An Open Letter to Writers

Hello writers of the world,

Earlier this week I was struggling to think of a blog idea, so I grab one of the writing prompts my lovely life mate has made for me.  It was to write an open letter to writers and encourage you.  I recognize that I might not be the most qualified person in the world to write this, however I'm going to.  This is because if even one thing I say helps someone write with more passion and creativity, if it helps them do what they love for the rest of their lives, if it helps them move forward with their career, then it will be worth it.

So hello all of you wonderful writers out there.  I do mean wonderful when I say that, because writing is wonderful and awesome and difficult.  I know that sometimes you feel discouraged or angry or blocked.  So here are some pieces of advice and encouragement.

One of the best ways to get better as a writer is to experience writing.  Just like you get better at anything by learning from others who have done it before you, you can get a lot better by reading and critiquing writing.  All kinds of writing, fiction, non fiction, newspapers, whatever.  Read it and critique it, look at their sentence structure and word choice.  Pay attention to how the use grammar and language to evoke emotions and thoughts.  However, this doesn't end at reading.  You can also watch movies, listen to music, or watch t.v.  Roughly eight five percent of our entertainment is a form of writing.  Keep a journal of phrases that sound good or catch your eye and try to understand why they stick out for you.  Understanding others writing will help you build your own.

Learn by doing, never stop writing.  Write things that suck and things that are great and everything in between.  Write things that interest you and things that bore and pay attention to how your word choice and sentence structure changes.

Here's a piece of advice that may sounds strange, but stay with me.  Take acting classes.  This serves a twofold purpose.  First, it will help you to hear and feel the sound of good words put greatly.  Second, it will help you get inspiration to act out the great works of writing because it will help you to think of why the characters act the way they do and why the characters are built the way they are.

Also, try playing table top RPG's.  I know that sounds weird, but it really does help to explore how stories are built and character motivations.  Also, it's just a blast.  I can play table top games and relax and come home ready to write the night away.

Play music, or learn an instrument.  All creativity is based in the same part of the brain, so it makes sense that if you are creative in one way it will help other forms of creativity.  It will also help you get through creative blocks.  This really applies to any form of creativity, from music to stand up.

Don't be afraid to share you're writing, or rather share it despite being afraid.  The input from others can help a lot.  It also prepares you for the fact that not everyone is going to like what you write.  While this may seem disheartening, you should in fact be excited about this.  Because if everyone did like your writing there would be a serious lack of individuality in the world, and individuality fuels writing.

Lastly, realize that being writer is not for the weak willed or faint of heart.  The act of being a writer, of constantly experiencing life and sharing those experiences in one way or another is a terrifying one that can leave you drained.  That said it is so worth it.  It is amazingly rewarding and fulfilling.

Keep on writing folks.

Family V.S. Relatives

Hey all, I know I've missed a few posts.  However, I have a good reason, I swear!  It was partially caused by finals, which were ridiculous, but I pulled through okay.  It was mostly caused by my car.  My car is a 1992 Ford Explorer, and honestly she's a great vehicle.  22 years old and still starts every time, stops on a dime, and gets me where I need to go is my definition of a great vehicle apparently, but I digress.

Last week I decided to do an oil change on my vehicle, something I am no stranger to.  So I picked up all the necessary parts and my buddy Ian was kind enough to offer his driveway so I could have a stable, level, legal place to preform said oil change.  Everything went wonderfully until I realized I couldn't get the drain plug back in the drain.  I suddenly remembered that a few years ago the drain plug had become so stripped that it needed to be drilled out of the oil pan, causing the drain to be significantly wider than Ford originally intended it to be.  After hours of tweaking and trying with one solution or another, Ian and I finally decided to measure the hole and buy an appropriately sized bolt to go in the drain.  This resulted in us cutting down a six inch long, 5/8th of an inch wide bolt to two inches long.  It's ugly, but it works.  Maybe I'll post a picture for you folks one day.


On to the main content of this post.  I have a weird definition of family, which may upset some folks, but I want to talk about it.  I don't view family as being related by blood, although that can definitely play a role in family it is not the sole deciding factor.  People you're related to by blood, but who are not family, are called relatives in my world.

Family is the people that make you feel like you belong.  They love you despite of and partially because of your strange quirks and flaws.  They are always willing to talk to you and figure out exactly what you meant by that odd comment or possibly racist remark because they know you're a good person and want to make sure you know that you sounded like an idiot or racist.  Their honest, and kind, and loving.  They watch out for you and are always there for you, no matter what happens.  They will never judge you too harshly, but will always be vocal about their opinions of what you're doing while making sure you feel safe and loved.  Our families are our first and harshest critics, but they are harsh out of love and a desire to see us grow.  They resist the urge to be passive aggressive, because that will only cause pain.

