"When Did You Start Calling Yourself A Witch?"

Oddly enough, it was my wife who asked me that question.

I've been a pagan - a Wiccan, specifically - for more than a decade now. And while I've accepted the idea that I am a witch, I've never really embraced it as a title for what I am. Not until recently, anyway.

So what happened? What made me start using the "witch" word more frequently?

There's a lot of answers I could give to that. I could explain how Wicca is one variety of what we now know as British Traditional Witchcraft. I could discuss how "Wicca" and "witch" come from the same Old English word, and how that word is a proud one that should be used.

But really, neither of those are the reason. No, the reason I started using it more is because I got pissed off. Let me explain.

I am, oddly enough, a member of a church - Heritage Universalist Unitarian Church, to be specific. Not because I'm a Unitarian or a Universalist, but because I really like the people and the programs there, and because that's where I do all of my public rituals. For the most part I don't attend the Sunday service, and there are a number of people there who have joined the church after I did that don't realize I'm a member, but I am.

Early on this year, the children's Religious Education was doing a series of classes on various world religions: Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and so forth, and they were looking for people knowledgeable about those religions to teach that particular class to the children. One of the religions they wanted to touch on was "Paganism/Earth-Centered Spirituality"[1].

Well, being both a pagan and a member of HUUC's Pagan Steering Committee, I felt I should sign up. Besides, I like teaching and I like working with children.

Before my big day, I had an orientation meeting. This was to go over the UU expectations for people who work with children, discuss the format of the class, things of that nature. Standard stuff. But something nonstandard, and something I completely had not expected, happened as well.

During the orientation meeting, I was asked not to call myself a "witch". The rationale? It might frighten the children. It caught me off guard, and I agreed.

Later on, though, I got me angry. The UUs claim to be open and accepting, and here they are demanding that I not use one of the names for my religious path because it might "frighten children". How dare they? And how dare I agree? How dare I roll over and hide my religious beliefs because it might make someone uncomfortable to know that I have them?

So now? Now I call myself a witch. And if someone doesn't like that, if someone is uncomfortable or frightened by that?

That's their problem.

[1] Yeah, I know. That's something more than "one" religion. I didn't make the category up.

Vandana Shiva Calls For Death By Starvation For 3 Billion People

This all started on Facebook. Someone I friended "liked" an article by Vandana Shiva, titled "Time to End War Against the Earth".

Go ahead and read it. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Now that you're back, I'll get started.

I'm curious. How does Ms. Shiva reconcile her opposition to industrial agriculture with the work of Dr. Norman Borlaug, whose work with industrial agriculture and the development of stem rust-resistant and drought-resistant wheat was directly responsible for allowing India's agriculture to go from being able to support around 500 million people (in the 1960's) to over a billion people (today)? Today, thanks in large part to his work, hunger is overwhelmingly a political issue - not an ecological issue.

If not for his work, and the drought-resistant and pesticide-resistant crops that derive from his work (not to mention the pesticides and the fertilizers that she decries), every other human being in the Indian subcontinent would either be dead or would not have been born.

Ms. Shiva calls for "earth democracy" and "fundamental human rights". As Dr. Borlaug observed, "Almost certainly, however, the first essential component of social justice is adequate food for all mankind," and "Food is the moral right of all who are born into this world."

Perhaps Ms. Shiva would like to start suggesting which among us should die, as we abandon our current practices and return to a "sustainable" (but far less productive) mode of agriculture? After all, based on India, it should only be around 3 billion or so human beings.

Her hypocrisy is both overwhelming and nauseating.

Oh, for further reading: http://www.sirc.org/news/vandana_shiva_reith.html

NASA's Fermi Telescope Finds Giant Structure in our Galaxy

You can read the original article on the NASA web site. In a nutshell, however, a team of astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA have found this:



This, of course, is an artist's interpretation of a gamma ray-emitting structure that extends 25,000 light years above and below the galactic core of the Milky Way. A bubble that emits much more energetic gamma rays than have been seen anywhere else in the Milky Way, and that appears to have well-defined edges and seems to have been formed "...as a result of a large and relatively rapid energy release - the source of which remains a mystery."



What is it? Well, that's the better question. There are no answers yet, because this is a fairly new discovery.

