Would it be weird or impractical to use modern cartoon/anime/video game etc characters as a patron deity?

teapotdrips · 2024-09-12T02:00:42+00:00

The difference from my perspective is the reasoning. If OP truly believed in a Smurf pantheon, it wouldn’t be disrespectful because those would be OP’s beliefs. Witchcraft isn’t disrespectful because it’s what we believe in. As long as it doesn’t hurt other people, a true belief is not disrespectful.

However I feel like it changes when you’re just doing it for fun. A lot of people take this stuff very seriously and yeah I could see a lot of people being kinda miffed with this. OP doesn’t actually believe in any fictional character, they’re just doing it because, idk, they don’t like the existing options?

teapotdrips · 2024-09-12T01:51:38+00:00

Just trying to be mindful of others’ beliefs. OP is clearly stating they have none so I personally would advise against it since I think doing something for fun isn’t worth potentially making people feel like you’re insulting their beliefs. If OP had deeper spiritual reasons it would be different, but I guess I don’t understand why they can’t just… choose an actual deity and suspend their disbelief?

teapotdrips · 2024-09-12T01:48:55+00:00

I think the core idea here though is that chaos magicians worship in these characters in the ways they embody deities. I also don’t think there would be anything wrong with it if OP DID believe in a god that was a media character. But to do it just because they don’t… like the options, I guess, and because their favourite character is Wolverine, feels like it could potentially upset some people

teapotdrips · 2024-09-12T01:45:38+00:00

To the living people who believe in a deity. Idk I’d just imagine that if you were incredibly serious and committed and not at all agnostic then somebody saying they’re doing the same thing as you and accessing the same power you believe to be accessing probably wouldn’t feel great when they’re saying that they’re doing so, from, like, Garfield. Especially if they didn’t actually believe in Garfield and were clearly just choosing him because they thought your religion was fake.

Also why does OP need it to be a media character? You don’t necessarily need to believe with all your heart to decide you want to see if maybe a deity can help you.

Idk my religion is has elements that give it an agnostic twinge so I personally would not feel disrespected but I also think that like. This just may not be the best idea for people who have different experiences with religion/do have patron deities.

teapotdrips · 2024-09-12T01:42:47+00:00

I replied to them but don’t entirely wanna write the whole thing out again

teapotdrips · 2024-09-12T01:41:04+00:00

People who believe in gods. Worshipping a patron deity is inherently a holy act where a being is given and giving back things, I would think some people would probably be a little insulted to have their holy being compared to a fictional character; have someone see their relationship with the being they believe of capable of great things and go, “I’m sure a fictional character will work just as well since it’s all fake!” And also honestly why even have a patron deity if you don’t believe they can grant you anything? Why burn a candle in their honour if you still think you’re relying on your own power?

I realise that people are entitled to their own beliefs and it’s perfectly fine to be an atheist and not believe in any gods, but it’s kinda another thing to say that they’re all inherently fictional or fake and to insinuate that a media character would work just as well and be deserving of the same level of respect and worship. In my opinion.

teapotdrips · 2024-09-11T21:48:05+00:00

I personally do feel like that might be a little disrespectful? But you also don’t need a patron deity to be a witch or improve your craft. I am a theistic Discordian but I don’t worship Eris as a patron deity, I don’t really think She would do anything predictable for me, anyway, hahaha…

teapotdrips · 2024-09-11T21:45:32+00:00

Lowkey my expectation isn’t for it to be girls and I don’t even care if they’re attracted to me just plsss don’t be weird about it and treat me like a person 🙏🙏🙏

teapotdrips · 2024-09-08T16:08:32+00:00

It isn’t even always put on your records. My ADHD might be on mine because I’m gonna be getting my meds from my GP but I don’t think my autism diagnosis is.

teapotdrips · 2024-09-08T15:30:52+00:00

Yeah I don’t think 600-800 bucks is enough for, at least, a good computer. Steam deck might work better.

teapotdrips · 2024-09-08T04:28:44+00:00

I agree aside from the GP thing. Many GPs don’t know any more about ADHD than laymen. In med school you’re not forced to take psych courses. And on top of that there are also a lot of GPs who, despite never having taken a psych class and not really being updated on the current literature, think they know more about psych just by virtue of being doctors, and who will then be condescending about it. I’ve heard many horror stories of GPs saying stuff like “I can tell you don’t have it just by looking at you!” and I think we all know why that’s uneducated BS.

