We’re Not Like Other Families

Author: RedBeanSidhe
Posted: July 5th. 2009

Source: http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usky&c=parent&id=13404

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.

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Where Have All the Gardners and Crowleys Gone? (An Answer)

Author: Juniper (from WitchVox)

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

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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.

*************************************************

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.

Source: Unknown

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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.

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Sacred Instructions
by Spiritual Elder William Commanda and Frank Decontie

The Sacred Instructions given by the Creator to Native people at the
time of Creation were as follows:

To Take Care of Mother Earth and the other 3 colors of Man.

To Respect this Mother Earth and Creation.

To Honour All life, and to support that Honour.

To be Grate-ful from the heart for All life.

It is through life that there is Survival.

Thank the Creator at All times for All life.

To Love and express that love.

To be Humble. Humility is the gift of wisdom and understanding.

Kindness. To be Kind with one-self and with others.

Sharing. The Sharing of feelings and personal concerns and
commitments.

Honesty. To be Honest with one-self and with others.

To be Responsible for those Sacred Instructions and to administrate
those Instructions to other Nations.

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Choosing a Spiritual Path

Healing the heart and mind is often a challenge. For
those who have been deeply wounded by traditional
religion and the guilt associated with simply being
human, it is often a long journey to peace of mind.
The journey is worth the effort, at the other end is
self-acceptance, a joy in living and a powerful
spiritual connection with all life. Many who have been
bludgeoned with religious dogma, need to take time to
examine what is truly in their hearts and replace old
judging symbols with new life affirming symbols before
they can make a free choice of Paths.

Your spiritual connection with the Divine is the most
intimate personal relationship you will ever have. No
one knows what path best expresses your own unique
connection with a Higher Power, not ministers, not
priests, not psychics, not your family, not your
soul-mate, and not me.

Your life is a miracle for YOU to explore. Many people
express their spirituality through the honoring of the
Great Goddess. I am one who has found that the Goddess
speaks clearly and lovingly to me, I am a pagans-are-nature-oriented/">Pagan.

The many voices of the past that told me of a jealous
and punishing God, have no power in my life today.
They have been replaced with a deeper knowing. I am
only saddened that some would choose to seek out a
negative, judgemental diety to express their spiritual
selves and their view of the world. Such fear based
religions do little to create a true sense of
unconditional love and acceptance.

All religions contain grains of truth, all contain
flaws. The Path you choose must be one which allows
you to fully express your spiritual essence. One which
honors and celebrates your values, ethics, beliefs and
inner knowings. Whether you choose the Goddess Path,
Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Atheism,
Paganism, Hinduism, Shinto, Taoism, Native American
beliefs, or another spiritual path is not nearly as
important as the act of freely choosing. All faiths
work for some people. The trick is to find the Path
that is right for you. Do not be discouraged or
coerced into following anyone else’s belief system.
You have the right to choose your own way of
spiritually expressing your connection with the Divine

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Who did not know this?

Spirituality Can Soothe Body and Soul

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter Fri Apr 7, 7:08 PM ET

FRIDAY, April 7 (HealthDay News) — To stay healthy, you probably know that you need to eat right, get plenty of exercise and rest, and avoid bad habits such as smoking.

But, it might surprise you to learn that what you believe in can have a big impact on your health and longevity.

“There have been a lot of studies, and more are coming out all of the time, that show how patients with strong spirituality can improve their health from a variety of chronic conditions, like hypertension, heart disease, recovery from surgery and more,” said Dr. Michael Torosian, a surgical oncologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, and co-author of the book, Spirit to Heal.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to believe in God or regularly attend a church, synagogue or mosque to reap health benefits.

“Spirituality is where people find meaning in their life. It’s something higher than themselves, though not necessarily attached to religion,” said Patricia Megregian, a board-certified chaplain and executive director of the Integrative Medicine Initiative at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

“Spirituality is what brings you peace and safety. It could be God or Goddess, or nature. Some people feel it with a beautiful sunset. Some people get it from meditation. For some, it’s from their community. It’s a feeling that you’re connected to something greater, something larger than myself. For some that comes from their family,” she said.

