“My God is beyond comprehension but my God is not removed from or above this experience. My God feels it too.”
For #GoodFriday I wrote a brief thing on my chronic illness, and why the Incarnation and Crucifixion mean so much to me in that context. patreon.com/posts/49546498
There are a number of reasons why at least for now I refuse to stop trying to braid Christianity and Paganism, and the power of the notion of Incarnation for me is a huge part of it.
It’s one of the things that I believe makes Druidry and Christianity a good fit, in fact—divinity intimately within and a part of the experience of material existence, not removed and hovering somewhere above it.
“Supernatural” just doesn’t have much meaning for me.
I want to write a longer thing on the complexities of the experience of suffering and its power to enable human connection but that’s going to have to wait for me to more fully figure out what I want to say and how to avoid some framing pitfalls.
All of this stuff is so intensely personal and I never want to give the impression that I’m speaking out of anything but my non-authoritative experience. If someone else finds it useful or resonant, that’s fantastic, but I never imagine it’ll be broadly applicable.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Mulling over writing something longer about the shallowness of the human “connection” that the more conspiritual libertarian-oriented COVID deniers use to justify rejecting lockdown and distancing measures but I’m having a hard time getting my thoughts together.
It does not feel like a Twitter thread thing in terms of structure but I’m so used to working with the thread format at this point.
I guess the central point I’d make is that any spirituality that views human connection primarily in terms of the physical and rejects anything else as somehow illegitimate is morally and spiritually bankrupt, ableist, and digital dualist into the bargain.
Also? Be ready for a surprise if you aren’t super cautious. Which I thought I was being, but:
1 smallish edible day one: nothin
1 smallish edible day two: nothin
1 smallish edible day three: inescapable and mildly upsetting recursive cognitive loops for three hours
So on the one hand there’s the whole “TECHNICALLY it’s EPHEBOPHILIA” thing from creepy libertarian bros, and then on the other hand there’s the thing where an abusive cult in fandom calls everything up to and including height difference pedophilia and I’m uncomfortable about it.
A) Predatory abusive behavior is predatory abusive behavior, and rape is rape
B) Words do mean things and this term has undergone a kind of drift in a way that directly enables the abuse of marginalized people.
C) Libertarian bros have never done anything but ruin shit
Okay, HERE WE GO: somewhat annoyed thread about being a Christian Druid and hearing “you can’t do that” from both sides.
I want to preface it by issuing a couple of caveats.
First, I know that “you can’t do that” is not by any means a uniform attitude on the part of Druids/Druidry. The Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids in the UK is especially open to this sort of braiding of traditions.
Any religious/faith/spiritual community is going to be way more diverse than might seem at first glance, and Druidry in particular can be all over the place, in part because there are so many solitary practitioners and in part because there is basically no dogma.
Reminder that the modern Christian conception of Satan/the Devil is relatively recent in the history of what I will wildly oversimplify as “the church”, early Christianity was not like this by and large
Even the notion of Satan as some kind of directly opposing force to God is not consistent throughout the Bible. He actually seems to work for God at several points.
As far as I’m aware the current opinion in the scholarship is that that development came about in significant part because of the influence of Zoroastrianism. You don’t find it until later on. In the earlier books? Satan is God’s employee. He’s there to do a job.