Badpie Bakery

I Don't Know - Hm. Yes. I Like That

Daniel Pinchbeck is an author that I have been reading a lot of lately.  He's sort of a post modern philosopher type.  He's pretty brilliant and penned one of my most recent favorite books 2012: The Return of Quetzecoatl. 

My friend Bridget, who has apparently been spending a lot of time on Reality Sandwich just sent me this article.  Thankfully, Pinchbeck is a much better writer than I am and he's able to sum up pretty much everything I and presumably many others are thinking and feeling.  I've posted the whole article so it looks like I actually write stuff on my blog.  And you know, for the kids.

The Age of Uncertainty

Recently, I have taken as my personal mantra the not very transcendent phrase, "I don't know." The list of things I feel unsure about seems to be steadily increasing. For instance, I don't know if our solipsistic species will survive much longer, and sometimes I am not even sure how much I care. I don't know if Barack Obama is a warm-hearted leader who will unite people at a time of adversity, or the most brilliant puppet ever put forth by the New World Order conspirators (who, as radio journalist and documentary filmmaker Alex Jones suggests, may be plotting a program of rapid depopulation). I don't know if the increase in UFO sightings means we are approaching a benevolent contact experience or a horrific predatory ambush. I don't know if global warming is mainly caused by human action, or if it is part of a phase transition of the entire solar system, as the Russian scientist Dmitriev proposes.

I don't know if men and women should be monogamous or if it is better to be bonobo-like in one's erotic habits. I don't know if we will develop some type of new energy technology that will rescue us from Peak Oil, or if we are destined to see industrial civilization devolve and disintegrate as fossil fuel becomes scarce. I don't know whether to learn to grow food and harvest rainwater or to master some weird new esoteric discipline like Vortex Healing or Keylontic Science. I don't know if free will exists, or if we are conditioned robots, performing an illusory spectacle scripted by Hindu deities or dreamtime ancestors. I don't know if we should get rid of religions or create a really cool new one.

I don't know whether to stockpile gold or create an intentional community. I don't know whether to stay in Manhattan or head for the hills. I don't know whether we are approaching global enlightenment or regressing into barbarism. I don't know whether biotechnology and nanotechnology will fuse to give us immortal physical bodies or if we will all croak as our mistreated planet falls apart. I don't know if anything special will happen on December 21, 2012. I don't know if I should start a riot or throw a party. I don't know whether to panic or relax.

Something seems to be happening that is beyond my capacity to understand or articulate. I can only assume other people are feeling this way as well. We are witnessing the collapse of the old, rigidified structures, while the new hasn't come into realization yet -- that is, if there is going to be a new anything. A change seems to be happening at the level of logic, which is becoming less dualistic, less "either-or," and more binary, "both-and." Former diametric opposites are moving toward confluence, as well as dissonance, in various areas: Like tweaked out psychonauts, the physicists at CERN discuss opening portals into other dimensions. As the financial system evaporates, incredible new gizmos like Pandora and Cool Iris spread freely on the Internet. Obama references Chicago 1968 in his acceptance speech at Grant Park, then hires as his economic advisers the guys who, under Clinton, deregulated the banking system, causing the current disaster.

Reality is becoming more improvisational and up-tempo. Although I don't pretend to have certainty about it, the ideas that Jose Arguelles, Terence McKenna and others have proposed about time speeding up and going through ever-faster fractal spirals of historical pantomime -- including, alas, the mass suffering usually caused by historical convulsions - seem increasingly on the mark. If we are shifting away from dualistic separation and linear logic to a binary thought marked by polarities, this also suggests a shift from the modern historical perspective to a revived mythological consciousness. Like processes in the unconscious, myth resolves oppositions through symbol and image, without need of rational explanation. A society that reintegrates mythic thought at a deeper level of awareness will be able to handle seemingly contradictory perspectives without breaking down.

I don't know if we will live to see the birth of such a new worldview as part of a regenerated civilization, or if we only get to see the decline and fall of our current dinosaur. It does seem that ever-increasing numbers of people are done with it and ready to move on, but move on to what?

