Blessed Be!
November 10 – Daily Feast
For those who have a wait-and-see attitude it is more wait than see. Then they claim it is better to not expect anything than to be disappointed. These people build the same mental images – but they see nothing. Being able to see in the spirit is as necessary as having a blueprint to build a house. The details need to be filled in, finally coming to that completed picture – so vivid and clear that it must come into being. Anything we touch or use was first an image, an idea, in someone’s mind. Seeing it and sensing it and loving it is writing an order to receive it. Mental images should never lack from a poor consciousness. Even if it seems impossible, fill it in. Ideas often have miracles of their own.
~ Our fathers gave us many laws, which they learned from their fathers. These laws were good. ~
IN-MUT-TOO-YAH-LAT-LAT – NEZ PERCE
‘A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II’ by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
The Leap of Faith
Author: M.T.Bargeman
Every action we take is a leap of faith. We have faith that our truck will carry us safely down the road and home again. We have faith that the gas stove won’t explode while we are cooking breakfast. We have faith in our talents, skills, and beliefs as Pagans.
We perform both mundane and magical acts to push ourselves to do better, be better humans, and better Pagans, better witches. We have faith that we can do these things. Where does this faith come from inside us? If you remember the story of Pandora’s box, you remember that Hope was the weakest creature inside the box and that it never actually escaped.
All humans have hope. With hope, which is said to spring eternally from the human breast, we can have faith. Hope and faith go together, because it is extremely strong hope that creates faith. In other words, we want something in particular to happen so badly, hoping, wishing, dreaming for the outcome we desire that we believe-have faith- that it will be so. Dreams and goals are part of this Hope/Faith pairing.
We dream that we can do something. For instance, years ago, I dreamed of becoming a professional writer and a novelist. Something about the idea of telling an entertaining story to masses of people makes me happy. It’s a happy thought. There would be people reading my work, enjoying it and waiting eagerly for the next book. There was a time when I thought this might not happen for me.
I had a manuscript, which I began writing with a pilfered spiral notebook from my children’s room, and a Bic pen I found in the kitchen of the house we’d just moved into. Eventually, I got a computer, and I finished that story. There was a hitch: I developed a rare eye disease that caused me to lose my vision. I was legally blind by the time I had finished telling the story. I could not see that the entire middle of the book was not on the floppy disk when I printed the first few copies of the manuscript.
My first few attempts at having it published failed, probably partly because the story was incomplete. I reworked the manuscript, adding more depth to the characters, so that the reader could see and know them the way I did. I had, and still have, faith in my ability to tell a good story. When I had rewritten the story, edited, re worked and added more to the story then I began submitting The Travelers to publishers again. This time, the whole story was saved, and thanks to adaptive technology, I could see and know the story was complete. This, again, is the leap of faith.
I have faith that I can and do tell a great story. I have faith that my gods are watching over me, and sometimes guiding me along the way. After quite a few rejections from agents and publishers, I put the novel on Kindle myself. I was still true to myself- I did not pay a vanity press a ridiculous amount of money to publish the work. I found a friend to do the cover and convert the files so they could be uploaded. Then I created my account on Amazon, uploaded my story, and did everything else I could possibly do. That’s faith.
I have faith that everything will work out, as I will it to work out. I may not be a bestselling author with this book. Perhaps it will be the next one, or the one after that, or the one after that. I keep leaping. You never get to take the leap of faith one time- you have to keep on leaping until you land where you want to be. We all have our own path we must walk; all of us have our own star to follow.
We all have a leap we have to take. For me, the leap was just as much about knowing my story deserved to be read as it was refusing to let my vision impairment defeat me. In fact, my visual impairment made me quite frustrated at times. It still does, but I have faith in myself, and I know that the gift of storytelling is from the gods. I know that losing my sight has no bearing on my mind, my imagination, or my skills. It has little bearing on who I choose to be. It is not a reason to give up on my dreams. I’m pretty sure that the Gods/Goddesses who have sacrificed an eye or both of them, for some reason, would agree that this is no reason to quit on yourself or what you want in life.
