Sunday, February 27, 2005
Pagan News: Hollywood Stereotyping, Asphodel Long
1. Dispelling Myths: Pagan community wants to avoid 'Hollywood' stereotypesStudents and others who practice paganism are commonly misunderstood, because of the entertainment industry's interpretation of their religion, Raymond says.
Nikki Bado-Fralick, assistant professor of religious studies and folklorist, says magic is really about appreciating nature and improving oneself.
She says the entertainment industry tends to portray certain pagan practices, including witchcraft or Wicca, with a thriller aspect.
The magic presented is commonly in the form of what Bado-Fralick calls "kitchen witchy spell books."
"America wants a quick fix, so there is a big market for that kind of crap. A lot of pagans and witches are kind of amused by that," she says.
2. Asphodel Long, In MemoriumA Goddess Scholar and crone, Asphodel Long passed into the other world(s) on February 1 .
Born in 1921 in the U.K. of refugee Polish Jewish parents, Asphodel (formerly Pauline) Long has been called a grandmother of the Goddess Movement in Great Britain.
She is a founder member of the European Society of Women in Theological Research, the London Matriarchy Study Group (1975) and the Matriarchy Research and Reclaim Network (1980). She received a degree in Theology at London University in 1983 at the age of 62. In 1996 she was the first Sophia Fellow at the University College of St. Mark and St. John, Plymouth.
Her course "Female aspects of deity" was offered by the Centre for Continuing Education at the University of Sussex in an unbroken cycle from copyright_31987 to 1994. The syllabus, included Goddesses of the World, Goddesses of Britain, and Goddesses of the Ancient Near East. She was joined by Magenta Wise who gave several classes on ritual and celebration in the same series.
From 1993 to 1996 she was a tutor in the Feminist Theology outreach programme of the University of Wales at Lampeter, again focusing on "Female aspects of deity"; the programme led to the award by the university of the Certificate in Feminist Theology, and was accepted at various colleges as credit towards a BA in Religious Studies. She taught a similar course in 1996 at the University College of St. Mark and St. John in Plymouth.
Asphodel is an author of numerous writings on Goddess topics and also on Jewish women's history and on antisemitism. Her book, In a Chariot Drawn by Lions: the Search for the Female in Deity (The Women's Press, London 1992; Crossing Press, Freedom CA 1993) is a discussion of Wisdom Goddesses, looking at goddesses in Hebrew and Ancient Near Eastern traditions, researching into the background of Western culture with emphasis on Hochma/Sophia - her reign, her banishment and return. The book also addresses a theme, now commonplace among biblical scholars, though not yet known to the general public, that the ancient Hebrews were not monotheists, but worshipped both the god Yahweh and the goddess Asherah. Scholarly material is used in an accessible manner and analyses the causes of misogyny.
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Friday, February 25, 2005
50 Books: How to Crochet
Crochet has no rigid rules, only guidelines. There are good ways to work crochet and bad ways. The object of this book is to provide you with good ways which you can use as a guideline at all times to give that professional result. Crochet is the youngest of all fabric-making crafts. It began by imitating lace making, but the freedom of the crochet hook allows us to be imaginative, exploring color and texture, as well as producing the traditional fine-cotton openwork.
p. 9,
How to Crochet, Pauline Turner.
Collins & Brown Limited. 2001.
Genre: Nonfiction, How-to.
In 1970 I crocheted a poncho.
In 2004, a week after National Fraud Day (November 2), my friend
S.B. bought crochet hooks and some cotton yarns on our way to choir, and sitting in her van we made "I Won't Give Up The Fight" friendship-type bracelets of crochet chains.
Last month, on the day I cut my hair, out of the blue came an image, a feeling, a desire, an idea: to make a cap for my shorn head. Over the next few days, my beloved (a non-crocheting knitter) helped me figure out that it was crochet I wanted, not knitting, and that what I had in mind was something like an
Afghan skull cap or a
Rasta cap.
Next, she bought me a booklet of easy crochet hat patterns, and when that was too advanced for me, she bought an interactive CD-ROM -- "Crochet Made Easy" -- which taught me, right here at this computer, how to hold hook and yarn, how to make a foundation chain and build rows of single and double crochet on top of it, how to turn, count, and a few other fundamentals. Just enough to set my creative wheels in gear and my fingers in motion.
