In my home when we were children we were of course punished for saying curse words, but in addition to this we were encouraged to also speak considerately and with respect to people who were or believed differently then we did. But it seems this concept was more of a way to avoid scandal then to show any actual respect for differences. I am noticing a new trend in “entertainment” video games like god of war, shows like supernatural, movies like clash of the titans.
The common element is attacks on pagan beliefs because it is perfectly acceptable to viciously disembowel Apollo in the general opinion. As I logged on to face book like most of you I saw a app ad on the side of the screen and being addicted to them like most everyone else. I viewed it in the app center the premise? Ra forces his divine blood in to you and makes you fight rival gods for him until you through off the shackles of his oppression and then you embark on a quest to slay every god it even uses the phrase “kill them kill them all” the option of champions to join you look like a bunch of Christian saints and angels.
Now some of you (the ones in my opinion that have become complacent as second class believers) will think well what’s the big deal its just entertainment a muse. Consider this depictions of the prophet Mohammad are considered sacrilege and can start riots. Imagine for a moment if the theme of the above mentioned video game was to slay the baby Jesus before man kind feel under his tyrannical rule. If to slay him you rapidly mash your x button to bludgeon his face of a pillar till his brains were a fine red mist and there was a hole left large enough to plant a rose bush in?
Why is one thing okay and not the other? Because no one makes noise save for maybe the occasional atheist opposing a public display of around Christmas time. But I have yet to here of people protesting the depiction of Wiccan’s on supernatural.
In a society based on the freedom of religion I don’t think this level of disrespect should be admissible. And yes most pagan believe in one god or the other few venerate them all equally but standing up for them all can protect your right to have the same respect shown for yours that is shown for all the Christian variants.
The app I mentioned is Bloodrealm’s check it out your self and see if you find it as offensive as I do. Now to the few Christian reader I have let me say I am not advocating death to baby Jesus but imagine how you would feel is you saw that exact thing all over the place and no one seemed to care. The amount of belief my not be the same but the amount of respect should be
Last night watching the V.P debate I was struck by the not uncommon political question how much does your faith inform your policies? And it got me thinking in a larger context. Of all the religions out there Wicca has probably the most little rituals for everyday mundane life if you but look for them you could spend all day blessing your house plants. I you look you can find something magical to do every spare second you have.
Yet as a minority religion we find are self conforming to the cultural norm of Christianity in subconscious ways. These idiosyncrasies find us saying Oh my god not working on Sundays saying god bless you when some one sneezes not out of belief but out or rote.
This to me is the reason gathering with like minded individuals I so important for a religious identity. See hear and speaking magic with other people promotes it not only with our fellow witch but with ourselves.
To spite being raised by a Wiccan mother I myself find that half the time I say thank god and the other half saying thanks goddess. And feeling regretfully when I say thank god not that I couldn't equate the title to the male aspect of the lord and lady but that when I say it reflexively I know in my head I am not honoring anyone but am repeating Christian jargon that is simply hard to get out of my head in a Christ god dominate world.
It is a sad state of fact that we must work harder to self identify as Wiccan deprogramming ourselves as often as we possibly can. Its not easy to adjust to being outside the boxes to the point that its reflexive.
I think the most glaring representation of this is the fact that I have yet to meet outside myself a single Wiccan that doesn't play fiddle to Christmas.
I know to a lot of people the concept of losing this holiday is depressing. I understand everyone loves presents but to me I reached a point where is just felt fundamentally wrong to celebrate the all be it miss dated birth of Jesus. For most of us this is one action that being different can cut the deepest as even the nonbelievers participate and to actively not we most cut ourselves from a family event vacation plans and other wonderful bonding experience.
On this I have no great insight it is simply up to the person to decide how important their beliefs are to them and what the prerequisites are for crossing the spiritual line. So I ask my readers do you know yours? How much do you entertain the faiths of others at the cost of your own? Do you play Christian as some people play straight?
Predestine: is it a comfort or a curse? Many denominations of faith believe in predestination. Your entire life, trails and tribulations are written before your first breath and you follow a set path to your eternal reward or punishment with unairing accuracy. Only occasionally looking back to recognize the bizarre set of circumstances that lead you to an exact place and time.
I found myself on a clod rainy morning hours from home at a tiny town fair, hating the weather, musing on when I would see my lover coffee again (as we had been apart to long) and surrounded by bad company in an arm pit of a town.
The whole time thinking what the hell am I doing here? when out of the corner of my eye, as I passed a booth I saw a necklace. A raw uncut amethyst on black cord in a wire cage. The nostalgia was powerful I had owned one exactly like it as a child and in a fit of superstition my grandmother had smashed the gift my mother had picked up for me.
You see my parents were divorcing and I was living with my fathers mother at the time mamma was a witch and had bought me my first focusing crystal as a present right before we were ripped apart and I was forbidden to see the “heathen”
I wore my crystal proudly and loved talking about it with anyone who would listen about the shiny conversation peace. Grandma thought it a conduit for the devil and took a hammer to it. To this day it remained my favorite gift.
So you can imagine my shock at seeing this unlikely little trinket in the most unlikely of places. And it brightened the rest of my dreary cold weekend.
My aunt claims as I believe that I was meant to find it but if that is the case then was I a victim of predestination or was the universe simply showing a little mercy to a heart heavy passenger?
