#new age to alt right pipeline

[creature-wizard]

What is the New Age to Alt Right Pipeline, and how do you stay out of it?

The term "New Age to Alt Right pipeline" refers to the way alternative spirituality and healthcare often serves as an entry point to far right radicalization. While many people are dismissive that such a thing could even exist, plenty of people in occult and witchcraft communities can confirm that it is very much a real thing. Having studied far right conspiracies myself for awhile now, I can personally confirm that a number of people involved in alternative spirituality, including ones who consider themselves progressive, are spouting off the very same conspiracy theories used to justify persecution of the Jews throughout the Middle Ages to the Nazi regime.

Even if you don't reckon yourself a New Ager, you are still likely to come across this stuff because there's no hard and fast place where New Age ends and witchcraft, neopaganism, or whatever begins. While the core and arguably most defining belief of New Age is that the Earth is on the cusp of entering a new cosmic cycle, there's a significant amount of overlap between things New Agers are into, and things that other people are into.

For example, someone interested in Wicca might start researching the Goddess, and from there very quickly encounter conspiracy theories claiming that everyone was monotheistic for the Great Goddess back before The Patriarchy Tee Em invented a male god for people to be monotheist for. From there, it's just a short matter of time before they start coming across materials claiming that the Jews are responsible for the creation of this god, and also responsible for the Catholic Church, and so on. (Pro tip, the Roman government was responsible for the Catholic Church.)

The best way to keep yourself safe from this isn't to simply avoid all material that might potentially contain far right ideas and conspiracy theories. Rather, it's to learn what they look like. Here's a few things to watch out for:

The grand conspiracy narrative: The exact details you'll hear will vary depending on who you're listening to - every conspiracy theorist tailors and re-tailors the grand conspiracy narrative to suit their own agendas and beliefs. The key details to watch out for are claims that there's this secret group that's been pulling the strings behind the scenes for a long while now, and that their agents are working everywhere to make sure the people stay deceived.

To be blunt about it, literally every conspiracy theory about a New World Order, a shadow government, generational satanists, satanic bloodlines, reptilian bloodlines, and so on is a riff on the material found within The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a czarist hoax used to justify violence against Russian Jews, and later on, the Holocaust. There are no exceptions.

During the Satanic Panic, many people claimed to have been part of such a conspiracy. Investigations failed to turn up any real evidence, and those pushing these claims always turned out to have a history of dishonest behavior, or had been subjected to hypnosis by someone with a history of dishonest behavior and/or a gross disregard for medical ethics.

If you see someone claiming to have been part of something like this today, your best assumption is that they are lying to you, or are extremely confused. End of story.

Great Goddess conspiracy theories: Back in the mid-19th century, Eduard Gerhard proposed that people all used to worship the Great Goddess, until patriarchy came along and replaced her with a god. There's literally no evidence for this whatsoever, but a lot of people who believe that patriarchy is part of a grand conspiracy still believe this one. You'll often see it in conjunction with stuff about the "divine feminine" and womb magic among those who believe that patriarchy is part of the grand conspiracy.

Claims of mass ritual abuse and murder: An allegation that goes back to blood libel and the witch trials, far right conspiracy theorists often claim that there is an underground network of cults practicing ritual abuse and human sacrifice. This was the kind of thing that people were put under hypnosis to try and remember during the Satanic Panic, based on incorrect beliefs about how memory worked. (In reality, going under hypnosis to try and recover lost memories mainly results in fabricating completely new ones, because hypnotic visions basically work just like dreams.)

Claims of mass mind control: Not many people realize this, but this one goes all the way back to the witch hunts, when alleged witches were accused of ensnaring people's minds with their diabolical spells. (Yes, the witch trials were fueled by conspiracy theories!) Today's conspiracy theorists claim that the conspiracy uses things like music, movies, implants, subliminal messages, drugs, medications, 5G, extreme tortures, and more to put people under total mind control. The whole Project Monarch conspiracy theory is part of this; and a number of people were also put under hypnosis to "remember" being part of Project Monarch during the Satanic Panic.

Anti-pharma/anti-vax conspiracy theories: During World War II, Nazis demonized pharmaceutical drugs as "Jewish science" so they could push cheaper herbal remedies, which were largely ineffective. If you see somebody claiming that pharmaceutical drugs or vaccines are created by the conspiracy to keep people sick or make them easier to control, know that it's a redux of this old bullshit. Today's anti-pharma and anti-vax conspiracy theories often go in conjunction with claims that stuff like crystals, energy healing, and quantum healing technology can replace conventional medical care.

Claims to know the real cause of your medical or psychological symptoms: During the early modern witch hunts, strange symptoms were often blamed on the curses of satanic witches. The Satanic Panic picked this one up and modernized it through a psychological lens, claiming that seemingly inexplicable symptoms were evidence of suppressed memories of ritual abuse. Meanwhile, believers in alien abductions claimed it was evidence of suppressed memories of alien-related trauma, and neopagans and New Agers claimed it was evidence of past life trauma. All of these people have used hypnosis to help people "remember" these supposedly lost memories, and due to the nature of hypnosis (again, hypnotic visions work like dreams), all of them found "evidence" to corroborate literally anything they wanted to find.