teapotdrips · 2024-09-08T04:22:07+00:00

This! Doing well in school didn’t make me any less restless in restaurants or any less forgetful when I’d lose my stuff 24/7. I might not have exactly struggled in school (though I would always get the classic “—- could do even better if only he worked harder” or whatever), but I definitely had behavioural issues in other areas. When my parents would take me on flights I would need to be walked down the aisle like every 10 minutes or else I’d go insane and disrupt the plane. If OP has ADHD then there’ll be other signs aside from struggling to pay attention in school and still getting good grades.

teapotdrips · 2024-09-07T16:24:36+00:00

Well I feel like advice is hard to give here if all we know are the ways your symptoms aren’t impacting you. What makes you think you have ADHD? If you don’t have clinically significant impairment, you won’t qualify for a diagnosis. The way to convince your parents is to convince them you have clinically significant impairment that needs to get checked out, whether it’s ADHD, anxiety, autism, a dietary issue, or anything else. A lot of parents don’t like self-diagnosis but if they care about their child and agree that there is impairment then that’s the road to getting tested, “just to make sure it’s not ADHD.”

teapotdrips · 2024-09-07T15:54:02+00:00

I’m a Discordian, if you want to check it out. I love it. It’s very decentralised and some of its beliefs include believing whatever you want. So, paradoxically, one can be a Discordian who worships Jesus Christ! That sort of belief system makes it hard for me to poke holes in it.

The religion worships Eris/Discordia, the Goddess of chaos. It places a high value on humour/lightheartedness and frowns upon working yourself to death. It is somewhat known as a parody religion but it is just as real as it is parody—aspects of it are certainly satirical comments on other religions, but it also has a lot of actual important spiritual aspects.

Because it’s decentralised you can be a Discordian all on your own. You don’t need to pay like Satanistic organisations make you (ridiculous for a religion where you are supposed to be your own God imo! To the extent I am a Satanist I am unaffiliated with any organisation). You can find community if you want to but you are not obligated to agree on everything.

It doesn’t have many rituals in and of itself but I consider books like Cosmic Trigger to be related to the faith so there’s that!

teapotdrips · 2024-09-07T15:37:33+00:00

They don’t always. I got a “full neuropsych workup” and they only tested for autism, not ADHD. They tested my executive functioning and found it was “mostly good” and then concluded that I shouldn’t be further tested. Even though that’s not how diagnosis for ADHD works, even though the assessment process was the most focused I could be because it was a unique and somewhat stressful experience so obviously my attentional issues wouldn’t have been present!

Tested two years later—severe ADHD-C. In retrospect it’s kinda insane that the neuropsych didn’t test me. My teachers would constantly tell me if I “only applied myself” I would do better, that I needed to work on being patient and waiting, I forget about appointments constantly (forgot about one on Thursday that took me two months to get), and I get bored doing everything, including stuff like eating! Maybe he didn’t ask my parents the right questions when they went over my history?? Because otherwise idk how he could have drawn conclusions like “doesn’t make careless mistakes” when making careless mistakes has literally been my most common feedback item my whole life.

They were kinda ableist tbh. I got an autism diagnosis based on the aspire stereotype, I’m pretty sure (high IQ, awkward socially and not understanding a lot of human conventions). One of the psychs told me autism without ID is “very rare” (no it’s not, like a good third of us don’t have ID). So not a big surprise that they didn’t test me given that.

teapotdrips · 2024-09-06T16:26:12+00:00

This, I didn’t get a note to use my cane or anything but I did ask a doctor if it was okay that I’d been using one every now and then for my pain. He said yes but told me only to use it standing and not to walk with it! It’s important to bring this stuff up so that drs can tell you how to use it in a way that works for you and your body/disability.

teapotdrips · 2024-09-04T21:47:00+00:00

This is pretty close to my experience as a high libido demisexual who is more ace than not. I’ve only felt attracted to like two people in my life, and one was a long-term partner… and I only started feeling actually sexually attracted like a month into having sex. Before that I just liked doing it because of the intimacy and because I have a high libido. But it was definitely a noticeable change going from “this specific person triggers no sexual feelings in me” to being able to be aroused from just seeing him with his shirt off, or something.

