So proud of my country today. We are one step closer to becoming that nation we always believe ourselves to be. It's a good feeling.
And it's a strange feeling. I'm suddenly all-too aware today of how rare a moment like this is. The good guys won. People's inherent humanity has been recognized, and enshrined into our law. The evil has been banished from the land. It feels like it should ALWAYS be like this. But it almost never is.
Sorry to be so melancholy about it. I'm really ecstatic, truly. Just wish we could feel this more often.
We are a better nation now - a better people - than we were yesterday.
Here is hoping, sincerely, profoundly, that the trend continues.
#LoveWins
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label religion. Show all posts
Friday, June 26, 2015
Saturday, December 22, 2012
I'll Stand Before The Lord Of Song...
I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Maybe there’s a God above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It’s not a cry you can hear at night
It’s not someone who has seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a lonely Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
There was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
Remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
-"Hallelujah"
Leonard Cohen, Various Positions
Friday, December 21, 2012
Yule...
Tonight is Yule. The Winter Solstice. The darkest, coldest night of the year.
Traditionally, the entire clan would gather together in one place tonight. And the biggest log that could be found would be placed in the hearth to heat the entire building, and keep everyone warm and safe from the dark, cold night outside; to ward off the Wild Hunt. This was the Yule Log, and it needed to burn all night. And someone needed to stay up all night to tend the fire, and make sure it didn't go out (or burn the place down).
I don't have a hearth, or even a fireplace. So, I light a candle. But I still stay up all night, and make sure the flame doesn't go out (or burn the place down). Tonight is the night I usually wrap all my presents; everyone else is asleep, and it's a great way to kill a few hours and keep myself awake. I listen to xmas music, and I put on a fireplace dvd, and I drink a lot of coffee. Sometimes, when I'm finished with my wrapping, I'll go for a walk around town in the middle of the night, and look at all the lights.
I'll perform ceremonies at sundown, at midnight, and at sunrise tomorrow. The same words and gestures and sacrifices every year. Honoring the gods, and the ancestors, and the family. Sincerely thanking the Sun for rising in the morning, knowing that it means we've lived through another night, another Winter, another year.
I Love this night more than any other.
Good Yule to all. May you wake tomorrow, warm, and Loved.
Sunna sinks down into the dark sea;
wolf and wind howl outside the walls.
Now Holda shakes out her snowy bed;
now are life-fires hid in yew-night.
From Thrymheim Skadhi, shadow-black, skis.
Odhinn’s gray steed leads ghosts on the wind.
Trolls fare from cliff-halls, harry from rock-caves;
the etins arising from ice and stone.
Ye who would watch this night, ward ye well!
Sunna sinks down into the dark sea.
But Gullinbursti gleams bright in the hall.
Well are we warded who watch this night;
by boar tusk’s thrusting, by Thor’s strength.
In this high hall stand all holy kin,
from sib-roots to branches runs hidden fire.
Thor’s stark hammer this hall has hallowed,
Alfs and idises the dark and light kin,
Fro Ing and Freyja share now frith and might!
We kindle the yew-flame to year’s Yule-night!
Now feast in highest and hallowed frith.
Our joy to Gods we give this night,
that while worlds sleep they wax in main
from midnight growing ever greater towards dawn.
* * * * * * * * *
Now Odhinn rides in the Wild Hunt,
leading the ghosts, gray, down the wind.
Our oldest hold in howe-mounds high,
from Bairn-Stock’s roots rise kin this night.
Well do we know the Wanderer old;
eldest, the father of Ase and man,
wisest of kin Odhinn, we hail thee!
Wisdom rising from Well’s deep roots,
Runes of might roar in the mead,
up from the Bairn-Stock’s eldest roots.
Our kin who have fared forth, come to us!
We drink with you, hallowing draught to the Gods!
Hail to Odhinn wisdom’s drighten!
Sig in our strifes send this year.
Hail to Thor Thurses’ Bane!
In your might and main we trust.
Hail Fro Ing frith’s mighty God!
High be the harvest this year!
Hail to Njordhr with holy drink!
Winds blow well to us this year!
Hail to the alfs all ringed around us,
the fathers of our folk.
Hail the Disir all ringed around us,
the mothers of our might.
Hail our kin in hidden lands.
Hail the Yule-wights high!
* * * * * * * * *
Our Yule-glow that gleamed all night,
now kindles the keen fire.
Sunna’s flame flares bright again,
upon the heavens’ hearth.
Sunna’s fire flares bright again,
the darkest night is done,
the holy gifts are given.
Hail the Gods and the Goddesses! Hail the Yule morn!
