Musings of Gnwmythr: January 2014

Sunday, 26 January 2014

Post No. 514 - For tonight's meditation

A few points to contemplate for tonight's meditation:

a peace agreement has been signed in South Sudan, but there remains a long way to go;
elections have been held in the Central African Republic, but there remains a long way to go;
the opposing forces in Syria are sitting in the same room at the "Geneva II" conference, but not yet actually talking to each other;
at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the tensions in East Asia are becoming apparent;
the situation in the Middle East remains poor;
the situation in Egypt is deteriorating;
and there are many other situations and problems, large and small, to be dealt with in the world ...

Post No. 513 - I am a walker upon the Path of Balanced Positivity, seeking Spiritual Maturity

Note: posts on this topic can be found here, here, here and here.

I am a Walker upon the Path of Balanced Positivity, seeking to have and engender in others Spiritual Maturity.

Yes, folks, I'm doing that review of labels thing again :)

Now, Balanced Positivity is the idea that one should aim to be as spiritually constructive as possible, whilst avoiding harmful expressions of naivety, idealism and fanaticism.

I've written about this previously,quoting from the book, "Briefing for the Landing on Planet Earth" by Stuart Holroyd [2] (Pub. Corgi, 1979; ISBN 10: 0552109975, ISBN 13: 9780552109970; I think republished as "The Nine: Briefing from Deep Space" - see http://www.theonlyplanetofchoice.com/newbook.htm), about the alleged contact between aliens and Andrija Puharich, Phyllis V. Schlemmer and Sir John Whitmore. A few key quotes from post follow:

Tom elaborated: 'We have negative and we have positive, and as we have explained to you many times, we must reach a balance between the two. To be all positive is not right, and to be all negative is not right, but in this universe we have those that are all positive or all negative, and this causes an imbalance. ... This planet is weighted and it is heavy and it is what you would call a negative vibration. We discovered this many of your years ago, ... Because of the unbalance in your planet the negative forces have taken on power, and this has created the problem.'

Chapter Five, p. 147

Human greed, desire, jealousy and emotional imbalance are responsible both for the dire situation the planet is in ecologically and for the general cosmic crisis, and as it would require a fundamental change in human consciousness and orientation to overcome these failings it is important both for the Earth and for the universe that such a change be effected. This message, embellished with the warnings about the cunning and power of the opposition forces bent upon preventing the change, is not remarkably original in the context of traditional ideas of apocalypse and the literature of moral exhortation. But there is one rather original aspect to it, which kept coming up in the communications of October: the stress on the fact that the primary need was for balance, and the cosmology related to this idea. The prescription for success and for continuing growth, both in the individual and in the cosmos, is not to beat the devil in a dramatic final contest and thus usher in a new age of sweetness and light, but through unremitting effort to hold in balance conflicting but complementary forces.

In answer to a question of Andrija's as to what the opposition forces were like, how they operated and where they came from, Tom said: 'You ask from where they come, and we know that in your mind you wonder if they are the counterpart of us. Is this not correct?'

'Yes,' Andrija said.

'No, they are not the counterpart of us,' Tom went on. 'Remember this: that we are in the centre; and we don't wish to sound as if we are perfect or as if we are egotistical, but on either side of us there is the positive and there is the negative, and when I say this I mean there is the positive which is not balanced and there is the negative which is not balanced. We are in the centre, and we are balanced. We are trying to bring those other forces into balance. Do you understand? They are not the counterpart of us.'

From Chapter Five, pp. 164 - 166

In effect, it is possible to be "too good", which means that one's 'good' is not seen as such by those on the receiving end. Now, while there are certainly circumstances where this is unavoidable (for instance, when working with the immature, or incapable or less capable such as those with profound mental illness), in general this is as undesirable as justice that is not seen to be done: i.e., just as justice must not only BE done, it must be SEEN to be done so that the victims and others affected by the issue can know that the situation is just (cue arguments about what is just, justice, etc, if you want to digress and miss the point). [3]

