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    Topic: Opinions & Discussions
    The new items published under this topic are as follows.



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    Our Plunder of Nature Will End Up Killing Capitalism
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Thursday, July 29, 2010 - 08:00 AM
    45 Reads

    By Joe Bageant

    To anyone who is paying attention, things look doomed. Fortunately for American capitalism, nobody is paying attention. They never have.

    As an Anglo European white guy from a very long line of white guys, I want to thank all the brown, black, yellow and red people for a marvelous three-century joy ride. During the past 300 years of the industrial age, as Europeans, and later as Americans, we have managed to consume infinitely more than we ever produced, thanks to colonialism, crooked deals with despotic potentates and good old gunboats and grapeshot. Yes, we have lived, and still live, extravagant lifestyles far above the rest of you. And so, my sincere thanks to all of you folks around the world working in sweatshops, or living on two bucks a day, even though you sit on vast oil deposits. And to those outside my window here in Mexico this morning, the two guys pruning the retired gringo's hedges with what look like pocket knives, I say, keep up the good work. It's the world's cheap labor guys like you -- the black, brown and yellow folks who take it up the shorts -- who make capitalism look like it actually works. So keep on humping. Remember: We've got predator drones.

    After twelve generations of lavish living at the expense of the rest of the world, it is understandable that citizens of the so-called developed countries have come to consider it quite normal. In fact, Americans expect it to become plusher in the future, increasingly chocked with techno gadgetry, whiz bang processed foodstuffs, automobiles, entertainments, inordinately large living spaces -- forever.
    Read the complete article: AlterNet

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    Become What You Are
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Sunday, July 25, 2010 - 12:00 PM
    137 Reads

    By Henry

    One of the central elements of spiritual living is the pursuit of self-improvement. Even if one’s goal is simply to be able to accept things precisely as they are, this already constitutes some kind of improvement of oneself.

    Why? Why should spiritual pursuits encompass the nebulous idea of “self-improvement.” Why does spirituality often imply a journey, a transformative adventure? How can this be distinguished from simple greed for power or the shallow acquisitive lust that is celebrated in mainstream culture? I wouldn’t dare to hazard an answer – all the obvious and/or usual ones are far too glib to be acceptable.

    Instead I’d like to present three fragmentary sketches of the spiritual journey of this life. There might be others, but these three seem to be reasonably common, and one person can be living out several of these stories simultaneously, though for most people one main theme will dominate at any one time (I suspect). Many of us get stuck somewhere along the way; impotent self-congratulation tends to follow in short order.
    Read the complete article: Elhaz Ablaze

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    Pagan Atheism: a second look
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Saturday, July 17, 2010 - 04:00 PM
    186 Reads

    By Gus diZerega

    The apparent paradox of Pagan atheism has prompted me to do a lot more thinking about atheism than I ever have before. In the process I picked up a copy of the British philosophical journal Philosophy Now, which had a fascinating article on "Varieties of Atheist Experience" by Paul Cliteur.

    It turns out that atheism is a complex term with a number of reasonable meanings beyond the dogmatic assertions that modern reductionist science knows all we need to know to answer the fundamental questions of life and consciousness. I recommend the dogmatists take a look. They may well be appropriating a complex word to express a simple thought, just as the anything but skeptical people today do who misleadingly call themselves "skeptics."

    The rest of us would benefit as well. Here I will focus on only a couple of alternative meanings.

    To be an atheist does not necessarily deny the existence of what we term today "paranormal phenomena" nor does it necessarily deny the existence of a kind of impersonal pantheistic unity to the universe. Both questions are logically and practically separate from whether Gods exist, whether personal or impersonal. And both questions are highly relevant to the question of "Pagan atheism."
    Read the complete article: A Pagans Blog

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    Conversation demands mutual respect
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Saturday, July 17, 2010 - 08:00 AM
    174 Reads

    By Alan Race

    Any great religion worth its salt exists to offer its believers a comprehensive view of life – a vision of transcendent reality combined with an accompanying pathway of transformation for the human condition. It is this comprehensibility which leads many to assume that the religions are inevitably locked into fierce competition with one another over the battle for souls. But how inevitable is "inevitable"? The successful development of the world-wide interfaith dialogue movement over the last fifty years suggests that we can expect something different from religious adherence in the future. It is a movement which is becoming embedded all over Britain.

