Jim Alan, of Circle Sanctuary with Selena Fox, wrote music.  And not all of it is serious ritual music.  Some of it is just – well – fun.  And “Talkin’ Wicca Blues” is a beautifully crafted example of the fun.  To summarize:  your newbie witch-wanna-be gets his “HOW TO BE WICCAN” kit in the mail and decides to try it out.  Just for fun.  This isn’t supposed to be the real try-out, just a dry run through.  And stuff happens.  You have to either hear or read it to get the full fun out of it, so please follow the link on the sidebar to read it in entirety.  If you know some of the same sorts of people I do, you’ll be right there beside me going “Oh Yeah, they do.”

WWHD?  H = Hecate   Show them the right path…or is it the left?

A while ago, I was lucky enough to witness several people talking about their spiritual paths and their assessments of their own progress along those paths. The group consisted of a couple of teachers and several of their students, none Wiccan. The conversation went something like this:

Teacher A: Yes, for a long time now I have been able to communicate directly with (the Divine). I sit down to meditate and (S/He) comes to me and we have face to face conversations.

Students, seeming collectively impressed: Ahh…

Teacher B: Oh. What does (S/He) look like when (S/He) comes to you?

Teacher A: Well – (description)

Students look at each other.

Teacher B: Well, when (S/He) comes to me, (S/He) looks – (description).

At this point battle lines seemed to be forming. The two teachers were each sure they had the TRUE vision, but neither was going to openly contradict the other. I suppose this was a sign of mature spirituality. The debate continued, but the students were off in their own direction.

Student 1: I guess I’m not very spiritually evolved because (the Divine) has never appeared to me.

Student 2: I think I might have sort of seen (Divinity) once, but (S/He) didn’t look the way either of them said.

Student 3: I can’t visualize at all. I guess I’m never going to be really spiritually evolved.

The thing I found saddest about the whole affair was that neither “teacher” addressed a valid concern of the students. They were both so involved with posturing that they missed pointing out to the students that what one individual envisions has very little bearing on the truth of any other individual’s relationship with the Divine. The students obviously were interpreting their teacher’s statements to mean that the students could not be “spiritually evolved” (whatever that is) until and unless they literally had a vision of the Divine which matched their teacher’s personal vision.

A little later in the day, the students saw me sitting alone and came over to me. After introductions and “We noticed you”s, they asked my opinion on their teachers’ debate.

When Student 3 reiterated dismay regarding any hope of spiritual evolution, I felt compelled to make further inquiry. Student 3 said they felt the presence of (the Divine) when they looked at natural things, trees, flowers, wind – and that they saw (the Hand of the Divine) in things like a newborn. They got a feeling of Divine approval when they offered a kindness or comfort to another living being. My observation was that this was an equally valid and, to me at least, a much more practical “vision” of (the Divine). I asked them to consider whether they felt spiritual evolution was touching the Divine, being in touch with the Divine, being touched by the Divine, or different combinations at different times. And I reminded them not to judge what can only be a very personal relationship on the basis of what someone else says their situation is.

Some people crave strong visions of individual Deities, some need the caress of a raindrop, others are content without any sort of proof. If it’s your relationship, it must be right for you. It is easy to fall into the path of accepting another’s statements rather than inquiring of ourselves. It can be very reassuring to have our own personal beliefs confirmed by the statements of someone we respect and whose opinions we value, but we should all realize it is just that – reassurance – and not an immutable absolute. As we grow and change, our relationships grow and change. Our relationship to, and our interpretation of, the Divine will probably follow that same rule throughout our existence.

“And the whole of My law is Love.” – most religions

WWBD?   B=Buddha     Does it matter? If you are enlightened, it does not. If you are not enlightened, it still doesn’t matter.

(Originally written April 19, 2007)

“I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric YAWP over the roofs of the world.”
-Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself,” from Leaves of Grass.

