Paganism 101

If you want to understand what contemporary Paganism is and isn't, here's a reading list:

• The Pagan theologies wiki
• The Triumph of the Moon by Ronald Hutton - a definitive history of Wicca
• Listening People, Speaking Earth by Graham Harvey
• MetaPagan - round-up of Pagan blogs
  

how not to do religion

No wonder Christianity (and by extension, religion) is a laughing stock when you can get products like these:

• Logia: foods of the Bible (because they knew about nutrition in the Bronze Age, obviously)
• Armor of God PJs (hysterically funny)
• Jesus hand puppet (the Logos of the Aeon as a cuddly toy)
• Jesus Sport Statues (utterly cringeworthy)
• Camouflaged Bibles for the "Christian outdoorsman" - if you want to meditate outdoors, then contemplate the beauties of creation, for goodness' sake (spotted by catvincent)
  

It's embarrassing, that's what it is. Where's the dignity, the beauty, the reverence found in the amazing icons of the Byzantine and Coptic world, the cathedrals of the West, and the contemplation of the beauties of nature?

free the Korean aid workers

Urgent campaign to free the remaining South Korean aid workers who have been taken hostage by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have already executed 2 hostages and are threatening to execute the rest this week, an action that could trigger a mass evacuation of life-giving humanitarian aid from all of Afghanistan.

The situation is desperate, but there is hope. The Taliban are all from the 'Pashtun' ethnic group, and observe a strict code called Pashtunwali. This code demands, above all else: "hospitality to all, especially guests and strangers". There are rumours of infighting among the Taliban over these kidnappings, because they clearly violate the code.

A global outcry for the Taliban to follow their own code would certainly be covered by media in Afghanistan and Pakistan where the Taliban are based – creating massive local pressure on them to free their prisoners. But these hostages are living under a 24 hour death sentence. We have seconds not minutes to act.

Please sign the petition


Thanks!

ID boycott

There's a new pledge on PledgeBank to boycott any company that wins the contract for ID cards. I've signed. I thought things had gone quiet on the ID card front.

But the "refuse to register" pledge succeeded:

I, Phil Booth, will refuse to register for an ID card and will donate £10 to a legal defence fund but only if 10,000 other people will also make this same pledge. Target met, pledge closed.

lefties unite!

Happy International Left-Handers' Day, everyone.

If you are left-handed, check out the Anything Left-Handed website.

If you're not, read about the famous left-handers in history and go green with envy.

And don't ever call us cack-handed, sinister, gauche, zurdo, again!

And especially don't try to tell me that the left side is weaker, less worthy and so on - it's equated with the feminine and the Moon.

renewable energy

Greenpeace have just produced a new video, called The Convenient Solution showing why nuclear power is not the answer to the climate change problem. I was already pretty convinced that it wasn't the answer, but Greenpeace have done the maths and worked out how renewable energy sources could be implemented faster than a new generation of nuclear power stations - and of course the renewables would be much safer and cleaner and more local.

Everyone who cares about the environment should watch this video and then spread the word, write to your MP, etc.

which lolcat r u?

Your Score: Longcat

85 % Affection, 33 % Excitability , 35 % Hunger

Protector of truth.

Slayer of darkness.

Loooooong.

Longcat may seem like just a regular lengthy cat, but he is, in fact, looong.

It is prophesized that Longcat and his archnemesis Tacgnol will battle for supremacy on Caturday. The outcome will change the face of the world, and indeed the very fabric of lolcatdom, forever.

Be grateful that the test has chosen you, and only you, to have this title.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 98% on Affection

You scored higher than 7% on Excitability

You scored higher than 22% on Hunger

You scored higher than 0% on Felinity

Take the test (NB - have to sign in to site to get results)

political

ACCORDING TO YOUR ANSWERS,

The political group that
agrees with you most is...

.

LIBERAL

LIBERALS usually embrace freedom of choice in personal

matters, but tend to support significant government control of the

economy. They generally support a government-funded "safety net"
to help the disadvantaged, and advocate strict regulation

of business. Liberals tend to favor environmental regulations,

defend civil liberties and free expression, support government action

to promote equality, and tolerate diverse lifestyles.

The RED DOT on the Chart shows where you fit on the political map.

Your PERSONAL issues Score is 100%.
Your ECONOMIC issues Score is 40%.

Found at "Oh Taste and See". Take the quiz.

equal access to love

Equal Communications Access and what it means.

To me, it means that Deaf people should not be shut away in a world where no-one communicates with them. Communication is the vehicle of love and companionship - why should they be excluded from the fellowship of other people? The web has made a tremendous difference in terms of communication; one can find things out really quickly; it would be a pity if this accessibility to all was lost as we move towards more video and audio on the web.

And let's not forget the blind in all this as well. They need audio provision as much as Deaf people need captioning.

mental fight

Mental Fight by Ben Okri
A few selected extracts:

Already, the future is converging with the past.
Already the world is converging.
The diverse ways of the world
Will create wonderful new forms,
Lovely cultural explosions
In the centuries to come.
Already I sense future forms of art,
Of painting, sculpture, humour,
Already I sense future novels,
Plays, poems, dances.
Already I sense the great orchestras
Of humanity, a world symphony,
A world jam, in which the diverse
Genius of the human race -
It's rich tapestry of differences -
Will combine, weave, heighten,
Harmonise all its varied ways
And bring about a universal flowering
In all the vast numbers of disciplines
And among the unnumbered people.
Already I can hear this distant music
Of the future,
The magic poetry of time,
The distillation of all our different gifts.

