Separateness vs Oneness with the Divine

Everyday, I receive four quotations from various religions: Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. Today's Muslim Wisdom Quote got me thinking about how some traditions believe that we are separate from the Divine, while others promote a view of oneness. Personally, I feel that the spritual journey is one of discovering our oneness with nature and the divine, and was surprised by this quote:

When you worship, you are aware of your separateness from God; you are the subject and he is the object. The more you worship, the more you acquire this sense of separateness from God. Union with God comes when this sense of your separateness from God is stripped away. -Qushayri, "Risalah"

As a UU, pulling inspiration from a wide range of sources is a common and frequent occurence. For me, this quote (from a UU perspective) seems to say that the traditional form of worship, in which our separation from God and each other, runs counter to the true goal of spirituality, which is to find our oneness with the divine.
The core issue here is one of immanence and transcendance. In most Western religions (at least supericially) God is superior to Man and Man is superior to the rest of creation. In Medieval times this idea was called the Great Chain of Being.
For other traditions which adopt a more immanent view, the Divine is something that is beyond yet within everything. It is on this immanent quality within all that UUs affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person. That inherent worth and dignity is derived from the shared divine quality within everything.

The Day of Silence (04:26:06)

Next Wednesday, April 26, is The Day of Silence. This is the day where students across the country keep silent to support the idea that anti-GLBT harassment is unacceptable in schools. The silence is symbolic of the silencing imposed on GLBT individuals by society.
This is a very important event to acknowledge today as the rights of the GLBT community are becoming increasingly jeopardized by society at large. As a member of the GLBT community, I plan to participate in this event. And as a UU, as well, to uphold my belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and to respect the interdependent web that connects us all.

Easter Reflections

As today was Easter I wanted to reflect on what the holiday means for a UU. In A Chosen Faith, Forrest Church writes that "Jesus' life was not special because he was more than human or other than human. It was special because Jesus fully realized the promise of his humanity."
From a UU perspective, Easter is not important in that Jesus ressurrected from the grave. Easter is important, not because Jesus died, but because of how Jesus lived.
This is what Jesus came to show us, not to hope for a heaven after we die, but to live a life that holds up our highest ideas. Neale Donald Walsch, author of the Conversations With God series, stated the purpose of life (which Jesus illustrated so perfectly) quite clearly.

Live your life for a new reason. Understand that its purpose has nothing to do with what you get out of it, and everything to do with what you put into it. . . .
The purpose of life is to create your Self anew. in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever you held about Who You Are. It is to announce and become, express and fulfill, experience and know your true Self.

This implies action, words and statements aren't enough. The purpose of life is to live it fully and openly. Jesus came to show us how to live a life that fully, and it is upon such an extraordinary life, that we should reflect upon on Easter.

The Power of Shame and Fear

Have you ever experienced being told that you were bad or wrong because of something you said, believed, or did? How about being made to feel that Who You Are is bad (sinful, corrupt, fallen, wrong)? This is a common experience for many people of many walks and religions. This feeling is shame.
I have had many personal brushes with shame; granted, that has lessened recently, but it still happens. Being gay and finding myself with spiritual beliefs that didn't match the beliefs of my family, I have known shame.
There is a difference between shame and guilt. Shame is a feeling towards who you are, integral parts of your being. Guilt is the feeling you feel when you have done something wrong (i.e. stealing, murder, lying).
The first time I felt shame (that I can recall) is when I first came out to my parents. For at least 2 years, I was told that being gay was wrong, unacceptable--as if I could do something about it! It wasn't understood that "gay" isn't something I'm doing, it's part of who I am as an individual.
The second instance I've felt shame was when I realized that I didn't share my family's belief in Christianity and Jesus. It wasn't that I hated Jesus, but I could not accept the acts carried out in his name. Nor could I accept that God would send people to Hell.
The quote I posted in my last post, illustrates how the God of my church seemed to me. The God that I experienced personally was all-loving, nurturing, accepting, and bigger than a deity who sent people to Hell yet supposedly "loved" them.
I have found in Unitarian Universalism a way to the divine that resonates with my deepest spiritual convictions. UUMAN (my UU church home) promotes itself as a community of "open hearts and open minds." Never, in all my years of going, has UUMAN fell shy of this assertation.

