Orion Foxwood on the Winds of Change

I often find myself in a state of fear regarding the state of the world at the present time.  I have been especially concerned with the apparent state of the worlds oceans and the impact that our society is having on coral reefs.  I spend a lot of my time during my morning and evening practice praying to Manannán mac Lír for the healing of our oceans and waterways.  Along with this I take as much action as possible to respect water, reduce my usage, and keep it clean.  Regardless of the state of the world, however, some part of me still feels hope.  I thanks the gods for that.  I wanted to share this excellent essay by Orion Foxwood, written not long after Katrina and the Tsunami, that has been a real help to me when the world seems dark.

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The Winds of Change: Insights of a Faery Seer by Orion Foxwood

A World in Change
Our world is currently being pummeled by devastating climate changes that are exacting high fees in human life, reconstruction efforts and in all that is familiar to us. We see this pattern in the macrocosm in the form of major destructive weather occurrences and in the microcosm as major shifts in our personal lives. “For the mill of the Gods grinds slow, but exceedingly fine,” quoted one of my Elders many years ago. All levels of our world, inner and outer, are being affected by the apparent changes. We can see it. We can feel it. And often, we are dreaming about it. No doubt, the whirlwind of changes is picking apart the old pattern and rearranging them into new forms that are congruent with new states of consciousness. Now, more than ever, we must look to our wisdom traditions to help us understand what is happening and what, if anything, we should do about it. For those of us in Faery Traditions (and one could say the Hermetic Traditions as well), who revere the potent powers of the primal underworld, we see through our second-sightedness that the inner temples are opening and ancient regenerative power (creation through destruction) is surfacing from the core of our world. This power arrives in waves of change that “cleans the house” and makes ready for the new. In this core is the heart of our planet, which beats forth pulses of life and inner spirit. It is the star beneath our feet….the molten earth’s core and it reflects its nature in our hearts. However, its heartbeat rattles, and even decomposes, the foundations of apathy, stagnation and worn out paradigms. This is good, but not comfortable…initially.

A Challenge to Faith and a Call to Action
As we witness these changes, the graphic destruction we see may cause us to question our faith in spiritual purpose and the will of the Gods (however we understand them) leading to feelings of hopelessness or fear. The fact is, humanity stands at a major “crossroads” and the purifying powers of the Underworld are rising and bringing forth new waves of change…new patterns of being. Nature and the spirit world are not shocked by such changes. But, humanity fears the titanic powers, which it cannot control. This a time when magical and esoteric people are called to task to support the unfolding balance and help those around us to translate the meaning out of what appears to be meaningless chaos. In short, these are the times we have been trained for. The hurricanes, tidal waves and other major elemental forces that are rearranging our lives are but outer reflections of inner dynamics surfacing through imbalanced patterns anchored in the surface world by humanity. Sadly, many of these patterns must be blown apart. As we have already seen, these arising forces may take away much of what is familiar to us. These forces are a call to action for people who consider themselves to be wisdom keepers, magic workers, Priest(esse)s, witches, alchemists, magicians, shaman and the host of other titles used to describe threshold guardians and mediators of spiritual truth.

The Dreamer Awakens
Deep in the inner soul of our planet is the core spiritual being of our natural world. In Faery Seership , we call this being “the Dreamer in the Land” – it is the Anima Mundi, or Soul of the World, of the Renaissance alchemists and magi. This being embodies the collective intelligence and sprit of our planet and its nature lives in everything in the surface world (and this includes all of humanity too). It is, in folkloric tradition, envisioned as an ever young, androgynous child that lays sleeping and dreaming on a bed of blue flame. It is also what tradition calls “the star within the stone”, which is the true stone of destiny. Between aeons of time that marks major ages or chapters in the unfolding vision of our planet, this Dreamer opens one eye and realizes one of its visions. Otherwise, it dreams and these dreams are carried into our world through visions, inspirations, epiphany and invention Each of us is a part of this vision and thus, why currently so many of our fellow humans are being driven by a sort of “divine restlessness” to quest for truth and meaning and put action behind its realization. They are shaking free from outworn patterns to make rooms for new ones…or old one revealed again.

We are living in a time when one era is opening and one era is closing to open to another. The blue flame of the underworld is rising through this awakening and bringing forth major regenerative change in the primary forms of wind and water. Another way of looking at it is that the inner sea temples are opening and the “aeonic” waters of the underworld are rising in the form of climate changes. Sadly, this means major change that also requires sacrifice in human and other lives. These dear ones who transition from this world to the inner worlds through the gates of death during this transition become a part of a greater, more powerful inner tide then we can imagine. May the Ancient One bless them as they walk the secret roads between the worlds and open the way for wisdom to come forth and balance to be realized. We must hold their sacrifices as holy.

Spiritual Work Actualized
So, what should we, the magical folk do? I recommend the following:

• Remain calm and do not become intoxicated by fear of impermanence.
• Send your spirits deep through the substance of the plant and touch the unfolding vision of our world through prayer, mediation, ritual and visionary processes.
• Commit your spiritual and magical workings to a balanced fulfillment of the surfacing changes to help reduce and buffer the harm.
• Remain steadfast in your commitment to maintain this time as a holy time of change… by not fearing it.
• Light the flames of your altars and send forth prayers and magic for inner stillness and clarity, so that your inner contacts can reveal your individual role in the unfolding changes.
• Eat, sleep, exercise, pray and meditate to keep your tools sharp so that you can mediate the balanced forces into imbalanced chaos fueled by human fear.

Good luck to you all, May the Dreamer reveal your place in the sacred circle the unfolding patterns of change. Keep it sacred.

Pagan and Christian Apologetics

Apologetics fascinates me.  The rhetorical and written art of defending one’s religious or spiritual path with the focus of an archer.  Now, I am not in the habit of attacking anyone’s religious path in life.  I consider it to be arrogant and a huge waste of my time.  I have, however, been the subject of attempts at conversion as well as occasional brushes with the press regarding the nature and character of paganism.

Paganism is spreading and growing all over the globe.  And we are not the only ones aware of this fact.  Christians are seeing the same phenomenon, paganism capturing the spiritual hearts and minds of many people all over the globe.  This was made keenly apparent to me when I ran across this online course titled “Neo-Paganism: Is Dialogue Possible?”, written from a Christian (I believe a Catholic) perspective.  I highly encourage a full reading of this text, as it really gives a number of good insights for the patient and debate loving pagan.  The course is tolerant and not invective and because of this it stands out:

It is easy to parody another religion, and neopaganism is a parodist’s delight. One can easily brand its ritual as primitive or just plain weird.  Yet serious apologetics requires that one exercise a hermeneutic of respect in the attempt to understand another faith.  St. Paul obviously spent time with the Athenians, reading their poets and watching people at worship before daring to address them. Only in this way can Christians begin to dialogue with pagans.  We need to put aside fifteen hundred years of offhanded dismissal and listen to pagans as having something intellectually serious and spiritually viable to say. This does not mean agreeing with them but having enough respect to listen and learn.

Some of you may already be aware of this course, some of you may not.  What I find fascinating, and well worth consideration are the following critiques:

1. “The apologist must ensure that if pagans reject Christianity it is because of the gospel and no human stumbling block.”
2. “We need to present God’s ‘maternal’ qualities,[24] likewise the immanence of God.  God shares our flesh, becomes God with us’ and suffers.  This God comes to us corporeally in worship!  There is nothing more immanent than the consumption of Christ’s body and blood.”

The first point.  Pagans when explaining and/or dialoguing with Christians need to keep in mind a few things.  The indictment against the existence of God by many Atheists is the history of the Church.  Now as much as many pagans would like to pretend that paganism has no blood on it’s hands from the past, this is a provable historic falsehood.  I have done an earlier post about this. However, I do think it is fair to point out to Christians that the Bible was written down by humans and could contain many “human stumbling blocks” of it’s own.  Regardless it fosters greater dialogue between Christians and pagans by discussing our present beliefs more than our past actions.  Pointing out the past evils of the church (in this context anyway) will not work for long as Christians will eventually start pointing out the dark history that paganism has as well.