“Long ago in southern Germany, in Bavaria, during the late middle ages there was a custom in many of the Catholic churches of that region that was quite unusual. At the end of the Easter church service, the Easter Mass, the priest would leave the altar and come down among the people and lead the congregation in what was called the “Risus Paschalis” which means “the Easter laughter.” The priest would tell funny stories and sing comical songs, and the church would ring with laughter. Of course the point was obvious, the laughter echoing through the church was a tangible testimony to the merriment born out of the tidings of this great day, Jesus Christ alive and loose among us. All the forces that conspired to lay him in his tomb, the fury, the lovelessness, the violence, the vaunted powers of kings and empires, they are made a laughing stock.”
Preached by Dr. John M. McCoy at Highland Park Presbyterian Church, Dallas, Texas, USA, on 04/23/2000. Scripture Reference(s): Psalm 126:1-6; Mark 16:1-8

This, to me, is the Divine Mystery of Christianity: The Power Greater than Death that moves through all living beings.

Christ is born, a mortal man, who shows that living by his example is a true path to God, and proves that death is only an illusion and the soul lives on. Even after he suffers through the worst of what humanity can dish out, including human, cowardice, anger, power-corruption, viciousness, and petty politics, he still forgives his tormentors. He dies, true, but that is only an illusion. It is a tiny piece of the much greater Mystery of Divine Grace.

Good Friday is about the suffering of Christ at the hands of men. Calling it “the Passion” stems from the late Latin passionem (nom. passio) “suffering, enduring.” (This means to “feel passion” for somebody literally means that you are “suffering” for them, but that’s another essay.) This is the universal, “Mean People Suck,” that anybody who has ever been falsely accused, tormented and put on trial for the twisted way human minds will filter genuine acts of love and compassion. It’s a timeless story because everyone who has ever felt wrongly persecuted can relate to these feelings.

However, Easter itself is a message of hope. It’s spring returning after the winter’s cold, and the rains coming after the drought. It’s the Resurrection, the triumph over human weakness and iniquity. It’s loudly proclaiming to the world, “You can not defeat me. You can try, but I will persevere, and in the end, I will win.”

According to legend, it was a humble monk who first invented “Bright Monday,” or “Laughing Monday,” finding it the best way to celebrate Easter Monday. After all, it is the other side of Good Friday. It is the defeat of death, the victory at the end of the trial. It is Walt Whitman’s “Barbaric Yawp” sounded over the rooftops of the world. It is the final thumbing the nose at Satan: “I am still here, and you have not defeated me.”

The challenge, of course, comes in the forgiveness. To truly follow Christ’s example, we need to truly forgive those tormentors. Is this possible? After all, we are, “only human,” and, over time, our hate begins to calcify, to harden into armor. It becomes comfortable, and we cling to it with the superstitious belief that if we hold tight enough to this thing, this armor of hate, that we will never be blindsided again. If we hate those who have done evil to us, and we hate them long enough and hard enough, we will, somehow, either visit that same evil upon them or miraculously shield ourselves from ever being hurt again. However, the inability to forgive does not render us invulnerable. In the end, all it does is sap our strength and drain our energies until eventually we are weakened, shriveled, hateful, ugly creatures who are no better than those who caused all the trouble in the first place.

The disappointing truth is that whether we can forgive or not often doesn’t amount to a hill of beans to those who hurt us. If they cared that much and knew how much pain they were inflicting they wouldn’t have done such things in the first place. Chances are, they will continue to move through the world, being their ugly, warped, hateful selves, until some greater force causes them to re-evaluate why they are choosing to be this way. Holding onto our hate only causes us further pain: by making us re-live that moment over and over again.

However, letting it go is not only a gift we can give ourselves, it is the greatest gift we can give ourselves. It removes those boundaries and allows us to touch our own truth, our joy, our vital life force. Through this, we touch the eternal. We defeat the forces that are killing us slowly and re-unite with the Divine. This, then, is the message of Easter, and of Laughing Monday: “There is a Truth that is Greater Than Us All, and it is Very, Very Good.”