48 new of 48 responses total.
Thanks for posting this article. Hope the ritual is satisfying and *right*.
Thanks, Kami! A lot. To everyone, I'm sorry to post something so long but it seemed worth sharing since many (most?) of us will face that "across the chasm" thing at one time or another to one degree or another.
Your statement about seperation of faith made me think of when my Mjolnir pendant broke while I was working on July 3rd of this year. When I realized that the pendant was missing from the chain, I felt not only the break in the chain but a break in something spiritual. When I found where the pendant part of the necklace was, I noticed it was broken right on the ring that goes around the chain, allowing it to dangle. One of the times I went to the bathroom that night, I asked my gods what I had done to offend them because I had felt a spiritual rupture as well as lonliness and my theory about the pointlessness of everything. My faith is still weak, but it is coming back. However, since I am surrounded by Islam at work, my faith is kept suppressed. Last night, however, I came to the conclusion that the building I work in is devoring my soul. I also remembered that I should fight to keep my faith, as my experience in Malaysia left a scar on my soul that will never completely heal. I do think, however, that part of Joanna's possession of me on a voluntary basis on my part helped to heal my soul - much as her positive energy was painful to me the day of her funeral, it made me feel better the next. Still, in my state of weak faith, I continue to long for death (to be reuinted with Joanna, mostly), but am afraid, because I think my very soul is being weakend by the forces of the building where I work, as well as the probability of me being the only pagan who works there.
Thanks Misti for the chance to read your thoughts here. I found myself drifting apart from my own son, and an angry message from him yesterday made clear how little we have in common. I was quite ready to cancel a visit to him in East Lansing on Sunday, but realized how tragic it would be to allow this kind of thing to fester. We all need to reach out, as you did, to the people we love, to forgive them their bad-tempered outbreaks, and to build relationships, even when they seem most hopeless.
Is this from an article, or original? Either way, it's a wonderful
and thoughtful contribution to this conference.
I wrote it as an article to be published in a pagan newsletter ... but mostly as a healing for myself. Thanks, Jazz and John.
It's well-written, but you're doing a disservice to yourself not
submitting it to a more widely-read publication.
wow, misti. wow. thanks for so eloquently expressing a number of things that have been bothering me since my mother died (although i am still in the broom closet to my family).
Thanks, Jazz -- but I have no idea who'd want it beyond my own little circle. Thanks, Dru, I'm glad i could say something meaningful to help you. If you're still in the broom closet to your family, your mother's death must have been even harder for you to cope with. Even though I couldn't talk about it much,my mother and brothers did know. (As did my father.)
Misti, I wasn't thinking so much in terms of who'd want it, as who'd
benefit from reading it.
Any suggestions? <grin> Somehow I don't think Readers Digest would find a use for it. ;) Seriously, I'd consider publishing if I had any idea who might run it. I've been surprised, but very, very gratified by the repsonse this essay has had and I could stand a little more gratification this summer. ;)
Hahahaha, yes, Reader's Digest. I don't think they're ready.
There are numerous Pagan publications which might consider running this. I'd try Green Egg, just for kicks.
Hmmm, there's an idea. I haven't read them in years...
It's precisely non-Pagan publications that need this kind of writing.
Imagine what would happen the next time someone starts getting down on
someone because they're Irish-Celtic, and then they remember the article ...
okay, perhaps I'm being an idealist.
Getting it published by such a magazine would be extremely hard -- except maybe Utne or Mother Jones -- but they tend to be looking for a different soet of article.
then submit it to Reader's Digest. if you *know* you're going to get a rejection letter, it's not such a big deal, and you might accidentally get an acceptance letter. what the hell =}
Parabola. Actually, Brighn has a point there, about Reader's Digest...Goferit.
You folks are aware that Reader's Digest is owned by a religious (Christian) group, aren't you???
Why don't I find that information surprising.
#19> Point?
Didn't Christ preach tolerance for all? :)|
Unfortunately, the Bible not only contradicts itself from Old to New testament, but also withing the same chapter. Gensis, for example.
So it's acceptable to use inflammatory statements about Christianity,
but not others about your beliefs? I see.
That's not a flame. That's the truth, stated simply and not in a hostile or condescending manner.