In effect, the concept of balanced positive argues that what is 'best' is affected by the circumstances AND the character of people one is with. For instance, what is 'best' when considering
   (a) rebellious youths,
   (b) intimate relationships, or
   (c) a change of leadership or social structure,

may vary for
   (i) a small band of proto-humans living comfortably on the African plains 100,000 years ago;
   (ii) a small band of gatherer-hunters struggling to survive in the European winter 30,000 years ago;
   (iii) a moderate size of gatherer-hunters living comfortably in Europe 15,000 years ago;
   (iv) an agricultural society threatened by invaders or drought 5,000 years ago;
   (v) an uneducated, superstitious town in Europe 500 years ago;
   (vi) a small town in England in the late 1800s;
   (vii) a moderate sized city in the Communist USSR;
   (viii) an urban dweller, dependent on agricultural income, in a modern Western city;
   (ix) a slum dweller in the third world;
   (x) a group of homeless people in a modern Western city;
   (xi) a member of a minority group receiving discrimination in a modern Western city;
   (xii) a mainstream member of urban Western city life;
   (xiii) one of the volunteers living on Mars in the future, with no escape or way back to Earth.

The principles of compassion, growth, respect and honour/responsibility still apply in all these situations, but they are worked with in different ways, much as one would adjust talk about maths for pre-schoolers, primary school, high school, general Uni students and those studying maths at Uni: the principles of maths apply in all those situations (i.e., 1 + 1 = 2 ... except maybe for some of the more advanced forms of maths :) ), but you work with them differently.

To choose another example, democracy does not just rely on people having the option of making a free will choice about who they vote, it also depends on those citizens being CAPABLE of making such a choice (which is why we set limits on voting based on immaturity: a one year old is not capable of voting ... although there are valid arguments about the actual lowest voting age to consider - and the USA has an utterly ridiculous 'lowest' age that is far too high), and being properly informed - which means that, whilst people may choose NOT to follow news, they should all be able to access the truth: a government that is elected on the basis of lies [e.g., that they will disengage from a war, but then they introduce conscription and force the society onto a war footing to engage further in that war, or that they will respect freedom and then introduce discriminatory laws, maybe akin to apartheid] is not truly a democratic government. Note that this goes beyond simple stuff that people should have expected if they had been thinking clearly. [4]

I'm going to work on this concept (it will now be a key part of a book I am working on called "How to Work Harder: the Path of Balanced Positive"). I'm hoping to use what I'm learning about philosophy to phrase all this better, but given my current life pressures and constraints, don't expect anything for a decade or two ...

In the meantime, though, I will aim to do a few posts exploring things like why this is not just pragmatism, and more on the concept of 'Spiritual Maturity' (also, see here, here, here and here), which has been further stimulated by my current reading of Cyril Scott's book "The Initiate".

[3] A potential down side of karma is that one may not see justice being done - and justice must be seen to be done as well as being done. If that is not the case, the people start to perceive the society they are living in as unjust, whether it is or not, and behave accordingly. Now, to some extent knowing that justice has been done to those who have wronged us comes through the psychic links that are established by interactions (see here and here), but what may be wanted is not just revenge but assurance that the wrong doer understands what was wrong about what they did - not the sort of 'giving ammunition to bullies by telling them you're upset' sort of nonsense that some schools use, but more a sort of ... Universal Truth and Reconciliation Scheme, something that avoids the sort of fake apologies of too many (including stereotypical teenagers). Also, although the connections through links are understood at Oversoul level, here for each of us they aren't very satisfying if one isn't particularly psychic. Of course, all of this applies to those one has wronged as well can you send an adequate sense of understanding of the wrong you did and a genuine apology to them psychically?

[4] I am extremely frustrated and annoyed by our current government's idiocy - especially over the problems that have been created with Indonesia over many people's xenophobic fears, fears which go back to the evil John Howard (and earlier). Still, the fact remains: people voted Abbott and his mob in. When I am more tired, I feel that others have successfully been more negative than I've been positive, and wonder whether I should have been psychically more forceful. An incident that comes to mind from my early 20s is when someone I was going to give a lift to grabbed my car keys off me and strode off to the car to start driving (what is it about some males that lets them do that? And some women go along with it??? One past friendship of mine ended largely when the women got into a relationship and gave up skippering her boat so her new male partner could - and the idiot had a few goes at me over stuff that was none of his business); I was easily able to regain the keys but was tempted to use some of the judo I knew. It is a bit like those viciously aggressive control freaks who try to dominate by twisting my hand underneath theirs. Ideally, what I should have done was not give the ... person a lift at all, and left him stranded, but that felt like I would have been being 'not nice'.

