ITT: Confess your WOO!

[Odibex Grallspice]

the internet is a bit of a woo-killer. like I used to believe that one purpose of dreams was to compensate for stuff that was lacking in our waking lives. if you hadn't experienced fear in a while you'd have a nightmare. if you hadn't had romance you'd have a sex dream. apparently that's not-true bullshit but I'm pretty sure it is true.

[Thumper Forge (Όρκος)]

I've spent today bumming around the forum and looking for places to contribute, and this thread feels like a good place to start.

My WOO:

I'm an initiate of the Gardnerian Tradition of Witchcraft. I spent years looking forward to a time when I could be a real-and-for-true High Priest, right up until I was made a High Priest, at which point the title felt awkward and self-indulgent. I usually just go with HP if anyone ask (and hardly anyone ever does, so it's all good).

I'm also an initiate of the Minoan Brotherhood, which is a Pagan tradition for "men who love men" (and the men who love them). It's pretty cool.

I'm Discordian, because I've had a thing for Eris since high school, and it was heartening to find a religion dedicated to Her. It was even more heartening to find the weirdness therein. (I remain undecided on the Facebook groups, though.)

Lately, I've been calling myself a Discordian witch, and now I just need to figure out what I mean by that. Or maybe I don't. I'll roll some dice over it.

I sometimes attend Unitarian Universalist services and may end up going to UU seminary. I spend a lot of time thinking about how my church office would be decorated.

Other interests include rootwork, Chaos Magic, and geomancy. I am mildly to moderately competent in all of the above but will more than likely never end up on a panel for any of them.

[Doktor Howl]

On a panel?

[Cramulus]

I sometimes attend Unitarian Universalist services and may end up going to UU seminary. I spend a lot of time thinking about how my church office would be decorated.

Hey Thumper!

Man, I am crazy curious about what UU Seminary is like.
There is a nearby parallel universe in which I made slightly different choices and am currently a priest.

Every time I talk to a priest, I'm like "Man, I want to do that... but not as a Christian... i wish there were secular churches"

and then I realize I'm kinda talking about Unitarians.

[Thumper Forge (Όρκος)]

On a panel?

Like at a conference: "On today's Chaos Magic discussion panel, we have Peter J. Carroll," [applause] "Phil Hine," [applause] "And..." [looks at me blankly, checks notes] "Um..."

[Thumper Forge (Όρκος)]

Every time I talk to a priest, I'm like "Man, I want to do that... but not as a Christian... i wish there were secular churches"

and then I realize I'm kinda talking about Unitarians.

That's exactly where I am with the whole thing. Plus my dad has been on me about going to grad school for awhile now -- he wanted me to go into either psychology or social work -- so I pitched UU seminary as an alternative.

I don't really know what to expect, but the UU seminarians I'm friends with don't seem to have gone off any particular deep ends, so that's good.

[Cramulus]

the UU seminarians I'm friends with don't seem to have gone off any particular deep ends

WHAT A LETDOWN 
                \

[Thumper Forge (Όρκος)]

WHAT A LETDOWN 
                \

But, y'know, the night is young.

[There is no self]

I've spent today bumming around the forum and looking for places to contribute, and this thread feels like a good place to start.

I was thinking the same thing.

I can't say I have a proper woo, mainly because I never experienced that non-rational leap of faith necessary to actually believe. But two of my core interests are history and anthropology, which lead to a lot of funny stuff, like:

- Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and the Vipassana tradition of Buddhism. I have never done much beyond studying and a few practices because I feel like they require a level of commitment that can't be met by going to the local Rinzai group a couple times a week. I also practice mindfulness meditation, though that's a very different thing, done for very different reasons;

- Mazdaism/Zoroastrianism. I'm fascinated by its imagery and tenets, and adhere (most of the time) to the principle of "good thoughts, good words, good actions". I feel that's more common sense than actual faith, though. Sometimes I find myself "believing" in Ahura Mazda and then immediately rationalising it as the Big Bang, the Universe, the Logos, or what have you. I'm not sure that's what old Zarathushtra had in mind;

- various and varied so-called "occult traditions", which include the Hebrew Qabalah, Sufism, and mysteric cults like those of Eleusi and Babylon. Mainly from a historical point of view, though. I'm less interested in Western occultism, like the Hermetic tradition and Theosophy - I feel like whatever interesting concepts there were have been buried under so much theorising and secrecy, schisms and counter-schisms, not to mention countless influences from other traditions, that it's not really worth the time to investigate something that can probably be found elsewhere;

- Chaos magic. I have been reading a lot about it lately and it's an interesting approach. It also ties in with what is probably my only woo, that is, that as long as someone believes in something, that thing is very much real.

