Just Too Damn Big

I’m crushed under the wieght of the questions that arise and I don’t even want to know what the questions are, so they brew like a festering, udefined lump in the back of my mind.

My attention wants to go to home improvement projects and my soon to be launched, social network.

As for mythology, I just can’t handle the truth right now, nor can I focus on the underlying truth of it all, as it presents itself to me. I’d rather have fun.

Death isn’t fun. Spending long periods of time contemplating death in all its myriad forms, well actually that is some kind of sad fun, but even that stops being fun when you’ve hit the brick wall of internal resistence.

Other things are more fun, and just happen to be more productive in a non virtual, 3D way.

Also, there is poetry and magic in nature, also non virtual, but not neessarily 3D. Well the outcome of magic is often 3D, but magic itself, not so much.

I’m finding what I like to refer to as the new witch craft simple, and easy to use. I see how people do it all the time, and most are unaware that this is what they are doing.

I’m going to see what kind of results my conscious use of this simple and easy bit of craft will yeild.

 

 

 

The Door to the Keys

The 42 negative confessions of Ma’at conjures the impression of  keys to open a mystical door.

The stories around the 42 negative confessions of Ma’at seem to represent the door.  I imagine the stories coming together to unlock this door, and bring a hidden mystery to light.

Knowledge again. Maybe this time there is emancipation rather than enslavement. Blessings rather than curses, as befell Adam and Eve in their own quest to unveil a mystery.

Ma’at, if memory serves, functioned both as a keeper of records, or a librarian in this world, while dispensing justice in the world below. This connects her to Persephone, who, like Ma’at is the daughter of a ruling deity, and who, like Ma’at occupies a position in both the upper and underworld.

Ma’at is much more autonomous, and not troubled by the gods as Persephone is. Persephone  must have inherited an enormous library in the underworld, when Minoan civilization, along with Elysian Fields, which is Minoan in origin, fell by the way.  They Elysian Fields would be home to a treasure trove of art and culture which proliferated around the benefactors of Minoan civilization – the gods.

To hide from Hades, I’ll bet Persephone spends a lot of time on the Minoan side of the underworld.  Hades, I’m suspecting, is happy enough in his Mycenean man-cave.

With respect to the 42 negative confessions of Ma’at, I will try to find out which dynasty consecrated these laws, and if these laws originate within an earlier Egyptian dynasty,  and if so, which one/s?

How did Ma’at come by her positions in the upper and lower worlds, and who’s her Daddy?

The 42 negative confessions were very likely very near the collective consciousness of the Egyptians in their every day lives, especially if the laws and politics of that society were based expressly on those confessions. The Egyptians may have lived their lives literally guided by a map of Hades! Every day was a mystery rite in its own right.

Is there an elegant system of interlocking religious rites and laws that might be unveiled in pursuit of these stories?

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.

The Mystery of Sex

With my late husband, I saw a beginning in marriage. With any prospective new husband,  I see the beginning of the end. Hopefully we will have a lot of life left, but our projects will be guided by a different light. Twilight. Not quite… but the sun is heading west, for sure.

For seven years I have pondered upon a possible alternate purpose to the desire for sex. Or I wondered if there is a transcendent aspect to orgasm, and if celibacy is a viable path to ecstacy. Ecstacy that has its beginnings in the sex act, but its destiny far beyond. Or as far beyond as we care to go.

The flesh is so highly eroticised, it’s hard to go beyond it. It’s hard to change the fantasies that work best to provide that much needed relief from the tension. So, our bodies and minds, in fairness to us, are not wired to tolerate a sexual charge for very long.

Probably less than one percent of the population who has enacted the philosophy of celibacy in life, has been able to associate profound ecstacy through the dissolution of ego and connection to God. On the way to this connection with God, is connection to other things that we were completely disengaged from, maybe like our bodies, our hearts, our friends, our family, our love of music, or painting, the birds, the sun, the sky, as creation reveals itself slowly to our awakening senses, stirring our slumbering hearts. And loins.

Today I finally realized that it can be used for a lot of things, from the mundane, to the great, but it can also make the mundane great, or at least fun. I’m beginning to suspect that practioners of true celibacy, those who refrain from orgasm by any means, have seriously developed talents in one or more areas of life, very much like a blind person hears better, only celibacy enhances all senses which engage in artmaking rather than lovemaking.

