Saturday, 22 October 2011

Post No. 330 - Reflections, reading and how NOT to do a "rescue"

I mentioned in a recent post what some paths are good at and others not good at: well, one issue that it seems Christians are better at, in my experience, than other paths is the forgiveness - including self forgiveness - and redemption of wrongdoers. Their whole path, to some extent, is based on a formula for forgiveness of sin - there is a list of "what is right", and "what is wrong", and if you "accidentally" do something from the "what is wrong" list, or decide to skip something from the "what is right" list, there is a formula for what you have to do to be forgiven for that. (See the Order of Scathach's lesson 2). No messy having to clean up after you, or take responsibility for what you have done - but it does tend to mean that wrongdoers (e.g., criminals) have a set formula for being able to take their place in society again - maybe not with their head held up high, but able to take their place in society.

The old "Celtic" systems of justice were based on reparative justice (I think this may have actually been more the Breton part of the Celtic world). To simplify, under this, the victims of a wrongdoing were compensated by the wrongdoer: the modern concept of forced withdrawal from society by confinement in a prison had not yet evolved. (I think our system of fines, however, came from the old Saxon ideas of payment as a form of reparative justice - so many coins for the loss of a hand, etc.) Modern justice systems tend, in my opinion, to focus on "sending a message" to discourage others from committing crimes, such as theft or murder: the framework is about society, and the victim tended to be forgotten or overlooked in this. There have been some changes to start to address that, such as victim impact statements, and reform to address the trauma inflicted on victims of sexual assault by the legal system itself (such as cross examinations, which used to include the victim's sexual history).

Now, there is no question in my mind that the victim of a crime needs to be considered - after all, the crime is what was committed against them, but the metaphoric pendulum of attitudes and systems is still swinging, and I think there are a few dangers in where it could be headed.

First of, there is, in many people (I could have written "in society", but that is really the aggregate of many people) a desire for revenge, and hence some people advocate for harsher sentences and even the death penalty, thinking - simplistically, in my opinion - that it must "send a message" and discourage other crimes. Well, no, not necessarily - it does in some cases, for instance laws against discrimination send a message that discrimination is unacceptable, but the death penalty, in my opinion, does not cure anything. Irrespective of whatever statistics are dug up on that matter (and I note some British personage pointed out a long time ago that, in order to encourage a respect for life, it is necessary to demonstrate a respect for life - although he did do that using very "class-ist" language), the soul is not destroyed, and what is that spirit going to be lie in its next incarnation as a result of having been killed?

Of greater relevance is the issue of recidivism - people who have been jailed continuing to commit crimes because that is all they know, and what they have learned while in jail. One young person I spoke to who had been jailed said he had learned around 20 ways to use a stolen credit card: is that useful? I do believe that there are times when, for the sake of the greater good, people need to be jailed, but it needs to be done humanely, and with a focus on rehabilitation.

An issue I have with current social attitudes is that it puts everyone into either the good or bad box, saint or sinner - ignores that all are capable of wrong under certain circumstances. As some North American Indians (I think - couldn't find a link to confirm this, but it was part of my training) say, we ALL have two wolves inside us, a "good" wolf, and a "bad" wolf. These two wolves are struggling for dominance, and which one wins depends on which one we feed ... We can get habits of spirituality that help us feed the "good", but given enough provocation, the other wolf is still there, no matter how far we evolve ...

I was, therefore, pleased to read recently that a judge found that someone had been provoked - I thought that element of common sense had been lost from the world.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/tv-networks-censured-over-misleading-editing-of-terrorist-video-footage-20110921-1kl7n.html

I started writing this as tests have been coming from the Universe that are increasingly severe, but I can think back to many times in my life when my forbearance has been tested - one of the earliest being at a Church of England camp when, at a meeting I got up to do something at the request of a leader, and when I came back and tried to sit in my place, had a young girl laying on the floor cry when I asked for the space where my feet had been, and had the girl's friend accuse me of - I can't recall now, maybe being a bully? Anyway, it meant that they thought I should keep my feet in the air! Of relevance to now, it was, in my view, a false allegation and an issue of injustice that was not addressed by the camp leaders - they tried the distraction approach: everyone had to have a sleep, followed by "do you feel better now?" - no, I didn't, but maybe it helped me to leave that religion :)

(There was an interesting article on Witchvox a few months ago by someone who watched a child respond to aggressive behaviour from another child in a very appropriate way, moving away and trying to share constructively, but when, in desperation, the child hit out defensively, the two mothers who had been nearby intervened INappropriately, starting to tell off the child. The author of the article, father of one of the children, explained what had been going on. I often think of this when children are told to sort out their problems on the playground - my experience is that such is a formula for giving bullies free rein ...)

Interesting that the camp incident was handled so badly, when they seem to have their act together for a formulaic rehabilitation and reintegration of serious offenders.

I wonder what victim's groups would do about offenders? Many seem to want an apology. I don't: the few I've had in life have rarely been genuine, and I consider the "tell the bully how you're feeling" approach to be irresponsible in that it gives the bullies I've had to put up with exactly what they want! Whatever they do want, someone needs to consider the issue of how to reintegrate the offender back into normal life. Hopefully, with a better model than the "I have found the Lord and repent" approach ...

