My Muse Ran off With Yer What???

Leaping, Falling and I’m not Catholic

This is a bit of a rant post because I very much HATE “daylight savings time” Twice each year we go through the time acrobatics of leaping and falling like trained monkeys all to appease the social greed.

One of the things I used to love about Indiana was the fact that we always knew what time it was because we had no need for silliness that involves setting the clocks forward and backward in an effort to add another hour to the day. Heck we were smart enough to know that was a fallacy. It didn’t matter what the clock said the day remained the same length. Then we elected (well I didn’t vote for him) an asshole Governor that went around mooching free room and board off of the common folks to play himself off as “a regular guy” but the ploy worked and he made it a priority to initiate “daylight savings time” so now NOBODY knows what time it is.. this is because the state is so chopped up that you step across the county line and it is either an hour later or an hour earlier. And those hard working folks who had to get up at 5 am now have to get up at 4 am and go to bed when it is still daylight out.

When Indiana changed over they used it as a means to study the effects of time acrobatics and those studies put to rest (everyone thought) some misleading BS that was circulating around about the benefits of daylight savings time.

#1. Was that it was for the kids that they could get on the school buses during the day time. well BS! just when it was getting light in the morning they set the clocks back so it was DARK again.

#2. It saves money on energy. BS! the results were that it actually COSTS several millions of dollars MORE in energy usage. But now after the energy costs skyrocketed and people started buying the energy efficient light bulbs and appliances as well as have begun unplugging everything in an effort to save a few bucks each month, they have used those newer figures to twist around and make the claim that daylight savings time now saves an average of 1/2 of 1 percent off of your electric bill! Lemme do the math 1% is .01 or one penny on the dollar so you save a half penny on each dollar you spend… that’s a whopping 1 dollar on a $200 electric bill!

A couple things they didn’t expect were that the rate of deaths due to heart attacks dramatically INCREASE and they suspect it is due to the lack of sleep and increased stress.

Another thing they at first claimed a decrease in were traffic accidents, but about the same time we enacted the clock flipping leaping and falling we also passed tougher laws concerning teenage drivers. And now they are saying traffic accidents have been on the rise.. despite that people tend to be safer drivers during the daylight hours, they suspect again that people are fatigued, not getting enough rest as being the cause.

So WHY do we do this BS twice a year?? One word “greed” Restaurant owners and some retailers that stay open late sell more stuff, because there is nothing worth watching on TV in the summer plus people are bored and just want to get out of the house for a bit. And that is the only reason… someone is making money off of the scheme. And who pays for it with money, life and limb? you do.

The other rant is St Patrick’s Day. A celebration of a fictional saint by the Catholics who was alleged to have chased all of the “”snakes” meaning “Pagans” out of Ireland. I am part Irish, but I ignore that so-called holiday because even though it has Pagan roots, it has become so twisted around that for me it would be like the Germans celebrating the persecution of the Jews by a day of eating blood pudding and drinking red beer and Schapps.

St Patrick was considered to have been a real person for a long time, but a couple years ago the Catholic church fessed up and said he was fictitious. The reason why they got by with that for so long is because far too many people take the word of someone else for “fact” without any substantiation. That phenomenon has become even more common with the internet.

Anyway.. I really do not remember exactly where I ran across some of my collection of facts.. But as I have read and studied a great deal over the years digging into ancient history, including some rather obscure texts like “The Worship of Priapus” and other rare tomes, somewhere I came across some text that said that there was no one person to whom St. Patrick could be connected to and it was thought that the caricature of St Patrick was actually based upon the myths/deeds/ stories of ancient Pagan deities and perhaps even at least 3 different living individuals, one of whom was quite corrupt and was something akin to a Mathew Hopkins who extorted money from individuals in exchange for not accusing them of Hearsay and thus saving themselves from torture & execution. The popular act associated with Patrick was in “chasing the snakes out of Ireland” The “snakes” referred to were the Pagan people rather than real serpents.

Anyway, I looked into Barbara Walker’s excellent book “The Woman’s’ Encyclopedia of Myths & Secrets” this morning to see if she had a reference on this and here is what she had to say about the matter:

.. ……

Patrick, Saint – “Patron saint of Ireland, probably a fictitious figure built on Roman pater or patricius, a priest. The only evidence for the existence of a Christian St. Patrick was his own autobiography, supposedly written in the 5th century but not heard of until 400 (foot note 1 encyc. Brit, “Patrick”) years later. Thus it seems that Patrick’s purported writings were forged by monks wishing to pretend Ireland was Christianized earlier than it actually was. It is highly unlikely that the Irish were converted as early as the 5th Century. In the 12th century, St. Bernard complained that the Irish were still given over to “barbarous rites,” Christianity having failed to take root among them. (foot note 2, de Paor, 174)

Like many other saints evolved by the 9th and 10th century hagiography, Patrick had Pagan precedents. One was the god of the shamrock, Trefuilngid Tre-eochair, “Triple Bearer of the Triple Key,” whose sacred plant bore all edible fruits including the apples of immortality. He was a son-consort of the Triple Goddess whose triple yoni was represented by shamrock designs from the earliest civilizations of the Indus valley. The story that St. Patrick explained the Christian trinity to the Irish by exhibiting the shamrock was entirely apocryphal. The Irish worshiped the shamrock as a sign of their triple Pagan deities.

