Hi. I know. You thought I forgot you. No. Just got really busy with other things. Plus this blog seemed to have lost its way a bit. But now I have things to say. Important things. Enlightened things. Scary things. Subversive things. Big things. Little things. Just things.
Today was Maundy Thursday. Back when I followed Christian doctrine I would look forward to going to church on this night. Where some people think Christmas eve is the holiest of nights I always found Tenebrae very mystical. I took communion for the first time at a Tenebrae service. We were invite into the "upper room" to share Passover with The Prophet and his closest disciples. The ending of worship was a ritual that still speaks to something deep in my spirit...we left the table and went back to our seats in silence. People stripped the altar, a black cloth was put on it. All the lights were turned out and then the candles snuffed. We left the sanctuary in silence.
This is the point where my spiritual year still goes into the tomb. Into that place of mystery. According to the story our hero/villain Jesus goes to commune with the other world and the underworld before his spirit is allowed to reanimate the human body placed on the slab behind the great stone. If he spoke of this experience, either the apostles never recorded it or "the church" has tucked it away along with other gospels and scriptures because they "don't think 'the people' can handle it" which really means that it reveals more of the true story which would weaken their control of 'the people'. But we'll get there in a few paragraphs. For now let me state where I am in my yearly journey through Lent.
As previously mentioned, I walked a mainline Christian path for a long time. It was while still being active in the church that I felt the power of Lent in my life and made it a structured part of my journey. This year I saw that even as a pagan, my spiritual year is different. Most paths' years end in the Fall or Winter. Mine ends with Holy Week and the New Year begins on Easter. Palm Sunday's message of walking into a situation that is dangerous with humble confidence, that last parade before dealing with awful treatment at the hands of your enemies. I find that day usually a positive one. Monday to Thursday is getting my spiritual house in order. Thursday is that last drink and dinner with friends because Friday is the day when everything literally breaks off the walls. Saturday is time for pancakes and keeping old close friends close while I process Friday. Sunday? The Hallelujah chorus! A new year. New life. New Light.
Tonight was a phone conversation with my daughter. Take out food and a cheap rose while watching my favorite shows. I conversed with a videographer friend in L.A. and a music friend in Phoenix. All three people I would so sit down with over wine or beer, chips and dip, sushi. Now I'm sitting in the quiet. It's not dark but it's quiet. My altars are dark. No candles burning. I'll go to the garden to pray before bed.
Tomorrow is a ritual I started at least 6 years ago. I walk a labyrinth. I had walked before in a number of places and found it to be one of my best meditation tools. So when I learned that another Congregational Church up the road a ways was doing a Lenten labyrinth in their parish hall, I went with my son. It was so great. They used small bottles of water to make the path. There were small worship stations around the room that were all water themed. I had a good walk. I came away calmed, ready to enter the new year peacefully. The next year their labyrinth was outside with the path created with heavy rope. I felt like I came out with more questions than I went in with. The next year the church didn't do one so I had to search for some place to walk. I was going to drive up to a retreat center in Litchfield but it felt like such a waste of gas for a 30-45 minute walk. I found one much closer to home. It's outside and permanent and also at a Congregational church. I've been going there for 3 years now. This year I'm going back to the church I started at. It's inside and I just feel like I need to walk around in the tomb a bit even though things have been gearing up to get pretty intense. I feel like inside I can keep my own spiritual shit together to handle whatever The Fates throw at me. I also need those little worship stations because I know I'm going to have to walk at least twice.
12/21/12 marked the beginning of the New Era or New Age. No you didn't notice any big change. There wasn't one. Not on the surface at least. You saw visible changes leading up to it. Those of the Old Regime have been drawing the line between Darkness and Light deeper and deeper, especially over the past decade until it became a chasm. Some of you will still be able to make it across when you wake up and realize your not on your correct side. Some of you think you are Light Warriors but you're really not. Some are spies for the Darkness. Some don't have the real courage to put your money, bodies and minds where your mouths are. Then there are those who are over on the other side. You believed the lies. You tried to "be good" but your true self has been trying to beat itself out of your and that Light is just screaming to get out and come over to this side and fight, or heal, or feed, or educate or bury with the rest of us. You were kind of like Dorothy, just wandering through the poppies cuz they were pretty and never saw the trap coming. The Darkness knew you were a bright Light to contend with and tried to take you out of the game. If it was lucky you'd come to and be one of them.
