Righteously Hexed

New Beginning

2008-08-10T15:40:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here singing one of my favorite songs to myself: New Beginning by Tracy Chapman. Suddenly I realize how appropriate it is for this post that I'm starting to write.

This blog is coming to an end. Yes, I know, it's sad, but it's true. There are several reasons for this decision, but the big one is that I'm sick of Blogger and it's lack of certain features that I've come to realize could be really helpful. And so, I've decided to move over to Wordpress.com

This is a good thing. New blog, new name, new address, new layout, and new outlook. No pretense, no boxes; just Jonah writing about Jonahy thoughts, and hopefully some more substantial offerings to come.

So within the next day or two, you will start seeing my new posts at jdove.wordpress.com. This blog will remain here for posterity. Well, maybe not for posterity, but at least for a while :-)

So, my two loyal readers, ::snicker:: onward and upward! I'll see you at wordpress.

Peace and blessed be!
- Jonah

Jonah's Prayer

2008-07-02T22:38:00.000-07:00

May each step I take
and word I speak
be guided by truth
and lead to peace.

I've written my fair share of prayers, but if I were to pick one that is my prayer, this would be it. I'm surprised that I haven't posted it yet (I think I did in a comment somewhere, but, I'm not sure).

There are a handful of prayers that I try to say every day. This is one of them, and it's always towards the end of my morning practice. It's sort of "the point" that I'm trying to get across to myself. One of them, anyway.

Could you imagine if this prayer came true? If every step you took was aimed towards peace? If every word you spoke came from a real place of truth? Could you do it for even one day? What would that day be like?

This is truly a lofty goal, and one which I've never completely achieved even for one day. But some days, the words catch me at the times when my behavior least matches my goal. In those moments, I see where I've gone wrong, and growth can occur.

What is your prayer?

Sun Salutation

2008-06-08T09:04:00.000-07:00

O, Sun!
I greet you in your radiance.
I feel your warmth, and it enlivens me.
I accept your blessing,
and offer you mine in return.
May you inspire me
to share that blessing
with the whole of the Earth
on this brilliant,
blessed day.

(The guy in the picture is totally not me)

Brigid In Cyberspace 2008

2008-02-03T13:49:00.000-08:00

Here is my poem for Brigid in Cyberspace 2008. Sorry it's a bit late, and a bit dark >:-]

River of Blood
by Jonah
Feb 3, 2008

A hunger within me,
which cannot be snuffed
asks deftly to be acknowledged, and waits
(secretly wishing to be ignored)
for an answer.
See me! it cries
and runs the other way
Find me!
and ducks behind a corner.

walking in circles by dim candlelight
searching for only what makes me a liar
give me a hint that i might find my way
quick to the end lest my spirit should tire

Voices call loudly
from my boiling blood
asking for forgiveness, redemption
from sins never committed
and guilts never earned
and a perceived emptiness where none
should ever exist.
They compel me to act,
as if these aches were my own
as if this unreachable itch held residence
within my own (fleshly) body.
The Ancestors peer at me sideways.

from other worlds come the dark desp'rate cries
wrought in the blaze of a deep-hearted fire
give me that look and i'll take up a crown
lit on my head in bright burning desire

When all is said and done,
the voices become my own
and the hunger passes down a thread of
red or pink.
I have turned away from the airy promises
of serenity and salvation
(See me! they cried;
Let go! and vanished from my sight).
No god or demon or
fay or power or
angel
or star
would dare ever take my hand and pull
me along
and show me that all of this is my choosing.
No. No.
They would never do that.
They have too much to lose.

i firmly reject what i say that i wish
and never will claim that to which i aspire
i pass on my burden to those who come next
go to the ground and then dism'lly retire

To Ease the Passing

2008-01-24T19:15:00.000-08:00

Today Thorn wrote about Cora, and her final struggles as she waits to pass from this world to the next. I have sat before with a woman (one of my aunts) waiting for her final breath, sending her the energy to help her either recover or pass. It was clear that she was ready to pass, but she used that energy to hold on just a bit longer, until more relatives could arrive... until she could see everyone off.

I don't know Cora, except by reputation and through the teachings of Feri. For those teachings, for all great and small contributions to what Feri has become, for touching the hearts and souls of the teachers who bless the world by passing that tradition on, I bless her.