The Book of Leinster said Patrick’s mother was the Goddess Macha: she of the feminine trinity who gave birth to the shamrock-god. (footnote 3, Graves, W.G. 130,518)

Many other stories suggested Patrick’s true Paganism. He was educated by a Druid. (foot note 4, Spence, 56) In Wales he bore the title of Maenwyn, meaning one educated by the moon. (footnote 5, Hazlitt, 483) The legend of his matrydom indicated that he was sacrificed to the Moon-goddess, but like a Pagan god he was united with her Virgin incarnation, Brigit. The funerary temple at Downpatrick was dedicated to both Brigit and Patricius. (foot note 6, Brewster, 140) The Welsh form of the Triple Goddess, Guinevere, was said to have slain “the Irish knight Sir Patrice” with her magic apple, recalling the Goddess’s gift of an apple of immortality to each of her doomed lovers. (footnote 7, Malory 2, 274)

With all his Pagan precedent, it is not surprising to find the monkish version of Patrick declaring himself “a sinner …despised by many.” (footnote 8, Attwater, 266)

St. Patrick’s Day was known throughout the Roman empire as the day of apotheosis of the god slain during the Ides of March: Liber Pater or Mars Pater, who would have been known as Patricius or Patrick in Britain. (footnote 9, G.R. Scott, 165; Rose, 212) At this Roman festival on March 17, a gigantic phallus was paraded through the streets, and solemnly crowned with a garland representing the divine yoni, by the hands of a specially selected matron. (footnote 10, Knight, D.W.P., 154) The Phallus of Liber Pater was also known as the Palladium, planted in the womb-temple of Vesta. The priest who represented this god’s power was pater patrum, “father of fathers,” or else the Peter (phallic stone pillar,) or else Palladius. An old chronicle mentioned a Roman-Irish martyr called Bishop Palladius, “the first bishop to the Irish
who believe in Christ,” sacrificed to the Irish Moon-goddess before Patrick appeared. (footnote 11, Encyc. Brit. “Patrick.”) Evidently both Palladius and Patrick were the same Pagan god, adopted into canon after his old shrines were taken over by Christians. (footnote 12, Graves, W.G., 152)”

Screwed Again?

I seems that big business and our illustrious leaders in Washington just don’t get it…yet again.

Lately insurance companies have decided that they are not making enough money due the the lack of people carrying insurance, so they are raising their rates again. The higher rates of course put the cost of insurance out of the reach of more people who will have to drop their health coverage and in turn the rates will go up yet again because the CEO’’s aren’t making enough money for their Billions in bonuses.

Well here is an earth-shattering idea, LOWER the rates and stop paying out megabucks to those corporate executives, yet they continue to reward incompetence. I recall a time not so long ago where when corporations were not making enough money and on the verge of financial difficulties they CUT the salaries of the corporate execs and tightened their corporate belts and pulled themselves out of a tailspin.

Our politicians suffer from this same affliction of moronic greed in that they keep wanting to raise taxes and cut programs such as education, while hanging onto their own inflated salaries, collecting their kickbacks from special interest groups and rewarding those special interest groups with fat government contracts paid for by the the citizenry. We are already taxed to death. Gasoline is already heavily taxed with sales tax collected on top of the other taxes which is unconstitutional, but they do it anyway. Yet they want to add more taxes on petroleum fuel, because they are not making enough to pay for all of their various and sundry pet projects plus the very costly wars going on in the Middle east. But why are the taxes they are collecting diminishing? People are out of work, and they cannot find jobs. So why doesn’t the government do something to create jobs? Because the special interest groups do not think they will profit by that plan of action.

We have the technology to put fuel cells in vehicles as an example, so why is this not being done? The claim is that their is no place to refuel them so they cannot make the vehicles, yet they do not make the vehicles because there is no place to refuel them. Well gee, why can’t big brother build those refueling stations and mandate that cars and trucks be produced by the car makers. They could make those by using geothermal energy and electrolysis cutting back on oil consumption, put people to work building those refueling stations then after a few years sell those back to private enterprise. More people working, more taxes being paid, and the government recoups the initial investment. a win-win situation all the way around.

But such thinking is beyond their limited imaginations. They only see things one way. And that way is “Not enough money? Then raise the price/increase taxes.” And who pays the piper? we do… yep screwed again.. situation normal

Has Spring Sprung??

Every year I tend to notice the signs of the stirring of new life in the earth as well as the return of the feathered ones and of course this year is no different. Just after the snow melted off one day a few weeks ago but before the last snow hit and blessed us with yet another 6 inches of the fluffy white stuff, I noticed the daffodils and snowdrops had come up under the previous blanket of white. Then they were covered over again. It never ceases to amaze me at how the delicate shoots of the early plants can force their way up through the concrete-hard frozen ground. There just has to be a spiritual lesson there ya know? Overcoming difficulties with WILL and patience and persistence comes to mind.

Well this week the last of the snow finally melted away revealing that the daffodils at least had continued to grow under the frosty blanket. They are about 2 inches high now,and the surprise lilies have popped above the soil now as well. SURPRISE! Yet the tops are a bit yellow due to being frosted. The maple buds have suddenly become swollen from the rush of new sap rising in their roots… about 3 or 4 weeks later than normal, but it has been a colder than normal winter too lasting longer this year. Which means (or should anyway that the cold air that usually pools in Canada and Alaska has been steadily dumping off down this way so it will warm up faster up there, allowing it to warm up faster down here! YAAYYYY!

But that’s not all. The Sandhill Cranes have begun their migration back to the Northlands and lo and behold, the blue birds and red-winged blackbirds have returned, have begun to sing their heralds of Spring and have even begun checking out new nesting sites. The Robins have been back for a couple of weeks also but they never go far really, as they tend to hide out in the pines for the winter. And though I didn’t see it, I thought I caught the sound of a Meadowlark singing yesterday. And then today, I was just outdoors playing catch with Annwn and suddenly a shadow crossed the sun. Looking up I saw an Oklahoma Chicken, then another then two more followed by a 5th. The Buzzards had arrived back in the area. I have heard that the return of the buzzards is a big deal in some town in Ohio, something akin to that famous groundhog named Phil in PA. that I cannot spell the name of.