What started on the Solstice was labor. Very early stages. We are building up the muscles so we are really strong when hard labor sets in and as one we start to push and birth this New Age of wisdom, compassion, justice, truth, and joy which will culminate in peace and love. We are working on being more confident in our true, unique, free thinking selves. We are worshipping by showing The Great Spirit that we have broken from the flock of hive-minded sheeple to be who each of us was individually created to be. Yes, we will still live or visit in community. We may stay with a tribe. But that tribe fully functions because each member has their own skill and talent. It works because we are each different not because we are all the same.
Some "christian" clergy jerk post a red and pink division symbol with a reference to the book of Luke and Jesus' statement about dividing people. I love how people who claim to follow this prophet's teachings interpret that to mean that they are "better than", to be sequestered from, to judge others. Even I was raised with that statement out of context. If fact I didn't really get it till yesterday. Here's the thing. Biblical Jesus (there are no historic records that he actually existed) was an early version of Robin Hood. No, he didn't steal but he did ask people for things and then gave them away. The point is is that he is this villain/hero. Jesus was not popular with the religious hierarchy. He was telling off the clergy at his bar mitzvah. Where the Pharisees and the Sadducees had done a great job of making up a gajillion rules that not even the best Jew could live up to, therefore having great control over the people, JC comes along and says "One rule-love your neighbor as yourself". A spin on the Golden Rule...treat folks the way you want to be treated. Allow me to interject here that you must go to YouTube and search "Kid President" and listen to his version..."treat everyone like it's their birthday". Kid President is right. If we did that the world would be awesome and in the New Era that's how it will be. But back to our story about villain/hero Jesus. The locals love this guy cuz he is taking ten tons of spiritual weight and legalistic monkeys off their backs. BE NICE TO EVERYONE EVEN IF IT'S SOMEONE THE RABBI SAYS YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE...cuz their the wrong color, from a different town, worship a different god or have more or less money than you. Remember that who story about the Samaritan. The point of that story to the townsfolk he was telling it to was that Jews and Samaritans didn't get along, like at all. So both the beat up Jew, who by the way gets passed over by a rabbi and a Levite...clergy and lawyer of his own race and religion, and the Samaritan have to give a lot of ground for the whole story to go down the way it did. Jesus was such a hippie...people lived in kinds of communes around him. He crashed on whatever empty couch he could find. He probably had some pretty nasty dreds. He was unemployed and he was the pied piper dude who was setting people free. Of course they followed him. THAT pissed off both the Jewish politicians and religious leaders along with the Romans who "owned" Israel. The thing is with "controllers" they can't have real alphas around to screw up their game plan. They either have to depose them or dispose of them. Jesus got dealt the dispose of card.
A friend sent me an email earlier this week and short paragraph generated most of that last paragraph and will fit into other things I will write later today and tomorrow. He told me how his 5 year old asked him "Daddy, why did Jesus have to die?". He didn't give it as second thought and answered, "Politics". In that one word answer is some very heavy revelation and will put more scripture and society and culture of the Old Era in very clear perspective. I'll continue with that in my next post. Blessings. May these days be filled with blessings for all.
Showing posts with label jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jesus. Show all posts
Friday, March 29, 2013
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Walking the talk - Ray Vivier
Homeless veteran laid to rest after saving lives
This is how it's supposed to go people. Put yourself and your puney wants on the backburner to help "the least of these". The people this man saved didn't care that he was a recovered alcoholic who lived in a shanty most of his life. Actually, they didn't much care that he had honorably served his country. What mattered was that this man didn't take a second thought for himself and saved their lives.
In turn, he didn't take time to think about what color the people he saved were or how much money they made or what religion they were. He didn't even give a shit who they slept with. The point was that some selfish asshole decided to set their home on fire and they needed to be saved. Their lives were more important than the building or even his own life. He only took enough time to note that his body and mind were able enough to help total strangers.
