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Understanding 9/11Slightly pagan high-risk christine know
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Slightly pagan high-risk christine know: Okay believe it or not i could even since you're all slightly pagan high-risk headed to tell you that you know what you may not know it and i'm actually going to tell you what i'm going to be covering is what what paganism is what it is not what a lot of the misconceptions are that it is infiltrated into our everyday life and our yearly cycle and our lives cycles as well i also want to hope that you come out of today understanding some of the reasons why i think so.
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- And now has come the time to introduce a guest speaker i've known christine and defense with her for a couple years and she really is as cool as he will come across to you today i just want to. Hold special meaning. Professionally christine is a creative process facilitator who leads organizations in creative problem-solving sessions. She's a frequent speaker at innovation marketing and creative conferences. She's also founder and director of camp namaste which is a camping west virginia for inner-city kids that has has been so for it since 1999. She returns to us after a very popular re presentation last halloween for the children we started in the back room and so many people float in from the adult congregation we had to move it out here and it was as big as our sunday service so we welcome christine back. K. I was asked if i wanted visuals in powerpoint and the one other service i was here had a powerpoint so i figured that's what you guys did and then. I had a little moment of death by powerpoint and clip art got out of control and exclusive other things so use the visuals if they help you and if they don't then just look at me to be here with you i had a blast at halloween and i was just thrilled to death when steve asked me to come back i want to tell you a little bit you know why i'm here i have a a passion for unitarian-universalism but within i found the church first and then i found paganism through that because there's so many people and similar to probably work for me as much. You will learn a lot of the basics and we'll build on that i really do hope this will be an interactive discussion i will be asking you some questions i don't believe in only talking so i hope that that's okay and i also want to let you know that there are many different kinds of of pagans out there so i do not expect to represent every every person's few but a word that even makes my children. Okay alright have you ever decorated a christmas tree. Okay alright some of you may not have have you ever trick-or-treating at halloween alright have you ever celebrated groundhog's day. Okay believe it or not i could even since you're all slightly pagan high-risk headed to tell you that you know what you may not know it and i'm actually going to tell you what i'm going to be covering is what what paganism is what it is not what a lot of the misconceptions are that it is infiltrated into our everyday life and our yearly cycle and our lives cycles as well i also want to hope that you come out of today understanding some of the reasons why i think so. The word pagan i'm every time i say and i'm i'm conscious of the fact that it may. Evoke some images of the words that are around paganism a very loaded he's got paganism we've been called heathens the word which is a very loaded word the fact is is these words all came out of very innocuous. Places they really are not the evil words that they've been meant to be the truth is about my religion this it's really none of these dark signs i don't have the mole on my nose i've been trying to grow one for a long time but i really don't have a cauldron i use a spot and pan just the same way that everybody else does nature it's the worship of nature and our mother earth it's on embracing the feminine side. And it that's for its role in nature it's honoring the cycles of life and all the nature's creatures in it and it's also about proactive rituals. To kind of make our lives and our life experiences better it's a very proactive religion so actually used to mean the person in the community who was the most knowledgeable about the herbs also usually the midwives in the society. Which means the fireplace they the heart of the home and so a heathen is somebody who is connected to the heart. And you know it's just one of those that it's been totally. Totally messed up honestly so. And one of the things that you know when i was looking for validation because i'm a little bit i'm a little bit of a few minutes as well and it's like okay give me give me proof that i'm not in a way out there and that i can feel good about this and one of the things that always gave me comfort was that pagan cultures have existed in almost every civilization. Before modern times do the celts had of the german germans had pagan rituals and things the mayans the egyptians. And of course the native americans they all even though there was no way that they could have connected with each other they all had similar things in common which it was built around the cycle of the year. The cycle of the month and a deep connection to nature and if you think about cultures in a way before we got into a hermetically-sealed homes way before we had television. We had nothing else to go on besides what was happening in the earth. So the things that they knew wasn't every 365 days. Seasons calendar with their crops would grow and their crops would die and the earth would regenerate itself they knew that the sun rose every morning and it set every night they knew that there was this mysterious thing up in the sky called the moon. That would. Get full and it would disappear. Incidentally all of their wives had their periods on the full