And even though it is still about 5-10 degrees cooler than normal for this time of year, the trend continues to be warmer. Hopefully the feathered ones and the Flora are right, Old Man Winter is retreating and Spring has indeed Sprung!!

two hawks, three skunks and a deer

The past few weeks I have been working on doing a book promo tour in Tennessee this year. I love Tennessee, it is a beautiful state full of diverse landscapes, and the people down there, well although they may be crazy behind the wheel, are warm, wonderful and friendly, the epitome of Suthern Hospitality. Plus you can find real grits down there for breakfast…

Well I have things lined up to be a speaking guest at two festivals in May. The first one a Beltane festival near Memphis, called “Dancing the Flame” sponsored by The Southern Delta Church of Wicca-ATC. This one from May 7th thru the 9th.

The second event is the Pagan Unity Festival near Nashville in Burns TN from May 13th thru the 16th.

And then I have been invited to the Author’s symposium in Knoxville on July 11th The problem is that it is a long drive for me (with carpal tunnel and breathing problems) and I have been trying to get a couple of stops in KY so as to have stop overs. But for some reason, I just cannot get anything lined up. Plus my wife, after doing the trip down in May will not have any vacation time left.

Plus my own caution about spending too much money on book inventory because of a very limited budget… (well OK we fall into the “financially challenged” category like many of you).. this thing about “rich authors”?? well it must be a myth, as I have yet to meet any, LOL!

So whats this got to do with the critters above?

As an observant Pagan, I tend to see messages in the different and unusual, though I also draw distinctions between Mundane natural phenomenon and that which is shouting out a message.. Well I got shouted at last night.

I do a Prison Ministry the first Monday of each month at The Federal Maximum Security Prison in Terre Haute, IN. On the way up there, I observed two red-tailed hawks who had captured their supper eating same within easy view of the hwy, both on the right. One was in the grass of the right-of-away the other further east and slightly north, then I came across two freshly killed skunks in the road about a mile apart.

Coming back, to avoid the odorous perfume of the deceased polecats I returned home by a slightly different route. Well that’s when I buzzed by the third skunk road-kill and about 5 miles from home, two deer (yeah I said one in the title, but only because it seemed to be more catchy then saying “two) Were standing well back off the side of the hwy on the right but suddenly just as I approached, they decided to dash across. Since they were so far back I was able to avoid the first one by slamming on the brakes, but the 2nd one was tapped in the hip with my hood. No damage to my truck and the deer just stumbled but didn’t even seem to slow down. Definitely an attention getter there.

So anyway what does all of this have to do with the price of bananas? Well nothing I guess. but taken together the signs did convey a message to me.

The two hawks eating their supper. – A hawk rises upon the air currents, and carefully observes that which is below and when the time is right, the hawk strikes with surety and connects with it’s goal. So the two festivals I have committed myself to. Additionally the second hawk being farther east and slightly north is the same direction Nashville would be from Memphis.

The three skunks. – Well these have to do with a warning about caution. A skunk is not afraid of anything and relies upon its odorous defense to thwart danger. It’s lack of caution works well with four-footed beasts, but not so great with four-wheel steel machines traveling at warp speed. To me this warning indicates that I should be careful traveling and not become too overly confident financially, meaning I should be cautious about buying too large of an inventory. Well I already had 25 of each of my first two books (50 total) delivered this week. Though I have as yet to order any of the newest book to take with us. So the message is do not become overly confident or “SPLAT!” Ok no problem there, as in every speaking engagement I have done so far I tend to worry overly much about disappointing or boring the listeners.

The two deer. oddly enough, this time of year the bucks have shed their antlers, PLUS bucks and does do not run together this time of year, yet on the deer that bounced off of my hood, I definitely saw antlers, though they were not “real” antlers they were etheric antlers. That and their behavior takes the encounter well out of the realm of the common or mundane. So the meaning? A Doe is traditionally representative of the Goddess while a Buck (stag) is traditionally representative of the God. Close encounter. – To remember that the Lord and Lady are with me to yes be cautious in traveling, but to definitely undertake the journey.

Sooo OK I am working on just that.

It’s Official!

I can officially announce that we will be at two fests in Tennessee this may. The first one will be the Southern Delta Church of Wicca – ATC May Day 2010- Dancing the Flame near Memphis at 910 Riddick Road in Millington in the Meeman-Shelby State Park.

The next event will be The 13th Annual Pagan Unity Festival From May 13th through May 16th at Burns TN in the Montgomery Bell State Park.

I am looking forward to seeing everyone who can attend!

We are still trying to work something out to visit the kind folks at the Spirit of the Earth Church in Hopkinsville KY and to attend the Author’s Symposium in Knoxville TN on July 11th. I have received a generous offer from The Sisterhood is Powerful, if I can manage to attend, and as much as I would like to, current circumstances make impossible to commit to the date. But I am working on that.

TN speaking engagements 2010

I had been so busy with one thing after another this winter so far that I had not even thought about doing a book promo yet this summer when I received a request this week from “The Sisterhood is Powerful” group in Knoxville TN to attend the Author’s Symposium and do a speaking engagement on July 11th. Well since TN is a very long drive from here I began looking around for events that I could possibly do that would be dog friendly as we need to take my service dog Annwn along as well. I have COPD and I sometimes suddenly get weak and light-headed and he helps me when that happens, plus he makes me walk at my limit of speed to help improve my breathing somewhat. They do not officially train service dogs for people with COPD, so I trained him myself. Anyway as we have limited time and funds, I was hoping to get some stops along the way to and from Knoxville, and am still working on that, The UUC in Hopkinsville KY may be one stop as they are interested in having a speaker and are doing an event that same weekend. But I also sent an inquiry to a friend in Johnson City and she suggested I look into the Pagan Unity Festival southwest of Nashville, then I received a tentative invitation to a Beltane event the weekend before near Memphis. So we have been doing some planning and it now looks like we may have to do two trips down to TN this year, that is if we get the official Okey Dokey from the festival organizers, then we could do both festivals in May and then do the weekend in July. But Geeze it is a long trip. Anyway, this is the tentative plan until we hear back from more folks on it and we are hoping to see many of our friends in TN
while we are down there. We are also hoping to at some point get something together for KY too. So anyone who has any ideas or suggestions, please shoot them my way.

