The Lie of Universal Morality

Tags

Pagan, Heathen, Christianity, Islam, Religion, Gods, Goddesses, Atheism, Morality, Men, universalism, universal morality, state

So, it came to my attention the other day that some atheists are trying to get around the issue of morality being relative without a Divine Source for morality (the idea being that as there is no god, therefore things like morality come from man, thus each man decides what is right). Yes, this is apparently a problem, having relative morality.

It means that people can justify just about anything they want. Which is bad. Apparently.

So, some are seeking to put for the the idea of Universal Morality, i.e. that somethings are Universally Wrong, and some are Universally Right. Of course, this is not without its pitfalls, as I am sure that those attempting this are finding.

Honestly, I think the Atheists should have stuck to their science, because while they may have the home field advantage in “disproving” the Divine, they are in about the worst battle field they can get when it comes to Morality. You can’t put Morality to a scientific test. Like the Divine and Spiritual, Morality is an ephemeral concept with no “scientific” grounding. Of course, some atheists run with the amorality of science, but that doesn’t work so well for holding societies together. Doing what thou wilt being the whole of the law tends to turn into one of those Might Makes Right situation where anything is acceptable as long as you can get away with it.

My evil little heart doesn’t see the problem with this on a personal level, but it is kinda bad for society. Or so people say. I’m not sure it really makes things different from what they already are, but that is something for another post.

Back to the topic at hand though. See, people can argue all they like that certain things are Universally Right and Universally Wrong. Of course, if it was that easy, we wouldn’t have had the field of ethics in philosophy since it started way back in the dawns of history and then some. And it was hard enough to answer these questions when we were working with Gods and Goddesses. The Monotheists came closest to achieving it, with their One God and his Universal Morality, but then again they are so sub divided again and again, unable to agree on anything, that they too failed spectacularly. And that was with their God as the Source of all morality.

It gets a lot harder when you don’t have a “source.” And morality isn’t like gravity, or time, or light. You can’t scientifically experience morality. You can define it in your mind, you can say a thing is or isn’t, but not everyone is going to agree with you. We can all agree what gravity does, and we all go through time the same way, and most of us experience light pretty much the same way. Morality though, that is different.

Morality says for one group of people that it is okay to kill their daughters for shaming them by being raped. It says to another that it is okay to kill the rapist who shamed their daughter. It says to a third that there is no shame on the family, but it was the woman’s fault. It says to a fourth that it was the man’s fault. It says to a fifth that there is no fault, because it was a biological imperative to propagate the species.

Now, take those five Moral answers. Try to find the Universal Right and Wrong in there. Guess what, you’re gonna get people taking all of them, and coming up with even more answers. And you can’t prove that anyone is more right or wrong! For every instance, there is an argument and a counter argument, and a counter counter argument!

The fact is that there is no universal morality out there. Be it coming from Gods or Mortals, there is never an agreement on what is moral. People can argue that killing is Universally Wrong, but what happens when the only way to save a life is to end another? Or something like torture, but what if torturing one saves tens, hundreds, thousands, millions? Is one morally more correct for not torturing one person and letting untold numbers die, or have they commuted a far more terrible moral crime by letting others die by not torturing one? What if going to war is Wrong, but not going to war means not having the supplies need to feed and protect your family, thus meaning they die? If killing is morally wrong, on a universal scale, then there is no way not to be wrong. And if there is no way not to be wrong….what are left with, the idea that all sin? Well if all sin, then you need something to forgive them. But there is no God, so there is nothing with the power to forgive!

Of course, I suppose there is what some secularists and Atheists are going for, which is that the State takes the place of God. Perhaps the State will forgive you for your “sins.” But then we’re dealing with “men” making the morality, and frankly considering the bang up job governments do of running things, I’d really rather not have them deciding my morality anymore than they already do.

And then you’re right back to where you started. Every action, no matter how horrific, can be morally justified. Morality can come from Gods, or from Men, and it will always be as different and varied as such being always are. But there is no Universal Morality, and even if there was, we’d have no way of finding it or proving it better than any of the others out there.

There is only one Universal Truth: Power. All else is commentary. Go and study.

The Dark Side PBP

Tags

Pagan, Heathen, Paganism, Heathenism, Christianity, Islam, Religion, Freyja, Magic, Rants, Pagan Blog Project, Power, Odin, Freya, Ares, Mars, War Gods, War Goddesses, The Dark Side, Sith, Will, Curses, War

The Dark Side. The Dark Ages. Dark Times. Dark Deeds.

This week’s Pagan Blog Project post is a dark one. For good reason. This is a subject rarely touched in the Pagan community, and when it is touched, it is rarely approached in the right way.

