the church.

Two angels are working on a salt and lamb's blood symbol much like the one Aziraphale made, the one that sent him to Heavan on accident, as a third angel holds onto a struggling Adam and Gabriel supervises.

The two 'scouts' report that they didn't find anything, just a pipe that broke, which Gabriel comments may have been because of a fat raccoon, and even smells the air a little, before turning to Adam.

Lucius sneaks closer as he watches Gabriel take a small amount of blood from Adam and drip it onto the angel symbol, activating it so it can rid Adam of the devil inside him, aka remove his soul, aka kill him.

LUCIUS IS HAVING NONE OF THAT.

He shakes his head and leaps off the upper level he's been hiding on, landing directly ontop of Gabriel, who throws him off and onto the ground

Lucius wheezes as he sees the abundance of crosses around them and a large bowl if holy water, one that used to be used for baptizing children. He also sees Gabriel dip his fingers into it before kneeling down to get a better look at this new demon that arrived univited.

"Lucius Wagner. I thought I smelled smoke." He flicks his fingers at Lucius, who hisses at the holy water as it touches his skin. "You're oddly more... pleasant to look at than I thought you would be. Then again, evil has a way of looking good, doesn't it?"

Lucuis smirks and signs to him, 'No wonder Heaven doesn't want you either, then.'

Gabriel smacks him for this and checks to see if the symbol is done, which it is, so he orders the three free angels to scout around the church, so no one else interrupts the brothers being exorcised.

Too bad the three can't seem to get the door open, even though they're the ones who locked it.

When the door doesn't budge, Gabriel and the other angels join, leaving Lucius and Adam unguarded, the former crawling towards the bowl of holy water as Adam scooches away from the angel symbol as much as he can, even toward the bowl as well, despite the blistering he feels all over.

Cut to Gabriel trying to open the door and suddenly feeling a little weak as he tries breaking the door, wondering what's going on.

CUT TO OUTSIDE AS AZIRAPHALE AND A SNICKERING URIEL HOLD THE DOOR, HAVING MIRACLED AHEAD OF DAMIEN AND JACK, AS MICHAEL REJOINS THEM, SAYING HE WILL NOT BE PLAYING SANTA CLAUS AGAIN ANYTIME SOON!!!😁

Cut back to inside the church, where Lucius pulls a cross down on the alter and starts getting a little more strength back before he picks up Adam.

Two fallen crosses will have to be enough to allow him some strength as he holds Adam and kicks the bowl of holy water, which washes away the angel symbol and seeps away through the floor boards.

Gabriel sees and hear this and shouts, "No!"

Lucius switches his grip on his brother as he holds up a flaming hand, glaring at the angels.

They retaliate by snagging crosses and charging forward.

Too bad Lucius is good at thinking on his toes and fans some fire out to the back wall behind the alter, which is lined with tapestry and wood.

The flames catch at rise, scaring away the angels and a scowling Gabriel, who has a glare down with Lucius as he carries an unbound Adam in both arms.

Cut to outside as the fire grows. News reporters, police officers, and our squad are outside as firefighters rush in.

Jack is racing between people to get a better look at the tragedy and then holds his hands out before Damien stops him.

"Relax, they're going to be okay."

"But how do you-"

The firefighters race out with an unconscious Gabriel and a coughing, hunched over Lucius, who's still holding Adam. All three are covered in soot and everyone notices that Adam and Lucius are a little injured, but Gabriel is unharmed.

When news reporters crowd Lucius, who is seated in an ambulance and given a shock blanket as he refuses to have Adam taken out of his arms, they start asking the basic and REAL questions:

"Mr. Wagner, were you attacked just now?"

"Did you jump into a burning building to save this boy?"

"Do you know the man that attacked you?"

"Who is the boy you saved?"

"Is it true you adopted three boys into your care?"

"Are you in any ki d of relationship at the moment?"

Before Lucius can answer, Jack plows through with Michael and Damien in toe, Jack hugging a now conscious Adam and Lucius and apologizing for not being a good brother.

Also cue Dog jumping up and kissing Adam and even Lucius.

The press gets a lot of pictures of this, and Damien hugging Lucius, calling him, "snuggle-bug" as he hugs him.

The police see Lucius giving the, 'I'm done, make them stop' signal, and start pushing everyone away, telling them he'd like time alone with his family.

But not after one more question:

"Mr. Wagner, is this your family?"

Lucius nods with a smile, nodding at Jack, Damien, Michael, and Adam.

He also types on his phone to them all, 'No more running away, okay?'

They all agree.

The "episode" ends with Gabriel being locked up in a jail cell for araon and assaulting a politician and a minor and the brothers returning home from the hospital after Lucius and Adam are checked out at the hospital.

There they see all the desserts in a spotless kitchen, surprising Michael and making Lucius start warming up to having a family.