moon and that's that new knows how did that fit with it sorry that's that was the crossing a line but it's the truth and the moon became a symbol from for feminism because it was a monthly cycle that was going on and there was something that was happening with the moon tower that was affecting women babies were are still born on full moons. Their livelihoods existed on it so you know if the if the summer didn't offer a lot of rain if the mother earth did not give rain their crops would not be good in that affected them if there was some kind of earth catastrophe they need that of course affected them and they needed some way to explain that they needed some way to deal with that and so you know it's almost her way of getting back in touch with that we've tried to isolate yourself from. It is all about cycles at least for me there are so many cycles. In our world there's so many circles and in paganism there's a lot of celebration of a cycle because everything that starts will come back around again everything that is born will eventually die and be reborn there's a lot of continuity on it but also provides it makes a lot of sense to me. Is the seasons of life you pretty much you know that it's a cycle you start. Has a baby there's childhood there's this is kind of the mother stage these you know what we call the sun tower where are you know a woman is is giving birth is you know in in her her powerful powerful place and that woman grows and becomes the nurturer for others and the sage if you will the one who has the wisdom and then to the state of what we call the crone which is also sometimes not always seen as is as a positive word but in my religion it is extremely positive place our elderly. Have. The wisdom that we all share from and i think some of sometimes in society that that's not always seen in the pagan religion the the older that you are the more revered and respected you are especially older women have a great great place of respect in this religion. So that's the kind of the seasons of life. There's a the typical seasons of the year which very much if you can see the correlations between the seasons of life. Fit in there so you've got another berth area you've got flooding you've got regrowth. So on and so forth you've got the sun tower there's feeds you know there's the power that the hottest. Point of the time of the year where everything is in full bloom and fina nature's powers at strongest. Then you've got the slowly preparing for the cold season you know that nature has a way of taking care of itself to to get ready for for the end of end of that cycle and you got the desk. And that keeps going it keeps going around and you got the rebirth going on at same time same thing that happens with the cycle of life time of day another cycle you've got morning. You got noontime evening and midnight's one of the obvious ones but you know you can think about in several different ways okay this is okay. The strongest and that is you know it is from worshipping the sun which i told you before the moon is the symbol of the female the sun is the power as this is a symbol of the mail so this is the strongest time of you know the male power and everything that goes along with it the winter solstice the longest night and it is the time where we kind of you know cuddle into ourselves and wait we hunker down because the light will come back it's the time for reflection for exploring the darkness within ourselves exploring the darkness in our lives but knowing that the light is coming back as well so. Okay and the first one is a condom off and invoke is really the birth of the light okay so the stay start getting longer at the solstice but you really start seeing the light and if you remember the cycle of the life that's when the baby is born that's it's the birth of the light and it's candlemas who's because it's all about candles now it did turn into a candle mass in the catholic faith. But it is all about new beginnings that is where new year's resolutions or things that she want to begin anew happel happened in vulcan candlemas probably one of the most holy days in the pagan calendar beltane. New regeneration this is the time of procreation if you will this is the time of fair maidens kind of going off into the woods and celebrating life and celebrating the creation of new life you guys are getting what i'm hinting at right okay i'm not going to go any further. Things that are very much there now you can make the case that you know there's they should be private and that's fine but they should not be shameful and in my religion celebrates in the power that it brings that it brings to us. The next one is llamas in llamas is all about the harvest. So it's right after the summer solstice and this is when the crops come in this is this is our time of gratitude it is not a coincidence that thanksgiving falls around that time this is the time when the crops are harvested and you celebrate you sank the mother earth for giving you those crops and all of the nourishment and everything that it that it provides. For you. And then saw wayne and sewing for those of you who are here at halloween song wayne is the other extremely important. Season in the in the pagan calendar following is when we. Close up things for the winter if you will and i mean that on a metaphorical basis as far as well as you know a real one you know this when you say okay after so i'll be in my house until probably in both again i'm preparing for the dark. I'm preparing for i'm preparing for the deaf. Of the goddess i'm preparing for the death of mother earth. And knowing that mother earth will be coming back again saul wayne is also an extremely important time to recognize those who have passed on our culture is we. Including those people still in our lives. There's not a way that we have in this particular important to me of talking to our children about