In honor of Cora, and the process she is going through which I have witnessed only once but am sure to witness again, I was inspired to write this.

Song to Ease the Passing

Open the door
let the light flow in
they sing to you from beyond.
Open the door
let your light flow out
we sing for your safe return.
Open the door
and close your eyes
they wait to welcome you home.
You are our friend
we must say goodbye
we know that we will meet again.

It's a little cliche, but lovely when set to music. I thank the ancestors for unraveling it within me.

Blessed be, Cora. May your remaining time be joyful and your transition be peaceful.
Blessed be, Fay. May you move Cora's spirit safely to the next world when the time comes.
Blessed be, Ancestors. May you great our elder with open arms.

How to Change the World

2008-01-15T23:28:00.000-08:00

If there is one thing that my spiritual work has taught me, it's that the only way the world is going to change is if people change, and the only way people are going to change is if we change ourselves first.

There is a reason that Feri teaches Iron before Pearl. Even teachers who teach them at the same time discuss Iron first. It's because we need to fortify ourselves, be Kala in ourselves, before we can fortify and be Kala in our communities. Skipping (or glossing) the first step leads to putting forth a great effort but never achieving your goal, like spinning your wheels in the sand.

We can't force anyone to wake up, to see the bigger picture, to look at things and care about things the way that we do. Society won't change until people change. It's not about the actions people take or the laws that govern them. It's about who they are inside. And we can't change that. We can only change ourselves, and offer ourselves as a model for the "better way" that we so desperately want others to adopt. But if we were truly living in that better way, maybe we wouldn't be so desperate. Maybe we would see that pressuring people to change is what got us here in the first place. Maybe we would see that the system is flawed because it's run by flawed people. Maybe we would see those flaws within ourselves and learn to have compassion when we see them in others. Maybe we would see that the war is within us, ourselves, individually - not out there with everyone else.

A Toast to Health

2008-01-11T20:57:00.001-08:00

Today, and for a while, I'm feeling under the weather. I know I'm not the only one.

When was the last time you enjoyed your health, truly and consciously. When was the last time you felt good and were thankful for it?

Raise your glass. If you don't have a glass, raise it the next time you do. Raise your glass and let's toast to health. Feel your good health, or remember what it was like. Feel yourself feeling good, and feel that feeling for everyone you love, and everyone you know, whether you like them or not. Feel good, and feel it for everyone.

Here's to Health. Good Health. May it be shared by all!

Drink that in and be kala.

What Little Fears

2007-12-28T18:38:00.000-08:00

What little fears we hold inside
in darkest places yet unknown
where they twist and moan in wretched grief
and spin out anger which rots our bones and skin.
We cannot see them.
They hide behind words
and smiles and upset tummies.
We help them hide -
we choke them back -
we push them down -
we don't want to see.
But a little light shows their true size...
these little fears
that beat
like little hearts
pumping poison where blood should be
until we're blind to look within
until our eyes see only out
until our minds spin lies
and words and smiles and upset tummies...
because we don't want to see
what little fears
control our little, little self.

Spirits, Spirits, Everywhere...

2007-12-20T20:18:00.000-08:00

You don't realize it when you are a young witchlet, but one day you wake up and realize: "Dang! There are a lot of spirits around here!" And 'here,' in this case, means your life and your personal space.

Embracing your witch-hood* is kind of like getting married** in that the size of your family suddenly doubles.*** You may start out with just a temporary altar that you put up on special occasions like sabats and esbats. Then you do something more permanent as your spirituality starts to take hold in your life. Before you know it, every free surface in your home is an altar or a shrine of some sort. You've got shrines to gods, altars to the Ancestors, altars to the Fay^; you've got working altars and offering shrines and framed pictures on your walls; you've got incense burning, flowers in vases, bowls of water and liquor, glasses of wine, shiny things and oddball trinkets; altar cloths, power objects, candles candles candles... the list goes on and on.^^

All of this is a result of (and a step towards) having a positive relationship with your spirit allies. Sure, at first it's all about you and what you think is pretty/cool/interesting. But once you start getting to know your allies, they start making requests. "Where's mmmyyyyy altaaar??" they say. "Why'd you put that there??" they ask. "Would you mind bringing me my favorite [blank]?" they suggest.