#crossover #sons of the morning star #adam young #damien thorn #jack kline #lucius wagner #michael langdon #ahs #good omens #supernatural #Lucius #american horror story #child endanderment tw #evil angels #lucifer show #the omen

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faecaptainofdreams · 3 years

Note

Can you at least acknowledge not all men and AMAB are not all bad? Being disabled isn’t an excuse to belittle others - an AFAB mentally ill autistic

My dear, i HAVE acknowledged this. Many times on Twitter, and DA. You also did NOT apparently read the entire description at the bottom stating i do not feel such a way about ALL men. I don’t think all women, cis or otherwise, are all heroines. Of course men not all bad, but I’ve explained 1,000 times why in GENERAL, CIS. MEN. Piss me off. You very VERY strongly missed a LOT of context. You have chosen to fixate on something. The other astonishing thing is, despite my apparently causing you so much upset, you will not let it go or move on from it. More to the point, you continue to hide behind an anonymous facade instead of calmly having a real conversation with me. I assume you’re either stalking me or just haven’t filtered me out of your media, which is alarming for both of us. That or you’re just hung up on something from a few weeks ago and haven’t bothered to update your reservoir of information on me before continuing to say dumb shit, which just makes you pathetic. The way you spoke to me last time, it felt like you just had this endless ocean of information about me, but upon calming down i realized you do not, and actually know VERY little. If you actually paid enough attention, you would see that i have MANY male characters, particularly ones who are kind, benevolent, and even center their own stories. A cis old man is the hero of my Minecraft lore. I also love Peter Parker, a white Jewish boy with spider powers who is sweet and fun and beats bad guys! WOW! 🤪 Crazy, right?! Literally just two examples. I’m also straight and highly attracted to men, cis and trans, so. Kinda hard to completely hate and want to destroy something you’re attracted to. And the “YOU’RE racist for assuming Cynder is black” comment is so silly I’m not even going to dignify it with acknowledgment beyond this point. You need to learn to read context clues, study shit before making accusations and be up front. What you’re doing is weird and unhealthy. Also, i never used my disabilities as an excuse to “hate men” or “be racist.” I explained what my disabilities inhibit me from doing for myself and my community, and why i rely on the internet and use links and funds to do my part for now. Has it ever occurred to you that what i did with Cynder is one person’s unique viewpoint that clearly doesn’t bother literally anyone else, and that my sharing it wasn’t some “wokeness crusade” to overthrow society? That’s giving me WAY too much credit, lmao. And despite your bizarre fixation on me and this one particular piece, i doubt you’ve checked it out since your mounted attack. It’s been updated for more explanation, thanks to some points you brought up. So actually, THANK you for that. No matter how detailed i think i am, clearly i need to learn to be even more concise in the future. If this all isn’t good enough for you, nothing will be. Expressing an observation/opinion about something that can’t impact anyone is not wrong. Expressing anger over men when our society is crippled by patriarchy (and toxic feminazis, absolutely) is not unjustified. I also don’t understand where you think it’s transphobic??? If you’re referring to the part about our energies being different and AMABs being more chaotic, this is a common spiritual belief I’ve been raised with and aligns with my Wiccan roots. It’s not something to take to heart; it’s part of a personal belief system. Does this mean i may find trans women more chaotic? Absolutely. Just as many trans men are usually softer. I would know given half my friends are trans men, INCLUDING my fucking fiancé. But I don’t walk up to people, learn the sex they were born as and just assume they’re pieces of shit or will ruin my life or will automatically be a certain way. That’s idiotic. If this isn’t helpful to you, nothing will be. Either reveal yourself so I can block you, or block ME and get some help. Your obsession is unhealthy. Good luck.

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tyrannuspitch · 3 years

Text

been reading abt this one genetic study and it is rlly interesting but also bc using modern genetics to infer stuff abt history is something i'm Aware you have to be Cautious of it does kind of result in me having Knowledge that i don't feel entirely comfortable thinking of as Knowledge. which is a v weird state of mind. esp when some of the original phrasing was already really cautiously vague.

(cut to ramble abt boring things i am in no way qualified to teach)

like okay time to ramble: i found it bc as part of a long slowburn identity crisis i got rlly frustrated with what little i know of history & not having a clue where to place myself in it - like, england has had so many different waves of migration and changes of regime, and also aristocracy-focused history isn't always good at even distinguishing between those, and if we don't even know which of those groups we're descended from... do we know anything??? (eg: fucking druids wld be talking abt The Old Ways and i'd be sitting here like. okay even if you weren't glorified wiccans, are they "the Old Ways"? are they??? is that our history or someone else's entirely? like, literally, i don't have any particular interest in doing this, but if i theoretically WERE to try and return to the religion of my prechristian ancestors, should i reconstruct druidry or heathenry or smthn else entirely?)

SO i basically wanted to ask how much, if at all, are the modern english descended from the various groups who have lived here. Who The Fuck Actually Are We

and i did basically get a cautious answer! (after finding better scicomm than the fucking guardian, which didn't even take enough care to clearly separate "english and cornish" from "british". fuck the guardian.) the actual conclusions we can pretty safely draw re: this question are:

1. the modern english have a v high level of similarity with other peoples of the uk (the study said "british isles" but roi was not counted), much of which appears to be v ancient dna, which means the genetic evidence directly contradicts the old theory that the anglo-saxons completely displaced/wiped out the britons of england. which is nice. love when my ancestors do not commit genocide on my other ancestors

2. the genetic "clusters" in england and cornwall showed a significant minority of dna (less as you travel north) theorised to be anglo-saxon - "between 10% and 40%". which, like i was saying, is both Information and Non Information. "congratulations participants, you're helping our understanding of history evolve bc you're def partly descended from the ancient britons but you also appear to have some anglo-saxon ancestry!" "oh cool. how much?" "oh you know... some". i know it doesn't matter in the real world but sjfkflshlk damn historic population geneticists u live like this? (they weren't even saying "25% +/- 15%". didn't even give us an average. just like. somewhere in this range lol)

(okay actually i am in Explaining Mode so here goes. afaict part of the problem is they're not even sure which common ancestry to be counting. only clusters in england/cornwall have any northern german common ancestry, but everyone in the uk has danish common ancestry - BUT the danish dna is significantly higher than average in groups w n.german dna. so the problem is: what's ancient, what's anglo-saxon, could any of it be viking? we just don't know.)

