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YUletide Youtube
Dec. 5th, 2010 10:06 amThis is from 2008. Jonner was almost 11 when his choir sang this, the age Oli is now. He's the very washed-out blond in the middle of everything.
Your Samhain Sermon
Oct. 31st, 2010 12:07 pmIt's Samhain again.
The Sun lies abed until nearly seven, where I am, and he retires earlier each evening. And he'll be lazier and lazier until the Solstice. I think it's because he's not himself, but rather a ghost, haunting us until his rebirth.
The trees are orange and yellow and red. Some are still deep green, others are nearly bare. Rough Brother North Wind shakes and rattles and does his best to strip them bare so he can dance among their nakedness.
The garden is still putting out cherry tomatoes and carrots. I expect we'll see a couple until Thanksgiving, but everything else has died. Time to mow it off and prepare for next year.
The wheel has turned decisively to Night. Mother Night spreads her long hair, all the stars caught in it like cold diamonds. Orion hunts his way across the sky, with his faithful hounds at his heels.
Cernunnos hunts the night sky tonight. Astride his jet black steed, his huntsmen likewise on horses or he-goats, accompanied by black dogs with eyes like saucers, he hunts the souls of the dead that have gone wandering in this last year. None see him pass in safety, and mortals may be taken along to the Land of the Dead.
For tonight, the walls between the worlds are thin. The living cross more easily, and our beloved dead return to remind us that they do not forget us so we should not forgeth them. As a pagan prayer for the dying says "We are here and the beloved dead await. Go from love into love."
Darkness and Love.
The Wheel Turns.
The Sun lies abed until nearly seven, where I am, and he retires earlier each evening. And he'll be lazier and lazier until the Solstice. I think it's because he's not himself, but rather a ghost, haunting us until his rebirth.
The trees are orange and yellow and red. Some are still deep green, others are nearly bare. Rough Brother North Wind shakes and rattles and does his best to strip them bare so he can dance among their nakedness.
The garden is still putting out cherry tomatoes and carrots. I expect we'll see a couple until Thanksgiving, but everything else has died. Time to mow it off and prepare for next year.
The wheel has turned decisively to Night. Mother Night spreads her long hair, all the stars caught in it like cold diamonds. Orion hunts his way across the sky, with his faithful hounds at his heels.
Cernunnos hunts the night sky tonight. Astride his jet black steed, his huntsmen likewise on horses or he-goats, accompanied by black dogs with eyes like saucers, he hunts the souls of the dead that have gone wandering in this last year. None see him pass in safety, and mortals may be taken along to the Land of the Dead.
For tonight, the walls between the worlds are thin. The living cross more easily, and our beloved dead return to remind us that they do not forget us so we should not forgeth them. As a pagan prayer for the dying says "We are here and the beloved dead await. Go from love into love."
Darkness and Love.
The Wheel Turns.
It's Festival of Souls time
Oct. 17th, 2010 10:47 amSince I'm not there, I've been doing a little searching and thinking and meditating.
What do I believe?
Why do I believe it?
Where do I go from here?
My Articles of Faith:
We are all part of the universe. We are energy made material for a little while by way of E=mc^2. Which means there's a lot of energy invested in each of us and if we press on our corner of reality right, we can affect the whole.
Gods are the constructs we make to understand the universe (given reality and power by the energy we lend them). Myths are the stories we tell ourselves about the way the world works. Both of these are vital and true, but should not be taken for fact.
The gods only affect us if we allow them to, by believing in them. A few have enough power, lent them by other people in our lives, or previously by us, to affect us if we don't/no longer believe in them.
Truth and fact have very little to do with each other. Facts are usually true. Truth encompasses many things that have no relationship to fact at all. All myths are true, because they fill a need in the hearer and the teller, a need to understand the world around them. Does observed fact bear out the idea of turtles all the way down? No, of course not. But the story is still true.
Now, where do I go from here?
I've been thinking a lot this fall. I'm not entirely happy with my church. One one hand, I see myself as in a position to do something about the problems I see in it. On the other, I keep asking myself if I really have that much time and energy to devote to anything, especially other people.
