Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Food and offering

I've been pondering.  Why do we stick to what the Gods supposedly ate in the past?  Cream and berries and honey for fey, Tuatha De Danaan and Celtic, interspersed with some meat foods.  Greek for Greek Gods? Why don't we branch out, using our UPG?

This pondering brought to you by fa la la latte.  I bought one today and took a sip and went mmmmmmmm. To which I got poked by the Morrigan, make me one.  Ok, I can do that.  Eggnog and espresso make the Fa La La Latte.  Simple even if it is not traditional.

If we humans like to explore other cuisines, why would the Gods not want to do so as well?  Ask them.  I think the only God I know that has some food taboos would be Asherah, and mostly she is hesitant about pork.  Other then that, I don't know of any of the Gods that have a food taboo or go Kosher.

Loki I know, likes many different foods.  He isn't afraid to try new things.  You also don't need to feed him copious amounts of hard liquor.  Though I am getting poked to try making some mead sometime in the near future.

As I type this, I see my cat drinking my left over oohlong tea.  smh.  I'm also getting poked to give Loki, Morrigan, and Cernunnos and The Goddess some apple cider.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Things I have to do and am being poked by the Gods about

I need to make a drum.  I have the drum kit.  I bought it from Centralia fur and hide.https://furandhide.com/products/categories/drum-kits  I just need the time, when I am not crazy from the children and life, to let the hide soak, and then put it on the drum.  Then I need to make a drum stick.

I need to make a mask.  I bought Lupas book http://www.thegreenwolf.com/skinspirits.html .  It had some very interesting stuff in it.  But I still need to learn a bit more taxidermy and wire shaping before that can come to fruition.  Plus as much as I'd like to get the coyote spirit that resides in it rainbow opals, those are not stones I can afford.

When I grumbled about making the two things above, I was told in no uncertain terms to stop my kvetching.  At least I didn't have to hunt down a buffalo, skin it, tan it for my spiritual equipment.  Needless to say I stopped kvetching. (I heard a mental sigh and was told for now. Feeling the love)

Loki wants me to make him something to.  I have statues and tapestries for Cernunnos.  I have a tapestry for the tree of life.  I even have a small one for the Morrigan).  I do not have any depictions of Loki(though I have a tatoo related to him on my body).  So he is poking me to make him one.  I need to get the architectural salt blocks.  I have bought the dremel tool, to carve into the blocks.

Teo Bishops conversion to Christianity and Pagans reaction to it

I do not understand what the hubbub is about, when it comes to Teo Bishops personal decision in regards to his religion.  I also fail to understand why he was a Big name Pagan.  I also fail to understand why this is anyone's business, or why they feel they can express emotions about it.  Two different topics have been unleashed on Patheos Pagan about it, no less.  I'm sorry, more like three or four.

How did these self same people, who are blogging and talking and gossiping, feel when their parents or others not related to them, decided to put in their two cents, when they converted to Paganism?  I bet many of them were more than a little irritated. So why do the same to Teo Bishop?

The lesson here is boundaries.  It isn't anyones business.  Teo Bishop converting back is a private affair. Granted he chooses to share it with the world wide web, but it doesn't make it any less of a private affair, that many of us are being public voyeurs in.  At most it is between him and the God's and any promises he may have made to his Pagan community.

Did he change personality after he converted?  Has he changed in any significant way?  So why is this an issue?  Do you need to have only Pagan friends?  If so, what does that say about you, that you need to follow the Jehovah Witness model to personal relationships?

Time to chill out people.



Thursday, November 21, 2013

Critical thinking how to, take 1?

It begins with the questions.  It is an important and holy question.  The sacred question of why.

My husband told me once, one of the good hallmarks of a good game master, is to ask why three times. The answer to those questions leads you to help in making the game more enjoyable for the players.  You can also use that method, in critical thinking.

Another name for this, would be the socratic method.  See linky to law school explanation.  http://www.law.uchicago.edu/prospectives/lifeofthemind/socraticmethod  It has embedded hyperlinks you can also read to gain more of an idea.  This one is a wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method  It has more then a law school rapid fire version of the method.

Other tools in your box, that I think are important, is a basic understanding of psychology.  You don't have to go to class, go to amazon and get some used textbooks, and read.  Understanding the basics of how people communicate would be helpful.

Despite the mantra in Pagandom of do not judge others, that is more harmful then hurtful.  It neglects the fact that we are human and it is in our nature to judge.  If we didn't, we often would run head first into bad situations.  Judging is not bad.

