Last night as I was working listening to the excellent Dark Side of Fey Podcast which featured Christopher Penczak, a dude I greatly respect for his awesomeness and his comprehensive witchcraft course The Temple of Witchcraft books, they were talking about the idea of resonance, and how it used by newbies and “fluffy bunnies” to mean that they get to play with only the stuff that makes them feel good and ignore the bad stuff.
I hate the term fluff bunny, as it’s so mean. No, it’s not mean, it’s patronising and condescending and superior. I’ve read the wicca-for-the-rest-of-us article, along with the rest of the online-wicca world, and all I discerned is that fluff bunny means idiotic newbie. Fair enough, we do get more than our fare share of idiotic newbies in our weirdo religion, but I hate the word. Being bitchy about it isn’t gonna get us anywhere, surely.
However, Christopher presented a different angle which I hadn’t thought of. Well, I had thought of it, but I lacked the vocab and wisdom to put it into words. Certain people like to take the good stuff out of spirituality, and leave the bad. I think that’s it in a nutshell. They’d prefer to stick with the angels and light-and-love goddess stuff and all is one in the world stuff, exploring the things that feel good and ignoring the stuff that feels bad.
Personally, I don’t think that is a bad thing. Some people don’t want to go spiraling deeply into spirituality, they want it as an added bonus in their life that keeps them happy. I’m not even sure I want to go spiraling into the deep dearths of spirituality sometimes. They use the topic of resonance to emphasise connection to the good things, in lieu of the bad.
That got me thinking about resonance. I am as pro good stuff as the next noob, and as terrified of the hard stuff as everyone else. But there are things I am attracted to theat I know carry spiritual risks. I’ve been wanting to embark on Kathy Jones’ Priestess of Avalon training for over a year now, but was too pussy to do it. Last time I committed to something like that, my world fell apart. I’m gonna do it this time, and wait and see what aspect of my life is going to have a complete and utter overhaul.
My goddess is a powerful faery woman, and even though when I first knew her she presented a very proud and slightly scary edge, I know that’s not all of who she is. But I know she has that Hardcore side. I think with faery, it’s never going to be all suns and moons, as faery is too raw and caught up in the physical. That’s why I love it, and that’s why I am scared of it.
Samhain resonates. Everything about late October resonates, and I get so indecently excited about Halloween every year. But in my view Samhain isnt all about pure love and light – it’s strength, death, power, and darkness, and acknowledging the dark within you. I’m not very good at this stuff, and I have yet to read something groundbreaking on how to work and honour this kind of energy, except hold true to your promises. I resonate with Oya, but it’s not a puppies-and-kisses resonance. I resonate with mermaids, but they ain’t puppies and kisses either. I resonate with Nolava, the purple goddess of Avalon, and she is a scary mix of puppies, kittens, knives and death.
Perhaps venturing into the dark stuff displays a strength of commitment and trust that I am not so sure we all have. I am the ultimate commitment phobe, so I should know. Perhaps there comes a time when we can’t ignore the dark stuff that resonates, and we grow the balls to open up to the scary stuff, confront ourselves and then get reborn better than before. Perhaps wicca stagnates without this confrontation, and the no-advanced-wicca-texts outcry is because to grow and go further, you have to descend to the dark side every once in a while. Maybe that’s what advanced spirituality is about, and it’s not really writeable.
I’ve just found your blog, I hope you’re still writing as I’m finding it incredibly interesting.
I too believe in faerie, and I too find it terrifying and wild and very very exhilarating. My path walks the edges and as I explore more I hope to discover more about faerie, preferably without getting lost! But I think you’re right (and so is Christopher), people are afraid to explore what scares them and personally I think that can lead to stagnation. I hope to be brave enough to really delve but I guess we’ll just have to see!
Hi there! It’s nice to meet you! How lovely to think, damn straight I’m gonna get back to the Faerywitch blog this week and find a comment there waiting for me!
I’m afraid! Always! Spirituality is just this massive unknown quantity and we aren’t really sure what it’s gonna do to us, so we wuss out. Bit like trying to get to the bottom of the garden in the dark. That’s what I think anyway. I’ve been having a go at facing the fear a little bit.
Good luck! Kick fear’s ass!
Backatcha! Glad you’re still blogging, a lot of what you write strikes a chord with me and it’s interesting to get another perspective. I hope we both have the courage to venture into the garden after dark, I’ll let you know what I find!