#ex mormon witch

[samwisethewitch]

One element of cultural Christianity that took me forever to move on from is the idea that you have to pick one spiritual path, or one set of spiritual beliefs, and stay on that path to the exclusion of everything else.

You do not.

Speaking from a pagan perspective, most pagan groups not only allow but encourage sharing space with/learning from other spiritual traditions, and I know the same is also true for a lot of other non-Christian religions. You can practice or believe multiple things, even if they seem to contradict each other! If it works for you, makes you feel connected to something greater than yourself, and doesn't cause discomfort or cognitive dissonance, there's no reason not to include it in your practice!

Fyi this post isn't just for ex-Christians who still want to have a spiritual practice. I absolutely see this same basic belief that you can only believe/do one thing show up in culturally Christian atheists who seem to think being atheist means they can't be open to spiritual or mystical experiences. There are many, many religions and spiritual traditions that do not require belief in a God, but culturally Christian atheists seem to mostly believe atheism and spirituality are mutually exclusive. They aren't.

[the-mountain-flower]

Revisited a story that was very important to me as a child, and learned about the author being very vocal about the harm gender roles & stereotypes cause. I thought "oh that's great!" but was afraid. What if she only applied that logic to cis ppl?

I did some searching, and found out that not only does she support trans ppl, but has also spoken multiple times about how important it is to be able to see protagonists outside of the perceived norm. A.K.A., she doesn't see my very existence as wrong.

I let out a deep sigh of relief. I could continue to enjoy this thing that had been so important to me growing up.

But this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Too often I discover a new artist, or even be unsure of one I've enjoyed the work of for a long time up to the present; and I have to desperately search to know if I can enjoy their work. Either I am extremely relieved, or absolutely crushed.

This shouldn't be necessary. I shouldn't be feeling this deep fear that something so important to me, was created by someone who despises my very existence. That I, as a disabled queer femme ex-mormon Pagan witch who was raised like a girl, will be shoved off the emotional cliff of "this person you looked up to hates you for the same reason all bigots do".

I was so terrified that something that meant so much to me as a kid could've shattered me emotionally. Simply because I didn't know if the person who made it hates people like me.

We shouldn't have to live like this.

[psychopomp-recital]

Your mother wouldn’t approve…

Of how my mother raised me…

But I do…

I finally do….

[creature-wizard]

are you aware of a new age-person called teal swan? a friend showed me and told me her stuff is "better" but I still get red flags from it. ty for responding if you do!

Oh yeah, Teal Swan is awful. Not only is she pushing that New Age conspirituality stuff, she's into that Satanic Panic ritual abuse mythology and uses questionable mystical means to "help" others find out how they were supposedly abused. (For anyone who hasn't been keeping up, both New Age conspirituality and the Satanic Panic SRA mythology are pure conspiracy theory derived primarily from stuff like The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion - an antisemitic hoax - and like blood libel and early modern witch panic. If you want more information on New Age conspirituality and why it's bad, check out my pinned post.)

She's not a psychologist, but she effectively presents herself as someone who can help people with serious mental health issues. Very notably, she encouraged suicidal follows to visualize death, something which she sure as heck didn't run by any actual mental health professional first. Additionally, she's referred to death as a "reset button," which... let's face it, most people who believe in reincarnation aren't quite that, uh, flippant about it? Like, I'm not saying that she's encouraging suicide, but she's definitely not taking this very serious issue nearly seriously enough.

Additionally, people who've known Teal Swan personally report that she's extremely manipulative, controlling, and dishonest. Mormon Stories Podcast has a couple of interviews with people who knew her worth checking out - Growing Up With Teal Swan interviews a former childhood friend, and Leaving Mormonism To Join Teal Swan's Cult interviews an ex-boyfriend.

[animanightmate]

I can’t believe I’m about to write this, and you may well have seen this story elsewhere but...

JK Rowling is currently fighting with the Mormons.

Okay, maybe not all of them, or even their official governing body, or however it works, and maybe fighting is a strong term, but...

Okay, let me start again.

As I understand the longer timeline, it goes:

JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books come out at the beginning of the century and some very hard-line religious types lose their shit because it’s a) popular, b) explicitly got witches in it, c) is for children. So they protest the books and their apparently subversive, Satanic messaging, ban the books, even burn the books. Other Christians deem the books a delightful metaphor, some citing the manner in which other Christian writers like C.S. Lewis used magical metaphor to champion the fight of good over evil. While the Church of Latter-Day Saints doesn’t proclaim an official stance on her work, they seem to be broadly supportive and enthusiastic.