Wherever your spirituality or a positive outlook on life comes from, research indicates there are real health benefits:

* People with high levels of religious beliefs or spirituality have lower cortisol responses. Cortisol is a hormone the body releases in response to stress.
* Positive thinking produces nearly a 30 percent drop in perception of pain.
* Spirituality and the practice of religion have recently been associated with a slower progression of
Alzheimer’s disease.
* Those who regularly attend organized religious activities may live longer than those who don’t. Regular participation lowers mortality rate by about 12 percent a year.
* People undergoing cardiac rehabilitation feel more confident and perceive greater improvements in their physical abilities if they have a strong faith.
* Increased levels of spirituality and religious faith may help substance abusers kick their habit.

What’s not known is exactly how spirituality or a positive outlook can cause these changes. According to Torosian, there are two popular theories. The first is known as the relaxation response. When the body is relaxed, your heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate all go down, which decreases the body’s stress response. The other theory is that spirituality can affect immune-system function.

“Spirituality, faith, church attendance improves immune function in ways that can be measured, like an increase in white blood cells,” he said.

“When it comes to health, when the body feels safe and is at ease, the nervous system is able to quiet and be more normal. Then the immune system is able to function better,” said Megregian. “When the body is safe and feels safe, all of its other functions can help combat disease.”

Not everyone is ready to endorse the notion of spirituality as medicine. U.S. researchers involved with the Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP), the largest review to examine the effects of prayer provided by others for a patient, evaluated the impact of such prayer on patients recovering from coronary artery bypass graft surgery. The results, released March 30, found that such “third-party” prayer had no impact on patient outcomes.

Megregian said it’s important to not “wait till you’re in the foxhole” to find your spirituality. She suggested doing whatever you can to increase your awareness of your spirituality by using what helps you, such as meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, walking in nature, or attending religious services.

Torosian agreed. “This is a free resource we all tend to take for granted until something major, like a heart attack, happens. But it should also be used to promote wellness.”

He added, “As a surgeon, I see cancer patients all the time trying to deal with a devastating diagnosis. Those with a strong faith seem to do much better and handle it better. Spirituality is something that can help all the way from promoting wellness to helping with recovery.”

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This article makes the saying “The Devil made me do it” take on a whole new meaning.
Fallen angel not so satanic: devil’s advocate

By Barney Zwartz
Religion Editor
April 12, 2006

HenryAngsmar Kelly has an ambitious project, rehabilitating “the most maligned figure in history”: the devil.
According to Professor Kelly, the devil — aka Satan, the Accuser, the Prince of this World, the Father of Lies — has endured 17 centuries of unjustified character assassination.

Better the devil you know, the saying goes, but, according to Professor Kelly, who lectured on the subject in Sydney on Monday, we only think we know him. In fact, we don’t — our image was shaped from the second century church fathers to the Middle Ages. The biblical picture is quite different.

“For 1700 years, Satan has been the enemy of God, whereas in the Bible he works for God, he’s his prime minister or attorney-general, in charge of policing the world. He is one of God’s angels and his job is to test people,” Professor Kelly says.

The professor, 71, has been the devil’s advocate for more than four decades, publishing books and scholarly articles. The former Jesuit turned University of California professor calls himself a “diabologian”. He says the devil doesn’t have a kingdom, doesn’t rule over hell, and doesn’t try to damn people. These ideas developed only after the second century.

Professor Kelly says it is important to recapture the biblical understanding of Satan to combat Augustine’s doctrine of original sin, “the most immoral doctrine in Christianity” by which the human race is delivered to Satan.
He would like his theories to attract more hostility, he says, so they would be better known.

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A very interesting article:

Light at end of the tunnel over near death experiences

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 11/04/2006)

Some describe a journey along a tunnel towards a light. Many say the light exudes warmth and forgiveness. Others report that gazing down on themselves in an operating theatre made them certain of life after death.