Relatives don't do any of these things, or they may do some of these things but not all.  Relatives are people you're related to by blood, but for one reason or another, don't know very well.  I will lay down my life, my well being, and my soul for my family,  I will only help relatives within reason.

Long story short, I love my family.  I even like to majority of my relatives.  That said, if you're not family but a relative, don't expect too much from me.  I try to give all of my relatives a chance to become family, and if you've burnt that bridge it's hard to get back.  It's not that I don't like you, or that I think you're a bad person, it's that you're not family.

H is for High Magic

First off, a disclaimer.  This is not intended to mock or offend high magicians.  I was a practicing high magician for years and years, and it's a fantastic segue into magic.  Moving on.

High magic, sometimes more aptly called ceremonial magic, is traditional spell casting and occultism at it's finest and most high point.  People clad in robes with deep cowls and masks, candles, chalk outlines, a sack full of ritual gear, and everything in it's proper place or may the Gods help you.

This is fantastic for seekers or initiates, because it gives the conscious mind precisely what is expected.  By doing this it placates the conscious and allows the subconscious to work the true deep magic of the world by creating an atmosphere of magic.  Simply put, it puts you in a magical state of mind.

However, what does this do for the experienced magician?  For the magician where magic is more science than faith, the magician that lives a holistic life where the magical and the mundane are not separate,  where conscious and unconscious intermingle at will, the magician that has forsaken the comforting illusions of separation?  For us, these extra tools are useful, but no longer necessary.

Almost any experienced magician or witch or what have you will tell you the same thing.  These tools are fantastic for creating the right state of mind, but once you can do so without them they become unnecessary. They will tell you that the theories and trappings of high magic are useful, and that it is a wonderful starting point.  However, there comes a point in your path where you must let go of what has aided your ascent heretofore in order to climb ever higher.  What was once helpful, held on to far too fiercely, becomes stagnant dead weight that will drag you down.

Until next time,

May the stars guide you, the moon guard you, and your heart lead you home.

Living a life full of respect and devoid of fear

First off I need to apologize, I know that's lame, but I was quite sick yesterday, and decided sleeping and getting better was more important than getting a blog post out on time.  So, there's my apology and now on to more awesome things.

This might come as a shock to many of you, but I like to read.  I like to read a lot.  In fact, there is very little on this earth I enjoy doing more than reading.  I'll read anything, poetry, fiction, prose, non-fiction, newspapers, blog posts.  If it has good rhythm and an at least perfunctory attempt at good grammar and a reasonable story to tell you can find me reading it.  This is because I love stories, I feel like stories are one of the only ways to really experience what it is to be human.

In many of the stories I read I encounter a recurring theme.  That theme is the triumph over fear.  Sometimes the fear is ordinary, like a fear of heights, sometimes it's a magical fear that flows from a being or an object, and sometimes it's a completely irrational fear, like a fear of clowns.  This is good, because knowing what a person is afraid of is a great way to understand that person.  It won't give you the full picture, but it will tell you a lot.  That being said, fear is an emotion that destroys rational thought and thereby destroys that which makes us human.  It is natural to fear, but to fear to fall is just as bad as falling if in a different way.

Respect, on the other hand, goes hand in hand with what makes us human.  To respect something, to understand that it can destroy you and to treat it properly, is how we grow as human beings.  You cannot fear something you respect, because to truly fear something you can't understand it, and to truly respect something you must understand it, at least cursorily.

To live a life without fear is to live your life fully.  This is not to say we shouldn't respect the power of things.  I respect the lightning, I respect heights, I respect bears, but I do not fear these things.  I am in the process of replacing fear with respect, and now I have two fears left.  The point is, it is possible to live a life full of respect and without fear.  Difficult, but possible.

I will keep my two fears to myself. They're both major fears, and understandable from a certain standpoint, but they are also silly. On top of that, they are mine, not yours. I would not ask you to publicly bear your fears to the world. I have every confidence I will overcome them, and I will live my life without regrets, so that when I die I may pass from this plane with peace in my mind, joy in my heart, and a smile on my lips.

See you folks Friday. Until then, may the stars guard you, the moon guide you, and the wind be always at your back.

H is the beginning of Holistic living

So by now most if not all of us have heard of this cool thing called holistic healing.  If you haven't, it's basically the idea that in order to treat any ailment you must treat the root cause, the spiritual or energetic problems that have arisen, and the symptoms of the ailment.  It's become really big in the U.S. at the bare minimum and I assume it's either become or is in the process of becoming really big in the rest of the world too, particularly because there's actually all sorts of research and evidence supporting holistic healing or, to use the technical term, complementary and alternative medicine.