I've been crocheting with a passion since then. I've made lots of mistakes, a little progress, seven hats, one scarf, four Tarot bags, and the beginnings of a blanket. These have all been created without the benefit of pattern ... I just couldn't wait to get started.
Miraculously, crocheting doesn't seem to be aggravating my
fibro-body, at least not so far.
Pauline Turner's
How to Crochet was recommended by a local fiber arts expert as the best book available for learning crochet from A to Z. I love this book. It's well written, well organized, well illustrated. I'm more of a learn-by-doing than a learn-from-reading kind of gal, but having this book at hand is advancing my crochet knowledge and skills and leading me on.
This whole process has inspired reflection on the nature of Craft, both the specific craft of magic (or magick) and more generally all and any spiritual craft or practice. Here are a few things that have bubbled up:
- Discipline is required, focus.
- Bliss is the goal, not perfection.
- Learning patterns and methodologies from experts is helpful. You benefit from their accumulated knowledge and wisdom, both in terms of what to pay attention to, and what to avoid. A good teacher will give you options, not demand rigid adherence to her theories and practices, and she'll understand that she's helping you find your way by teaching you hers.
- Be willing to begin again, and begin again, and begin again. Practice, practice, practice.
- Success, serendipity, failure, flaw: all are teachers, allies.
- Your heart, your mind, desire, a creative spirit, a sense of adventure: these are your greatest tools.
- Be open to inspiration.
- Create beauty; share it.
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Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Tsunami Uncovers Ancient City/Temples
Archaeologists have begun underwater excavations of what is believed to be an ancient city and parts of a temple uncovered by the tsunami off the coast of a centuries-old pilgrimage town.
Three rocky structures with elaborate carvings of animals have emerged near the coastal town of Mahabalipuram, which was battered by the Dec. 26 tsunami.
As the waves receded, the force of the water removed sand deposits that had covered the structures, which appear to belong to a port city built in the seventh century, said T. Satyamurthy, a senior archaeologist with the Archaeological Survey of India.
Mahabalipuram is already well known for its ancient, intricately carved shore temples that have been declared a World Heritage site and are visited each year by thousands of Hindu pilgrims and tourists. According to descriptions by early British travel writers, the area was also home to seven pagodas, six of which were submerged by the sea.
(Tsunami)
Friday, February 18, 2005
What We Already Knew
Global Warming Is Real"The debate over whether or not there is a global warming signal is now over, at least for rational people," (Tim Barnett, Scripps Institution of Oceanography) said.
Speaking at an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Barnett said climate models based on air temperatures are weak because most of the evidence for global warming is not even there.
"The real place to look is in the ocean," Barnett told a news conference.
If you're feeling up to it, the article spells out several scenarios we've all heard of, like the danger of the Ocean Conveyor Belt shutting down, and:
Greenland's ice cap, which contains enough ice to raise sea levels globally by 23 feet (7 meters), is starting to melt and could collapse suddenly, (Ruth Curry, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) said.
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Thursday, February 17, 2005
Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries
(Rituals) are for any moment that we understand as significant -- getting a divorce, starting a new career, adopting a child. When we don't intentionally mark these things as important, then we move through life without a deeper consciousness.
High priestess Ruth Barrett is featured in Madison's
Capital Times -- front page photo and article,
Witchy Woman Dispels Wiccan Myths.
Barrett contends that you don't have to be a witch to benefit from
Women's Rites, Women's Mysteries: Creating Ritual in the Dianic Wiccan Tradition (Author House, $21.75 in paperback), her new and self-published book.
"This book was written for anybody who wants to create their own rituals for their own life," Barrett says. "It is written for women because that's what I know, and our rites of passage tend to be invisible" -- the basis for shame or concealment instead of celebration.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Ritual Objects Arts Competition
Application deadline - March 19th, 2005
Ritual Objects Arts Competition
RITUAL OBJECTS ARTS & CRAFTS COMPETITION Seeking artwork for juried exhibition, "Sacred Icons: A Collective Vision of Symbolic & Ritual Objects," May 19-June 29, 2005. Entry fee. Cash awards. Work must have been completed withing last 2 years. 40% gallery commission/60% artists. For prospectus, send SASE to Elizabeth Moss, Artisans Center of Virginia, 601 Shenandoah Village Dr, Waynesboro VA 22980 OR 540-946-3294 OR 540-946-3296(fax) OR
http://www.artisanscenterofvirginia.org
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Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Proverb
All that is not given is lost.
