Temple of Athena the Savior

This is a bit of an old post, and I’m not sure how exactly it came up while I was reading this blog, but BOY do I recognize the sentiments expressed within!!! I don’t think that anyone has ever said I should be barred from rituals because of my struggles with mental illness. That I know of; there’s always the possibility shit’s being said behind my back, I suppose! But I really doubt it. What I HAVE experienced a lot of is the advice to get off my meds. “You don’t want to be on that junk forever, right?” An acquaintance said IMMEDIATELY after I told her I had just gotten out of the hospital for suicidal ideation, and was now medicated and feeling a lot better. I was completely blindsided by her response, and I’m ashamed to say that I stammered out an “N-no, of course not! I’ll stop when I’m more stable.” Even through I KNEW it was a lie. Let me think, am I going to stay on the stuff that makes it possible for me to live a life with my crippling depression and anxiety, or am I going to rely on crystals and herbs and prayer and meditation in order to attain some vaguely-defined sense of spiritual purity. Nevermind that I had ALREADY been involved with the community for a while, and had used crystals/herbs/meditation/prayer for a good seven years at that point. And guess what? That’s not enough for some people, so yeah I’m going with science, because the Gods gave us brains for a reason, and the Greeks pretty much INVENTED the scientific method! Yeah it’s not a hard choice. I’m picking mental stability, thank you very much.
The Pagan community, the larger Pagan community, doesn’t trust traditional/Western medicine, in general. Big Pharma is only out to screw you and enslave you, they think. And even stranger, some of the more extremey of the so called love and light brigade claim that you can’t be Pagan and take medications for mental illness at the same time. Whaaaaaaaa. O.O I must have missed that line of the Delphic Maxims.