Religion: Moving from memory to life application

31 October 2005 Jarred

I was just reading one of the liberal Christian blogs I like to keep up with, and discovered his recent entry about his son’s confirmation in the Lutheran church. First of all, I’d encourage everyone to check out his son’s “personal profession of faith” which he wrote. Personally, even though I don’t necessarily share his views, I thought it was an excellent attempt by the young man to grapple with his own faith and what it means to him. I think that more young people should be encouraged to do this.

The (rightfully) proud father prefaces this by pointing out that this practice of encouraging confirmands to write their personal statements of faith as a part of the confirmation process is a relatively new one. He compares this practice to “back in the day” when he himself was confirmed, in which the confirmation process involved memorizing a number of various pieces of information (such as the Apostles’ Creed and the ten commandments) and then being quizzed on it. He briefly mentions the anxiety he and his peers felt during this process and confesses that he wasn’t sure how it really demonstrateded they were “ready to assume the rights and responsibilities of adulthood in the church’s eyes.”

I’m inclined to agree with the blogger’s point of view on that one. The confirmation process that his son recently went through strikes me as much more reasonable, not to mention valuable. This is based on my own firm belief that one’s faith must be more than mere rote memorization of certain creeds, laws, and other doctrinal points and “bits of information” deemed “worthy.” As I mentioned in my commemnt to the blogger, it seems to me that faith essentially requires the understanding and wisdom to apply all of that knowledge, lest said knowledge remain little more than “useless trivia” tucked away in some recess of the memory.

Towards the end of my time in church and involvement with my church’s Sunday School program, I became more aware of this problem. Too often, our program would rely on rote memorization without actually teaching the kids much about what it means to live out one’s faith. (Oh sure, we went over the ten commandments and told everyone that they shouldn’t lie, cheat, steal, or the other assorted sins young children are most likely to be presented with, but a faithful life needs to be more than these things.) We filled those kids with our “head knowledge” and gave them little else. So it’s nice to see that at least some churches are coming around and trying to correct that error.

Now if only today’s pagans and witches would also catch wind of that idea. After all, we still too often rely on “head knowledge.” What’s the first thing we tell everyone who says they’re interested in Paganism/Wicca/witchcraft? “Read, read, and read.” We encourage them to fill their heads with information (and let’s not forget that 99% of the information they’ll probably find is bad.) But we don’t talk about the practical, “living the faith” kinds of things.

So “newbies” become “collectors of things.” They collect the various snippets of lore and poetry that have made it into the public domain (both legitimately and illegitimately), the lists of “healing crystals and their uses,” the lists of “elemental correspondenses,” the lists of “gods and their functions,” and all kinds of other things.

But where’s the serious contemplation of what it means to honor the old gods? Where is the deep searching of what it means to live “in tune with nature”? (Actually, I think “living in tune with nature” isn’t as big a part of Paganism as some would suggest, but if people are going to bandy about that phrase, I think it a good idea to start talking about how to practically go about accomplishing it.) Where is the deep discussion of how the Wheel of the Year affects us on a deep, personal level?

Maybe like the Christian blogger I mentioned, these are things that will only be sorted when my own children start down the Pagan paths. Maybe it’ll be longer than that. But I hope that we start thinking about these things now, so that this essential shift in focus happens some time.

Deep Thoughts, Religion

Who needs external symbols for evil, anyway?

30 October 2005 Jarred Leave a comment

Doing random searches for blogs, I ran across another blogger’s diatribe about Halloween. Now, I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of Halloween myself. (Indeed, I’m quite happy that I observe Samhain based on an astrological calendar, as it places my ritual observances as a separate event from Halloween altogether.) Unlike the author of that blog post, though, I do tend to see Halloween (except for the prankish part) as mostly “harmless fun.”

But what really caught my attention was this bloggers argument against it. It seemed that the crux of his argument is that it “desensitizes” people to the “traditional symbols of evil” — such as the devil. The continuing thought from that point is that this desensitization will allow “moral relativity” to reign supreme because those moral systems of the faiths that provided these symbols will be devalued at the same time.