The second point.  The immanence of God in Christianity is indeed shown in the Eucharist and the incarnation of the Nazarene.  But, from my perspective, that immanence is limited to those particular incarnations.  With the planet in as much peril as it is, this kind of artificial separation is a falsehood that could cause suffering on a scale that humanity has experienced before.  Why is the body seen as corrupt?  Why is sex seen as a barrier to knowing God rather than a key?

There are of course many juicy topics for debate when speaking with Christians or any other flavor of monotheism.  I think it is going to become increasing important for pagans to genuinely prepare to defend and present their spirituality in an intelligent, kind, and direct way.  Emotional reactions end up reflecting bad on all of us, and *will* be covered by the press when we do.  One thing the press loves most?  A fight.

I would recommend reading the following articles as food for thought if you are interested in pagan apologetics and or pagan public relations.  The first is a treatise written by the the last pagan Roman Emperor, Julian.  Called, “Against the Galilaeans“, it provides an excellent (if slightly more invective) overview of the differences between Christianity and paganism from an ancient pagans perspective.  The other is a short but succinct essay called “Paganism as a Metagrid of the Future” by the impeccable scholar and pagan, Professor Lokesh Chandra.  This poetic and thoughtful essay takes the very complicated belief structure of paganism and distills it in a way that is beautiful, easy to understand, and defend.

Agora

A new movie about the fall of Rome and the very bloody and chaotic transition from paganism to Christianity. Paganism is about to enjoy an infusion of interest and followers, especially if it gets US distribution.

An Irish Lion

I want to honor a great statesman, and one hell of an Irishman today.  Ted Kennedy.  Now I am sure it comes as no shock to many of my readers that I am a Lefty.  The legacy of the Kennedy’s has inspired me for a long time.  Their story is uniquely American, and uniquely Irish.  It is truly a marvel that the grandsons of an Gorta Mór, shot so high and so fast into the arena of American public service and politics.  I am a big supporter of a Public Option for health care reform and can’t help but feel somewhat disheartened at his passing.  I hope that in the end the bill bears his name.

One area of his life that is sometimes overlooked are his stances on freedom of religion, and the separation of church and state.  As a Celtic Pagan, I appreciated his views and ideals on American spiritual life.  Some of you may not be aware that when his older brother Jack ran for President it was considered politically impossible for an Irish Catholic to run for such a high office.  Jack Kennedy proved them wrong.  I wonder if someday, they will say the same thing about a Pagan running for office, and be proved wrong as well.  In one of his best speeches entitled, Faith, Truth and Tolerance in America, Ted Kennedy summed up his feelings on this issue with the eloquence of an Irishman:

I am an American and a Catholic; I love my country and treasure my faith. But I do not assume that my conception of patriotism or policy is invariably correct, or that my convictions about religion should command any greater respect than any other faith in this pluralistic society. I believe there surely is such a thing as truth, but who among us can claim a monopoly on it? There are those who do, and their own words testify to their intolerance….

Religious values cannot be excluded from every public issue; but not every public issue involves religious values…. Second, we must respect the independent judgments of conscience. Those who proclaim moral and religious values can offer counsel, but they should not casually treat a position on a public issue as a test of fealty to faith…. Third, in applying religious values, we must respect the integrity of public debate. In that debate, faith is no substitute for facts….. Fourth, and finally, we must respect the motives of those who exercise their right to disagree…..

In short, I hope for an America where neither “fundamentalist” nor “humanist” will be a dirty word, but a fair description of the different ways in which people of goodwill look at life and into their own souls.

These sentiments, and the sentiments of other Americans before him, make it possible to practice my spirituality as a Celtic Pagan today.  I encourage you to listen to the entire speech or watch it.  His life had it’s share of problems and grief, but he leaves this world for a Tír na nÓg of his own making.  I will drink a parting glass tonight, and pray for his swift journey to the Otherworld.

Farewell Teddy!  May we gulp Guinness together someday!