And finally, I believe a lot of what Discordianism (however you want to define it) says has a layer of truth, or at least usefulness. This is why I'm also a Pope, specifically Pope Haumavarga of the First Paradraya Temple of Disgrace Hill. Low self-esteem has kept me from canonising myself, but I'll get there eventually.

[Chelagoras The Boulder]

Lately, I've been calling myself a Discordian witch, and now I just need to figure out what I mean by that. Or maybe I don't. I'll roll some dice over it.

I sometimes attend Unitarian Universalist services and may end up going to UU seminary. I spend a lot of time thinking about how my church office would be decorated.

I'm kinda in a similar boat rn. Spent some time playing with the idea of unironically having Eris as a patron deity, realized I'm not actually that insane just yet, and just studying things like chaos magick and hoodoo until I pin down what, if any, god I'd wanna work with.

Also a UU, because they fit my ideal of what a church that actually does good for the community looks like.

[Galerson]

I'm Discordian and SubGenius.

[Chelagoras The Boulder]

Hey, you must be new. Welcome to the forum, pools on the ceiling  yadda yadda etc.

Lately, I've been calling myself a Discordian witch, and now I just need to figure out what I mean by that. Or maybe I don't. I'll roll some dice over it.

I sometimes attend Unitarian Universalist services and may end up going to UU seminary. I spend a lot of time thinking about how my church office would be decorated.

I'm kinda in a similar boat rn. Spent some time playing with the idea of unironically having Eris as a patron deity, realized I'm not actually that insane just yet, and just studying things like chaos magick and hoodoo until I pin down what, if any, god I'd wanna work with.

Also a UU, because they fit my ideal of what a church that actually does good for the community looks like.

So I've been revisiting the idea of finding patron deities and I'm considering whether or not I could actually worship pop culture stuff that already resonates with me and that I already know with some degree of intimacy. The first step of this will probably be getting past the idea of becoming not only the kind of dweeb that collects figures and whatnot, but is comfortable displaying such things on an altar. Do I dare give on to the CRINGE?

[Galerson]

I'm new here, yes, thank you.

I've been a Discordian for a good while, but I just joined the Church of the SubGenius. I got how it's not really a hate-mongering religious group, it's showing the goofiness of hate-mongering religious groups.

I'm learning about judo which has its own philosophy. Jū yoku gō o seisueir means softness controls hardness, yoku zen'yō means maximum efficiency, minimum effort, and jita kyōei means mutual welfare and benefit. I'm just a beginner, a white belt, so I really don't understand very much yet. But things are so violent now I want to learn self-defense.

[altered]

The sort of danger we have going on currently makes most martial arts utterly worthless. I would rather recommend A: trying to find a shooting club and B: trying to learn krav maga.

Why krav maga if most martial arts are worthless? Well, you see, krav maga is not competitive. It is meant to badly hurt someone very quickly. More importantly, it assumes that at least in some cases, you will be facing down someone who has a gun when you do not.

The nature of our current variety of extremism means if you need to engage in self-defense, you probably have a gun pointed at you. If the person with the gun is the only person with a gun, if they are close enough to you, and if they are not already pulling the trigger, it is /possible/ for you to take them down without being killed, and in that situation most other martial arts will almost certainly end with you getting shot, because they are meant to deal with opponents that do not have line-of-sight death delivery devices and must rely on inferior meat, or occasionally sticks (sharp or non sharp). Krav maga was developed by a man who survived fighting Nazis invading Slovakian ghettos with nothing but his bare goddamn hands, for the purpose of training soldiers to beat the bejesus out of someone who may well have a gun when you do not.

The shooting club is just so you know what to do with the gun you just yanked out of that poor bastard's mangled hand if you need to, and so you /don't/ end up waving it around or shooting your own genitalia off in the process.

EDIT: corrected Imre's history. I'm on the streets, give me a break.

[Galerson]

I really don't know a great deal about it as I'm just new. But isn't krav maga part judo?