May we all be grateful to the people who he had affected in the past that came forward to make sure that he had an honorable and respectful internment. Sounds a little like some friends of that guy who set the original example for this kind a stuff a long time ago doesn't it? Think about it....no labels, no barriers, no terms or conditions...just unconditional love.
This is how it's supposed to go people. Put yourself and your puney wants on the backburner to help "the least of these". The people this man saved didn't care that he was a recovered alcoholic who lived in a shanty most of his life. Actually, they didn't much care that he had honorably served his country. What mattered was that this man didn't take a second thought for himself and saved their lives.
In turn, he didn't take time to think about what color the people he saved were or how much money they made or what religion they were. He didn't even give a shit who they slept with. The point was that some selfish asshole decided to set their home on fire and they needed to be saved. Their lives were more important than the building or even his own life. He only took enough time to note that his body and mind were able enough to help total strangers.
May we all be grateful to the people who he had affected in the past that came forward to make sure that he had an honorable and respectful internment. Sounds a little like some friends of that guy who set the original example for this kind a stuff a long time ago doesn't it? Think about it....no labels, no barriers, no terms or conditions...just unconditional love.
Friday, December 18, 2009
"Itsy bitsy.........teeny weeny................little bitty............" GOD!!
Excuse me but whatever happened to "For God so loved the WORLD" and "love your neighbor as yourself" and "do unto (ALL) others as you would have them do unto you" and "what you did for the LEAST of these you did for ME!"? Huh?
These are big, bold, broad statements. If you go through the Bible, Qu'ran, Torah, because I'm going to focus on the Big Three/One God theologies right now, this Divine Being is pretty huge and it created THE WHOLE UNIVERSE and EVERYTHING in it. So why do people who follow these three doctrines work so hard to put this HOLY CREATOR into smaller and smaller boxes every day?
It hit me a couple of days ago when I read about pending legislation in Uganda to execute gays and lesbians. It caused another thought to rise up in me that I had considered a few weeks back...there are still parts of this country where interracial marriage is illegal. Although we've gotten a little less barbaric in the past fifty years it was not uncommon for one or both members of an interracial couple to be murdered for marrying the person they loved. Heck, they would be beaten or killed just for walking down the street hand in hand.
The thought broadened to the resurgence of Neo-Nazism in this country. Although the KKK seems to be "so last year", there are still way too many (any more than zero) hate groups in the U.S. who will not stop short of violence against Jews, queers, non-Caucasians, non-WASPs and the really alarming part is that they can justify this stuff with "Christian" scripture. WHAT?
In the Old Testament we get those "10 Rules for healthy living"...all of us Judeo-Christian kids had them memorized by the time we were eight. There is one in particular though that mankind seems to have this constant habit of adding an "if" or a "but" to...the "thou shall not kill" one. Yeah, that one. Now add to that this train of thought I'm on right now..."God", "Goddess", "Great Spirit", etc.- whatever you call that enormous Divine Universal Creating and Ruling Power is just that....HUUUUGE!!! And it's benevolent. It really wants us to "get it". It loves us. So sometimes it sends signs to show us the way. We usually do a pretty good job of ignoring those signs....things like the Holocaust to remind us that hate is just not part of the plan. "God" created each and every one of us so who are we to say that any race, religion, culture, sexuality or socio-economic status is any better or worse that the other? I love how I hear "fundies" declaring how God is the one true judge and yet they are the first to start judging everyone that doesn't go to their church. hmmmm
Last night I read a lovely spew of hate in, of all places that bastion of intelligent journalism, The Wall Street Journal. The author, Peggy Noonan, posted the question at the end of "Have we become a more vulgar country?". Now to put this in context, the entire article (which you can read here if you have a strong constitution "The Adam Lambert problem" ) Ms. Noonan is trying to take the focus off the current economic problems in this country and place all of our woes on the shoulders of a 27 year old rising pop star based on an event that occured weeks ago. I found myself at first enraged and then utterly amused by the ignorance of this "journalist". If we want to talk vulgar let's go back to those "kinder, gentler times of the 40's and 50's that she compares the present to. Signs still hung in restaurants, pubic transporation and restrooms declaring "Whites Only". Schools were still segragated. Girls who got pregnant out of wedlock were disowned by their families resulting in runaways or worse...suicide. Catholics where not allowed to run for the presidency. Jews tended to keep to themselves and try to remain out of the public eye, still more than a little gunshy after the Holocaust. And women were shamed out of the workplace and back into the home "where they belonged" when the troops returned from the war. But these things were not "vulgar"? I beg to differ.