This Indian proverb appears at the end of the movie,
City of Joy, a deeply moving tale of loss and giving, greed and generosity, physical poverty and spiritual wealth, set in one of the poorest slums of Calcutta. The saying is also attributed to
Rabindranath Tagore, the great poet and philosopher of India.
The movie is based on Dominique Lapierre's
book by the same name, which I have not read. In my movies/novels-as-elements imaginings, this movie would be in center, representing Spirit, as would Starhawk's novel,
The Fifth Sacred Thing, which I have read.
Proverb: a common saying, "words put forth." What would it be like to have embedded in our culture the concept of giving conveyed in the above Indian Proverb? Contrast it with our "You can't take it with you."
Do we have Pagan Proverbs? If so, what do they say about our thinking, our spirit, our common beliefs, practices, values?
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Monday, February 14, 2005
Valentine Heart of Our Hearts
From
Always in Season: Living in Sync with the Cycles ©
Donna Henes, Urban Shaman. (
CityShaman@aol.com) Reprinted with permission.
The Romans celebrated the sacred sexual frenzy (febris, in Latin) of the Goddess of amorous love, Juno Februa, on February 14, coinciding with the time when the birds in Italy were thought to mate. These orgiastic rites of the Patroness of Passionate Love, merged with Lupercalia, the festivities in honor of the pagan god, Pan which were observed on the following day, February 15. On Lupercalia, (named incidentally in honor of the she-wolf who suckled Romulus and Remus), men and women inscribed their names on love notes or billets and then drew lots to determine who their sex partner would be during this festival of erotic games.
At last love has come. I would be more
ashamed to hide it in cloth than leave it
naked. I prayed to the Muse and won. Venus
dropped him in my arms, doing for me what
she had promised. Let my joy be told, let
those who have none tell it in a story.
Personally, I would never send off words
in sealed tablets for none to read.
I delight in sinning and hate to compose a
mask for gossip. We met. We are both worthy.
Sulpicia, First Century BC Roman
Lupercalia, which combined elements of worship of Juno Februa and Her Northern equivalent, the Norse goddess Sjofn, was the original Valentine's Day. Naturally, the fathers of the early Christian Church outlawed its observance as lewd and heathenish. However, they were quite unable to halt the practice. Eventually it was necessary to create a sainted martyr whose feast day would be observed on February 14th. In this way, the Church could sanction a celebration that it simply could not suppress. There are, depending on the source, anywhere from three to eight Saint Valentines. Each has a conflicting biography concocted by a different author. But in every version he emerges as the patron of lovers, bowing to the original intention of the occasion.
The first St. Valentine's Day was celebrated in 468 AD. In the beginning, the Church attempted to institute the practice of exchanging billets printed with pious sermons and scripture to encourage a holy attitude -- what a dry substitute for a direct experience of divine ecstasy, which the people craved. Needless to say, the experiment failed on a grand scale. By the fourteenth century, the celebration of Valentine's Day had lost all Christian content and had reverted back to the love feasts of old, albeit, tempered by more than a thousand years of church-imposed morality built on the separation and opposition of body and soul. One now strove for perfection of the spirit through the repression of the body. Courtly love, which was chaste and pure, was the ideal in the Middle Ages. The monks of the Middle Ages identified fifteen classes of kisses, only one of which was unchaste:
- The decorous or modest kiss
- The diplomatic kiss, or kiss of policy
- The spying kiss, to ascertain if a woman had drunk wine
- The slave kiss
- The kiss infamous (a church penance)
- The slipper kiss (practiced toward tyrants)
- The judicial kiss
- The feudal kiss
- The religious kiss (kissing the cross)
- The academic kiss (on joining a solemn brotherhood)
- The hand kiss
- The Judas kiss
- The medical kiss (for the purpose of healing some ailment)
- The kiss of etiquette
- The kiss of love
The symbols of Lupercalia come down to us intact, but thoroughly cleansed, completely abstracted from their original flesh and blood intensity. The cute little chubby Valentine angel so familiar to us, is an insipid and impoverished characterization of Cupid, the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Eros, the Hindu Kama. He was the son of the Roman, Venus and Mercury, The Greek, Aphrodite and Hermes. S/he was thus an Herm-Aphrodite, an embodiment of the duality and opposition of the sexual union. The arrows that Cupid shoots are the phallus, the lingham. These projectiles of passion are often depicted as piercing the heart. The heart, the center of the soul. A bittersweet image which intimates that love hurts. A graphic image of penetration, which is reminiscent of the arrows that Hopis shoot into rounded bundles of corn as a ceremonial gesture of fertility.