(they might have been able to tell by dating it but idk if they tried. and also some of their other dating was coming out Wonky - eg iirc the n.german dna is mostly dated to abt 300 years after anglo-saxon migration ended. so what's going on? did the two communities just take a v long time to integrate, or is something afoot?)

(also, of course - england is pretty genetically homogenous but there is still Some variety by region in this genetic component so making a sweeping statement abt "the english" is hard.)

3. there is a Mystery ComponentTM that makes up a larger segment than the alleged anglo-saxon dna, is found in england, scotland and northern ireland BUT not wales (so it's not just Basic British Ingredients), and matches northern france? i think they're guessing prehistoric migration for that. idk if they dated it. Hmmmm. ~Mystery DNA~

4. methodological info if you're concerned: they used participants from rural areas whose grandparents had all been born in the 50mile radius from them, so region-specific info should be p trustworthy, and the sample size was over 2000. they also found their "clusters" algorithmically and then plotted them back onto the map, so there shouldn't be confirmation bias there.)

(if i *were* to complain, looking at their map... scotland and wales have some gaps in them. some significant gaps.)

5. smthn we might genuinely be concerned abt in the analysis of these results - are we taking the results from places we know to have a historical migration as more meaningful than those we don't? looking at the results shows me every single cluster has a small but significant portion of common ancestry with modern belgium, maybe 1/12. (i'm looking at blurry pie charts, that's my best guess lol.) no analysis i've read has mentioned it.

on the other hand - idk anything abt the history of belgium but i wld not be at all surprised if their genetics were basically somewhere between germany and france, and we've already discussed both those places.

plus, possibly more relevantly - they DID scan for similarities with various other countries in europe and didn't find them. eg, no signficant/detectable common ancestry with the finnish. so if it's showing up at all, let alone as 10% or more, it's more than just random noise.

so it's knowledge but it's not knowledge but it's /more/ knowledge than not knowledge? yeah. i'm having a great time

6. assorted fun(?) facts for those who made it this far:

-the most unique place genetically they found was orkney (note: there were no participants from shetland), who showed ~25% norwegian ancestry, followed by wales, who as we remember have no Mystery DNA.

-the differences between cornwall and devon were minor, but they were definitely there and they followed modern county line p much perfectly!

-there were two different clusters in northern ireland and the west of scotland, but they DIDN'T break down into ireland vs scotland. it looked more like it might be a highland/lowland gael/gall thing. i don't know if they checked if the n.irish respondents were catholic or protestant but uhh probably better not to all things considered

-no matter how minutely you break down genetic differences, there is a large group covering much of england that is basically homogenous. you can tell genetically which island in orkney someone's from, but you can't tell the difference between people from north yorkshire and people from kent.

okay this has been a poorly explained ramble if you'd like to read the damn thing yourself it's this: https://peopleofthebritishisles.web.ox.ac.uk/population-genetics

nb that is their website for laypeople, i've looked at a few different interpetations of this but i haven't looked at the actual paper (yet? dk if i can be bothered going deeper. we'll see)

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asklepiean · 3 years

Note

May I ask what is wrong with Wicca? (You can totally turn this into a good old-fashioned rant if you want to, I'd just really appreciate your insight on this topic because I never really saw any pagan/etc criticising the faith, except for when Wiccans steal from closed religions/traditions. If you don't want to get into this, I completely understand that too!) Also 🙏 if you're still up for this.

I'll start by saying that the last time I read something about wicca was 10 years ago, and more inclined to save some aspects of traditional wicca rather than neowicca. I spent years talking to wiccans, exchanging opinions, debating, and studying, so I'm not just a random hater - I called myself a wiccan and acted as one. I'm also not inclined in changing my mind on the subject - this is one of the few topics I don't like to discuss and hear different opinions, like many other pagans do when it comes to christianity. It's just a one-way dialogue.

You already highlighted one of the main problems. It's not only stealing, it's not caring about what it takes from other cultures. I understand a 13 yo hyper enthusiast about "doing paganism": you do random things because they sound cool and edgy and very different from your cultural religion, so you just take and adopt things that should be left where they are. Hopefully, you learn to do things the right way, to understand what you're doing, and to avoid this kind of behavior. You grow and become a better practitioner. But the problem is that *every wiccan author* does this saying that it doesn't matter because at the end of the day every tradition is the same because the gods are the same. This excuse acts of deliberate ignorance: if you feel entitled to do something, you don't try to understand its meaning, you just do it. If you think that a certain practice can be adopted because the wiccan paradigm says that you can do whatever the fuck you want, you don't waste your time studying the original culture.

Understanding that different pantheons are culturally and socially different is not that hard. You can't equate two Goddesses because they're both assigned to the same domain (e.g. I heard the phrase "Freyja and Aphrodite are the same because they're both love Goddesses!" way too many times). The most popular excuse I heard to justify this approach is comparing the wiccan "Al God/desses are the God/dess" to the greco-roman interpretatio, but it's not the case. Greek Gods are not "wiccan gods", and they're not archetypes. Another thing that really bothers me is the Maiden-Mother-Crone story (if you think that a a deity or a human being is just that, well...), and the tendency to represent the Gods as divine genitalia. I don't care if you think that the divine womb of the Goddess is important, don't force me to think it's important.

