Things Get Seriously Weird...

[ecosophia]

During this week's Magic Monday, one of my commenters -- tip of the Druidical hat to Seasidehermit -- noted that people on one of the popular Neopagan online forums were talking about a sudden distance opening up between them and their gods:  the gods they pray to have gone silent or, in some cases, gone away completely. (You can find two of the many examples here and here.) In the light of what follows, it's probably worth noting that the Neopagans in question are among those for whom yelling "Orange Man Bad!" and praising the latest excesses of cancel culture and woke activism are standard social habits. 

I was interested enough in this to follow up on it -- and what to my wondering eyes should appear but several comments (here's one of them) by Neopagans who have had their gods go silent, but are now suddenly noticing strings of repeating digits on clocks and other digital readouts. 

That is to say, they're seeing "gets." 

For those readers who didn't follow the Kek Wars in the months leading up to the 2016 election, or missed my four-part blog post on the subject (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four), a "get" was slang in alt-right forums (such as the notorious "chans") for sequences of repeating digits in the numbers automatically assigned to posts by forum software. One of the many weird features of that memorably strange election season was that posts dealing with Donald Trump fielded improbable numbers of "gets." (The most famous of these was a random post on 8chan on June 19, 2016, which said simply "Trump will win," and got the post number 77777777.) The cascades of "gets" was among the things that convinced a great many alt-right chaos mages during that election that they had somehow come into contact with the ancient Egyptian frog god Kek, who had taken Pepe the Frog for his mascot and who had chosen Donald Trump as his anointed candidate. (As I said, it was a memorably weird time.) 

And now Neopagans who are opponents of Trump are being quietly left in the lurch by the gods they worship, and at least some of them are seeing the signs of Kek's presence...

Something very strange is stirring, in the midst of this extremely strange time.

I'd like to ask my readers this: are you experiencing any particular sense of distance opening up between you and your gods? And are you seeing "gets"?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

No and no.

—Lady Cutekitten

[(Anonymous)]

Likewise, though our form of conversation has changed. It's less "verbal" than it was at first and more subtle now, but nonetheless there.

--David BTL

[lincoln_lynx]

Interesting that Neopagans are referring to it as The Storm. Last I checked in on the QAnon phenomena they kept predicting a event called The Storm. Though their Storm involved a draining of the Swamp.

[ecosophia]

Good gods, I missed that. What you contemplate, you imitate -- can it be that they're unknowingly turning into 'pedes?

[(Anonymous)]

Not trying to throw anything off, but FWIW, I made contact with the Holy Spirit for the first time in my life (I’m 35 years old and left the Roman Catholic Church as a young adult) after a prayer to Jesus to make himself known or to give me a sign. I have been actively searching for new set of gods and it only seemed right to give him one final chance, since I am still a baptized, though willingly lapsed, Catholic. Next night, on the full moon, I was very surprised to meet the Holy Spirit. I recognized it immediately from the teachings of my childhood. Political background: no party affiliation, voted for Obama in 2008, Jill Stein in 2016, and, yes, most likely going to vote for the Orange Man this time around. Thank you, BTW, for your recommendation to several of your readers to give prayer a try when looking for a god! Now comes the hard work of sorting out what to do about it...

Slooooow penny dropping...

[(Anonymous)]

It took me 2 days to realize why you might think your post would "throw anything off". No, you're fine. Welcome to the party. (Hands out 4 lemonades.)

- Cicada Grove

Kek's Storm Rising

[(Anonymous)]

Aaaaaand, right on time-- here is your synchronicity. (Hands JMG a rose chafer.)

I have noticed no unusual departure of gods from my life. The figure "11:11" on my clock (usually at night) has been a regular part of my life for years, so yes, lots of that "get", but not a big/recent change there.

However, I have been experiencing severe "Cosmic Whiplash", as I've dubbed it, apparently when the Moon lines up with the Jupiter/Saturn/Pluto gatherum off in Capricorn. Powerful energies, strange, turbulent moods, and a distinct feeling that the universe is pivoting on its axis. Must be Grand Mutation season or something.

Now when I find myself falling into an unexplained weird mood I go straight to Fourmilab (https://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Solar) and CafeAstrology (https://astro.cafeastrology.com/natal.php) to check on what the spheres are doing today.

Oh, and a few weeks ago I got a distinct feeling in my bones that yes, Trump is going to win again, and steamroller style. It was as if I felt the zeitgeist make up its/their mind.