I’m hazarding a guess that those who have transcended orgasm to any extent, have heightened perception that can very often look like ESP. Some may have ESP. I’m hazarding a guess that these talents, without engaging in celibacy would likely have remained undiscovered, as sex pulls us into the mundane world.

Jesus worked miracles. Jesus was celibate.  So was Orpheus, husband of lost Eurydice in Greek lore.

Orpheus, having familiarized himself with the underworld in his attempt to retrieve Eurydice, devised items for the dead to navigate the underworld, although for what purpose, I’d have to look up. It’s either to get out of Hades, or to get into Elysian Fields. He failed to bring his wife out of Hades, so either he didn’t really try, or the objects he devised to be used in the underworld, didn’t really work.

Orpheus and Jesus have some major things in common. Both have been to Hades. Both have returned. Both offered a way out of Hell. Both were celibate. Orpheus was a vegetarian. We like to think Jesus was, but if he was a Jew, it was very unlikely. Mabye he became vegetarian upon becomming Greek.

Orpheus worked magic with his Lyre, charming Cerberus himself, while Jesus worked magic with his parables. In the myth of Orpheus, I don’t recall his playing the Lyre until he is in the underworld, searching for his lost Euradyce. If my memory is right, this means Orpheus didn’t take up the Lyre until after Euradyce died. All the love he had for her, was channelled by his Lyre into music that made the gods weep. Music that could move heaven and earth to bring her back.

Failing to retrieve Eurydice, he roams the wilderness, as the haunting, sad refrain of his lyre is carried over the wind.  Did he unconsciously choose the Lyre over Euradyce?

From this myth springs the Orphic Mysteries. The Orphic Mysteries might be among the first rites which involved no animal sacrifice. Eurydice was sacrificed instead.

Jesus was sacrificed by Christianity. I wonder how Orpheus died? I wonder how Jesus died? Not Jesus Christ, but the actual Jesus who walked the earth and spoke in parables. If he died a martyr, and if he had enough devotees, and if other conditions are fertile, then it’s entirely possible to diefy and mythologize him so the man is forgotten when the god emerges and the myth of the god holds the people in thrall for 2,000 years.

The great thing is that we still have his parables! In order to get a better look at Jesus himself, and to seperate him from the Greek God he became, we can seperate his parables from the myth of the risen Christ.  Maybe the parables will say more about his Hebrew origins. Or maybe they’ll indicate something else.

Getting back to getting sex a make over… I see how it’s possible to make magic even without knowing yourself or others in that biblical way. Our moments can be magic. Or we can make magic, literally.

Many deny the existence of magic, yet magic is inevitable – it happens with or without our knoweldge or concent. I see that religions are an attempt to control it by calling it something else – yet still the accoutraments of witch craft are employed in the ligurgy. The burning of incense, candles, the uttering of curses or blessings in the form of scripture and prayer… casting spells with words, sealing them with a chant (Amen), iAnd it seems it’s losing it’s magic.

I’m wondering about the kind of magic could be acheived if a few adepts in the art of celibacy combined their energies? I wonder if the miraculous springs from this?  The mystery of Jesus and Orpheus seems to centre on both celibacy and death. Orpheus came into magic through the death of his wife, with celibacy and grief acting as the catalyst. I wonder how Jesus came into his magic? Did it come to him through is 40 day sojourn into the desert? Were grief and celibacy also involved?

Let’s see where the next entry takes us.

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.

The Dog Days of Lent

When I realized I was late for Lent, it had already been a few days since I smoked. I decided to postpone smoking until after Lent. I refuse to give it up, it seems. So every Lent, when I remember to observe it, I do this to myself.

Ideally, I should be evolved in my practice, but it never occurred to me that the practice of Lent could evolve until just this moment. Now that it has, it makes me wonder what I could achieve in each observance of Lent if I could build on past achievements?  I don’t retain the achievement, so I have nothing to build on. That’ll teach me.