Throughout history, there have been accounts of people experiencing visions on the brink of death, what are now called near-death experiences. There are dozens of books and films on the subject, even a Journal of Near Death Studies in America, and a conference planned this October in Houston, Texas.

Today, new evidence is published that backs the idea that the near-death experience is a biological experience, rather than anything to do with a larger, spiritual dimension, a glimpse of heaven, or the existence of the soul.

People who have had near- death experiences are able to slip into dream sleep more easily than those who have not had one, according to a study published in Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

“I see it as an activation of certain brain regions that are also active during the dream state,” said Prof Kevin Nelson, a neurologist and lead study author, from the University of Kentucky, Lexington.

“However, I hesitate to call it dreaming or dreaming while awake. This is the first testable hypothesis of a biological basis for these experiences.”

For his study, a near-death experience was defined as a time during a life-threatening episode when a person experienced a variety of feelings, including a sense of being outside of one’s body, unusual alertness, seeing an intense light, and a feeling of peace.

The study compared 55 people with near-death experiences with 55 people of the same age and gender who had not had them.

It found that people with near-death experiences were more likely to have a sleep-wake system in which the boundaries between sleep and wakefulness were not as clearly regulated, and the dream sleep state - when there is rapid eye movement - can intrude into normal wakeful consciousness.

Examples of “REM intrusion” include waking up and feeling that you cannot move - sleep paralysis - having sudden muscle weakness in your legs, and hearing sounds just before falling asleep or just after waking up that other people cannot hear.

Of the people with near- death experiences, 60 per cent reported REM intrusion, compared with 24 per cent of people who had not had near-death experiences.

“These findings suggest that REM-state intrusion contributes to near-death experiences,” said Prof Nelson.

Prof Nelson said other factors supported this. Several features of near-death experiences are also associated with the dream state, for example, the feeling of being outside of one’s body and being surrounded by light.

Because the brain turns off the body’s ability to move during dreaming, muscles can lose their tone, or tension.

“During a crisis that occurs with REM-state intrusion, this lack of muscle tone could reinforce a person’s sense of being dead and convey the impression of death to other people,” Prof Nelson said.

He added that a biological explanation was “spiritually neutral”. “We, as neurologists, address the how of these experiences coming about but not the why,” he said.

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The Seven Highest Gifts
by Suzie Eckberg

1)  Harmony.  I heard this first as musical harmony, with  each note in
perfect balance to every other.  But to me, harmony  means beauty  that
is deep, lasting and true.  It is  something created by many hearts
contributing to the whole, since  harmony always requires more than one
note or person.  I sensed  that we have been given the gift of harmony
so we can learn how to take  care of one another.  More than ever, the
world is crying out for  this.

2)  Light.  From deep within the harmony came a  brilliant white
light that changed to sapphire, emerald and plum as I  watched it.  It
was like watching a flower blossom.   I  sensed that the gift of light
animates all of life so that we will  never lose our fascination or our
love for or with it.    Light is not only the energy that sustains life;
it is our beacon of  hope and help during
dark times.

3)  No effort.  I once read a statement that said,  ”Enlightenment
must be easy.  If it was complicated, everyone  would have it.”  This
gift almost made me laugh, because I have  the very bad habit of making
things harder than they need to be.   I sensed that this gift has been
given to us so we can and will want to  stay connected to
our higher selves and the divine forces all around us, learning how
to  trust, let go and allow good to enter our lives naturally.

4)  Stillness.  As I sat in stillness, I sensed that  we have been
given this gift so we can learn how to draw forth  possibilities from
the void that lies beneath all of life.  We all  come from and will
return to stillness, and we create from stillness  every time we
recognize a new desire.  We do not need to meditate  to experience it;
simply turn our attention to it to notice it is there.

