Voice of the Void

Thoughts, stories, anecdotes, essays, drunken ramblings, and opinion pieces by High Priestess Octavia Riordan and a small ensemble of guest writers. Subscribe to get the latest updates delivered straight to your inbox.

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  • Scars
    You are not your trauma. You are not the pain you’re in. You are not your torture. You are not your sin.
  • Society is Broken and No One is Coming to Fix it
    Society presents itself as this perfectly flawless construct and if something is wrong, the problem is you, not it. But it’s not you, the world is broken and made of pain and abuse which you are indoctrinated to believe you have no choice but to endure.
  • Trauma isn’t a Competition
    There is no objective measure of trauma. Don’t let people tell you that you’re weak for being hurt, or that “it only counts if it was bad enough.”
  • Proof by Verbal Assault
    I want to point to a pattern where, when someone has a problem, or thinks the person their talking to is in the wrong, they will just verbally bombard them with their correctness.
  • Most Manipulation is Unconscious
    When you make your emotional stability, mental development, psychological well-being, sexual satisfaction, or sense of identity contingent upon the acceptance, approval, affection, or support of a particular person or persons you are practicing a form of emotional blackmail. Even if you aren’t consciously trying to manipulate people, all actions have intent. Some part of you […]
  • Your Morals Aren’t Objective
    Morality always feels objective from the inside, that’s how it works, but it also always takes a value judgement by a person about how they want the world to be to determine the ethical course of action in a given situation. Utilitarianism is no more objective as a moral system than the categorical imperative, and […]
  • Rebranding Yourself isn’t Healing Trauma
    If you completely rebuild your identity as a way of coping with and recovering from trauma, but you don’t change any of the fundamental assumptions, beliefs, values, goals, morals, or principles on which that identity is based, then you aren’t actually changing anything, you’re just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
  • Be Kind to Yourself
    Just because they live rent free in your head doesn’t mean the relationship isn’t abusive. If you wouldn’t tolerate something from a partner who lives outside your head, you shouldn’t tolerate it from someone who lives inside your head either, even when that someone is you.