Greetings to all Full Circle friends and members,
In this January edition of our newsletter we have:
Recycling the Calendar, Revamping the Mind: Take down the old calendars and put up the new ones. The ornaments and lights are gone, although the extra glimmer and glitter is missed; but they needed to vanish to pop back into “ordinary time.” The old kitchen calendar shows a year’s worth of daily menu plans, so I needed never think on a hectic morning, “Oh, what to cook tonight?” And the new calendar has the plan for January devotedly done, so it’s only a matter of thawing chicken, or pork or going vegan once a week. The 2005 office calendar has half a dozen dental appointments, the names of those fallen in Iraq, and the occasional poem of lament in the margin. The new calendar has files built in, so I can keep receipts in order. Will it keep my mind in order? Will it jump-start me upon the tasks of the year? The old year is gone, the paper memoirs in the mixed paper bin; are regrets recycled, too? Resolutely discarding January resolutions, what spurs me onward into fresh time, I wonder? We stand on the high board above the pool of a new year and it’s our choice to belly flop or swan dive!
Labrys
Pagan shopping
Shopping for New Orleans: Would you like your next expenditure to aid one of the businesses rebuilding in the ruins of Katrina? Many pagans could make use of a beautiful mask for ritual or fun and no time is better than now to order it. If the winter needs some warmth, turn up the temperature with spicy Cajun cooking? Or make a resolution to explore some new magic with that “old voodoo” that Frank Sinatra sang about! Find out what businesses are up and operating and give them reason to be there. And should you plan on traveling there, make room in your bag for purchases by space-saving packing. Finally, since it is January, if you have resolutions to cut in stone that can be arranged, too.
Familiars
Furry, finny, and feathered folk
Out with the old to help the very new: Do you still have Aunt Myra’s fox stole, or the leopard skin Uncle Phil left you? A cringe-free solution to these treasures is to turn them into baby-nurturing surrogates for nature’s orphans. Rewrite that old fable and give the hare even more of a run for his money by aiding the tortoise; this hoary survivor of past ages needs help to live the modern life. More desperate survivors are threatened as the Endangered Species Act takes another hit from Congressional detractors.
In the swim of it (or not!): It isn’t called “dogpaddling” for nothing and its good for more than crossing the pool, especially when injured dogs do it. Maybe one of those hydrophilic canines better be a rat terrier when this rodent gold medalist comes ashore, however. Hunting deep sea denizens you won’t see in the home aquarium and with names we couldn’t imagine? This scavenger looks better than its title: bone eating snot flower. Your hydrophobic editor likes that one much better than the slime eel and will leave swimming to the dogs!
Winter Wonders: A light coat of snow reveals wonders in the suburban back yard, and a hungry hummingbird looks like an escaped tree ornament.
Don’t forget nature in the cold and wet of winter and plan that garden now for summer splendor, whether flowers or edible joys.
More than a flash in the pan: Seeing the light is more than a metaphor for being enlightened these days, it’s literal life and breath for some cancer patients. Maybe there is more to those rose colored glasses than we thought? Non-invasive procedures of many types are gaining popularity with Americans, for everything from pain management to weight control. The dark winter makes exercise more difficult, and depression deeper; but at least it’s a good excuse to not have decaf coffee.
Sex and violence is very old news: Did Russell Crowe in gladiator garb make your heart beat faster? It’s nothing new to lust after taut bodies in warrior garb as a recent G-string clad find demonstrates. And while Roman soldiers were forbidden to marry, there were women in their camps as a tantalizing analysis of an archeological find reveals. (Thanks to Sasha for these titillating tidbits!) Warfare is ancient indeed, but shoe-lovers of the world can unite in knowing the search for the perfect footwear has a venerable history as well. And if you think murderously pointed toes on modern shelves are very current, jump on the time machine for a long ride to Burgundy. And if your next time trip involves taking the kitty, warn your own “Sylvester” about this particular Tweetie of the past, it’s not his cup of tea!
Techno-wastes in the Wilds: If a country is barely aware of the computer revolution, and scarcely connected to the net, how does it deal with the toxic waste that comes out of that Web-world? The developed world must find better ways to deal with our discarded and toxic technological toys. As daily Western life plays out, more and more like science fiction, perhaps we need to re-read for ethical hints in the literature that inspired us?