Do the Lesser Mysteries begin with the most mundane and progress to the sacred? By mundane, I mean every day functions related to our bodies, and how, by timed fasting, we give our bodies a rest, while our bodies go through a process of “purification”. Fasting is associated with a measure of suffering.

Fasting enables us to live in closer contact with our higher ideals. We have many substitutes for fasting and higher ideals these days. Most of us are living on autopilot, really.

Memory and forgetfulness. Hypnosis and dreaming.

Who gives us our dreams?

Getting back to fasting and living closer to higher ideals. What I really mean to say is that fasting will bring us closer to the truth of our hearts – as Jesus stated that the law is written in our hearts. If that’s true, then that’s where our higher ideals are. Because truth represents a high ideal.

For a few months now, I have been coming around to understanding the existence of Jesus, despite historical evidence to the contrary. I have no doubt he was an accomplished shaman, healer, and perhaps uniter of visions and hearts. He may even have been a worker of miracles. But is Christ really the only way to God?

On an unconscious level, we all know this to be false, but repress this knowledge, because it’s treason. It’s sin. The wages of sin is death. History’ll show ya what happens to traitors!

Evidence of our unconscious unity on the issue can be seen in the churches. How many church goers actually practice Christianity? If they really believed that Jesus Christ is the only begotton son of God, and our only redeemer from hell fire, then they would be adept practitioners of Christianity and at the very least Christianity would have produced a lot more shamen, or mystics who can show us how to master and harness the tremendous destructive forces that reside within us.  And we thought Satan lived in hell.  Unless… do the hell realms live in us? For sure we see them around us every day! If not in Canada, then just turn on the TV…

Christianity has set the stage for witches, garbed as priests to inscribe their spells, their blessings, their curses in canon while we, the uninitiated keep the coffers full.

There is magic afoot. Good guy magic, bad guy magic.

Yes, I’m suggesting the actual true observance of the teachings of Jesus leads to levels of spiritual mastery that are as high as you want to go. Jesus showed us the way to get there.

Christianity as provided by the church offers a substitute for spiritual growth and the teachings of Jesus. And what the church can’t provide, government and commerce has, so we’re all set. Not the Holy Trinity exactly, but a substitute for sure!

Realizing that a relationship with Jesus Christ has been forced on me since childhood, also triggers the realization that Christianity has enforced its identity on Jesus, and this is why Christians are so far from actually having tried Christianity.

Actually forget about “Christ”. Christ is not Jesus. Christ represents the conversion of Jesus, from Jewish to Greek. Was God also converted?

Now that I have admitted that Jesus has provided a way into heaven, does that mean he is THE one and only way to heaven?

Just that one condition alone, which Christianity has imposed on Jesus, has been anathema to peace on earth and good will towards men. Jesus brings peace, but Christ brings the sword.

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.

St. Patrick?

To me he’s a myth. Did he really exist? Was he the one who persuaded the Celts to convert to Catholic ways? Why does everyone get drunk on St. Patrick’s Day?

Let me think about my own ancestry for a minute. First Pagan, then Catholic, because almost everyone in Europe was a Catholic, perhaps save the Turks and Jews, and then, in my case, protestant. But the first Catholics were Greek Orthodox, while the Roman Catholics could arguably be the real first Protestants.

The church quickly became a bereft experience soon after childhood finished, and I’ve been spiritually adrift ever since.  All I can do is read the stories of each pillar and post of history I stumble upon.

I realize I could redirect the blog back to the original topic, but I’m trying to allow for the creative process to take its course, as if it will somehow lead back to the original topic with the needed insight to advance it.

Here’s a question. Are there many similarities between the eucharist and the Eleusinian Mystery rites? Yes! And Christianity arguably adds wine to the consumption of the psychedelic substance, which is added to bread in the ritual.

Kekyon was chosen by Demeter who eschewed wine altogether during the observation of her mystery rites. Many have made and consumed the brew and have reported no psychoactive effect.

I believe that would change after a 3 day fast which occurred during the nine-day pilgrimage from Athens to Eleusis.  The kekyon was consumed likely after the fast, but very likely before the feasting, in order that the psychoactive substance, which was produced from the barley, which produced the kekyon had a chance to take effect. Then, inside the temple, during the Greater Mystery rite,  rituals that led to the epiphany, and conclusion of the Eleusinian Mystery rites were performed.