I took my leap this year. My novel is ready to be read on Kindle applications, and it will soon be in paper. If a person has faith in themselves, faith in their talents, and faith in their patron Gods/Goddesses, then even the largest of leaps is not so scary, and we can let absolutely nothing stand in our way. I will let nothing stand in the way of my work.
The gods gave me the gift of storytelling. I have done it from the time I could talk. I have faith that I will continue to tell stories of every sort for many years. Others will read some, some may not be. Some will be widely received, and some will be rejected. I will not give up, and I will not be a sheep.
If the Celtic mythology teaches anything, it is perseverance. If the Norse mythologies teach anything, it is certainly determination and tenacity. The mythologies, like the gods themselves, all have something of value to teach us. The main thing they teach is belief in one’s self and to be unafraid of our own individuality. This helps us find enough hope to take the leap of faith.
What is your leap of faith this year?
November 8 – Daily Feast
Listen, if you do not care about yourself, who is going to? If you are not acquainted with your own spirit, who will be? Listen, there are secrets in your heart that you have refused to hear. There is strength in your mind and in your soul that you have not used. Who told you that you would never amount to anything? Did you say it, or did you hear it said? It is a lie. You see, Spirit is the only One that knows you. Has He said you won’t make it? Never, because He knows you can. If you will only believe in yourself, if you will only take the initiative and move one step, He will move two. All you have to do is to care about yourself and your Creator.
~ I have nothing bad in my breast at all; everything is all right there. ~
SATANTA – KIOWA CHIEFTAN
‘A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II’ by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
copywrite (c) 1996 White Circle Enterprises All rights reserved.
**Notice** This document may be distributed freely so long as it is not altered, edited, or changed in any way from its original form. A copy of this document in its true original form may be gotten from our home page.
Please e-mail any critique or questions to me if you cannot find me on the IRC at #Witchcraft_102… flames will be ignored.
I strongly encourage the individual to research as much as possible about any and all forms of divinity. There are a multitude of books available in libraries and book stores which can provide vast quanities of information. I personally believe that the belief systems of the witch have spent far too long ‘in the broom closet’, if you will, and that it is time for people to start not only asking questions, but getting answers about the Craft. Ignorance breeds fear and fear breeds violence. I, for one, refuse to return to ‘The Burning Times’ when thousands upon thousands of people (Witches and non-witches alike) were murdered of their beliefs or because of false accusation. There is a button which I have seen which reads, “No more witch hunts: We resist!” Well, this is my form of resistance: informing anyone who wants to ask questions. (Unfortunately, I do not know the name of the author of that phrase. If anyone can prove ownership to me (i.e. a copy of a copywrite certificate) I will gladly give him/her credit.) The most wonderful things about the Pagan religeons are the vast diversities between the individual viewpoints and the tolerance with which these viewpoints are accepted. Two witches may live next door to each other for years and celebrate the holidays together and even attend the social gatherings of one another’s group but they may worship totally different gods/goddesses. To witches, IT DOES NOT MATTER what god(s)/goddess(es) you worship so long as your heart and soul are in it! 🙂 Generally speaking, witches worship a god who is seen as the father of all creation and a goddess who is seen as the mother of the same. To my students, I also teach the concept of The Unknowable: the force which is everything that The God and Goddess are, plus everything that They are not.
The Deities are the forms in which we as limited beings can try to do the impossible, namely to comprehend the infinite. In reality, there is but one Great Force which dictates the ways of the universe. The Taoists call this The Tao (The Way). Judeo-christians call it YHWH, Jehovah, God, etc. Muslims call it Allah. Because we are finite beings and we are trying to understand the infinite, we divide the Great Is into terms with which we are familiar and comfortable. I am most comfortable with a God and a Goddess whom I refer to as “The Lord and The Lady” or “The Bright Ones”.