I see a number of problems with this viewpoint. The basic underlying problem is that it underscores the fact that these “traditional faiths” (namely certain sects of Christianity, because no other faith seems to see the Devil in quite that same light) are relying too heavily on these “symbols of evil” to begin with. Personally, I think that it’s time that these faiths quit hanging quite so tightly onto this idea of “the Devil” as the source of evil. After all, the Bible does not start with the downfall of Lucifer, but with the sin of Adam and Eve. And it continues from there with many more stories describing the evils of countless human beings. While I admit that it’s been years since I’ve done any serious Biblical research, it seems to me that when you look at the countless evils carried out by humans in its pages, you begin to notice that the antics of Satan and his minions seem to be little more than subtext.

Indeed, it seems that religious groups that focus on these “external symbols of evil” such as devils have lost the very essence and point of their religious texts. The evil isn’t (just) “out there” with “devils” and other such creatures. There’s real evil lurking in the hearts of men and women everywhere. Perhaps if we took that reality a bit more seriously, how people view and treat those “traditional symbols of evil” wouldn’t be as essential.

Books, Paganism

Fairy Tale Musings: Snow White

25 September 2005 Jarred 1 Comment

This morning, I decided to watch Disney’s animated rendition of “Snow White” while I ate breakfast. It’s your typical sweet and sappy Disney movie. We all know the pattern of these tales fairly well. The heroine starts out in rags, finds herself in a position of threat, hides away, makes some friends, is discovered by her nemesis, is “destroyed,” is avenged, and is then revived by true love.

As I sat watching it, I had an idea. “Hey, let’s read the original version out of our copy of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.” So after the movie was over, I rand upstairs, located my cherished book, and began to read it.

Man, I always knew Disney liked to change things, but I didn’t realize how much they changed things until this reading. I had usually assumed they tended to just make things less gory (or to be faux witty about it, remove the most grim parts of Grimm). But man, they even changed the natuere of the seven dwarfs. In the original tale as told (or recorded, as is more accurate) by Jacob ad Wilhelm, the dwars were actually quite meticulous in their own housekeeping. In their written tale, Snow White (who it might also be noted was originally called Little Snow White, as she was only nine) found a spotless house in excellent order. Yes, the dwarfs do tell her that she has to cook and clean if she stays, but in the tale, it’s apparently not because they need her services. Knowing that dwarfs in Teutonic mythology and lore are generally seen as the embodiment of industriousness, it seems to me that the original interpretation of the seven dwarfs’ conditions to Snow White have more to do with the idea that one must make oneself productive in some way in order to stay in the realm of the dwarfs.

The other thing that stuck out to me is that in the written tale, it’s not the Prince’s kiss that awakens Snow White from her slumber. In fact, the Prince doesn’t kiss her at all. Instead, when he comes to stay with the seven dwarfs and sees the beautiful maiden asleep in her coffin, he begs the dwarfs to allow him to take her back to his castle as “his most treasured possession.” (We’ll try to keep the inner feminist from barking too loudly about that poor choice of words on the tale-spinners’ part.) While he is transferring Snow White and her coffin to his castle, the wagon hits a bump which dislodges the bit of poisoned apple from her throat. That is what revives her, not love’s first kiss. Quite a difference, eh?

Now, I don’t mean to bash Disney for these changes. Disney’s animated movie is a work of beauty in its own right, and I’ll hopefully enjoy it many more time times in my life. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s very different from the tale as written down by the Brothers Grimm, and I’m glad I read their version as well. It just seems to be packed with so many details. In fact, I hope to explore why the story-tellers of old (those who actually recounted these tales to the Brothers) would have mentioned them. After all, these are folk tales, (and folk tales that come from the same cultural groups that developed the myths of my gods no less, so they’re likely of value to me)and that means that they likely have much symbolism that would’ve been understood and seen as important. So some of the little details I hope to look into and find possible signficicance include:

1. The repitition of “splitting things” over the seven dwarfs (such as when Snow White eats a little from each of the seven plates she finds upon entering the house “so as to not clear any one plate” or when the seventh dwarf who gave up his bed to Snow White sleeps one hour with each of his six brothers in their own bed).

2. The three methods that the Queen uses to try and kill Snow White.

3. The fact that the Queen asks the huntsman to bring back Snow White’s lung and liver so she can eat them.

4. The seven hills our mountains past which the seven dwarfs live.

I also find the introductory paragraph to the tale interesting. In this paragraph, the story-teller introduces us to the first Queen, Snow White’s mother. This paragraph tells of the snowy morning where she pricked her finger so three drops of blood fell. It is upon looking at these red drops of blood, the white snow, and the black ebony of the window frame that the Queen suddenly wishes for a chile “white as snow, red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window-frame.” It leaves me wondering if this is merely to describe the eventual beauty of Snow White, or if there’s some deeper signficicance to these events and their resulting wish.

So now, I need to find a good commentary on this tale as well as the rest of those recorded by the Brothers Grimm.

Love

Dear Lover #5

28 August 2005 Jarred Leave a comment

This is part of a series I started writing elsewhere. I decided to start cross-posting them to this blog as well.

Dear Lover,

I’ve been in “hopeless romantic” mood all weekend. I’ve watched three different movies since yesterday morning that have centered around relationships between two guys. This isn’t typical of me, but I guess I’m just in that state of mind where I want to be reminded that such love and tenderness really can exist.

The last movie I watched — in fact, I just finished it mere minutes ago — was a nice British film called “Beautiful Thing.” It was slow in places (which seems to be common in just about every British film I’ve watched), but it was a wonderful and touching story. It was about two teenage boys who were neighbors and their struggles as they discovered they loved one another, but had to deal with all of the difficulties in pursuing a relationship.

The scene that really touched me, though (well, other than the scene where Jaime rubbed creme into the welts on Ste’s back and told him he was quite attractive) was the final scene. This is the scene where Ste and Jaime end up slow dancing in the middle of the square near their home. As they start to dance, a crowd starts to gather round them, and Jaime’s mother and another neighbor (also female) end up joining the young lovers, dancing one another. And as they danced, the four of them talked back and forth, laughing (mainly about what Ste’s abusive father would have to say if he was there to see the scene) and just enjoying one another while the crowd watched in wonder.

I’d love to be a part of a scene like that with you, Lover. There was a tender intimacy and sweet love wrapped up into it. It’s something that could never be expressed half as adequately in all the grandiose “romantic dates” and nights of passionate lovemaking in the world. It’s a gentle beauty and sense of serenity that can only come from those small, simple things, those moments that create a perfect moment of intimacy and love simply by the fact that they are an instant of absolutely sweet and genuine togetherness. I long for those moments, and I revel in the thought of someday finding them with you.

Fondly yours,
–Jarred.

Health

Health Update

19 July 2005 Jarred Leave a comment

Today, I went to see Dr. Lee. It was time for my four month follow-up appointment. I guess things could’ve gone a lot worse, but they could’ve gone better, too. In the last four months, I’ve gained back 16 pounds. That puts me back up to 288. Granted, that still makes a net loss of 23 pounds since November 2, so I guess I shouldn’t berate myself too badly. (Besides, berating myself doesn’t accomplish anything other than to sap my desire to pick up where I left off and try again.) And my glycohemoglobin was up to 7.1, compared to 5.6 in March. This doesn’t surprise me, but it does upset me. However, Jenn did point out that the change probably wasn’t drastic as all that. My last bloodwork had covered the period where I was having numerous drops into the danger areas, so my last results were probably a bit low, anyway. She figures a more reasonable result last time would’ve been somewhere around 6.5. Of course, I think she partly said that just to make me feel better. After all, one of her primary duties is to keep the patients motivated, no matter what the news.

Dr. Lee decided to put my on Byetta, which is apparently a relatively new drug (as I understand it, it’s actually a hormone) they’ve come out with for treating diabetes. Dr. Lee didn’t want to put me back on glyburide or start me on insulin, as he was concerned either of those options would have me bottoming out severely like last time. The downside to Byetta, however, is that it has to be injected (in the thigh or abdomen, no less!). So I’ve had to learn to give myself an injection. Actually, it wasn’t too bad. Jenn showed me how to do it, and she has a pretty good method for convincing patients that it’s not as hard as they think. By the time she’s done, you realize that actually lancing your fingers to test your bloodsugar hurts more than sticking the needle for Byetta (or even insulin, I understand) in does. So that was a pleasant surprise. So hopefully, I’ll start this and get back on track with my diet and exercise, and things will go well.

