Comments on: How to Identify Cults & Cult Leaders in the Witchcraft Community https://otherworldlyoracle.com/how-to-identify-cults-cult-leaders-in-the-witchcraft-community/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-identify-cults-cult-leaders-in-the-witchcraft-community Whether you're in the land of the fae or the land of the ancestors...stay otherworldly. Tue, 28 Nov 2023 15:22:58 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 By: kitty fields https://otherworldlyoracle.com/how-to-identify-cults-cult-leaders-in-the-witchcraft-community/#comment-34146 Mon, 27 Nov 2023 18:53:52 +0000 https://otherworldlyoracle.com/?p=12468#comment-34146 In reply to Shay.

I am very sorry you were put through this but so glad you came out the other side the wiser. May healing and blessings be yours.

]]> By: Shay https://otherworldlyoracle.com/how-to-identify-cults-cult-leaders-in-the-witchcraft-community/#comment-34097 Tue, 21 Nov 2023 12:47:14 +0000 https://otherworldlyoracle.com/?p=12468#comment-34097 I used to be in a Christian cult. It was originally an ordinary church that was fairly moderate, but this group has figured out how to go into those groups, wrestle control away from the leaders, and take it over. They do heavy lovebombing at first, so people think they are going to stay that way, but they don’t. Like Scientology, they coerce members to sign legal contracts to maintain control and threaten to shun, sue, and harass you for trying to leave. I’ve seen them set up blackmail situations to keep more affluent members in the cult. A number of these leaders have done terrible crimes and are in jail, but other ones pop up and use the same methods.

I saw the red flags, and left that first group, but as the cult gained power, they took over nearly every church I joined. That group is behind a considerable amount of the political unrest in the US. With both theological and ideological disagreements, I left Christianity completely and am now an atheopagan. I am afraid to trust another religious group completely and rest my practices solely in myself. I don’t think that’s for everyone, and I’ll be honest and say I don’t really know what the “truth” is, but I am afraid to subject myself again like that.

The BITE model is very helpful for identifying abusive control. To put the most common tactics in simple terms:
–everything becomes about giving more and more time and money
–the leaders promise you can know things that the outside world doesn’t (but they never let you get there)
–you are not allowed have autonomy over yourself and your assets
–you are punished for asking questions
–they ask you to regularly shun/avoid people, including close family
–the leaders do not hold themselves to the standards they hold members
–you are told you are not allowed to leave and only leaders can make that decision

]]> By: Erica https://otherworldlyoracle.com/how-to-identify-cults-cult-leaders-in-the-witchcraft-community/#comment-34094 Tue, 21 Nov 2023 01:08:13 +0000 https://otherworldlyoracle.com/?p=12468#comment-34094 Thank you so much for talking about cults in witchcraft! I feel like not enough witches openly discuss this danger.

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