PS I just ordered a GPS so we are committed to doing a trip now to pay for it, LOL!

The Christ and The Craft

This was sent to me for consideration for posting in here. I myself have seen a lot anti-Christian bias in Pagan circles, and more so from those who once followed the Christian theology before embracing one of the many Pagan paths. After reading this composition which was well researched, though I personally do not agree with everything mentioned here, I do feel that Mr. Morris does raise some very important points for each of us to give consideration to. If it challenges your belief system, even better because through challenge, and consideration, come more open minds.

Enjoy,
K

The Christ and the Craft
By Arthur Morris

Not long ago, one of the fledgling groves within our Order underwent a drastic upheaval resulting in the exodus of a majority of those novices and students who were considering becoming affiliated with our tradition. The reason for this frenzied flight from the group was their exposure to the celebration of the liturgy of the Grail Mass, the most potent and exalted liturgy of the Ordo Arcanorum Gradalis; but a liturgy nevertheless which includes three references to the Christ: once as “The Cosmic Christ”, once as “Jesus, the Suffering Servant”, and once as “The Crucified God.” For them, any reference to Jesus or the Christ sent chills of fear and apprehension down their spines.

Never mind that these references to the Christ were always interspersed among the names of the other dying and rising gods of ancient Paganism, Jesus simply being included in the liturgy as the culmination and ultimate synthesis of all that these gods represented in their highest attributes and mythic foreshadowings.

This underscores one thing unique to this tradition of the Grail Quest; we have not been afraid to incorporate within our rituals certain mystic aspects of the mythic Christ. The Ordo Arcanorum Gradalis is not anti-Christ or anti-Christian because we understand that in its proper esoteric context, Christianity is a relevant and valid path of the mysteries. (We are, however, totally at odds with the traditions, guilt-ridden shackles of the institutional Church and its narrow-minded dogmas.) This is one reason we have little difficulty in using the Grail mythos directly, despite its many over Christian trappings.

Modern Neo-Pagans generally seem to be very adept in assimilating pantheons, rituals and concepts from nearly every Western religious path except Christianity. This we find to be rather unobjectively prejudicial. While realizing that the Church has historically been both politically and socially intolerant during the eras of its greatest power, that can in no way invalidate the truths of timeless mysticism which it possesses in the inner resources of its spiritual vitality.

As a priesthood of the Grail, those within our Order can be just as comfortable with the Sun of Righteousness (Solar Hero/Christ) as we are with the Moon Maiden or Isis. It is just a matter of applying a truly Pagan eclecticism to what is valid and magickally helpful in Christianity as much as we do with all the other ancient faiths which
Neo-Pagans and Wiccans have so blatantly raided in order to retrieve the treasures of their spiritual mysteries for the enrichment of their own newly formed traditions.

Yet the fact of the matter remains that many within the ranks of Neo-Paganism and Wicca are downright afraid of Jesus Christ. No matter how hard the modern Craft revival movement may try, it cannot escape the shadow of the Cross which pervades the spirituality of Western culture. Nor should it attempt to do so.

As related in the above incident, many Neo-Pagans’ nerves get et on edge whenever the name of Jesus is mentioned; almost as if they would prefer to pretend that he doesn’t exist as a spiritual reality in our religious culture. Others even question the validity of anything within the pale of Christian mysticism.

Unfortunately, the anti-Christian bias of many individuals within the Craft is a symptom of their own unresolved conflicts and subsequent rebellion against the established Church of their upbringing.

Actually, a lot of these people have not delved deeply into the eclecticism of authentic, historic Paganism which would enable them to see the wisdom of embracing the positive and uplifting aspects of the Christian mysteries along with the sacred stories of other cultures and ancient religions of both past and present. Instead, they are still so busy running from the Church that they have not had the time to truly embrace either Wicca or Neo-Paganism for reasons independent of their religious rebellion against Christianity. It is obvious that some have come back to the Craft as a form of reactionism by which they are attempting to “get back at” the Church for all the hurt and unneeded guilt it has caused them in the past.

By becoming involved in what is considered by many to be a counter-cultural fringe religious sect, they are hoping to reek revenge upon the many uninformed Christians around them through the sheer shock-effect of announcing their identity as Witches, knowing all the while that they will be perceived as dastardly “servants of the Devil.” But we must keep in mind that if we are to ever truly grow spiritually, we must leave such negative motivations behind. Otherwise, many Wiccans and Neo-Pagans run the risk of degenerating into a perpetual, paranoid condition which can only be described as “Christophobia”.

Usually, this is symptomatic of their own inner confusion of the Christ with the authoritarian, hierarchical institution of our culture’s ecclesiastical establishment. It is essential for them to make a distinction between the personage, identity, and myth of the Christ as opposed to the later oppressive tyranny of the historical Church, if this religiously parochial condition is to be rectified in a positive manner.

The Christ is the most potent archetypal figure of Western history and religion. Those who consider themselves to be part of the Craft of the Wise cannot afford to ignore his power and influence, nor should they let their knee-jerk reactions against fundamentalist narrow-mindedness create an artificial barrier between the complements of Pagan and Christian truths.

