"Spirit of the Elements" by Josephine Wall

Charge of the Goddess

Listen to the words of the Great Mother,
who of old was called
Artemis, Astarte, Dione, Melusine, Aphrodite,
Cerridwen, Diana, Arionrhod, Brigid,
and by many other names:

Whenever you have need of anything,
once a month, and better it be when the moon is full,
you shall assemble in some secret place
and adore the spirit of Me Who is Queen of all the Wise.

You shall be free from slavery,
and as a sign that you be free you
shall be naked in your rites.
Sing, feast, dance, make music and love,
all in My presence,
for Mine is the ecstasy of the spirit
and Mine also is joy on Earth.

For My law is love unto all things.
Mine is the secret that opens
the door of youth,
and Mine is the cup of wine of life that is
the Cauldron of Cerridwen,
that is the holy grail of immortality.

I give the knowledge of the spirit eternal,
and beyond death I give peace and freedom
and reunion with those that have gone before.

Nor do I demand aught of sacrifice, for behold,
I am the Mother of all things
and My love is poured out upon the Earth.

Hear the words of the Star Goddess,
the dust of Whose feet are the hosts of Heaven,
Whose body encircles the universe.

I who am the beauty of the green earth
and the white moon among the stars
and the mysteries of the waters,
I call upon your soul to arise and come unto me.

For I am the soul of nature that gives life to the universe.
From Me all things proceed and unto Me they must return.
Let My worship be in the heart that rejoices,
for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals.
Let there be beauty and strength,
power and compassion,
honour and humility,
mirth and reverence within you.

And you who seek to know Me,
know that the seeking and yearning will avail you not,
unless you know the Mystery:
for if that which you seek,
you find not within yourself,
you will never find it without.

For behold,
I have been with you from the beginning,
and I am That which is attained at the end of desire.

~As adapted by Starhawk

What does the Charge of the Goddess evoke within you ?

“Wanita dijajah pria sejak dulu kala
Dijadikan perhiasan sangkar madu…”

wanita dijajah pria? hmmm...

Begitulah salah satu kutipan bait lagu klasik yang sekarang jarang terdengar dilantunkan kembali. Lirik lagu tersebut menegaskan peran dan kedudukan perempuan dalam struktur masyarakat. Di berbagai belahan dunia, peran dan kedudukan perempuan memang mau tak mau harus diakui termarginalkan dibandingkan dengan peran dan kedudukan kaum Adam.
Perempuan dalam Sejarah Peradaban Manusia
Sepanjang sejarah peradaban manusia dari Yunani Kuno sampai sekarang, perempuan telah dijadikan sebagai objek penderitaan dan pelecehan. Dalam hal ini perempuan seolah tidak bisa terlepas dari rasa penderitaan, penindasan, kekerasan (violence) dan termarginalkan akan hak-hak azasinya. Berikut adalah narasi perbandingan kedudukan perempuan dalam sejarah peradaban manusia.

Pada zaman peradaban Yunani, perempuan dari kalangan elit (bangsawan) ‘dikurung’ di dalam istana mereka. Pantaslah jika kita menyebutnya ‘burung di dalam sangkar emas’. Gerak-gerik mereka dibatasi hanya dalam batas-batas istana. Sedangkan para perempuan dari kalangan bawah diperjualbelikan dan perempuan di bawah kekuasaan suami sepenuhnya, tidak memiliki hak-hak sipil dan hak waris.

Pada zaman Romawi, kedudukan perempuan tidaklah lebih rendah daripada barang yang diperjualbelikan oleh ayah-ayah dan suami-suami mereka. dalam bidang perniagaan pun, apa yang telah dihasilkan oleh perempuan dengan keringatnya sendiri harus direlakan menjadi milik keluarga si suami. Apalagi segala transaksi jual beli yang dilakukan oleh perempuan harus seizin dan sepengetahuan sang suami. Hak-hak ekonomi sosial dan budaya (ekosob) kaum Hawa terpenjara dalam gengaman kaum Adam.

Penghinaan terhadap perempuan lebih terlihat lagi pada peradaban Hindu. Hak hidup seorang istri berakhir pada saat suaminya meninggal dan dia harus dibakar hidup-hidup bersama jasad suaminya. Selain itu perempuan dijadikan pula sebagai sesajen bagi para Dewa. Bahkan dalam petuah Hindu terlihat pemarginalan kedudukan perempuan dengan stigmatisasi ‘racun, ular, dan api tidak lebih jahat daripada perempuan’. Dalam peradaban China pun terdapat petuah ‘anda boleh mendengarkan pembicaraan kaum perempuan, namun tidak untuk mempercayainya’.

Peradaban Barat melihat wanita sebagai manusia seperti yang lainnya, namun ia hanya diciptakan semata-mata untuk melayani kaum Adam. Di dalam ajaran Yahudi, anak perempuan tunggal dapat diperjualbelikan oleh ayahnya sendiri. Selain itu derajat perempuan sama dengan pembantu karena ia merupakan sumber laknat yang telah menyebabkan Adam terusir dari surga. Di dalam peradaban jahiliiyah atau peradaban Arab pra Islam, kaum perempuan yang telah diperistri kedudukannya menjadi sebuah harta warisan sang suami.

Jika anak perempuan yang dilahirkan dari rahim seorang ibu maka ia akan dibunuh dengan cara dikubur hidup-hidup. Kaum perempuan pun dijadikan objek pemuas hawa nafsu kaum laki-laki, khusunya dijadikan sebagai budak dan terkadang dijadikan komoditas jual-beli.
Dan dalam ajaran Nasrani, perempuan dijadikan semata-mata sebagai pelayan kaum Adam dan ia dianggap merupakan senjata iblis untuk menyesatkan umat manusia di dunia.

Hari ini, detik ini, perempuan masih saja ternistakan sebagia seorang manusia. Manusia yang seharusnya memiliki hak-hak hidup, hak-hak ekonomi sosial budaya, hak untuk berserikat dan berkumpul sebagaiman yang telah didapatkan dnegan mudah oleh kaum laki-laki.
Sepanjang kekuasaannya, peradaban kapitalisme di dunia telah menjadikan bumi ini sebagai medan persaingan bagi manusia laki-laki dna perempuan. Pemaknaan manfaat telah terbalik dalam logikanya menjadi pemanfaatan manusia lain oleh manusia lain. Manfaat diukur sebagai benar dan salah. manfat diukur sebagai ukuran baik dan buruk.

Kapitalisme menjadikan ego diitasbihkan sebagai raja. Individualisme merebak di mana-mana di dalam setiap benak manusia. Individualisme merajalela, belaskasih hanyalah bentuk kamuflase saja, kuntungan jadi ukuran mutlak dan kepentingan adalah pengikat hubungan yang utama. Manusia telah terperangkap dalam pemikiran egonya sendiri untuk mencapai kepuasan tiada batas.

Pemikiran seorang J. Ann Tickner: Posisi Feminis Dalam Imperium Terkini
J. Ann Tickner, seorang feminis, mengatakan bahwa kita berada dalam genggaman suatu imperium atau dinasti adikuasa, suatu kekuasaan global yang semakin menggurita dan megikat hampir atau bahkan seluruh aspek kehidupan umat manusia. Tulisannya On the Frontlines or Sidelines of Knowledge and Power? Feminis Practice of Responsible Scholarship menguraikan dimana posisi seorang ilmuwan—khususnya pemikir feminisme, feminis—dan bagaimana menempatkan posisinya dalam kebijakan dunia. Diuraikan pula bagaimana feminis harus menanggapi pertanyaan dan tantangan tadi sebagai rasa tanggungjawab seorang ilmuwan.

Feminis mengklaim bahwa pengetahuan dan praktek tidak dapat dipisahkan satu sama lain dan disadari atau tidak konstruksi dan respon terhadap fenomena yang terjadi di dunia global saat ini terbentuk jauh dari masa sebelumnya, pada awal masa-masa imperium. Dimensi jender dalam benturan peradaban dan global ekonomi dan bagaimana menganalisanya mengilustrasikan klaim tersebut.

Feminisme secara sederhana didefinisikan sebagai studi dan gerakan untuk kaum perempuan dalam artian tidak hanya sebagai objek namun berperan juga sebagai subjek dalam pengetahuan. Gelombang pertama dari feminisme adalah munculnya feminis empiriscm. Kritik utama dari kaum feminisme adalah bahwa berbagai aspek kehidupan telah dibutakan secara tradisional oleh hal yang bias jender.

Feminisme merupakan suatau pandangan yang kaya, komplikatif dan kontradiktif terhadap penelitian dalam studi hubungan internasional. Feminisme lebih dilihat sebagai istilah ‘payung’ saja karena jikalau kita melihat lebih dalam lagi maka yang terdapat di dalamnya adalah critical theory yang bertujuan menyelidiki permasalahan gender dalam studi hubungan internasional.

Feminisme memiliki asumsi-asumsi sebagai berikut :

1. Feminis tidak memandang bahwa human nature itu abadi.
2. Dari perspektif feminis, kita tidak dapat membuta perbedaan jelas antara ‘fakta’ dan ‘nilai’.
3. Terdapat ikatan yang kuat antara pengetahuan dan power dan antara ‘teori’ kita tentang dunia dan praktek kita—di dalam rangka melibatkan diri dengan lingkungan fisik dan sosial kita.
4. Postmodern feminis terpisah (postmodernist menolak konsep klaim universalitas), feminis membagi komitmen terhadap ide kemajuan sosial dan liberalisasi atau emansipasi kaum perempuan.

Istilah imperium sekarang digunakan untuk menunjukkan persetujuan neo-konservatisme di dalam pemerintahan Bush yang terbuka untuk dikritik. Ronald Steel menyebutnya sebagai pembuat tahapan pertama dari empirial self-recognition. Amerika Serikat adalah imperium, didefinisikan tidak dalam istilah formal dari perolehan territorial atau daerah kekuasaan sebagaimana yang terjadi dan dapat kita lihat pada masa-masa kerajaan Eropa kuno, namun definisi ini lebih kepada penguasaan ekonomi dan politik global.

Neo-konservatism memiliki pandangan bahwa kaum perempuan, golongan minoritas, dan bangsa-bangsa bukan Barat adalah relativist, non-faktual, dan pollitically charge sebagaimana ditulis Lynne Cheney (1995) dalam bukunya Telling the Truth yang melawan multikulturalisme, afrocentrisme, dan feminisme.
Pada hakikatnya tulisan J Ann Tickner ini menekankan untuk memprovokasi setiap dari diri kita untuk berpikir ulang tentang bagaimana merespon kekacauan dan gangguan ini yang dihasilakan oleh neo-imperialisme sebagai trend ketika ruang-ruang untuk penolakan atau sekedar perbedaan pendapoat menjadi menciut dan hampir tidak ada serta meningkatkan intoleransi terhadap bagian bumi lainnya yang tampil bersama mereka.