The Lady
The Lady is the more tender and nurturing side of The Way. She is the one who works in mysterious and beautiful ways. She gives women their sense of intuition and knowledge in the subtle ways of turning big, strong men into jelly. She is crafty but honest, incredibly wise and appealingly dinghy, she is as soft as a mother’s kiss and as firm as her wooden spoon. She has a razor sharp wit which can leave you bleeding, but laughing at yourself for being stupid enough to cut yourself with it. She has no desire for any but Her husband but still plays Her teasing games with Him. She is the more subtle disciplinarian. She often gives one a warning in the form of ‘a funny feeling’ or premonition. She is what each woman should strive to be.
The Lord
The Lord is the more firm side of The Way. He is the one who provides honor, courage, loyalty, and sustenance to the men who seek to be like Him. He is the hunter who provides for the home. He works hard and plays fairly. He has no desire for any other woman but His wife and will rain His wrath upon those who try to interfere with a happy marriage. He is brutally honest. When He speaks The Truth it often leaves people dazed or in tears when their own lies are dispersed. He enjoys games of strategy and physical exercise. He is the more forceful disciplinarian. His wrath is slow in coming and well earned when received. Often when one has received a strong ‘karmic backlash’ one can look back and see several warnings and minor punishments which had been ignored. The God knows the dangerous effects of His temper and keeps it under control. He is what each man should strive to be.
The traits of The Lord and The Lady above are not mutually exclusive. For instance, The Lord is often crafty but The Lady is usually more so. Conversely, The Lady also speaks The Truth but she usually does so in a less shocking manner. These two are married in a holy union which, like all marriages based upon love, friendship, honesty, and loyalty cannot be dissolved. They are the father and the mother of the universe. It is through their combined efforts that we get The Way of the universe. Their system of punishment and reward is what is often referred to as karma.
The Unknowable or The “Is” The Unknowable is exactly that: unknowable. It is everything that The Bright Ones are plus everything that they are not. It is both masculine and feminine and neither, all at exactly the same time. It is the Universe and all things that are, were, could have been, may be, and will never be. As I said, It is unknowable… because it Is everything.
The Circle of the Witch
Within this sacred circle, two main activities occur: celebration, and the practice of magic. Celebration is most important at the major seasonal holy days, the Sabbats. At these times, the myths of that particular holiday are enacted in ritual drama, and dancing, singing, feasting, and revelry are all part of the festivities. On these occasions we celebrate our oneness with life on Earth, as well as assimilating on the deepest level myths and archetypes which map and assist our own life-passages.
Magic is more often performed at smaller gatherings, called Esbats, which coincide with the phases of the moon. Types of magic practiced include psychic healing sessions, the focus and direction of energy to achieve positive results, and work toward the individual spiritual development of the coven members. Magic is an art which requires adherence to certain principles, and a conscious direction of will toward the desired end. We believe it to be an attribute of magic that results toward which the will is directed return to the sender threefold. Therefore, Witches are very conscientious in their use of magic.
When the celebration, teaching, or magical work is finished, the blessing of the Goddess (and God) is called into food and drink which are shared by all. The circle is opened, and the space is no longer consecrated.
The Peacock
The iridescent emerald plumage and spectacular broad tail of The Peacock make it the ideal symbol of both justified pride and vanity. It denotes the right for one to be proud of themselves for being who they are and for letting others know. In short, its okay to strut a bit. At the same time The Peacock reminds us that while pride and high self esteem are essential components of a healthy psyche, becoming too full of one’s self makes us vain, and vanity is never attractive in anyone.
As a daily card, The Peacock is reminder that you are inherently valuable, and have a right to be proud of who you are as well as let others know you are proud of yourself. It is also a warning to not allow you pride and sense of self worth grow to such grand proportions that you become vain and conceited.
Hildegard is jumping for joy because it’s…..
