Stop making up Rules! - Rants & Rambles
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
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"It's not a valid Mjöllnir unless your half-brother (who also has to be at least half frost giant) tricked some dwarves in to making it then fixed the competition by turning into a fly so they lost and forfeited the hammer" 🤣🤣🤣
Exactly! Otherwise you’re just a fake heathen 🤣🤣
@@TheNorseWitch hahaha
@@TheNorseWitch the oddest rule I was told was that only women could use black crow feather wings to waft smoke from herb bundles, men had to use a white swan feather. [No idea what non-binary, agender or two-spirit folk were supposed to do, hopefully just ignore the rule and use whatever they wanted.] And no, I've never found a single reference for this anywhere.
🤣
When I first started my journey in witchcraft I was told that my tarot deck had to be a deck that's stolen or they had to be given to me as a gift. My tarot cards work just fine and none were stolen and none was given to me as a gift. 😁 I've learned a lot in the last four years and I may hear things people may believe or think should be done a certain way but I've always been rebellious and went the other direction from what I've been told to go or to do. 🤣
I first heard the "you have to get your tarot deck as a gift" in the 90s but thought it had died out. I actually had friends who would buy each other the decks the other wanted then give them it as a gift, receiving the deck they wanted also as a gift at the same time.
This is the first I’m hearing of the “stolen” option 😅
I was practicing tarot for ten years before I first heard that rule of them having to be a gift 😂 people are just trying so hard to make themselves feel special they want to limit others’ access.
@@wuldryeah, I've never heard that rule
How would I get stolen ones? Would I have to steal them myself? Does paying someone to steal them count? 😅
@@karenc4106 😂 I was told I had to take them myself. 😂 I definitely passed.
Exactly, weirdly specific rules feel like an almost gatekeeping
We try to validate ourselves through others
I think you are exactly right. It seems like these random requirements people invent are just a way to make themselves feel more important and invalidate others.
@taylorfusher2997 since you commented as a reply theirs a chance it might not be seen. Copy your comment and put it on as a comment by itself it might be easier to be seen.
Also I won't lie I dont know what these mean but also don't know where you found these phrases
There's no 'almost' about it: it IS gatekeeping, point blank period.
My response to the "gift rule" was always well I'm gifting this to myself so 🤷♀
Hi!!! This specific rule stems from American prison heathenry. "Earning your hammer" is basically the reward for initiation into gang affiliation. You are correct that it is bs.
To the heathens in the chat, remember Havamal 1 - know what spaces you are entering, and act accordingly. I.E., know that racism runs rampant in American Heathenry and vet people before you trust them.
Being 50 years old this year I started out learning from Wiccan based books because that's all there was. One of the rules i was told was, I could never sell products or tarot readings because that was for personal gain. 🤣 People have always tried to gate keep and judge. It's such a shame.
I am a beginner witch and I’m trying to get into Norris paganism and my dad told me that the “real” pagans, would think I’m a “Fluffy bunny” (poser) because I am goth. He told me I’m the stereotypical witch and that witches don’t want to stand out
Thank you for this! When someone says their way is the only way for whatever reason, that's a red flag for me already right there. I'm a tad allergic to narrow-minded and arrogant people like that.
Saaaame!!
I'm a beginner and I'm SO glad you're talking about this! There's so much information online, it's so hard to know what's true and what's just clout chasing these days :(
If someone tries to tell you what to do, ask them for their sources! Or cross reference yourself ☺️
I believe that learning to protect t myself is the most important thing I've ever done I can see the changes in my life
I hadn't heard this "rule". Or maybe I did and dismissed it immediately. My SIL went years wanting a tarot deck and I had no idea about the "first deck must be a gift" thing. I gave her one once and accidentally "unlocked" them for her. It was sad she waited for so long because a wiccan friend told her that but then never gifted her one... Gatekeeping sometimes has its place but it really has gone too far now.
The only place I have to disagree with you is your statement that "gatekeeping has its place" - something I think I need to have elaborated before I fully jump down your neck about it.