Other modernizations of this old witch hunters' canard include claims that your strange symptoms are caused by things like 5G, chemtrails, chemicals in the water, food additives, sound frequencies, or such. Now this isn't to say that there's never been toxic food additives, or that certain sound frequencies can never cause harm; the key element is when these people claim that this stuff is done as part of a grand conspiracy.

Meanwhile, New Agers claim that your strange symptoms might actually be "ascension symptoms." For the record, numerous dates that ascension was supposed to happen on have gone and went, and we're all still here in 3D. So I'd recommend not holding your breath for this one, either.

Claiming the conspiracy is responsible for everything bad or wrong in the world: Conspiracy theorists will blame the grand conspiracy for literally anything they find unpleasant or objectionable to the conspiracy. This can include claiming that movies they found confusing, emotionally difficult, or ideologically challenging were deliberately designed to harm people or put them under mind control. They might claim that things like long wait lines are intentionally engineered to frustrate and exhaust people in order to make them easier to control. They might claim that horrible accidents or disasters are actually "programming" to make people accept the lie.

This isn't to say that governments never do genuinely malicious shit, or that brainwashing doesn't exist. The thing here is that conspiracy theorists frequently attribute nearly everything they find strange, confusing, or unpleasant to the schemes of a grand conspiracy. They often act like if it wasn't for the grand conspiracy, we would be living in utopia.

Dehumanization of the Other: Conspiracy theorists often talk as if the masses aren't quite human, calling them "NPCs" or "sheeple." Sometimes they literally believe that other people aren't truly human. You'll find various conspiracy theories claiming that certain people are actually animal hybrids, AI-controlled clones, malicious aliens pretending to be humans, holographic projections, or something similar. The key thing to keep in mind here is that dehumanization is a crucial step toward genocide, and the far right wants to do genocide on anyone who doesn't do what they say, or doesn't fit their idea of what humanity ought to be like.

Individualist outlooks on life, metaphysics, etc: Today's far right is all about that Western individualism; they tend to be capitalists and libertarians, and think communism is an invention of the conspiracy. Their metaphysical views tend to reflect this, and they often subscribe to some form of worldview in which everything that happens to you is your fault, and expecting anyone else to take any kind of responsibility is just victim mentality.

With Christians, this presents as the belief that bad things happen to you because you're not right with God; if you got right with God, he would bless you with health and abundance.

With New Age and New Age-adjacent types, this often presents as stuff like the Law of Attraction and the Law of Assumption, where everything that happens to you is a consequence of the way you think. It can also present in the belief that if anything bad happens to you, it's your karma.

Stuff like the Law of Assumption is pitched as this super empowering way to get everything you want, but in reality it functions to make people feel responsible for the suffering they experience under capitalism and silence criticism of systemic issues.

So yeah, keep your eyes open for all this stuff, and if you see somebody out there pushing it - be wary!

Links for more info:

"How can I be a witch/pagan without falling for conspiracy theories/New Age cult stuff?" starter kit (I put a bunch of links to other posts and resources here earlier; no need to copy/paste them all here.)

Incomplete list of far right conspiracy theorists and con artists claiming to be occult experts and/or cult survivors

Hypnosis is unreliable for memory recovery, and this is one way we know.

False past life memories among the starseed movement

Hitler's Contribution to "Alternative Medicine"

#new age to alt right pipeline #radicalization #paganblr #occultblr #witchblr #conspiracy theories #conspiracy theory #conspiracism #new age #critical thinking #discernment #spirituality #conspirituality

[magical-musings-of-morgan]

Ok you're "getting in touch with the Divine Feminine" but are you, like, normal about trans people

#text #paganblr #new age to alt right pipeline #witchblr #witches of tumblr #divine feminine #morgans magical musings

[letsgethaunted]

Stich with spirithaus.

So glad this is finally being talked about!

#let's get haunted #new age to alt right pipeline #alt right pipeline #chronic illness #herbal medicine #aly #tiktok

[grey-sorcery]

Part of decolonizing your practice is removing new age influences.

(Something everyone should be doing) Things such as:

Visualization

Law of Attraction

Law of Attainment

Inaccurate quantum mechanics interpretations

Crystal grids (At least how they're commonly used)

Sacred geometry

Chakras (Unless you're Buddhist or Hindu)

Syncretism

Akashic Records

Astral beings

#new age alt right pipeline #witchcraft #witchcraft community #begginer witch #witch tips

[snekdood]

i think it would be beneficial for ppl to realize theres a difference between a dyed in the wool nazi and an idiot who fell down whichever rw pipeline, the latter of which we actually have more of a chance of saving from becoming a nazi in the first place