Archangel: Raphael
Candle colour: Yellow
Incenses: Lavender or fennel
Crystals: Citrine or yellow calcite
Use Wednesdays for spells for money-making ventures, learning new things, passing examinations and tests, house moves and travels, overcoming debt and repelling envy, malice and deceit.
Where possible, work in a windy place or when the clouds are moving fast across the sky.
A circle of light or a physical circle can be strengthened by casting three elemental circles just inside it.
Some practitioners aim to put the triple circle on top of the light one but I prefer radiating circles, albeit close together.
If using empowered salt and water as one of your elemental circles, you would empower the mix first before the elemental casting.
The three clockwise circles, either positioned one over the other or extending inwards, should be made with salt and water, or just salt (the first), with incense (the second) and with the directional candle of the south or a central one (the third). If you use salt for circle one (and not the salt and water mix), use incense for number two and magical water droplets for the third circle.
Create simple elemental casting chants according to the substances you are using and the nature of the spell or ritual.
*Note* With a group, before the triple circle casting invite them to walk the triple circle in line after you as you cast it. You can use three people to make the triple circle by having them each carry a substance around it. You need not use words for this unless you wish. With a group it is easier to make the three circles over one another just inside the original light circle.
You can end the triple element casting by sprinkling each person with a few drops of either the saltwater or the water alone saying:
You are Blessed!
If you are working alone, end the triple circle casting by taking the water and sprinkling yourself, saying:
May the Lord and Lady God and Goddess bless me and my spell/ritual.
Spell Caster’s Affirmation
There is one Presence and Power in the Universe
That manifests to me as Goddess and as God
It guides the stars and the planets
It guides me and moves through my life
For I am a perfect incarnation of God /dess
And a perfect priest/ess of God/dess
I am a complete manifestation of this power
I release all imbalanced energy and it’s effects
I harness harmonious energy
And shape it for the good of all
In accordance with free will
With ease and with joy
With love and kindness
So mote it be
So Mote It Be.
November 1 – Daily Feast
The danger point comes after a victory when we think there are no more battles. How many wars have been fought thinking this is the war that will end all wars? Even in our own private battles we cannot lie back and think we have won the right to peace. We do need to know and remember that we are more than conquerors. It is a life promise, but we have to claim it. Other claims have taken precedence – weariness, lack, sickness – but we are conquerors, even more than conquerors. We are winners and overcomers. Believe it, because it is true, and the more we claim it, the stronger it is.
~ Where is our strength? In the old times we were strong. ~
CHIPAROPAI – YUMA
‘A Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II’ by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Great Goddess, Great God
Look down upon your children
And help us to live together in peace
Send us tolerance and understanding
Patience with each other
And with ourselves
Help us to play nice
And to get along despite our differences
Let us tear down the walls that keep us apart
And build bridges that will bring us together
Help us to realize
That we must learn to live as one
On our beautiful planet
Great Goddess, Great God
Let there be peace
And let it begin with me.
So Mote It Be
During the Witches’ New Year, or Samhain, take time to stop and evaluate your faith and beliefs. Make a sacred ritual or retreat out of this evaluation. Light white candles and burn sandalwood, myrrh, or frankincense. Brew a cup of herbal tea. Sit down and ask the God and Goddess to guide you on your path. Write down your beliefs in a journal or your Book of Shadows. Some questions you can meditate on are: What is life? How do I view the universe? Why am I here? What affirms my spirituality and what lessens it? How can I bring spirituality into my everyday life? After writing, you can create a statement of faith based on your answers to the questions. Recite what you write by candlelight for the universe to hear. Rediscover and rededicate yourself to your spirituality.
“THINK on THESE THINGS”
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Why is it that the things we love so much can cause us so much pain, and perhaps without realizing it? Why is it that we find so much to worry about in all the “what ifs” that cross our minds with such persistence? What makes fatigue follow us through the hours and drain away precious strength that we need to help us in our daily routine?