Gerard Hughes Quote: God as "Good Old Uncle George"

I am a Catholic, a priest and a Jesuit. Many people still think that Catholic priests, perhaps Jesuits especially, never suffer confusion, bewilderment or disillusion. I do.
When we try to pray, we must have some idea of God in our minds, and this idea will influence how we pray and whether we pray. As a University chaplain I used to spend much time listening to people who had either given up their Catholic faith, or were thinking of doing so, or they were worried about their own honesty in continuing as Catholics when they felt they no longer really believed in the teachings of the Catholic Church. Having listened to them, I always tried to encourage them to speak about their own understanding of God. After many conversations, an indentikit image of God formed in my imagination.
God was a family relative, much admired by Mum and Dad, who described him as very loving, a great friend of the family, very powerful and interested in all of us. Eventually we are taken to visit ‘Good Old Uncle George’. He lives in a formidable mansion, is bearded, gruff and threatening. We cannot share our parents’ professed admiration for this jewel in the family. At the end of the visit. Uncle George turns to address us.
‘Now listen, dear,’ he begins, looking very severe, ‘I want to see you here once a week, and if you fail to come, let me just show you what will happen to you.’ He then leads us down to the mansion’s basement. It is dark, becomes hotter and hotter as we descend, and we begin to hear unearthly screams. In the basement there are steel doors. Uncle George opens one.
‘Now look there, dear,’ he says. We see a nightmare vision, an array of blazing furnaces with little demons in attendance, who hurl into the blaze those men, women and children who failed to visit Uncle George or to act in a way he approved.
‘And if you don’t visit me, dear, that is where you will most certainly go,’ says Uncle George. He then takes us upstairs again to meet Mum and Dad. As we go home, tightly clutching Dad with one hand and Mum with the other. Mum leans over us and says, ‘And now don’t you love Uncle George with all your heart and soul, mind and strength?’ And we, loathing the monster, say, ‘Yes, I do,’ because to say anything else would be to join the queue at the furnace. At a tender age religious schizophrenia has set in and we keep telling Uncle George how much we love him and how good he is and that we want to do only what pleases him. We observe what we are told are his wishes and dare not admit, even to ourselves, that we loathe him.
Uncle George is a caricature, but a caricature of a truth, the truth that we can construct a God who is an image of our tyrannical selves. Hell-fire sermons are out of fashion, but they were in fashion a few decades ago and they may well come in again. Such sermons have a great appeal to certain unhealthy types of mind, but they cause havoc with the more healthy and sensitive. The danger in the institutional element in religion is that we never advance beyond a religious infantilism......

Are we Christian?

This is a question that many UUs are asked. The answer depends upon who you ask. Historically, Unitarian Universalism is a derivative of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. However, UUism (as it is known today) has grown out of American soil.
The two traditions (Unitarian & Universalist) grew out of opposition to two doctrines. Unitarianism was founded in opposition to the idea of the trinity. God was seen as a unity rather than a three-part entity. Unitarians also took issue with the idea of Original Sin, that mankind is inherently evil and in need of salvation. Unitarians believed that, through choice and social environment, each individual had the potential to do great good or great evil. It is by our actions that we are made. Universalists believed that all are saved--not that God sends some people to Heaven and some to Hell. How could a loving God send someone to Hell? "He" doesn't.
Unitarian Universalism, as it exists today, cannot be considered a Christian movement. The Christian roots of Unitarian Universalism are just one of six sources of our faith. What once was a liberal Christian denomination, has expanded into a movement that embraces all faiths, people from all walks of life. Because of this liberal approach to the spiritual quest, UUs have been at the forefront of many of the movements for social change: from abolition to womens' suffrage, from education to gay rights.