@constanceblanchard7608 I have an entire video on it, maybe you’d like to watch that? I’m also of the opinion that gatekeeping has its place, so maybe it’ll help 😅
Excellent video! So much of what we define as "rules" are recent, majority are made up by practitioners in their own ways.
We have historical sources for some things, but there isn't a rulebook on it.
Thank you, Bente! ❤❤❤
I am so glad you had the Energy to out this out because it's making my stomach churn but i just didnt have the spoons to address this.
In every community there will be people who approach it "ascetically" and the stricter they go the more pure (therefore higher in the ladder they imagine there is) and better than others they are.
Someone asked me recently as an autistic witch how i manage not to take judgement personally and honestly, coming from all the marginalisations i do i know people dont naturallt like me due to their unconscious biases, the point is "judgement only matters if you know and respect the values of those who present it" becuase otherwise for all i know they might be drowning kittens in their spare time, and so why should i care about that kind of person trying to invalidate my way to be a witch?!?
Thats such a wise piece of advice! I’ll definitely take that to heart, because I am a person who instantly feels awful when criticized, no matter by whom, because I’m an extreme people pleaser. So I think reflecting on who it is criticizing me might really help me!
@@TheNorseWitch Same!
I say this king of thing all the time! If this person isn't a living example of what you want, then why are you taking their advice?
What you said about our ancestors is so true. They were not as connected as we are today. In my opinion that's the beauty of it, how people do things differently in different areas. Gatekeeping sucks! Thanks for being a badass!
Hearing the start of this rant made my toes curl so much. As a heathen and practicing witch, I have heard this "gifting rule" so many times in social media circles, I just die a little inside every time xD
Same 🤣🤣
I’d consider myself a baby witch. I’ve only really been on this journey for a few months. I know that this misinformation is out there, but never really experienced it until just recently I started looking into TikTok for information. I went on this journey to get away from the “rules and judgment” and whatnot. I have felt so good and included, free. Until that app! I’m sure there’s genuine info and people on there but from what I experienced, that app is full of silly stuff. Of course there’s that everywhere though! Thanks for this ❤
Oh yeah TikTok is not the best source for information on…. Basically anything 😅
What I've been told til I'm sick of hearing it, "You need a patron goddess AND god in order to practice" .. Yeah, no. that's some Wiccan hetero-normative bs. I'll stick to my single goddess (Or whatever deity reaches out to me) and my magic works just fine.
I'd be sore pressed not to laugh in their face and possibly say something about having an Atron Deity who transcends gender.
I really get sick of Norse pagan attitudes. It is really bad, across the board. You're the first person in a long while who's social media I want to participate in because you have such a great attitude. Take notes fellow Heathens! Take notes...
I definitely get what you mean… so many practitioners online are very convinced that they’re the best heathen in the world with the only correct practice and it’s annoying 😅
I agree 100%. Fellow heathen here. I was told I couldn’t be part of a Norse pagan group because I wasn’t Norse enough.
@@violetsidhe Same here. It gets ugly.
@@Genasinsight funny thing is I am probably more Norse than some of them due to my mixed European ancestry lol
@violetsidhe Hear that! I'm fucking Norwegian, a descendent of country Norwegians in Wisconsin. My grandmother still spoke Norwegian. My mom taught us we come from Norwegians. We do Norwegian shit for Christmas like bake cookies from recipes made by my Norwegian great grandmothers. I'm not Norse enough either. Lol
💯 People seem to love to make rules for others to follow 😕
People who try to impose "rules" on other people for spiritual practices are called Gatekeepers. I DESPISE gatekeepers.
It’s always wild to me when people try to gatekeep occultism in some shape or form. Coming up with rules for yourself is fine but don’t hold others to your personal standards.
When I started learning runic readings, I was told "Be careful, if you don't ask Oðinn's permission to use the runes, by doing like this and not like that, you risk a backlash, he could punish you very violently!" That really freaked me out, because I've never been able to connect with him. I only work with the one Jötunn, Skaði, with the nornes, and with the Elves. But from my point of view, with years of practice now, one can quite easily study and practice runic readings and magic without going through a ritual involving Oðinn or other deities. It's enough to feel connected to the Nordic symbolic world, and to have a personal practice that connects us to the deeper meaning of the runes.