#almost everyone wants to feel like they're doing whats right for the world. and if you broke it all down into simple terms most ppl who #arent thouroughly indoctrinated into the rw cult would be able to relate to your concerns #yes theres the people who for all intents and purposes are basically just evil... usually those are the people with money and political #power. and yeah theres also dipshits who see the world through memes probably bc theyre dudes who've been forced to shut down any #emotions so memes are the only way they can express themselves now. and usually those people are just deeply cynical about everything #and hate the world bc ppl make fun of them bc they probably fell into the incel pipeline #regardless- yeah those ppl are hard to reach too #especially bc tehy intentioanlly shove down any emotions or empathy or ability to relate to anyone #but everyone else? people you can basically *sense* genuinely care about humanity but are misguided as all fuck? #idiots like I was who liked new age shit and aliens? I dont think those are the people who are impossible to reach personally #theres a certain level someone has to get to- and its the point where they dont mind if a portion of humanity suffers and dies #thats the level thats unreachable but idk. you really think the guy who likes crystals and reiki n shit doesnt care about humanity at all? #we need a 'alt right' iceberg lol. nazis being at the bottom. then ppl who've discarded empathy and caring for other humans for #nationalism and being ok w genocide and giving justifications that only make sense if you believe in those conspiracy theories #then above that is the meme poisoned ppl who are isolated and blame women for everything and are starting to disconnect #from all emotions and empathy (unless you find a way to push their buttons specifically) #then above that you have kids who are becoming disillusioned with everything and hates 'the establishment' and is tryna figure #our Whats Really Going On In The World That Makes All The Other Working Class Ppl Around Me Live In Shit #and right around there is when the real effort to program alt right sentiment comes in since theyre tryna get there before #we ever get the chance to educate them on capitalism #and above that is other 'fun' or 'light hearted' conspiracy theories thats roots are extremely dark but if you're #just looking at the surface and all the nicer faces presenting it you dont assume thats the case #and thats stuff like aliens and atlantis n shit #even stuff like believing in conspiracy theories that are actually real things that happened like mk ultra or whadever #(but like. what *actually* happened with mk ultra... not how rwingers try to rewrite and twist the history of it) #id say its actually significantly easier to fall down this pipeline than some ppl on their 'born a leftist' high horse seem 2 assume #people can tell things arent right in the world. the world is presented as this pristine clean no-weeds kind of world but- their real life #experiences haven't been exactly that. you're presented a certain type of normal but when the door closes in your familys house #you realize the normal portrayed on tv or taught in christian schools- isnt the reality you experience at home #or the reality you're presented at school. or anywhere. the worlds look perfect and manicured on tv

[socialistexan]

It is so so so so so so obvious that some of y'all's "anti-zionism" is antisemetism, pure and simple, especially when y'all will gladly, EAGERLY, accept white supremacist conspiracy theories and straight up blood libel.

Like some of y'all were absolutely secretly chomping at the bit to be antisemetic, or had not unlearned the antisemetism your ancestors passed on to you (the constant suspicion I feel from so many goyiche white people is absolutely mind boggling), that you saw a way to both be on the forefront of a progressive cause where you either 1) don't have to think critically or 2) can be seen as progressive while also being antisemitic.

It's absolutely invalid to equate anti-zionism with antisemetism. That's obvious. Anyone that does that, I'd argue, is an antisemite themselves or has an agenda that requires hijacking Jewish suffering.

But, it's like, I've been an anti-zionist for well over a decade and a half at this point. There are relatives who I do not talk to any more because I had blow ups - full screaming matches that lasted hours - with them about Palestine back in 2010, I'm not new to this. I didn't jump on this bandwagon because it was the new progressive cause to jump on. Growing up Jewish, I was forced to have an opinion on this from a young fucking age. I've taken college classes, learned from older anti-zionist Jews, did so much independent studying on this.

And I've been accutely aware of the tropes and antisemitism that was around the periphery of anti-zionism, but it wasn't the core.

But now that a lot of people who are new to this are suddenly coming in to the movement and are either unaware or unwilling to learn how spot antisemetism while at the same time a bunch of antisemitic grifters and white supremacists have keyed in to the fact that there's now a bunch of (justifiably) angry people who haven't been properly educated on these subjects and can be easily misdirected from anti-zionism to old school judenhasen, y'know?

A version of the alt-right pipeline for progressives.

I'm just saying, please be more critical of these things. Don't spread misinformation and conspiracy theories. Don't prop up grifters and bad actors. Educate yourself. Separate Judaism from Zionism, they are not synonyms. Be against the illegitimate state of Israel and their occupation and ethnic cleansing, but also be critical about who and what is being said and how. Zionists will nitpick every little thing you say for the one thing they can delegitimize you on.

All you're doing is hurting the cause you're trying to support, and one that I've spent years of my life working for.

[cryptotheism]

Tbh I used to believe in new age shit (got involved in a little internet cult as well) and your blog has helped me to re-evaluate my beliefs and to escape from the toxic cult people I used to associate with before I got sucked into the new age -> alt-right pipeline. So thanks 👍

Hey I'm really glad to hear that!

