{"id":8539,"date":"2018-04-08T03:00:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T09:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=8539"},"modified":"2018-04-03T19:19:18","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T01:19:18","slug":"learning-to-cook-in-the-kitchen-of-the-gods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2018\/04\/learning-to-cook-in-the-kitchen-of-the-gods.html","title":{"rendered":"Learning to Cook in the Kitchen of the Gods"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Last week Damh the Bard had an excellent post on his blog titled Thinking About \u2013 Belief and Experience<\/a>. It\u2019s not long and it\u2019s well worth your time to read in its entirety. Here\u2019s a key quote:<\/p>\n

Pagans don\u2019t have a book. We do have myths, poetry, sacred sites, places of power, folklore, but no one book. So when a person\u2019s feet fall for the first time upon a Pagan path, we might read the myths, or take a walk to an ancient sacred site, we might find out if there is a place nearby that has connections to stories of the Fair Folk. If there is, maybe those first few steps might take us there, to that hill with the three trees, or the old Barrow, or the crossroads in the woods.<\/p>\n

We actively seek out\u00a0experience<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you\u2019ve read this blog for very long \u2013 and especially if you\u2019ve read The Path of Paganism<\/em><\/a> \u2013 you know the emphasis I place on experience. We live in a society where the loudest voices scream there is only one God and the second loudest voices scream there are none. But when we\u2019re open to new experiences, we can sense the presence of the Gods and hear Their messages.<\/p>\n

Skeptics laugh at magic, but when you do the spells you get the results.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After a while our experiences of Gods, magic, spirits, ancestors, and Fair Folk become so numerous\u00a0 and so strong \u2013 and so meaningful \u2013 that they change our understanding of the world and what is and isn\u2019t possible. No amount of belief could heal the damage caused by the fundamentalism of my childhood \u2013 it took positive Pagan experiences.<\/p>\n

Damh points out how experience leads to belief, as we try to make sense of our experiences and place them in a wider context. Or it can go the other way, with belief leading to experience. Experience, belief, and practice form a virtuous circle<\/a>, and that circle can go in either direction.<\/p>\n

In the Kitchen of the Gods<\/h1>\n

I don\u2019t disagree with anything Damh wrote. But I\u2019d like to use part of his post to make a slightly different point. Here\u2019s another key quote:<\/p>\n

Over the years I\u2019ve heard some Pagans lament that our Pagan ancestors, particularly the Druids, didn\u2019t write anything down. That it would be a lot easier if we all just had a book, like the Bible, that told us what to believe. I couldn\u2019t disagree more\u2026<\/p>\n

A book like the Bible is useful if, as Philip Carr-Gomm has said over the years, you like to be in the restaurant. You can read through the menu (books) and chose your denomination and off you go. The meal has been made for you. Enjoy it. But most Pagans and Druids I know prefer to be in the kitchen, with all of the ingredients, creating something that exactly suits their taste.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think the restaurant vs. kitchen metaphor is helpful. But it needs to be extended further.<\/p>\n

Some people go into the restaurant (the marketplace of religions), read the menu, and find exactly what they want. Their calling is to become a Zen Buddhist<\/a> or a Roman Catholic or Sufi Muslim and when they find that dish (religious path) they\u2019re satisfied. Or maybe they aren\u2019t completely satisfied, but they don\u2019t want to do the work of cooking (finding their own path). Or they really want the benefits of a large established tradition. So they pick the closest thing they can find and go with that.<\/p>\n

But Damh and Philip are right \u2013 some of us want to go into the kitchen. It\u2019s not just that we don\u2019t see what we want on the menu, we want to cook for ourselves. So we leave the dining room and barge through the swinging doors. We see the sinks and counters, the pots and pans, the knives and mixers. We look through the pantry and the refrigerator, and we carefully examine the spice rack.<\/p>\n

Now what do we do?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
galley of the Battleship Texas<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cookbooks and recipes get us started<\/h1>\n

We grow up spending so much time in and around kitchens that we think we know how to cook. But the first time we\u2019re alone and hungry and wander into the kitchen, we usually end up with a baloney sandwich.<\/p>\n