Dirty Secrets of Paganism: A Rant

The Dreaded Monotheist

Why is it that so many pagans feel the need to dump on Christianity?  When did pagans get it in their head that paganism has a less bloody and less violent history than Christianity?  I recently had a rather heated discussion over on the Wild Hunt with some fellow pagans about the various evils of the dreaded Monotheists.  Dum dum DUM! *Scary music and evil laughter echoes in the distance*

I find it very disturbing when individual pagans spew their shadows onto Christians and act as if our movement is without it’s own problems and controversial past.  Many pagans point to historical legacies like the Crusades as proof of how awful Monotheism *evil grin* is.  Yet they conveniently forget famous polytheists like Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan in their list of bad men.  Why is that?  The consensus, if you read some of the replies, is that the act of mass murder is not as bad if you are *not* trying to convert them to your religion.  Seriously?

We pagans have just as much blood on our hands as Christians do.  Period.  One argument was:

I guess what I’m saying boils down to this: yes, we shouldn’t ignore that bad things happened in the pre-Christian West, but you’re simply stating the obvious and trying to equate it to something it is not equal to. Modern Pagans are nowhere near as stained by those past actions perpetrated by unrelated Pagans as modern Christians are by a thousand CONTINUOUS years of dominance and intolerance that has instituted the privilege that they now enjoy. That’s like comparing a valley to Mt. Everest.

First off, I am not sure what exactly connects the modern Christian to the Crusades anymore than the modern pagan to Alexander the Great.  The post seems to be arguing that since a person is Catholic under the modern day Vatican they are complicit by default of the Crusades simply because the Vatican is still around.  I am not defending the Crusades here.  Nor am I defending the Vatican, which I see as a passe, archaic institution that turns a blind eye to very serious problems.  Nor, however, will I defend Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great as somehow better than Richard the Lionheart or other Monotheistic *mwahahahahahaaa* military leaders.  Lets also remember that the Crusades were against other monotheists *cackle*, not pagans.

This discussion began about some of Robert Wright’s opinions on the evolution of religious thought.  Unfortunately it quickly turned into neo-pagans insisting that they were better than Christians and that the atrocities of the pagan past are totally disconnected to modern pagans.  I have to wonder why they don’t give Christians the same pass?  For instance when I pointed out that even the Celts were guilty of large scale military campaigns in the early Iron Age a response was:

“You project too much modern (or Classical) thought of ‘militaries’ on what were tribal societies. Wars were fought for *dominance,* not destruction or conversion.”

And this somehow makes it better?  How?

I try not to put myself on a moral high horse about how one religion is “better” than another. I think that leads down a dangerous path that ends in self delusion and arrogance.  I do not think that attitudes of intolerance and apathy are unique to Christians.  I would think that would be common sense.  I am not sure why it is important to argue that modern pagans are better than modern Christians.  I think it is clear that every religious group has their crazies and we are no exception to that.  It is when we don’t recognize that, or happily cast our shadows onto others that the trouble starts.  I for one do not think that paganism is immune to bigotry, intolerance, and violence.  When we ignore the past and blithely cast evil onto Christians and Monotheists *cackling laughter* we run the risk of becoming exactly what we hate.

Tara vs. the M3

The battle to save the Tara-Skreen Valley and it’s associated sites is reaching a critical time.  Through the commitment of dedicated organizations like Tara Watch USA and other brave individuals the publicity over this issue is growing.  This site should be on the mind of all Celtic Pagans, Pagans, and Faery Seers alike.  Tara has a long history of culture, law, religion, and economics that make it worthy of classification as a World Heritage Site.

In light of this fact I have added my name to an online petition aimed to convince the UN the sacred value of this valley.  Now I know that folks like Jason Pitzl-Waters and others think that online petitions are basically worthless.  I think that this petition is, however, a rare exception to this, if you live outside of Ireland.  I cannot go and protest in person in Ireland, but I can add my voice to many people around the world for it’s protection.

Tara boasts a long history of culture and civilization rivaled by almost no other site on the planet.  The possibilities of archaeologocal, anthropological, and spiritual knowledge of Tara remain untapped:

For many centuries, historians worked to uncover Tara’s mysteries, and suggested that from the time of the first Celtic influence until the 1169 invasion of Richard de Clare, the Hill of Tara was the island’s political and spiritual capital. Due to the history and archaeology of Ireland being not well-integrated, and naturally evolving, archaeologists involved in recent research suggest that the complete story of the wider area around Hill of Tara remains untold.