Dulu masih ada beberapa ilmuwan atau pemikir-pemikir yang diperlakukan secara baik untuk dimintai konrtibusi pemikirannya dalam menentukan suatu kebijakan. Ambilah contoh Henry Kissinger atau Stanley Hoffman dalam Washington circle.. Morgenthau melihat hal ini dalam pandangannya dan berpendapat bahwa ilmuwan dan pemikir-pemikir itu harusnya menjadi sandaran dari para pembuat kebijakan atau oleh seorang negarawan. Hal ini penting untuk mengobservasi dan kadang kala pemikiran para pembuat keputusan tidak lebih baik dari para ilmuwan atau pemikir-pemikir tadi. Feminisme dalam era kontemprer lebih menyoroti ke arah dominasi jender dan pengabaian eksistensi perempuan dalam segala aspek kehidupan sosial dan politik. Sehingga feminisme ini merupakan gerakan perempuan.

Dalam topik benturan peradaban, feminisme memfokuskan diri pada bagaimana membangkitkan kembali pembagian diskursus dari benturan peradaban yang terlah terkerangkakan dalam jender dan rasialis yang mereka percayai memperkuat sikap saling bermusuhan dan deligitimasi konfliktual alternatif. Misalnya dengan adanya peristiwa 11 September (9/11) di Amerika Serikat menjadikannya justifikasi untuk mengerahkan kekuatan militer dan memiliterken National Security Strategy-nya Amerika Serikat (NSS 2002). Namun selain terdapat elemen di dalamnya, terdapat pula bagaimana mempromosikan ekonomi global neo-liberal dab globalisasi terhadap gaya demokrasi Barat.

Dalam ekonomi politik internasional kita telah melihat bagaimana dampak yang terjadi sebagai akibat dari penerapan dan pemaksaan sistem ekonomi neo-liberal. Disana-sini terjadi kekerasan, konfrontasi politik, perang terhadap terror yang telah membagi-bagi dunia ini menjadi beberapa divisi. Dalam topik ini feminis melihat dan menekankan perhatiannya pada ekonomi home-base labor yang bergerak sangat fleksibel di bagian manapun di dunia ini. Hal ini menjadi pertimbangan mengingat bahwa kaum perempuan memiliki tanggungjawab yang sama besarnya sebagaimana kaum lelaki terhadap keluarganya. Dan home-based economic style ini merupakan pilihan tepat bagi kaum perempuan.

Sebagai kesimpulannya, J Ann Tickner mengutip pendapat Fukuyama yang mengatakan lebih baik menjadi subjek daripada menjadi objek dalam suatu pengetahuan yang dapat memberikan klaim tersendiri terhadap sejarah kita, menjadi sesuatu kebanggaan di masa lalu, dan memiliki rasa menentukan masa depan kita sendiri.

Kalau kita melihat lebih dalam lagi maka terlihat bahwa J. Ann Tickner berfokus pada studi tentang peran jender dalam membentuk bagaimana kita mempelajari studi hubungan internasional . Ia berargumen bahwa ketidaksetaraan jender antara pria dan wanita terefleksikan dalam cara memahami ‘keamanan’ dan ‘kestabilan’ dalam urusan-urusan internasional. Ia menambahkan bahwa jika pemahaman kita dalam menetapkan apa yang termasuk dan apa yang tidak termasuk studi hubungan internasional, maka dapat dikatakan bahwa pemahaman kita masih tetap belum sempurna secara radikal .

Akhirnya bermuara pada pendapat Edward Said yang mengatakan bahwa peran dari seorang ilmuwan atau pemikir adalah untuk mengatakan yang sebenarnya terjadi dan memilih metode, gaya, dan kritik untuk mencapai tujuan terbaik. Penulis menyadari bahwa subjektifitas ilmu yang disampaikan itu sangat tinggi daripada objektivitasnya. Oleh karena itu ilmu yang kita dapat tidak hanya sampai pada tataran implikasi teori saja namun harus lebih ke dalam tataran praktis dalam implikasi nyata. Sebagaimana feminis melakukannya untuk memperjuang hak-hak eksistensi kaum termarginalkan dalam dunia yang penuh dominasi imperium ini.

Feminis Memandang Global Justice
Bebicara mengenai masalah global justice di dunia ini, penulis berpendapat bahwa global justice itu seakan-akan tertutupi oleh global order yang selama ini dikuasai dan dikendalikan oleh kaum-kaum kapitalis, terutama kaum Neolib.

Starhawk dalam artikelnya A Feminis View of Global Justice menyebutkan bahwa kaum perempuan termarginalkan oleh adanya pusat-pusat kekuasan yang selama ini dikuasai dan dikendalikan oleh kaum laki-laki. Konsep power telah menjelma sebagai pemaknaan kekuasaan yang hanya dimiliki oelh kaum laki-laki saja. Kaum perempuan hanya bersentuhan dengn apa itu yang dinamakan belaskasih, kelembutan, perasaan haru, nurturing dan perhatian terhadap generasi selanjutnya.

Konsep power tersebut telah dilegitimasikan dalam sebuah sistem patriaki. Sistem ini menempatkan kedudukan perempuan di bawah laki-laki.
Patriarchy is a system designed to maximize the male capacity for violence. it divides men from women, assigns all the aggressive, active, power-over traits to men, and leaves to women all the tasks and traits associated with nurturing, compassion, caring and emotion.

Global corporate capitalism merupakan salah satu bentuk dari sistem patriarki ini. Sistem ini membutuhkan perang dan lagi-lagi perang merupakan bentuk nature dari sifat laki-laki: penuh kekerasan dan penindasan. Global corporate capitalism ini mendudukan perempuan dan anak-anak sebagai buruh-buruh murah bagi pabrik-pabrik mereka. Fenomena ini memang tidak terjadi di negara-negara maju, tapi di negara-negara berkembang fenomena ini begitu merajalela. Tantangan muncul dari global justice movement untuk melawan global corporate capitalism.

Sudahkah Perempuan Mendudukan dirinya Sebagai ‘Perempuan’?
Pertanyaan sekaligus penutup dan keismpulan dari essai ini adalah bahwa sudahkah perempuan mendudukan dirinya sendiri sebagai ‘perempuan’. penulis melihat bahwa ketermarginalisasian perempuan ini di dunia tidak serta merta karena struktur dunia yang telah terkonstruksikan seperti itu sebagaimana dalam sistem patriarki. Namun lebih dari itu, terdapat faktor instrinsik dari dalam diri kaum perempuan itu sendiri yang telah kehilangan arti yang sebenarnya dari pemaknaan akan eksistensi dirinya sendiri.

Memang benar struktur yang patriarki telah mendorong hal tersebut. Namun kita melihat bahwa perempuanlah yang menjadikan dunia ini lebih bermakna. tanpa perempuan, kehadiran laki-laki tidaklah berarti. Seorang anak laki-laki hadir dari rahim seorang perempuan. Seharusnya dengan realitas seperti itu derajat kaum perempuan tidak termarginalisasikan lagi.

Kehilangan pemaknaan diri dan penghargaan atas kesucian derajat perempuan terkadang penulis nilai sebagai pencampakkan jati diri perempuan yang sebenarnya. Tidak sedikit yang telah menjual dirinya, melacurkan tubuhnya dan menjeratnya dalam dunia malam. Intervensi budaya Barat yang masuk ke dalam budaya Timur telah menjadikan nilai-nilai keagunagn seorang perempuan Timur menjadi teracuhkan dan hilang begitu saja. Perempuan di Timur tidak lagi dihargai sebagaimana mestinya. Pengaruh budaya Barat telah mengubah paradigma tersebut dengan jargon-jargon liberalisasi, hak asasi manusia, dsb. Padahal norma-norma budaya Timur bukannya membatasi gerak kaum perempuan, namun semata-mata untuk menjaga nilai-nilai derajat kesucian kaum perempuan.

Gerakan perempuan feminis juga terkadang terlihat berat sebelah atau tebang pilih. Yang mereka bela hanyalah segelintir kaum perempuan yang benar-benar termarginalkan secara ekonomi dan budaya, namun ketika masuk ke ranah-ranah budaya dan bahkan agama, mereka diam beribu bahasa. Lihat saja bagaimana ributnya mereka ketika ada TKW (Tenaga Kerja Wanita) di luar negeri yang teraniaya. Namun hal ini biasa-biasa saja jika ada sekolah atau kampus yang melarang penggunaan jilbab bagi kaum perempuan Islam. Padahal hal tersebut merupakan hak asasi manusia. Lebih jauh lagi Lihatlah bagaimana diamnya gerakan feminis internasional dalam menyikapi pelarangan penggunaan jilbab bagi kaum muslim perempuan di Perancis dan Inggris. Penulis rasa memang dalam feminisme itu sendiri masih terdapat keberpihakan yang berat sebelah.

Jadi, mendudukan posisi perempuan oleh perempuan itu sendiri memang harus dilakukan Jika harus mengubah tatanan sistem patriarki yang begitu kuat dengan dukungan power. Maka cara terbaik adalah dengan melakukan perubahan kecil dalam tiap-tiap diri perempuan. Seyoyanya perempuan melakukan penghargaan lebih atas tubuh dan derajat kesucian mereka agar dalam sejarah peradaban manusia selanjutnya tercatat bagaimana perempuan didudukkan secara sejajar dengan laki-laki dalam artian yang sebenar-benarnya. penulis percaya bahwa akumulasi perubahan kecil dari tiap-tiap diri perempuan di seluruh dunia untuk lebih menghargai eksistensi dirinya akan berubah menjadi sebuah transformasi paradigma di dunia menuju kesetaraan jender. Itu pun jika tiap-tiap wanita memang ingin terlepas dari kenistaan dan penindasan.

***

Wallahu’alam bishowab.

Yes, Burning Man’s a blast. However, for some of us Bay Area folk, getting gas money and time off from work to make a long trek up to the harsh Nevada desert can be a little impractical. That’s why this year I’m opting for the 2009 Symbiosis Gathering in Yosemite’s Camp Mather. It’s a synaestesia of mind-blowing artwork, transformational learning, and sustainable living with a huge lineup of musical guests. They’ll have daily yoga classes, loads of dancing, nature walks, ancient rituals, and workshops on everything from ‘Learning from Leonardo DaVinci’ to ‘Shamanic AstroDrama.’

North Atlantic Books’ own Alex Grey, author of Art Psalms, will be holding workshops and creating art right before our eyes. He does some pretty far-out, cosmic pieces creating bodies out of grids of fire and infinite galactic swirls.  Click here to check out his website and artwork.

