Pain and Suffering

A few days ago I watched this:



It is an excellent breakdown of the fallacy of monotheism and religious intolerance. Obviously, I don't agree with this point of view, so let me address some of the points that Dr. Sam Harris has made within the context of my spirituality.

The pain and suffering of innocent or good people is caused by other people or themselves. The realm we live in was created as a safe haven for our souls to inhabit by the gods. It was created to provide our souls a place to grow and learn. My gods are mysterious and I have no idea how they think. However, they have no covenant with me to provide salvation or succor. I am here on my own and I can only rely on those other people who will help me. And that's the point of being here: To help each other through the experiences of life to become better people. If my gods interceded every time I fell down, I'd never learn anything.

Your culture or beliefs don't threaten me. We're all stuck here and we need to make the best of it. Telling one group of people that they are going to suffer in the afterlife creates an irreparable divide between us during life. Think about that. What kind of working relationship is designed by intolerance for the higher being you worship? I certainly have a hard time working with people who are outspokenly intolerant of my beliefs.

Lets go back a step. Your culture or beliefs don't threaten me. The kind of person who issues statements like, "You're going to hell for your beliefs!" is a person full of fear. They are so intimidated and fearful of different beliefs than their own that they are convinced their god will destroy those people in the after life. What kind of god would do that? Not one of the gods I worship would destroy or even damn a human soul -- no matter what their beliefs.

Staring at the Sun

Sol Invictus was yesterday. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Our Solstice celebration was fun. It's a tradition that we try to stay awake through the night of the Solstice performing a vigil for the sun's journey through the long night. While we didn't have the opportunity to do it this year, we make candles to burn through the night as a part of our ritual.

I'm often conflicted about my feelings toward ritual and spirituality. Even more so now that I'm sharing this with the wider community. I believe that rituals are a significant part of our interaction with the gods. Through ritual we can create a common ground for our worship of the gods and ancestors. Rituals build community. But, rituals can become dogmatic. Dogma is to be avoided. Dogma is what I fear from sharing my view points. I may sound egomaniacle, but I have a calling to share my belief with the world. Writing is the best way to spread a message as far as possible; however, the intentions of the writer can be twisted and misinterpreted by the dogmatic. As much as I would like to describe our solstice rituals, and all of our other rituals, I shrink back from doing so in more than general terms because spirituality isn't about the exact shape of the ritual so much as nurturing the community of faith within which you live.

Carl Sagan made it easy to be an atheist

I am still working on my piece on fasting. As it turns out, how you consume calories can have implications for many, many other parts of your life. I'm very excited about eventually telling you all about it.

In the meantime, I've been thinking about Carl Sagan a lot lately. If you've never read his book, The Demon-Haunted World, I would highly recommend it. In one part of the book, he explored the etymology of the word "spirit." The word comes to us via Latin, but it seems to be even older than that, and it basically means "breath." And at this point Sagan got very poetic about the lightness and mobility of our breath, saying that our "spirit" was our desire to be uplifted - to find wonder in our universe and in ourselves.

I hope you can all appreciate what a wonderful moment that was. Here was a man who didn't necessarily believe in gods, or even spirits, acknowledging that people have a "spiritual" side. That's something I was struggling with at the time, so I personally found it very uplifting and comforting. I miss you, Carl Sagan! I don't know for sure if there's an afterlife (you'll notice that while I have many feelings about the spiritual dimension to our existence, I don't claim to know squat about it!), but if there is I hope you're enjoying the heck out of it. And if there isn't, I'm sad you're dead but happy that you made the world so much richer a place while you were alive.

Next post: Friday, November 9

Fasting - some preliminary notes

All right, so here's my plan. I would like to write a post about fasting. It is a subject that has fascinated me for a long time. When I was in my early 20s, I really wanted to be an ascetic. I think I thought it would make my life easier. Anyone who knows me well will attest that that definitely did not happen. Neither the part about becoming an ascetic nor the part about my life being easy. Easy is overrated anyway. Now, there seems to be quite a bit of evidence piling up that our bodies aren't meant to be perfectly well-fed all the time.