Speaking of genitalia, I can't stand the need for remarking feminine/masculine energy in everything and everyone. If you're a man you can be the Priest, but if you're a trans man? The last time I saw a discussion about this topic (a celebration performed in a gardnerian coven) there was so much transphobia and homophobia I felt sick. You can have a role only if you have the right genitalia or the right energy, whatever it means. Wicca is also a neopagan tradition that has an exclusionary approach regarding specific genders, but if you just exclude someone because of their energy/genitalia how do you interpret the whole approach based on masculine/feminine energy?

This is a sidenote, but this tradition is so watered down and confused that pretty much all the neopagan scammer authors write about it to sell books. There's no credibility in it.

There's probably more about it, but I'll stop here. As I already said, I'm not interested in talking about it and in people trying to convince me that it's not that bad.

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jasper-pagan-witch · 4 years

Text

Reviewing Divination Methods: Dark Goddess Oracle Cards

The Dark Goddess Oracle Cards (henceforth known as just Dark Goddess or the Dark Goddess) is an oracle deck and companion guidebook written by Barbara Meiklejohn-Free and Flavia Kate Peters. It was illustrated by Kate Osborne. It was first copyrighted in 2017, but my edition is the 2018 version.

The outside of the box is the same as the cover of the instructional booklet. On the back of the box is the following blurb:

Are you ready and willing to re-engage with the guidance of your inner wisdom? Each card in this deck will illuminate the majesty and potential of your shadow self to bring about a more powerful sense of positivity and change in your life. This deck puts at your fingertips an array of emotional tools, mythology, real life experiences and the elements of Nature. Open the portals which span the globe and its ancient beliefs, and connect again to the Dark Goddess guidance within.

This oracle contains:

48 silver-gilded cards full of the power of the Goddesses

Key focus words

A detailed guidebook on how to use the information

Sample spreads

Easy to remember and repeat incantations

A detailed reading for each card

Information about the origins of each Goddess

Now, if you’re a suspicious grain like me, you’ll notice a few things right off the bat. It sounds vaguely c//ltish, it’s very Wiccan-focused, and they blow a lot of smoke and big words that don’t mean anything when put together.

One thing I want to bring up is that they claim that this is a deck about goddesses, yet they not only draw on goddesses from closed or initiation-based cultures, but also on monsters, demons, and figures who aren’t goddesses. Some examples:

Lilith, a Jewish demon

Medusa, a Greek monster

Arachne, a Greek figure/monster

Aradia, a "Roman Goddess” who doesn’t even exist, she was made up for an 1899 work called “Aradia, or the Gospel of Witches”

Skylla, a Greek monster

Pythia, a Greek figure

Among probably a lot more, because I’m not familiar with every name they use in this deck.

A list of every religion/belief system that this book draws on, in no particular order:

Greek

Roman

Celtic

Slavic

Gaelic

Welsh

Chinese

Native American

Indian

Aboriginal

Sumerian

Haitian

Irish

Norse

Polynesian

Hittite

Egyptian

Aztec

Mesopotamian

Germanic

African

Yoruban

Inuit

Babylonian

Japanese

Oh yeah, the salt is coming out. I did not expect appropriation when I asked my mom to get this for me, and yet here we are. I should have expected it, because there’s nothing but appropriation in the New Age section of the book store. (They’re still selling Al//ister Cr//wley shit in 2020!)

Okay, let’s move on to the booklet. Because they count both covers as pages, there are 112 pages (for reference, remember that the Dragon Tarot booklet had 64 pages). Pages 1 to 5 are cover pages and the dedication. The table of contents (which I’ve never used) takes up pages 6 and 7.

Finally, on pages 8 to 9, we get into the introduction. The introduction is very much a Wiccan Goddess-focused introduction, which mildly bothers me because it was not marketed as Wiccan. (Llewellyn, why do you break my heart like this?) It talks about shadow work in a very vague way and in the context of being a female Wiccan devoted to the Goddess.

Page 10 is just a guide of how to use the deck, while pages 11 and 12 are some spreads and some ideas of how to interpret the spreads.

Page 13 marks the beginning of the card messages. Pages 14 through 109 are all of the cards and their meanings, with each card taking up two pages.

The left page depicts the card in black-and-white, the name and key word, and some kind of chant that always ends in “Blessed Be”. Which is a Wiccan term from the Fivefold Kiss of Gardnerian Tradition, which I’ve talked about before.

Now, on the opposite page, you’ll notice that the words disappear into the inner buttcrack of the book. It does that through the entire thing. On the opposite page, we have the guidance (which is a long-winded explanation of why the card has these themes and how you should explore them), the foresight (which is the actual answers you can interpret for a question), and the “[Name] Revealed”.

This part is where the authors try to explain the origins of the various figures and assigns “archetypes” to them - egalitarian, defender, and seducer are a handful that spring to mind. It’s...rough, because they don’t get a lot of this information right. Like with Lilith or Aradia (who, again, is not a goddess from my research, she was made up for an 1899 project).

In short, this part makes me want to scream.

Page 110 is the acknowledgements, and pages 111 to 112 is the back cover.

Now that I’ve finished my proper booklet look, let’s talk about the cards. As you may have noticed from the first picture, the art is...peculiar.

The range of skin tones is very short (very pale to somewhat colored, with the notable exceptions of Inanna and Oya) and the art itself looks like the artist took models from one of those low-budget 3D model games you find on your less-than-reputable sites. (Don’t try to fool me, we’ve all been there.)