[1] BPLF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Light Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
(pronounced "new-MYTH-ear"; ... aka Bellatrix Lux? Morinehtar? Would-be drýicgan ... )

My "blogiography" (list of all posts - currently not up to date) is here.

I started this blog to cover karmic regression-rescue (see here and here), and it grew ... See here for my group mind project, here and here for my "pagans for peace" project (and join me at 9 PM on Sunday, wherever you are, to meditate for peace), and here for my bindrune kit-bag. I also strongly recommend learning how to flame, ground and shield, do alternate nostril breathing, work with colour - and see also here, and be flexible.

I am a Walker upon the Path of Balanced Positivity, seeking Spiritual Maturity.

One size does NOT fit all.
Don't be mediocre - seek to excel.
Gnwmythr's Stropping Strap: Occam's Razor only works if the simplest solution is actually recognised as being the simplest, rather than the one that best fits one's bigotries being labelled 'simplest'.
May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
Ban the dream interpretation industry!
A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
Housework is for ensuring a home is comfortable to live in, not competing to outdo or belittle others.
Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master.
Expertise at intimacy and emotional happiness is generally not the same thing as spiritual growth.
"Following the crowd" is not "going with the flow".
Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and/or "they can ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. Indolence vs. perspicacity, and expediency vs. honour.
The means shape the end.
As words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi", although I've recently come across "Invictus" and might put that one in to that category. However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY (who was quoting 19th century Episcopal Bishop Phillips Brooks)

Jesus loves you. Odin wants you to grow up. (Facebook meme, according to John Beckett)

Females, get over 'cute'. Get competent. Get trained. Get capable. Get over 'cute'. And those of you who are called Patty and Debby and Suzy, get over that. Because we use those names to infantalise females – we keep females in their 'little girl' state by the names we use for them. Get over it. If you want to be taken seriously, get serious. JANE ELLIOTT

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing. (based on writing by) EDMUND BURKE

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." EINSTEIN

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.

True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Those whom we cannot stand are usually those who we cannot understand P.K.SHAW

Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, and the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change." SENATOR ROBERT F. KENNEDY (US Attorney General 1966 Speech)

Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that -- counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. ... Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile." ROBERT F. KENNEDY 1968

Tags: about me, balance, Balanced Positivity, labels, maturity, Spiritual Maturity,

First published: Sunnudagr, 26th January, 2014

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Sunday, 26th January, 2014

Post No. 512 - Invasion Day

Today is Invasion Day. May Australia become a nation:

truly founded on fairness by proper, BPLF recognition of our indigenous people, proper addressing of discrimination INCLUDING educating people all those who don't understand why dispossession causes problems;
which genuinely understands and honours multiculturalism, rather than thinking imported Anglo-Saxon neo-christian culture is somehow "the norm", or somehow more desirable than multiculturalism.

In the spirit of the car sticker from the USA which said "Welcome to America. Now speak Cherokee.", may we consider "Welcome to Australia. Now speak Kulin (or whatever language was spoken in your area)."

Friday, 24 January 2014

New Moon in Aquarius

If you would like to do something for the New Moon in Aquarius, which is after the Dark Moon on 31st January (Dark Moon and New Moon are completely different energies - do not conflate the two, especially not out of laziness: strictly speaking, the New Moon work should be when a crescent is visible, but at that stage the Moon will possibly be in another astrological sign so I just delay until at least a few hours after Dark Moon, and preferably the new day), according to my ephemeris, well, I have not yet written a ritual, but check here for when I do.

Saturday, 18 January 2014

Post No. 511 - Failure to take action

Many years ago, I once asked someone who identified as Buddhist in what way he was better for being Buddhist. He couldn't answer me, and basically prattled on about the advantages of 'head knowledge'.

Bull.