them there's not a way that we have including them and and really connecting ourselves and our families with our with our ancestors and our heritage and this is what's alwayne does for us every year at samhain we created following alter we have pictures of all of the ancestors who been important to us includes into my childhood dog. Includes you know my best friend from when i was 18 it includes my grandparents it includes last year there was a ball from a hamster who had an unfortunate miss feeding. And it is the time that we hope. If you believe that these things happened that that the spirits of our ancestors and our loved ones will come back and give us a message and that they will they will communicate and and just need to spread their love their love on us so we put out food on altars austin. Trick-or-treating and all of that kind of stuff also came out of pagan heritage know how to invite me back again next year to hear more about that. Another child growing up it is it is the bunnies and it is the eggs it is about to hatching you know that the dino baby everything is happening around the spring equinox so let me. Is there any questions about that cuz this is really important stuff and i know i'm supposed to take questions at the end but i like i like this. You talked about. You hope that your ancestors get in touch with you is that what you said. Paganism being in that true religion in which i haven't had anything about law for behavior. You just just mentioned that you hope your ancestors get in touch with you is that a belief belief in another world that belief in the supernatural. All energy is. Everything is energy the leafs that are outside or energy where energy and the rocks have energy and when that energy. When the physical body dies the energy still exist. So you can call that a metaphysical thing that's happening you can call that a physical thing that's happening so i believe that my ancestors are still with me in their energy and their spirit i believe that they've got other things to do besides just hang out with me. Their energy can come back to me it can manifest in several different ways i mean i did it i did a ritual several years ago that was extremely powerful where was niall. It was and it was basically a ritual isn't it's a trance if you will a meditation 22 journey across a river a very long river where you're you're going to another world and on that in that other world are people who have passed on before you and and people who are important to you. And i was thinking about will be really cool if i you know if i talk to my friend kaylee that would that's the thermite my childhood friend growing up two people showed up there and it was really important to me and made me cry it was it was a beautiful beautiful spiritual experience. So. Any other questions about the the holidays in particular cuz i'm going to get more into the beliefs and so and so forth and that's it's a fabulous question. Some of the other spiritual pieces that i love i love the feedback here so. Are extremely important see southwest and north again it ties into the physical manifestation of our world it's probably not something that you think about except for when you're following your mapquest directions but it is something that each direction has its own power has its own manifestation and how this. How this manifests for me in ritual is as everytime i start a ritual i do something called i cast a circle and what it what is what it's called and you start by pointing to the east which i am and invoking the powers of the east and i'm moving to the south and invoking the powers of the south. And the north and the west and what that does is it gets. It gets me back in touch. With what. What is what is spiritual form and what does he need the power of the air it's the wind it's our breath. It's you know the size of a child the size of a loved one it's the oxygen that we're all sharing right now in this moment it's what connects us and what keeps us alive it's the breeze on a nice spring day or the lack of one on a really hot summer so it's it's the it's the air it's the currents it's whatever whatever it might be and it is the power of the sun it's the power of a fire that keeps us warm on a cold day it's the fire that might be inside of us it is spirit that you see in people everything from the oceans to have so much life in it. It's the water of our wounds that gives birth. It's the water of everything that we might touch water spiritual refining so it's the spirit the spirit of water. That connects with us and then the north is really another physical manifestations of earth rocks. The animals the vegetation so it's everything from you know the stone that sitting out there to the beautiful oak tree. To every living creature including ourselves. It's everything from my dog bailey to a beautiful lion it's the you know it's it's the energy matter around us. It's the flowers it's it's everything it represents. What is what is solid in hand grounding for us on the earth so those are these those manifestations and with that comes with the air there's mind and consciousness. You know someone i'm invoking the east i say the power of the east i talked about all the things about the air if it is working for me and i also talk about my mind you know let my let my mind be clear let me drop on my logic let me let me be. Turned into my experience and what. Has worked for me let me learn new things let me be conscious. Of what's going on when i turn to the south. The powers of the south the fire the fiery passion but this is all about the spirit the human spirit and all aspects of it the good the bad the ugly i mean this is the the passion to send me when i argue with my husband. And the passion when we make up it's the it's the spirit that makes you have your convictions about what's right on this earth. Our social consciousness if