Here are exactly three good points to finish this off:

The art looks pretty when it doesn’t look like it’s from a low-budget 3D game

The back of the cards are pretty and have a neat design

Smells good

#review #appropriation #lilith #oracle #oracle decks #oracle cards #dark goddess oracle cards #the dark goddess oracle cards #barbara meiklejohn-free #flavia kate peters #kate osborne #jasper post

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wandering-wizardry · 4 years

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Book Review: Moon Spells by Diane Ahlquist

Syntax(Does it read well?):

There are several errors an editor should have picked up on. missing punctuation, typos, poor word choice. Overall, the book should have been work-shopped more before going to print.

(6/10) Perfectly usable, but loses some clarity with poor word choice and sentence structure. Also, the syntax errors are annoying.

Content(Is the book is just stuff you could have googled?):

35/243 pages are just lists and/or stuff that is easily available for free online, so 14%. 141/243 pages are spells, which, while content, are formatted in a way that they take up a lot of room, 58%. Only 30% of the book is information. Taking out the spell pages, 65% of the book is information.

(6.5/10) Not as much information as I would like. The references are good, but again, google is free.

Diversity of Knowledge(Does author appears to understand that other cultures exist?):

At one point refers to Diana as the moon goddess instead of a moon goddess, -1.

The tools referenced are all the standard ones we know from ceremonial magic/wicca. I didn’t notice any closed culture ones, so that is a plus. But overall, the tools are bland.

Does have a short explanation of Chinese Astrology in the back along with Numerology and Western Astrology. Honestly, I don’t know why she bothered to put any of these in here, but from what I understand of Chinese astrology it’s accurate.

(7/10) The contents are very clearly England based, however other practices are acknowledged. The author never swerved wildly out of their lane.

Sources(Are there any?):

References higher crime rates during the full moon. I learned this was BS week 1 of statistics. -1

It does have a bibliography at the end. It’s one full page, which is a little short for my liking, but at least it has it. It doesn’t site in the text where each source is used.

(6/10) I really don’t want to hunt down every one of these publications and read them.

Appropriation(Point off for every mention of dream catchers, spirit animals, and chakras):

“Ancient Civilizations were very respectful of the Moon’s power:” -1

(9/10) As far as I noticed there was nothing that came from a closed culture.

Aesthetics(Because none of us want to read a textbook):

It looks great, diagrams and art galore.

(10/10)

Fluff(How much of it sounds like new age bs?):

“I feel that all those who believe in a higher power than ourselves, have respect for each other... all answer to the same Divine” -3

Outside of roman polytheism can we please let this interpretation die already? Maybe it’s just the fact that anything that reminds me of evangelical Christianity give me hives, but I hate this take. It also feel very colonial. This does have historical backing, but it’s mostly shitty historical backing. Here.

(6/10) About that you’d expect. More research should have been done.

Wiccan(How many times is wicca reference in a book that looks secular(N/A when the book is advertised as wiccan)?):

Claims to be non-denominational, however there are clearly some parts that are wiccan. In the introduction, she states you’ll have to believe in some form of higher power, so it’s all right hand magic.

(5/10) It was published in 2002 by a middle age white woman who describes herself as a “third-generation intuitive”.

Hetero/cisnormative(If I see one mention of ‘divine feminine’ outside of an academic context I’m gonna lose my shit):

This book was published in 2002, so it has a bit of an excuse, but still. The moon is refereed to as ‘her’. There are two sections marked for women and men respectively.

Women Only. There is a preamble that kind of implies women are better at magic because they’re more emotionally open. It is stated as an opinion however, so -1. Contains a fertility spells, an easy childbirth spell, and a love spell. The first two are fine, they can be used by any afab person. The love spell however... Feminine intuition and Feminine Power... -2.

Men Only. This has a Love spell and a Fatherhood one. The fatherhood spell seems great. The love spell needs more work, as just by reading it I can’t really tell what it does. It feels more like a general prayer.

(7/10) There’s no ‘pussy to the earth’ moment, but still could have been better.

Spells(Do I think they would work?):

Each spell has the exact same formatting, which takes up a lot of space. The same information is copy pasted into every single spell. Each spell has no explanation other than the title. A lot of them are good ideas, but the author clearly hasn’t done much research into magical theory.

(3/10) Cool ideas, but almost all of them would need to be workshopped to be of any use.

Tone(My opinion of the author after reading):

At one point she talks about one of her clients in a tone that makes me think she didn’t really respect him. It felt like she thought she knew better about his life than he did.

From what I can tell the author offers counseling, but nowhere does it say she has the medical qualifications.

There are a lot of “I feel” and “I believe” which on one hand is good, they aren’t stating opinion as fact. On the other hand, it becomes a slog.

When gender is brought up, it is clear that the author favors women. It’s not brought up much, but when it is it’s very obvious.

(4/10) Please get a medical license before you offer counseling.

Total: 69.5/110

Recommendation: There is nothing ground breaking in here. In you’re a lunar witch, it may be a fun thing to pick bits and pieces out of to incorporate into your practice.

No historical research seems to have been done. The entire thing seems to be personal Gnosis. Overall it’s just Meh. The only really good thing about it is the correspondences are detailed.

#magic #witch #witchcraft #moon spells #book review #magick #spells #moon spells by diana ahlquist

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morgandria · 4 years

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I’ve had a thought ruminating for a while, but I guess today is the day where I finally have Opinions.

The witchcraft tag often sees posts that ask for information or help, which is fine. My problem with some of those posts are what’s attached to them. It’s just two words: “No Wiccans”.

I like talking to people about witchcraft and paganism. I like sharing information and the things I've gleaned over the years that might help someone else. I might not be able to share a few particular things because of my oaths, but there is SO much more that I can share that isn’t oathbound. I have almost 30 years experience (Gods that makes me feel old!), both as a solitary and in a coven. I am a resource, and genuinely enjoy being so for others.