Many Wiccans seem to be under the mistaken impression that in order to be a Witch or a Pagan, they must either renounce or greatly distance themselves from the Christ. This is totally fallacious. Gerald Gardner himself, the founder of modern Wicca, declared just the opposite:

It is usually said that to be made a witch one must abjure Christianity; this is not true; but
they naturally would not receive into their ranks anyone who was a very narrow Christian.
They do not think that the real Jesus was literally the Son of God, but are quite prepared to accept that he was one of the Enlightened Ones, or Holy Men. That is the reason why witches do not think they were hypocrites “in times of persecution” for going to church and honoring Christ, especially as so many of the old Sun-hero myths have been incorporated into Christianity; while others might bow to the Madonna, who is closely akin to their goddess of heaven.

Doreen Valiente, another pioneer in the modern Craft revival, even related that she knew of one Wiccan priestess who had a picture of Jesus in her private sanctuary because of the honor and esteem in which she held him.

Another witch, interviewed by Margot Adler in her book, went so far as to declare her belief that the Christ was an “avatar of the Great Mother–a Dionysus incarnation,” and she further stated her belief in the validity of the sacrificial character of the Mass,
even to the extent that she would occasionally attend church in order to partake of the body and blood of the risen god. This simply demonstrates that there are at least some within the Neo-Pagan and Wiccan communities who have attempted to come to terms with Jesus and his theological implications in their own personal walk of faith without resorting to negative reaction to anything that even hints at Christian influence. But, alas, they do, nevertheless, seem to be in the minority.

In perhaps one of the most well thought out, yet concisely expressed comments on the Christ/Craft issue, well-known author Alan Richardson has penned some words which should give Christophobic Neo-Pagans pause for thought:

It is a question, also, of whether we accept Jesus as the Son of God or a Son of Light. This in itself points out a peculiar advantage enjoyed by Pagans that not many of them realize: By regarding Jesus as a Son of Light–one of many–they can actually work with and appreciate much of the Christian Mystery Tradition while at the same time they never need to surrender their own pantheons. Christians, on the other hand, must necessarily accept the exclusivity of their God, and are forever denied the use of Pagan altars. It was because the followers of the Old Religion saw in the image of Jesus another example of a Divine King and Sacrificed God that they were quite happy to let the new religion put down roots…Jesus, as a Thorned God, was just one more in a long line of such beings.

For those purists who labor under the zealot-like conviction that for the Craft to be an authentic expression of the Old Religion it must never pollute its rites and ceremonies with anything of Christian religion, I would suggest a careful reading of Aidan Kelly’s latest contribution to the history of the origins of modern Wicca entitled Crating the Art of Magic, Book I. In it he proves how that nearly every ritual used by Gerald Gardner was taken directly from the grimoires of Judeo-Christian ceremonial magick; and only at a later time were the distinctly Christian elements of the conjurations deleted or revised. So we can see that even the so-called “Old Religion” (as Kelly observes in his
book, there is no concrete evidence that Wicca existed in any organized form prior to 1939) is greatly indebted to the influence and rituals of Christian occultism in the formation of its earliest Book of Shadows!

The identity of the real historical Jesus has both intrigued and obsessed scholars and theologians for centuries. But what is important from a contemporary Pagan perspective is to discern the difference between the dogmatic claims of the Church and the evidence of history regarding this greatest of all Hebrew teachers.

For fundamentalist Christians, the true identity of Jesus is easily solved by a simplistic application of Biblical “proof texts.” In their minds, Jesus can only be defined on the basis of the words attributed to him within the canonical gospels of the New Testament. This naive, uncritical acceptance of these traditional utterances of Jesus makes their “research” for the truth quite easy. The fundamentalist oversimplification rests upon the bedrock of these sayings’ assumed authenticity.

Building upon this shaky foundation, they begin their argument along the lines of an either/or approach: “Either Jesus was telling the truth about himself (as recorded in the Gospels), or else you must accuse him of being a liar!” From this line of reasoning they conclude that any words attributed to him in the New Testament can be used as proof of his divinity, his messiahship, and his supposed status as the only way-shower to salvation. Such a superficial approach totally neglects the problem of which sayings of Jesus recorded in the Gospels can be considered authentic from the standpoint of valid Biblical scholarship and responsible textual criticism.

Once authenticity has been established, then begins the job of adequately interpreting these sayings in light of the contemporary culture, society, and political atmosphere, as well as the religious climate of Jesus’ day. This involves a lot more than opening up the Bible and pointing to a selected passage to “prove” something about the identity or divine nature of Jesus!

From a more responsible approach, the historical Jesus has been variously interpreted by scholars as being a reform-minded rabbi whose teachings were based loosely upon the more liberal Pharisaical traditions of first-century Judaism. Others have seen him as an itinerant teacher who drew largely upon the mystical and magickal lore of the Essenes, Therapeuts, and other Egyptian esoteric sources.

Perhaps both are right in that Jesus was very possibly a charismatic character who combined the best of both religious sources into a uniquely attractive as well as controversial reform movement which threatened the complacency and entrenched political power of the Jewish rabbinical establishment, the ramifications of which eventually led to his crucifixion at the hands of Roman authorities.

Of course, many other theories about his life and death abound; some both fanciful and intriguing, including the one which asserts that Jesus did not die on the cross, but was revived and later traveled with Mary Magdalene and their child to the shores of southern France!

The fact of the matter is that we may never know the total truth. Contrary to the claims of the Church, Jesus was not some kind of omniscient demigod.
He made mistakes in both judgment and prophetic calculation. He never claimed to be omniscient. He made mistakes in judgment based upon the apocalyptic expectations of his day, assuming that he would return again in glory before the disciples had even finished preaching the Gospel in the surrounding towns of Israel!