I am radically selfish. I hoard my time and energy jealously. I get it. My writing gets it. My company gets it. My family gets it. Anything left over goes out to other people. That is NOT a good quality in a spiritual leader.
I resent being made to leave the house these days. Even for work and grocery shopping, I resent it. And I find this deeply troubling. I blow off a lot of things I want to do. "Writer's Group? nah. Church? do I gotta? Chili cook-off and craftfair? Bleh. Gay pride? Whine, please no." (I did go out to Pride yesterday, but I almost didn't) This scares me, because it's a sign of addiction and a sign of budding agorophobia.
It would be easier to go solitary, show up for sabbats and do my own thing otherwise. It'd probably be healthier for me in the long run. BUT.
I'm a woman of a certain age. I grew up with a sense of obligation to the whole universe for simply letting me exist. I want Oli to grow up with a better spiritual connection than I have. Do these outweigh my selfishness, my need to husband my energy so I can make it through another week of work, another deadline, another tutoring session or another band concert? I haven't decided yet.
What do I believe?
Why do I believe it?
Where do I go from here?
My Articles of Faith:
We are all part of the universe. We are energy made material for a little while by way of E=mc^2. Which means there's a lot of energy invested in each of us and if we press on our corner of reality right, we can affect the whole.
Gods are the constructs we make to understand the universe (given reality and power by the energy we lend them). Myths are the stories we tell ourselves about the way the world works. Both of these are vital and true, but should not be taken for fact.
The gods only affect us if we allow them to, by believing in them. A few have enough power, lent them by other people in our lives, or previously by us, to affect us if we don't/no longer believe in them.
Truth and fact have very little to do with each other. Facts are usually true. Truth encompasses many things that have no relationship to fact at all. All myths are true, because they fill a need in the hearer and the teller, a need to understand the world around them. Does observed fact bear out the idea of turtles all the way down? No, of course not. But the story is still true.
Now, where do I go from here?
I've been thinking a lot this fall. I'm not entirely happy with my church. One one hand, I see myself as in a position to do something about the problems I see in it. On the other, I keep asking myself if I really have that much time and energy to devote to anything, especially other people.
I am radically selfish. I hoard my time and energy jealously. I get it. My writing gets it. My company gets it. My family gets it. Anything left over goes out to other people. That is NOT a good quality in a spiritual leader.
I resent being made to leave the house these days. Even for work and grocery shopping, I resent it. And I find this deeply troubling. I blow off a lot of things I want to do. "Writer's Group? nah. Church? do I gotta? Chili cook-off and craftfair? Bleh. Gay pride? Whine, please no." (I did go out to Pride yesterday, but I almost didn't) This scares me, because it's a sign of addiction and a sign of budding agorophobia.
It would be easier to go solitary, show up for sabbats and do my own thing otherwise. It'd probably be healthier for me in the long run. BUT.
I'm a woman of a certain age. I grew up with a sense of obligation to the whole universe for simply letting me exist. I want Oli to grow up with a better spiritual connection than I have. Do these outweigh my selfishness, my need to husband my energy so I can make it through another week of work, another deadline, another tutoring session or another band concert? I haven't decided yet.
A random thought on religion
Oct. 8th, 2008 10:55 pmToday someone on my flist was speaking of a holy site that was once used for an indigenous goddess and co-opted by the Virgin Mary. She said something about the first being a false religion preparing the way. (I refrained from saying in her journal that Mother is always worshiped on the high places, regardless of what name she's called. Mary, Ashteroth, etc. It's all Mother)
But that got me thinking...
I say there is no such thing as a false religion.
All religions serve the purpose they were meant to, or they die.
Religion serves several purposes.
The mythology explains the world to humans.
The ritual allows humans some control over their world.
The religious laws allows the priest class control over people.
Any religion that stops serving one of these purposes tends to get replaced with a newer and more vibrant religion.
But that got me thinking...
I say there is no such thing as a false religion.
All religions serve the purpose they were meant to, or they die.
Religion serves several purposes.
The mythology explains the world to humans.
The ritual allows humans some control over their world.
The religious laws allows the priest class control over people.
Any religion that stops serving one of these purposes tends to get replaced with a newer and more vibrant religion.