    Of course if we come across something which lifts our spirits to new heights we will want to communicate this to others, and this is natural. It is the witness which faiths bear to one another. But that is wholly different from insisting that the good, true and beautiful which has been glimpsed through my lens must become the basis too of your seeing and that any seeing of your own will necessarily be deficient. If evangelising means bottom-up telling the story and recounting the experience, then all well and good. But if it strays into the top-down accusation that "your" comprehensibility can never match "mine" then we will have overstepped what we can possibly know, as well as betray that sense of humaneness about religious commitment which we want others to see.
    Read the complete article: The Guardian

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    Heathenry and Modernity
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Friday, July 16, 2010 - 12:00 PM
    217 Reads

    By Sweyn Plowright

    <Snip> The important elemental seeds of modernity can be found in the migration of Angles and Saxons to Britain. They brought with them their Heathen Common Law. This treasure of Germanic culture encapsulated the Heathen respect for custom, fairness, and the rights of individuals. Common Law was based on precedent, the accumulated wisdom of previous rulings, which could take local custom into account, while allowing judgements to evolve over time as customs and values changed.

    If we look at Roman Civil Law, its focus is on protecting the State and the privileges of its citizens. It is set by legislation, and is relatively rigid. Any examples of fairness were really expedience aimed at keeping order. Citizenship was only granted to those who might be useful to the State, and this gave privileges, not rights. Many non-English speaking countries have legal systems modelled along these lines.

    In much of Middle-Eastern history, laws were mostly based on religious strictures and superstitions. Harsh penalties were often inflicted for apparently victimless crimes, particularly for blasphemy. These laws were aimed at enforcing religious authority, and survive today in the Muslim Sharia law. A State practicing such laws will necessarily disadvantage individuals who do not practice the State religion.
    Read the complete article: Elhaz Ablaze

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    The Oil Spill and the Soul of Nature
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 12:00 PM
    225 Reads

    By Starhawk

    <Snip> The Pagan view sees everything as interconnected. As we look at the pictures of birds and sea creatures drenched in toxic oil and dying, we are horrified both by the individual suffering they represent and by the toll on the larger systems of life. The suffering of a seabird causes me pain, whether or not I allow it to come to consciousness. The toll of the spill on the life and biodiversity of the Gulf diminishes us all.

    No amount of money can ever repair the damage that BP has done by its criminal negligence and carelessness. BP never had a realistic plan to deal with an accident or a spill. They cut corners on safety and plumbing, and attempted to conceal the scope of the disaster and the amount of oil that is actually leaking. Their callousness has caused irreparable damage to the ecosystems of the Gulf and may have destroyed whole communities whose culture is linked to the once-thriving biodiversity of the bayous and deltas of the south. They must be held accountable for the damage as far as amends can be made, and in a way severe enough to prove a deterrent to other companies tempted to put profits above the safety of their own workers and the environment.

    If a vandal spilled oil over a neighbor's yard, he'd be sent to jail. Why should BP executives go free, when they are responsible for the greatest environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, one that has killed vast numbers of living things, destroyed the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people, and endangered the survival of many keystone species? In the Pagan view, ecocide is a heinous crime on a level with genocide--for indeed, to kill an ecosystem is to destroy the people and cultures that depend on it for survival.
    Read the complete article: The Washington Post

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    In Defence of the Masculine
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Thursday, July 08, 2010 - 08:00 AM
    194 Reads

    By Luthien

    Why is it that far fewer men than women are attracted to Paganism, and specifically in Wicca far fewer still? Why do covens that celebrate and practice a religion that promotes a balanced gender polarity often aim but struggle to have equal numbers of male and female members? Does the idea of dancing round in a circle holding hands fill the average male with horror? Perhaps so, but there is a reason that many men can and do combine ‘normal’, socially accepted male hobbies with a spiritual lifestyle.

