blackantlers23:

carpeumbra:

malachite-wings:

dragon-dancer:

There were no “burning times.” If you’d like more information on the Spanish Inquisition and similar incidents, I encourage you to do that thing I’m always bitching about and RESEARCH. Wiccans, witches, and pagans in this day and age in places like the U.S. are not oppressed. We don’t really have to hide from society. We just do because as a whole we’re kind of pansy-assed about standing up for our own beliefs. That, and it gets really difficult to explain why pretty much everyone’s beliefs and practices are drastically different.

Has someone in your life called you crazy or insulted your religion? That really sucks, but if you want to see religious oppression talk to a Jew who survived the Holocaust. You aren’t dealing with anything close.

(Bolding mine.)

Clearly someone came from a privileged upper middle class family.

Pansy-assed, eh. You ever dealt with PTSD, or physical chronic injuries as the results of someone “calling you crazy or insulting your religion”? You ever been homeless because of your “religion”? Ever lose your job because of it? I can imagine not, and just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not out there.

Abuse and oppression are abuse and oppression. They are not to be dismissed because this is the USoffuckingA and because they’re not happening on the scale of the Holocaust. Also. Using that history to shame others into adopting your point of view is also real classy, by the way.

I’ve actually been kicked out of friend’s homes for saying I practice magic. I’ve actually been threatened due to magic with physical violence or social repercussions. My high school’s counselor, principle, and non-Hispanic teachers and my ex-shrink actually said I was schizophrenic even though in no way does my religious experiences harm my life. He just said “Those gods just aren’t real Mr. Calero. It is a product of…[etc]”,  They actually told my parents I need help, that my religious beliefs are products of delusions; which is a step up from just being called crazy by classmates and friends. There are people in the medical community who, if able, would wrap up all of us in a straight jacket and throw us in the loony bin.

My current house mother, though this is in Europe mind you, actually thought I was practicing black magic. I had to play the Catholic card and pointed out the fact all the grimoires I have in my room that I bought in France were angelic grimoires. That’s okay, but my voodoo stuff is hidden in my suitcase for good reason.

So yes, while arguably most of America either passively disapproves or doesn’t care, there are parts of the USA that would do horrible, violent things. I do believe there is a Pagan author in Florida whose family members have been hospitalized and her house has had rocks/home-made bombs thrown in? Fuck’s sake, if there’s still racism and sexism and discrimination against sexual orientation to the point of murder and violence in the USA, what makes you think there isn’t against magic/pagans? It’s marginal, but it’s still there and some people live in those areas.

And while we’re on the subject, magic against people is banned in a variety of countries out of either morality laws or just flat out banning witchcraft. In Latin America, police have been known to raid/collect voodoo/santeria and any non-Catholic things from sellers under a variety of excuses, though religious discrimination is against the law. And I believe we’re all familiar with the fact even in Greece, the pagan faiths were outright banned until recently. So the so-called “first world” isn’t exactly 100% pagan-and-magic-friendly.

So no, it isn’t to the extent in the United States that the fluffy neowiccans and wiccans would like to play out, but it isn’t a complete lie either.

reblogging this since I get a lot shit from everyone ranging from doctors, parents, christians, and atheists

the woman who ran the pagan shop in my town got kerosene and a match thrown at her by a person who said she needed to “be cleansed in the fire of christ.” she did get burned, but only minor burns, thankfully.

and having your holidays denigrated publicly, and not federally recognized in any way, is actually a systemic, institutionalized oppression of the religion.