[mueritos]

As someone who’s been through multiple therapists and psychs, you’re super not wrong about these people bringing their biases to the table. I’m lucky enough that I

1. Was an older teenager

2. Had friends who had had decent mental health help already

3. Already kinda suspected the shapes of what was “wrong with me” and

4. Had an innate sense of “no that seems like bullshit” before I went in with these people.

The first therapist I ever saw met me as a 17 year old alt girl, and when I tried to talk to her about thinking I had anxiety issues she cut me off before I was done explaining and told me I was self diagnosing, that was causing my problem, and we wouldn’t “entertain THAT” any further.

The second therapist I ever saw met me as a 18 year old trans guy, pre-everything, during the pandemic. She listened, but she had no experience with the trans community and I had to teach her everything about anything I wanted to talk about with regards to that. She was nice, but she couldn’t help me. She didn’t know how.

The third therapist I ever saw met me as a 21 year old young man. She figured I had everything sorted out already. I didn’t. She never tried to change her mind or delve deeper. At this point I couldn’t afford to waste my time, so I asked to be recommended to a psych and she said sure. After that we didn’t talk.

The first psych I went to was very kind, and absolutely did not do his due diligence. I came in with a shiny recommendation from a therapist (that he didn’t verify), so he all but handed me the medication with no explanation and I only ever spoke to him over the phone after that. It was a low barrier to entry but the medication wasn’t right and I didn’t know I had other options. He made it seem like I didn’t.

The psych I’m seeing now put me on a medication that reacted poorly with my inhaler because she didn’t cross check if they would be any drug interactions. I came back and asked for a different medication. She was going to put me on a different one, and then I asked her to check if there were any interactions with this one. Turns out there were severe ones. I ended up going with a different medication, it seems to be working. It would probably work better with help from a therapist, but I don’t have the time or money for that right now. And quite frankly I’m tired of trying to convince people to help me when I have to explain what I think is wrong with me for them to listen. Only for them to decide that I’ve already figured it all out and they don’t need to try.

So uh. Yeah. Lots and lots of stories from me and my friends about clinicians of all age and experience ranges that go from horror stories to just disappointing and unhelpful. Some of these people had been practicing for 20-30 years and they STILL weren’t any better at empathy or not being horribly biased.

first of all holy shit it really fucking sucks you had to go through all of these terrible experiences while accessing care you deserve and need. i'm not surprised these terrible interactions happened, and I can't even be disappointed considering the bar of standards is in hell. The "better" experiences a lot of folks have with clinicians align with your second therapist. They are clinicians who just genuinely have no worldview outside of their own, but are receptive to new information...they just have no drive to learn how to apply new frameworks of ways of thinking to expand their worldview and guide their clients. The worst is literal malpractice, ableism, and violence against clients.

a lot of people who go into the mental health field don't actually have the skills related to active listening, empathy, or curiosity based out of humanity. I say this to a lot of people in the social work program, but social work is the same pipeline as mean girls who go into nursing--it's just full of the girls who were not smart enough to go into nursing that decide to go into social work. Same breed of mean girl seeking power over others, just different contexts of public service.

the only hope i have is in the new generations of mental health clinicians who are BIPOC/queer, anti-carceral, disabled themselves, and who are mentally ill as well. I feel more solidarity with my neurodivergent peers in my program who can barely finish an assignment on time than I do with the white women who have never experience hardship in their lives. Not to say neither of these people can't experience easy or hard times in their lives but man....seeing the roadblocks in some of these people's worldviews, empathy, or conceptualizations of other people's struggles is fucked up.

the mental health field is just another medicalized, over-policed, and racist institution that wants to shove people back into the workforce ASAP. we are in hell!! but just know there ARE people and groups and orgs out there that are dedicated to radical work and will name all the hypocrisy, pain, and oppression that exists in working in this field.

thank you tho for sharing your experience and input. I can only hope that your experiences moving forward are positive and liberating for you <3

#muertoresponds #like brother we are in hell! #my last therapist is a zionist so yea we are literally in hell #there are really cool and awesome clinicians out there tho #it feels so freeing to openly talk about palestine with my therapist and shes like yea fuck zionists! #there are people out there dedicated to being safe and radical people #godspeed to anyone else in the social work field or who is training to be one #im trying to get my degree my license (maybe) and just fuck off #i only want to work independently or in higher ed

[galwednesday]

This week's deep dive rec is a combo pack exploring radicalization and the wellness industry, starting with this Guardian piece "Everything you've been told is a lie! Inside the wellness to fascism pipeline" by James Ball, which gives an overview of how these concepts became intertwined:

Peter Knight, professor of American studies at the University of Manchester, who has studied conspiracy theories and their history, notes that the link between alternative therapies and conspiracy is at least a century old, and has been much ignored. “New age and conspiracy theories both see themselves as counter-knowledges that challenge what they see as received wisdom,” he says. “Conspiracy theories provide the missing link, turbo-charging an existing account of what’s happening by claiming that it is not just the result of chance or the unintended consequences of policy choices, but the result of a deliberate, secret plan, whether by big pharma, corrupt scientists, the military-industrial complex or big tech.” Knight notes an extra factor, though – the wellness pipeline has become a co-dependency. Many far-right or conspiracy sites now fund themselves through supplements or fitness products, usually by hyping how the mainstream doesn’t want the audience to have them. [...]