The crux of the matter for me is at least once a week I’ll be scrolling my way through the #witchcraft tag, and see “No Wiccans, plz“. It often feels condescending, and/or implies that Wiccan witchcraft is lame, and/or less valid than others. While I may really want to share my thoughts, I respect that I’ve been asked to not engage, sigh, and move on. I’d say it doesn’t bother me, but it does sting a little. Hard not to when you’re being dismissed out of hand.

So for the record: I do not have a stick up my ass. I do not think I am better than anyone else, because of my specific religious calling. I will not judge you. I have nothing but contempt for the gatekeepers of the world. I do not, and have never, believed that every witch should be a Wiccan. I am not interested in imposing my morality on anyone else.

I don’t care if you follow the Threefold Law (it’s not what people think it is anyway), I don’t care if you follow the Rede (again, not well understood by most, and I don’t follow it myself), and I am a firm believer that cursing is a skill worth having. I’m sorry if anyone has had a shitty experience with Wiccans in the past - I get it. Those people suck. But honestly I think you can find that particular kind of asshole in any religion.

I guess in the end all I’m asking is that people consider what they’re potentially missing out on by not interacting with the particular brand of witchcraft Wiccans represent. We may or may not have the answers that you’re looking for, but you’ll never know unless you let us try.

#wicca #witchcraft #be kind #i promise i'm not an asshole

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borisbubbles · 4 years

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27. CROATIA

Damir Kedzo - “Divlji vjetre”

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An A for Adequacy, a C for Creativity.

Song Analysis

General opinion on Croatia seems nearly unanimously geared towards “Okay, but nothing special” and in this instance I agree with the fandom.

In fact, ranking Damir right after Diodato only feels apt because their songs are conceptually equal as well? Both “Divlji vjretre” and “Fai Rumore” are loud, shouty, dramatic midtempo ballads that provide expressive emotiveness set to a lukewarm tune. They’re both textbook examples of songs typically released in their countries of origin. Both are also by men whose physical attractiveness is somewhat overrated - I’m sure Damir considers himself hot, but boy have I got news for you:

Buzzcuts can be hot, but not if they accentuate that your face is kinda too small for your head, iykwim.

However, while my opinions on their songs are similar and although I *just* ranked Diodato, I would argue that “Divlji Vjetre” is notably better than “Fai Rumore”. Fai Rumore has its production value going for it, but it really suffers from being the same tried-and-true Sanremo snottiness. Divlji Vjetre on the other hand, might be a Balkan Ballad, but actually makes a very good attempt at being credible and modern and... it sort of succeeds? The build up is quite nice, actually. I could have definitely seen myself warming to this song had it gone to Rotterdam. Pity Croatia ran their reputation into the ground so nobody can be bothered to conjure up some sort of excitement for their entries, huh?

Overall, there are no negative things to be said. But I also see no reason to commit myself towards liking it either. Oh, the struggle of being death fodder in a godlike semifinal.

NF Corner

Lol I’ll have to blank you here, I did NOT watch Dora. (I never bother with the non-Slovene Yugo’s). I hear it was a deal similar to San Remo - Good selection, some crazy mold-breaking entries, boringly obvious (and obviously boring) winner. Been here, done that. Well okay, I lied. I did see *TWO* Dora entries. And honestly, I don’t think I need to go back and see the rest:

AKlea Neon - “Zovi ju mama”

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I erupt into chills and giggles from the first second of this song and never recover. I have no words, at least no words that can be strung together into a full, coherent sentence. Aggressive feminism coated in a thick cobweb of eco-warriorhood <3 the neo-wiccan herb stall prop <3 the haphazard swapping between broken English, animal noises and some incomprehensible Croatian dialect. <3 The trippy aerobics dance, complete with a FIERCE helicopter braid (Slavko and Failee DEAD IN A DITCH) <3 I love how this NF season somehow gave us FOUR kick-ass, clinically insane environmentally themed avant garde entries (this, Pich, Maras Zemle and La-Ley-La). What I don’t love is that none of them won their respective selection shows. 😐

Indira Levak - “You will never break my heart”

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Wait, TWO aggressive lesbians in the same NF? That’s where the similarities end though. While “Zovi ju Mama” had a very strong ~artistic~ undercurrent, “You will break my heart” is unabashed eurodance TRASH. 😍 The Brutalero of this selection, except not a visual mess. “You will never breakth my heart” is like... an early aughts Football Cup anthem, revamped to cater the needs of renaissance hag adventurer Indira Levak. Yes, she’s a brilliant haggress (lol she’s 46. - Well, “46″). 😍 and yes, Indira was so OBVIOUSLY edging for another Croatian BDex award that I would’ve stanned the NQ that would’ve come with it. Like, even if we ignored the colour for a sentence or two, what on earth is that garment she’s wearing? A bathing suit, ruff skirt, a jacket with shoulder pads, gloves, some random strips of fabric that hold it together because NOT showing Indira’s “six and fourty year old” cleavage wasn’t an option. ALL OF THE ABOVE BEING IN THAT AGGRESSIVE, EYE-BLEEDING SHADE OF FUSCHIA and completed with a set of silver fuck-me boots 😍 And on top of that her dancers are dressed in what look like recycled Gaitana rags. The choreography of fist pumping the air / twirling around / caressing the faces of Indira’s boytoy dancers (how is that even a running theme in the 2020 NF season, but more poignantly how did it fail to win a 2020 NF), rinse and repeat, is PERFECT. Should’ve beaten Damir, tyvm!!!