One possibility includes a particle jet from the supermassive black hole at the galactic center. In many other galaxies, astronomers see fast particle jets powered by matter falling toward a central black hole. While there is no evidence the Milky Way's black hole has such a jet today, it may have in the past. The bubbles also may have formed as a result of gas outflows from a burst of star formation, perhaps the one that produced many massive star clusters in the Milky Way's center several million years ago.

"In other galaxies, we see that starbursts can drive enormous gas outflows," said David Spergel, a scientist at Princeton University in New Jersey. "Whatever the energy source behind these huge bubbles may be, it is connected to many deep questions in astrophysics."

As J. B. S. Haldane put it, "I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose."

Feeling the Future

Trawling through my morning reading, I came across this link: "Have Scientists Finally Discovered Evidence for Psychic Phenomena?!" Eye-catching? Yes. But, I always feel a little... skeptical about any headline for any scientific study that includes both an exclamation point and a question mark.

The actual meat of the article is a brief and breathless abstract of "Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect", a paper published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by Dr. Daryl Bem, a Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Cornell University.

According to the Psychology Today article, Dr. Bem

took effects that are considered valid and reliable in psychology - studying improves memory, priming facilitates response times - and simply reversed their chronological order.

An interesting idea, I think you'll agree. There are obviously more details in the actual "Feeling the Future" paper. Here's the abstract:

The term psi denotes anomalous processes of information or energy transfer that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms. Two variants of psi are precognition (conscious cognitive awareness) and premonition (affective apprehension) of a future event that could not otherwise be anticipated through any known inferential process. Precognition and premonition are themselves special cases of a more general phenomenon: the anomalous retroactive influence of some future event on an individual’s current responses, whether those responses are conscious or nonconscious, cognitive or affective. This article reports 9 experiments, involving more than 1,000 participants, that test for retroactive influence by “timereversing” well-established psychological effects so that the individual’s responses are obtained before the putatively causal stimulus events occur. Data are presented for 4 time-reversed effects: precognitive approach to erotic stimuli and precognitive avoidance of negative stimuli; retroactive priming; retroactive habituation; and retroactive facilitation of recall. All but one of the experiments yielded statistically significant results; and, across all 9 experiments, Stouffer’s z = 6.66, p = 1.34 × 10-11 with a mean effect size (d) of 0.22. The individual-difference variable of stimulus seeking, a component of extraversion, was significantly correlated with psi performance in 5 of the experiments, with participants who scored above the midpoint on a scale of stimulus seeking achieving a mean effect size of 0.43. Skepticism about psi, issues of replication, and theories of psi are also discussed.

I will admit that I have not read the 68-page paper in it's entirety. It's pretty technical, and I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a psychologist. What I do find interesting is, starting on page 48, his discussion of the issues of replication, including some of the potential difficulties in replicating a psychology experiment (as opposed to, say, a physics experiment) and what he did in his study to try and minimize those difficulties for other researchers. It's a breath of fresh air in this kind of work.

So, is this proof positive that psi abilities really exist? No. Of course not. It's a single study (well, it's a summary of 9 studies). It looks well conducted to my layman's eye, but all this study really establishes at this point is that there was some sort of behavior observed in the lab that, on the face, resembles psi abilities. Further study is required, along with serious attempts to falsify the hypothesis, before this can be said to constitute proof.

Nevertheless, I will say I'm excited about what I'm seeing here, and I can't wait to see what developments come out of this. Even if it turns out not to be psi, it certainly shows something interesting about the brain.

Robin's Hood Is Asking For Your Help

An announcement and a request for help from one of our local Pagan charities.

Robin's Hood CommUnity Center
will be hosting
the 10th Annual Magic Mini Mall!

Held at Welcome House
11th & Greenup
Covington, KY

For info, call 859-743-6454

The Magic Mini Mall is a holiday shopping event for kids to pick out the gifts they will give their families under the tree, assisted by volunteer "elves", while we get the scoop from the parents on Santa's list. Each child gets a picture with Santa, and there is no cost to the family for anything.

We are desperately short on toys for the Magic Mini Mall. If you can donate a simple $5 game or a $1 toy, a stuffed animal, a toy car, anything...we need your help! Last year we had a record 754 kids at the Magic Mini Mall and we expect at least that many, if not more, this year.