However, that's just a small part of what I wanted to write about today.  The bigger part is holistic living, or living your life as a whole.  I know from my studies of magic that in order for magic to work effectively we need to keep it separated from the mundane, for the mundane mind works constantly against that which it cannot see, feel, or measure, and sometimes works against that which it can.  Despite the fact that magic has observable results and is a method of probability enhancement our mundane or conscious mind is still confused and baffled by it, which causes self doubt, which undermines our workings. Their are two solutions to this.  You can either separate all parts of your life into the mundane and the magical, or you can live holistically.

To live holistically is to see the connections in all things.  To realize that the physical and the spiritual, the mundane and the magical, the seen and the unseen, are not separate.  To realize that separation is an illusion made by society to keep order, and accepted by your conscious mind in order to survive.  It is to walk everyday in magic and the glory of the Gods.  To hear and speak with the spirits, to live your life fully, in constant contact with all aspects of the world around you, spiritual, magical, societal, and mundane.

This is not to say that you must shout your faith from the rooftops, nor that you must seclude yourself from society. Both of these would not be living holistically, for they would prioritize one over the other.  This is instead to say that you must balance all things in your life constantly.  That life must become a constant adventure, a constant striving for balance.

To live holistically is to live a life full of understanding, strength, rage, acceptance, compassion, love, kindness, selfishness and selflessness.  It is to recognize that all of these things, and more, are part of life.  To recognize that the spiritual and the societal are equal parts of life.  It is to erase distinction, and to live in harmony with your self and others, and to destroy those that seek to upset that harmony.

Once again, just my opinion.  Is this the right way to live for all people?  Probably not.  Is it the right way for me to live?  Yes.  Is it a good way to live?  I think so, but good is a highly subjective term, just like evil or bad or holy.

See ya folks.

May the stars guide you, the moon guard you, and your heart find peace.

G stands for Grey Magic

So today I wanted to talk to everyone about grey magic.  Not just grey magic in general though, that would be boring and impersonal.  No, I want to talk about what I mean when I say I'm a grey witch, and what grey magic is to me.

Now, the definition I've found in my research says that grey magic is beneficial magic that doesn't seek the permission of the beneficiary before it is cast.  According to this reiki could be conceivably considered grey magic.  That being said, that's not how I define grey magic.  Not to say that their definition is wrong, because it isn't, but it's most certainly theirs and doesn't fit with my path or my system.

So, if we accept that magic is a force and a tool, and is neither boon nor harm but may be used to bless or curse, then we can classify white magic as magic that causes beneficial effects.  Therefore black magic is magic that causes harm.

But what is grey magic then?  Does it do neither?  Gods no, if it did neither it would do nothing, seeing as every action we take, even in magic, has an intended affect and usually some side effects.  Then what is it?  Why do I have a definition for it?

Well these definitions are really just there to provide easy little check boxes on the forms we use to define ourselves and our craft.  Therefore, they lack quite a lot of subtlety and gloss over a lot of important questions, like the why and how are you casting for instance.

In my practice grey magic means magic that follows the laws of balance.  I'm a firm believer that one can discern the law of karma if one can find the proper meditative state.  I also believe that any spell work that is meant to preform justice or to give what people deserve will fizzle or backfire if it isn't karmically deserved.  So by calling myself a grey witch, what I mean is that I strive in my daily life to uphold balance and justice and honor in all my dealings, particularly in my spell work.  This requires a lot of discipline, self introspection, and meditation to truly follow, because if you act solely on your instincts you are extremely likely to upset the balance and that will get you into some deep trouble.

Please don't argue with me on this, it's my personal practice and definition, and my mind is closed on this matter because it is true to me, although it may not be true to you.  Arguing with someone who has closed their mind is only slightly more frustrating than arguing with a brick.  That's assuming bricks don't speak to you, I don't know your path or training, but you get the idea.

Until next time folks,  may the stars guard you, the moon guide you, and your heart lead you home.

Frank

Frank felt tired.  Tired and much older than twenty and sick of the world.  He sat up and looked around his room.  It was messy, strewn with papers covered in half written stories and song.  Propped in one corner was his sax case and guitar, both covered in anarchist and counter culture stickers.  The room smelled of mold from the window above his bed and alcohol and cigarettes from the empty two litters scattered carelessly on the floor.  He groaned and climbed out of bed, rubbing his eyes and swearing, and stumbled to the door.

