think it was 2001 when I first read about fluffy bunnies. It was from a website that clearly defined what some people in the Pagan community felt was a dumbing down of Wicca, Paganism, and Witchcraft. It chided Llewellyn publications for their lack of research, creating history out of whole cloth, New Age concepts introduced into Paganism, ecclecticism, certain fictional movies, teenagers, and attacked certain authors with such vigor that it seemed to be a personal vindetta for some of these critics.
I thought that many of the points made were very well put and held a lot of water. I still do.
It got to the point, however, when EVERYONE started calling SOMEONE a fluffy bunny, and the attacks became vicious, slanderous, spiteful... It is very likely that if you were a Pagan anytime between 2001-2006 you have been called a fluffy or have called someone fluffy. I've come to feel that it was a necessary stage of the Pagan community's development... to weed out the flakes, if you will. I still feel that it is necessary to be critical of paths that are made up, changed, or eccleticized.
But is everyone who is accused really deserving of such hatefulness?
I've met REAL fluffies. I've known a college student who lied about her status as a witch (Queen of THE Witches Council) and informed me in the same breath that she had an intimate relationship with her "Whitelighter" (y'know, like Piper from Charmed). I've read an online book of "dark magick" that I just couldn't get my head around because I was being told to visualized BLACK light (and not the kind that makes things glow). I've listened to (and rolled my eyes at) someone who was nothing more than a gothy-punk chick with a pentacle call a HPs of her own (well thought out) tradition and coven a fluffy bunny. I've watched paths spring up and die. I've scoffed at the idea of the ancient Irish potato goddess, 9 million women and cats being burned at the stake, and griped about books that are complete crap.
But this crystal toting, granola eating, ecclectic, Neo-Wiccan (thanks and you're welcome) with a side of Crowley, Shamanism, and Chaos experimentation is getting fed up with it. Jumping on a bandwagon of fluffy hating seems to me no better than someone becoming a witch because they think it's "kewl".
Thoughts? Criticisms?
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