To date, we have never had to tell a family "we're full" and turn them away. If you can help, we won't have to do that this year, either.

To make a donation you can either call Reverend Bonnie Campaniello at at 513-979-4242 or at 859-743-6454 to arrange for us to pick them up, or you can drop them off. We can accept the donations at either

The Computer Shop,
506 Madison Ave
Covington, KY 41011
859-491-0040

or at the home of Reverend Bonnie Campaniello,
2002 Queen City Ave
Cincinnati, OH 45214

Please help, if you can. No donation is too small.

Thank you for all of your support over the last 10 years.
Rev. Bonnie Campaniello
Founder/Director
Robin's Hood

Apparently, The Most Important Things In Life Are Things

Anthony D'Angelo once said "The most important things in life aren't things." A new study, titled "Brand Attachment and Brand Attitude Strength: Conceptual and Empirical Differentiation of Two Critical Brand Equity Drivers" and reported on in ScienceDaily begs to differ.

The ScienceDaily article starts by asking

Can you forge an emotional bond with a brand so strong that, if forced to buy a competitor's product, you suffer separation anxiety? According to a new study from the USC Marshall School of Business, the answer is yes. In fact, that bond can be strong enough that consumers are willing to sacrifice time, money, energy and reputation to maintain their attachment to that brand.

Interesting in and of itself, but that's just the first paragraph. Let me direct you to the summary of the study's findings:

Overall, the research suggests, the greater the attachment, the greater sacrifices a consumer will make to connect with or remain connected to the brand.

The study's key findings include:

• The more strongly a consumer's attachment to a brand, the more willing they are to forsake personal resources to maintain an ongoing relationship with the brand. They are willing to engage in difficult behaviors -- "those that require investments of time, money and energy, so as to maintain or deepen a brand relationship."
• Highly attached consumers are more motivated to devote their own resources in the process of self-expansion, including paying more, defending the brand, derogating alternatives, and devoting more time to the brand through brand communities and brand promotion through social media.
• Attachment represented by both brand-self-connection and prominence is a significantly better predictor than brand attitude strength of actual behaviors.
  

Now think about that for a moment. And while you do, I'm going to run the risk of being self-referential and quote something I wrote about a year and a half ago:

These entities [corporations] do not care about us. Individual humans are classified by them as either "headcount" or "customer" - which can be understood as "property" or "food", respectively.

I'll leave the explication of the moral as an exercise for the reader, but I'll give you a hint. Have a look at the Mayo Clinic's Drug addiction: Symptoms page, and think long and hard about whatever brand loyalty you may have.

You Want Respect?

Then you stand up for yourself and your fellows. You don't accept the disrespect, and you don't go whining about how people should respect you.

You do it like this:


Now go out and earn some respect.

An Important Point About Homemade Orange Soda

This is, obviously, a follow-up to Homemade Orange Soda.

Make sure you are using good quality oranges. I recommend waiting until oranges are in season. Why? Well, I used some shipped in from overseas, picked at the peak of being able to be shipped without damage (and with no consideration for flavor) oranges. As a result, all of my hard work was squandered on the fact that the soda is bland and tasteless.

Homemade sodas are only as good as the ingredients you use.

Samhain

Samhain 2010

Cast the Circle

Have everyone join hands and still their thoughts. Starting with the East, have each person in turn look to the left and say: "From me to you." The person to the left will look to his right and say "From you to me." He will then look left and repeat.

When it gets back around to the East, everyone is to say "The Circle is cast. So mote it be."

Call the Elements

Powers of the East wind, Air,
Breathe in us a hope to share
With loved ones who have gone before,
That now we will unite once more.

Powers of the South and Fire,
Flame our passions, not our ire.
Guard us. Guide us on our quest
In this New Year, to be the best.

Water and the Western Powers,
Let us know the strength that's ours.
Cleanse our minds that we might be
Free from negativity.

Mother Nature, show the way.
Help us keep in mind each day,
Oh, Powers of the North and Earth,
Where there's death, there is rebirth.

Invoke the Ancestors

It's the blood of the Ancients that runs through our veins
And the forms pass, but the circle of life remains.
Our thanks to our Ancestors.
Hail to the Honored Dead, through whom we live.

