Everything Under the Moon

Hello! I may ramble for a bit, but I hope I make sense! And please, please don't start any fights about this topic. Please, take a deep breath before you even read this. I've seen lesser posts on EUTM start nasty fights and get folks banned and feelings hurt.

Currently, I'm just a secular witch with no solid direction and a love for learning. When I was learning about Wicca as a child, the atmosphere was an open one. Even when delving into more traditional, controlled practices, there was still an air of the playing field being level for everyone. Now, a lot of the blog posts, resources, and literature I'm reading for chaos magic consists of "We are better than the rest of the world! They are all fools and so are you if you aren't like us! We are superior because of who we are, not what we do!" Now, I could just be incredibly sensitive, but this is the same energy I get in my daily going-on as a woman in the aerospace engineering field. The sense that I am not welcome because I am not them. (I'm no snowflake! I just don't understand the necessity for people to feel and communicate that way, even in educational resources. There is such a large amount of repellent egotism that is not necessary to the practice itself.)

I'm not trying to conflate the two, but what are you all's thoughts? Have any of you dealt with this feeling? If so, how did you get around it?

Im a secular solitaire practitioner of folk magic & have participated in 3 quite active witchcraft discussion boards over 15 years. I've done most of my posting at EUTM. I prefer the helpful atmosphere & less sniping at this site than I've experienced at the others. I'm surely naively unfamiliar with anything of, by or about chaos magic (except for Austin Spare's contribution to sigil magic). I'm aware of an almost knee jerk, gag reflex of a few shamanic-styled reconstruction types to (some) Wiccan's "harm none" policy and the common use of "hex & curse" to protect your own when it's needed, & preferably responsibly & not for petty kicks. In all 3 of the boards I've been at there has been reasonable willingness to disagree without outright slamming another's opinion by posters, and frazzled moderators who have refereed when combatants were duking it out. From what I've observed, it's been the posers &'posture-ers that claimed superiority who have been hassled off the sites with "put-up & prove-it, or shut-up." The response to a magical practice one-upmanship tactic is don't-try-&-lord-it-over-us with your B.S. At least that's been my experience.

Now when it comes to that glass enclosure in the workplace ... I'd worked for the male-bonded RC Church over 20 years so ive seen how it works; & before being in the church I'd worked 10'years as a civilian with a boss who had been a colonel in military intelligence (more male bonding). I can be a useful idiot at times but I learned to get my facts straight & be concise, & to correct my mistakes quickly. The online magical community works about the same & for years we women have out numbered the men (think about that).

The reading I've done surrounding chaos magick has had some of the flavor you're describing, but so does the Hello Kitty Online forum. Lol

Unfortunately, there will always be a sub-section of any grouping of humans that believe they are the only ones with "the answer"; if that sub-section seems to be dominant in the group, I've found it useless to do anything other than smile, nod and then continue the search for my tribe.

Once or twice, I wound up creating my own tribe and weeding the riff-raff out to suit my own tastes.

Not very helpful as suggestions go, possibly, but hopefully it might give you comfort knowing there are jerks everywhere.

...

Okay, that ended up WAY less motivational than I planned; sorry about that.

My feeling is that anyone, or any group, that feels the need to trumpet their superiority is actually insecure in their position. Hidden Figures dramatized that pretty well. A trio of black women in the early 1960's working circles around a group of white men at NASA. I'm really not familiar with chaos magic, but I grew up in an extended defense contractor family. It was a very male dominated industry, and women weren't considered to be suited to the "meat and potatoes" of the whole thing. They could be secretaries, cleaning crew, lunch ladies, but not scientists or engineers. Those occupations were only suitable for the superior male mind. I will have to research chaos magic, but it may very well be a similar situation. That those of us who don't practice it, are somehow lacking. I prefer to think that having many different disciplines and paths practiced, makes a healthy spiritual ecosystem.

Uh, wait - there's a Hello Kitty online chat? I might need to look into that.

I tend to ignore those who say they’re superior but if one of them won’t stop I look into ways to counteract mostly by history and facts.

My ex-husband would degrade those he found lacking in anything. Such as those playing online games. (Forgive me if I’m breaking something and I’ll erase it) he would tell them to die or their mother should’ve had an abortion. There was so much negativity and cruelty. I’ve been healthier, mentally and physically.

When dealing with physical stuff and work, I work harder and find ways to improve

LoL @ Spirit Talker, they've just opened a Hello Kitty Coffehouse/Bar about 75 miles south of here. https://www.sanrio.com/pages/hellokittycafe-grand
I always felt order is what springs from chaos. Like when you gotta rearrange the bookshelf, yikes! What craziness insues, but when you are done, order. You cannot have chaos all the time, it's just exhausting. There had to be some sort of balance. And like the others said, there's extremists in every school of thought.
Bb, Firebird

I've learned more than I thought I would from this thread. I came out the womb a Hello Kitty fan. Her face seems so peaceful.
In all seriousness, I could benefit from a thicker skin and a better knowledge of when to exit a bad situation. There's nasty people everywhere. (Hopefully they stay out of the Hello Kitty cafes.)
My stepfather is the same way, LC! I think that's why this kind of thing got to me as strongly as it did.