A Response To The Creation Of Occupy Witchcraft

A Response to the Creation of Occupy Witchcraft.

Responding is a very tricky thing. When ever you respond to someone, you want to make sure that you are clear and concise in your direct messaging. This is most likely the hardest thing that I have had to learn in any of the writing that I have ever done. I tend to forget to include things, or adapt a tone that my intended audience mistakes as hostility and even power through my response that any good content I actually wanted to provide ends up sounding like it was dispensed through a sludge bath. For this, I wanted to avoid all of that.

When I was on Twitter last week I entered into an amazing conversation that latterly became to exploding burning which hot light blub over my head: Occupy Witchcraft! From there I created OccupyWitch on Twitter and I’m looking to secure this persona across other social media avenues as well. It’s been about a week and already this has excited my expectations astronomically! Currently after one week there are 33 people following that Twitter page and truthfully, that’s 32 more than I thought would!

However, I think a valid point was brought up by one of my compatriots: is it possible for the Craft, working together, to create a multi-faith circle of manifest energy where all those of whatever religion or spiritual discipline could meet in collective Peace?

This is a very daunting question that could possibly have far reaching effects. The really strange thing is the first thing I said when I saw this question was to unequivocally answer: YES! However, I had no ideal how that even looked on paper or in practice. I needed time to really think and gather my mind to focus on the task of spelling out how everyone regardless of faith or –ism could bind together and use positive intent and will to direct change and aid the Occupy Movement.

I started by looking at my own magickal “career” for inspiration. The one thing that I will always take away from everything that I have learned from my practice is that ideals like light, love, honor, integrity and right action will always translate over social, ethic and religious boundaries. I can’t think of one holy book or one great teacher who ever said: “Go over there and oppress those people because you have more of this meaningless paper then they do.” Never happened because these great teachers expounded the messages of love, honor, integrity and right action and people who walk these various –isms know that message as a Universal Truth. In reality, all the –isms of the world speak the same language – they just very in the ways they get there.

So, how do we harness this power and direct is as pure will and positive intent for direct change? It’s very simple, what is the difference between magick and prayer? At their root semantics and that’s about it. Both are how you tap the Divine for the energy to change the world around you, if you pardon the pun – the Devil is in the details.

Everyone of every faith can come together and help lend their intention and will to help manifest the change that everyone really wants to see. Occupy Witchcraft and OccupyWitch on Twitter will never discriminate because of your particular –ism. For those who are committed to light, love, honor, integrity and right action maybe on different Paths, but we are walking in the same direction! Going my way?

Special thanks to FiveDee and Anon99Percenter.

Blessed Be!


Original Message below:

May I first say how honoured I feel to have been present at your birth – may you all be Blessed with long and fulfilling lives. I am not a witch even though I have sometimes used the Craft to enable manifestation of my shamanic work and I know that, to others, we can look alike even if we are aware of our differences. I come to you with a request for help.

Every shaman is unique and works in our own way. Within my own Otherworld resides an Essence of Faith that seems to underpin all our human spiritualities, known and unknown, seen and unseen, in whatever way they manifest on Earth. The only exception is the Dark Side that uses power for its own sake. As a result of an Otherworld journey taken yesterday, this aspect would seem to have had some of its connections to the Essence of Faith removed.

There is an amusing anecdote that, using the Laws of Chemistry, suggests that were the peoples of the Earth to restore their Essence of Faith, rather than cling to the separations of manmade religion, we would find our way through the problems we all face. Because my shamanic practice is inclusive in this way, I witness those Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews and others who exhibit an Essence of Faith in their work. What I am seeing breaks my heart.

Many of these people are being harmed by the edicts of their religion. I see the confusion and hurt as they try to cope with this and the personal struggles to overcome what is occurring. I’m hearing Christians disagree with their religious leaders to such an extent that they leave. I’m hearing Muslims querying what they are being told Islam means. I’m hearing Jews deeply troubled about the way their religion is being used to perpetrate obscenities upon the helpless and Buddha has always advised those following his Path to dispense with his words if personal experience does not match up with his Teachings. From my perspective, it seems that many people who know the Essence of Faith are becoming homeless from their religions.