Invoke the Goddess

Holy Maiden Huntress Artemis, Artemis. Goddess, Come To Us
Silver Shining Wheel Of Radiance, Radiance. Goddess, Come To Us
Ancient Queen Of Wisdom, Hecate, Hecate. Goddess, Come To Us
Come To Us
Come To Us

Invoke the God

Shining Youth of the Dawn, Rising High, Rising High, Father Come To Us
Golden Lord of the Sun, Burning Bright, Burning Bright, Father, Come To Us
Horned King of the Dark, Bring the Night, Bring the Night, Father, Come To Us
Come To Us
Come To Us

Honor the Ancestors

Today we celebrate the Sabbat of Samhain which was the Celtic New Year. Samhain marks the final harvest, the coming winter, the death of the sun. To our ancestors, particularly those living in harsher climates, this was a frightening time. Food had to be stored to last through the cold months ahead. Often the weak would not survive. An especially bleak winter could mean the end of the community itself. Even the sun appeared to leave the sky.

Samhain then, was a very important festival because it offered hope. It meant the harvest had been successful and sufficient supplies had been stocked for the winter. Fires were lit in honor of the sun which our ancestors hoped would be reborn again at Yule. And they thought of those who had gone before- those who had died in the preparation of the food, or the hunt, or those who had died in past winters. Maintaining this connection is, and has always been, a very important affirmation of life itself.

Just as our ancestors did long ago, we remember and honor the dead because they are a part of ourselves. All those we have ever known, including our beloved pets, live on in our mannerisms, turns of speech, values and practices. They are a part of our personality that distinguishes us from others. No one else had the same combination of parents, relatives, friends and teachers. The traits and memories that we maintain of those who have gone before, are a form of immortality for them.

So we pause and we look back and we give thanks for those who have made us what we are today. We hope that some day we too will be remembered, because we know that "He who is remembered, lives."

(Allow each in turn to step forward and share some memory or story about their honored dead. After each person speaks, the circle says "Hail to the Honored Dead, through whom we live.")

Thank the God

Shining Youth of the Dawn, Rising High, Rising High, Father Stay With Us
Golden Lord of the Sun, Burning Bright, Burning Bright, Father, Stay With Us
Horned King of the Dark, Bring the Night, Bring the Night, Father, Stay With Us
Stay With Us
Stay With Us

Thank the Goddess

Holy Maiden Huntress Artemis, Artemis. Goddess, Stay With Us
Silver Shining Wheel Of Radiance, Radiance. Goddess, Stay With Us
Ancient Queen Of Wisdom, Hecate, Hecate. Goddess, Stay With Us
Stay With Us
Stay With Us

Thank the Ancestors

The limbs that move, the eyes that see,
These are not entirely me;
Dead men and women helped to shape,
The mold that I do not escape;

The words I speak, the written line, these
Are not uniquely mine.
For in my heart and in my will, old
Ancestors are warring still,

Celt, Roman, Saxon and all the dead, from
Whose rich blood my veins are fed,
In aspect, gesture, voices, tone, flesh of
My flesh, bone of my bone;

In fields they tilled, I plow the sod, I walk
The mountain paths they trod;
Around my daily steps arise - the good,
The bad - those I comprise.[1]

Dismiss the Elements

Powers of the East, Air, go in peace.

Powers of the South, Fire, go in peace.

Powers of the West, Water, go in peace.

Powers of the North, Earth, go in peace.

Open the Circle

The circle is open but unbroken.
May the Lord and the Lady be ever in your heart.
Merry meet and merry part and merry meet again.
Blessed be.

[1]Richard Rolle, 1300 - 1349

Submitted, Without Further Comment, For Your Consideration

Homer Simpson is Catholic, Vatican paper declares

– Mon Oct 18, 10:18 pm ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – "The Simpsons" just got a blessing from the Vatican.

The official Vatican newspaper has declared that beer-swilling, doughnut-loving Homer Simpson and son Bart are Catholics -- and what's more, it says that parents should not be afraid to let their children watch "the adventures of the little guys in yellow."

"Few people know it, and he does everything to hide it. But it's true: Homer J. Simpson is Catholic", the Osservatore Romano newspaper said in an article on Sunday headlined "Homer and Bart are Catholics."

The newspaper cited a study by a Jesuit priest of a 2005 episode of the show called "The Father, the Son and the Holy Guest Star". That study concludes that "The Simpsons" is "among the few TV programs for kids in which Christian faith, religion and questions about God are recurrent themes."