The one qualification to all this is child abusers: the evidence is that they are at risk of offending for the rest of their current incarnation (rarely seems to carry over into the next life, though). In that case, the massive harm they cause would suggest that compulsory treatment or jailing is warranted to prevent further children being harmed, but society's principles of justice will only countenance jailing, followed by monitoring. There are (valid) concerns about starting down a slippery slope by forcing treatment (there have been films about where this could lead to, including, I understand, "Minority Report"), but there are even more valid concerns about what happens to children who are abused - often because they are not believed. I don't know what the solution is here - but, if I was looking for one, I'd certainly start by considering what groups like Bravehearts have to say.

Now, let's move on to a few other matters. I'll begin with knowledge.

The impression I get from many courses - not only in "alternative" matters - is that it is important to have a wealth of facts, figures, equations and the like readily at hand. In other words, to know something means having instant recall of everything you have studied.

Now, my natural tendency is to want to be able to do this, and I know that most people are capable of more recall than they generally give themselves credit for (especially if they don't dissolve their brains in alcohol, drugs or stupefying TV and similar "entertainment"), but I also KNOW that the sheer volume of information in existence is beyond the capacity of any one person to recall - even IF they could learn it all in the first place. This applies both generally, and to particular professions - a standard piece of advice I give to young engineers is that knowing where to get knowledge is more important than knowing the information directly.

This also applies to metaphysics and psychic matters. I recently had a go at my version of Harry Dresden's "shield bracelet" (I'll post what I came up with when I finish developing this), and I relied heavily on being able to go to sources for details of symbols - I know the Elder Futhark runes pretty well, but this needed more, including the Seals of Solomon which I find work very well. To some extent, given my innate desire to know and carry all knowledge around me "in my bones", so to speak, I felt a bit of a cheat, in that haven't made any major contribution like whoever used the planetary squares and other sources of information to come up with the Seals of Solomon, and I didn't discover or contribute to the creation of the symbols from Cunningham's "Living Wicca" (I like to go back to the source, and at least one of the sources I was looking at indicated they had obtained their symbols from Cunningham's book). However, that was a lesson for me: although I need to continue expanding my abilities, including my mental abilities, it is simply not possible to know everything and contain that within one incarnate being (maybe that is part of why the Goddess created so many of us ...).

Now, other matters. Here's a whole range of miscellaneous thoughts. I don't expect anyone to agree these, but please spend some time thinking to see how you feel about them, and see what reflections they may trigger in you.

First off, negative energy doesn't necessarily make one feel unhappy - think of a drug user's emotional reaction to a hit, or an alcoholic's reaction to getting drunk: both would consider themselves "happy", and yet they are doing something harmful to themselves, and often harmful to others.

On that, avoidance sadly seems to be endemic in society - drink, drugs, parties, meaningless sex, etc - anything rather than fixing the life circumstance, issue or problem that is making one feel dissatisfied. That is not spiritually healthy. If one gets a cold, it isn't just a case of popping pills to suppress the symptoms and then "soldiering on", it is - in my experience - a call from your body for a rest, whether it be a rest from stress (we spend more times in "fight or flight"mode than hunter-gatherers!) or a rest from junk we might be feeding ourselves (such as the aforementioned drink, drugs, etc). The attitude of too many people I know is "take a pill and get on with it".

Now, on that, one of the things I like about the Order of Schathach's approach is that they believe in facing life fully and directly, not the avoidance of pills and parties. A few other things I like (selected at random) about their training materials (which I am slowly working my way through) include:
  • that divinity is within us, and we don't access it externally so much as bring it forth from within us (very true, and very nice to come across someone else saying this);
  • have a concept of entrainment with energy;
  • slipping in or out of circles rather than cutting doorways;
  • working without a circle (e.g., directing energy to a central "steersprson" who directs the energy to where it needs to go);
  • triangle of defence;
  • facing life face on: no avoidance;
  • feeling the direction of flow of energy;
  • the use of song and dance - and silence;
  • entrainment;
  • toning;
  • etc, etc, etc
(There are a range of other groups/matters/paths I am studying, incidentally. Learning never stops :) )

Now, another topic I have been reflecting on is that of rules. In terms of a group seeking to foster spiritual development, say, like ... perhaps a monastery ... rather than, say, compulsorily enforce silence, perhaps it is better to watch potential members and simply select those who are naturally tending towards that. This thought has come about partly because I am aware of my increasing preference for silence as I age, compared to when I was younger, and wanted music around me. (I also use this approach when assessing potential students, these days: many exclude themselves by the disrespectful or undisciplined ways they live their lives, for example. I have no problem with that - I have a duty to be sure anyone I teach is morally trustworthy anyway.)

Going from that, , a recent thought of mine is that, sadly, some people people only truly become mature when their parents die. Maturity is marked by independence, and many cannot get by without chats to Mum ... That may be "cute", but in some cases it goes further, and really marks a form of dependence that shows a lack of maturity. (It can also, in the case of an ex- of mine, put a confining pressure on the parent that stops them moving on with their life.)