Thank you, brighn. (failing to resist the urge to use a gaming reference): Jazz, you critically failed your interpretation/perception check.
There's a difference between "flaming" and "inflammatory", Paul -
I'm sure you're aware of it.
#26: That's so twittish that there's just no reply.
See, that was flaming. :)
You're right, John, there is. the comments that you made some time ago, that bjorn critized, were flames and flame-baits. the comment bjorn made was inflammatory. happy?
re: resp:21 (which was re resp:19) My point is that the suggestion was made that I submist my essay to Reader's Digest ... and it's so thoroughly pagan in outlook that I can't see how I could rewrite it keeping the point and still making it palatable to RD's self-selected audience.
The Xtian bible was much better befor the Esclesiastical (spl?) Council of 485 AD, this papal group re-wrote major parts of the original, writting out such thing that they believed werr common knowledge, givens like re-incarnation and the many god and goddess involved with Yahweh.
Your spelling looks right, birdnoir.
29> I knew what your point was. I'd already said the article has nearly no chance of being accepted by RD, but it's a strange strange world.
Ecclesiastical. I think you're referring to the Deuteronical
revisions, which occured almost eight hundred years earlier, and consolidated
two different sets of polytheistic (but worshipping one diety, and with
notable theological differences) legends, those of the Baalist and the
Yahwist. The Yahwists were the monotheistic-seeming ones, but both the
Baalists and the Yahwists worshipped the same diety, often known by a host
of different names. The Yahwist disgust for the Baalist polytheism is evident
throughout the OT.
Now the Council of Constantine was responsible for the removal of a
lot of apocrypha and for any hint of Gnostic bent in the NT. Many Gnostics
did believe in reincarnation, and later incarnations of Gnosticism worshipped
the Goddess Sophia, or, Wisdom, if somewhat obliquely. But that wasn't really
a part of the popular religion.
All very interesting points, but perhaps it is time that this particular discussion move to its own item?
Misti: Your article is very beautiful. It has brought new understanding to me. <font wipes tears from her eyes> I wish I'd had more of a bridge to my father before he died... The bridge had fallen when I wasn't looking. I'm still fighting with how to honor him without making myself uncomfortable. Have you considered sending this article to "The Sun" ?
What's _The Sun_?
It's a large yellow-white ball of fire that provides light for our planet, Misti.
It's also an alternative religious mag. Check the Utne Reader for contact info, they usually have an ad and/or article in it.
OK, thanks Rob.
Well, to update anyone who wants to know, this article was published in JULES- The Journal of Unusual Learning and Esoteric Studies, Vol 4, No 2. It was an excellent piece, and quite a welcome submission.
Hey! Life in this item, what do you know... Anyone else have thoughts about life, death or relationships?
Good to see you're back, Kami. If anyone can resuscitate this
conference, it'd be you!
Given the conference topic, perhaps "reincarnate" would be a better term?
No, Jazz- I'm not that fond of my own words. One person does not a conversation make. Generally...<g> Cute, Aldous. So- say something...
Don't dash my hopes, Kami. :)
Allright ... I had an unsual experience recently wherein I was outside,
reading, for about an hour or so, and during that period of time, a
blue-and-gray dragonfly kept lighting upon me, and upon the book I was
reading. It was bizaare. I'd never had a dragonfly get that close, or stay
that close for that long. Possibilities?
Jazz- Any number of possibilites come to mind, from the dragonfly deciding you resembled a rock or branch (for whatever reason), to the state of mind your reading material put you in being conduscive to attracting dragonflies (especially blue-gray ones), and those are just two of the myriad possibilities. Would you know how you might have "smelled" at the time? Perhaps you were close enough to moss-covered structres that the moss "odor" of the environment masked the scent that dragonflies get from most humans. More interesting still, it might have had a "human fetish". :-) Hopefully, you weren't resembling a mosquito in any way. It didn't attempt to bite you, did it? Perhaps this should go in a new item: invertabrate phenomena. Aldous
No, I thought it curious, though, and wondered if any with a greater
knowledge of folklore might care to draw a parallel. I'm not aware of any
examples of dragonflies in folklore, to be honest.
Aside from their whimsical use as Victorian Faerie mounts, I've not encountered them in folklore either, that I can swiftly recall.
You have several choices: