No, this is not about a woman named Clair talking down to you derisively. I know a Clair, and she’s a sweetheart.
My blog post titled Woden v. Odin: Differences? has proved to be my most successful and most widely read blog piece to date. Every day it tops my charts of my daily views, and it is sitting under 10,000 views since I published it last May. With the activity that my blog has, with barely a post a month, and my overall level of networking, I consider this pretty impressive. I understand that there are other widely disseminated bloggers that routinely blow these numbers out of the water, so I am not going to allow it to go to my head. But, as of right now, I have not written anything that has attracted more notice, or more praise. I’m generally proud of it.
My blog also does not receive much in the way of traffic. Because I am Strategically Bad™ [1] at self-promotion, don’t utilize social media for anything resembling a “professional” appearance, and split my efforts between this blog and two or three other initiatives, I’ve been generally graced with thoughtful, erudite comments that have only added to any dialogue. There have been no attacks, there has been very little in the way of incidence where I have had to actively defend my position. By in large, the people who come here have been proper guests.
Today was the first day in the seven years or so that this blog has been active that I’ve had an individual come into this space and fundamentally dispute me. WordPress sent me an email informing me that I had a new comment on this now old post. Two, actually, from one Kerri-Ann Thornton, Psychic Medium, from Australia:
Here we have a stalwart “Medium” in the process of clairsplanation.
They were pending at the time of these screen shots. And, frankly, at the time of this writing, they still are. If we take a gander at what her public profile claims she does, she “is an Evidentual [sic] Medium and a Channeller for the God’s [sic] of The Old Religion”. This flimsy accreditation alone is enough for her to come into my space, pass judgment on the interpretation of divinity which I have experienced over the course of the past year, an experience which is both historically and culturally reinforced, and flat out dismiss it in favor of a feel-good watered down spiritualism gifted to her by her so-called “psychic powers”.
Sounds familiar, right? A white suburbanite tells a practitioner of a polytheistic (reconstructionist, indigenous, or otherwise extant) religion that they are wrong, that their beliefs and traditions which have been established and perpetuated are simply incorrect based on their feelings, and their unsubstantiated claims of authority, based wholly on unverifiable pseudoscience and social quackery.
It’s almost as if I’ve been talked down to by a so-called clairvoyant. That all of this has been explained to me in a derogatory fashion cultivated to silence me.
Clairsplained, if you will.
Now, what kind of person is this Kerri-Anne Thornton, Psychic Medium and Animal Intuitive from Australia? Well, she’s quite pro-English language. She doesn’t seem to like Muslims all that much [2]. Like a lot. Like…really a lot. And it looks like she really likes animals. To the point of advocating for the death and shaming of abusers. And hunters.
Which I guess is good, what with the whole “Animal Intuitive” thing?
So what we really have is Anti-Muslim, nationalistic, deceitful rhetoric masquerading as feel good spirituality for White People. For someone who quite clearly claims to believe in the healing power of energy, of emotional stability and forgiveness, and all the other cherry picked cultural and spiritual philosophies and traditions that she’s plucked from the world, it seems unfortunate that she balls herself up so much in the rage and fury.
Hey, maybe Odin is her guide?
Thornton, listen. If you’re reading this, and if you ever read this again, look here. Next time, be constructive. Don’t simply try to peddle your misunderstanding and made up lies here, where it is not welcome. If your vapid, specious mental paradigm is unable to comprehend the extraordinary diversity in the expression and Being of Divinity, then you might, quite possibly, have absolutely no business working with the so-called deities that you claim that you work with. If you do at all, and are not running an entire snake oil scheme.
As a “Medium” you think you may know Odin very well.
Me, as a Super Size Big Mac meal, I can tell you that you’re entitled to be wrong.
To my regular readers: I tend to be constructive, and I apologize for the brief foray into dramatic license. Excessive frustration with being talked down to by more of the same New Agers, coupled with life stress. Stoicism only takes me so far.
[1] Not actually a trademark.
[2] The page of which claims there is “no such thing as a moderate Muslim”.
Of Axe and Plough 
It needed to be said, a hundred times over. Thank you for having the courage to say it.