"Red and yellow, black and white. They are precious in His sight. Jesus love the little children of the world." And he still loves us even when we are big, old, rich, poor, queer, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, fat, skinny, boy or girl children. I always loved that shirt that said "I'm OK. God don't make junk!" There are lots of people in this world that I don't like but I have to love them. Sometimes that love means putting you in rehab, a mental institution or jail. Sometimes that love means telling you "no" or "wait". And sometimes that love means taking that extra $10 I just came into and buying a meal for a runaway teenager. So people? Quit trying to justify your hate, fear and anger by blaming it on The Divine...it just brings that Being down below your level and it's no longer a Sacred Creator but a little piss-ant under your shoe. You can't put God in a box. And you can't deny that He/She/It loves the Jew sitting next to you on the bus, the East Indian that sold you your last six-pack, the homeless kid that asked you for a buck or the gay man who does your hair nor can you say that any of these people have less of a right to walk this planet than you do.
These are big, bold, broad statements. If you go through the Bible, Qu'ran, Torah, because I'm going to focus on the Big Three/One God theologies right now, this Divine Being is pretty huge and it created THE WHOLE UNIVERSE and EVERYTHING in it. So why do people who follow these three doctrines work so hard to put this HOLY CREATOR into smaller and smaller boxes every day?
It hit me a couple of days ago when I read about pending legislation in Uganda to execute gays and lesbians. It caused another thought to rise up in me that I had considered a few weeks back...there are still parts of this country where interracial marriage is illegal. Although we've gotten a little less barbaric in the past fifty years it was not uncommon for one or both members of an interracial couple to be murdered for marrying the person they loved. Heck, they would be beaten or killed just for walking down the street hand in hand.
The thought broadened to the resurgence of Neo-Nazism in this country. Although the KKK seems to be "so last year", there are still way too many (any more than zero) hate groups in the U.S. who will not stop short of violence against Jews, queers, non-Caucasians, non-WASPs and the really alarming part is that they can justify this stuff with "Christian" scripture. WHAT?
In the Old Testament we get those "10 Rules for healthy living"...all of us Judeo-Christian kids had them memorized by the time we were eight. There is one in particular though that mankind seems to have this constant habit of adding an "if" or a "but" to...the "thou shall not kill" one. Yeah, that one. Now add to that this train of thought I'm on right now..."God", "Goddess", "Great Spirit", etc.- whatever you call that enormous Divine Universal Creating and Ruling Power is just that....HUUUUGE!!! And it's benevolent. It really wants us to "get it". It loves us. So sometimes it sends signs to show us the way. We usually do a pretty good job of ignoring those signs....things like the Holocaust to remind us that hate is just not part of the plan. "God" created each and every one of us so who are we to say that any race, religion, culture, sexuality or socio-economic status is any better or worse that the other? I love how I hear "fundies" declaring how God is the one true judge and yet they are the first to start judging everyone that doesn't go to their church. hmmmm
Last night I read a lovely spew of hate in, of all places that bastion of intelligent journalism, The Wall Street Journal. The author, Peggy Noonan, posted the question at the end of "Have we become a more vulgar country?". Now to put this in context, the entire article (which you can read here if you have a strong constitution "The Adam Lambert problem" ) Ms. Noonan is trying to take the focus off the current economic problems in this country and place all of our woes on the shoulders of a 27 year old rising pop star based on an event that occured weeks ago. I found myself at first enraged and then utterly amused by the ignorance of this "journalist". If we want to talk vulgar let's go back to those "kinder, gentler times of the 40's and 50's that she compares the present to. Signs still hung in restaurants, pubic transporation and restrooms declaring "Whites Only". Schools were still segragated. Girls who got pregnant out of wedlock were disowned by their families resulting in runaways or worse...suicide. Catholics where not allowed to run for the presidency. Jews tended to keep to themselves and try to remain out of the public eye, still more than a little gunshy after the Holocaust. And women were shamed out of the workplace and back into the home "where they belonged" when the troops returned from the war. But these things were not "vulgar"? I beg to differ.