I urge you to sign the Save Tara Petition and send a message to leaders in the UN that people all over the world (not just in Ireland) recognize the importance of Tara and her many treasures both sacred and secular.

Bald Eagle Ceremony in Colorado Goes Awry

This in one case where a lot of good intentions came together in a bad way.  Back on June 4th of this year, the body of a bald eagle was found in a park in Boulder, Colorado.  The eagle’s body was believed to be the result of poaching with the feathers and talons subsequently sold on the black market.  Evidently, this follows a recent trend of poaching bald eagle parts all over the country where the feathers and talons can fetch a high price.  As it turns out, however, this was not the reason for the animals death or mutilation.

As it turns out, a Navajo man, Darrell Pino, had received the body of the eagle from the National Eagle Repository near Denver for use in a ceremony.  Pino had gone through years of paperwork to obtain the animal for use in religious ceremony.  The animal was found by a hiker on the ground near a trail.  The hiker reported the find to the Colorado Division of Wildlife.  Although Pino had wrapped the body of the eagle in a red blanket and placed it inside a sacred tree, it is unclear how the animal ended up on the ground.  My guess is that the red of the blanket may have stood out and someone climbed up there to see what it was, found a dead animal, freaked, and left it on the ground after it fell.  After playing by the rules and jumping through all the proper red tape, Pino was understandably upset:

Pino performed a series of ceremonies over months honoring the eagle and preserving tail feathers and talons for other ritual uses. He then wrapped the eagle’s body in red cloth and placed it in a sacred tree in a ceremony held in May with Lakota elder Lee Plenty Wolf.

“When it first came out, it saddened my heart,” Pino said. “It’s only an animal to you, but to us it’s a relative . . . a direct link to our ancestors — a message to the Creator. This relative was brought down from the tree in a very bad way. I hope that at some point in time, our religion will be respected.”

Although I understand Pino’s frustration and genuine sadness over this event, I do not think that was a case of willful disrespect.  The fault here, in my opinion, lies with communication between the DOW and the National Eagle Repository.  Lets hope that the Colorado Division of Wildlife contacts the National Eagle Repository in the future in such cases.  I also think that Pino needs to be more careful with where he places the body of his birds if he intends on doing the ceremony again sometime in the future.  People simply do not think of Native American ceremonial practices as a first explanation when coming across the body of a mutilated bald eagle.  I never would have myself, although I will in the future.  I am more in line with Myron on this:

Myron Pourier, a tribal official with the Oglala Sioux, or Lakota, of South Dakota, said it isn’t the larger community’s fault it is ignorant of native culture.

“It’s our job in the Lakota nation to educate people about our way,” Pourier said.

To desecrate the grave of a bald eagle is like going to a Christian graveyard and defacing a tombstone, he said.

I am, based unfortunately on past experiences, very careful as to what I leave lying around and pick my ceremonial sites very carefully.  Hopefully this was a good lesson learned all around.

Colorado Just Got a Little Wilder

Good news over the past few days about two endangered species here in Colorado.

The first report is about a Wolverine tracked entering the northern border of the state on June 1st.  Although there have been unconfirmed sightings before, this is the first confirmed report of a Wolverine in over 90 years here in Colorado!  But here is the interesting part for me.  If there is a remnant population of Wolverines still extant in the Southern Rockies it is quite possible that the radio collared male may find himself a mate and actually breed.  If this were to happen then the Colorado Wildlife Commission (a body basically owned by ranchers, farmers and wool growers) may have their hand forced to implement some kind of re-introduction program.  I will be watching this story with keen interest, and promise to keep you all updated.  Predators like the Wolverine form important foundations to the ecosystem, and seeing as they are endangered through a large percentage of their former range, Colorado could make an ideal place for recovery.

