Pagan Standard Time

image via Google

Week P of the Pagan Blog Project 2013
Let's spend a minute discussing Pagan Standard Time-but only a minute, because in my humble opinion, that's all it deserves. PST is the bane of all ritual leaders, event planners and anyone with a courteous bone in their body.

At the risk of sounding like a Victorian spinster Aunt with nothing more to do than police the behavior of others, I'm here to share my displeasure that this pathetic excuse for continual tardiness still exists in our community...and that some of us still find it hilariously amusing.

I suspect Pagan Standard Time was so enthusiastically embraced by those in our community who needed to extend their angst with The Establishment to all areas of their lives. Eschewing any vestige of what is acceptable in society in general,as it were, is a hallmark of the bohemian/hippie-dippiness of a specific personality type that was attracted to Paganism/Wicca in a bygone era and is unfortunately being
echoed by a new generation eager to practice a form of these magickal paths which they believe reflect back to a Golden Age of Occultism in the 60's and 70's. While I find that period interesting in a historical context, I am left absolutely cold by the attitude of shedding civilities just because we can. Being punctual does not make you any less militant in the eyes of those you seek to impress; it doesn't make you a sellout or a member of (gasp!) The Establishment. Patty Wigington of About.com's Pagan.Wiccan page summarizes it in a nutshell here: http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/glossary/g/PaganStandard.htm

What being "on time" may do, however, is show you are trustworthy, dependable and responsible. All of those things are required of a good leader ( along with many other characteristics, to be sure). It shows you take your spirituality/religion seriously-to both others and yourself. Some of our worship and magickal practice requires specific timing for particular things to happen. Saying, " Oh, the hour for this spell to be at it's peak of power is the ninth hour in Scorpio on Tuesday...but I'm going to be tied up watching a rerun of Bewitched, so I'll just do it at Midnight on Wednesday. The hour and astrological sign doesn't really matter", and then wondering why things didn't turn out the way you hoped? Well, that, dear one, is squarely on you if you lapse into the use of Pagan Standard Time. Humor a side, it is truly inconsiderate to continuously show up late at  rituals or meetings. It affects the entire vibe of the occasion and shows disregard for the rest of the group. Of course there are times when an individual will be unavoidably late due to an unforeseen circumstance, and those occasions are taken into consideration and forgiven.

Pagan Standard Time is one of those things we should cast far from us, for it has outlived it's usefulness- if it ever had any.

Ordinary Time

Pagan Blog Project 2013, Week O
By the sixth century, the Christian Church had developed an order of worship which followed the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. The date of the celebrations following the Jewish Ritual Year and pagan or agrarian observations of the seasons were co-opted by new, Christ-centered holidays. These holidays-holy days- corresponded to the specific events which eventually formed the Calendar of the Christian Liturgical Year.

High Holy Days usually had a corresponding season of their own: Christmastide, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Advent. Days which were not designated as holidays were kept as feast days of a particular saint. The Communion of Saints was kept in the forefront of the public memory this way.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinary_Time] During the Church reforms of the 1970's, Ordinary Time was restructured.

In the Wheel of the Year, we find a different concept of time where every day is sacred just for being a new beginning. Everyday has the potential to be celebrated and for worship to take place, not just the Eight Sabbats[http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/holidaysandcelebrations/Wiccan_and_Pagan_Sabbats_and_Holidays.htm]. All of life-and everyday-is sacred. There is no need of it being a special day to be in awe of Nature's gifts and beauty. We can be thankful for our homes and loved ones and worship the gods whenever we choose. Because of this, "ordinary time" may be the most spiritually beneficial of all times in our common life and community.