- Cicada Grove

Gods and gets

[jolbytlan]

Quite the contrary, my connection to my God(dess) has greatly strengthened recently. Of course, I'm about as far from a typical neopagan leftist as it's possible to be.
I see strings of numbers frequently, usually 1's and 1234. I have no idea if that counts as "gets" or not.

[(Anonymous)]

No and no....

The sheer volume of the aforementioned comments in the affirmative is indeed intriguing and quite a bit eerie. I would hope a trend will develop in their circle that that could reverse this presence/lack thereof, but after 16 seasons of non stop O.M.B. (the 15 Minutes Hate at the beginning of all three nightly news programs an example of this) The antidote may be too late in coming for many.

I wonder if we may see a growing number of the doldrum issued Neopagans in question turn to their own social media egregores for solace? Perhaps even bidding their hideous internet stranger progeny to go forth and....well, everything but prosper.

What do you think?

Black Tuna and Hand

AKA: Sepia Apoplectic Octopus, AKA: Orange Eldritch Sheep. And yes, they really came up that way for me in that order. Intriguing and a quite a bit eerie indeed....

[ganeshling]

As far as I am from all of this, I feel a lot of weird energies and vibes flying around. Some of them, from time to time, feel like dark clouds that muffle and distort inner perceptions and like clouds they move on. At the same time I experience an unusual number of low profile syncronicities that seem to nudge me in some directions and away from others. Nothing digital though. It does feel like very weird times indeed!

Other that these patches of inner fog, I'd say it's a 'no' to both questions.

[(Anonymous)]

I am looking for synchronicities because of the post on the other blog. I dreamed of a 8 digits number just before waking up. I forgot the 4 last digits, but the first ones were 2044. Not a get, but then I connected to the Internet and I received the ecosophia subscription message, about this post.

My magic practices stalled because of no results, but this is most likely just the Watcher. I have to put a number of things in order in my life first. I can't call myself a member of the left, surely I'm not their target. But who knows. I used to visit 4chan until very recently; now I dropped it entirely. Some of their work might have affected me.

Or the problem is me, something or other happens and magic goes a few months away. It might be karmic culmination, fear, or lack of will power. These are not mutually exclusive. Again, who knows.

Trundling along just fine

[(Anonymous)]

In fact, I've had noticeable advancements recently, working out of DMH-DA. Just last week I had that same experience some people reported who were working with the DA, that of feeling larger than my body and having to ooze and wobble my way back into the meatsuit. I now also consistently feel energy in my palms whenever I do the SOP, whereas before that only happened in direct sunlight.

But I'm also way more unplugged than these people! That would be my prognosis: they're so wrapped up in everything that they're shifting in the astral plane and cloaking themselves from their gods.

Do people really hear their gods' voices so clearly? The Welsh gods? I want that...

Re: Trundling along just fine

[youngelephant]

Woah so I didn't know magic caused the feeling bigger than the body thing. I experienced this when attaining a meditative absorption state mapped out in Buddhism for the first and basically the only time. Makes me excited for more magic! (I don't know if I'm too late for this comment or not, but thought it was worth a shot))

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG, forgive my ignorance, but what are pedes? What does it means?
Whispers

[ecosophia]

Centipedes. It's a half-humorous nickname that some Trump supporters use for themselves.

[weirdtales]

At this point I don't have any gods to be distanced from, unfortunately, but my new druid practice is treating me right. Enjoying it very much.

This is an interesting sign you're musing on here. So you think perhaps they've angered their gods thoroughly enough that they're actually backing away from them? Of course that will only lead to a "this occult stuff doesn't work" sort of response from them, I'm sure. Can't be anything they've done.

Oh, off-topic, but I was just wondering if you were going to do a follow-up post on the affirmations so many of us have been chanting 100x a day, every day, for our first "year and a day." I for one am dying to talk about it, and hear how it went for others.

Grover

[ill_made_knight]

no on the first. if anything I've become 'closer' prolly due to my habit of following along astrologically just generally. if one is gonna put themselves at the whim of the gods one should prolly look to see what that whim is...the currents not disruptive if one has an idea where it may lead.
on the 'gets'.... I been getting the '11:11' thing a bit more than before

[weirdtales]

Want to hear something weird? You posted next door to a man who weighed 11 lbs. 11 oz. at birth! (Not exactly a common birth weight either...)

Get on it!

[(Anonymous)]

I have recently begun praying to the Norse Deities, and have had multiple, lovely synchronicities in the past few days showing that they are present and vigilant..

