Hey Online Pagan Community, Go Touch Some Grass and Breathe

 Starting to remember why I hated the FB Pagan Community, and one of the reasons I deleted my original account.  Constant bickering and judgement--the need for control and impossibly high expectations.  

It's not just a FB thing--it's an online thing.  And it's not just the Pagan Community, but the PC is the one that I'm involved with the most.  It's not a new thing, by any means.  It's just exhausting.  There's awful things going on, and yall worried about how someone else practices and believes?  Because someone's practicing Pop Culture Paganism?  Because they have their own views about mythology or their experiences with the fae are different?  What about your own practice?  Your own beliefs?  Why are you allowing a stranger's practices affect you?  Honestly, if someone works with Marvel Thor, how does that affect your personal relationship with Thor?

How they may or may not practice doesn't dirty the spiritual pool.

Stop trying to control other people--learn self control, self discipline.  Clearly, you have a lot of self work and care to do.

Drama is addicting.  Bitching is addicting.  A couple of things that helped me break out of that addiction cycle/spiral was:

1. What Would Hestia Do?  There's not a lot of myths on the Greek Hearth Goddess because She minded Her business.  She focused on things that gave Her joy, peace, and purpose--which was tending to Hearth and Home.  
2. One and Done posting.  Bitch once, move on.  Stay on yourself.  Remind yourself that you already complained, so move onto another subject.  Eventually the bitching stops.  
3. Also ask yourself--okay, I'm complaining, what I am willing to do about this?  How I can change my environment for peace?  If it's more attacking and judgements, you're doing it wrong.  
4. Give yourself grace.  It's hard to break bad habits, but its possible.  You may have to try different things until something sticks.  I ain't perfect, I still slip back from time to time.  Hold myself accountable, give myself grace, maybe ask for help, and watch my steps a little better next time.
5. Let Go of the Need for Control.  Again, takes time and effort.  I'm in a 40's.  I've been online since 2003.  I don't care how another person believes or practices.  I don't care if people think I'm a fraud or delusional.  It's whatever to me.  It doesn't affect my path at all, unless I allow it.  They ain't here paying my bills or helping me with my mental health.  They ain't helping me at all.  They're just being unhappy and judgemental, or whatever's going on in their lives, however they coping and projecting.  It doesn't affect my relationships with my Kindred.  It doesn't affect my magik, my trance work, my studies.  If anything, I avoid those people and environments--hate is contagious.  I ain't growing if I stay.  Fighting, bickering, belittling, and judging ain't helping me.  I don't need to defend my ways to them.  
6. Grow up and Don't be a dick.
7. Don't fall for the rage bait.

Some things I may find silly, off or weird, but who cares what my opinion is?  That ain't my path.  It's yours.  If it's helping you, ain't harming others, do your thing.  I don't know everything.  Just because I haven't experienced the entities that you have or in the way that you have, doesn't mean either one of us is wrong.  I personally believe in the existence of all beings--because they're real to someone and it ain't my place to say what's real and what isn't. Thanks to the Gods, I stopped know what reality is.  Reality is highly subjective...and arrogant.

These days, how do you even know you're arguing with a person?  Much less another practitioner.  Yall could just be wasting energy on bots, AI, and trolls.  Is that really worth it?  How's your path going?  Why do you care so much?  Ask yourself these questions.  Do the shadow work.  Heal the roots.

I've been doing that for years.  One day I just got tired of my own bullshit.  I was tired of being a hypocrite.  I confronted myself.  Held myself accountable.  I began the long, hard work.  Questioning myself.  Doing the work.  Failing and succeeding, and failing and forgiving myself.  When my Shadow Sister brings up something annoying, hateful, and ugly, I explore this reflection of myself and work to heal and break the toxic pattern.

Oh, and another thing.  Unplug.  Go on an social media hiatus for a year or two.  Remove yourself from those bitching, bickering, judgemental, controlling, high expectation communities.  Focus on your own practices without someone else's input.  Again, give yourself grace.  If your path doesn't look how you think or others think it should, just let it evolve.  Let go of the need to control and the expectations.  Let the Powers that Be show you what you could be missing out on.  Let go and flow.  See what happens.

People gonna people.  The bickering ain't gonna stop, especially since there's so many self righteous and Batman types out there trying to safe worlds.  Some of yall may change, maybe are trying to change.  Some will never.  For that small %, breathe.  Took me a long time, too.  I know the signs.  About time for me to take a little break, too.  

Face to the Sun.
Trust in Joy.
Flow with the Spiritual Chaos...

- Priestess Foxlyn