Personal Development

Good day

18 July 2005 Jarred Leave a comment

Today was a very good day. I think my television stayed off for almost the entire day, which is a good thing. It’s days like today that remind me that I watch the darn thing too much. This is sad because despite the fact that I tell myself I do it to relax, I don’t find watching television all that relaxing.

What I did find relaxing today was taking a blanket outdoors and laying in the yard reading a books. It was quite peaceful and enjoyable. Since I laid out in the backyard inside the area that’s fenced in, I also took Precious out with me. So my little kitty cat got to run around exploring her outdoor kingdom while I’d read. or she’d lay down on one of the flat stones in the shade. It was really quite cute.

Every now and then, Precious would decided she needed my affection. So she’d zoom over to me and meow at me. I’d set down my book (after all, paying attention to an affectionate cat is better than any book I’ve ever read), and pet her for a bit. After a few seconds, she’d decide that all was well with her world, and she’d zoom off to do her own thing. Thus freed up, I’d pick up my book and read another five or six pages before Little Miss Adventurous would decide to repeat the process. It was quite cute, really.

My book of choice was “Break Up or Break Through.” I think I only have the current chapter to go plus two others. It’s been a pretty good book. Or at least it’s served my purposes. I think that under other circumstances, I’d find it way too much like other “self-help” books: insipid and with little real value. But at the same time, it’s been good for me, because the author is trying to talk about self-exploration, personal growth, and healing. As these are all things that I know I need to work on and have an idea of how to go about it, I’m finding the book helpful just in the sense that I can use parts of it as a “personal checklist.” I already understand the things she’s talking about, and can actually do them on a practical level. So her book is just helping to remind me of the tools I already have and am already familiar with.

Gender and Sexuality, Religion

Thirty Days

6 July 2005 Jarred Leave a comment

For the first time ever, I watched the show “Thirty Days” tonight. My friend Beth told me about it, and I wanted to check it out. I particularly wanted to watch tonight’s episode, as it was about a young (mid-twenties) conservative Christian from Detroit who went to live with a gay roommate in the middle of San Francisco’s Castro District for thirty days. I was pleasantly surprised by the show, and I wanted to take a few moments to review and critique it.

To be honest, when I originally heard about the details, I wasn’t entirely thrilled. I took issue with sending the guy to San Francisco. San Francisco is the “gay mecca” of the United States, and as such, I don’t feel it’s a very accurate representation of the lives of most gay people. Those of us wholive outside of San Francisco (and possibly NYC) tend to live more isolated lives and have to deal more directly with straight people much more often. As such, I wasn’t sure that sending someone to San Francisco was the best way to give them a clear view of what it’s like to live life as a gay man.

Having watched the show, I have to admit that I find it necessary to reevaluate my opinion. An essential byproduct of sending Ryan to live in the Castro District was that it caused Ryan to be the one who was isolated. He was a straight, conservative Christian surrounded by a bunch of gay guys. If Ryan really thinks about that experience (and I get the impression he did and will), it probably gave him a much more clear idea of what many of us experience every day than we realize. This understanding would come to him by being in an analogous situation himself.

He got a first taste of this kind of experience his first night in town. Ed, Ryan’s thirty-something roommate for the month, took him to dinner with eleven other gay guys. Having watched the footage, I have to admit that I hope the dinner conversation was highly edited. Every conversation focused on homosexuality and issues relating to it. And in a number of instances, the twelve gay guys put Ryan a bit on the defensive. (I have to admit that Ryan handled himself relatively well under the circumstances, too.) At one point, one of the gay guys even asked Ryan about how many times he’s had people on the street throw beer cans at him. Ryan said never, and the person who asked the question indicated that it had happened to him more than once.

