'Tis the Season...

Spring is just burgeoning, the last of the snows are falling away and the bright colors of the early blooms peek out from the winter ground. Thoughts of new growth, of seeds and soil replace the dreary seclusion of the dark cold turn of the year.

The ramblings of everyday life are pushed back as the vibrant green of Spring takes it first steps onto the wasteland of winter's keep. My mind wanders away from the ravaged topics that flood the paper and the TV box and meanders into the colorful pages of possibility, of what could be. The garden, small as it is, will be grand as a forest and as fruitful as an orchard.

Time to grow.

There was a time, not that long ago when I would be preparing to usher in the bright of the year with pomp and ceremony, Mystic pagan rituals, gatherings of high priestesses and druid mages to welcome the Gods and Goddesses to our world once again. Those days are not gone but set aside to allow the immediate, the mundane world to traipse in and foul the air and spoil the ground. There will be a time for magick. Soon.

Labrys, at Walk of the Fallen, has a wonderfully magickal post on a pleasant Heathen morning. It gave me pause to reconsider something that I have neglected for far too long.

I am Pagan. I walk within Gaia's influence, seek knowledge from Her wards and treasure troves. The politics of the last eight years have given rise to the mundane, the mendacity of humanity and its never ending quest to send itself spiraling into history. At first, I fought back as a Pagan, with the tools that I acquired through years of study and meditation. This was not enough. I had to fight the Beast within its own lair, on its home soil.

As a consequence, I fell away from my faith. I walked with the devil and now can only see what the devil has left for me. Until the spring...

Allow me this moment to pull back a bit to a time when I stood in circle and called the corners of the wind. When friends and family would gather and bring forth magick that hadn't been seen in hundreds of years. When the Universe itself would heed our call and cast out the fear and ignorance that had been given life by desperate men playing childish games. A time when fable met fact and the fabric of Nature would conform to our humble request.

Magick rules the Universe. It is the brick and mortar of Creation and the Will of the Gods. It isn't reserved for priests or pastors, mages or wizards; it is reserved for all of us. We use it to bring Life to our life, to set the stage for the next great advance, to herald in a new Age. Magick is the stuff of Dreams.

My Christian friends will not agree and that's how it should be. There should always be dissent, challenges to the status quo. Even something as natural as Pagan Magick should be spurned by the bulk of humanity. Most people have neither the heart nor the soul to chase a Dragon into its lair, but only there is the treasure.

Throughout history, the difficult road kept most of humankind within sight of their own house. We did not tempt fate, did not venture into places we could not run from. Yet in every generation were born those who could not be held captive by ignorance. To them, the horizon was just the first stepping stone, the prize was on the other side of the mountain, just beyond the edge of the world. We see these men and women as pioneers but when they lived, they were outcasts, malcontents who could not be bound by deserts and oceans. They tasted the Magick and wanted more. The established order imprisoned them, burned them, locked them away in lofty towers of stone and fear. Still they came and still they ventured into the unknown. Against the armies of God, they touched the whole world with their magick.

For two thousand years we've been told that only God can be a god. But we are of the same star stuff as any deity, there is no reason why we can't dabble in godhood once in a while. Being a god isn't throwing thunderbolts at your enemies, it's giving your enemies reason to throw them at each other. It isn't bringing a dead lover back to life, it's breathing life into the legacy of that person so all may see the joy of their time on Earth. This is godhood.

The snows of February are dwindling and the blooms of March are breaking ground beneath. We cringe from the cold and the dark of winter and may not notice the dawn of Spring. But the dark of winter is receding and the time has come to climb out of the shadows, shake off the cold and with shovel, soil, and seed, break ground for new growth.

The darkness is as deep and cold as it has ever been, for some there seems no respite, no sign that the light is returning. Despair and anguish have taken root. Perhaps, as a service to one's family and friends, we can help these people with their garden. The first seeds will be the seeds of hope.

So Mote It Be,
Shaman David Aquarius
of Clan Avalon

Clarification Needed

It has been brought to my attention that my last post ventured into a bit of hypocrisy. Hm... I may need to clarify things a bit.

First, what a person believes is their business. If I ask about it, I expect to hear their opinion with its inherent bias. (Yes, I know... Bias is based on facts, prejudice is based on opinion but I'm being kind) In fact, I ask this question quite a bit. I enjoy listening to people talk about their faith. I learn a great deal about the human capacity to accept certain premises as true while ignoring any evidence they may not be. Such is the lot of humanity.

Second, I may comment on such things, give my opinion of how they err in their thinking, but that shouldn't matter to them. Why would my opinion matter at all? Their faith must be strong enough to survive any reasonable assault on its premises. But, despite any questions or comments I make, I will never tell someone their faith is wrong ... for them. I only make the statement that their premise is wrong ... for me. Christianity is wrong for me. I cannot say it is wrong for anyone else. When Christians try to make their beliefs part of my world, I get heartburn. The public arena is open to all but when religions start using their beliefs to make changes in rules that affect me, I get angry.

Finally, I consider all faiths important in the grand salad bowl of human potential. There is a path that each of us take as we head into the Future. This path is ours and ours alone. It's paved by the things we've experienced, learned, considered and dismissed from our birth to the present and stretches out before us to the moment we cast off this mortal coil. We may walk this path to the Future by ourselves but we are never alone. All paths intersect, run parallel and diverge many times along the way. As we walk our path, we meet up with others on their path. We exchange ideas, state opinions, argue our facts, then we part company (even if only for a short time). Each time we intersect with another's path, we expand our own. One of the problems I see with humanity is that we try to shield ourselves from the paths of others. We must be strong enough in our own faith to challenge it. If it cannot hold up to debate, then there must be change. Holding onto a belief that you have no faith in is, well, hypocritical and shows a lack of personal courage.

Unfortunately, modern religions count on this hypocrisy of spirit. They instill fear and confusion into their dogma, using peer pressure and, in many cases, threats of violence to hold on to followers. (yes, condemnation of one's soul IS a form of violence) If they were to allow free thinking in their ranks, their 'Church of Cards' would surely fall.

Yes, my rants may single out Christianity. I am not as experienced with Islam to do the same, although many of the same concerns I have about the Jesus cult applies to the Muhammed cult. They are two sides of the same worthless coin. Judeism is part of the trifecta in this circus of fools too, but since they've been the target of the other two for so long you kind of cheer them on. In reality, they aren't so innocent in all this. You need only look at the Middle East to confirm it.

I don't have the answers for you. I only have answers for me. If one of my answers applies in some way to a question you have, so be it. That answer becomes yours. I look everywhere for the answers to my questions. When I find something that impresses me, I take it along for the ride to see if it can withstand my journey. If it does, I accept it as part of my path and it becomes one of my answers.

I rant about Christians because they can not, or will not, do this. They are held to a strict set of rules and standards that can only be changed by people who have gamed the system well enough to make these decisions for everyone else. Normally, I would have little problem with this, other than the off chance to challenge a few staunch believers. But these gamers try to make decisions that affect me and that's when I cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.

Hope that clarifies things a bit.

So Mote It Be,
David A.

Update:

a bit of fun with the Faithful courtesy of Goldy at HorsesAss.Org



See you in the Hot Place.