[(Anonymous)]

No to the first, fortunately. The idea of that happening to me was terrifying, but I'm not actually _feeling_ that due to the strong feeling of reassurance I _also_ got when I considered it in your post. I'm also not remembering any recent evidence supporting opening distance there.

Potentially relatedly, it sounds like, I'm also _not_ going around yelling Orange Man Bad; at most, in conversation with my main social groups, I've been just... tending to more focus on the things I genuinely do dislike about him, and not say or hint at too much positive. Fortunately, a protest vote in the presidential election seems to be socially acceptable for me, and Trump genuinely _isn't_ the president I'd like; I suspect that the _actual_ probable result of me holding my nose in the election, though, would not be so much to my social groups' taste, and am very glad I don't have to.
I still worry about how much I'm saying _here_, even though I'll be posting this comment anonymously and, as far as I know, no one I'm concerned about knowing this (and I don't even have any _virulently_ anti-Trump friends, as far as I know) reads this blog...

And also no to the second, as far as I'm remembering (which should at least indicate that nothing _really_ struck me as significant, as that I doubt I'd forget).

And quite interesting, that this is happening, added, as you say, to already interesting times. I do wonder where this is going...
Though, for at least one aspect of that, I do wonder if this might end up being another contributing factor in many of the conversions of SJWs/highly-anti-Trump people to Islam I believe I recall you speculating about. If your definitely-not-just-badly-done magic doesn't work and your gods are leaving you, well, that big god over there and his followers seem to be doing pretty well while still being pretty opposed to/by Trump...

Orange frog bad

[(Anonymous)]

Vote Birthday! Straight ticket! I happily voted green last time, don't know what happened to them this time. Birthday is there for you.

Strange times

[(Anonymous)]

Energy and connection has been weird lately (the last year) as though something had changed, but we are not sure what - like we're seeing something but missing it too.
This has culminated in changing direction of personal practice.

I have not worked with personified deities as such, more just working with 'energy' alongwith a recognition of the ineffible - a sort of awe and respect for things I don' understand.
This manifested itself as working with the earth and the heavens - spirit within, spirit without and spirit encompassing.

But strangeness has been going on for some years:

Once upon a time (in 2014) I was working with a friend's son teaching him taoist callisthenics in our garage. We'd usually start between 6am and 7am and go through a sequence of excercises and practices.
One morning we were practising a sort of pushing hands when suddenly a robin (Erithacus Rubecula) flew into the garage and landed on a shelf where it perched watching us. It stayed for about 15 minutes and then flew out.

The same thing happened the next day and the day after, by which time I decided to put out some food if it returned. It came in again and I put out a bowl of seed - it flew over and ate then returned to a perch and watched.

Bought some meal worms and when the robin would come in I would open up the worm tub, it would have worms, sometimes stay to watch a while, sometimes just leave.

The interactions altered over time - one day sitting at my computer I noticed movement in peripheral vision, looked and found the robin perched on a computer monitor in the living room.

This sort of thing continued in one form or another until May this year (nearly 6 years).

Then, this May the robin started behaving strangely, it would come for worms but before leaving would land and perch in front of my face about 10" - 12", look at me for 3 seconds or so and then fly off.
He did this to me and my partner.

The last time he did this to me he stodd for about 10 seconds before flying off. That was mid May. The other resident birds (blackbirds) have also been 'off' but we don't know why.

By the end of August we started to think his visits had ended and hoped he had not been predated; most birds do not live to see three years, but like humans, if they get through being young they can live a long while.

For the last couple of weeks I had been puzzling over what symbols to use for the SoP (just started looking at the Dolmen Arch) and not having worked with deities, did not have such relationship(s) in place.
Given the flexibility of the system, I wanted something more than sky above earth below as that did not reflect the complexity - I was looking for a symbol that would put me in mind of 'LIFE' in all its forms and suddenly thought - the robin.

It would double as a symbol representing life and, if he had been predated, also a memento mori as well.

That was Monday. Tuesday I was working out the details for me to practice the SoP with the symbols I had chosen, using the Robin as the symbol for spirit above - it 'felt' as though it worked well (energetically).

Wednesday we were discussing the shift to a new system perspective and my partner said she felt as though 'something' had changed and it seemed a good time for us to do this (she also practices).

Last night I went out to the garage and caught a flash in my peripheral vision, stopped, turned around and who was standing just behind me but the robin.

Went into the garage to see what I could find for him and he flew in behind me - I thought 'crap' we have no worms left (we'd got some in case he returned but had been giving them to the hedghogs once it seemed like he wasn't coming back), so I got a fat ball and broke it up.

