Emails I Will Never Respond To

I've mentioned that I get a lot of emails, many of which I don't respond to. This is primarily a time factor - the majority of emails I recieve are from nice people with a genuine interest, it's just that my schedule no longer allows me much free time, and for what time I do have, responding to emails is usually on the bottom of my list. However, I also get my share of emails that are in a different category. Emails like this I delete without a reply, without exception. If you're thinking of writing me an email in one of these categories, please save your time and mine by simply not writing at all.

"Tell me everything about X":

No. Chances are I don't know "everything" about X anyway, but even if I know a lot about X, I am not a Mesoamerican encyclopedia. In general, any email that would require me to write an essay to answer is not going to get a response unless I already know you. Asking something like "How can I learn more about X" is much more likely to get a response from me.

Questions that I find to be lazy:

I have recieved a lot of questions that I have very clearly provided my answers to on this site, even since writing my FAQ. I have recieved a lot of emails that ask questions that would be answered if the asker had even picked up the most basic book on Aztec culture available from a library. While I understand that sometimes, information can escape us even when it's readily available, some of these questions are just ridiculously basic. I can only conclude that some people are too lazy to do much reading on their own, so they would rather ask someone that they think can give them an answer to the obvious without requiring any work on their part. Again: I'm not a Mesoamerican encyclopedia, and I'm not going to do this. I've even recieved emails from students who say they are writing papers, after which they procede to ask me a bunch of questions which would require me to write a college paper in response. Worse than this are people who do the same without even saying it's for a paper, though it's obvious that is exactly what it's for (I'm in graduate school and have taken enough classes to recognize assignment questions when I see them). Also, newsflash - although I base my knowledge on scholarly sources I myself am not considered a scholarly source, and depending on the strictness of your professor that could result in an F for you. If you're writing a paper and you have a question about good sources where you can find the information yourself, I suggest you check out my recommended reading list first, but if that doesn't do I'm usually more than happy to point people in the right direction. However, I am not going to conveniently regurgitate all my knowledge of Mesoamerica in a personal email to you which you can then use to make your professor happy while avoiding doing any research yourself.

Probing me for personal information:

If I don't know you, if you just contacted me, don't bother asking me a bunch of questions about my personal life, my history, habits, personal religious experiences or whatever else. I don't know who the hell you are, so frankly, you can go fuck yourself. I do not answer personal questions from anonymous people who only just emailed me, only from people who have taken the time to get to know me. Anyone whose first email includes a bunch of probing personal questions about me will be deleted - this includes questions about my personal religious experiences. As I have stated elsewhere, I do not believe in randomly sharing deep or detailed UPG, so unless I know you well it's simply not going to happen, no matter how curious you are or how much you believe that your interest in Aztec religion entitles you to this information. Also, related to the earlier statement about college papers, I've recieved a few emails from people who I think were doing an assignment for a religion class and needed to do an interview with someone about their religious beliefs. Two of these emails, from different people, actually asked the same questions. We're talking questions worded in ways that people in general conversation don't word things, such as "How does your religion contribute to a sense of purpose?" or "In what ways has/does religion contribute to your life?" ect. Searching google I was even able to find the same assignment some of these questions were from, but again, these were asked without informing me that these questions were to be used for an assignment. I can guarantee you that I will not be providing interviews to people who are not even going to inform me that my answers will be shared - and again, that's generally considered academic dishonesty by most profs, so you might want to think about it for your own sake as well.

Wanting me to validate your opinion:

I have recieved my share of emails from people who start out as if they are asking for advice, but who are really looking for me to put my stamp of approval on what they would prefer to be true. For example, the bloodletting question I answer in the FAQ - I can't tell you how many times I have recieved emails that amounted to "I know you say the Aztec gods need blood, but I don't want to give blood. Will you tell me that I don't have to?" I haven't recieved those questions since answering it definitively on my FAQ, but I still recieve slews of "questions" such as, "I know you're against mixing the Aztec religion with Christianity, but will you tell me it's okay for me to be Christian and worship the Aztec gods?" and "I know you say that a nahualli has to be a real world animal, but will you tell me it's okay to say I have a unicorn nahualli?" The opinions I've expressed on this website are my opinions. I base my opinions on what I feel has been validated through my own research and experiences. You are not obligated to share my opinions. However, I am not in the business of making people feel better about themselves. In my experience, when a person asks a question like this, they already know the answer somewhere inside them - some part of them knows that what they wish were true is incongruent with what actually is, otherwise they would feel confident in their beliefs or actions and not need me to put my stamp of approval on it. If you want to ask me a genuine theological question, or even simply a question of opinion, and get my genuine answer on it, then you can ask. But if you are only open to hearing the answer that you've already decided you want to be true, don't bother. I can't stop you from trying to worship the Aztec gods without blood offerings, from worshipping Them alongside Jesus, or from saying your nahualli is a unicorn, but I'm not going to tell you I agree with it either. If my opinion on a matter has already been expressed here, chances are slim to none that I am going to make an exception to that opinion for you. If you want to know why my opinion on a certain matter is such, and I have not given the reason on this site, or if you want to know what I would think about a topic not covered on this site, I am much more likely to answer than if you are simply nagging me to change my opinion just because you don't like it.

Attempts at instigating obtuse arguments:

I particularly get a lot of emails about this regarding the topics of human sacrifice and polytheism. I am not against intelligent debate. I have responded to several people that have written to me with respectful disagreements providing sources for their opinions on the topic, and I have engaged with them in an equally respectful fashion. Many of these sessions ended on friendly terms, such as the correspondence that inspired this essay. However, there are also a number of people who simply want to start a fight because they don't like what I've said. Usually these people provide no sources to contradict my statements, only state "You said X, but it's a LIE!" (usually "EUROCENTRIC LIE," actually). Or, if they do state a "source," it is neither a primary source nor a scholarly one, but something like a Mexica Movement website. Or, they state that they simply "know" because they "are Mexica" (which usually means nothing more than that they are members of the Mexica Movement or similar). I have addressed these subjects on my website in detail and provided sources for my statements. I am not going to take the time refuting irrational or unfounded arguments that don't even bother to adequately challenge what I have already stated on this site.

"Woo-Woo" Emails

Although I have made it abundantly clear throughout this website that I have a healthy disgust for New Age beliefs, for some reason people feel compelled to write to me in newage speak anyway. I can only conclude that most of these people haven't even read my website, only happened upon it while searching for information on 2012, saw that it had a Mesoamerican theme and assumed that I was a kindred spirit. I am not a kindred spirit. If there was such a thing as a anti-kindred spirit, that would be me. To make matters even weirder, I have recieved several emails from people who literally sounded as if they were on acid at the time and writing to describe their trip to me. I have also recieved emails that take the "young grasshopper" approach - emails from people who present themselves from a standpoint of spiritual superiority who are coming out of the woodwork to offer to teach me a thing or two. It's not that I think I know everything, but I've certainly worked hard to get here and I'm not a novice, and I know enough to know when the wisdom someone is trying to present to me is just more New Age trendiness and not Mesoamerican spirituality. I am not interested in sitting at the feet of a would-be guru who claims to possess secrets of the ancient Maya or Carlos Castaneda, nor am I going to play "guess what the Master's metaphors mean" headgames. You're the one who took the time to write to me, what makes you think I would be interested in inflating your ego? Don't bother with little hooks like "If you are one of the awakened this will speak to you and you will respond." Give me a break and go start a cult or write a chain letter, please.

Creepy Emails

Unfortunately, I have recieved some letters that descend into the realm of the downright creepy. In almost the reverse of the above complaint, I have recieved letters from people who seem to think that I am some kind of holy man who can teach them everything. That's disturbing enough to me, aside from time limitations I don't mind "teaching" people in the sense of sharing the information I have and giving advice simply because I've been doing this for a while, but there's nothing special about me in particular. Some people have come on even stronger, writing descriptions of themselves bowing at my feet or calling me their "Sacred Priest." That's not going to impress me, that's going to make me think that you're crazy and looking for a cult leader. Other things I put in the "creepy email" category include writing to offer yourself as a sacrifice, or spamming me by sending me letter after letter in hopes that I will eventually respond (not only will that not get you a reply, it will get your email address blocked as well).