Traditionally, the entire clan would gather together in one place tonight. And the biggest log that could be found would be placed in the hearth to heat the entire building, and keep everyone warm and safe from the dark, cold night outside; to ward off the Wild Hunt. This was the Yule Log, and it needed to burn all night. And someone needed to stay up all night to tend the fire, and make sure it didn't go out (or burn the place down).
I don't have a hearth, or even a fireplace. So, I light a candle. But I still stay up all night, and make sure the flame doesn't go out (or burn the place down). Tonight is the night I usually wrap all my presents; everyone else is asleep, and it's a great way to kill a few hours and keep myself awake. I listen to xmas music, and I put on a fireplace dvd, and I drink a lot of coffee. Sometimes, when I'm finished with my wrapping, I'll go for a walk around town in the middle of the night, and look at all the lights.
I'll perform ceremonies at sundown, at midnight, and at sunrise tomorrow. The same words and gestures and sacrifices every year. Honoring the gods, and the ancestors, and the family. Sincerely thanking the Sun for rising in the morning, knowing that it means we've lived through another night, another Winter, another year.
I Love this night more than any other.
Good Yule to all. May you wake tomorrow, warm, and Loved.
Sunna sinks down into the dark sea;
wolf and wind howl outside the walls.
Now Holda shakes out her snowy bed;
now are life-fires hid in yew-night.
From Thrymheim Skadhi, shadow-black, skis.
Odhinn’s gray steed leads ghosts on the wind.
Trolls fare from cliff-halls, harry from rock-caves;
the etins arising from ice and stone.
Ye who would watch this night, ward ye well!
Sunna sinks down into the dark sea.
But Gullinbursti gleams bright in the hall.
Well are we warded who watch this night;
by boar tusk’s thrusting, by Thor’s strength.
In this high hall stand all holy kin,
from sib-roots to branches runs hidden fire.
Thor’s stark hammer this hall has hallowed,
Alfs and idises the dark and light kin,
Fro Ing and Freyja share now frith and might!
We kindle the yew-flame to year’s Yule-night!
Now feast in highest and hallowed frith.
Our joy to Gods we give this night,
that while worlds sleep they wax in main
from midnight growing ever greater towards dawn.
* * * * * * * * *
Now Odhinn rides in the Wild Hunt,
leading the ghosts, gray, down the wind.
Our oldest hold in howe-mounds high,
from Bairn-Stock’s roots rise kin this night.
Well do we know the Wanderer old;
eldest, the father of Ase and man,
wisest of kin Odhinn, we hail thee!
Wisdom rising from Well’s deep roots,
Runes of might roar in the mead,
up from the Bairn-Stock’s eldest roots.
Our kin who have fared forth, come to us!
We drink with you, hallowing draught to the Gods!
Hail to Odhinn wisdom’s drighten!
Sig in our strifes send this year.
Hail to Thor Thurses’ Bane!
In your might and main we trust.
Hail Fro Ing frith’s mighty God!
High be the harvest this year!
Hail to Njordhr with holy drink!
Winds blow well to us this year!
Hail to the alfs all ringed around us,
the fathers of our folk.
Hail the Disir all ringed around us,
the mothers of our might.
Hail our kin in hidden lands.
Hail the Yule-wights high!
* * * * * * * * *
Our Yule-glow that gleamed all night,
now kindles the keen fire.
Sunna’s flame flares bright again,
upon the heavens’ hearth.
Sunna’s fire flares bright again,
the darkest night is done,
the holy gifts are given.
Hail the Gods and the Goddesses! Hail the Yule morn!
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Mother's Night...
Tonight is Mother's Night. The first night of Yule.
As I ranted yesterday, I celebrate the secular, American holiday of Xmas, rather than the Christian holiday of Christmas. However, I do also celebrate a religious or spiritual version of the Winter holiday, as well.
For the last twelve years, I have celebrated the pre-Christian Winter holy days of Yule, which begin tonight at sundown, and last until sunrise on January 1st.
As a child, Christmas never felt like just the 24th and 25th to me. I always felt like it lasted much longer than that. It felt like it started sometime the week before (both of my parents' birthdays are the week before Christmas, which probably had a little something to do with that - more on that later), and it felt like it ended with New Year's. It felt like a multi-day event, with the 24th and 25th as the central climax of the whole thing. It always felt that way, as far back as I can remember, and I celebrated it that way. I could feel the magick of the holiday begin sometime the week before, and I would always make my parents keep the lights up and lit until New Year's; it didn't feel right to turn them off on the 26th. That just felt like too abrupt and sudden of an ending to everything. It didn't feel right.
