Idle Hands

The devil will find work for idle hands to do

I stole and I lied, and why?

because you asked me to!

but now you make feel so ashamed

because I've only got two hands

but I'm still fond of you

-The Smiths, What Difference Does it Make?

All that sitting I was talking about the other day has a funny way of making people nervous. Especially those of us with a western mind. Especially those of us who live in the go-go-go-never-stop United States.

Sit down? Be quiet? Sure, as long as I'm at my computer.

It's a sad fact, but we've lost the art of doing nothing. Really, we've lost an understanding of what doing nothing even means.

For example...
Watching TV
Playing video games
Listening to music
Reading

are not equal to nothing.


Let's be honest, though. You'll never be doing nothing. Maybe if there really is no afterlife, then you'll be doing nothing after you die. What I really mean is opening yourself to silence, allowing yourself not to work, giving your brain a chance to rest.

But that's reaaaallllyy scaaaarryyyy, I know. And it's nearly impossible to do, right? You'll start to fidget. You'll think of a million other things you should be doing. You'll fail to see how a little music in the background could hurt anything. Besides, your brain gets to rest while you're sleeping!

There's no such thing as "time wasted," only time spent. And if you must relate the very healthy practice of sitting in silence and doing nothing to modern ideals of how time is spent best, it has been shown time and time again that meditation improves focus, mental clarity, and our ability to deal with stress. Sounds like an efficient use of time to me. And that's without even considering the spiritual benefits it can bring.

So what about that famous adage quoted in The Smiths' song above: "The devil will find work for idle hands to do."

Any witch who tells you there is no devil obviously hasn't been paying attention to the real devil. That devil is formless and pervasive, maniacal though appearing innocent. It takes a few very common forms: societal pressures, corporate agendas, profit margins, dogmatism. The devil does exist if only for the reason that people believe he does and so make room for his emergence into the world.

Etymology: Middle English devel, from Old English dEofol, from Late Latin diabolus, from Greek diabolos, literally, slanderer, from diaballein to throw across, slander, from dia- + ballein to throw; probably akin to Sanskrit gurate he lifts up
-Merriam-Webster's entry on "devil."

The devil is the great liar who tells you "This will make you happy. Do things my way. Buy these products. Fight these battles. Work for these goals. Believe these teachings. And ridicule anyone who doesn't." And in the mean time, you've given up your own dreams, your own plans, and your own beliefs. You may never be happy again.

It seems to me that the quote about idle hands was perpetrated by the devil himself in order to throw us off. It's when we are too busy that we forget what we are really working for. It's when we are pleasing others that we forget to even take care of ourselves. It's when we're go-go-go-never-stopping that we forget how to hear the still small voice of God Herself within us.

So instead of being still and being silent we allow ourselves to be force-fed instructions, information, goals, tasks, and on and on until we puke. And since we can't go-go-go-never-stop forever, we use an endless supply of bad television, bad music, bad movies, and bad websites to keep up the distraction while we're resting.

Shhh...

Take a few moments today to sit, quietly, with no music or TV or anything. Close your eyes. Relax. Let your thoughts come and go and don't worry about dwelling on them or fixing the problems they represent. If the phone rings, enjoy the sound. You can check your messages later. Just sit. Just be. Just listen.

And someday, when you're quiet enough...

she'll speak to you.

-Jonah

Sit For What You Believe In, Addendum

Addendum to Part 1 and Part 2 of my Jesus Camp commentary.

I really am so done talking about this. I swear. But I was reading Thorn's blog (as I am often wont to do, along with the others listed in the sidebar) and came across an exemplification of my "fight fire with water" theory, which I spoke of last time, in the comments section of this post. One of the commenters linked to this article which contains an interview with "Rev." Fred Phelps of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church (WBC).

WBC follows The Laramie Project around in protest. I don't want to get into details about WBC, TLP, or Phelps. What I do want to point out is what happens towards the end of the article:

On Saturday night, the actors [of The Laramie Project] held hands and walked out to see the demonstrators [from WBC] before the show. "It wasn't an act of defiance," said Eliza, "but just approaching them. It was a courageous moment."

For an instant there was silence. Then the counterprotesters cheered the cast.

The fundamentalists "looked scared," said John Douglas. "It wasn't like we were attacking them or anything. We were just looking at them. And I think that made them extremely uncomfortable."

"If we'd responded to their hate, it would have been bad," said Carmen Ivey. "Since we didn't do that, they didn't know what to do."

Ryan Deal reached this conclusion: "We took their power away. Their power comes from people looking and yelling at them, and when that's gone, they have nothing. They have their stupid signs."

