Strange Days Indeed

This solstice falls very close to midnight tonight. Not only will the Sun be at the lowest point on the horizon, but at least here in Green Bay, it will occur in the middle of the night. On this, the longest night near the time our ancestors used to call all bells. The Pacific ocean is currently warmer than we have recorded at any time since record-keeping began and the warm air has so much intensity that we, in the Upper Midwest are experiencing the warmest late fall ever. Midwinter here used to be the time when rivers turned hard, there were days on end where even the weak Sun could not raise the temperatures above zero during the days. We occasionally had temperatures far below zero. This year, we are wondering if the ground will even freeze solid.

The days have become strange in so many other ways as well, it is difficult to explain them all, or even list them. The citizens of the rest of the world, and some on our territory as well as wondering if we have collectively lost our minds. We seem to be completely delusional, running a slate of Teathuglican candidates that reflect all of the worst features of the ugly American. We have liars, cheaters, connivers, despicable hate mongers ala Hitler and both ignorant and foolhardy candidates running their mouths about things they know absolutely nothing about. In place of a fourth estate, the media and news outlets, who are wholly owned subsidiaries of the oligarchy continue to hold out the Two Minutes of Hate first mentioned by George Orwell in his futuristic novel, 1984.

Our educators are deemed "responsible" when students, calloused by abuse and neglect are unable to learn. Bullies are allowed to buy their way into seats of power, exerting more and more control over the daily lives of "free" citizens and there are never shortages of people to blame. Just pick any of the victims and lay the blame on them. We blame old people, young mothers, unions, anyone who works for the rest of us. The people who actually produce the least are even labeled "makers" while they call the rest of us "takers". Pay no attention to the fact that the elderly gave their lives to keep our way of life viable, ignore the fact that without young mothers, there would be no generation of young people willing to be abused by their bosses and while you are at it, brand those who put in an honest day of labor so that billionaires can hide fortunes in foreign banks. In addition to sowing seeds of hate throughout our society, Fascists continue to claim the immigrants are the problem, even though only a tiny fraction of us can trace our ancestry to native people. Even the fact that the world-wide recession (I still say it is a depression) has done more to curb immigration across our Southern border than anything that policing and/or militarism has accomplished.

The media giants have the power to point their cameras in any direction they choose, yet from the looks of what gets "reported", we are becoming less and less tolerant, under more and more threats and they also love to show us images of people who have lost their humanity in favor of their isolated existence, hiding in the glow of their telescreens.

Fossil carbon is almost never mentioned in popular media, nor is the solution to the build up of carbon in both the atmosphere and the world oceans. The fossil energy resources we are reaping today are like a giant solar charged battery, that took hundreds of millions of years to put by natural gas, oil and coal. We have been burning through that million year old carbon like drunken sailors since we first found it. some say that world coal reserves could last another four hundred years at the rate we are burning it, but it took millions of years to form. This is like writing checks for many thousands of dollars, every couple hours, while only adding a dollar per day to our accounts. The organic matter that took that carbon out of the air and sequestered it millions of years ago seems to not even be on our radar, or part of our awareness. We seem to have collectively forgotten basic physics. Like the fox from the folk tale, carrying a mouthful of food, we are seeing our reflection in the  still pool, but we try to snatch the food reflected in the water, leading to not only the loss of our meal, but getting cold and wet as well.

Chasing the dream has only led to our estrangement.

It seems like the popular myth/reality of the witch hunt has come back in full force. Everyone is seeking to blame someone else so fervently, so intently, that their own actions have become invisible to them. This solstice, we could all be served by allowing a bit of awareness in to our lives. The vast, vast majority of the human race is compassionate, helpful and cooperative. We know from research and experience that the easiest way to change children from loving, caring individuals into hateful tyrants and sociopaths is to abuse and neglect them, so why are we taking a path that leads to less and less good parenting and more and more stress for families? Well, our fictional belief in the "golden rule of business", screw the other guy before hew gets a chance to screw you, has become the mantra of the well to do. Since the rest of us are getting used to thinking that we are just temporarily inconvenienced billionaires,  we also think that by following the same route they did to amass their wealth, we will "make it" someday. The more desperate we become, the more we seem to cling to the lies that we have been told by those who abuse and neglect us.

In the novel 1984, the proles were told, WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH. The book was written as a warning, not an instruction manual. The truth is that no peace ever grew out of the end of a gun, nor can it be created by the elimination of the results of human effort, investment and capital, with its inherent mantra that it be done for the good of others, and for ages to come. The "work" that the death and fear merchants are summed up pretty well as Ozzie Osbourne testified in 1970, with Black Sabbath with the tune WAR PIGS! War can never be anything but mayhem and destruction. The concept of buying money on time has virtually created a race of slaves. Ask yourself, are you more free today than you would be without "interest" being paid to guys in suits who create nothing but false demand for a future that never comes. In case anyone forgets. Slavery will forever be inhumane, even if the slaveholders were to be proven benevolent. Those who keep over ninety percent of the rest of us as their pets are the ones who need to be put down, not the old ladies whose "benefits" are cut, or the child made to drink sugar water while her mom is away at her job. I am in the class that has lost the war, but continues to pick winnable battles in a corrupt and failing system. Recognizing your own wage slavery and understanding that the class war has been won for decades. I continue to write these words to help others hear/see/smell/feel/ taste/grasp  the truth.  The most ignorant thing we can do is not recognize that every single person you meet knows things you will never know. If you have not yet done so, read 1984. When the spookiness starts to become apparent, realize that we now do not need wires to be "hooked up" any more. Nor can we disappear anymore into darkness.

The only way is up and out into the light. I have resolved in this year to become more pro active, discuss what can be done to affect positive change across the planet and don't want to leave folks with a truth bomb so devastating that they know not where to go, so here I will leave a nugget of bliss that can be reproduced and shared amongst your friends, family and co-workers, even if they be unpersons (sorry for the one last 1984 reference). To lighten the mood as "Where do you find a turtle with no arms or legs?" wait a moment and answer..."Right where you left him!" May all your days reflect the honest twists and turns of phrases, the condensed meaning of a thought expressively contained in the tiniest of vessels of words. Take these brief collections of words to heart: Love is Peace, Freedom a Birthright, Awareness is Everything. It only costs our attention to invest in making the world substantially better. All we have is our brief time on the planet...how many of us have lost loved ones this year?...We know the results of tearing things and people down. Perhaps this year, we could try the opposite approach.

Orthodox Paganism

Pagan temples in every major city, pagan community centers and libraries, pagan-run food banks and community gardens, no pagan having to celebrate a sabbat alone, unless they chose to do so, politicians having to consider the ‘pagan vote’, pagan political action committees, having a pagan on every interfaith panel around, having pagan groups listed in every Yellow Pages published, having the general public so well-educated on the topic of paganism that it is as controversial and spooky as someone being a Lutheran, having every police station in the country with a reliable pagan resource to contact, never having to see a child taken from its mother in court because she is pagan, and infinitely more. These are some of the things that I can see our community accomplishing in the next few decades, but I see no way for us to get them done if we keep doing things the way we do them now.