However, I would really like to do this topic justice. I don't want to take a cool topic like this and spend thirty minutes talking out my butt, not really saying anything useful. So, that's what I'm going to be doing until you hear from me again. I'll be preparing to give you (I hope) a really useful article on the subject of fasting. I hope you find it as interesting as I do.

Next post: Tuesday, October 30

Our handles on reality

I just realized that my last two posts have been about symbols. The first was about a symbol that I have found very useful, while the second was about a symbol whose usefulness I was questioning. There's a reason I think so much about symbols - they've proven to be very important. They're the handles we use to get a grip on reality. I'm pretty sure a vast majority of our scientific advances would have been impossible without our ability to conceive, understand, and manipulate symbols. I would say a significant portion of scientific work is playing around with symbols. The earliest study of biology was largely naming all the organisms and all their components. If you want to explain chemistry to someone, you show them some balls connected by sticks. Physicists would be lost without their mathematical expressions and diagrams. Sometimes focusing on just the right symbol can make the difference between choosing to put in the necessary effort to do something important or sitting down and saying, "Why bother?" When I questioned the usefulness of a certain symbol in my last post, I was by no means questioning the usefulness of symbols in general.

This got me thinking - what is the difference between a useful symbol and a counterproductive symbol? I think I have an idea about that now: a useful symbol gives your mind access to a broader portion of reality (like helping you confront things that make you uncomfortable and you might prefer to avoid), while counterproductive symbols limit your access to reality (like encouraging you to avoid things that are "inappropriate" to your gender).

I would be very interested to hear other people's thoughts on the subject.

Next post: Monday, October 22

You Only Live Once?

Lets talk about YOLO for a moment. In the immortal words of "South Park's" Chef, "There's a time and a place for everything . . . its called college." I'm all for experimentation and exploration. Life should be lived to it's fullest. There are so many enjoyable, exhilarating and exciting things to do that it can be overwhelming. It is so very tempting to do all the drugs and have sex with all the people and do what you will as you please.

This is where I have a Cleansing of the Temple moment. Personal freedom and free will are the most glorious gifts that we have and they SHALL NOT BE USED TO HINDER OR HARM ANY BEING OR CREATURE! 

DO NO HARM

We are incarnated to this realm with free will  Nothing can take it away, but it can be harmed. This is the greatest violation to another being we can commit during our existence on Earth. Any being that causes another being to do something they don't want to do has violated this precept. There is much more to this discourse (such as the necessity of killing to survive), but I've digressed.

Let us say that you do only live once, which is to say that for the moment I will assume that we are born here, live, then die, and there is nothing else to existence. In that case, do we not have a duty and obligation to make each other's lives as pleasant and peaceful as possible?!

On the other hand, let us assume that, as I believe, we are spiritual beings who briefly incarnate in this realm time and again. How is our previously mentioned obligation lessened? Indeed, it is increased for we have no reprieve in death. Death brings review. Will invoking YOLO balance your deeds against the feather of Maat?! Only if YOLO means you did all that you can to bring peace and comfort to those you lived with because you live this one existence for all eternity.

Ostara 2012

Yay! Ostara has come and gone. Spring is in full swing (... and trying to become Summer). Our family's Ostara feast we well. It was small this year. The Lady made a turkey with stuffing and mashed potatoes. I made a pound cake.

We celebrate each of the corners of the year as well as the cross corners. Ostara is, of course, the first days of Spring. We begin our celebration at sundown on the evening before the astronomical event until sundown on the evening the day after.

Prior to this celebration we were also observing a ritual we call Purification. We spent the previous four or five weeks eliminating most fats, all refined sugars and meat from our diet. It is a very difficult ritual, but quite rewarding.