He opened the door and turned right, past the other room and into the bathroom.  When he finished taking a leak he walked past his room in tho the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of soda, and headed out into the glaring brightness and heat of another hundred and fifteen degree day for a smoke. As he was smoking, he saw the mail come, and pushed casually off the wall he was leaning on to saunter over and grab it.  Then he retreated from the heat and light back to his cool dark apartment, like a cowardly knight fleeing a fire breathing dragon.

Once inside he rifled through the mail, found nothing worth noting, and went to pound on the door of the other room.  He heard grumbling from the other side, and walked in.  His room mate and best friend Daniel had passed out on the floor without making it to the bed, so when he opened the door it slammed into his friends legs.  Daniel awoke with a shout, swearing and grabbing at his leg.  "What the hell was that for?"  He yelled.

"How the hell am I to know that you've fallen asleep in front of the door again, you dork!"  Frank said right back. "Get up, we have to play tonight and I want to get some practice in before hand."

"Fine fine.  Do we have a set list?"  Daniel asked, obviously still mostly asleep.

"Yeah, we have a set list."  He replied testily, "and if you don't get your ass off that floor and come eat I'll kick it from here to the nearest star."

As they took a break before practicing, Frank lit a cigarette.  It's glow reflected off his purple skunk stripe in sandy hair and his washed out green eyes.  He was thin and lanky, and looked like he never ate.  If you had said that to any of his friends they would have laughed at you, having frequently seen him devour four or five medium pizza's in one sitting.  He was a drastic counter point to his friend.  Daniel was average height, but built slightly more stockily.  He had long brown hair that he let fall around his shoulders and brown eyes that sparked in any light.

"Those things will kill you one day." Daniel said, gesturing vaguely at the death stick in his friends mouth.

"They already have, I just haven't bothered to lay down yet." Frank thought, but he replied with a simple "Probably."

After breakfast they practiced for a few hours before heading out to the "venue."  The "venue" as they called it, was shady corner of a strip mall.  They got there and set up, throwing out a hat while Frank tuned his sax. They played for about four hours before a rent-a-cop told them to move along.  Grumbling and swearing under their breaths they complied, having learned long ago that resistance just led to taser fire and beatings.

"How much did we get?" Asked Daniel.  The hat was Franks, so he got to count the money.

"Fifteen buck and fifty-six cents."  Frank replied cheerily.  When he saw the disheartened look on his friends face he said, "It'll buy dinner, and let's play the college before we go home."

"Okay."

When they got there it became apparent that no one on the campus was interested in donating money to help two punks eat, so they began to play whatever they felt like.  It was half way through one of their favorite songs, one of the only Frank would sing along to, that Daniel noticied a strange absence.  As if the air were missing a certain neccesary quality.  After several moments of wondering, he looked around at his friend and the music fell apart in his hands, like grasping at sand in a river.

There was Frank, laying face down with blood pooling around his mouth, crimson and dark against the dirty concrete.  Daniel broke down and cried out for help, dropped his guitar, and started to shake his friend desperately.

"Frank, wake up man!  You can't let me fight this alone!  I need you, you dick!  Whose going to keep my spirits up and help me change the world?!  Snap out of it you asshole!"  Daniel cried on and on, even after the EMT crew showed up and took them both to the hospital.  Even after the doc declared Frank dead.

Years of smoking and chronic bronchitis had caught up to Frank, and singing the song was the last straw.  His heart just gave up do to lack of oxygen, and his lungs filled with blood as his heart stopped pumping it out.

When Daniel got back to the house crying and shaking, and not entirely sure how he got there, he went directly to the freezer and pulled out the bottle of scotch they'd been saving.  As he turned around to pour the drink, he noticed an envelope on the counter with his name on it.  Inside was a brochure for the local college and a letter.  This is what the letter said.

"Daniel,

You're a good man, even though some days you're lazy and you'd forget your ass if it wasn't attached.  You've made the last years of my life an awesome experience, and I'm sorry I won't be here for much longer.  The docs say my heart is too weak and that I should put my affairs in order, since I can't afford the surgery.  I don't know when it will happen, but I'll be gone soon.  When I go, I want you to go back to college.  I know we dropped out together to change the world, and that they system is completely screwed up, but over these past years I've learned that it's going to take all kinds to fix it.  Beggars, drifters, teachers, lawyers, and even scumbag politicians.  So go fix the world, finish what I never could, and live you life to the fullest everyday.

Here's to the day everyone stands on level ground,

Frank."