Some theorists propose we have reached a point in evolution where we have the capacity to consciously co-create reality, and choose our own script for the future. Sometimes, this feels fuzzily plausible to me. On the other hand, our past actions and intentions have created the reality we experience now. It seems highly unlikely we can phase-shift to hyperspace, the fifth-dimension, or whatever it is until we have learned how to take proper care of this material world and those who share it with us. Although maybe I am wrong and we will get a free pass. I just don't know.

Reality Sandwich

  Reality Sandwich is a pretty cool site.  I had completely forgotten about it until my friend Bridget sent me the link and I went "oh cool, site...wait...I know this site."  It happened pretty much exactly like that only with laser beams.  Anyway, some fun and interesting things here.  Check it out. 

New Blog!

Because I just can't get enough.  Yup.  I made a new blog.  I made it in order to spare some of you readers from my spiritual and philosophical ramblings about Paganism and God in general. 

Root and Stone is my other stomping ground from here on on, which I hope to fill with fun, interesting, bewildering, fantastical information about Paganism in general and my experiences relating to my path.  Feel free to check it out! 

Must...Stop...Posting...

On Hadrian's Hall that is.  It's a bulletin board, forum site for those of the Pagan path to share useful information, personal experiences, advice, etc.  Normally I'm not one for these types of things as they tend to be populated by a bunch of weird little emo-goth cutters and people who are actually convinced they can fly on a broomstick.  Not so much here I'm happy to say, where most of the folks seem to be kind of like me (on the screen anyhoo).  And I cant' stop posting items.  It's addictive.  So....much...information....

She Turned Me Into a Newt!...Well I Got Better

I'm not one usually to really discuss my religious view unless someone takes a great interest.  I certainly don't preach, nor do I really advertise.  I believe that a person's spiritual journey is a very personal one and that it is different for everyone.  So generally I tend to keep to myself. 

Some of you are aware that I am a Pagan, though I don't actually follow any one particular Pagan path.  I may have talked about it here or there, but I came across an article by Starhawk, a noted Pagan Priestess and writer that sums it up pretty clearly and succinctly - just in case anyone had any questions. :) 

And here it is, friends.

Some Basic Definitions

Because Pagan and Wiccan spiritual traditions are unfamiliar to many people or misunderstood, I’m going to post here some basic definitions of some of the terms we use.

‘Pagan’ comes from a Latin root that means ‘land’ or ‘countryside’ and it referred to the people who held on to the local, earth-based teachings and traditions the longest, even after book-based religions came in.

Modern-day Pagans embrace the word proudly, and generally use it to mean those who follow earth-based nature traditions with roots in Europe and the Middle East—although other indigenous traditions can certainly be called Pagan as well.

Some people use NeoPagan to distinguish contemporary practitioners. For Pagans, the sacred is immanent, embodied in the natural world that we humans are part of, and expressed through the cycles of birth, growth, death and regeneration around us.

‘Wicca’ or ‘Witchcraft’ or ‘The Craft’ is one branch of contemporary Paganism. “Wic’ comes from an Anglo-Saxon root meaning ‘to bend or twist’, and Witches were the shamans, medicine people, healers, and diviners who could bend or twist your fate.

In ancient and medieval Europe, they functioned much like curanderas do in contemporary Latin America—holding parts of ancient teachings and knowledge and curing traditions sometimes mixed with overlays of Christianity.

The Witch persecutions conducted by both the Catholics and Protestants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have left a legacy of fear and misunderstanding about the word ‘Witch’—associating it with negative magic and devil worship. But Witches see Satan or the devil as a construct of Christian theology that has no place in our religion. We worship the Goddess under many names and aspects, including male Gods. Our Horned God—stag, goat or bull—is the personification of the life force energy in animals and the wild.
For Witches, nature is our sacred text and we practice our religion through ritual and ceremony, traditionally in small groups but today often in larger gatherings as well. Drums, dance, meditation, poetry, art, music, trance, storytelling, and focused energy characterize our rituals. Men as well as women can be Witches, and are called ‘Witches’*.