I’ve been a self-identified pagan for the last 18 years and an organizer/activist for the last 12. Over that time period, I’ve gone out of my way to see and understand the pagan community here in Wisconsin as deeply as possible and the vast majority of my observations and beliefs on the topic are WI-based. There is a distinct possibility I’m completely wrong as it relates to the rest of the world and if so, if someone has information that is different, please let me know, otherwise I shall labor under the assumption that Wisconsin pagans are fairly typical.

The Problem
Most of us who have come to paganism were typically raised in a Christian world with a Christian world view that was rejected and replaced with a practice that can only be described as ‘extreme eclectic’. We are a religion/path/spirituality of converts with a hard core individuality streak that often lead us to immediately reject any formal doctrine, structure or dogma. Most of us have taken this to the point of becoming sole arbitors of our path and how we chose to exist as a pagan. This is fine for individuals who are seeking their own way in the world, solitary and alone, but completely unworkable if we are to accomplish things as a tribe or community. We act as though we, as individuals, are the center of the universe and everyone and everything is secondary to, or revolves around us. This has led us to a situation in which organizations and groups of pagans focused on and accomplishing goals are extremely rare to the point of near non-existence in most areas. Here are a few of the primary issues I’ve seen arise in a consistent manner within paganism over the years that have consistently held us back and kept the community exactly where it is now.

‘Organizing pagans is like trying to herd cats’

A common phrase spoken by anyone that has every tried to get more than a handful of pagan folk moving in the same direction on anything at all. We are independent, stubborn, and anarchistic to a fault, which is fine as long as you are content with how things are done and how the mainstream society sees and treats us. Many pagans will sit in a meeting and instead of focusing on the project at hand and making that a priority, they will put energy toward the idea of who among the group they won’t work with or trying to making sure the project is done the way they want it done. As one might imagine, compromise is hard for folks who are used to living by their own standards. If the work gets the slightest bit hard or folks realize there is real work that needs to be done that isn't fun and exciting, people start drifting away. The handful of leader-types or folks that want to get things done are quickly left with a dwindling number of people that are progressively burdened with more work and frustration and/or the mentally unstable that inevitably want to be involved in any project going. Burnout follows rapidly and the project fails, the leaders and good workers disappear, sometimes forever. This is because of their aforementioned individuality that we had to fight for to get where we are and our unwillingness to budge, even a little, on our view of it. The project or event has to mean more to the individual than their personal ego in the moment and there are just not that many pagan folk around that are able or willing to do that. The temporary sublimation of the ego to the advancement of the greater good is the only way vital projects and basic goals can be accomplished. We have to start thinking of this as we do work. Very few of us would go to our jobs, for no pay nor would we do things exactly as we are told, if we had the choice. But because we need money (or wish to accomplish our goal) we sublimate our ego and buckle down, doing what needs to be done. If we want to see our community advance, we need to apply the same standards to our work within the pagan world as well as in our interactions with our larger community.

“We just don’t have any good leadership”

Leadership within the pagan community is a strange and multi-layered issue that needs its own anthropological study at this point. See if this sounds familiar to you; Lady Jane has been around a while and wants to start having consistent sabbat celebrations in her community. There are a number of pagans of many paths around but no solid groups, so she asks around, best she can, and gets a handful of exited folks that willing to help and they start. Soon it becomes apparent that not everyone that volunteered is quite qualified to do the tasks and roles they would like to or as inspired to get the work done as Jane thought they were. Jane ends up covering for people who do not show up or taking care of the designated responsibilities others had agreed to help with. Personality conflicts from years past begin to bubble up and meetings are taken up with petty squabbles and melodrama. Jane does her best to focus people on tasks at hand, yet acknowledges that everyone’s concerns and feelings are important. More work falls to fewer people, personal lives suffer and more workers start to fall out. While trying to maintain a façade of things working and that the sabbat event is coming together, Jane is getting stressed and has no idea why people don’t just focus on getting the work done. She wonders why people think their petty personal dramas are more important than the work they signed up for. Amazingly, she pulls it off with a couple of good folks that stayed on task and managed to throw a great day long sabbat celebration. She and one other person had to cleanup afterwards though, as everyone else just went home. Instead of the participants seeing how “together” Jane seems to be, they see a stressed individual. After it all Jane starts hearing back, about people that were pissed off, that weren’t included in a way they felt they should be or upset because they were not asked to bring something to the event and some say that others felt that she was a bit “authoritarian” about how she ran her meetings. She tries to get the next sabbat celebration going and again ends up spending her time dealing with people wanting to be in charge of things they are not qualified for taking on responsibilities that they may not be able to meet and getting phone calls from people telling her how to run things ‘the right way’. Eventually Jane just can’t take the prospect of spending so much time on so much frivolous drama being injected into the process of serving the community by organizing an event, so she simply stops. The events end and the rest of the pagan community think and say, “Well, that’s just what happens with pagans and our events”.
It’s happened to me like that and to a half dozen others I know personally, I can only imagine how often it has happened across the country, or in fact, around the planet.  There are many good people in our community willing to step up and do good work but the general pagan community simply does not support leaders. We are inherently suspicious of someone ‘in charge’ and not only will a prospective leader get little to no support, they will be consistently attacked and undermined by those within our community that do nothing, have nothing to contribute or help with and will always take as much as they can and give little or nothing back. These people are commonly known as “trolls”, this small percentage of pagandom is responsible for more pagan leaders leaving and more projects failing than any other single factor. (http://www.wargoddess.net/essay/troll.php is the amazing and definitive essay on the idea of ‘trolls’ and is required reading for any pagan leader)*Let me say, The Otherfish Wrap apologizes in advance because at the time of this posting, this link is no longer active.

The solution is simple; support established good leaders and new ones just starting out in any way you can, do it in a way that demonstrates that you know your own resources, abilities and limitations. If you cannot or will not support a leader/organizer for whatever reason then at the least don’t attack, undermine or gossip about them. If they are an idiot or incompetent they will rapidly be standing alone and need no help from you getting there. There are the rare cases where a ‘leader’ is acting in a criminal fashion and needs to be dealt with by the community, a topic for another time. We have plenty of good leaders and potential leaders waiting in the wings, we just need to support them. If you are a good leader, do it without apology or the expectation of making everyone ‘feel’ good and accepted or wanted. Coddling people that need a case worker, medication, a hug, a friend, or whatever else is not your job or responsibility and the time you spend on that, exponentially increases your burnout rate and undermines whatever good work you are engaged in. It’s great to take care of people and work to assist the needy within our community and if that is what you are driven to do, great! If not, just don’t do it, explaining politely but firmly that you do not possess the resources, skill, willingness etc. and are not able to help them in that way. Respect often follows being clear and truthful about your personal limits, even if it occasionally follows at a distance. Ideally, the community is large enough and diverse enough, to be able to foist the “needy” person off on someone who is willing and able or has the resources to work with them in that regard.