Bob Frissell, rebirther, teacher, and author of several underground spiritual classics, is getting ready for the September 29th release of the 15th Anniversary edition of Nothing In This Book Is True, But It’s Exactly How Things Are, exploring the celestial battle between internal and external knowledge. Attendees will have access to Frissell’s workshops as well as exclusive information from his upcoming release that is, in itself, worth the 3 hour drive from San Francisco (6 hours from L.A.).

Even if you somehow survive this year’s Burning Man, take a couple of weeks to recover and saddle up for the slightly tamer, but just as amazing Symbiosis Gathering, September 17-21.

For lineup and Symbiosis Gathering homepage click here, or follow Symbiosis Gathering on Twitter!

We are all longing to go home to some place we have never been — a place half-remembered and half-envisioned we can only catch glimpses of from time to time. Community. Somewhere, there are people to whom we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throats. Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us, eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate with us whenever we come into our own power. Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter. A circle of healing. A circle of friends. Someplace where we can be free.   [Starhawk]

William Pickens said that living together is an art.  I grew up in an extended family, three generations in one house, and I think it is largely responsible for the fact that, at each point in my life I find the most inner peace, it is because I’m feeling connected to one extended family or another.  Until very recently, it was normal in society.  Until we industrialized, it was completely necessary.  And while for the past few decades it’s seemed quite strange, I’d argue that before long it may return to the norm.  It’s happening in England.  I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing.  There are a lot of challenges to living as an extended family, but there are also a lot of benefits people may not realize if they never experienced a community living together in this way.*

*In the interest of full disclosure, I come from a very small family.  I have always been seeking ways to extend my family, to draw in those close to me and create a larger sense of community.  One of my dreams for the future involves a big house where my children and their friends and their children and their friends and my friends and their kids and their friends and my neighbors and their friends all feel welcomed, with big Madea-style barbecues in the backyard.  In fact, in my view of myself as a matriarch, I assume I will probably end up being more like Madea than M’Lynn.  Maybe just because I ain’t afraid of no po-po.  (Say it with me, now, “Call the po-po, hoe.”)

 I have never made a big secret about the fact that I hated Monmouth University.  It felt like a compromise to me from the start, and on the day that the United States invaded Iraq, there was a huge protest outside the student center…about the administration’s involvement in (and apparent hindrance of) Greek Life on campus.  What I loved about Monmouth, what compelled me to return briefly even after I’d escaped, was the sense of community I found in my small group of friends.  Jenna and I felt like sisters almost from the start, and Bill and I bonded tightly over our shared love of theatre and of creating Memories.  It is still vivid in my mind the night we were to have our “Monmouth Christmas,” and Bill called my cell phone, frantic that he was running late, with detailed instructions of how to clean and set up his dorm room so that everyone’s enjoyment of the evening wouldn’t be disturbed by flecks of lint on the floor (no lie, instructions included wrapping tape around my hands and crawling around on the floor to get all that pesky lint up).  The fact that our friendships did not manage to serve the test of time is one of the things I am saddest about, but my Monmouth “family” was everything that I needed when I needed them to be, and through our many ups and downs, some of the funniest stories of my life come from things that happened when I lived in the boys’ wing of a freshman dorm in college.

Almost all the funny stories that don’t come from that, though, come from my Ramapo “commune.”  I would have never been a part of it if I hadn’t gotten lucky enough to be tossed in as Vicki’s random third roommate.  Due to this stroke of luck (although I don’t really believe in luck), I became friends with everyone that I held dear until my life unceremoniously fell apart.  Louis was never boring.  A lot of the quotes I felt compelled to write on sticky notes and post around our dorm room were from Louis, and I think I still have some in a box somewhere full of stuff I couldn’t bear to part with.  When I broke up with my first “real” boyfriend, Cara mixed my first gigantic, really strong Baybreeze and got me just drunk enough to chase Susie around with a plastic knife threatening to harvest her organs in the bathtub Louis had in his dorm room.    When said first ex sent me an e-mail essentially telling me I was the devil, Vicki (?) printed it out, and we drove around in the car reading it over and over and laughing.  When I was nervous and scared, she and Roxanne jumped in the car with me for a spontaneous drive to Albany in the middle of the night, so that Rox and I could hear how much Vicki liked Albany as we pretty much looped through the city and then drove right back to school.  In fact, one or another of my friends was always down for a late night drive to nowhere (although Chris is still holding a grudge about the Orange County circle).  Roxanne was down for sleeping from about 2-7 pm every night, Chris was there when either of us needed to argue or make a joke at someone’s expense, and Vicky was a good friend even through the most ridiculous, obnoxious behavior.  In fact, pretty much the only guy that I maintained any sort of friendship with through my time in New York is Chris.  These people, this community, was college for me.

Playing Devil’s advocate with myself, maybe the real problem with Jeff was the struggle with my community.  At first they embraced him, and everything was great.  Once that was over, everything went downhill.  Okay, okay, there were lots of reasons that things with Jeff didn’t work out, but a lack of community and a feeling of utter isolation in Michigan is definitely what drove me back east.

A lot of bad things happened to me in New York, but there was a lot of good, too.  This opinion is not a popular one; it’s my opinion, though, and I maintain my right to have it.  Especially since I was the one that was there.  The major thing that I gained from New York was a feeling of a large extended family.  Three generations in the house, all manner of familial and non-familial relationships, and everyone was working towards the same goal — protecting the family unit.  To me, this was what I’d been seeking my whole life.  Obviously, the foundation of my being in that house was not the best, and I left for very good reason.  I don’t wish I was back there.  But there are days I miss it.  Sitting in this house with just my animals, in the silence, I find myself wishing that Ria would burst in and start jumping on my bed, or that Crystal would randomly suggest a trip to the mall and then take a year to get ready for it.  I miss the smells and flavors of West Indian cooking.  I miss those little boys every single day.  I miss always having someone to talk to, I miss building familial bonds, I even miss the fact that the second something happened to me, the entire house knew.  While there were a lot of problems there, this is the closest I have come to the vision I have for my future and my family — everyone struggling together, celebrating together, truly sharing their lives.  It fulfilled my need to be a part of something bigger than myself on a daily basis; before that, I wondered what it was like to be a part of a big family.

 Now I know, and I want it more than ever.

With my mother and I planning to buy a house and grow old together like something out of a Jane Austen novel, I am relatively sure that the extended family dream of mine will be realized.  And I try to bring all my friends into the fold of my extended family — I have sisters in New York, New Jersey, California, Texas.  Family orientation is one of my top priorities in seeking someone to spend my life with — I could never be with someone who desired an austere, secluded life when I have dreams of related and unrealted family dropping in to sit in our cozy kitchen, staying with us when they have nowhere to go, indulging in potluck dinners and Rock Band battles in the living room, bringing babies by for adoration and playdates, and having comfortable and sometimes uncomfortable conversation around holiday dinner tables.

When I have reached this point in my life, I will know I have arrived home.  Until then, everything falls just short.

[Even the fact that I did a workout similar to the clean and jerk ladder today, only involving air squats, and I did one hundred and frickin twenty.  My legs still hurt.  Why do I love Crossfit?  Because it is constantly showing me that I can do things I never thought I could do.]

OK, I thought I would be doing the same sort of thing I did yesterday, but I’ve had a highly time-intensive task to perform.  Guh!

I just finished William Forstchen’s One Second After, last night.  Stayed up late to finish it.  Have to say this genre isn’t really a favorite of mine, but I found it gripping nonetheless.  To observe how the North Carolina town attempted to weather a storm post-EMP – well, I had to say I was nervous.  Of course in this genre of TEOTWAWKI literature, about the only one that includes a fluidly sexual perspective is Starhawk’s The Fifth Sacred Thing, which is perhaps my favorite of the genre as it also incorporates the multidimensional reality in which we all swim. 

I won’t compare the two, other than to say that as far as incorporating a gay/lesbian perspective IT CAN BE DONE AND IT HAS BEEN.  /soapbox.

That being said, the protag Matherson is quite sympathetic.  I did become engrossed in his story, and was sad when some of the other characters started dying off.  In this genre, that’s inevitable.  It helped me also to put into perspective an event that occurred several years ago–the East Coast blackout of 2002.  At the beginning of the time, it was disorienting, but there was a sublimely mystical but also celebratory energy afoot.  Like it was a taste of something delicious to come.  But also, I could feel it was a bit like the 7 of cups in the tarot–quite ungrounded.  I wanted the energy somehow to be earthed.

I got to at least meet my neighbors that lovely evening, and there was a fabulous full moon out as I recall.  The light of the night was fairly luminous.  At the time I was overweight and working overnight, and I was up while everyone else was asleep.  On that particular night, however, things were quite a bit different.  I did relish quite a bit.  There were signs for me, and actually Ben F. told me to read both The Tipping Point by M. Gladwell and Anne Rice’s Tales of the Body Thief, for some odd reason.  (I did read Gladwell–helpful in some respects though I think it was merely the title itself that was the message–and I have not as yet read the other. I think I might have the time and inclination soon.  I hear it’s funny.)

And I went to my home group of AA that morning and helped someone out who was having a meltdown.  Went to bed that morning, and got up the next afternoon, unable to work again that night, and I again hooked up with the fellow sufferer I had helped that morning, and found her better, and then I went about my day, wandering in the very dark streets of the East Village as night fell, and at around 8:15 or so the lights came back on downtown, and I burst into tears.  Totally unaware how much stress I was carrying.

Well, Forstchen’s book helped me become aware that if the blackout had gone on longer than another 24 hours, I’m not sure what would have happened in the City.  During an EMP, I would imagine people would panic actually.  Lots of death, lots of insanity, lots of violence, theft etc.  And then perhaps it would spread?  It made me wonder how my region would be affected.  Probably not so well, I would imagine.  In this way, S.M. Stirling’s book also diagrammed out the disintegration of the East Coast but it was more of a kiss off I felt.  Like, “these people are useless–let’s dispense with them for THIS fiction.”  (Oh, would it were there was a spec fiction book of pagan/gay-friendliness on the East Coast.  Guess that’s up to meeezles!)

The book sure felt gripping enough–I devoured it, but it was like Chinese food and doesn’t leave much of an afterthought.  Perhaps it will be more like an EMP blast itself–unfelt, but with an impact that arises later?  I’ll have to watch and wait.

Anyway, here I am, getting ready for the weekend.  I was hoping to write about many things, but alas time’s gotten away from me.  I had originally called this one “Multiple Streatms I”  But no.  It’s not multiple.  Perhaps next week.

Die Schöpfung - wie sie geschah ist eine der ältesten Fragen der Welt.

