The Wyrd-Worker's Monthly Newsletter for July 2022
Hello, dear readers! It’s the end of July and that means time for another newsletter. I spent a significant amount of time being quiet online again as I was more focused on family. I do have a few things to round up and share with you, though. But first, as always, a few thoughts.
Enjoying the Bounty While we Labor
Tomorrow (for those reading this newsletter on release day), many witches and Pagans will be celebrating Lammas or Loaf Mass. often observed as a festival of the grain harvest. Many cultures have this idea of a festival of first harvest. In agricultural societies, it marks that point in time where the labor is no longer focused solely on tending the fields to get crops to grow, but partly shifts to pulling in the fruits of that labor. It’s only natural to enjoy those fruits and celebrate the results of the labors of the growing season, even as people continue to labor so that other crops (or the fruits of the orchards) continue to grow.
I think that on a metaphorical level, many of us tend to think of the “harvest” and the “growing seasons” as distinct, mutually exclusive events. We work hard to make things grow, then we enjoy them. As we consider the first harvest festival, I think it’s good to consider that there are other harvest festivals yet to come, which serves as a reminder that our idea of “work, then get rewarded” is a falsehood.
For some, this may be a reminder to keep working rather than resting on their laurels as if what they have accomplished is all there is to accomplish. What is more needed, I think, is the reminder that it’s okay to enjoy the fruits of our labor as they come to us. Those moments of enjoyment will sustain us for the further work we have ahead. So let’s be sure to enjoy our successes when we can and allow them to energize us for doing the work we still need to complete.
Tweets and Threads of Interest
As is often the case, I ran across a couple of “ex-witch testimonies” on YouTube. I tweeted a short thread as I watched one of them in which I talked about how I find the Christian sites that promote these testimonies to be doing something ethically dubious at best. After watching a couple more over the following week or so, I decided to tweet out a thread pointing out a common theme I’ve noticed in many of these testimonies. As I continued to watch such testimonies throughout the month, I found they ranged from feeling as if they had no substance at all to being amazed just how much someone can brag about having (allegedly) been so powerful and evil then and how they’re the best Christian to ever Christian now. Apparently, none of the Christians who took pleasure in reminding queer people that pride was a sin back in June have gotten around to talking to this dude.
I also tweeted a few thoughts on a B-rated movie I watched on Amazon called “Bad Witch.” It was gloriously bad, but interesting in that it’s one of the few movies I’ve seen male witches portrayed. And they weren’t called warlocks!
An Orthodox Christian tweeted about reasons people leave Christianity and I decided to deconstruct his alleged reasons. The account has since been suspended, but my thread going through his “reasons” point by point is still available.
Someone humorously tweeted a color diagram of the AWANA game square and called it an occult symbol. I humorously noted that it’s even the right colors (i.e. those often used to represent the four elements) arranged in the (commonly considered) correct order. It increased my amusement. (Hey, not all my tweets have to be serious!)
I had a few thoughts on the doctrine of hell and the morality of any deity who sends people to eternal torment for any reason. (Spoiler: such a deity has no morals)
I have health conditions that would make getting COVID particular dangerous for me. Getting COVID would likely kill my husband. As such, I’m astounded by people who don’t understand why some of us want both vaccines and masks and shared a word or two about that on Twitter as well.
One of the things you run into online as a theistic witch is anti-theists who try to act as if every theistic religion — and most of them don’t realize there’s any other kind of religion — is just like Christianity. I tweeted a thread about an example of this mentality and where it leads to erroneous assumptions. Along a similar vein, I did a thread on the Christian concept of sin (at least as I learned it during my evangelical days) and how it doesn’t really make sense in my religion or many like it.
I’m grateful that witchcraft and Pagan communities seem to be widely inclusive and forward-thinking when it comes to issues of equality and social justice. Sadly, that’s not universal and you’ll sometimes see someone say something bigoted and harmful. Recently, a group of Gardnerian Wiccans decided to provide an example of this by being transphobic. Fortunately, other Gardnerians chose to speak up for trans-inclusivity. I decided to take that opportunity to publicly embrace and support my trans and non-binary sibling witches as well.
Some people might find it maccabre, but I’m fascinated by death. I think that death is an important part of the cycle of life and should be embraced as such. To that end, I did a short thread on my feelings about death and what may lie beyond.
A Wild Blog Post Appears
My blog has mostly laid dormant for years now. However, earlier this month, I ended up writing a post. A group of online friends got talking about the idea of children professing religious faith and getting baptized and I decide I wanted to share my thoughts on the topic. I had originally planned to do it as a Twitter thread, but eventually decided the topi was much more suited for a blog post.
Wrapping It Up
And that covers the things I’ve been up to during the month of July. I hope everyone has a great August and I’ll see you at the end of next month. Blessed be.