Christanity - Blog Posts

Bonjour and Hello!

My name is Laurence and I am a Heritage Witch. I chose this path in 2019 after research into my genealogical roots and heritage from Quebec and Acadia. I wanted to create a path for myself that was relevant to my experience growing up in my Quebec family and in the surrounding landscape around me. I have another Tumblr account, showing some French Canadian witch material, but I decided to hone the focus and create a new account just for this.

I research French Canadian and Acadian folk ways and history, using archive and scholarly sources to gain knowledge for my practice. I also aim to write a book about these practices for the modern witch. I want to have the information I gathered to be accessible to the wider witchcraft and Pagan community, for anyone that would be interested in adding these tidbits to their path.

As the book is being written, I am going to post some blog entries about my findings, and little tidbits of knowledge I've found.

This blog is a safe space for all witches and everyone that comes with an open mind. While French Canadian and Acadian culture is beautiful, I recognize the colonial aspects of the history and culture, and I aim to dismantle that. I will not entertain or tolerate Quebec nationalism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc. I support active reconciliation efforts with indigenous cultures and peoples, and while I recognize that French Canadians and Acadians have a shared cultural history with indigenous peoples, this blog will not post or teach indigenous practices. It is not my place to do so. This practice focuses on folk Catholicism as practiced by my ancestors. I do not support the Catholic Church and I want them to be held accountable for all the wrongs they have committed. This is a place of love and acceptance.

Stay tuned and I look forward to exploring and sharing further.

-Laurence

The " Spirituality/Religion = Low intelligence " never fails to baffle me

Edgy Reddit-Type Atheists will assume everyone who believes in a higher power or ANYTHING spiritual means you are low IQ and can't think for yourself.

Like you do know there are Scientists, Philosophers, Professors etc who are Religious/Spiritual Right?

Like just because someone believes in God doesn't mean they're 'Unintelligent' or 'Cant think for themselves '..

(sorry I just wanted to put my own take on this post)

I'm so tired of "actually, having any sense of spirituality or belief in the spiritual makes you unintelligent" rhetoric. like are you my evangelical father? because you sound just like him

Being religious, (Catholic) now I see how hypocritical and One sided I was when I was an Pagan, Atheist and Satanist back in 2020—2023. However I don't blame myself for thinking that way, I grew up in my Grandparents Southern Baptist Church while living with them and they were very strict. They made us go to church every Sunday and would use belts against us if we messed up in school (at one point We went to Baptist School but I got kicked out). Since ten years old I was (what I think now) Agnostic. I didn't know if there was a God and I didn't care if there was one or not. I was like any other normal kid, I played outside with the other kids and did normal kid things.

But In 2020, I have changed. This was during the pandemic when I changed my identity rapidly and my opinions rapidly. I used to be Agnostic but In 2020 I began to be interested in my mother's practice which was Wicca or Witchcraft. I started worshipping Odin in 2021 and during that time I began to be critical of Christianity, why? Well, I think because of my Grandmother's church. The church isn't bad, I never had any beatings or negative experiences but living with your strict Southern Baptist Grandparents it makes you think that ALL of Christianity is like this and therefore bad. I Generalized all Christians to be these pushy, know it all, holier than thou people who wants YOU to be Christian. I stereotyped Christians to all be Homophobic , Transphobic, Racist, All the Bigoted things.

This view of Christians and Christianity blinded me, Yit made me one sided and Hypocritical. Because I was A Pagan, Defending Islam and Judaism but only Criticizing Christianity because of my bad experiences.

And I think this is a common problem on the Left among these progressive Atheists/Agnostics/Pagans, is they defend Islam, They speak out against this Hatred of Muslims and Jews but turn around and assume all Christians are These Evangelical Homophobic, Transphobic, Racist Bible Forcing Zealots.

Of course not all atheists Think like this, it's most, who criticize one religion but defend the other, Who, due to personal experiences will demonize and generalize a whole religion because of a small but loud minority.

But don't let your bad experiences become bias, don't let your bad experiences become hypocrisy like I let my bad experience become bias and hypocrisy.

Don't fall for the hive mind and don't let others think for you. Don't follow the herd, Be a Skeptic all you want but think for yourself, have your own thoughts and do your own thesis. Being a Skeptic is all about being a critical thinker, not about having a bias like everyone else.

This may not make sense for all, But some will understand.

The strange thing about growing up in conservative Christianity and then leaving it behind is that there are a lot of secular/progressive spaces that engage in similar thinking while sincerely believing their ideas are counter to conservative ones. So I thought I would just make a list of things I was taught within conservative Christianity, the stuff that was either the core of our beliefs, or the social dynamics that we created. Some of the language I use is specifically either scriptural, or Christian-speak.

This list isn’t to say “stop thinking this way.” This is actually intended to simply be informative because sometimes social justice spaces assume, “we are crafting our ideals in opposition to conservative ideals therefore whatever we think surely must be the opposite of whatever they think,” without ever seeming to know that their language and ideals look and sound the same.

So, let’s begin:

Sin-leveling: x is bad, and y is bad, and all bad things deserve an equal reaction

Sin-leveling part 2: because all things are equally bad, there’s nothing wrong with inverting the consequences. Hurting others becomes acceptable (because it’s no different than doing something distasteful), doing something distasteful is unforgivable (because it’s no different than doing something harmful)

Avoid all appearance of evil: if I assume that your behavior looks wrong, then you are wrong, even if further context would say otherwise. You should avoid doing anything that others would see as wrong because you are not allowed the benefit of the doubt or to defend yourself.

Sin by association: x company contracted with y company. Y company engages in something sinful, which means x company approves of said sinful thing which means if you purchase from x company, you are condoning, supporting, and have actually committed the sin.

Think only on what is good: or as the pastor of my old church liked to call it, “garbage in, garbage out.” Whatever ideas, thoughts, words, arguments, stories, pictures, books, movies, songs, friends, love you put in your head will create the desire to become that. If you want to be good, you must avoid any bad thought because you will “slip” into wanting it and then be unable to stop yourself from being it. (For example, type into google “is secular music” and click on the autocomplete of “a sin”)

Language as an in-group test: if you do not describe your life, experiences, and beliefs with the exact same vocabulary and in-group speak, you are either not really one of us, or you’re someone who hasn’t thought through their ideas as deeply as I have.

By any means necessary: Also known in the ex-Evangelical world as “lying for Jesus.” If my words create the necessary beliefs and actions in others, then it doesn’t matter if I am exaggerating, saying half-truths, or using manipulative language, because I’m saving others and helping them do what’s right.

Touch not God’s anointed: any critiques of those our community trusts, critiques of those we’ve deemed “the good ones,” are actually people trying to sow discord and disunity to destroy our community and their voice should be silenced because they must be lying.

Judge not lest ye be judged: A scripture that we throw at people when someone says our leadership is abusive, a scripture we cry is being taken out of context when we want to harshly critique someone ourselves. 

There’s more, lots more, but this post is already fairly long. Once again, though, this isn’t intended to be combative. I just want people to know the actual social dynamics that a lot of us grew up with in conservative Christianity communities, so they know when sometimes they’re sharing those social dynamics, not countering them.