The Simpsons pray before meals, and "in its own way, believes in the beyond," the newspaper quoted the Jesuit study as saying.

It's the second time the animated U.S. TV series, which is broadcast in 90 countries, has been praised by the Vatican.

But executive producer Al Jean told Entertainment Weekly on Monday he was in "shock and awe" at the latest assertion, adding that the Simpsons attend the "Presbylutheran" First Church of Springfield.

"We've pretty clearly shown that Homer is not Catholic," Jean said. "I really don't think he could go without eating meat on Fridays -- for even an hour."

In December 2009, the Osservatore Romano described the show as "tender and irreverent, scandalous and ironic, boisterous and profound, philosophical and sometimes even theological, nutty synthesis of pop culture and of the lukewarm and nihilistic American middle class."

"The Simpsons", which introduced the catch-phrase "D'oh", is the longest-running prime-time TV series in the United States and is now in its 22nd season.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Homemade Orange Soda

That was Omnia, who you'll hear more about when I do my next post on pagan music, For now, it's potion brewing time!

You'll need the following tools:

• Microplane grater
• Juicer
• Knife
• Ladle
• Large bowl
• Small bowl
• Wire mesh strainer
• Large pot
• 1 gallon jug
• 1 quart bottle
• 8 16-ounce fliptop bottles, clear if possible (available at any home brewing supply store - I recommend Paradise Brewing Supplies if you're in the Anderson Township area)
• Cooking thermometer
• Funnel
• 1/4 cup measuring cup
• 2 cup measuring cup
  

You will need the following ingredients:

• 8-10 oranges
• Brewers or baker's yeast
• Water
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups sugar
  

Now, let us begin!

First, put two quarts of water on to boil. While you wait for the water to boil, juice the oranges (save the peels). I usually pour off the juice into the quart bottle, as I have a hand juicer and it holds perhaps a pint of liquid at any one time. Then, use the microplane grater to zest the oranges. I prefer to zest them into a small bowl.

Next, bloom your yeast. Put 1/4 cup warm (not hot) water in a small bowl. Add 1/16 teaspoon dry yeast and a pinch of sugar (call it about 1/16 teaspoon, if you prefer measurements).

When the water has come to a boil, remove it from the heat. Add the zest to the water, and let it steep for one to two hours (the water will turn yellow-orange). Strain the water into the large bowl, rinse the large pot, and return the orange water to the pot. Add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of sugar (as desired; my preference is for 1 1/2 cups for a tarter beverage), and wisk untill fully dissolved.

Once the sugar is dissolved into the water, pour it into the gallon jug. Add the orange juice, and enough water to bring it up to a full gallon (less 1/4 cup). Allow the mixture to sit on the counter or in the refrigerator until it is below 80 degrees F - warmer than that runs the risk of killing the yeast.

Once the water is cool enough, add the bloomed yeast water. Shake the jug thoroughly to mix, and allow to sit for 10 - 15 minutes. Pour two cups into each fliptop bottle, and seal.

The bottles will need to sit for 3-4 days, depending on temperature. You can tell when the carbonation is right by looking for a ring of bubbles and brownish "scum" around the top of the soda (pictures when I get them), or you can simply open one of the bottles to check. I recommend doing this over the sink, as the yeast can get quite active and you can end up with a "gusher".

When the carbonation is right, store the bottles in the refrigerator; this both chills the soda and keeps the yeast from working any further.

Obviously, this is brewing. But where is the "potion" part of this? Well, Scott Cunningham tells us in Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen that oranges are good for love (spiritual love or the love between family members, as taking the juice internally can actually hinder lust) and purification magic. So, if you want to use it to make a tasty and safe to drink potion, brew it under the full moon - ideally on the first night of the full moon - while focusing your energies on the soda (and on the purpose of the potion).

If it's a potion to promote love, drink it while thinking of the person (or people) you want to feel greater love for. If possible, share the soda with that person (or persons).

If it's a potion for cleansing, drink it during or afer a cleansing bath. Or drink it as part of your grounding after a cleansing ritual.

Or just enjoy the taste of homemade orange soda. It's nothing like store-bought, and I promise you that you'll never want to go back.