Lol that’s all I know, but that’s ~ENOUGH~ Feel free to share more if overlooked them.

Croatia 2020 vs Croatia 2021

Croatia probably would have NQ’d? Semifinal 1 was a very tight race and “Divlji vjetre” was outclassed by many more memorable entries. I do believe we would’ve had at least one shock qualifier (maybe that’s just me, but I find it impossible to see both Israel AND Azerbaijan in the finale - surely one of them is robbed horribly, right), but my money was on Cyprus or Slovenia for that role.

Damir will likely be back for 2021 (I think? Is there even going to *be* a 2021 contest?), so at least there’s that, I guess. Can’t say I’m excited but a better ballad than “Dvijli Vjetre” would be almost guaranteed green on my ranking. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

FREAKY! FRIDAY! FACTOR!

Sadly, the Freaky! Factor is just not quite there for Damir. I do appreciate the *attempts* “Dvilji vjetre” makes to not be boring, but it just never really goes *there*, you know? (lol I’m writing this at 2:21 am FORGIVE ME if I sound a bit strained). Dora did have at least two great entries though, so while Damir doesn’t sound too bad compared to the other 2020 NF laureates (lol didn’t i already boot most of them? For such a good NF season, 2020 had such shit NF winners), but compared to Indira/AKlea Neon, there’s only one word/emoji combo to describe his Dora victory: TYPICAL 🙄

Score: 1 Senhit out of 5.

#Eurovision #Eurovision 2020 #Eurovision Song Contest #Croatia #Damir Kedzo #Divlji vjetre

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theowlandthekey · 5 years

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We Don’t Need Covens: In This Essay I Will...

I'm a big fan of Sarah Anne Lawless. I never got the opportunity to speak with her personally, but for those of you who've been around long enough, you likely know about her blog discussing traditional witchcraft and her shop. I often found her posts to be inspirational, providing a unique clarity on subjects that most books skip over. To this day her belladonna ointment is one of the few things that can make my wife's back spasms stop.

Unfortunately both her blog and her shop have closed up. All I can find are interviews with her. In a very broad sense, Lawless came out about abuse and manipulation within the pagan community. She named names and instead of addressing the problems and having an open discussion about it, she was harassed until she backed off.

It upset me at the time in a very distant sense. As I said I never knew her, but I admired her passion and the certainty with which she practiced her craft. Though it's now long after the fact, I finally think I have the ability to put my thoughts into words.

We don't need covens. We never did.

I've been practicing off and on for about fifteen years or so. I've played around with different methods of witchcraft, wicca, and pagan worship. I've been the member of a druid grove, a loose coven association, and even a few on-line groups that claim to do all their spell casting via chat. In the end, I've found them all to be much the same. They promise a great deal and frankly fall short of everything from education to community.

I'm likely going to upset quite a few people with this statement. That's fine. You shouldn't trust anybody who thinks they can tell you your business. But for what it's worth, take a moment to read this over. If something here strikes you as familiar, it might be time to consider another path.

IQuick Note: I know there is a lot of grey area as to what could be considered a witch. You have pagans, heathens, wiccans and the like. Some are comfortable being called witches while others are not. But the connotation changes depending upon each individuals definition. So let's look at witches as people who, for whatever reason, have decided to intentionally avoid Christianity in favor of practicing a personal path of self-realization and independence involving magic, spells, enchantments and the like.

Cult Mentality

First thing you ought to consider is the potential for manipulation and control that exists in any group. This is especially true whenever matters of religion and faith are concerned. It's a touchy subject, no doubt. People are particular about religious practices. For my part, I maintain that witchcraft isn't a religion or a faith. It's a craft. But that doesn't change the fact that people will use religion as a method for controlling others. Especially others who are hungry to fit in with a group that they feel represents them. For this very reason, I firmly believe that witches should avoid becoming a congregation of any kind. Too many of us think of witchcraft as a religion, and while you can play pretend all you like most of us were raised Christian and still have difficulty shaking off the mimicry of organized religion. Our power is in our independence and our ability to think for ourselves, and it becomes much more difficult to do this when you form yourselves into a coven.

Respect My Authority

On that note, you can't form a group without some kind of a hierarchy making itself apparent. I have a strong distaste for covens who create arbitrary titles. They're largely meaningless. You don't really need a high priestess or an archdruid to go around wearing robes with more trim than everybody else. It's just an excuse for someone to hold themselves higher and make decisions without consulting anyone. You'll often find that people who hold these kinds of titles become very upset when someone disagrees with them and find ways to flex their authority in a 'funny' or 'joking' way. Basically telling others that if you disagree with them then you don't need to be there. This comes off especially hard on people who may be new to the craft and are still seeking approval.

Calling Ourselves Out

As sexual abuse allegations are on the rise, we have a duty to be aware of people within our community who put others in danger. We have heard it said that 'while not all priests are abusers, abusers tend to gravitate towards positions of authority'. This is no less true just because those leaders are witches and not priests. You don't get a Free Pass. Covens and groves all seem to want that central authority figure to which they can turn to. We tend to protect them because these people act as a spokesperson for us as a whole. But this does not mean they should be protected if they behave reprehensibly! They are not above the law and if we really want to present ourselves as being different from Christians, we should take a stance of pushing out people who are abusers and manipulators.

But here's the thing. We seem to have this self-righteous indignation that comes with being witches and pagans. Any questioning or perceived threats, especially ones that come from outside the community, are deemed as being biased because of Christian society. While this isn't entirely untrue, it also has a problematic effect on us wearing a permanent set of rose-tinted glasses whenever we look at the pagan community and it's 'stars'. Instead of seeing them as human beings with flaws, we view them as celebrities. We avoid using critical thinking skills when someone in the community comes up against criticism and it can end up damaging our reputation as a whole.

Witch n’ Bitch

While this is one of the most obvious issues with modern witchcraft groups, it is far from the bottom of the cauldron. While many groups come together promising to provide resources for education, help learning rituals and practices, and open discussions, I find that very few of them ever deliver on these promises. I've joined more than a few witchcraft 'study groups' only to have them disband after a few sessions for one reason or another. Others have sessions which quickly get derailed from methods and history into a bitching session about over covens, daily drama, or the like. Instead of helping interested parties by providing resources and discussion, it basically becomes a witches tea party. Brooms are snatched.

Exclusion By Design

Something else I want to bring up is the exclusion by design if not by intention concept that plagues covens. I have seen this manifest in more ways then I can count. Most typically it crops up in the form of “you're not experienced enough in our particular tradition”. However, I've noticed a lot of problems with most pagan groups being painfully white. The excuse is that this makes sense because most witchcraft traditions are European. However, that doesn't seem to stop most witches from liberally grabbing whatever non-European cultural paraphernalia they feel fits their witchy aesthetic. The most notable victims being the American Indians, the Voodoo/Santeria practitioners, and Mexican folk beliefs. I've been told by several people that this isn't on purpose. It's just how it ended up. But when you have to triple check everybody on a Norse Heathen group chat to be sure none of them have any racist ideology there is an inherent problem with the community which is long overdue for exposure.

Queer Craft

I’d like to bring up the patriarchal and hetero-normative slant that is heavily enforced in modern witchcraft and neopaganism. I want to preface this by saying that when I think of a witch, I think of a woman who lives apart from societal norms. She is autonomous. She is self-aware. She is unruffled by others perceptions of her. This is what makes her a force to be reckoned with. Yet much of wicca and neopaganism strives to enforce a very heteronormative perception of a woman's role in society by establishing the narrative of the Maiden/Mother/Crone archetype. While there is beauty in each of these phases of life and there is nothing wrong with a woman finding power in them for herself, enforcing them as a role model for what a woman should be has dangerous implications. A woman must be a virgin, reproductive, or too old to bother with. And it should come as no surprise that concepts have no real male counterpart.

This becomes an even bigger problem as we look forward to a more inclusive world where we are learning to recognize a larger spectrum of gender and sexuality. Where does the Queer witch fit in with these very narrow perceptions of the divine within the self? The pagan community loves to talk about itself as an accepting and open community that embraces all sexualities openly. But that isn't very well reflected in its liturgy and conception. I don't think this gets discussed much because people have heralded the God/Goddess, Horned God/Earth Goddess format for so long that we take it for granted despite these perceptions being relatively modern ones. While there are some traditions which put emphasis on the Queer spectrum and embracing it as a source of power and self-realization, they are few and far between.

Psudo Ethics

The final thing I want to bring up is the irritating moral high-ground that people in the pagan community are so willing to put forth any time we are questioned about our beliefs. It is just as irritating if not more so than listening to Christians proselytize. The Wiccan Rede has held a position for a long time as a general set of standards for what witches and wiccans should consider before acting or casting spells. However, I'm pleasantly surprised to see more of a discussion happening on morality in witchcraft. We don't exist to turn the other cheek. While I'm not a believer in the 'strike first' policy, I am a believer in defending myself when attacked.

I see a lot of judgment happening in the wiccan community, especially now that witchery is in the forefront of social media. People poking their noses into how others practice and deciding to take it upon themselves to 'correct' how another practitioner does their work. I understand why some people want to pursue a more positive and affirming lifestyle through wiccan practices. There is nothing wrong with that. But I confess myself irritated when I'm chided by other witches for casting a curse or have a discussion with a demon. My prerogatives are not your moral imperative, nor are any other witches. So long as my actions are not directed against you, it isn't any of your business what I get up to.

In Conclusion

Ironically, one of the biggest issue with discussing if not resolving many of these issues is that we, as witches/pagans and the like, are NOT a unified group. We are a loose collective. We don't have one central figure who decides doctrine. We don't have any of those things that make for dogma. The fact that we can choose to act independently of one another is a big part of our power. It emboldens us to think for ourselves, question tradition, and seek out new methods and practices which are better suited to our needs. Witchcraft does not begin and end with the anathema and the chalice. We can choose to both acknowledge the gods without permitting them too much influence over our lives. We can dance naked under the full moon while enticing a demon or just make a hot cup of tea while we listen to the rain and meditate. All of this is within our grasp.

But before we can practice together, we have to learn how to function together. And right now I don't' see a great deal of that happening. I believe that by learning how to be ourselves first, by practicing as solitary and independent witches before seeing out a group, we can be more confident overall. After fifteen years of practicing, I can tell you truthfully that I haven't learned anything in a group that I couldn't have learned by studying and practicing on my own. Mostly because 90% of the groups out there read the same damned books I do and are more into repetitive ritual than anything else. I would have loved to work with someone like Sarah Anne Lawless, even just to attend a few workshops led by her. Until we can learn to be better individuals as witches first, I don't know if our community can be better together.

#witchcraft #wicca #pagan #witch #wiccan #paganism #anit-coven #covens #critique #rant #problems within the community #pagan community #wiccan community #editorial #solitary witch

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