‘Polytheism’ means the belief in many different names and approaches to the sacred. While most of us believe in a deep, spiritual unity at the heart of existence, we also believe in the value of many different names, faces, symbols, and paths to that heart. No one has a monopoly on truth, in our teachings, and every religion and spiritual tradition holds a perspective that has value and is uniquely suited to some individuals’ needs.

The Goddess is the great, creative life force, the living being whose body is the universe, the cycles of birth, growth, death and regeneration that animate all things. She is the oneness that underlies all, but different facets of her story and her power are revealed to us in the form of particular Goddesses and Gods from many different times and cultures. Each is like a gateway that leads us to a particular path of development and growth.

‘Magic’ was defined by occultist Dion Fortune as “the art of changing consciousness at will.”** Magic is the ancient psychology of identifying and opening to the wide spectrum of states of awareness that we as humans are capable of. Some of these states allow us to listen more deeply to the communications of other beings around us—from the plants and animals in the natural world to spiritual forces. Some states allow us to affect change, but we are bound by strong ethical constraints when we work in those modes. “What you send out magically returns on you three times over,” we say—a kind of amplified Golden Rule***.

‘Women’s spirituality’ or ‘feminist spirituality’ movements arose in the seventies and eighties as women challenged the male bias of many mainstream religions and began looking for alternatives. Many of the women in these movements identify as Pagans or Witches, but others do not want to be labeled and still others remain as strong voices within Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and other traditions.

‘Reclaiming’ is both the name of the particular Pagan tradition I practice and the extended network of people I work with. We arose in the early eighties from a small group of people in the Bay Area who wanted to link our spiritual practice with our social justice activism. We now have Reclaiming identified groups all over the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. See www.reclaiming.org for a listing of groups and projects.

Badpie's notes:

* I am actually not a "Witch" per se.  I don't do magic or cast spells or practice "Witchcraft."  I am far too undisciplined for such a thing. :)

** I like to define it as "probability enhancement."  It is basically the same thing as prayer to me.

*** Basically, Karma is a bitch.

Because Pagan and Wiccan spiritual traditions are unfamiliar to many people or misunderstood, I’m going to post here some basic definitions of some of the terms we use.

‘Pagan’ comes from a Latin root that means ‘land’ or ‘countryside’ and it referred to the people who held on to the local, earth-based teachings and traditions the longest, even after book-based religions came in.

Modern-day Pagans embrace the word proudly, and generally use it to mean those who follow earth-based nature traditions with roots in Europe and the Middle East—although other indigenous traditions can certainly be called Pagan as well.

Some people use NeoPagan to distinguish contemporary practitioners. For Pagans, the sacred is immanent, embodied in the natural world that we humans are part of, and expressed through the cycles of birth, growth, death and regeneration around us.

‘Wicca’ or ‘Witchcraft’ or ‘The Craft’ is one branch of contemporary Paganism. “Wic’ comes from an Anglo-Saxon root meaning ‘to bend or twist’, and Witches were the shamans, medicine people, healers, and diviners who could bend or twist your fate.

In ancient and medieval Europe, they functioned much like curanderas do in contemporary Latin America—holding parts of ancient teachings and knowledge and curing traditions sometimes mixed with overlays of Christianity.

The Witch persecutions conducted by both the Catholics and Protestants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have left a legacy of fear and misunderstanding about the word ‘Witch’—associating it with negative magic and devil worship. But Witches see Satan or the devil as a construct of Christian theology that has no place in our religion. We worship the Goddess under many names and aspects, including male Gods. Our Horned God—stag, goat or bull—is the personification of the life force energy in animals and the wild.
For Witches, nature is our sacred text and we practice our religion through ritual and ceremony, traditionally in small groups but today often in larger gatherings as well. Drums, dance, meditation, poetry, art, music, trance, storytelling, and focused energy characterize our rituals. Men as well as women can be Witches, and are called ‘Witches’*.

‘Polytheism’ means the belief in many different names and approaches to the sacred. While most of us believe in a deep, spiritual unity at the heart of existence, we also believe in the value of many different names, faces, symbols, and paths to that heart. No one has a monopoly on truth, in our teachings, and every religion and spiritual tradition holds a perspective that has value and is uniquely suited to some individuals’ needs.

The Goddess is the great, creative life force, the living being whose body is the universe, the cycles of birth, growth, death and regeneration that animate all things. She is the oneness that underlies all, but different facets of her story and her power are revealed to us in the form of particular Goddesses and Gods from many different times and cultures. Each is like a gateway that leads us to a particular path of development and growth.

‘Magic’ was defined by occultist Dion Fortune as “the art of changing consciousness at will.”** Magic is the ancient psychology of identifying and opening to the wide spectrum of states of awareness that we as humans are capable of. Some of these states allow us to listen more deeply to the communications of other beings around us—from the plants and animals in the natural world to spiritual forces. Some states allow us to affect change, but we are bound by strong ethical constraints when we work in those modes. “What you send out magically returns on you three times over,” we say—a kind of amplified Golden Rule***.

‘Women’s spirituality’ or ‘feminist spirituality’ movements arose in the seventies and eighties as women challenged the male bias of many mainstream religions and began looking for alternatives. Many of the women in these movements identify as Pagans or Witches, but others do not want to be labeled and still others remain as strong voices within Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and other traditions.

‘Reclaiming’ is both the name of the particular Pagan tradition I practice and the extended network of people I work with. We arose in the early eighties from a small group of people in the Bay Area who wanted to link our spiritual practice with our social justice activism. We now have Reclaiming identified groups all over the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. See www.reclaiming.org for a listing of groups and projects.

Badpie's notes:

* I am actually not a "Witch" per se.  I don't do magic or cast spells or practice "Witchcraft."  I am far too undisciplined for such a thing. :)

** I like to define it as "probability enhancement."  It is basically the same thing as prayer to me.

*** Basically, Karma is a bitch.

Because Pagan and Wiccan spiritual traditions are unfamiliar to many people or misunderstood, I’m going to post here some basic definitions of some of the terms we use.

‘Pagan’ comes from a Latin root that means ‘land’ or ‘countryside’ and it referred to the people who held on to the local, earth-based teachings and traditions the longest, even after book-based religions came in.

Modern-day Pagans embrace the word proudly, and generally use it to mean those who follow earth-based nature traditions with roots in Europe and the Middle East—although other indigenous traditions can certainly be called Pagan as well.

Some people use NeoPagan to distinguish contemporary practitioners. For Pagans, the sacred is immanent, embodied in the natural world that we humans are part of, and expressed through the cycles of birth, growth, death and regeneration around us.

‘Wicca’ or ‘Witchcraft’ or ‘The Craft’ is one branch of contemporary Paganism. “Wic’ comes from an Anglo-Saxon root meaning ‘to bend or twist’, and Witches were the shamans, medicine people, healers, and diviners who could bend or twist your fate.

In ancient and medieval Europe, they functioned much like curanderas do in contemporary Latin America—holding parts of ancient teachings and knowledge and curing traditions sometimes mixed with overlays of Christianity.

The Witch persecutions conducted by both the Catholics and Protestants in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have left a legacy of fear and misunderstanding about the word ‘Witch’—associating it with negative magic and devil worship. But Witches see Satan or the devil as a construct of Christian theology that has no place in our religion. We worship the Goddess under many names and aspects, including male Gods. Our Horned God—stag, goat or bull—is the personification of the life force energy in animals and the wild.
For Witches, nature is our sacred text and we practice our religion through ritual and ceremony, traditionally in small groups but today often in larger gatherings as well. Drums, dance, meditation, poetry, art, music, trance, storytelling, and focused energy characterize our rituals. Men as well as women can be Witches, and are called ‘Witches’*.

‘Polytheism’ means the belief in many different names and approaches to the sacred. While most of us believe in a deep, spiritual unity at the heart of existence, we also believe in the value of many different names, faces, symbols, and paths to that heart. No one has a monopoly on truth, in our teachings, and every religion and spiritual tradition holds a perspective that has value and is uniquely suited to some individuals’ needs.