“Alex Jones perfected the grift of selling snake-oil supplements and prepper kit to the libertarian right wing via his conspiracy theory media channels,” Knight says. “But it was Covid that led to the most direct connections between far-right conspiracism and wellness cultures. The measures introduced to curb the pandemic were viewed as attacks on individual sovereignty, which is the core value of both the wellness and libertarian/‘alt-right’ conspiracy communities.” The problem is, it rarely stops with libertarians. While they may not recognise it, those drawn in from the left are increasingly ending up in the same place as their rightwing counterparts. “Although many of the traditional left-leaning alternative health and wellness advocates might reject some of the more racist forms of rightwing conspiracism, they now increasingly share the same online spaces and memes,” he says, before concluding: “They both start from the position that everything we are told is a lie, and the authorities can’t be trusted.”

Part two of this combo rec is an episode of the Maintenance Phase podcast, hosted by Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes, with journalist Mike Rothschild joining them to talk about his research into the wellness to QAnon pipeline:

Special guest Mike Rothschild tells us how the road to wellness can be an on-ramp to a conspiracy theory. Along the way we debunk oil pulling, explore Instagram aesthetics and bemoan anti-vaxx argumentation tactics. Mike gets the date of the January 6th insurrection wrong and he is sorry.

#wednesday deep dives #I could do a follow-up at some point with an entirely different wellness/conspiracy podcast series #and an entirely different QAnon researcher guest star episode #but let's space things out a little since this is not exactly light and fun subject matter.

[hiswitchcraft]

hey, hope you are well!

i'm a beginner witch and one of my goals in witchcraft is to eventually do deity work.

i was wondering if you could give me any insight into the practice you may have and any things to look into on this path?

thanks so much!

So deity work is actually not an inherent part of witchcraft! Not all witches are religious, Pagan, or work with deities. I don’t. I just practice the craft, so unfortunately I don’t have a lot of insight on that front.

If you’re new I do have some general insight and things I think a new witch should keep in mind, things to watch out for, you get the idea. You were probably asking about deities but I'm gonna tell you these things anyways!

What I Think a New Witch Should Know

Bad ideologies - I'm not gonna sugarcoat this one. There's a lot of nazis and TERFs lurking around. New age stuff can be (almost always is) a pipeline to ideas that are based in white supremacy and anti semitism and I see a lot of people just ending up caught in the web of anti semitic conspiracy theories when they're into new age stuff. A lot of TERFs will say things like "we're the daughters of the witches you couldn't burn" or that only women are magical or can be witches. Now the concept of the divine feminine has been appropriated and is turning people into tradwives and TERFs and spreading bioessentialsm and basically just spreading transphobia and taking people down the alt right pipeline. I know I mention this is a lot but it's really important to me! Practice research skills. Consider where ideas come from and their history before internalizing them.

Each witch will have their own rules - I generally do not tolerate cultural appropriation and strongly encourage people to ward, so those are the closest things to rules that I preach, but at the end of the day there are no universal rules. If someone says "you have to/can't do this to be a witch" like 99% of the time they're full of shit. People who are BRAND new contact me with the same 10 misconceptions all the time. Be weary of people who say there are strict rules, they may just be preaching their beliefs as facts.

Safety & discernment - The other two kinda go over this already but this is just a general suggestion. Practice regular safety precautions and discernment! Discernment is asking things like is this suggestion safe for me? Where did this idea come from and what's its history? Or for your own practice, could this experience have a logical, not spiritual, explanation? This will keep you from falling for bad ideas and misinformation but also from burning yourself on candles, ingesting herbs you don't know anything about and rendering your medications ineffective, following essential oil advice that will give you a chemical burn, assuming that an experience is spiritual when it is not, and so much more!

Learn what you want - You wanna know what I think you should look into? Dogwhistles. Okay that was me being a little bit funny, we already talked about TERFs and watching out for them. While dogwhistles are a generally good to know I think as far as your witchcraft practice and research goes, you should learn whatever the hell you want. As I've mentioned in my pinned post, I have built my practice and beliefs from scratch and approach teaching with the same goals in mind for you. You wanna know what you should learn? I don't know. You tell me. If you want some general suggestions? Do actually learn dogwhistles. Learn about practices that are closed so you do not appropriate from them. Learn about warding and go outside and learn about the animals and plants around you! But as far as practices go, like tarot or spells or spirit work? Learn about the ones you think are neat.

Also if you wanna know about deity work, specifically working with the Greek pantheon or Aphrodite, I think @teawiththegods is pretty cool. She's nice. Ask him stuff!

I hope this helps 💕

#witch #witches #witchraft #witch tip #witch tips #witchy tip #witchy tips #baby witch tip #new witch tip #baby witch tips #new witch tips #beginner witch #new witch #baby witch #what I think a new witch should know #misconceptions about witchcraft

[jasper-pagan-witch]

As far as pcp goes, how would you go about creating and worshipping your own deity, if thats possible?