Knowledge IS important, and it IS better to know than to not, but having knowledge comes with a responsibility: the responsibility to use that knowledge to make oneself AND the world a better place ... If you don't, you are going backwards karmically - why? Because it is a little like walking along a riverside with a rope, and not throwing one end of the rope to someone struggling or drowning in the river.

Think there is no-one drowning near you?

Again ... bull.

There are an enormous number of people in the world in need of help - people in war zones, people dying of poverty or malnourishment / starvation or contaminated water (we recently re-watched the Vicar of Dibley episode about Make Poverty History). LGBTIQ people in Russia (and elsewhere!). Neighbours - like the bigot across the road from us who abused someone because that other person was indigenous. Idiots like the owner of our rented home ...

There are always people in need of help.

And, what of yourself? In what way are YOU a better human being for whatever you believe in? Are you more spiritually mature? More self disciplined? Honourable? More committed to making this world and the people in it better (which is a more accurate way of writing 'spiritually loving')?

We have major fires here, out in the Gariwerd / Grampians, a place that suffered major fires in 2006, and conditions now are the worst they have been since the February 2009 fires which killed 173 people. Over in the USA there has been a major water contamination incident. Have you done anything about these incidents?

Sadly, I've come across quite a few pagans who are a bit like the Buddhist I mentioned at the start of this post, and the hypocritical, back-stabbing Sunday Christians (who I now term neo-christians) who played a major role in putting me off Christianity when I was a child. (I have heard someone who claimed to be Christian who said it was OK to do things that harmed others, provided one confessed afterwards! No wonder Luther started the Reformation over the issue of 'Indulgences'!) In February 2009 I was with a group of pagans, and I was the only one who showed any interest in trying to any magickal work to try to help ...

I think that is the thing that gets me: people who study magick for the 'head knowledge', and then never even make an effort to try using it ...

[1] BPLF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Light Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

Love, light, hugs and blessings

One size does NOT fit all.
Don't be mediocre - seek to excel.
Gnwmythr's Stropping Strap: Occam's Razor only works if the simplest solution is actually recognised as being the simplest, rather than the one that best fits one's bigotries being labelled 'simplest'.
May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
Ban the dream interpretation industry!
A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
Housework is for ensuring a home is comfortable to live in, not competing to outdo or belittle others.
Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master.
Expertise at intimacy and emotional happiness is generally not the same thing as spiritual growth.
"Following the crowd" is not "going with the flow".
Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and/or "they can ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. Indolence vs. perspicacity, and expediency vs. honour.
The means shape the end.
As words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi", although I've recently come across "Invictus" and might put that one in to that category. However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY (who was quoting 19th century Episcopal Bishop Phillips Brooks)

Tags: attitudes, discrimination, energy work, environment, magic, personal responsibility, rituals, society,

First published: Laugardagr, 18th January, 2014

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Saturday, 18th January, 2014

Tuesday, 14 January 2014

Post No. 510 - Astrology, fashionable idiocy and reading

I'm getting blunter as I get older and grumpier, and I have been thinking about fads and poor communication lately, triggered by hearing, firstly, someone urge caution about sunscreens because "you're putting chemicals on your body", and, secondly, someone else saying that commercial meats are all full of hormones and antibiotics.

Let's look at the first of those comments. What the person concerned really meant was, I think, "you're putting HUMAN-MADE or ARTIFICIAL (i.e., NOT NATURALLY SOURCED) chemicals on your body", which is clumsier, but more accurate. My immediate concern here isn't whether or not the sun screens do more harm than good, but that the argument would be completely ignored by those who NEED to consider it, because of their - entirely correct - response (which I have encountered many times, sadly) that everything is a chemical - including material sourced from nature. As an example, I use olive oil [2] as a hair conditioner (I have very fine, dry hair which has had a lot of damage from sun and salt water, over the years, and commercially available ARTIFICIAL CHEMICAL conditioners are not strong enough for me [3] ) and skin moisturiser: olive oil is mostly triglycerides "an ester derived from glycerol and three fatty acids", according to Wikipedia, so has the general chemical formula CH3(CH2)nCOOH. If the argument is put forward in a lobbying or education situation that sun screens are bad because they're chemicals, it quite possibly won't get the consideration it merits.