A Feeling In The Air

Pocahontas Cemetery.
Photo credit: www.thearmchairexplorer.com

While the weather is still seasonal here in the mountains-that is to say that the days are sweater-worthy and the nights cause the proverbial "frost on the pumpkin", I sit in the gazebo with a cup of hot tea late at night in stillness. This little mining town is a different place after the sun goes down and the sidewalks roll up: Like all places that have know hardship and hard times, that has been visited by suffering, there is an air of bitter sweetness that haunts the night. On one of our frequently foggy evenings, I caught a glimpse of the shadows of someone leading a mule down Center Street not long after I moved here. Their forms were solidly discernible in contrast to the mist. I am quite certain it was an apparition that had come out of the many spiritual portals I suspect exists here. About a week later I learned that there is a brace of stables used when the coal mine was in operation around the corner I saw them turn just before they disappeared: I found the buildings which are currently used for storage on an evening stroll. In 1884, there was a huge explosion in the mine that killed over a hundred men, women and children. Most of the victims are buried in the cemetery just outside of town-many in a mass grave. Their spirits are palpable to me much of the time.

Tonight, there is the spirit of another, however. It is not human: a child of Cernunnos ambles down from the mountain, his hooves barely audible on the brick street. His rack of antlers is small, but his long legs give him an air of elegance as he reaches up into the branches of the apple tree just beyond the parking lot of my new home. As he pulls a piece of fruit free, many more apples rain down on him. He continues to graze and consumes several of the small but succulent fruits. When he is satisfied, he disappears silently into the darkness, leaving me feeling that I have been extraordinarily blessed by Nature to have shared this moment.

As night grows longer, there is only the sound of locusts, but there is a vibration, a thrumming as the Veil thins around me in this place. I know those who have lost their lives or lived in this town will be returning as soon as that thinning is complete and they are able to cross to walk among the living for a short while. So much of the history of this place is connected to Death; yet I wonder if the appearance of the deer isn't a subtle sign that despite this, the annual cycle of Life is very much still continuing amid the decaying buildings.
It seems to me that we focus so much on the past that we forget that how we live here now will be the history of tomorrow. So many of us are waiting for this place to draw it's last breath that I wonder if they have forgotten that a sudden breath of air might be all it needs to live.

 

North Star

Week "N" of the Pagan Blog Project 2013

Several months ago, my friend Ann recalled a dream she had about the North Star. Ann is a gifted musician and teacher, and my " go to" elder in the Pagan community. She is a bright, funny,sassy, and smart crone who's not afraid to speak her mind. She is most often right. This dream, however, perplexed her.

The other night I had my own dream about Ann's dream. I've been interested in dream interpretation for nearly 30 years since I was involved in a Jungian analysis group sponsored by CenterPoint. I've used the information from that group as the springboard for most of my analytic work. This is the first time I've actually dreamed about someone else's dream. I lay credit for that directly to the work of Scott Cunningham in his book Dreaming the Divine [http://www.amazon.com/Dreaming-Divine-Techniques-Sacred-Sleep/dp/1567181929].

Sleep is indeed sacred. We enter an altered state of consciousness known only to our psyche. I believe that during sleep we connect most truthfully and easily to our higher self and Shadow, unimpeded by any attempt to influence what is personally true through masking by the psyche. In the state of regenerative sleep, we are free of any interference from mind chatter.

Back to Ann's dream about the North Star...

In the dark firmament of the heavens, the North Star is at a fixed point ( in the Northern Hemisphere; in the South, of course, it is the South Star). Navigators have used the North Star for this purpose. It is a reliable reference, a constant. Regardless of whatever else changes, the North Star is always there when we need a grounding point, or someplace from which to start. Ann herself is much like this. She is a reliable life resource, a wise woman and elder. Her opinion is respected by those in our little earth-centered spirituality group. A wealth of information on many subjects and traditions, she is our very own Crone Priestess-although I suspect she is blissfully humble about this. A master magickian, she has taught me to apply simplicity and patience to my workings. Whenever any of us feel adrift, we find ourselves wondering what Ann would say about whatever it is we're discerning.

Ann doesn't know that she is the North Star; I believe it's something she should come to own in the future. Her dream presages her gift of constancy and presence in the community as an elder. We have far too few like her, both in her discernment and ability to nurture. I aspire to this as I stand at the doorway to my own Cronehood.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Star

Backcountry

No, I didn't fall off the face of the Earth...Although a few times in the last month or so it has certainly felt like it to me. At Summer Solstice, I was presented with the opportunity to move to the mountains of Southwestern Virginia, and because it felt so right, I did. If moving to North Carolina six years ago " felt like coming home"-and it very much did at the time-Appalachia has felt even more so.

