hmmmmmmmm……I know!
Lawn Ornaments!
teeheeheeheehee
(runs away giggling like a cookie elf…

Wet Paint –
I used to pal around with a Franciscan monk named Jonathan who occasionally entertained some very bad habits health-wise, safety-wise and otherwise. This was a beautiful, gifted and spiritually enlightened man, but (like most of us) he harbored a dark side that he once described to me as a very nasty dog named Brutus. Feeding Brutus made the dog stronger and brought on bouts of doubt, fear, discontent, depression and anxiety. Running with him inevitably ended in a world of trouble and despair — for Jonathan mostly, but also for anyone with the stomach to join him. Happily, the majority of Jonathan’s days were spent in the company of his other, good dog Brandy. I often wondered, given Jonathan’s self-knowledge and the historical evidence, why he ever consciously fed Brutus, much less let him off the leash.
The ‘good dog, bad dog’ thing was not an original Jonathan thought, but the imagery appeals to me. I call my dogs Earl and Strick. I imagine Earl as a good-natured, optimistic, guileless Labrador; playful, carefree, loyal and strong, basking in the fundamental goodness of the universe and humankind. He is naturally secure in his faith that at the end of the day there will be a place for him in front of the fire. Earl plays well with others and is gentle with smaller dogs. He is hopeful and non-judgmental. He shares his toys. He fetches balls. He doesn’t pee in the house, stray, drink, smoke or gossip. He appreciates a good laugh, but not at another dog’s expense. Earl loves me, only wants what is best. I am safe in his company.
Strick, not so much. Strick is a bad dog. And don’t tell me there is no such thing. You have not met Strick. He is not the sort of mutt you adopt and reprogram. Strick is a snarling, drooling, vicious mass of ill intent, all muscle and tendon and snapping jowels, a cross-bred miscreation of imagination, nightmare and some experience. His only function is to create spiritual carnage, yours and mine. And he will not be satisfied. Too much is not enough. He will gorge himself until he pukes, then gorge some more. If you offer Strick a treat and unconditional love, he will take your hand off at the elbow and rip out your heart. Get it?
I try to keep Earl nearby at all times, which is fine by him. He is there when I need him, otherwise stays out of the way. I feed him at least twice a day — first thing in the morning, and the last thing at night. I acknowledge Earl frequently and let him know I am grateful for his love, companionship and protection. I ask him what he wants to do, not the other way around. I don’t know what I would do without Earl’s companionship, how I would cope.
Strick, on the other hand, I keep chained to a tree in the basement, six hundred feet below the ground. He barks incessantly – angry, threatening, defiant – and sometimes whimpers like he’s hurt or cold or sad. If that doesn’t work, he will literally shriek, like someone is beating him with a tire iron. He wants my attention, and he wants to be fed. But that would be a mistake. If I feed Strick, then I am likely ignoring Earl. I can’t engage both dogs simultaneously.
Occasionally, on my good days, Strick is so quiet I almost believe that he may have just withered away and perished. This is a trick, of course, and I fall for it at my own peril. So, given the choice (and I do have a choice), why do I – like my late friend Brother Jonathan – sometimes turn my back on the grace that is Earl and risk my serenity for a romp in the mud with Strick? I mean, the sign clearly says Wet Paint. I do not enjoy feeling empty or depressed or hopeless, yet occasionally I do indulge Strick.
I have another friend I enjoy spending time with who rejects the concept of God completely — intellectually, emotionally and otherwise. But she does entertain an imaginary friend, an enormous hulk of a guy whom she chats with and shares her most personal thoughts. The other day while walking on the beach she was feeling unhappy and mired in some unfounded, self-manufactured misery, and she decided she needed a hug. So, she stretched her arms wide and wrapped them around the girth of her imaginary friend. Of course, there was no one there, so she ended up hugging herself. She said she found comfort in this intimate gesture towards herself, but I don’t get it. The image of her standing there alone with her sadness on an isolated stretch of beach, hugging herself… well, it makes me sad.
I mean (apologies in advance for the melodrama), in that dark night of the soul that we all experience on occasion, when we’re naked and raw and poised at the jumping-off place, the me-myself-and-I approach seems a very risky strategy. For me, a self-administered hug just isn’t going to do it. My advice to my friend: find yourself a dog. Yes, they do tend to come in pairs, but if you spend enough quality time nurturing the good one, the bad one will usually behave.

