This has disturbed me beyond words to comment on it myself right now. Please take the time to read the following article that was pointed out to me by a friend:
Not every confrontation that a gay person experiences in their life is based on their orientation. But sometimes it is very difficult to see any other possible explanation.
Take the experience that Joe Paolucci, Thomas Hitchcock, and their special need twins had recently with Wal-Mart.
Employees at the Niles, MI Wal-Mart store accused Paolucci of shoplifting some Bic lighters. Although he produced the receipt, they refused to back down, insisting that the two men go to a “detention room”. The employees, using vulgarities and hostility, frightened their special needs kids. (South Bend Tribune)
Paolucci said that while he and Hitchcock were attempting to calm down the boys, the employees ordered them to enter a “detention room” for questioning. Fearful of what might happen behind closed doors, he and Hitchcock refused to enter and asked to speak to a manager.
“Some guy came up and said, ‘I’m the manager,’ then turned around and left,” Hitchcock said.
Paolucci said he and Hitchcock then asked store personnel to call police. Within minutes, deputies from the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department’s Niles Township Patrol arrived, pleasing Paolucci who said he thought a few questions and a review of the store’s videotapes and computer records would quickly resolve the matter.
He said he was shocked when he was immediately handcuffed, without a question being asked, and placed in the back seat of a squad car. Hitchcock wasn’t handcuffed but also was placed in the back seat of a second squad car.
The twins, despite the protests of Paolucci and Hitchcock, were turned over to the store’s security personnel, who took them into the “detention room” or what police referred to as a security room.
A review of the security tapes proved that Paolucci and Hitchcock had done no wrong. So the store management profusely apologized and expressed their remose, right? No. They did not.
The two said they expected an apology and were surprised once again when personnel from the store walked up to the squad cars with the twins and read from a statement that Paolucci and Hitchcock had been banned by the store chain for life. Rather than shoplifting, the reason they were given was “being uncooperative.”
By the time they were read the statement, Paolucci and Hitchcock said, the twins had told them that the security staff had allegedly threatened them in the security room and had made disparaging remarks about Paolucci and Hitchcock’s lifestyle. Paolucci and Hitchcock said they asked police to take statements from the boys but the officers refused, telling the couple they’d have to contact Child Protective Services.
Wal-Mart even refused to replace frozen items that had now thawed due to their unprovoked misuse of their customers. Nor did the situation end at the harassment of the couple at the store.
Paolucci said the boys have suffered a type of post-traumatic stress disorder since the experience. Both wet their beds, although one has stopped, and both have had nightmares about one security employee in particular, he said.
“They’re terrified, horrified. We’ve had to change their medication twice,” he said.
And what does Wal-Mart corporate have to say?
Paolucci and Hitchcock e-mailed The Tribune a copy of a letter from a law firm representing Wal-Mart seeking 10 times the retail price of the items the store still claims were shoplifted by Paolucci. The letter states the matter will be dropped if Paolucci submits the $158.40 payment.
Now this is not the first time that Wal-Mart has been perceived as hostile to gay Americans. In 2007, HRC advised against giving our business to Wal-Mart, and just in April of this year, the CEO signed his name to a petition to ban gay couples from adopting.
Wal-Mart doesn’t care about my opinion. And there’s little I can do to impact their decision to treat gay customers with hostility.
But perhaps there are those, even in Niles, MI, who will decide that this situation is just one too many. That they cannot give their custom to bad neighbors. That it may be worth an extra nickle and a further drive to frequent the stores that do not abuse customers solely because they “disapprove of their lifestyle” and who admit it and apologize when they are wrong.
Have you ever found yourself saying this to your kids? “We’re not like most other families. We’re different.” How do you feel when you say those words?
I know how I felt having to say that to my kids. My heart sank when I heard the words roll out of my mouth. I felt like I was setting my kids up for a harder life. I felt as if I was alone in a large uncaring society, and leading my kids to learn to feel the same way as I did when those words came out of my mouth.
I debated for a long time over it. Even made up ‘pro and con lists’ in my head just to try and figure out what, if anything, I was doing wrong.
I am a pagans-are-nature-oriented/">pagan mother of seven boys. Then to top that off I have an extended large family. I still have yet to find another large pagans-are-nature-oriented/">pagan family such as ours. AND… I home school. I am happy homeschooling, and I believe my kids are too, but sometimes looking at everything I am shocked at what a large load I have put on my kids. It is a lot to take in if you were not the one experiencing it. Could you imagine?
So after all the worrying and debating I asked my oldest, “How does it feel to be different?”
Then this 12-year-old son of mine answered me the way only a kid could.
“What do you mean different? I don’t feel any different. I feel like myself.”
I smiled and then felt put in my place. We’re not really different. When I asked him how he felt about our family, he said, “Well, our family is extraordinary.”
Overall, when you really get down to thinking about things, and how some things might appear to be different, just put things into perspective. Perhaps you aren’t all that different. Maybe it’s just the way you think about things. The ‘burden’ I thought I was giving my kids was actually just my desire for them to have an open mind and a different perspective on how our family exists.
See, I think my perspective comes from how I was raised. I was raised very Christian. I was in the church nursery as a baby. My mom was the Sunday school teacher when I got older. I knew the Bible, and it was a contest between the preacher’s son and me as to who knew all the answers in class.