Basic Cosmology and Worldview

Orthodox paganism adheres to some very simple and basic principles regarding the nature of the universe and our place within it.
Polytheism; there are many Gods, Goddesses, spirits and entities that are separate and distinct individuals. The New Age/Christian belief that all Gods or Goddesses are aspects of the “One”, commonly known as the ‘gemstone theory’, has no place in an Orthodox Pagan worldview. However one understands the Gods, their nature of existence, their structure and how they interact with humanity is the individual’s own business. This underscores the need to understand that some level of authority is necessary on the physical plane to get us all to the places that we enjoy. That is why most cars have only one gas pedal and only one steering wheel and why both are controlled by the same operator. We cannot all be “in charge” of everything and just because things unfold differently than we would like, or expect must never mean that they are, therefore, wrong.
The history of the universe and life; our universe is time-less, reality/matter has always been and always will be, the form merely changes. The ‘big bang’, ‘multiverse’ and other theories regarding how the universe is set up all are based on the principle that matter is neither created nor destroyed, it just is. The idea of “creation” or “prime mover” or any point where there was not nor will be matter is ridiculous and against basic common sense. Humans and all other life on this planet evolved and continue to evolve along the general Darwinian model; although we are all made up of elements that were formerly stardust, our species is no more special or unique than any other species. Race and ethnicity are opinion and personal preferences are based purely upon when a person chooses to stop going back in their genealogy. This is not to say that there is anything wrong having pride in you genetic history but in the end its really just what part of your family tree you know about, pay attention to and ascribe value to.
Spiritual/Religious practice; Orthodox pagans see Nature as inherently sacred with value and worth distinct from its value to humans. Any practice that includes that basic principal is acceptable. Magick, spells, and rituals are to be done with intent, focus and deliberation. Just phoning it in or merely “showing up” is not acceptable. These rites are powerful tools that allow us to connect with Nature and the Gods and are not to be engaged in lightly. We are 100% responsible for the affects our spiritual, mental, emotional and physical actions have on our selves, each other and the Earth. Any belief that includes a variation of the Law of Three or the understanding that we accept all of the consequences and benefits of our actions is acceptable.

Sexuality and Romantic Relationships

The underlying premise, in this respect, is that whatever consenting adults do is their business. Whatever a person’s belief, tendencies or practices are is acceptable as long as they are honest and straightforward with all concerned. Monogamy, celibacy, group marriage, open relationships, whatever. If everyone knows what’s going on and consistent straightforward honesty is used then whatever the adults involved do is their choice. With ultimate freedom, however, ultimate responsibility is required. The only concern is when honesty fails or is not part of the relationship and we call that ‘cheating’. An OP is responsible enough to be honest with themselves and anyone else in their life so that a relationship that is not working is either modified or ended as soon as possible in order to minimize the inevitable pain that occurs when a relationship of any kind ends. Flaunting sexuality in public or engaging in ribald talk when children are around is not acceptable. If you can’t keep your hands off a partner in public or refrain from talking about explicit topics around minors or keeping the sanctity of relations, then you are not OP material.

Personal Appearance

How we look matters. How we prepare ourselves before we go out in public is an indication of how we see ourselves and how we wish others to see us. Dressing up to shock or stand out for its own sake is not acceptable. We all need to be and feel secure enough in your own skin that we don’t need to draw attention to ourselves with outlandish clothing, piercings, hair styles/colors and the like. Wearing a cape, pointed hat and half a dozen pentacles to go to the store is just plain dumb and does not say ‘I’m comfortable being a pagan’ its screaming ‘look at how unique and special and out there I am, LOOK, LOOK!’  Orthodox pagans strive to be both comfortable and functional. There is nothing wrong with wearing clothing or modifying our appearance because we truly want to do so, the problem is figuring out if we are doing it because we think that’s the best way to express our identity, or if it is to get a reaction out of people. Well-intentioned people tend to judge all pagans on the first impression they get from the first pagan they run into. If the first one they see is someone with facial tattoos and ripped camo pants then their understanding of paganism will be ‘Ahh ha, pagans are creepy, scary, weirdoes’. Is it fair or right? No, but its reality, deal with it. If you are “too far gone”, unwilling or unable to look relatively ‘normal’ then OP is not for you. If fashion is more important to you than how people truly see you and our Path then you need to reexamine your priorities in life. Health, weight and hygiene are also important. If pagans are seen as obese, dirty, and unhealthy, the assumption will logically be that paganism causes people to be that way or at the very least, is unable to help them rise above such things. If we want paganism to grow and attract quality people, we need to be a cut above the norm when it comes to physical appearance and health. Personal improvement and staying committed to individual health and well-being is not only a benefit to the individual but part of our responsibility to the pagan community as a whole.

Finances and Money

We do not seek to take vows of poverty (although some have) or live on handouts (although some do) nor do we seek out a life that is materially full but spiritually impoverished. We have all seen, first-hand the dangers of that. If you are working hard at a job that you hate because you need to buy another, or bigger, plasma screen tee vee or make a payment on the second vacation home you are doing something wrong. Wrong, but fixable. As always we are striving towards balance and sustainability. As our species has gotten farther and farther away from an Earth-based spirituality and world view we have also lost an understanding of basic economic principles. Economics is merely an extension of ecological principals as all the players within any economic system are a subset, contained within the ecological sphere. All financial situations, no matter how dire, can be solved through self-discipline, focus, and being willing to do what is necessary to achieve your goal. Many people at this point will be thinking, “No, not me, my situation is so unique and so special and I’ve been put upon and oppressed so mercilessly, for so long, that there is just no way out of it. I’m forever condemned to work a crappy job so that I can afford a crappy place and enough beer to help me forget how crappy my life is”. If that’s so and you want to continue that life, good on ya’, enjoy your choice. It really is a choice. If, however, you want to change that then there are always solutions. Ask for assistance in this regard if you don’t know how to proceed yourself, ask other people and request assistance from the sacred as you understand it. A major part of living a good life is having good meaningful work to do. Getting up each morning and having nothing else going on except deciding what videogame to play or which drug to take in order to tolerate another dawn (or noon) is not living a life, its dying by inches. There is infinite possibility in this world and anyone that is willing to work at the process can have a job that they actually love, enjoy doing and to look forward to going to again in the morning. It is all about priorities and recognizing the basic natural laws of the world we live in. Your goal can be, to have enough money to sustain a lifestyle that allows you to do what you truly want this time around. If you have to work 80 hours a week and collapse in exhaustion each night, this is not a life worth living. Ditto if you are in massive debt or spend all your time maintaining or chasing possessions and assets. Consumerism is a disease of imbalance that serves to destroy the Earth, keep consumers unhappy, focused on wasting money and lusting after things they don’t need. A wise man, Tyler Durden’ ,once said ‘The things you own end up owning you. Throughout most of human history, poverty and lack have been roadblocks to overcome; now we are in the odd situation where excess and wealth are the impediments to spiritual growth and fulfillment.




 

Sorry for the image quality...If it resonates with you, I'm sure that you can find, or make a better one.


