This is a wonderful time of the year (for those of us who live in the northern half of this beautiful world). Signs of new life are beginning to appear everywhere. We celebrate two rituals this month:
On 14 March our March Moon will consider the Raven, that proud member of the Corvus family, that has long been associated with mankind.
The 20 March brings Oestre, the Spring equinox, signalling equality and balance and the promise of joy and vitality to come.
Take some time to consider the thoughts of J R Gower, the Gwidion McPagan, who writes;
Taking the longest view, we are beginning to reach for the stars, yet we still act like spoilt, immature infants. Standing under the full Moon, lit by the flickering firelight and invoking the Deities, the human mind that knows itself as part of the whole can transcend mortal perception, as it has since the most ancient cultures, and fleetingly touch minds with the infinite.
That is why we share a language of Goddesses and Gods, of myths and vision, of the celebration of love and life, and hold them sacred. Ours is a tradition of recognising supernality
In reality, both that of the 'experiential reality' of the human mind, and of the 'objective reality' whereby we have now begun to understand the processes of
existence itself. The deepest principles of natural spirituality are also those upon which our future depends.
Nature will provide any cultural species (and we can no longer support the absurd vanity that we are the only, or in any way an exclusive one) with the same lesson. If you don't become sufficiently mature to care for your environment and each other, you will ruin that which provided everything you needed to outlive your solar system and you will end your own evolution. That is, quite simply, the truth. It is also why natural spirituality is reasserting its place in a scientifically aware world, and why the age of 'religions' is ending. Reality cannot be defined by a 'dogmatic set of beliefs', no matter how many choose to 'believe in' it, and such 'beliefs' create conflict.
If we do take the path of maturity and destiny, we shall eventually meet others. Considering whether they will have had to learn the lessons we know are crucial to our own destiny, natural spirituality is inclusive, religion ism is not.
Such a destiny has been considered by cosmologists and anthropologists. It is estimated some six million years will see us colonising the far reaches of our galaxy, but only if we can depend on Earth's environment for many millennia to come. During that future, there will come a time when human genes at one end of the 'sphere of expansion' will never meet with those at the opposite end, and our evolution will begin to branch. The children of Earth will have children of their own.
Does existence have a purpose? Try approaching it from another perspective: If our Universe had never given rise to life, would it have purpose? Without life, whence supernality?
For us, spirituality is our relationship to the infinite whole, and supernality is ; the experiential reality of that whole. Our great spectrum of Pagan traditions is at heart life celebrating existence itself.
Thus, blessed be.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Looking Towards the Light
As we pass into the light following Imbloc it's a good time for reflection. Gwydion McPagan, also known as JR Gower wrote these Words from the Path;
'The growth of interest in our Pagan traditions at this time is meteoric. Though many learn the 'content' of our traditions such as the annual festivals, various 'life ceremonies' and the characteristics, myths and associations of a retinue of Goddesses & Gods (deities) and their interrelated symbolism, very few start with an understanding of the absolute 'basic' concepts which underlie this symbolism.
Due to the historical enforcement of 'sets of beliefs' by the 'dogmatic religions', for instance a 'creator God' essentially independent of existence itself, heaven, hell, the idea that evil forces exist independently of life, in fact all the 'beliefs' of monotheism, have become the generally unquestioned 'spiritual' concepts of our society.
Once you lay aside all these 'religious' preconceptions and look for supernality rather than 'God', you are entering the realm of pure spirituality rather than religion. It comes as a surprise to many, even many newcomers who already consider themselves Pagan, just how different and more appropriate to the modem world the ancient principles of Paganism are when interpreted in the light of contemporary human knowledge about the Universe we inhabit.
Pantheism is the recognition of supernality symbolised in the form of archetypal deities, each characteristic of supernal 'components' of our shared 'experiential reality'.
With this perspective, consider the question 'Does existence have any purpose, and if so, what relevance does It have for me?
In the beginning, when our Universe began as an infinitesimally tiny seed of pure energy, everything that is now your body and your mind, even the tiny energies that comprise your thoughts, was intimately and utterly combined with everything that now exists.
All that is now you has always been part of the whole, part of the unfolding of time and space, part of the first stars whose light first lit the heavens and gave rise to the elements we now know made life possible.
You are made from the dust of the Earth, the dust of ancient stars. When part of that dust began to replicate itself, an inevitable process that our Universe has perfected by its nature, it was a path of evolution of some four billion years so far, giving rise to you. We are the children of this Earth, and since our emergence as a 'cultural species', all but a tiny part of our history was in the great playground and school of the palaeolithic world.
In the light of our Pagan traditions, we can see the current time as one of both enlightenment, as science seems to reinforce our 'pantheist' principles, and yet one of barbarism, conflict, oppression and suffering that flies in the face of every spiritual aspiration and principle.'
Take time to consider these profound statements.
'The growth of interest in our Pagan traditions at this time is meteoric. Though many learn the 'content' of our traditions such as the annual festivals, various 'life ceremonies' and the characteristics, myths and associations of a retinue of Goddesses & Gods (deities) and their interrelated symbolism, very few start with an understanding of the absolute 'basic' concepts which underlie this symbolism.
Due to the historical enforcement of 'sets of beliefs' by the 'dogmatic religions', for instance a 'creator God' essentially independent of existence itself, heaven, hell, the idea that evil forces exist independently of life, in fact all the 'beliefs' of monotheism, have become the generally unquestioned 'spiritual' concepts of our society.
Once you lay aside all these 'religious' preconceptions and look for supernality rather than 'God', you are entering the realm of pure spirituality rather than religion. It comes as a surprise to many, even many newcomers who already consider themselves Pagan, just how different and more appropriate to the modem world the ancient principles of Paganism are when interpreted in the light of contemporary human knowledge about the Universe we inhabit.
Pantheism is the recognition of supernality symbolised in the form of archetypal deities, each characteristic of supernal 'components' of our shared 'experiential reality'.
With this perspective, consider the question 'Does existence have any purpose, and if so, what relevance does It have for me?
In the beginning, when our Universe began as an infinitesimally tiny seed of pure energy, everything that is now your body and your mind, even the tiny energies that comprise your thoughts, was intimately and utterly combined with everything that now exists.
All that is now you has always been part of the whole, part of the unfolding of time and space, part of the first stars whose light first lit the heavens and gave rise to the elements we now know made life possible.
You are made from the dust of the Earth, the dust of ancient stars. When part of that dust began to replicate itself, an inevitable process that our Universe has perfected by its nature, it was a path of evolution of some four billion years so far, giving rise to you. We are the children of this Earth, and since our emergence as a 'cultural species', all but a tiny part of our history was in the great playground and school of the palaeolithic world.
In the light of our Pagan traditions, we can see the current time as one of both enlightenment, as science seems to reinforce our 'pantheist' principles, and yet one of barbarism, conflict, oppression and suffering that flies in the face of every spiritual aspiration and principle.'
Take time to consider these profound statements.
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