When I first began to explore the UU tradition, I knew very little about it. I still am just coming to realize that UUs are everywhere, in some very surprising places. I had known about Emerson and Thoreau being influential to the tradition, but I never realized, as I am beginning to, what a rich and vibrant movement Unitarian Univeralism is.
The thing I love about being a UU is that, aside from children raised UU, being a UU means that you choose to be one. You don't find UUs coming to your door with pamphlets, holding huge conventions to draw attention--hardly any degree of proselytization. Despite this lack of advertisement, UU draws people in. I think this is because Unitarian Universalism fills a need that many seek but few find in a spirituality--intellectual and spiritual fulfillment.

The Anniversary of War

March 19 marked the third year anniversary of the war in Iraq. On such a date, many people have many different feelings regarding our nation's actions surrounding this war and 9/11. On the UUA website (March 16), the UUA president, Rev. William G. Sinkford, wrote a letter to fellow UUs.
In his letter, Rev. Sinkford explains the dire need for a public dialogue and assessment of US actions regarding Iraq. According to this page, the UUA, after much contemplation and discussion, has found this war (from the beginning) to be opposed to the fundamental beliefs of Unitarian Universalism. As Rev. Sinkford pointed out, the powers that be have relied upon military might, as opposed to "diplomacy and true international cooperation."
Because, since 9/11, the American people have (for the most part) unquestioningly followed the decisions and actions of the Administration, the time has come for us to seriously consider how we feel about what's going on.
Rev. Sinkford mentions a letter he wrote to Congress regarding the war in Iraq. In this letter he explains how the UUA felt about the decisions being made.
I urge you to support legislation that would require the Administration to create and implement a plan to withdraw US forces from Iraq. I believe that continuing to pursue a military-based strategy that has failed to produce peace—a strategy that has tragic human consequences almost every day—is ethically and religiously bankrupt. The time for a change of course is long overdue.

In the months prior to the US invasion of Iraq, the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations—together with other members of the Win Without War coalition and many other faith groups—called for diplomacy and international cooperation rather than unilateral military action. Much to our disappointment, the Administration proceeded without exhausting diplomatic options and without broad international support.

Most importantly, Rev. Sinkford pointed out (regarding blindly following the Administration) that "We should not stay the course when the course is wrong. We need to have a real conversation about where we go from here."

Unitarian Universalism: The Basics

As mentioned in my last posting, I am redirecting the course of this blog. I'm doing this because, as mentioned, I've undergone some personal changes that have called for this change in direction.
Unitarian Universalists. Who are they? What do they do? What do they believe? These are questions asked by many people, myself included. Over the past five or six years I've had an on and off relationship with Unitarian Universalism. I discovered them rather coincidentally when I was in 11th grade. When I did, I knew that I had found a movement that I could agree with on the issues that were important to me.
But, what were these beliefs that I felt so in tune with? In 1986, the UUA General Assembly adopted the following set of principles and purposes:

* The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
* Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
* Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
* A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
* The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
* The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
* Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

And, in acting on these principles, UU derives inspiration from a variety of sources which are:

* Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life;
* Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;
* Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;
* Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;
* Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
* Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.

In the next few posts, I will be exploring aspects of the different principles, how I understand them, how I feel they relate to the world we live in, and some information regarding the history of Unitarian Universalism.

The majority of information which I refer to can be found on the UUA website.