We had weekly dinners with the preacher and his family. I went to youth service on Wednesdays, as I got older. I had a lot of questions though, and as my mom said, good Christians don’t have questions. they just have faith. So I knew I had problems because I couldn’t stop asking questions.
I wasn’t a good Christian. I couldn’t just believe. I had too many conflicts. I tried to talk to my mom, and I told her I didn’t like having a God I was afraid of. I explained that it’s not right when you fear God.
In response, I was told, you should fear God. It makes you a better Christian to know you will be punished if you don’t accept him and Jesus.
I just couldn’t win. I tried to talk to the preacher, who told me my mom could explain things to me. And when I talked to my mom, I got no answers.
I swore that growing up my children would not have to face the things I did. I found Paganism when I was younger.
I told my mom, “Those people who were hugging the tree looked so happy”.
My mom said, “They should be. They are all going to hell.”
I said, “Well, if all the people at our church are going to heaven, why are they all so sad?”
She replied. “Life is hard. There is nothing easy about it.”
I got books and read in private, figuring out my religion. When we had children we agreed that they would be able to pick their religion and they would be educated.
When my 12-year-old son had done some research and told me he chose Paganism, I must admit, my heart skipped a beat. But what he doesn’t know, he wasn’t raised to know, are the hardships involved. It’s both a blessing and a curse for him.
I have explained the secrets he will have to keep from his grandma. Some people won’t agree with his choice and he will have to either keep his faith secret or deal with this.
Overall though, still he doesn’t see us as different. It’s a wonderful thing that he doesn’t take to heart all the hardships. He doesn’t see us as different because he was not raised to see anyone differently. I figured by his age these things would have come into perspective for him, but they haven’t.
What a wonderful experience, not being different! Having a large family, and being pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan is just natural for my child. Maybe for other children of mine too, someday. I believe some will be Christian, some will be pagans-are-nature-oriented/">pagan, and maybe some will venture beyond these boundaries and dive headfirst into their own religious freedom to choose something totally different.
I will take them to the local Hindu temple. They go to church on occasion. We have been to two local Universal Unitarian churches. In the words, being ‘different’ is good because everyone is ‘different’. If we were all the same, the world would just be boring.
It’s true. Everyone is different. It’s just something we deal with throughout life. Maybe it’s not such a horrible thing to be ‘different’ and some of our children don’t even think we’re ‘different’ at all. It really puts things into perspective to believe that any religion, sincerely held and practiced, is just fine.
If you are not taught to believe that ‘different’ religions are bad, then they aren’t.
On behalf of a dear friend from Neos Alexandria, I wanted to pass this information along to everyone to see if anyone could help with contributions to a project that temple is working on. Here’s the latest information Sannion had to offer on it:
Although we’ve received some great contributions for the Hekate devotional, we currently do not have enough for a full book. So we are going to extend the deadline until July 30, 2009.
We can use essays, poetry, accounts of personal experiences, and other forms of devotional writing. We would like this anthology to reflect the diversity of ways that the goddess has been understood and experienced both in antiquity and in contemporary times, so the more contributions we receive the better!
As with all of our devotional anthologies we cannot provide payment or contributor copies, since the proceeds will be used for charitable donations and to help bring out further volumes in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina line. For more information on our Guidelines and Policies, please visit this page:
If you have any further questions, you may contact the editor at sannion@gmail.com. This is also the address where submissions should be sent.
Please feel free to distribute this announcement to other lists, forums, and curious individuals. The more people who know about this the better chance we’ll have of producing a truly awesome book worthy of Hekate.
In the last couple of weeks a question, or rather a few similar questions, have been coming across my radar, again and again. I do try to pay attention to such things, when they come my way. One or more of these times were in articles posted on Witchvox, while other times this question has been uttered to me by friends. Here are the questions:
“Why are there no more Gardners and Crowleys?”
“Where are the women like Doreen Valentine and Janet Farrar and Dion Fortune in younger generations?”
“Where have all the good Elders gone?”
“Why are there no impressive High Priest/ess any more?”
… And such similar ponderings.
Despite the fact the fact that I am no Crowley, nor Starhawk, nor Elder, I think I may have hit upon an answer. It’s an ugly answer, and I know that sharing it may only cause me problems. Yet, I feel compelled to share it. So folks, if you are easily offended, please … keep reading. Bear with me, let me sit upon a “high horse” for but a moment and allow me to say some things you may not want to hear.
Gardner and Crowley were trailblazers. They were bold and daring, they said and did outrageous things. People like Gardner, Crowley, Cochrane and Hutton (to name a few) were eclectics, they tried stuff out, and they mixed and matched. They mixed pantheons and traditions. Nowadays we pagans use the word “eclectic” like a dirty word, an insult to be slung at anyone who dares to mix traditions or practices.
Because our watered-down version of paganism and occultism does not breed such people, does not encourage them. In fact, we make them pariahs. We are not comfortable with controversial leaders. We don’t want teachers with a reputation for being eccentric. We don’t like it when someone walks through the mall wearing a giant pentagram, or purple hair or a black dress. We don’t want to rock the boat. We don’t like it when someone says or does something new or different or outside the box. We are uncomfortable with pagans who don’t fit neatly into some label.
There are no more good elders for two reasons.
One, we treat them horribly, you know it and I know it. We give them no reason to participate in the community. We are pleading and demanding and completely lacking in respect. We expect them to do all the work for us, with barely an introduction. We never finish what they work so hard to help us start.