Witchcraft knows what it is to be persecuted. You know what it is to be homeless on our own planet. From what I have witnessed from the best of our Witches is the true Knowledge of Inclusiveness belonging to the Essence of Faith. There are no arguments with people who follow different pathways to this Essence, only a request for mutual respect. I see, too, that this request is still being denied by some religions. As the planetary crisis deepens, I am concerned that this will become worse for all of us unless we come together as Family.



So, to my request: Is possible for the Craft, working together, to create a multi-faith circle of manifest energy where all those of whatever religion or spiritual discipline could meet in collective Peace? A place where Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Witches, Shaman and everyone else could find a cultured home together; where each could bring our Knowing of the essence of Love; our respect for difference; our hopes for our future and our intention-to-act to create such a future? Is such a creation possible?

When I announced the birth of Occupy Witchcraft, I promised to bring some gifts. What I bring are the Shamanic Visions I had when I participated in “The 9/11 Experiment”. This experiment was created by Lynne McTaggart and Dr. Salah Al-Rashed on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and it manifested the most astonishing meeting of faiths I have ever witnessed. It was not just Christians or Muslims, I met Sufis and Hindus participating too. Lynne has been able to demonstrate that the Experiment was a success for her purpose of demonstrating the Power of Intention. I remain deeply grateful that I could be a part of it. Nevertheless, there is further Otherworld power available were Occupy Witchcraft interested in utilizing it.

My Otherworld is tremendously opportunistic in my experience. Every time I am asked to work there, I see this in action. If other tasks can be done in addition to the intent of the journey itself, my Otherworld takes full advantage. I’m advised by my Allies that this is equally true for my 9/11 Experiment visions and can be gifted as a potential framework for any Craftwork needed to create a true MultiFaith Circle of Power.

As always, this is a matter of Free Choice. If Witchcraft prefers to choose a different path, there is no dispute between us – you know your own Path better than I. This is simply a request for help. If you are able and willing to offer assistance, you are Free to utilize the energy of the Visions in the wisest way you know.



In any event, please accept my deepest Gratitude for being people I am able to ask.



May you all always Walk In Beauty.

Occupy Witchcraft

Over the course of the last year, we have been witness to a new beginning. The birth of a movement whose sole purpose and intent is to effect positive change for all citizens of the Earth and begin a dialogue that will help shape and direct the commitment for that change. Just as history has shown us, change is not always well received. During the course of the Occupy Movement’s protests and other workings we have seen the impacts of just how intense people can fear this change. The non-violent peaceful protestors in these movements have met with chemical weapons, “non-lethal” ballistics fired from combat shotguns, physical beatings, and worse the degradation of their civil liberties and basic human rights. This is intolerable.

There is a battle happening right now in the streets around us. People, who have no real connection other than a desire to see the corruption and abuse of power come to a crashing end, gather in the streets everyday and stand up against big corporations and corrupted government in an attempt to affect not only change but to bring awareness to these issues and challenge people’s preconceived ideas on the world around them. All these people are attempting to do is have a conversation about what they do not like in the world and they want to effect positive changes.

What do they get in return for their questions? The people of these Movements end up facing arrests or worse only for attempting to have a conversation about the need to change the way we are doing things. Now I ask you: will you sit idly by or will you be the change within you? We have a very unique advantage; we understand that through positive intent and directed energies there is nothing that cannot do. There is no obstacle that cannot be beaten. It is time that we lend out abilities to help strengthen and support those in the field of the Occupy Movement.

If we were to coordinate our efforts and direct out energy, intent and magick to the mundane efforts of Occupy, we would see that we are unstoppable! Dion Fortune lead a group of energy workers, magicians, witches, druids and shamans in a unified battle against Hitler in World War II with the intention to protect England. We can do the same here! We can lead a psychic and magickal charge to help strengthen and protect these efforts. Please join us!

Look for more information to come from @OccupyWitch on Twitter as well as from the hashtag #OccypyWitchcraft. We can begin with spreading our magick and energy to make safe all the protests and gathering scheduled for May 12, 2012 and they are free of fascist harassment or sabotage within!

So Mote It Be

@OccupyWitch

Premonition From August of 2011...Finally had the balls to post it.

It was August 2011 and I was in the kitchen having an argument with my wife. Being both of stubborn Celtic stock, our fights have been known to peel the pain off of the walls. Also, once we dig out heels in we do not want to give up ground so are fights are typically news worth events. Typically, our heads cool down and we actually have a poignant conversation about the problem at hand followed by a conclusion. However, in this particular fight we never got to that point. We were in the crescendo of our back and forth when I collapsed to the ground and my vision faded to black. At first I thought that I was having a stroke or a fatal heart attack but instead my vision was slowly “replaced” by a steady stream of visions. At first my wife thought that I was attempting to deflect the fight that we were having, but she said that she noticed that I was not even responding to her questions and that I kept talking. I would have to say that I saw the future; or rather a highly probable future that I can only hope does not play out as I saw it. The vision opens up on what can be described as the 2012 year. The Arab Spring revolutions had spread to other countries in the Mideast and Northern Africa, as we have seen in Libya. The financial unrest caused by the collapse of the Grecian economy spills through the remainder of Europe causing great dissention and unrest. The Banks of Germany and France, who now face great hardship in turn, pass their worries and debts off to the rest of the Western World which truly will not be felt for another year. Their were protests in the United States that lead to a climax of physical unrest as there were casualties reported due to police intervention. This is the remainder of 2012, possibly 2013. At Yule 2012, there is an event that most people have written off as a cleaver piece of fiction picked from the overactive imaginations of researchers and historians looking to make a name for them selves. I challenge you, that this is not merely the case. This is the Beginning of the End of the Beginning. Almost every culture on the planet has a story on how the Gods of Man were not the first Gods. That the Gods of Man supplanted the Gods of Old in an invasion or other form of struggle or that what was once the world was not the world that we know today. And in all of these stories, the Gods of Old eventually come back. The event at Yule 2012 signifies a fundamental change to the world around us. The Veil or Glamour that separates our World from the world of energy or spirit becomes pliable. People who are open to that change will find that they can tap into this energy, this spirit and manifest their will and intention through the physical world. Vulgar manifestations of energy will become possible in the physical world; the possibilities will be limited only to the practitioner’s willpower and imagination. Even as I write this, I can only think how crazy this all sounds. I have a degree in Physics; you would think that I would be completely rational and responsible in issuing such a statement. I have thought about everything that I have ever seen during this whole experience and I can state with complete authority that everything thing that I saw was something that could happen. Magick will spill out into our physical reality because of this shift at Yule. I call this event the Awakening. It is the Awakening because people’s perception of the world around them will dramatically explode in change. People will finally have the incontrovertible proof that our reality does not exist in small blocks of corporeal perception. This Awakening will begin with wonderment and amazement as world is truly seen for the first time. However, this period of awe will not last for long. What happens when those who think they have power see something that could honestly challenge their tenuous hold over people? They move like cockroaches to acquire as much of this new resource as possible. The governments of the World begin to make statements of acceptance and understanding all the while asking those with these new found abilities to work with the government to “test” and “understand” these new abilities. Of course this is a veiled truth, they want the assets. They are looking for the access to the raw power. There will be a time period where governmental agencies asking for magick users to join their ranks. I can’t wait to politely tell them no. Of course, as if almost predictably, the Religious right-wingers will come out of the wood work swearing that all of this is the work of Satan. That the time of Revelations is at hand and those who practice magick are evil and should be dealt with accordingly. They will have a very loud soapbox to preach from, but they will not actually make any traction on the issue until around the summer of 2013. A magick user goes on a violent crimes spree and openly uses his abilities for his own self serving needs. Using the magick he knows, this person will cut a swath of destruction that will cause people in authority to lethal force in restraining this individual. He is shot down dead, but the damage is done and now those who are not Awakened begin to wonder what else they have to fear from those who are magickally inclined. Here in the States legislation is quickly passed requiring those with magick abilities to register with the government under the guise of protection, but it is ruse. It is designed to help roundup those who can be a potential threat to the status quo. Back now by the seemingly “rational” prattling of Fundamentalists, people cheer as people are collected and shut away in modern concentration camps. Those who did not roll over and surrender go on the run, hiding and avoiding capture. The States become a haven for Christian Fundamentalism and an anti World view begins to exude from the U.S. The safest place to seek exile is across the Pond in Ireland. The Emerald Isle welcomes those to their shores, but they are not there for long. They are only preparing for an invasion of liberation. In 2015, those who fled in fear return home with a singular desire to fight against those who serve those who would repress the Awakened. The Battle of New York is the first major turning point of the liberation, but the costs are high. House to house fighting through the Five Boroughs leads to casualties on both sides of the engagement but it is the victory in New York that propels the liberation into Washington, D.C. The Battle of D.C. is the liberation of the U.S. from repression, fear and abject hate. It is a time for joy and celebration. But this euphoria cannot last for ever. The ancient forces of the Gods of Old spill on to the physical plain and the people now have a new choice to face: bend and beg for mercy from the Gods of Old who are intent in enslaving humanity and rising back to a position of power in the Heavens or stand and fight with the Gods of Man in the biggest fight creation has ever since. Honestly I curse the visions that I was given, however I know that I was given them because I needed to know what to expect going forward. I have never been one to buy into the concept of fate or predestination, but what I have seen only makes me believe in it more and more. I had a reader who specialized in reading the Akashic records, for lack of a better word, verbally vomited my purpose on this plane without any prompting from myself. When I sat down with her, I asked a very simple question: what from my past lives has impacted my current life? She began to relay to me a tale of my former lives as a warrior through time. Roman Calvary, Hun Horseback archer, American Minuteman