Flag Day and Patriotism

Today is Flag Day here in the United States. So, what does that have to do with Paganism?  Well, I am part of a small movement called Religio Americana or American Paganism which  grew out of a discussion on the Beliefnet Hellenismos & Religio Romana forum sometime around 2002. Erik Dutton and some others were talking about how in ancient Rome there was a state religion, the Religio Romana, and how even though in the United States we have separation of church and state, we have a kind of Judeo-Christian flavored civic religion- a Religio Americana. That we might further develop a pagan form of this- religious celebration of civic holidays, pilgrimages to sacred sites like state capitols and honoring heroes like George Washington and Lady Liberty as our goddess. Some of the participants of this discussion went on to start the Religio-Americana yahoo group and the American SIG in ADF. Pax, a member of the list suggested doing synchroblogging on civic holidays- here’s his take on Flag Day.

While there are other civic holidays, like Independence Day and Thanksgiving that have more meaning to me, Flag Day is one that I tend to overlook. I admit that have some mixed feelings about my country’s flag, that I’m working on getting over.

I remember in Girl Scouts when we’d raise the flag and salute it. It made no sense to me. Why salute a piece of cloth? Why show it respect? After getting into the more traditional forms of polytheism I realized the treatment of the flag is a form of orthopraxy (right practice) The flag is treated as a sacred symbol of the nation. “The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing.” – Section 8.j. The Flag Code, a list of rules governing the proper display and disposal of the flag, is vaguely reminiscent of Kosher laws. Outside of the military and perhaps the Boy Scouts, post-Baby Boomer generations are pretty oblivious to this protocol. The website I linked to above has a “Wall of Shame” with photographs depicting violations of the Flag Code. Ironically, quite a few of these took place after September 11 when people were trying to be patriotic!

So what’s the problem? The liberal discomfort with the American flag probably goes back to Vietnam, with burning the flag and re-hoisting it upside down as acts of protest. There were various efforts to ban flag burning. While I oppose these bans as violating freedom of expression, I wouldn’t participate in flag-burning myself. Not only would this be unpatriotic, but also an ineffective form of protest, too divisive.

There’s been a tendency to see display of flags as implying conservative and pro-war views. The flag should transcend all these political divisions. It does not represent the government, but the country itself. Patriotism is not about blindly following ones’ government. In fact, dissent is quite patriotic, if intended to improve or help ones’ country.

Deafness as Disability

I’m reading The Mask of Benevolence by Harlan Lane. In it he argues that various professionals that claim to help the Deaf community are actually harming them. I was reminded again by the book about how many Deaf people do not see themselves as disabled, but rather as a linguistic/cultural minority. That the Americans with Disabilities Act mandated certain changes, like mainstreaming of deaf students that actually held them back. Education of the Deaf might be more comparable to ESL/ELL than to other special education programs. If everyone knew ASL, maybe deafness wouldn’t be much of a disability. But as it is, though Deaf people can live very full lives and can do most things that hearing people do, they are still subject to inherent disadvantages of being deaf, and discrimination. The ADA protects  Deaf people from such discrimination but only if it’s classified as a disability. Sorry guys, you can’t have it both ways.

A few years back when I wrote a paper on the disability rights movement, I included a section on the Deaf President Now! movement at Gallaudet University. But was that appropriate? Are Deaf people part of the disability community or rights movement or should they be seen as separate if they want to be? DPN happened in the 1970s as other aspects of disability rights were emerging. Obviously, the Deaf movement is part of a larger social trend towards self-determination and changing social views of disability.

Another thing that bothers me about the “we aren’t disabled” argument is the sense that they see themselves as better than people with other disabilities. Now to be fair, there has been a similar tendency among the Asperger’s/high functioning autism community to reject the “disabled” label. I myself have questioned this.

We might actually have a better case for that- after all there is nothing that all AS/HFA people are incapable of doing, like hearing, seeing, walking, reading etc. However our brains are wired differently in a way that gives us disadvantages in society.

I’d like to reach out a hand to Deaf people and say, we would like to be your friends & allies. You have a distinct community, culture and movement that gives us a lot of inspiration. Most of us may be hearing but face other challenges, so we empathize with you. We understand what it’s like to feel excluded from society. So let’s work together.

Christo-Paganism

For some time now, I’ve been noticing a growing number of people calling themselves Christo-Pagans, Christian Witches and the like, combining these religions in some way. Judeo-Pagans and Jewitches have also been popping up. While many Western Pagans draw inspiration from Buddhism and Hinduism, Eastern religions give themselves a lot more easily to syncretism than do the more exclusivist Abrahamic faiths. And yet, some people still feel called to reconcile what seems to many as contradictory belief systems. Some would say all this is really fluffy eclecticism run amok, and in some cases, perhaps it is. Up til now, I haven’t really taken a stance for or against this trend.