But just what is this heart-shaped symbol supposed to signify, anyway? Certainly it bears no resemblance whatsoever to an anatomically correct actual heart. The zoologist, Desmond Morris speculates that the heart symbol represents a bending over buttocks. A form that is reminiscent of the sexual habits of our ancestor kissing cousins, the apes, who do it from behind. Please! Spare me.
The horizontal-double-dip-cone-of-a-shape that we call a heart has to be two round breasts riding proudly above the magical fertile triangle of love. A full-figured female torso just like that of the Venus of Willendorf. The tits, hips, and lips of the late Great Mother Earth, Herself. The venerated love of our lives.
Let Her never be out of our hearts.
My heart, my mother;
My heart, my mother!
My heart of transformations.
The Egyptian Book of the Dead
Sunday, February 13, 2005
3 am
middle of the night
beginning of thought
end of sleep
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Thursday, February 10, 2005
Big Day / Little Day
There are big dreams and little ones.
"Big Man the Laltain sahib, Small Man the Mombatti," an old coolie, who met Estha's school excursion party at the railway station (unfailingly, year after year) used to say of dreams.
Big Man the Lantern, Small Man the Tallow-stick.
(ch. 3, The God of Small Things)
Yesterday was a day that might have been a big day for me, or a little day. I suppose it depends on perspective, but I don't have enough yet to make the call.
I went on short-term disability in November, 1996; long-term disability some time in 1997. In 1998 we remodeled this house and moved into it; the moving-in process took several years, really. Everyone who lives without an exalted Virgo placement in her/his chart knows what I mean. It takes awhile to figure out the best, most comfy, most logical/useful place to put things. Then add to that the slowness of unpacking due to disability, and the merging of two households' worth of a whole bunch of everything, which is what happens when two women in their forties decide to make a home together -- each with entire housefuls of furniture and dishware and books, each trailing clouds of craft supplies and inherited family photos and furniture and tchachkis and all manner of things that may not fit but that carry so much emotion and memory that you can't let go of them, even when you can't use them and have precious little space for storing them.
So speed forward to 2002, when I make the first steps toward developing a home-based business, and then turn your dial to 2003, when I replace the original business idea with something more exciting, more fulfilling, and more relevant to the publications work I did for 25 years: web design.
I've been growing a web design business organically, and loving it, for two years. In the same time, I've been jumping through the various hoops in my state's Vocational Rehab Department to get necessary ergonomic accommodations to be able to do this work. I have systemic fibromyalgia and arthritis (brought on by the fibro), and a few structural problems brought on by a whiplash in my thirties, being hit by a car in my 20s, landing on the pavement in my 10s when the girth pulled the belly hairs of my horse and sent him bucking and pitching from the pain ... and various other such episodes.
In any case, while I've loved working with creative folks, and doing creative work, and learning, learning, learning many things web, neither I nor the Assistive Technology folks have been successful at finding/building the right combination of ergonomic accommodations for me. Doing this work has been hard on my body. I won't even try to describe how. It would take a lot of words, several paragraphs, to explain it all and at the end of that, unless you've been here, it just wouldn't make much sense. Suffice it to say that my bad knee is worse, my back and neck are in worse shape than they were, and the last straw, I think, is the case of tendonitis in my left shoulder, very painful and limiting, which developed when I did my last big web job.
So yesterday I had an appointment with my Voc Rehab counselor and we decided to close my case, with an option to re-apply for services in the future if things change, and I've recovered from the knee/back/neck/shoulder etc. problems that have accumulated in the last two years, and more options for ergonomic workstations that might work for me have come into the market.