Also concerning to me, it promotes sloppy communication and fuzzy thinking, and that is not good for anything, whether it is lobbying for change, everyday living, or spiritual growth. (Oh, and for the record, I think any damage which may be done by sun screens is FAR outweighed by the damage done by skin cancer, but see also here * and here.)

Now, commercially production of meat often IS tainted by excessive use of antibiotics (which may adversely impact on our ability to effectively use antibiotics as microorganisms may develop resistances to these through meeting the antibiotics via animal wastes) and, in some cases, hormones, and - particularly in the case of cage hens and live animal exports - cruelty, as well as environmental questions ... but that doesn't apply, or doesn't apply fully, to ALL commercial meat production. What about meat labelled as 'organic'? Here in Victoria and Australia more generally we have laws about what can and cannot be labelled organic, and it is clearly being done commercially ...

Another point that came to mind when I heard that comment is the issue of waste: if I can find the link, I will post it to an article where a journalist followed what happened to a particular pig carcass, and found there was actually no waste. One of my big issues with food and consumption generally is lack of gratitude - and that includes plants, who are a form of life that I am rather attuned to, and those who do so much to get us the food at a low price. I think everyone with any soil should grow something - I'll be harvesting our potatoes and carrots soon, and the corn is not far off being ready. This helps to put us back in touch with Nature generally, but also promotes an awareness of what is happening in the world of nature (and, to some extent, to local farmers).

Now, going back to the comments, although the first was based on sound knowledge, the second was more flawed, and I consider it highly likely -based on my experience, which includes stupid things like forwarding alarmist emails about 'a million Muslims' (even if that was true here in Australia, which is clearly is not, so what???), some people who would unthinkingly propagate either point are examples of people wanting to seem knowledgeable and therefore putting on what seems to them to be a convenient facade of intelligence, rather than using some of what Brendan Myers describes as "Clear and Present Thinking". On the other hand, it could be argued, particularly in light of thalidomide-associated birth defects, that some of these apparently simplistic concerns are actually valid manifestations of the precautionary principle ... and, incidentally, the first of the links I provided about sunscreens (at * above) included a fatal flaw common to scientific circles: not finding evidence of problems is NOT necessarily proof that something is safe ...

So, clear communication and thinking are good, but so is the precautionary principle and accepting the limits of scientific method, which I wrote about here, back in 2007, is also equally good. And those who would write off an argument on the basis of poorly chosen, but nevertheless clear, words, are guilty of intellectual bigotry, in my view ...Sadly, I think much of what I am concerned about is really more about finding a way to connect to people - saying what one thinks will be lied by one's associates to create a sense of ... well, I won't call it friendship, I'll term it 'belonging'.

Hmm. Looking at the flow of this post, maybe I shouldn't hang around my power animal coyote so much ... :)

On a different note, I have finally found a website which gives me astrological aspects on a day by day basis, so no more laborious entry of planetary positions into the spreadsheet I created - instead, I just go to http://www.mazahra.com/node/47.

Now, some reading links.

G'day, hello, howdy, hi, zdravstvujtye (some of my work colleagues are Russian, including an absolutely invaluable administrator who has recently taken maternity leave - may she and young one and family be blest), guten tag (where I have connection owing to a recent past life), sveiki, czesc (I have friends, not just colleagues, at work who are Polish), bonjour (colleagues at a former workplace were French, and we practised and tried to extend my woeful and limited range of this language), selamat pagi (one of the best junior engineers I ever worked with was Malaysian, and she taught me a few words), annyeonghaseyo, pryvit, bitaem, como vai (a friend of mine a few years ago, although not Brazilian, had Portuguese ancestry), ¡Hola (a former work colleague and friend, a VERY talented artist - with a Mexican sensibility to her artwork, particularly around the Day of the Dead - used to teach me Mexican Spanish), Selamat pagi, ni hao (ah, my work trips to Asia, and the many wonderful, wonderful people I have met there - and some excellent work colleagues and friends here, as well), bongiorno (my current home city of Melbourne has lots of Greeks and Italians, who have made our culture far richer - and made us coffee snobs :) ), hoschakal, hejsan, ciao, no japolt kivanu, chào bà, chào ông, yiasou (from the city which has, I understand, the largest collection of Greek people outside of Greece), ceau, salam wa aleikum, sawas dee ka, dia duit, hoi.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/08/first-world-war-imperial-bloodbath-warning-noble-cause;