Hello hello!

As requested, I am tagging @alter-altars and @janhasnoplan in this answer. For convenience, I'm breaking this down into three headers - Don't Get Caught In A Cult, DIY Gods, and Religions From A Writing Perspective.

Don't Get Caught In A Cult

Cults are fucking terrible. And the worst part is, the more immune you THINK you are to them, the more likely you'll be to fall for their tricks.

The New Age to Alt-Right pipeline is a big example of this in metaphysical spaces, but many people have also drawn parallels between Jehovah's Witnesses, the Amish, or Mormons and cults - not because the model is wrong, but because groups that are cults often get away with it in many parts of the United States.

You may not be trying to start a cult for your DIY divinity, but it's important to be aware of the warning signs. People much smarter than I (or at least have the PhDs for it) have written many things about how to identify and escape cults, which brings us to:

Important Links

Steven Hassan’s BITE Model of Authoritarian Control on the Freedom Of Mind Resource Center

Mind Control - The BITE Model on the ex-cult Resource Center

The BITE Model of Cult Mind Control Explained by Joseph Sherwood on A Little Bit Human

How to Recognise a Cult; How to Avoid Cults That May Try to Convert You; and How to Leave a Cult on WikiHow

What To Do When You Realize You Accidentally Joined A Cult ​by Carrie Saum on Ravishly

How To Help A Loved One Who Joined A Cult by Stephanie Gomulka on Oxygen: True Crime

@pondering-the-kaiju's entire pinned post

DIY Gods

People have been making up gods for their needs for as long as we've had gods. Aradia (the creation of Charles Leland, fuck that dude) has one book as her source. Cernunnos appears on maybe one cauldron. People make up Greek gods all the time because there were just so many of those guys, what's one more? (Good examples of this are Mesperyian and, arguably, Makaria.) And, of course, we can't get through this without mentioning Robert Graves (fuck Robert Graves) creating the White Goddess as his wife's self-insert.

So yes, creating your own god is possible and has precedent. You could even argue that every god was created by someone at some point, because that's just how humans work. We see an idea (often because we're introduced to it by someone else), we go "Oh, that's neat!", and then we take the bits that work for us and we add new stuff that helps flesh out the divine in question. It's how Aphrodite evolved from Astarte, it's how Dionysus got developed and changed over time, and it's how we have the two Wiccan divines.

I recommend studying other religions and how they came to be, because that will also help you learn about how the gods in question came to be. Who moved where? What gods got brought along and turned into other gods? I particularly recommend looking at the Romans and how they went "Wow, everyone worships our gods but with different names! Neat!"

Important Links

Literally anything by Overly Sarcastic Productions that goes into detail about the origin of various deities (which is mostly on Red's end) - namely these ones about Aphrodite, Dionysus, Hades and Persephone and Demeter, Hermes, and Loki

Anything broadly about deity work and religion, frankly, because in the course of developing your divine figure, you'll have to come up with their offerings and portfolio and what they may help you with

Wolf Of Antimony Occultism - aka @wolfofantimonyoccultism here on Tumblr, they're creating their own religion that's really cool to see

Religions From A Writing Perspective

At heart, I am a worldbuilder. I build worlds. That's what I DO. My Kephea project is a great example of this, though I have others as well. In particular, I love building magic systems and religions.

I will accept any chance to talk about my Kephea project, but this is about building a religion. Generally speaking, religions like to talk about the following three things:

How did the world come to be?

How should we act towards one another?

What happens when we die?

Not every religion (real-world or in media) talks about all of these. Hell, some don't touch on any of them. Here's a fictional example of a religion that has some things to say: the Church of Avacyn (the plane of Innistrad in Magic: The Gathering):

Doesn't discuss how the world came to be.

Says that humans should help and protect each other from the monsters of Innistrad, which include vampires, werewolves, zombies, geists, and even other humans. Later says that humans are inherently sinful during the height of Avacyn's madness and they should be slain to save them from themselves. One archangel and her flight took that second part personally and caused a schism in the church.

Promises a Blessed Sleep that won't be bothered by undeath in either zombie or geist form. This isn't going well now that the archangel and her flight who oversees it are destroyed.

It's important to sit and think about how your religion addresses or doesn't address these questions. Is it more of a henotheistic approach, where any number of gods exist but you only worship some? Is it a monotheistic approach, where there's only a single deity? Is it a polytheistic approach, where there are many deities with a strong connecting thread? Is it an entirely different approach, like archetypes (the Mother, the Child, the Himbo), natural forces (the sun and moon, the forest, the potty pond), or something else? That's up to you.

A lot of my links here will be about polytheistic religions, because those are the ones I build the most. Yes, I have a lot of these links, because this is one of my special interests.