Now on the issue of parents and children, we have had a newspaper columnist, Miranda Devine, write that allowing a trans child access to puberty blockers is tantamount to child abuse. She is wrong: NOT allowing hormone treatment is child abuse - it is likely to lead to suicide. I know many trans people who, if they had been allowed access to puberty blockers, would have had FAR easier lives. Her credibility is nil. For some facts on this issue, consider these links from the TransGender Victoria website:
The issue of the moment seems to be the issue of young trans* people.

We suggest these articles and links.

http://jme.bmj.com/content/34/8/580.abstract "This paper argues that suspension of puberty is not only not unethical: if it is likely to improve the child’s quality of life and even save his or her life, then it is indeed unethical to defer treatment."


"We don't have any patient who has regretted their decision on the treatment," says Henriette Delemarre-van de Waal of Leiden University Medical Centre who has helped treat them."
Support IDAHO (International Day Against Homophobia) which is also very much about stopping transphobia.
(They have a good definitions page, as well.)

Attitudes such as that expressed by Miranda Devine are not only in other spheres: they are present in the metaphysical/"spiritual" arenas of life as well:
Strapped to a chair and doused, teen dies during 'exorcism'
http://www.theage.com.au/world/strapped-to-a-chair-and-doused-teen-dies-during-exorcism-20110928-1kw4d.html

Now, ECT sometimes dislodges spirits, but its main effect is more likely to be exactly as the doctors say it is working. Mild discomfort generally may discourage spirits, but if it is more than mild discomfort, it is not likely to work. Apart from such spirits often being in greater psychic pain than you can create physically, the aim of any exorcism or rescue is to help, not harm. On that, I've also quite successfully done such "exorcisms" or rescue at a distance, so even thinking it is necessary to be present is wrong. The story I've given a link to above is simply of behaviour that is WRONG. In fact, so what if she has been ill? Isn't that be more of a test of how her parents will react - will they be loving and supportive, or will they put their ego and the status of their ... family or role ahead of the wellbeing of the child? I've seen water splashed in a face to bring someone out of an involuntary trance, but dousing someone continuously???? Sounds more like torture ... was the father angry at the daughter for not being what he wanted, perhaps? Where was the common sense in all this???

Things such as attidtudes of that .. "misguided" Miranda Devine do change with time - the very fact that TGV now exists is an example, as is the general trend over the last few hundred years for better human rights (e.g., consider the fairly widespread abolition of slavery - which is NOT world wide yet), or attempts at better human rights (many of the situations I've mentioned above, however, show that more work is still needed), in many areas of life. In fact, all things will change, including the current "security theatre" approach to air travel security. The current problems attributable to the TSA, problems which I consider akin to sexual assault (seen the video of the children who are disturbed and crying as a result of being touched? Where is Miranda Devine on that!!), will eventually pass - at which stage I will be happy to resume travelling by air. See here for a study which estimates that the consequences of security equate to around four 737s a year crashing (through a 6% decrease in the number of passengers, who travel by roads because of the invasive security measures and experience road accidents as a result - since the flying itself is actually much safer than driving). Sadly, change may have to wait until someone does a study into the psychological consequences of the "enhanced pat downs", as they are called.

So, moving on ... I am currently reading and enjoying the "Allie Beckstrom" series of fantasy novels by Devon Monk. In these novels, which refer to the use of glyphs and hence get my interest :) , use of magic leads to an immediate payment of a price in some way - generally physical pain, but possibly loss of memory as well. It's an interesting idea, and one which is useful to sort of illustrate the reality that what one does will have consequences: if someone psychically attacks another person, it will come back to them, for instance. I also keep in mind that, if I have sought a Deity's help, that will also have some consequences - and hence, for instance, if I am ... lighting a candle to call on a particular rune, I will first light one candle in honour of, and to feed, the rune itself, and only then will I light a candle for my request. It's a bit like paying in advance - or, perhaps more accurately, nurturing a friendship rather than calling on someone for help, perhaps to move, when you haven't seen or contacted them for ages. (Of course, the other side to this is that anything you do that is good will also come back to you.)

One aspect of these novels that I would slightly qualify is around casting magic while in a state of high emotion. In a generic sense (which is not the situations of mortal danger that the series of books are referring to), it is important to be able to focus, and hence emotion can be a weakening influence. On the other hand, however, if it is appropriately directed, emotion (which does, after all, include love - in all its myriad forms) can be a strengthening influence - which is included in this series of books by the books' concept of "Soul Complements", people who can combine together, in a sense, and thus create more powerful magic. (This reminds me also Marion Zimmer Bradley's novel "The Forbidden Tower", from her "Darkover" series of novels, which also addresses - in part - sex, sexuality and intimacy and the potential for these to help or hinder magic.)

On reading, a few other links are:


Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear")

Tags: change, forgiveness, guilt, knowledge, magic, magical squares, punishment, rehabilitation, sin, society

First published: Laugadagr, 122nd October, 2011

Last edited: Saturday, 22nd October, 2011
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