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/asenseofplace/2014/01/messiah-complex/ (found via The Wild Hunt);

http://aheathensday.com/2012/11/does-it-matter-what-our-ancestors-would-do.html;

http://alisonleighlilly.com/blog/2014/gods-like-mountains-gods-like-mist/ (found via The Wild Hunt);

http://thracianexodus.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/guide-lines-protocols-ground-rules-or-indicative-ideological-injunctions-on-talking-about-stuff-and-things/ (found via The Wild Hunt), and also http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/08/twitter-bullies-voice-responsibility-caroline-criado-perez;

http://wildhunt.org/2014/01/natures-social-union.html;

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usoh&c=words&id=15590;

some interesting philosophical views in this, but I'm always wary of predictions for a coming year - I think most of them are poor or even just egotistical rubbish: http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usma&c=words&id=15577;

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=uswa&c=words&id=15580;

http://wildhunt.org/2014/01/institutions-vs-counterculture-in-modern-paganism.html, and http://www.patheos.com/blogs/johnbeckett/2014/01/vision-of-a-pagan-future.html;

some insight from an American journo at The Guardian who used to be a Wall Street trader, Chris Arnade: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/12/america-racism-subtle-dangerous-new-york, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/03/fraud-wall-street-food-stamps-congress-cuts, http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/25/wall-street-hard-time-ethical, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/17/growing-up-in-poverty-bronx-new-york, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/02/obamacare-ted-cruz-doesnt-get-it and http://www.theguardian.com/global/2013/oct/01/wall-street-banks-shared-responsibility-risks-investing;

http://politics.pagannewswirecollective.com/2010/08/27/islamophobia-and-an-american-heathen/;

http://aheathensday.com/2012/12/sacred-biomes.html;

http://aheathensday.com/2010/04/a-review-of-paxsons-essential-asatru.html;

http://aheathensday.com/2011/08/bart-d-ehrmans-forged-a-review.html;

http://aheathensday.com/2012/03/what-is-fate-to-a-heathen.html, http://aheathensday.com/2006/09/heathen-karma.html and http://aheathensday.com/2006/09/more-heathen-karma.html;

http://aheathensday.com/2012/02/orlog-and-having-your-rapists-child.html#comment-3746;

http://politics.pagannewswirecollective.com/2010/08/27/islamophobia-and-an-american-heathen/.

I'll end with a link to a post of mine that has been on my mind of late, so I suspect someone needs their attention drawn to it - all the best to you, whoever you are:

http://gnwmythr.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/on-why-i-have-been-ruined-for-death.html.

What I would add to that post now is for those who fear not connecting with someone they love: in the astral, our concept of 'physical distance' is replaced by closeness or separation which is based on how much in harmony you are with others. If you are emotionally, mentally and spiritually close to someone, it is IMPOSSIBLE to be far away from them in the astral. (Just keep in mind that if you try to short circuit things by committing suicide, you may well damage yourself in such a way that you are no longer the same person, and thus no longer close to them - not to mention the possibility of getting forced into a cycle of rebirth that keeps you apart, so ... patience is the key.)

[3] I also have had someone complain vigorously about the presence of silica in some hair care products, not realising that silica is considered by some people to be essential for health hair growth - for instance, see here.

