I felt peace and comfort in my spirit about Tarot. Please read this.

[Jack]

You have deeply offended me, and if you're frustrated because you feel like I'm out of place then you should probably consider a more gentler approach or distance yourself from representing solid viewpoints on religion.  You have wronged me, and I'm not longer willing to communicate with you if you are going to continue to speak to me as if I am some sort of socially outcast-ed child.

 
I haven't replied to you before now. This is because your posts are largely, as Jenett noted, very difficult to read. She was offering you very good advice on how to make your posts more readable and your questions clearer, so that you're more likely to get helpful responses.

But hey, if you think Jenett is mean, this forum may not be your speed in the end.

[Annie Roonie]

I have never been so passive aggressively helped before.  

*snip*

I'm going to stop myself here before I become discourteous.

Maybe take some time and come back to read what has been written? I feel that you are responding with some undue anger given all that has been read and written here. Perhaps there is something else eating at you that may have nudged into your reading of Jenett's reply?

Going to be very honest with you, I read her replies to most everyone because there is usually something in them that is useful for me to know or reflect on. I do that with many posters here. And while this place can be the super sassy sometimes (and I find that refreshing actually) this isn't one of those times IMO.

I'm not trying to persuade you that your feelings are not real or valid, just that you might read this all differently in another frame of mind.

A lot of the time people take things in the worst of ways and very personally regardless of how things were meant or were actually said/written. I do it sometimes. I think most people do. It's not a crime or anything, but stepping back and using a different lens, one that assumes kindness instead of unkindness, helps me to find ideas and information I can use. Plus, what a freaking stress reliever it is not to feel so hurt. And if people do intend to be unkind (which I absolutely do not think has been the case here) if you're assuming it isn't the case, the mean never touches you.

You've written about a living situation that seems like it could be very frustrating. The repetition of the not evil tarot makes me think you are defending it. And there are likely few here who'd attack it. However, you may have to deal with another perspective at home. My amateur guess is that a reasonable tone in that environment may cause anger and frustration, so a similar tone here, might trigger a wiggy.

I get this a lot where I work. If I sound/look/smell too much like home, I get the home person who reacts one way (usually frustrated) instead of the public person who I usually work well with. I do not mean to say outright that this is the case here, but could it be or something else maybe?

Other:
I do not have a specific path and want one eventually. I'm old and I am in no hurry. Paths take faith and I have to look at myself in the mirror and I cannot fake faith. Not to myself. So I ain't rushing the buggy. And there's nothing wrong with that. I'm interested in the same things as you and even more. I love being interested! There is so much to look into, and you are free to do it. I hope that the freedom you have right now in seeking, is a rewarding thing. It can be. And I do not think for one minute that a spiritual experience is lessened in the slightest because one's foot is not on a specific path.
 
I am glad you have let yourself be open to feeling something that speaks to you in any event.

Sorry for the length, David.

[Darkhawk]

Also, "harm none" is not what the Rede says. To shorten it thus emasculates and falsely represents it.

 
And even if it didn't, I'm not sure how useful a bludgeon it is to try to apply to someone who isn't Wiccan in the first place....

[David]

And even if it didn't, I'm not sure how useful a bludgeon it is to try to apply to someone who isn't Wiccan in the first place....

I realize that this message says it is just to Darkhawk, but I intend it to be towards everyone who responded to what I wrote before.

I was wrong to express anger in the way that I did, and I am sorry for spreading the anger around.  I am not sure why I did, but I am sorry to Jenett and to everyone else for what I wrote.  Please forgive me all of you.  Upon apologizing, I do feel it is best for me to look elsewhere for a forum based on how I reacted.  I do genuinely mean that I am sorry.  I also have forgiven the resentment that I had towards Jenett, and towards any of you.  I honestly do mean that.  I hope all of you are doing well, and I thank any of you who took the time to respond to what I said in any comment, because it has helped me grow spiritually.  I need to learn healthier ways to deal with anger.  I also tend to over explain things.  It isn't on purpose though.  I wont be logging on again, because I feel like even though I would probably be forgiven, I would feel awkward from now on, so I think it is best for everybody if I find a different forum as I said before.

[Jenett]

I was wrong to express anger in the way that I did, and I am sorry for spreading the anger around.  I am not sure why I did, but I am sorry to Jenett and to everyone else for what I wrote.

 
Thanks for saying that.

I've been thinking very carefully about what to say in this thread. And I want to say this not just to David (who may or may not still be reading, and either is fine), but to other people reading.

First, as noted in this thread and elsewhere, I am not precisely Wiccan, and do not identify that way. (Hence the comment about "Harm none" in that phrasing not exactly being applicable.)

But more than that, one of the basic principles of my religion is that witchcraft is about making choices and understanding their consequences. That is a *very very very* hard thing for people to learn, and it's something every single witch I respect struggles with and it's something we all get wrong sometimes. (Because we're human).

So, when I wrote my response to David, I had an idea that his getting upset might happen. (I've been around the Internet for a good while: that particular response happens sometimes.) And in a different day, a different week, I might have said some things differently, and maybe not provoked that reaction that way.

(My week has involved frozen pipes, a car that won't start where I have to spend money and time today fixing the problem, and a bunch of complicated stuff at work and in my primary hobby, plus helping out a couple of friends who were having much worse times than I was. Not my simplest week ever, in other words.)

And here's the thing. I regret that the upset happened, because it's not a good way toward learning, and that's a thing I really care about, and that is fundamental to my religious life. (I mean, I am not naturally out there to make people miserable, either, but miserable-and-learning is an okay outcome sometimes for me. Miserable-and-not-learning is just a waste of everyone's time and energy.)

But I also can't exactly apologise, because that would mean apologising for holding to the tenets of my religion, to insisting that choices have consequences, that words have meanings, that we can shape our own lives (even when that's sometimes very hard to imagine.) And that sometimes, the path to witchcraft has to start with the most basic things - getting our own lives in order (sometimes the hardest part) before we should devote time and energy to other things.

So. I'm sorry for the hurt, and I'm sorry for the way the conversation derailed, and I hope that David finds some places that are helpful. But I also hope the conversation helped someone else reading. Because, fundamentally, learning how to make choices, and then making choices about how we act and react and do things is so fundamental to my idea of what witchcraft is (and what being a decent human is) that I'm stuck with a lot of handwaving and pointing.