5)  Rest.  God knows we need rest, which is why  keeping the Sabbath
is a commandment.  Yet most of us don’t do it,  because we’re too busy
being busy. Rest is not the same as  stillness.  Stillness is active;
rest is passive.  Just as we  are offered the unbounded nature of
stillness, we are given fatigue so  that we can and must take time to
relax, unwind and allow life to go on  its merry way without us.  Then
we can return to life in our  physical bodies refreshed and ready for
more wonder and joy.  We  desired physical bodies so that we could slow
down and encounter the  divine in all forms, rather than watching it
disappear at the speed of  light.  Rest is an essential part of that.

6)  Source of Life.  This gift is truly awe-inspiring,  because I
sensed that we-each of us-is a source of life, and that we  create with
every breath.  We create and destroy with our  thoughts, feelings,
words, actions and intentions. We are the source of  life and death, at
least in our own lives.  It is a heavy  responsibility, but one that
should be taken lightly, in joy and love,  thanks
and freedom.

7)  Life everlasting.  The last gift to come through  was the most
reassuring of all.  Although our physical bodies die,  our soul and
consciousness don’t.  In essence, we go on living  forever, with or
without human form.  So while we are on earth, it  behooves us to make
the most of our time here, to enjoy every  minute.   We are given this
gift to remind us that the  content of our lives isn’t a mistake, no
matter how ugly or awful  things may appear.  We simply go on creating
or supporting  creation forever.

Susie is a Reiki master; a wife and mother; and a gifted psychic.
She has no political or religious axe to grind, and so the messages
that come to and through her are usually filled with love and
encouragement from the other side.

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Spirit Walks

I love to take walks in the woods. Around this area I walk Guntersville State Park and Little River Canyon. I like to take what I call “Spirit Walks”

Spirit Walks are walks where I make an attempt to communicate with Nature. I try to live in the moment and let go of my worldly problems. For me it is a form of meditation. It is how I let go and be a part of Spirit.

There are times during my walks that I may find treasures like feathers, shells, rocks, etc… If there is something that speaks to me and I decide to take it with me, I always leave an offering of thanks. I usually leave tobacco. I may leave another rock or a coin, but I usually leave tobacco. Tobacco is sacred.

My Spirit walks help me to stay grounded in a chaotic, fast passed, society. My walks help confirm and cement my commitment to The Lady and The Lord.

Loki

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Learning to be ok with my insides

Ever since I can remember I have had this character defect of thinking others are better than me. I have suffered from low self-esteem and low self worth. This has proven to make my spiritual path more difficult. I have felt unworthy of deity, the God, Goddess and Universal life force.

One pattern I learned as a small child that fed my low self worth was to compare the way I felt on the inside to how others looked on the outside. This always set me up to feel bad about myself.

I know myself on the inside. I know my failings and my successes. I know when I stumble and fall. I am excessively hard on myself and give myself few breaks.

On the other hand when I look at someone else I see what they present. They do not present all their fallings and shortcomings to the world. They may seem happy and self-assured on the outside but on the inside they may be falling apart and suffering. I won’t know unless I get to know them. Once the facade of everyday life or the mask (we all where masks)is taken away there is usually a much different person that lives inside. Very few people are what they appear. We all have defense we use to keep from being over stimulated by the happenings of the world.

So when I look at a person’s outside and tell myself they don’t feel the same feelings I, can’t identify with me, or will judge me if they knew the real me, I am setting myself up te feel bad about myself. This information I am telling myself is based in fantasy and not reality.

The reality is that I don’t present myself openly to the outside world. I hide my fears and shortcomings so why would I think others do different. I learned that people were either better or worse than me and I wanted to be on the top of the heap. If I could not at the top then I must be at the bottom, no middle ground.

The truth is we are all human beings, we are all equal and we are all entitled to the love of our deity. We all struggle and have self-doubts. I am not the only one. We all have fears I am not the only one. I have learned that self-esteem is a choice. I have to choose to feel good about myself. I have to learn to be as forgiving of my own Human qualities as I have learned to forgive others. It works better to accept myself and start improving what I don’t like about myself rather than always coming up short and thinking others have it better than I. The first step on my spiritual path has been taking personal responsibility for myself.

Loki

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