It is shallow to base what someone is like based on their looks.  However their speech, body language and how they treat others, shows what they will be like as a person.  It is vital then that you use that knowledge gained from getting to know them to make judgement.  Also ALWAYS listen to your intuition.  It knows things that you do not.


Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Critical thinking

Most of the beginning teachings in Paganism revolve around, shielding, centering, grounding and reading information about the Gods.  Conflict resolution techniques are not discussed, which I find to be a shame.  A skill that is also in short supply, in being taught is critical thinking.

I believe this is due in large part, because many don't know it.  If you don't develop the skills, you are in a religion that it is very easy to delude yourself or be deluded by others.  You also run the risk of being deluded by spirits.

Now you may be wondering, why this is imp.  It helps in presenting a more serious, less juvenile view of Pagandom to other religions.  This helps in interfaith work.  Also, if Pagans are seen in a more serious light, or less of a dangerous light, lawmakers are more likely to think about laws that may impact us.  Government bureaucrats whose job it is, to make sure you are a decent parent, will be less likely to harass you.

The founders of the movement leave something to be desired ethically.  Gerald Gardner, if you read 50 years of Wicca, you will find is a dirty old man.  I would even suggest that there are things in Wicca that if you look hard you will see he had pulled out of Buddhism or Hinduism along with his time in the Golden Dawn.

Alex Sanders, when he was told no, about joining Gardner, stole the books of shadows and did his own coven.  Aleister Crowley, crazy heroin addict.  Our Neo Pagan founders left some things to be desired.

Israel Regardie though, pretty darn ethical.  I have yet to hear a bad thing about Cunninghan, except that some of the more serious Pagans think he is fluffy.  Deborah Lipp, another person that I wouldn't hesitate to send people to.  I haven't heard much negative about Kveldulf Gundarrsson.

Anyway...  My point before I wandered into the land, of wtf were we doing learning from our founders.  My point was critical thinking.  We have Issac Bonewits to introduce us to the cult form.  http://www.neopagan.net/ABCDEF.html

We have Ronald Hutton, that started talking in laymans terms about how many of our histories are just horribly inaccurate.  Though, it is still getting to many people.  Many still believe in the 9 million died of the inquisition aka burning times.  Many still believe in what is now debunked Margaret Murray's anthropological thesis of a witches going back several thousand years and a secret witch cult.  See Triumph of the Moon.

Reading outside of Llewellyn and Pagan authors will help in establishing, a more objective mindset. Understanding socratic thought, will help in keeping a skeptical mind.  There is nothing wrong, to question Pagan authors and their concepts or your own UPG as stringently as you questioned Christianity. Talking around, and taking more than just big name Pagans view, will help in developing more critical thought patterns.  

I do not think that learning how to be an academic like Axe and Plough has stipulated, is necessarily the way to stop bad Canonical thought from staying in Paganism. http://thelettuceman.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/paganism-and-psuedoscholarship/ 

Despite my experiences, it is not bad ethics, or being a bad person to question people either.  I know it goes against the newagey mantra of be nice and keep annoying negative people away, so your aura doesn't get muddied, but it isn't bad.

Paganbookreviews.net is a site that would be helpful to have.  She's gives pretty objective reviews.  It helps in deciding which books to spend your hard earned money on.

Going and reading communication textbooks, will help in understanding public relations, advertising, and how people communicate.  This helps in talking with spirits, with understanding the business world of Pagan publishing, and helps with not being taken in by commercials.

I will try in my blog to dissect how I do things in this regard and put it in more bite sized pieces.  This is hard for me, so bear with me.

Lunas









Sunday, November 17, 2013

Conflict Resolution

The online people I have known over the years have truly suckish conflict resolution skills.  They do all the unhealthy shit in this link.  http://www.helpguide.org/mental/eq8_conflict_resolution.htm .  Offline, it's a mixed bag.  The older folks who have been around and understand their triggers do a pretty decent job.  However conflict resolution is not something I see as being taught or encouraged.

Read the link, it has great information.  It is something I learned in interpersonal communication in college. Knowing and understanding the above stuff in the link, will help you in relationships.


Schoolwork

I have made myself a moratorium on blogging until I can get my schoolwork done.  I'm working in my head on critical thinking and another post, so if I ever get done with my academic writers block, expect to see a couple of posts.

Wish me luck.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Poor Cernunnos

My son brought him to me, giggling.  He was covered in French onion dip.  He exuded quite why why does he do this to me mentality.  Darn pups.

My son is autistic.  He on his own, decided to feed Cernunnos, however he does this quite literally.  He dips the God in whatever he thinks taste good.  Cernunnos has needed a bath from ranch dressing in the past, to french dip today.

I decided today was a lesson in washing off the God.

smh

Subjective vs Objective.