    I’ve never been one for hyper-feminism, despite being female myself. I spent my childhood and adolescence in an expensive, all-girls school, where it was rammed down our throats every single day for nine years that there was this aching need for us to ‘break through the glass ceiling, and surpass men in business!’ Their level of enthusiasm was often slightly hysterical. Expectations of us were high, and our teachers had seemingly been trained to set us on a golden path, at the end of which we could spend our careers running board meetings and sniggering down at our inferior male employees. On many occasions I wondered what on Earth they were doing, seeing as the idea of becoming a generic ‘businesswoman’ filled me with dread, and nor did I ever have any desire to ‘surpass men’. Quite the opposite, as I’ve always had the impression that nowadays men and women by law are to be given equal opportunities in the world of work, and a number of people I’ve spoken to on the subject inform me that female friends and relatives indeed run their own businesses, having put in the same amount of effort as their male peers, without making a hullabaloo out of it.

    I fear that overemphasis on the Goddess may make many males shy away from the Craft and make them feel unwelcome. Far more frequently do I find poems and passages written about the Goddess than the God, so I usually try to write a God equivalent to keep the balance. I feel that this is of great importance; else the balance of male and female energies that make up the Universe and make one of the core tenets of Wicca and many other Pagan religions is compromised.
    Read the complete article: Witchvox

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    Respecting the Autonomy of Other Kindreds and Tribes
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Monday, July 05, 2010 - 04:00 PM
    233 Reads

    By Mark Stinson

    <Snip> We've all watched or heard the "internet debates" regarding Ethnicity, and what role blood and ancestry play in our heathen culture and world view. The debates have raged for decades on the internet. National Organizations fight over it. People name-call over it. Its a divisive issue, and a major distraction from what we should be doing and where we should be headed.

    This debate essentially disappears with a tribal or grassroots approach to heathenry. When heathens gather face-to-face, they are more likely to talk about their lives, their families, their kindreds or tribes, their Gods, their Ancestors, or about 100 other topics...before they talk about the "Folkish/Universalist" debate. That debate and others, are almost entirely internet phenomenon. Having attended at least 10 heathen gatherings at this point, I can honestly say I can't remember anyone at one of these gatherings debating this issue. Its always on the internet that this issue takes on a life of its own.

    Honestly, the homosexual issue has a similar "internet" life. Its just not something people debate and argue about in-person. When we gather face-to-face as heathens, we have more important and pressing things to discuss than the "homosexuals in heathenry" debate. Again, its primarily an internet phenomenon.
    Read the complete article: Living the Troth Day to Day

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    A Meditation on the Ethical Side of Energy Production
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Sunday, July 04, 2010 - 04:00 PM
    252 Reads

    By Gus diZerega

    The growing crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, caused by BP, coming on the heels of Massey Energy's crimes in America's coal fields and our rape of Iraq bring us face to face with the question of whether we have become a pirate culture, existing by taking from the weaker and giving to the stronger, a national elite of hypocrites and moral monsters, the former never really looking at what they do, the latter not caring. Energy is a word for power, and power's relationship to larger contexts of value, or even simple ethics, has always been fraught with conflict.

    The United States has always been challenged by the ethical implications of how we obtain energy, and energy acquisition has always been the seamiest side of this country. During the American Revolution a great many of our greatest leaders were from the South, particularly Virginia. Men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison were also vocal opponents of the slave system, though they could not figure out how to abolish it. Because they did not, ultimately it abolished the values to which they dedicated their lives.

    Slavery's moral degeneracy combined with the high profits it gave slave owners ultimately led the South to repudiate the principles of the American Revolution. In its place Southern leaders like John C. Calhoun and those that came after him established an aggressively authoritarian culture that long after the Civil war still refuses to confront its failings and evils. Human rights and Enlightenment reason were abandoned in favor of states rights and arbitrary power extending from a demon God all the way down to Whites whipping and later lynching uppity Blacks. We live with its zombie presence to this day, a culture of the living dead.
    Read the complete article: A Pagans Blog

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    Occult Teachers, Masters and Instructing Students in Ritual Magick
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Friday, July 02, 2010 - 12:00 PM
    238 Reads

    By Frater Barrabbas

    Since I have written an article about groups and their importance, I guess that I should also put in my two cents about teachers, masters and instructing students in the art of ritual magick. This is a pretty sensitive topic, since some have vested interests in their teachers and spiritual leaders, while others are interested in maintaining and actively pursuing their roles in the community. I must admit that ever since I left the Coven From Hell, I have not put myself in a position to call anyone my teacher. Instead, I have been inspired by some individuals, and I would assume that I have inspired others as well. I also consider myself a student, no matter how many years I have been researching, writing and practicing magick. I might have more experience and knowledge than some, but I am always encountering some new concept or topic in my interactions with other occultists, even if that other occultist is just a beginner.

    So because I got really burned by being, for a while, the “chela” of Christopher Syn, also known as Bill Schnoebelen, I guess you could say that I have soured on the whole matter of assuming the role of master, chela, student or teacher. Because of my previous experiences, I have avoided looking for teachers, gurus or individuals to whom I might bond with so as to quicken my mastery of myself and my occult practices. I just don’t believe that anyone has any real answers to the questions I pose to myself in regards to my own internal spiritual truths and my quest for enlightenment. That also doesn’t mean that I don’t listen to what others are saying, read books written by other authors or attend their classes or workshops. I am as open to new ideas from many sources, and I have been highly inspired by the words and ideas of other people. I hope that I remain in such an open and accessible way for the duration of my life, so I won’t ever be closed off to new sources of ideas and information, no matter their source.
    Read the complete article: Talking About Ritual Magick

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    In Afghanistan--Continued Occupation is Immoral
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Thursday, July 01, 2010 - 02:00 PM
    199 Reads

    By Starhawk

    <Snip> Let's be honest--our eight-year-old presence in Afghanistan is no longer a war, it has become an ongoing occupation conducted at an unbearable cost of lives and resources, paid by both the Afghan and the American people. We spend a million dollars to keep each soldier there. Imagine the jobs that money could create, the health care it could provide, the schools it could build! But far worse is the toll in lives--over a thousand of our own soldiers and uncounted Afghans.

    Military occupation is no way to win hearts and minds. The Karzai government is corrupt, and our support for it undermines trust. There is no moral justification for occupation, nor is it strategic: our continued presence inflames hatred and creates a climate that furthers violence.

    There is a moral and strategic path, but it require a shift in our thinking, the same kind of shift we make when we change from industrial, toxic agriculture to organic farming. Instead of simply trying to kill the pests, whether they are insects or suspected terrorists, we ask: "What are the conditions that are favoring the destructive elements? How do we change those conditions and give a competitive edge to the beneficial forces?"
    Read the complete article: The Washington Post

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    Love, Lust, and the Natural Order of Things
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Sunday, June 27, 2010 - 08:00 AM
    227 Reads

    By Fire Lyte

    Love spells. Is there any kind of spell more representative of a witch’s magic? The steaming cauldron filled with flowers, herbs, and more unmentionable materials. The words and actions summoning up great power. The pictures or poppets or images of the desired beloved. The ensnared lover who suddenly has fallen utterly and hopelessly in love with one whom he or she previously had found repulsive.

    Love magic is as old as magic itself, and in modern day witchcraft, it is some of the most feared spellcraft, because many claim that it directly interferes with someone’s free will. I’m not really sure where the idea got started that magic can turn people in to love zombies, but I have a hard time believing the notion. As I’ve said before, if you’re clear about your purpose and desire, then your magic should do exactly what you want it to.

    However, you can be completely clear about your intention to enslave a lover’s heart and mind, but will that result in a person who develops actual love feelings for you? If you gather all the right herbs, say all the right words, have a clear image in your head of the one you desire, and otherwise do everything by the book, can you actually turn someone who had no interest in you into your lover?
    Read the complete article: Witchvox

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    Tribalism is Best
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Saturday, June 26, 2010 - 08:00 AM
    183 Reads

    By Swain Wodening

    Some within the Asatru community are now advocating tribalism. They feel that tribalism is best for Heathenry, something Theodism has known all along. Mark Stinson even wrote on the functions within tribal Heathenry, which is not unlike the social structure of a theod. Theodism and Asatru are, for once, growing closer together, not a part. The question remains though, why tribalism? Why not some other social structure? The ancient Heathens were tribalistic, that was their first social structure, one they had for thousands of years. It was not until contact with Rome that they began to form kingdoms and traded in the rule of the tribe by sacral leader, council of chieftains, and the assembly of freemen (king, witan, and folkmoot) for rule by a lone king with a bureaucracy of noblemen. Christianity can be blamed as much as Rome its self for it was with conversion of the tribal leaders that the social fabric began to break down. The gap between freeman and noble widened. The tribal assembles disappeared. All the great institutions of tribalism were replaced with with the new institutions of feudalism and divine right. Iceland remained the loan hold out, everywhere else was gone the democratic process in Northern Europe by 1300.

    So it is good that Asatru has realized what Theodish Belief has all along, that tribalism is best for Heathenry. A tribe is defined as by Random House Webster’s dictionary as "any aggregate of people united by ties of descent from a common ancestor, community of customs and traditions, adherence to the same leaders, etc.” (Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, Random House, New York 1997). As Germanic Heathens we all descend from Mannus, which while a stretch going back to the beginning of time satisfies that requirement. We share the same customs, and many of us adhere to the same leaders (be it Stephen McNallen of the AFA or Brian Smith of Hwitmersc Theod, or many of the other modern Heathen leaders). So many of us are already in tribes.
    Read the complete article: Swain Wodenings Blog

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    Is Witchcraft Shamanism?
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Friday, June 25, 2010 - 08:00 AM
    163 Reads

    By Sarah

    I’ve been noticing in blogs, forums, podcasts, and from talking to other Witches in person that many within the Pagan and Witchcraft community don’t know the answer to this question or even where to look to find it. Shamanism doesn’t just refer to Native Americans or Siberians – European Shamanism did exist and still does today. Is Witchcraft Shamanism? Yes and no. Yes because Shamanism can be found at the root of almost every spiritual and religious tradition on the planet including both ancient Pagan religions as well as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Did I just say that? Yes I did! Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed were shamans in the sense they all could fall into trance, hear the voices of the spirits of ‘God”, and bring back knowledge and wisdom from the spirit world to help their people.

    No, Witchcraft is not Shamanism, because it has evolved from its roots in Shamanism into something else. Modern Witchcraft traditions, such as Wicca, are mainly European-based (even in the New Worlds) and their foundation comes from the Western magical traditions which, although have some similarities to Shamanism, have diverged from it and become more esoteric and ceremonial rather than rude and of the common people like Shamanism. But do UK Cunning Folk, Norse and Celtic seers and magicians, ancient Greek sorcerers, and Eastern European folk magicians have roots in Shamanism? Yes they do! The practices of European folk magic are closer to ancient Shamanism than modern traditions of Witchcraft are. The base beliefs and practices of the rural common folk in Europe and elsewhere are more akin to Shamanism than any modern religion and spirituality today.
    Read the complete article: Witch of Forest Grove

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    Paganism: A religion or a category of religions?
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - 04:00 PM
    235 Reads

    By Hystery

    I submit that the term Pagan is more appropriately used as an umbrella term to describe a family of related religions than as a word to describe a singular religion. In this way, "Pagan" is parallel to "Abrahamic" rather than to "Christian."

    1. If diversity and self-definition are so important to Pagans, is it really in our best interest to continue to pretend that we belong to the same religion? I think not. I think too much of our diversity is sacrificed in this strategy and I therefore suggest that we begin to acknowledge that "Paganism" may describe a family of loosely related religions but cannot be used to describe a singular religion without further marginalizing and compromising the religious experiences of Pagans whose beliefs are not recognized as normative or popular.