Die meisten Menschen sind durch die Schöpfungsgeschichte des jüdisch-christlichen Kulturkreises in ihrer Vorstellung vom Anbeginn allen Lebens beeinflusst. Vor dem geistigen Auge tut sich ein männliches Wesen auf, dass durch seinen Blanken willen das Nichts bezähmt um ihm Platz zu entreißen. Die Erde entsteht.

Kurz darauf verpflanzt er Meere, Wälder und schließlich Tiere darauf; doch etwas fehlt noch: Der Mensch.

Als schließlich auch dieses Manko beseitigt ist, werden die Regeln klar: Der Mensch herrsche über all das, was zuvor schon geschaffen worden war. Nur für ihn wurde der Kosmos ins Leben gerufen – und nur er lebt darin, auf seinem kleinen blauen Planeten inmitten von zu unterwerfenden Spezies.

Ein etwas aufwendiges “Drumherum”, wenn man mich fragt. Ein Universum – mit all jenen Plätzen an die nie jemand kommt? Nur, damit ein paar Lichter am Himmel scheinen? “So ist’s Brauch” gibt Einblick in einen ganz anderen Schöpfungsmythos…

Die andere Schöpfungsgeschichte

Es existieren, hinsichtlich der “Schöpfung” unserer Welt, natürlich noch viele unterschiedliche andere Mythen. Leider sind viele von ihnen im Laufe der Jahrhunderte verschwunden. Aber nicht alle wurden vom Vereinheitlichungsgedanken einer Weltreligion aus dem kollektiven Bewusstein gespühlt…

Mit 900 Millionen Gläubigen bildet die Gruppe der hinduistischen Religionen nicht nur die drittgrößte Fraktion – sondern zeigt auch deutlich auf: es haben auch andere Überlieferungen überlebt.

Da ich mich schon vor langer Zeit vom Christentum abgewandt habe (Eigenwerbung: Gründe dafür publiziere ich wöchentlich unter “Irren ist biblisch” ) und über den “Hinduismus” zum Heidentum gekommen bin, möchte ich nun eine Variante die mir ausgesprochen gut gefällt wiedergeben.

Das Pentakel ist auch weithin akzeptiertes Symbol für die Religion der Wicca

Bevor ich jetzt aber mit Pseudo-Zitaten um mich werfe möchte ich eines vorausschicken: Im Gegensatz zu den “Buch-Religionen” handelt es sich bei Wicca um eine mündlich überlieferte Religion. Übrigens ist Wicca eine gar nicht so kleine Gemeinschaft. Obwohl viele Hexen (Wicca ist das altenglische Wort für “Hexe”) es ablehnen sich nach außen hin zu “outen”, sind in den USA derzeit etwa 2 Millionen Menschen registriert.

Die Ablehnung eines solchen “comming-outs” ist wohl hauptsächlich den Geheimhaltungsgeboten der Hexenreligionen zuzuschreiben – man darf nicht vergessen, dass die christlichen Jagden auf Hexen quasi “brandgefährlich” waren. Viele sind bis heute noch der Meinung man dürfe sich nicht öffentlich bekennen. In Großbritannien zB. wurde der “Witchcraft Act”, der Hexen verbot, erst in den 50ern aufgehoben und gilt heute den Meisten als “Geburtsstunde” der Wicca-Religion, die aus den Hexenkulten heraus entstand.

So – zurück zum Thema. Abweichungen von anderen Fassungen des Wicca-Schöpfungsmythos sind nicht nur möglich sondern sogar wahrscheinlich und nicht unerwünscht.

Die Schöpfung

Allein, ehrfurchtgebietend, in sich ruhend flutete die Göttin, Sie deren Name unaussprechlich ist, in den Abgrund der äusseren Finsternis, vor dem Anbeginn aller Dinge. Und als sie in den gewölbten Spiegel des schwarzen Raumes blickte, erkannte sie darin ihr strahlendes Bildnis und verliebte sich in es. Durch die Kraft die ihr innewohnt, zog sie es hervor, vereinigte sich liebend mit ihm und nannte es „Miria – die Wunderbare“.

Ihre Ekstase brach hervor als Lied über alles, was ist und war und sein wird, und mit dem Gesang kam die Bewegung, entstanden Wellen, die herauswirbelnd zu den Sphären und Kreisen aller Welten wurden. Die Göttin wurde von Liebe erfüllt, sie ward rund und warm vor Liebe und gebar einen Regen leuchtender Geister, welche die Welten erfüllten und zu Geschöpfen wurden.
Doch in der grossen Bewegung wurde Miria weggespült, und mit der Trennung von der Göttin ward sie immer männlicher.

Zuerst war sie Dian-Y-Glas, der blaue Gott, der sanfte und lächelnde Gott der Liebe; dann der weinblattumschlungene Grüne Gott, der in der Erde verwurzelte, der Geist der wachsenden Dinge. Schliesslich wurde sie zum Gehörnten Gott, zum Jäger, dessen Antlitz der roten Sonne gleicht und doch finster ist wie der Tod. Doch immer zieht ihn Sehnsucht zurück zu der Göttin, so dass er sie ewig umkreist, trachtend, in Liebe wiederzukehren.

Alles hat seinen Ursprung in der Liebe. Alles sucht zur Liebe zurückzukehren. Liebe ist das Gesetz, die Mutter der Weisheit, die grosse Offenbarende der Mysterien.

Ungeachtet der vorkommenden Namen ist es eine ganz andere Art die Schöpfung zu betrachten, oder? Nicht der Wille etwas zu tun ist das Leitmotiv der Erschaffung. Nicht das Gebieten ist der Weg der Entstehung. Es gibt kein elitäres Denken, keine behauptete Perfektion; es gibt nur ein Wesen, dass sich nach Gesellschaft sehnt und die Entwicklung des Geschaffenen.

Starhawk gehört zu den bekanntesten Wicca-Autoren.

Klar, der Abstraktionsgrad ist weit höher als in der Genesis der Bibel – und trotzdem ist alles verständlich. Ich werde in den nächsten Beiträgen zu “So ist’s Brauch” näher auf die einzelnen Szenen dieser Schöpfung eingehen um aufzuzeigen, wie sich diese Schöpfungsgeschichte (der Wortlaut dieser Version ist Starhawks Werken entnommen – die sich sonst nicht immer auf gleicher Wellenlänge mit mir befindet) mit unseren aktuellen Erkenntnissen im Bereich der Naturwissenschaften verträgt.

Fazit

Es gibt uns noch! Wer genaueres erfahren möchte ist herzlich dazu eingeladen “So ist’s Brauch” zu verfolgen.

Euer,
Daniel

This weekend was the annual Harmany Festival in Santa Rosa – one of my favorite festivals.  We went Saturday to see Michael Franti and Spearhead and a bonus was the Sierra Leone Refugee Allstars (who were incredible and have an incredible story).   The Refugee All Stars actually met in a refugee camp in Sierra Leone where they were “living” after they had to flee their homes due to the rebels.  They met some of their members in other camps – the one member was an orphan, two of the members had limbs amputated by the rebels and they were given some old instruments by a Canadian aid organization.  Yet through these horrific events, an absolutely incredible and uplifting group of musicians was born.  The music is the kind that gets you up off your tired bum and gets you groovin’ and smiling!  And it’s a good reminder of how good life is.  And of course, Michael Franti is the epitome of feeling good music and getting up and groovin’ ( “How ya’ll feelin’!?”)  He always has a message and is all about Peace and Love and you can feel it through his music.  Two groups I highly recommend if they are in your area.

The Harmony Fest has been going on for 31 years.  It is a festival about healthy living, alternative living, eco-conscious living, peaceful living and just good living in general.  They have some of the most amazing speakers (Starhawk and Julia Butterfly Hill - two of my faves), classes/workshops/lectures, yoga, dance, meditation, body work, etc.  You can camp the entire weekend under the redwoods.  One year I am going to do that so I can attend some of the workshops and lectures and just get completely lost in “Harmony”.  We just went for the day – and there is no way to cover 1/4 of the Festival, but with the kids and $ (and Milo and Mo) we just enjoyed a wonderful day of Utopia!

I’m still on a high from being there.  It will take a couple days to come down from my Utopian high.  I get so energized from being at an event such as this.  You see all the incredible ideas for eco living, healthy living, wonderful artists and a lot of “conscious” individuals in one location – yes it’s inspiring.

Have you been inspired lately?  What has gotten you inspired?

By Don Heckman

Los Angeles

- June 9. (Tues.) Kim Richmond Concert Jazz Orchestra. The sixth annual KKJZ-sponsored Wine, Jazz & Moonlight Series at Hollywood & Highland features a performance by saxophonist Kim Richmond’s 23-piece Concert Jazz Orchestra. From 7 – 9 p.m. in the Central Courtyard. Free admission. A donation of $10 to Project Angelfood will get you two classes of wine and a box of cheese and crackers. Wine, Jazz & Moonlight. (323) 467-6412.

- June 9. (Tues.) The John Altman Quartet. Altman’s resume reaches from composing and arranging for films (“Titanic”), television (“Peak Practice”), thousands of commercials and writing the now famous arrangement for Monty Python’s “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” to leading a big jazz band, as well as session work and gigs with the likes of Jimi Hendrix Phil Collins, Sting and Fleetwood Mac. Amazingly, he also manages to keep up his chops as a first rate jazz alto saxophonist. Charlie O’s. (818) 994-3058.

- June 10. (Wed.) Elaine Miles’ velvet-dark sound and exquisite way with a song aren’t nearly as well known as they should be. Here’s an opportunity to experience the gifted, Connecticut-born singer’s compelling take on standards, both old and new. Steamers. (714) 871-8800

- June 10 (Wed.) Ron Stout Quartet. A third generation musician and a professional since he was 15, Stout’s first call skills combins imaginative soloing with superb craftsmanship as a section player. Here’s a chance to hear him stretch out on his own. Sangria. (310) 990-0323.

Brian Blade

- June 10 – 13. (Wed. – Sat.) Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band. Blade has been at the top of everyone’s list of musically sensitive drummers – and performing superbly as a regular member of Wayne Shorter’s quartet. But he’s also reserved some imaginative creativity for his own Fellowship Band and, most recently, for his debut as a singer/songwriter on his new CD, “”Mama Rosa.” Catalina Bar & Grill. (323) 466-2210.

- June 11. (Thurs.) Playboy Jazz on Film. Every year, jazz film historian Mark Cantor assembles a fascinating array of clips displaying jazz artists in action. The program is the final event in the free jazz programs leading up to this weekend’s Playboy Jazz Festival. Expect to see clips of Freddie Hubbard, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Louis Bellson, Fats Waller, Lennie Tristano and others. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

- June 11. (Thurs.) Dale Fielder Quartet. The versatile Fielder handles four saxophones with ease, from soprano down to baritone. And he does so with the rare ability to play in a style that is characteristic to each of the instruments. Vibrato Grill Jazz…etc. (310) 474-9400

- June 11 (Thurs.) Denise Donatelli applies her captivating vocal style to selections from her latest CD, “What Lies Within,” backed by an all-star band – guitarist Larry Koonse, pianist Bill Cunliffe, saxophonist Bob Sheppard, bassist Hamilton Price and drummer Mark Ferber. Upstairs at Vitello’s. (818) 769-0905.