He no doubt saw himself as the fulfillment of various prophetic expectations which had infected the populace like a religious fever, and as a result he left an indelible imprint upon both the religious history of the Jewish people and the Western world.
Yet, ironically, it would appear that Jesus’ vision of the extent of his personal ministry did not extend beyond the boundaries of Israel itself.

Jesus believed that some of his disciples would never die until his second return.
He further declared at his own trial to the Jewish High Priest that he would see him coming again in the clouds of heaven.

Needless to say, the High Priest died without ever witnessing such a return.

None of these observations are meant to belittle either the intelligence or the integrity of Jesus, but to establish that he was a product of his religious environment and had the same human limitations in judgment and foreknowledge as any other person. This, however, can in no way detract from the unique spiritual message which he conveyed in the course of his teaching ministry. Because of the inerasable imprint which he has made upon the history of the world through both word, deed, and the larger-than-life character of his dynamic personality, his followers understandably came to see in him the crystallization of a new composite image of the Deity which stressed the value and centrality of unconditional love (“For God so loved the world…”) as the undergirding foundation for all authentic religious experience and the definitive standard for genuinely transformative ethics in a New Age.

What was it, then, which made of this first-century rabbi/prophet/theurgist a worldwide Savior and incarnate God? To exhaustively pursue the involved path of this evolutionary development would be impossible here; others have more than adequately dealt with these religion-historical developments.

But suffice it to say that this was the result of an ongoing process of theological
mythologizing of bits and pieces of historical remembrances about Jesus into an interwoven tapestry of religious syncretistic thought which brought forth a new manifestation of the ancient Dying and Rising God, but this time in the form of Jesus Christ, Savior of the world.

From a modern Pagan perspective, the real identity of the historical Jesus is not as important as the subsequent mythical development around his personage as the Christ; an amalgam of Jewish, Hellenistic, and Pagan eschatological hope; the inheritor of all the previous myths of the solar, chthonic, and vegetative dying and rising goes which seemed to coalesce in Jesus as a fullness of all towards which the earlier gods had pointed; a manifestation of the Christ at the dawning of the Piscean Age.

It is not generally known that the earlier dying and rising gods of antiquity also functioned as literal Christs (i.e., anointed saviors) to their own devotees. The titles which most Christians consider to be unique to Jesus Christ were actually appropriated from these gods of earlier Pagan mystery cults.

Appellations of divinity such as Logos, Light of the World, Good Shepherd, True Vine, King of Kings, Bridegroom, and the Resurrection and the Life were all earlier devotional designations of Hermes, Mithra, Osiris, Dionysus, Attis, Adonis, Tammuz, and others. In point of fact, the composite image we have of the Christ in orthodox Church dogma is in reality not just a picture of the Jewish teacher from Galilee. It is, instead, a theological collage of the most enlightened and exalted of Pagan symbol and myth blended into the expectations of first century, apocalyptic Judaism which combined to produce the most awesome character of the mythic Christ.

To some extent and degree, he is a composite of all the earlier Pagan deities which preceded him but seemingly foreshadowed his appearance upon the stage of history. Interestingly enough, it was the intolerant and often unscrupulous Church which utilized the titles and sacred stories of these older gods to enhance the glory of their new successor, while at the same time condemning them as demonic entities!

The hypocrisy here was squarely upon the shoulders of the Church, not the Christ. Nearly
all of Christianity’s holidays were stolen directly from earlier Pagan seasonal celebrations. The seven sacraments of the Church were patterned to some degree after the seven sacraments of Mithraism.

The vestments and miters and other adornments of the Christian priests were borrowed from the pre-existing Pagan Mystery religions. Even the central Mystery of the Christian religion–the Mass–was developed from earlier Pagan Eucharistic precedents.
Is it any wonder that a well-known Anglican priest frankly admitted that Christianity was merely a manifestation of reformed Paganism with just enough intolerance to give it a bad name?

It is also important that we not forget the influence of the Gnostics within the early Church, for they brought with their beliefs a blend of Pagan and Hellenistic theology which inspired the writing of many non-canonical gospels which were considered subversive by the hierarchy of the early Church, but which some scholars believe contain original sayings of Jesus which were never allowed to surface in the later accepted Gospels of the New Testament due to their controversial implications.

The Gnostics had no problem incorporating the concept of the Christ into their larger spiritual cosmology, which often included different orders of celestial beings (gods and angels), as well as a focus upon the Divine Feminine.

In short, it is the Gnostics who give us an example of how contemporary Pagan theology can comfortably integrate the highest of the archetypal images and insights of the Christ within its own eclectic system of belief without compromising its integrity or its polytheism.

According to the teachings of the Ordo Arcanorum Gradalis, even the traditions of the Holy Grail–the central focus of our spiritual Quest–are incomplete without the mysticism of the Christ which permeates and superimposes upon the earlier Celtic context of its original derivation in the mysteries of arcane lore. What is more, the entire Western Mystery Tradition would only be a shell devoid of any sense of substantial fullness apart from the richness of esoteric Christianity which has infused it over the centuries with precious treasures of spiritual insight and aspiration.

As practitioners of the Craft, we have nothing to fear from the Christ. He, together with his apostles, consisted of a coven of thirteen He was careful as a guardian of the mysteries not to divulge the secrets of his teachings to the uninitiated, but only to the inner circle of his disciples.

He employed the techniques of divine magick for the healing and betterment of others. He aggressively lashed out against the hypocritical religious establishment of his day.

He recognized the handiwork of Deity in even the most seemingly insignificant beauties of Nature.

He shunned the self-righteous asceticism of religious piety in favor of eating, drinking, and celebrating the joys of life with the common people most in need of his message of hope.