Elvira's Not A Witch, Either

After the seriousness of the last post, I feel compared to share this:

Politics? Kinda, Sorta. But Not The Way You Think

Yes, it's true. "The conduct of public affairs for private advantage" has invaded my blog. Let's hope it doesn't infest the majority of my posts.

You may have, by now, heard of Christine O'Donnell, a Senatorial candidate from Delaware. Originally, this post was going to be about her now-famous "separation of church and state" comments from a recent debate with her opponent, Chris Coons. I was all prepared to join in on the mockery, except that I see her point. According to her web site, she was not expressing ignorance of the Constitution. Rather, she was questioning the claim that "separation of church and state" are in the Constitution. Technically, she's right. The phrase appears nowhere in the Constitution. What is there is Amendment I, which reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I guess that technically only Congress is forbidden to pass laws "respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof", and under Article X ("The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.") the states could pass such a law. But that would also give them the right to pass laws abridging the freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, and of petition for redress of grievances. Also, I'm pretty sure that Article IV Section 1 trumps this whole mass of craziness anyway...

But I lose sight of what I'm actually wanting to write about. This whole Christine O'Donnell thing has gotten me thinking. Let's get away from the tawdry "is she or isn't she" argument about whether or not she's a good candidate, and look at something else. Ms. O'Donnell is famous among pagans by now for this ad:



Which, of course, is responding to all of the hoopla about (in part) this clip:



So she dabbled in witchcraft. So she obviously dabbled in the shallow end of the pool. (Satanic altar? With blood on it? Really?) So she's not practicing anymore (if, indeed, she ever really was), and she's embarrassed by what she sees as some sort of childhood stupidity. So fucking what? I think Thomas Jefferson said it best in Notes on the State of Virginia, when he said:

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

If she was a witch when she was 19, it doesn't pick my pocket. If she's embarrassed by it now, that doesn't break my leg. If she wants to worship Yahweh or Xenu or Astarte or Eris or The Flying Spaghetti Monster or nothing at all, it doesn't matter. Or, at least, it shouldn't. But that's probably not good enough for some people. So Article VI of the Constitution of the United States of America also says it pretty well:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Now, it's easy to get pissed off at Ms. O'Donnell for her mischaracterization of paganism in general. Really easy. It's also easy to be afraid of the kind of things she might vote for if she were to be elected. She is, as far as I can tell, an evangelical Christian running on the Tea Party-backed Republican. Being labeled a "witch", when you're trying to court the evangelical Christian vote is the proverbial kiss of death. (Why being a woman trying court the evangelical Christian vote to hold political office isn't another kiss of death, I don't know. But that's neither here nor there.)

But getting upset at her and her views misses the broader picture. Think about it. We live in a society where there is a de facto religious test, even though there shouldn't be. It's been around 50 years since it was unthinkable that a Catholic could be elected President (he might place the orders of the Pope above the laws of the land, was the fear). Remember the hysteria around Keith Ellison doing his photo-op reenactment of his swearing-in ceremony with a Koran instead of a Bible? That was in 2008.

So, if you're offended by Ms. O'Donnell's remarks, stop (just) bitching about her lack of respect for Paganism. Step up and confront the larger issue. We have legislative freedom of religion in this country, but we don't actually have freedom of religion as long as we feel we have to hide our religious beliefs (or lack thereof) from the mainstream.

Tolerance and respect are not hiding in your broom closet.

Facts, Theories, Hypotheses, and Wild-Ass Guesses

Right. It's lesson time, people. Time to set the record straight. How many times have you heard some slack-jawed mouth-breathing Fundamentalist fuckwit dismiss evolution with the mindless statement "it's just a theory" before going on to ramble about crocoducks[1] and young earth creationism? Far too often. These people get a free pass for their activly anti-science (hell, actively anti-intellectual) rants because people generally don't have a good grasp on the difference between the sloppy way the average person uses vocabulary and the rather more formal way that scientists use vocabulary[2]

So lets start off with a few definitions, shall we?

From Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, by way of Dictionary.com, we get the following definition of fact:

Main Entry: fact
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin factum deed, real happening, something done, from neuter of factus, past participle of facere to do, make
1 : something that has actual existence : a matter of objective reality
2 : any of the circumstances of a case that exist or are alleged to exist in reality : a thing whose actual occurrence or existence is to be determined by the evidence presented at trial

Now, from the Random House Dictionary, also by way of Dictionary.com, we get this excellent discussion of the difference between a theory and a hypothesis:

A theory in technical use is a more or less verified or established explanation accounting for known facts or phenomena: the theory of relativity. A hypothesis is a conjecture put forth as a possible explanation of phenomena or relations, which serves as a basis of argument or experimentation to reach the truth: This idea is only a hypothesis.

So, is evolution a fact? By the literal definition of "fact", no. But - and you, there in the back, close your mouth and shut the hell up about creationism - there are precious few facts in science outside observations. It is a fact that the Earth orbits the Sun, for example[3].

Theories, while not facts, explain facts. They make predictions. They are abandoned - slowly and painfully at times, but still abandoned - if they fail at explaining existing facts and their predictions are consistently demonstrated to be wrong. A theory is as close to a fact as most scientists are willing to get in their fields.

A hypothesis is what most lay people mean when they say theory. Hypotheses are what you get when someone notices something, and proposes an explanation for that observation. It's conditional. It needs to be demonstrated and tested, and it's a poor hypothesis if it cannot be tested.

Is that not enough? Is there a dismissive creationist (or some other flavor of scientific denier) in your life? Ask them the following:

1. Is matter made up of atoms?
2. Do germs and viruses cause disease?
3. Do the continents move over time?
4. Do you believe that gravity is what holds you to the surface of the planet?
5. Is your body composed of cells?
6. Is evolution real?
   

That is, in order: atomic theory, germ theory of disease, the theory of plate tectonics, the theory of gravity, cell theory, and the theory of evolution. If they say no to all of these, back away slowly. Make no sudden moves. Get to a safe location and phone for help.



[1] What's funny about this is that, with the discovery of anatosuchus in 2003, there is a real crocoduck. So fuck you, Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort.
[2] Well, that and because the news media - which in theory investigates and reports - can't actually tell the difference between their collective asses and a fact with the help of two hands and a detailed diagram. If it isn't being spoon-fed to them as a press release, they don't know what to do with themselves.
[3] If you are a geocentrist, do yourself and me both a favor and just don't bother. From the tenor of this blog entry, you may have worked out that I don't care about your brand of batshit insanity.

When Was The Last Time You Looked Up?

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"
--Robert Browning

All of this happened a few days ago.

It was one of those mornings. I didn't feel like I'd had enough sleep, I had to get the dog out to do his business, I wasn't looking forward to going to work, and a thousand things were going through my head. Bills were due. The baby's due soon, and I don't feel ready. Why is the dog just sniffing around instead of getting things over with, so I can go back inside?

And then I happened to look up.

There was a beautiful half moon in the sky, just above the upper right arm of Orion. Just below the Orion's left foot shone Venus. And I stood there, entranced. For a moment, all my concerns melted away. It was just me, the cool Earth beneath my bare feet, and the wonder of the heavens. That image, and the sudden moment of clarity it brought me, still remain.

When was the last time you looked up? When was the last time you stopped to smell the flowers? To look at a tree, or watch the squirrels? How often do you pass by the glory and majesty of the world around you, as you hurry off to meet yet another self-imposed and unimportant deadline?

How often do you simply drift through life, rather than stopping to actually live it?

Look up. Feel the wind. Smell the rain. Hear the birds. Look at the stars. Remember that there's more to life than hurrying from bed to work to TV to bed again.

What's this? New posts?

Don't look so surprised. It's not like I went a whole year without writing anything. Really. Just look at the date of the last post before today. It's only been 10 months.

*whistles innocently*

So yeah, I suck at keeping up with this. But I've got plans. So welcome back.

You Know What I Miss? I Miss Good Religious Music.

I love music. It's one of the very few things I miss about being Christian and going to church on Sunday. When I was a kid - heck, even when I was an adult and serving as a Mormon missionary - it was almost never the speakers[1] that interested me. It was the music. I don't sing very well, but I still enjoyed singing. "Onward, Christian Soldiers" was a favorite, as was "How Great Thou Art". "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" was rarely sung, but it was an excellent song for contemplation. "I Am A Child of God" was a happy song, and "Oh, My Father" was far more sedate, but both carried important lessons about my place in the universe. I loved the music.