This clearly shows what I was talking about, and my hat goes off to the cast of The Laramie Project for their courage and determination.

-Jonah

Sit For What You Believe In, Part 2

This is Part 2 of my pseudo-review of Jesus Camp. Part 1 is here.

To quickly catch us up with our last episode, we discussed the general freakiness of Jesus Camp, the problem with raising kids to think that they are personally chosen to save the world, and three of the major pitfalls the evangelicals displayed that we should all try to avoid: indoctrination, rhetoric, and the Jesus complex.

I also mentioned my initial idea of trying to see myself in the people I watched in the documentary. Today it occurs to me that the people in the documentary would never, never even think of attempting the inverse - seeing themselves in us.

Yesterday was Earth Day. I'm not sure if this same thing happens at all Earth Fairs, but in San Diego there is a special section of Balboa park set aside for fundamentalist Christians who want to convince you that you are evil and must repent. This area is marked off with signs saying 'Protect your children; take a detour if you have a sensitive stomach;' etc. I try not to stay in this section long, if I have to go through it at all. This year, though, there was at least one man walking around the Earth Day sponsored areas with a sign which basically said "Repent or go to hell."

The guy holding the sign seemed like a nice enough person. He was not being confrontational. People pretty much walked around him like they would anyone standing in their way on a crowded walkway. And as I noticed this, I realized that the reverse of this would almost assuredly never happen. If I went to a Christian event touting a sign that read "The Goddess loves you and offers you peace and happiness," I might very well beaten to a pulp. (I can hear it now... I'll give you peace and happiness! SMACK!) At best, I would be run out of the event.

Become the Change You Seek

Rather than making me wonder why we should afford such respect to those who actively oppose us when they offer none to us, I instead feel a kind of warmth towards the many people who simply allowed this man to be, to say what he needed to say, and to not go out of their way to be offended by it. The energy remained calm, welcoming, and it was clear that it was softening the man carrying the sign, who walked around almost smiling.

In order to create peace, we must be peaceful. To create love, we must be loving. To create respect, we must be respectful. Fighting fire with fire only works inasmuch as fire will go out once everything is burned up. Fire is better fought with water. And, while decisive action may be needed at times, we must take it with care lest we end up representing that which we oppose.

Sit For What You Believe In

Evangelicals are constantly standing up for what they believe in. They pray loud, making noise in the name of God. They rally together and shake up the system with drama and extremity.

We can never hope to oppose that type of activity by replicating it. Witches should do what witches do - sit down, be quiet, make the change from within. I say this over and over, but it bears repeating here:

THE FIRST THING MAGIC CHANGES IS THE SELF.

So, please, sit. Sit for what you believe in. Sit at your altar. Sit with your friends. Sit at demonstrations, or at meetings, or wherever you go. Sit until you are empowered, replenished, until you find the peace you are seeking. And then get up and dance that peace out into the world. And when you are done dancing...

return to the silence and sit some more.

Sit For What You Believe In, Part 1

or, Let's All Go to Camp!

I watched Jesus Camp with the purest of intentions to not blog about it. It clearly doesn't fit into my model of righteous hexitude. But what I saw there was surprising, and not in a way that I was ready to be surprised. So I'm going to write about it, but I'm going to try my best to turn it around into something that we can all learn from instead of simply getting disgusted by. If you do feel a strong urge to be disgusted, there are flight discomfort bags in the pouch on the seat in front of you.

Five minutes into the film I made a decision: I am going to see myself in these people. In retrospect, that may have been a bad idea, but I really wanted to try to understand them and their cause. I wanted to see these people as children of the Goddess, expressions of Spirit, or whatever you want to call it. I am them and they are me and God is a person just like we... uhm... are.

Perhaps because of this particular viewpoint, I noticed that what the evangelicals in this film had done is take some of the best parts of Christianity, some of the best parts of Spiritualism, and some of the most powerful practices of ecstatic pagan ritual and warped them beyond all recognition in the name of an angry God. My jaw dropped when I saw chanting, intense tears, ecstasy, and what I can only call mediumship standing alongside each other and all riled up by scripture.

Regardless of doctrine and practice, I did see a few common threads between these people and our community. We want our children to be safe, strong, and respected for what they believe, but we (and the children) know that this respect will not always be afforded. We want to save the world from itself - in their case, bringing people to Jesus and away from sin; in our case, bringing humanity into ecological balance and creating a sustainable society. We feel ridiculed for our faith but still stand strong within it - they seem to think that Bush is helping them, though.

This is all well and good in a pluralistic culture. Unfortunately, pluralism is not part of their particular view. It has been replaced by spiritual militarism.