He instituted mystical rites designed to enhance our oneness with the Deity.
Like Tammuz, he died. Like Osiris, he descended into the realms of the dead. Like Attis, he rose again, and like Mithra, he ascended into the light of the glorious immortals. For modern Pagans to refrain from embracing at least a celebratory recognition
of his ageless significance would be to simultaneously disgrace all the previous gods of Pagan antiquity who, through the process of theological evolution, were themselves assimilated into the composite mystery which is the Christ.

Live Triumphantly

This Solar year has begun with a great many sudden changes affecting our lives here in The Temple of Ishtar. They began really with the sudden death of my brother in a traffic accident, on the heals of that It fell to me to do the bereavement counseling of the family, assist my sister-in-law in making the funeral preparations and officiating at the funeral and graveside service. I had just began making adjustments to his absence myself and getting back to mundaneia, as I got back to finishing putting a Paranormal course together for The Interfaith Seminary, when I was informed that a friend and part-time neighbor was in critical condition with liver failure. later that same morning I was informed that my paternal uncle who was living in Ohio died the night before from complications of COPD, the same disease that my father died of and that I have myself. And this morning I was told that my neighbor died last night.

As I went on with my role as counselor and officiant for my little brother, a few members of the rest of the family were concerned that I would be unable to do it, but I found the strength in my faith and called upon my reserves.

Writing those words reminds me of the time when Winston Churchill visited France in the dark days before the fall of the French Republic. Churchill held a conference with the French Generals,, and in characteristic Churchill fashion he went right to the heart of the matter. “Where are your reserves?” he asked. They answered, “We have no reserves.” And that of course was one of the major reasons for the tragic collapse of France; She had no reserves.

These are trying times, not only for me but for everyone. And anyone who is to meet these trying times without crumbling before the battering assaults of confusion and frustration, of tragedy and trouble, which characterize so much of our world today, had better face realistically the fact that this truth about reserves applies to our individual spiritual lives as much as it does to the military concerns of nations.

No one can live triumphantly in the present world without constantly being confronted by one crisis after another after yet another, which will beat you down and strip you of all that you are, unless you can find the fresh strength to throw at a critical moment. Meeting the challenges we face often calls for us to reach down and find those inner resources to successfully deal with a dark hour, day or period in our lives. You must then rely upon your reserves. Reserves gained by cultivating a strong character, and purposeful living which connects us to the Spiritual Power we can call forth and use in trying times.

To do this you need to become aware of the divine presence in your lives. Listen to that inner voice that will help to guide you as you travel through that morass in darkness. For many of our darkest battles are won by listening to that guidance, but only if we are connected to Spirit. It matters not what you call it, you only need to recognize it, and connect with it, and have the faith that by the strength of your connection that you will be able to overcome any obstacle or any challenge or any hardship you will meet as you walk your path through life. Only then will you find the spiritual reinforcements there to strengthen you in times of need.

I have seen many deal with hardship by trying not to face it. They run away and hide in a bottle or in a drug-induced stupor. Many is the time I have seen people try to numb their pain with drugs and alcohol only to find that the pain just gets worse as they use more and more of the self-administered pain-killer. The threads of their lives continue to unravel and they are powerless to do anything about it and they find themselves going deeper and deeper into the darkness of pain and despair. Those people are disconnected from their spiritual selves. They have no faith in anything, anyone or in their own ability to cope and life gets progressively more and more difficult for them, and finally they arrive at a point where stripped of everything, they have the choice of either dying, or reconnecting to the divine and immortal spirit within and without each and every one of us.

Those who turn and face their hardships and life challenges head on, triumph over challenges, and obstacles and setbacks as they face and work through their pain, simply because, they are connected to Spirit and they have faith in their choice of Divinity that things will get better, and they always do. And even though they suffer setback after setback and pain and loss upon pain and loss, their connection to Spirit gives them the strength they need to face anything life may throw at them.

You can call this experience by any name you wish, mysticism, illusion, delusion, wishful thinking, or whatever. But no reasonable person can deny that such a connection is a trivial thing in the lives of those who are connected, and engaged in the battlefield of living. For when you have that total sense of “being” coupled with the awareness that there is something greater, it prepares you for the challenges of life.

Going a step farther, if you were to possess the spiritual quality and quantity of the spiritual reserves that may be depended upon to help you through any hardship or emergency; to ensure that your whole world does not collapse around you causing you to feel that your life has been futile and meaningless, you must be able to bring forth the spiritual resources which come from a well cultivated sense of moral and intellectual serenity.

There are many ways to secure the needed balance and serenity. Many of those I have discussed in My book. The Wiccan Minister’s Manual, a Guide For Priests and Priestesses” How to help others achieve the same level in their lives was a part of the Pagan Clergy Course I recently compiled for the Interfaith Seminary. Granted that some people are able to do this by going into the woods or among the hills or beside the sea. Others may achieve the same thing through meditation and prayer. Some do a combination of these, and engage in meditation and prayer if not daily then at least several times each and every week, and they consciously draw upon spiritual sources of strength and peace.

Learning how to tap into the spiritual waters of life especially in times of adversity is the key to meeting any difficulty one may face. And therein is the task to FACE them, not runaway and hide, but to stand your ground and face the reality before you as you tap into those spiritual waters of life, which will strengthen and empower you to deal with crisis, emergencies, hardship and anything and everything life may challenge you with.

But in order to live in serenity, you must also make the most of every opportunity, and not waste your time in letting the useless, insignificant events, and irrelevant associations, to continue to be a constant source of worry. Those minor annoyances will wear you down if you let them, as they bleed off your strength and distract you from the greater mission you have in life. The reason you are here, your life’s purpose.