Now I'm a pagan, and it seems like we've got exactly two things going for religious music: Diddly, and Squat.

Okay, I exaggerate. There are a few "old standards". Chants, mostly. "We All Come From The Goddess". "We Are The Flow." Uhm... Actually, I got nothing else, here. I know there are a few others, and I could probably do a Google search and turn them up, but that's not the point. We've got chants. They've got a place in a ceremony, certainly. They're easy to pick up, true. They don't need any more musical accompaniment than a drum[3], and they don't even need that.

They also get very old, very quickly. Also, they're rarely the sort of thing you would sing for fun, or out of a sense of joy and wonder.

The other really popular option is, of course, filking Christian music. This can work - particularly when it rises above the level of doing a word search of the lyrics and replacing "God" with either "Goddess" or "Gods". The major problem I see with this is that, unless it's a really good rewrite, it just makes the neopagan group using it feel like, well, like Christians. Without penises (penii?). And that's just trading one monotheistic world view for another.

Also, substituting "Goddess" for "God" in a song throws off the rhythm, which makes the song sound forced. Seriously. try it out with "How Great Thou Art":

O Lady my Goddess,
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all
The works Thy Hand hath made,
I see the stars,
I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy pow'r throughout
The universe displayed;

When through the woods
And forest glades I wander
I hear the birds
Sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down
From lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook
And feel the gentle breeze;

Refrain:
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour Goddess, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour Goddess, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!

That's not actually terrible in print, but there's still some problems. First, the title "Goddess" lurches out, unwilling to cooperate with the tune. It's not badly off, but it's off enough to be noticed and to feel awkward when singing it.

Second, what's this "saviour" business doing in a pagan-oriented song? We don't have saviours. We don't need saviours. We take responsibility for our own actions. So we need to insert a new title for the Goddess in here. And that just potentially exacerbates the first problem.

Finally, we have to lose the entire final verse:

When Christ shall come,
With shouts of acclamation,
And take me home,
What joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow
In humble adoration
And there proclaim,
"My God, how great Thou art!"

I mean, really. What are you going to do with that?

Are these insurmountable problems? No, not at all. But they have to be addressed, to rewrite the Christian song into something that works for a neopagan song.

I know that part of it is just relative ages of the religions involved. Christianity is what, around 2000 years old? And its dominated western civilization for what, 1700 years or so? They've had time to come up with some really good music[4]. Inspirational stuff, written by professional composers with patrons who paid pretty well for a dramatic Requiem that would outdo the one played at his neighbor's father's funeral. Whereas, modern neopaganism has been around for 60-80 years (depending on the specific branch). We haven't really had a lot of time to develop a library of music for the ages.

So, do I have a point to this, or am I just complaining? Well, fortunately, I'm going somewhere with this. There's plenty of good pagan music out there, and plenty of good pagan-friendly music. Some of it can easily be used for music in the circle, as an alternative to the tried-and-true chants[5]. So, I plan to discuss the bands and songs I like, and (possibly more importantly) explain how I use them (or plan to use them) in esbat and sabbat circles.

Oh, and I take suggestions. If you want to make any.

[1] Mormon services don't have a traditional sort of sermon or homily. Instead, the Bishop[2] asks a few people from the congregation - typically several weeks in advance - to prepare a talk on a particular subject for a specified period of time (15-20 minutes). Except on the first Sunday of the month, which is Fast and Testimony Meeting - or, at least, it was when I last attended. On that Sunday, it's open mike night as anyone who wants to stand up and "bare their testimony" (i.e. talk about how much they believe the Church is true) can do so. It's a really clever idea, actually, although it can be rather boring as well.
[2] A Mormon Bishop is a lay minister, occupying a similar position to a parish priest in Catholicism or the minister in a Protestant congregation.
[3] Drums. Oh, Gods, the drums. Don't get me started on the drums. What is it with neopagans and drumming? Just once, I'd like to see an open zither circle. Or a pagan improvisational jazz circle. Or even just an open "musical jam" circle, inviting anyone who wants to bring any instrument they want to join in. Why is it always percussion?
[4] And some really bad music as well. Fair is fair, after all.
[5] Maybe I should be somewhat explicit here: I like a lot of those chants. But I'm bored with using the same ones over and over and over and over again. Also, I miss music in my religious practice, and want to add some.