Two, many of our elders and pagans who have been around for a while have become jaded and disenfranchised. They have decided to give up on us and are hiding away somewhere. Far too often now, when they do decide to show up, it is either for our adulation or to make fun of other less experienced pagans… which only leads to a lack of respect for our elders. And thus we create a vicious cycle.
We all understand cycles do we not?
Because we seem to think that High Priestess and other spiritual leaders and teachers of such caliber are “born”, not slowly grown over time. We think that once a pagans-are-nature-oriented/">pagan reaches 40, they should just magickally turn into a great leader, teacher or guru. We think we do not need to support our young leaders and teachers. We feel that we do not need to help them to grow into great elders.
No, instead we pick and snipe at them and demand to see credentials and examine their birth certificate as if age is what matters. Because we forget that people like Janet Farrar, Doreen Valentine, and Starhawk were in their twenties when they first made their claim to fame. We forget, and we treat our young witches and priestesses like idiot children.
Because we buy white-lighter, easy-to-read, fluffy little books when we should be buying the books Chapters and Barnes and Noble refuse to sell. How many of you actually have books written by Gardner, Valentine, Farrar, and Crowley? How many of you have more books written by the likes of Sylvia Browne than books by our great old Elders?
There are no more Gardners and Crowleys because we are afraid. Afraid of controversy, afraid of not being politically correct, afraid of being judged, afraid of ourselves, afraid of what the neighbors might think. Afraid of what the rest of the pagans-are-nature-oriented/">pagan community might think or do.
Because we are afraid to try something that no one has done before, we need to read three instructional books on how to do it first. We need an author, teacher, or Internet friend to assure us that nothing bad might happen, that it will be fun and safe … and boring. Because we panic when a hedgewitch posts Flying Ointment recipes on her blog.
And we are lazy. We have become a community whose majority are little more than armchair pagans. We study more than we practice and we think that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Paganism, witchcraft, magick … these are PRACTICES. You have to practice them! These pissing contests about what you know are meaningless. We need to focus on ourselves and our practices, not on what someone else has memorized.
Because we have made paganism too commercial, too user friendly, too easy, too accessible. We are more comfortable with a clean, neat, organized, sterilized version of spirituality. We don’t want something messy, sexy, nitty and gritty. We want something that matches the row upon row of identical pink stucco houses that litter suburbia.
Because we don’t want to have to work hard to find wisdom. We want it handed to us in a textbook format.
There are no more Gardners and Crowleys and the like because you’re supposed to be one.
That’s right. YOU.
Who else is going to do it? So what’s stopping ya?
You want more visionaries, teachers, and leaders? You want to see the next generation of Gardners and Crowleys crop up? Then go and do it yourself. Because chances are everyone else is too yellowbelly to do it for you. And why should anyone do it for you anyway?
Think about it.
*climbs off high-horse and raises shield*
Copyright: Juniper 2008
This article is originally from WitchVox, found here: http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=cabc&c=words&id=12919
I found this article a while back (or, according to OneNote, “a long time ago”), and had been meaning to share it. The author of this article is a Kemetic Reconstructionist, a follower of the reconstructed religion of Kemet as it was practiced thousands of years ago in what is now known widely as ancient Egypt.
It is a common misconception that all Pagans are of a “nature-oriented” religion. This simply is not the case. While yes, most of those who are pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan, in our area especially, are Wiccan, which is a heavily nature-oriented path, there are those of us in the community who simply do not fit that bill.
Being a Modern Kemetic, I worship the Neteru, the Gods and Goddesses of Kemet, now so well known as ancient Egypt. My beliefs, methods of worship, of prayer, of rites and rituals vary so much from what most concider “the norm.” The religion itself varies so much from what most people percieve Paganism as, and even from the more well-known Kemetic faiths such as the Kemetic Orthodox and Kemetic Reconstructionism.
I did have my start in my studies with wiccan-or-witch/">Wicca, but it never truly sat well with me. As I walked my path, I eventually found what was right for me, and watched it unfold before me. It’s been an adventure, as anyone’s path should be, and the knowledge I’ve gained from my first stumbling years has granted me an understanding of how different our perceptions can really be.
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On Reconstruction and “Nature-Orientation”
I’ve finally managed to pin down one of the reasons that “well, the reconstructions are nature-oriented too, the Gods are personifications of natural phenomena” or “tied to natural phenomena” bothers me.
It’s disrespectful of the Gods. It diminishes Them, it reduces them to less than They are.
Most of the Gods have theophanies or symbols that are natural forms, yes, but that does not distinguish their forms and symbols strongly. Stars, doves, beasts of burden such as Burak, flaming vegetation — similar things from more mainstream religions. And if the point of more abstract symbols or those derived from manmade objects is raised, remember that the ankh, symbol of life and frequently prated about as some sort of unification of male and female principles or some similar hogwash, is a slightly abstracted representation of a sandal strap. Prosaic, manufactured, and pretty damn boring.
But back to the main thing: The myths that are bound up with the natural world and natural cycles are, for the most part, merely parts of the nature of the Gods, manifestations of portions of Their domains. When I see someone point at Proserpine and Her cycle as evidence of the nature focus of reconstructionist religions, I wonder how She feels about being treated as just a calendar.
