religion and politics

The Wild Hunt on religion and politics and history.

ranting may be necessary....

I haven't been blogging here lately because everytime I start a blog post it quickly drifts from something about Paganism or related topics to some sort of political rant.  Well, the gloves are off, it is time for political rants.  The narrow minded, bigoted, fearful, arrogant, self righteous, ignorant assholes in this country are openly on the march to do away with everyone who isn't exactly like them.  If this followed the projected course there would end up being only one person left, but even the beginning stages of this insanity can damage the rest of us. 

If you were thinking of not supporting Obama because you are disappointed in him or a policy or what he has been able to do with a lock-step Congress opposing him..... think again.  Do you want an arrogant whack job like his opponents running your life?  Smaller government?  Get real, they want government in your bedroom and counting how many times you go to church.
rant on....

There have always been people in this country (and everywhere) who see any chance to impose their beliefs, make a profit, dominate others as some sort of victory.  Generally public perceptions and reactions keep a lot of these people from acting out like crazy people and keep the society in balance.

The restrictions seem to be off and for those of us who have a live and let live attitude and a subconscious belief that things will only tip a little out of balance and then swing the other way.... we need to wake up.

The election of a black man to the office of President of the US seems to have tipped a number of people over into craziness and IMO there is way too much public shrugging at what they are hearing.
Three years of the claims that 'it's not racist, we just dislike his policies' have deteriorated into open racist hostility.  And this seems to have unleashed other hatreds and hostilities.

According to the active right wingers...
-if you are not Christian (the right brand of Christian, of course) you don't belong in this country
-if you are female, shut up and let men make good decisions for you
-if you are disabled or unemployed you must have screwed up somewhere
-if you support labor unions you are trying to destroy jobs
-if you make less than 6 figures - who the hell are you?  EVERYBODY make more than that (unless of course you are an unemployed bad person
-the 'poor' are well taken care of in this country
-Social Security is a government gift (entitlement) that no one should get
-public education is unnecessary
-you should be able to afford health care, or do without
-Monsanto is helping supply healthy food (I have to throw up here)
-if you are gay you are bad
-if you think gays should have the same rights as everyone, you are bad
-teaching abstinence in schools would stop sex outside of marriage if the government would just stop handing out birth control pills
-petroleum companies need to make bigger and bigger profits each year or they will shut down
-workers should be happy to get minimum wage and shut up
-the EPA is bad, always, no reasons needed
-corporations are people (this one is now law)

Ok I will stop here.  None of these beliefs are new, there are idiots and fearful people seeking a scapegoat everywhere.  What is new is that these things are shaping public policy, people are running for office promising to concentrate on these evils in society.   This week a congressional panel discussing government and birth control was composed of MEN, the input of women was not welcome.

We are on a fast track to being a third world theocracy and if you think Pagans will be welcome - ask Ricky Santorum.

I just couldn't resist....

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returning to blogging

I took an enforced break from blogging.  I was in an accident with a horse - a loose horse came around a corner and ran right over me.  I spent a few days in the hospital and when I got out I found I really couldn't concentrate well enough to write.  I had a concussion; eye didn't want to focus and brain wanted to rest. 
So I didn't blog for a while and then I felt that I had sort of lost interest in it.  Immediately before the accident I had deleted several one topic blogs because I felt I was just spread too thin and while they interested me, there was no way to keep them current. 
So I let things just slide for a while.  This blog has always been intermittent, but A Pagan Tapestry was a routine of important days and practice - also a little venting.  But I felt that I had run out of things to say. 
A little more time went by and I slowly began to realize that A Pagan Tapestry is part of my spiritual practice.  It keeps me on track so I don't just blow past important days.  When I want/need more information or just become curious about something I research it and blog about it. 
I have missed this part of my practice, so after spending a month or so just feeling guilty for having dropped it - remember, I was raised Catholic, I can feel guilty about anything! - I finally got back to it.  Full Moon entry tonight on Tapestry. 
If anyone is still reading this blog - thank you and I am back!  Comments are welcome always.

a more public Pagan

In just the last few years Paganism has made great leaps and bounds in becoming more public, better understood and more accepted in this country. 
I love many of the things that go along with this.  More public ritual and ceremony that are easy to find.  More pagan publishers and a wide assortment of new books covering both modern views and researched historical theories.   Many shops that carry supplies and lots and lots of fun goodies.  Lots of discussion and visibility on sites like Facebook.   I especially like the pages for Pagan artists, Pagan businesses etc. 
Lots and lots of online classes from well respected Pagans of all traditions. 