"Red and yellow, black and white. They are precious in His sight. Jesus love the little children of the world." And he still loves us even when we are big, old, rich, poor, queer, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, fat, skinny, boy or girl children. I always loved that shirt that said "I'm OK. God don't make junk!" There are lots of people in this world that I don't like but I have to love them. Sometimes that love means putting you in rehab, a mental institution or jail. Sometimes that love means telling you "no" or "wait". And sometimes that love means taking that extra $10 I just came into and buying a meal for a runaway teenager. So people? Quit trying to justify your hate, fear and anger by blaming it on The Divine...it just brings that Being down below your level and it's no longer a Sacred Creator but a little piss-ant under your shoe. You can't put God in a box. And you can't deny that He/She/It loves the Jew sitting next to you on the bus, the East Indian that sold you your last six-pack, the homeless kid that asked you for a buck or the gay man who does your hair nor can you say that any of these people have less of a right to walk this planet than you do.
Saturday, November 7, 2009
The ritualistic intro post
So, besides music, MamaKath's brain and heart are full of a lot of other stuff. I thought about it and decided that these things warranted a separate blogoshere so as not to detract from my music ramblings and to provide a haven for those who were only interested in my thoughts, feelings, inspirations and affections in the political and spiritual realms.
The slogan for this blog came to me in an email discussion I had with a clergy acquaintence the other day after "Equality for Maine" was thwarted by a mere three precent of the population. He and I agreed that the church had failed where "the church" prevailed. The church has this book that talks about putting your neighbor above yourself and looking out for each other. It speaks of compassion, mercy, justice and humility. It tells you you will get your hands dirty if you're doing it right. "The Church" on the other hand preaches a tinier and tinier, selfish, bitchy, prejudice, dictator diety that is anything close to Divine, holy, sacred or benevolent. Their "god" doesn't like any of us and would prefer that we lock ourselves in our houses and cut ourselves off from any one that doesn't follow its doctrine. Their version "god" has rules...lots of rules about who is good enough and who you should take care of and how you can be better than all the other sheep and the diety will give you lots of money and you will live fat, dumb and happy all the days of your life. Now in this crazy faci-verse you can play up to a better ticket to the afterlife by supporting the impersonal annihilation of other humans while providing equally impersonal "help" to unknown faces across the seas in the form of checks. Your hands are squeaky clean with a nice thick coat of Purell on them.
But see the thing is, if you really wanna claim that you "know" Jesus...you need to go back and READ that book again. See he said "When I was naked you clothed me. When I was hungry you fed me. When I was sick you took care of me and when I was in prison your visited me. AND WHAT YOU DID FOR THE LEAST OF THESE YOU DID FOR ME". What the guy was saying; cuz back then there were no banks, no post offices and no PayPal, was that you had to get off your fat, lazy, fearful, arrogant ass and go help people. Don't pass off a fiver in the collection plate for some kid in Central America....go over to the Subway, buy a sandwich and bring it back to that 17-year-old runaway streetwalker you just passed while you were out shopping. Yeah, you're gonna have to look into those sad eyes and wonder what went down in her comfortable suburban home states away from where she ended up that caused her to run. She will give you a sad smile and say thank you. Your heart's gonna break a little more. For even the briefest of moments you will feel a little bit of love. You're not going to be afraid of her any more. You're not going to judge her in that instant. You're gonna see her as a fellow human who maybe had a dream, maybe still has that dream but right now she's just trying to stay alive. Trying to turn enough tricks to keep her pimp from beating her up and maybe have some place a little warmer than the street to sleep tonight. It's probably going to get to you enough that you're going to go home and say some real prayers starting with one for forgiveness for your laziness and stupidity. Then you're gonna pray for real help for that girl. And you never know...The Great Spirit's reply may be that you're the help. You're going to wake up with a need to do something. And if you listen carefully and watch the signs...that Truly Divine Being will point you to the sources of that girl's eventual "salvation" and I'm not talking getting her to some holy roller church where some guy who plays a preacher on TV lays hands on her and the congregation of hypocrits spends the rest of her life brain-washing and laying guilt trips on her. No I'm talking finding safe shelter, employment which provides food & clothing. Who knows, she might get her GED and even go to college. She may just end up the checker in your local grocery store or she may be destined to be the next Golda Meir or Madaleine Albright. But whether "peasant" or "noble" she will live not merely survive.