At this point, the only way that I know how to fight this type of theocratic thinking is to avoid getting swept up in it myself. There are more concrete actions to be taken, but I agree with this quote from Thorn's blog:

Anaar said yesterday that magic workers cannot hope to change the world until we can learn to get along with each other. Yeah. That is our work. Get clean inside, and get clean in our immediate relationships. Then maybe the polis can become a better place to live all around.

So it's time for some personal inventory, for myself and, I think, for all of us. Get out your pen and start checking things off the list. Here are the lessons I gleaned from Jesus Camp, all of which are things to avoid, but not to ignore.

Indoctrination
I'm not sure I can think of any pagans who are pro-indoctrination, per se. What I have seen is de facto indoctrination - the kind that is sneaky, snarky, and gnarly. I'm talking about coven leaders who discourage or forbid their members to study outside of the coven. And what about traditionalists who refuse to accept the validity of another's path?

When it comes to children?

I don't have any children, and of course I have grand ideas of how I would raise them and nightmarish ideas about how I might fuck them up for all eternity. On the other hand, I once was a child who suffered intense indoctrination. It was not as militant as the kids shown in Jesus Camp, but it was no less pervasive in every aspect of my life. The hang ups there may never go away completely, and the transition from that "old life" to my "new life" was a rocky one psychologically.

The truth of the matter is, most children love their religion when they're small. It's what mommy and daddy love, after all, and sometimes it can be filled with fun stories, decorations, and songs. The pagan paths certainly have no lack of those! I hope that pagan parents are being open and honest with their children and, when the kids are old enough, will let them freely explore what the rest of the religious world has to offer.

When kids are indoctrinated so fiercely, one of two things can happen. The first is that they will live up to the vast amounts of responsibility placed upon them; the second is that they won't. And when they can't, rebellion occurs.

But what if they can? From what I saw in the film, I can't imagine these kids growing up to be what their parents and ministers expect from them. I see them becoming something else. Something worse. When Christianity has been twisted this far and fed to children, who knows how much farther they will twist it by the time they've grown up? Who knows what battles these "warriors" will bring?

Rhetoric
One thing that I noticed right off the bat, and it didn't cease throughout the entire film, was a heavy reliance on rhetoric from the ministers (and the children who did some preaching, too). Becky, the founder and organizer of the camp, managed to talk to a group of children and their parents for a matter of minutes without actually saying anything. And without any real content, without any real teaching, without any application of scripture, the entire audience was swept up in an intense emotional response.

Comparing this to my own childhood I can see just how easy it is for church leaders (at local or national levels) to place triggers on their congregation. This is most easily done with catch phrases, egregious use of holy names (God, Jesus, Jehovah), and rhetorical questions with only one "spiritually correct" answer. When you hear the catch phrase, you have an immediate response in your heart and mind. When God's name is placed on something, it must be His truth. And, of course, if everyone else has the same answer, it must be the right one.

Pagan authors and bloggers use rhetoric quite a bit, but not in much the same way. It is much easier to speak in generalities, especially when your audience is as diverse as any pagan audience is likely to be. The difference is that we (for the most part) make it clear that we are expressing opinions, that we want others to express theirs, and that these opinions do not come from GOD and do not comprise the ONE TRUE WAY.

Once again (and this is, of course, only my opinion), the place where I see this kind of speaking/teaching getting us in trouble is in smaller groups like covens, groves, etc. One or two leaders or highly influential members can easily (sometimes unwittingly) set up this same kind of situation. When none of the answers to your questions contain practical information, or that information is always the same, this could be a bad sign. When leaders refuse to examine teachings and practices despite the pleadings of other members, there is definitely a problem.

Jesus Complex
The kids in Jesus Camp are told again and again that it is their job to change the world. They have been chosen by Christ as the generation to 'take back America.' Quite a responsibility. And the evangelical M.O. is to shove Jesus down your throat until you believe.

I'm sure this doesn't seem at all familiar to anyone.

Far from being immune to the Jesus Complex, pagans seem especially susceptible to it. We have sloughed off our inferiority, realized how much potential we have, and recognized the same divine spark within us that the masters had. That's great! That's what the masters wanted! But even Jesus didn't force people to listen to his message. In fact, he admonished his apostles to walk away from opposition, to dust off their feet as they left the town that refused to hear, and to never come back.*

Obviously, pagans don't go around evangelizing. This is not the issue. But too many of us claim guru status without merit. Too many of us can't shut our mouths long enough to actually hear the person we are trying to help (save!) and understand their problem. Too many of us tout our religion or tradition or teaching as "TRUTH." Too many of us simply cannot help blabbing our ideas about where they are not welcome.

