My Religion PageI believe that the divine is in everything. I try to contact it from within myself, and through various Gods, through my surroundings, and through other people and animals. For census purposes, I'm a pagan.
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Here are a few books I like:
Various religious texts
An update from 2000: As usual, I'm reading up on lots of different religions. I looked at the KJB the other day, but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I kept wondering what that would say in Hebrew or Greek, in a good edition.
What I Did On My HolidaysSamhain: May 1st, 2002I bought the candles last Sunday: red, cherry-scented. I decided on the night to clear off my altar to give them some room (and reduce the risk of fire). My altar is also known as the corner of my desk. I put the cherry red candles on my candle-holders, and put a little red taper in front of them, and used it to light them.Dinner was curried rice and vegetables: cabbage and silverbeet. It was nicer than it sounded. A bowl for me and a plate for my dead, with seperate spoons. I invited the rats to help me eat it. Well, they were welcome to eat mine anyway, but I invited them to help me in the ritual, by eating for the dead. This year, the dead were my best friend's mother, my family's cat, list-sib Jamie, and my grandmother. With each spoonful, I said a memory for one of them. After I finished the dead plate (interrupted to get up and gently shoo the rats away from the naked flame) I sat for a little while, remembering them and trying to welcome them, then grounded and turned the light back on (and blew out the candles.) Oh, and thanked the rats for their help. It felt very nice, but not very magical. I guess there's more than one sort of magic. But it didn't seem to have much to do with working or religion - I sure wasn't thinking about a Goddess or a God - Y'know, that's possibly how I should have ended it. I should have said "Thou art God." Thank you. That's the transformation. :-) It's done now, and it'll be there next year.
Yole: Winter Solstice, 21st June, 2002.Yole was so full of pictures that it got its own page. "Let your reverence be tempered with mirth" pretty well describes how I celebrated it this year.
Imbolc: August 1st, 2002I did celebrate it, really I did. I drank soy-milk and cleaned my room... a couple of days late. Weeks. And I lit the candles every night for a week afterwards, which I've now started doing every holiday.
Vernal Equinox: September 21, 2002I don't like calling it Ostara. It reminds me of the Nazis. It's not pagans' fault that they appropriated innocent symbols, but I just don't like the connotations.I lit yellow, lemon-scented candles, and switched toothbrushes. I've discovered that the quarters and cross-quarters of the year make a handy way to remember when to do things. So I think I'll get a new toothbrush on each quarter, and give blood on the cross-quarters.
Beltane: October 31, 2002I bought raspberry-scented candles, and forgot to light them that night. I'm lighting them now, every night. It saves candles as well as making the holiday spirit go further. That night I had my first haircut in ten years. For private reasons, that fits the category of union to me. Also, I had a bath with the light switched off, and scented floating candles on each corner of the bath, and felt the night. Oh yeah, and had a good dinner. I'd better make an appointment to give blood.
Midsummer: December 21, 2002Not much to report. I missed it on the day, and lit yellow candles after.
Lughnasad: February 1, 2003Usually I refer to this holiday as Lammas, but this year I focused a bit more closely on Lugh.I lit four yellow candles in my window, with a purple on in the middle because I might as well use it. I sang Lugh Strike Your Spear and read the meditation on Lugh's Crossing in Starhawk and M. Macha Nightmare's The Pagan Book of Living and Dying, then lay back and looked at the candles and made my own meditation. I named all the things I could think of about summer, then all the things I could think of that I hoped for for autumn, then I lifted up each rat in turn and showed them the candles (my windowsill is one of the few places in my bedroom completely out of their reach) and told them to say goodbye to summer and that it'd be around again next year, said so mote it be, and blew out the candles. I realised after I'd closed the ritual that I hadn't even thought of Oz, or of including him in the ritual. He's *dead*. I'll set a place for him at Samhain, and have a good cuddle, but last Samhain he and Vlad and Francis and I were the celebrants, and this year he'll be a guest of honour. So yeah, it stung a bit that I forgot him.
Religious Rants
Who the fuhq painted the Goddess pastel?And if I see one more wiccan book trying to suggest that [insert God or Goddess] is a harmless lunar/solar/fire/etc deity, and that Kuan Yin and Selene are interchangable in rituals because they're both lunar Goddesses (*was* Kuan Yin lunar? I don't even know. She's the Goddess of Mercy, which is a good thing in these circumstances) I shall throw it across the room.Who the fuhq gave anyone the idea that Greek/Roman insert pantheon here Gods or for that matter humans were *harmless*? Or nice? Or concerned with everybody's wellbeing? They *might* be concerned with yours. Or they might be your worst enemy. Yes, Athene was concerned with Odysseus's wellbeing, for example. Does it occur to anybody that this meant she was *against* his enemies? Or that *Poseidon* was against Odysseus? And that this doesn't mean he was evil, or misinterpreted, but that they were on DIFFERENT SIDES? That someone else is *opposed* to you does not make them evil. And who turned the Goddess pastel and surrounded her with Victorian fairies, anyway? Maybe the same person who thought that "An it harm none, do as ye will" meant 'I'm not actually going to start taking responsibility for my actions, but I will assume that the Goddess's being good means the Goddess is a gutless wimp with big hair, eye makeup and a watered down version of Christianity (without, for example, the fire and brimstone). I will ignore the fact that giving birth to the world actually implies not only the strength to give birth to something that big but also that its dark side is part of her too.' What the fuhq is this *harmless* concept, anyway? Yes, the Gods are good, in the same way that life is good, and gravity is good and lightening is good. In other words, subject to interpretation and depending on where you're standing. I'd like to point out that I don't think *Wicca* is about this, just certain (usually teenage) Wiccans. I don't think it's *wrong*, in the sense of immoral or anti-historical (well, it doesn't square with what history we have of the ancient Gods, but that may not be the point of any one person's religion, and it's their choice). I just think it's a bad fashion statement. "Use what works for you" is a good rule, but in the same way that reading bad fanfic gives me a nasty insight into the author's personality, seeing "what works for somebody" who has a total disregard for the nature of the Gods they're working with gives me an unpleasant insight into their personality. But of course, that's their choice.