 
What Will be Expected of You

Someone who commits to an Orthodox Pagan path is explicitly stating that their spiritual path has meaning and worth and that they are willing to work at serving that path and the others that are on it. It’s the equivalent of being a "warrior for the faith", a zealot, a fanatic. It’s for those few that can see the amazing potential that paganism has to positively reshape our world and who are willing to do the necessary work to make that vision a reality. You will be expected to maintain or acquire a stable, sustainable, and functional lifestyle. Meaning; that they have a consistent and decent paying job or at least enough income that they are not living paycheck to paycheck, own a viable and working vehicle, have consistent, reliable means of communication open (phone and email), are either single or in a stable relationship, are completely out of the ‘broom closet’, maintain a healthy lifestyle (being in decent physical shape, drinking and smoking kept to a minimum). Your public behavior must be a cut above the rest, known as “pentacle out time”. This means that anytime you are out in public and are acting in a leadership or representation capacity you are putting yourself up as an example of what paganism is. If you are a known pagan or have any bumper stickers, clothing or jewelry that identifies you as a pagan you must act in a forthright, considerate, polite and helpful manner. No cutting people off in traffic or stiffing a waitress, no uncouth language or inappropriate actions. In addition you will be expected to consistently serve the greater pagan community and assist other orthodox pagans in any way that you can. This can and will take many forms, specifically but not limited to; creating or facilitating consistent social pagan events like pub moots, tea and talks, or other purely social events. We need to have free public events where pagans can go and meet others in a simple and pressure-free environment. These are simple to start but hard to maintain long-term and are not recommended for one person to tackle on their own, because of the strong possibility of them failing or a single organizer suffering burnout.
Setting up, publicizing and carrying out public sabbat celebrations. There are few things worse than a person on the pagan path being forced to celebrate holidays alone. To put on a decent half day sabbat celebration in any medium to large population center requires at least 3-5 dedicated individuals. If you are interested in such a thing, take one sabbat that is not being covered in your area and just do that one really well for a few years before you expand to others.

Doing public outreach/relations. Things like ‘adopt a highway’, blood donation, food/clothing drives, group volunteering at homeless/battered women shelters, food banks, and similar projects require minimal effort and can do a great deal of good while also doing the vital work of changing perceptions of what it means to be pagan in the minds of those you serve or serve with. There is also the option of volunteering your time at hospitals, prisons, nursing homes, and other institutions where pagan folk desperately need to see a friendly face.

Starting a Pagan Unity Council. Once you have a fair number of committed and functional pagans in an area you might consider formalizing your efforts around a Pagan Unity Council (PUC) that will be a clearinghouse of ideas and contacts as well as a focal point for organizational efforts in a particular city or county sized rural area.

Assisting with online groups. A great deal of modern pagan community is online and having consistent and well managed online forums, discussion groups and the like will do well to serve the pagans. You might also consider compiling online information and resources about your local pagan community and making that information available to all. Having a listing of active groups both online and real world as well as contact with local businesses and events can be a huge step forward for all of us as well.

Be a contact for police, media, and other institutions. The reason we are portrayed poorly in the media and are massively distorted or misunderstood by the police and legal system is because they have no reliable and consistent source of information regarding all things pagan. Think about this, if there is any legal question or controversy in your area about anything remotely pagan who do the police and media contact? They might get lucky and know someone who knows someone, they might contact Circle Sanctuary or Deeply Rooted, more likely they will make something up or ask the first freaky looking goth/hippie type they run into on the street. Not the best way to get information, but it is perhaps the only way they know to get input. This is an extremely important role that cannot be stepped into lightly and to do so without appreciating the importance of such a role will only further undermine the public’s perception of us.

Get involved with community gardens. Nearly every city of any size has some sort of community garden space that is open to the public and most years the property sits mostly unused. I can think of no better thing for pagan folk to do then to have a huge community garden plot in which we grow a ton of food, feeding ourselves and donating the rest to local food banks. Minimal effort is required, yet it produces a maximum of benefits and a multi-layered return on investment of both time and energy.

Literally thousands of other things that need doing are not getting done. Find something that speaks to you and run with it, hardcore. Find others that will help and are willing to focus on the good work and leave any other pettiness at the door. Support any other pagan group, Orthodox or mainstream that is doing what needs doing. Be unapologetic about what you are doing when the naysayers and whiners show up. Also remember to only commit to what you intend to follow through on. Support other Orthodox Pagans to the hilt both in public and private. If there is a problem, fix it. If you can’t support someone for some personal reason then do it quietly and without drama. If someone in the community is acting illegally or unethically to the point where they are making us all look bad then talk to as many people as possible and then, remove or expose the malefactor in a rational and unemotional way. Treat your service to the community/Gods/Goddess as a job, its serious and necessary work that deserves your full attention and priority.

If you are interested in doing something and don’t know how or have questions, ASK! There is nothing wrong in not knowing, the problem is, when people try to reinvent the wheel and end up making the same mistakes made a dozen times before, rather than just opening their mouths and asking for assistance. There are almost always people around who have done or attempted to do just about anything you can think of within the community, tap that pool of knowledge. Orthodox Pagans are required, repeat, required to help others looking to do good work within the community. If you know how to do something better or easier and are asked about it or see a fellow OP struggling with something you can help with you are required, and will be appreciated if you step up and assist to the best of your ability. This is not an easy path or way of doing things, but it needs to be walked in order for us to advance and move forward. The power that we feel in ceremony can be with us in every step, every moment of our lives, but it requires us to live according to our truest, most compassionate and most pure nature.

If you have any questions or would like an application for Orthodox Paganism please email at: deeplyrooted75@yahoo.com If you would like to check out our web presence, Deeply Rooted


Note: This is a hybridization of writing from a good friend, who hails from Central Wisconsin and although I tried to stay true to his message, I admit to adding a few sentences. Thank-you Wade, for your gracious giving, your insightful vision and your thoughtful reflection on coming changes for our community, our civilization and our planet. We all need to carry water from time to time, I appreciate your labors doing so.

Dare I Say It?

The time has come for action. I know that the vast majority of "Americans" shun any mention of responsibility for the supposed freedoms that they love to claim. I also know that the major media sources that feed our country information try like the devil to strangle public discourse rather than encourage it. Considerable experience has also taught me that no matter what obvious path to a better way of life that I mention, probably because they all require hard work and sacrifice in the short run, are ruthlessly rejected out of hand. There is little excuse for the way we have treated one another, no justification for the raping of the planet and no cogent argument for saddling future generations with the lasting effects of war, extractive economic methods that foist boom and bust burdens on those who do not benefit from the boom times, but are crippled by the bust, poverty, ignorance and debt, but I fear, chances are that we will continue to do all of these things if we do not take a stand now for what is right and good in our civilization. Believe me, we are not, as we are told, isolated pawns in a rich man's game, unless we let ourselves be. Taking our civil rights back will be an extremely hard road and there may be more blood shed on freedom's path. Rest assured that there will be sweat, toil and sacrifice, but the change must come at whatever the price. If we continue to let the powers that be railroad us in the directions of their choosing, we are going to fall deeper and deeper into the chasm of ruthlessness and hate, remain at odds with planet Earth and succumb to the evil that drives the ultra rich to pick the pockets of our elderly, ransack the stores of knowledge that we have developed over centuries to pass on to our children and continue to exploit and confound both mothers and fathers who, after all, made a commitment to the future just by having children.

Frequently, when people ask what I do for a living, I say, "I am a living manifestation of the infinite." I say it not so much to enlighten them, because, let's face it, most folks don't have the background or level of understanding to decipher that truth, but for myself, to help remind me of what I do for a living. We are all facing terribly complex ciphers. The puzzles themselves are usually manufactured by various different interests and the pieces rarely seem to fit or have distinct information on them to give us clues about where they go or even whether they "fit" with the puzzle that we may be working on at the time. Recognizing that we are part of a centuries long struggle and that our responsibility is to the next seven generations seems to be a good place to start for many. With this basic starting point, it is easy to see that atomic energy, whether for electric power generation or war, cannot stand the basic test for safety over future generations. The radioactivity that results from our need in this moment will be a dangerous legacy for thousands of generations. One of the pieces of the puzzle will be finding our way to generating energy that does not kill, maim or saddle future generations with the cost of providing us comfort.

