Otherwise, if you do not fill out the anti-spam block, your comment will still vanish into the Comment-eating Black Hole of Webbery-ville.

If you are a spammer trying to hit the site? Go sit and spin, we aren’t having any.

Ten warning signs of a potentially unsafe group/leader.

1. Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.(like blowing off the next level of organization AND tradition?  Like that?)
2. No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.(Verbally sandblasts questioners or criticism)
3. No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement.
4. Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.(Paranoid about who knows what and who is where, and when—always texting or calling members)
5. There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.(If you aren’t with them, you are against HIM??  Sound familiar?)
6. Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.
7. There are records, books, news articles, or television programs that document the abuses of the group/leader.(Deleted blogs or message forum data?)
8. Followers feel they can never be “good enough”.
9. The group/leader is always right.
10. The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing “truth” or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible.

And from another site:(Please go to link to read the full descriptions – http://www.factnet.org/headlines/destructive_cult_warning_signs.html)

1. A destructive cult tends to be totalitarian in its control of its members’ behavior.

2. A destructive cult tends to have an ethical double standard.

3. A destructive cult has only two basic purposes: recruiting new members and fund-raising.

4. A destructive cult appears to be innovative and exclusive.(Like calling traditional things “old fashioned” or medieval and ignoring them?)
   

5. A destructive cult is authoritarian in its power structure. (Like secret meetings held by the favored few.)
   

6. A destructive cult’s leader is a self-appointed messianic person claiming to have a special mission in life.

7. A destructive cult’s leader centers the veneration of members upon himself or herself.(Lots of pictures of the Fearless Leader, and few of other members?)
   

8. A destructive cult’s leader tends to be determined, domineering, and charismatic.

Say that after the official ritual was over, much alcohol was consumed by most attendees.

Say you are the officiant of the group.

Say your “significant other” had too much to drink and is hanging on you, unhappy and upset.

Say you are upset and ready to ‘blow your top’.

Say you shove the drunk one hard enough to put this person on the floor, hard enough to bruise.

This is NOT justifiable anger.  This is not righteous indignation.  This is not self-defense.

This is domestic abuse, asshat!  I SAY you are a hypocrite to your group, pretending such communion with the Goddesses and Gods.  Those deities are going to kick your ass.

It is more a statement that we found certain racist and sexist behaviors unforgivable and that the apparent habit of considering drunken revelry and weapons in close consort at every “religious” gathering  necessary gave us considerable pause.  We found it dangerous and in some cases in possible violation of state laws.  I found their utter disregard of the reservations of members (aside from ourselves) disheartening.  The overall impression was one of arrogant presumption to ignore the members for the pleasure of the unelected and appointed for life leaders.

Behaviors observed by my son, who attended several gathers only led to more dismay.  And when rather harsh things were said about my personal intention “to destroy the Kindred” I took it as a sign of a certain paranoia, if not outright delusion.  I also, at one point in my life, left the Catholic Church—but I felt no need to destroy them, nor to make others cease in their devotions to such institution.  My need to disassociate myself from what I viewed as dangerous and addiction driven behaviors is not commentary on Heathen or Asatruar beliefs, but upon the leadership of this particular group.

We owe this group nothing, we offered them our hospitality and they responded with an arrogant attitude with regard to future hospitality and entitlements.  My views on weapons or the length of their stay, or the alcohol abuse were disregarded and my invitation permanently withdrawn.  They would quote me the Havamal with regard to how to be a good host; I would recommend they read the sections on the proper behaviors of guests.  They consider my eclecticism in religion not suitably “pure” for them; so they are spiritual racists in a sense as well as the unfortunately usual way attributed to white supremist groups.  Apparently, because I am devoted to Greek deities as well as Freyja, I am guilty of spiritual miscegenation of some sort.  I wonder if they are guilty of the same for worship of at least one god not of Nordic descent at all?  A worship my son was invited and declined to join.

Furthermore, since my son had created a website and kindly agreed to host it upon his own domain at his own personal expense, this group interpreted this as an obligation not a gift.   Below is his own letter of disaffiliation:

It is has come to my attention that certain members of the Falcon Kindred still seem to hold a personal interest in my person and in members of my family. The intent of this document is to provide the following:

1. That I did in fact leave the Falcon Kindred on my own terms and in good faith.

2. That any ‘intellectual’ properties of the Falcon Kindred were no longer in my sole possession and that the Falcon Kindred Board of Directors, in particular, the President of the Falcon Kindred, could have at any time dealt with the online face of the Falcon Kindred without my help.

