Even more thoughts on anger...

I was meditating on the causes of anger last night and this morning, pulled the Wheel card from my new Tarot deck. (Afro-Brazilian Tarot. Gorgeous.) Also this morning, my friend Rachel posted this on her Facebook page:

Anger is the one thing that you feel more than other emotions. It will overshadow your interpretation of messages and lessons sent from the divine. Anger is so assuming that it will melt it's way into your very core, so much so that it can only be released by the hand of the divine, whose words it will mumble in your head. It takes away your tact, and fills acts of compassion with pride. It causes The Wheel to spin round and round again, cause anger won't let you meet your intended end. --a message from the divine that I'm told to spread around to everyone

Thank you, Scrump!!!! :)

What my boss said about my Seminary Application Essay which fully ousted me from the Broom Closet, but necessary for her letter of recommendation.

"Very interesting."

Taking a blogging hiatus....

I am determined to finish my grad school application this week, and that is eating up my mental energy. So, I won't be around to fill you up with quibs and crusty bits until I finish the fucker.

I love you more than you know. Most of you, anyway.

xoxo
C

Sad today.

It's hard to be a smart ass when so many people are suffering. I guess that's true every day--that people are suffering, somewhere. But I think we're all really feeling it, today.

I have no medical training, so I wouldn't be of help in that way. But I just wish I could be there and hold their hands. Maybe I can on the astral plain tonight. I just wish I could tell those people that everything is going to be okay. More than that, I wish it were true.

Haiti, the world is thinking of you.

Message to Haters....

Dear People Who Are Bored and Lonely Enough To Waste Time By Being Douches To Me and My Friends,

When inflicting insults, be sure to use correct spelling, grammar and syntax. Otherwise, you won't sound like a jackass--but a STUPID jackass.

Go spend your time reading your Bible. There's something in it you must have missed--something about not judging others. (Matthew 7:1)

Besides, you're only encouraging us.

xoxo
C

"When Pagans Attack!!!"

HHAHAHAHA!!!! I'm just so very, very clever.....;)

One of my crew members emailed me a few days ago concerned over something she'd seen about primitive Europe on the History Channel. In one reenactment, a Pagan Priestess performed an act of ritual sex with a young man and when the act was completed, another Priest or someone snuck up behind him and strangled him to death. That was how, according to the History Channel, the Gods were pleased and the people lived happily ever after.

"Cool!" I thought.

Just kidding.

The member brought up a good point--it bothered her that she was now part of a religion that had such violent origins. As usual, I had a bunch to say about it.

One, sensationalism. How else is the History Channel going to compete with "The Biggest Loser" without a little bloodthirsty, sex-rape-murder? They're not. "Real" history can sound droll and show producers are going to focus on the macabre and lazily skip over the reason behind the ritual or the more benevolent aspects of the practices. Sensationalism is not new, either. Much of what we know of ancient Pagan practices (Within and outside of Europe) came from letters sent by soldiers or missionaries. In the case of the missionaries, facts were frequently inflated or outright omitted in place of sensational fictions in order to encourage the Church to supply more funding for their causes. In truth, we don't know a lot of what the ancient practices were like outside of questionable authority, folktales and some archeological findings. Despite what many books preach, contemporary Paganism is NOT "The Old Religion." Thank god. Contemporary Paganism may share similar concepts (but we don't even know for sure about that....) but has fortunately left its bad, nasty and messy pieces for archeologists to wonder about.

However, that being said, many primitive religions did incorporate human sacrifice into their Rites and yes, the Europeans as well as the Aztecs. Archeology has indeed supported this conjecture. But remember that most world religions have dark roots. Judaism used to embrace the slaughter of enormous amounts of animals for the sake of pleasing Jehovah. Christianity, in addition to hanging heretics or burning them alive, launched the Crusades which killed enormous innocents as well as condemning basic human hygiene as sinful, which was a main contributor to the Black Plague---which killed about 1/3 of Europe. Yet, these religions have evolved out of these practices and the reclaiming tradition of Neo-Paganism is no different. Humanity as a whole has evolved past the need to outright sacrifice other humans in order to please our gods. Any religious sect that killed a human to please its God would be disbanded and locked up by local authorities and if it had any connection to a reputible religious community, it would be exiled from it. It is my belief that if we were somehow able to transport one of the Priestesses you saw on television from primitive Europe to a modern day Pagan gathering, I doubt she would even recognize it as a descendant of her faith. What we share in common with those ancestors is a connection to our planet and its seasons as well as a love of many Gods and Goddesses, but we have fortunately left the nasty stuff behind.

While the growth of Christianity encouraged many good things (the abolition of the practices as you mentioned, the notion of a God of peace and forgiveness), one of the damages it committed was the mentality that this world we live in was created by a God for us to consume. This has permeated much of the world and has placed us in the the most dire ecological situation our human race has ever faced. The reclaiming of Paganism may just be what the world needs to save itself. What we Pagans can offer our non-Pagan brethren is to see that we are part of the earth, not merely renters waiting for the day when the God who gave us this planet can get us off before it collapses. Don't be afraid or ashamed to be part of a religion that was once extremely violent. Be thankful that you are part of a religion that has let go of nasty practices which are no longer necessary and is focused on fixing the future for the next seven generations.

That's all for now. :)

Who wants to go to Ireland??????

Hi Guys!!!

Want to go to Ireland with me and my friend Liz? We are organizing a trip to the Emerald Isle which will be based around several workshops with Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone. Many of these workshops will take place at sacred sites in Ireland including (but not limited to....) Newgrange, the Hill of Tara, the Four Knocks Burial Chamber and Ciaran's Well including a Lughnasa ritual!