We all want a world filled with light and love. But the world is not such a place.

The stereotype of Pagans in the main stream tends to follow two paths: We’re all evil, or we all hold to “Harm none, do what though wilt.” This is helped along by the fact that many open Pagans refuse to be called evil, and will go to extremes in order to make Paganism look like anything but the “evil” that society has been programed to see it as.

This is not, inherently, a bad thing.

However, it has lead to many an issue. Some Pagans will chastise fellow Pagans for walking “too darkly” on their path. Or as is the case with some traditions that supposedly put forth both the God and the Goddess, the God is often hidden away and suppressed for his violent, dark, male nature. Some do this because they think we no longer need such things. Others do it to counter the “Patriarchy.” What ever the reason is though, the Dark Side is often suppressed. And with it, goes much of the magic and abilities of our Pagan people.

It is in this Darkness where we find abilities some consider to be unnatural. Indeed, we are unnatural according to a great many.

This is how many view the dark side:

Fear leads to anger,
Anger leads to Hate,
Hate leads to suffering.
~ Yoda

How simplistic is the idea that we must reject the ideas held in the Dark Arts out of some moral imperative, when those who would wipe us out perform worse acts with the attitude that such acts are completely moral?

Of course, this suppression of the Dark Arts is because much of Paganism was renewed in the 60′s, an age of peace, love, and a smoky haze that means those that were there remember it through tented lenses of justice and righteousness, and the rest of us aren’t really sure what the hell happened. Violence was bad, authority was bad, war was bad, etc. So many a Pagan Path grew from this. For example, many a Druids look more like a hippy than the nightmarish figures who performed forced sex change operations on Roman soldiers captured in war and who made even my Norse Ancestors (who feared nothing but their wives) say “the F**** be crazy.”

The simple fact of the matter is, that as much as we wish it wasn’t so, Might does make Right, in the simple essence that those with power define morality. And those with power have declared us to be inherently evil.

But the times, as the song goes, are a changing. In the sixties, we could afford to be as anti-war and as peace loving as we liked. Thanks largely in part to MADD, also known as Mutually Assured Destruction. The only real enemy we had at the time was the USSR, and neither side wanted to wipe out the other and take the planet with them. Oh, we scuffled, and we came close, and each side wanted the other gone, but neither wanted to wipe out all the people, just see their way held supreme.

I learned long ago that you can’t fight the names and the declarations against you, especially those that name you evil. The best thing you can do is embrace it, study it, see what Evil really is, and learn the Ultimate Truth.

That isn’t the case now. On a global scale, we now have countries like Iran wanting nukes. Many don’t see the problem with this, after all every nation has the right to a strong defense. The problem is that Iran isn’t held by the same desire to see life preserved. It’s run by people who believe, possibly even stronger than anyone else on earth holds their beliefs, that it is desirable to sacrifice every person of their nation in order to spread their religion. All across the world, religions are becoming more radicalized, with Islam leading the charge (I read just the other day that roughly 250+ people are killed a day by Islamic Terrorists), followed closely by Christianity, as believers howl to their God in sacred bloodlust, intent on making their religion supreme.

That the energy you spend fighting the allegations that you are evil, especially when these allegations are made by religions whose bedrock is the idea that they are the only good in the universe, could be better spent gaining the power needed to make sure they never have the ability to force their views upon you, and cleanse you from the earth.

The days of peace are truly coming to an end.

Those that call you evil believe that Power is evil, except in their hands or the hands of their God. You will never change this fact. Those who practice Paganism inherently have a power they can never understand, and they believe it treads upon the thing that only their God is supposed to have.

Which brings me back to what I intend to talk about. Some argue that just because others are becoming radical doesn’t mean that we should. This is a fair point. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t become Ready. Because to counter faith and violence like what is growing in the world, we are going to need the same thing. We will need that near fanatical faith, and that willingness to be violent if needed.

All you can do is embrace it. Take it, make it your own. And then show them…

It is time we look once more to the Dark Arts or our magic. It is time that we stop suppressing the violence, and learning to embrace and master it. It is time to finally start invoking the War Gods and Goddess in our rituals and our prayers. Though many may find this morally repulsive, it must be done, and it must be done with Will and with Power.

Show them why they tried to carve the world up in blood and crush anything other than themselves. Show them what would have happened if our ancestors would have done had they been truly aware of what was to come.

