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, jo napolt kivanu, chào bà, chào ông, yiassou (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, hei, namaste,
marhaba, dobry den.
Well, after a hectic few weeks, I'm going to start trying to catch up with a few things on this blog, beginning with the reading links I've accumulated.
- one of the many follow up
posts to Ferguson: https://thracianexodus.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/while-white/;
- a source of rituals for
solitary Druids – and others (found via
The Wild Hunt). These were written by “Teo Bishop” while his
spiritual path went along the path of Druidry: http://druidnetwork.org/what-is-druidry/rites-and-rituals/solitary-druid-fellowship/;
- interesting interview (I came
across a blog somewhere recently where someone combined Hinduism and Paganism):
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/interview/gita-my-basis-for-counselling-hindus-in-us-military/article6605265.ece?homepage=true&utm_source=MostPopular&utm_medium=Homepage&utm_campaign=WidgetPromo;
- http://polytheist.com/wyrd-ways/2014/11/18/resacralizing-our-world/;
- I hope many other women read this and think: http://www.dailylife.com.au/dl-beauty/tracey-spicer-this-is-what-i-look-like-without-makeup-20141115-3kfbl.html;
- and this: http://www.dailylife.com.au/news-and-views/dl-opinion/you-need-to-know-about-the-ugly-girls-club-20141204-120b9t.html;
- I’ve come across reports like
this before: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-05/study-finds-yoga-helping-women-recover-from-breast-cancer/5945932;
- the UN has concerns about
police in the USA: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-05/united-nations-urges-us-to-look-at-police-accountability/5945616;
- http://polytheist.com/spring-and-stone/2014/12/03/roman-sewage/;
- www.dailylife.com.au/dl-people/dl-entertainment/local-gamer-is-contacting-the-mums-of-boys-who-threaten-to-rape-her-20141201-3lju5.html;
- http://www.theage.com.au/comment/how-to-end-the-war-on-women-20141205-120ba9.html;
- http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/more-school-principals-threatened-by-violent-parents-20141203-11zgos.html;
- another excellent post, this
one of a personal and mystical nature, from the excellent Rhyd Wildermuth, on The Wild Hunt: http://wildhunt.org/2014/12/column-grey-is-every-blue.html;
- I like the referred to book
title in this article, which argues that Arthur Calwell deserves
a more nuanced assessment: “The Long,
Slow Death of White Australia”: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/the-speech-that-changed-australia-20141206-1208h3.html;
- I think this attempt at
explaining survival after death is incredibly complicated and based on an
incorrect assessment (or acceptance)
of evidence, but at least science might be stumbling towards the truth, as it
has been known by mystics for millennia: http://www.spiritscienceandmetaphysics.com/new-scientific-theory-explains-the-soul-and-afterlife/’;
- http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141205-the-man-with-two-hearts;
- http://paganinparadise.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/pagan-trolls-call-for-non-action.html;
- http://paganinparadise.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/ten-pagans-who-made-difference-in-2014.html;
- http://polytheist.com/polytheist-parent/2014/12/08/playground-politics/;
- a YouTube clip from the
Correllians about (spirit)
rescue for pets, but with some good comments worth keeping in mind
generally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NmCqCPOJ0s&list=UUc8FGWoAdNgs94c-p1g12SA,
and on ‘ghosts’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuPB_Ub3wdA&list=UUc8FGWoAdNgs94c-p1g12SA;
- another clip from the
Correllians about Goddess vs. God (if you
watch this, keep in mind my different version of polarity at http://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2014/09/fiery-magickal-law-of-taijitu.html): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vPiFIuoK1c&list=UUc8FGWoAdNgs94c-p1g12SA;
- some common sense from the
Correllians, and a viewpoint that I can relate to (“One size does not fit all”) – particularly with one ***wit I had
the misfortune to come across who insisted that large crystals cannot be in the
house, and others who make dire warnings about all sorts of trivial matters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAGw8rDZtTk&list=UUc8FGWoAdNgs94c-p1g12SA;
- my partner recently spent a
few days visiting friends, and was struck by how much noise they had – TVs or
radios, or both, constantly going. It was nice to get home to our peaceful,
QUIET home. As a society, we have far too much noise pollution generally, and I
consider many people do this partly out of fear – fear of what they might find (themselves) or do (think!) if they didn’t have such constant distraction … * slaps
self on wrist * Ah well, here is a nice article about how Einstein sought
silence – even went sailing for it, apparently (may I get to go sailing again soon – and regularly: I’ve had enough
of city life for an incarnation or three): http://www.theage.com.au/comment/genius-found-inspiration-in-silent-spaces-20141213-124t52.html;
- a good argument for
de-cluttering our lives for the sake of happiness: http://www.dailylife.com.au/life-and-love/real-life/does-having-less-make-us-happier-20141213-3mhvm.html;
- a nice article by a young
person about the overemphasis on Year 12, one which brings to mind something I
tell most young Uni graduates I start working with in my day job (engineering),
which is that their Uni degree is just a Licence to Start Learning … : http://www.theage.com.au/comment/vce-is-over-can-i-start-learning-now-20141214-126qok.html;
- a somewhat strange article to
me, but may be of some use for thinking about relationships: http://www.dailylife.com.au/life-and-love/real-life/what-your-frenemies-are-doing-to-your-health-20141212-125qzz.html;
- I recently came across this
article on The Wild Hunt, which was
basically a reasonable article, I considered: http://wildhunt.org/2014/12/pronouns-and-gender-together-forever.html.
