Crookedlystrangecandy - Gala, Kurgarra (odd, Mostly Harmless)

Dandelions symbolize everything I want to be in life

The very term ‘the crooked path’ suggests at first glance that the path of witchcraft is the opposite path to that of Christianity. The term is in fact related to the tradition of ‘sacred walking’, of walking for meditative purposes by early Celtic Christians on pilgrimage. These tracks were laid out to connect sites of holy significance and being on the ‘straight and narrow path’ symbolised the meditative walkers adherence to God.[6] As an old Gaelic maxim tells us, ‘He who will not take advice will take the crooked track.’

But like with many seemingly ‘Christian reversals’ that have found their way into the witchcraft legacy there is more to this notion of the ‘crooked path’ than simply doing the opposite to the church. Like Hermes’ Caduceus the ‘straight tracks’ around Britain (and other locations) and the human spine itself, the straight path is always coiled around by twin serpent lines. In the case of these twining ‘serpent lines’ in the land numerous ancient pagan holy sites emerge along them. It seems that our ancestors set out these holy sites both to recognise the straight track down the middle and the crooked one that twined around it. Like the migratory path of geese, something often associated with the host of the dead in flight along the ‘ghost tracks’; these straight tracks are best appreciated from the air. The ‘crooked’ snaking paths around them however are very much the path of the walker, they penetrate the land with many a holy well and standing stone.

So we might say that in reviling the serpent, in reviling this crooked and snaking path, it was walking the path of the earth and its interior that the Christian saints were rejecting. It also implies that if we agree to walk this path we accept the ‘hooks and crooks’ of the road that may obscure what lies ahead and agree to follow the irregularities of the earth’s path and be guided by our intuition. We could even say that in the context of this book, itself an exercise in meditative walking, that the scholarly component of witchcraft lore is the ‘straight track’ and the path of experiential gnosis via occult practice is the ‘crooked road’ that winds and snakes around it.

Morgan, Lee. A Deed Without a Name: Unearthing the Legacy of Traditional Witchcraft (pp. 7-8). John Hunt Publishing. Kindle Edition.

Hi chat, I have a question. What are some of the biggest misconceptions you know about? Unlike most of witchblr, you actually read academic texts :p but yeah! Thank you!

Ah, the infamous witchblr. I hope it’s not as bad as tiktok. I’ve got quite a few, and I’ll go over them here.

The idea that hellenic polytheism is not a religion because it’s not Christianity 

You might go — “wait, what?” But I’ve actually seen this quite a few times. Ive met people who say they’re hellenic polytheists, but then call themself an atheist because “hellenic polytheism isn’t a religion.” Well, it is, even if it doesn’t have culturally Christian standards :p This idea comes from the idea that Christianity = religion when Christianity is just one religion. Hellenic polytheism is a religion. 

(And just in case, please don’t argue this point with another unrelated topic. I’m only talking about this specific case.)

The notion that kids or beginners can’t worship the gods

Saying that the kids can’t worship the gods is so historically inaccurate it hurts my soul. Do they forget that this was a religion that people were born into? That they worshipped the gods since they were young? I understand that kids can be stupid, but I’ve seen 13 year olds who are well read, pious, and respectful. 

And the idea that a beginner polytheist can’t worship the gods because of a lack of experience — then how will they get experience?? It’s like trying to apply for your first beginner job and one of the requirements is experience, but you don’t have experience yet!

Lastly, we all know how witchtok likes to gatekeep gods and it doesn’t make sense. These are gods that have been worshipped by kids and “beginners” for thousands of years. You have highly parental gods, gods like Apollon & Artemis who protect the youth. 

The idea that the titans aren’t gods and that you can’t worship them 

The titans are gods. And you can definitely worship them. I mean, they had cults back in antiquity too! Some might say “well, the titano-” no. Hell, not every titan sided with the other titans — titans like Helios joined Zeus’s side :p Even Kronos was celebrated — alongside Zeus, and he’s the ruler of Elysium — granted by Zeus.

And as someone who worships Helios, I get very annoyed at that one. 

The idea that you can’t worship x god because you’re y

You can worship Artemis if you’re a man or nonbinary. To say otherwise is just... plain wrong. I guess they’ll just have to ignore all the Male devotees back in Ancient Greece. Smh. 

That you can’t worship heroes 

This probably due to hero worship not being a well known topic, but you can totally worship heroes. I even made a Hero worship 101 guide.

That magic is “untraditional” “not correct” or “not historical” in our religion 

This one in particular annoys me. It’s like, read a damn ancient magic academic book right now. Look to gods like Hekate, Helios, Kirke. Yes, modem witchcraft isn’t like Ancient Greek magic, but like. Stop. Everything changes and grows. 

