Saturday, February 26, 2011

Forgiveness

 Forgiveness is often touted as a solid and positive plank in the otherwise often negative platform of Christianity. To our jaundiced view, though, it is one of the most negative (and in some ways despicable) elements of an often dangerous and negative set of teachings.
We all know and recognize most of those teachings. The ironic thing is that in this nation's "red" states--where fundamentalist Christianity may be at its densest--such patterns as repeat pregnancies among unmarried teens are at their highest. You see, the girls often find Jesus; at least they profess to find him when they learn they're pregnant. Then they're forgiven. And then, of course, once they're washed in the blood of the lamb, they can go out and "sin" again ... all on the tax dollars that you, and we, work so hard to pay.
Some questions occur.
1. Who decided that sex between consenting people was a "sin"? A search of their black book reveals no prohibition against copulation between consenting people who are not otherwise under contract.
2. Are we to believe in parthenogenesis, or are we to trust the word of a smart Jewish girl who found herself in trouble? Was Jesus simply a bastard, born out of wedlock?
We would probably all agree that it's not nice to cause death and mayhem; however, in the American justice system oftentimes death sentences are commuted and even paroles granted to those who claim with gasping to have "found Jesus", especially if the gaspers make noises signifying remorse. The forgiveness gene is switched on--and now that same criminal can go out and kill with impunity.
Can there be a little bit of forgiveness, or is that like being a little bit pregnant? Where do we draw the line? Doesn't that same old black book call for an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth? Or is this just another anomaly? --just another of those squirming non sequiturs: "But that's different!"?
Given a book purportedly written by "God" "himself" (note: him, never her) of which no word can be changed, Yvonne's persistent question nags: Which god? I've got a list of gods reaching from here to the intersection. "God" is the conventional translation of HaShem, which means "The Name". Remember what the Zohar says: "No created intelligence can know the name, so call It what you will. My god does too wear lipstick occasionally."*
How do such guidelines as "forgive your enemy" and "turn the other cheek" sit with Celts--and for that matter, with Jews? These two groups among many others reflect, "If you turn the other cheek, you are likely to get clobbered again."
That's all for now. You know we're weird and deviant; so don't expect us to forgive if you insult us. We're like the traditional Yorkshireman who has been said to carry a stone of insult in his pocket until he sees the opportunity to use it on the insulter. Just once in a while when things get beyond tolerable, we're not above doing something ... educational. And we encourage you: If you're not angry now, get angry. Aren't you paying attention?
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* The book God Wears Lipstick is free from the Kabbalist Center

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

To Heal or Not to Heal: That Is the Question

Psychic power exists. One of its popular uses is in healing. We Frosts believe that in most cases the body heals itself, but that psychic power somehow affects the mind, which controls such things as the hypothalamus, the pituitary, and the adrenals to cure the body.
In new-age, Wiccan, and pagan discussion groups, you will often hear discussions on the ethics of healing: "They need their disease to complete their learning cycle on this plane of existence," someone claims; "and if you cure them, they'll have to come back and do it again." We don't look at it that way. We think you should do everything you possibly can to help human beings, animals, and plants. If someone does have a repulsive disease and you cure it and they immediately get another equally loathsome disease, then you know that you are addressing the surface symptom and not the cause of the disease; you know you'll have to delve further and help them adjust their thinking if the real cause is to be addressed. Illness can be a very effective manipulative device; who or what is the patient manipulating, and why?
If you saw someone slip on an icy sidewalk, fall down, and break their leg, would you call for help, or would you leave them lying there? Of course there is the current non-involvement fad to overcome, but we believe that most people would seek to help.
If you had an extra hamburger and a panhandler asked you for it, would you give it to him? We hope your answers is "Yes".
Almost everything you do interferes with the life of other people. You spend money on something, someone makes a little profit, someone gets some pay; people's lives are affected. You squash a mosquito, it doesn't suck someone else's blood; it doesn't pass on a disease.
A drowning child can't ask for help, but you give it. You resuscitate her. So why wait to get someone's consent before you attempt a healing? (Never mind what What's-his-name did on the shore of the Sea of Galilee!) Why not quietly do an anonymous psychic healing? That's far better and far less dangerous to your karma than if you go in and say, "I can heal that". To be super-safe, take Yvonne's approach: Volunteer energy in behalf of the patient, but don't specify what body part it be directed to. Make your bottom line, "Let the will of the Elder Ones be done."
If you live and breathe in this world, you are part of it. When you think about doing a healing, think about it in simplistic terms, not in terms of long-range karmic debt and spiritual growth. The more you practice healing, the more adept you will become at it and the more light you will bring into the world.
Personally, I think that many self-styled psychic healers are so unsure of their craft that they will use any pretext not to try healing. When the drowning child is pulled fom the lake, she cannot ask that you do CPR. (By the way, any self-styled healer who doesn't know how to do CPR is surely worth less than doodoo.)
Recently at one of the great campout conventions, a child stepped on a piece of glass but told no one. The wound became infected. One of the ‘healers' attending took her to her tent, and piled crystals on the injury. When I saw the foot, I saw the telltale thin red lines running up the leg, the sure symptom of blood poisoning. I rushed her to the nearest emergency room. They managed to save her foot and probably her life.
If you're not sure--absolutely positive--of what you are doing, don't offer to help. If you want to help, do it privately and anonymously. Nobody's karma will be involved. If you want to be a healer, put your money where your mouth is. High on your priority list put an EMT course or a nursing course.
I know that these ideas will go against the grain of many. Let me leave you with this thought: When St. Jerry Falwell refused to heal at a gigantic meeting in Argentina, the locals ran him out of town.
As always, we invite your comments. We are not trying to offend anyone or scorn their tradition, so please be constructive. Our hope is that we may all arrive at a shared understanding of what we are doing. If you know a better way and can articulate the reasons behind it, please share that better way with the community.

Blessed be. GY