It is time to not just call upon Odin for his wisdom, but for his frenzy. It is time to call upon Freyja, not just for her beauty and fertility, but for her blade and bloodlust. It is time to call upon Ares, because after almost two thousand years the time has come for him to claim fresh skins for his bed. Mars must be brought forth, and even Mithras. We must learn the death magics, the killing curses, the battle arts of our ancestors. And what we cannot bring back, we must learn to create and use with such power that people remember why Magic and the Magus were so feared and respected.

Because they will come for us. In many ways, they never stopped coming for us. And their stories are filled with what happened when we and the things from where we come from came for them.

It is time too, to stop being dismissive and derogatory to the things we are taught to not like. There has been much talk of building physical communities, and that time has indeed come. But we must do more when we build these communities, we must bind them together as Tribes, once again returning to the old ways where we put our Pagan kin above all others (regardless of color. It is our beliefs that bind us, as much as our heritage). We need to stop sneering at ideas like Tribalism and calling it “racist” but to embrace it and make it our own. We need to get over this insanity that says we shouldn’t teach our religions to our children, lest we prevent them from finding themselves. If Paganism is to survive, we must not only teach the next generation, but teach them to believe even harder than we do!

We must embrace the nightmares they made of us. Because those nightmares have power. Power that we can use to keep ourselves safe.

We need to take the destructive energies that we try to suppress, which so often tear apart kindred and covens, and focus them not amongst ourselves, but outwards to the people who would see us once more wiped out. We need to examine the ideas so often called Evil and see just what they are and learn why they are evil. And then we need to embrace them. Because Paganism is as much about the Dark and the Light. And we have been light long enough. It is time to bring back the darkness.

They say we are monsters, devil worshipers, the fiends in the dark that call down demons and lay curses upon them. To them this is the truth. To us, it is potential.

It is time to show all those who fill the air with their hatred and their venom and their cries for the destruction of Paganism to learn why they hate and fear us. They will never stop, they will never respect us. Individuals may, but the whole will never. It is time we regained the skills and attitudes needed to smash their teeth back into their hate filled mouths. It is time we bound ourselves together, cast off the rules imposed by those not our own, and restore the Ancient ways.

It shows us just what their weakness is. It shows us the tools we can use to safeguard our ways, take back the generations stolen from us. To bring back the ancient ways in force and numbers. And to make sure that they do not dare cross us again.

This is a better way to look at the dark side:

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken

~ The Sith Code

Because the ugly truth is they already are pushing themselves into another bloodfrenzy, the likes of which we have never seen. And they have the weapons to make sure the world burns before it slips from their grasp. They have the technology. We have the magic. We must learn how to use it to even more devistating effect and inspiring creation. Or else we will be lost forever.

The Dark Ages come again. A wolf age. They require dark arts and dark deeds to survive. Let us not fade from this world for lack of the Power and Will to survive. Let us break our chains, and see the Victory that is our ways living on.

When “Racists” Attack

Tags

Asian, Elliott Dearlove, hate, Islam, race, racism, Rants, schools, skin, UK

Alright, this is going to be a rant, and I’m starting out pretty sarcastically. Fair warning, I am probably not going to be coming across as political correct or polite about this.

So, I was flipping through news stories and I found this story of a terrible racist attack. It was brutal, offensive, and down right sadistic. Surely, such a sadistic act had to be the work of a truly hateful, hateful person, to violate his school’s zero tolerance policy on racism.

This is the face of the depraved monster

Yep, that little boy right there. And what, may you ask, did this little boy do? Was it beat up someone, hang them, lash them with terrible slurs that made them run crying?

Not..exactly. He did ask a question though. He asked another little boy if he was brown because he came from Africa?”

What. The. Hel.

That, is of course, asking like asking if I come from Europe or America because my skin is white. Sure, at this point in time, there’s so many races in pretty much all of the “Western” Part of the world that it may not be as applicable as it was fifty or a hundred years ago since we’re all integrated and stuff, but then again there’s been a massive influx of immigration into the “West” as well. Personally, I find it an okay, non-racist question.

This of course, apparently, is enough to get you called a racist in the UK now. His mother got called to his school, and though attempting to defend her son by saying he didn’t even know what racism was (a fair claim in our supposedly post racial world) the school tried to get her to sign a paper stating her son had made a racist remark. I am not sure what said paper does, but I can only suspect that it would haunt the kid for the rest of his life. Thankfully, she refused to sign it.

Sadly, this story is not unique. Though I have lost the original article, there was a similar story (also from the UK) where a little girl was charged with being a racist. Her crime, such as it was, was asking to be put in a different group for a school project than one she was in. That was all immigrant kids, speaking their native language. Which the girl didn’t speak a word of. Of course, this sounds terribly racist, doesn’t it. How dare the little girl ask to be with pupils who spoke her language, in her school, in her country, for a project that would effect her grade, education, and so on, rather than be ostracized by the group she was in, excluded from the assigned project, and likely fail.