As time has gone on I’ve realized that some of my own values owe more to Christianity & Judaism than they do to Paganism. There are some values in common, like hospitality, piety and honoring the family. But others like “turning the other cheek” and some aspects of social justice are lacking in traditional polytheistic religions. At one point I even saw a Heathen fellow denouncing the value of forgiveness in his blog. I’m sorry, but without forgiveness, there would be no friendship, no marriages, no families. No society. Maybe there is a certain point where we as individuals or as a society can’t forgive an action. Where we draw that line is up for debate.

Embracing these ethics does not mean becoming part of the religion that originated them necessarily. It means admitting that polytheistic religions don’t have all the answers, though at the same time, neither do the monotheistic ones. Really, all faiths are human creations and thus, subject to human flaws. While they may be inspired by the Divine in all its forms, it is all filtered through the lenses of our culture and time. I guess all this is a large part of why I became a Unitarian Universalist, was to affirm these values. That and I felt I was not getting enough moral guidance from other Pagans, in fact all too often I encountered people that made poor role models- both regular community members and clergy/leaders. I saw people making bad choices repeatedly and not learning from them.

This is just the beginning of a new leg of my journey, and I’m not sure where it will lead. I’ve been reading “ChristoPaganism: An Inclusive Path” by Joyce & River Higginbotham, review will be forthcoming.

Note since this may be controversial: feel free to disagree civilly, but any hostile posts will be deleted and users banned.

Beyond Reconstructionism

Like many Pagans, I began my path with Wicca, at least the non-traditional eclectic forms of it that were being popularized in the late 90’s, early 2000’s when I became interested. Cast a circle, call the four elements, invoke the God and Goddess. Wicca is certainly a valid religion for those who practice it honestly but as I grew spiritually and studied more, I found it wasn’t for me.

I discovered many historical and cultural flaws in modern pagan books and began shifting more towards scholarly sources. I encountered websites describing reconstructionist religions, which seek to study a particular culture (Irish, Norse, Egyptian, Greek, Roman) and revive its religious practices as accurately as possible while adapting to modern social mores (rejection of animal sacrifice, slavery etc)

With the exception of Asatru/Heathenry, most reconstructionist movements are very small and there are few options in most places for groups. So I was very lucky to find a Celtic Reconstructionist, Aedh Rua O’Morrigan locally who was teaching classes. I learned a lot from him, and later another of his students. Later I found myself solitary again, and I struggled with how to practice CR. I worried so much about the ‘right’ and properly Gaelic way to do things, that I didn’t do anything! There is an emphasis in polytheistic traditions on orthopraxy, right practice, but often we don’t know what that is!

I’d rather just call myself a Gaelic/Hellenic polytheist and leave “reconstructionist” out of it. That way people can’t accuse me of not being “recon” or traditional enough. And besides which, both my teachers, who were big influences on me, have been declared “not CR enough” by many in the community. Well, I just don’t care anymore.

We’re missing the point here, people. Scholarship is good, but we can’t base our whole spirituality on it. We need roots, but we also need to reach our branches out and grow. The funny thing is the founders of CR actually said this- that they wanted to balance “aisling” (dreams, inspiration) with archeology. The CR community is dividing between a more traditional faction and a liberal, innovative faction.  Now it would be fine if different subgroups formed and just agreed to disagree but it seems like there is some antagonism- even ostracizing going on. I realize any group of people is going to have disagreements, but we are such a small community we can’t afford this infighting.

Various friends of mine are going this direction also- Gavin describes being led by Hermes, while Ben discusses his frustrations with the movement itself as well as trying to reclaim his Gaelic heritage as an American while native Gaels accuse him of New-Age style cultural misappropriation.

Squirrel Trouble

I’m going to step back from the Robin Artisson controversy and write about a less serious topic from everyday life, though one with spiritual/ethical implications.

Awhile back, I discovered a hole in a mesh window screen on the enclosed sun porch in one of the upstairs bedrooms.  A squirrel had made a nest in between the two windows! Recently, I got a call from the next-door neighbor. She had seen a hole in the side of our house, on the porch. Now we already knew the wood there was going to need to be fixed, as there was some rot, and holes we think were caused by woodpeckers. (We did see one pecking away!) But this hole is quite big- large enough for a softball to go through. Later it turned out the problem was much worse than we thought. One day I was in the bedroom and heard some scurrying noises. I went over to the porch and found that the hole had gone all the way through the wall, and that the squirrels had made a nest of leaves & chewed up insulation (newspaper) in the corner! Apparently, the window squirrel liked our place so much, that he invited his friends over!  Now Dan (my partner) throws rocks whenever he sees them, yelling “Get off my property!” He says it’s not to hit them but to show them they aren’t welcome. ( reminds me of a grumpy old man shooing kids off his lawn!) Not sure how much they actually *learn* from this, however.

So now, before we even can get the hole fixed we may need to hire an exterminator. If anyone knows of a more humane/eco-friendly way to get them out, please let me know. It’s going to be hard to repair that hole too, because on that side of the house it’s right next to an electrical wire. We’ll have to get the power company to turn it off temporarily. Now of course, I try to be as humane to animals as possible and avoid killing them, but they’ve invaded the house, so they have it coming. Nature is fine so long as it stays outside! Another anecdote about squirrels- after I told this story at work, one of my co-workers told me & some residents that she once hid some plastic Easter eggs with candy around the yard. After returning from church, her kids were going to hunt for the eggs, when they saw some rather colorful items up in the trees. The squirrels had stolen them!

So on a spiritual level I had some thoughts. I try adapting rituals to my locality, and by this point the squirrels have definitely demonstrated that they are outsider/trickster spirits for our household! Last summer (or longer ago) my mother & I found a concrete statue of a squirrel buried in the front yard. I set it up under the crab apple tree in the backyard, to be a shrine to the nature spirits, and left offerings from rituals there for critters and birds to eat. So I wonder if by doing that, I encouraged the squirrels’ presence and attracted them to the house. Maybe I’m reading too much into things.

More on Artisson & Conversion

By a reader’s request here is an expansion/continuation of the post on Robin Artisson’s Conversion Essay. I’m not sure what all he wants explained but I’ll try my best.

First some background- Robin Artisson is the author of The Witching Way of Hollow Hill, The Horn of Everwood and The Flaming Circle. I have not read any of his books, but I have read some of the essays he has posted on his website and various blogs. He has some interesting ideas but I’m unsure of their accuracy and that of his sources.  His British Isles-based tradition of Witchcraft seems to have commonalities with 1734 and Roebuck Traditions of Robert Cochrane. While this is far from being my area of expertise, this is an educated guess. Mr. Artisson, under various  online identities has also presented himself as a Heathen, a Celtic and a Hellenic Reconstructionist.  I have nothing against following more than one tradition, I do so myself, but he seems to be missrepresenting himself to some degree.

I first became aware of him on Livejournal, where he appeared in many different Pagan and magical communities sharing his opinions and promoting his books.  He often did this by what is called “drive-by community spamming”- joining communities just for the purpose of posting about a product or another community, without participating in the conversation. Needless to say, he quickly gained a bad reputation on LJ, was banned from most Pagan/metaphysical communities, so he just created other accounts.  As I began exploring the Pagan blogosphere outside of Livejournal, I noticed that his blog, Cauldron Born was often linked to by many of the most popular blogs, such as Wild Hunt, Letter from Hardscrabble Creek, etc. Apparently these folks were not aware of all the trouble he caused on Livejournal! This isn’t a personal crusade or anything, but I did want to point these things out to those who weren’t aware.

In regards to the conversion essay, the major problem with his essay is the underlying implication that any truly devoted polytheist must believe that their worldview is totally superior to others.  That any polytheist or Pagan that expresses tolerance for monotheistic faiths, finds some truth in their teachings or closely associates with their followers must be losing their faith, and will inevitably convert back to Christianity or Judaism. This is not only faithful, its false. Ironically I actually find that the Pagans who despise Christianity the most are usually rebelling against it, and will often either mellow out and mature in their faith, or go back to Mommy & Daddy’s church when they get sick of dabbling. Another false assumption he mentions is that those with radical politics always grow out of them. If that is the case, then please explain all the elderly peace, anti-capitalist, labor etc. activists I have met at rallies and protests? Sometimes it seems that it’s almost the opposite- that people grow more radical with age! Bottom line, the mentality Artisson is promoting is every bit as dangerous as that of other extremists and fundamentalists- we might be a minority with little political and cultural clout now but that doesn’t make it any better! Knowing human nature, I can easily imagine small mobs of angry Pagan extremists throwing cinderblocks through synagogue, church and mosque windows- or worse! So we need to stop this before it gets to that point.

I do have to say since my relationship to Christianity has changed since I wrote that post, my responses would be different if I wrote it today. I’m still a polytheist…but as I continue to explore various belief systems my spiritual identity is becoming more complicated. I’m unsure of a lot of things right now, but one thing I am sure of is that the ways of hope and love always win out over fear and hate. It may sound corny but it’s true. Mr. Artisson, if you are reading this I urge you to meditate and pray about your views. I’ll be sending a prayer your way that you might realize that the Abrahamic traditions have more wisdom than you care to admit and that many of their practicioners have done a lot of good for the world. They aren’t all Crusaders/witchburners/terrorists etc. And dear readers of any faith, feel free to do the same.

