Halloween On The Airwaves

This is the time of year when I really miss having a car and being able to drive. Generally I get by alright with public transportation and the occasional ride from friends and family, but the bus and other people's cars don't afford me access to the am radio. My portable mp3 player sadly only plays fm. I have fond memories of driving around (as I worked several jobs that had me in my car for long periods of time) listening to the various christian stations and focusing on the preachers. I would do this from time to time anyway, but around Samhain it got really fun. Preacher after preacher listing the dangers of halloween, the dangers of witchcraft, and just generally warning their followers to hide under their beds with their lights off until the devil's night was over. I loved listening to that crap. Some of those preachers would have me laughing so hard that I had tears in my eyes. It was better than Pat Robertson's "War On Christmas" garbage, and unlike the latter, we get it every year.

Don't get me wrong. There was a point when this kind of thing annoyed the hell out of me. A point where I wanted to correct every one of the false and/or misleading statements that they were making about who we are, what we do, and what this celebration is about. But as I developed in my own faith, I realized what a pointless gesture this would be. How futile it would have been to do so at an earlier point when I didn't have the knowledge I needed to really get into such a conversation anyway. With the increase in knowledge of both sides, and an increase in maturity, the present state began to emerge. I saw what these preachers were really doing. Entertaining. Some of these guys are hilarious. It's very Jeff Foxworthy or Bill Engvall. "If you believe these things, you might be an idiot."

The only small problem with that is that so many people who listen to these preachers are. No insult intended to any christians who read this, but many of you are familiar with the kind of folks who just sit there and wait patiently for the priest or preacher to tell them what to think today. Frankly, that is the mindset that is necessary to believe a lot of the garbage they spew out on such pet topics as Halloween.

Think about it. Think about the inherent dangers to a child's body and soul if they dress up like a doctor and go out and enjoy themselves, supervised by an adult, and interacting with the other folks from the neighborhood. Socializing and having fun are both undoubtedly the works of the devil. Of course it isn't ever the children having fun that gets attacked. Even the best of preachers lose some backing if they come right out and say that they don't want your kids to enjoy themselves. That and they might have a hard time explaining why they thought Snickers was the name of one of the lesser demons.

Instead they attack the "roots" of this holiday. They attack what we Pagans do and believe on this holiday. This is where the whole thing really gets fun. Why? Well I plan on telling you. First of all, some of the claims that they make about our beliefs and traditions are absurd, or poorly constructed scare tactics. Second, this has nothing to do with the trick-or-treaters. Do I plan to perform various rituals and celebrations on Samhain? You bet. These things will go on a little later in the evening when I won't be disturbed by the trick-or-treaters. The preparations will undoubtedly be interrupted frequently by the doorbell though. You know what? This isn't going to hurt the kids either. They won't even know, and I don't radiate demonic energy. If I did, I doubt it would only be on one night a year, restricted in efficacy to minors carrying chocolate.

But there is the talk that somehow you are involved in something evil if you celebrate in any way the holiday that ranks so highly in the esteem of pagans everywhere. The tradition is evil even if you don't know what it means, because of what its source was. This is the part that really taught me to laugh. Sure thing preacher guy, avoid trick or treating because us "evil" folk revere this holiday and may have diabolical reasonings behind this tradition. While on the subject, how do you like that christmas tree, or the wreath and mistletoe? How do your people like the easter bunny, chicks, easter grass? How about the word "easter"?

Yep, definitely gotta start with the innocent fun of children when we clean our spirtual house. Don't let them trick-or-treat. Don't let them hunt for easter eggs. Don't let them trim the tree, or else the devil will get them. Don't let the children do any of those childhood things. Change their very nature. After all, nobody ever said that we should be as children are, did they?

Or perhaps we should recognize that a child's harmless fun is a child's harmless fun and let them get on with it. Let them get on with it, but please keep complaining about it on the radio. After all, it brightens up my life, or something close to it.

A White Wolf Describes His Spiritual Position

I was asked for a brief description of my spiritual beliefs to attach to a post about a topic I started here that will be presented on another blog. (See Thoughts on Prayer post) My response turned out to not be too brief, so I decided to post it instead.

My spiritual path is in fact precisely that. Mine. That is not a "back off" or "mind your own business" statement. Just simply pointing out that the path of the White Wolf at this point has a population of one. Pagan is a term that I quite often use for myself. It is accurate, if not complete. For simplicity's sake I have referred to myself as "basically Wiccan". It gives a more complete picture to those who know the Wiccan faith, but in many ways it is not accurate.