All the things that plague us daily have one common cause-fear. To some, fear is a constant companion. We may call it by many other names such as necessity, time, busyness, demands, but all of these can be forms of fear.
Fear produces the most mental, physical, and spiritual fatigue that has ever overtaken humans. It rushes us so that we have accidents. It drains us of strength to resist illness. It tells us we cannot produce enough to meet the demands upon us. And it builds within our minds such dire images so that we cannot face the simplest.
Fear has one antidote. It is not to stop worrying and take it easy, but it is faith. Adverse conditions cannot break us in the face of faith. Faith allows us to look fear in the eyes with such confidence that it loses its power over us.
English divine, Fredrick William Robertson, wrote, “To believe is strong. Doubt cramps energy. Belief is power.”
___________________________________
Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.
Visit her web site to purchase the wonderful books by Joyce as gifts for yourself or for loved ones……and also for those who don’t have access to the Internet: http://www.hifler.com
Click Here to Buy her books at Amazon.com
Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org
Elder’s Meditation of the Day – October 30
“My children, you have forgotten the customs and traditions of your forefathers. …You have bought guns, knives, kettles, and blankets from the white man until you can no longer do without them; and what is worse you have drunk the poison firewater, which turns you into fools. Fling all these things away; live as your forefathers did before you.”
–Pontiac, ODOWA
We need to think as our forefathers did. They knew the culture and the customs. The culture taught them how to live in harmony with each other. We need to think like this again. We must because God-reliant. We don’t need the firewater. This liquid is very destructive to our native people. It kills our spirit. Our Indian people are happiest when we are spiritual. When we depend on anyone or anything else, we get off track. We need to talk to the Elders and find out what the old ways were. We need to ask them to teach us the culture, the tradition and the customs. This will help us become whole again.
My Maker, guide my path as you did my ancestors.
Living Like Water
The journey of water as it flows upon the earth can be a mirror of our own paths through life. Water begins its residence on earth as it falls from the sky or melts from ice and streams down a mountain into a tributary or stream. In the same way, we come into the world and begin our lives on earth. Like a river that flows within the confines of its banks, we are born with certain defining characteristics that govern our identity. We are born in a specific time and place, within a specific family, and with certain gifts and challenges. Within these parameters, we move through life, encountering many twists, turns, and obstacles along the way just as a river flows.
Water is a great teacher that shows us how to move through the world with grace, ease, determination, and humility. When a river breaks at a waterfall, it gains energy and moves on, as we encounter our own waterfalls, we may fall hard but we always keep moving on. Water can inspire us to not become rigid with fear or cling to what’s familiar. Water is brave and does not waste time clinging to its past, but flows onward without looking back. At the same time, when there is a hole to be filled, water does not run away from it in fear of the dark; instead, water humbly and bravely fills the empty space. In the same way, we can face the dark moments of our life rather than run away from them.
Eventually, a river will empty into the sea. Water does not hold back from joining with a larger body, nor does it fear a loss of identity or control. It gracefully and humbly tumbles into the vastness by contributing its energy and merging without resistance. Each time we move beyond our individual egos to become part of something bigger, we can try our best to follow the lead of the river.
Intolerance: A Curable Disease
Author: Kestryl Angell
For some years now, I have been in solitary practice and have purposely placed myself in a position that allows me to observe the growth of the modern Pagan movement in the United States. One very significant thing has come to bother me through those observations. One that leaves me, to say the least, perturbed with my fellow human beings of every belief system, but assuredly of some that call themselves Pagan, as well.
Now, I realize that everyone on this planet is here for his or her own reasons, as well as for cosmic ones. I also realize that everyone grows, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually at his/her own individual pace. But some things, to my mind, are basic points of human respect and are sadly and sorely missing from a society that is supposed to be “the most advanced society history has ever known, ” as some would phrase it.