It is NEVER annoying to hear you rant! I am not even a Norse Pagan and I find your content very informative, valid and very relatable! You are just calling out people's BS, and I am here to show support for your work! Well done!
Haha thank you! There’s people out there saying us content creators should only make positive, pretty and fuzzy content because nobody wants to see negativity. But honestly if everyone did that nobody would talk about the struggles… and that would suck.
Your rant videos and also the one you made about neo n@zis and the gate keeping in Norse Paganism are some of your best!
You could potentially be helping someone out there that has only started following Norse Paganism, because you are the voice of sanity in a world with a lot of misinformation!
Keep these videos coming!
One of my exes told me I need to be given tarot decks, I shut that down so fast! No person has the right to tell me how to practice, or to push their beliefs on me! Pointless practice now when decks are so readily available.
Hej Bente, I just found your channel and love the way you support and include. I’ve learned a lot from this rant! Tusen tack, keen to listen to more!
Always grateful to hear your thoughts on these things. I think people enjoy making up rules and enforcing them too much for this to stop fully, but these discussions hopefully encourage discernment for those who need the reminder.
I may be fairly new to this craft as I've been practicing for 2 years. I agree that it's a false rule that you have to be gifted your tarot deck. I do not have anyone around me that has a coven or anyone else that I know that has a practicing craft. I live in a remote location. If I had to wait to have one gifted to me I would never own a tarot deck. It's that simple.
It's amazing how much gatekeeping and rulemaking there is in every community these days. Also, you're totally right about the drive-by comments on Shorts lol...so different from regular videos.
Yes! I think it’s just about people wanting to make themselves seem more important or their practice better than they actually are.
@@TheNorseWitch Seems true, especially on social media.
I have this theory, that all the "gift" myths have somewhat of a background in the fact that back in the day, the rare items weren't freely available and thus you had almost no other choice but to receive it either as heritage or as a price in a competition. Some traditional healers and witches here will gift all their paraphernalia to the young one, because she would actually stop practicing when she transfers her knowledge. That's traditionally done in the family, too. This somehow transferred into western occultism, where in the early days, just like in nobility, some kind of occult family heritage was considered very important and ultimately validating. The fun part is, that real tradition can be much more free in this sense, because it allows changes in practice, when the overall culture changes. For example, in Balkan folklore traditional healers used to use pottery vessels for water, now they don't mind using plastic ones. Times change. And the only ones that are angry at this are scholars, because it clashes with their theories, and modern practitioners, who feel attracted to romanticizing the past as moth to a flame. But times change and so should we.
The older I get, the more the mindset of something has to be done a certain way gets shaken. For example the times at which you do a spell or communicate with a spirit. I know a lot of practicioners who do not care for the moon phase or the specific day or hour and things work just fine for them. I'm inclined to agree. But if one goes into it thinking that it won't work, because the time is wrong, then of course it won't.
It happens a lot in the crystal practice as well . Love your videos thank you .
And that’s so insanely stupid since 90% of crystal practices are New Age either way 🤣 someone came up with it fairly recently, so why should everyone adhere to that? 🤣
@@TheNorseWitch I started in 1991
All the weird rules have always felt so bizarre. Especially around Tarot. It feels less gate-keepy and more like it has roots in Classism lmao. Ive got 20 tarot decks (oracle and tarot together) and only two of them were gifts and they resonate with me the least. People just like sounding special.
I tend to trust gifted items less because i don't know where it came from and what the intention of the buyer was at the time/their mood and energy at the time of purchasing. Its a "me" thing
Thank you so much for making this video! This seems to happen all the time.
It does! And it’s infuriating.
