The Magenta Dragon

[I wrote the following article for The Wild Hunt (a UK Pagan magazine) in 2016. It also appeared locally in SA Vampyre News (SAVN) and on Penton Alternative Media at more or less the same time. At the time I was acting as the chief researcher for the Alternative Religions Forum, after working on the academic paper known as "Satanism: The Acid Test".]

Most in the South African Vampyre community who have done a little research into the history will know that this community’s recorded history began in May 2010 with the foundation of House Valur. Most will know that the community only began growing and taking form with the founding of the South African Vampyre Alliance (SAVA) in June 2011, but little if anything is known about the community in the time before that.

Only YOU Can Save The World (If Not You, Who Else?)

I was most fortunate to have two friends who were Methodist ministers, both very open-minded and very loving people. 

They frequently took heavy fire for being welcoming of gay folks, and even people of other faiths, and for standing up against haters in their own ranks. 

The fact that I left Christianity to follow a Pagan path never meant that they weren't my friends any more, or that they suddenly would try to change me. Instead, they continued to be good friends. It's always a pleasure to count Christians like that among my friends. But what about the others?

So You Think You're A Good Person?

Self-acceptance -  the acceptance of the person we are, with whatever defects and flaws - imperfections - and even our perfections, determines who we are and who we become. How can we work towards becoming anything else if we don't even know who we are now? How can you chart a course from A to B if you don't even know where A is, or where B is in relation to you? If you don't even know what your own strengths and weaknesses - and character flaws are - how can you know what to work on, and where to improve, and what to leave behind?

Whatever we are now, we all began as something else. Personally, I'm far more partial to the view that "I am what I choose to accept I am", and "I am what I want to be". 

I am what I am. Nice sentiment that. But is it that simple? 

Accepting Diversity

I find people amazing, fascinating. 

 

Don't you think it is incredible how there are so many of us, and yet each of us is still unique as an individual? Variety is the spice of life, or so the old saying goes. We are all basically the same biological organisms, but each of us is still different and unique enough to look distinctive, and have our own lifetime of experiences that make us into unique individuals, each with our own identities, thoughts, feelings, opinions and achievements.

It is this fact that makes Human society so wonderfully diverse. And yet sometimes we get tired of people who disagree with us, or with what we feel is the "right" or "only" way to do things, sometimes this diversity frustrates us. But place us in an environment where everybody looks, sounds and lives the same way - do we not soon find ourselves longing for a touch of individuality?