The bird looked down at the fat ball where I was squatting, then at me (sort of 'what the hell do you call that' look), I looked up and saw the worm tub and that there were still just a few live worms in the oat mix where they live - held them out at my feet and the bird came down for some. Spent a few minutes picking out worms between staring at each other and off he went.

Is it a sign? I have no idea and I don't know what it might mean, but the timing of his reappearance seems very fine indeed.

It is like a 'dampener' is being removed (energetically speaking) and new potentials are available.

Re: Strange times

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for the happy ending. This reminded me that my father had a robin named Momma return every year and patiently shadow him as he groomed his garden. Earth worms were her reward for the companionship. A family friend had a gull return to his island to be near him long after the mans children had grown and gone their own way. Fishermen-Sailors have now recorded 20 year relationships with seagulls at sea on film. Most recently one of these gulls grew sick at 20+ years. the fisherman captured his avian buddy/no-job deck hand, placed her in rehab, and she is now back to visiting him on his voyages. My hope for you is that these sort of signs of understanding continue. (Black Tuna and Hand)

[(Anonymous)]

No and No here. I continue to have favorable encounters with the egregor of my Gypsy Witch cards, my ancestors, and the gods. Rusty

On Repeating Digits on Clocks

[(Anonymous)]

Greetings, dear JMG!

I’m not sure if we’re talking about exactly the same phenomenon here, but I’ve certainly become aware of the fact that when I glance at a digital clock these days, it often displays a “symmetrical time”, such as 11.11, 14.41, 22.22, 23.32 and so forth (using the 24-hour format instead of the 12-hour one might have something to do with how readily these kinds of things are perceived), so much so that this seems to happen much more often than would be statistically feasible. I started noticing this about two years ago when I made the decision to transit from monotheistic to polytheistic occultism – I studied generic Golden Dawn magic on a daily basis for about eight years, all the while being very much aware that I really don’t have any passion for the Judeo-Christian tradition. At that point I got the Celtic Golden Dawn and started using it as a framework for approaching my native, pre-Christian Finnish mythology; the symmetrical time thing has become especially evident after I began making regular offerings to certain deities and progressed to the Druid Grade studies.

For me, then, the whole symmetrical time phenomenon is simply an indicator that I’m on the right track in terms of spiritual development. The otherworld and its denizens seem to be present in an intimate and positive way in almost everything I do these days, a feeling I never had during all those years of monotheism. I feel simultaneously flattered and embarrassed by the attention I’m getting at the moment – it’s almost as if some kind of spiritual floodgate has been opened and things just keep pouring in...

(Never been politically active in any way and would never consider using the occult as a leverage for furthering political aims.)

[(Anonymous)]

Here's a curious one from overseas:

I asked Ogham a few weeks ago whether any gods would be willing to help unite and raise the morale of the British people. The only god who was prepared to do anything was Woden. Mars wasn't interested nor were any of the other classical gods, and even among the Anglo-Saxon gods, none of the others were interested.

I then asked Ogham whether Woden was equally concerned with, and prepared to help, people of Anglo-Saxon descent in North America and Australasia. The answer was a very definite YES.

So Woden appears to be very active at the moment. I think he might be partly responsible for Brexit. It's also notable that there is a lot of rewilding happening in the UK these days, with lots of creatures being reintroduced that have been extinct in Britain since Anglo-Saxon times.

Woden is also a notorious trickster who likes to defeat his enemies by cunning. I think he might be active among the people of Anglo-Saxon descent in the USA, and I am watching very closely for signs of an Anglo-American (rather than merely "white") identity emerging. Another possibility is that more than one trickster god is piling in to the US election, with Woden potentially being one of them.

[(Anonymous)]

Here in the US, we have a folk hero called High John the Conqueror who is well known for victory by wit. You might find Steve Sanfield’s book and Zora Neale Hurston's article about him worthwhile. Enjoy! ;-)

[seasidehermit]

Okay then, I'm starting to think there was a deeper reason why I asked this. Apologies ahead of time for what will be a lengthy reply, but I can answer yes to both of those, only it's not a recent thing at all, it's been going on for years.