The way you explain things is so good, Bente! I love hearing your rants so I can steal some of your points when I meet assholes haha
Oh that honestly means a lot to me! Sometimes I feel like I’m just rambling and not making sense 🤣
@@TheNorseWitch if that’s the case, then you’re my favorite rambler 😂
Not that you need my opinion or approval but....I'm in Norse Witch over here and you're absolutely right on all counts!
I get so many negative comments of shorts too! I don't know what it is, but shorts really bring out the worst in people.
What the Hel? That is nonsense that your Mjolnir must be a gift.
Well-Said Bente! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👌🏻💪🏼I concur to everything that you said in this video! To each his own, people are in title to practice paganism the way they want to, there are no freaking rules!😤😤😤🤔🤓😉💘🇨🇦🙋🏼♀️😉
THANK YOU XXX
an excellent video. we must all respect each other. have humility with each other to learn different things . there room for everyone to contribute and do it their way and grow . keep it up. wonderful and caring view of the world
I agree (again)... I hate putting these made up rules on others 🥲
😊 Your rants are so insightful. Please keep doing them!
Here's what it boils down too y'all, there's always going to be some one!!!!!!!!!!!! That one person or 2, that's going to throw something, and say this ain't right that's not how, but you are a practitioner!!!!! It's ur craft !!!!! Ur Path !!!!! At the end of the day !!!!! You do what feels !!!!!!!!!! Rite to you !!! , Nores Witch ur amazing🖤
I'm sorry but having any rules in any practice is basically like having rules in Bible which as we all know is written by PEOPLE and not by God! There are no rules! People make rules because they want to feel important and always want to have right!
Enjoying your videos and thank you for sharing.
Awesome video! Lovely said 😊❤
Totally agreed. Love ❤️ the rant 😊
Very well said, Benta!!
This is a huge pet peeve for me. Any rule someone wants to follow is fine but when they try to impose these on others it is so frustrating. I have been pagan and a witch my whole life, and every few years I come across a new trend or new rule that is absolutely fresh bullshit 😅
I was recently told that not only do you have to get tarot cards, Mjolnir pendants, and runes as gifts, you also have to “blót” them. Someone really misunderstood blót so badly they thought you have to cut yourself and offer your own blood and smear it on your divination tools and Mjolnir pendants or they won’t work…
Of course certain traditions do have a practice of blooding tools and such but that is not something we have to do and definitely not something we have any evidence for pre-Christian pagans doing.
Your video reminds of why i prefer watching youtube videos about witchy stuffs rather than tiktok because it is a toxic community that constantly makes up these rules and everyone should follow them. Also not only because of the community, but also i would say that watching youtube videos explain stuffs much better and in depth rather than tiktoks. For example, I know you get really informed on stuff and you provide reliable sources like the book im reading on runes which is futhark: a handbook of rune magic by Thorsson and it feels original because it has your own spice. Tiktoks are kinda like not original and it feels like they are copying each other or repeating the same and the same all over again. I've been reading a lot about fehu on books, websites and also at your channel and there are slightly different things but i know they all complement each other. If you ask me, it is so weird that you don't have that many views considering your videos are so appealing to the view, comfortable and full of reliable sources
Thank you, Bente!❤
Of course 🥰🥰
The witchy channels I follow pretty much unanimously agree, nah, you don't need to follow whatever rules you don't want to. Always cleanse your deck? ok. But then one witch I respect a lot said she immediately liked the spirit attached to a used deck so she reads it as is. I love that story! My practice is a journey and I'll answer the things that speak to me 🥰🌳🌿🍵🌞🪐🦎🐍🧿🕯📚📔
Thank you! This made me feel so much better about my practuce!not aeeung a whole lot of rules, except for 1 good source made mw feel a but stuck in the beginning. I've been feeling morw drawn to the land. I made a Hugr out of 9 stones and planned on hiding in under a plant to help drainage and couldn't. I felt like just having a spot was mirw than fine to the Gods, as I expetienced. I've always wanted a pendant for Freyr or even Thor's Hammer. I alqaya feared the onws I resonate wirh are from not so ethnical sources, and funding what I can' does tha5 majw nw not good enough to vw on the Norsw path? What you say makes sense. Facts I've foegotten or iver looked. I wonder if ir's when we have no text, no set solid rules, we as humans do not understand h9w to practice. ❤
The only rules are that there ARE NO RULES! :)
Breaking taboos is a component to certain spells I like so thats another way to address people trying to tell you your tarot cards wont work cause a cat didnt lick them under the full moon, they work fine, I break your opinion to cast greasy skin when you wake up (I wouldnt actually do that but I bet I could).