[1] BPLF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Light Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

Love, light, hugs and blessings

One size does NOT fit all.
Don't be mediocre - seek to excel.
Gnwmythr's Stropping Strap: Occam's Razor only works if the simplest solution is actually recognised as being the simplest, rather than the one that best fits one's bigotries being labelled 'simplest'.
May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
Ban the dream interpretation industry!
A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
Housework is for ensuring a home is comfortable to live in, not competing to outdo or belittle others.
Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master.
Expertise at intimacy and emotional happiness is generally not the same thing as spiritual growth.
"Following the crowd" is not "going with the flow".
Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and/or "they can ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. Indolence vs. perspicacity, and expediency vs. honour.
The means shape the end.
As words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi", although I've recently come across "Invictus" and might put that one in to that category. However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY (who was quoting 19th century Episcopal Bishop Phillips Brooks)

Tags: about me, attitudes, communication, discrimination, environment, precautionary principle, science, shamanism, society, war,

First published: Tysdagr, 14th January, 2014

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Tuesday, 14th January, 2014

Sunday, 12 January 2014

Post No. 509 - For tonight's meditation: people change [Content Warning: death, war & violence, bigotry, change]

Ariel Sharon [2] is dead. Sharon was someone who, for much of his life, was so focused on Israel that what is euphemistically is termed 'collateral damage' was of little apparent concern to him - whether that was an Egyptian Army, or Palestinians displaced or otherwise affected by Israeli settlement programmes, killed in reprisals against fedayeen attacks or massacred in Lebanon (which is claimed to have led to reprisals against the USA) ... and yet he unilaterally pulled Israel out of the Gaza Strip.

The former president of the Central African Republic resigned, which may or may not yet be a good thing.

People are all capable of change - for the better and for the worse, and that is a theme (i.e., changing for the better) that I will be focusing on in tonight's meditation.

Furthermore, most people are not all good or all bad. I have major concerns (as do some Russians, it seems - see here) about Putin; in my case, I am particularly concerned about Putin's apparent erosion of democracy, political and other aggression and bigotry (specifically, towards LGBTIQ people), and yet he was instrumental in the plan which is slowly getting chemical weapons out of Syria, and the improvements in the Russian economy under Putin's first two Presidential terms - whether due to Putin or not - are possibly why he was elected for a third term: ordinary Russians just want a better quality of life.

I posted here the following:

As I am inclined to do after such films, I did some research on it, and that led me to some interesting pages on authoritarian personality types (see also here, here, and here [3] ). I hope to use that information to fine tune the work I am attempting to do in order to better the world, but a point that came out of this period of history was an initial impression - from my reading - that the excuse for the coup d'état was tied up with the social chaos, including violence of left and right wing groups, and the thought which came to mind was a view attributed to the main character in Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Heartlight", that the effect that attempts to violently impose change have is to only create conditions which are a breeding ground for fascism.

What I am aiming at is perhaps more eloquently expressed in the Cherokee legend of the two wolves inside a human, and the one that dominates is the one that wins. Hence, if you want to change someone, you have to feed the good wolf - you may, at times, have to focus on containing people's influence if they are harming others (which is the attitude I have when rescuing uncooperatives) who, by definition, are actively harming others and are continuing in their refusal to stop the harm after trying to get the message across 'nicely'), but, eventually, the good wolf has to be fed and nurtured.

I would also like anyone who takes part to spend some time thinking of protection for whoever else is taking part. On a personal note, I will be seeking to find a BPLF [1] (which means it will ethical, and more) way to persuade these two men to find a broader, more inclusive view on life acceptable, and a bit of work on everything else I have been working on this last week, and that I may do in the coming week.

[1] BPLF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Light Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

Love, light, hugs and blessings

One size does NOT fit all.
Don't be mediocre - seek to excel.
Gnwmythr's Stropping Strap: Occam's Razor only works if the simplest solution is actually recognised as being the simplest, rather than the one that best fits one's bigotries being labelled 'simplest'.
May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
Ban the dream interpretation industry!
A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
Housework is for ensuring a home is comfortable to live in, not competing to outdo or belittle others.
Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master.
Expertise at intimacy and emotional happiness is generally not the same thing as spiritual growth.
"Following the crowd" is not "going with the flow".
Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and/or "they can ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. Indolence vs. perspicacity, and expediency vs. honour.
The means shape the end.
As words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi", although I've recently come across "Invictus" and might put that one in to that category. However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY (who was quoting 19th century Episcopal Bishop Phillips Brooks)