3. That I no longer am obligated in any way, shape, or form to provide ANY assistance what-so-ever to any member of the Kindred. And that should I provide assistance, it is out of the kindness of my heart and not through any legal obligation.

I departed the Falcon Kindred and the Falcon Kindred Board of Directors for a variety of reasons. Chief among them were immoral and unethical behaviors which were allowed to prosper in the Kindred without rebuke from the Board of Directors or other persons in positions of leadership. These reasons are few in number, but they are of large consequence and unforgivable import—things which I have never tolerated in my life and will not tolerate now, under any guise, especially that of a religious guise.

With my departure came my full and irrevocable resignation from the IT position on the Falcon Kindred Board of Directors. Materials made for the Falcon Kindred (electronic documents, web site material, etc) were never ‘given’ to the Falcon Kindred. The copyright for these works (with a few notable exceptions) resides with the creator of said works. In other words: I created the works with the Falcon Kindred in mind, but they are STILL MY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. My work for the Kindred was my GIFT to them, not any obligation, nor recompensed in any way whatsoever.

The domain name, www.falconkindred.com, was never mine, and still is not mine. In fact, the domain name was never even under the control of my hosting company. Even though my hosting company provided the domain name a temporary home, neither me, nor any member of my family, nor my hosting company ever claimed ownership of the domain name. The domain name has always been registered to Troy Wisehart, through godaddy.com and it was always under his control at that internet location. If the owner of the domain name cannot figure out how to move his website to another hosting company that isn’t my problem.

Finally, when I departed the Board of Directors, I made it very clear that they would need to find another person to fill the role of Information Technology. I provided a recommendation (to which they did not listen) and told them that once I had a point of contact to work with that I would in fact give them the information they needed. However, due to some personal issues (also a point in my leaving the Kindred to begin with), I was delayed in providing information. As such my inbox filled with request after request to give them information. I was hesitant; to say the least, to allow access to my webserver to a person I barely knew. It is unexceptional to refuse access to such personal and sensitive online materials. And when I decided that I was not going to renew my server this year, I informed them that they would need to find their own hosting company. Until said company was found and an account was created there was nothing further that I could do. Again, I must reiterate, I am in NO WAY, SHAPE OR FORM REQUIRED TO ASSIST THE MEMBERS OF THE FALCON KINDRED IN SETTING UP THE ONLINE FACE OF THEIR ORGANIZATION.

The above should make clear to one and all that I and any and all members of my family are not only disaffiliated from the above mentioned organization, but also permanently disaffected.

]]> http://walkofthefallen.com/wordpress/2009/06/26/regarding-the-kindred/feed/ 0 http://walkofthefallen.com/wordpress/2009/02/07/weekend-woozle-blogging/ http://walkofthefallen.com/wordpress/2009/02/07/weekend-woozle-blogging/#comments Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:19:25 +0000 Labrys http://walkofthefallen.com/wordpress/?p=739

Those little fuzzballs are Taz and Teddi, two of my pet ferrets. I adore them and they light my life at the darkest moments.  Taz was near-starving in a pet store when we found him; he had been taken from his mom and not weaned well and didn’t know how to eat the solid food he was being offered.  Teddi was a rescue, REALLY starving—all skin and bones and bloated belly like a little Somalian child.

Ferrets are an impulse purchase for a lot of folks.  And then, when they are tired of them, they are horribly neglected or abused.  These wonderful little predators (no, they are NOT rodents—they kill rodents) suffer malnutrition and worse by under educated owners who just buy them as cute kits at a Petco store.

They are like fur clad two year olds, able to get into any place they can push their heads into, they eat things that block their guts and die agonizing deaths without surgery to save them.  Over the years since 1999, I have owned fifteen ferrets—some purchased as the pets of my heart, and many rescues brought to me.  They don’t die good peaceful deaths.  Teddi, the smaller of the two above, will likely die of the results of something like human inflammatory bowel disease.  The starvation of her first five months of life has likely damaged her gut and as she ages it will bother her more.  The treatment for this is oral steroids; the problem is, those eventually cause gastric ulcers that will make her bleed to death.