About Janet and Gavin:

Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone are practicing Wiccans and authors. Janet and her late husband Stewart began publishing books on the Craft in 1971; joined by Gavin in 1993. Recent books include The Pagan Path, The Healing Craft, The Complete Dictionary of European God and Goddesses, and Progressive Witchcraft. Published in the U.S, Britain, Brazil and Japan, Janet and Gavin are globally recognized authorities on Witchcraft and Paganism.

Itinerary:

Tuesday, 8/3/10 Depart JFK on Aer Lingus

Wednesday, 8/4/10 Land in Dublin Airport and travel to Kells to settle into B&B

Thursday, 8/5/10 Opening Ritual with Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone. Workshop: Working with Earth Energies. Visit the King Stone and Lough Crew (Includes Dowsing Workshop)

Friday, 8/6/10 Workshop: Understanding and Connecting with the Gods & Goddesses of Ireland as Ancestors. Visit to Fourknocks Burial Chamber (includes Descent to the Ancestors Pathworking in tomb)

Saturday, 8/7/10 Workshop: The Tree, the Well and the Dolmen: Physical and Spiritual Cosmology of Ireland . Visit Tara Hill, the Royal Seat of Ireland. (includes Pathworking with the spirits of the Well and Tree at Tara).

Sunday, 8/8/10 Traditional ceremony at Ciarans Well and visit to Teltown for Lughnasa Ritual with Janet and Gavin.

Monday 8/9/10 Visit to Boyne Valley to Bru Na Boinne, (Newgrange) and Knowth. Evaluation, questions and answer session. Closing and farewell Ritual

Tuesday, 8/10/10 Last day/night in Dublin City.

Wednesday, 8/11/10 Fly home

Cost:
$2,050.00 for a double, triple or quad
$2,250.00 for a single

Includes:

* Round Trip Airfare from JFK Airport
* Transportation while in Ireland
* Accommodations
* 7 Breakfasts
* 5 Lunches
* 5 days of Intensive Workshops

If you are interested in joining us, you can find the website here. Or, please feel free to email me at courtneyaweber@gmail.com.

This is going to be the trip of a lifetime. I know a lot of people say that, but this time, it's true.

Big words and good books

Egotistic: Yeah, but who isn't?

Megalomaniac: Possibly. But when on your time?

Messianic: Shouldn't we all be? Well, maybe just a little bit?

Verbose: Yeah...you got me there. Can't argue with that assessment. :)

Hey, kids!!!

It's time for A Girl Called Woo's book suggestion of the week! Not that I'll have one every week. Sometimes it takes me longer than a week to read a book. Sometimes I don't want anyone to know what I'm reading. But because I don't have anything egotistic, megalomaniac or messianic to say, I'll just stick with being verbose.

Aleister Crowley's "Book of Wisdom or Folly"

Papa Crowley details 200+ lessons for basic spiritual survival in this classic tale of seeking out the Divine. While I admit that most ritual magick books published before the 1960's (and many published after that...) take enormous concentration and will to keep from falling asleep on their pages, this one makes me actually to turn its coffee-stained pages. I even opted to stand up and read on the subway this morning instead of clawing my way to a seat to write.

Bottom line, Crowley is funny. Cryptic, esoteric, elusive, but really, really funny. Any examples I put up here are going to be out of context and will miss the point, so I encourage you to read and see for yourself. I think it's the tone in which he writes. Even the title, "Wisdom or Folly" goes to show that even he isn't nearly convinced that he knows what he's talking about--which is refreshing when so many books written by spiritual people try to boast that they know everything.

The basic thesis is there is a singular life path for each person and to find true happiness and spiritual fulfillment, one must figure out that path and stick to it like gum to a boot-sole. He calls it, "The Will." And when you "Do What Thou Wilt", it means you're following your life's calling. It's not clear whether Crowley believes this divine will is congruent to the heart's desire or not. He also doesn't give a lot of advice on finding out what your will actually is.

On the downside, Crowley doesn't think very highly of women. In fact, one of his chapters is entitled, "`On Truth, Which Should Not Be Told To A Woman." The editors try to cover for him, saying, "He means the truth should not be told ABOUT women!", yet his reference to women as "Sirens", "Witch-Women (and not in the good way)", and insists that women are too gossipy to be told "The Truth." Dude. Really. I do not know any man who is less gossipy than the average woman. It's a human trait, not a gender thing.

BUT! On the upside, he really does have some good things to say. He talks about temperance in all things, encourage sex but only if both parties are amicable, and despite his nasty feelings about women, honors the Great Mother and reveres Nuit. One of my favorite passages reads, "Thus it is written in the Book of the Law: Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all sorrow are but as shadows; they pass and are done; but there is that which remains." This verse was particularly soothing on a PMS-laced crying jag that hit last night.

Not everyone likes Crowley. But even if you don't like Crowley, I strongly encourage you to read him, anyway. Many of the contemporary Wiccan rituals have at the very least been influenced by the work of the Secret Societies--including Crowley's O.T.O. We talk about "Do What Thou Wilt," but few Wiccan text really meditate on what this concept means. Crowley provides thought fodder for this idea.

It's so cold in this room that my fingers are shrinking inside my pentacle rings. Oy. Oy. Oy. Time to go home, eat soup, do an assignment my HPS gave me, and maybe watch some Dark Shadows, which my sister gave me for Christmas!!!

By the way, another super-creepy vintage class is this one. I've been getting creeped out by it since the 4th grade. Now. That's enough Amazon.com advertisement. They're not paying me anything. Just so you know.