Though there are many points of human weakness that are causing overall weakening ripples throughout the newer generations when it comes to ethics, I feel that there are a few that are particularly problematic and need to be addressed at every opportunity. I hope to write about several of these in the coming weeks, as I feel that discourse is where all solutions may be found. With that in mind, I’d like to begin with a personal favorite.
Let’s begin with intolerance.
What, really, is the point of going through a life-changing, spiritual awakening, a “rebirth” as many coming to their Paganism as adults from other more mainstream backgrounds often state they go through, if all they come to be is not Pagan at all, but really could be better characterized as “anti-Christian?”
Coming to a new spiritual path does not automatically make the one you came from innately “wrong.” It simply makes it wrong for you.
Perhaps you did have experiences with the darker side of human nature packaged as harmful behavior, selfishness, egotistical preaching, the use of fear as a control and all the bad things that are written about in the news every day. That does not automatically make every single person that practices that belief system wrong, evil, awful, stupid or deluded.
Therefore, it is just as wrong to condemn others in a blanket fashion as it was for them to condemn the various Pagan paths throughout the course of history. In other words, coming to Paganism just so you can feel justified in Christian- (or other belief systems including alternate paths of Paganism from your own) -bashing is as hypocritical as the day is long! Get real and lose the excuses!
Allowing something to exist and realizing it is different from yourself doesn’t give you the right to pass judgment on it’s correctness for another soul’s growth or it’s validity in the Universal scheme of things! You are not their Creator/Creatrix. You are not here to live their path. In fact, you have no idea what is going on in their karmic path, in their personal development that might be assisting them to be learning lessons you don’t even have the strength to recognize, much less deal with yourself.
If you consider those who follow “younger” faiths than your own to be “deluded, ” it is you that does not understand the growth of the soul. It is you that is still struggling with the idea that the Universe has bigger plans than your little human eyes and mind can fully comprehend and it is you that is making a fool of yourself by stomping your proverbial feet and saying you KNOW better!
For yourself, yes – you may know that what you left behind isn’t what you need. For others? That is theirs to choose and theirs to choose free from your judgment and condemnation of that choice – just as your choice to become Pagan was your own and was equally as worthy of not being judged negatively by their fears or ignorance.
Just because you yourself happen to be in “spiritual middle school” doesn’t mean you have the right to pick on the “spiritual kindergartners.”
Furthermore, spiritual middle-schoolers don’t have anything on the spiritual college students and PhD s, but nearly every single time you will see them shining loudly in their personal struggle with their own ego by the way they attempt to play children’s one-upsmanship-games with their Elders, while showing glaring examples of their own ignorance by their complete lack of basic respect for the efforts, knowledge base and wisdom of the Elders they’ve been honored to come to know and learn from.
They would rather argue entomology of a specific word of a specific dialect than seek out the fullness of all meanings of the given word to more fully explore its meanings before making a decision as it applies to their own cause.
They would rather see other’s ignorance as “proof” of their own self-proclaimed greatness while never realizing that those things greatest in this world don’t need human declarations to make them great.
It was said by the writer, John G. Neihardt, “Humility is bowing before Truth. Humiliation is bowing before people.” Humility, Tolerance and Compassion are the internal partnership that should come to a truly spiritually awakened being – not their old set of personal and world grievances packaged in a new dogmatic format.
There are those under the Pagan umbrella who will say, “Well, I don’t believe in karma like that.” or “Respect is earned, not just given willy-nilly.” or “Well, in my belief system the world runs on the eye for an eye principle so if someone screws me over or makes me feel stupid, I can do whatever it takes to level that playing field.”
You don’t have to believe in karma to understand that what goes around comes around.
Universal principles exist and show themselves, with or without your belief in them or your petty arguments on terminology for said events. The seasons, the life/death cycle, “acts of God” weather and other Universal events will soon show you differently if you truly feel you’re the one in control of the entire world’s development!
The only thing that glaringly, embarrassingly shows, like a run in your brand new stockings, is your own overblown ego if you refuse to understand there are forces larger than yourself at work in the Universe as a whole.