EarthWise Calendars & Almanacs for 2006: January 1st begins a period viewed by Western Culture as the beginning
of the New Year. As usual, we Pagans
march -- no, make that dance -- to the beat of a different drummer.
Many Pagans count the beginning of the ritual year from Samhain. Others begin their year at Yule and some at
Harvest time or at Imbolc when the birds mate, while millions of people choose
to honor the Lunar New
Year celebrated in Asia. Many among
us honor the moon prefer a 13-month lunar calendar, while some use a solar
calendar and certain others go by a kind of Pagan time that they alone wot of
(and you know who you are). No matter
when your year begins, it is sure to be a full one. With that in mind, here are some calendars
that might help focus your energy in the coming months:
Three Favorites:
We' Moon: We' Moon products are both useful and
inspiring. This company makes the We'
Moon” wall calendar & datebooks, and they include - in one easy-to-use
format - an astrological moon calendar, an eco-feminist appointment book, a
daily guide to natural rhythms, and a lunar perspective through the 13 moons of
the year. Inside you'll find art and
writing from women around the world on Goddess inspired themes. The desk calendar comes 3 ways: in spiral
bound version, in a "lay flat" bound version and in an unbound
version. I punch holes in the unbound
version and use it in my desk-sized organizer.
You can order via their website or by calling 877-693-6666.
Cosmo Doogood’s Urban Almanac: This Almanac is published by the good folks at Utne Reader. As the publisher says, this almanac is ”chockfull of things to intrigue and delight you, like a revolutionary exercise program, a guide to clouds, tips on how to tap your backyard maple tree, charming advice from a French household almanac, urban survival strategies, like "How to sound intelligent," and of course Doc Weather's predictions and our signature seasonal poems.” You’ll also find weather predictions, a field guide to urban flora and fauna (specific to where you live) and lore for the urban critters in your backyard. This is offered by Eric Utne and his team as a “calendar of the soul” and it contains meditations and practices from both western and eastern contemplative traditions which will help you harmonize with the rhythms of the natural world. They have introduced a "Boomer Edition" this year—the same content in a slightly larger format with a nod to the diminishing eyesight of a certain generation. It also happens to be a practical size for newsstand sales and you can via their website or at most Whole Foods stores.
Seeds of Change: This organic seed company publishes a wonderful calendar titled "The Gardencycle Journal". This is a Gardener's Day Journal which takes you from Winter Solstice to Winter Solstice. I use it to record the changes in my garden on a daily & monthly basis. It comes with words of inspiration and many beautiful color photographs. This lovely journal helps me to understand the patterns and complex cycles taking place in my own backyard and gives me insight into the larger structure of life where I live. This calendar is not sold in stores. You'll need to order it directly from their website or through their print catalog.
Calendars that Support Good Causes:
Websites like Calendars.com offer a number of calendars that raise money for good causes, such as the Sierra Club and Green Peace. We also recommend the many charming calendars from the World Wildlife Federation and the National Wildlife Federation, the Humane Society and the ASPCA, which you can buy at their websites.
Calendars That Offer Knowledge & Inspiration:
Mystic’s Wheel of the Year Calendar: This wall calendar emphasizes universal spiritual principles. It reflects deep ecumenism, deep ecology, and social justice and focuses on the ecological and egalitarian aspects of the world's religions. This calendar helps in understanding Deity--as feminine and masculine, within all and beyond all, as all encompassing and universal. It's for those of us rediscovering Goddess and God in non-patriarchal ways and is about ancient and contemporary Nature-based spiritualities from both the East and the West.
If you love Susan Seddon
Boulet's work, you'll want to check out the "Goddess",
"Shaman", and "Signs of the Zodiac" calendars, which
feature her artwork. Most New Age and
Pagan stores carry her books, calendars and greeting cards, as does Whole
Foods, many on-line stores, and mainline stationary stores.
Doorway
Publications: They print the “Moon
Awareness Calendar", an 8 1/2 by 11 laminated poster. This is an easy guide to all phases of the
moon throughout the year. It goes from
December to December and lists each phase of moon and the date it occurs within
any given month.
Amber Lotus: These folks offer a number of unique and beautiful calendars, including the Call of the Goddess Calendar. If you call their company, they can direct you to a store near you that carries their items or you can order via their website.