Global Paganism

For those of you who don't know this, there are Pagans living everywhere.  That's right, all over the world you can find Pagans.  Are we a huge group?  Well that depends on your reference frame.  To me one hundred thousand people is a lot of people, but in the terms of the world it's a very small percentage.  That's just an example, as I have no idea how many Pagans there are in the world, but I do know that we're now a global group.

For the past fifty or sixty years now Pagans have been inviting folks to explore Paganism, to see if it's a good fit for them.  Especially now that we are in the era of the internet, this has wide reaching consequences. Personally I think this is a great thing.  People are opening up to the idea of finding their own faith and making informed decisions   That's awesome!  It's a huge part of my personal practice, the right and ability to choose.  However, it comes with certain responsibilities and dangers that I'm not sure we've all faced up to yet.

There are Pagans now in militant fundamentalist areas.  There are Pagans out there in the world that live their lives in fear.  People that are afraid to practice their faith.  People burning or burying their altars and having to hide in doors from patrols for fear of being beaten, raped, and or killed for their faith.  Does any of this sound familiar?  I'm sure most of the Pagans that might stumble across this have studied the burning times.  If not I'm reasonably sure you've heard of them.  An entire era in history where Pagans were burnt at the stake, hung, drowned, beaten, stabbed, stoned, tortured, and otherwise had their lives ruined.  Many of us who have studied this say that it ended in the late nineteenth century, give or take depending on where you were.  This isn't true.  It's still happening today.

Particularly what comes to mind is a young woman in Syria, who was turned over to rebels as a witch.  She was beaten, raped, and killed.  What makes this worse to me?  It was public, in front of a big group of people, and no one did a thing.  Not only that, but there was no global outcry that I heard.  I stumbled across this while talking to some Pagan friends of mine on the internet.

This upsets me greatly.  Writing this over the course of the week I've swung between anger, disgust, and sadness.  Now it's mostly just sadness.  We live in  a universe that is 13.8 billion years old, on a planet that it is 4.6 billion years old, are members of a species that is several million years old and we still kill each other in the streets.

That being said, there are lots of great people in the world.  I'm hoping that some of them see this and realize, that as Pagans and as humans, we can't afford to view ourselves as anything other than a global society anymore.  To pretend that we're not just causes more hate and pain.  The greatest evil in this world is when good people sit back and let evil things happen.

So what can we do?  Well, first off we need to educate people.  The best way to combat intolerance and hate, in my opinion, is through education.  We need to teach our friends, our families, and our associates that we are all one people regardless of color, religion, sexual orientation, or any other defining factor.  A gay, black, Pagan man is just as much a human being as a straight, white, Evangelical Christian, and deserves just as much respect.  The second thing we can do is to start or donate to charities.  Two great ones are the Heifer Project, and Doctors Without Borders, but there are tons of great ones out there.  Make sure you research your charities carefully though, some aren't as charitable as they try to seem.  Third and last, we can pray.  We can all pray, and hope, and choose to live our lives with compassion and tolerance.  Light your candles, say your spells, tie your knots, blend your herbs, bow your head in front of a crucified Jew, or just take a moment to think about the global state of play.  However you do it, it's valid and important, because it raises awareness, and I believe it raises energy.

So go home and hug you families tight.  If you're safe and somewhere you can practice your faith without fear of persecution I'm glad for you.  If you're not, know that you're in my prayers and spell work.

Gods I'm getting mellow in my old age.  Time to go light a candle for folks and practice martial arts for an hour or two.

Until next time folks,  may the stars watch over you, the moon guard you, and may your heart guide you home.

Cars, Kids, and Aging

Now, before I get into the meat of this post I feel that some announcements need to made.  Well, really just two announcements.

1.  I've decided to post every Tuesday, although I'm not comfortable putting up an exact time of day.  It will probably be in the afternoons or early evenings, but no guarantees   Please come read, enjoy, and click on some ad's so that I have a possibility of both being able to write and eat.

2.  I've also decided to participate in the Pagan Blog Project, which means that every Friday I will be blogging about a subject near and dear to my little Pagan heart.  So, if you want to come learn about my views and Pagan's, Paganism, and what it means to be Pagan, then come check it out.  So far it's been really cool and has challenged me to write more.  Once again, read, enjoy, click on ad's so I don't starve.  Can I over-emphasize that last bit again?  Please help me not starve, I like food.

Over view, you get two blog posts a week now instead of having sporadic random posting. Yay?
Now onwards to the actual blog!

I feel like that old guy who sits on his porch and complains about how the world is going loose in it's joints all day.  This is mostly because I feel this gap between me and others of my generation.  They tend to be irresponsible, arrogant, and ignorant.  Which as many of you know is a good combination if you're trying to make me strangle you or become and incoherent lunatic shouting curses at the skies.

