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.

New Atheism?

On my way to drop my two boys off at school this morning I was listening to Morning Edition on NPR.  The story entitled, “A Bitter Rift Divides Atheists“, gave me a profound sense of frustration, pity, and dark amusement.  I want to be clear from the outset that Atheism does not bother me.  I will fight just as hard for someone’s right *not* to believe as much as I would fight for someones right to worship a plate of spaghetti.  What I disagree with is intolerance and bigotry, the source or target of that bigotry and intolerance really is not relevant to me.  Hence, my great frustration with what has come to be known as “New Atheism“.  Give the show a listen if you have a few minutes, here.

I find this neo-atheist approach to be historically ignorant and capable of inciting just as much hatred and intolerance as the fundamentalist religions they so vehemently oppose.  It is a sad but oft repeated human characteristic that those who crusade against a belief system end up becoming exactly what they hate.  And, unfortunately, New Atheism is well on it’s way to becoming exactly what they claim to fight against.  How ironic.  And how sad.  A quote that really struck me from the story was from Christopher Hitchens who said:

I think it should be religion, treated with ridicule and hatred, and contempt, and I claim that right!

What is so sadly ironic about this is how easily this kind of language lends itself to violence against religious people, and hatred.  How is this different from the same sentence written thus:

I think it should be Muslims, treated with ridicule and hatred, and contempt, and I claim that right!

Quite simply it is not in any way different.  What is being defended in these statements is not reason and science in the former, and not holiness and charity in the latter.   But instead both positions advocate for greater fear and hatred of those who dare to disagree with you.  What a person of fundamentalist mentality (believer and non-believer alike) fails to realize is that the methods they use for change are directly represented in the changes they end up manifesting.  Want to use hate to get rid of hate?  You will create more hate.  It is a very clear and predictable outcome to anyone who is able to put their heated emotions aside and use reason, tolerance, and love.

To be fair many Atheists find this new approach reprehensible.  Paul Kurtz, the founder of the Center for Inquiry made a sensible and clear case against the approach of New Atheism by saying:

They are anti-religious, they are mean spirited unfortunately, and I think that does more damage than good.  I consider them ‘Atheist Fundamentalists’.  Merely to critically attack religious beliefs is not sufficient.  What are you for?  We know what you are against, but what are you going to defend?

As a polytheist I know that many people in this country ridicule and make fun of my belief system.  I simply believe what I believe and relish the challenge of being in a minority faith as it forces me to give real thought and feeling to my beliefs and values.  I will never preach for others to believe what I do.  Why stand up for the intolerance that drove me away from established religion in the first place?  Would that not be the height of hypocrisy?  For all of my atheist brothers and sisters out there I declare my public support for your right *not* to believe.  In fact, I think many aspects of Atheism can be helpful to questions of morality and social justice.  But when individual atheists call for religious people to be treated with ridicule and hatred, you can expect my vociferous opposition.  What if Hitchens has said this?

I think it should be blacks, treated with ridicule and hatred, and contempt, and I claim that right!

Rightfully, his career would be over.  Intolerance, bigotry, and hatred, these are the real problems we have as a society.  Democrats, Republicans, Atheists, Christians, Buddhists, Muslims, Agnostics, and Pagans, are all capable of violence and hatred.  Can’t we all be honest and acknowledge that?  Only when we stop advocating simply for our pet cause, in a juvenile need to “win”, will we really stand up for tolerance and respect for *all*.  But until that time, crusaders of all types walk the same road to Hell hand in hand.

Podcasts, Here I Come

I wanted to let you all know that I am in the preliminaries of launching a podcast, called “Pages of Air”.  I have been spending the last few weeks assembling equipment, software, and setting up the server environment.  Setting up the server environment has proven to be a real challenge, but I am nearly there.  Pages of Air will be co-produced with my wife Hilary and will be broadcast monthly.  Eventually we would like to go to twice a month.  I will keep you all up to date on when we upload the first episode.