And of course you do these things for them, because they do things for you. More importantly, because they are your friends and you want to maintain that friendship. And let's not forget that they often have a tendency to keep asking and asking until it gets done; they have a tendency to point things out to you at the store and say "OOO! I like that!!"; and they have a tendency to let you know that they're very happy when you give them what they ask for.

The reason I'm thinking about all of this is that I recently redid all of the altars in my room. Everyone had an opinion about how they should be arranged, who's altar should go where, and what they did and did not want on their altar. I still haven't lived up to all of their requests, but I'm working on it. The last altar to be finished was the Ancestor altar, which I did a few hours ago.^^^ I had a nagging headache beforehand. They said "Um... we'll get rid of that for you. If you finish our altar." Who am I to turn down a great deal like that? It was also their way of letting me know that they were around and ready to inspire me. I started out thinking "Gosh! I have a lot less stuff for an Ancestor altar than I thought I did!" By the time I was finished I was trying to decide what to leave off because there was just too much, thanks to their help.

And what about you? Do you have a million and a half altars and shrines? When your spirit friends ask you for specific things to put on or leave off of their altar, or ask you for specific offerings, do you make those provisions? If not, try it. You'll be surprised.

If you don't have a dedicated space for them, your allies probably don't seem ask you for anything like this at all. Create a space for them first. Build an altar to use while working with your patron deity. Start a shrine where you can leave offerings to the Fay. Make a space for them in your life, and they'll enter it.

Peace,
Jonah

Please feel encouraged to share your stories and experiences on this topic.

* I don't say "Becoming a witch..." because it really seems that it's not a choice. I've never known anyone who decided to 'become a witch' who didn't quickly revert back to whatever they were before. Every witch worth her salt that I've ever met 'stumbled upon' the Craft or was 'called home' to it.

** I've never been married, but I'm imagining that the process of slowly meeting your significant other's family and then suddenly being integrated into it at marriage sort of parallels what I'm talking about here.

*** ...if you're doing it right. Some "witches" don't work with spirits at all (!!!) beyond "The Goddess" and "The God" and "The Elements/Guardians." Considering the rich history of witches making alliances with nature spirits, ancestors, Watchers, angels, and even demons, this seems really silly to me. We can get a great deal of power, knowledge, wisdom, assistance, and fulfillment from the spirit world, and it intrinsic to our nature as witches to do so. If you're not a witch, feel free to disregard this message ;-)

^ Wow, lots of footnotes! The term "Fay" refers to Faeries, which are nature spirits - not necessarily "Tinkerbell" pixies. If I mean to refer to them, I will use the work "pixie." The word "Fey" (not used here) refers to spirits, people, or objects which are Fay-like. These definitions are taken from Orion Foxwood's book The Faery Teachings, and I'll try to stick with them from now on to maintain some semblance of clarity.

^^ Not all of this will apply to everyone, of course.

^^^ Since my family wasn't big on its history and since I've only had one person pass who was really close to me (whom I do not have a suitable picture of, unfortunately), this is sort of a generic Ancestor altar.

Stream of Consciousness Rant

2007-12-17T19:25:00.000-08:00

I keep trying to write about things that don't want to be written. And I realize that just because I want it to be time doesn't make it so.

The Work is hard, despite how easy it is. We don't want to wait. We don't want to sit. We just want to be done, we want to be now, we want to be finished, we want to be Jesus and Buddha and Victor and Kuan Yin and Artemis all rolled into one. At least that's what they tell me. I'd rather be me. I'd rather be slow. I'd rather take it easy and get there on time - not hurry and get there too late.

So I wonder about time and about fate and if it's even possible to be early or late. The big names will tell you that you're late when you force it, that if you're early it's just as bad. Magic happens in the moment, and that's The Moment with a capital T. M.

When is that moment? It's now, and forever, and it already came and went. There are a million The Moments and a million different magics that are just waiting to burst forth through them like fireworks - or more like dandelions hit by a gust of wind - and spill out into the world as music and poetry and paint and mud and tears and sex.

I hear the spirits telling me "Work. Work. Work. We need you!" I hear the stillness within me say, "I need you, too. And I'm trying." But the torrent in my heart or the chatter in my brain or the spite rolling off my tongue or the shivers in my bones or the laziness in my ass or something or someone always wants to get in the way. Who is this demon above me, and what is stopping this god?

We get in our own way, just as we all have for all of history. We enter the Work with the best of intentions. When we leave it...?