Ten years ago, I ended up involved with a small informal NeoPagan group that, while starting out at least claiming to be devoted to the gods and mysticism, became a lot more unhinged over time, more lost in play acting and power fantasies and collective delusions, there was some very questionable stuff going on toward the end. And then they all became SJWs, and I mean very suddenly. This was early 2014, so Orange Man not yet on the horizon, and woke ideology not yet in the mainstream, this was my introduction to it; from my perspective they all went insane, sounded like pod people mouthing opinions the exact opposite of ones they'd held as little as a month ago using language they'd never normally use. I'd drifted pretty far away from them by that point away, I was worn down by the black cloud of misery that was so omnipresent it was practically group leader (they were always so depressed, angry about something, even before this), this was the last straw. I cut off what ties I still had and disappeared from the Pagan internet for a few years.

I'll say, these people weren't, for the most part, members of the privileged middle class. They were pretty unprivileged: mental illness, serious childhood trauma, etc. From the way they were acting at the end, I think they saw social justice as a path to power, or an excuse as to why their live were awful but they had no responsibility to do anything about it.

I'd had a patron deity once that I'd wanted to go deeper with, which is how I ended up with them, I stupidly thought they knew what they were talking about, no one else around did. I started having problems almost as soon as I fell in with them, some of that just being a matter of what they tell me to expect verses anything that's actually happening, and no doubt more than a few mistakes I made thanks to bad direction; they were pushing me toward a fantasy world and my mind wasn't reproducing it. Their thoughts got too tangled up in my head, their collective misery sucked the life out of me, and everything ground to a halt.

Most of those people are no longer around, and those that are are consumed with politics or obsessed with fandom, or both. What they aren't anymore, is religious. Or if they still are it has drastically changed from what I remember, they're now pop culture Pagans or they're married to Lucifer. When I looked through what blog traces they left behind, I could see a pattern to this: at some point their patrons started to - blur, I suppose, started shifting into something else; they might think they recognize another god in the image, check out a different tradition for a while, but it didn't last, struggles continued and it faded away. I don't have links for these, many of them no longer exist. I noted it because it was too close to what was happening to me, and this was my future if I couldn't find a way to stop it.

I've been noticing number strings for almost that long, since I made that break. At first it was one number, it was strings of fours, and it happens so many times people around me started noticing. It was a number associated with my patron historically, so at first that's what I thought it was. A second possibility, I was living in a city that I hated at the time and very much needed to leave, and then I did; I moved, well, to Providence, with the helpful assistance of many well timed coincidences and bits of good luck. Now I live in a better place, not far from route 44 and a giant billboard for a local law firm whose phone number is 404-444-4444. Maybe synchronicity then.

I do still see number strings, though. Not as frequently and not just the one number, but it's still there.

The last contact I know I had with my former patron was close to three years ago, I'd since moved, started actively trying to fix this and get back on track. I visited a local ADF grove, he was called as part of the ritual, which hadn't been the original plan, it was an unexplained last minute change made sometime in the twenty four hours between my agreeing to go and my arriving at the event. The second they began their invocation, I felt like something punched me in the chest, I almost fell over, had to leave the ritual and settle myself down, never felt anything like that. I thought a message came through at the same time, something about the vows I'd made (to him) and not being released from them. I've never been able to figure out what that was about. The whole thing felt significant at the time, but after that it was like he was gone. If I thought I had a hard time communicating before, now it was like a black hole, a void that, every time I touched it, the instinct was to move on, there's nothing here.

Three years of trying later, I've reluctantly given it up as a dead end. The only outside confirmation I could get agreed with the assessment - outside confirmation that was all attached to this group being discussed, in one case directly attached to them, so maybe they aren't reliable, but they're not telling me anything I haven't been seeing. Trying to reach out to other deities hasn't gone much better. It might start well, or at least I think so, for a few days, but then I hit a wall. It happens like clockwork, everything cuts off and with it comes depression and shortened temper. It will take a day or two to pass.

I can see this pattern, I know there is something wrong, but I don't know what or what to do about it. What I have been doing, (mostly) daily SoP (the god free version), doesn't seem to be enough. It keeps coming back, just the same, over and over again.

I never thought to connect myself to this current situation, I'm not a part of that group or a part of their TDS. I never thought to connect it to the people I knew who also lost their spiritual lives, because it happened years ago. But they were taken in by the same noxious politics, and that was the beginning of the end. It's all very similar, like they were caught in the first wave and burned out fast (they also had no Orange Man to focus their hate and resentment on, no alleged end of the world to distract them from their lives falling apart).

Is it possible I still have something from that group hanging over my head? Something that just distancing myself from individuals and dropping the tradition's practices didn't help? Is there something I can do to get rid of this, whatever this is? Something else I should be doing? I'm willing to try almost anything, learn almost anything. I never wanted any of this, I never participated in any political workings, I never cared about NeoPaganism's politics; I wanted the Mysteries, not activism. I just want to know what is wrong, fix what I can, put the whole sorry clown show behind me and move on to something real.