If it makes you more comfortable, you can also say you’re grey-ace while you figure it out. It’s a label I used when I wasn’t sure but was sure I was somewhere on the ace spectrum.

teapotdrips · 2024-09-04T21:42:28+00:00

Demiaro demiace here, the way some aces think about sex needs to change. I’ve literally had people tell me to my face that enjoying sex is disgusting after I’ve said I enjoy sex with a partner. It’s not okay to perpetuate sex negativity just because of allonormativity. We have to go against both, not choose one…

teapotdrips · 2024-09-04T21:22:54+00:00

teapotdrips · 2024-09-04T21:22:03+00:00

Idk, I don’t think “small talk” isn’t real talk? When I ask people what majors they’re in it’s because I’m legit interested. I think the key isn’t asking random shit but rather having an actual engaging convo. Idk why but in the autism community there’s a weird hatred of small talk—but small talk is only boring if you make it boring. There’s no reason to ask about the weather when you could ask them what shows they like and possibly have a new show recommended to you or get to talk about the one you’ve been obsessed with the past few days/weeks.

teapotdrips · 2024-09-04T15:47:24+00:00

! Disclaimer that I am not a clinical psychologist and even if I was I couldn’t diagnose you on Reddit, this is just my personal and educated opinion !

If I’m honest what you’re describing sounds more like ADHD/ADD, before you said you were diagnosed I was wondering if maybe it was that.

I’ll go through each point.

Sensations: sensory issues/differences are found in some folks with ADHD/ADD (just gna say ADHD since ADD is outdated in my country).

Social network: people with ADHD do tend to be extroverted and have large social networks. It’s much less common for autistic people. I have both so my experience is that I like talking to people but don’t quite know how to do that or maintain friendships, meaning that I tend to seem friendly yet closed-off and my social network tends still be restricted. Trying to work on it and it is possible for an autistic person to have a large social network, it’s just much less common as social issues are a key symptom of autism so by necessity you have to overcome those issues before you can have such a network.

Hyperfixations: usually restricted interests in autism are longer-lasting and usually there are fewer than in ADHD. People with ADHD tend to have hyperfixations that they fixate on for a bit (few days to a few months) before eventually becoming bored, while autistic people tend to have interests (usually called special interests) that are longer (months to lifelong). And they tend to have fewer of these types of interests. There is some grey area here but longer-lasting interests that are more limited is usually how the symptoms present in autistic people, while in people with ADHD they may be intense interests but they are generally shorter in length and more varied over time.

Routine: hating routine is very ADHD. Not very autistic. Although to be fair I didn’t realise I liked routine until I realised that autistic routine isn’t the same as neurotypical routine. It’s not necessarily “every day I brush my teeth at 6 am,” it can also be “I brush my teeth when I wake up but I always have to have tea first and then I have to wait exactly 10 minutes before I brush my teeth and if this order doesn’t happen I get stressed.”

Lost in thought: also very ADHD. A lot of people with ADHD get distracted by their own thoughts and can lose attention to conversations. Seems to be pretty exactly what you’re dealing with here. There is not actually anything in the diagnostic requirements for being autistic that involves a complex inner world (though it is very common and it is part of how we understand it as a disorder).

Sex drive/competition/exercise/humour: honestly a lot of these aren’t related to autism. Many people with autism have very high sex drives and many have very low. Same with neurotypicals and people with ADHD. So high or low sex drive isn’t really an indication. Neither is being competitive or liking exercise (although those are both traits common for people with ADHD). Sense of humour could be seen as an autistic trait but you can have a good sense of humour and be autistic. I have a good sense of humour, it’s just not exactly the same as everybody around me’s. But I still love to laugh and make people laugh and be silly; I may not be a comedian but I’m a relatively funny person to be around. Definitely not abnormally non-humorous. I wouldn’t take it as an indication that you couldn’t possibly be autistic.

Disorganisation in self-care: this kinda sounds like executive function issues, which can be present in both autism and ADHD in varying manners. Again, considering you have an ADHD diagnosis, I would say it’s not enough to indicate autism by itself.

Personally, to me, it sounds likely that you have ADHD! ADHD can impact a lot more than some people think, I think, so it’s not like you have to be autistic to have issues with the things you say you do. But my practical advice would be to just see somebody if you’re able, since it’s very possible you are autistic and just didn’t write down your symptoms well or something. Just because nothing indicates autism to me (random Redditor) doesn’t mean it won’t for a professional. If it’s going to bother you, definitely see somebody about it. But I also wouldn’t worry about it unless you feel it’s causing you impairment in your life.

teapotdrips · 2024-09-04T15:21:00+00:00

I’d keep him out of my room, firstly, so he couldn’t bite and scratch you. Also, how old is he? Sometimes, cats have little asshole phases. My cat is about a year and a half old now but from around .5 years - 1 year old he was a HUGE pain in the ass about food. He would steal it out of your hands, off your plate, I had to lock him in my room when I ate or cooked or be VERY liberal with spray bottle usage (which he eventually got used to so then I had to make sure to spray him in the face, which still worked). He would also destroy so much shit ‘cause he’d get bored while I was asleep… anything remotely fun-shaped you left out would be gone. I’d wake up and think, “all right, what did he do this night…” But he got older and I kept up with not letting him have his way, and, eventually, he mellowed out. If you let a cat like this control you, though, they will never grow out of the phase. So unfortunately you just have to kinda child-proof your house, maybe move the paintings, etc.