As a young adult, as part of my exploration of various magickal disciplines, I discovered the pre-Christian pagan traditions of the Northern European cultures. The gods of the Vikings - Odin, Loki, and Thor, among many others. I found myself drawn to these traditions; something about them resonated with me, and I began to adopt them as the first religion I had ever chosen to practice. And no part of this tradition resonated with me more than their Winter holy days of Yule.
I spent many years working within this tradition as one of my primary spiritual practices. Over the years, I've let go of all of it, as I've grown and moved on. All except for Yule. As with Taoism, when I discovered Yule, I realized that I had been celebrating it my entire life, and simply never knew it. Instantly, it felt right to me. No matter what other spiritual paths may come and go in my life, I know that I will always celebrate Yule.
In the pagan calendar, Yule is a very magickal time. In fact, it is a period out of time. The darkest, coldest time of the year. A time to gather the entire family together under one roof, and keep safe and warm by a huge fire, to hold back the cold and the dark. They believed that time stopped at sundown tonight, and started again on sunrise of January 1st (though they didn't call it "January," obviously). In the interim, was Yule, when the material world and the spiritual world are one and the same, and the spirits of our ancestors and family who have passed on return to us, and we are free to enter their world, as well. Other spirits, malevolent spirits, are also free to roam our world during this time-out-of-time. The height of Winter was the most deadly time for the ancient pagans of the North, and they heard frost-giants and dreadful monsters in the howling winds of snowstorms. Someone who ventured out of the hall, away from the group, away from the hearth-fire, may not come back. Did they succumb to the cold and the dark and the storms? Or was it something else?
Most of our "Christmas" traditions come from the celebration of Yule. When the Christians converted the Northern Europeans, they couldn't get them to stop celebrating Yule, even under penalty of death. And so instead, they moved the celebration of the birth of their god Jesus from mid- to late-Autumn, up to December 25th - right in the middle of Yule. And they adopted the traditional Yuletide celebrations into the celebration of their Mass of Christ.
The christmas tree is a pagan tradition. The yule log. The wreath. Mistletoe. The New Year beginning one week after December 25th. Leaving gifts in socks that are drying by the fire. All originally pagan traditions. Yule, from December 20th through December 31st, is where we get the idea of the "12 days of christmas."
All the parts of xmas that I liked the most - all the non-Jesus parts - turned out to be from this pre-cursor holiday of Yule. And it covers the entire period of the calendar, from beginning to end, that always felt like the "real" Christmas holiday to me. It leads up to the climax of the season with Xmas right in the middle, and then winds down to Twelfth Night (New Year's) at the end. It is perfectly balanced.
Christmas was, by far, my mother's favorite holiday. And I get my sincere love and appreciation of this season from her. She was born on December 20th, which turns out to be the first night of Yule, and is traditionally celebrated as "Mother's Night." It is the night to celebrate all the Mothers in our life, both living and dead, and all the good they've done us, and all they've sacrificed in order for us to be here, right now.
My mother died on December 31st. She took her own life, in part, to spare us, her family, from having to suffer through her slow and inevitable decline into madness and agonizing death. She sacrificed herself for us. She was born on the first night of Yule, Mother's Night, and she died on the last night of Yule, Twelfth Night, the very year that I first came to know about this tradition. I never got to tell her about Yule, or Mother's Night.
Yule, her favorite holiday, though she never knew it, is a time when our homes are open to the spirits of all those dead that we have loved. And so every December 20th, I invite her into my home, and I pour her a drink, and I thank her for the life she gave me.
It just feels right.
It always has.
Disir, I call, ur-mothers dear,
Come to our kindred’s hold.
We give thee Welcome.
Frigga, I call, frith-weaver wise,
Come to our kindred’s hold.
We give thee Welcome.
Freyja, I call, holy and bright,
Come to our kindred’s hold.
We give thee Welcome this Mother’s Night.
Hallowed women of the home,
I raise this horn to you.
We give thee Welcome.
Freyja, riding forth this night,
Look kindly on our home.
We give thee Welcome.
Disir, wights of the wheel,
Spin us good wyrds to come.
We give thee Welcome.
Frigga, who winds the distaff full,
Fill our house with joy.
We give thee Welcome this Mother’s Night.
As I ranted yesterday, I celebrate the secular, American holiday of Xmas, rather than the Christian holiday of Christmas. However, I do also celebrate a religious or spiritual version of the Winter holiday, as well.
For the last twelve years, I have celebrated the pre-Christian Winter holy days of Yule, which begin tonight at sundown, and last until sunrise on January 1st.
