Friday, August 20, 2010

Another Precinct Heard From

Our continuing wish is to make Wicca a true and valid representation of ancient wisdom restored to modern life. To that end, we are encouraged by reports that people who enjoy a good sex life are less prone to debilitating diseases. The science behind such reports flows directly from Professor Candace Pert's work on cellular receptors and endorphines, published as "Molecules of Emotion". When receptors of cells in the human body are occupied by ligands, as happens through pleasant sexual activity, disease pathogens can not enter those receptors: The receptors are already full.
In Marie Jakober's wonderful book "The Black Chalice" we found the passage below, and thought we'd like to share it with you. Jakober masterfully contrasts claims and truth. As well as this thought, the book offers many others as well on the dominator-religion paradigm, and is well worth finding.

The Christians were quite right about it, and so were those pitilessly reasonable Greeks: the body was dangerous. The body interfered with the orderly obsessions of philosophers; it broke the icy mind-nets of priests; it rebelled against the endless war-mongering of kings. It reminded people that the world was here, and life was now, and if they had no rights over their own flesh, then they had no rights at all.
Worst of all, perhaps, the body remembered that once, not very long ago, sex had been a holy and magical thing. It was not sinful but sacred; it was the power of the gods in the world. Its fire was their hunger to connect and to create; its lawlessness their endless trying out and making new. And its wild and driven ecstasies were the measure of its sacredness; something so exquisite and so forceful could come only from the gods.
That was why the Christians hated it so much. How could lust be the work of their own Lord--their Lord who was not of this world? It was of the old gods, just like the people believed; and it was demonic, just like the gods were.
So it was forbidden, in every way it could be, and what the churchmen could not forbid they wrapped in shame. They said it was the most dangerous of sins, more to be feared than cruelty or violence or war. They said in Eden it never existed. They said God intended men to breed as they laced up their tunics, matter-of-factly, without a throb of passion or a thought of carnal lust. Only a fallen human being, rotten with sin, could possibly desire that.
They were terrified of sex, and they had reason to be--they knew its power.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

we are all fortunate

Within a short driving distance we are fortunate to have the crown jewel of the West Virginia state park system, Pipestem State Park.* It's where we do our self-directed aquarobics twice a week and where we occasionally enjoy a program of music or something at the open-air amphitheater. There too we have become acquainted with a man whom we have come to admire, the Park's naturalist, who does bird walks, hikes to lookout points, and similar programs. A recent "chance" encounter with him led to this information.
On a bird walk, Jim told us, he updated a hiker who gasped at the "joyous" birdsong. No, the birds don't always sing because their little birdbrains are happy or because the sun is shining; they sing to establish territory. "This branch is mine. You make your nest somewhere else. We can stay out of each other's faces."
A very young boy remarked, "Why can't countries do that? Instead of killing each other when they meet at their boundaries, they could sing at each other."
Need I say more? What a sorry travesty, when a four-year-old has keener insight into this tortured world than the "educated" "statesmen".
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* So named because pre-Christian Native Americans valued the Thunbergia shrubs that grew locally. The shrub's stems were hollow, and thus served ideally with clay pipes when Natives wished to smoke tobacco.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

We're back

Okay, troops. We're back home, just returning from three (3) wonderful festivals.
1. Sirius Rising
2. SummerFest
3. Kaleidoscope Gathering
Sirius and SummerFest occur at the back end of New York State at the site called Brushwood, between the towns of Sherman and Clymer. Kaleidoscope Gathering happens west of Ottawa, Ontario. If you live anywhere in the northeastern quadrant of the US, any one of the three can be a life-changing experience for you. Take off those whalebone stays or that celluloid collar, and dive in. You'll never look back.
To us it seemed that this year they all three exceeded themselves in being more loving and with far less friction than we have known in earlier seasons.
In some respects Kaleidoscope, at its new site of Raven's Knoll, is more of a family affair than the others. It's 60 miles west of Ottawa, Ontario; and of course being in Canada they don't have the problems we face in the States with raucous fundamentalist thinkers from an assortment of franchises, Baptist and other. Because Raven's Knoll is in a piney forest (with a river running past it), and because the summer has been very dry, we could have only one small fire. But everyone gathered around and had a good time anyway. Yes, Virginia, such an event is possible.
The fires at Brushwood more than lived up to expectations; and the very sight of 500 to 600 pagans dancing around while the Dragon burned was awe-inspiring. They broke another world record for the Guinness people, by the way: the most couples hugging for a full measured 60 seconds. This follows on with their earlier world record-breaking event of the most body-painted people on a single site in a 24-hour period.
This year everyone enjoyed the labyrinth, and the weather was good to us, in that the candles of the labyrinth did not get doused.
So what do we recommend to our readers? Wherever you live in the USA, make it your business to go on a pilgrimage and visit all three festivals. They follow week by week after one another. If you can visit only one in the US, go to Sirius itself. If you can visit only one in Canada, Kaleidoscope is a must. Each event has its own character; each is worth a visit ... or many visits as summers come and go.
Their respective contact sites:
Sirius camp@brushwood.com
SummerFest camp@brushwood.com
Kaleidoscope Gathering www.kaleidoscope-gathering.ca
We'll look forward to seeing you there.
Blessed be all. GY