- June 11, 12, 13 and 19. (Thurs., Fri. Sat. and Fri.) Boston-based jazz singer Amanda Carr makes a string of Southland stops. Crowne Plaza Hotel, Thurs. (310) 642-7500; Spaghettini in Seal Beach, (562) 596-2199, Fri.; Café Metropol, Sat. (213) 613-1537

- June 11 – 21. (Thurs.,… ) La Didone. Cavalli’s 1641 Baroque opera from 1641 is performed by the Wooster group in a radical production that blends in electric guitar, elements from Mario Bava’s 1965 Sci-FI Cult film, Planet of the Vampires. REDCAT (213) 237-2800.

- June 12. (Fri.) James Newton The virtuosic jazz flutist, composer and educator makes a rare appearance. The World Stage. (323) 293-2451.

- June 12 (Fri.) “When Love Happens: The Loving Day Concert.” Singer Sandra Booker, pianist Tamir Hendleman and the Elevation Strings in a performance “celebrating the legalization of interracial marriage, couples and families in America.” The Madrid Theatre. (818) 347-9419.

Highlight: The Playboy Jazz Festival

-June 13 & 14 (Sat. & Sun.) It’s that time of year. The annual two day, non-stop, let’s-have-a-ball jazz party featuring a pair of gold anniversary celebrations. First: the 50th anniversary of the first Playboy JazzFestival in Chicago, in 1959. Next: the 50th anniversary of the release of Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue,” the best selling jazz album of all time – with Jimmy Cobb (the sole surviving member of the original “Kind of Blue” ensemble) leading his So What Band in a celebration of the music from that classic recording. Saturday’s festivities include (in addition to Cobb’s group) the Neville Brothers, the Jon Faddis Quartet, the Jack Sheldon Orchestra, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, the Pete Escovedo Orchestra, Esperanza Spalding, the New Birth Brass Band, Summer Storm, the Cos of Good Music and the L.A. County High School for the Arts Jazz Ensemble. Sunday’s line-up includes the Wayne Shorter Quartet, Kenny G, Patti Austin, King Sunny Ade, the Dave Holland Big Band, Monty Alexander’s Jazz & Roots, Oscar Hernandez and the Conga Room All-Stars, the Anat Cohen Quartet, Alfredo Rodriguez and the North Hollywood High School Jazz Ensemble. Bill Cosby is in his usual role as Master of Ceremonies and the conductor (and organizer) of the Cos of Good music group. The Playboy Jazz Festival. The Hollywood Bowl. (310) 450-1173.

San Francisco

- June 8 – 10. Charlie Haden, Bobby Hutcherson and George Cables. The first ever meeting of a group of veteran all-stars who describe their trio as “The Three Friends.” (Yoshi’s has a special deal for this and other Charlie Haden shows. Buy one ticket and get a voucher for a future Yoshi’s San Francisco show — at equal or lesser value.) For information, click here: Yoshi’s San Francisco. (415) 655-5600.

- June 9 – 27. (Tues. – ) “Porgy and Bess.” Eric Owens and Laquita Mitchell star in Francesca Zambello’s highly praised Washington National Opera version of the classic Gershwin work. The San Francisco Opera version will include an expanded chorus and orchestra and an expanded scenic setting. The War Memorial Opera House. San Francisco. (415) 864-3330.

- June 10 – 12. “Kind of Blue at 50” Jimmy Cobb’s So What Band. Recalling the pleasures of “Kind of Blue,” the best selling jazz record of all time. With Wallace Roney, Javon Jackson, Vincent Herring, Larry Willis, Buster Williams. Yoshi’s Oakland. (510) 238-9200.

Lee Konitz

- June 12 – 14. (Fri. – Sun.) Charlie Haden, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Lee Konitz. A rare combination of seemingly disparate elements – in an exclusive set of performances that someone will hopefully have the good sense to record. (This also is another of the special deals for Charlie Haden shows. Buy one ticket and get a voucher for a future Yoshi’s San Francisco show — at equal or lesser value.) For information, click here: Yoshi’s San Francisco (415) 655-5400.

- June 13 & 14. (Sat. & Sun.) Christian McBride and Inside Straight. Bassist McBride’s new group – featured on the just-released album “Kind of Brown,” brings him back into the acoustic contemporary mainstream, after various flirtations with funk and groove. But McBride, as any musician who’s worked with him will tell you, can play anything with authenticity and imagination. Yoshi’s Oakland. (510) 2389200.

Santa Rosa

- June 12 – 14. (Fri. – Sun.) The Harmony Festival. Thirty-one years after founder Debra Giusti started it all at Sonoma State University, the Harmony Festival continues to the pleasures of a music festival with the values of “new ideas, community activism, environmental awareness, spiritual wisdom and holistic products.” The far reaching programs of music and seminars include Michael Franti & Spearhead, India.Arie, Matisyahu, The Refugee All Stars, Balkan Beat Box, The Spirit of Miles Davis (feat. Airto, Mike Stern, Eddie Henderson, Azar Lawrence, etc.), Kitaro, Julia Butterfly Hill, Starhawk, and many others. The Harmony Festival. Sonoma County Fairgrounds, Santa Rosa.

Tennessee

- June 11 – 14. (Thurs. Sun.) Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. A four-day, camp-out, multi-stage, 100 acre, Tennessee version of Woodstock. The stellar line-up of acts includes Bruce Springsteen, Phish, Beastie Boys, Nine Inch Nails, David Byrn, Al Green, Snoop Dog, Elvis Costello, Erykah Badu, Merle Haggard, Ani DiFranco, Bela Fleck, Femi Kuti and dozens of others. Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. Manchester, Tennessee.

New York City

- June 8. (Mon.) Guitarist Andreas Oberg still doesn’t have very high visibility. But if there’s any justice in the jazz world, the spotlight should be brightening soon. He performs with pianist Donald Vega, bassist James Genus and drummer Billy Kilson. The Blue Note.(212) 475-8592.

Lisa Sokolov

- June 9 – 14. (Tues. – Sun.) The Vision Festival. As it opens its 14th year, the Vision Festival is now New York City’s only summer jazz festival. The six day event, with its strong orientation toward cutting edge music, features performances by, among others, Marshall Allen and the Sun Ra Arkestra, Peter Brotzmann’s Full Blast, Roy Campbell’s Ayler project, the Milford Graves Quartet, Joe McPhee’s Trio X, the Lisa Sokolov Trio, Jason Kao Hwang’s Spontaneous River (a 25 piece string ensemble) and Lawrence (Butch) Morris’ performance of Conductions No. 187: Erotic Eulogy with a chorus of poets and a string ensemble. The Abrons Art Center @ the Henry St. Settlement. (212) 766-9200.

Highlight June 12 (Fri.) The Russians Are Coming

Cyril Moshkow, Russia’s best-known jazz journalist contacted me recently to let me know about a performance in Brooklyn by an especially interesting Russian jazz group, The Second Approach. Rather than say something about the band myself, I asked Cyril – who knows the players personally — to make a few comments, and he was kind enough to send some information about the band. Here are his thoughts:

The Russians Are Coming: The Second Approach in Brooklyn
By Cyril Moshkow

A great new jazz trio from Moscow, The Second Approach, is going to perform at Brooklyn’s Ibeam Studio on June 12. Yes, they are friends of mine, but that’s not the point. The point is that they are great musicians — not exactly straight-ahead jazz, but still thoroughly enjoyable, and their only NYC performance is not to be missed (they also play at the Rochester Jazz Festival on June 15 and 16.) Russia has a new jazz scene, however small it may be, with musicians who do not imitate anybody; they follow their own patterns. For that reason, it’s quite difficult to put the Second Approach on a narrow genre shelf. What they play includes jazz, modern classical, and post-modern ethno/jazz crossover at the same time, rooted in native Russian music rather than in anything else. For a few tunes the trio (Andrey Razin, the piano player and composer; Tatiana Komova, the singer; and Igor Ivanushkin, the bass player) will be joined by the great American trombonist Roswell Rudd, who is also featured on the Second Approach’s new CD, “The Light” (SoLyd Records, 2009). If you can come and see them, please do. It’ll be worth it. And if you can help spread a word about it, please do that, too. We want as many people as possible to experience and appreciate the musical values of Russian jazz and The Second Approach. Ibeam Music Studio.

- June 12 & 13. (Fri. & Sat.) Miles Okazaki’s “Generations.” With Dan Weiss, drums, Jen Shyu, voice, Hans Glawischnig, bass and David Binney, Miguel Zenon and Chrisof Knoche, alto saxophones. The Jazz Gallery. (212) 242-1063

This is a copy of an email I just received on Starhawk’s mailing list.