Humans have a deep need to believe in something outside of them affecting (controlling) the world. This in part comes from the fact that humans are social mammals, and social mammals all have leaders. With our more powerful imaginations, we imagine that there are things which control the world, thus making us less responsible for what happens. We are a naturally paranoid species.
This first came about in the belief in natural spirits. Sickness was demon possession. This later was transfered to the gods, who were oftentimes in opposition to each other, so it was hard to determine what side to choose (a problem Socrates points out in “Euthyphro”). Still, they were out there, and you had to choose, or face the consequences. Sometimes you faced the consequences precisely because you chose (consider Euripides’ “Hippolytus”). This problem was solved with monotheism. There was one good God running everything, and one bad one trying to mess up his work. When people started becoming atheists, they didn’t shed this deep-seated need for something out there to appear to control them. Thus, early atheists embraced statism, and turned the state into God. Postmodern atheists, who no longer have faith in the state as God have embraced the Panopticon (as Michel Foucault predicted they would in his work by the same title). Belief in the panopticon makes one paranoid and distrustful of practically every human achievement, believing such achievements were and are part of an oppressive power structure designed (by whom?) to keep people down — particularly women and minorities (for what reason? — Who knows?). This is what happens when you have nothing to believe in, find the world utterly meaningless, and embrace nihilism.
Of course all of these religious forms accept that there must be someone out there controlling things. We need to move beyond this belief and shed our paranoia. The world is not a simple system controlled from the top-down; it is rather a set of nested, bottom-up, self-organized complex cybernetic systems. We try to impose the first on the second in our forms of government, and even try to make God out to be a control freak. To do so will be to find ourselves more in tune with nature as a whole, freer by recognizing the emergent naturalness of freedom, and thus happier.

I would like to bring up something that Gus posted on some time ago for any veterans reading this blog. The Pagan Veterans USA Organization is trying hard to bring into existence a real-world pagan-based veterans service organization (much like the American Legion, only with “Gods/Goddesses and Country”). The group is trying very hard to get things in motion so that it is more than just talk and we can make this a reality. We need help and exposure – this is a grassroots movement that will fail if we don’t have people spreading the world.
Please stop by http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pagan-Veterans-USA/ and at least check it out!

I’m amazed at the lack of blogs regarding Obama’s public health care option. I’ve been screwed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield. My sister was screwed by her insurance after a car accident.
I’ve also received excellent care through South Korea’s government run system.
I think that the health insurance industry and the money-end of health care is run by the anti-Christ.

Well I asked this a while ago, but Gus was away and I added it to an old Open Thread and am thinking maybe nobody saw it. I really wanted other’s opinions on this so I thought I’d ask this again.
Forgiveness. How do other Pagans/Witches view it?
As you may have heard, Susan Atkins is dying from brain cancer and has once again asked to be released from prison so she can die at home.
I can still remember clearly the news reports of the Tate/LaBianca murders, documenting especially her vicious murder of Sharon Tate as Sharon begged for her unborn baby’s life.
But what surprised me were some of the messages I saw posted regarding Susan’s plea for release from prison. People were bluntly hateful toward her. Some said that they would gladly slit her open the way she slit open Sharon Tate. After all these years, I found no shred of anything even approaching forgiveness for her. I would expect that reaction from the relatives of the victims, but strangers? The posts were evidently from people of no relation to the murder victims. I pondered where that level of hatred could be coming from after so much time.
I then began to consider my own feelings about forgiving people when they have harmed me. I am not a forgiving person. If someone hurts me – not by accident or some silly slight or thoughtless comment but a calculating, planned harm – I will not forgive that. Not ever. That doesn’t mean that I will necessarily go after them or try to return the hurt, but I will never trust them again and will sever all ties. I was wondering if other Pagans/Witches are like that.
So as Pagans/Witches, where do you stand regarding forgiveness? Can you do it? Should you?

Whew
Several powerful “threads” at once. Will take some time to consider response: forgiveness and how that connects w/ Paganism, the necessity for humans to believe in something More than themselves.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm

I am amazed that some have difficulty believing that Life creates creation. there is within us a light and a song that is never extinguished.
I wonder when we cannot forgive the individual transgressions when we know the facts of life right now on this planet.
I imagine that we must begin with ourselves forgiving others otherwise there doesn’t seem to be any hope for our species.

On the forgiveness issue, I think that a person looking for some sort of forgiveness has to actually do something worthy of it. A person convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison gave up the right to a “death at home” when they inflicted such horror and pain on others. If that person asked for forgiveness from the relatives and friends of their victim and received it, that would be a pretty strong thing. But I believe the justice system probably should not be in the business of forgiveness, otherwise it loses any semblance of effectiveness. If you wanted to die at home, you should not have committed murder.

Contact your Reps and Senators and tell ‘em you want options for health-care, namely the public option supported by Obama. Phone calls and handwritten letters provoke more than emails. Insurance isn’t about a “sure-bet” for Wall Street type speculators. Keep in mind that we spend more of our GDP per capita on health-care than any other nation, and we’re ranked 37th behind Morocco. Consumers unite! http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Singing Sparrow, thanks for your comments. Have you immediately forgiven those who’ve hurt you? Do they need to ask for it, or does anyone who harms you receive instant forgiveness?
Darren, I agree with you. I was still taken aback at the venom displayed in those messages. I think that Atkins should stay imprisoned until she dies, but I don’t feel the hatred toward her that some of the posters evidenced. I certainly would have felt hatred if Sharon Tate was my sister or friend, but since I never knew her I don’t feel the emotion that those posters seemed to feel. I was wondering where it came from.

Although I can’t claim a particular Pagan spin on this, my perspective is that forgiveness represents a selfish act for the person harmed. You don’t forgive someone because it helps the person who has done you wrong, you do it for you own mental / emotional health.
Keeping hate and revenge as your primary emotion exhausts and saps your life energy. Does this mean forgiveness is easy? Heck no. It’s very hard. But I think ultimately your own life benefits, because you are centered in the present, not weighed down by the past.
I see issues of law and justice as a related, but different issue. I do think we need the law to protect us from sociopathic killers. However, The don’t think the law really can do anything along the issue of forgiveness, though. They can however attempt to give us justice for the entire society, whatever imperfections we can point out when we evaluate it.

Aron G.
Agree, forgiveness is a self-serving act and offers the grace of peace of mind.

Mark Sanford and John Ensign. Two Evangelical Republicans against gay marriage who can’t keep their own marriages together. They’re cheating the conservative cause and giving us liberals a lot of ground. Praise the Lord! The Evangelical Fundamentalist marriage to Republicans: a match made in heaven.

But….forgivenss from a Pagan Perspective.
I can comment on it from my perspective, but it isn’t mentioned in the training I’ve received/picked up over time (Reclaiming & CA Eclectic) specifically.
What about Your Traditions, other pagan readers? What do they have to teach about forgiveness?
Helen/Hawk
(who’s now switching over to Gus’s specific blog entry)

Cowboy you’re right, the hypocrisy of that lot is astounding. It’s fascinating to just stand by and watch them fall apart. I wonder who pushed the Republican party’s “self-destruct button” because SOMEONE sure did.
Wasn’t Mark Sanford the guy who said, “It is my personal view that the largest proclamation of one’s faith ought to be in how one lives his life.” ?
Kinda speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

It’s funny you should ask Cheryl, because forgiveness is one of the issues that drew me to Paganism. I had a lot of difficulty with the Christian idea of easy forgiveness. To my mind, saying you’re sorry doesn’t come close to being good enough for some people. So the idea of personal responsibility and suffering the consequences of your actions (threefold law, you get back in spades exactly what you give)really appealed. In my pagan worldview you don’t just walk into church, say you’re sorry to a man in a box, buy a candle and walk out scot free.
First you admit you’re wrong. You then suffer all the consequences of your act without retribution of any kind. Sort of “okay, I had that coming” as a response to the nasty stuff the world throws at you when you’re “out of line”. Then you actively work at making any wrongs that you yourself caused right and any other wrongs you can right that cross your path. This process absorbs, then stops, then re-directs the flow of negative energy that you created through your own actions. So, the universe itself will forgive you and “the tide will turn” and blessings will flow your way.
In the case of this murderous woman, it seems like she hasn’t yet finished absorbing the hate spiral she started all those years ago. If you aren’t truly repentant the spiral gathers momentum and the universe really kicks your @ss! I think that’s where all the hate comes from, it’s all the hate and pain that she sent into the universe, returned to her threefold. Her only hope lies in the Spiral of Rebirth.

Cassaundra that is SO similar to the way I feel about it, only you expressed it much better than me.

COOL! always glad to help.
In my mind, the purpose of the Writer’s craft, prose, poetry and personal, is to better iterate those feelings deeply held within the self, in ways commonly understood to be true.
So, that’s probably one of the best compliments you could give me!
Thanks

Just a suggestion but, maybe a good topic for discussion would be issues relating to becoming pagan/leaving a former religious affiliation for paganism. This has been on my mind since some years ago as I came to realize my former affiliation no longer reflected my beliefs and instead seemed to become quite hostile to them.
I would like to know better how to relate to my past and how to let others know that my spirituality is a serious, real, thing for me. It is not me losing my rationality or becoming a “hippie,” if we could explore this Gus it would be great.
P.S I love how you’re so interactive with us!

Here’s an issue I’m curious if other Pagan parents share: a lack of support from the Pagan community for people with families. I just get the sense from my own experienced from the Pagan community that people don’t have anything hostile to say about families, but I get a sense amongst many that there’s very little support for families to attend festivals with childcare options, workshops for children, and general support for Pagan families.
Where I live, once we became parents, it pretty much eliminated our ability to go to Pagan festivals. Perhaps this is only a problem with my area and my family, but I wonder if anyone shares these problems or if not, why not. Mainly, I wonder if there are Pagan communities that do offer more support than mine in Central Ohio.
I’m not sure what your family situation is Gus, but would appreciate your perspective. If my experience is common, I think this is a failing of the Pagan community, where other traditions often do provide such help.

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