Now, our celebrations and feasts are very low key. We like to stay home, say a few prayers to the Gods and relax with some home brewed mead. And, when we remember (since we're not fanatics or cultists or anything REALLY weird) we try to do something special to worship the season and our patrons. Unfortunately (or maybe well needed), this Ostara was focused on relaxing and adoring one another (the wee-beasties weren't about the house). Maybe we did do something special after all.

Noel's Irish Soda Bread

I've finally perfected my Irish soda bread recipe. I think this would be a great place to share it. I'm going to start a new label (tag) group for recipes. That way, as I post more recipes, they can be easily found in one category.

Noel's Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup raisins
2 tsp caraway seeds
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tbs honey (or 3/4 cup for a cake bread)
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 eggs (or 1 for a cake bread)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Grease a nine inch diameter circular pan or a couple of 4x8 bread tins. Mix the wet ingredients in a small bowl. Combine the ingredients and pour into the pan(s). Brush the top with milk. Bake for about 30 minutes (or 50 for a cake bread).

Meandering thoughts about the coming season

Oh, man. I'm behind of getting a post out this week. It been pretty hectic. I have lots of things running through my head right now. I've started a couple of jugs of mead fermenting, I've cut some firewood, and I'm thinking about our Ostara feast.

Ostara is one of the feasts I often forget to think about until it is right upon me. I don't really look forward to the weather warming up. But, here it is; March again.

Ostara is a time of renewal. Spring arrives and the flora gods awaken from their slumber. The fauna gods start to perk up too. However, I seem to feel a sense of loss when spring time comes. I miss the blustery days and long nights. The nearly constant overcast that can only happen when the weather is cool brings me such comfort; as though Lady Sky were tucking me in.

The tradition in our home is to have a feast on each of the quarter days and cross quarter days as figured astronomically (as opposed to the fixed dates to which those terms often apply). For each feast My Lady and I take turns either making the meal or desert. This feast I am to make the desert. I had thought to make a fruit based treat called Ambrosia, but I'm leaning toward making a pound cake now.

I'm also trying to figure out what sort of ritual to perform to celebrate the coming of spring. Perhaps something will come to me soon.

Faith

I'm going to try this again. I went off on bit of a tangent yesterday. Today, I'd like to focus on how I perceive faith.

Faith seems to make some people uncomfortable. Most of the time this is illogical. Take for instance (the entirely fictional) atheist who is certain that aliens exist. There is no evidence of alien sentience. None at all. Believing in something with no proof; that's called faith.

Take now, an agnostic who overflows with self-determination and lives in a state of self-actualization. I cannot measure how self-actualized someone is. Determination and confidence are subjective as well. The only measure is said individual's belief in those concepts. I call that faith, too.

It is my impression that the Abrahamic traditions have convinced the cultures that they influenced that someone can't have faith unless it is in The God of Monotheism. This is unfair. I am a well spring of faith. And I am very polytheistic.

Faith has become a dirty word in the cultures of science and high technology. I want to see more people describing how they feel with the word. Faith and intuition are two of the most useful gifts that humans have, but we are spending decade after decade trying to make them taboo.

The "F" word

It's time to talk about the "F" word. I enjoy the "F" word. It's so expressive and evocative. People get so many different ideas about what you mean when you use it. And it seems to have different connotations depending upon your cultural background.

Right, I'm talking about faith. That mysterious little word; it seems to make some people cringe while others rejoice. In my experience, and I admit that I don't talk to a lot of other pagans, I don't hear the word faith in conjunction with paganism nearly as much as I do when talking about the other religions. In fact, "faith" is another word for "religion" in some contexts, but rarely is it used in that context to describe paganism.

Why? Probably because so many pagans are fed up with the institutionalized religions that they don't want to be lumped in with them through that context. This is probably a subconscious choice, since the conscious choice is to simply eschew religion.

I think that's a mistake. I'm a pagan and I have as much faith as anyone in an Abrahamic religion. The problem is something I mentioned before. Pagans have worked so hard to distance themselves from institutionalized religion that they've marginalized themselves. I know that with neopagans representing only 0.02% of the world population, it's pretty easy for the rest of the world to marginalize us as well. However, that less than insignificant percentage will never increase unless we stop shooting ourselves in the foot.