I wasn’t aware that asking to be able to be in a group willing and able to communicate with you on a school project was racism now. Are we really to that point, where asking to be able to communicate is racism! Should the girl have let her grades suffer, lose out on education, and spend her time excluded from this group because they refused to speak a language she understood?

Of course, these are but two in a growing list of similar stories involving both children and adults.

Racism is wrong. No one race is better than any other. This is something I truly believe. I was raised with no ideas of racism. I was raised to believe that all were equal. I believe this. But I am starting to wonder if we are really in a post-racial society. I wonder if the dream of MLK jr will ever become a reality, where we can all live together in harmony. Looking at it, I am starting to really wonder. Seeing what happens in the UK, what’s happening all over Europe, what occasionally is starting here in the USA, and what is happening in South Africa (that you won’t find in the news) I’m starting to think that we are not going to have an age of racial brotherhood and equality.

The oldest stories are of revenge, often enough for slights imagined as slight real. Hatreds are stirred against people, often who have done nothing personally against the attacker. And instead of teaching people to be equal and treat each other equally, we’ve had people out there teaching that one group of people is nothing but racists, and that everyone else (no matter what they do or say) can never be racist. We begin to see the fruits of that labor now, and the extremes to which it can go.

I’m just a simple Heathen. My goals are simple. Protect my kin, protect my tribe, show honor to everyone else when they show me honor.

I worry for the future of humanity, because I’ve seen what hate driven by skin color is like (and I’ve read my history) and I believe that all people are equal. Equally good.

Equally Monstrous.

They Came for the Crosses, Will They Come for the Trees?

Tags

Pagan, Heathen, Paganism, Heathenism, Christianity, News, The Wild Hunt, Rants, Atheism, Wicca, Pat Robertson, Hrafnkell Haraldsson, wiccan, trees, idols, meme

Okay, this is another one of those subjects I’m probably late to the party for. I’ve been trying out not being on the cutting edge of topics because frankly I can sometimes be a bit of a hot head (what Heathen isn’t?) and so I guess I’m trying to stay out of trouble and uphold the virtue of Hospitality upon this blog. Doesn’t always work, but I try.

Anyways, I actually saw this when it came on TV. This is what happens when you have less than twenty channels on your TV, you flip around and you can’t always avoid the Christian channel.

And apparently, this caused a bit of a fuss. Which I will admit, surprised me. Mostly because I found it funny, with a couple tiny grains of truth.

This is a copy of Hrafnkell Haraldsson’s comment about this, which is on the Wild Hunt article:

“The obvious answer to this is that Wiccans don’t worship trees. This is more of the ever-popular  Old Testament dumb idol meme, the hatred of the Yahwists for trees as representative of goddesses, and repeated all through early Christian history (e.g. 1 Corinthians 12:2), where Pagans become people who worship rocks and trees rather than seeing in nature the divine all around us. On a whole, this is roughly analogous to and about as accurate as saying Christians worship a cross.

Although, it wouldn’t surprise me if even militant atheists aren’t too worked up about Wicca, which like other Pagan religions, eschews proselytization and preaching to “non-believers” like Kristi Watts’ own religion. Pagans also aren’t known to be busy either trying to deprive atheists of their right to not believe. But then, comprehension of causation is not a strong suit for those who believe their god’s will decides everything, including who is born to whom and when.”

Now, the above raises some good points, but my perspective and experiences on these issues is just a bit different. Sure, the Atheists, or Militant Atheists, don’t come hunting down and attacking Pagan stuff like they do the Christian. But if you happen to be a Pagan who pops up in any area that Atheists consider their own, well…they’re gonna rip into you for being a stupid Theist all the same.

As for the Tree Worshiping thing, that’s actually kind of a fair thing to say. To the uninitiated (no, not in the Wiccan sense) it can look a lot like Pagans worship trees. We pray in front of trees, hold rituals in the wood, some of us actually do pray to trees or the things that live inside the trees, we make offerings to trees, we carve our idols from trees, and in some instances we hug trees. It’s not just a stupid meme that Pagans worship trees, or rocks, or the fields, or the storms. We do! It’s part of what being Pagan is, recognizing the spirits of the land and befriending them and showing due respect.

Heck, I’m sort of in a Pagan Student Alliance at the local university, even though I’ve graduated (I kinda helped found it, and I think I’m the vice-president) and our President is wanting to hold a tree hugging event. I think we’re going to do it so you can hug trees or offer libations, mostly because I suggested that (I don’t really hug trees…). By all accounts, she worships the trees, or the spirits in the trees. And you can’t really separate the body from the soul in a living thing.