They get adrenal cancer at terrible rates, sometimes a slow death and sometimes an incredibly fast one.  One of my ferrets didn’t even show the initial symptoms of hair loss before he went adrenal hormone aggressive, and then collapsed in less than three weeks.  The cancer went “sideways” and killed his bone marrow, leaving him with so few red blood cells that his nose turned white and he was not getting air to his muscles.  He  must have been in agony even though I called the vet as fast as I saw his  color change.

Ferrets also die of insulinoma—a cancer that makes insulin producing tumors.  Their blood sugar gets so low they go into a coma, or seizure.  My little old lady woozle, Sorcha, is dying of this now.  I feed her often, coaxing her to eat so she won’t suffer agony in seizures.  The treatment for this is steroids, too—or in a younger ferret, surgery to remove the many tiny tumors.  Sorcha is bleeding from the steroids and cannot have any more.  The vet is coming on Monday to end this losing battle.

Ferrets are wonderful pets for dedicated pet owners. Please do not buy that cute kit on impulse cause the kid is begging.  Please study up first.  It isn’t just the $99 sale price in money, either.  You need a good cage, a secure cage—because they can OPEn doors of cages.  A good cage costs at least $200.  Vet bills are in the catastrophic category—Sorcha would have died 4 years ago from adrenal cancer without a surgery that cost $1200.

I recommend as a minimum that you read the book “Ferrets for Dummies” before you even TOUCH a beguiling kit at Petco.   And if you do touch one, hold one, and it bites you HARD?  That does not mean it is a vicious little animal, it means it is HUNGRY and not adapting to whatever the pet store is offering.  People who don’t study up on ferrets and buy them end up needing someone like me, who has to try to save the animal….and sooner or later ends up crying over a tiny grave.

A Diversion, and well-welcome break from news and worry and gloom and doom. I have a Heathen Blot to host this coming Saturday.  The main dish is planned, the desirable “props” for ritual are laid on (a plow to “charm”),  a suitable offering to Nerthus the Earth Mother, drinkables laid in stock, and a final fun ending for the day—edible divination!

These were made of my best house-constructing gingerbread, but gluten and dairy free!  Cut by hand with a knife and embellished with honey-ginger sprinkles, each runic cookie is at least six inches long and 1/2″ thick.   Each guest, before leaving will draw one from a veiled plate!

But as an email in this morning’s mailbox reminded me, there are names I do not have and may never find.  Since the beginning of the war more than a thousand military individuals have taken their own lives by suicide.  I have a few such names, if they die “in theater” the names come on those DOD releases although I can only recall one case clearly stating it was suicide.  But many die after separation from service, and even those still in the service do not appear on a list I can access.

Doubtless this will get me accused of being a bleeding heart (better a bleeding heart than no heart at all!), but I consider those troops killed by the wars as surely as if an enemy bullet pierced their hearts.  I’d like to have those names.  I occasionally find one in a newspaper I randomly run across.  Or on a blog somewhere in the vast internet universe.

At least 128 military members killed themselves this past year, forty-one of those were Marines.  The estimates the  Veterans’ Administration deals with boggle the mind: estimates 18 veterans a day – or 6,500 a year – take their own lives, but that number includes veterans from all previous wars.  Somewhere, a man is dying  by his own hand every 80 minutes!  A hidden cost to war, this is a bleeding wound that goes on and on without being noticed by most of the country.

Tell your friends, pass the word….send me the names and tell me when they served in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The stories of the suicides, the names now lost in the Night deserve to be told in the cold light of day.

My email is labrys6 at gmail.com.  Send me the names, please. I’ll string new counting beads for them alone.  And the salt of lost tears could make a crystal’d snowflake of memory.

Holy cats….I am infintisimally tiny, actually, since I assume I get hit more by search engines than readers.  So who the heck is smaller than me?

So heck, I will do what I always do when unsure of the validity of instruction: ignore them.  I KNOW the first blog is huge compared to mine, but it is younger than mine.

It is “A Day in the Fat Life” and discusses the perils of daring to suggest that being thin is not necessarily healthier, better, smarter or any other “er” usually attached.

And one I have been reading for a while, I don’t know how it hasn’t been listed before is Deuddersun Says!  Here the resident scholar holds forth for the American Patriot Institute!  We must have “patriot” defined, after all, by someone other than Ann Coulter.

