Personal Reflection
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Murderous Holidays
Today, in the United States it is Veterans’ Day (titled Armistice Day in Europe), which was founded to mark the end of the obscene, utterly baseless bloodbath that was the first World War. According to the Overculture, today is a day to feel grateful to those who Gave The Greatest Sacrifice For Our Freedom. Never mind, of course, that the US hasn’t been in a war for purposes of actually defending itself since 1945. Nor that the vast majority of those Sacrificed were conscripts who were FORCED into the slaughter machine known as modern warfare in places far, far away from the Americas: places like the Korean Peninsula, Southeast Asia,…
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On Pagan Misanthropy
These are times when those of us who love the Earth can easily fall into resenting or even hating humanity. It’s not much of a leap: not only are we watching climate change in action and the crashing decline of biodiversity, but social and political movements right now are showing humans at their very worst. This misanthropy can be a terrible burden. It is virtually impossible to be a happy person when weighted down with the enormity of thinking your own kind was a devastating mistake of evolution. I see this kind of thinking sometimes in the Pagan community. It saddens me and I think it undermines the mental health…
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Into the Season of Harvest
We picked our tomatoes this week. They were all ripe and ready to go, so Nemea cut them off the plants and we have them in our kitchen now. Other than a basil plant we keep indoors, this is our harvest: grown in half wine-barrels, the tomatoes are fine varieties, rich and filled with flavor. The light has become more oblique, now, and the days end more quickly. Summer’s Waning is long past and Harvest looms on the 20th. Though it’s 96 degrees F. (35.5 C.) outside, Autumn is coming. Autumn is here. I can feel it in the land. After months of no rain, the brown hills creak and…
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When Life is Hard
It’s been a tough few months. Within the space of three days at the beginning of May, we received a 60-day notice to move (illegally, as it turns out), and had to euthanize Miri, the Very Soft Cat. The housing market around here is a nightmare and it took more than 60 days to find a new place and move. But the new place is much nicer, and only a little more expensive. And we now have a feisy and playful new tuxedo cat, Kiki, who I prefer to call Rocket J. Squirrel. Life, however, was not done with us. Yesterday, I lost my job. Now, there is a lot…
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Deep Paganism
Thinking a lot today about deep Paganism: what it means to live in the world a fundamentally different way, in connection and relationship with and celebration of Life and reality. In wisdom, and generosity and kindness, in joy and pleasure, and in responsibility and respect. At that level, Paganism isn’t even conducting rituals. It certainly isn’t collecting ritual tools or rocks or books or echo-chambering to “belong” in the Pagan community. And it doesn’t involve gods of any scale. This is so much larger than that. I think that, steeped in the Overculture as I am, I can only see this Way in moments. A-HA kinds of moments, chorus-of-angels moments…
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The Unavoidable Bargain
In my culture, we try to pretend we don’t have to make the deal. But we do. With the passage of years, we pass from our youth. And if we are wise, we make a sound bargain for what comes in return. But in my culture, most don’t. First, they try to refuse the inevitable. They cling to youth and the appearance of youth into their 30s, 40s, 50s, with dress, with makeup, with squats and sit-ups, with various useless patent cures designed to make them continue to seem young. But the reality is, we have no choice. Unless you are going to die young, you are going to trade…