So as you can guess, I didn’t get too upset over the Pagans Worship Trees thing. It actually kind of surprised me that the Wild Hunt and others went all *froth froth* Christians are idiots! *froth froth*. But then again maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. In my personal experiences over there…well. You have to be the right kind of person to get tolerated.

I am still surprised I’m the reasonable one in all this.

As for the Atheists coming to cut down the trees, well, I’m not willing to write that off as insane rhetoric. The news sometimes gets plastered with stories of Atheists forcing the Christians to remove, cover up, hide, or destroy their religious icons from all over the place. Now, I’m not really interested in taking a side in that fight. I don’t like the Christians, and I will admit I get a sense of dark pleasure when they be slapped down and their relics destroyed, just as they did to the relics of my ancestors. However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t worry about what the end result of all this destruction will be. It creates a vacuum, and nature abhors those.

I’ll admit, I wonder who the Atheists will come for when they’ve finished with the Christians. Some of the Militant Atheists so hate religion that they want to destroy all religion and replace it with “Science.” This includes Paganism. We shouldn’t make the mistake in thinking they will never come for us simply because we don’t see them currently hitting us.

Would Atheists cut down all the trees, just to spite the Pagans? Depends on how many Pagans there are when the Atheists finish with the Christians and decide to go after their next religion. I would hope that some would see the sense of not doing such a destructive thing.

But that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t come and chop down the Sacred Groves that some Pagans have built. The hatred some Atheists have towards the Gods they swear do not exist, often is a rival for the passionate hatred that many a Christian feels towards the Pagan things in life. And you put enough people together, all with that hate, you aren’t going to be able to stop them without some serious resolve. And before people start talking about how Atheism isn’t like that, I’ve run into atheists, in person and in the blog realms, who do the same things that Christians did and do (such as staying friends with “theist friends” so that they can see Atheists aren’t evil, but good people with the right way) to other religions, because Atheism is “superior” to other paths.

So go ahead and mock, oh Pagan brothers and sisters, and laugh at the silly Christians wondering why the Atheists don’t chop down Wiccan trees. Sometimes prophesy comes from the lips of fools. The enemy of our enemy is not always our friend, they just haven’t buried a knife in us yet.

Crimes of Modesty

Tags

capt hammer, captain hammer, Christianity, Freyja, Goddesses, Gods, Heathen, Heathenism, Islam, modesty, mormon, Norse, Pagan, Paganism, Religion, romans, Rome, seventh day adventists, sparta, Thor, Valentines day

So…it’s late when I’m writing this, I need material, and I’m low on inspiration. Partially because I’m tired, and partially because the idiot above my head is throwing a party and the apartment is not rated with great insulation.

So I get to hear it.

Which makes me wonder if there isn’t some sort of hospitality rule about that says you should inform your neighbors of the party, time of the party, possibly invite them to the party, and not just throw it and blast your music, interfering with any activities like watching tv that they (i.e. me!) might be doing.

Okay, dragging myself away from that before I start sounding more like I’ve been here half a century rather than a quarter.

So I’m guessing that several people have heard about this, it’s been mentioned a couple places. It’s about the girl who got the note on valentine’s day that instead of telling her she was pretty or the boy liked her, that her garments were immodest and disruptive to the environment and violated the honor code.

 

Modesty Fail

(if anyone can tell me how you get the caption to be on the pic like one of those self developing pics like so many here get their pics to have, please tell me!)

So yes, looking at the pic, I was a bit confused. After all, my 5-6 years in college/university showed me much, much skimpier garments than that. I mean, short of a Mennonite or something, that’s a very modest outfit (or at least appropriate for cold weather, depending on the location).

Needless to say, I was confused. Then the second article I linked mentioned that it was at a Seventh Day Adventist College. I.e. Mormons. I think. I get seriously confused about the numerous Christian denominations out there. I can’t even keep the Pagan ones straight.

I recommend you read the two articles I linked for further details about the situation. What I want to talk about is Modesty itself. Lots of people like to make a big deal about modesty, and the morality of modesty, etc. People like to say that Modesty is a good thing.

I am not so sure.

Now, I know what some are going to say. I’m a young man, in his prime. Of course I think it’s a good thing for young, attractive women to go around flashing as much as they can for all to see. And I will admit, that I am indeed a man that likes to look upon lovely ladies. But my stance goes beyond that.

See, Pagan civilizations weren’t all that big on modesty. They glorified the sexual in life, and the beautiful, and they didn’t believe in hiding it away. In Sparta, women walked around naked. In Rome, phallic carvings were all over the place a good luck charms. They Egyptians ran around in transparent fabric that showed everything. And I do mean everything. The Norse have the tale of how Freyja slept with four dwarfs to gain her famous necklace. Thor’s hammer Mjolnir has a short handle that gets longer as he strokes it.

 

 

Yeah, we pagans didn’t have an issue with Teh Sex. We certainly didn’t have modesty issues. And we never complained about women dressing immodestly. In fact, we glorified both the male and female figures and their sexuality.

On the other hand, it’s funny. Certain other groups out there complain about modesty too. It’s about considering women sacred as well. Only they “sanctify” it by keeping it covered, because to display is to cause lust, and lust is evil. (Still trying to figure out that one, btw.) So to protect women from the “lust” of men, women have to cover themselves up, lest they tempt men. Of course there’s various degrees and ways this works.

Yeah…that would never have flown with my ancestors. And any man that would have tried it would have found a knife in his balls, from the woman he attacked. He’d probably be dead before the menfolk got to him to kill him. My ancestors were a proud and violent people. And the only thing a viking feared was his wife. It’s in the sagas.

I wonder if it’s because of the fundamental difference between the Pagan and Monotheistic point of views on the nature of the sacred. For Pagans and Heathens, the sacred is there, out in the open. Be it nature, the Gods and Goddesses, the human body, etc, it’s all there, not hidden, but glorified. But with Monotheism it’s different, the sacred is hidden away, locked up, inside the “holy of holies” like the invisible god that you can’t see, because if you did you’d go mad and die. I guess for them it has to be hidden to be sacred, or else it’s not. Because Gods forbid (or would it be God forbids) you get to see something holy in life.

Some like to say that being immodest is a sin. I think I might stand the other way. I think being modest might be the “Sin.” Denying and hiding the sacred in life, making it some how dirty and evil, that’s something that strikes me as wrong. You can make all the arguments about respect you want, but I’m sorry. You’re not respecting anyone when you try to shame them into covering up and hiding what the Gods and Goddesses have given them. You’re not respecting them when you tell a woman that the sight of bare skin is evil, and that they must cover up.

That’s not respect. That’s disrespect. Plain and simple.

Vices and Virtues Project

Tags

A Heathen's Path, About Me, Heathen, Pagan, Rants, Religion, The Vices and Virtues Project, Vices and Virtues Project

So, I’ve been debating lately doing certain kinds of posts on certain days of the week. Largely because of the Pagan Blog Project that I’ve been a part of, and I like doing it. Initially I thought about doing something like a God of the Week, or Herb Day, or something like that, but sadly I don’t know herbs, can’t always speak to all the Gods, and while I am told I have a lot of magical power (and I’ve proven it to myself several times) I am afraid I’m not quite ready to do a weekly post about magical practices.

But there is one area where I know I am good enough to speak with power: Philosophy.

I’ve spent almost a decade working on the philosophical arts, and adding things to them from my various studies. I like to think I’m pretty good at it, conceptually, even if I can’t list the philosophers categorical. So, while I build up my magical knowledge, I’m gonna start with what I’m good at.

Thus the Vice and Virtues Project. While I’ve posted every day so far, I haven’t really talked about what it means to be a Heathen and a Sorcerer to me. I’m sure parts of it have come through, but I haven’t made a dedicated effort towards sharing my beliefs. Hence VnV, where I’m gonna look at some of the Nine Noble Virtues of Heathenism, Then look at the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Seven Heavenly Virtues, which people are a bit more familiar with through the lens of my personal Heathenism. There may well be a few other things I look at during this project as well, but those are the main things.

The Vices and Virtues Project is going hopefully going to be published every Monday. The fact that I can scheduled these things ahead of time should help with this. If for some reason they aren’t I will make a note on Monday’s post about when it will be appearing. If anyone would like to join in, just leave a link in the comments section to your blog. There is a dedicated “Category” for the Vices and Virtues Project in my categories drop down box, which should make them easier to find all at once.

Obama, Catholics, Abortion Part Due

Tags

birth control, catholic, health insurance, obama, Rants, Religion, religious organizations

Okay, so yesterday I wrote about the Obama/Catholic row over birth control. Fairly quickly, I got called out on my lack of research into the prices of female birth control, which apparently is highly expensive, even the cheap stuff.

This is what I get for assuming I could judge the price of one contraceptive based on the price of one for the opposite gender. So much for equality of the sexes. Though I suppose I should have realized this, being that one is basically a latex balloon, and the others made of complex chemical formula or objects placed internally.

My bad, sorry.

