Gus diZerega: April 2009 Archives

For Pagan bookworms, if you do not have Sabina Magliocco's Neo-Pagan Sacred Art & Altars: Making Things Whole, it is now available at a super sale  by her publisher, the University of Mississippi Press.  Normally $50, it is now $15 in hard cover.

The book is beautiful.  I recommend it, as well as her wonderful Witching Culture,   which is not on sale, but still worth every penny.

Full Disclosure: Sabina is a good friend of mine and I do play a small role in Witching Culture.  But damn! she never looked at any of my altars - and Sacred Art & Altars still a beautiful book!

Thanks to Anne Hill for turning me on to this sale - Sabina didn't.

Tonight is Beltane, and tomorrow is May Day.  Two good discussions of this time are by Circle Sanctuary and Witchvox.  Beltane and tomorrow is May Day.  Beltane and May Day comprise one of our two most important Sabbats, the other being Samhain, which is six months away.  For Wiccans and most other NeoPagans, Beltane marks the beginning of summer.  We believe every necessary aspect of physical existence is sacred in its own way, each honored at that time of the year when it can be most powerfully symbolized in ritual and celebration.  And this time is when we honor the powers of life's vitality, beauty, and fertility.

Beltane is approaching, and though I'm on the road right now to Southern California, I will be back to celebrate the dawn on May 1, arriving well before dawn at Berkeley's Inspiration Point in Tilden Park .  There, every year, in no matter what the weather, Berkeley Morris  performs Morris dances  to 'bring up the sun' and honor the day.  I have always felt something almost primordially right about this way of celebrating the dawn and the beginning of this season.

When I offered my post on seeing 'energy,' one reader told me she would like me to write about how to feel it.   This is my answer to her request

April 25 has been named "World Malaria Day" and among the more positive develpments will be efforts by Christian and Muslim groups in Africa to cooperate against this killer. 

Among the less positive developments, we can expect a number of attacks on environmentalism as supposedly helping to spread malaria and even being guilty of genocide because millions supposedly died when DDT was banned.  It has long been a right wing meme.  I have even heard people associated with the Competitive Enterprise Institute accuse Carson herself of being guilty of genocide, although she had died before any DDT was banned.  They have a web site up arguing that her infuence led to millions of deaths.

As usually is the case with people attacking environmentalists, the lies and alsehoods outweigh the truth.  the truth is very different and more interesting.

I have been taken to task for my curt response to Mike who responded to my post on John Boehner and torture.  My reply has grown to being a small post of its own that I hope will interest a...

Eagle-eyed Valerie Voigt has again sent me an important link.  It is to a UN publication on contemporary persecution of witches.  It is calledWitchcraft Allegations, Refugee Protection and Human Rights: A Review of the Evidence, produced by the United Nations...

House Minority Leader John Boehner just took the Republican Party another big step towards what at one time conservatives would have called totalitarianism when he said:  "Last week, they released these memos outlining torture techniques. That was clearly a political...

Earth Day celebrates the earth and our relation to this wonderful place.  But our society relates to our home the way a sociopath relates to others: only as a tool, and only valued when useful.  Modern science is invoked to...

Earth Day is approaching, and while I want to honor it, today I was sent a link to an article that suggests honoring Earth day would be a mistake.  The author, Bradley Doucet, repeats standard attacks from various kinds of...

When I was reading Starhawk's argument  for why the Pope should apologize, for past crimes by the Catholic Church, I was bothered by a key paragraph  that raised other issues.  When I wrote my piece in response  to David Gibson's...

Cari Ferraro has made some really perceptive posts in the comments, and has asked me how she can post to my blog from hers.  I can't find her email, but even if I did, I wouldn't know what to say. ...

Valerie Voigt reports that a Pagan Veterans association is in the process of forming.  Its url is  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pagan-Veterans-USA/ Their organizational statement reads: WHEREAS thousands of Pagan men and women have served and are serving the United States of America in...

The difference between Democrats and Republicans is finally clear.  The former rejects the rule of law, the latter will honor it, at least to a point.  The former rejects human decency, the latter respects it.  The former believes in government...

Years ago I came across the following poem, by J. L. Stanley.  I no longer remember quite how I came across it, but have always been grateful I did.  I want to share it now..When they ask to see your...

Michael Lind has written a wonderful piece over at Salon on how America is Not a Christian Nation.   Go on over and have a read!  It has some good history in it that if it had ever been taught might...

Starhawk called upon Pope Benedict to apologize to Witches and other Pagans for past Church actions against Pagans and women in today's Washington Post.  In response David Gibson at Pontifications Blog   here at Beliefnet pointed out that she was behind...

President Obama's endorsement of George Bush's contempt for the rule of law, his Nixonian claims for executive authority on civil liberties and Presidential power, and violation of campaign promises, gives us a wonderful test of a claim I recently made...

Trying to integrate spirituality and politics as this blog attempts gets frustrating.  Real frustrating.  Politics is a little context compared to spirit, but it can so easily come to dominate our attention.It's sort of like when I hit my thumb...

Nature poetry is important in helping us reconnect with the living earth, an experience even some Pagans have not personally experienced (yet). National Poetry Month is a fine time to reflect on this, and share some poems.   Our society...

It's no secret that I think Barack Obama is immensely better than any Republican office holder as President of the United States.  Any Republican.It is also no secret that I have been pretty critical of some awful things he has...

Glenn Beck, Michelle Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh, and others like the are seeking to destroy the United States by replacing citizenship with tribalism.  I do not think most of them intend this consequence, but they are so intoxicated by their self-righteousness...

Hecate reports on how the war on drugs in Mexico has spilled over into indiscriminate attacks on shrines to Santa Muerte "Saint Death," whose shrines are popular among those who live in violent neighborhoods, including some drug dealers.  Because of...

It is National Poetry Month and some have suggested I offer my favorite poem on this blog.  I have a small number of favorite poems, and a strong preference for a particular type of poem, ones that meld us with...

While I suspect Iowa's Supreme Court ruling went well beyond the current moral capacities of many of that state's citizens, their unanimous ruling establishing the right of gay marriage is a wonderful one.  And as usual, the culture warriors are...

Glenn Greenwald has just published a very important article on Wall Street's Ownership of Government through its Democratic component, and the deep moral and barely legal corruption of men like Larry Summers and his likes.  It is time, past time,...

The New York Times today has an article on how key members of the American Catholic hierarchy had been warned by their own experts as early as 1952 not to reinstate pedophile priests because they could not be cured, and...

When I blogged on Rowan's suggestion, I was not sure what would happen.  I am delighted.  I've learned a lot.  (Thanks, Rowan!)  I was struck in particular with one comment made in a response to my last post, a comment...

Rowan Fairgrove sent me this fascinating article on 10 Words Not to Use With Muslims, advising President Obama on how he can avoid being misunderstood when addressing a Muslim audience.  Some suprised me.  She wonders whether  the same might hold...