Especially this tiny former coal mining town tucked away in an unimaginably green valley. It is so remote that it feels like I now live in that place you see on ancient maps where the ocean runs over the edge of the flat Earth map. You know it- the place where the caption reads, " There be dragons" usually appears. (Okay, it's not actually like that: there is a bus three days a week that carts us off to the various surrounding towns ten miles away...and there is a Super Walmart and a Dollar Tree.) At night, when the sidewalks have been rolled up and the inky sky is illuminated by a billion stars, it feels very primal and wild. And it is.

Over the Summer, I've been occupied making my new place into a home, adjusting to life in a region I've visited but never lived in. The population of the town I actually live in is listed officially as 300; I'm still wondering if that's counting all the dogs, cats and pigeons...and an occasional wild duck or two. Still, the
mountains are literally a breath of fresh air, and I am eagerly awaiting the change of the leaves. This is a town that typifies small town America, and specifically Appalachia. Last week there was an Autumn Jamboree in the much larger neighboring town where the highlight of the event  was the apple butter being made in a huge open cauldron, some very good country music made by local bands, and a fireworks display. There was a rather large assortment of handicrafts being offered, and at least a dozen "welcome" tables set up by area churches. ( You cannot throw a rock here without hitting a church: all the major JudeoChristian denominations are represented, including-surprise!-a synagogue). An even bigger surprise was the conversation I had with a woman the other day who matter-of-factly told me that she knew of a few Pagans in the area:" They're nice people.They call themselves witches. They don't worship the Devil or dance naked, and they don't curse people. They are earth-centered and love Nature." Now I have to admit, this nearly made my head spin around a few times...Here I am in the mountains where Southwestern Virginia and West Virginia are nearly indistinguishable, and someone I've just met ( who has no idea I am one) begins telling me about the local Pagans! WOW...this is why I still have hope for a future where we can openly worship without the local populace arming themselves with pitchforks,folks.

Yesterday, one of those small local churches decorated the main street of my new adopted hometown with scarecrows because it's "harvest season". There is a Pumpkin Festival taking place in mid-October.

More to come...I'm going out to enjoy the locusts chirping.

On Being Pagan

We live in a constantly evolving Universe.  Change goes on within and all around us all the time. We are forever in a state of flux. Our personal beliefs and cosmologies change. I don't see  things in exactly the same way that I did 20 years ago because I'm a different person today than I was then. Things change, and that's okay. Because really? In the larger scheme of things  we don't have a choice in the matter. Acceptance of that tiny fact is the first step to integration and growth.
 
Depending on whatever new I learn, my opinion about people, situations and how things are  re-formulated. My thoughts about things evolves as I incorporate new knowledge into my understanding.  I am not the same person I was even five minutes ago on a molecular level. The world is not the same as it was yesterday. This is factual and born out by the saying" The Truth is not what you see, but what you believe about what you see." Your  viewpoint isn't the truth, but it is your truth. Belief is merely an assumption.

Pagans (for the most part) are particularly analytical people. We are experts at deconstruction. What it seems we aren't very good at is knowing the difference between authentic examination and tearing things apart-including and especially, each other. This, in my humble opinion, is why we have the same conversations over and over about defining who is Pagan and who gets to play in our sandbox. And I have to admit, I often wonder why this is so important to know in order to determine what we stand for morally and ethically. I suppose there is an argument about knowing who you are before undertaking an action, but personally,  I believe right action should take place no matter who you are.