    2. Secondly, emphasis on Paganism as a singular, though diverse religion may have unintended limiting consequences on further development of individuals' and groups interpretations of Pagan experience. For instance, already I have read that Pagans are earth-centered. (Many are not) or that Pagans cannot be pacifists (many are.) Drift toward orthodoxy is a danger in considering Paganism a religion rather than a family of multiple spiritual perspectives.
    Read the complete article: Plainly Pagan

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    The Importance of Organizing Magickal Groups
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 - 08:00 AM
    221 Reads

    By Frater Barrabbas

    <Snip> Our typical impression of the ritual or ceremonial magician is a lone individual who practices the art of magick in secret and in complete isolation. There is something heroic, courageous and even daring in practicing magick by oneself. The lone rugged individualist pits his wits and his will against the contagion of evil spirits and malefic powers in order to do good (we hope) in the community, and to fight against the darkness of ignorance and pernicious evil (or perhaps help spread it). This is actually a kind of comic book hero of sorts, a simulacrum of the anti-hero, such as Mandrake the Magician or Dr. Strange. I have always loved these characters and have collected comic books just for privilege of basking in their aura of arcane and secret heroism. I even possess a secret desire to pay someone to sew a costume for me so I could dress up and look like Dr. Strange. Of course, I have never done that and probably wouldn’t even if the opportunity presented itself to me. This is because I know that Dr. Strange, however cool, is just a fantasy - the real business of magick and sorcery is quite different.

    Exemplifying this kind of occult hero, the lone magician performs his art in isolation from the distractions of other practitioners and the unknowing public, while never having to either explain or discuss all that is experienced or encountered. A magickal journal is thus a personal and secret diary, never to be shared with anyone. Magickal workings are performed in absolute seclusion and privacy, away from the prying eyes of nosey neighbors, family, friends or even other occultists. Magicians are responsible only to themselves for all their actions and workings - they never have to explain themselves or justify what they are doing to anyone. They can be just as antisocial, cranky and secluded as they desire, potentially turning their back on the entire community in which they live while they pursue their mono-mania.
    Read the complete article: Talking about Ritual Magick

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    Are there dangers in being 'spiritual but not religious'?
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Saturday, June 19, 2010 - 12:00 PM
    197 Reads

    By John Blake

    It's a trendy phrase people often use to describe their belief that they don't need organized religion to live a life of faith.

    But for Jesuit priest James Martin, the phrase also hints at something else: egotism.

    "Being spiritual but not religious can lead to complacency and self-centeredness," says Martin, an editor at America, a national Catholic magazine based in New York City. "If it's just you and God in your room, and a religious community makes no demands on you, why help the poor?"
    Read the complete article: CNN

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    Believing In…
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Saturday, June 19, 2010 - 08:00 AM
    184 Reads

    By Sweyn Plowright

    I have always found the term “to believe in” rather annoying. I will try to analyse why.

    Firstly, there are so many ways this term is generally understood. To believe in a principle or cause, is to have confidence in its value to society. To believe in an individual, is to have confidence in their ability to be successful in some way. To believe in X, is to have confidence that X is literally true or real, no matter what the evidence may indicate. It is this last sense that is most troubling, although many religious folk define religion by all three.

    But is religion really about “believing in”? Certainly for Christianity, and Islam, this is the case. In our long domination by this influence, most Westerners define religion as something you believe in. More than that, it requires the third mode of belief, as faith in the literal truth of unprovable statements. I would contend that this view of religion is highly limiting, not at all universal, and somewhat dangerous.