Tags: attitudes, change, peace, rescue, uncooperative,

First published: Sunnudagr, 12th January, 2014

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Sunday, 12th January, 2014

Thursday, 9 January 2014

Post No. 508 - The amathia and environmental vandalism of landlords

For the last five years I have been living with my partner in a terrible house in Thornbury. Mostly what made the house terrible was the lack of maintenance by the landlord (i.e., the owner). That included things like not replacing a heater for 18 months, not fixing a leaking tap which has now pretty much destroyed a bench top, and so on. Shortly after I moved in, the front garden was absolutely massacred upon the instruction of the landlord. Now ... well, look at the photo below. This used to be a magnificent fig tree, one which we had been pruning and looking after for some time (my partner has been her seven years): the figs made jams for us, and provided food for parrots and bats, and the tree gave us shade in summer to a very hot part of the house. Now ... all that is gone - and so too are we, as soon as we can find somewhere to rent that isn't owned by an idiotic, irresponsible, environmental desecrator, and, as pagans, that is exactly what both this current butchery, as well as the massacre of the front garden some years ago (which made the front of the house hotter in summer), is: desecration.

Shame, landlord, shame.

This is the tree as it was after we had pruned it last winter, in late June - and it had grown a little since then, to be one of the main trees in the neighbourhood:

This is what has happened today - and all these branches had figs growing on them:

A long time ago I read a story which mentioned, in it, another (fictitious) story about a young Jesus helping his father in the carpentry shop, and both being pleased to receive an order from the Roman army for several crucifixes, as they gave them some much needed money. The gardener who did this terrible desecration today was a pleasant enough sort of person, and was also 'just' earning a living, but humanity as a whole has been, for a long, long time, in need of learning to treasure every possible tree. Not to do so is - and I am aware that this is a simplification subject to conditions and limits - to kill us, and perhaps the whole planet. On a small scale, the ecology of this block has been forever harmed by the landlord's short-sightedness - their amathia.

[1] BPLF = Balanced Positive (spiritual) Light Forces. See here and here for more on this.

[2] Please see here and my post "The Death of Wikipedia" for the reasons I now recommend caution when using Wikipedia. I'm also exploring use of h2g2, although that doesn't appear to be as extensive (h2g2 is intended - rather engagingly - to be the Earth edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy").

Love, light, hugs and blessings

One size does NOT fit all.
Don't be mediocre - seek to excel.
Gnwmythr's Stropping Strap: Occam's Razor only works if the simplest solution is actually recognised as being the simplest, rather than the one that best fits one's bigotries being labelled 'simplest'.
May the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a master, of the lives of people.
Ban the dream interpretation industry!
A home is for living in, not feeling, becoming or being rich or a “better” class than others.
Housework is for ensuring a home is comfortable to live in, not competing to outdo or belittle others.
Like fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad master.
Expertise at intimacy and emotional happiness is generally not the same thing as spiritual growth.
"Following the crowd" is not "going with the flow".
Armageddon is alive and well and happening right now: it is a battle between the indolence of "I only ..." and/or "I just ..." and/or "Everyone knows ... " and/or "they can ..." and what Bruce Schneier [2] calls "security theatre" on one side, and perspicacity and the understanding that the means shape the end on the other. Indolence vs. perspicacity, and expediency vs. honour.
The means shape the end.
As words can kill, the right to freedom of speech comes with a DUTY to be as well-informed, objective and balanced as you can be.
My favourite action movie of all time is "Gandhi", although I've recently come across "Invictus" and might put that one in to that category. However, I loathe the stereotypical action movie - and, for similar reasons, I loathe many dramas, which are often emotionally violent, more so in some cases than many war films.
All of the above - and this blog - could be wrong, or subject to context, perspective, or state of spiritual evolution ...

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger [people]. JOHN F. KENNEDY (who was quoting 19th century Episcopal Bishop Phillips Brooks)

Tags: about me, environment, irresponsibility,

First published: Thorsdagr, 9th January, 2014

Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Thursday, 9th January, 2014

Pages

Sunday, 26 January 2014

Friday, 24 January 2014

Saturday, 18 January 2014

Tuesday, 14 January 2014

Sunday, 12 January 2014

Thursday, 9 January 2014