The Good Side of Fluff?

[yewberry]

I often feel sorry for beginners online because they do come in at a point in their wisdom walk that older Pagans/Witches often don't remember being at. They post and get squashed for simply being where they are right now. And yes, sometimes they can be made to be fluffy or a biting bunny as we used to say in the 80's. Backed into a corner, made to feel inadequate, stupid, immature and so on, they get defensive, cling to their learned so called one truth, indulge in 'you are all mean and nasty' and depart. End of lesson. On both sides.

There's another component to the whole fluffy issue: a largely manufactured history of oppression gives noobs an annoying, indignant bluster that brands them from the get-go. Often any disagreement is seen as an example of that oppression. There's really only so much one can do with someone who responds this way.

Just about everybody was fluffy once...or at least fluffier. I took my smack-downs and learned from them. Hell, I'm still taking them. I'm on a path of blood and death and sex as much as one of light and joy and kindness. Wisdom has come to me in many forms, and not all of them were entirely pleasant. To sum up: kid gloves are not part of the uniform.



Brina

[AmberHeart]

To sum up: kid gloves are not part of the uniform.

Brina

Oh yeah!

Wrapping one's head and heart around THAT is pretty much a defining crossroads for anyone on a spiritual journey. And the very young, the unprepared and the uncommitted just do not get it. Hence another attraction of fluff.

Experience teaches. Humans learn longest through pain and loss. Genuine loss that is, as you pointed out. The sub-cult of witchy myartrdom has mythic roots but causal history is always multi-faceted.

Amber