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<\/a>A Beautiful Resistance<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\nedited by Rhyd Wildermuth
\npublished by Gods & Radicals, November 2015
\nPaperback: $12.50, PDF: $8.00
\n120 pages<\/p>\n
A Beautiful Resistance<\/em>, subtitled \u201cEverything We Already Are\u201d is the journal of Gods & Radicals<\/a>, a Pagan anti-capitalist website. Some of the articles have already been published on the site, while others were written specifically for the journal.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always had mixed feelings about Gods & Radicals. On one hand, their writers are seeing the same problems I am: climate change, species loss, wealth and income inequality, endless war and the militarization of the police, and government policies throughout the world that support the rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else.<\/p>\n But they\u2019re rather vague about what they want to replace the current system. As I\u2019ve told site admin\u00a0and journal editor Rhyd Wildermuth on numerous occasions: if you want me to help you burn it all down, you\u2019re going to have to tell me what you\u2019re going to build in its place. I remember the old banana republic joke: \u201cAfter the revolution, things will be different. Not better, just different.\u201d At the end of the day, I don\u2019t trust politics from any perspective. That\u2019s why I\u2019m a Druid and a priest, not an activist.<\/p>\n So I was surprised to find myself in general agreement with A Beautiful Resistance<\/em>. Perhaps it\u2019s the way the essays, poems, and artwork are organized around five major themes. Perhaps it\u2019s reading the various pieces one after the other. Perhaps it\u2019s reading many of them for a second time. Whatever the reason, I came away from the journal feeling like we\u2019re not all that far apart.<\/p>\n Peter Grey, founder of Scarlet Imprint<\/a> and author of Apocalyptic Witchcraft<\/a><\/em>, wrote the foreword. Three lines stand out above the rest:<\/p>\n It is not that we believe<\/em>, it is that these are our lived experiences and that we are compelled by them to act.<\/p>\n Belief in neoliberal absolutism is failing, as it cannot keep the promise of a middleclass lifestyle for all. Climate collapse will break the supply lines of affluence. There will be no reason not to fight back.<\/p>\n As the new poor, witchcraft is our last resource: a witchcraft that does not wait for the gears of history to turn, but acts freely in all the worlds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Singing the Songs We Forgot<\/strong>. The first section describes how modern capitalism has disconnected the people from the land. This was one of the earliest and strongest drivers of the Pagan restoration. A couple of the articles have a rather romantic view of feudalism and the lives of serfs, but their prescription is exactly what is needed: re-enchant the world and re-learn a sense of place.<\/p>\n James Lindenschmidt says \u201cnot only are we uprooted from our ancestral homelands, but our connection with any place at all is broken.\u201d I\u2019m seeing the same thing<\/a>.<\/p>\n A healer needs to know intimacy with death. Otherwise, we cannot walk beside people in fear and pain and surrender. An intimacy with death gods has taught me that not all deaths are the same in their eyes. Some deaths are not in the flow of things.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Some deaths come about through natural processes, while others are the result of human greed and callousness toward other people and other species.\u00a0 In \u201cContemplating the Ruins\u201d Pegi Eyers writes \u201cWe need the vision of an earth-rooted paradigm to counteract Empire\u2019s mandate to devour the earth\u2019s resources and spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n The Manifestation of the Unseen<\/strong> discusses Deep Magic<\/a>: animism, relationship, and experience. Lo asks \u201cWhat is initiation? It can be many things \u2026 but it is also only one thing: the acknowledgement of that which was previously unknown or simply dismissed.\u201d In a long piece titled \u201cNature\u2019s Rights\u201d Kadmus says \u201cin an interconnected world viewed through the lens of the right to exist, the right to relationships replaces the right to property.\u201d<\/p>\n I don\u2019t agree with everything. Jonathan Woolley suggests \u201cLet us not worry unnecessarily over the matter of the gods.\u201d While I respect his this-world focus (something dear to my Unitarian Universalism), the Gods are at the front of my practice and my life. I\u2019ll have more to say about this in a separate post in the near future.<\/p>\n Joy Against the Machine<\/strong> encourages us to live in a different way. Anthony Rella tells us something it took me 40 years to figure out:<\/p>\n Depression may not be merely an obstacle to being the best middle manager you can be; depression may well be trying to get you to see how much you fucking hate being a middle manager and how much you compromise yourself and your values every day to play nice, appease others, and strive for that elusive feeling of security and stability that is guaranteed to no one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In \u201cOur Bodies Are Not Machines \u2013 My Resistance Will Be Bloody\u201d Niki Whiting describes her refusal to comply with society\u2019s demand that we be \u201con\u201d all the time.<\/p>\n I resist by refusing to accept that my body or your body is a machine. Our bodies need to rest. Our bodies need time and space to heal, to purge, to grow, to be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Nobody has shown me a blueprint for the future. But Fjothr Lokavan shows us a method:<\/p>\n Building stronger networks provides not only hope and support for the future, it is an act of resistance against the forces behind our worst current problems. Working together, creating commons, valuing life for itself \u2013 these things are antithetical to capitalism, imperialism, to all forms of abuse and power-over that harm human beings and the other beings and life systems we are entangled with.<\/p>\n Reciprocity can be viewed as a form of love-in-action \u2013 it does not require strong affection for other members of the network, but a desire for the overall network to live and thrive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The End & Everything After<\/strong> is an attempt to describe visions of the future. Though it was not written for me it appears to be an attempt to address the issues I raise. Unfortunately, this is the weakest part of the journal.<\/p>\n Still, there is wisdom here, most notably Thorn Coyle\u2019s poem \u201cThe World Will Not End But We May Change.\u201d There will be no apocalypse. There will be no crash. We are already in the early stages of the Long Descent<\/a>, a slow decline that will not hit bottom till everyone alive today is long dead. We will adapt<\/a>, individually and collectively. We \u2013 or rather, our descendants \u2013 will re-learn what our ancestors knew: we don\u2019t need all this stuff to live happy, healthy, meaningful lives.<\/p>\n![\"ice](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2015\/12\/ice-storm-Dec2013-06-200x300.jpg\")
<\/a>The Winter of Our World<\/strong> speaks of the need for silence, incubation, and new stories of the Old Ways. Sean Donahue says:<\/p>\n
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