Important Links

On Worldbuilding: Religions [ polytheistic l Avatar TLA l Game of Thrones l Cthulhu ] by Hello Future Me/Timothy Hickson on YouTube (a written version of this video is also Part 12 in his book, On Writing And Worldbuilding volume 1)

So You Want To / Create a Mythopoeia; Fantasy Pantheon; and Stock Gods on TV Tropes

Creating a Religion Guide part 1, part 2, and part 3 on Roll For Fantasy

Common Misconceptions About Old Mythologies & Religions; Basic Tips To Create More Believable Sci-Fi & Fantasy Religions & Belief Systems; How To Create Fictional Structured Religions; and Things That Show Up In Christianity-Inspired Fiction That Aren't In The Bible on Springhole

List of religious ideas in fantasy fiction on Wikipedia

8 Tips for Creating a Pantheon for Your Novel by Jill Williamson on Go Teen Writers

How to Create God Characters for Your Fantasy World by Kathy Edens on ProWritingAid

In Summary

I didn't actually give advice, did I? I just kind of dumped a lot of my resources here. Oh well, hopefully you all get something useful out of this!

~Jasper

#answered #anonymous #religion #deity work #pop culture #masterpost #writing

[creature-wizard]

The first thing you need to understand about the New Age movement right now is that it's chock full of people who believe that a race of tall, blond, white European-looking aliens (the Pleiadians) are fighting a war against a race of scheming reptilian aliens who exploit and feed on humans and supposedly exert special influence over the Jews.

Sounds kinda Nazi-ish, doesn't it? Sounds a bit like blood libel, don't you think?

The people who believe this aren't outliers in the movement. They are the movement. They aren't perverting something that used to be pure and good. The alien lore was always this bad, even if it wasn't always exactly identical to this.

If you and your friends didn't know about or believe in this? Good for you, but know that this is by design. You're in the early stages of what's known as the New Age to Alt Right pipeline. If you continue, it's just a matter of time before you're indoctrinated into the more blatantly fascist crap.

Get out while you still can.

#new age #new agers #spirituality #new age spirituality #aliens #extraterrestrials #pleiadians #reptilians #reptilian aliens #fascism #white supremacy #antisemitism #nazism #new age to alt right pipeline #witchblr

[letsgethaunted]

QAnon’s Unexpected Roots in New Age Spirituality

Masculinity, faith and the strange convergence of counterculture and hate.

#QAnon Adrenochrome & the 5th Dimension #QAnon #The New-Age to Alt-Right Pipeline

[abri-chan]

My interpretation of that one episode where Uryu joins the Quincies:

One FB video was all it took for Uryu to get recruited. "Are Shinigami Bad?" and down the alt-right pipeline we go; 3 hours later you pressed an ad (Jugram) to eliminate shinigami in your area.

(I sure hope these new friends of yours didn't kill the mother you claim to want to avenge, I sure hope you didn't get played like a fool. Oh, you will trick the king and play double agent? You must be a teen because you must think you are oh so much smarter than everyone else, and you will succeed where people twice or thrice your age couldn't figure it out.)

***

Ryuken: Google "I think my son may have joined the nazis, have I failed as a father"

***

(several regrets and a call later)

Ryuken: I cannot believe the day would come that I would stoop to you for help... but I believe my son has run away and joined the Nazi.

Isshin: Two to One! Still undefeated. Oh yeah! Ryuken: 0. Isshin: 2.

Ryuken: What?

Isshin: First I got your wife. Two, my son did not join the Nazis, so I'm the better dad. Still winning, baby!

Ryuken: aren't you going to help?... do anything?...

Isshin: Yeah, sure. I'll be right over. Yeah, shinigami gear and all.

***

(flashback to Ryuken's undeniable charm and seduction skills)

"Masaki, you are so poor. You're a total orphan. No people, no prospects. You would be cringe if my family didn't take you in to breed the perfect Quincy lineage. Yes, I will remind you of this everyday you are fed and bathed and slept under this roof, which is my family's roof by the way, and for your information, in long lectures that makes it sound like you are a child, like I'm your dad talking to my daughter who was caught breaking curfew and sleeping around with scum men. I have no respect for your intelligence or willpower or dignity. Are you in love with me yet? Why would you not be? Here are 10 more reasons why you should be in love with me, for the sake of the Quincy blood line. No, mother is lonely as usual... Where's my father? Haven't seen him in 3 years. Masaki, Masaki, where are you going? I'm the hot one! Why won't you love me? The maid does! No, I ignore her as usual. Damn, shinigami, this is all their fault!'

***

But if Ryuken had the balls to stand up to his mom in that scene where he was carrying pre-hollofied Masaki away.

Izumi: Where are you taking that sick woman? What do you intend to do with her?

Ryuken: To finally have some Quincy kids that you so wanted. Are you insane, mother?

***

Ryuken: Well, Masaki got with that shinigami Isshin, so there goes my family's chance to produce a heir for the Quincy lineage.

Katagiri: But young master, there is still one option...

Ryuken: I must fuck my mom?

Katagiri: ... your intellect truly precedes you, young master... There is no available Quincy woman that could be standing right here, right this spot...

