Ma'iingan's Mashup

1) "Can" and "Do" Witches...
I think a popular question brought to the attention of many Witches and Pagans is "Can a Witch" or "Do Witches" use particular things...such as divination tools.

When faced with a question of "Can" or "Do" Witches participate in something, think of it this way. Don't focus on IF a person of a particular practice or spiritual belief can do something...focus on if YOU as a PERSON want to participate in something. If you have the interest...research it, learn about it...and if your desire is strong enough...practice it. Don't focus so much on IF you as a practitioner of such-and-such religion or practice can. It's irrelevant.

2) IDIOTS!!!
It's gotta be a full moon or something, but there seems to be an influx of idiots in the Pagan community lately. Yeah, yeah, who am I to judge, but if you were to encounter these people, you would be thinking the same thing as me

First, I encountered a PRIME example of a "fluffy bunny" when I participated in a forum thread discussing the success of spells. She proceeded to tell us we weren't doing "true" spells because we weren't "ceremonial magicians" and that magic for abundance or prosperity weren't "true" spells. Come on! Some of us need some help now and then, it's not like we're asking for millions here. I cast one, because we were in need (and yes, it worked and we came out of our financial bind). I wouldn't be so quick to call that nonsense, when for all she knew, we could have lost our house if I hadn't.

Second I encounter a dumbass who continuously jumps from one religion to another (daily, mind you) without doing ANY research about those religions (aside from a brief Wikipedia search). So far he's claimed he's an "Asatru, Celtic, Roman, Buddhist, Catholic, etc", yet claims to be looking for ONE religion to follow (offendingly, he's turned his eye to Native American spiritualism and based on his track record, it's not far fetched to assume he can apply so-called "Native" practices into his...entourage).

It's become literally exhausting for me to try to get this individual to realize 1) he's none of these things (based on the questions and lack of response to the answers to indicate any sort of knowledge) 2) he needs to actually READ the replies he gets and 3) he's a hypocrite. This guy is seriously only interested in collecting labels rather than actually understanding what these religions mean, and that is SOOOOOO offensive to those who actually follow these religions.

3) Prayer Beads, but no Prayers??

I love looking up different patterns for rosaries and prayer beads because I love creating and re-creating for my own personal uses. I've found numerous designs that I love to try to replicate, however, none of the patterns I've come across have prayers to go with them. I have NO idea how to pray a "rosary" that consists of 27 beads in 3 groups of 9 or 36 beads in 3 groups of 13.

I see LOTS of examples, lots of beads for sale, but no ideas on how to pray them! Do people figure that people will just choose random prayers or make them up on the spot to pray? Not everyone is able to create their own prayers...for some prayer, other than "Help me Goddess with such-and-such" is difficult to come up with.

So far, the only suggestions on prayers are alterations to Christian prayers, or the ones that divide up and devote to the Triple Goddess (not something I subscribe to).

It would be nice that along with the DIY's and tutorials they gave some prayers to go along with them. Obviously they're made with a pattern in mind, you'd think that was because they had prayers associated with that pattern.