I remember being 10 or 11 years old and wanting to learn to cook. I was happy that my mother and my grandmother cooked for me, but I knew I\u2019d be leaving home at some point and I wanted to be able to take care of myself. Plus it looked like fun.<\/p>\n

My mother \u2013 who learned to cook by helping her mother over many years \u2013 really didn\u2019t have the time to give me cooking lessons. And at that age, I doubt I had the patience for it. But it was easy for her to hand me a recipe and say \u201chere, bake a cake.\u201d And so I did. My early cooking lessons came from recipes and cookbooks. I didn\u2019t have to guess and I didn\u2019t have to figure it out by trial and error, I could just follow the recipe.<\/p>\n

Walking into the Kitchen of the Gods can be every bit as intimidating as walking into your mother\u2019s kitchen \u201cwith intent\u201d for the first time. And so many people walk out with the spiritual equivalent of a baloney sandwich: quick, easy, and filling, but not particularly nutritious or satisfying.<\/p>\n

Religious traditions preserved in books, arts, rituals, and practices are the recipes that get us started. They let us know that those who came before us did certain things in certain ways at certain times. Those practices produced certain experiences. And they formed beliefs around those experiences, to help them understand them and incorporate them into their lives.<\/p>\n

Our religious cookbooks and recipes get us started.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Revolutionary War era kitchen in Hartwell Tavern, Minute Man National Park<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Learn the rules so you can break them<\/h1>\n

Cooking with a recipe is a step beyond ordering off the menu, but you\u2019re still following instructions written by someone else. For many people, that\u2019s enough. The chocolate cake recipe my mother handed me worked out pretty well \u2013 there was no need to tinker with it.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I\u2019ve been working for years to learn how to cook a steak just right. I\u2019ve experimented with grill temperatures, cooking times, turning times, seasonings, and resting times. I\u2019ve mostly got it figured out, but I still make adjustments based on cut, grade, and thickness\u2026 and sometimes I still end up overcooking it.<\/p>\n

If I\u2019m writing a high day ritual, I\u2019ll start with liturgy and themes I\u2019ve used in the past, but then I\u2019ll make adjustments based on the location, the audience, current events, and what various Gods and spirits are telling me to do. If you know the \u201cBeltane recipe\u201d you can make tweaks and changes and be confident things will turn out OK.<\/p>\n

Learn the rules, then break them mindfully.<\/p>\n

Becoming a master chef takes years of practice<\/h1>\n

I like cooking, and I love it when I try something new and it turns out really tasty. But at the end of the day, I just want to eat good food at a good price, when I want to eat it. I have no desire to put the time and effort into cooking elaborate gourmet meals. But I have great respect for those who do, and I enjoy eating their cooking, at least occasionally.<\/p>\n

Not every Pagan wants to be a priest, a ritualist, or a theologian. Some are satisfied to live virtuous lives and honor the Gods according to their tradition. Some like to find their own way, but only want to take their journeys so far.<\/p>\n

But others want to go as deep as they can go. They follow their tradition as far as it will take them. And then, since our ancestral religions were wiped out in the conversion to Christianity, they do their best to reimagine and re-create them. They end up off the map<\/a>. And they make notes and draw maps so those who come after them can follow the trails they blazed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
a thoroughly divine pie by Gabrielle Milburn and Cynthia Talbot<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The proof is in the pudding<\/h1>\n

And that brings us back to Damh the Bard\u2019s blog post and the emphasis on experience.<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re ordering off the menu, cooking from a recipe, or developing your own culinary creations, the most important question is \u201chow\u2019s your dinner?\u201d Is it filling, or does it leave you hungry and weak? Is it delicious (wouldst thou like to live deliciously?<\/em>), or is bland or even bitter? Does it nourish your body and your soul, or is it full of empty calories?<\/p>\n

Do your beliefs and practices help you find your place in the world? Do they help you form and maintain healthy relationships with your families and communities, in this world and beyond? Do they help you live a life that\u2019s virtuous and even heroic?<\/p>\n

If so, you\u2019ve got a pretty good meal, no matter who cooked it.<\/p>\n

If not, maybe you need to find a new restaurant, or take some cooking lessons.<\/p>\n

But whatever you do, don\u2019t settle for a baloney sandwich.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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