I don’t care if people want to say that their experiences are different than mine, or that they’ve experienced a different sort of divinity from my own. The Divine is ridiculously murky and absolutely subjective in experience and that’s the modus operandi of polytheism. But to attempt to white wash it (literally and figuratively at this point) into a feel-good spiritualism based on absolutes, when it most assuredly is not, is offensive.
Claiming that the divinity “exists differently in mythology and they are the same in all other accounts” speaks volumes of one’s inability to conceptualize a multiplicity of Truth. Beyond that, they are speaking in certainties while betraying their supreme ineptitude with the material in question. And appealing to a fallacious authority such as “As a Medium” is just insulting.
I’m glad you enjoyed it. And I’m glad you’re back!
I hate it when people come into my space to tell me my business (which happens from time to time) – especially when they pretend to be psychic!
Absolutely. Like I said, you can dispute me if you want, but please at least try to be civil and critical about it. Don’t fallaciously defend your position!
FINALLY THERE IS A TERM FOR THIS.
I love how she says that because SHE gets a different Face of Odin, SHE’S the one who’s right and everyone else is wrong. Not only that, but she deliberately approaches YOUR space and tells YOU what your experiences are and are not, whether they are correct or not. (But hers are right even if you decide to question them? LOL)
I didn’t know we elected an Official Spokesperson for Odin, because I certainly didn’t get the memo, nor do I ever want to.
Ye this is so dangerous and subversive it’s not even funny. It is dangerous to individuals, to communities, to movements, and to the building and re-building of traditions. Discernment is difficult (and crucial) enough, but to add clairsplaining into the mix is the height of hubris.
In my Work, I am *very* careful about my wording when I write out my divinations results or discuss them with clients. I always make it very clear that while my Work is to make, as clear as possible, the will of the Gods, in the end that information that they receive (from Them, through me) is supplementary. My words and experiences should never be taken as a ‘replacement’ of one’s existing experiences and knowledge, nor a superior form of it. I always write, “as accurate as the info I transcribe, in the end, your experience will ALWAYS trump mine in this case.”
Also, I love that last part: “Me, as a Super Size Big Mac meal, I can tell you that you’re entitled to be wrong.” The sass is real.
This post should be reblogged EVERYWHERE. Thank you for writing this – and so beautifully, too!
Definitely, and thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I will say that I do think some people get things “wrong”, and that there is a culture of misinformation in regards to the divine. And that culture is the root problem of things like the whole “Savage Gods” controversy that cropped up 3ish years ago, where people are so used to watered down divinity that they cannot conceive of dark or dangerous deities. This alleged medium is just indicative of that culture.
Plus the appropriation thing! So much is wrong, and it’s a reason why I think that New Agers and Pagans (let alone Pagan-types that don’t really hold to the idea that they’re under Paganism) should have absolutely nothing to do with each other.
Oh yes. The “savage Gods” controversy, I think, is still a big thing – much of the pagan community is having a hard time grappling with that. (Interestingly enough, in my academic program we talk a lot about how God has been “tamed” – so many Christians have watered down God to this extremely beneficial, does-everything-we-want and nothing-bad-ever-happens deity. Although Christian theology, and Christian ideas of what deity is / should be are definitely different, the problem is quite similar and frustrates many Christians, particularly those in my theology program). Funnily enough, too, the reason many pagans cite, in explaining why they were attracted by paganism, is: “the Gods have human qualities – They are both good and evil – They do what They want – I connect with Them because of all of these things.” But then the deities can’t be dark and dangerous (especially female Divinities – because, donchaknow, the Female Divine is all motherly and giving and caring and that’s it…). There is SO much complexity, paradox, depth, strangety to the Gods that, well, They can’t be explained so simply – and neither can They be explained by one person.
Re: the appropriation, that is one of the reasons I want to start work at the academy, because people still think that all pagans are exactly the same. There are SO many different philosophies, so many new traditions and ways of seeing/understanding/engaging with Powers that it’s not just the issue of polytheism being a branch on the tree of Paganism – to me, the contemporary polytheist movement seems like it’s a different tree altogether. The theologies, practices, and worldviews are different.
I could talk about this and more all day, but I have only a handful of people I could really talk to about this. In any case, thank you so much for your conversation – and, most importantly, your brilliant and well-written thoughts. I wish I were as eloquent as you!
Reblogged this on The Sovereign of Swords and commented:
This is as ridiculously important to read as it is ridiculously well-written.