Transportation, as well, needs to be transformed. As we learn to reestablish connections to the locations in which we live, produce more of our food locally and begin to re-think the last generations decision to separate people from capital, goods and services, we will have to use triage in dealing with the empty suburbs. When I was a child, even tiny towns had bakeries, medium sized ones had several and it was rare to find a neighborhood that didn't have fresh bread within walking distance. Try that today and chances are you would be wearing out a lot of shoes. The right wingers seem to be overjoyed with their own voices chanting the mantra of "mass transit can't work", yet in truth, it is the greed of folks who live on the city edge that forces us to expand every other service to the point of recklessness and whatever the opposite of thrift is. The properties that lie beyond city services are going for inflated prices because everyone seems to want their little piece of heaven, but then the trash needs to be picked up, eventually hey want curb and gutter and fresh clean water like the rest of us, so we pay for their wants by sacrificing our own needs. Them subsidization of suburban fringe communities is at once a greedy money grab for the outlying communities, hoping for increased revenues from taxes and a multi-generational sentence for those who cannot afford to flee the cities. It has been frequently pointed out by people far smarter than I that the ultra-rich only call it class warfare when we fight back. I am somewhat resolved to the fact that I may forever be a city mouse, but I should not bear the burden of contaminated air, water and soil left behind by the wealthy exploiters of planet earth. We need their wealth and education to help us solve the pressing problems of the city, not having them squander their money and time mowing acre and a half lots that used to produce food.

It is hard to tell a farmer who has struggled all their life that they are not entitled to millions in retirement because they sell their land to Target, Costco or Wal-mart, only to have it paved over and ruined for ever, but one can look back just a few generations and find people who went into farming because of a deep connection to the earth and a desire to do what was right for their communities. Now, many have been kow towed into thinking that it is every person for themselves and if their greed is not as over the top as the next guy, they will end up losing everything. Some say that growing population will inevitably force the further degradation of the planet, but improving the efficiency with which we do business and increasing quality of life for all people, our needs will become much easier to meet and with far less environmental damage as well. We need to stand up and let local decision makers know that we will not tolerate another back room deal to sell out the towns and cities of our great nation for he sake of another get rich quick scheme that only benefits the few at the expense of the many. All of this is hard work that needs doing if we are to leave our children anything worthwhile.

We have been told that the generation gap is inevitable, but that is another popular lie foisted upon us by those who really don't care about us. If your children see you working for a better world, and you explain to them that all of your efforts are to salvage a liveable world for them, you will be surprised at how quickly they will respond to the great and pressing needs as well. if they see you buying into the lies and deception that "business as usual" wants to sell you, they will see what you are made of and hate you to the core. Fortunately, there are more voices joined in the cry for justice than ever. With a bit of work and taking some time to get involved, we are making change happen. It comes at a time when the inertia of bad decision making has all but overwhelmed us, but there are those all across the globe who realize that we must take one last gaps and fight our way back to shore, or we will surely perish. This is truly a fight for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, not only for ourselves, but for the coming generations as well. The time has come to stop standing idly by and "waiting for the world to change". We have every right and the responsibility to take charge, not only of our own lives, but the direction of the governments that we supposedly elect and the discourse about what will make this a better place and time to live in. Get involved, become agents of change and remember, the hardest part is starting. Once you resolve to give your life to the betterment of others, the rewards are nearly infinite and the difficulties along the way transform from boogey men into temporary hiccups and gems along our spiral path.

Neo-Tribalism And The New Reality

In the sixties, many of us heard a song about the Age of Aquarius. It truly is the dawning of a new age, but what exactly are we talking about? To understand the ages, we first need to explain the procession of the equinoxes. Every 2150 years or so, the solstice moves through an age. The procession of the equinoxes slowly moves backward through the astrological signs. Each of these mega-time periods constitutes an age. The birth of Moses brought us into the age of Aries, that is why the ram's horn is still a part of jewish faith and rituals. The birth of "Christ" was the beginning of the current age, the age of Pices (that's what the fish is about). Now for those of us that are familiar with polychronic time, what I am about to say next makes perfect sense. Those less familiar with "native time", or "Indian time" may have a harder time following this. Just as the sun standstill (solstice) or the full moon energy lasts for several days, so too at the boundaries of these great ages, there are times of flux where the energies mix and match, ebb and flow, allowing the change to come and the old ways to fall away.

In our ordinary, mudane, world view, we get to the end of a (Julian calendar) year and throw away one calendar and then, just put up a new one. This year I felt out of sorts because I didn't see a single television show that had the theme, This Was The Year That Was...around the time that we change out the calendar, several things happen. Many of us make resolutions, we feel that there is a better us waiting out there somewhere and we resolve to go off in search of it. Some, reflect on the joys and sorrows that came and went in the passed year. Still, others look to family and friends for their annual infusion of cheer and cameradiere. Most of us do a combination of all of ther above. Likewise, in the hundred or so years around the end of one age and the beginning of the next, there are serious upheavals, new ways of reconing with our world view and new resolutions made that lead to better ways of living. Most of the strides that humanity has made in the past age have come with terrible costs. It is tuly now or never when it comes to trying to find new ways of behaving that will be sustainable if humanity is to make it through the next age.

I certainly will not be around to see the dawning of the next age, but seven generations down the line, my children's children's children will be looking at the world in the midst of another great upheaval wondering how they made it through the trials of hteir own day. With luck,and insight and great creativity, I think that we have a fighting chance at coming together under a new banner, that of world citizens and find our way into the new age with relatively little trauma and a minimum of growing pains.
anyone familiar with my writings knows of my utter dissapointment with the prevailing belief that humans are inherently greedy, self-centered and "brutish". Science has now proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that children are magnanamous, compassionate and giving, until they face hostility, neglect or abuse. Is it any wonder that we developed a whole philosophy on the concept of dog eat dog logic? Allowing ourselves to act terribly without fear of repraisal because, we say, we are "hard wired" to be brutish is something that I have had very little tolerance for my entire life. Abject poverty and lack of moral character are only correlated statistically because the higher classes just put on a better game face while they lie about their experiences and behaviors.

Another thing that many of us still hold on to from the past, that needs to find it's way to our cultural dust bin is the notion of Calvinists that bad people, making bad choices because of questionable morals is at the heart of why we have lower classes in ther first place. I grew up priveleged, and I know it. I was a poor white male and I was able to do far more than almost all of my friends who were either women or minorities. Now that the white male is becoming a threatened sub-group, they may soon find out the hard way what minorities have known for centuries. Much of what the old way of doing things led to was perpetration of lies, deciet and haterd that has flowed through generations like a blinding poison that cripples the majority for the beneift of a few.

