From "Venus in Aries Retrograde":
"Relationships that can't handle who you really are will be left in the dust."
Well, I didn't know this theme was going to pop up quite so quickly.
This afternoon, the relationship between Willow's Web and AstroDispatch was severed.
It all started with an ElsaElsa post on whether to "accept or transcend" the birth chart conditions.
A poster made a comment about her "spiritual awakening," after which she threw away all her astrology books (there is a quote out there by some yogi-type to do this. I've read it, too), only to come back to astrology at a later time.
She also made a comment that she agreed with a quote by Yogananda that a "truly enlightened person" has no need for the astrological birth chart.
I begged to differ on that one and rebutted that many "enlightened" people take on very difficult life circumstances and use astrology to navigate them more skillfully than they could without this tool. I also said that I believed the poster had an old Piscean concept of "enlightened." IE. Someone sitting on a Neptunian cloud sipping pomegranate juice...
Sure, I was being a bit cheeky there, but really! Who making a comment like that in an astrology forum wouldn't expect some opposition to that statement?
Apparently, this person.
She launched a four-paragraph, expletive-laden diatribe telling me to fuck off unless I had something "positive and agreeable" to say (definition of irony?), telling me I obviously wasn't enlightened (tee hee) and reiterating that enlightened people have no use for astrology. She claimed I was "harassing" her and called me a troll.
I replied that I was not harassing her but rather rebutting a comment that I didn't agree with.
But I suppose I'm not allowed to post unless I have something to say that she deems "positive and agreeable"? Yeah, that's how it works. We can only speak if what we have to say is OK with "positive, agreeable" people like her. Guh.
Elsa then had to get in on the action and tell me that I couldn't come onto her blog and be "snotty" to people. She told me that I offended her Libra sense of social decorum, and I was told to go elsewhere.
Hmmm...but the four-paragraph, expletive-laden diatribe didn't seem to upset her sense of social decorum.
Anyway, I have a strong contingent of Libra, as well, and to me this wasn't about social decorum. It was about the permeation of New Age into astrology.
(Just to make it clear - astrology is not New Age.)
I'd also like to add that I never asked to be added to stinkin' AstroDispatch. My blog just showed up there one day, so I was drawn into that whole scene not of my own volition. That should have been the first clue that it wasn't going to be a good scene for Willow.
10 comments:
LOL. You just keep being you, Willow, because you rock.
The self-proclaimed "enlightened" are pompous douche bags.
How galling and infuriating your afternoon has been.
It's difficult to be in astrology or other related arts and find a realistic crowd.
Everybody has an angel and crystals and if you're life is shit then it's all your fault and chant more, have a high colonic smudging, whatever ridiculous formula your guru prescribes. Lose that sense of humor. Spirituality is *serious*.
This really brings back the clashes I've had with these bringers of light and love. They are not fun people. And if you disagree with their smug truth you find out just how un-fun they can be.
Time for a new crowd. I'll bring donuts.
OMG, Ava. I think I love you.
I visited a New Age-ish friend recently. We went into a metaphysical bookstore where Venice meets Santa Monica and loitered awhile. After we left I remarked that it had been a long time since I'd been in that kind of vibe - ethereal, with incense and chimes and people who tend to speak in hushed, over-modulated tones; I call it the "I have inner peace" talk-whisper, usually very breathy, complemented with clear, almost aggressively empathetic eyes. I enjoyed the visit, particularly the Kama Sutra shelf, and remarked that it had been awhile since I'd "been in that," to which my friend asked, "do you still believe in it?"
"Believe in what," I asked, not impolitely, without an edge, but I DID want her to be specific. Did I believe in WHAT, exactly? The crystals? The candles? The incense? Soulmates? The Secret? The chanting? The what. We have had these chats before and my perceived reluctance to just Go With the Flow, is a source of occassional frustration for her; she has to be specific and regurgitate what she'd previously swallowed whole. And each question I ask that forces her to look closer becomes a sign of my antagonism. Et cetera.
So we've learned to more or less leave each other alone on these issues. So, I have to say, I didn't mind that she chose to receive my question as rhetorical, not reply, and suggest coffee instead. Later, though, at her sister's, where I met her sister's boyfriend (whom my "non-judgemental" friend referred to as a pothead), my friend (who's smoked plenty of weed, by the way, in a conveniently forgotten "past life") hinted that her sister and sister's boyfriend, being Aquarians couldn't/didn't/wouldn't "understand" the subtler nuances of some metaphysicalish mishmash she was singing through the clenched teeth of her forced, "Look, I'm in the Light" smile. Their lack of understanding showing itself as, basically, questioning - merely inquiring - what she was stating as Truth. Anyway...
I was going to bring this episode up in response to last week's Piscean Detritus chapter. Seems to fit better here. I enjoy your notes, Willow. Thank you.
It's my work...not my notes. :) But thanks for the reply.
Yeah, I'm a little testy on that point because I would suggest most people don't know what goes into astrological analysis. Mos def work.
Interesting topic. I had something similar happen to me last summer and experienced the unwarranted bite of "fangs." I stay very, very clear now.
Moreover, I want to express my deep appreciation of your astrological body of work. Thank you for sharing. All the best to you.
Um, I know that 1) more than two-and-a-half years later is a little late to be chirping up with a beside-the-point observation, and 2) this comment isn't going to contribute anything incisive to this discussion, but... I wonder (that is, my literal, Aspergerish Self wonders) why someone who felt she was so enlightened that she no longer had any use for her natal chart or astrology books, and that indeed, no one "truly enlightened" has any use for a natal chart— I wonder what she was doing, let alone commenting, on an astrology website in the first place? Just askin'.
Willow, your astrological insight is astute and your articulation of it is superb. Fortunately, you don't need either AstroDispatch or PlanetWaves. Thanks for your thoughtful, helpful work.
Wow, Anon, add intuitive psychic to the list of adjectives for you because I just disconnected the blog from AstroDispatch THIS MORNING. And now you scout out this post and comment on it!
Thanks for your comment. I actually like it when people care enough to comment on old posts.
Also, some of the coolest people I've met have been Aspergerish.
Oh, that's funny, Willow! And while you were writing your surprised reply, I was running down to the laundry room and thinking, "Oh, dear, I think I typoed something in that comment... I'd better go back into the page and add a new comment with a correction when I get upstairs." Well, fortunately, it looks like I didn't commit any embarrassing typos, but if I hadn't come back to check, I wouldn't have found your response! That you disconnected Willow's Web from AstroDispatch just this morning is really uncanny.
Yes, I ended up reading all the linked posts about the incident because character assassination is a hot topic with me these days. Your post Scorpio on Not Letting It Go Too Soon also seems relevant. (Natally, I have Pluto conjunct Ascendant, and a Scorpio IC.)
And thanks for your compliment about Aspergerish people! Not fitting in with the mainstream is still uncomfortable to me so that's always good to hear. Cheers!
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