Merely knowing the natural affiliations or associations of a God is not sufficient to know the God; they often derive from the God’s core nature rather than being that nature. If I say that Set is God of storms, of the desert, of the darkness, that is not sufficient to understand His domain unless one is exceptionally good at riddles. If I add to that that He governs the queer, unusual, and deviant; that He protects the left-handed and favors the redhead, that He is considered to be God of foreigners, then the picture becomes more complicated, less tied to hostile forces of the natural world. If I give chaos, destruction, the role of tester and challenger, the One who makes certain that the king is strong enough to face the job of kingship, still greater complexity. If He is named as the one who is ultimately responsible for the protection of that which is, the one who is capable of facing the forces of annihilation and unmaking and defeating them, one is left entirely in the realms of the philosophical and mystical, without natural referents at all.
Somewhere in there one can find the mysteries that are the core of this God, can come to know Him as fully Himself. If one stays stuck on just the projections of that core into the world of nature, the playing field has been limited too much to meet Him face to face. Yes, Set storms; it is His nature to do so, and one can meet Him there, but not if He is just the storm, if that is the sole, central most, or essentially defining thing. He is not a “God of nature”; His manifestations include portions of the natural world, but then again, Whose don’t?
Of course, at the same time as this, I find myself baffled by the Gods who are cut off from their manifestations in the natural world in the way many people look at them. When people speak of Wesir, I hear a lot of “God of the dead” and very little of His angry declaration to the Gods that it is by His will and nature that the grain that feeds Them grows — so They had better do right by His son. The regenerative power, the nature of the sown grain, His mysteries of the hidden green, those I rarely hear people mention. Baffles me no end.
Many of the ancient Gods were city Gods, dealing with the concerns of settled people. The Gods of Greece came into conflict over patronage of cities; They had territories, shrines, personal quirks that depended on the particular histories of Their time in those places.
Yes, there were agricultural festivals and the passage of the natural year, but that is a human trait, not something particular to paganisms, ancient or modern. I know that there are rituals and prayers for the planting in the Catholic Church, because I looked the bloody things up a while back. That this is not common knowledge and common concern is mostly a sign that much of the population is not strongly involved in agricultural cycles these days, not a distinguishing mark between religious categories.
And there are festivals of heroes or military victories, the accessions of leaders, and similar things. Human things, things that are the byproducts of human culture and human decisions and human institutions. Nothing in the natural world demands the celebration of the sed festival or the commemoration of Marathon.
We are talking about alters in our yahoo group and I thought I would share about my alters.
Alters fill my life in many ways. I have two alters at the store. I have the store alter where customers have the opportunity to use, light a candle, leave an offering etc… People leave coin offerings and then other people take coin offerings proving the circle of life. This alter is usually maintained by patrons of the store. I have little to do with it but watch and enjoy.
I have my own Personal alter at the store. This alter is maintained by me and my whims. This alter is my representation of my devotion. It is also a working alter. Right now I have Baba Yaga on my alter because of Samhain and the Dark. I love Dark Goddesses. That probably has something to do with getting older.
I have an alter room/ritual room at home and also my bedroom. I have two alters there. I have my working alter that I pray and do ceremony/ritual. It usually has a motif of the season or what I am working on. I change it a lot and it tends to be more cluttered than my other alter which is my devotional alter. Loki
by Ben Gruagach http://www.WitchGrotto.com This article may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, providing that this original copyright notice stays in place at all times.
One unfortunate trend which has become prominent within the online pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan community is known as “bashing fluffy bunnies.” No, it doesn’t involve harming animals — but it does involve verbally attacking those who are perceived to have less scholarly opinions on modern Paganism than the attacker. Personally I think this trend is shameful and disrespectful, unworthy of anyone who claims to be a polytheist or pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan. To try and draw attention to the issue I present my Thoughts On Bashing Fluffy Bunnies.
The modern pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan community is diverse and growing. Decades ago, there were a few distinct majority segments: Wiccans, Druids, and Asatruers. At the start of the 21st century there is an ever-growing number of non-Wiccan Witches, assorted pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan groups, and Reconstructionist Pagans who are working to revive ancient pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan religions.
With growth comes friction between factions, sometimes escalating into conflict. Minority groups sometimes feel offended when they are lumped in with other groups. Individuals are annoyed when others assume that some idea or philosophy might be common among the majority of pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan groups.
Instead of strengthening one’s group identity by clarifying core ideas, it is common for a group to instead spend a lot of energy saying what it’s not about. Sarah M. Pike explored this in some depth in her book “Earthly Bodies, Magical Selves: Contemporary Pagans and the Search for Community.” Wiccan groups have worked hard to insist that they are not Satanists. Non-Wiccan Witches insist that they are not at all like Wiccans. Reconstructionist Pagans insist that they are not Wiccans or Satanists, and often insist they are not following “Earth-based” religions as Wiccans do. Within the Wiccan community, there is an insistence by many that they are not “fluffy bunny” Wiccans which they clearly consider to be a perversion of their religion.
It is becoming quite common, at least on the internet, for these attempts to differentiate the “not-me” through what can only be described as bashing. Instead of discussing the issues and sharing different points of view and theories, those who hold whatever idea is not politically correct for the majority in the discussion become the target for personal insult and antagonistic behavior. In other forums, when a participant purposefully misinterprets another’s postings and writes to antagonize, the behaviour would be labeled “trolling” and would be dealt with appropriately. Within many pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan forums, however, “trolling” appears to be encouraged providing you are politically correct about it and agree with the majority philosophy.