Neo-tribalism is alive in the slow foods movement, foodies from all over the world are now concerned about where their food comes from and the quality of life that their farmers enjoy. It is alive in the environmental movement, where concerned individuals want to increase the quality of life for all people by saving resources and energy so that others can have a more sustainable life while they meet their own needs with less consumptive behavior. Tribes are forming around shared ideals, new ways of studying the world around us, new ways of thinking and the many new ways that we choose to communicate and interact. In these times it is not enough to weild a sword over some serf's head and tell them what part they are to play in the unfolding of your world. Mutual respect and cooperative action may be the difference between success and failure. I have always been curious about several religious sects who dissolve their affiliations with approximately half of their community whenever the community grows to about three hundred individuals. The new tribes will most surely organize along similar lines. It is hard to get away with anything in a community of 150-300. Anyone who has lived in a small town knows that. as we usher in The Age Of Aquarius, let us take time to consider well, both those things that make life, and living it, worthwhile and those that bring anguish and lack to the majority of our population. All things must pass, as George Harrison once said, let us choose which will be the first to go!

Can't we All Just Sit Together?

When I first heard this idea I thought, "Have we lost our minds?" Have we gone back to kindergarten? Okay all you elected officials, hold onto one each other's hands as we cross the street. The idea of having an integrated seating plan makes more sense than one might think upon first hearing the idea. Many votes break down along party lines because folks are frequently like sheep, going along with their neighbors, even when they are wrong.

Remember the paper that we got handed in elementary school? The one that the teacher told us to "Read all the instructions first." If I remember correctly, the first few things it said were, "Write your name in the upper left hand corner, put today's date under it, draw a triangle in the upper right hand corner", etc. and it went on to instruct us to poke three holes in the top of the page, fold the page in half and then unfold it, and various other things. Near the end it said, "Get up and walk around your desk" The very last instruction was to disregard all of the instructions except the last one, sit quietly and fold your hands on the desk.

Virtually everyone went along with the crowd, overlooking the teacher's word, in favor of deeds. When everyone around you is screwing up, it becomes hard to think for yourself and make good decisions. Perhaps by not allowing parties to sit together, we could encourage them to think for themselves and follow the rules. Instead of letting our representatives sit in cliques, mixing them may lead to change that the public could not inspire. By mixing parties up and spreading them out around a more divers group of elected officials, perhaps they can learn to listen a bit more and consider their ideas as valid.

Perhaps if we allow adults to act like spoiled brats, treating them like spoiled brats is the best course of action. Teachers learn to design seating charts that help all of their students to be heard and to excel. They often split up the cliques and separate the bullies from one another. As our representatives become more and more insular, speaking only to those who agree with them, we need to find better ways to get them to see the whole picture. We all need to work together and find ways to see that there is more that unites us than tears us apart.

Elections Less Than Two Weeks Away

Being a poll worker for over two decades and paying attention to politics since childhood, I have never seen the money that has been spent on this mid term election. Nation-wide, "conservatives" are outspending "liberals" by five-to-one. No matter what the Supreme Court allows, it is immoral and anti-democratic to let money translate into votes. One accusation that has come up in this election cycle is that the "US Chamber of Commerce", a private corporation, accepts money from overseas to influence elections with so-called "issue ads". If a foreign national is prohibited from helping me in the voting booth, why should they be allowed to produce ads telling me who to vote for?

The public is entitled to have presented to them, the true costs to society of the "business as usual" model. There are too many ways to cloak tax breaks for the biggest businesses in a mantle of economic impact, to list here. But for the name it is always just one thing, corporate welfare. We all pay for it. We have not had free markets since at least 1906. Before that, snake oil salesmen abounded; much like today, we still have our charlatans and carpetbaggers. The most stark difference is that snake oil salesmen would get away with twenty dollars and leave behind bamboozled hang-over sufferers, but today's sharks hawk people's life savings and retirement funds. More, not less government regulation could have prevented market crashes many dozens of times. The most powerful forces in America today want us to vote a certain way. That is obvious from what is on the TV. Most of the biggest money is being spent to ravage the few who had the guts to stand up against politics as usual.

Here in Wisconsin, Russ Feingold, co-author of Mcain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation, took on directly the power of large corporate players to guide policy. His opposition in this election has the audacity to claim the Russ is a yes-man, big spender and Washington insider. What is really needed is some sort of truth commission to guard against outright lies and deception, especially in the ads funded by agents from outside the campaigns. If you went to a doctor, would it be a dirty word to call him a career, doctor? What about your mechanic, a career mechanic. One would expect that experience in the halls of Congress, would enhance aplomb and aid in diplomacy. Are we to stand by as excellent representatives are discarded in favor of unimaginably moneyed interests hijacking our representative democracy?

The non-financial S&P 500 companies have enough cash on hand and short term loans to fund a second stimulus of the American economy, but they are holding those funds out of the economy until workers are even more desperate and prices fall again, allowing them to pick up even better deals. These are the same folks who touted trickle down economics and world trade agreements. Why they should have any say at all in politics is beyond me. Our Constitution talks about people, not corporations. Sadly, in economic ways, lack of food availability, ecological damage, dismal health care and woeful educational institutions, we all pay when the rich are allowed to play, elsewhere. The vast majority of the extremely wealthy are also extremely un-famous. They live in the shadows of anonymity, but let their wishes be known through funding politics as usual. We need to know that they are an incredibly strong force in politics, able to contribute vast sums through "issue ads" that do no more than slander an opponent.

When the American Way becomes justification of lies as striving for truth, ignoring the writing on the wall, forsaking our own history, or lying to ourselves about what constitutes freedom, justice or liberty, it will be a way that I want no part of. I wonder why there has been no class action suit against the banks, their appraisers and Wall street for colluding in the massive housing run up. American homeowners lost 30-50% of their home's value and bear no responsibility for the rapidly falling prices. Being taxed on the former valuation, when the market has suffered this much is like stealing 30-50% more in tax.

A friend said it best, there needs to be a nationwide strike. All workers stand firm and offer terms. We will work the same number of hours, for twice the pay, or we will work half as many hours for the same pay. The benefit for corporate America is that they could choose which it would be. For all those who got cut to half time, it would open up the possibility of getting more education, staying home with the kids, starting a new business or enjoying partial retirement. Those who doubled their pay would win also, because they could afford to spend more, save more and live better, supporting their community, the many new businesses and beyond that, one another.

Another solution that I came up with was to break America down into thirteen climate-based colonies, encompassing several states, or parts of states but with similar ecological concerns. These would function as states do now. In one fell swoop we would cut the number of U.S. Senators to 26, from 100. States would remain for Congressional purposes only and allow that chamber to be cut from 435 to just 100, two from each state. This alone would make it harder for corporations to exert their influence on the representatives because of their relatively small number, they could be held accountable much more easily. In addition, we would save on general operations, offices and aides. The total number of representatives would drop from 535 down to 126. The cost of Congress then might conceivably be 25% of what it is now. Any one who has served on a board knows that when groups become too big, bad things happen or worse yet, nothing happens! We voted for change two years ago and the Democrats who fought tooth and nail against any change should go, in essence they were voted out two years ago. A way forward will never be found until someone sticks their neck out.