Talking about whether we engage in right action because we are human or because we are spiritual is a chicken versus egg argument. To quote Buckminister Fuller, " We're all passengers on Spaceship Earth." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller ]. The compassion we have for one another, especially for the suffering of others, and the way in which we respond in helping them to come out of that suffering is something that stems from empathy. We relate to how it feels because we can put ourselves in that place. In that instance, what we call ourselves doesn't matter. By nature, humans are helpers at our most basic level; that's the way we are wired. We have a need to serve in the most beneficial and satisfying way for others and ourselves. While that may be influenced by our spiritual beliefs, for the most part it comes out of a concern for the welfare of others and the way we would like to be treated. Altruism is two sided and not entirely selfless: yes, we do want to help others, but in turn, should the need arise,we hope to be helped ourselves. The majority of us ascribe to the moral and societal rules of common decency, regardless of whether or not we believe in the existence of a deity.

In other words, it's not who you are, it's what you do that makes a difference in the world. To be perfectly blunt, the only person who should care about who you worship, or how you go about it is YOU.    It's not my place to tell you whether or not you are a Pagan. It's none of my business, because, you see...I don't care. Truly, I don't. I don't care if you venerate Wonder Woman as the Goddess, or believe the flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz are angelic messengers, or see Imminent Divinity in the Titans.

If you do, then that's fine with me. You don't have to fit my personal definition of what is and isn't  Deity, and you don't have to buy into mine. As it's so often said,we can agree to disagree. I have enough on my plate dealing with defining and forming my own personal theology. I practice as I choose, when I am lead to do so by Spirit. I really don't owe any explanation of who or what I see as Divine, and I certainly have no need to justify my spiritual practice. I don't seek or need  the validation of others [http://amethjera.blogspot.com/2011/06/pagan-enough.html].  Take it and accept me for who I am or leave it and walk away. ( The only time I will call bullshit is if I see someone irrefutably  ripping someone else off).

You would  think  that as often  as  we have this conversation in our living rooms or  in the pub, the subject of "Who-is-and-isn't-a-Pagan" would  be a non-issue to the majority of  us by now.   I recognize that our community has exploded in numbers in recent years and there are a lot of new-comers at the table who may need to sort things out, but what I'm seeing isn't limited to that kind of spiritual formation. What I'm seeing is not only a lack of tolerance for diversity, it's exclusivity. It's widely understood that the word 'Pagan' is an umbrella term covering the many traditions and varieties of serving the gods. [ttp://www.incitingariot.com/p/project-pagan-enough.html] There are no membership  rules for who gets to join the 'club'.  So frankly, when I see someone appoint themselves as a gatekeeper for the community, I do think we need to react and disabuse the individual of that notion swiftly...Kudos to those who have done this respectably, such as  Jason Mankey [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/ ] and the collective at Pagan Activist  [http://paganactivist.com/2013/06/16/standing-up-against-a-step-too-far/]. You can ask questions about someone's spirituality without questioning their practice.

Because, you see, as I've said before, it's my path, and I'll travel it my way, thank you very much.

Making Medicine

Bighorn Medicine Wheel, Wyoming

Originally posted as Week M of the Pagan Blog Project 2013
In the general culture of the First People (aka Native Americans), medicine is defined as the spiritual and magical power of persons, items, and activities. Medicine is recognized as a gift of Spirit; Medicine Makers are imbued with this power through their totem animals, empowered objects, or a vision. Often the power is passed by a shaman or healer to their student, or a familial or tribal elder. The power and use of making medicine is usually demonstrated through the link to its source, that is, its origin. There are specific forms of medicine for events ( such as False Face Medicine for the Iroquois Longhouse Ceremony); or connected to totems (Bear Medicine,etc.); activities (healing,divination,hunting); rites of passage (Corn Maiden,vision quests) and myth and lore according to culture (kachinas,emergence myths). Medicine, when understood this way is more of a concept than a word.

Directly connected to these things are the creation of medicine societies, their purpose usually reflected by a specific type of esoteric knowledge held by its members for protection, healing or some other contribution to the tribal community. Membership in these societies is gained through linage, clan, election, or by one who has received healing in some manner [http://books.google.com/books/about/Dictionary_of_Native_American_mythology.html?id=i7OB-BFvr9QC].