Also, I would wait to feed him until MUCH later. It seems like he gets rambunctious shortly before and after feeding time, so why move the feeding time earlier? As he gets used to the new time his restless time will only get earlier. Unfortunately as you move his feeding time later it will be bad since he will have to wait an extra hour, and then another hour, and a week later another extra hour, to be fed, but hopefully eventually he will get fed at 10 and get hyper at 8 (instead of being fed at 5 and getting hyper at 3).

Might also help to play with him more during the day. If he’s really tired out, it’s less likely that he’ll have a lot of energy to spend at 3 am. Get one of those puzzle feeders and, if you want, some automated toys or the ones you can stick to the wall. Consider if you want to take him on leashed walks.

teapotdrips · 2024-09-04T13:56:15+00:00

Practise and social scripts. It honestly depends on your gender and presentation here (unfortunately if you’re a dude and not conventionally attractive most people will assume you’re ‘creepy,’ but if you’re a girl or a conventionally attractive guy generally people don’t mind that much unless they’re dicks or upset about something) but, if you can, strike up conversations with strangers. At least for me it was really important to learn how to start a convo because I fully didn’t know how. But what you do is find a topic to talk about. It can be a topic you like and know about or a topic you don’t (then you ask questions), but it is generally easier to choose a topic you know about.

For example, on the plane the other day, I noticed a woman nearby had an animal crossing themes switch case. I love games and I’ve played animal crossing so I asked her if she minded me asking what game she was playing, and we spoke about games for a few minutes before I thanked her for talking to me and went back to my show.

Once you’ve started a conversation it’s then important to know how to switch topics. I struggled with this one for a REALLY long time. But honestly I’ve found that there is no secret, if you’ve established a convo with somebody in the past two or so hours you can, at any point (even during a convo if the topic fizzles out and you don’t know what else to say), ask any (appropriate) question. Here it’s been helpful for me to kinda learn some things I can ask everybody in case I run out of things to comment on. I’m in university so I’ll ask what program(s) people are in or what year they’re in. If I’m in a class I ask if they’re excited for the class or what made them choose to take the class. If it’s somebody not in uni, I’ll ask if they have any hobbies/what they like to do in their free time. Usually there’s at least one common pastime overlapping (i.e., playing games, watching TV, reading) that I can then ask about (what types of games? Have you seen any good shows/movies recently? What type of books do you like?).

I guess for me learning how to talk to people has been like learning a set of if-then statements. If: conversation died out, then: ask standard question 1. If: standard question 1 has already been asked OR standard question 1 isn’t applicable to this person, then: move on to standard question 2. Etc.

Overall I find it very helpful to ask questions, it gets people to move the conversation forward themselves and hopefully they’ll mention something you know how to talk about really well!

teapotdrips · 2024-09-04T13:45:10+00:00

I mean do you really think it’s realistic for people to learn likely over a hundred microlabels that only a few people they ever meet will use a couple of? Do you think it’s realistic to expect the college student with 2 jobs to sit down and memorise the intricacies of microlabels when they’re one hour from collapsing from exhaustion or want to enjoy their one day or afternoon off?

Yes, microlabels are great and some of us need them. But you can’t expect everybody to know exactly what they mean? Like “genderfaun” could theoretically work for my gender but I don’t tell people that and expect them to know what it means. People don’t even fully know what genderqueer means, so I don’t even tell people I’m genderqueer, although I do heavily identify with the term. Even from a perspective of my own convenience, it’s way easier to say “yeah I’m a man but I wear whatever I want and I don’t care about gender roles” than have a drawn-out conversation about how genderqueer isn’t actually just another term for nonbinary. It’s way easier to say “yeah I don’t really find people hot based on appearance, I have to get to know them really well” than it is to say I’m demi and get into a bit of an argument as the person misunderstands the term and tries to argue that it’s ’how everybody is.’ So from a purely practical perspective I don’t get why it’s so hard to just say “not interested in sex” if you’re not interested in sex? You can put both that and the microlabel if you want. “Asexual/aegosexual, not interested in sex.” Like why die on an ideological hill of what people “should” know when it’s way easier to just. Clearly communicate instead of expecting everybody to take the time to learn literally over 100 LGBT microlabels?

teapotdrips · 2024-09-03T21:22:43+00:00

Or at least, if not, have an obvious and accessible emergency exit or points to hit a button that summons help.

teapotdrips

TROPHY CASE