okay, so I am a lucky one (from the point of this comment): I got my Mjölnir as a gift AND I got my only Tarot deck as a gift (I only bought my Oracle cards myself) 🤣🤣🤣
Oh so you’re the real deal 😏🤣
@@TheNorseWitch seems so ... but I didn't know 🤣🤣
Love the content, sister. You are a create creator.
The dwarves won. But they didn't take Loki's head because they couldn't do it without taking a part of his neck. Loki's trickery.
I recently heard that because I use electric candles as daily offerings ( I do other stuff just not evryday) to Slavic NATURE gods, I actually give them "nothing" cuz electric candle on Altar is NOT an offering and how Can I do this xd
Oh yeah right because normal candles grow wild in nature? 🤣
@@TheNorseWitch ❤️😂😂😂 I think its the idea that "fire is nature" and lightbulb is Modern bullshit xd
You can just get your own stuff. Seriously, you dont need to wait, take charge of your life and get going with your journey
I am not really a witch I play around with some things more like testing them to see if it will work for me , not everyone can do everything some people can do witchcraft while others it may not work so well , which is more like myself, I practice many things intertwined and adapted for myself .
I like my way of belief the "what works for me ", like I read or am told something about something so start out doing it that way then adjust it or maybe even completely change it, so I am comfortable with it just as long as it isn't hurting( physically or mentally) other people or things it's good.
When I speak to other people I can sometimes come across of the feeling that Iam saying it has to be said or done in this way no that's not what I mean I usually remember to put that in like in my experience what works for me is this or that The whole valid thing about given to you as a gift really doesn't make any sense, the first person that had what ever it is like cards or Thors hammer then it wouldn't have worked, so passing it down I think it still wouldn't work. I have had gifted things like a deck of Tarot cards and to be honest they didnt agree with me they would give me odd answers to questions I asked odd readings I think that it was because the person that gave them to my mother then to me from the 1970s mid they had issues, then their child was murder so that energy transferred, even cleansing them only worked for a short while . I just have them as a keep sake . I think that if you get something made by hand will probably have better energy then made by machine but also the longer you have that item the more it becomes lack of a better word your friend because the energies intertwine with each other.
The thing about buying something its the attraction that energy that attracts the person to buy it, I am not talking about the sales pitch or everyone's talking about it fad type things which probably won't work as well as say, you just come apron the item for me its little rocks mostly I will be walking minding my own business and I will be attracted to a rock or a feather or an animal or something its energy calls to me, and I am not talking like in a movie type thing, It's hard to explain those types of times for me work
YES THANK YOU i agree 100%
I'm not a practicing witch,yet,(I always wanna start but never know where to even start) but anyway I personally feel like witchcraft is such a personal thing that its not something that even can have any strict rules.i feel like any rule should come from a person's personal experience.
But again I'm not a practicing witch ,so what I just said might be total bullshit
❤Hey Benta! ❤️ how are you doing? ❤
So, who gave the first person Thor’s Hammer -Thor? See, what you’re saying. It’s obvious that this is something that bothers you but I can also see you’re very graceful. So never mind the a-holes. You’re doing just fine and will continue to be.
I have a question. How did you figure out you wanted to be a norse pagan? Or like, how did it all start for you? ♥
Personally, my favorite is the Helm of Awe is a Viking symbol when it was made up by the Icelandic Christians not Norse Pagans. Very annoying.
I mean.. that usually comes from lack of knowledge, not because people try to make up rules 🤔
Just so you know I'm new but I've known about this from the beginning of my life I k ew all about the God's from the beginning of my life
❤❤❤❤😊