Posts by GentlyFeral

48

Would you?

by donkey in

jw
friends

scenario 1: if you could guarantee that you would not get caught would you steal a million dollars?.

scenario 2: if you could guarantee that you would not get caught would you steal a million dollars from the wtbs?.

scenario 3: if you could guarantee that you would not get caught would you steal a million dollars from a bank?.

GentlyFeral

Would I steal a million bux? Stated as baldly as that, it makes me queasy. And yet --

Ballistic: would we be able to pull a mind-job and condone it in some way, go through denial so we didn't have to think about it, or make some excuse to make it seem applaudable in true "spiritual warfare" manner.

*blink* OK, here goes!

I believe in curses as well as blessings. The bible-god handed both out freely, and if we're supposed to follow his example, well, hey ho... And besides, didn't he tell the Israelites to "despoil the Egyptians" on their way out?

But I like donkey's rationale best. Still, I'd have to tell myself the truth: that I did it for revenge and because I'm sick of poverty. Wouldn't require me to say that to anyone else, though. Is that hypocrisy? Maybe. But it doesn't feel heinous if I'm not lying to myself.

Spanner, It's impossible to say "no" to 1. and not the others, so it's a "no" to all 4 questions.

Um, why? It's the same filter as the pacifist who says, "But I would have fought Hitler." A pacifist who wouldn't have fought Hitler is probably either a coward or a selective sociopath, by which I mean someone more concerned with his own pristine conscience than the reality of other people's misery.

Teenyuck,

Deprived of an education? That one is parental and a personal responsibility. I happened to have a *progressive* mother who didn't think I could/would make it as a pioneer (read spiritually weak) therefore no good JW boy would want me, therefore I needed an education to get out of her house ASAP. Because I was, in her words, "A milstone around my neck."

Fine. You know what I did? I got student loans. I got grants. We were poor. I worked, I went to class and I lived at home. ...

*applause* How old were you when you did all this, btw? I'm 48 now, the sole support of my family (husband semi-incapacitated), and when I had a lot more youthful stamina, I was damnsure that a college education and a career would doom me at Armageddon. I knew that better than my own name. You learned from your own mother that a college education meant survival. I learned to distrust anyone who recommended a college education.

One you believe that "we alone speak for god," no matter who "we" are, you're a hostage. And how responsible is a hostage?

Anyhow, I'm only whimpering a little bit. If I could figure out how to support my family, hell yeah I'd go for an MBA or something. I no longer have the stamina to juggle work, school and family; somthing would have to give. So I can't see my way clear, and I'm learning as fast as I can from life experience. Fortunately the learning curve is getting steep enough to be of some use, lately.

That million in Brooklyn looks mighty damn tempting, though. In my dreams.

And finally, Francois:

You want to make it to the next level of being don't you?

Not anytime soon. I like samsara dammit!

gently feral

21

whats your religion???????

by betrayed in

jw
friends

.

my dad was a muslim and my mom was a methodist before they converted to jw.now that i am out what do i say if someone asks me my religion???

it may sound funny to members from western world but where i live you have to mention on any damn form you fill.

GentlyFeral

Well, I'm no longer obliged to "bear witness" for my gods -- I'm a pagan now. And I say so when anyone asks, but ...

If I lived some place where it wasn't safe to be an "odd" religion, and I had to pick something on official forms, I'd put down whatever religion most people belonged to. Here in the west, few members of the major religions take them seriously; it's common for lifelong church members never to go to church, but still identify themselves as such.

GentlyFeral

50

Hail Satan

by new in

jw
friends

.

i have a question for you who have a background of being wittness.i was forced to become a wittness by my mother.now when i am older i feel nothing but hatred becourse of that damnable brainwash.from my early boyhood i have allways been attracted with what is called satanism.this i confess now.the only true religion for me.that's i ask from you folks.is there anyboby out there who confess satanism after leaving jw's?

GentlyFeral

Welcome, new.

My main objection to satanism is that it dismisses ordinary folk as "the herd," who serve no purpose but to be exploited by satanists and others "in the know". It's kind of like the KKK attitude but extended to the entire human race.

Pure crap, that is. I'm pretty adventurous religiously, but there are two things I don't respect. One is legalism and the other is a disregard for the Golden Rule. Both are forms of disrespect for fellow-travelers in the universe, and I don't have to put up with it, goddammit!

Try websurfing "Isaac Bonewits satanist" and you'll come across his brief sojourn w/ Anton LaVey. He was not impressed. Also check out the Ontario Centre for Religious Tolerance; they have a thoughtful essay on Satanism, and a linklist.

Now, a lot of professing satanists do live by the Golden Rule, whether they admit it or not. These particular fools I suffer gladly. (Ravyn, just FYI, I'm not calling you any kind of fool, OK?)

GentlyFeral
hedge-witch, magic worker, educated holy fool

88

I am so angry I am sick to my stomach!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

by Ravyn in

jw
friends

i just had a jw come to my door and i had to threaten her to get her to leave!

i told the woman right off i was 'apostate' and had no intention of changing it.

she kept asking me personal questions which i told her were none of her business and she said she would have the elders come by and i told her that if they came by the better be wearing bullet proof vests!

GentlyFeral

Ravyn,

What ever'body said, and here's a little soothing story to go with your ice cream:

The jaydubs haven't had any luck in our trailer park for the past 8 years. I don't even think they work it as often as once a year any more.

