It’s Beginning to Look A Lot like Christmas Sales

Ho…Ho…Ho…

Tis the season to be jolly, as well as bitter, that people don’t get that the holiday season is about idealistic values that we should all strive to achieve everyday and not just once a year. Fa la la la la…la la…la…la.

It must be that time of the year, because all around me I can see cheap plastic displays setup in Malls. And then don’t forget the leaked internet ads for Black Friday, you know cause the spirit of the holiday revolves around the core premise of massive discount retail shopping. People are just missing the point. The point of what this season is about and I don’t mean the shopping bonanza.

This time is about hope. Hope for something better in this world. That humanity can live to higher expectations. That we can all live under the principals of love, truth, justice and community and with these values do what is right for our fellow man, rather than what is convenient for us in the here and now. That it doesn’t really matter what you call this time of the year; whether you call it Yule or Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanza or Ramadan, it is about the spirit of the season, not the savings of the season.

The ideal of giving gifts comes from various different Pagan sources, but the most information comes from the Romans who during the feast of Saturnalia would give small little tokens of appreciation in celebration of their holiday. Soon there after, the gifts became more elaborate as people were able to gift based on their means. When the church took more of a political root it became verboten to give gifts due to the evil pagan witchcraft (you know because giving a gift to someone is from the Devil), however, people began to equate gift giving to the acts of the Magi in the Nativity Story.

We are supposed to give gifts as a hallmark of our generosity, not because of some need to stimulate the economy. Hell, we shouldn’t really be even giving gifts to those we know; we, in what is the spirit of the season, should be giving to a complete and total stranger. Not saying that it isn’t ok to show love and appreciation for those who are close to you, but isn’t the ideal to show love and appreciation for even the most complete of strangers?

Share with your fellow man! I’m not saying you need to go buy something for every person you meet out in the world, but I am saying that it is apropos to give with the love that should be in your heart. And it doesn’t have to be material possessions either; it could be giving time at an animal shelter helping out or making a donation of canned goods to your local pantry. Or hell, if you have the means, adopting a family who doesn’t have the means to celebrate this joyous season by providing food for them. There is a cold hard truth to the lyric from Everclear’s “I Will Buy You A New Life”; “They have never been poor, they have never known the joy of a welfare Christmas.” Your generosity can make the difference.

Here’s something else to consider as well: when people took to political correctness in order to attempt to appease everyone all of the time, we began to treat the holiday season as just that; the holiday season. No more Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Yule or the like just Season’s Greetings. Or my personal favorite, Happy Holidays; which tends to generate the emotional appeal of dried unbuttered white toast. It was never meant to suck the life out of the holiday, but rather make everyone feel as though their holiday was included and special. To hopefully turn the perception that people were not taking other’s rights to celebrating the Season in their own way. That each and every holiday during the Season is meant to celebrate the diversity of the world and its similarities in the way that we all can attempt to better the world around us in our own unique way. That was the effect at first until the retailers got their claws into it.

I can remember a time in this country when nobody ever used to say “Happy Holidays”. It was “Merry Christmas”. Everyone used to walk down the streets saying it openly to strangers around them. And the thing was, it wasn’t like people were really saying, “Merry Christmas…cause you know all the other holidays are bullshit and anyone who thinks so is fucking moron because nobody really celebrates Rama-ding-along-ling-dad or that Jewish Chewbacca”, they really were saying “Merry Christmas…I mean it…its about giving and love…” Now, everyone says Happy Holidays and what they really mean is “Happy Holidays; now buy your shit and get out.” Walk into any store on Black Friday and you will see some of the most joyous people this side of an Assassins Convention. Not because they are the dregs of society, but because they get to see firsthand what this has degraded into.

The Holiday Season has turned into the I Want season, and we are all responsible for that. We need to remember what the heart of this Season is, and that is it is the season of love and caring for your fellow man. It is more important than that new iPod you want or that new game you want. Take the opportunity to use that energy that is out there in the world and do some good for the world. It is the reason for the season, and I hope that you take some time to reflect on that. While it is good to want things, try not to want them more than the want to heal and care for those around you.

Merry Meet
Merry Part
And Merry Meet Again!

Blessed Be!

Hello...cyberspace...it's me. It's been awhile

Hello…cyberspace….it’s me. It’s been awhile. How are you? I’m not too bad, thanks for asking. Where have I been? Well, it’s kind of a long story; do you have the time? Oh good, I love story time too…let me get my wooby.

….I mean, hi! Sorry I haven’t been on here, in like a year. That’s my bad, truly is. However, I have a really good excuse for it. I have been really busy, and not that I’m dodging bill collectors and crazy ex-girlfriends busy but truly busy. For starters, the Coven in which I am the Priest for now has almost forty members. That’s no longer a coven, it’s a freaking movement, and no not in that Glen Beck really scary Christian fundamentalism meets political neoliberalism kind of a way, but rather in the true beginnings of a large nexus of community and hearth among the Pagans in Chicago. It is a lot for me to sink my teeth into sometimes and sometimes I wish I could just take them all and put them in a sack like a bunch of kittens and throw them in the river, but this time has been some of the best and busiest time for me as a Pagan, Warrior, Priest and Leader. (I was totally kidding about the kitten in the river thing, only a heartless bastard would waste perfectly good Chinese food like that.)

As a Pagan, this growth has pushed me farther along on my path than I could have ever done on my lonesome. I have learned all sorts of new and exciting things that I was able to be exposed to because of the amount of people that I now share Circle with. I have been taught some of the most painful lessons, deepest understandings, and largest euphonies that I have ever taken part of and frankly it is because of those people who stand in Keepers with me. Now, this isn’t a recruitment statement – because truth be told, we are rapidly running out of space at Witchy Wearable’s. No, this is rather a statement that I hope will inspire Solitary Practicioning Pagans to go out and either find community with other Pagans or to encourage others to do so.

I understand being a Solitary Pagan. Technically, I am a Solitary Wiccan Warrior participating in the Irish Witta tradition and I happen to belong to a Coven of other Solitary Pagans. That’s a mouthful to say. But never the less, if I was to stop going to Coven, my path would go on and everything that I do and believe in would just continue as if I never missed a beat. My Practice would continue because it is mine and no one can define my direct connection to the Universal Divine. How I express it is how I express it and I need no Priest or Priestess to tell me how to connect to the Divine. I would continue to walk along my path as I always have, but it would be a considerably lonely experience.

Oh sure, I would have friends and family that I would continue to associate with. Dropping out of Coven or any other social spiritual experience wouldn’t mean that I would become a hermit. I would continue to be a social butterfly and have positive social growth experiences gaining new friends and associates along the way. The one thing that I know is that I would have a hell of a time progressing along my way all by my lonesome. Having a group of people who share the burden of spiritual growth within you, these people become vested in seeing you move forward. Conversely, you have to be equally vested in their growth – you know equivalent exchange of energy or what not.

There is a symbiotic relationship that forms amongst Covenmates that pushes one another. You begin to find that people you are practicing with become more resourceful than any Scott Cunningham or Raven Silverwolf introduction to Wicca book ever could be. This is because people that you come to work with will have their own unique perspective on everything from Ritual to Lore. Not only that, but the community that you work with will also be there to offer encouragement and advise along the path you walk.

While I’m not saying that a Coven is for every single pagan out there but I will say that community does go a long way to make the path seem less lonely. It gives us the connection that makes us feel not alone and helps encourage us along our path…whatever it is.