Llewellyn
Publishing: Llewellyn publishes a wide variety of calendars and
almanacs, included among them are: "The Goddess Calendar", "The
Witches Datebook", "The Herbal Almanac", "The Moon Sign and
Gardening Almanac", "The Daily Planetary Guide" and the
"Tarot Calendar". You can purchase
these via their website or through your neighborhood New Age or Pagan
vendors.
When you shop, please support local, independent bookstores in your town, as these are important resources for the EarthWise community.
Calendar Zone: This site has links to many
different kinds of calendars, including cultural, artistic, geographic, and
historic calendars as well as calendars used for tracking menstruation, moon cycles, and
fertility.
History of the Calendar & Time Keeping:
Here are some interesting websites whichcontain discussions on lunar, solar, & stellar cycles and which also list early calendars used by Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Roman, and Jewish societies. They also note major changes on our Western Calendar in the last 2,000 years.
A Walk Through Time – Early clocks and time keeping in ancient times
Information on the Celtic Tree Calendar
The
future stands before us full of possibility and hope. With that in mind, I'll end with a blessing I learned from my
Scottish grandfather: "May the happiest days of your past be the
saddest days of your future."
Blessed Be to you and yours,
Sia
Un-merried, in more than one sense: It seems to be the winter of several peoples’ discontent, in several senses of the word. Irate religious groups hounding Walmart for “Happy Holiday’ing” shoppers might take similar umbrage at the White House. Perspective might be what such touchy sorts are lacking: being unmarried, rather than dead, is more the issue in other parts of the world, where how one heralds a holiday isn’t worth such rhetoric.
If so many would-be activists need a cause, why not consider something of import like the child slaves of the world? Or the brutal and brutalized child soldiers of Africa could use help, especially the girl soldiers. Seems service to the “Word” some claim to revere could be a bit more than mere words, doesn’t it and the lack of perspective and loudness of rhetoric makes 2006 begin on a “Bah Humbug!” note with many.
We have hundreds of events listed on our California Community Calendar.
Here is just a handful:
· Jan 11 2006 – Spellcrafting Workshop-Moonphase Magic
· Jan 12 2006 – Confessions of a Fortune Teller
· Jan 14 2006 - Winter Contra Dance
· Jan 22 2006 - Dreamboards Workshop
· Feb 10 2006 – An Evening with Pagan Author Christopher Penczak
· Feb 17 – 20 2006 – PantheaCon
New events are added every day. Click on the Full Circle California Community Calendar to access the list. If you want your event listed, please go to our calendar page and click on the link that says “Submit Event.” The on-line form is simple and very easy to use. Questions? Please contact our Networking Coordinator ScoutGhost at scoutghst@sbcglobal.net.
Essay: I’m a Pagan, Ask me about my Sex Holiday!
Why it’s called “the Great Rite”
Years ago, a well known tiered marketing scheme distributed buttons and bumper stickers that said “Lose Weight Now, Ask Me How!” as a sales tool for their distributors. This came with the implication that you’d sashay up to the person sporting the tag line and start chatting freely about your lifelong dieting problems. Often, this come-on was sported by individuals for whom weight loss appeared to be a very active issue in their lives. I found this imprudent advertising, since it’s hard to take advice from someone who appears to be shirking it themselves.
And so it is with the Pagans and sex: we talk a good game about sacred sexuality, but sometimes I wonder. Sure, we can brag that, unlike conventional religions, we consider neither sex nor pregnancy a punishment from God. We don’t generally have big thorny issues around things like homosexuality (although there are individuals and groups that may) or sex without marriage. Because we don’t see sex as inherently interfering with spiritual growth, we haven’t diabolized it and simultaneously deified celibacy as “pure” (and therefore inherently better or Godlier). I’ve been both in relationship and on my own, and I can’t quite see why one state is spiritually more holy than the other. Celibacy and sexuality are simply two options, each providing specific benefits and challenges on the path to spiritual wholeness.
Most Pagan practices embrace the idea of sex as not only a healthy, normal part of human existence, but also as an act of worship. The ancient tradition of the Heiros Gamos, the Sacred Marriage of Goddess and God, can be interpreted by those who find this image powerful as the embodying and invoking of the divine masculine and feminine within ourselves and our partners. In any event, many Pagans would agree that sex—with the self or with a partner—can be a way of connecting with the sacred life force many of us associate with nature and the Mother Goddess.
