PANTHEON
May Day! Beltane! Walpurgis Night! Floralia!
The fields and trees are joyously green. The world is lushly sensual and lavishly happy. The wind, rain and sun all wax strong and you find yourself itching to be outside as much as possible. Every year Spring rushes headlong into Summer full of heady intoxication and promise.
What are you celebrating and how are celebrating it?
As for me, I’m off to a big Beltane celebration in Atlanta. A multi-coven affair with lots of food and flowers. I’m making blueberry lemon ginger scones for the occasion. Hopefully I’ll jump over and not fall into the balefire!
Being in a minority religion makes Pagans hyper-aware of First Amendment rights. We’ve all heard stories of folks losing custody battles, jobs and even their freedom due to being Pagan. We all know that the truth of the world is that there is always something someone can find to fixate their hate on. Auschwitz, Darfur, apartheid in Johannesburg, Jim Crow laws and New York as waves of immigrants washed in from Italy and Ireland.
So I found MIA’s “Born Free” video powerful and moving. It’s graphic and violent, but once I realized what was going on I was riveted and hoping against hope. After you watch the video take some time to think about what it was like to have been discriminated against because you were Japanese in the 40’s, a Vietnam vet in the 70’s or a gay man in the 80’s.
MegaReligion = Megatron?
Something must be in the air because the idea of Universal or Mega religion has been bounced around on this blog and was raised again today on The Wild Hunt.
As Pagans we should be especially wary of a Universal religion. The word Catholic means Universal and, while I’m not into “Burning Times” paranoia, I do have a healthy fear of conditions that might lead to another Inquisition.
I know some people feel that life would be easier if we were all the same: same training, same holidays, same ordination process, same code of ethics, same ritual language and format. Personally, I revel in our diversity. We’re a thriving dynamic community, a loose confederation of vibrant religious traditions.
In “God Against the Gods” Jonathan Kirsch makes the case that the only ancient pan-Pagan values were tolerance and a healthy respect. As long as they weren’t harming anyone, religious traditions could practice what they liked as they liked throughout most of the classical Pagan world. In fact, the Bacchanalia was only banned due to concerns of public safety.
I think that’s an important thing to remember. We can achieve solidarity through diversity but we must be confident enough in our own beliefs and values to not need to project them on everyone else. To borrow from an old patriot: we may not believe in other religions but we should be willing to give our lives for their right to practice them, be they Asatru, Mormon, Santeria, Quaker, Sikh or Pentecostal.
We should imitate the Pagans of yore and adopt the trinity of Tolerance, Respect and Safety as our flag-bearers.
Not Megatron. He is a Decepticon after all.
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