I've just been flicking through Starhawk's [2] "Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex and Politics", and, as is usual with her writings that I've read or skimmed, I found much that is good in it. However, it crystallised something that has been playing around the edges of my mind, which I will, for want of a better term, call "the fear of organisation".
Now, I have to begin by emphasising that there is a massive amount that is wrong with how "things" are organised in society - as an engineer, I see both the best and the worst of organisation. I see people working together in teams, utilising highly developed skills to deliver advanced, complicated projects that are of genuine benefit to people, society and the environment (I work in wastewater treatment - and am proud to be a specialist in lagoon design - and ignore the rubbish on Wikipeia on that topic!). I also see teams that are barely functional, or injure many people because of the inhuman way they are run, or the inhumane context - such as the tyranny of time deadlines that have largely been created to enable some politician to claim kudos. (I would like to see the time value of money removed, but that's just the radical in me speaking out ... :) ) I am also well aware of the evil that some corporations and other forms of companies commit, given their somewhat unbridled legal status. (I was once told ny a law student that the Directors of corporations are COMPELLED to only consider financial matters when making decisions by sections of the relevant Act: if that so, that section is evil, and needs to be changed!) [4]
In fact, group dynamics is something I have been interested in for decades - I had some basic training in this as a Priestess, but I've also gained benefits from meditating on both good and bad aspects of this, all the way back to when I was the "handicapper" in a sailing club as a teenager, and witnessed some ... staggering politics and interpersonal clashes - as well as some exceptional working together. I don't claim to be an expert in the topic - for instance, I know little of intersectionality beyond vaguely understanding what the word means (and my personal life experience :) ).
However, I'm going to dare to express a view here, which is that too many people in the pagan movement seem to be afraid of organisation as a concept.
By that, I mean people I've come across in paganism tend towards favouring small scale solutions and approaches to issues, and have considerable skill at working with small groups, but metaphorically shudder at the notion of organising anything larger - such as designing and building the treatment plant for a city. Now, I'm aware that there are effective small scale solutions to wastewater treatment, but NONE of them have a realistic way of managing the volumes of wastewater generated by things like flats and units on small parcels of land, let alone skyscraper apartment blocks. That won't happen until we can recycle wastewater to potable standard within a household, which is around 30 to 50 years away, in my estimation (the techniques are being developed in some labs right now, actually - and are also being developed as processes for the Space Station). In the meantime, we as a society actually need things like wastewater treatments, roads, etc, etc, etc. We could cut back on this by all moving out to living on the land, but in many places there isn't enough land for the population - and population control - in the sense of fertility control - is another topic that many people shy away from. (Interestingly, I recently read an article on the reduced birth rate in Brazil, which credited the change to a combination of (a) the widespread popularity of soap operas, and (b) those same soap operas starting to feature strong women with only one or two children, rather than the large family that largely Catholic nation had experienced till then.)
Moving away from my field of expertise, I'm vaguely aware of how, through open source software, the computing world tends to be able to develop somewhat free of large-scale organisation, but I suspect that the original development of the PC may not have happened without the resources of large organisations. I don't know enough to be categoric or even confident about that, but I am more confident that none of the claimed benefits of humanity's exploration of space would not have happened without large scale organisation. (I am aware of the view that the resources would be better committed to the fight against poverty, etc, but I consider that Gaea actually wanted this to evolve as a way of defending life against planetary catastrophes such as large asteroid impacts. I still do work almost every single day for the fight against poverty, and for clean drinking water and adequate food, and consider that a noble and essential task, but I also find the developments in space exploration intellectually interesting, and know some people who find it inspiring. I wouldn't go so far myself, but I would suggest that, if you are speaking to someone you think may find the exploration of space inspiring, you DON'T ask "But don't you find the fight against poverty inspiring?", because that leaves the person concerned with the options of either (a) admitting to being "a bad person", or (b) reluctantly agreeing with you, unless they have the word skills - and many don't - to point out what I am going to [provocatively [3] ] call "the verbal violence" of such a loaded question.)
OK, so let's look at the smaller scale, and, in particular, the psychic arena.
I work in some fairly heavy-duty areas - clearing, rescue, including rescue of uncooperatives. The work is not easy, and does come with a certain amount of danger. The larger scale work against more powerful uncooperatives who I choose to describe as evil, who have been actively working to cause misery for many people on a planetary basis, requires the organised work of highly trained people. To all intents and purposes, it has to be organised as a paramilitary undertaking - as an analogy, consider sailing a yacht: you can't stop for a group discussion about whether to go to port or starboard when you're about to hit a reef, one person, the skipper, makes the decision. This style of organisation has many inherent risks and flaws, but being disorganised has far more risks and flaws - including the major catastrophe of potentially strengthening the very uncooperative that you are seeking to remove or at least to weaken, in order to free people from the psychic control being exerted by the uncooperative.
I'm also aware that many people find the concept of such uncooperative disturbing, or will deny their existence. I consider such views to be dangerously naive, akin to views that Hitler did not exist, or was somehow "misunderstood".
Now, going back to the larger scale, my life experience tells me that there are large forces at play in the world - some from both higher BPF [1] sources, some - including large, complex, effectively organised groups or networks - from negative influences, and many created by the various threads of emotion and thought that 7 billion humans can energise. I believe in trying to make the world a better place, and therefore I try to help the "good" and hinder the "bad". I do that not only on a small scale (i.e. the people, places, etc in my life) but on a large scale as well - on a global scale (which is something else I have noticed scare a few pagans - I certainly HOPE it is fear, and not just small-mindedness, as the broader care for the world in general is one of the things that attracted me to paganism).
I think that could probably best be exemplified by the sort of struggle which was outlined in Dion Fortune's book "The Magical Battle of Britain", which I wrote about here. I won't go into that much more now, other than to point out that is was organising people across a widely spread network that enabled that work to be done.
Organising is something that can be done so badly is actively harmful - I know that from my everyday life as an engineer. It can also be incredibly effective, helpful and beneficial to the world, especially when not limited by small-mindedness.
But that is just my opinion. As always, you be the judge.
[1] BPF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Forces. See here and here for more on this.
[2] Please see my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia.
[3] This is my code word to you, Dear Reader, for "please feel free to disagree with me, as this is only my opinion". :)
[4] There is an interesting discussion in the Dresden Files novel "Turncoat" (Pub. ROC, an imprint of New American Library, division of Penguin, 2010, first pub, 2009, ISBN 978-0-451-46281-7) that is relevant to this. In it, Harry Dresden and another character, an Italian "wizardess" are discussing the (fictional) "Laws of Magic" created for this series of novels by the (fictional) "White Council". I don't have to permission to quote the three paragraphs near the bottom of that page (and can't be bothered trying to get it), but they are to the effect that the US Government has commited great evils as well as other countries, against the original inhabitants of the land.
Love, light, hugs and blessings
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear")
My "blogiography" is here. I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ...
May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
The International Labour Organisation's definition of "full employment" is wrong, useless and misleading.
Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." on one side, and perspicacity on the other.
Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master.
The only prejudice should be against prejudice.
"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]." JOHN F. KENNEDY
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. EDMUND BURKE
Your children are not your children. ... They come through you but ... they belong not to you ... for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow KAHLIL GIBRAN
We didn't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children ANTOINE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW
Tags: about me, attitudes, Dion Fortune, emotions, environmental, fear, paganism, society, uncooperative, values, violence,
First published:Laugadagr, 13th October, 2012
Last edited: Saturday, 13th October, 2012