In order to cast our righteous hex upon the world, we must first be freed of the unholy hex the world has cast upon us. We expect limitations to make us free? We expect impositions to help us grow? We expect conformity to breed creativity and punishment to prompt right action? Fear is the god of this world. May we be freed from its tyranny.

When Gods Tell You What to Do...

2007-11-10T15:11:00.000-08:00

...Listen.

Note: I'm sorry about being away for so long. The truth of the matter is that inspiration for this blog is a bit hard to find at times. The promised series of articles never fleshed out, but perhaps the muse will coax me into completing them at a later date. But back to the point...

When I say that you should listen when the gods tell you what to do, I do not mean "blindly follow instruction." That is the kind of nonsense that gets people into trouble - especially when "God" tells them to kill someone (or a whole group of someones). Listening means paying attention, giving consideration; not necessarily obedience.

As T. Thorn Coyle likes to point out, Feri teaches us to give our power to "no one and no thing." That includes gods. And while gods are more often than not bigger and smarter and farther-sighted than us, they also have a track record of doling out tests, tasks, and challenges.

Whether or not you accept these tests is solely up to you. Just make sure you are prepared to carry them out before you begin.

Just last night a god told me what to do. I was attending my third of three Samhain rituals for this year (that was a first for me... but each was lusciously different and offered its own special insights), when the Feri god Anna seemed to take a special interest in me. Because of the time and guise with which She appeared to me, I first thought that she was an ancestor. It didn't take long for me to learn otherwise.

I was having an unfortunately hard time trying to understand Her because of everything else going on in the room. When we eventually reached a quiet point in the ritual, I was able to focus my attention and ask Her what She wanted from me. She asked me to say Her name. "Out loud?" I asked. She said yes.

Now, the timing of this was almost unbearably inappropriate. Everyone was totally silent. Participants were taking offerings and very solemnly placing them on the Mighty Dead altar. I tried to whisper Her name. "Louder," She said. I tried to say it just a tiiiiiny bit louder. That wasn't good enough, either. I tried to explain to her that this was a very rude time for me to blurt out her name seemingly at random. But She would not let it go.

Before I could work up the courage, the ritual shifted and something else started. At the end there was some sharing time, but every time I tried to speak I was cut off by someone else. Anna seemed to give up on me and I could feel Her energy pulling away. Finally I found an opportunity to speak. "Anna would like me to say her name out loud to acknowledge her. I'm not sure why she wants that, but, I'm going to say it. Anna!"

I was SO embarrassed. This was a public ritual. Most attendees were not studying Feri and even more had never been to a Feri ritual. And, my friends and I seem to be a little weird in that we have no problem saying "This god/spirit/ally is telling me that we should do this" at any given time, so it's not something I normally do in a public setting. Everyone had their eyes on me, and some of them looked very confused.

But immediately after I had finished my acknowledgment of Anna, the woman sitting next to me flipped her head around and whispered, "How did you hear Her like that??" The ritual quickly moved into the last phase and I didn't have time to address the question, which left me feeling even more confused than Anna's strange request.

After the ritual ended, I found the woman and asked her what she had meant by her question. She told me that she had been trying to hear a passed loved one because she felt that she had some unfinished business with him (I'm watering this down so that I don't give out any personal details). She told me a generalized version of what had happened between them and tears came to her eyes. I gave her a hug. We talked briefly about other ways that she could make amends without using clairaudience. I gave her my email address in case she wanted to talk about it further.

Whether I ever hear from this woman again or not, I was able to be there for her when she needed me, give her a small amount of guidance and reassurance, and help her to begin to release something that she had been holding onto for years. All I had to do was listen to Anna and suffer a tiny bit of embarrassment. It was really a small price to pay.

That was a bit of a long story to make a small (but important) point. Sometimes gods and guides just don't make sense. Sometimes what they ask you to do is off the wall and socially awkward. But if you trust them - and, more importantly, if you trust yourself - doing what they ask can very often open up hidden doors and cause minor miracles to occur.

May you listen to your allies in spirit, whatever way they choose to speak with you.

Heatwave

2007-08-23T09:33:00.001-07:00

I've been working on my next post, I promise. A series, in fact. But due to the ridiculous heat and the broken air conditioner, I haven't been able to focus long enough to make coherent thoughts. It has affected both me and my computer to the point that neither of us want to function. It seems to be letting up, so I'll have my next post up soon..