While there, Ryan also attended MCC services on at least two Sundays and had a number of meeting with the minister. To be honest, I was somewhat disappointed with this part of the program. If what I saw was an accurate representation of the MCC, I don’t think I’d be impressed at all. They aired brief segments from two of the services that Ryan attended, and both services went on about homosexuality. If this is a regular practice at every church service, I would have a serious problem with that, as there should be more to religion and spirituality than just sexuality. (And this is coming from someone who serves a goddess who values sexuality extremely highly!) Similarly, Ryan’s meetings with the minister appeared to focus entirely on the topic of homosexuality, and there was a lot of head-butting there. It just seemed to me that there should have been an equal amount of searching for common ground as there was in arguing over this one topic. (Though I do give them credit for apparently keeping it more or less civil.)

They took Ryan to a gay bar. Let me just say “Wow!” Ryan did not find that the greatest of experiences, and I can’t say as I completely blame him. There were a large number of barely dressed men (some looked to me as if they were running around in only briefs), and it definitely had the “meat market atmosphere” — even moreso than the two clubs I have been to. One of the patrons picked a (verbal) fight with Ryan, which I felt was rather stupid. Though on the flip side, having had conservative people pick similar kinds of fights with me, I do have to admit that I felt it wasn’t an entirely bad thing for Ryan to have to experience.

After that, Ed felt that Ryan was getting too frustrated and upset. So Ed took Ryan to join a gay softball team. I found it interesting that the team actually played in a league where all the other teams were (mostly?) straight. It was nice to see that the team wasn’t totally isolationist in nature, and played teams that were not all-gay.

During his time playing softball, Ryan got to spend time with his team’s coach, Charles. Ryan gained a lot of respect for Charles, realizing that he broke all of the gay stereotypes. And later, Ryan got to hear Charles’s coming out story. Charles was one of those (hopefully) rare people who actually got thrown out of his house by his parents (he was 12 at the time) when he came out. Charles also indicated that at the time, he was highly religious and “went to bed every night, praying to wake up and be ‘normal’ the next morning.” Ryan was very silent about this, and I think this story really confronted some of his own preconceived notions.

Ryan did make a few enemies at the local “gay chapter” of the VFW. Being a Reservice, Ryan has strong opinions on gays in the military. This did not go over well with the veterans he was speaking with. Both sides got quite upset. However, it did lead to an interesting discussion with Ed later that same day. When he got back to the apartment, Ryan and Ed talked about it. Ryan asked Ed to try to understand why a bunch of straight soldiers might have a problem with having a gay guy in the barracks. (Personally, I think straight guys have a problem with it because they’re afraid gay guys will treat them as poorly as they themselves treat women, but that’s besides the point.) Ed then turned around and asked Ryan about a hypothetical question. He asked Ryan to suppose that things went really bad in teh Middle East and that the United States found themselves at war with the whole region. This would probably mean that they’d have to reinstate the draft. So Ed asked Ryan to suppose that he (Ed) was drafted and ended up in Ryan’s unit to serve during war. He asked Ryan whether he’d rather put up with Ed as a gay man serving with him or possibly not having enough manpower beside him to keep him and the rest of his unit safe.

Ryan actually admitted that he had to contradict himself. He admitted that having gotten to know Ed as a person over the past several days, he’d have no problem serving with him specifically. In fact, Ryan admitted that he felt that Ed had a lot to offer the military. As such, Ryan found himself having to reevaluate his blanket statement about gays in the military, and I respect him for having the integrity to admit that.

Ed also took Ryan to meet his family, which was an eye opening experience. While there, all of the men (Ryan, Ed, Ed’s father, and Ed’s brother) shot firearms. In a brief interview afterwards, Ryan admitted that it gave him a chance to see Ed as not just a gay guy but a brother, a son, and an uncle. And he was amazed at how his family treated him.

Ryan also attended a PFLAG meeting, where he got to talk to a father whose daughter came out to him her sophomore year in college. He got to listen to this father talk about his fears and worries, and his desire to see his daughter treated with the same respect and dignity a her two straight brothers. Ryan said this also touched his heart.