Recently I've realized it's not all their fault.  Some of the blame lies with the parents.  Many of these kids didn't have to good fortune to be born to parents that challenged them constantly to be self sufficient and to think for themselves.  I grew up in a small town learning to fish and garden and shoot.  I can clean and dress an animal carcass, I know which parts will make you sick and which parts are good to eat, I know how to cook, how to sew, and how to do my own dishes.  I've been working since I was fifteen, and the longest I've ever spend unemployed was just over a year.  This last one is a minor miracle in today's economic situation.  What all of this is intended to say is that many of the people in my generation were not taught how to live productive or fruitful lives.  This bothers me for more reasons than I care to get into right now.

What specifically brings this up today is that I saw something while I was driving home from class with my partner.  What I saw was a young man, probably sixteen or seventeen, driving an extremely expensive convertible.  As an EMT I frequently refer to convertible vehicles as rolling coffins, because the convertible top does nearly nothing to stop the potential kinetic energy of the road smashing your skull when you have an accident.  My issue with this isn't with the kid, he's a kid, he's going to drive whatever he can get his hands on that has wheels and goes fast enough to do something stupid in.  I get that.  My issue is with the parenting, or rather, the lack thereof.

When I turned sixteen I was allowed to drive the 1984 Toyota pickup truck my parents had owned for years.  It was what I still think of today when I think of a beater truck.  That being said, I had a minor accident in the summer after my freshman year where no one was injured.  I now drive a 1991 Ford Explored.  Still a beater, but I've been in several accidents, it still runs and no one has been injured, except for one person who had a prior injury aggravated if you want to count that.  I was also allowed to drive my Moms' suburban around town and to run errands.  What do all of these vehicles have in common?  They were and are great vehicles for people because of their safety features, something that a convertible just doesn't have.

Something people need to realize is that accidents happen.  It's why we have seat belts and auto insurance, despite the fact that they can both be a pain in the ass at times.  The other thing they need to realize is that convertibles and sports cars aren't designed to be particularly safe.  They're designed to look cool and go fast, which for teenagers whose brains haven't fully developed is a really big temptation.  Ergo, giving your kid a convertible for his sixteenth birthday, bad idea.  Giving them an old beater that they might not like as much but is safer, good idea.

Having this conversation with my partner the rest of the way home, I suddenly realize that I sound like a grumpy old man.  I'm okay with that, I feel like it means I might be getting just a smidge smarter or wiser, but at the same time it makes me feel silly.  I'm in my early twenties!  What am I doing talking like an old man about how the world is circling the drain?  I don't really know, but if it's this or the uninformed arrogance of the so  called "moral majority" of my generation then I prefer this.

And that's my two cents.

Festivals

So I'm participating in the pagan blog project, which is a movement to explore Pagan faiths through blogging. We blog on one topic a week for a whole year.

For this week I've chosen the topic of festivals, also called sabbats or fire festivals. There are eight major festivals in the Pagan year, two are solstices, two are equinoxes, and two others. They are, in order, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltaine, Litha, Lughnasdh, Mabon, and Samhain.  Specifically, I'm going to talk about my favorite things to do on and around the festivals.

On Yule I love to spend time with my family, because Yule is the beginning of the Pagan year we frequently exchanged useful gifts and the greatest gift of all; wisdom.  There's always good food and funny stories, and it is a great light in one of the darkest times of the year.

On Imbolc I also celebrate my birthday, because it's ridiculously close to Imbolc, separated by only six days.  I also get together with those that I love and offer help to those who need it, because traditionally this was the make it or break it point.  You either had enough food to make it through the winter, in which case you celebrated, or you didn't so you ate everything so as to die semi full and happy.  Now it's more about preparing for the coming spring.  It also tends to land right around midterms, so for me it's a big time to pray for focus and success in school!

On Ostara I love to paint eggs and have large family dinners celebrating the joy of life.  It also tends to fall about a month before finals, so I tend to pray for help keeping my spirits high and studying.


On Beltaine we celebrate the marriage of the god and the goddess, and I love to dance the maypole dance and look forward to taking my honey out on a date. It's also a celebration for the end of the semester.

On Litha my family puts on a play representing the death of oak king and the rise of the holly king, symbolizing the switch from the light half to the dark half of the year, and I absolutely love to be involved in everything from props to parts.

On Lughnasdh I like to get together with the group and plan and prepare for the coming winter, especially the coming school semester!

On Mabon we give thanks for all we have and all we have gained over the last year.  I like to write a letter for myself to read next year, all about my triumphs and challenges that year.

