I was so exhausted from my job yesterday (and this week in general. I started this job two weeks ago and I've got a lot of kids who need a lot of help with so many things. Which is totally fine, I adore them all but it's a lot of work) that I never got into the occult/duality/paganism discussion.
I have a unique-ish perspective to bring to this because I'm Igbo. Igbo are not necessarily pagan, but other indigenous groups around the world are "pagan", as in, they believe in multiple gods/deities/symbols/idols. If we take a moment to delve into anthropology and the history of religions, paganism came first. I'm not trying to downplay Christianity, I'm simply speaking from a scientific point of view. (FYI, Igbo funerals involve animal sacrifices, which is why I don't practice the religion because I'm not into doing that). To explain this more, the traditional Igbo religion has a god who is above all others, and there are lesser gods which are worshipped too. Igbo adopt the duality mindset of paganism also.
Igbo religion is hard to explain to non-Igbo. Duality is our culture is about coexistence. We believe what we believe and we are aware of other beliefs. This is why we believe anyone can be Igbo if they reside in Igbo-land. We have often been labeled as progressive and we are not, we are just practicing a thousands years old pagan mindset of seeing ourselves as existing within a world where we worship many things and integrate those things into our daily lives. Which brings me to a second point, that paganism is also when a religion and culture share the same space. The religious practice is a way of life, because of how the two are connected. It's not the same as Christianity being a part of someone's life or someone living by their religion. You can, and often do in Christianity function outside of your religious mindset. Pagans don't do that; life/culture and religion are the same. (If you want to see it another way, look into the Greek philosophy about how playing and learning are the same. It's not that children learn through play, or that they learn because they play, it's because playing is learning and learning is playing).
The Kpop duality of "cute vs. badass/sexy" has never really bothered me, because at it's core, it's just a way for netizens to say "Look at how this idol can be so adorable one minute and hot the next! They are so versatile as an artist!" It's not versatility at all but that's how most Kpop fans view it so it works for those idols and for their companies. I can pull off duality right now with my phone's camera by taking a cute selfie then a sexy selfie and call it a day. It's something that anyone else with 0% talent can do. It's annoying and dumb that people label that as talent and versatile but it is what it is.
What I hate passionately, are JK's "meat curtain" and RM doing this entirety photo thing. This is not the typical duality within Kpop. This is an attempt at stealing duality from REAL pagans who practice religion NORMALLY. (By normal, I mean in a way that does not do harm to other people). It is, once again, a bastardization of indigenous peoples from around the world. It's also strangely sexual, and I can assure all of you right now that REAL paganism DOES NOT approach duality in this way, and anyone who says otherwise to you is lying.
The paganism that I'm used to typically doesn't view duality and wholeness as a balance between dark and light, or good and evil. It's supposed to be about people coming together. What JK and RM have done so far is wrong on so many levels.
Duality does carry a lot of weight because like I described above, it's about a way of life/culture. Modern-day occultists/paganists have really taken this and played around with it without acknowledging the meaning and where it actually came from. It's not cultural appropriation, it's theft. It's also taking something which was intended to promote equality and unity among people and applying beliefs to it which don't make sense in the religion's origin and are also really offensive. They are also doing this for profit, which is disgusting.
If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask me.
www.crazydaysandnights.net