The Goddess is the great, creative life force, the living being whose body is the universe, the cycles of birth, growth, death and regeneration that animate all things. She is the oneness that underlies all, but different facets of her story and her power are revealed to us in the form of particular Goddesses and Gods from many different times and cultures. Each is like a gateway that leads us to a particular path of development and growth.

‘Magic’ was defined by occultist Dion Fortune as “the art of changing consciousness at will.”** Magic is the ancient psychology of identifying and opening to the wide spectrum of states of awareness that we as humans are capable of. Some of these states allow us to listen more deeply to the communications of other beings around us—from the plants and animals in the natural world to spiritual forces. Some states allow us to affect change, but we are bound by strong ethical constraints when we work in those modes. “What you send out magically returns on you three times over,” we say—a kind of amplified Golden Rule***.

‘Women’s spirituality’ or ‘feminist spirituality’ movements arose in the seventies and eighties as women challenged the male bias of many mainstream religions and began looking for alternatives. Many of the women in these movements identify as Pagans or Witches, but others do not want to be labeled and still others remain as strong voices within Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and other traditions.

‘Reclaiming’ is both the name of the particular Pagan tradition I practice and the extended network of people I work with. We arose in the early eighties from a small group of people in the Bay Area who wanted to link our spiritual practice with our social justice activism. We now have Reclaiming identified groups all over the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia. See www.reclaiming.org for a listing of groups and projects.

Badpie's notes:

* I am actually not a "Witch" per se.  I don't do magic or cast spells or practice "Witchcraft."  I am far too undisciplined for such a thing. :)

** I like to define it as "probability enhancement."  It is basically the same thing as prayer to me.

*** Basically, Karma is a bitch.

On God and Government

Okay so it's on a lot of topics.  Only this one has to do with that.  But the rest are by Starhawk, a Pagan priestess and philosopher.  She's wicked smaat and a great writer, so if you'd like to check out her blog over at Newsweek's On Faith Page, I'd recommend.  Just something I'm tossing out there today.  Have a great Monday...if that's possible.

Happy Ramadan!

In the interest of knowledge and learning things I'm recognizing today as the beginning of Ramadan.

Ramadan (Arabic: رمضان, Ramaḍān) is a Muslim religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, believed to be the month in which the Qur'an was revealed to Angel Gabriel which later was revealed to Prophet Muhammad. It is the Islamic month of fasting (sawm), in which participating Muslims do not eat or drink anything from dawn until sunset. Fasting is meant to teach the person patience and humility. Ramadan is a time to fast for the sake of God, and to offer even more prayer than usual. Also involved in Ramadan are asking forgiveness for the sins of the past, asking for guidance in the future, and asking for help with refraining from every day evils and trying to purify oneself through self-restraint and good deeds.

That's from Wikipedia.  Click here to see the full entry and learn something today.

Also, here is a link to a blog by a Muslim woman.   Just because.

Ghetto Heaven? I Think You're Onto Something, Hyde

My friend Sarah recently wrote a blog about what she likes to call "Ghetto Heaven."  The idea is that not all of us can attain the kind of saintly rewards that say, Mother Teresa or Ghandi get, nor should we.  So depending on how good or bad a person you are in life, you can end up in the swank ass heaven or...Ghetto Heaven, where things are still good, but maybe just a LITTLE more convenient than what we have here on this existence.

I've been thinking about this.  And I think she's onto something.  I have always personally believed that the afterlife, heaven, hell, or whatever you want to call it is very personal and directly related to how you live your life.  See, I'm no saint.  I mean one shouldn't think that I should get the same seat in Heaven as say, Martin Luther King Jr.  That would be awkward.

Me:  Oh hey, MLK.  Great job and all what with the civil rights movement and you being a god among men in history.

MLK:  Thanks...um...those are...nice pants ya got there.

See?  It just doesn't seem to fit.  Same with the typical concept of Hell*.  I mean I wouldn't be sitting there with Hitler or anything.

Me:  So...um...that whole ethnic cleansing thing....yeah...that was rough.  You're um...wow.