I of course do believe that things come in to your life with a purpose, but I believe that they are always there as a test. How we react to theses karmic setups will determine our blessings or lessons. I can’t claim the life and the universe always hand me little gifts in fact I have had many, many hardships, but I can’t help but think that what ever force compel the small details of our path has a kind heart.
October is here and it is my favorite time of year the weather isn’t to cold but the air is crisp and the leaves are turning. Change is in the air and that lends itself to the coming Samhain ritual my favorite part of which is letting go. The Celtic new years festival centers around th concept of harvest harvesting the good things we have sow throughout the year and releasing the negative things that have held us back or saddened us.
In my year in review I always find a lot of negativity as I think most of us do that I will be very glad to toss in to the ritual fire. So I encourage my readers to self evaluate like all Wiccan’s constantly must and let your self be excited to release things that over the past 12 months have saddened you or hardened your heart.
Another aspect is letters to the departed I take this time to write to my mother gone now for four years and tell her all that has happened and wish her well as she continues to learn on the other side.
It hard for a minority group to not feel a lot of negativity pointed their way by the general populous most of the time so its great to be able to toss that care away and relate to your dearly departed.
Each year I feel more and more like someone new a better lighter version of myself and it is such a blessing to see the same happen for my loved ones that attend.
This year will also be special because are host has settled on a patron and I will be helping her with her first official dedication to Bridget. So I will also have to let go of my jealously that she has found a patron.
Change is the nature of magic and the nature of the world. So to it must be the nature of the witch. If you find that you have become hard set in your views and way I would encourage you to go out side of your comfort zone and see if you can’t add a new dimension to your personality. To grow we must confront ourselves challenge are limits and exceed them or we to will fall in to winter.
Other night I herd a phrase that I often have, repeated again and It irritates me beyond belief. Often when ask about there on the fence view of homosexuality church leaders (particularly of the catholic faith) are fond of saying love the sinner and not the sin.
Using it as a way to say we don’t like everything about you but we still want the whole world to be a part of the church.
It reminded me a lot of my fathers speech on be gay. “Its all right I still love you but you can’t have a boyfriend under my roof or go to gay places or have gay friends.” basically saying me being gay was perfectly fine as long as I didn't do anything vaguely related to being gay.
Now he like the church probably want me to be abstinent so that they didn't have to deal with anything “uncomfortable” I am sure it was an attempt to keep me from a full and happy life where I could enjoy love…..okay a lot of that was sarcasm, moving on…
But here is why that cop out doesn't fly on from either of them.
It boils down to a few things first abstinence Is insane. I don’t say that because I am a sex addict or a free love advocate but because its fundamentally true. The American psychiatric association agrees that a normal healthy sex life is an important part of being a healthy well adjusted member of society.
And if you compare side by side a sexually active homosexual next to the supposedly celibate priesthood you can easily see which of the two practices result in the most harmful behavior. I have never seen a pregnant nun or a molested alter boy in a gay bar …just saying. This is what happens when you repress healthy sexual behavior you get a person that is frustrated to the point of deviation. Its not because the alter boys begged for it or the nuns are just to appealing in there habits its because they are the weak people on the church totem pole and so the easiest pray for the priesthood.
The second part is that homosexuality is not going any where EVER.
A lot of people don’t seem to get that obsessed with saying its unnatural (even though it occurs in thousands of species of animal)
Or and I an found of this one they will all die out eventually…. Yes sure because only gay people have gay babies …oh wait only straight people have gay babies because gays don’t have babies (unless their adopting the ones you put in trash cans)
So again the second point is homosexuality is natural and has been around since the beginning of man and will be here till the end of man you can’t wait out the problem.
And finally the biggest reason the churches “love the sinner and not the sin” speech bothers me and is just a plain bad policy is this. If you must have homosexuals (and don’t fool your self you must) then what kind of homosexual do you want?
I know that seems a strange thing to say but it comes down to visions of a persons future. Straight people don’t seem to realize they are the reason for anonymous bath house sex. Married guys hooking up behind there wife’s back. Why?
Because they are trying to be normal when an activity is made to be shameful by the majority it will not stop the activity but make it hide and that is were the basement clubs come in. People from all walks of life flock together based purely on the premise of sex so of course these are not going to be wholesome locations for a well developed person because they are teamed with shame and rejection.
No little kid dreams of their future and thinks I want to have desperation sex with a closeted father of three in a dark room when I grow up. They think I would like to marry a person of the same gender as myself and have what everyone else has. But then the church and society take that all American dream of having a husband or wife and replace it with dark room shame sex.
Now divorce is a sin but you don’t say your divorced no new marriage for you, because that would be taking away the dream the goal of the ideal union for that person.
So having a sin or committing a sin does not prevent the church from allowing two people to marry. And of course even if you have not committed a sin before the wedding what religious leader can look at you straight faced and say they will not commit any sins related to sex now that they are married.
When in fact most of those sexual sins are preformed that very wedding night. So they know sin will be committed before and after marriage but still consider it a blessed union.
Yet that is some how better then knowing the sin will be homosexuality? Honestly if you give people the path to a happy well adjusted married life many, many will take it. Creating an environment of tolerance will decrease the amount of sin a person performs for one small aspect of who they are.
So straight people determine what kind of homosexuals they have. What kind do you want? These are the reasons I respect the god but not the church.