Pure Unabashed Idolatry: Part the Second

Wanted to make a quick entry about my progress on my Cernunnos shrine.  I have found the perfect place for the shrine and have proceeded to carve, chisel, saw, and file the alabaster block.   It is amazing at how intimidating the stone becomes the closer and closer you get to the finished idol.  You may be able to discern the shape of Cernunnos seated with hands held to the sides and upraised at this point (with a little imagination).  Hopefully.    I have also laid out my tools for your perusal.  Although I had to replace the hammer with a larger, and harder, steel mallet.  The chisels are tempered to such a hardness that the hammer tip literally started breaking apart!  Working with stone takes a lot of patience, but is so rewarding.

Kaisercartel: Great Music

Kaisercartel

Been meaning to do a blog about this very special duo for some weeks now.  Kaisercartel!  I was oh so lucky enough to meet these two fabulous people back in July at a small concert here in the Springs.  Their music has a certain heartfelt elusivity that I absolutely treasure.  They like to play at a small coffee house here called Shuga’s that lends itself, to well . . . intimate gatherings.  It also makes it easier to meet and talk to the musicians!  They both have a genuinely good time playing that is sooooo palpable.  They are extremely approachable, kind, and just full of good vibe.  You feel charmed, entranced, happy, and may even find yourself blushing.  Weird, I know. Guess you just had to be there.

They ended the concert by playing a song which entails them walking into the audience and singing the last song while looking right into your eyes.  I was able to experience this, and it was an experience I will never forget.  Anyway give ‘em a listen, you will be very happy that you did.  Start with these:

Blue Sky:

Oh No:

Okay:

Pure Unabashed Idolatry: Part the First

Very excited to be started on a new project, while getting into some long neglected skills.  One of the things I have found that Faery Seership has been doing for me is giving me greater focus and inspiration for living.  I have an amazing creek right behind my house and have picked out a place for a small shrine to Cernunnos.  I have had a nice sized piece of alabaster sitting around in the garage for sometime now, and have decided to use it for the statue (yes *idol*) of Cernunnos.  I have had a few experiences of building shrines in out of the way places, and been amazed at the effect that it has on people who “stumble upon” them.  Even the most simple shrine can make big impressions on those who see them.

I have had some people ask me to chronicle my steps of carving the alabaster and the steps in making the shrine itself.  So here goes.  Like so many projects, it starts in my garage.  I have assembled the following tools:

• 2 Hand Saws (they cut alabaster even more effectively than they cut wood)
• Set of chisels (toothed, straight, and beveled)
• Set of files (ranging from course and broad to small and delicate)
• Towel (for resting the stone on)
• Broom and dust pan (hand sized)

With all of these things assembled I took the stone (which screamed Horned God from the beginning) and looked over what was the best way to use what I have.  Here is the stone in it’s original form:

After mulling it over a good long while (your decisions are pretty slow when sculpting stone), I decided on the first few cuts and then inverted the stone once done:

The center stone in the photo above is the piece I will use for the idol itself.  I plan on basing it loosely on the image of Cernunnos from the Gundestrup Cauldron but including some upright man parts in the process, *wink*, and with more lifelike anatomy all around.   Instead of carving the antlers with the rest of the idol I plan on making two small holes in the top of his head where I can put either alabaster or wood inserts of the antlers that I will carve at the end.  Next post will be some photos of where I am putting the shrine and how I am thinking of constructing it.

Idol worshipers unite!  As an interesting synchronicity The Wild Hunt has a post today about idol making in India.  Check it out.

Faery Seership Journals: Entry 1

I am blessed to live on a sacred land
Walking a sacred path
From a sacred origin
To a sacred destination

The above prayer/poem (is there a difference?) came to me after performing a Faery Seership exercise in the park near my home.  It is an exercise called the Faery Well that is designed to help the newbie Faery Seer connect more intimately with the land.  It is similar in purpose to the smudging done by Native Americans, just different in technique.  I have had some amazing success with this technique.  It has a very palpable effect on my mind and seems to make me feel more comfortable in harsher weather conditions.  Weird, eh?  Weird but true.  After performing the Faery Well regularly for about a month I had this prayer come to me right after I was done.  I was feeling incredibly open and youthful, and walking on a small game trail that runs through the hills near my home.  These feelings of euphoria were at their most intense when this prayer simply leapt to my lips.  Saying it out loud lead to a feeling of all consuming gratitude for the Faery Seership path, my ancestors, and nature.