It has become politically correct in many pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan forums to bash those they label “fluffy bunnies.” The term itself is intended to be insulting — it implies that some people are air-headed idiots more at home in a Walt Disney cartoon than in the pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan community. Often the label is applied to any group one happens to disagree with. The implication is usually that the “fluffy bunny” hasn’t thought through their religious philosophy, that they are really just concerned about shock value or fashion rather than living a religious philosophy. It is also usually assumed that a “fluffy bunny” has little idea about the historical past and physical reality and accepts any claim that is made at face value.
Some groups, such as Reconstructionist Pagans, strive to match their religions as closely as possible to a specific chosen historical model. They feel that they are therefore immune to being labeled “fluffy,” because they hold scholarly rigor in such high esteem. It also happens sometimes within Reconstructionist discussions that other groups such as Wiccans are labeled automatically as “fluffy” because of specific discredited historical theories. The problem with these blanket labels is that they are not always accurate. Within the Wiccan community, for instance, there is a surge of scholarly historical research which has thrown new light on the origins of the religion. Many resisted this change at the start, but it is quickly changing so that now it is quite common to find Wiccans who freely incorporate the new ideas about the past into their philosophies. To insist that wiccan-or-witch/">Wicca is “fluffy” is to ignore many scholarly Wiccans.
Similarly, while there is certainly encouragement within the Reconstructionist community towards scholarly rigor, it does happen that blanket statements are made and assumptions proven false. Like any pet theory, it is often hard to give up even when the evidence starts to mount that it might not be correct. The claim that Reconstructionists are “more scholarly” than other Pagans has lead to a growing arrogance by Reconstructionists towards other Pagans. And as so often happens, with arrogance frequently comes sloppy and uncritical thinking, essentially “resting on one’s laurels” from past accomplishments as a substitute for continuing critical work.
It seems rather hypocritical that a community made up of self-professed polytheists (whether “hard polytheists” or not) should be so intolerant of others who have different ideas. It’s not just acknowledging that others have different ideas, or accepting that the historical landscape is evolving. The problem is that some are being disrespectful of others and are actively antagonistic in forums where the stated goal is purportedly to share information and debate ideas in a civilized fashion. Bashing is not debating. Debating involves sharing ideas and evidence and discussing the merits of the different points of view. Debating allows disagreements, but does not allow disrespect. When a discussion transforms into personal insults against select participants, or “bashing fluffy bunnies” as some gleefully call it, it is no longer debate but shameful ego assaults.
Perhaps the conflict is a carry-over from the dominant Judeo-Christian-Islamic culture, where it is common for religions to work under the assumption that there is a “One True Way” that is correct while all others are inherently wrong. When there is a “One True Way,” individual religions are in jeopardy whenever alternatives are present. If an alternative proves to be reasonable, it implies that others must be inherently incorrect. When there is “One True Way,” there can truly be only one. All others must be discredited and eliminated.
Polytheists purportedly accept the idea that there are multiple deities. “Hard polytheists” believe that the deities are all distinct, that the Greek Hermes is most definitely not the same thing as the Egyptian Thoth. Today there are many Pagans, commonly Wiccans, who are not “hard polytheists” but instead accept multiple deities as being aspects or faces of a larger deity and often as one ultimate deity. This point of view is often expressed as “all gods are one God, all goddesses are one Goddess.” Dion Fortune popularized this idea in her works in the first half of the twentieth century. Many early Wiccans, who admired Fortune’s work, adopted this idea into their Wiccan philosophy.
It is rather odd, then, that with the vast majority of Pagans claiming some version of polytheism as the basis of their religious philosophy, that they would also hold onto the idea that there is such a thing as “One True Way.” Some polytheists insist that they do not believe there is “One True Way,” yet when they start talking about other groups or philosophies within the pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan community they act as if they are all pretenders while their own philosophy is the only “correct” one. The most obvious and frequent example of this is the so-called “fluffy bunny bashing” that occurs. Behavior in this case belies the denials.
Debate is healthy and to be encouraged. Discussion that involves personal attack and antagonism should be discouraged. There is a difference between debates of historical theory or the usefulness of different ideas, and discussion that becomes a reinforcement of disrespect. The pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan community is varied and changing. No one group has exclusive ownership over the labels “pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan,” “Witch,” or even “Wiccan.” Arguments over who has the right to those labels within our community are just like the arguments within the Christian community over who is a “real Christian.” The arguments are divisive and destructive. As a self-proclaimed polytheist community, we should be above these sorts of petty concerns.
Let’s resist the shameful bashing that we are committing against each other. Let’s encourage and participate in respectful, honest debate and discussion where we allow our evidence and theories to speak for themselves without allowing over-inflated egos to taint the forums. Let’s act like real polytheists, respecting others’ choices of deities and philosophies. Let’s leave the “One True Way” attitudes and behaviour out of our discussions. Those who are “bashing fluffy bunnies” are not winning the hearts, minds, and souls of the pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan community — they are defeating the very ideals of polytheism that allow for a multitude of philosophies, deities, and unique paths within our community.