Alright, so there's the problem. How do we fix it? Pagans are such a fractured, intractable, bunch that I'm not sure how well this could ever be resolved. Groups like Unitarian Universalism are close to the answer, but with roots in the Abrahamic religions it doesn't suit all pagans.

Personally, I think pagans should take a page from the Hindu playbook. We need an evocative label that encompasses our faith, and isn't based on a derogatory term. We need a label that we can rally under, but doesn't limit our individual expression of faith.

I had originally intended to write about the way I experience faith. It seems as though this desire to label my faith prevailed. I'm sure this bears greater examination. I'll have to think some on it and I'll post my thoughts later.

Identity II

Food is one of the greatest defining characteristics of a culture. Almost anyone knows what kind of food you mean if you say Mediterranean, Chinese, Thai, Italian, or Mexican. Sadly, most of Europe and North America don't have particularly well known forms of cuisine. Don't get me wrong, I know there are some fabulous dishes from any one of those countries. But, one can rarely relate to exactly what kind of food you mean by asking for something French or German.

I've become a big fan of Alice the Cook. She is "a cook who recreates recipes that have been used since the 1400s." Her work is fantastic and I often use her recipes when making a festival meal. I've also managed to get my hands on a useful translation of Apicius' cookbook and really enjoy the ancient Roman fare.

This has made me long for a style of cooking that defines my pagan culture. But, since I'm a syncretic pagan anyway, I suppose my cultural cuisine would be fairly syncretic as well.

Pagan Blogosphere

Wow! After looking around the Internet for different ways to promote this site, I've managed to stumble onto the wider pagan blogosphere. I'm not sure why I had assumed it would be difficult to find other pagan blogs. For some reason I was still imagining the landscape I had known when Geocities was a popular website.

It's cool, but humbling. There are so many more well informed pagan bloggers out there. One of the neat things I noticed is that other blogging sites keep a list of other blogging sites in their side bar. I like this idea and I think I'll implement it (I'll create a form later for user to submit new links for the list). I'm humbled by others who are already so involved with pagan culture and are reporting issues relevant to that culture.

This has made me realize that when I started thinking about this blog I already had some definite ideas about what I was going to write, and I was ignoring a lot of other issues that touch pagan culture. Now, my dilemma is whether to expand my thinking and start following wider sociopolitical issues as they affect pagans, or should I maintain my focus on the areas of paganism that I'm passionate about?

Identity

I'm conflicted about how to use the term "pagan." Historically, it was a Latin word referring to rural people and was used by the Roman military to refer to civilians. Up until the 20th century, it had been used for the previous 16 centuries as a pejorative label for anyone who wasn't Christian.

During the 20th century, believers in polytheistic traditions began to refer to themselves as pagan. However, I'm concerned that this word could become a term reserved for use only amongst those to whom it applies. Like other words that have taken that peculiar etymological journey, it could end up becoming an albatross around our cultural neck.

I have to admit, it is the easiest way to get a monotheist to understand my spirituality. At the same time, it limits me. By telling someone that "I'm a pagan" pigeon-holes me as just another rebellious Gen-X slacker who can't commit to the status quo. There's no ideal to the word. It doesn't express anything.

On the other hand, what else do I have? Polytheists don't typically apply labels to themselves. Sure, there are specific traditions such as Wicca, but I'm hard pressed to name any others. How can I identify myself to others in as expressive and succinct a term as Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or Jew? "Pagan" is how my beliefs are easily summarized and conveyed to another person through language.

Personally, I've come to think of myself as a Viridian. Hence this site's name. For me, Viridian describes a symbol of life via the color. Green is easily associated with nature, and, as a polytheist, nature is associated with animism. Animistic belief holds that everything is sacred bringing us back to the sanctity of life which is symbolized for me by the color green. A nice neat circle -- which is why the ouroboros is also one of my favorite symbols.