Then, roughly 20 years later (blimey, that feels odd writing that down), the author starts becoming ever more heavily – and publicly – invested in a brand of feminism that deems trans women an inherent threat to cis women (especially lesbians), labels trans men a waste of perfectly good potential lesbians, and nonbinary people hilariously deluded (unless they’re AMAB, in which case they’re also categorised as being as dangerous as trans women). Intersex people are considered a statistical irrelevance.

I summarise very broadly here, of course.

She is generally careful in her language and in the explicit things she says in writing (and has, after all, historically donated to explicitly trans-inclusive women’s charities and LGBTQIA+ charities), but she repeatedly, and with increasing frequency, backs up those people and organisations who are much more direct in their condemnation of anything other than the cis condition (and likewise those who support a progression to wider inclusion of non-cis folk).

My understanding is that this is something some of a particular subset of more hard-line Christians could get behind (Rowling herself apparently defines as a Christian, which surprised me for some reason). They had her back on this particular stance, as it were. (I feel moved to say here that the vast majority of my actively Christian friends, including members of the clergy, are trans-inclusive, supportive allies, but maybe I’m experiencing a skewed sample...)

Then it gets even more interesting, because on Thursday Rowling tweets that people claiming she’s transphobic without supplying explicit enough evidence are akin to “...  when Joseph Smith found the golden plates and nobody else was allowed to look at them.” Direct quote there.

(image description in alt-text; please let me know if it’s missing! If you’re wondering why the text is red, it’s down to the Shinigami Eyes extension on my browser.)

And if you scroll a few responses down the thread, Mormons start saying “Now, steady on there, Jo, we’ve been big fans of yours for ages, but you’re dead wrong here, because people did see the plates, and this is frankly a false analogy. You clearly haven’t been reading up on your Mormon history, which is frankly disappointing. Why would you throw us under the bus like this?”

Which could be said to look a bit like

(alt-text should be in there - shout if not.)

The responses are a fascinating blend of vehement trans and trans-allied folk attempting to provide evidence, contemptuous anti-trans folk scoffing at such stances, aggrieved Mormons, amused/ bemused ex-Mormons, some rather aggressively atheist tweeters, and all blending in quite the mélange of sub-threads. They also include JKR expanding on her own post by saying that, having heard people in the replies telling her that the plates weren’t hidden, her research indicates that a few did, but, if it is a retraction, it isn’t exactly couched in the most fulsome terms, let’s say: “Eleven people claimed to have seen the plates, some of them related to Smith, but there's debate as to whether this was a metaphysical experience or they genuinely saw them. And one man was allowed to hold the box but not look inside it.”

I suspect that people will find themselves able to read a great deal of subtext in a number of directions into that message. I find myself wondering where that reading might lead them.

(I hadn’t even heard about these blessed plates until now, so, you know – it’s all definitely been educational!)

I’m honestly intrigued as to where this will go next. As I understand it, Rowling’s LDS fanbase is not small, and Mormons are starting to respond in articles and comments sections and dedicated boards in an interesting variety of ways.

I guess the only other thing I want to point out is that I can’t find the original redacted tweet – I’m assuming that either those more invested in anti-trans vehemence found the original (Twitter’s text search facility is pretty darned efficient, after all) and made things difficult for them, or the original poster was alerted to the fact that someone with nearly 14 million followers had raised awareness of it and pre-emptively removed it. The thing wasn’t exactly doing numbers, so it really makes you think about reach and exposure online, and how we can and need to take responsibility for that and our public wording.

[wizardsaur]

An LDS witch blog just found some of my content.

I respect your journey & all, but I'm not sure you'd want to follow me knowing I'm adamantly ex-mormon.

[void--juice]

I saw your post about being an ex-Mormon and struggling with self harm.

I'm following your tumblr now just to make sure you're okay. I was never in a cult, but my bio mom was schizophrenic and had VERY strong religious delusions that traumatized me. And to top that off, I lived with a domineering and very weird religious person for half my life. As a queer person AND an electic witch+Luciferian, I am now unable to enter a church without feeling unclean and physically sick. If you need to talk, I'm here for you.

Thank you, you seem like a lovely person

[tookoutallherteeth]

Despite the title, this video is actually about the Christians who think Taylor Swift is a witch and it's very interesting!

These youtubers are ex-mormon and they're very funny and insightful and I recommend them to anyone who likes ex-christian content.

[apocrypha-agrestis]

[edited 4/2/24 because people keep disappearing, bloody hell]

so here's the intro post:

religious unpacking blog for a system. we will not be sharing our system details or actual names on this blog. we will share our trauma as we see fit. we will mostly be complaining about xtianity here, so, like, maybe don't follow if you like xtianity

The people who will be posting are:

Enoch (they/it): in denial about having religious trauma. current beliefs align most strongly with humanistic-agnostic Judaism. has many many unfavorable opinions about Mormonism.