As a child, Christmas never felt like just the 24th and 25th to me. I always felt like it lasted much longer than that. It felt like it started sometime the week before (both of my parents' birthdays are the week before Christmas, which probably had a little something to do with that - more on that later), and it felt like it ended with New Year's. It felt like a multi-day event, with the 24th and 25th as the central climax of the whole thing. It always felt that way, as far back as I can remember, and I celebrated it that way. I could feel the magick of the holiday begin sometime the week before, and I would always make my parents keep the lights up and lit until New Year's; it didn't feel right to turn them off on the 26th. That just felt like too abrupt and sudden of an ending to everything. It didn't feel right.
As a young adult, as part of my exploration of various magickal disciplines, I discovered the pre-Christian pagan traditions of the Northern European cultures. The gods of the Vikings - Odin, Loki, and Thor, among many others. I found myself drawn to these traditions; something about them resonated with me, and I began to adopt them as the first religion I had ever chosen to practice. And no part of this tradition resonated with me more than their Winter holy days of Yule.
I spent many years working within this tradition as one of my primary spiritual practices. Over the years, I've let go of all of it, as I've grown and moved on. All except for Yule. As with Taoism, when I discovered Yule, I realized that I had been celebrating it my entire life, and simply never knew it. Instantly, it felt right to me. No matter what other spiritual paths may come and go in my life, I know that I will always celebrate Yule.
In the pagan calendar, Yule is a very magickal time. In fact, it is a period out of time. The darkest, coldest time of the year. A time to gather the entire family together under one roof, and keep safe and warm by a huge fire, to hold back the cold and the dark. They believed that time stopped at sundown tonight, and started again on sunrise of January 1st (though they didn't call it "January," obviously). In the interim, was Yule, when the material world and the spiritual world are one and the same, and the spirits of our ancestors and family who have passed on return to us, and we are free to enter their world, as well. Other spirits, malevolent spirits, are also free to roam our world during this time-out-of-time. The height of Winter was the most deadly time for the ancient pagans of the North, and they heard frost-giants and dreadful monsters in the howling winds of snowstorms. Someone who ventured out of the hall, away from the group, away from the hearth-fire, may not come back. Did they succumb to the cold and the dark and the storms? Or was it something else?
Most of our "Christmas" traditions come from the celebration of Yule. When the Christians converted the Northern Europeans, they couldn't get them to stop celebrating Yule, even under penalty of death. And so instead, they moved the celebration of the birth of their god Jesus from mid- to late-Autumn, up to December 25th - right in the middle of Yule. And they adopted the traditional Yuletide celebrations into the celebration of their Mass of Christ.
The christmas tree is a pagan tradition. The yule log. The wreath. Mistletoe. The New Year beginning one week after December 25th. Leaving gifts in socks that are drying by the fire. All originally pagan traditions. Yule, from December 20th through December 31st, is where we get the idea of the "12 days of christmas."
All the parts of xmas that I liked the most - all the non-Jesus parts - turned out to be from this pre-cursor holiday of Yule. And it covers the entire period of the calendar, from beginning to end, that always felt like the "real" Christmas holiday to me. It leads up to the climax of the season with Xmas right in the middle, and then winds down to Twelfth Night (New Year's) at the end. It is perfectly balanced.
Christmas was, by far, my mother's favorite holiday. And I get my sincere love and appreciation of this season from her. She was born on December 20th, which turns out to be the first night of Yule, and is traditionally celebrated as "Mother's Night." It is the night to celebrate all the Mothers in our life, both living and dead, and all the good they've done us, and all they've sacrificed in order for us to be here, right now.
My mother died on December 31st. She took her own life, in part, to spare us, her family, from having to suffer through her slow and inevitable decline into madness and agonizing death. She sacrificed herself for us. She was born on the first night of Yule, Mother's Night, and she died on the last night of Yule, Twelfth Night, the very year that I first came to know about this tradition. I never got to tell her about Yule, or Mother's Night.
Yule, her favorite holiday, though she never knew it, is a time when our homes are open to the spirits of all those dead that we have loved. And so every December 20th, I invite her into my home, and I pour her a drink, and I thank her for the life she gave me.
It just feels right.
It always has.
Disir, I call, ur-mothers dear,
Come to our kindred’s hold.
We give thee Welcome.
Frigga, I call, frith-weaver wise,
Come to our kindred’s hold.
We give thee Welcome.
Freyja, I call, holy and bright,
Come to our kindred’s hold.
We give thee Welcome this Mother’s Night.
Hallowed women of the home,
I raise this horn to you.
We give thee Welcome.