Respect should indeed be earned within specific arenas such as professions and education, to name but a few. However, there should also be a basic, human respect of one living being to another, without the need to prove anything other than that they too are a person living on this planet with the same basic needs and desires as every other human being on the planet – good, nutritional food, clean water, community, family and the like. Even if their needs and desires don’t immediately meet or match your own doesn’t make yours or theirs any more or less vital or valid than the other.
As for the “eye for an eye” folks, all that happens when you take out the eye of another based on that principle is that you end up going blind, in one way or another, yourself.
I am not saying forgiveness is always the answer or that “turn the other cheek” is the answer in all situations either. But more often than not, when a human being thinks his or her own bruised ego, knee-jerk, forceful, violent ways are the answer; it is the opposite answer that is usually the one that would actually solve the problem for good.
Differences in personal dogma have been call and cause for the culling of our world populations for centuries, since the beginning of known, current history. Do we really need to continue to prove to ourselves that human beings can find constantly new and more awful ways to be horrendous to one another?
Furthermore, why are we still actually entertained by such violence or allow something as petty as big business concerns to be the reason our fellow human beings proudly go off to die by the hundreds of thousands in service to their country – with a very few that make it home alive only to find that they have no home to come back to?
This is not to say that I am all the “Light, Love and Happiness, Rainbows and Pretty Unicorns All Day Every Day!” kind of dreamer. I simply feel that the Universe itself already has chaos and death and violence in its own makeup without human beings adding to the mix out of basic ignorance, ego, selfishness and intolerance.
Mother Nature has that whole destruction thing down pat, people! She doesn’t need our scum covered little human toddler hands muddling up the works by trying to “help!”
Like kids in the playground sandbox, we’re still caught up, after all these centuries in basic Intolerance-based border skirmishes! Pagan communities are just as guilty of this issue as many Christian organizations and many of the “problems” that I hear bantered about in mainstream organizations are just as rampant in Pagan ones because we still aren’t addressing Intolerance actively as individuals, much less as a community! You cannot claim to be better than the thing you abhor and left behind if you’re guilty of the same crimes against humanity after you change sides.
Border skirmishes based on differences of dogma were a good portion of the basis of the Middle Eastern conflict since long before the US ever became interested enough in the business aspects that finally rooted our entry into the wars in the Middle East.
Border skirmishes based on intolerance, racial differences, religious differences are at the root basis of much of the gang violence rampant in Los Angeles and many other parts of the US and have even gone so far as to spawn their own subculture out of the necessities of their living circumstances rather than strengthening as a community to truly fight the issues that took them to that point of de-evolution that effects gang neighborhoods.
Border skirmishes based on Intolerance, lies and violence were what displaced every Native American in this country when the English, French, Spanish and others all came to a land the Natives had already figured out how to live harmoniously upon.
Did those people who were new here listen to those that had lived there for generations?
Oh no, they were seen as “ignorant savages” who knew nothing of community elderly and child care, community health care, balanced inter-tribal politics and trade or even the simplest necessities for making it through the winter alive.
Yet, here we are still stuck in wars where body counts, gun counts, missile counts and cash numbers, advertising and fear tactics, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction threaten the supposedly “enlightened” peoples of this day and age? Seriously?
Can’t we just get out of the sand box, stop fighting over who brought the coolest toys or who can do the most damage and have some dang milk and cookies like good little spiritual brothers and sisters here?
Intolerance should have no place in the modern human mind.
Look to the simpler, tribal times of our ancient ancestors and to those who are still living in those harmonious ways in many places in the world today that we spoiled Americans call “third world, undeveloped” countries. Perhaps they don’t have our amenities in their homes, our advertising and fast and un-nutritious foods on every corner of their city streets or even have motorized vehicles.
But when women group together to gather the water for entire streets and neighborhoods while singing, serving more than just their own family’s needs every single day, it is we who could learn something from their joyful song and service.