Many pagan faiths teach that everyone has a voice with equal right to be heard. Well, when everyone talks at the same time all you get is noise. We have the opportunity to sing together in unity as the Choir of Life, but we deny it on every turn. We can each be a part of the harmony, and we can each have a solo or two, but, damn it, what's the point of singing in a group if you don't know how to be in a group?

As a side note, New Agers have a similar complex with their children, as noted on this Blog o' Gnosis post:

There is a sort of New Age parallel to the evangelical message that today’s children are Christ’s army: the whole “Indigo child” movement.... They’ve been raised to be total narcissists, believe the world revolves around them, have never been taught basic social etiquette, and have no respect for any authority but their own. In short, they’re as much a worry as the Bible-thumpers coming out of the Christian evangelical movement.

We should make sure that we don't allow our children (or ourselves) to become such a worry, as well.

End of Part 1
So, the title of this post doesn't make sense yet. I'll get to that next time. For the moment, let's all think about what we can learn to do and not do from our Christian neighbors. Even the radical evangelicals are here to teach and learn their lessons.

-Jonah

*My scripture recall is pretty fuzzy these days. If anyone reminds me where this is in the Bible, I'll put it on here.

Being Inverted Beings

John Morehead of Morehead's Musings has a very interesting post about inverted beings (see John's post for the reference, which comes from J. Milton Yinger's book Countercultures: The Promise and Peril of a World Turned Upside Down [New York: The Free Press, 1982]). Inverted beings are, more or less, the members of a counterculture who act oppositely of how they are expected to act based on social norms and status quo. In my comment on his post, I point out that, by this definition, Jesus was an inverted being himself. Yinger uses the example of (real or perceived) witches as the modern inverted being archetype.

Now, I don't think that I live a life diametrically opposed to the social norms. I do, however, have some pretty "radical" ideas as compared to Joe Christian and Jane Catholic. Those ideas include reverence and care for, rather than domination over, the Earth; the existence and beneficial application of magic; a plurality of gods; and a righteous plurality of people and their associated faiths. If my life has to be inverted in order to foster these values of power shared instead of power over in the world at large, so be it.

Many pagans (especially Wiccans) have a tendency to proclaim themselves to be "just like everybody else" in an attempt to gain social acceptance. Well, what good is social acceptance if it's your 'everybody else' face that's being accepted, not your true self? I've always said that "if we do good because it's in our hearts, it will be recognized as good. If we do it to bolster our own image, it will be recognized as advertisement."

The thing to remember about being socially inverted is that society changes. Sometimes it changes because of the inverted beings within it. Sometimes people like Jesus, Buddha, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Jack Kerouac come along with a different vision, and they show that vision to the world. Sometimes, if that vision is truly important and inspired, the world responds. Sometimes these people change the world, sometimes a nation, sometimes a subculture. Sometimes they change only a handful of individuals. No contribution is any less important, any less devastating to the outmoded world views of the time.

We can all be agents of change. And we can choose if that change will serve us or the world; if it will be selfish or divine; if it will be dictated to us or inspired. Is my effort to throw a righteous hex on the world inverted? If the world stands for fear, hate, oppression, consumerism, war, deforestation, pollution, and other forms of power over, then I truly hope so. But some day, when a vision of love, peace, sustainability, and power shared manifests, it will the be the world that has inverted, and I'll be upright within it.

-Jonah


As always, questions and comments are welcome. What are some of your inverted visions? Are you acting to manifest them in the world? How?


EDIT

After writing this post, I went back to read a link left by another commenter on John's blog. He raised a lot of the same points I did, but has a lot of nice historical information to go along with it. He makes this very interesting comment:

One problem is that countercultures keep getting coopted by mainstream cultures. The Beats of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s had various visions of alternative lifestyles. But it wasn't long before banks were offering "lifestyle banking", and the lifestyle they promoted in their advertising was one of conspicuous consumption...

Wiccans have seen this process already (think Charmed). While modern representations of Wiccans and, to a lesser degree, other pagan groups have begun shifting from evil/green/warty, they have yet to enter the realm of reality. Whether you identify as Wiccan or not, the trivialization of Wicca is equivalent to the trivialization of paganism as far as the minds of the general populace are concerned.

This is another reason to rethink the common "I'm just like you" stance. Does it open us up for greater respect, or for greater marginalization?

EDIT #2 (4/13)
Apparently John didn't like my comment, because he never approved it. So, you won't see my comments on his page (at least not for the moment).

When Nothing Seems Big Enough...