On Doctor Tiller’s Murder

By Starhawk

On the day that Dr. George Tiller was murdered at his church by a right-wing anti-abortionist, I was teaching a women’s natural building course up in the hills where I live.  The roses were blooming in lush profusion and twenty beautiful women were on my hilltop sculpting a Goddess bench and weaving a structure out of straw and mud.  
            Tucked into a wrinkle in the hills, my cabin gets no TV reception and the only radio station that comes through plays Golden Oldies.  My internet access is a very slow, archaic dialup.  When I’m up here I’m often behind on the news.  It seeps in, rather than blaring forth its headlines.
            So the news of the murder came through slowly, a phrase caught on the fly while driving my biodiesel pickup down to grab a forgotten tool, another trickle of information as I scan my email, slowly staining a bright day with grief and rage.  
            “My body is the body of the Goddess,” the women sing as we scrape dust from the earth, itself the greater body of the Goddess, add water, mix mud, clay and sand to build with, as women have done from the beginning of time.  Our minds, our hands, our creative bodies and the body of the earth are one.
            The murder of Dr. Tiller was an act of terror.   Although its immediate victim was a man, it was aimed at women’s hearts and minds, designed to shatter our oneness and assert control. And it is part of a larger campaign of terror—if we must throw that word around then let us use it where it truly applies. When the murderer squeezes the trigger, when Bill O’Reilly thunders on Fox News or Randall Terry pontificates, they are sending the same message to women, “Your bodies, your fertility, your sexuality must remain under our control, or you will die, along with anyone who helps you.”
            On the day Dr. Tiller was murdered, Governor Schwarzenegger cut funding for the Healthy Families Act, a decision which will likely cost more children’s lives than all the abortions Dr. Tiller ever performed.  Yet no one is calling him a murderer.
            On the day Dr. Tiller was murdered, millions of refugees in Pakistan huddled in fear of American drone bombers. The graves of children in Iraq are still fresh:  mothers in Gaza continue to weep over the hundreds of children murdered in the Israeli assault.  Yet the ‘right-to-life’ movement is not agonizing over the blood that covers all our hands.
            On the day Dr. Tiller was murdered, uncounted children died from hunger, from lack of access to medical care, from contaminated water.  Young boys were dragooned into service as child soldiers;  young girls sold into sexual slavery.  We could use a true right-to-life movement, one that would champion these children, one that would stand against the greed, the violence, the callousness, the cowardice that murders at a safe distance and kills by hoarding the means of life.
            Witches, Pagans, Goddess worshippers have no dogma, no central body that tells us what to believe or what decisions to make. But if there is one belief we all hold in common, it is this:  that we are each our own moral and spiritual authority.  From women’s power to conceive, profound and sometimes painful choices arise, and we must be free to make those choice for ourselves. To deny women that right is to deny our most basic human agency.   
            The women in my garden are a mix of ages. Some of us remember the days of secrecy, shame, and back-alley abortions.  Most are too young to have ever lived in a world where the right to make their own decisions was in question.  Dr. Tiller’s death is a wake-up call to all of us.  Women have made great strides in my lifetime, but we are still far from safe and secure in our liberation.  May this tragedy unleash a new wave of feminist organizing.  May we all get on the phones and online and out in the streets to defend the clinics and the policies that protect our health and our self-determination.  May we drown out the hate-mongers with a chorus of voices raised in defense of the wild, lush, ecstatic, and free bodies, hearts and minds of women and men and of our own right to choose  what we harbor and what we birth.  A strong, revitalized feminist movement will be our real protection from the agents of terror, and our true hope for the generations to come.
And for some positive, practical things you can do:
Call your local clinic and offer support.
Consider making a financial donation in memory of Dr. Tiller to Planned Parenthood, to Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, or else to the clinic of your choice. The former two can be accessed here:
<https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp2009_inhonor <https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp2009_inhonor> >
<http://prch.org/george-r-tiller-md <http://prch.org/george-r-tiller-md> >
CREDO/Working Assets is circulating a petition to hold Fox News responsible for Bill O’Reilly’s inflammatory rhetoric.  In 28 separate episodes he has targeted Dr. Tiller
<http://tinyurl.com/r96k77 <http://tinyurl.com/r96k77> >
More information on the Pagan approach to abortion can be found in:
Starhawk and M. Macha NightMare.  The Pagan Book of Living and Dying. San Francisco, HarperSanFrancisco, 1997.  It includes rituals and prayers around the issue of abortion, as well as personal accounts.
–

Thus ends year one of teaching. I’m sitting in my office, surrounded by student projects and research articles. Outside my window its warm, humid and raining – reminds me of Florida – and the world has turned green and lush in the afternoon. In between the occasional student drop-ins I’ve been working on mapping my scholarship. I need to get a plan for the summer.

Last year was full of divergent collaborations; this year promises to be more focused. Although EDRA’s “Meaning in the Material” was canceled at the last minute, I have three regional presentations and one international presentation under my belt this academic year. I have yet to produce a journal article. ::Sigh:: No matter how many times they tell you they value other forms of scholarship it all comes down to the journals. The plan, then, is to write an article that is in line with my major focus: symbology.

P.S. – not sure whether the field of symbology should be thanking the character of “Robert Langdon” (Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons) for making us so popular, or cursing him for getting way more action and explosions than we do?

Where was I? Yes, focus – that’s it. In an effort to regain my focus I’m reading Starhawk’s “Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex and Politics” – outlining her views on power-over vs. power-from-within very nicely and giving an introduction to themes of spirit/matter duality in modern society and ritual magic as social activism – and Erich Fromm’s “The Forgotten Language: an Introduction to the Understanding of Dreams, Fairy Tales and Myths” – a pretty reasonable link between Jungian archetypes and literary/societal mythology. Fromm’s work is most interesting in that it discusses symbolic language and explains the sign/symbol difference in a much more convincing way (IMHO). Also on the reading list for the summer are works by Christopher Day, Michael Pollan, and Paul Hawken. Where am I going with this? I’ll let you know when I’ve figured it out myself.

At home, life continues to grow and change. I found a potato yesterday on my potato plant (which would have worried me if I’d found it in the mint, or the tomatoes). I’m making plans with a friend to start walking/jogging this summer. And we’re buying a house (whoot). We had planned to close today but a paperwork messup on the sellers’ end means we’ll have to delay until next week. Until then we’ll be living out of boxes and eating cereal and sandwiches on our few remaining dishes.

It looks like the weather’s clearing up. I think I’ll head over to the union for coffee and carbs.

Listen to this poem by Pem Kremer, called “Epiphany”:

Lynn Schmidt says
she once saw you as prairie grass,
Nebraska prairie grass;

she climbed out of her car on a hot highway,
leaned her butt on the nose of her car,
looked out over one great flowing field,
stretching beyond her sight until the horizon came
vastness, she says,
responsive to the slightest shift of wind,
full of infinite change,
all One.

She says when she can’t pray
She calls up Prairie Grass.

That’s the poem, about a woman named Lynn Schmidt who describes her experience of the Sacred. A vastness of prairie grass, responsive to the slightest shift of wind, full of infinite change. This is the image she conjures up in her mind, when a need for prayer rises up in her but she can’t easily give voice to it. Not an image of some powerful, transcendent male monarch battling and triumphing against enemies; not an image of a majestic, distant, forbidding grandfather who exists outside and beyond the earth that He has manufactured. Not any of these, but rather: a memory of prairie grass, evoking wonder and awe in her heart. A memory, but also a seed for nothing less than a new mythology, a new way of imagining the Sacred.

Today our topic is the Goddess: what this symbol means and can mean for women and men today.

Definitely this: consciousness-raising. Jewish feminist theologian Judith Plaskow (with whom I personally studied in seminary) tells a story about a gathering of mainly Christian women in 1972, in Loveland, Ohio, to explore theology together. “In one of the small working groups that was a daily part of the conference, the women realized that traditional names for God no longer adequately reflected their experience. They began to call out words that meant God to them, putting their designations on a large newsprint board. One of the fascinating aspects of the resulting list,” says Plaskow, “was its large number of ‘ing’ words—changing, creating, enabling, nurturing, pushing, calling into question, suffering, touching, breaking through. The God of their experience was not an immutable being ‘out there,’ but a process of which they were part.”

“Brushing out my daughter’s dark silken hair,” writes poet Sharon Olds,
before the mirror
I see the grey gleaming on my head,
the silver-haired servant behind her. Why is it
just as we begin to go
they begin to arrive, the fold in my neck
clarifying as the fine bones of her
hips sharpen? As my skin shows
its dry pitting, she opens like a small
pale flower on the tip of a cactus;
as my last chances to bear a child
are falling through my body, the duds among them,
her purse full of eggs, round and
firm as hard-boiled yolks, is about
to snap its clasp. I brush her tangled
fragrant hair at bedtime. It’s an old
story—the oldest we have on our planet—
the story of replacement.

That’s the poem. Mother and daughter—the changes of life—the story of replacement. And it is a sacred story, told with the “ing” words of the women from Loveland Ohio in 1972: changing, creating, enabling, nurturing, pushing, calling into question, suffering, touching, breaking through. This is what the Goddess is. The Goddess moves within the cycles of life and death and rebirth, in the natural world as well as in our relationships, in community. The Goddess is a symbol of that, a way of giving honor to that.

But does the Goddess actually exist? Is the Goddess a being in Her own right, or simply a poetic symbol of the inherent worth and dignity of nature and people, as well as of the flow of interdependencies in which we live and move and have our being?

Here’s how Starhawk answers this question. Starhawk is a feminist writer and activist, a major figure in today’s neopagan movement, as well as an influential voice in the 1995 decision by our Unitarian Universalist Association to formally include earth-centered traditions as one of the six sources of our faith. She says, “It all depends on how I feel. When I feel weak, [the Goddess] is someone who can help and protect me. When I feel strong, she is my symbol of my own power. At other times I feel her as the natural energy in my body and the world.” That’s what Starhawk says, and right here we have another opportunity for consciousness-raising, relating to our understanding of what good theology looks like. Must good theology insist on single answers, or can it be large and contain multitudes? “Is there,” asks Carol Christ, another leading voice in the Goddess spirituality movement, “a way of doing theology that would not lead immediately into dogmatic controversy, would not require theologians to say definitively that one understanding is true and the others are false? Could people’s relation to a common symbol be made primary and varying interpretations be acknowledged?” And then she says: “The diversity of explications of the meaning of the Goddess symbol suggest that symbols have a richer significance than any explications of their meaning can express….”

For me, one particular use of the Goddess symbol is especially profound, and like Starhawk, I go back and forth with it, sometimes seeing it as factually true, other times regarding it as sheer beautiful poetry, but all times moved and inspired to wonder. It’s this: the image of the earth as the body of the Goddess—the one source out of which everything emerged, guaranteeing the interrelatedness and kinship of all things. All beings as children of the same womb, cherished by Her.

“How the days went,” writes poet Audre Lorde (and imagine her voice as the Goddess, speaking to the world that is her body):

How the days went
while you were blooming within me
I remember each upon each—
the swelling changed planes of my body
and how you first fluttered, then jumped
and I thought it was my heart

How the days wound down
and the turning of winter
I recall, with you growing heavy
against the wind. I thought

now her hands
are formed, and her hair
has started to curl
now her teeth are done
now she sneezes.
Then the seed opened
I bore you one morning just before spring
My head rang like a fiery piston
my legs were towers between which
A new world was passing.

Since then
I can only distinguish
one thread within running hours
You, flowing through selves
toward You.

Just listen to that. How different our world would be if this had been the prevailing image of the Sacred in the West—not patriarchal male God, who manufactures the creation as something outside of him, as a watchmaker would skillfully make a watch, but the Goddess, for whom creation is birthed out of her very substance and essence, in pain and in joy? Then, a vision of earth that is common today would simply be unthinkable: that the earth is but a temporary, discardable stage upon which the drama of individual salvation is played out—valuable only insofar it functions as a stage, a holding place, a location. OK to pollute, OK to poison, OK to use as humans see fit. How could this even be thinkable, if the earth were seen instead as the body of the Goddess, in fact or simply in poetic imagination?