When villages in South America that have disagreed for generations can work together to build pipelines for water for both villages’ benefit, we have something to learn from those “savages.”
When doctors and shamans in Tibet still ride donkeys or walk, sometimes for days, to treat the ill in body, mind and spirit and the community comes together to see to the needs of that doctor if the patient cannot pay for services themselves, it is our “modern physicians” and spiritual healers that could learn something about true caring compassionate healing for a patient and our community’s selfishly spoiled upper crust could learn what it means to make sure that all are cared for instead of arguing over whether or not our individual choices can remain as cushy as we’re selfishly accustomed to as we begin to explore a National Health care system in the US.
Get a clue, people! In the United States, our biggest sign of malnutrition is the over 65% of our citizens suffering from obesity! There are currently over 154, 000 US veterans – those that fought for our right to be this freely spoiled rotten – living on the streets, homeless!
Our ignorance, gluttony and selfishness is written all over us in our own fat flesh and high blood pressure ratings while these other “uncivilized” peoples starve from lack of food and clean water, but have us completely beaten on how to treat each other as human beings!
How can that be acceptable to educated, aware, community members? ANY community, much less ones who supposedly WORSHIP Nature’s balance and bounty?
Let’s also be keeping in mind that most of the other major countries of the world have already gotten some of these questions, such as National Health care, answered successfully decades ago and it is the US that is catching up and griping all the way about rises in taxes to help the overall common good of all Americans, top to bottom of the food chain.
Canadians are thrilled to only be paying 10% taxes right now, down from the 18-20% its been in the past to help pay for their health care system and other social amenities currently underdeveloped and desperately needed in the US.
Those in the UK have paid the English equivalent of anywhere from $10-20 per gallon for gasoline for years and yet Americans were having fits over gas hitting $4 per gallon within the last year? Who is it really that needs to get real, learn some Tolerance for people and for change and learn to attune as citizens of the world’s needs instead of for their own selfish, individualized gains and stunted, silent caste systems of bigoted intolerance so obviously still active in many places in our country?
How can it not be seen that intolerance is at the root of all of these issues…and that it is a curable state of being that, if taken on by the whole of a community, doesn’t really weigh all that hard on the individual?
As a student of the Universe, I do not look for a time when all people will “believe as one.” I do not believe that Harmony requires everything be alike, as that in itself would also be an imbalance. Diversity is a necessity of life. If sameness were the truth of how things should be, music wouldn’t have different notes that make up the chords that sing the songs of the Universe through orchestrations. Harmony is created when notes co-exist on different lines for their own sake and in their own timing to a rhythm that is greater than each individual note.
Therefore, what I look forward to is the day when individuals can learn from and about other’s beliefs without their own being threatened in any way, without fear or disgust. I look forward to the day when those that do not believe the same way can simply agree to disagree and still work for the common good of all living beings on the planet. I look forward to the time when tolerance and compassion is as common a pair of qualities in human beings as ego, laziness, selfishness and desire.
I look forward to the awakening of human beings to the idea that tolerance is not acceptance nor is it automatically an admission of support of the differing idea or practice presented. I look forward to the day humans sing in beautiful, diversified harmony, the song of the planet’s common good.
Tolerance is simply the ability to allow all things to exist, as the Universe would have them, not as you would have them. Tolerance means allowing even those things that you do not agree with personally to exist for those who do believe in them.
Tolerance is difficult, however, as it requires a type of fearful and fearless faith in the patterns of the Universe to be “correct, ” whether we human beings see that correctness, the fullness of the pattern or not. This is not a concept that many human beings find easy to comprehend, much less practice inside themselves or in their daily lives. However, if goals such as this were easy, there would be no need for the inner battles that make each of us better people.
I believe Tolerance is a worthy and attainable goal for every individual that can have the bettering ripple effect of creating a harmony as yet unseen by modern history.
Care to join the experiment?
Witches Of The Craft® 
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