Along with this practice I have been working more with my ancestors.  I now have an area on the west side of my home that holds an ancestral altar.  A place that is specifically designated as an interface point between us.  I work with it once a day and have found it to be an invaluable practice.  I have seen more and more that our ancestors are intimately connected with our day to day lives and have been there for me more than I realized.  Working with them in a more conscious way has lead to a plethora of intense emotions and experiences.  I have found, however, that this work can be uncomfortable.  You start to find skeletons in the family closets that have to be faced, dealt with, but ultimately learned from.  When you face uncomfortable facts about your family, you face uncomfortable facts about yourself.  There is no way around it.  But along the way you find riches and gifts that you have access to and become more conscious of.

Ancestral work has been some of the most rewarding work I have yet done.

My last area of focus has been a small succession of waterfalls in the creek behind my house.  I have been making regular visits to this place and use some of the Faery Seer exercises I have learned from both The Tree of Enchantment and The Faery Teachings.  Not only has my connection with this place deepened it actually feels and looks physically bigger to me.  I am not sure quite how to explain this, but it is like stepping into a vast cathedral of leaf, branch, root, and vine.  I feel smaller when I enter, but more connected.  Some of my trance work has yielded brief images but the majority of experiences have been auditory (the water sounds, well, weird) and emotional (intense feelings of euphoria and gratitude).  These waterfalls are starting to feel more and more like a doorway for me into a deeper connection with “the sacred land” and myself.  Very excited!

Claire Small: Ledger

Claire Small: Ledger

Music is essential to life.  Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Claire Small while on a trip to Austin.  Although I did not have the pleasure of hearing her perform live I did get to have a great conversation with her.  When I got back home to the Springs I looked up her music on iTunes and was very impressed.  Claire puts a lot of passion into her music and I thoroughly enjoyed what I heard.

Tracks like “Rewind” have energy and sparkle with hope that never crosses the line of cheese.  “Citronella” has a moody, sensual sadness to it that you can relate to and savor.  “Numbers” is haunting, honest and has some subtle Middle Eastern flair that I adore.  And then there is “Cryin’ Before Ten”, this one graces my ears at least twice a day.  Claire has been wowing since an early age:

A few years and about thirty songs later, encouraged by parents and teachers Claire responded to an ad from a new local music venue needing regular acts. At the audition her singing and writing style caught the eye of honky-tonker Greg Garing. Though she was only fifteen years old, Garing took her under his wing and made her a part of the mid- 1990’s Lower Broadway revival that included acts such as BR-549, Paul Burch, and Lucinda Williams. In both ’95 and ’96 she was the youngest artist to play at the Nashville Extravaganza “breathing out the music of the angels”, and “wowing a small crowd with technique far beyond her years” as reported by the Nashville Scene.

Give her a listen if you get the chance, you won’t be dissapointed.

Why I’m a sucker for Tullamore Dew (and their pernicious ads)

Not a serious post this time.  At all.

I must admit that I like to pride and perhaps fool myself that I am impervious to marketing.  I am a learned man after all and listen to public radio and all that.  I occasionally spend time listening to ads on the radio or watching someone else’s TV and mocking various ads.  Like the sexy man parading with ripped abs, whoring himself for the Gap or some such.  But I have just seen an ad that made me salivate and crave Tullamore Dew, one of the favorite Irish Whiskey’s.  I feel humbled by the sheer advertising brilliance of these two ads, and sufficiently cut down to size.  If there was a good description of the Otherworld, I think it would be a lot like a Tullamore Dew ad.  Although the glaring omission of the Fair Folk is unforgivable here.