Turns out that last time my daughter saw them, she followed them to all the neighbors' houses and told them how hellish it was to be raised as one.

She was 12 then, she's 20 now.

GentlyFeral

3

Apostate Daily Text: Triple play

by GentlyFeral in

jw
friends

found these three little gems at the end of someone's email last week.

found this at the end of somebody's email this morning:.

"if i pass for other than what i am/do you feel safer?

GentlyFeral

You're welcome. More to follow; perhaps I'll find something in Terence McKenna next.

GentlyFeral

90

Spells, Wiccans, and Witchcraft

by SpunkyChick in

i just returned home from a nightmarish trip to chicago.

i came in peace, and was shit on by my aunts and a cousin.

what they did was unforgivable.

GentlyFeral

Sixy,

So is starting my car [a form of energy manipulation], and I believe that one would have better success just running over the accursed!

Yeah, but that's so ... so traceable.

GentlyFeral

90

Spells, Wiccans, and Witchcraft

by SpunkyChick in

i just returned home from a nightmarish trip to chicago.

i came in peace, and was shit on by my aunts and a cousin.

what they did was unforgivable.

GentlyFeral

Cat1759, I have the highest respect for Don Michael Kraig; heard him speak at a pagan convention this summer. If you want to do the whole Golden Dawn panoply thing, he's excellent -- but it looks exhausting. He gave a great little workshop on trance and hypnotism, but has yet to write a book about it; I wish he would.

GentlyFeral
back to work now

90

Spells, Wiccans, and Witchcraft

by SpunkyChick in

i just returned home from a nightmarish trip to chicago.

i came in peace, and was shit on by my aunts and a cousin.

what they did was unforgivable.

GentlyFeral

Spunky, check out the works of Z Budapest also. Somewhere in one of her books -- Grandmother of Time, I think -- she describes a group working which laid a curse on a local rapist. The crucial phrase of the spell was "Let him be caught/By his own error, by his own fault!" The felon left his glasses at the scene of the next crime, and the police traced them back to him and caught him.

I think something of the kind is needed here; all you need do is kind of shape the psychic landscape to arrange this kind of thing to happen by "accident" or apparently "natural causes". Your relatives are acting shamefully but don't see it. Do you want to stop them cold, reveal their own nastiness to them, or do you just want revenge?

Revenge won't cure anything. A cure leaves you the moral high ground -- but it's less likely.

Me, I'm a big ol' softie, but I have reservations about the Wiccan Rede. Generally, I agree with what Raven said.

Oh, and plmkrazy...

eww, he gathered my fingernail clippings and hair from my hair brush and I don't know what else and burned them while looking into a mirror

Did anything happen? Anyhow, whatever he was trying to do, I should think the use of a mirror would bounce the spell back on him!

And, you know, it occurs to me that burning YOUR OWN nail-clippings, hair, etc., would be a powerful symbol of SEPARATION from all that crap...a way of making yourself VANISH from their crazy dysfunctional lives. But that's just intuitive, I can't cite references or anything.

Email me and we can talk about this in detail and at leisure.

(edited to improve content)

GentlyFeral
magic worker

8

Did your kids wise up before you did?

by GentlyFeral in

jw
friends

....don't really know how to phrase my question any better than that.. see, i left when my daughter was 12 and my son was 19. but they were both ready to leave years before that!.

at 17, my son heard a talk about conforming to the borg.

"don't put any energy into being different," the speaker said.

GentlyFeral

....Don't really know how to phrase my question any better than that.

See, I left when my daughter was 12 and my son was 19. But they were both ready to leave years before that!

At 17, My son heard a talk about conforming to the bOrg. "Don't put any energy into being different," the speaker said. "Let ~~the bOrg~~ God's organization set your standards for you." At that moment, my son knew he would never be baptized.

My daughter was far ahead of him; at the age of eight, as the result of a school science project, she was convinced that reincarnation was real. (No, it wasn't part of the lesson plan.) She tells me now that she began searching for other spiritual information shortly after she began learning to read: "I started reading the Bible story book at meetings," she says. "'This is pretty interesting,' I thought. 'I wonder what else is out there."

So I guess I'm asking a bundle of questions: Not only "were your kids ready to leave before you did?" but also: "Why?" "What did they believe that was different?" and "How did they arrive at their conclusions?"

Wait'n' for the stories,

GentlyFeral

3

Apostate Daily Text: Triple play

by GentlyFeral in

jw
friends

found these three little gems at the end of someone's email last week.

found this at the end of somebody's email this morning:.

"if i pass for other than what i am/do you feel safer?

GentlyFeral

Found these three little gems at the end of someone's email last week.

Found this at the end of somebody's email this morning:

"if i pass for other than what i am/do you feel safer?" ~lani ka'ahumanu

"when one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime."
~angela davis

"There are only supposed to be certain people who are worth the trouble and you basically have to be middle class or exceptional in some way, really beautiful or really smart or be kissed by Jesus for god's sake--the rest of us, we're background noise and our stories aren't important. And I just don't believe that. I think the working class is the story of this country. The rich and the upper class have been riding on our asses for hundreds of years, and I don't want to see us made over into a story that glorifies them. Our stories are glory enough." ~dorothy allison

GentlyFeral