Our religious faith both assures and reassures us. And it is through the strength of our faith that we also find the strength of our connection to Spirit and the face of the Divinity, which we embrace. May your guides and Gods grant you the strength to change that which you may, the serenity to accept that which you cannot, and the wisdom to know the difference.

and the beat goes on

Those of you who have been following this blog are aware the the year 2009 ended with the tragic death of my little brother. But over-all 2009 was a good year with many profound changes. Not surprising really since 2009 was an “11″ year. This year, 2010 is a “3″ year which will continue a lot of those changes, but on a more positive note.

Death happens, but life goes on. So even though I am still doing some bereavement counseling as the family adjusts to the lose we have endured, I have gotten back to doing a bit of writing. The last project I finished up was a Paranormal Course for the Interfaith Seminary of The Church of Seven Planes And just before my brother died, I had submitted a 12-lesson course on Celtic Wicca to the Seminary, which was accepted and is now listed in their curriculum. The next project.. well I have a couple in mind. One of these was to work on a Pagan Clergy course based upon my three books. I had started to do this one some time back before the last book came out, but I never finished it. I thought that I would offer the course free to groups and those who purchased a copy of all three of my books from my website. But I will need to complete it first. Another thing I am considering is in drawing up a lesson plan centered around my latest book, “The Pagan Clergy’s Guide…” Another project I would like to get back to is working on my 4th book, details of which I’ll withhold for the time being.

Other changes.. well I received a Diploma from the Church Seminary, recognizing my self education achievements. Those achievements included my studies in Pastoral Counseling, the Paranormal, and Wiccan Religious studies, I have now held a Doctorate from the Church since .. when was it?? I think the year 2000, I could go & look it up but am too lazy to do so at present. So in addition to becoming a Bishop of the Church of Seven Planes, I also became a Professor of the Interfaith Seminary.. Rt Rev’d, & Prof. Gardner PhD. Jeez.. any more titles added to it and it will take a paragraph to write my name. But Lady S. is also accumulating titles, not only does she also have a Doctorate, she is also a Monsignor of The Church. So anyway.. I guess it is official now, I am a smartass.. LOL!

Paranormal activity is also up. This month alone I have received 3 reports of Paranormal sightings. All of which were reported to me by the witnesses as being Demonic entities. Two of these I know for a fact were dis-incarnate humans, one manifested to give a warning to the witness, the other was your typical house ghost. The third.. I don’t know yet and will not be able to investigate, but it was reported that the entity spoke in Latin. Most certainty odd, but not a definite indication of being in anyway demonic… I thought, maybe it was just Catholic.. LOL!

A final change was that we won the 2nd prize in a sweepstakes put on by a local car dealership. An $1,100 shopping spree. We don’t need the merchandise, and we cannot cash it in, which is too bad because we really could use the money for Dr. bills and groceries. Since I have COPD and cannot work, nor can I get disability, my only income is a few dollars from royalties. (rich author is quite the oxymoron.. (try living on $200 every three months.) So we listed it on an auction on eBay starting at 50 cents on the dollar. It would be nice if someone bought the certificate. It would really help on paying off some medical bills and for prescriptions. It sucks being sick all the time… But I do what I can.

The economy still is in the toilet, we are still sending our young men and women off to war. The politicians are long on promises and short on delivery, so situation normal, full speed ahead. 2010 looks to be an exciting year.

The Great XP-W7 Adventure

As some of you have read on my Facebook page, we just up-graded to W-7. Well in all things it has a bit of a story behind it. Santa brought me a new laptop this year with Windows Vista. Like anyone who used Vista, it didn’t take long for me to figure out that XP was a better Op. Thankfully this one also was eligible for a free up-grade. So I went to the HP site and filled out the necessary info and they sent the free CD to me to upgrade the system to W-7. Our Desktop came with an 80 GB hard drive and 1 GB memory, well last year it ran out of memory, so we installed two – 2 GB memory chips. Back then Dell recommended that we install a bigger hard drive also. Well since we had the new W-7 upgrade on the way, I talked to Tech support and they said that with the new 500 GB hard drive that we could up-grade to W-7 and it would compete with anything currently on the market, so that’s what we did and it was a lot cheaper than buying a new computer.

Hard drive installed, I installed the W-7 Op system then to save some time I had previously saved all of the installation programs from XP .. antivirus, website builder, etc etc. The problem was that none of those worked on the W-7 Op.

I was surprised however that I didn’t need to install the software to get online, W-7 figured that all out on its own. With the highspeed connection going it didn’t take a week to up-load everything, I managed to get most of it on in about 4 hours. The next day there were some additional programs we had on the XP OP that I finished downloading, plus as our Microsoft Word suit is over 11 years old when I stumbled across the new sun systems FREE program equivalent to Microsoft Office.. (openoffice.org) I added that. I have not used it yet, but it certainty looks promising to a person who does a lot of writing.

When trying to install the printer software, I found out it was not compatible with W-7, so I had to download the new version 385MB from the net. Once installed the printer works. Plus we got the new Photo program that came with it.

With pretty much everything back on, I began adding my stuff from the old documents file. Erased the “sample music” from the Media player and added my own.. well the speakers though plugged in and turned on could not be located by W-7. This morning I found a link to install the proper drivers and I can now listen to my CD’s & music file again while I work. So if anyone needs the link for the site to download the driver, here it is;

this is the direct link for vista driver/Windows 7:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=24&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false

I downloaded the third one, then unzipped the folder and clicked on setup. There is actually a ‘read me’ in the folder so just follow the instruction and it should solve the problem.

If the link above doesn’t work for you then you can try this link instead:

http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/searchView.aspx?keyword=driver

and then go to ‘High Definition Audio Codecs (Software)’

So far I can tell you that I like W-7 much better than Vista. It turns on and shuts down faster than XP or Vista. Pages load faster too. It is also more intuitive than XP was. Maybe this time Microsoft did something right for a change.

Blessings!
K