I am also enjoying The Great Endarkenment and think some of you will find laughter there as well.  Recent postings about brothers-in-laws of the Republican type engender both giggles and sympathy.

I find that The Crone Speaks….at least to me, and I think she may have plenty that will speak to you,  too.  Do go peek and enjoy and feel spurred to steam-out-of-ears action taking.

And I am exploring Mock, Paper, Scissors….come look with me!

AND (drumroll please) Belief Net has added a pagan blogger that I have been reading on Wordpress for ages: Gus Dizerga!  Yeehaw!

I also added a number of blogs I have been reading for a good while, surprised to find they were not already on the list; an oversight on my part….so browse and enjoy!

Mind you, I have no idea how many readers these blogs get.  But I will share the wealth out of curiosity!  If there are other bloggers out there who read here and want their name on my list, just contact me with the contact button on the main page!

The New Moon is coming.  Usually, each month at that time, I check all the counts for US and Coalition dead in Iraq and Afghanistan and update the prayer/counting beads on the monument at the center of the Labyrinth.  I clean the beads, make sure they are all there—since ravens and crows sometimes steal a small, light strand just for the sparkle.  December is the exception since family Yule keeps us busy.  So January is always a labor of love—but lots more labor than usual.

This year more than ever!  I examined the 5400 beads and brought them inside to wash them.  To my dismay the shell beads and the faux coral strands were deteriorating and fading very badly and I decided to replace them completely.  So, having heard of a super bead store called Shipwreck Beads, we drove down to see if we could afford the necessary thousand or more beads.

I am not a bead-crafter.  But if I was, I would have thought I died and went to a beader’s heaven!  I got beautiful and colorful glass and ceramic beads to replace and repair battered strands.

And I got little ceramic skeletons to use as the counters for each hundred–each “century” of dead troops.  So they are little prayer bead centurions, as in the days of the Roman Empire when a centurion commanded one hundred men.  Not totally unlike a modern day company commander.  So, this weekend, in preparation of next week’s New Moon, every strand was re-strung.  Every battered, stripped glass pearl was replaced and all the shell beads.  I strung the beads in groups of 200 so they would be too heavy for the corvids to steal; and there is a little skeleton counter for each one hundred.  Every tenth bead, like a squad leader on the strands, is bigger or a different kind—this made my keeping count far easier.

The new strands are beautiful and bright, for a beautiful and bright new year.  The older strands that were not replaced are clean and re-organized, but keep most of their original character.  All the beads that have been sent to me by friends have been retained in the strands, usually as that special tenth bead.  Now, I used up almost six pounds of new beads———let us all hope that I don’t need many more!  My hope for the New Year and a new President is an end to all this war!  The re-stringing was completed in time for the Inauguration of a new President and a new era!

Pfc. Christopher W. Lotter, 20, of Chester Heights, Pa. – Army – Iraq -shot by enemy (on Dec 31st)

Lance Cpl. Alberto Francesconi, 21, of Bronx, N.Y., died Jan. 1 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Marine Lance Cpl. Chadwick A. Gilliam, 29, of Mayking, Ky., died Jan. 3 at a U.S. military base in Kuwait (he was supporting the war in Iraq)  His cause of death is under investigation.

Marine Lance Cpl. Jessie A. Cassada, 19, of Hendersonville, N.C., died Jan. 6 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Army Staff Sgt. Anthony D. Davis, 29, of Daytona Beach, Fla., died Jan. 6 in Northern Iraq, of wounds suffered when he was shot by the enemy.

Pvt. Gregory M. Sher, 30, of Australia was killed in Afghanistan in a rocket attack

Trpr Brian R. Good, 42, of Canada was killed in Afghanistan by an IED

SSG Josh Rath, 22, from Decatur, AL, of the US Army was killed in Afghanistan by an IED

Spc Keith E. Essary, 20, from Dyersburg, TN,  of the US Army was killed in Afghanistan by an IED

(the two Americans are of the five killed this week–I haven’t got the DOD stmt with home states yet, will update when it gets to me)

I bought myself a new book to list the names for 2009.  I picked an uncharacteristically pretty book; I need to think it might soon end, and to relieve the sheer grief of writing name after endless name of young troops dying for an indefinite goal.