It’s time we grew past pointless infighting and arguments over who is “witchier than thou.” We need to retire the phrase “fluffy bunny” and other terms meant to demean others in our communities. Issues should be raised, discussed, and debated — but without insults and trolling. Scholarly criticism should be encouraged if we are to truly grow. Instead of focusing on what we aren’t, let’s focus on what we are, and respect the diversity that exists within our own community.
When surfing the net you can find all sorts of information about alternative religions both good and bad. A source that I like to use are podcasts. There are several out there that have good information. You just go to the podcast site, download the mp3 format file and you are ready to listen. You can add it to your mp3 player or Ipod or you can listen on your computer with media player.
The Aquarian Tabernacle Church has been a Wiccan Church since 1979 and the Podcast has good information.
Lance and Graal is a winner especially when keeping up with pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan News and they are @ http://www.lanceandgraal.com/
Deo’s Shadow is probably the most popular pagans-are-nature-oriented/">pagan podcast out there @ http://www.deos-shadow.com/ I enjoy listening to the show. Always good info!
The Secret’s in Plain Site with Oden is a good one for spiritual lessons. Oden can be found @ http://www.deos-shadow.com/
If you want o find more pagans-are-nature-oriented/">pagan podcasts go to podcast alley @ http://www.podcastalley.com/index.php Type in pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan and a plethora of podcasts come up.
Podcasts are definitely a great way to access good quality information.
A Pleasing Offering
by Meirya (briar@snowspine.com)
“Why do you worry so much?” a friend asked after hearing about my work on
writing a daily ritual. “Offering is offering, right? I don’t think the gods
care so much about what’s offered as they do about the attitude it’s offered
in.”
“I know that, ” I said, brushing his words off and going right back to
figuring out a daily rite.
I didn’t truly think about it till much later. In a way, my friend was
right. What need have gods for chocolate and shiny things? There’s a deeper
reason behind ritual, offerings, and the apparent pickiness of some deities
over what they’re offered. It’s not that Anpu (called Anubis by the Greeks)
can’t stand fish, or absolutely adores rum - though that may be partially
the case. The core reason, though, is the concept of sacrifice.
An offering is many things. It’s a sacrifice, a form of worship; it’s a
recognition of the roles the gods play in human lives. It’s a form of
prayer. In Kemetic practice, which is the path I follow, it’s also
communion, a shared meal and shared time.
The value of an offering is what the offerer puts into it.
It’d be easy to offer my god money. It’d be a sacrifice, as I don’t earn a
lot, and there are all sorts of items and trips and outings I would love to
spend it on instead. Yet I don’t offer money. Why not? Because it’d be too
easy. It requires no thought, effort, or time on my part. It’s a sacrifice,
but not a sacrifice of self.
Jesus, as described in the Bible, knew the nature of offering. The story of
the widow and her two copper coins illustrates it perfectly. She offered
only two small coins, but Jesus noted that she offered more than the sacks
of gold given to the temple by the rich men, saying, “All these people gave
their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she
had to live on.” She was saying with her offering that she trusted her god
enough to give him all she had. Her sacrifice was a gesture of trust and a
sacrifice of self, not of convenience. It’s a case of money being a valuable
offering. In my situation, my living expenses, schooling, and books are all
paid for by grants and scholarships; I don’t need money to survive. Giving
money would be giving “out of my wealth”, to use the biblical phrasing.
I also don’t offer money because Anpu, my god, doesn’t ask for it. A
pleasing gift is one that shows the giver listened to what the recipient
wanted, whether it was stated directly or implied. An offering is a sort of
gift. I don’t know if Anpu really likes rum chocolate or honeycomb, but it’s
what he told me he wanted, so I bought it for him. Offering him only the
money that those items cost would have been a lifeless offering; giving him
the items showed I took the time to listen and cared enough to follow
through.
Time and effort is another part of offering. I fold origami, and have done
so for years. I could fold a sloppy, half-hearted flapping crane out of
notebook paper. It would take me three minutes. Yet even if Anpu decided he
wanted origami, I don’t think he’d appreciate it. I’d probably get a
response akin to, “What the heck is this?”. However, I could also hunt
around and find a place to purchase colorful, high-quality origami paper. I
could then take my time folding the crane, making the creases precise and
sharp. I’d likely get a much more favorable reaction from that, because it
took time and effort and I put my best into making it.
An offering must also be of the self; it must be from the offerer. Until I
work out a formal daily ritual, I offer tea to my god, and the offering and
drinking of that tea is my daily time spent communing with Anpu. I missed
this ritual one day, and a coworker bought me a cup of chai tea as an
apology for snapping at me due to frazzled nerves. My reaction was something
along the lines of, “Ooh! I can use this for tea with Anpu!” But the instant
I started my ritual routine, I got the spiritual equivalent of a wrist-slap
and a stern look. “That was a gift to you,” was roughly the message I
received from my deity. “You neither bought it nor made it, and it was
intended for you. You will not offer that.” Oops. I must have looked a bit
shamefaced as I set the cup down and apologized to the Jackal.
Another story to go with the above point: During the Yule of honeycomb and
rum chocolates, I had originally bought nothing to offer to Anpu. I suppose
somewhere in my mind was the idea that I’d offer him something of the ritual
feast (I was clearly not thinking). I accompanied my boyfriend to a
wonderful Italian grocery so he could pick up mead, and I halted at the door
as a thought occurred to me. “Crap - Anpu’s gonna want something.”
“Of course I do. You weren’t going to give me someone else’s offering, were
you?”