#anime manga rambles #bleach #fyi your dad is so fuckable uryu / but he's stinking trash personality

[grey-sorcery]

✨Witch Tips✨

Just because there is no “One True Way” does NOT mean that all practices work.

Just calling yourself a witch does NOT make you a witch. You must actually practice. Not necessarily all the time. But at least periodically.

Steer clear of New Age practices as they will lead you into the New Age to Alt Right (fascist) pipeline.

Visualization IS NOT magic. It is imaginary. It can be used to plan out witchcraft, or as a node (like correspondences) for a working. But it cannot be the foundation of a spell.

You do not need anything physical to do witchcraft. In our capitalist society, a lot of “witchcraft” is actually just consumerism.

Energy work is REQUIRED to do any form of witchcraft. Without doing it consciously, you’ll be doing it subconsciously. This takes control of the working away from your conscious mind and gives it to your subconscious mind.

Get to know your local medicinal herbs. If you’re able, go out and look for them. Study their foliage, flowers, arrangements, margins, venation, leaf attachment/order, and seeds so that you can safely and accurately identify them in the wild.

All practices follow a pattern, or current, that you can study. (Practices that rely solely on visualization or correspondences do not.) Using this pattern or current, you can construct your own practice and correspondences.

Educate yourself on culturally protected traditions. Do this by talking to practitioners of those practices. If a practice is protected, you WILL NOT be able to find reliable information on that practice online. This will not only help you with the above point, but also help you identify appropriative practices.

Steer clear of practices that place a heavy emphasis on gender or sex. These practices tend to be very misogynistic.

Steer clear of practices that put a heavy emphasis on “black/dark” and “white/light” magic. These practices are built on white supremacy.

Learn to differentiate between UPG, metaphysics (philosophy), magical theory, personal narratives, and misinformation.

Be creative. You do not have to follow any tradition. As long as you educate yourself, you’ll be able to create an ethical and effective practice.

#baby witch tips #beginner witch #baby witch #witch tips #text post

[wheredidthepeepeego-mp3]

when yall people headcanon adult/teen dipper as like this softboy youre all literally so wrong. adult/teen dipper would not be cute or sweet he would be a nightmare and a menace. he would be a regular on r/askreddit. he would eat 1 (one) edible when he's 16 and then put "stoner" in his social media bios until he's 30 and actually smokes weed and hates it. the only thing stopping him from using 4chan in this day and age is the alt-right pipeline and he regularly converses with incels on reddit "just to understand their viewpoint." he listens exclusively to abba until he's thirteen and discovers radiohead and suddenly he goes down a pipeline and listens to my bloody valentine and the smashing pumpkins and the mountain goats and maybe a little bit of nine inch nails but only year zero and the popular songs because he pretends to be pretentious but in reality he plays the five nights at freddy's song on repeat. adult/teen dipper wears flannel but not in a cute way because he's the kind of person who believes jackets only need to be washed biannually and also horrible graphic tees. you know the ones. mabel got him into homestuck and he only reads it to post horrible theories on reddit like ARE MOM AND BRO THE SAME PERSON???? HERE'S PROOF!!! he watches matpat and thinks it equates to leftist theory. He is not a funko pop collecter i will give him that but he does own like three. he completely unironically plays magic the gathering and yugioh. he shows up to conventions with mabel and she's dressed in incredibly elaborate cosplay. but he is wearing literally nothing but jeans, a hoodie that smells like gender dysphoria incarnate, and a shirt he stole from ford that says "MATHLETES CHAMP '77" because there was literally nothing even remotely clean in his own collection of horrible graphic tees. and they're all posters for horrible sci-fi movies he likes unironically, shirts that say things like "SARCASM IS MY THIRD LANGUAGE (KLINGON IS MY SECOND)" and he legitimately thinks they make him cool and even mabel has no appriciation for them. you people also have the wrong headcanon of adult/teen MABEL. she has seventeen piercings, and horrible tacky tattoos. every time she gets a new boyfriend she gets it tattooed on her arm and never stops doing this so by the time she's 40 her arm looks like RYAN JORDAN MICHAEL JEROME KYLE KARKAT (she dated a homestuck fan she met at a convention and regrets it) and she thinks to herself maybe that was a bad idea. while dipper is pretentious despite having NOTHING to be pretentious about, mabel listens to artists with 3 followers on soundcloud that are just cartoon sound fx remixes and she is in no way pretentious about it because she's also a diehard kesha fan. she probably dresses like a mix between a fairy-kei girl and nicki minaj, but will settle for less when the need for practicality arises. she is an unironic juggalo. she got dipper into homestuck and was an og rosemary shipper despite being straight. she is the camp hetero. she probably pokes holes in literally everything to attach earring backs to them. she does art commisions online of chibi boys because she's desperate for money. she wouldn't make fun of anyone for being into stuff she thinks is mildly lame. but only because she's saving all that rudeness for dipper because they both know he deserves it. but she would punch a neonazi. no hesitation. give the girl some credit. anyway those are my horrible horrible headcanons. and post.

#gravity falls #i hate dipper affectionately