I know you may not know exactly what is going on, but any suggestions at all would be appreciated.

[ecosophia]

I'm not at all sure what to make of this. Clearly there's some way in which you're caught up in a process that's affecting large portions of the Neopagan community, but as yet I'm far from sure what that process is -- and I'm also far from sure what you can do about it. Apologies for this.

[(Anonymous)]

I felt a call to leave social media starting about two years ago. I left Facebook a year and a half ago and finally pulled the plug on everything in February which turned out to be perfect timing. I also felt called to distance myself from local politics after being heavily involved in my neighborhood association for about a decade.

As I’ve decreased my exposure to social media and politics I’ve felt a closer relationship with the gods and they seem to be pulling me in a different direction. I’m not seeing any more ‘gets’ than usual for me.

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe those gods had driven them to the brink of madness in the first place, for a purpose only those gods know. If that is the case, these Neopagans may begin to recover their sanity after the departure of those gods.

'pedes?

[jeffinwa]

no and no

'pedes?

centipedes? Trump supporters?

Man, the words used on your blogs; I'm wearing out Duck Duck GO trying to decipher.

Thanks for that!

This year aint done yet; on the edge of my seat; the wildest ride I've been on in my 70 years; and I thought psychedelics were pushing the limits (there's that magical word); where are they when you need them?

[(Anonymous)]

Not here. In fact, I just had a dental filling replaced without anesthesia by praying the Rosary during the procedure (I'm Roman Catholic) and I felt Mary's presence unusually clearly.

-RPC-

[(Anonymous)]

Nope—if anything the opposite (my relationship with Athena has been strengthened, and I’ve recently begun worshipping Odin as well, and establishing a relationship with/offering to my ancestors and house and land spirits).

...But I’ve tried to stay out of the screamier places of the internet, which has been very much helped by your posts and the positive workings you’ve posted (the “may all beings be blessed” candle one and the Vachel Lindsay poem specifically).

No Gets for Me, but a Goddess Instead

[laruse]

I read Beckett and I read you – I appreciate diverse views and experiences and I also am aware there is a history (if I am not mistaken?) between you both. Beckett is the writer who helped me find my way back towards polytheism after a decade of addiction wiped my spiritual slate to the bedrock. Then I found your blogs (though I had been fan back in your AR days and my doomer days on LATOC) and, well, here I am today.
I am liberal/progressive, and while very frustrated with 45 and his inherent chaos, I hope I haven't crossed into TDS. I believe he will be reelected, I believe the chaos is only going to increase in the coming years, and rather than damage my mental health obsessing over the Orange Man, I am trying to take care of my family and community with what liberal/progressive methods I know and can contribute to.
So I said all that to say I have just been feeling sorry for Beckett lately. This morning his most recent post was in my inbox titled "Rage." I started to read and just stopped after the first break; it's not that I don't care, it is just tiring to read and I don't relate. I cannot identify what makes me feel so sorry for him – perhaps that he has wrapped his entire identity and his magic into resisting what no one can stop. His struggles are evident and sad and I hope he can find what he needs because this isn't it.
I do my SOP every day and I have modified my closing with a variation on the Serenity prayer – Gods, grant me the serenity … the courage … the wisdom – that comes naturally when you've taken 12 steps in your life. Anyway, this is working well for me, and my gods are not only working with me, but one "reached out" in an undeniable and deeply personal way this week to let me know that She and I will have business in the coming days, months, years? ahead. She is a goddess of wisdom, sovereignty, of civilized discourse and rational thought, and a Patroness of the arts. I have no idea where She will go and what She will require, but I am grateful for the new connection.
As for "gets", no. I haven't seen that kind of thing on the internet. All I needed was a 150 mile trip down I95 last month from VA to NC and see the endless parade of highway signs for 45 – including a box truck fully painted and stuck in a field that read "God Bless Donald Trump" – and not a single Biden bumper sticker or sign along the way. The enthusiasm gap is real and the election is already decided, I believe. I won't make myself sick or enraged over what I cannot control. This is my serenity.

Re: No Gets for Me, but a Goddess Instead

[ecosophia]

One of the things I find so baffling about all this is that people who I thought had at least a trace of psychological savvy -- who seemed to understand the problems with wallowing in obsessive rage and hatred -- chucked that out the window the moment the King in Orange came into sight. Glad to hear about your new connection -- she's an influence we could use more of these days.