...start with something small.

the goddess
spinning
all ending and beginning


Every morning (uh, almost), before I leave my apartment, I perform my daily practice of grounding and meditation. If I have given myself enough time (hard to do since I am not a morning person), I also like to use short chants and songs with a mala or serenity bracelet.

A mala is a set of 108 prayer beads, while a serenity bracelet is a much smaller version. The basic premise is to repeat the same mantra, prayer, or chant for each bead. Those of you who have not tried this type of meditation may be asking yourselves, "Why on Holy Mother Earth would you want to sit there and say the same thing one hundred eight times??" Perhaps you have heard the expression "don't knock it till you've tried it."

At this last PanteaCon (an annual event in San Jose, CA hosted by Ancient Ways) I attended several rituals and workshops that employed chant and song repetition to alter consciousness. The Great Celestial Chicken definitely approves of this practice, especially in large group settings. Say anything one hundred and eight times in a row without stopping, and you will be forever changed. Sing the same song for half an hour with a group of fifty to two hundred people, and you will fall in love with humanity.

As part of a regular spiritual practice, mala meditation can have profound effects. And the best part is that it's so easy. Pagan culture is rich with short songs and chants that are designed for repetition. If you can't think of one that suits your needs, you can easily make one up, like I did with the seven word chant given at the beginning of this post. It can also be used like steroids for your favorite affirmations (without the unwanted acne and unprovoked aggression!).

Here are a couple more Jonah originals for your bead praying pleasure. They are a bit longer, but I've had great success with them. Go ahead, give the mala a try. If you don't like it, I'll refund the money you paid me for this post!

To be, give, and know love (this one is best said quickly).
I open my heart
I open my vision
I open my hands
I open my life
to love, to love,
to love, to love,
to love, to love,
to love.


For the full moon.
I feel the fullness of the Moon.
I feel the fullness of my Heart.
I feel the richness of the Earth.
And I give thanks for my Life.


What are some of your favorite chants and songs? Have you tried any of them with the mala?

Love, Love, Love

or Loving Your Brothers [In Christ?]


While randomly poking around the web seeking some inspiration, I came across a Christian woman's blog post on... future blog posts. Her seemingly not very exciting list of future post topics provided just the spark I needed to talk about the universal (pan-religious) axiom:

All you need is love (doo doo doo-doo doo).
All you need is love (doo doo doo-doo doo).
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

Gods bless the Beatles.
Here is one of her ideas for future topics:

What’s a girl to do when she can’t hardly stand a Christian brother or sister? In other words, what does brotherly love practically look like when you don’t get along with someone?

What is a girl to do, indeed. One of the comments gives some advice which, though tailored for Christian eyes, applies to us all:

I have dealt with incredibly annoying people in church. But you know, annoying people get less annoying when they are loved. Love softens people. Annoying people are unloving people. That’s what makes them annoying. They have a hard exterior, they have their walls up. They are trying to keep people at arm’s distance.

This commenter, "Echo_ohcE," talks a lot about why Christians should love Christians based on Christian teachings. Brava! Love is, after all, all we need. And in that respect, the Christians are spot on.

Curious, though, how the command to 'love your brother' extends only as far as other Christians.

I'm no angel (well, depending on who you ask), but I'll tell you that my ideal is that ALL of mankind are my brothers, sisters, and in-betweens. In fact, that extends to all animals, plants, gods, and spirits. Being siblings, we have a tendency to bicker, to say mean things out of spite, and to hurt each other. But at the end of the day, if we're truly good boys and girls at heart, we know that we still love each other.

It's the showing it part that's the kicker. Especially when our brothers and sisters can be so friggin irritating, and stubborn, and short-sighted, and self-centered... just like us. And this is why it's a challenge to show love to others. We've forgotten how to love ourselves. In a world of USes vs. THEMs, of judgment and finger-pointing, and of self-loathing and self-centeredness (there's a paradox if I've ever heard one), it's really difficult to love each other. We've been taught not to.

Here's the important part. The key is not to force love, or to try and drag it up from our inner depths where we might have buried it under all of that "OH MY GOD I CAN'T STAND YOU" that so many of us seem to stock-pile. The key is to be a channel of divine love. Pull love down from the heavens and up from the Earth. Shine it out through your awakened and fully present heart. And you can love someone without liking them. You can love someone without trusting them. You can love someone even if they're annoying, or rude, or even evil.

Because in this world, they may be a stranger, but in Spirit they are your brother.

Love is the greatest hex we can cast, and we first cast it on ourselves. Echo says that annoying people get less annoying when they are loved. This may be partly true. I think that what really happens is that when we love people, we get less annoyed.