This post is the catalyst for this post.  http://blacklightmetaphysics.com/2013/11/03/days-of-the-dead/#comment-2366  Interesting take on past life, and the lessons we need to learn to heal old wounds.  I may very well have to consider doing so as well.

Though there are some things in his post that I want to address.  When we receive stuff via past life regression, we should look at the filter from whence it comes.  Objectivity is hard to maintain, and our own personal crap will influence stuff.  Whoever is providing the info, yeah spiritual who ha's have biases too, also have a stake in how it is presented.  So, write it down, but look at who is giving it to you, to see how much salt needs to be applied.

How was the regression done?  Does it resonate with you, why or why not?  What resonates with you? Why?(Socratic questioning helps here)  I personally would give more salt to guided meditation in past life regression then other ways.

Ok, now that you got through all that, deal with the emotions.  We are human, not Data a sentient Android. Shit is gonna make us feel stuff.  Process. Try not to yell or blame or make rushed judgements until you have processed the emotions.

Ok lets take his post and go with lesson time.

1. Guided meditation, so while the person who guided it was being ridden, you HAVE to take biases and the human filter into account.  What is their political bent?  How do they feel about war and politics and other stuff.?  How has that influenced your regression?

2. He feels betrayed and is pissed and is now in a crisis of faith.  But he isn't letting himself grieve.  He is making decisions a little too rashly, mind you they are mature, but still he needs time to ponder and sort and grieve and see how much truth is really there.  He's also not taking into account the emotions of this life and how it may be bleeding over into the vision. (See the emotions of the Grandmother) Greek  Maxim Know thyself helps.  Use it and grieve.  Logic helps in the grieving too.  Use it.  Ask yourself questions and go with it, write it down, blog, do art, it helps in figuring out why you feel this way, and helps in dealing.

3.He is blaming the Gods.  He's studies the history of this time period.  So, it shouldn't be that hard to figure out which General he was and figure out how true this is.  If it's just a lesson story, learn the lesson, but why get bent out of shape over something that didn't occur, why internalize the emotional baggage?  An analogy, if this is the guided meditation version of Eat, Pray, Love, ok get sad, but don't get so emotionally vested in the movie that you decide to abandon all trappings of a "square life"(to be snarky about a previous post) that you decide to become a world wide Hippy.  Yes if it calls to you and you can do it.  But let a little pragmatism in your life flourish too.

4. Ok he is blaming the Gods and not those, that did the deeds, in the past life(we haven't established how true it is). Why is this shit Jupiter and Mars fault and not the Senators?  Dude was a General, dude played politics, dude should know how the damn game is played, dude needs to also take responsibility for not thinking about shit ahead of time.

If you wanted to retire away from politics, Britannia would have been a better location and less likely to be bugged by senators. Because who the hell wants to travel that far into the outer reaches of the Roman Empire? Saying it aint fair, is bullshit, especially when if you were a General, you know good damn well, how hard these guys play for power.  If you don't want to play, then take care to get yourself out of the line of fire.  It aint Jupiters fault you didn't think this through and thought people were gonna be honorable with you and leave you alone?  It is being naive.  (Again who's cultural bias is showing, that is having him have these emotions?  Americans? In fact I'd even say it is a very modern American cultural bias and not the Generals of Rome)

5.Now lets look at the bigger tapestry.  Ok so you wanted to be let alone but Mars and Jupiter were poking you.  You don't know if you can trust them to keep to their promise of happiness.  They gave you opportunities at happiness. Expecting them to protect you from the harsh realities of life is a bit much.(Mind you we all do that. I've had times of I've worked for you why the hell is this shit happening to me too)  What did you honestly expect them to do?

If you had listened to them and gotten into politics, would you still have had your wife, or more time?  This is the lesson of looking at the tapestry of possibilities and looking at chess and the various outcomes.  Maybe they were poking you for a reason other then, you make a good general.  Maybe they saw shit and you were the best candidate and that yes you could be happyish.  Have you explored the realm of which door did you pick and what would have happened had you went that route?

6. Ok you wanted peace, quiet and a contented life.  Well, the Gods have a responsibility to more than just you.  Do they have the right to nag the shit out of you, if the choice is you, vs say the asshat Nero?  Where does their responsibility lie?  Have you looked at the larger picture here and tried to work out why the hell they were poking you?  Why?

By the by.  I am no means advocating blindly do whatever it is the Gods are poking you to do.  Ask questions.  Realize you have choices.  Also realize it is hard and almost impossible to see the hard picture. Something I'd also like to throw out, if we aren't the same people we were 20 years ago, why are the Gods always unchanging?