are just some small examples that she threw at me. This made great sense to me; I have had dreams of these lives and others showing me that I am a Warrior spirit and always have been. I take on causes that are noble and act in the best concepts of virtue with a code of ethics always in mind. She went on to tell me that I was very tired, that my spirit was ready for moving past the physical world and onwards. For a time after my last life, I merely existed as spirit enjoying the liberation of flesh (on a side note; I actually had a past life regression about being dead before this reading). Then I was summoned by the powers that be, for lack of description, to come back and lead people in a great battle to come. Of course I made an instant correlation between this encounter with a reader working in the Akashic records and my tranced out verbal vomit session in my kitchen that I was receiving this information for a reason. I thought long and hard about the implications of that; essentially that I was here on Earth as part of a bigger plan. Honestly, I have never even considered “fate” or “destiny” rational words in anyone’s vocabulary. After all, I am in command of my choices – I make my own reality! But what if I had already made this reality and my role in it in the time before being on this world? It was while thinking about this quandary that I received another vision and this one was a real trip on how it started off. I was at work in my cube, trudging through the day trying to make the best of uncontrollable situations, which is most every day at work. All of a sudden, I had a craving for a drink. Not so uncommon while at work, so I went to the lunchroom and faced the obligatory choices of coffee-like drink or a soda from the machine. I opted for the coffee and I noticed a box of powered hot chocolate and I began to make what I like to call, poor man’s café mocha. Sitting back at my desk slowly sipping on the concoction, I began to make some of the queerest comments about this mixture. I looked over at a colleague and told her that this drink reminded me about this drink that people in pre-Columbian Yucatan use to drink. “Except that it was cold, and more bitter and spicy” – these were descriptions that just came pouring out of my mouth as if I knew what I was saying with authority. I replayed the words in my mind that I spoke, and I came to the lucid conclusion that I may have uttered the words but I did not speak them. As if, there was a memory from within me being unlocked or realized. It was fuzzy and frustrating which only nagged at me more and more. For the remainder of the day I felt very odd. I did not feel as if I was quite myself. Quickly I attributed it to a cold or some other bug that is common in a large call center. But even on the way home I could not shake the feeling that something was remiss. I felt as if there was something in the back of my brain trying to nudge me forward to some kind of realization, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. When I got home, that’s when things got interesting. I was sitting in the bedroom with my wife and our friend and I was regaling them with my experience from work when I was stricken with a vision. I was in a “cave”, however it was not a cave. It was the word that came to mind to summarize where I was standing. Rather, it was a tunnel inside a stone structure. There was a mixture of dirt and sand underneath my feet. Along the walls were torches made from, what I could only interpret, dried reeds. These torches cast the tunnel in a soft dull orange glow through the tunnel. The walls of the tunnel were made from a soft brown colored stone. One of the walls was perpendicular to the floor and ceiling, sitting in a ninety degree angle to the ground. The opposite wall sit in a rising sloped forty five degree angle; the reverse of a typical pyramid. Looking one way down the tunnel, there was a bright light that resembled the light from a very hot and present sun. The opposite end of the tunnel, the light darkened the further down the tunnel you looked. There was a teenage boy kneeling on the ground in front of the flat wall. He was no more than fifteen years old, his muscles were athletically toned and his skin was a honey bronze color which was the combination of ethnicity and tropical living. He was clothed in very light fitting cloths made from a very gauzy material. We were very aware of each other. He could see me and even acknowledged my presence. Walking on the ground next to him was a very bumpy shelled tortoise that not only looked old but seemed to supervising the whole process. The teen had all manner of carving tools around him and once he greeted me, he went back to work. He was busy making carvings on the wall in a combination pictographic language and illustration. To him, his face showed that this work was very important to him and that the story he was carving had to be finished. I looked over his work and to my amazement I knew what the story was about, but I did not know the actual words in the story. It was like I knew the meaning behind the words and images but not the actual syntax. The carvings showed the history of man up to a great convergence in the sky. A giant eye passed through what looked like the Big Dipper and from that moment, there was a great change in the world. Perceptions and the order of things departed from their established and expected motions to a profound change to what we understand as the limit and design of our physical world. The carvings continued the story; however the glyphs and pictograms were missing. I do not mean that they were not carved yet. Their content had already had been filled and cataloged. Rather, the people who influence those moments along the story had not yet made their choices. It is almost strange to think of it in these terms, but I feel that these influencers are fated to make the choices that they will make. Until those choices are made, I was not meant to see the whole picture. However, I did get the feeling that when a choice was made I would feel it. I have experienced this feeling a few times since receiving this vision. It is very comparable to what is experienced just before a seizure. I begin to feel very jittery and very twitchy as if I cannot control my reactions or my mind, which is almost identical to how a seizure feels at onset. The difference is that once the choice has been made, there is no afterglow as there is in a typical seizure. Once the choice has been made I feel fine and balanced. Worse off, I can now see the events in my future more clearly. Almost as if a fog is lifted and I can see more of the greater picture. This series of events or revelations if I can be so bold make me think on such concepts as purpose or fate. I make no claims to being an authority on any of that. This is what I know: there are crossroads that everyone must face. The crossroads that we must endure are all around us and every day we must face them. The thing is that each crossroad offers the obligatory three choices: go left, go right or go forward. The one choice that we forget about is the choice to do nothing, to merely sit where we are and not continue along our path. We can stop moving and let the entropy gather around us as the world continues. This is almost the space that I feel that I am in. But ironically, I don’t see entropy and decay gathering around me. I see a clarity in the visions that I have been given and my place in them. Truth be told, I hope that I am tragically wrong and that I need high doses of anti-psychotics. I don’t think this is the case though.