Freyja, riding forth this night,
Look kindly on our home.
We give thee Welcome.
Disir, wights of the wheel,
Spin us good wyrds to come.
We give thee Welcome.
Frigga, who winds the distaff full,
Fill our house with joy.
We give thee Welcome this Mother’s Night.
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Xmas...
I've been listening to christmas music at work all week now, and I'm done with my shopping for the season, and it's the day before Yule begins, and I'm all in the spirit of the holy-days, so it's probably time I got this explanation down and out. And if the news media is to be believed (and they aren't), then consider this my volley in the fabled War on Christmas.
I am not a Christian, and so I don't celebrate Christmas, as in "The Mass of Jesus Christ." I don't celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ anymore than I celebrate the birth of Siddhartha Buddha. (Although I find it a truly beautiful story. Honest-to-Sol, I am moved to tears every single year by the song "The Little Drummer Boy.")
But even though I am no longer a Christian, I was raised as an orthodox Christian, and so have a resonant familiarity with the customs, and am also not part of a competing Judeo-Christian culture; so, Christmas is certainly an option for me.
But, more importantly, I am an American. And, as an American, I choose to celebrate the capitalist American Winter holiday of Xmas.
Like it or not (and I see no reason to not like it, unless you somehow have your ego wrapped up in making sure everybody holds the same religious beliefs that you do), the Christian holy day of Christmas has, over the generations of cultural domination by Christians, created another, entirely separate, and entirely secular holiday in this country, that has absolutely nothing to do with the birth of Jesus. This holiday, that I refer to as "Xmas" just to differentiate between the two, is about Santa and Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman and Black Friday and strings of lights hanging everywhere and chopping down an evergreen and sticking it in your living room. And I throw myself into this holiday whole-heartedly. It is, hands-down, my absolute favorite time of the year. I Love it. And I wish we could all just accept that this holiday exists, and that it doesn't all have to be about Jesus, and thereby give all Americans the opportunity to enjoy it, regardless of their religion, or lack thereof.
And if you want to celebrate a traditional Christian Christmas, and make it all about the birth of baby Jesus, then please, by all means, go right ahead. No one is stopping you. But you need to accept that you gave this holiday away a long time ago, and that it doesn't belong solely to you anymore. There is a world economy running off of this holiday now, and it has fuck-all to do with Jesus. The engine of the capitalist world runs on the secular holiday of Xmas, and the sooner we all admit that, and accept it, and stop whining about it as though it were the greatest crime since the crucifixion, and as though we could do anything about it, the better off we'll all be.
Here endeth the rant.
Merry Xmas, everyone.
I am not a Christian, and so I don't celebrate Christmas, as in "The Mass of Jesus Christ." I don't celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ anymore than I celebrate the birth of Siddhartha Buddha. (Although I find it a truly beautiful story. Honest-to-Sol, I am moved to tears every single year by the song "The Little Drummer Boy.")
But even though I am no longer a Christian, I was raised as an orthodox Christian, and so have a resonant familiarity with the customs, and am also not part of a competing Judeo-Christian culture; so, Christmas is certainly an option for me.
But, more importantly, I am an American. And, as an American, I choose to celebrate the capitalist American Winter holiday of Xmas.
Like it or not (and I see no reason to not like it, unless you somehow have your ego wrapped up in making sure everybody holds the same religious beliefs that you do), the Christian holy day of Christmas has, over the generations of cultural domination by Christians, created another, entirely separate, and entirely secular holiday in this country, that has absolutely nothing to do with the birth of Jesus. This holiday, that I refer to as "Xmas" just to differentiate between the two, is about Santa and Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman and Black Friday and strings of lights hanging everywhere and chopping down an evergreen and sticking it in your living room. And I throw myself into this holiday whole-heartedly. It is, hands-down, my absolute favorite time of the year. I Love it. And I wish we could all just accept that this holiday exists, and that it doesn't all have to be about Jesus, and thereby give all Americans the opportunity to enjoy it, regardless of their religion, or lack thereof.
And if you want to celebrate a traditional Christian Christmas, and make it all about the birth of baby Jesus, then please, by all means, go right ahead. No one is stopping you. But you need to accept that you gave this holiday away a long time ago, and that it doesn't belong solely to you anymore. There is a world economy running off of this holiday now, and it has fuck-all to do with Jesus. The engine of the capitalist world runs on the secular holiday of Xmas, and the sooner we all admit that, and accept it, and stop whining about it as though it were the greatest crime since the crucifixion, and as though we could do anything about it, the better off we'll all be.
Here endeth the rant.
Merry Xmas, everyone.
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