But I also find myself appalled at some of the crass commercialization of Paganism.  Someone can always find a way to twist things and make a buck.  And I am NOT talking about legitimate Pagan businesses, we need more of them. 

But now there are snake oil salesmen selling Wicca initiations, the secrets of witches,  demon fighting ebooks.  It makes me a little angry, a little sad for curious people who will get sucked in, spend their money and decide that it is all a crock, because what they bought was. 
I have to blame both the snake oil salemen and the people who want something (spiritual enlightment) for nothing (no effort). 

I tell myself that this is no different than the Christians who display crucifixes everywhere and tell everyone they are Christian but do not attend church or read the Bible or put any effort into finding out what Christ taught.  Some of them get their pockets emptied by the television preachers who are getting rich off of them.  Most people can make a distinction between this and legitimate people of Christian faith.   There aren't enough of us yet for that distinction to be clear.   I'm sure we will get there.

But I have this nagging thought that we have awoken Old Gods or at least asked them to turn their attention to us once again, and they might be disappointed or perhaps amused, who knows?

Welcome to the 21st century, my fellow Pagans, where even the old religions can be trivialized. 
I suppose it is the price we pay for coming out of the shadows and it is, in my opinion, a good argument for being as public as safely possible, each in our own way, to reinforce the concept of a serious spiritual path and help new seekers avoid the con artists and find reasonable people to answer their questions.

a need for ritual

I have made some changes to my pagan blogging.  I find that my blogging is tied to my ritual work.   My spiritual practice carries on everyday and for a time I did not feel the need for much in the way of ritual.   Now, with another turn of the Wheel, I am missing a more formal ritual practice and blogging here and on A Pagan Tapestry is a part of that practice. 
I have deleted the divination blog, I have a new site for Tarot readings and if you want one from me you can always contact me here. 
I have deleted the Black Cats and Full Moons blog.  I loved doing the historical research for it and I will probably bring it back, I just need to figure out a schedule and let it be a treat to do it again and not something hanging over my head that is not finished.
I also deleted the resources lists, which I had moved to a separate blog because they became so extensive.  It occurred to me that exactly because there was so much, it was not needed anymore.  When I started these blogs just a few years ago there were a handful of pagan podcasts, one or two pagan publishers and even online stores were hard to find.  Now there are hundreds of podcasts, radio shows, dozens of publishers and online and brick and mortar stores everywhere.  Good changes.
I cleaned up the remaining blogs, there is no need for all those links.
Pagan Tapestry will change as the Wheel turns and this blog will become more active.   The Borrowed Book of Charms is still active, many people have let me know that they are using it and I am glad for that.
I don't know what comes next, but for right now I feel a pull to move back to more ritual and these blogs are part of that. 

Life and The Craft

I find that as time goes by The Craft becomes more and more part of my daily life and at the same time it has simplified itself.  Most of my ritual tools are safely wrapped away and seldom disturbed.  My altar has become a collection of candles and a few statues.  Each candle is for a specific god, goddess or spirit.  A large jar candle dominates the space and is offered to Goddess and Universe.
I have tiny little altars scattered throughout the house dedicated to specific goddesses.  They are tea lights and tiny tokens or pieces of jewelry on a decorative saucer.
I cast a circle, raise energy, state my intent and let it go, simply and often.  It nearly always produces a result.
I do love ritual, but it just doesn't seem to be necessary when there is no time or desire. I put together a ritual for the Blood Moon and realized that it was the first time in a while that I had done something that formal.
Perhaps this is a phase too, only time will tell.

Isaac Bonewits

Isaac Bonewits died today.  He had a losing battle with cancer that seemed to take him away from us very quickly.  I never met Isaac, but when I first started A Pagan Tapestry he came across it somehow and put a link on his site, Views from the Cyberhenge.  He was very encouraging to a new Pagan blogger.
From what I have read about Isaac he was very encouraging to many people.  He was also entertaining and fun on Facebook.
We need more, not fewer, Pagans like him.  Involved from their head to their toes, 24/7, teaching, writing, talking, arguing.    Part of Paganism is the individual, intellectual pursuit of knowledge.
In Isaac's name, let us not lose sight of that.

Isaac Bonewits 1949-2010

be careful what you 'ward'

One morning this week I was listening to a podcast where warding was being discussed and I choked on my coffee.
Sometimes I am my own worst enemy and the results can be hilarious or dismaying.  This time it was hilarious.