The second piece of good news has to do with the ongoing Colorado Lynx Re-Introduction Program started in 1996.  The past few years have seen a fall in the snowshoe hare population in Colorado, but this year could be different.  The Colorado Division of Wildlife has confirmed finding two litters of Lynx kittens totaling 10 new kits!  This is great news for the Lynx Re-Introduction program here.  Not only are these births good in and of themselves but these kittens are the first born to parents that were born in Colorado not in Canada.  Could it be the population is starting to take hold?  Looks like!

Working with my Ancestors

Since the death of my Mom at the end of February, well, a lot has changed.  I was blessed to be able to hang out with my grandmother and my family yesterday for Mother’s Day, but it was a hard day that brings with it a certain emptiness now.  Her death has completely transformed my experience of what it means to honor one’s ancestors.  Until my Mom’s death I looked at ancestral contact as largely a one way street.  During times of stress I often prayed and left offerings to my ancestors and asked them for help.  When I was having troubles with my business I would pray to my Grandfather Don to lend me a hand in whatever way that he could.  I figured this appropriate since he was a small business man himself, I knew he could relate.  Whenever I went on a plane trip I would toast my Grandfather Jack and drink a Gin martini (his favorite drink) then ask him to keep me safe on the plane ride.  I get rather nervous when I fly and he was an outstanding Air Force pilot.  Who better to ask for help on a plane ride than a pilot?  The list could go on.

When my Mom died, my attitude towards my ancestors changed.  Not long after her death there were some signs that her transition from this world to the Otherworld may be going a little rough.  I will not go into what those signs were exactly, but even the most Atheistic members of my family admitted that something strange was going on.  It was right around this time that I started to do Faery Seership work.  Faery Seership work starts, ironically enough, with ancestral contact.  So I set up and altar specifically as a place of communion and communication with my ancestors.  I now sit down every night before bed and pray for my Momand all my ancestors.  I prayed that the gods and goddesses would aid her in her crossing, that her father, and all of our ancestors would help her and receive her with open arms, music and laughter.  For some reason it had never occurred to me that our ancestors may need our help just as much as we need theirs!

I have been amazed at how powerful the practice of working with my ancestors on a daily basis has been.  Specifically this practice (in combination with some others) has enhanced dream contact in some very startling ways.  Not long after beginning this practice I started to have regular contact with my Mom in dreams.  Again, I will keep these dreams to myself, but suffice it to say that the gap between this world and the next seems a lot thinner to me than before.  Although I have had no dream contact with her for a few weeks now, I do feel connected with her, this has been tremendously healing for me.  I “know” this contact has been healing for my Mom as well.  Our relationships with family do not end after they (or I) move on to the Otherworld, they continue.  And sometimes they still look to us to fulfill dreams and goals that they did not get a chance to complete.  I believe that our ancestors are intimately and constantly involved in our lives, and regular prayer and contact with them makes it easier for them to impact us, and for us to impact them.

Part III: Ceannasacht (sovereignty)

“I am the Sovereignty of Erin, O king of Tara, I am Sovereignty”. – Flaitheamhnus

“Whatever we do lays a seed in our deepest consciousness, and one day that seed will grow”. – Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

“Well the winds of change may blow round you, but there will always be stone”. – Led Zeppelin

Sovereignty is devilishly hard to define.  Political philosophers have struggled over it’s meaning for centuries.  I am, for the purposes of this entry going to focus on personal or inner sovereignty, rather than political or cultural.  Although all three are tied together.  I have drawn heavily on my concepts for ceannasacht from the tale “The Adventure of the Sons of Eochaid Mugmedón or (Echtra mac nEchach Muimedóin)” and, of course, personal reflection.

Sovereignty (in the inner sense) seems to rely on a state within the individual that is composed of steadiness, fearlessness or courage, and and a full embrace of current reality.  When I say full embrace, I mean it.  It seems an apt description for me that comes right out of Echtra mac nEchach Muimedóin. The young and future Ard Rí ( high king) Niall and his two brothers are out hunting and loose their way (what a great description of life, no?).  Although they were able to eat they were not able to locate water and each brother in turn goes out to find water to bring back to the others.  On their search they encounter the “Hag at the Well”, who guards the wells cool refreshment: