Search This Blog

Sunday, August 21, 2022

The Power of the Stories We Tell

So, let's jump right in shall we?
There's a lot of misery percolating in Western Europe and the US right now, driven by some ugly cultural forces. And, to be blunt, some humans who are fighting against totalitarianism, fascism, and Christian dominionism are doing themselves no favours.  Let me explain. 



Stories have power, sometimes enough power to create. There are beings that have been born from stories, told over and over and believed in. Beings who exist today as individual sentient creatures but started out as a whisper of an idea. 

Let's take the example of Christian dominionism. One one hand you have these groups fervently praying and throwing energy into their ideas of their flavour of religion dominating everything. They create a strong sense of us and them, and literally demonize what exists outside their 'us'. They pour energy into their narrative, their story; they create a spirit that is the culmination of that energy. And they feed that spirit with every prayer, every strong emotion, tied to the symbols they use. 

In modern parlance you might call this spirit an egregore - a group thought form that takes on a life of its own. An Evangelical egregore with millions of humans feeding and empowering it, intent on their goals of placing themselves as rulers over everyone else, in deed if not in name. A spirit that is full of the hate and ill will which created it and just as zealous in its intentions. Something that can and does affect the human world. 
Its has a lot of energy to play around with after all. 
And we are seeing the effects of it now, eating through different cultures and bringing with it misery for everyone who isn't aligned with it.

So why is this being discussed here, when its the antithesis of this blog? Because humans have forgotten this power, and those who would fight against this spirit - or who are actively trying to - are unintentionally feeding it more energy by using the same symbols that the egregore uses. Imagery from a popular book and television show that was meant as a warning but acts as a roadmap to this energy. Imagery of the world these humans want to build. The fear and anger and anxiety that these things cause feed that egregore just as effectively as the prayers of those who want to fashion the world that way. 

Don't feed your enemy and expect them not to make use of what you give. 

This impacts the world of the Unseelie too - once depicted as dangerous, spoken of in whispers, appeased with euphemisms, feared and fearsome, the Folk of the Unseelie court are increasingly reduced to powerless things, or worse beings that need human help, human affection. A popular witchcraft book suggest making friends with the Unseelie and suggests the worst of the Court is just tired of human overreach. As if humans haven't been on the menu for millennia. endless novels paint the Unseelie as misunderstood and easily swayed by just the right human with the right offer of love and acceptance.
 Did you ever wonder why the Unseelie are shown as dangerous? Beyond the fact that there's real danger lurking in the lonely, shadowed places? Fear is power. Fear feeds the monsters that lurk just beyond the waking edge of your nightmares. Taking that fear away weakens that which relies on it, erodes their power in the human world. Yes it can also have its advantages by making it easier to lure in the unwary but the damage of those stories changing and becoming gentler and kinder outweighs that advantage. 

Humans today are feeding the wrong monsters.
Starve the evangelical egregore with images that weaken it, images of hope and unity. Save the fear and despair for the Unseelie court and stories that make fairy folk fearsome again. 

Sunday, June 5, 2022

The Problem of Anthropocentricism

I know its been a while since your favourite Unseelie messenger shared any snarky commentary but let's face it the human world has been more than usually hectic for many people in the past year. I have a moment now between other Otherworldly projects and shenanigans so let's jump right in...

You may have noticed a theme to several of the previous articles here and indeed to much of my (our?) complaining. And this theme revolves around the idea that many humans have that they are, in fact, the centre of all things and the most important being in existence. Or put another way, a lot of humans out there really believe they are the main character in the story of reality. 
So, to be blunt - you aren't. 
No one human is the centre of all things, or the most important individual in all of existence. And humanity in general is 100% definitely not. 

Now I know, I know, you're saying "But Unseelie Messenger I am the most important person in my life and I do need to centre myself in my interactions with other humans." And alright that's a fair point when it comes to specifically your daily life and dealing with other equally egocentirc humans. And yes, also a fair point that you may need to put yourself first in your interactions with other beings around you, for example if you eat meat then obviously you are prioritizing yourself over the animal you are eating. And hey we'd be the last ones to discourage carnivorous behaviour, or hedonism, or even some well earned selfishness.
But here's the thing that gets lost, the nuance so many humans miss - there is a line between healthy egocentricism and destructive anthropentricism. Because yes, you as an individual need to put yourself first in certain ways to live a fulfilling, safe life but putting yourself first in all things and worse assuming your entire species is somehow central to everything is both untrue and obnoxious.  Also the root cause of the massive destruction humans are wreaking on themselves and their world in my opinion. 

Now I'm guessing this idea that humans are the ultimate creation or the golden child of the universe is rooted in some religious ideas somewhere, probably in more than one place, and I certainly see it reinforced all over everywhere. Even people who claim to channel the sidhe or other fair folk forward this idea with material that says the Good Neighbours are very concerned in helping humans, in toto, be the best humans possible or helping humans evolve into better versions of humans. 
Funny how no one forwarding these ideas ever seems to ask why an entire species of Other beings* would be dedicated to helping better humanity. Its like arguing that all humans are dedicated to helping chimpanzees be better chimpanzees and evolve into their higher selves, which I think is pretty blatantly not the case. And don't give us the old 'its to save the earth' bit because its just as egocentric to think that all spirit beings would care about humans wiping themselves out when life in various forms would adapt and go on without humans. Life, et al, is a lot more resilient than humanity. 

Of course there are some fair folk who are interested in rehabbing humans just like some humans rehab injured wild animals. People have their personal interests and hobbies, whether they are Otherworldly or earthly. But the idea that all of the Good Folk are focused on improving humanity is just hubris. Or anthropocentricism if you will which is just a fancy word for thinking humans matter most. 
They don't. 
Humans are just one of many, many different beautiful, fascinating expressions of life and humans aren't inherently better than any of the others just because they like to think they are and created the internet. 

The Good Folk are independent beings with their own agendas and agency, and with a dizzying amount of diversity. Some may help an individual human, for various reasons, or form close relationships, or become invested in the welfare of family lines. But there are others who consider humans yummy appetizers, or a plague on the earth, or amusing toys that can be replaced when broken. 
Its very important for individual humans to get the idea of the universal importance of humanity out of their heads. Its dangerous for you and its also, honestly, just profoundly rude to the Otherworldly beings you deal with. You know how so many other countries joke about how rude and entitled US tourists are when they visit other places? Well, bad news humans are basically the US tourists of sentient beings - assuming everything exists for them in one way or another. Its not a good look. 



*don't start on about angles here. The Good Folk were not created and don't exist to serve a higher power who tasked them with watching over humans, and quite frankly while we don't really grok angels (outside our bailiwick) we're suspicious that even they weren't created to cater to and protect humanity despite what some humans like to say.