I sometimes drive home in a funk after doing some shopping in the afternoons.  I am pissed off about being run over, cut in front of and treated rudely by other shoppers.  I start off being annoyed and sometimes end up ranting about it.

Guess who is causing this?  ME!
I go into the store wanting to just get done quickly, not run into anyone that wants to chat, just get it over with and get home.  I am so focused on this that I am making myself invisible. I am warding off any interaction with others.  So they cut in front of me, run into my cart, step on my foot..... I'm hard to see. I had no idea I was so effective, but I am really focused.  I'm just experiencing an unwanted side effect.

I laughed so hard I nearly cried, but at least now I know what is going on.

Tarot and me

One change in the last few months is that I have gotten serious about the Tarot.  I have dabbled for many years, picking them up and putting them down, but now I find myself using them everyday, sometimes just one card, sometimes for a reading with a spread and sometimes for meditation.
Unlike some readers I do not look for the future in the cards, other than a probable or likely outcome.  I find them much more useful for considering the present from many different angles and choosing a course of action based on that.
I have done a little reading for others, but I find that a lot of people are stuck in the past and mainly interested in finding a reader who will tell them that a love interest from their past is still in love with them.  I find that depressing, especially since the cards rarely, if ever, support that.  So I am very cautious about who I read for.
But I use them daily for my own connection to spirit.
I was surprised to find out only recently that some readers never do a reading for themselves and think that such a reading would be inaccurate.  I probably wouldn't be so interested in the Tarot if I felt that way.  I'm glad I was never told that when I first started out learning about Tarot.

The deck I use the most is the Mystical Dreamer, I get very strong messages from this deck.

I recently acquired a brand new deck, Shadowscapes Tarot.  The images are incredible, but I am having trouble with some of the cards.

So, while the Tarot is not new to me, it seems to have suddenly opened up for me in the last few months.

I need to spend more time here

I have really been neglecting this blog and actually this one is where I should be blogging.  Pagan Tapestry is chugging along thru the Wheel and will undoubtedly be outraged enough at the upcoming elections to vent a little about that.  The other blogs are mainly collections of information.  I have them separate so that I can find things myself.  It works better than a file cabinet.
Here is where I should be writing, I have spread my wings this year, delved into my mystical life more than I ever planned and learned much.  I want to record it, mainly for myself, but it might help someone else along their path also.
Let me get my thoughts together and I will be back soon.  At least, unlike the Tapestry blog, this one does not have to follow a linear path.  Thank Goddess.

Hern

I was writing about planning a ritual for Litha on A Pagan Tapestry and for some reason Hern popped into my mind.  Perhaps too long since I did a ritual for him also. He is the only male deity that I regularly work with.
I will not be dedicating the Litha ritual to him.  I am thinking of dedicating it to a Sun Goddess.

Hern is very special to me and it is past time to dedicate a ritual to him.

Hern is not a son of the sun.  Hern is shadows and lush foliage.  Hern is the hush of a forest disturbed.  Hern is dark secrets and a path to light.  Hern is mentor to magicians and witches.  Hern is the enemy to any who seek to dominate nature, but he revels in the hunt, as it is the way of nature.  Hern is kin to the Greenman, or perhaps he is the Greenman in another guise.  Hern cannot be summoned or petitioned.  Hern will accept offerings but makes no promises.
Tell your secrets to Hern and perhaps he will share one with you.

a long pause in writing

I have been neglecting my favorite blog.  Not for lack of things to say, just the opposite, there has been so much going on that I haven't had time to write, share and just think about things.  I will have to make time for important things.

I will...

...remember to talk to my Spirit Guides today...and not just to ask a question.

belief and faith without dogma

My mother passed away in December. She was Catholic, but I discovered just recently that she had secret beliefs in folk medicine (magick), psychics and divination. Kind of hazy and overwritten with some guilt from her faith, but like me, she thought these things just existed, whether you acknowledge them or not.

I found myself unable to be terribly sad at her passing, at least in the weeping and wailing sort of sad. She was 85 years old, had cancer, believed that the cancer would kill her, and died peacefully in her sleep.

I found that my own deep set beliefs in the idea that this world and everything in it is just a passing educational step in our real existence precluded any sort of deep grief.
I find myself thinking that she liked being right and knowing things that others did not know. Now she has the real answers and knows things that the rest of us do not know. I bet she is enjoying it.

thought for the day...