The Storm

And in the sky, I chased a Storm,
My eyes scanned its might.
It blows from the West;
A gift from the Watchtower,
Whose healing powers are suppose
To carry a cleansing rite:
Upon the back of The Storm
Sits the energy and passion of the Gods.
Thor, provides the Thunder, and,
Zeus, the Lightning,
And together celebrate the gift of Water
And rain it down on Gaia's gentle face.
But Gaia's face burns at the touch of this gift.
The healing touch of the rain no longer cleanses as it once did.
Man has undid what the forces of nature created,
In his folly to be likened to a God.
The hubris of Man's greed
Has tainted the gift from the West.
Now the rains no longer bring a healing touch.
And the Storm still rages on.

My Favorite Weapon

Deadly and beautiful, you shine like the sun.
Your movement is graceful and your strike is true.
Nothing can stand against your might.
You dispatch your foes with ease.
Slicing through with no resistance.
You rise to stand in defense of oppression
By stabbing ignorance at its core.
You combat hatred by slashing those
Who practice unchecked bigotry.
You are my favorite weapon.
True and dependable.
Until you run out of ink...fortunately they make more.

The Fabric of Time

I have seen the Fabric of Time
Ribbons of brillant colors cross and weave,
In a ballet of what could be colliding into what will be.
A tapestry of majestic light amongst a backdrop of nothingness.
Within all is possible, probable and impossible at once.
The myarrad of choices defines the course of Time.
But no one can master such a force.
The ebbs and flows maybe directed by choice,
But Time's raw and primal force deicates when it begins,
And when it Ends.

A Bad Haiku

A Samurai with a
Belly full of rice feel like Zen
Buddha, indeed.

Self Honesty

I am not a Zen Master.
I am not a emotionally balanced individual.
I am not a genus.
I am not a wise man.
I am not a Kung Fu fighter.
I am not a great lover.
I am not a financial guru.
I am not a snappy dresser.
I am not a hipster.
I am not with it.