So I got him gouda cheese and Amish honeycomb honey and rum chocolates, and
he was very pleased, bouncing about in his aspect of Yinepu, the Divine
Child. It was a good Yule, and I learned a lesson about offering.
Every time I’ve given (or tried giving, or thought about giving) an offering
of convenience, I’ve gotten an unfavorable response. There was the Yule
incident as described above. There was the sushi, given because it was what
was in the fridge and hey, I like it, maybe Anpu would too. His distaste
probably came less from some dislike for sushi and more from the fact that I
didn’t check if he’d like it or not, I didn’t listen, and I put no effort of
my own into it. It’s possible that there will be more incidents in the
future, because I can be lazy or rushed at times and will grab for what’s
convenient. That’s not a sacrifice. It’s a lifeless offering.
Finally, there’s the component of offerings I believe to be most important
in the practice of my path: communion. Sacrifice is different when it’s
practically a requirement to use the offering. In many other paths, you are
truly giving up any food (and usually any items) offered. They’re burnt,
thrown out for animals and plants, tossed in a well, or otherwise disposed
of. With some traditions of Kemetism, the idea is that the gods consume the
offering’s essence, its ka. The offering’s khat, or physical part, is
consumed by the person making the offering or someone close to him. If you
offer food, you get to eat it. If you offer ink, you get to use it. Indeed,
you must consume or use said items. There’s no possibility of going hungry
because you offered a slab of meat and bread.
Therefore, communion gains importance. A hasty thoughtless offering, given
without meditation or time or thought, is a poor offering. Offered food
becomes a shared meal. Offered items become shared actions. When someone
gives the offering, she should be spending time with the netjeru, her
thoughts on the one offered to, open and listening and sharing her heart.
To me, daily ritual is a time of fellowship with Anpu, the time when I get
to sit down and have a one-on-one chat with the Jackal. It’s a time of
reverence, yes - but even more than that, it’s a time of closeness. Yes, I
can chat with Anpu any time, but it’s usually akin to talking on the phone.
Ritual is when we meet face-to-face.
So what do I see as the necessary components of an offering? I believe a
pleasing offering is one that is a sacrifice of self rather than
convenience; it comes from having listened and cared enough to comply with
what’s wanted; it’s an offering that took time and sincere effort to
provide; one that is offered in mindfulness and openness to communion and
communication.
In the end, a pleasing offering is one of the heart.
The Art of Worship
by Sab Saiti (sabsaiti@gmail.com)
In order to be strong, the cornerstones of any religion should be worship,
spiritual growth, magic, and ritual. In modern terms, however, worship has
been buried and smothered by traditions that have long since been outdated.
This is a problem that is seen in most modern-day religions.
As I say that, I’m sure your first thought is, “Ah ha! She’s referring to
Christianity, Islam, and all those other mainstream religions!” Am I right?
While yes, these mainstream religions are included in the lineup of guilty
subjects, many pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan religions fall into it to. And before you jump on me
for this, please allow me to explain.
In order for our forms of worship to continue to be meaningful, they must
change and evolve as we do. Yet to be satisfying for many people, the ways
of worship must be rooted in tradition, which provides continuity in the
midst of ongoing change.
So many pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan traditions are so set into the “Old Ways” that they don’t see
that not everything is possible or even meaningful to us now. Take animal
sacrifice, for example. By its very definition, sacrifices are giving up
something of the self. When the ancients would sacrifice an animal, they
were giving up their food source to the Gods. In modern times, animal
sacrifice would hold little meaning to us, as we no longer have to raise our
own food to survive. Thus it is important that we “weed out” the unnecessary
traditions that may otherwise choke our worship to nothingness.
Woship is one of the most significant ways we can relate to any higher
power. Unfortunately, ‘worship’ has come to have a hollow sound–and worse
yet, a hollow feeling–for many people. They associate it with merely going
through the motions of worship–attending church, sitting in rows, singing
ill-harmonized hymns, and finally passing the collection plate; or bowing
before some cold, distant god. This kind of prostration appears to them to
have no respect for humankind or Nature, and leaves a bad taste in their
mouths. This is not true worship.
True worship has to do with reverence and appreciation for the Divine, for
that which is sacred in ourselves and others, and for the sacredness of the
manifested world. Worship is a meaningful way of epressing our feelings to
the Divine. It is a way of speaking about that which we find sacred. Worship
requires our participation not by the mere actions of our bodies, but also
by the focus of our minds, the openness of our hearts, and the willingness
of our spirits.
When we speak to the Gods and Goddesses, sing to Them, listen to Them,
express our gratitude to Them, and commune with Them consciously and with
the intent to expand our souls and spirits, it is then that we truly
worship. As we come to know Them through our acts of devotion, we come to
love Them and understand They have always loved us.
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Every dream has many layers of meaning. Every object, person, and
situation in a dream may have many meanings. So take your time in trying
to understand it. Think of your dream as something to EXPLORE. You have
to look at it from different angles, walk around in it for awhile, work
with it - and then its many meanings will begin to reveal themselves.
Try not to give into the pressure to “interpret” a dream. If you put
yourself or others on the spot to “tell me what it means” then you are
taking the wrong attitude toward working with the dream. It’s not a game
of Jeopardy or a multiple choice test where there’s a right or wrong
answer. Working with a dream is more like playing with it - the kind of
play that involves creativity, imagination, and a willingness to
experiment. It also requires patience!