Peace,
Jonah

Ebb and Flow

2007-08-04T15:56:00.000-07:00

My heart is the moon,
filling and flushing.
Each beat is a lunar cycle,
pumping blood through my body
as the moon pumps water across the Earth.
The moon waxes as my heart expands,
filling its chambers with life-giving red.
My heart contracts as the moon wanes,
relaxing its hold on the life-giving blue.
The thumping of my heart;
the crashing of waves;
blood and water filled with air
and sent out to give fuel to life.

Live Journal Feed

2007-07-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

[Cross posted on Blogger and LJ]

A couple of people have asked for a feed to my blog on blogger so that they can add it to their LJ friends list. Well, thanks to the help of my fabulous friend misericorde, who actually blogs on LJ enough to have a pay account, a feed has been established! You can use the LJ "Add Feed by URL" feature to get Righteously Hexed on your Friends page.

Go to this page:
http://www.livejournal.com/syn/

And put in this URL:
http://syndicated.livejournal.com/righteoushex/

Please beware that the feed was only created today, which means that for some reason it may show all of the posts from my blog on your friends page for a while. After a few days it should clear itself up and you will receive one post at a time like normal.

First Contact

2007-07-25T07:28:00.001-07:00

Star Finder

One of the Giants who reaches the sky,

I am Star Finder

and I seek your light.

I walk the edge.

between night and day

and show you the direction

your light must flow.

I rule over this age

with new power

and new love.

I pull you up

with the rising of the sun.

I am Star Finder,

and I seek your light.

Original artwork and poetry by Jonah Dove.

Good to the Last Drop

2007-07-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

I've just had an amazing and beautiful weekend with a fine group of people led by the lovely T. Thorn Coyle. We sang, we danced (uh, or at least swayed side to side!), we worshiped. We aligned our souls and began learning how to make the most of our daily practice.

One of the participants brought up a very interesting point that, unfortunately, we didn't have much time to discuss. She wondered about the value of self-focused spiritual work when the state of the world seems to be in continual decay. Wouldn't our time be better spent addressing those issues directly? This is not a new question, and it has been asked in form or another by some of my favorite bloggers [links are to blogs, not specific posts]. But it is an important question with a very real, albeit illusive, answer.

Effective Work

Personal spiritual work is of paramount importance for the simple reason that it makes us more effective in the rest of our lives. Whatever causes we fight for, whatever work we do, however we seek to help others or the world - all of these things are strengthened by our spiritual work because we are strengthened by our spiritual work.

Learning about ourselves helps us to understand why our work is important and how we can best perform it. Caring for ourselves helps us to be prepared for our work and keeps us from burning out. Disciplining ourselves gives us the strength and fortitude to carry out our work when it gets difficult.

For these reasons and more, I think that regular and focused spiritual practice is a worthwhile endeavor, indeed.

Reclaiming Power

As is so often the case, the day following the intense wonder of the long magical weekend was a bit odd. Returning home, returning to work, and returning to routine is no easy task. Especially so when you are trying not to immediately forget all of the excellent advice-for-a-better-life you were so recently endowed with.

So, today, I found myself caught up in my same old cycles of rushing to work, getting upset with my road-warrior companions, being less-than-happy with some of my coworkers, etc. etc. But... wait... what was that key phrase? I FOUND myself caught up. Yes! Yes yes! I wasn't 'magically' set free of my unhelpful patterns, but I did notice them! There they were, right in front of my face! And in record time, too.

Yes, I am sure it will take me time to understand these patterns, integrate them, and reclaim the life force that I've tied up there. But I am now a step closer to doing so, and therefore a step closer to being self-possessed and fully present in the world.

Small Pebble, Big Pond

It's anyone's guess how many times I've said this: The first thing magic changes is the self.* This means that the global changes we seek - whether they be environmental, societal, or other - start with us. And that can be very hard to accept in a world where what you want is what you get as long as you give up control.

But there's a built-in bonus here: the ripple effect. Our work ripples outward, affecting not only ourselves and our little corner of the world, but those around us as well.

Imagine a huge room filled with tiny wooden people standing on the floor, all tied together in a web of red yarn. The people represent us, and the yarn is the relationships between us. If you were to find the little wooden person that stands for you and lift it, what would happen? The web of interconnection would slowly lift all of the people connected to you. Lift high enough and some of those people will start lifting others around them.