Finally I treat Samhain as a day of silence.  I wake up at sunrise and hold a private ritual for my ancestors that have passed, giving them thanks for their lessons and help over the past year.  I don't speak for the rest of the day in honor of my ancestors.  That night I throw a wild party celebrating the Pagan new year.

So that's what I do for the eight major festivals, hopefully that gives my Pagan readers some ideas.  For my non Pagan readers, what do you like to do on your special holidays?

On futility

I truly think that 85% of humanity is a waste of space.  It's a combination of arrogance and ignorance that is displayed by this majority that brings me to my knees in frustration.  The most upsetting thing about this is that there is nothing any of us can do to end it.  These idiots will continue to control and contribute to society in the absolute worst way.

I would love to believe that we could change this through education.  However, no one seems to care enough about their own education anymore to make the effort to learn.  I see this even in my college studies, students are more interested in defaming others and tearing people down then they are in learning.  A large portion of society seems to lack the ability to logic anymore.  They also lack social grace and tact, qualities that were highly regarded in my family as I grew up.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned and frustrated with these idiots.  I have found quite a few people that are willing to learn and grow.  These are the same people that are willing to accept new ideas and support open communication.  They are the same people that cry out against injustice and the shaming of a person for being victimized or for expressing themselves.  I see these voices cry out and it gives me a great feeling of hope, despite the steamroller of idiocy and hatred I see at work every day in my life.

Here's hoping that our efforts aren't the very definition of futility.

See ya soon folks.

Creativity

You know what drives me absolutely nuts? Poetry. Because I recognize now that I am not a very good poet, because to be a good poet involves so many things. It involves rhyme and meter and feel and line length and over all length, which are things either you understand or you don't. I understand them well enough to know good poetry from bad, from a technical stand point, but nowhere near well enough to write good poetry. But here's what bugs me, I haven't found many others my age who do write good poetry. Free form has destroyed poetry, in my opinion. People change rhyme schemes and meter mid-sentence. It's ridiculous.

That being said, write poetry. If it makes you happy don't let my opinion stop you. If you want an editor, I'm here. I'm pretty good at it, and I'd love to see your work and try to help you get better. This goes back to the fact that I feel there is a severe lack of good art in the world today.

To clarify, I define art as something that displays a moment of truth, a shining spot of clarity in an otherwise grim and uncaring world. Art helps us define not only the world around us, but ourselves. That being said, there's a lot of crap running around in the world that pretends to be art. That infuriates me, but what's worse is that people buy into it. It has no creativity, no passion, no truth of the human experience. Whoever made it is quite obviously dead inside. It's pretty obvious to anyone that has spent any time critically examining art.

So I want to help my generation, because I feel that this lack of art leads to a lack definition. That lack of definition, that inability to define yourself and your world, that is what is destroying humanity. Ergo, the only way to try and fix that is to help people grow their art. So bring it to me and I'll try to help.
So, tune in next week folks for a blog post about higher education.

On the ever changing

There are many things in our lives that are ever changing.  In fact, it could be said that everything in our lives is ever changing.  One of my favorite sayings is that the only constant in life is change.  Stability is great and all, but without change the world stagnates and rots.  Which brings me to my next point.

I hate it when folks say "Don't ever change." Or "Always stay the same, that's how I love you."  The reason I hate these sayings is because they promote what, in my opinion, is a harmful and stagnant relationship pattern.  This is because people change.  No matter how old we are, no matter where we are in our life, we are constantly changing and growing.  So basically what you're saying is this "I'll love you until you grow up or change and then I'll dump your ass and go find someone that's just like how you were."

Now I'll admit that I'm a little bitter.  I've been dumped and cheated on and hurt.  I've been pushed to the side and ignored.  Short story is, I've had a checkered emotional past to say the least.  However, I still find faith in love.  I truly believe in the healing and emotionally uplifting power of love.  This is mostly because I've found the person I want to spend my life with, but it's also because despite all the terrible things being in love has caused me to do and has done to me it still makes me happy.

All that being said, I would never ask her to stay the same.  I wouldn't ask her to change either, but that's another point entirely.  The point is, people change.  It's human nature.  If you can't love some one not only for who they are now, but for who they might be, you probably shouldn't be together.  That's actually caused me some trouble in my past, but I still think it's the best policy.  People have so much potential, so fall for the person they are and stick around to see who they become.  Remember that you're changing too and it's a good idea to keep those lines of communication open.

Peace out guys,  I'll see you soon.

Hate

Okay folks, so I've seen a couple of distressing things lately.  The first is a GIF on Imgur, in which a man is holding a copy of Twilight and begins to tear it up in front of three fangirls.  Two freak out and the third instantly goes for the headlock on this guy.  Now make sure you're wearing rubber soled shoes with your feet on the ground, because coming from me this is going to be pretty shocking.