How to Remember Dreams
Invite, Don’t Hunt
Your dreams can be elusive. Try NOT to think of a dream as something to
be hunted, captured, or controlled. If you do, it will be like trying to
catch your own shadow. The faster you run, the faster it moves away from
you. INVITE dreams to come to you, rather than pursuing them. Try to
think of them as a friend or an ally who is willing to teach you
something if you allow and encourage them to do so. Try to cultivate
this attitude of “inviting” and “welcoming” your dreams.
Plant a Seed
Before going to sleep, tell yourself that you are going to dream. Keep a
positive, inviting attitude. Think about and write down (1) the
important issues that are on your mind for that day, and, (2) the kinds
of things you would like to dream about. Read over what you wrote. Keep
that idea in the back of your mind as you fall asleep. Don’t analyze or
think too deeply about it, just hold it lightly in your mind.
Reflect Upon the Dream
When you wake up from a dream (in the middle of the night or in the
morning), lie still for a moment and turn your mind inward toward the
memory of the dream. Invite the various pieces of the dream to come back
to you. Be patient. It may take time for the different parts of the
dream to surface and come together. Even if only fragments of the dream
return to your mind, that’s OK. Don’t strain in trying to remember. Let
your mind be light and easy. Allow the dream pieces to surface on their
own. Gently repeating the dream over and over in your mind may allow new
pieces to surface.
Write Everything Down in “Rough Notes”
After you’ve reflected on the dream and seem to recall as much of it as
you can, write down everything you remember! Don’t trust your memory.
You sometimes may think “Oh, I’ll definitely remember THIS dream! It was
a doozy!” But there’s a very good chance that you won’t. Dreams are
elusive! Have paper and a pencil ready by your bedside. Maybe even keep
a flashlight next to your bed too (so the light won’t disturb others).
Using a tape-recorder is another possibility. Whatever method you
choose, record the following types of information:
* anything you can remember about the dream itself, even if only fragments
* small details in the dream, even if they seem insignificant
* the feelings or sensations you experienced during the dream
* events from your life that come to mind when you think about the dream
(even if you’re not sure how those events are related to the dream)
* the thoughts that were on your mind when you were falling asleep
* any other thoughts, feelings, memories, or sensations that arise as
you are reflecting on the dream.
If you can only remember fragments of a dream, write those down without
worrying about how to put them in order. In general, don’t worry too
much about the grammar, spelling, or logical flow of what you write in
these “rough notes.” These notes in fact may be a kind of “free
association. ”
Your Dream Journal
Keeping an ongoing dream journal can be a good way to stimulate your
recall of your dreams. The more attention you pay to your dreams, the
more your dream life will “open up” to you. Whereas the rough notes are
your immediate “off the cuff” recall and reactions to your dreams, the
journal can be a place for more detailed, in-depth, systematic thinking
and exploring. Use the rough notes as fuel or as a springboard for ideas
that you investigate in the journal. You may also use the journal to try
out the various techniques for working with a dream.
Daytime Dreams
Sometimes the memory of a dream may spontaneously pop into your mind
during the day. Try to write it down as soon as possible. Also write
down what you were thinking about, where you were, and what you were
doing when the dream came to you. All of this information might be clues
to the dream’s meaning.
If you find yourself daydreaming or fantasizing during the day, treat
them as if they were dreams. Write down what you were thinking about, as
well as where you were, what was happening to you, and what thoughts,
feelings, or events might have triggered the fantasy. Daydreams in many
ways are similar to dreams. Exploring them could enhance your
understanding of your nocturnal dreams. Exploring them could help open
up your dream life.
Be Patient and Optimistic
You will go through periods when you just can’t remember dreams, or only
recall small fragments. That’s OK! Be patient. Try to remain optimistic
and inviting. Don’t dwell on frustration or “failure.” In your rough
notes and journal, describe any your thoughts, feelings, and sensations
you do have upon awakening in the morning. What things *do* you remember
about your sleep? Write about your thoughts and feelings about not being
able to recall dreams. Explore those thoughts and feelings with
curiosity and acceptance.
I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars — all in the same day.
Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much — except save his life.
This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
“He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life,” Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an institution.”
But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.”
“Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.
Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!” And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want to do that.”
Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. “I was sore for two weeks.”
That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!”
And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.
“No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?”
How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.
Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you think?
Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? “No way,” he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.
This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 — only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.
“No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.”
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” one doctor told him, “you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.”
So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.
Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father’s Day.
That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.
“The thing I’d most like,” Rick types, “is that my dad would sit in the chair and I would push him once.”
And the video is below…
If you would like to support Team Hoyt, please visit their site and let them know that Sacred Paths is helping spread their story.
Filed under: Misc., National — Ethereal Light @ 10:06 am
NEW YORK - A public school teacher was arrested today at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule and a calculator. At a morning press conference, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement.
He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction.
“Al-gebra is a problem for us,” Gonzales said. “They desire solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute values. They use secret code names like, “x” and “y” and refer to themselves as “unknowns,” but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country. The organization has been recruiting people from all walks of life, particularly the young ones in high schools. If they fail to recruit them in high school, they eventually get them in college.”
As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, “There are 3 sides to every triangle.”
When asked to comment on the arrest, President Bush said, “If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, he would have given us more fingers and toes.”