If we are truly making spiritual progress, we will inspire others to do the same, simply by being near them. To change the world, it is going to take a world of spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically awake individuals.

A World of Change

Our world is largely asleep. Not really the best state in which to take action and create change. As spiritual people - as witches - it is our job to wake ourselves up first. Then we can be effective at rousing others from their slumber. Spirituality is not a goal, it is a process. When performed properly, it's a process that can be used to set and achieve our goals.

I want an awakened world. First, I have to crawl out of bed. -Sniff, sniff- Is that a fresh pot of daily practice I smell?

-Jonah

P.S. To all of the new friends I met this weekend, thank-you-thank-you-thank-you again for your kindness and generosity, and for making our experience together so totally awesome!

*Anyone who can tell me who said it first gets a prize... cuz I can't remember!

(Not) Choosing Blatant Failure

2007-05-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
- a version of The Serenity Prayer

My friend Trevia and I have been having a similar problem lately. I'm just coming out of it. Hopefully she beat me to it. She says:

I've been reading A Manual for Living by Epictetus. His prescription for living a good life called for three ingredients:

1. Master your desires.
2. Do your work.
3. Maintain clear thought.

As I've wallowed through the puddle of crap that has been the past few days, I've blatantly failed at all three of these.

Rather than go into what my problems are (I'm sure you don't care) and the methods I've adopted to help me through them (I'm sure they won't work for you... although you might try the one Trevia mentions towards the end of her post), I will instead offer you an observation: All of these problems are a matter of choice.

I have been thinking a lot about choice since my last post, in which I stated that "Witches... are the great choosers." In theory, we have the power to choose our reality. But in practice?

It seems to me that when a witch begins choosing negative perspectives, counterproductive activities, and self-defeating outcomes, he is afflicted with a sickness. The cause of this sickness is stagnation, inaction, muffled breath and stifled words. We are all familiar with the symptoms. The long and short of it is that we are not clear (or kala, as they say in Feri). Sometimes this is because of a lack of due diligence. Sometimes it's life throwing more at us than we are prepared to handle. Either way, it is a sickness from which you can choose to heal.

Kuan Yin was drawn down at our dark moon ritual last Wednesday, and she had her own variety of wisdom to offer on this subject:

The people who call on me are the people who do not need me.

The people who need me, they do not call. (...)

If you call to me, I will come to you.

-Channeled from Kuan Yin.

I do not think that Kuan Yin is saying that you shouldn't be calling her if you don't need her. In fact, I have personal experience that leads me to believe she thinks we all could use her help on some level. The more you call on her, the more you can be a channel of her infinite compassion in the lives of others.

What she did mean, in my understanding, is that you can open up a direct channel of that compassion for yourself when no one else is around. Even if you cannot choose to honor yourself, to work with yourself instead of against yourself, to be kala instead of 'wallowing through a puddle of crap,' assistance is available. Your guides, healers, and protectors are always around you. There are gods who love you, some of whom you haven't even established a relationship with yet. If you can't choose to help yourself because that choice is too big, you can make the much smaller choice to ask for help from someone who has the power to give it.

Open yourself to the love that always surrounds you. If you really can't make the right choice, ask a god to do it for you.

-Jonah

P.S. I keep intending to write more practically about the power of choice, since Nio expressed an interest. It's a very illusive subject. Hopefully I will get back to it eventually.

The Unification of Opposites

2007-05-08T18:19:00.000-07:00

There is a spiritual truth encoded within the hexagram: the unification of opposites. This is the idea of finding the similarities in two opposing forces and uniting them to create something new and beautiful. Unfortunately, thanks to the let-me-yell-at-you-until-I-win mentality of the world, I have very few examples to give you about how beautifully this can work.

I'm touting this book all the time, but here we go again: Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing shows a gorgeous, albeit fictional, example of what I'm talking about. The many different people and faiths of her future San Fransisco learn to focus on their similarities rather than their differences and become an oasis amidst a desert of war and oppression. The catalyst that brought these people together was extreme circumstance, the choice between freedom and oppression, an intense need for each other.

And this is a need we do not find in our society today. This is a need we do not even find in our local pagan communities in some cases.*

As long as we don't have a need to confront our biases, our prejudices, and even our hostility towards those who reside outside of our clique, it is much easier to simply pretend these issues don't matter.** But they do. And though the reasons may not be clear, we need each other now more than ever.

