This is Required Reading

Knowledge

‘Real radical change happens when someone in a position of authority turns to a blowhard and says: “You are wrong. Stop talking.”’ 

This. Full. Stop.

Calendar April 30

Compass

When I took down the altar I'd had, pretty much in the same state since college in preparation for putting the house on the market, the only thing I kept out was my compass. I think I kept out my pocket sundial as well, but that would be a different story…

So my compass. I always had it on my altar to align it to the directions, elements being associated with directions, yada, etc. Some sort of stone, etc in the North, my tiny (now broken) glass wand in the East, my double edge blade (scissors for various reasons, perhaps to be another story, not sure yet), and a cup to the West, sometimes with water, sometimes not. Candle in the middle, various other bits and pieces of accumulated symbols as well. Pretty solid representation of an altar.

When it all came down, I left the compass and sundial out as a non-obtrusive reminder of the directions and all the associated elements. A representing shadow altar of sorts.

My old altar was a grounding point for me for many years. I felt very ungrounded without it for a while, typically it was only dismantled for moves. As the time wore on and the old house didn't sell (3.25 years, ugh!), I refound my ground, and realized that I had been retaining the trappings of an ideal that didn't reflect my current practices (which were by that point virtually nil) much at all any more.

In part, I am coming back home and revisiting, re-grounding. But regardless, the compass has always been out, even when the sundial finally got packed away. North is alway to the north, more or less, magnetically speaking, the rest follows from there, with all the associated implications, physics or associative. Like Jack Sparrow, my compass lets me know which direction is north so that I can gain-regain my bearings.

Yes, I've been out wandering and sort of lost, and maybe now I'm starting to find my new-old skin again. My old-new skin?  Various things have been building up, not even so much around the edges, but spilling forth, riotously spring time.  I'm missing my silver candle holder, the broken wand, the tiny cast iron cauldron... I don't know that I want to set that all up again, but I want the pieces to configure on an as needed, just in time basis.  Though perhaps in the end, one cannot get as far with tools that got one here, and now I need different tools.  Missing my silver candle holder and tiny cauldron tonight, while appreciating the minimalism and depth of meaning that the compass and sundial came to represent.

~~~
Thank you, Universe and Multiverse, for helping me find the rest of my original altar tonight!  I have missed these things so very very very much! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
~~~

The Universe Speaks to Each of Us

Somewhere once I read something about spirituality, particularly animistic practices, being location-based.  This old tree is made of the essence of something alive, that pile of stones is made of the bones and atoms of the Universe, the shower curtain, if you care to think of it in this way, is made of star dust. The energy, created by atoms swirling around each other, is different in the desert, in the forest, at the top of a mountain, down by the edge of the ocean, inside vs. outside.  The ‘characters’ one finds in each place may share some similarities, may be ‘the same’, may not be.

I was sort of worried that recently I’ve been anthropomorphizing Hekate (crossroads, liminal space, thresholds) and Tara (deep compassion) too much lately, given my stated non-belief in “deity”, but the naming itself is part of what gives boundaries & defines thresholds (yes, even around you, Hekate) and helps us understand our own traverse through space/location (physical, psyche, or otherwise) and experience.  One of the things we discussed during my undergraduate years was what is “Truth” — facts can be strung together to create untruths, and a piece of wholly fabricated, fantastical fiction can contain truths more elegantly expressed than anything “real”.  This is as true for spirituality as it is for more mundane matters.  The Universe speaks to each of us in our own way, and one of the things that I really like about my favorite peoples’ stated and practiced position is that they/we [hold space for] and [practice radical diversity from] and [acceptance of] one another (within defined ethical boundaries).

We all have our own personal practices and beliefs, that we all bring something unique to the table to share that the rest of us can learn from, enjoy vicariously if we can't/don't access The Universe, God/dess/es, Kami, Devas, Loas (and respectfully All The Rest) in the same ways our fellow travelers can/do is a powerful reminder that we are strengthened through our diversity. In building out strong groups of people, one looks to balance one's weakness (not quite the word I'm looking for) with others' complementary strengths – why should spiritual practice be any different?

On Ethics

I will need to revisit and add more over time.  Summarized: one’s ethics must be understood, not just what but why, as well as not solidifying into a conceptualization that is not sufficiently flexible in practice to allow for the truly ethical thing to happen or to evolve into a deeper or different understanding.

Calendar April 27

Calendar April 13

March Homework

(Answering questions not captured here)... Starting with the thing I think I want to prioritize as most important first:

3. Recognition that we all have our own personal practices and beliefs, that we all bring something unique to the table to share that the rest of us can learn from, enjoy vicariously if we can't/don't access The Universe, God/dess/es, Kami, Devas, Loas (and respectfully All The Rest) in the same ways our fellow travelers can/do is a powerful reminder that we are strengthened through our diversity.  In building out strong groups of people, one looks to balance one's weakness (not quite the word I'm looking for) with others' complementary strengths -- why should spiritual practice be any different?

1. My idea is that witch is defined by the person claiming the title.  A coven is a group of people who choose to practice/celebrate together.  I feel that many very effectively dismiss a broad swath of witches with 'western Europe' and '="Wicca"' in a way that I find pretty disrespectful, right off the bat. I don't care if a root worker or shaman or anyone else and/or self-identifies as a witch.  I tend to think of witch as one who works in liminal spaces, outside a context of 'mainstream', I think you can be a witch and not a pagan and vice versa or both/and.  Some witches have a tendency to ritualize intent to accomplish something which then is followed by significant elbow grease to get the job done (and now and again The Universe kicks us a freebie that makes us look/feel good).

2. The code of ethics, down with it conceptually. The framing of this in pseudo/archaic language and framing sets my teeth on edge, possibly irrationally so.  It makes it significantly more difficult for me to take seriously.  Possibly why I haven't bought any books on the topic matter save one or two on recommendation from deeply trusted friends in a long time... There's so much tooth on edge to wade through to get to what are often pretty useful ideas and practices. Perfect love and perfect trust... Somehow either I managed to entirely tune this out until the teen witch phenomena of the mid-90's or glossed over it because gleefully anti-authoritarian solitary reasons. Gonna roll with 'assume the best' and move right along!

Calendar April 6