Wiccan roller derby names

For those who don't know, derby skaters play under other names. It's actually remarkably similar to the concept of a magical name: it's designed to both protect your mundane identity as well as represent qualities or attitudes that are either already part of your personality or that you'd like to embody. Usually girls come up with puns on famous female names, coupled with terms related to the derby girl virtues of toughness and fearlessness, or somehow related to their own unique personalities (e.g. Babe Ruthless, Joan of Snark, Celia Fate, Eris Discordia, Anita Beer, etc.) The key is that it needs to be unique. A master list is maintained throughout Derbyville and no two girls can have the same or even similar names. Well, It's time for me to start thinking of potential names, and I think it would be fun to have one that reflects my work with the occult (I can always attribute it to my profession rather than religious affiliation). Are you ready for this much awesome? I could hardly stop squealing after coming up with this one:

Doreen Violente

Too bad no one would get it. How many Gardnerian roller girls do you think there are in the world? Answer: one. BUT COME ON. It's brilliant. And after spending a day trying to pun on "Aleister Crowley"? Brilliant.

I'm also considering Ava de Kedavra. I thought it was fantastic, but my teammates tell me no one will get it. WHAT?! SERIOUSLY?! I thought it was perfectly obvious, but no one's gotten it yet. If you do, comment and tell me so we can start our future together as BFFs.

EDIT:

I just came up with another one: Dion Misfortune. AHHHH I'M SO BRILLIANT.

EDIT:

Dorothy Clusterfuck

Aleister Brawley (#777)

Sybil Freak

Patricia Crowbar

WHAT IF ALL OF THESE PEOPLE WERE REAL AND PLAYED ON THE SAME TEAM.

It's raining and I'm procrastinating.

It's a rainy day here in Charlotte, and I'm sequestered at a coffee shop revising the paper I'm presenting at Florida State next month. I've been putting this off pretty much all month and last, but I just couldn't bring myself to bury myself in yet more work over the break. I though I'd, you know, actually take a break. Maybe that wasn't the best idea, academically speaking, but I'm certainly a lot happier for it.

I feel weird about this paper, which I've titled "Middle-Class Vodou: Spirit Possession and Marginality in the United States." Weird because I'm analyzing the work of authors that I've met personally and respect (Kenaz Filan and Raven Kaldera, namely), and because I'm both a believer and a practitioner of spirit possession. It's a lot easier to conduct research if you don't actually have any emotional investment in your subject. I'm writing in defense of I.M. Lewis, who basically argues that spirit possession is related to disenfranchisement and marginality, which makes me uncomfortable because I'm not really convinced that he's right. The paper is an exploration, in which I attempt to examine his theories in light of contemporary works on spirit possession by practitioners.

It's pretty sweet that my paper was accepted at this symposium and that my department is helping to pay my way, but frankly I'm way too ignorant to be getting up there and being all, "LET ME TELL YOU PEOPLE ABOUT SPIRITS." I console my nerves by reminding myself that at least I'm sympathetic to my subject, which is more than most academics. I just want to stay away from evaluating Neo-Pagan and contemporary magical communities in the future, because I don't think there's a good way to fairly represent both of my communities--the scholarly and the magical--at the same time. At least, I haven't found it. And I haven't read any other pagan scholars who have either, at least not yet. You either come off sounding like a turncoat or like an idiot.

Mostly, I just need this to go well so that my future in the Academy is a little more solid. My advisor told me to think of this as a job interview with FSU, University of Florida, and any of the Tennessee schools that may be represented. As terrible as it would be to have to move to Florida, it would be great to be on good terms with potential program advisors and directors.

I'm trying to be better about being more balanced this semester. Usually, I'm all about school all the time, which leads to things like forgetting to eat, not having friends, and never leaving the house. With roller derby and my commitments to my coven and my health (I'm trying this new thing where I work out outside of derby practices and eat periodically), I'm forcing myself to be more well-rounded. I'm one of those people that likes tightly-ordered schedules and organized plans, so getting myself into a routine is a helpful thing. I've also joined a new dance studio, so that should be a nice compliment to derby. I'm also on the my league's marketing committee, so I've for plenty to do aside from school. I've even scheduled time for journaling and reading non-school books. It probably sounds restrictive to some of you, but my psyche breaks down if I don't have a lot going on in an ordered way. Think Hermione Granger, only not as smart and on lots of drugs.

Ugh. Back to this paper. For real now.

I'm not dead!

Check it out, guys. School ate my life, and then I disappeared (just like I said I would), and then I spent more time on YouTube, and then my car broke down and I had to take it in for what amounts to car reconstructive surgery, and now here I am in the mechanic's waiting room drinking bad coffee and updating my blog. Lucky you.

Jeez, where do I even start? Well, I think some of you (the three of you) know me from YouTube, and you can see that I still post videos. I haven't had lots of time to write since beginning grad school. I ended up taking the offer from UNC-Charlotte. Not a well-established program--no one's going to raise their eyebrows and go, "Oh, you went to Charlotte!" unless they're native or being ironic--but one that I feel is up and coming. My professors are fantastic and I'm a great fit for the program, and that's really the best reason to select a school. Charlotte had the most to offer me and was willing to grant me the most freedom to pursue my own interests. Plus I have the best advisor I could have hoped for.

The downside, obviously, is that I have to live in Charlotte. People who are from Charlotte love it. Most folks who are born here don't leave. It's not like Raleigh, where practically everyone is a transplant. Consequently, people from Charlotte have no basis for comparison. So when they say things like, "Oh! Charlotte is so much fun! There's so much to do!" it's because they've never actually experienced real fun and their idea of "so much to do" consists of watching NASCAR, talking about football, and not reading or creating art. Does "reinforcing the status quo" count as a hobby? Because that's where Charlotte is a viking. I know I sound like an asshole right now, but you've got to remember: I'm from DC. I've been spoiled by free museums, independent bookstores, and one of the best public transport systems in the country. In the first week that I moved to Charlotte, I got a flat tire. I pulled off the road and, as I was changing said tire, a pick-up truck full of hillbilly men wearin' huntin' camo and fish hooks on their caps pulled up behind me and catcalled me while I was tending to my car. WTF, Charlotte. That incident has pretty much characterized my life here so far.

Not to say that there haven't been plenty of bright spots. Charlotte does have roller derby, after all. And pole dancing. And I love my program. I even got trick-or-treaters at Halloween, which is something that never happened in Raleigh. I'm also much closer to my coven, which is a huge perk. My travel time has been cut in half, and I've even got a covenmate here in town (great when your car breaks down).

Weirdly, Charlotte seems to have no pagan scene at all. AT ALL. There's some sort of Wiccan church a few dozen miles outside of town, but their Witchvox postings make them sound pretty terrible, and I've got problems with the whole "Wiccan church" thing anyway. You can call it whatever you want, but as far as I'm concerned, if you feel that what you're doing warrants terms like "church" and "congregation" then you and I probably aren't practicing the same religion or worshipping the same gods.

There are also no occult or New Age bookstores (no bookstores at all, really). There are New Agey gift shops where you can buy quartz necklaces and copies of The Power of Now, but no actual bookstores. This I don't understand, given how large Charlotte is.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll make the effort to update with some frequency, but you can always find me on YouTube.

In which I whine about the local Pagan meetup group

I'm feeling a little miffed after my first "witches meetup" here in town. There were about fifteen or so people there, and everyone was really nice, but I definitely felt like an outsider. It was clear that everyone in attendance was part of a more closely knit group and the conversation rarely strayed from business related to the running of their own group and its events or inside jokes passed between members. My friend Hawk came with me, and she ran into someone she knew from work. We spent the first five minutes in the room fending off her shocked questions. Hawk is very private, and apparently the fact that she'd never shared her religious affiliation with folks at work warranted comments like, "Since when are YOU Pagan?" and, repeatedly, "Really? Really?" The best was, by far, "But I've never seen you guys at [local open circles hosted by aforementioned group]." Like somehow that has any effect on whether or not we're Pagan.