you will about being angry about the injustice has that we see going on and it's honoring that and invoking invoking that when i invoke the powers of the west i call to the spirits of the water the connecting that i feel flowing through my own body but also this is emotions and intuition this is about. Acknowledging that the east which is its opposite might not always be. Letting me write down the same right ruth down the right path you know that intuition might be the place that i need to be touching right then that i need to honor my emotions that i should allow myself to have those emotions whatever whatever it might be. And then the north. Again kind of the opposite of what the south is is the biotic body in the physical and when i invoke the north. You know i invoke whatever animals might be calling to me the great mountains the beautiful grass but also i asked to be grounded on the earth i asked to be here in this moment i ask for strength of body i get connected with my feet touching the ground and feel my feet reaching down they almost like tree roots down into the earth below me and and feel the energy from the core of the earth coming up through it that's what i'm doing. That's the basis if you will you know all the spiritual stuff on that is based in this and then it all done at all layers layers on to it. Okay any questions about this the northeast southwest and any of that oh my ok. Would you guys like me to cast a circle physically i mean would you like now you heard half of it i can do it doesn't hurt if you all would you all if anyone would be willing to would you like to cast it with me okay but i need you to do stand-up. But what i do is i face the east and just kind of make my body opens the powers of the east. So i say hail to the powers of the east. To the great goddess. Of air. Of the breath that connects us. Breathing in. And breathing out into another. Of our intuition. Have you ever of our mind of our consciousness. And all that we hold dear. And what we know. Morning time of our lives for. Be with us now. And what you all say as hail and welcome. And then what i do is i do a sign of a sign of the. The star. And i will do that but i'll tell you a little bit more about that in a second then we turn. To the south. Hail to the powers of the south. A fire akitas passion. Have everything that flows through our blood when we're angry when we're loving. Hibiki that warms us the sun that is coming on. Stronger and stronger this time of year. You are nurturing. Motherly side. To the caring father. Be with us now. Hail and welcome. Hail to the powers of the west. To the great oceans celayix the streams. The water that flows through us. In our veins. The bloodwater that nourishes us. Your emotions and intuition. Let us be connected. With it. To the evenings of our lives. Hello and welcome to the power of the north. To the great buffalo. The mountains. The grass. The hillsides. And the valleys. Hell. The midnight of our lives. Help us be grounded. Play what we are here on this earth to be to accomplish. Hello and welcome to the future. To the center of our spirit. The spirit that is in all of us so those are very much grounded in the in the physical elements but their sets that that's fifth element which is spirit. Some of you saw the sign of the star different than the cross that is if you will there's the four points which is the northeast. South and west. Helen is the top which is the spirit. So every time you see you know this. The cross. So okay well that was interesting. Yes please i'm sorry i still have three more questions go ahead. Your circle have opposites complementing them. And us. And recognizing. The both have value you know there is there's a lot of times that we say you know oh i know i'm angry all the time you know i'm angry and this is bad i need to not be angry. No you need to give me to embody that anger you need to own it and. Find what you can do to get in touch with those the other balance side of it too. Hereafter. How to differentiate us from the most fundamental of religions that we know in the world today. That's a fabulous question. Almost all the fundamental religions that we know today came from this. So that that isn't that the key thing to recognize is that you know if you grew up in another tradition oh gosh what did i do. It's miss mary ground in a lot of religious beliefs. And a lot of pagans stealing borrow from from different things as well we create our own rituals you know it's. But i don't know if i've got a concrete answer for that i mean it is it is what it is and the other ones grew out of it i'm going to go through a couple a couple other things and then i won't going to take a couple more questions if you will. Groundhog's day. It's about returning of the sun. Right it's about whether they're 6 weeks or so many days or whatever it is it's pagan. Easter ok the cross and all of that kind of stuff definitely christian. The bunnies the eggs the easter egg hunts all of that pagan easter is is set to be on the first sunday after the full moon after the spring equinox and it was a lot of these a lot of your. Traditional holidays were placed into the pagan pagan calendar in order to get the pagans. To incorporate them. So you know it was very natural for easter which is about the resurrection resurrection and the rebirth renewal to happen on the spring equinox. Okay. Beltane. If you ever. I might be crossing a line here and i'm really really sorry i maple it's just think you got sick and you got the wrapping of the ribbons around it. And there's a there's an image there if you get it great if you don't talk to me later the the mets basket that you took that you used to make as a little kid. Maidens were sent off into the fields with baskets of food to sustain them for 3 days. While they experienced the beautiful offering set that their human sexuality can have can