Catherine (it/she/they): chaos witch. has the most opinions about Catholicism. will apply anthropology principles to things if left unsupervised.

Samael (he/any): the devil in our details. ex-persecutor, connector of dots.

[hallow-witxh]

Hi! I have been practicing witchcraft for about a year (on and off cause of mental health) and I was curious about a little advice. I was raised witch christians but i was taught fear and it really hurt to the point I've broken down, cried, and had panic attacks and nightmares about it. I'm trying to advance my craft and start worshipping deities (Dionysus and Hades to be exact) and read my own tarot cards. But all in secrecy cause I still live with my family and sometimes I hear my grandmother's preachers on tv and I start getting scared again. I usually just plug in my headphones but sometimes I have bad service or slow data so I still hear things. Any tips on how to be less afraid of advancing my craft and push that stuff out of my mind. Sorry for the dump of personal info but I trust you and your blog has helped me in learning things about witchcraft and I feel like you may have something. If not that's fine. And I hope my message didn't bring you down. Thank you and sending positive energy your way. 😊

"...I trust you and your blog has helped me in learning things about witchcraft-"

This is INCREDIBLY high praise to me. Before I answer your question, I want you to understand what this means to me. It's the highest compliment I've even been given on my blog. It makes me feel like I really am helping others, and I think you for this. It made me smile on an otherwise fairly dreary day. So thank you <3 I appreciate you and your interaction with my blog so very much.

Now to answer your question.

As someone who was raised VERY Mormon, I understand where you are coming from and I know how you are feeling. I'm going to be completely honest, even though you may not like my answer.

Trauma like this simply can't be solved by witchcraft. You will need to seek out professional help for your anxiety - which I KNOW can be REALLY hard with a family like that. But I promise you that you will feel so much better once you're able to detangle yourself from the perpetual drag of religious trauma.

I feel for you, I really do. I know how hard this can be. I also have nightmares about the church, panic attacks whenever I think too long and hard about it.

My advice is simple. Therapy, and patience. Working with deities is not an easy practice to hide. I would wait to work with them, and make do with worship for now. It will be easier on you, and less suspicious to your family.

You deserve to practice your own religion without persecution. You deserve to feel safe and protected in your own home, especially by your parents. The fact that your parents are knowingly causing you harm and doing nothing about it is breaking my heart. I am so sorry. You deserve better than this.

All of my love to you, Anon. Blessed Be.

[samwisethewitch]

sivillanightchief replied to your post: An Open Letter to Christian Witches

I think you have these feelings because the trauma is still fresh.

You know, in the West it's Christianity that dominates, if you lived somewhere in the Middle East, there would be Islam. Natural cultural system. Not a thing that an individual can change. If people at your work are of evangelical faith, the way to deal here is to find common points of your faith and theirs, if there are none, you have to work in another place.

Thank you for proving my point by providing an excellent example of Christian fragility in action. I’ll try to address your response point by point:

1.) I left the Mormon church, where my trauma occurred, five years ago, so no, my trauma is not “still fresh.” However, living in a culture where Christianity is literally shoved in our faces 24/7 can lead to retraumatization (a reminder of past trauma that results in a re-experiencing of the initial trauma event and associated emotions) in those of us who have experienced spiritual abuse in Christian churches, which makes recovery even more difficult, complex, and non-linear than normal. 

You dismissing my post because of my emotions invalidates my lived experience, as well as the literal years of research I’ve done into this subject. I find that this is a fairly common Christian evasion tactic -- if something is critical of Christianity, it must be false. If someone is critical of the church, it must be because they’re lashing out emotionally. Christians refuse to acknowledge the enormous body of research showing how their religion harms people.

2.) “But Islam!” is another common Christian evasion technique. I explicitly acknowledged in my post that I was talking about Western culture, particularly the culture of the United States, where I live. My post was not about global religion. My post was not about the Middle East. My post was about America and my experiences as an American, and pointing out that other countries have other forms of religious hegemony is not relevant to this conversation. 

Islam is also a marginalized religion in the United States, and I’m not going to blame other marginalized folks for systemic issues that negatively affect them just as much as me. 

3.) I’m intrigued by your argument that hegemony is a “natural cultural system.” I’d genuinely be interested to hear your reasoning for hegemony being natural. Is empire natural? Is colonization natural? Is the intentional and systemic destruction of other cultures natural? Those are the methods that create hegemony and, frankly, I don’t think they’re natural at all.

It’s natural for humans to be different. It’s natural for different groups from different cultures to have different religions that reflect their values, history, and experiences. It’s not natural for one religion to take over the world through imperialism and aggressive missionary efforts, then claim that their way is a one-size-fits-all path to salvation.