There are many thing I am not.
I am me - faults, scars and all.
Its all I can do.
Its all I know how to do.

Home

There is a town in Ireland.
It sits in a verdant field of rolling green.
Nestled amongst the hills.
When the sun rises, the streets shine
As if paved with gold.
The spray of the sea washes.
Rinses the landscape clean
And glistens in the sun.
The homes are small and quant.
Reddish brown, each one distinct.
Each one unique.
This vision haunts my waking dreams.
And I know this place is real.
I know this place is home.

Frost

There is blood in the snow.
Deep, red and thick
Strun across a field of white.
It is warm; the steam rises.
The vapor floods my eyes.

There is blood in the snow.
I am not sure whose
It mixes and mingles.
It cares not; the bodies drain.
The torrents melt the field.

There is blood in the snow.
The cold nips at my soul
My furs should be warm.
But they fail; my life wanes.
Joining the others who have fallen.

There is blood in the snow.
I can no longer stand
Time quickly runs out.
Broken and battered; I join the others.
The lifeless and covered with frost.

Psst! Are you a Witch, or, How NOT to throw someone out of the Broom Closet.

Today I made a stop at a gas station to pick up some provisions for my day and I was being rung out by a very nondescript young man whom looked like every other person you could meet on the street. As he was processing my sale, he observantly noticed my pentacle ring and actually said, "I really like your ring."

I graciously accepted the compliment, however, I found myself at a loss as how to respond. Here I was at this guy's work and even though he initiated the comment, I was not comfortable accepting responsibility for outing someone especially while at their job.

So, I took to innuendo to see if this person was Pagan or merely admiring my taste in jewelry. I looked at him and told him that I had a matching one that I kept close to my heart chakra. He smiled and stared at me blankly, oblivious to my meaning so I paid for my things and was on my merry. The thing of it is, this whole exchange made me start to think, how do we as a community recognize each other in passing without betraying the whole ideal of "To Know, To Dare, To Keep Silent"?

We live in a world where Paganism and Earth based religions are on the rise. Matter of fact, some experts claim that it is one of the fastest growing religions in the United States, so it is logical to assume that you have a pretty good chance of meeting a fellow Witch, Warlock, Pagan, or Heathen as you saunter throughout your day. The only problem is that not all of these people are out of the Broom Closet, and by putting them on the spot publicly might endanger their mundane life.

The Broom Closet is a term that was stolen from the Gay community to describe just how open a person is about their magickal life to the mundane world. So for an example, I am out of the Broom Closet; I am very open about my experiences and beliefs and I have no problem in defending who and what I am. So someone who is still in the Broom Closet would have issues about being open about their Path either for personal reasons or for socioeconomic reasons.

Because there is a lot of miss information about Paganism and Magick in general, there are a lot of unjustified stereotypes and prejudices out there to deal with. I'm sure that most of us have heard a lot of these before. Witches put curses on people and eat small babies and other ridiculousness that is the byproduct of a world obsessed with half truths and full fictions. It is these stereotypes that can make it very difficult for someone to live a life in "normal" society with things like jobs and careers being threatened by closed minded people.

Under these strains, I can completely understand why someone would want to live in the Broom Closet. Without sounding demeaning to those in the Broom Closet, it is easier. You don't have to put your beliefs on display for others to pick apart using logic from the Spanish Inquisition. It also doesn't give people to be hesitant around you for your own personal beliefs. Those in the Broom Closet tend to have the opinion that their spiritualism is their spiritualism and they will share it with those they want to on their terms. I can respect that. However, what happens when you meet someone who is attempting to connect with you on a common religious level.

I am a fan of letting that person make the contact. Let them ask you questions and respond to them honestly, however, match their tone and volume to help them feel safe and comfortable speaking to you on a subject that they typically don't speak of on a regular basis.

Once they feel completely comfortable with speaking to you, suggest an alternative method of communication to continue your dialogue. You might have community resources at your disposal that this person does not. Providing an alternative place or way to share what you know can make the person you’re speaking with much more comfortable.

Basically, you want to provide a safe harbor for this person. There is a reason that they decided to reach out to you and chances are they are taking a risk to do so. Maybe they need help or are looking to explore a connection to the Pagan community and you can be their in. Take the time to care about this person's need for anonymity; discretion can be the better part of valor.

You Know What Kills Me?

You know what kills me?  Well, actually lots of things CAN kill me.  I mean, a car careening down the street out of control could hit me with a violent force.  Or I could be eating something laced with arsenic, like almond cookies for instance.   That would definitely kill me.  So would basting my entire body in sweet and sour sauce and throwing myself to a pack of cannibals who have been living underground for generations and have become like freaky albino mole rat looking things with greasy hair and hollowed out eyes…..

Right; note to self, it might be a good time to call the doctor and them up the dosage.  Addendum to the note: I don’t have a doctor, so it might be a good idea to find one.  Post script to the addendum, time to lay off the caffeine Rob, you are starting to have conversations with yourself….

I had a series of conversations with someone over the past few days that really made me wonder what the hell non-Pagans (muggles) think we do when we do what it is that we do.  This person had some really ingrained stereotypical crap ideals about what magick is and how we practice it.  While the following is not necessarily for Pagans, I hope that my following rant at least brings a chuckle or two.  Because I think we have all met this type of person before.

The following is actually based on things this muggle said to me in our conversations.  Also, the rants contained they are just that – rants.  That being said, there MIGHT be a little bit of truth to some of my viewpoints in there.  Just a teeny tiny bit; I swear.

1) Pagans are Satanists.  Yeah.  Out of the gate, my brain has already exploded and sprayed cherry pie on the wall behind me.  Gods!  While this was one of the last things this person said to me before I verbally rendered their brain asunder, I thought that this was one of the most telling thing that a muggle could believe Pagans are about.  Here’s the thing, it wasn’t like she even had a grip on what Satanists are even all about either.  To her, they were just “evil” and that they “practiced evil” and of course the ubiquitous “human sacrifice”.  I of course had to ask where this student of the “occult” got her “information” from and she said from her narrow-minded Christian Fundamentalist mother.  Well, that’s fucking special.  It’s good to see that the bible beaters are so knowledgeable – perhaps I should arrange an interfaith workshop with her mother’s church.

And truth be told, normally I politely challenge the misconceptions and work to replace the hate with tolerance and understanding.  Except in this case it just wasn’t possible because I was confronted by indisputable proof of just how wrong I was via the Pythagorean Theorem.   According to this young woman Satanists were “evil” through the following logical proof: Satan is evil (A squared), therefore (plus) Satanists worship evil (B squared), hence (equals) Satanists are evil (C squared).  That’s right, who knew that the equation to find the hypotenuse of a right triangle could be used to help deduce associated qualities to come to a quantifiable conclusion!  I don’t know about you, but just writing what happened is making me want to blow the back of my head off!

Now, I’m not a pro Satanist.  I’m pro what gets you through the fucking day.  If that happens to be your particular brand of Vodka then so be it.  Honestly, this unintelligent dribble made me wish for the halcyon days of yore when I walked around in a pretty much drunken stumble.  That way, whenever I encounter situations like this I don’t feel like their lowered intelligence and perception is bringing down the quality of the human race’s gene pool.

2) Which is a more accurate representation of how magick works: The Craft or Practical Magick?  Yep!  Thank you very fucking much Hollywood for sensationalizing magick!  You have given so much hope to overly psychotic and delusionary people everywhere!  Thanks a million!

Truth be told, I would love it if more and more witches walked around in naughty schoolgirl outfits on a regular basis.  Stockings and Mary Janes….what?!  I’m a guy! I have needs!  DON’T JUDGE ME!!!  That would be hot as hell, and even though I find it hard to keep the flow of my rant moving now, but seriously thank you Hollywoodfor creating a view of Pagans that is just way off base.

I know that these are what people see in the movies and that majority of the people in the world can distinguish between the sexy fantasy and reality,the person whom I was engaged in heavy discourse could not.  She really thought that witches do things like jump off of their rooftops every Halloween, or Sam Hane as she was so studious to offer.  Sigh, anyone else need a drink yet?

3) Becoming a (insert Pagan path here) will make me a God!  How was that drink?  Why don't you get another one and make it a double.  I'll meet you in the next paragraph.

Yep, this person believes that magick will make you a God.  I really don't have anything to add anything to this ridiculously brilliant statement; it pretty much speaks volumes. 