The general sentiment of the meeting seemed to be that because Hawk and I aren't members of this group and aren't vocal about our practices, we somehow are less Pagan or needed basic things explained to us. I don't think these folks would agree with my assessment, but I found myself resenting them for treating Hawk and I like we didn't know anything. If I asked someone a quick question about their tradition, I got an explanation about how "Neo-Paganism is made up of a lot of different traditions...blah, blah, blah." I found myself saying things like, "Yeah, I know. But what I was asking was specifically..." People just kept assuming that I was some sort of noob just because I'd never been to the meetup.

Very frustrating. I definitely won't be going back, and have totally been turned off about this particular group.

Nevermind the girl who told me that she was "formally trained in a coven based on eclectic and Gardnerian Craft."

Uh...huh? *facepalm*

When I asked her to elaborate she started trying to give me an irrelevant history of Wicca in the U.S. that I think she needed way more than I did.

And then it turned into light Satanist and atheist bashing (always followed closely with whining about how nobody is accepting of Pagans and woe is us).

When the local Pagan Pride Day came up in conversation, I mentioned that I'd never been because it usually falls on or near the equinox. It went like this:

Me: "Yeah, I'd like to go, but I never can because it usually falls on Mabon."

Her: "So why can't you come?"

Me: "Uh, because I'm circling for Mabon."

Duh.

Anyway, that's enough whining on my end. I just left feeling really grateful to already be a part of a group, and especially a closeted one. More and more I understand my HP, who refuses to socialize with other Pagans at all.

So I just saw my first episode of Charmed...

...and Buffy the Vampire Slayer it is not. I do love how it uses that Love Spit Love cover for its theme, though. It doesn't even make sense taken out of context and is so clearly only there because it was the theme from The Craft just a couple of years earlier. So subtle.

But at least I now know where a lot of the dumb stuff I keep seeing around the Community comes from (including the aforementioned mispronunciation of the word "sabbat").

There's actually been a lot going on recently. I'm in my finally year of undergrad (again) and will officially be starting the MA in the fall. I'm still waiting to hear back from a couple of the programs I applied to, but I already got the one I want. If X Ivy League gives me money I'll have to give them serious consideration, but I seriously doubt that will happen. And I wouldn't be a good fit there, anyway. The school I've picked is not only a top program with a high placement record, but it's even closer to my coven than I already am. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that if I'm going to specialize in modern witchcraft, I need to be in an area where I'm close to both Family and a wider Community.

I registered for Free Spirit Gathering earlier this week, which is the highlight of my year. If you ever get the opportunity to attend a week-long festival (especially this one), I recommend that you do so.

I've been making an effort recently to be more social and establish some sort of niche in the Community in my town. I've spent the last several years avoiding them, but I don't want to be so narrow anymore. My group is so insular (and we're all very, very closeted as a group) it would be easy to just melt into the background. As it is, I go to open rituals and other events and people are already suspicious of me because of my career choice. Not to mention the other things about me that seem to mark me as "other" amongst Neo-Pagans: my hatred of all things child and marriage-related, my refusal to use terms like "Earth Mother" or pretend that my period is anything other than a nuisance, my disbelief in karma (a term that practically everyone misuses anyway), and my hostility toward the New Age. Yeah, I fit right in. But I digress. In short, I'm just trying to get out more. I connected with my coven in a roundabout sort of way that involved me taking a chance and diving into the sea of idiots in my local Community. There's always the chance I could find others of like mind and learn something.

So I've joined a local gathering of tarot readers, which has already been very profitable. I've been reading cards for a while, but I've already learned so much more just by hanging out with more experienced readers. At Imbolc, I committed myself to deepening my relationship with the cards and spending the year learning as much as I can. My deck collection has grown quite a bit recently, too. I finally got a copy of the Chinese Tarot, which has been out of print for a while. In the process of looking, I also found that some of my decks have become quite sought after in the last few years (not that I would sell them, but it's good to know). I've also recently acquired a new Thoth deck (my first one was given to me by the brother of a girl who died of a drug overdose, which makes me feel weird using it even if I do appreciate the irony), the Druidcraft Tarot, and a few others. Unlike some of my fellows, I don't have any trouble reading with used decks (even the old Thoth deck is a problem more because of him than her), so I usually have more options when it comes to deck selection. The old standby remain the Universal Waite, though.

One of the women in the group is offering a workshop on advanced reading and I thought I may sign up for it. My general policy has always been that I don't pay for things like that, but after having met her and seeing that she's legit, I may give it a go.

Speak ye little, listen much

As some of you know, I come in and out of Blogger and YouTube. I'll post a lot for a while, then disappear, and sometimes delete my accounts altogether - only to start over a few months later. The root of this behavior is a personal discomfort with making a private matter like spirituality open to discussion on a public forum. Sure, we're all here to learn and meet others, but there's also a certain degree of vanity involved. You have to be at least a little narcissistic to keep a public blog or vlog. If you weren't, you'd be content to share in more private ways, or not share at all.

But there's something gratifying about putting our ideas and experiences on the internet and getting input from others, perhaps even garnering some sort of following, be in through subscribers, questions from newbs in your inbox, or whatever. Increasingly on YouTube, I'm seeing people who are setting themselves up as teachers of Wicca. I don't mean the people who post the occasional book recommendation or incense recipe. I'm talking about the folks who consistently post "how to" videos on working spells, conducting ritual, or long "educational" videos on things like traditions, correspondences, etc. It's not the genre itself that I have a problem with. While I admit to finding the whole thing unpalatable myself, I get that some people's only resource is the internet and these videos may fill a specific need.

What I have a problem with is that most of the people making such videos have no qualifications whatsoever. A lot of them are themselves beginners. This isn't me going, "Hey! These people are new and aren't teaching Wicca the One Right Way!" Rather, I'm saying that there seems to be a stigma attached to being a beginner. People get into Wicca, set up a YouTube channel, and immediately start putting out information from whatever book they've just read. They try to set themselves up as authorities right away.

Why can't we all just be okay with where we are on our own paths? Why do so many people insist on declaring themselves "teachers"? This to me is the ultimate vanity in the Community, both online and off. It happens at open rituals and festivals too, but it's all over the internet. It's like everyone wants to be a Witch (and a High Priest/ess, no less), but no one wants to do the real work that that entails, or even figure out what that means. Everyone wants adoring students, but no one wants to take the responsibilities that having real students entails or do the personal work required to even be qualified.

So I just wanted to make this post to say that it's okay to be where you are. /rant

Sa-bought

I don't mean this as any sort of criticism, I just find it hilarious and felt compelled to say something. Those of you with any insight, please fill me in:

Why are people on YouTube suddenly pronouncing the word "sabbat" like it's "sa-bought"? With the emphasis on the second syllable and the "aww" on the vowel? Sabaaaawt... It makes me giggle almost as much as my neighbor's Southern-isms ("Whut th' hayell..."). I noticed it first on one person's account, and then I started hearing it from every other person. What's funny is that some people pronounce the word one way in early videos and then change in later videos. So who started this really weird and amusing trend? Did TipToeChick or one of YouTube's other BNPs say it this way?

I don't think pronunciation matters all that much, but I will say that I have never ever in my life heard any Wiccan or Pagan outside of YouTube pronounce it this way. Never once, and I've met hundreds of Pagans in all sorts of settings.

Just an observation. As you were.