I am a 59 year old woman with one foot planted in the business world, one in my personal life and both firmly planted on the path of the Goddess. I am a seeker, a left of center, tree hugging, dirt digging daughter of the Goddess, always have been, always will be, 24 hours a day.
I stand firmly opposed to the patriarchal, head in the sand, science denying, blindfolded, dogma driven institutions that want to pound us all back to the stone age. Whatever guise they are hiding behind.

a time for reflection and study

I am trying something different this year as far as a little adjustment to the wheel of the year.
Like many pagans, I have celebrated Samhain as the end and the beginning of the year. Last year there was some discussion on the blogs about this and a couple of people offered that they celebrate Samhain as the end of the year and Yule as the beginning. The time in between is used for....whatever.
I am doing that this year. I will celebrate the new year at the winter solstice, when the dark begins to change back to light. And I will use the dark part of the year for reflection and study.
My studies are already lined up. I have begun a course on chakra healing with my teacher and I am well into book one of Christopher Penczak's Temple series.
I will let you know how both of these progress.
I am also going to make time to do more magick, Christopher's books have magickal exercises for homework, so those two studies will go together.
I feel good about this, it seems to have a natural flow that appeals to me at this time.

feeling good...

I haven't been blogging. I haven't been doing ritual or magick. I haven't been learning my new runes. I have been studying....I am reading Christopher Penczak's Temple series, just on book one. He promised it would not be Wicca 101...he better get a move on.

ANYWAY, I have been finding excuses. Too tired, too hurried, too..........you fill in the blank.

So tonight I filled the bath with smell good stuff and epsom salts and HOT water. Took some ritual stuff into the bathroom. Goddess candle, sage candle, 4 candles for spirit guides, incense and Wendy Rule. Soaked and scrubbed and let everything just drift away. I didn't ask for anything or talk to anyone. I just let the warm water and the scents and the light of the candles and the music gradually replace all the tensions of the days and weeks past.

And I got it.

I have been avoiding ritual because I have been feeling unworthy. Hurried, rushed, not very forgiving, often feeling dirty (physically...I work with horses), just not up to ritual.

How incredibly CHRISTIAN of me. Unworthy to talk to my patriarchal, unforgiving, all-mankind-is-born-sinful, wrathful GOD.

What a wake up call that was. Nothing shocks a witch like realizing that I am acting and thinking like a Christian.

Goddess isn't about forgiving me, or judging me. She could care less if I worship her or curse her. She doesn't need me....I need her. I need the acceptance that this existence just IS.
That it is about learning, not getting a passing grade. Goddess and all the goddesses that we talk to, my spirit guides...all of them are here to help me learn my lessons. They can't do that if I don't talk to them and listen to them. But it's all the same to them...I am the one who is the Seeker, they already know the answers.

So why am I avoiding them?.......because when I am tired and frazzled that old childhood conditioning starts controlling my responses. The years of being told how unworthy, how sinful, how unlovable we are and that we need to kiss the feet of this god who seems to hate us...all that baggage is still capable of causing problems. Til I drag it out into the light of day and take a close look.

Oh, and I got one more message. Apparently that 4 candle holder that I use for my spirit guides is perfectly acceptable. But the four identical candles is getting old, those 4 spirits are not only not the same, they don't even like each other much.....at least that's what I got.

Light a candle, talk to goddess or spirit. If you don't have anything to say, then just listen.

Daily Practice (cross posted with A Pagan Tapestry)

There is always talk on the pagan blogs and podcasts about daily practice. Do you or don't you, why or why not, how to if you want....

Do I have a daily practice? Well, yes and no.
I spend time each day offering time or myself to deity. I spend time each day acknowledging the presence and importance of the elements. I offer casual conversation and my beliefs are part of my life, 24/7.
However, do I perform ritual everyday, no matter how long or short, how complex or how simple?
The answer to this is no, in spite of my very best intentions, plans and the energies that pull at me.

I hear and read many people in similar circumstances who chide themselves for being too busy or a little lazy or not dedicated enough.

I have always felt that this was not the answer. Maybe those answers apply to some, some of the time. But there is more to it for some of us, for many of us.

T.Thorn Coyle wrote about this recently and her words helped me put into words the feelings that I have about this.

Fear.
Fear of the unknown. Fear that those powers are really real. Fear that taking that last step, that moving from 99.9% dedication to the goddess to 100% commitment will set in motion unstoppable changes in our lives. So we dither on the edge of the precipice.
I think there is a special, individual, unique time that we are each invited to step off that ledge.

'when you have come to the edge of all light that you know
and are about to drop off into the darkness of the unknown
faith is knowing one of two things will happen:

there will be something solid to stand on
or you will be taught to fly'

Patrick Overton

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