I cannot believe I am stooping so low as to write this post.
Fluffy Bunnies is a term used within the pagan community to describe, essentially, how much less informed and trusting other people are than you, new wide-eyed converts to wicca, or people in the community who focus on the love and light aspects of witchcraft and talk a lot about the “burning times”.
As far as I understand it, the primary goal of fluff-flaming is to prove how knowledgeable you are by comparison. This is something I have seen all over the shop in paganisim and witchcraft – the all-consuming need to look like you know more about (insert topic here) than everyone else, all the time.
The other goal of the Campaign Against Fluffy Bunnies is protecting the witchy faith (whatever that is) from people who make us look bad – the teenager doing it to freak out her christian parents, the goth clique trying to look alternative and cool, instant witches who claim they are wiccan after reading one book (which usually turns out to be Silver RavenWolf – I like Silver Ravenwolf!) or anyone that says wicca is all about love and light. I guess you’d say that it’s about stamping out immature behaviour in the community (which is most definitely not restricted to Wicca and, lets face it, is a battle that will never be won).
Whereas I understand the need to protect the image of our faith, the whole fluffy bunny idea really irritates me. Yes, the insta-witches are annoying, and people operating on crappy information are also annoying (the whole “never again the burning times” thing is REALLY annoying) but to me it just seems like a waste to focus time on the bad representations of our faith and spreading more hate around. It’s not important – either the so-called “fluffy bunnies” are happy in their bubble of love and light (which is fine by me), or they will respond to further education about the craft and their original mega-enthusiasim will hit a steady rate, or it is a fad (every group has em’) and they fall out of it, or perhaps they are the kind of person who use their faith purely as a back up of how stubbornly right and better than everyone else they are, and hells bells does every faith have a big bunch of those people.
I think it’s stupid. Wicca and witchcraft does not need more hate or internal resistance and this whole cutural “fluff bunny” thing is ridiculous.
What makes it even more hilarious, is that the term was coined from an episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” to describe crappy wannabe wiccans. Ho ho ho.
I’m taking part (very erratically, mind you) in the Pagan Blog Project. F is for Fluff Bunnies!
For me, the whole anti-fluffy-bunny thing is because largely I’m on the receiving end of the stereotype. Some see me and think Priestess of Avalon-Goddess Spirituality = Fluffy Bunny. And while I love fluffy bunnies because they’re just so damn cute, I’m not a white light only type of person. I acknowledge, honour and celebrate that Goddess, God and nature as a whole has its destructive side that isn’t so white light and nice. They are the ultimate Creators and Destroyers and there isn’t any getting around that. I also notice a propensity of the fluffy bunny white lighters to be the sorts of people who have been very emotionally damaged in some way, almost unanimously in childhood, and seem to be solely embracing light-work in order to escape from the negativity that once permeated their lives. Fair enough, but these things have a way of haunting us if we don’t deal with them. Sometimes the Dark Goddess shows us Her face and old hurts come up or new ones arise and while throwing the light on it is totally good, sometimes it’s necessary to embrace the darkness of it all too. That’s just my take on it. I tend to agree that if being a fluffy-bunny-white-light-only type makes a person happy then more power to them. Unfortunately, those people aren’t often as live-and-let-live though and look down their noses at those who believe and do otherwise.
Just my take on it. Great post!!
Hey Elle, thanks for commenting!
Super interesting. I used to worry a lot about being seen as a fluffy bunny, as I am into faeries and mermaids in a spiritual way, and because I am so enamoured with the whole Priestess of the Goddess/Avalon thing. And when I was writing the post, I was thinking of Priestesses of Avalon and how they must get a lot of flack, completely undeservedly – as through years of working through the year of brigit Ana as in kathy’s book (this is year 3) the major thing I get from the work is that it’s all about transformation, sticking it out and facing both your light and shadow aspects. I guess it’s just the claiming the priestess title thing that really riles people up.
As far as I am concerned, goddess spirituality is not all about white lights and lightworking and stuff at all – She brings out your crap so you deal with it. Stuff has to die for stuff to be re-born.
I wouldn’t say I am fluffy, I’m far too into shadow work and transformation and devotional practices for that, but I can understand how others would think I was, and I don’t care.
I agree some people need the white-light-and-love-only version, and the darker stuff isn’t for them – and that is totally OK. I think the problem happens when people from either side get hostile to the people on the other side because they are different and, therefore, not doing it correctly. Sigh.
All good points and things I agree with. I do try to avoid fluffy-flaming (great term!). We’re all just trying to follow our path and be true to ourselves. For me, it means embracing the shadows and darkness along with the lighter stuff.
Ha ha, I recently wrote a post asking if I was a Fluffy Bunny. I decided I was not (?), however it is rather funny to analyze the whole thing..