There was a lot more that happened, but I’m not going to go into everything. These are the experiences that really struck me, and I wanted to share them, as well as my brief thoughts in them. In closing, I’d like to talk about the brief segment in the show where Ryan eventually went home. He spent his first night home showing photos to his family and talking about his experiences. They only showed about thirty seconds to a minute of the discussion, but it was amazing to watch. His family asked all kinds of questions, and it seemed to me that Ryan was a bit troubled and shocked by the questions. Ryan himself admitted that when he got home and talked with his family that night, he really saw how much he had grown. He saw his own earlier attitudes and how much he had bought into the stereotypes reflected in his family now. He said that realizing how much he had bought into the stereotypes was the most powerful result of the experience. He found himself having to reevaluate his opinions.

I get the impression that his religious beliefs about homosexuality didn’t change as a result. To be honest, that’s okay (well, sorta). It would be unreasonable to expect such a change to happen just because of a thirty day experience. However, I did feel that he came away with a rather different perspective and that he did find his preconceived notions challenged in many ways. And I think that he should be commended to being open to that.

Paganism

Witches Weekly — Clergy

6 July 2005 Jarred Leave a comment

I’ve not been keeping up with Witches Weekly. However, I decided to take a peek at this week’s questions. Having looked at them, I decided they were well worth answering.

1. What do you think the role of pagan clergy is in our society/communities?

To e honest, I’m not big on “clergy.” I personally have no use for them. Furthermore, a part of me would rather encourage the Pagan community as a whole to avoid them altogether.

However, this is because of the form of witchcraft that I practice. I am looking to join a priesthood, and become a direct priest and servant of the gods. As such, I don’t expect to need or want the help of clergyperson. Sure, I might need some advice or assistance from time to time, but I can get that from a sister or brother witch.

Some people aren’t interested in the kind of service I’m looking to take on, though. And I’m starting to understand that some Pagans still need and want trained clergy to offer pastoral, counseling, and similar services to them. I can respect that. However, as that’s not something I’m entirely interested in having or offering, I’ll leave that to those who are interested.

2. If there was a pagan temple in your community like the Temple of Sekhmet, would you use it for a place to hold handfasting, naming, and coming of age rituals?

I don’t really know, to be honest. My initial reaction is to say no, however. For example, not being a devotee of Sekhmet, I would find it inappropriate to use a temple dedicated to her for my services. (Just as I’d personally find it inappropriate to get married in my old church.)

If it was a “general” temple not dedicated to any specific deity, I suppose I might consider it. But even then, it would depend on a large number of factors and circumstances. I think of the specific rituals mentioned and I’m not sure I’d have any of those events be a public rite anyway. If I were to have a handfasting, it would be a magical ceremony that woudl be held with my covenmates as a private affair. As such, we would probably have a private temple or workspace we would use instead. Even if we chose to use a public temple for some reason, we would probably work the rites ourselves and not involve those who run the temple.

Specifically on the subject of the handfasting, I should note that I do not intend to have a public handfasting. If my lover and I decide to have a public ceremony at all, it will be extremely simple and mostly civil. To be honest, the majority of my family wouldn’t show up just because I’d be marrying another man. I don’t need to add the complication of throwing a lot of “Pagan mumbo jumbo” at them. (Besides, they’re not welcome to my spiritual and magical rites, anyway.)

3. Would you feel comfortable getting counseling from a member of the pagan community?

This is not an easy yes or no question, in my book. To be perfectly blunt, if I am lookig for a counselor, that counselor’s religious practices are not my primary concern. I’m not sure they’re even in my list of concerns at all. Sure, I might want a counselor who is “Pagan friendly” — or at least doesn’t see my belief in Pagan gods and magic as something that needs to be “cured.” If I can find a counselor I can work with, though, I don’t care if she or he is Pagan, Buddhist, atheist, or even a fundamentalist Christian. The primary concern is “can I work with this person to work through the healing process I’m here for?” Nothing else.

Family, Friends, Introspection, Love, Personal Development, Randomness, Work

Bits and bobs

16 May 2005 Jarred Leave a comment

I haven’t put an update in here lately. I thought I’d go ahead and give the basic rundown of my life in a nutshell.

We’ll start with the major life change. I am now single. After four years, I have ended my relationship with Mike. It wasn’t an easy decision to make and it hurts like hell. But despite my best faith efforts to change things, it became perfectly clear where the relationship was heading. As painful as walking away is, I also know that continuing down that road would be even more painful.