Then I started reading the comments,
and was reminded why I do not allow comments on my blogs: trolls. I had planned
on posting a comment, but most of what I wanted to say had been covered, except
that misgendering can and does kill people
– around half a dozen trans people I’ve known to some extent have committed
suicide because of this and other discrimination in the last quarter century,
and I know trans people who have experienced much higher numbers of people
committing suicide. The thing that particularly struck me about the comments
was that these are people with allegedly connections to more inclusive
religions … I sit next to a very nasty person in my day job: conservative
(neo-liberal), utterly uninformed, and resistant to any form of consideration
of minority groups. He’s not uncommon, sadly, in engineering, and I’ve grown to
expect such from too many people in engineering (people who are, in my view, often emotionally incompetent – or worse:
one workplace bully from my past comes very close to meeting the definition of
psychopath, but that is actually more a reflection on how companies manage
human beings), which is why I’m seeking a career change. I’ve come across
discrimination in Paganism as well (and
elsewhere – such discrimination is why I no longer have anything to do with
Spiritualism, and why I do NOT endorse movements like the Charter for Compassion,
which has the same sort of head-in-the-sand denial that goes with people who
try to avoid identifying gender in the workplace and think that is actually a
solution to anything, whereas it is actually such a problem that I am actually actively against such movements because they are agents of the enforced invisibility which is one of the hallmarks of discrimination),
but I consider this some of the most blatant and offensive I’ve come across
anywhere for some time;
- http://necropolisnow.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/greece-crete-and-cyprus-is-word.html;
- http://wiccaeducation.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/it-is-appropriate-to-call-contemporary.html;
- http://enchantedfeydream.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/remembrance-i.html;
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1ULBusYUs8;
- http://www.thorncoyle.com/blog/2014/12/11/cycles/;
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMZ37gQ5xN4,
and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_-IAS5EQL0a1Z1RvR3iaVg;
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sABGtrOyKus;
- http://egregores.blogspot.com.au/;
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJukimRf6_U;
- slightly
different take on grounding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3mxmirPvhk.
and more generally:
[1]
BPLF = Balanced Positive
(spiritual) Light Forces. See here and here for more on this.
Love, light, hugs and blessings
My "blogiography" (list of all posts and guide as to how to best use this site) is here, and my glossary/index is here.
- neither eloquence nor inarticulateness inherently indicates correctness, but, 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.
- 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'.
- Our
entire life experience, with all the many wondrous and varied people,
places and events in it, is too small a sample for statistical reliability
about Life.
- May
the world of commerce and business be recognised to be a servant, not a
master, of the lives of people.
- Being
accustomed to interacting via certain rules makes those rules neither
right nor universal.
- Like
fire to the physical, emotions to the soul make a good servant, and a bad
master.
- The
means shape the end.
- 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 ...
Human dignity
is the inherently cumulative holistic combination of human rights,
wellbeing and potential, and all actions or interaction which promote,
realise or facilitate same. The converse also applies: whatever
degrades, diminishes or robs humans of dignity, is inherently
undignified.
Gnwmythr
The “purpose” of
spiritual evolution is not the attainment of “spiritual perfection” - not in
the sense of not having to evolve further, at any rate, since there is no such thing.
We need to evolve in order to grow - but we can take rest breaks (hopefully well earned :) ) along the
way. No, the “purpose” of evolution is, rather, to perfect our ability to
learn, and thus grow.
Gnwmythr
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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
We didn't inherit the Earth from our
ancestors, we only borrowed it from our children
Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
There are risks and costs to a program of
action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of
comfortable inaction.
John F. Kennedy
Tags: abuse of power, asceticism, common sense, discrimination, Druid, health, meditation, perspective, racism, reading, rituals, sexism, society, well being,
First published: Fryrsdagr, 19th December, 2014
Last edited (excluding fixing typo's and other minor matters): Friday, 19th December, 2014