4.) I also think it’s interesting that, out of all the examples I gave of Christian hegemony at work in my life, you focused in on my workplace and argued that I should do the mental and emotional labor of trying to find commonalities between my beliefs and my coworkers’. 

Shouldn’t my Christian coworkers also have to do this work? Shouldn’t they also try to bridge that difference? If I am expected to be familiar with the Bible before I discuss religion with Christians, shouldn’t they also be expected to read the important texts from my religion? Shouldn’t they give me gifts for my religious holidays instead of Christmas and Easter? Why aren’t they expected to put in the same level of work that I am?

It is not my job as a marginalized person to defend my existence to members of the dominant group. It is not my job to educate people or package my religion in Christian language to make it more palatable to them. When Christians are willing to meet me halfway, then we can talk. 

(And some Christians are willing to do the work, and we do talk. I have dear friends who are deconstructionist Christians and who have a genuine interest in my beliefs because, you know, they care about me and the things that are important to me, and we have wonderful discussions about religion. But I can’t have those discussions with someone who thinks my religion is evil, wrong, or backwards.)

5.) “if there are none, you have to work in another place.” I can’t even begin to describe how privileged this sentence is. I don’t know what your situation is, but most of us don’t have the means to just quit our jobs whenever we feel like it. Especially in the middle of a pandemic.

There’s also the issue that, because I live smack in the middle of the Bible Belt, it’s highly unlikely I could find a workplace that doesn’t have at least one devout Christian on staff. My current job is actually remarkably tolerant compared to places I’ve worked in the past.

[bitchywitchyellingintothevoid]

As a born Mormon, here’s why I don’t like Mormonism

(You won’t change my mind, please don’t flood the comments with Mormon shit)

1) Joseph Smith was a 14 year old boy

2) he could have made that whole thing up

3) like Salem, maybe the town he lived in had poisoned water.

4) I have never had a testimony, even when I was doing everything right, (praying, reading scriptures, taking the sacrament, etc)

5) he was a 14 year old boy guys

6) really?

7) I know that it’s more likely for you to make up the whole thing than it actually being real

8) bc your subconscious is really cool and powerful

9) before the modern world, there was no Christianity

10) a fuckton of stuff that you do as a Mormon is actually witchcraft, baptism? Sacrament? Getting down on your knees to pray? Witchcraft bitches.

11) Christianity is the most contradicting religion I have ever seen

12) Christianity is so sexist

Comment your reasons

[trapper-faggot]

Making strawberry sauce with fresh strawberries, french toast, and I'm using the eggshells for some garden witch stuff so I'm drying those out

truly living my green witch/naturecore life

[witchblrdex]

@odinnschosen is a 24 year old  Pagan, Norse Heathen from the United States. She is  Autistic, Non-Binary, Queer, Ex-Christian, Ex-Mormon, escaped a cult, Bisexual, Sensitive, Spoonie Witch, Student Witch, and interested in  Astrology, Crystals, Divination, Tarot and/or Oracle cards, Eclectic witchcraft, Green witchcraft, Hearthcraft, Norse magic, known as “Seidr”; Kitchen witchcraft; spirit work. She worships  Odin, Freyja, Thor, Sif, Loki, Heimdal, Frigg, members of the Norse pantheon as individuals and as a category. 

[traumatizedhousegoose]

I battled an angel and he was a bitch ass pussy

[poisonnxkki]

Hi @icannotgetoverbirds thank you for your question, I'll try to answer it to the best of my abilities.

Prior to this post that you commented on, I actually did not have a lot of knowledge on reversing a baptism but after doing some research I've got some ideas. Now it is important to note that according to the catholic theology, baptism cannot be undone. They believe that even if you drop their faith and pick up a different belief system or religion, that your baptism will always remain. However, depending on who it is you speak to, there are ways around this. I know you have written here that you are an ex-mormon so this may not apply to you but I figured I would include that anyways.

Writing over the baptism- even if you do not believe that the baptism can be reversed, you can always re-baptize yourself in accordance with your new belief system. I would go about this in a similar fashion to a traditional catholic baptism but instead of reading from the bible and using holy water, I would use moon water and read something important to me (your witch's code of ethics, a passage that's important to your deity, etc.)

Chord-cutting ritual- you can do a chord cutting ritual where you sever your ties to Christianity (in your case it would be mormonism). This energetically severs your connection to the faith and should be enough to reverse a baptism.

Honestly though, doing what you are doing (by removing your records) is probably enough. I know you've said that you want to do something more ceremonial but I think it would be enough for you to burn any records you have from your baptism (of course after you are finished with them) therefore releasing you from their influence. I know I mentioned this in the previous post but I think the influence that a baptism has on us is entirely dependent on how much legitimacy we give it. If we believe it to have influence on us and our practice, it will. That's just my take but I hope that this was able to help you!