I think the guy who tore the book is completely in the wrong.

Now don't misunderstand me, I hate Twilight.  Not only is it poorly written, but it portrays abusive relationships as not only normal, but something to be sought after.  Don't believe me?  Go watch Laci Green on youtube where she reviews the book from a psychological stance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8gpHK5orJQ

That being said, people have every right to read and enjoy what they want.  The fact that this guy destroyed a book, a BOOK, because he apparently doesn't like it, is horrifying and disgusting to me.  You don't want people to read the book, or you want people to read the book with open eyes, talk to them like a reasonable adult.  Don't destroy their property.  I am just as offended over this as I am over the large Christian groups that still hold book burning gatherings for the Harry Potter series, because regardless of your beliefs or opinions of a thing you have to respect other peoples rights to have different beliefs and opinions.

Which brings me quite nicely into my next subject.

Fox and Friends, a show on Fox News, recently did a report on Pagans/Wiccans wanting to have their holidays recognized by their university.  In this report they released a lot of bigoted misinformation that hurt me, because I am a Pagan.  Firstly, the students wanted their holidays to be recognized; as is their right as American citizens, and the fact that Fox would openly mock them and defame their religion is disgusting and upsetting.

Secondly,  they state that Pagans are a minority, which is true, but the way they put it is a little screwy.  I have two problems with this one.  Problem 1, they compare Pagans to Zoastrians, a little known Pagan faith, stating that there are more Zoastrians than Pagans.  This is like saying their are more Catholics than Christians, which doesn't make any logical sense and is wildly inaccurate.  Problem 2,  it's insanely difficult to get an accurate reading on how many Pagans are in the U.S. much less the world at large.  This is caused by a variety of factors, but the biggest one is fear.  Many Pagans fear retribution from their families and their communities if the are openly Pagan, due to the high amount of misinformation and hate directed at Pagans. This especially makes this report concerning because they are adding to this misinformation. In addition, the many Pagan faiths are largely practiced either solitarily or in small groups that have no need to report attendance to a census.

In their report on anchor goes so far as to claim that the only people who are Pagan are middle aged rural living women who love incense and have been divorced several times and Dungeons and Dragons fanatics.  I'm a 22 year old male that loves DND, and has been divorced.  However, many of my Pagan friends are neither of those things.  I have a friend who is in the United States Airforce, Pagan.  Physics major in college, Pagan.  Communications officer in the Army, Pagan. Professional graphic designer, Pagan.  Registered Pagan minister. Music major in college, Pagan. The list goes on and on of people from all ages and walks of life who are Pagan.

He also states that Wiccans and Pagans can't name all their holidays, I can in order by the way (Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnasdah, Mabon,) and that Pagans celebrate 20 holidays.  Wrong, 20% of all holidays celebrated by the majority of people in the U.S. are Pagan in origin, therefore 20% of all holidays are Pagan holidays.  We have eight holidays.

He also bashes the religion saying that any religion that's most sacred day is Halloween shouldn't be taken seriously.  First, Samhain, which is pronounced sow-wen is an ancient festival of the last harvest marking the end of the year that was celebrated for thousands of years prior to being reformed into Halloween and eventually changed to the commercialized travesty it is today.  Don't get me wrong, Halloween is awesome.  Who doesn't love free candy and a shot to be someone else just for a day?  But it's a bastardization of an ancient festival. Secondly, Pagans have no one most sacred day.  All of our holidays are equally sacred, because they celebrate the divinity of nature and the turning of the seasons. Here is a link with more info on when and why the celebrations happen.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_the_Year

They also seem to think that because Pagans are minority that we can't expect the same rights as the majority.  That isn't the way the country works guys, and thank all the Gods for that.  The country is a republic, in which we elect representatives to represent our views on the local, state, and national levels.  The best part about this is that it allows good people to over rule what would otherwise be a tyranny of the majority over the minority.  It allows people to say "Hey, that's not cool.  He believes differently than you so you're going to stone him to death? Well that should be illegal." and make it happen even if the majority are the ones doing the stoning.

Long story short, all this hate is toxic and I'm convinced it's ruining the world.  There are a couple of petitions out there asking for a public apology from Fox News, but since I can't get any of them to work for me I'll let you figure that one out for your selves.  What I will do is link the original story from Fox and Friends so you can see exactly what I'm talking about.  I'd link the GIF, but I don't know how.

Until next time guys, which should be pretty soon hopefully.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Gm41k7tNhVI