My Last Post
I'm going to leave this community after reading the responses to this post.

When I first joined Nonfluffypagans, I really thought that the purpose of the community would be to discuss ways to make our Pagan practice realistic and substantial, maybe incorporating stuff about dark Gods and initiatory passages, the value of necessary destruction, ways to make a real difference in the world rather than just dancing 'round the maypole.

But over the months I've belonged, I see that the group is really geared mainly toward tearing people down. Nothing makes you feel quite so good about yourself as being snarky at folks behind their backs, does it? Only it's worse - you're not really doing it behind their backs; you're doing it in a public forum, so it will probably get back to them eventually. Even if not, I say words have power. And even if you don't put your will behind it, you are still slinging anger/dislike/hatred in the direction of a real person.

This doesn't just apply to people I happen to respect, like Oberon. I'm not a big fan of Silver Ravenwolf's books either, but you know what? She's still a human being, and she doesn't deserve abuse.

Of course there are both light and dark in the world, both necessary and both sacred. Shit happens. But that doesn't mean we need to add to that shit. If you don't like the way people do their thing, if you think it might have negative consequences in the world, then write to them and try constructively and kindly to convince them otherwise. Or just do your own thing in the world that you think will have a better result. But bitching about people and practices you don't like will have no useful effect. It's a waste of time, bad magic, and I wash my hands of it.