Poetry is powerful, whatever the facts may turn out to be. Symbols are powerful. Carol Christ emphasizes this when she says that “Even people who no longer ‘believe in God’ or participate in the institutional structure of patriarchal religion still may not be free of the power of the symbolism of God the [domineering, jealous] Father. A symbol’s effect does not depend on rational assent, for a symbol also functions on levels of the psyche other than the rational. […] [The] mind abhors a vacuum. Symbol systems cannot simply be rejected; they must be replaced. Where there is no replacement, the mind will revert to familiar structures at times of crisis, bafflement, or defeat.”

I remember a college philosophy class from years ago, when I triggered a mini-crisis in my students. We had been talking about traditional Western God images and how they have a stubbornly masculine, angry-jealous-God-of-the-Old-Testament dimension. My class of course denied this. Not just men in the room but women too, saying, “Everyone knows that God is beyond gender.” Then I talked about a classic argument for why the Catholic Church rejects women as candidates for the priesthood: Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God was male, maleness is thus tied up with God, therefore only men can be priests. I talked about this—how it was only the tip of the iceberg of instances where women have experienced oppression because they are not made in the masculine image of God. Women locked in stereotypes of passivity, completely contrary to the strength seen in the Goddesses of old: Athena, Artemis, Isis, Brigid. Women absorbing the prejudice that there is something fundamentally wrong and shameful about female bodily functions, like menstruation. Childbirth treated like a disease requiring hospitalization. The fanatic pursuit of youthfulness—postmenopausal women knocked off the pedestal they were placed on when younger—their distinctive beauty not celebrated as it should be. All these instances of misogynism, and more.

Then I gave them the challenge. Thanksgiving was coming up, so I said, When you go home to see your family, ask to say the Thanksgiving blessing over the meal, and just see what happens when you pray like this: “Mother God, who gave birth to our universe and to the abundance that is before us, we thank you….. “ I could just see the wheels turning in their minds, eyes widening when they imagined the consequences. Symbols go deep. Rationally, of course God can’t be male. But the poetry of this persists. Poetry is powerful, deeper than reason, comes first—it is, in fact, the material which reason, second of all, sifts and sorts and makes sense of…. But the poetry, the imagination comes first.

It’s exactly as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.”

Consciousness needs to be raised. Reminds me of an incident that happened a couple weeks back. One morning, just as I was starting my car and about to leave my home in Decatur to come here, I resolved to take a slightly different path than was my usual habit. I wanted to avoid the noxious traffic on South Candler Street right beside Agnes Scott College, and to do that, early on in my trip I needed to turn right on Kirk Road rather then left. Just this—so simple. Turn right on Kirk, then left on Avery, Avery would take me all the way down to East College, which in turn would take me to Commerce, and on and on. Less traffic this way.

Great. I shifted the car into drive, started off, and my thoughts immediately turned away from my plan to take a different path to work and raced way ahead to the work itself: meetings and conversations and issues and things to do. Details details details. I was already on South Candler Street, slowing down to a stop behind a long line of cars, before I realized what the heck had happened. I had switched to auto-pilot, and auto-pilot doesn’t follow new orders that disagree with deep programming. How could I have lost focus so easily?

For me, the image of the Goddess is powerful because solidifies my intent and my decision to take a different route through my world than usual. It reminds me to expand my sense of the sacred beyond the patriarchal male images that are an inescapable part of our cultural programming, because I don’t want to get stuck in that kind of traffic. Gives a man a heart attack. Alienates a man from love. I mean this sincerely. It happens when men attempt to model their lives after the patriarchal God, which they do. I want to take a different route, turn right when my programming says turn left, and for this, I need to stay focused, I need to stop the chatter of the status quo from taking center stage, I need a God-image that helps me imagine the sacred to be BIGGER than that. BIG, because what I am worshipping I am becoming, and I want to be BIG in my heart. That’s what I want, and I suspect you want it too, men and women alike.

I’ll close as I began—with a poem about prayer. This one comes from Joy Harjo, entitled “Eagle Poem”:

To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circles in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon, within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.

Por Starhawk, en The Holy Book of Women´s Mysteries de Zsuzsana Budapest.

Hay peligros reales en la práctica de la magia, la mayoría de ellos dentro de nosotros mismos y sobre todo cuando todavía no tenemos un conocimiento profundo y completo de cómo funciona la magia. Aquí hay una lista de los principales problemas con los que podemos tropezar y algunos consejos para protegernos contra ellos. No obstante, en la educación mágica de cualquier persona es necesario ser alguna vez víctima de los rasgos de carácter. Todos nos hemos topado alguna vez con nuestro ego, o hemos presumido de hacer el bien, pero ¿cómo si no podríamos aprender tolerancia y compasión con aquellos que fallan en lo mismo? Ser víctima de alguna de nuestras propias ilusiones nos confiere una especie de inmunidad contra ellas, como ocurre con las enfermedades infantiles. Con suerte, la recuperación es rápida y completa. Aquí están entonces las “varicelas y rubeolas” de la magia.

Omnipotencia. La omnipotencia es muy común cuando descubrimos por primera vez que nuestra voluntad puede influir en los acontecimientos. Podemos sentir una repentina corriente de poder y creer que podemos hacer cualquier cosa. La experiencia cura este engaño muy rápidamente, pero el sentimiento de omnipotencia puede llevar a la…

Culpabilidad. Es posible que creamos que podemos hacer cualquier cosa, pero tarde o temprano fallaremos. A veces es a la gente más cercana y más querida a quienes no podemos ayudar. A menos que entendamos que la magia tiene limitaciones y funciona sólo en el marco de las leyes –al igual que ocurre con la medicina- corremos el riesgo de sentirnos responsables de todo lo que sale mal a nuestro alrededor. Entonces debemos relajarnos. No somos tan poderosos, ni tampoco tan importantes.

Paranoia. A medida que crece nuestro conocimiento y somos más conscientes de la energía y los impulsos negativos de los demás, podemos volvernos excesivamente sensibles y empezar a protegernos de sombras y peligros que no existen. También podemos caer en el truco de considerar que todo lo negativo que nos ocurre es debido a un “ataque mental”. Una buena dosis de cinismo es la mejor defensa. Hay que recordar que la magia real rara vez se opone al sentido común. Si te sientes asediada por las fuerzas malignas, mira en tu interior para ver qué está provocándolas.

Santidad. Es muy difícil resistirse a la tentación de ser más espiritual que cualquiera, ofrecer consejos que no se nos han pedido y sentirnos superiores a los demás porque ellos “no han visto la Luz” mientras intentamos mostrarnos humildes. Con un poco de suerte podremos poner los pies otra vez en la Tierra antes de perder todos los amigos.

Presunción. Al igual que la santidad, es muy difícil resistirse a ella. Cuando el fanático testigo de Jehová de la clase de química nos sermonea sobre religión, ¿cómo podemos evitar no decirle que hay una mancha verde de hipocresía en su aura? Sin embargo, terminamos descubriendo a base de dolor que nuestro consejo o nuestros comentarios no serán oídos a no ser que se nos hayan pedido, y que la magia sólo funciona en situaciones reales pero no en demostraciones espectaculares.

Salir del plano astral. Cuando nos obsesionamos tanto con la magia y el trabajo psíquico que nos olvidamos del plano de la tierra y del cuerpo, podemos debilitarnos y sentirnos exhaustas. En casos extremos, las personas que pierden el contacto con la tierra completamente pueden tener un “ataque psicótico”; esto se evita fácilmente asegurándonos de que cuando hacemos meditación o magia nos mantenemos con los pies en el suelo y centradas. También es muy importante tener una vida en la tierra satisfactoria, incluyendo las relaciones sexuales y la buena comida.

La brujería no debería hacer que perdiéramos el placer de vivir o funcionar en la vida diaria. Por el contrario, el placer y la capacidad para hacer cosas debería verse realzado por nuestros conocimientos.

La mejor protección que hay contra todas estas enfermedades y muchas otras, tanto físicas como psicológicas, es que mantengamos siempre el sentido del humor. Mientras te rías de ti misma no podrás llegar muy lejos por el mal camino y siempre tendrás a punto el billete de vuelta. Cada vez que te parezca que te estás tomando a ti misma con demasiada seriedad, o cuando te encuentres a alguien que te recomiende hacerlo, ¡cuidado! Recuerda que la risa es la clave de la salud.

Well, I figure you all know me well enough. And I suppose , seeing as how you all love me so, it won’t make you love me any less. But really! I thought it was fairly obvious! So here goes. I am coming out of the Broom Closet today: I am a Wiccan.

Yes. For those of you who don’t know what that is, I will explain, because I love you so.

Wicca is an Earth based Religion. It is unorganized… we have no doctrine or Clergy. It was founded in the nineteen forties by a man named Gerald Gardner. Wicca has become much more Eclectic since then, but he gave it it’s name, which means “To bend” or “To shape.” If you want to get technical, it is actually the oldest religion in the world. Wicca is New Age. It’s really a very romantic religion. Obviously, I love being  Wiccan. Just don’t ask my Fundie/Evangelical mother about it. She’ll cry. She often wonders where she went wrong with me. * Sorry, mom*

I am mostly too lazy to get very deep into what Wicca is and isn’t (Google it you lazy minxes!), but I will give you all a basic overview.

I am an Eclectic Wiccan. That means I don’t stick to a Tradition. There are a number of Traditions, but again, I am too lazy to name them all. But Wicca is a form of Modern Paganism that borrows from a number of Pre Christian Pagan Traditions. A few misconceptions I want to get out of the way right now:

1. For the Love of all that is Holy (That would be Nature, the God, and the Goddess), I do not worship Satan! Satan is a Christian Deity that is modeled after the Celtic Horned God. (ever wonder why he has goat horns?). If I had a dime for every time some fool asked me if I worshiped Satan, I’d be friggin’ rich. For one thing, Wiccans don’t believe in Hell OR Satan. Wiccans believe that if you give evil a name, you give it power. And we are real sticklers about personal responsibility. There is no “The Devil Made Me Do it” mentality with us Witchy folk. Human beings are responsible for our own “sins.” Asking a Wiccan whether he/she worships Satan is like asking a Christian if they worship a Golden Calf. Don’t do it. It is offensive.

2. I know some fool is going to ask, so I will get it out of the way now. I am not going to cast spells on any of you. A good Witch has a strong understanding of the Universe and it’s Laws. So we know all about Karma. Casting a spell on someone for any purpose other than healing (and even then, only with permission), is an interference of Free Will. I wouldn’t do it even if it wasn’t the equivalent of shooting myself in the foot. It is immoral and unethical for one thing, and it would only come back to bite me in the Ass. Whenever I do a Spell, or anything really, I always keep in mind that all my actions come back to me times three. That is just how it works. It’s like water running or flowers blooming in the Spring. That old adage “Treat people how you want to be treated”- in other words, with kindness, respect and love- resonates strongly with me.