I'll keep the clients I have now, many of whom I'm moving to more independence by installing Content Management Systems that allow them to do some of their own site maintenance/updating. I'll take on some new clients as they find me by word-of-mouth, but as of yesterday's decision, I'll halt marketing efforts to grow my business.
It's a relief to be out of the hoop-jumping for the Voc Rehab Department (a whole bunch of research and paperwork, mainly), and there's a sense of relief in my body knowing there will be fewer stints of long hours/days at the computer getting a new site designed and launched and marketed.
In addition to the physical relief, there's also an unexpected feeling of a huge psychic burden lifted. But there's also sadness, and a sense of loss. Before fibro slowed me down, I was a highly productive person, a major do-er, basically satisfied professionally and engaged with volunteer work, creative activities, a big social life, and a spiritual path that was turning into avocation.
It's a much smaller life I live now, in terms of my culture's productivity and social benchmarks. And as for yesterday's decision and how that affects my life, it's hard to say now whether that decision will make way for bigger dreams (shall I get my mini-kiln fixed and start doing small-scale sculpture again? can I?) or smaller dreams (shall I spend my days moving from chair to bed to chair, reading more, doing less?).
"Big Man the Lantern, Small Man the Tallow-stick." Big or small, there's light in either, blessed light.
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Sunday, February 06, 2005
50 Books: The God of Small Things
"We're Prisoners of War," Chacko said. "Our dreams have been doctored. We belong nowhere. We sail unanchored on troubled seas. We may never be allowed ashore. Our sorrows will never be sad enough. Our joys never happy enough. Our dreams never big enough. Our lives never important enough. To matter."
Then, to give Estha and Rahel a Sense of Historical Perspective (though Perspective was something which, in the weeks to follow, Chacko himself would sorely lack), he told them about the Earth Woman. He made them imagine that the earth -- four thousand six hundred million years old -- was a forty-six year old woman -- as old, say, as Aleyamma Teacher, who gave them Malayalam lessons. It had taken the whole of the Earth Woman's life for the earth to become what it was. For the oceans to part. For the mountains to rise. The Earth Woman was eleven years old, Chacko said, when the first single-celled organisms appeared. The first animals, creatures like worms and jellyfish, appeared only when she was forty. She was over forty-five -- just eight months ago -- when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
"The whole of human civilization as we know it," Chacko told the twins, "began only two hours ago in the Earth Woman's life. As long as it takes us to drive from Ayemenem to Cochin."
It was an awe-inspiring and humbling thought, Chacko said, (Humbling was a nice word, Rahel thought. Humbling along without a care in the world), the whole of contemporary history, the World Wars, the War of Dreams, the Man on the Moon, science, literature, philosophy, the pursuit of knowledge -- was no more than a blink of Earth Woman's eye.
pp. 52-53,
The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy.
First HarperPerennial Edition. 1998.
Genre: Fiction, Novel.
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50 Book Challenge
I read about
David Harris' 50 Book Challenge at
Sleeveless in Souther Utah a few weeks ago, and it's one of those things that my mind keeps rolling over, like fruits on tiles in a slot machine.
Last night we went to Sarah's senior recital and spent a couple of hours hearing Sarah and her friend Anna, both sopranos, sing divinely. After, at a dinner celebration, the conversation turned to books.
A.. asked each of us to name the best book we'd read recently. Clever girl. It was a topic of conversation, to be sure, but primarily it was her way of finding new great books to read.
In the course of the conversation, we learned that
A.. reads on average a book a week. The only other of our group who came close to her reading rate was my beloved, who said she reads a book every two weeks. I say she reads more than that, but who's counting, really?
Hmmm. 50 Book Challenge. It's been years since I read a book a week. Oh, I dip into 100s of non-fiction books every year, but few of them do I read from cover-to-cover. When I was young, I read several books a week. When
A.. was young she read two books a day on her summer vacations! And my beloved read a book a day during her commuting, workaholic, Chicago life.
Well, I'm not ever going to aspire to those reading rates, but 50 books this year? Why not challenge myself?
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Saturday, February 05, 2005
Ivory Towers are Crumbling
A well-respected and popular professor at the University of California in Berkeley has been fired after publishing a scientific paper regarding the uncontrolled contamination of irreplaceable native Mexican corn varieties by genetically engineered corn. Dr. Ignacio Chapela, whose corn contamination article was published in the science journal "Nature," was denied his tenure due to pressure from the biotech company Monsanto on the University (the UC Berkeley tenure review panel had actually voted almost unanimously to approve his tenure).