    For the majority of religions, belief has always been secondary. Individuals within a society tend to share similar beliefs, but it was never an explicit requirement for participants in most religions to believe in particular unprovable things. Most religions are more about celebration, symbolism, and social cohesion. The Abrahamic religions are unusual in requiring a belief in the unprovable. This view of religion as belief has unfortunately influenced many other religions that have, over time, become more inclined to place more importance on belief.
    Read the complete article: Elhaz Ablaze

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    To Hex or Not to Hex
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Friday, June 18, 2010 - 04:00 PM
    269 Reads

    By Hoi Sum

    When I first became a witch the word Hex was not in my vocabulary. In the beginning of my witchcraft studies I learned that “good” witches do not believe in hexing. Wiccans and most other Pagans do not use magic for any type of negative spells, especially the witches who follow the Wiccan Rede, “An ye harm none…” This is one of the reasons that the mundane community often refers to Wiccans as “white witches” or why you hear the term “white magic.” Just like most beliefs systems and cultures though, what you first learn is only the beginning. Once you start to scratch the surface you will find many more layers hidden below the publically visible surface.

    I first learned that some Wiccans and modern witches practice hexing when I was introduced to Dianic Wicca and Zbudapest. I was very surprised when I read Zbudapest’s article on hexing rapists. Hexing, I thought was not something Wiccans or modern witches did. While I was very uncomfortable with the idea of hexing I did understand what Zbudapest was saying and her reasoning behind practicing this forbidden “dark magic.” I took a vow to never practice hexing personally, but my view of hexing and witchcraft was slowly starting to expand and open. As I grew in my Wiccan and witchcraft studies I came to discover Hoodoo and other African based witchcraft. This was when I was even more surprised to learn that many traditions of witchcraft in fact do practice hexing and not just hexing, but cursing and death magic as well. My first reaction to this was shock, death magic, and I thought the idea of hexing was bad! I began to study Hoodoo, Voodoo, Vodou, and the other African Traditional Religions (ATR’s) in more depth. What I discovered is that hexing, crossing, jinxing, and cursing are all alive and well here in the US (and around the world for that matter).
    Read the complete article: Pagan Pages

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    Pagan theology: What good is it?
    Opinions & Discussions
    Posted by: Makarios on Thursday, June 17, 2010 - 04:00 PM
    276 Reads

    By Porphyry

    <Snip> One of the things that makes Pagan theology complicated is that different people focus on different aspects of the theological question. When you talk theology you can be referring to what we believe; for example, why do we cast the clockwise circle and what does it mean. Or you can be referring to why the things we do work, what I would refer to as relating our faith to our existence in the world. Our discussions about theology can focus on either “out there” or “in here” or some combination of both. As I’ve said before, Pagan theology is different from book theologies in that it encompasses topics that deal with this world as well as abstract issues of deity and our relation to it. This multiplicity of topics can lead to a lot of different theologies and theological approaches. In order to understand where we fit in we can divide the different approaches up into broad categories.

    The most relevant and perhaps inspiring approach to theology in the neo-Pagan movement so far has been what I would call the pragmatic. In this line of thinking the poetry we make with our actions and words is the real work, the underlying reason or logical structure that upholds those actions is less important and typically glossed over without a lot of discussion. That’s not to say those constructing the theology don’t have a deep underlying understanding of what it is they are doing, they just don’t see that as the primary question worth answering. This very Pagan approach to things is to be found in much of the mainstream literature including Starhawk and many of the older writings. Even the Penczak books, which include a lot of direct discussion on more esoteric matters, tend to be brief and somewhat vague when it comes to the more complex theological questions.

    Another approach is the Neo-Platonic, religionist, approach that attempts to build a logical structure upon which the clothing of faith can be worn. Here we try and draw connections between different aspects of Pagan life, from magic to ethics to ontology. We do this through a logical, analytical, structure that develops lists and definitions and categories . We are essentially applying philosophical techniques to Paganism, asking questions about how current or past philosophical questions relate to what we are doing. This is the line I try to travel in, and it seems to be dominated by folks like myself: amateur bombasts seeking to fill in a gap that for some reason we think is missing. You find very little of this approach in mainstream Pagan literature , probably because many Pagans find this path to be alien to what they believe Paganism is about. This is too much of a churchy, Christian, approach toward our religion, and puts many off. The individuals who are most put off by this approach tend to fall into the next category.
    Read the complete article: Pagan Pages

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