The role of nature and a coming shift

Nature is central to a Pagan belief structure. The respect and acknowledgement of nature is what sets Paganism apart from most of the other world's religions. But, why is nature important?
Nature's importance lies in the fact that--it's where we come from. All life--big, small, man, animal, tree, rock--comes from nature and is of nature. This is a fact that many religions would have you overlook. Christianity turns to the Bible for evidence to support this:
"Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground" (Genesis 1:28 NIV).
The use of this verse has greatly disturbed me from time to time. When did man get the notion in his head that he was somehow better than the rest of creation? By claiming to be better, man has created a false divivsion between himself and the web of life.
The good thing is that, no matter how hard this connection is denied, man will never be ignored by nature. The bad thing is that, if mankind doesn't redress its relationship to nature, nature will strike back to reestablish balance.

Paganism's reverence for nature has affected another faith that is a very important part of my life--Unitarian Universalism. I want to delve more into the Unitarian Universalist tradition in the coming weeks for many reasons: one personal and one general. My general reason is that Unitarian Universalism is a movement that it seems everyone has heard of but almost no one knows what it's about.

My personal reason for wanting to discuss Unitarian Universalism is that, over Spring Break, I've reached a point where I am starting to identify more with UUism. Because of this, I feel the need to refamiliarize myself with its history and roots. In doing so, I hope that I can share insights and knowledge with others so that they can come to understand more about this spiritual movement.

The Goddess

One thing that most people consider a disctinctive feature of Paganism is the Goddess. Granted, many world religions have goddesses, but, in Paganism, the Goddess is revered on equal, or elevated, terms as God. The prescence of the Goddess is worrisome for Christians because Christianity is extremely patriarchal. Only now, with the popularity of The DaVinci Code, are mainstream Christians becoming aware of the feminine prescence within their own religion.
The general consensus among Pagans is: ask 5 Pagans and you'll get 6 answers. Every Pagan has their own take on the God/Goddess concept. I personally acknowledge both a God and a Goddess, with a focus on the Goddess. I focus on the Goddess because, being raised Christian, this divine feminine was a prescence that was entirely denied me growing up.
Other Pagans, particularly those with a feminist outlook, acknowledge only the Goddess. I must admit that I don't know much about the feminist approach to Paganism. The impression I get is that the need is felt to establish a matriarchal approach to redress the male/female balance, which the patriarchal society we live in has thrown off.
The next issue of course is: what Goddess/God to acknowledge. Again, there are many opinions on this. Some acknowledge a generic Goddess and God, using whichever names are appropriate to the work being done. Other Pagans, adopt a particular deity that they resonate with. Since Paganism is about the individual quest for spritual expression, there is no right or wrong about this.

Chakras and the Gay Community

Everyone is probably familiar with the gay pride flag and the rainbow. A few months ago, I had a rather interesting insight on the implications of the rainbow being associated with the gay community. Granted, this is my speculation, but it is interesting to think about.
This insight was brought on by personal events. I was going through a period where I was questioning my ability to find a decent relationship, what my goals were, and what my beliefs were in general. I cannot remember if it was product of a dream or if it was an image that got stuck in my head during the daily daydreaming I am prone to, but I had a very strong image stuck in my head.
The image was of this wallet that I have. It’s a black wallet with gay pride studs on it. In this image though three of the studs were missing. I had the impression that there was a message in this image for me that I needed to discover. So, I started looking around in my books and online to figure out what it could possibly mean. Then, I stumbled across the chakra system.
What I found out was that the Goddess was trying to tell me what was going wrong in my life that I needed to get back on track. The missing studs were representative of the areas that had been thrown out of balance.
Before I go any further in what I discovered, it would be useful to explain the chakra system.

Chakras
The chakra system originated in Hinduism and since then has been appropriated by other related eastern traditions and the New Age movement. A chakra is basically an energy center located in the human body, of which there are seven main ones that are generally focused on. Each chakra has certain associations that help determine which one may be acting up if a person experiences inbalance. For an understanding of the individual charkas and their specific qualities, check here.
In short, the Root Chakra (red) governs the most basic impulses of man (survival). The Sacral Chakra (orange) governs emotions, sexuality, and the creative impulse. The Solar Plexus Chakra (yellow) is the seat of the desire to be an individual, energy, and digestion. The Heart/Lung Chakra (green or pink) relates to feelings of love, compassion, devotion to oneself and others, and healing. The Throat Chakra (blue) handles needs of self-expression, communication and speech. The Third Eye Chakra (indigo) has been associated with intuitive impulses and ESP. The Crown Chakra (violet) serves as the individual’s connection to the divine, the seat of consciousness. It is also the master chakra that governs all others.

Chakras and the Gay Community
If you look at the gay pride flag, you’ll notice that the spectrum places red at the top and goes down to purple. I thought about what this could mean, and I looked at what I noticed about the gay community. My experience is that many in the gay community are more interested in sexual fulfillment, material matters and where their next kick is coming from. There is little desire to search for meaning, beauty and spiritual fulfillment. I think that this is reflected in the gay pride flag. By reversing the chakra path and holding the Root as the highest, the baser needs of humanity are given prominence. For most in the gay community, the flag is an unavoidable image seen just about anywhere gays mingle. This visual reinforcement of a sexual/primal driven life cannot be a good thing.
I would think it would be interesting to see if flipping the flag the other way would eventually have an effect on how people act. I did notice that, to a very small degree, when I started to carry my wallet with the purple at the top, things started balancing out for me.

I hope this has struck interest.

Santeria & Hurricane Katrina

This week I wanted to talk of the religion of Santería. This religion is quite similar in many ways to Voodoo.

Santería is a tradition brought to the Americas by slaves. The word is derived from Santo, meaning “saint.” Santería is pantheistic meaning that it believes in multiple deities, called orishas. Because slaves were forced to adopt the religion of their masters (Catholicism), the orishas were disguised as saints. The basic practice is honor and care for the orishas in return for blessings. Other common practices within Santería include: healings, making charms, speaking with spirits, and holding ceremonies.

Initially the name Santería was meant to be derogatory; other names for this tradition include: Lucumi, the Way of the Saints, and Regla de Ocha. In Brazil it is known as Candomble and Nagos.

Santería honors a supreme deity, called Olorun, who created the orishas and from then on, withdrew his influence from the world. The orishas play various roles and these manifestations are known as caminos. The orishas are members of a family; they interact with each other and humans as well. Each orisha has parents, and the dominant orisha is the eledá. The Siete Potencias are the seven highest orishas and these reside within their devoted priests and lend these priests certain powers. Other orishas exist but they do not mingle with priests.

The power of the orishas is also believed to reside in otanes (sacred stones). These stones cannot be replaced, while images of the saints can because the saints are images to illustrate the corresponding orisha.

There is a good degree of ancestor worship in that ancestors have altars in their honor and may receive rituals. For Santería, ancestors are a source of advice.

Some significant orishas
Obatalá: rules purity and patience
Eleggua: governs the crossroads and the future
Shangó: rules thunder, lightning, dancing, and drumming
Yemayá: is the mother goddess and rules the oceans
Oshún: is the goddess of beauty, sensuality, pregnancy and rivers
Ogún: is the god of iron and war
Oyá: is the goddess of storms who resides at cemetery gates
Osian: is the god of all plants
Aña: is the spirit of the sacred bata drums
Iroko: is a tree spirit that lives within kapok trees
Babalú Ayé: is a god associated with diseases

I feel that knowing about Santería is important because there are some who believe that Santería is somewhat connected with Hurricane Katrina. The individuals who believe this refer to a few facts that make this theory interesting to consider.

For one, these traditions (Voodoo & Santería) are closely tied toNew Orleans. The forms of these traditions found in New Orleans, many believe, are bastardizations of the true practices. Almost everyone is familiar with the voodoo doll from the appearance of these in many movies.

According to the Santería/Katrina theory, one of the orishas reached a point where they were fed up with the disrespect to the practices. If one were to guess from the list given above, Yemayá would be a good guess as to who might have gotten miffed.

This is not to say that this is exactly what happened, but it is important to keep an open mind. Perhaps this was indeed the case; perhaps it wasn’t. The point of the matter is that there is much that we humans do not know, and it would be foolish to discredit anything.

Links of Interest
Religious Tolerance
Google Directory
A Pagan Response to Katrina

Google Group for Discussion

I've been playing around with some of Google's other services. Today I set up a Google Group to try and get some feedback about what readers would like to know. This will help me as I decide on topics to post on and providing resources that might help those who are interested. The link to the group is provided up in the blog description at the top of the page.

Divination and tarot

This week I wanted to discuss the act of divination and in particular the use of tarot cards as a divinatory tool. For starters it would help to understand what the word divination means.

Basically, divination means to reveal the hidden, or to reveal the future through supernatural or magical means. Using a tool such as tarot, someone could get a sense of what lies ahead if they continue along a current path. There are many opinions on what the cards actually reveal and how to work with that information. While it is common to believe that the cards reveal a future set in stone, unchangeable, this is to forget that we have free will. We have the power to choose something different if we dislike the future that is revealed.

Almost everyone has at least heard of the tarot, even if what they have heard is mistaken. The media generally portrays the tarot as revealing a characters impending doom, or some other negative revelation. This paints a picture of the tarot that is highly unlike the way it is actually used.

A typical tarot deck consists of 78 cards divided into 2 large groups: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana cards. The Minor Arcana is nearly identical to the playing cards we use today, consisting of 4 suits with Ace-10 and 4 (instead of 3) court cards. It is generally believed that tarot originated as a card came. At the most basic level, the Major Arcana represents the big issues and themes that are universal in life. The Minor Arcana, on the other hand, represents the little things, the ups and downs, that happen during life.

The two most well-recognized tarot decks are the Rider-Waite and Crowley's Thoth Tarot. Both decks are steeped in occult correspondences and symbology; however, Crowley is generally recommended for more advanced searchers as the symbols are overwhelming in this deck. These are far from being the only tarot decks though; indeed, there are many, many more. Not all decks are full of symbols, but it is up to the individual which deck they use. There is really only one rule for determining a deck to use: if it works for you and you work well with it, if the readings you get feel accurate to you, then it's a deck for you.

I have a fairly sizeable collection of tarot decks, but I definitely don't use them all. The main one I'm using now is The Quest Tarot. Other decks that I will use occasionally are: the Sacred Circle Tarot, the Voyager Tarot, and the Haindl Tarot.

For the most part, I have only read for myself as a way of self-analysis and method of self-discovery. I'm a bit anxious about reading for others because as a reader, you have an ethical code to keep in mind, and that means you be as honest as possible. I just don't feel so comfortable at reading that I feel I could do justice to others in reading for them. But I might start because practice does help.

I'd be interested in continuing this topic, but I want to know what issues or aspects readers would like to know about. If I don't know I'll gladly try and find an answer.

Teaching through fiction & The power of words

I got a comment on last week's post about what my thoughts were on The DaVinci Code, and the correlations that Dan Brown draws between Christianity and Paganism. I have not read that book yet, though I have read his first book, Angels & Demons. While these books are fictional, I do believe that valuable information can be transmitted in fictional form. Fables, allegories, metaphors, all these are ways that information can be passed down in a way that is easy to remember. I feel that some people would want to discredit Brown on the grounds that his information is in the form of a novel. But, does this make it any less pertinant? I don't believe so.

None of the religious literature that we derive inspiration from is "true" as in "literal." But does this mean that they have nothing to teach us? That they have no power to inspire us? No. Words have always had power, and always will. In the Judeo-Christian mythos, God called the universe into being with words. In Kabbalah, God used the letters of the Hebrew alphabet to map out his plan of creation on the Tree of Life. In the Pagan practice, words are used to focus energy towards a desired end.

