Wyrd Things and Red Flags
Because
of what I have experienced in my life as a mystic and in my dealings
with other Heathens, I consider myself to be a fairly open-minded and
tolerant person. Many of my personal friends are mystically inclined
and they know they can come to me for advice and guidance or even just
support and encouragement, if need be. I try not to be too judgmental
of others as a general rule because I’ve had enough wyrd things happen
in my life to know a lot of things are possible.At the same time, there is a difference between this and being gullible. Many people who are used to criticism for their quirks of seership or magical abilities, are very hesitant to criticise others because we know it sucks. It sucks big time to tell someone “you’re doing it wrong” and essentially shit all over someone’s spirituality. That being said, it sucks worse to be taken advantage of and/or messed up whether by someone who is a deliberate charlatan or truly believes what they perceive and experience is real. Spiritual abuse is in my opinion the worst kind. This is coming from someone who has experienced physical, verbal, and sexual abuse over a lifespan. You can choose your family, you can choose as an adult what you do with your life. But when someone decides to screw with your connection to the Divine, especially when they try to speak for your Gods or force you to do questionable things in Their name, there is a problem.
My general rule of thumb is to pay attention to my red flags. My intuition about others is never wrong, and when a red flag manifests it may be anywhere from immediately to years down the road, to get an idea of why that sprang up. I may not shun someone right away if a red flag goes up, but it is an indicator to keep a close watch and see what develops.
Again, I have had friends discuss a fair amount of wyrd happenings with me, visions, magical experiments, and intense Deity and wight dealings. Because of my own wyrdness, it takes a lot to raise a red flag. When it does go up, I don’t like it, because I don’t want to be judgmental and rude, but I can’t ignore it either.
The line where I will speak out on a red flag is if someone is doing harm to self or others. Then, and only then, do I feel I have the right to say anything that could be seen as harsh. With regards to people who might just be a little “off”, I have given private counsel that is more gentle, but in the case where harm is being done and particularly physical harm, there is no nice way to say “Hey, stop.” If someone is going to be hit by a car, you’re not going to dance to get them out of the way, you’re going to shove them out of the way.
This doesn’t mean mysticism is always safe. In fact, I have criticised those who would teach practices like seiðr to all and sundry because there is an inherent danger even if you’re “wired” for it.
As I have said elsewhere, it is not slander and defamation if I am pointing out things people are saying about their own practices. I have tried to go to people with concerns and questions, because nobody likes a big ugly blowup mess. When concerns and complaints are ignored or minimized, however, there is a problem.
But at the end, when one mystic is proclaiming themselves to be a mystic (or by any label) and is talking about harmful and dangerous things in the name of their/our Gods, it does a disservice to all who identify as mystics (or by any label). To be tolerant of everything and anything as just mere “devotional practice” and “paths to the Gods” is to blaspheme the very Gods I love and those who serve Them. This is not a mere matter of whether Frey likes honey mead or Goldschlager, or whether Freya likes song and dance or sex rites in Her honor better. In some cases, it is literally a matter of life and death.
I try very hard to be fair and to keep an open mind when dealing with Deities and wights who are bigger than myself and see the bigger picture that we do not. I try very hard to be fair when hearing the accounts of those who serve Them. It is never fun to get a red flag and it is never fun when the time comes to speak up about the red flag. I hate it, especially as there’s other things I’d rather be doing. But to ignore it is to ignore the elephant in the room who will trample us all. And in that case I think pointing at the elephant rather than making assumptions about the elephant, is good enough. I have tried to do this, and I have also tried to only do this when there is a need. There is plenty of other stuff I have been privy to that I may not think is kosher but is not necessarily harmful, either.
It’s never fun to tell someone “you’re doing it wrong” when the same thing has been said to you many times over. But there’s doing it wrong and then there’s doing it wrong, and even if people are going to do whatever the Hel they want or think the Gods are telling them, there are budding Heathen mystics looking for answers who look at my site and that of other people and I would like to at least keep them out of harm’s way if I can.
The fact is, anyone who is called for service in the role of priest is, at some point, going to be faced with a moral dilemma. Do you speak against it? Do you keep silent? It depends on what it is. I’m not talking about Christian clergy preaching “family values”, necessarily, but I am talking about Pagans and Heathens alike. Just because we don’t have a list of thou shalt nots and don’t have an angry God wanting to throw us into a lake of fire for misbehaving, does not mean all morality and ethics go out the window. It’s a tough call to make, but as I’ve said before, do not aspire to a leadership position – such as priesthood is – if you cannot lead, if you do not have the courage to speak out against evil when you see it and take the backlash that will inevitably ensue over unpopular opinions.
I think Heathenry could stand some fresh blood, a good balance of tradition and innovation, history and personal gnosis. I think in America due to our lack of connection to European homelands where mythology lived, we have had an especially hard time with this, as we are not part of the land or the culture. And thus we see the extremes of dogmatism to lore (which is essentially regurgitation of text) or dogmatism to personal gnosis. There needs to be a happy medium, made relevant for today while still respecting the old ways. I think mystics within Heathenry can work together with scholars, and Hel even scholar-mystics, and there need not be a contradiction or incompatibility between the two. Ultimately what is important even more than mysticism and scholarship is deeds, and living the religion and the culture – a folkway if you will. I believe this is possible but is still an uphill struggle where we’re having to rest every so often, take a time out and look around.
But I refuse to let either the lore-dogmatists or the okkultniks destroy my connection to the Gods and wights, and hurt those under my rooftree, in my innangeard. I won’t deny red flags if they come up even if it means killing some sacred cows in the process, and I won’t let criticism stop me from doing what I think is necessary for the greater good of Heathenry. I believe these issues all need to be addressed, for greater understanding, for knowledge that is power. Those who would be willfully blind in these issues will not be king.
© 2009 Svartesól.
Essay reproduced with the kind permission of Svartesol.