The act of making medicine is as diverse as there are methods. A particular  ritual which comes to mind immediately in pop culture involves the use of the hallucinogenic peyote cactus, a polemic ceremony practiced as a sacrament in the Native American Church. [ http://csp.org/communities/docs/fikes-nac_history.html]. Though peyote ceremonies vary from group to group, the goal of connecting with deity and the rite of spiritual communion is always the same. It should be noted here that when this fairly new rite was first being practiced, it was viewed with disfavor among many traditional medicine men, as a possible detraction to their indigenous spiritual practice. A generation later, many of those same practitioners had themselves become "Roadmen", and the peyote ceremony was seen as just another form of road-opening ritual[http://www.unco.edu/library/gov/middle_ground/books/HONAI-%20Navajo%20Ceremonial%20System,%20reduced.pdf].  Other forms of making medicine involves bundles or bags filled with stones,herbs,fur, hair and nail trimmings,feathers-nearly anything relative to the magick desired to be activated.  Medicine bundles can be fore any purpose: petition, offering, or to simply show supplication. A unique application of this tool is the despacho medicine bundle which originated in the Andean culture, but has been adapted by North American tribes and even Pagans [http://amethjera.blogspot.com/2010/11/despacho-medicine-bundle.html]. The Navajo Blessingway is a creation story, illustrated by the making of mountain soil bundles (soil from the four sacred mountain placed upright in a basket [http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/Changing_Woman-Navajo.html]. Another common name for a medicine bundle is a jish.

Activation of the medicine being made is at times a rite unto itself. The secretive Green Corn Dance of the Seminole in Florida is an instance of this [http://www.semtribe.com/Culture/GreenCornDance.aspx].
Another is the famous Medicine Wheel, an arrangement of stones where meditation, song and dance are performed in a designated place of power throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The Medicine Wheel in the Bighorn mountains of Wyoming has been maintained by one tribe or another since it was built 300-800 years ago. It is the keystone of a complex of archaeological areas, each designated to a specific form of spiritual/magickal practice. It is also an astrological calendar in the same form as Stonehenge
[http://solar-center.stanford.edu/AO/bighorn.html]. Medicine Wheels can be reflective of various energies. They can be used as a magickal circle, or as a sacred space to honor the powers of Creation. Like a labyrinth, each direction of a medicine wheel can be "walked", it's stones asked to lend their animistic power to your question.  They can be used as a type of shrine where offerings of tobacco or cornmeal are made. It is an excellent place for meditation on life's uncertainties, or can be a conduit between the worlds. The grounding energies of the stones will allow you to gather your discoveries and reflections, giving clarity to any problem you may bring into the circle. Every successive visit to the Medicine Wheel will provide you with insight and a new perspective of your thoughts.

Each of us have the gift of personal medicine; it is the spiritual quality that which makes us who we are. e
Medicine, as viewed by the First Nations, is the embodiment of animism. Every thing in the Universe  has it's own particular form of life, and therefor its own special medicine. When the individual discovers his or her spiritual gift of medicine, they become more integrated beings. Looked upon this way, this integration is wholesome and therapeutic. The individual begins to understand and accept all parts of themselves-including the ones they'd rather not claim. Jungian psychology calls this the shadow self, that which sits just below the level of consciousness. This process of integration can be achieved on ones own, or with the help of a Medicine Maker, usually a shaman.

One of the features of personal medicine is discovering your True Name. As in other magickal traditions, this form of identification describes the person's character and gifts and is not just a convenient label. The characteristics attributed to the individual through this naming may reflect those of a particular animal, or a talent. Grasping the deeper meaning of the name means a particular synergy has been achieved within the understand of the individual.

Making Medicine is not something that can be exhaustively covered in a single blog entry, so I would encourage you to further explore the subject on your own. There are many good books on the subject, and one I would personally recommend is Voices from the Earth by Nicholas Wood ( ISBN 0-8069-6609-2, Godsfield Press). It's a great springboard to deeper learning on the subject and pleasurable to read. Be Well and Be Blessed!

copyright 2013, AmethJera