Hitler:  So what did you do?

Me:  ...Oh yeah...I think maybe I...took the Lord's name in vain or something one too many times.

Hitler: ...wow.

Me: ...yeah.  Do they have booze here?

Hitler:  Nein.

Me:  Shit.

See?  I just don't deserve that either.

I believe that whatever you put out there, good or bad, comes back to you threefold.  And that your state of afterlife, or what have you is a personal period of reflection that is used to learn lessons that will help us advance in the next life.  But I'm not here to preach.

So I leave you with this awesome random video or some church people feeling The Lord with some techno put over it.  It rules.

*I am using the terms "Heaven" and "Hell" loosely and universally here just as a convenience and not at all in a strictly Jesus way.

Chrisjewwiccistism

In the past, the present and surely the future nothing has sparked conflict and war more than religion.  People die for their beliefs.  People kill for their beliefs.  People hate and are intolerant of others who do not share their beliefs.

My question is why?  I was raised in a Methodist church my whole life and even did a brief stint as a sattelite Pentecostal.  So I know a thing or two about The Bible, Jesus and the Big Guy Himself.  Ultimately I decided that the path of Christianity wasn't for me and several years ago embarked on a spiritual mission to answer that all important question of "what religion am I?"  I studied many different paths, liking a lot of things about a lot of them, even liking many things about Christianity, but nothing really called out to me.  Finally I settled on "Wiccan" as being the title for what I was.  But even then, being "Wiccan" meant I couldn't be or include other elements of spirituality I really did feel drawn to. 

So I pretty much decided I wouldn't call myself anything.  This caused me a great amount of stress for a long time, because human beings like answers and we like things to be cut and dry, black and white.  We like being able to say with certainty "I'm a Christian" or "I'm Jewish."  It gives us a sense of belonging and a sense of definition.  And there are those who can say that with honesty and truly mean it.  But for the rest of us, I think this may be quite common. 

I honestly don't see why everything has to be so mutually exclusive.  I offer that it doesn't.  Surely there are specifics that are different here and there, but on the basic levels I really think most "religions" are very similar.  Mostly it's wrong to kill, to steal, to rape, and to covet your neighbors ox....or cat....or boar?  I dunno.  And mostly it's right to have compassion, to treat others fairly, and have a certain degree of affection for all the creatures in the world.

One of the problems with people not seeing this is that we are all human.  Many of us were taught to believe that if it's not this - it's wrong or bad.  Fundamentalists of all walks of faith twist words and ideas based on their opinions and the opinions of preceeding generations.  Fundamentalist Muslims strap dynamite to their chests to get rid of the infidels.  Fundamentalists Christians are bound to start burning witches oh, any day  now.  Pagans, Jews, Hindus, Cher Worshippers - we're all CRAZY, man.  And since we are it's hard to see the good things about other spiritual paths.

Me?  I have taken years to finally come to the realization and acceptance that I'm a lazy, rarely practicing, always questioning Pagan.  I don't subscribe to one particular Pagan path (Wicca or Asatru or Druidism or what-have-you).  I simply believe that The Divine or "God" is in everything around me, in every one of us, especially in the Natural World.  With that take on it I also look at someone like Jesus and understand and appreciate Christianity.  Because to me, Jesus IS the son of God, much as we all are.  And I dig Jesus.  And I think he gets a bad rep sometimes because some people use his name to justify some pretty wacky things.  I think The Buddha was rad - and I try (mostly unsuccessfully) to incorporate many of his teachings into my life.  The Prophet Mohamed I don't know much about, but clearly his teachings have also inspires millions and millions of people so I mean... he must have had spunk.

I guess the gist of this blog is not to tell you how or what to believe in anything, but to maybe suggest learning something new about a path you normally wouldn't take.  Question things.  Explore.  Understand other people.  Form your own opinions and see how closely they resemble the opinions of someone completely different from you.  And try your darndest as a flawed human being not to judge.  Our differences are what make us beautiful, so take the time to walk in someone else's shoes.  The world will be better for it.