So what can we do?

The hexagram is composed of two triangles, each facing opposite directions but clearly centered around the same point. These triangles can be seen as the alchemical symbols for fire (upright) and water (point-down). Though they represent very different energies, neither of the triangles had to change shape to form the hexagram. They only needed to be aligned.

To create this principle in the world, we need to be open to alignment (or ally-ment). This is the energy of cooperation, not confrontation; listening, not preaching; compromise, not coercing. I truly believe that if we open ourselves to this type of change, miracles can happen.

But sometimes those in one triangle or the other simply cannot open themselves to such a compromise. We can be as open as we want, but if they aren't sending anything we won't receive it (and vice versa). It looks like the only way we're going to get to the point of the type of compromise I'm talking about is by being confronted by an urgent and undeniable need to have each other's support.

But there's another way...

As witches, our job is to choose. This may sound like an oversimplification, but really it is a mystery. We have to choose what we want the world to become. When we are presented with choices that we do not like, we must create new choices. Witches, magicians, light workers, shamans, et al are the great choosers.

So I choose to be a clear channel for peace to enter this world. I choose to be a conduit for divine love. I choose to send this love to everyone around me. I choose to create bonds that strengthen, not ties that bind.

Perhaps there are people in this world who will never be ready to meet us face-to-face. That is their path. Our path can be the choice to fuse the world's opposing forces within us, in our hearts, and shine them out*** for the world to see a better way, a brighter future, with mutual love, respect, and inclusion.

I choose to play whatever part I am capable in holding the balance of the hexagram in my heart.

-Jonah

P.S. I know all of this is very abstract. Hopefully someone can comment with some more concrete ideas on how to embody this principle, and how to make those important choices.

*My local community is one of these cases.

**This applies to other areas of life, as well; most notably addiction. Even when confronted with the terrifying consequences of addiction (lung cancer, diabetes, obesity), many people find it nearly impossible to quit for various reasons. Are we addicted to separation? If so, what can we do to break this habit and begin to heal?

***I had intended to write about the hexagram as it demonstrates the creative process of unifying the power from above and power from below in the center. This relates to my teaching about the Shining Heart, which is foundational to my personal practice. I will go into more detail on these things in a future post.

Antonym #3: Mutual Exclusivity

2007-05-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

It seems like we’re undergoing two upheavals almost at once, in opposite directions — one, which you mention, is pro-spiritual, and pro-nature, and pro-community; and one which is anti-spiritual, and leads to a devaluation of the Earth on an unprecedented scale...
-Jeff Lilly in a reply to my comment on his post Meditation: At the Bottom of the Faerie Pool

If I were to pull a Tarot card for 'these times that we live in,' do you think it would look more like Death - a sudden and radical change - or Judgment - recounting the past and being birthed into something new? Maybe it would better described by The Tower - a paradigm shift, changing our whole world view.

The world is seeming continually more dichotomous. Just how hard can each side pull before the cord in the middle snaps? Many people think we are on the verge of something - either God's fiery judgment, or a grand spiritual awakening, or an evolutionary leap, or the unification of man and machine. As Jeff suggests, these opposing ideas march alongside each other, each clashing their cymbals and shouting their battle cries until nothing intelligible can be heard.

The problem is, as usual, that no one is talking. We're all too busy yelling. And it's really hard to appreciate someone and their ideas when you are yelling at them.

I'll be the first to raise my hand and admit that I can't see any way to unite the many opposing factors in the world today. But then, I am just one man. If we could all lay to rest the idea of mutual exclusivity, perhaps we could create a dialog. Perhaps we could discover new ideas, new paths, and new unity among disparity.

Instead we get all of the nasties in the world, many of which I've mentioned before.

Black vs. White
Monotheism vs. Polytheism
My Trad. vs. Your Trad.
Democrat vs. Republican
Boys vs. Girls
Rock vs. Scissors

What we continually fail to understand is that it takes all of these things to create and maintain the world, just like it takes all of the countless species to create and maintain the biosphere. If we put Man up versus Nature, we get nothing but a bunch of losers.

-Jonah

Next time... the spiritual miracle of mutual inclusiveness!

Idle Hands

2007-04-29T14:30:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-04-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

...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?