I just
signed the petition to demand a review of Dr. Chapela's tenure denial.
The University of California Berkeley
caving to Big Business / Monsanto?
Must be time to boycott Monsanto products.
OMG, I was beginning to think I didn't use any Monsanto products and then I got to NutraSweet (do you read lists from the bottom up like I do?). Hmmm. Gonna have to think harder about giving up the occasional Diet Coke, Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Pepsi (and get my beloved to forego use of Equal).
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Friday, February 04, 2005
I Didn't Know They Did These Kinds of Studies
Stoned Drivers are Safe DriversNo, not
drunk drivers.
Stoned drivers.
A comprehensive 1992 NHTSA study revealed that pot is rarely involved in driving accidents, except when combined with alcohol. The study concluded that "the THC-only drivers had an [accident] responsibility rate below that of the drug free drivers." This study was buried for six years and not released until 1998.
etc.
I don't toke and poke, though I certainly have done so in my past. I just made sure I didn't drive too slowly -- a certain giveaway.
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Diet Soda
Jill Fleming at Glenny's (love their chips!) gives the best information I've seen in one place about the problems with Aspartame/NutraSweet and diet sodas:
- This artificial sweetener has been found to cause seizures in otherwise healthy children who do not have epilepsy.
- Residuals from this artificial sweetener can also build up in the brain and may be related to brain tumors and other neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s, Multiple Sclerosis, and systemic lupus.
- Participants in my weight loss classes (over the past 11 years) have always lost weight very quickly (as much as 1 pound/day) when they decreased or gave up their diet soda consumption. [read her info about mood, methanol, formaldehyde and phenylalanine to understand this]
- The recommendation that comes from the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation is that “if you are using aspartame and you suffer from fibromyalgia symptoms, spasms, numbness in your legs, dizziness, headaches, joint pain, depression, anxiety attacks, blurred vision or memory loss, you need to stop consuming it immediately.”
- ...this research is being ignored by the FDA.
She doesn't mention the problems with carbonation, or how drinking diet sodas tends to limit daily water consumption. And as her topic is health, she doesn't address the environmental effects of producing diet sodas, nor does she follow the money trail, which I won't do either ... at least not today. Even so, I learned things I didn't know reading her (short) article.
I started drinking diet sodas when I was about 16, grateful to be allowed to have "as much as I wanted" of something that tasted sweet. I had been dieting since I was 9 or 10, so diet soda became my fast friend. You know, neither dieting, nor drinking diet sodas, nor hyper-exercising have given me thinness.
I gave up dieting in my mid 20s, but giving up diet sodas is hard! I did switch to Diet Rite sodas about two years ago, because they use Splenda instead of Aspartame/NutraSweet. They also taste better, IMHO. I hear there are concerns with Splenda, but I'm just not ready to face them yet. Note: I'm not a NutraSweet teetotaler. I still like the taste of Diet Dr. Pepper occasionally, and when I do drive-through, I take Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi or the yummy Lipton Raspberry Ice Tea.
When are they going to find a way to sweeten sodas with
Stevia? When am I going to learn to bake with it?
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Wednesday, February 02, 2005
After Despair
Cross-posted at MatriFocus and Blog Sisters.This past Sunday, I didn't go to one of my regular group meetings because I was deep into production of the
Imbolc Issue of MatriFocus. I missed a learning activity on despair, facilitated by two group members who are long-time environmental activists, gardeners, and teachers of sustainability.
despair. c.1325, from O.Fr. desperer "lose hope, despair," from L. desperare "to despair," from de- "without" + sperare "to hope," from spes "hope" (see speed). Noun replaced native wanhope [want of hope].and
hope. O.E. hopian "wish, expect, look forward (to something)," of unknown origin, a general Low Ger. word (cf. O.Fris. hopia, M.L.G., M.Du. hopen; M.H.G. hoffen "to hope" was borrowed from Low Ger. Some suggest a connection with hop (v.) on the notion of "leaping in expectation." (
Online Etymology Dictionary)
I can't imagine that Sunday's work on despair wasn't inspired or informed by the work of Joanna Macy, an activist, teacher, deep ecologist, and systems thinker:
For the past twenty years, she has guided people through a process first called "despair and empowerment work" and now called the "Work that Reconnects." This work is generally conducted in workshops where group energy supports participants; it invites people into despair about the plight of the planet and the destructive course we are on. The work does not end there. Joanna uses exercises that strengthen the minds and hearts of participants for the struggles ahead. Through this work, participants transform their despair into compassionate action. (
Personal Transformation)
It's interesting to see this progression of possibilities on the other side of despair: from hope, to empowerment, to compassionate action, to "solidarity and the courage to act," to "work that reconnects" (from her newest book,
Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World).