The problem with the above was largely that everyone complaining about the situation argued it on the grounds of “Rights” either those of religions or those of women (why are men not mentioned, we too use contraception? I think that’s ground for a future post somewhere). No one mentioned the price, at least not in any of the articles or news shows I saw. See, if they started dragging out how much this stuff cost I can’t be sure that would have changed the discussion, but it might have made some of this whole making organizations pay for their workers contraception with insurance a bit clearer and less “trample-y” on rights.

I’m still not cool with governments forcing organizations to pay against their moral codes. Though a commenter on yesterdays article mentioned that doctors who are Jehovah’s Witnesses still have to do blood transfusions despite that they don’t believe such action is moral (which is something I did not know, if anyone has more info on this, please share). Though I would say that situation is different, because it is making someone perform their duty to a job, not making an entire organization violate it’s scripture. and the JW has the choice not to be a doctor. A religious organization doesn’t really have a choice about being a religious organization.

Then again, if the other articles I have read are anything to go by, the religious issue is not a moot point, beyond both sides using it to distract the public for their own ends. Apparently, Obama has declared that religious organizations are exempt again, but the Insurance Companies have to provide contraception free of charge now to their clients.

A suspicious man might wonder if that was the plan all along…

Obama, Catholics, Abortion

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abortion, catholic, Christianity, contraception, government, Heathen, obama, Pagan, politics, Power, Religion, Rights

So, I know I’m late to the game on this issue. This is deliberate. Sure, I could probably get a lot of hits for my blog had I jumped into this situation with my usual…whatever it is I have.

Laying about with a philosophical Mjolnir?

I thought about coming down on the side of the Catholics in this whole forced to pay for contraceptives/abortions/etc. Not because I like or agree with the Catholics (I can’t say that I do), but because it does strike me as kind of a dick move to make people act against their beliefs.

Yes, I’ve seen the data and the fact that a lot of Catholics use contraceptives. I know that the Catholic church says contraceptives are a sin. I know they also say masturbation, sex, porn, etc are sins. They say a lot of things are sins.

I don’t think it’s a lot of fun being a good Catholic.

Still, that’s what they believe, or what their church believes. The two aren’t always the same. But that doesn’t make it right to make Catholic, or any religious organization, pay for things they don’t believe in.

And really, do we need health insurance to cover contraceptives? Sure, we need it for most medical stuff, because that is way out the ass expensive these days. Hel, if Obama had made it mandatory to add dental (which is something everyone really should have, but I am under the impression most places don’t offer) I wouldn’t be having this issue.

But seriously, how expensive is contraceptives that they have to be added to health insurances? Okay, I’ll admit, some of the stuff may be a little expensive. But seriously, I don’t think the pill is that expensive, and on my end of the scale, Trojans are what, ten bucks a box? Do I really need insurance to cover that? If I work for a religious organization, do I really need them to pay for that?

Not to mention that they might have access to what I use the insurance for, so why would I want them to know, especially if I was part of a religion that frowned on such stuff and worked for that religion’s business. In which case they might find a reason to fire my ass.

Bad road, man, bad road.

Of course, we could go with the theory that this is about politics and having one’s political views enforce over the objections of those who don’t believe as you do. In which case I will admit this whole mess does make more sense. Well, as much sense as anything to do with politics does. Okay, I’ll admit, it doesn’t make sense, but this is politics.

Personally, I’m a Heathen, and we really run all over the place on the issues of contraception, abortion, and all that other stuff. Still, I don’t really like the idea of someone coming in and making religions do things they don’t want, especially if that person (or group) is one that constantly whines when religions tread into areas they don’t want religions. Though, I suppose the argument could be made that they really don’t want religions involved anywhere except for where they help said person’s politics.

This is a complex issue, though. People do have a right to control their reproduction. Or at least, I believe they do. Not everyone agrees, which is fair. But just because we have that right, doesn’t mean we have the right to have it paid for by other people. You want power over yourself, you have to obtain it yourself. You can’t just expect people to give it to you. And you certainly shouldn’t demand it from those who don’t agree with that position, for whatever reason. Power gained that way is brittle and easily lost, while hard to maintain.

We’ve already seen the results of trying to forcibly take that power.

Death PBP

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Anubis, Christianity, Death, Freyja, Freyr, Goddesses, Gods, Hades, Heathen, Heathenism, Ibis, Jackal, Morrigan, Norse, Pagan, Pagan Blog Project, Paganism, Religion, Thoth

Once again we come to the Pagan Blog Project day! This week the letter is D, and thus I have chosen to speak of Death. A rather grim topic, it is true.