3. While we’re on the subject of spells: Movies like The Craft and Five Girls and Practical Magic are cute and all, but they’re just Hollywood. I cannot shoot lightning bolts out of my palms or make creepy crawlers swirl around potted plants. Sadly, I cannot fly a broom (but wouldn’t that be fun? Isis the kitty could take a ride on the back and we could cruise the stars together over Northeast Ohio at night) and I do not deflate Male Erections for fun (regardless of how useful it would be against Sex Offenders). Have you ever heard someone say that they believe in the power of prayer? Well, Wiccans do their share of regular praying, but a spell is really just like a prayer in action. And what do people usually pray for? Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t know of many folks who pray for people they don’t like to get boils and chicken pox and so on. That’s not how prayer works, and it’s not how love works either. So again, do not ask a Wiccan if they are going to cast spells on you. They will likely reply, “Even if I could, you aren’t worth the effort.” And besides that, it is offensive.

4. I. DO. NOT. SACRIFICE. ANIMALS. Wiccans cherish life. We’re big Tree Huggers. I cry when I see a dead bug, let alone a dead animal! Please! I’m a Pescitarian! Do not ask a Wiccan if they sacrifice animals. It is EXTREMELY offensive.

5. If you do not believe in this sort of thing, that is perfectly okay. Wiccans are not Evangelists. Goddess, no. I still love you desperately even if you think I am off my rocker (well, not that you all ready didn’t).

6. Wiccans are Polytheists. We believe God is both Male and Female, but we believe “All Gods are one God.” Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament, is just another Run-of-the-Mill, into-himself God to me, for the most part. Albeit a jealous one. Geez, can someone get him to lighten up? But I only say that because as a rule, we have no chip in our shoulders about Monotheists. Particularly the Big Ones (Jews, Christians, Muslims). Religious Tolerance is Coexistence. I was raised by Fundies. I love religion in General, and I believe all Faiths have a certain amount of truth to them in their core principles.

Now that that’s all cleared up, Wiccans, as I explained, don’t really have a doctrine, except for the Wiccan Rede,  and the full version goes like this:

The Wiccan Rede
(Full Version)

---

Bide within the Law you must, in perfect Love and perfect Trust.
Live you must and let to live, fairly take and fairly give.

For tread the Circle thrice about to keep unwelcome spirits out.
To bind the spell well every time, let the spell be said in rhyme.

Light of eye and soft of touch, speak you little, listen much.
Honor the Old Ones in deed and name,
let love and light be our guides again.

Deosil go by the waxing moon, chanting out the joyful tune.
Widdershins go when the moon doth wane,
and the werewolf howls by the dread wolfsbane.

When the Lady’s moon is new, kiss the hand to Her times two.
When the moon rides at Her peak then your heart’s desire seek.

Heed the North winds mighty gale, lock the door and trim the sail.
When the Wind blows from the East, expect the new and set the feast.

When the wind comes from the South, love will kiss you on the mouth.
When the wind whispers from the West, all hearts will find peace and rest.

Nine woods in the Cauldron go, burn them fast and burn them slow.
Birch in the fire goes to represent what the Lady knows.

Oak in the forest towers with might, in the fire it brings the God’s
insight.   Rowan is a tree of power causing life and magick to flower.

Willows at the waterside stand ready to help us to the Summerland.
Hawthorn is burned to purify and to draw faerie to your eye.

Hazel-the tree of wisdom and learning adds its strength to the bright fire burning.
White are the flowers of Apple tree that brings us fruits of fertility.

Grapes grow upon the vine giving us both joy and wine.
Fir does mark the evergreen to represent immortality seen.

Elder is the Lady’s tree burn it not or cursed you’ll be.
Four times the Major Sabbats mark in the light and in the dark.

As the old year starts to wane the new begins, it’s now Samhain.
When the time for Imbolc shows watch for flowers through the snows.

When the wheel begins to turn soon the Beltane fires will burn.
As the wheel turns to Lamas night power is brought to magick rite.

Four times the Minor Sabbats fall use the Sun to mark them all.
When the wheel has turned to Yule light the log the Horned One rules.

In the spring, when night equals day time for Ostara to come our way.
When the Sun has reached it’s height time for Oak and Holly to fight.

Harvesting comes to one and all when the Autumn Equinox does fall.
Heed the flower, bush, and tree by the Lady blessed you’ll be.

Where the rippling waters go cast a stone, the truth you’ll know.
When you have and hold a need, harken not to others greed.

With a fool no season spend or be counted as his friend.
Merry Meet and Merry Part bright the cheeks and warm the heart.

Mind the Three-fold Laws you should three times bad and three times good.
When misfortune is enow wear the star upon your brow.

Be true in love this you must do unless your love is false to you.

These Eight words the Rede fulfill:

“An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will”

My birthday,  May 1st (next Friday) is the Druid Fertility Holiday of Beltane. It is a very important Holiday and is also the Day of Mary Magdalen. It is the most important holiday of the year, save for Sahmain (Halloween). So next Friday, be sure to wish me  Happy Birthday and a Happy Beltane.

But that is basically what Wicca is. As I explained, I love being  a Wiccan. I wouldn’t be the way I am without it. I have been through a lot of things in my (so far) short life. Having something to believe in that actually makes my heart feel light isn’t a bad thing. Ever wonder why I am called Little Isis? It is because my Matron Goddess is Isis, the Egyptian Goddess of Heaven and Earth.

But while I am using this post to come out of the Broom Closet, so to speak, it is not about my coming out party. (Aside: I know you might have a stigma about the Da Vinci Code, but if you haven’t read it, you should. Only because of all the facts it has in it about female divinity and the Pentacle.)

Starhawk is one of the most well known Wiccan Activists. She has an “On Faith” column in WaPo, and it came to my attention recently that she is trying to get the Pope’s attention and force him, and by extension, the Catholic Church, to apologize for the “Burning Times.”

I have said this before. The “Burning Times” are what Wiccans call the Dark Ages. Nobility and the Elite in Europe were Christians. But most of the common folk (today we would call them the Middle Class) still practiced Paganism. The Catholic Church was dividing and a lot of people were breaking off to be Protestants. I don’t know what it was. Every Conflicted Era needs a Scapegoat. Let’s just say that Pagan Women-in general healers, herbalists, midwives, that sort of thing- became Ye Olde England’s Welfare Queens. Actually, it was much worse than that.

Women who thought for themselves. The Hillary Clintons, Sarah Palins, Riverdaughters, BostonBoomers, Little Isis’s, KatieBirds, Dakinikat’s, ect of the world. They were tortured, burned at the stake, killed, thrown into iron maidens, raped, beaten, publicly hanged…. it goes on. The most unspeakable horror. There are books about it. I’m sure most of you are aware of it.

Starhawk believes that around nine million men, women and children were killed during that period. More than the Holocaust! Well, I’ll admit even I think that’s a stretch. But at the very least, around 500,000. There is no way to really know the number. But it doesn’t matter. We say, “Never again, the burning times.”

They were my ancestors and I mourn and honor them. What kills me the most is the lack of acknowledgment in history. But after all, they were just women. Who cares, right?

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

A woman who thinks for herself- a strong woman- is always a threat. She threatens something deep inside powerful, privileged men. It can be traced back in their Ancestry. It is in their make up.

I remember during the primaries how all Hillary Voters were “Uneducated Racists.” That meant something to me other than the simple fact that it wasn’t true. She was sticking up for the country folk, the “Pagans” against the privileged Nobility.

That is a metaphor, FYI.

What I want to know is what Confluceans, particularly Catholic Confluceans, think of this. Should the Pope apologize? Or should Starhawk just forgive and forget?

Opinions, please!

Poking around the Internet can yield some interesting finds. Take for example, Riot Porn. Essentially this is a blog running images taken during various riots. Very little context is given, and for the most part the pictures are left to speak for themselves.

It is worth noting that this is not the PIC approved method for dealing with Tear Gas

Even rioting lawyers.

In all honesty I took quite a bit of time looking at this site, just browsing and looking at all these attempted revolutions. It appears that the site hasn’t been updated since 2007, so anyone looking for more on Ian Tomlinson is out of luck.

But what does this say about our movement. While the site is speckled with European football riots, there is a clear favorite on the blog, as nearly every post has a red or black flag to be seen in at least one shot. So what does this website say about us as anarchists? This website, and its licentious name, show a desire, a lust in our community for the chaos and destruction we fight so hard to otherwise convince the public that anarchy does not stand for.

However when taken another way, a blog of this style could in fact be of great value to the community. If we view pornography not as something smutty and embarassing, but rather as something frowned upon by the mainstream media despite a clear desire, if not need, for such goods. If interpreted that way, this isn’t a mark of shame on our culture but rather a tool. Mainstream media regularly looks over such clear examples of empowered people, blacking out any example of people, not the state, controlling the streets. Taken this way Riot Porn is not a perversion but rather a beacon showing us that rebellion is not only possible, but probable.

Sony Computer Entertainment America registró el pasado 9 de Abril el nombre ‘Starhawk’, pero eso no es lo importante ¿cierto?, lo que realmente nos interesa es que este pequeño registro puede aclarar nuestras dudas sobre otro episodio de la saga Warhawk pero esta vez en el espacio (por eso Starhawk), ya que desde hace casi un mes el sitio Kotaku difundió este rumor y lo curioso es que el jefe de LightBox Interactive, Dylan Jobe, comento lo siguiente:

“Tenemos cosas muy emocionantes en desarrollo que encantarán a nuestros fans de Warhawk y a los nuevos jugadores.“

¿Verdad o mentira?, solo el tiempo lo dirá, por el momento esperemos que Sony siga sacando buenas exclusivas y en lo personal me gustaría mas un juego de naves espaciales que de naves de guerra.

[Fuente: Meristation]

While Kotaku reporting that Gamestop broke Demigod’s release date is interesting, you’ll find something really interesting over at Demigod’s actual homepage.  In addition to coming up with an interesting way of handling DRM with their GOO (courtesy of WIRED’s Gamelife), Stardock seems to be going along the right track with digital distribution.  They are selling the digital copy of the game for $10 less than what you would pay for a physical copy of the game.  While I haven’t been following Demigod closely at all, $40 is well known to be a sweet spot with the staff here at PNG.  Gas Powered Games and Stardock, you guys are doing it so right!

It’s rough in these oh so hard economic times, even more so if you’ve lost your job.  However, if you happen to be interested in being an Assistant Art Coordinator or Marketing Content Coordinator for a traditional gaming company, Fantasy Flight Games is hiring!  The gigs are located in Roseville, Minnasota so you have to either live close by or be willing to relocate probably.

There’s a big rumor making the rounds on the nets about the future of Warhawk.  Sony has registered “Starhawk” and 1up was all over it.  I love me some of the original Warhawk for PS1 and it blows my mind to think of it in space.  After all, space is cool.