Census Night (Tuesday 7th August 2001, Australia)Hmm, there was some little controversy about the religion question, wasn't there. I enjoy census night. I wrote down the truth as knew it, comfortably striking out the brackets with one hand, and eating date rolls with the other, trying not to get crumbs on the census paper, and I stated my religion as "paganism". Incidentally, I note that most of the Christian religions were given as adjectives - Presbytarian, Methodist, but most of the non-Christian religions (the ones mentioned at all) were given as nouns - Islam, Buddhism.I had no desire to be a Jedi knight - it doesn't agree with my religion. But the reaction of the census officials raised interesting questions about what a religion is. In particular, according to The Age, Mr Struik said that to be recognised as a religion, a formal organisational structure with a belief system must be demonstrated. I don't like that. Not that I feel the need to have my religion officially recognised. Unless... anyone know if the Equal Opportunity Commission requires a religion to be recognised for people to be discriminated against for belonging to it? No, it couldn't. What about atheists? (quick check) They protect "lawful religious activity," and also people not engaging in a lawful religious activity. I'll assume that lawful means "not illegal," not "officially recognised," (e.g. you can't torture animals or practise cannibalism in the name of your religion). In practice, of course, the courts are going to be more sympathetic to religions they know and understand. That was a digression. But I'd feel easier in my mind about the census if Mr Struik had said "For the purposes of the census, to be categorised as a seperate religion, a formal organisational structure with a belief system must be demonstrated." Then it'd just be one of those stupid injustices of the census definitions, not a dangerous precedent. For instance, they only ask what transport you take if you're employed, and this information goes to the government to help them plan roads - I mean plan appropriate transport - screw that, I mean plan roads. They don't ask about unemployed people and full-time students - who are much more likely to take public transport than full-time workers, and who also vote. As it is, it's a precedent. One of these things where, well, Mr Struik says a religion has to have a formal organisational structure with a belief system (and to demonstrate it - I'm reminded of Grant Morrison's comment about proving magic exists!) and he should know. Bah. I know I'm not the only religious person to be mildly allergic to organised religion. Part of my religion says (no, that's the point. My religion can't talk to other people. I say - ) that I don't let other people make religious decisions for me. Religion is too important for that. That's one of the bits I got from Wicca - personal responsibility is a big part of "an it harm none, do as ye will," the way I learned it. I'm prepared (sometimes) to submit to my God(s), but I'm darned if I'm going to submit to their hierarchy of followers too. I wonder how Mary and Joseph felt about their census. I wonder what questions the Romans asked, or if it was just a quick head-count, and if they even bothered to go to the stable for answers - or did the citizens have to present themselves in person? Whether or not they asked questions about religion, it would not have been an easy experience, members of a minority culture in the Roman Empire.
Queers and ChristiansHere's a link about [Christianity and homosexuality]. I like this one - it's very balanced. I also recommend "What the Bible says about Homosexuality," and John Boswell's "The Marriage of Likeness." I've left this here because for years I've meant to write a rant on queer/Christian issues, and it just hasn't come. Which says something in itself.
I'm not sure if I believe in the threefold law*Hums "Losing my religion"*One, I'm not a Wiccan, so I don't have to - that is, it's not an integral part of my belief system. But I'm just not sure. Two, I'm not very happy with the whole teaching of "bad people get punished," or even the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." I think people should refrain from harming other people because they care for other people too, and I don't think what you'd like is a good guide for what other people would like. But that's not why I'm suddenly uneasy about the threefold rule (glossary: the threefold law states that anything you send out will return to you threefold). I was reading the alt.magick faq, not one of my usual pastimes, and it shook loose some of what I think about magic. I think nature's got rules (LaurieAnderson earworm: and nature's got laws, and if you cross her, look out, it's the Monkey's Paw. /LaurieAnderson), and magic follows them. I think it can step outside what is normal and (especially) what is measurable, but you can't get something for nothing. What really make me go "Huh?" was the second law of thermodynamics, though. And I'll continue this rant/ponder later, because I have homework, and besides, I just discovered whole long threads/flame wars on this subject on usenet, archived at [Deja Goo].
This unicorn is in honour of the stereotype that pagans are sissy, flowers and unicorns people who need a REAL religion. A 'real' religion, I imagine, involves eternal damnation for disobeying the rules, which are interpreted by a committee of humans. Sorry, nope. The picture's from [Clip Art Castle], by the way. Up to top.
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