As I have mentioned before, one of the main Goddesses I try to walk with is Hel, Norse Goddess of death, daughter of Loki, Mistress of Helheim, keeper of the dead, the Twin Colored. To me she is a young maiden, half her flesh is the color of living flesh, the other half the blue black of frozen flesh. I think her lovely, and as a rule compassionate, though not one to be crossed lightly.

In a lot of ways, I think I am not that unique in my views of death, at least among the Pagan and Heathen communities (though my view of Lady Hel may be different). We do not look upon death with the same attitudes that say the Monotheistic religions look at it.

My understanding was shaped in part by the death of my Aunt. She had lymphoma, I believe they said, and the second time she got it the tumors reached the size of a basket ball, or volley ball. I was younger then, and this was way back right near the start of my journey through my parents horrific divorce and the spiritual cycle of death, destruction dissolution, and finally rebirth that created me. Truly, I was born of many deaths, which is why I walk with death.

But back to my Aunt. As I said the tumors were of great size, and they devoured even her bones in their growth. When at long last she died (having lived long enough to see her daughter married in the same hospital as her death bed) I did not weep for her death. Even in that too sheltered state, I had understood that death was the release of pain, not the thing to be feared. What few tears I did shed were for the life not lived, that I would never know. But I did not weep for her death. Those around me did, for the short period before their hatred for each other once again took hold and the family games of one up man-ship and self-centeredness that so plague my mother’s side of the family began again.

My own spiritual path in a lot of ways has been about death, and violence, and power. Alchemy, at it’s heart, is about destruction and creation in perpetual motion working towards the final purified rebirth of the substance. This is something I have been doing to myself for nearly ten years, though have left the “Black Phase” for the “White Phase.”

Monotheists, as a rule, see death as a punishment for sin, where they are judged eternally for the deeds done in a few score years on this little world. Under those circumstance one can surely understand their fear of Death! After all, an eternity of pleasure or suffering lies in what one does or doesn’t do, on the whims of a deity you can’t even see, and you never know if you were good enough till you get their.

Pagans and Heathens, on the other hand, do not need have this fear. For most of us, we go to the realms of the afterlife ruled by our gods, and we know where and how we go their. For the Norse, a death in battle lands you in the halls of Freyja or Odin (little known fact, Freyja got first pick of the Slain Warriors, not Odin, despite that Valhalla is more famous), while a death by almost any other means meant that one went to Hel, where the lands were calm a peaceful (rather like the Greek Fields of Elysium), and those who were most dishonorable and heinous were cast to Nidhoggr (the great beast that devours the roots of Yggdrasil) to be devoured and destroyed. Most other paths have their own, similar set ups.

Our deeds determined where we go. Live a good life and praise the gods, and you go to a nice place. There’s nothing to fear, except a brief parting from loved ones who you would see on the other side. No endless punishments handed out arbitrarily, good unto good deeds, bad unto bad deeds. There is an accounting, Ibis and Jackal have their special feather for those who walk the Path of Khem, but ones word and actions taken in good heart and honor rarely do one ill.

We live every day with death. We adorn death and worship it, when we style our hair or beautify our nails. We live off of death, and from it create life. We are as surrounded by death as we are by life, it is part of the great cycle, ever in ebb and flow. Life creates death, death creates life. So do not fear death, nor it’s Gods, Hel, Hades, Freyja, Morrigan, Thoth and Anubis, or any of the others. There is not evil in death, only a continuation and seed for everything.

Crafting: Altar Part 3

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A Heathen's Path, About Me, altar, altar cloth, art, craft, crafting, crafts, Heathen, Heathenism, Magic, Pagan, Paganism, Rants, Religion

Okay, so, once again I have been creative! Run in fear, my pretties, run in fear! Mwuahahahahaha!

I love being an evil sorcerer.

As you folks can see, once again I’m bringing out the altar. I have been lazy about the other projects, but I actually had money to spare and went out looking for an altar cloth. Sadly I couldn’t find the “suede” style fabric I found last time I was at the craft store, so I got some kinda slinky/silkly looking stuff. I got about two feet of it, but didn’t really pay attention to how “Wide” the fabric is. (For those not in the know, fabric comes in “widths” and then you get the “length” you need. At least as I understand it).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I have a crappy camera. I know.

So anyways, with all the extra fabric it got folded up like four times. I might nab some scissors at some point and cut it so I have multiple cloths, and thus spares and it doesn’t lay as thick on the alter. That, however, is something I am going to worry about later. Now the only big thing is to get stuff in my house cleared out of the area I want to set it up, cleans it, and then place my idols upon it and start making it into a more proper alter.