A Hot Mess And Godless

     Last week I posted a question in the Satanic Temple Arizona Chapter Forum on Facebook: "What kinds of questions/things would you want to see discussed in regard to parenting as a satanist?" One of the topics suggested was how to talk to your kids about death. Well as unfortunate luck would have it, this was a talk I had to have with one of my own children yesterday.      Yesterday my son came home from school and told me his cat at his dad's house passed away. "I'm really sad." "It's okay to be sad, I'm sorry honey."      Death is not something my children have had to directly face quiet yet. We've had no major deaths in the family, not lost any friends, no notable moments where we've had to talk about it beyond the basics of all things eventually die. So the loss of this pet was the first real experience for my youngest, who is seven, and he had a lot of questions; specifically concerned with her remains. "I think w...

     Many times when you met someone who identifies as a Satanist or Atheist, there is a back story of intolerance and/or abuse through one of the Christian denominations or other main stream religions. I come from the unique position of having suffered religious abuse through Paganism. I know you're probably thinking the hippies with the crystals and sage? Really? Yes. Really.      I live with a disorder, Manic-Depression - Bipolar, whatever label you want to give it. It is incredibly unpleasant and not an easy thing to live with either for myself or the people around me. I spent much of my life being shamed and gas-lighted for my mental health issues. If I took medication I was "crazy and needed meds", if I didn't take medication everything that came out of my mouth was dismissed "because I was just off my meds." People close to me, friends, family, and significant others, would try to distort reality and pretend conversations between us did or didn'...