So, in closing...AAAAAAAHHHHHHHGGGGGHHHH!

MANNERS!!!!

Manners. They are the littlest thing in this world. The simplest of gestures. The little nuances that makes living in large communities bearable. I ask a very simple question: Why the hell doesn’t anyone still use them?

This is all steaming from a very recent drive through experience at a restaurant with a big yellow lower case m for a logo. I ordered my food, which latter made me feel like a fatty fat fat, and I took time to thank the person on the other end of the speaker when he asked for me to repeat my order three times. I wasn’t upset by this, I saw that they were busy and I understand how crazy things can get during rushes. Instead I calmly pulled my car into the line of traffic and waited for my turn to pay and get my food.

After about a couple minutes wait I was at the window. Again, very calm and centered. The waiting in the line didn’t detract from my Zen. People are cooking food and sometimes that take a bit longer than the nanosecond a majority of the American populous thinks it takes to cook food. I would rather eat safely prepared food rather than not, so if this means waiting then so be it.

Up till now, I have been the picture of calm and rationality. I gave the young gentleman my card and he abruptly handed me it back and as I was putting the card back in my wallet, he practically had the soda in my car as it was inches from my face. I turned and my nose was pressed up against the cup. Never the less, I was calm. I took the glass and placed it in my drink holder, even thanking the young man. I turned again, and that’s when I lost it.

This kid wasn’t even looking at me. Didn’t even acknowledge my presence and as far as he was concern I could have been a Zaxxon from the Crab Nebula and he wouldn’t have cared. It wasn’t that I was looking for royal over the top prestige treatment. Rather, I wanted to be acknowledged as a fellow human being with all the niceties that includes. I looked straight at the kid in that window and I said, “Thank you”. But still, this elicited zero response from this gentleman.

I turned down my window, and raised my voice and yelled “Thank you!” all to no avail. He had actually disappeared into the bowels of McDonald’s microwave irradiated kitchen to grab the next trough of food to shove at the fatty in the pickup behind me. Don’t judge – I’m a fatty, that’s why I was at McDonald’s getting their oh so health cuisine. I just got the balls to admit that I’m a fat ass. I sat there and waited, knocking at the window trying to get this kids attention.

After a hot minute, he sauntered back up to the window and uttered the phrase of the given up – “Yeah?” I stared up into his dead cow eyes and said; “Thank you” and I shit you not I watched this kids head explode! He had zero fucking clue as to why someone would actually want to thank him for handing off a bag of cancer causing carcinogens. And that Ladies and Gentlemen lies at the heart of our problem: People are no longer vested in maintaining a level of standards when it comes to exercising manners among one and other.

And that’s a damn shame! Our world is strung together loosely under many concepts that we are suppose to be good to one another. At the bare minimum, these precepts are meant to keep us from wanting to rend the flesh from the face of someone who has offended your gentle sensibilities. People forget that in the core of human nature is a mammalian gathering-hunter-killer that has only had “civilization” for the last 125,000 of its almost 5,000,000 years of human development.

Manners didn’t arise from a need to be polite, but rather a need to not have to feel like stabbing someone in the chest thirty-two times because they had the last piece of cake and you were really, really hungry. You politely ask if anyone else minds if you have that last piece of cake to avoid situations just like this. I mean lets face it, its either use manners or we need to start resorting to more drastic measures like dueling pistols at dawn, or something like that.

Now before you ask, yes I am being highly sarcastic. Partly because I’m just sick of people acting like they are islands unto themselves. It’s like people have blatantly accepted that it’s ok to not acknowledge one another. Honestly, I don’t know why this happened and frankly I don’t care. This is an intolerable social epidemic that I cannot allow to go on any further.

Therefore, I am declaring war on social apathy. If you truly wanted to be left alone in life, you would find a little shack in the mountains of Montana like your patron saint Ted Kaczynski. If you are living within the boundaries of society, then you are subject to the social niceties of that society. Someone says “(God) Bless you” say “thank you”. They are not trying to convert you, they are just being polite. Someone says “Thank you” you look them in the eyes and say “You’re welcome”. Don’t just ignore them. Someone holds the door open for you, thank them. They are doing so out of the kindness of their heart! Do these things, and others, because there is a good chance that it might make you feel a bit more human and connected to your fellow man. Rather than that isolated fucking island that you don’t really enjoy anyway.