A reading of the Bright Mother's Journey to the Cave of the World

 

Veiled Witch Video: The Conception of the Holy Daughter

 Dear Reader,

Tomorrow is the holiday commemorating and celebrating the conception of the Daughter of the Bright Mother. This week's video is a reading from the Clear Recital: Children of Déa Version of that event.

Veiled Witch Videos: It's Advent already?!

 

No Video Post this Week

 Dear Reader,

As you may have noticed, I didn't post a video yesterday. I'm marching into migraine territory with this wonky weather and just didn't have the spoons. I am also trying to work around how Microsoft nerfed a number of features on my camera with a recent update. The video quality looks like it is from the 1990s-2000s. Some nostalgia there but not enough to make me happy. If they keep nullifying features that make their product easier to use in favor of forcing everyone to move their data to the cloud, I may get a different brand of computer. But that is a rant for another day and another blog.

I will do my best in the midst of the chaos of turkey day to get a short video up next week.

Video Post: An Update and some rambling: Did the Dark Queen Cause All Suffering?

 

Dear Reader,

I apologize for the blurriness of the video, a lot of light behind me and some stuff on the lens doesn't make for a great picture. I open this video with an explanation and an apology why I've been away for so long. It's been a rough year between my bipolar type 2 acting up and my seasonal affective disorder kicking me in the teeth roughly around a week after the solstice last year. I'm doing a bit better now, but it's utter chaos trying to pick up all the threads laying around and get the kids ready for school. Also, I have forgotten how to do algebra which is making tutoring my eldest son a nightmare. Between the two of us, I can't multiply with out a calculator and he can't divide with out one. It's been rough going.

I've been visiting with the local Jehovah's Witnesses for a little while. The gave me a tract and shared with me a video that presented the claim that the fall of the angels was due to Satan's questioning Jehovah about the possibility of a perfectly good world. And, as per their tract and video, the Jehovah's Witnesses argue that all suffering in this world is due to Satan, who has command of it.

This got me to thinking about the Dark Queen and her relationship to the world and suffering. I am of a position that suffering is a natural consequence of being in this world. It's not a punishment or the result of a sadistic anti-demiurge wanting to torture all of existence. The Dark Queen and her servants can cause mischief, mayhem, and misery but they are not the reason why I have bipolar type 2 or that my nieces have it as well. That's just flawed genetics which arises from being in an imperfect world.

The Dark Queen's power is diminished by the Daughter's Sacrifice and the Mother's Rescuing of her Daughter. The servants are as mist on the wind. They can give us a spiritual chill and make illusions dance before us in that mist, but they are powerless over us. Temptation to despair and give up hope are ultimately empty words from the Dark Queen's servants, no matter how beguiling they sound. Because in the end, they are forced to pass away from us and we see the light of Déa shining through the mist, banishing it to the place it arose from.

No video post this week. Sorry.

 Dear Reader,

Aside from the fact that I am recovering from a migraine due to a major shift in the weather, the lawn company is here and a tree removal service is working across the street. I thought my place was loud when we had all the fans going earlier in the year. Good grief, these folks might as well be in my living room with all the noise. At least the yard is going to look nice, I guess.

Loud got redefined. I'm not sure how to describe it as exceedingly distracting and a bit obnoxious. Fortunately the tree companies come around only twice a year to trim stuff for the power company. For some reason, the lawn company was a few days late. It was raining for the last few days, so that's probably it. But I didn't plan on have all of that noise when I was trying to record a video. I attempted and on playback, I was barely audible. It was kinda impressive, to be honest. They were louder than my kids.

Sorry, no video post this week.

 Dear Reader,

The last few days have been incredibly busy. On top of that, my home sounds like a WWII airport with all of these fans running. (Beloved says the air conditioner will be going in the window soon, possibly as soon as today. There's hope yet!) I've been having problems sleeping for the last several months and last night I got my first real night of sleep with a medication change. That medication change, however, has me running at half speed and not thinking quite clearly. As I adapt to this medication, that will clear up. But I am going to refrain from videos until I can put together a transcript that is actually legible. I tried a few times today to come up with something and I just had a lot of typos and bullet points that were loosely connected.

Give me a week or two to get my sleep schedule back in order and my brain back to full functionality. I'll still try to post, but they may be rambling nonsense like this one. Sleep deprivation is really weird, by the way. I only got to the mild stage of it, where there was the beginning of hallucination when laying awake in bed. I kept 'hearing' people in the empty apartment next door and my family talking when they were all asleep. Fortunately, I didn't panic. I just tried to go back to sleep after walking around the apartment to make sure everybody was ok. (I was hallucinating my husband calming both kids down after nightmares, when all three of them were literally snoring in their sleep at the same time. That totally doesn't count as talking in your sleep.)

No video this week.

 Dear Reader,

Time got away from me and I just couldn't get a script written or the video put together for you today. I apologize. Because next week is turkey day, I know that I won't have time to make a video that week. I'm aiming for getting one up the week following. 

No video post this week.

 Dear Reader,

There is not a video post this week. I've been having difficulty coming up with material for the videos. Also my boys are home from school for the day and would totally photobomb the video holding up their favorite toys. I'll try to come up with something next week. I'm probably going to be discussing Shadow Work.

Why? It's that time of year and I've been doing a lot of it over the last several months. So, I am probably going to give y'all a few pointers on how to safely do Shadow Work, provided I can get my proverbial ducks in a row. Everything is a bit chaotic because my maternal grandfather died suddenly last week and the extended family is in upheaval. I'm trying to be supportive but there really isn't much I can do aside from pray for them. 

I may do a video at some point in the future on just what I do as a necromancer as well and try to demystify some of that stuff too. It is that time of year, after all.

No video post this week.

 Dear Reader,

There is no video post this week because the apartment sounds like an airport again with all the fans. I'll hope to get one up next week if the weather cooperates.

Video Post: Filianic take on the Catholic Style Rosary.

 I haven't a transcript because I already did a write up on the mirror blog of the Catholic style rosary. The video is my reciting the rosary and explaining how to do it. There's a few bloopers where things like my notes fell off the desk and I had to pause recording to pick them up. But here's the link for the write up: https://cydira13.wordpress.com/a-filianic-rosary-catholic-style/?frame-nonce=a084a0f696

No video post this week.

 Dear Reader,

I had planned on doing a video about the Catholic style rosary but I simply am not going to have the time with all of my errands that I need to do before the kids get home from summer school for the day. I will try to get it done tomorrow along with my weekly random recommendation (it'll be a book review this week). I'd do a video when the kids were home, but they are a couple of hams who want to be on the screen too. Some day, I'll convince them that fart sounds in the background as I am discussing something really isn't appropriate. Today, I know, will not be that day. We started today with fart sounds and fighting. It's going to be a long one.

Am I Still A Filianist? Well, yes but it's weird.

 I apologize but there's no transcript for this video either. My kids kept interrupting me so it took me a few tries to even get it done. I'm amazed they didn't photobomb me. LOL

In this video, I explain where I stand in my faith, give a picture of how I see Filianism relating to Heathenry on my blended path, and try to explain the radio silence from the conservative orthodox Filianic community since 2013. Let's just say that politics got mixed in with religion and it got a little ugly. Now, however, they're starting to be more active on the internet again so perhaps more open discourse can happen between everybody.

Pandemic life is hard and being yourself is just as hard.

 I'm sorry that the video doesn't have a transcript. I just ramble here about how the pandemic life has been hard and the effect it's had on my family, our social lives, and my spiritual life. I also ramble on a bit about how I have been growing to be more authentic in my self presentation. Yes, that is a BDSM collar you see in the cover pic. I've been wearing it off and on for years. Over the course of the last year, a lot of my hesitancy about fully expressing myself has worn off. As a result, I'm transitioning my wardrobe over to goth with pops of color because I've always wanted to dress in that fashion (but past harassment made me reluctant to do what made me happy). I'm also wearing the collar for two reasons. One, it is a comfort item that makes me feel safe, happy, and loved when I wear it. Reason number two: fashion is awesome. I've got that ribbon on not to make the collar stand out (though I don't mind that it has that effect) but because I've worn this thing for so long that the plating on the hardware has worn off and my skin is reacting to the base metal. Metal allergies suck.

The long and short of the video is living through a pandemic is hard and terrifying. Equally hard is working to be your authentic self when you're living in a hostile climate. The boonies of New York state is not as open minded as you may want to think. I've been harassed about my religious convictions since I entered public school and it's continued into adulthood because people suck. I'm upset because the harassment is beginning for my kids and I'm at a loss for how to best support them through it. We're also in an area that proudly declares itself to be 'Trump country' and we are not Trump supporters. We've opposed the man and what he stands for long before he even got into politics. It's a bit hairy at times when the neighbors get going on a tear about how bad 'liberals' are and such. Practicing silence in the face of such things is difficult. But, if you're quiet, people tend to assume that you agree with them and eventually shut up.

But yesterday was a bad brain day and the kids were in need to some help getting their room clean, which is why this video is a day late. I apologize.

Video posts resuming Next Week.

 Dear Reader,

I haven't done them in a long time because life got complicated, but I am going to resume my short video posts on various topics. Look for the first of them next Thursday. I apologize in advance for any photobombing done by my children. I will be posting transcripts of what I have up on the videos. There may be occasional videos where there isn't an exact transcript but commentary on what I posted. I'm still working this business of transcripts for videos out. In case you haven't seen it, I'm not the best at working off of a script. I'm sure that skill will improve over time, right?

If you have any special topics you'd like me to cover, please post in the comments on this post. I'll check them Monday (6/21/21) to see what you've suggested.

♥

No videos this week or next week.

Dear Reader,

Due to the fact that my schedule has been thrown into complete disarray, I haven't had time to make a video this week at all. And next week my kids are going to be on break from school. That's going to be pure chaos. Check back during the 4th Thursday of the month for my next video post.

♥ 

No Video Post This Week.

 Dear Reader,

Because I am having technical issues with the microphone on the laptop and on my headset, it is going to be a little while before I can do another video post. Beloved's got an idea where he can find me a decent headset. It may be a week or two before I can get a video up because of things like shipping and the postal service being a mess right now. (Anyone else have their bills go missing last month? I had to call everybody to make sure they got paid and to resend my current bill. I'll be so happy when the postal service is fixed.)

I am beginning to look into the possibility of replacing my laptop. If you have any suggestions for a good model to work with, drop them in the comments.

Status of Video Posts.

 Dear Reader,

I have gone most of a year with out making video posts. Some of it was due to the fact that we were doing a lot of distance learning and the household was in a fair amount of turmoil. Some of it was due to the fact that I had (and to some extent am still) struggled with essentially a year long bout of depression due to the isolation that Covid-19 has forced on me. (I am considered medically at high risk between my asthma and diabetes.) Then there was the third part of the problem which was I kinda ran out of ideas.

I am in the process of compiling a list of video post ideas. It is my hope that next week, I will have something ready for your viewing pleasure. It's been a wild year and it looks like this year is going to repeat many of the elements that made last year challenging. I, however, am not going to allow them to stop me from writing and making videos. I just need a week to finish this topic list that I've been working on.

In some ways, this is a reboot of the entire blog. It may be that I was past due for that. Either way, look for a video post next week on Thursday. I will endeavor to have a transcript of the blog post available for you to read as well. (This also gives me some time to find another headset that works properly because the microphone on mine died. It was ancient and venerable so that wasn't a big surprise. Just another nuisance on a list of them to deal with right now.)

Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your readership. I look forward to posting a video next week for you. In the meantime, take a look at some of the older videos. Search Veiled Witch Videos on Youtube to find them. (I probably should set up a page on here with all the links. That'd make sense and probably make everyone's life easier rather than scrolling through old posts. Something to work on later, I suppose.) 

Video ??? - Thoughts on Clergy in Paganism

There is no transcript for today's video because I just haven't the proverbial spoons to write everything out multiple times and make the video. I will, however, summarize the main points of my video. The Christian model of how clergy works is not how it worked in antiquity across world cultures. The modern argument that all pagan clergy should be performing their duties in the same fashion as the Christian clergy is nonsensical. In antiquity, there were three classes of clergy. The highest class remained in the temple and served deities directly. The intermediate class of clergy served to facilitate public ritual and make sure that the offerings of the general public were properly handled. The lowest class of clergy served to assist lay persons with their personal worship practices and provide spiritual guidance.

Modern pagan worship has seen a re-emergence of these three classes of clergy. As much as some member of the Filianic community may dislike it, the emergence of these three classes of clergy are happening here as well. The expectation that the clergy of non-Christian religions to serve the same function as Christian clergy does is not possible. The cultus of Christianity is built so that the clergy are the direct intermediaries for worshippers to access their deity. It is only in relatively modern times that the idea of a personal relationship with the Christian god has arisen. In pagan worship systems, that personal relationship with deity is the norm. 

The expectation in antiquity was if you had a question regarding your spiritual life, you performed divination on your own or sought out someone who was good at it to get answers. You didn't go to the clergy of your faith for spiritual direction unless the situation was dire. Most often, you went to them for assistance in performing public rituals of worship. The rest you handled on your own. That is why there is a history of people making offerings to deities like they're paying the mob to get something they want. 

Prayer was entirely different in antiquity. What would be considered to be vulgar in today's Christianized over-culture, was simply the norm. That's why there is graffiti at sites like Pompeii where someone wrote that they got screwed over by a deity and there is historical record of pagans doing things like threatening deities if they didn't get what they wanted. The relationship between worshipper and deity is far more personal and direct. The three classes of clergy that served deity directly, facilitated public rituals, and directed persons in the proper execution of private ritual is re-emerging across pagan belief systems because it is necessary.

And, as some in the Filianic community may hate to admit it, it is necessary in Filianism as well. The groundwork for this three tier structure was laid out early on. We can not expect one person to serve all three major functions. There simply is not enough time in the day. The Christian model of worship is based around a hierarchy of clergy that work together to fulfill all three functions. Filianism does not have that. Those who have attempted to take up the mantle of leadership and serve the higher functions of worship have stumbled and then vanished from the scene because of overload due to the fact that there is a lack of structure to support them in a model of worship that resembles Christianity.

Filianism is not Christianity. We should stop trying to force it to be like it and allow it to grow into what it was meant to be.

Taking a break from Edits to Visit With You!

 

I apologize, my dear Reader, for the lack of a transcript. This was very off the cuff. I give a quick update on how things have been over here. I talk a bit about how I am clergy and I can help you out if you need me. And I ask for your tricks to keep kids from photobombing videos.