And oh, some might say “adding the gods to witchcraft is not historical-” stop. Look to magic in Alexandria, the PMG, the curse tablets, Medea, etc. Some hellenic polytheists hate witches and I’m like :// stop. Yes, Wicca can be annoying because of all the misinformation, but still. 

Even in the Iliad, there’s magic. Look to Kirke, daughter of Helios, for more information. 

I’ve even seen some say that the “true religion” doesn’t allow witchcraft and divination, and to that I say, run because that’s a literal cult if they say they have the true religion. And divination was HUGE in Ancient Greece. We have multiple divination types, and even an academic text I’d recommend on it: Ancient Greek divination by Sarah iles johnston. 

The idea that an altar is necessary 

It’s not, and not everyone in Ancient Greece could have a shrine. An altar is a tool for worship, not a requirement. 

That altar is spelled “alter”

Altar and alter have very different definitions and I tend to get confused because I don’t realise that they’re trying to say altar and not alter.

That some gods are “beginner friendly.” 

There is no such thing as a “beginner friendly” god. Gods aren’t level up systems, they’re individuals. It’s like saying you can level up with your friends, like, dude no. Go with who YOU want to worship and feel comfortable with.  

That tiktok is a good source.

Tbh I’d just stay away from tiktok. It’s not going to help you at all. If you need academic texts, hmu and I can try to get some for you. All I want is for y’all to succeed.

These are all the ones I can muster up right now. This took quite a bit of energy from me to create — feel free to add on! And give good reasoning too. That’ll help anon most : D

I’m going to give you the best piece of Adult Life Is Hard advice I’ve ever learned:

Talk to people when things go to shit.

I don’t just mean get it off your chest, although that’s good. I mean: Something’s wrong with your paycheck/you lost your job/you had unexpected emergency car repairs and now you’re broke so your credit card payment is late. Like, not just 15 days late. We’re talking, shit got crazy and now you’re 90 days late with compounded interest and late fees and the Minimum Payment Due is, like, $390, and you’ve got about $3.90 in your bank account. Call the credit card company. 

I know it’s scary. I know you feel like you’re going to get in trouble, like you’re gong to get yelled at or scolded for not having your life together. But the credit card company isn’t your parents; they’re just interested in getting money from you. And you can’t squeeze blood from a stone or money from someone who doesn’t have any. So what you do is you call them. You explain you’re experiencing temporary financial hardships, and you’re currently unable to bring your account up to date, but you don’t want to just let it get worse. Can you maybe talk to someone about a payment plan so you can work something out? Nine times out of ten you’ll be able to negotiate something so that at least it’s not just taking a constant, giant shit on your credit score.

- Can’t pay your power bill? Call the power company.

- Can’t pay your full rent? Talk to your landlord.

- Had to go to the hospital without insurance and have giant medical bills looming in your place? Call the hospital and ask if they have someone who helps people with financial hardships. Many do.

- Got super sick and missed half a semester of class because flu/pneumonia/auto-immune problems/depressive episode? Talk to your professor. If that doesn’t help, talk to your advisor.

You may not be able to fix everything, but you’ll likely be able to make improvements. At the very least, it’s possible that they have a list of people you can contact to help you with things. (Also, don’t be afraid to google things like, “I can’t pay my power bill [state you live in]” because you’d be surprised at what turns up on Google!) But the thing is, people in these positions gain nothing if you fail. There’s no emotional satisfaction for them if your attempts at having your life together completely bite the dust. In fact, they stand to benefit if things work out for you! And chances are, they’ll be completely happy to take $20 a month from you over getting $0 a month from you, your account will be considered current because you’ve talked to them and made an agreement, you won’t get reported to a collections agency, and your credit score won’t completely tank.

Here’s some helpful tips to keep in mind:

1. Be polite. Don’t demand things; request them. Let me tell you about how customer service people hold your life in their hands and how many extra miles they’ll go for someone who is nice to them.

2. Stick to the facts, and keep them minimal unless asked for them. Chances are they’re not really interested in the details. “We had several family emergencies in a row, and now I’m having trouble making the payments” is better than “Well, two months ago my husband wrecked his bike, and then he had a reaction to the muscle relaxer they gave him, and then our dog swallowed a shoestring and we had to take him to the emergency clinic, and just last week MY car broke down, and now my account’s in the negatives and I don’t know how I’m gonna get it back out.” The person you’re talking to is aware shit happens to everyone; they don’t need the details to prove you’re somehow “worthy” of being helped. They may ask you for details at a certain point if they have to fill out any kind of request form, but let them do that.

3. Ask questions. “Is there anything we can do about X?” “Would it be possible to move my payment date to Y day instead so it’s not coming out of the same paycheck as my rent?” The answer may be “no.” That’s not a failure on your part. But a good customer service person may have an alternate solution. 

Anyway! I hope that helps! Don’t just assume the answer is “no” before you’ve even begun. There is more help out there than you ever imagined.