This image of Pagan sex is lovely in theory, but seems to break down a bit in practice. What you find in many Pagan circles is the tendency to focus on form at the expense of content. While members of our community engage in all manner of creative practices (polygamy/polyandry, group marriage, BDSM, temple orgies), so do non-Pagans. Traveling off the beaten path, sexually speaking, does not inherently mean you are making the Great Rite. (Oh, if only it were that easy, my whole college years would be awash in moments of divinity, instead of just being a litany of bad judgment!) When we focus on form, we put a laser on the myriad ways we can bump genitals together (and, for an extra bonus, scandalize the Muggles), while paying scant attention to the deeper lessons of sexual relationships, the hard work of real connection. It’s as if we all insist on chocolate cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner—understandable in a young child, but a bit feeble in an adult.
Worst of all is what I see in many of my Pagan friends: a kind of needy, compulsive exhibitionism masquerading as sexual openness and sacred union. Mind you, I tend to assume that this sort of behavior went out with the Summer of Luv—particularly for those of us old enough to actually remember 1967! But it seems many people (Pagan and non-Pagan) were so dazzled by that revolutionary transition from “It’s so naughty,” to “It’s your thing, do what you want to do,” that we got stuck in some sort of sexual time-warp, focused on self-indulgence at the expense of the real meat and potatoes of sacred sexuality: Intimacy.
Don’t gasp—intimacy isn’t a bad word, just a badly misused one. (And no, it’s not just a nicer term for “boffing.”) Intimacy is “the feeling of being intimate and belonging together.” Intimate can be defined as:
§ someone to whom private matters are confided
§ marked by close acquaintance, association, or familiarity
§ innermost or essential
I like that last one best, because it gets to what I believe is the heart of sacred sexuality: sharing your “innermost or essential” self with another person, presumably someone close to you. It’s sex with soul, or perhaps sex for the soul. Psychologist David Schnarch, author of Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love & Intimacy Alive in Committed Relationships describes intimacy as “the two-pronged process of confronting yourself while being self disclosing to your partner.” Note that there’s nothing in his definition about “Tab A into Slot B,” innovative positions, or strategies for getting yourself or your partner off. While Dr. Schnarch is, in fact a sex therapist, his focus on intimacy recognizes that the whole tabs-and-slots aspect is just the mechanical side of something that is far more powerful, far more life changing, far more spiritual, hell, far more sexy than can be defined by “who does what to whom, and how many times?”
And what is that something? Quite simply, it’s being naked, and in company. In this definition, naked refers not to garments (or even nipple clamps) but to an undefended state without artificial personas and being truly at home in the self. “In company” means witnessed by another person, one who’s doing the same thing: being their full self. Notice this doesn’t even mention those popular concepts that have been bandied about since 70s psychology made “working on your relationship” and “having better sex” the touchstone for a generation. I’m talking about “he makes me good about myself” or “I’m comfortable with him” or even “unconditional love,” which is often used—incorrectly—to signify “I can be as awful to you as I want to, and you can’t do anything about it because you love me.” Schnarch sees all this mirroring and validating and making comfy as a culturally accepted form of sexual dishonesty, a bargaining process in which you and your partner agree to abandon your own truths just a bit in return for a guarantee of continued, unquestioned, undying, endlessly satisfying affirmation.
Yeah, like that really happens.
It’s been said that we seek from our partners what we missed from our families of origin. If so, many of us appear to have missed out on cultivating a few important developmental milestones:
§ a sturdy sense of self that is not reliant on constant strokes and affirmations from others;
§ an ability to reveal in life’s pleasures that supersedes the meager rewards of shrill hedonism;
§ the willingness to look deeply into the self, and thereby acquire an equal ability to see beneath other people’s surfaces.
And what about better sex? You know, Tantra and all that cool New-Age-y stuff that helps you become such a great lover that you’ll instantly be able to have multiple orgasms while simultaneously making your partners see God just from the niftiness of your new moves? What about being so uninhibited and free and without all those boring old-fashioned hang-ups that you’re just the living embodiment of cosmic oneness? Isn’t that a form of sex sacred?