The third interesting idea that I have heard talked about has been the theory of a maximum wage. Unions worked to bring us a minimum wage, but the idea of a maximum one seems to have never been considered. No one is capable of being ten times as valuable as I, nor am I ten times more valuable than anyone else. If I'm average, then a total swing of maybe twenty times would be close to adequate. That puts us in the realm of income range being from about 16,500 for a minimum wage earner to twenty times that, 330,000 our hypothetical maximum wage. I'm sure that most folks you meet would be thrilled to have an income even half that. What we must not be afraid to do is to talk about the many ways that we could improve our American Experiment, to meet the needs of the largest number of people for the least damage to the planet, as well as one another. I am not the only one who thinks everything needs to be on the table in our search for solutions to our pressing problems. If there are cheaper and better ways of doing anything, institute it. There is no reason that our health care should be worse that dozens of other countries when we pay the largest amount of our earnings for it, more than any other country!

We need to reaffirm our commitment to create positive change in the face of entrenched corporate interests that pursued greed to it's obvious conclusion threatening our entire economy. We deserve to have clean air, conservatives don't stand for that any more. We should be able to eat the fish out of every lake and stream in the US without consuming toxic compounds. Small government folks most often side with the regulated community to be honest in their reporting. Before you vote, remember that Abe Lincoln, the first American Republican President would roll over in his grave if he heard what Republicans are proposing today. We must not succumb to the angry mob mentality that screams "Throw them all out!" Reformers must stay and become more powerful. Those well-heeled friends of the corporate elite are the ones that must fall away to reclaim our democracy. Vote for public servants, not corporate mouthpieces. In the words of Honest Abe, "Though passion strains, it must not break the bonds of our affection."

Northeast Wisconsin Apples Beyond Ready for Picking

Earlier this summer, I was flabbergasted when the broccoli bolted two weeks ahead of time, before we even had a chance to enjoy it. I was amazed that, even before the first bloom normally hits the day lilies, they had faded and their bloom spikes had browned off. I was amazed at how early everything was happening in the gardens. I had to tie up the asters, the peonies and daisies about two weeks early, mostly because of the record breaking rain. I saw my first pile of deer apples on the curb today. Fall still seems far away, but the harvest is definitely coming in early. I don't know how much more destabilized the global climate will have to get before we realize that mankind is acting like a bull in a china shop.

My first seven years or so were spent in Southern Illinois, as well as seven summers after that. The summertime heat and humidity that we had there in the sixties and seventies is here in Green Bay now. People tend not to notice trends that occur on this scale, but the weathermen will tell you a tiny bit about what is going on, as much as they might deny it, fact is that when a series of records that were set over 100 years ago fall in a period of weeks, something big is going on. When records across several different parameters are set, that is even more of an indication that something is up with our climate. This summer we set a three-month precipitation record where I am from. Simultaneously, there was that issue of it being the hottest summer on record as well. The last major storm that passed by included hail and high winds, but the airport, which is outside the city, on the windward side received just under three inches of rain in the short three hours that the storm took to dump on us. I live within a mile or two of center city and our rain gauge captured seven and three sixteenths inches! I'm almost certain that if you were keeping records here that would have beaten any and all storms, ever.

Living lightly on the planet requires a weaning off of fossil fuel, we know that, but the insidiousness of fossil fuel use is that it creeps into nearly every purchase we make. Think about the truck driver bringing food from California, Florida or Texas, the only way to stop that fuel from being burned is to buy local produce, ultra local. In my case, I choose to buy seed and just walk the food into the kitchen. Even the water we use is most often brought to us through pumping, again using coal energy turned into electricity. Rain barrels have allowed me to significantly reduce my water use and still keep my garden productive through dry spells. Even the packaging on most items has the blessing and curse of fossil fuel use upon it. Buying unpackaged items as opposed to packaged ones can cut petrochemical and fossil fuel use by up to 60%.

For a little perspective, the fossil fuels (Carbon)that nature took millions of years to lay down and store (sequester)are being consumed by our modern culture at a rate that will be on the order of hundreds of years. All of it, the Coal, oil and natural gas have stored solar energy, conveniently yes, but we cannot sustain the planet and use it all up. We need to step across the threshold that confronts us now. We need to use the sunlight that hits the earth today, or that which hit the earth yesterday, The Sun and the Wind have the potential to power everything we do now, in a more benign way, the challenge for us now is to put them to use as quickly and efficiently as possible. corporate interests will fight like there is no tomorrow, but when the people come together on this issue, they will have no choice. The fossil fuel industries have been the most profitable undertakings that humans have ever participated in, bar none. Asking, begging or cajoling corporate interests to walk away from them will not be easy. Human beings with conscience must stand shoulder to shoulder and demand that practices change. We have come to a place that is full of danger and risk for our children and life as we know it, we cannot stand idly by and fail to reclaim our right to a cleaner. safer and more sustainable way of life. The future is now and there are apples to pick, almost a month early!

Gulf Oil Distraction

I'm not a conspiracy theorist. That makes it all the more difficult for me to understand why our leaders continue to practice crisis management. We know what the result of doing nothing is and we have seen what is possible if we would just reflect the will of the people in action. For over forty years there has been a public outcry that continues to plead for responsible energy policies, pollution elimination strategy and more humane policies regarding our place on the world stage. Frequently there are protests, boycotts and direct actions to change the course of our government officials, their corporate keepers and the constabulary who are used as tools of their oppression. The problem is that the changes are never enough, and always too late to effect necessary change. When you grow up seeing the farce behind our involvement in Southeast Asia, the fallacious claims about how environmental ethics demand our collective return to caves, that the peace movement is being fomented by criminals or communists and the complete inaction demonstrated by our leaders on pollution and energy issues, it becomes hard to understand what the motivation is to cling to policies and procedures that have yet to solve a single one of these pressing problems. Amelioration of problems after they have occurred is not only less effective and more costly than solving them before they reach crisis proportions, but it shows that you don't care enough, and are not smart enough to reason out what might happen if nothing is done.
As long as our "leaders" refrain from taking action, the forces of greed, expediency and abuse will continue to flex their proverbial muscle. Until we demand that their cycle of power and control be broken, we will have to continue to live with the degraded environment, insane energy policy and "terror" from those who hate us for our "way of life", not to mention the real and present terror of not knowing what part of our infrastructure will catastrophically break down next. Our flagging educational system is failing our students, the air where many of us live is not fit to breathe, the water that many of us drink now contains dilute anti-depressants heart medication and "penis pills". The land in many areas has been so thoroughly sterilized that they are biologically dead. The health care debate has been framed so as to not even mention health, or care. If you believed the BS about how legalizing pot would fund more terror, what do you think our continued addiction to oil does? Just because people who have advocated change often looked like hippies and sounded like intellectuals is no reason to believe that they were not right. We should have all seen, by now, the images of Earth from space that led to the coining of the term Spaceship Earth. There is no "away", we need to find a path to peace. True security depends on making our way forward to a future in which our children are not burdened by childhood cancer, developmental disabilities, and reduced quality of life. The same things that angered me as a child have persisted and intensified. Our mindless destruction of the planet has grown exponentially. As emissions from vehicles have been reduced, we drive more cars more miles. As we take actions to reduce water pollution from point sources, we eliminate more native forest cover, drain wetlands and pave over rich farmland, spreading ever more toxins and persistent chemicals on the land.
How can we respect the system that allows these abuses to continue? How can we facilitate the change necessary to encourage sustainability? How can we ask others to bear the costs of our affluence? By seriously studying and understanding the nature of our shortsightedness, perhaps we can bring public opinion to bear on leaders to help create a more reasonable course forward. There are cars of the future in existence today. Cars that will not rust away, that can be fueled with renewable energy, and that will leave oil behind, but our government will not require them to be produced by publicly held, corpulent corporations feeding at the trough of current policy. Similarly, proven technology exists to make every new home a net energy production facility. Where are the regulations requiring that it be done? Why are there no taxes levied on the giant agricultural water pumpers who drain our aquifers or those who spew carcinogenic compounds on the earth? When something is the "right" thing to do, we should be able to agree that it should be done. As things stand, we introduce ambiguity into every topic, call up Fox "news", have them put their cameras on a gut-wrenching effect whose image cannot, in and of itself, tell us anything about the nature or scope of the problem, then they will find two "experts" on any subject imaginable to fight over the hows and whys of whatever the issue may be. In the end we are either stymied into inaction by the realization that we are stuck between a rock and a hard place, or righteously indignant about how wrong-headed the opposition is.
I am not a conspiracy theorist, but it is getting ever harder to fathom why we have sunk to this level of depravity. Is there anyone at the helm? If there is, they have to know that things are not working. Oh, wait, they must be working. The rich continue to get richer and every loyal Calvinist knows that the poor deserve everything they get as well as what they don't, and for the new age mind over matter folks, they certainly do not deserve the things they can't even dream of. Theories cannot, by definition, be proven. This conspiracy of thought seems very well proven to me and countless others who have been demanding real and meaningful change for generations.