Macy encourages folks to do despair work in groups, because we tend to think that despair is a personal problem that we must handle alone. She says:
I learned, when I began to work with groups 20 years ago, that despair arose in relation to something larger than individuals, personal circumstances. There is a complex of strong feelings that I call ingredients of despair. One is fear about the future based on what we’re doing to each other and to our planet. Another is anger that we are knowingly wasting the world for those who come after us, destroying the legacy of our ancestors. Guilt and sorrow are in the complex. People in every walk of life, from every culture, feel grief over the condition of the world. Despair is this constellation of different feelings. One person may feel more fear or anger, another sorrow, and another guilt, but the common thread is a suffering on behalf of the world or, as I put it, feeling 'pain for the world.' (ibid.)
So what do we do with this "suffering on behalf of the world"?
1. Find hope. As devastating as the Asian Quake Tsunami was, from a geological perspective, it gives us some reasons to hope.
'It's hard to find something uplifting about 150,000 lives being lost,' said Dr. Donald J. DePaolo, a geochemist at the University of California, Berkeley. 'But the type of geological process that caused the earthquake and the tsunami is an essential characteristic of the earth. As far as we know, it doesn't occur on any other planetary body and has something very directly to do with the fact that the earth is a habitable planet.' (
Quakes Renew the Planet)
And there's reason to hope that the December 26 tsunami may:
... 'prove to be an ecological boon over the decades for coastal areas hardest hit by the giant waves.' (ibid.)
Tsunamis enrich soil by distributing rich sediments from river systems across coastal plains and bringing fertile soil into lowland areas. While this will bring back no lives lost recently, it is fundamental to feeding future generations.
2. Chop wood, carry water. Begin again. Carry on.
Tsunamis and earthquakes have destroyed before and they will again. Thera, Crete, Atlantis. Some archaeologists argue that quakes are responsible for the downfall of the Harappan Civilization, the end of the Bronze Age, the Mayan Classic Period. (
Ancient Civilizations Shaken By Quakes)
Those who survive do what living creatures do. We carry on. We find food. We build shelters. We make love, have more children. We make community. One life does make a difference, and if the
mitochondrial Eve theory is correct, human beings populate the planet today because of one woman's chances and choices 200 thousand years ago.
3. Reconnect with the divine. What's your preferred spiritual technology? Prayer? Meditation? Trance Dance? Solitary Magic? Group Ritual? A Walk in the Woods? Art-Making?
When and where do you feel most alive? Go there. Do that. Recharge.
4. Play. Remember the immortal words of Emma Goldman: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution." (Or was it: "If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution.")
5. Do something about what causes despair. Macy says:
I’ve become convinced that, in part, people remain uninvolved because there are so many issues. They don’t know whether they should try to protect sea mammals or battered children or work for the climate. (
Personal Transformation)
So just choose one thing, the issue you have the most passion for, and do what you can. We know that all of life is connected and can be confident that the pieces, large or small, that we do will affect and be affected by the work being done by others.
6. Don't go it alone. Macy says:
I think it’s a cardinal mistake to try to act alone. The myth of the rugged individual, riding as the Lone Ranger to save our society, is a sure recipe for going crazy. The response that is appropriate and that this work elicits is to grow a sense of solidarity with others and to elaborate a whole new sense of what our resources are and what our power is. (ibid.)
7. Stop stuffing your despair. Macy, again:
It takes tremendous energy to repress something so strong, which stems from our instinct to preserve life. Repressing our feelings of pain for the world isolates us, and can also drain us. When we allow ourselves to experience these feelings, we cease to fear them. We learn to turn them into strong solidarity with all beings. (ibid.)
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