I am leaving a number of message boards. I’m starting to discover that they’re little more than “distractions” to me. I really don’t get much out of staying there, other than the occasional bout of frustration. And at the moment, I just don’t have much to offer there, either. So it’s time to “cut bait,” so to speak.

In more pleasant news, my old college roommate has now been a Daddy for about two days. His wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy this past Saturday. I just found out this morning from an email. I sent my congratulations to the proud parents and look forward to meeting the little guy. Hopefully, that won’t be too far in the future.

I’m thinking over a couple of projects I’m considering working on. I don’t want to say too much about them now, but I just thought it’d be good to indicate that I’m looking to make life more productive.

I have officially decided to take a month or two off after my current job finishes. Given all the changes going on right now, I decided I could use some time to just relax and possibly do some intensive personal exploration. I’m not sure what this will really amount to, but time will tell.

Paganism

Charge of the Bunny Goddess

26 March 2005 Jarred Leave a comment

I don’t normally cut and paste other people’s stuff in my blog, but this really gave me a chuckle.

The Charge of the Bunny Goddess
by Gwen Wolfrose

Listen to the words of the Great Fluff she who of old is known as Amethyst MoonPixie, Mosscovered Rosequartz, Moonwater Firedancer, Keltic Dragondream, Lady Mooncrystal HPS, Lady Raven, Malibu SparkleBarbie, and Wiccan MacMorrigan, and by many other names, most of them made up by an online name generator:

Whenever you have need of anything once in the month, and better it be when the bookstore is still open, then shall you gather and adore me, who am Queen of all Bunnies. There shall you gather, you who desire to learn the true Art of Bunnycraft, yet have not grown in your furry undercoat; to these I will teach the esoterism of true fluffiness. And you shall be free from anything that is not white light goodness; and as a sign that you are truly free, you shall quote Scott Cunningham as gospel, put curses on those who call you names, bless everyone with white light happiness, redefine everything so that it fits your way of thinking, and demand that the so called dark gods are just misunderstood, never again the burning times… except for Satanists, we can still burn them since they aren’t pagan anyway. For I am covered with fur behold my cuteness. Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it and if anyone tries to stop you, change your screen name and rejoin their list to teach them a lesson. For mine is the determination to stomp out darkness wherever it may be whether they like it or not.

I am the Queen Mother Fluffer, Who can give the Gift of Joy unto the heart of man or woman so long as you are life affirming and positive ONLY. On Earth, I give the Knowledge that honesty is a crime if I do not agree with it; and beyond death, we will not discuss since death is a negative concept. I do not demand sacrifice, for behold; opening up a book does not require that much effort.

Hear ye the Words of the Bunny Goddess: She Whose Feet are fuzzy and soft, Whose Body encircleth the book store especially the Llewellyn shelf.

I, Who am the Fluffy Queen of the Earth and the White Light amongst the Internet, and the Mystery of why BTW’s don’t like it when I say Wicca is anything I want it to be because Scott said so, and the Desire to make up lies about them to make myself look like a hero to the other fluffers. I call unto thy soul, all ye who would be Bunnies: Arise! And come unto Me!

For I am the Soul of the Bunny, Who giveth Only Positive Life Affirming White Light to the Universe: from Me all things proceed, and unto Me nothing must return because it’s your bad karma not mine so there. And before My Face, which is fuzzy and soft and known to all gods who are all benevolent, thine innermost Bunny Self shall be enfolded in the Rapture of the Infinite Bunny.

Let My Worship be within the heart that tolerates no darkness, for behold: all acts in the name of white light goodness and fluffiness are my rituals especially if Scott wrote it. And therefore let there be white light and fluff within you.

And thou who thinkest to seek for Me, know thy seeking and yearning shall avail thee not, unless thou knowest the Mystery: that if thou do not own a Scott Cunningham book and seekest Me, then thou shalt never find Me unless you google Me or join an email list full of my Children which are many because I am a Bunny after all…

For behold, I have been with thee from the beginning; and I am That which is attained at the end of Wicca for the Solitary Practitioner or the middle if you can’t be bothered to read the whole thing.

Musings of a Wyrd-Worker