Coyote Moon

Many have heard Coyote stories. Great wisdom resides in them for all who wish to seek it. The Trickster, as he is better known, has a way of teaching us in unpleasant ways. This particular totem came to me unexpectedly last Friday evening. Fortunately, no one got hurt, except Coyote himself. His messages are still ringing in my ears. I had been struggling with an issue that most of us share. The answer came to light in unusual ways. This is often the way of Coyote, drawing one in and then absconding with one's innocence. But, HEY! How would you get someone's attention?
My grandmother used to say, "Don't hide your light under a bushel basket." It was one of those things that if I heard it once, I heard it one hundred times. Often we forget things so frequently that no matter how much folks implore us, cajole us, or admonish us, we cannot seem to understand or change. This is one of my big issues, especially when it comes to healing powers with which I have been entrusted. As a young teen I started studying vitamins, minerals, and the effects of both shortfalls and abundance in one's diet. By the time I was out of high school, I had begun to study herbal remedies, their collection, preparation and use. I also learned about how to meet one's dietary needs through combining foods to get "complete proteins". During my vegetarian phases, it has been valuable and through food I have learned a great deal about diet and culture.
For some reason, perhaps because my closest family did not share my awareness of the value of nature's cures, I always discounted my skills as healer. Now Coyote knows far more than he lets on. My struggle had come to a head last week. Someone very close to me needed spinal decompression, which I have become adept at. I have provided relief to many who have had pain, and I was thinking of offering to do the maneuver for her. Then, my negative Ego kicked in and I thought of several "reasons" not to offer. In the end, she underwent back surgery because some fool told her that he knew best and she has very deep pockets. In the end I am happy that she found help in relieving her pain, but I'm still concerned for her because there are always risks involved in surgery, and she won't go under the knife until Friday.
Coyote, my teacher, showed up to remind me that the "reality" that I had forged, the excuses, the self effacement, the negative Ego are based on lies. It truly is time to grow into the potential that Creator has entrusted to me. Each of us is uniquely suited to offer the world something special. When we choose to make up a story that limits our effectiveness, only we can be blamed for the outcome. When we express fully our talents and skills, the world is made better for ever. The old saying about education is that a mind is a terrible thing to waste, but we need to look at squandering Creator's Gifts in the same way.
I can never reclaim the opportunity that I had to make a difference in that one particular person's life, but I can encourage you to reach out to others in similar ways, no matter what skills you have, share them. nothing can make a difference like the one we can make when we humbly offer to help. Step into the Grace that is afforded to all beings, get in touch with your own truth and sense of justice and compassion. Live in the now and miracles become the rule rather than the exception. I know this to be true, but bless the Coyote for reminding me when I forget!

The Crux of the Bisquit

I am often flabbergasted by the daily goings on that I am made aware of through my senses. The crazy, crazy way humans seem to fumble about with love, life and their challenges never seems to run amok in quite the same way twice. On top of that, the media will spare no expense to bring us death, disaster and mayhem, served up in outrageous sound bites and streaming bit torrents of data that astound. In these times, there seem to be no end to the complexities of "modern life" and understanding our environment seems to get more difficult by the day. One can see the drive to return to a simpler way of life exhibited in many ways. It seems that our urge to recapture many of the old traditions, values and ways is running a neck and neck race to invent the next big thing, or solve crisis X,Y or Z. Like the animated character who hovers over a chasm for a few seconds, their limbs grasping at thin air, churning the void, or perhaps presaging their impending demise, we humans are prone to become unable to "grasp", "just spin our wheels" or otherwise incapacitate ourselves when faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges.
The change that we need is not going to come from any "single bullet" theory, it won't be through adjusting the mix of foreign aid to social service funding. It can not come from legislation, regulation or indoctrination. It must come from how we make peace with our own selves. The "logical" approach which has been taught in schools ad infinitum cannot overcome the desperate pain wreaked on our souls by the unjust and cold reality that is projected to our retina by our telescreens. Nor can our emotions exclusively save the day. What is needed is a path that honors and respects what is, and that rewards incremental changes that benefit others as well as our selves. In nature, there is no waste. The top dogs never take more than they need, unless their excesses provide others with plenty as well. With a life out of balance comes the topsy-turvy effect of rapidly advancing and quickly receding issues that alternately require all of our attention and utter ignorance in rapid succession. At the heart of the matter lies the fact that we must stay grounded, or none of our efforts will have any traction.

We are standing at the brink of awareness, holding desperately to what worked in the past. However, "all good things gotta come to an end" as the song said. What has provided the butterfly security and protection through most of it's life must be discarded if it is to fly. We are now required to leave our own chrysalis. Well-known to many are the concepts of Power and Control. These two players disrupt any real advancement of the human condition. We, as a people cannot grow or achieve anything without abandoning these toxic by-products of by-gone days. Revisionist historians are finally allowing us to recognize that our past was not fundamentally a series of wars and dramas that played out as innate human greed, inhumanities and hostilities. Instead, we can look a little deeper and see evidenced back through the ages, the enduring compassion, unconditional love and innate power of humans to live in service to others, reveling in their success, rather than our own.
Time and time again throughout our past, human beings have given of themselves without seeming limits. Trying to carve out a better life in the face of adversity. Power and control are both illusory. No one deserves either being exerted over them, nor can we develop fully when either is part of our reality. The human organism is no more suited to these beliefs, processes and activities than fish are to being astronauts. It has come to pass that all that served us well in the past needs to be thrown out. Father knows best was only the title of a show, it was even tongue in cheek. It will not be easy to overcome "I'm the Lord of my Castle" thinking. It is, however, necessary and the time for waking up to the facts has come. Growth can only come as the seed hull dissolves. Letting go is never easy but the rewards have never been as great either!