Will you be at the harvest,
Among the gatherers of new fruits?
Then you must begin today to remake
Your mental and spiritual world,
And join the warriors and celebrants
Of freedom, realisers of great dreams.

You can't remake the world
Without remaking yourself
Each new era begins within.
It is an inward event,
With unsuspected possibilities
For inner liberation.
We could use it to turn on
Our inward lights.
We could use it to use even the dark
And negative things positively.
We could use the new era
To clean our eyes,
To see the world differently,
To see ourselves more clearly.
Only free people can make a free world.
Infect the world with your light.
Help fulfill the golden prophecies
Press forward the human genius.
Our future is greater than our past.

We are better than that.
We are greater than our despair.
The negative aspects of humanity
Are not the most real and authentic;
The most authentic thing about us
Is our capacity to create, to overcome,
To endure, to transform, to love,
And to be greater than our suffering.
We are best defined by the mystery
That we are still here, and can still rise
Upwards, still create better civilisations,
That we can face our raw realities,
And that we will survive
The greater despair
That the greater future might bring.

From "Mental Fight - an anti-spell for the 21st century", Phoenix House 1999

posted on the Facebook / Change.org group CHOSA by Jared S.

Monkey

We went to Manchester at the weekend to see Monkey (the opera by Damon Albarn, Jamie Hewlett, and Chen Shi-zheng). It was fabulous. The sets and costumes were in a graphic novel style; the music was a blend of east and west; and the choreography was Chinese, with juggling and dance and martial arts. The story is based on a 16th century novel, Journey to the West, about the journey to fetch the Buddhist scriptures from India. My favourite scene was when Monkey goes under the sea - they managed to make it look as though the stage was underwater by use of screens and lighting. But it was all beautiful.

On the way there we had a lovely walk in the Peak District, and on the way back we visited Moreton Hall, where Charles II stayed when he was fleeing from the Battle of Worcester (after he had stayed at Boscobel House). On both occasions he hid in a priest-hole. Moreton Hall has a Catholic chapel in the attic. It was very atmospheric.

the glory in things

surely this is holy, the fane of circling stones
where dreamers have dreamed
for unnumbered years
that fall like tears or sunlight;

the tree that catches the moon in her branches;
the glimmer of the golden cup:
the divine light shines through these things also -
for here the hearts of people were lifted up,
up into the empyrean blue
the realm of love and limitless light.

the Holy One has rent the veil
that we might see the light within and pass into it
but loving these things - is this not also the love of the Holy One?

why birds sing

I just finished watching the documentary Why Birds Sing on BBC4. David Rothenberg says they sing because they enjoy it (and a neurologist has contributed significant evidence to this theory by showing an increase in dopamine - a pleasure hormone - levels in birds' brains when they sing). Conventional bird-song science says that they sing to attract females to mate with, and that the females are attracted by the complexity of the song, and that there's no aesthetic sense in birds. But if that is the case, why are the female birds attracted to the song? If they find complex songs more attractive, then they're making an aesthetic judgment. QED. I don't understand why rationalists are so antipathetic to the idea that animals feel emotion. If there are gay animals (clearly having sex for a reason other than procreation, like emotional bonding) and animals that love to interact with other animals - like dogs and cats that like to hang out together - then clearly animals experience emotions. In The Science of Discworld, Jack Cohen mentions that he once had a praying mantis (an insect, for goodness' sake) that liked to do tricks to impress an audience, and would not perform if you gave him a trick that he considered too simple. So I can't see what is so irrational about saying that birds have an aesthetic sense, and sing for the sheer pleasure of singing. I don't think this is anthropomorphising birds. It is quite probable that early humans were inspired to make music by listening to birds, and this is why our musical scales are similar to theirs. It seems that rationalists want to take away any notion of love or spirituality, and explain everything mechanistically. I don't think it is irrational to say that birds and animals can experience pleasure (why else do cats enjoy stroking and food, bonobos enjoy sex, or humans enjoy all the things that we enjoy - after all, we are animals too).

There's also a longer article by David Rothenberg on why this is important.

"As human music grows to encompass ever more kinds of sounds and listens more sensitively to what is around us, there will be more interspecies music than ever before. It works best when the human musician welcomes the encounter with openness and respect, ready to take in the unfamiliar and genuinely learn something new, to change one's musical sense in the presence of new and exciting sounds. Approach the situation without too many expectations, and let us make music together that neither species could make apart. It is one more way for us to learn about and to appreciate the animal world."

And here's another article, featuring marvellous musical mice (who sing in octaves and shifts in the ultrasonic range).

Timothy Holy and Zhongsheng Guo of Washington University in St. Louis show that male mice “sing” to females in ultrasonic ranges.

“Individual males produce songs with characteristic syllabic and temporal structure,” the authors write.

In this study of captive animals, the mice sing primarily in octaves and shifts. In a study of wild California wild mice, other researchers found that the mice sang in thirds. Patricia Gray says, “This is phenomenal to me as a musician that intervals do matter. They matter to us and to other species as well.”