In today's world, we are largely unaware of the power of words because we have been inundated with images and noise that distract us from the innate power of the word (written or spoken). I believe that this has happened, and allowed those in power to maintain enormous control over words and their use. By inundating us with images and background noise, our government has silenced our voice and made the first amendment rights almost completely unexercised.

My Story and Info on the Pentacle

Well, this post has snuck up on me. This week has been so busy with classes and work. But, with this week’s post I wanted to talk a little about what Paganism means to me before going on to explore what others consider Paganism to be. This is important for me because I feel that it is critical for my readers to understand where I come from and what my background is.

For me, magic has always been a part of my life. In childhood, magic was present in the games my sister and I would play outside in the yard and the woods around our house. It has been just recently (within the past 2-3 years) that I have been guided to Paganism as a form of spiritual expression.

I had reached a point in my life where things were just short of hellish. School was stressing me to no end, love was keeping its distance; I was quite disillusioned with my life. One night came where I just fell back onto the bed and just tried to let go of all my stress.

Out of nowhere I felt this warm feeling embrace me, and a voice in my head said “It’s ok now, just calm down, you’ve found what you were looking for.” I noticed a few things about this presence: it was old, knowing, and distinctly feminine. This event sparked in me a new desire to explore this path that before I had only explored half-heartedly.

This past October, for Samhain (Halloween), I was at Walmart looking at the costumes and noticed a Devil kit that included a necklace that had a pentacle (5-pointed star pointed up inscribed within a circle). To those unfamiliar with Paganism, the pentacle represents the 5 elements: earth, air, fire, water, and spirit. Inverted, this then becomes the symbol used by Satanists (representing the goat-headed Baphomet). As a member of the Pagan community, I felt that this error in representation should be remedied.

I sent and email to the customer service department of Walmart and explained the error in the product, and requested that they remove the product from their shelves. Within two weeks I heard back with an email saying that they were happy to do so.
It has always been an aim of mine in life, and with this blog, to do what I can to help reverse the negative image society has of the Pagan community. In a world as networked and connected as the one we live in, we cannot afford to harbor ill feelings towards others based on differences such as religious beliefs, sexuality, politics, etc. We need to work harder to get past these divisions and acknowledge that just because someone doesn’t agree with us, that doesn’t mean that we should wish ill of them or harbor hatred in our hearts.

About the Pentacle
The Witches Pentacle
The Witches Pentacle (Part II)

Welcome to Raven's Cry

Hi! First off I would like to welcome you to my blog. I want to use this first posting to give you an idea about who I am and give you an idea of what to expect in the weeks to come. While this is a class project, I wanted to pick something that would keep my interest going throughout the semester and (hopefully) beyond.

I am a junior in college studying for a B.A. in English. I’ve been a reader for most of my life, a writer for another good portion of that, but always, I’ve been a seeker. I have been a seeker of knowledge both of the world around me and of myself.
In this blog I would like to impart some of the knowledge that I have gained, and continue to gain about my spiritual tradition, Neopaganism.

The spiritual path that I identify as Neopagan, has been referred to under various guises: Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, to name a few. Historically, this path has been the scapegoat and victim of hate, fear, bigotry, and misunderstanding.

My goal for this blog is to do my part to dispel these rumors and bring a glimmer of understanding to those who may not be familiar with this beautiful spiritual path. Along the way, I may include other information that resonates with the values held by a good portion of those in the Neopagan tradition.

As a way of getting those who may read this thinking about this area, I would like to direct them to an online quiz from Beliefnet.com that gives you an idea of which faith you share the most beliefs with (link). My highest results were Neopagan (100%) and Unitarian Universalism (90%).

I would also like to open this up to questions and comments. I am still learning more and more about Neopaganism, and I would like to make sure that the information I provide is as accurate as possible. I would also be interested in trying to help answer questions that I may neglect to answer, and I would be more than open to answering those questions to the best of my ability.

Blessed be!