Neamh, the Sky

The final of the Three Realms is Neamh, the Sky. Neamh is associated with the Deithe (pron. djay-Huh) the Gods, and the Future.  However, keep in mind that the Deities of Irish mythology are seen as dwelling within the Land, not above us in the sky, like that the Olympians of Greece or the Aesir & Vanir of the Northern lands. So perhaps that association is more of a general Indo-European one than Celtic per se. It’s associated with the future and seership, because by looking into the heavens, we can see far, far beyond our little planet.

The paradox of the Sky is that during the day, our concept of it is what is visible under certain layers of atmosphere. But at night, when the sky is clear, we can see far beyond the Earth’s atmosphere to the moon and the galaxies beyond.  What does this tell us? That things are not what they seem.  Actually we can get the same lesson with the other two Realms. If you didn’t know otherwise, would you ever imagine that there was molten magma beyond the surface of the Land? Or what creatures might dwell in the depths of the Sea, in places too cold for any human to withstand?

The Three Realms  are below, above and all around us. We are constantly learning more about them through the exploration of science and spirituality. And yet there is much that has not been revealed and maybe never will be.

Talamh, the Land

While we think of land as being solid and permanent, ‘terra firma’ as it were,  the Earth’s land-masses and islands are constantly changing through geological activity.  Volcanoes create new islands and add to existing ones, while earthquakes, erosion and flooding destroy land.

Land is associated with the Nature Spirits and the Present. The Nature Spirits, the Sidhe, the Good People are believed to live in mounds and caves under the earth. In both Ireland and Britain, there are pre-Celtic burial mounds and ruins that the Celtic peoples incorporated into their mythologies. As you can see there is a rather blurry line between the fairies and the spirits of the dead. Dead bodies are buried and their bodies nourish the land. So it makes sense that they become part of the energies of the land as well. Here in Minnesota, Wisconsin and other areas there are burial mounds left behind by the Mound-Builders, a mysterious people that came here before the current Native peoples. Such places are great for leaving offerings and commune with the spirits of land.

As to the Present- we speak of people who are ‘grounded’ or ‘down-to-earth’- concerned with practical everyday matters, and not mulling over the past or overly worried about the future. As opposed to the ‘airheads’ and ’space cadets’ among us. I’ve been called those names plenty of times, believe me- but hey I’m an Aquarius, an air sign. But that’s the next post…

Muir, the Sea

All life on Earth has its origin in the seas. Life was possible on Earth in major part because there is water here- in fact as it’s often been pointed out the Earth’s surface is 70% water. Our bodies are mostly water as well- and the Gaels and other Indo-European peoples saw the human body as a microcosm of the universe. Thus salty blood is the sea of our bodies.

Modern Druids often associate the Sea with the Past, the Ancestors and Dead. But why is this? Well, I can think of some reasons based on traditional lore, but I also have some personal associations. The ancient Irish saw the Otherworld as being across the sea, and told tales of immrama- voyages to these places often depicted as islands (which though land are part of the Sea Realm) Also, here in the United States our ancestors all at one time came from over the sea. Personally, the ocean makes me think of my late grandmother who moved from Philadelphia to Florida later in her life. Living in land-locked areas of the country all my life as I have, the sea always seems like a special place one goes on vacation.  I have amassed a sea shell collection from ones I found both the New Jersey and Gulf shores, as well as ones Gram gave me. I like to use a large abalone shell to represent the Sea on my altar.  I have not yet had the chance to visit the Pacific Ocean, but I look forward to doing so one day.

The Three Realms

A while back I wrote about the dual concepts of Samh & Geimh. I then had the thought of creating a series of posts called “Celtic Reconstructionism by the Numbers” explaining cosmological concepts. This is as much to clarify my own thoughts and beliefs on them as to explain them to others. I realize I have skipped One, and I will go back to that, but for now my imbas is leading me towards the Three Realms- or as some call them in Irish An Tribhis Mor.  Some people see the 3 realms- Land, Sea and Sky and think “Oh, that’s the 4 Elements with Fire left out. This is a misconception- in CR or historically-based Celtic Paganisms we do not use the 4 elements, which have their origin in late Greek philosophy. While they are often acknowledged in ritual, they are not called and dismissed as they are always present.  Dismissing them would be the ritual equivalent of destroying the universe! Another difference is the realms are not associated with directions.

So now that I’ve said what they are not here’s what they are!