To remove the pretty titles and phrases that strike a chord with people who are familiar with them, I would say the simplest description of myself would be a Goddess worshipper. An arrogantly monotheistic one at that. Somewhat unusual amongst Pagans, but this does not cause me to be aggressive with other religions since I hold to the belief that all of the "gods" that are being worshipped by others are actually manifestations of Herself, and that She doesn't care all that much what people think Her name is.

The Pagan part applies, since mine is an earth based religion. The "basically Wiccan" part applies because nearly all of their spiritual tenets do coincide with what the Goddess Herself has told me. It is just some of their practices I don't share. (With no insult intended to those who do.) Goddess worship fairly applies, although I don't always respond to Her in such a worshipful tone as evidenced in my Mother posts.

So those three terms would probably cover it well enough for a short reference to me. The remaining paragraphs come closer to the question at least, if not the answer. I would love to package it better, but it certainly isn't a simple subject. And that's just life, or something close to it.

Sometimes The World Really Does Hate You

In the past two days I have managed to tear a fingernail almost completely off and to burn my eyeball. Both doing perfectly innocent things, both times being caught completely off guard. As such, having come to the conclusion that for the moment the world has decided it doesn't like me, I got to wondering about the whole Karma thing. Kind of the metaphysical side of the equal and opposite reaction theory. Not seriously working myself up on it, mind you, just batting it around. Wondering if perhaps the last two days were the payment for some serious wrong I have done in the recent past, of which I am unaware, and if there might perhaps be more to come. Or perhaps it is the setup for something good to happen. Basically, I am wondering if I should expect to get hit in the crotch by a runaway tire on my walk to the bus stop, or some lovely little bit of luck. I wonder if we are playing poker tonight? That would be a good place for one of the above options to happen. (Although I don't know where the tire would come from.)
Just some idle thoughts to pass the last few minutes on the clock before I am free to resume my normal life, or something close to it.

Thoughts On Prayer

A few months ago, a friend of mine was preparing to undergo surgery, and she called upon all of her friends to pray for her during this ordeal. I was included on that list at the time, and I must admit that it raised some rather interesting questions for me. This woman is a Christian. One with whom I have debated theology with on occasion. She has made it clear that she is of the opinion that the Goddess that I speak of and speak to is really the devil, or some demon working for him to ensnare my soul. (I don't know whether that is a step up or down from those who believe she is a figment of my imagination.) I don't take offense to this opinion of hers. She has the right to it. It does make me wonder, though, in conjunction with the above indicated prayer request.

I did bring up to her the fact that she has declared that the one that I pray to is an evil force, and as such, praying to Her would seemingly be something that would not be in her best interest if she is correct. Not that I am trying to be an ass, nor was I attempting to kick her while she was down. I just wanted to ascertain her actual position on the subject, and I still marvel at the thought process, and her response when I brought it up.

Why would you request that someone intercede with your god's adversary to assist you? Wouldn't that come kind of close to making a deal with the devil yourself? Wouldn't asking me to pray to my Goddess on her behalf be the same as her doing so for herself? So if She is who my friend says she is, wouldn't this be kind of crossing the line?

Of course I understand that making too much of this issue leaves me walking a fine line myself. After all, I am not looking to increase the tensions between pagans and christians, but in this case I wanted to verify. I have had people get angry with me in the past for praying for them.
To paraphrase the response she gave, that I don't have in front of me right now, she indicated that it was not an issue of who I was praying to, but who was listening. Of course, this concept blew me away. Not because I find huge flaws in it, but because I would presume she and many others would.

It presents the concept that if the christians are right about their one true god, it doesn't matter who I pray to, or what name I use, their god will respond or not the same anyway. Didn't one of my "Mother" posts have the Goddess saying the exact same, and drawing criticism from some of the christians?

What purpose does even focusing on your god's name or attributes have if there is just some big spiritual scanner picking up all the prayers anyway? Of course it isn't that simple either, but my point is that this seems an oddly un-Christian perspective. I will leave it at that. I wasn't actually intending to attack her. I was taking a look at a point that I kept thinking warranted further speculation, but now that I have brought it up I realize I didn't delve into it too far up to this point because right below the surface I had covered this already. The real surprise was having one of my opponents in some regards avow a position she herself had argued earlier.
Still, since I opened it up, I suppose any of you who still come around here can bat any aspect therein around if you so choose. Or don't. Either way, I have to get back to my life, or something close to it.