Yeah, well, maybe. Good sex is better than bad, and openness is better than repression. But (and my apologies to true practitioners of Tantra, who know better), making sex a tool for spiritual enlightenment, or even seeing God, is still missing the point. I think (and I’m groping around here, enjoy it while it lasts!) maybe it’s not about making someone else see God (although that’s surely a neat trick). Maybe, it’s not even about seeing God in them, though that’s nice too and not to be sneered at. I can’t help but notice that if we follow the good doctor’s definition of sex and intimacy, surprise, surprise, we return full circle to what ancient kings and queens were aiming for with the Heiros Gamos. The purpose of the sacred sexuality is to become the God/dess. Sex (ritual or mundane), this ultimate distillation of all the other forms of intimacy, can allow you to experience yourself from a loving, accepting, powerfully magical place, and then carry that embodied, experienced, lusty, lovely recognition of your own divinity into every moment. Your life with your partner(s)—doing the laundry, making dinner, fighting, everything you do together—becomes an extension of this intimacy, not because the sex is so hot, hot, hot … the sex is hot because everything in your life is so intimate. And the place where you practice that—the exercise barre—is in bed.
Making the great rite—merging one-with-one in a sensual act that emulates Shakti and Shiva’s love-making the world into existence—is not merely a ritual of the body, but one in which the spirit uses flesh as the vehicle to achieve our life’s work.
True self to true self. True self trusting true self. Sex is not simply recreational, although it can certainly be that. In it’s highest form, it’s re-creational, as well, and it's ourselves we create anew each time we open up to the mystery of "the Other," risking all for the rewards that come from revealing ourselves completely, honestly, and without deception, to our beloved. As the great Dorothy Sayer once said, “The worst sin -- perhaps the only sin -- passion can commit, is to be joyless.”
I wish you joy,
Snakemoon
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Publisher’s Note:
Snakemoon used that quote by Sayers at my suggestion (we are both avid fans of her fiction) so if anyone has stones to throw at the mere mention of the word “sin”, they can throw them at me. We Pagans have refused the Judeo/Christian usage and the dysfunctional baggage that comes with it, but we still need to keep our ancient values which teach that attention must be paid, amends made, and mistakes rectified as needed. Thinking Pagans have morals and standards, even if these do not always conform to those held by the dominant culture, and it’s time we started to discuss what these are. When engaged in these discussions, I suggest that we take our cue from the Greeks. Much of the New Testament was written in Greek (1) , and the Greeks used hamartia (later translated into the English word “sin”). Hamartia is an archery term which simply means, “Missed the mark”. If one misses the mark, one learns to do better and trys again. Not a bad lesson, overall, and one that avoids the perfectionism, shame and fear embedded (2) in later interpretations of this little but very loaded word.
Sia
For those who are interested, here is the etymology: The English word sin derives from Old English synn. The same root appears in several other Germanic languages, e.g. Old Norse synd, or German Sünde. The word may derive, ultimately, from *es-, one of the Indo-European roots that meant "to be," and is a present participle, "being." Latin also has an old present participle of esse in the word sons, sont-, which came to mean "guilty" in Latin. The root meaning would appear to be, "it is true;" that is, "the charge has been proven.” The Greek word hamartia is often translated as sin in the New Testament; it means "to miss the mark" or "to miss the target".
(1) Before Alexander the Great, the Greek language was an assortment of localized dialects. Alexander wanted a Greek language common to all peoples. It was called 'koine' or common. By the time the New Testament was written (mid to late 1st century A.D.) koine Greek had become the common language in Israel.
(2) Pun intended.
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FCE Newsletter Staff:
Labrys is the Editor-in-Chief of the Full Circle Newsletter. She can be reached for comment at Labrys6@mac.com.
Sia is the Publisher of the Full Circle Newsletter and the Council Leader for Full Circle Events. She can be reached at info@fullcircleevents.org.
Charlynn is our new Copyeditor & Grammar Witch. Thank you, Charlynn!
ScoutGhost is the Networking Coordinator for Full Circle Events. She can be reached at scoutghst@sbcglobal.net.
Snakemoon is the Senior Writer of the Full Circle Newsletter. She can be reached at snakemoon@comcast.net.