Put a face on it, people.
The slogan for this blog came to me in an email discussion I had with a clergy acquaintence the other day after "Equality for Maine" was thwarted by a mere three precent of the population. He and I agreed that the church had failed where "the church" prevailed. The church has this book that talks about putting your neighbor above yourself and looking out for each other. It speaks of compassion, mercy, justice and humility. It tells you you will get your hands dirty if you're doing it right. "The Church" on the other hand preaches a tinier and tinier, selfish, bitchy, prejudice, dictator diety that is anything close to Divine, holy, sacred or benevolent. Their "god" doesn't like any of us and would prefer that we lock ourselves in our houses and cut ourselves off from any one that doesn't follow its doctrine. Their version "god" has rules...lots of rules about who is good enough and who you should take care of and how you can be better than all the other sheep and the diety will give you lots of money and you will live fat, dumb and happy all the days of your life. Now in this crazy faci-verse you can play up to a better ticket to the afterlife by supporting the impersonal annihilation of other humans while providing equally impersonal "help" to unknown faces across the seas in the form of checks. Your hands are squeaky clean with a nice thick coat of Purell on them.
But see the thing is, if you really wanna claim that you "know" Jesus...you need to go back and READ that book again. See he said "When I was naked you clothed me. When I was hungry you fed me. When I was sick you took care of me and when I was in prison your visited me. AND WHAT YOU DID FOR THE LEAST OF THESE YOU DID FOR ME". What the guy was saying; cuz back then there were no banks, no post offices and no PayPal, was that you had to get off your fat, lazy, fearful, arrogant ass and go help people. Don't pass off a fiver in the collection plate for some kid in Central America....go over to the Subway, buy a sandwich and bring it back to that 17-year-old runaway streetwalker you just passed while you were out shopping. Yeah, you're gonna have to look into those sad eyes and wonder what went down in her comfortable suburban home states away from where she ended up that caused her to run. She will give you a sad smile and say thank you. Your heart's gonna break a little more. For even the briefest of moments you will feel a little bit of love. You're not going to be afraid of her any more. You're not going to judge her in that instant. You're gonna see her as a fellow human who maybe had a dream, maybe still has that dream but right now she's just trying to stay alive. Trying to turn enough tricks to keep her pimp from beating her up and maybe have some place a little warmer than the street to sleep tonight. It's probably going to get to you enough that you're going to go home and say some real prayers starting with one for forgiveness for your laziness and stupidity. Then you're gonna pray for real help for that girl. And you never know...The Great Spirit's reply may be that you're the help. You're going to wake up with a need to do something. And if you listen carefully and watch the signs...that Truly Divine Being will point you to the sources of that girl's eventual "salvation" and I'm not talking getting her to some holy roller church where some guy who plays a preacher on TV lays hands on her and the congregation of hypocrits spends the rest of her life brain-washing and laying guilt trips on her. No I'm talking finding safe shelter, employment which provides food & clothing. Who knows, she might get her GED and even go to college. She may just end up the checker in your local grocery store or she may be destined to be the next Golda Meir or Madaleine Albright. But whether "peasant" or "noble" she will live not merely survive.
Put a face on it, people.
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