have. I'm not putting a basket is. Thanksgiving certainly has been invent that but it naturally falls on the you know the time of the harvest with his very very key i talked about saul wayne and halloween a lot almost created the catholics created all saints day. The next day to try to make up for the sins of this since day before or something i don't know actually i do there's some really complex history on that is very interesting and then christmas is the ultimate. You know christmas we know that that christ was actually born sometime in march. But the somerset their winter solstice is the birth of the sun sun. It made perfect sense for put the birth of the son son. Honor at the same time you know that you will you will listen name for the winter solstice. The christmas tree all of those things are and lights lights are very much welcoming back the sun to the earth. Is is a is a pagan thing so that all of those things have an in-car incorporated and there's a lot of different ways that it happened but it's putting the christian calendar on top of a pagan calendar so the pagans would accept it. And just as beautiful melting pot of the turn it different traditions that ended up having symbolism in both ways. Okay. Okay. Just a couple key things. There are many different practices there are everything from the very symbol. I'm to be extremely organized and hierarchical. Okay and it's just like any other religion there are different sexes. Sex sex sects i know you guys are going to think that i'm just like you know this terrell for. It is it is not is not what what we do this is not theirs there always be some misguided youths who want to annoy their parents. Who will adopt some things thinking that this is what's going on but the truth is that anyone who believes truly believes in pagan beliefs and beliefs. Police and the rule of three which is whatever you do will come back to you threefold. So if you do good. Freehold will come back to you if you do evil watch out. So it is this out of this is my part where i was going to get into the manifestation of the god and the goddess you know the yin and the yang the partners. You know and everything so some literally some figuratively and. The nice one of the nice things about paganism it is a true respect for the earth. This is not just saying oh i'm feeling environmental recycle today this is honoring mother earth and all of its. All of its beauty and splendor and protecting her as if she was. Our mother. Recognizing the power of the ancestors the healthy respect for sex and death i think you've gotten that already. And spells in another's austin's kind of patient with spells. Spell the physical manifestations of what we want if you will to meditation it's a prayer it whatever but i usually do something tangible with it so in other words if i want to manifest something good in my life. I will write it down on the side of a candle for example. And i will burn that candle all night i will put some energy into it to make it happen i'm going to recap and then i'll take a couple questions. What can we learn from this. Reconnect with the earth. Bien soon with a natural cycles that are going on. Release the shame and taboo i won't say it again. Connection with a female female deity in paris doesn't mean you can't have the mail but i think in our culture owning some of the female peace is nice too. The power of ritual and what it can do rituals in your family and your life. And creativity and worship we make up a lot of stuff it's a very very creative. I think this is whatever we want to manifest and bring you the power to do that okay. Chinese. 24. And also believes. Body somehow girl girls. Also relate to the 24 season 4. 24 season. So they have a sinkin syrup they're concerned on earth but it also have things concern about heaven so therefore they're more there probably isn't that's why because something's. Preach birth of humanism. So they're not a size must come in part because earth is in in the sun of muscatine. I don't advertise though because son is young german german son and then that i have a conversation. Other language different in different cultures and so on and so forth so thank you. Part of the issue is not that you have people with an agenda to make pagans come in but it's essential that pagans are in. And they're the ones making decisions on the calendar and its you know it cuz you have funeral. One guy's christian his mother was pagan right you know it's not this kind of image in modern history. With the terminology we get a lot of female like an address in the beginning you get a lot of people upset over terminology that gets used overloaded load into the words. One of the ones for example for just take pagan which you know you go to the dictionary and it's anybody who's non-christian in the muslims or pagans the other. Isn't there a better word to use than something so broad cuz i could say i'm an earthling but that doesn't really you know bring me that hannah doesn't sometimes more beneficial to 22b that or is there a specific reason. Why the fundamental religion. Fundamentally earth-based religion chooses to use the word paganism of pagan is is an earth-based for it does mean that now but my understanding is the history and i don't want to talk. Originally i hate labels i don't know what to do with them you know i can say that i'm in an earth-based religion. And i don't know i don't have the benefit of saying here's how i can describe myself in words. That are acceptable to people much less. Revered you know so i think that was the last question i'm going to be here this is some representation of my alter i am thrilled that you all had questions i'm sorry i ran over maybe we should have cast a circle but it was thank you for doing that with me and it was so it was a pleasure to be here with you guys today.
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