If bread and wine is also consumed in Jewish observances, then its a pretty safe bet that the ancient pharisees routinely imbibed in psychedelic substances which enabled their God inspired epiphanies as well as did Jesus and his disciples.

You and I get the bread minus the dope. We partake in the lesser mystery, and so accept religion as the substitute for the direct experience with God, which is canonized by the same people who bring us the religion to worhsip.  Or we can worhsip fashion, or politics, or sports, but all of them are a substitute for something else. Something greater that we wish to either touch or emulate.

Not to suggest you need LSD, or booze to have a direct experience of God.  Just suggesting that all civilizations were founded on psychedelic drugs. If, per chance the US isn’t, then it could be demonstrated that the US was inspired by earlier nations at their founding who did, like Rome.

I have brazenly stated that Rome derived from the Eleusinian mysteries. That just might be patently false. I should probably look that up. Even still, Rome very likely springs from a mystery rite which included a psychoactive substance. I’ll check into that for sure.

Copyright 2012. All Rights Reserved.

Jesus Christ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ.

This is a road I’m not even ready to look at let alone travel, yet today I am pressed to challenge a sweeping assumption I made that the word “Christ” is an office appointed to Jesus by Rome. Wiki states it’s a Greek term meaning “the annointed one.” I’m shrinking back, aghast at what a can of worms this opens up.

I am first behooved to determine the Greek origins of the word “annoint”, then unveil who was annointed, and who did the annointing. Was it a ubiquitous practice? Did some gods have the power to annoint and not others?

Eventually I’d be forced to contend with exactly whom annointed Christ? Did Ha Shem, the Jewish God become Ha Shem the Christian God because of Christ? Or is that an oximoron? Still, the quetion, I regret to say, is begged, so I thought I devote some thoughts to it.

Not sure if I will tackle this subject any further, guess we’ll see where the spirit leads next.

Of Gods and Barbarians..

Mythology evokes xenophobic tendencies. There’s always the tendency to develop more affection for one myth and have others that are shunned.

I shun Odin a little. I’m put off by his brutishness  as well Valhalla, their idea of heaven.

As a dainty, hothouse flower, I envision living among the tribe of Warf, of  Star Trek lore, although Deanna, who was an icon of Grecian beauty, and a dainty hothouse flower in her own right, dated Warf.  I had some kind of girl crush heroe worship, and she was a foreshadowing of my enrapturement with Greek mythology.

At first I shunned all other myths, but it didn’t seem to be up to me which direction took hold.  The cultural themes that caught my fancy must number close on a dozen.

Yesterday I considered going to Norse mythology in my  search for blog worthy worldly wisdom.  It was then I realized that still more xenophobic territory can be subdued.

Many cultures refined themselves to some degree. Refined themselves to Roman standards.  Or they were sacked.  Maybe our barbaric Nordic ancestors lived too far from Roman norms. Maybe they did not want to become Romans. Resistence was futile.

I have a repugnance for war. War is barbaric. Still it got the Nordics to a point culturally, but they lost the numbers game, territory by conquered territory.

The next entry will take a peek at the ancient wisdom of our  nordic ancestors when they were Pagans.

Xenophobia is protection from cultural overload. I seem to learn best about these cultures in digestible bits at a time.

For the most part, since I am led by the myths rather than vice-versa then God is in control, so to speak.  He decides which era and locale I will visit next, whether I want to, or not. To paraphrase the bible, this is my daily bread. Mana from heaven.

Following the myths seems like my chance to feel close to God, even when that need for closeness leads me to roads I’d rather not take. Then an impasse is reached.  Then, at last, when I lease expect it, some clues come together, and the stalemate is broken.

Although myths are an expression of God, myth did not create God or the universe.  Myths gather around gods and arise from a cultural experience of God.  Still the myths are often mistaken for God.  When the God is gone cultural experience dies with it.  It is either replaced with a new cultural experience of God, or a pale immitation. A proxy.  An idol.

Poetry, at one time, was the sole means of communicating myth, with greater and lesser poets contributing their share into the annals of eternity.

Archeology is proof that the earth remembers what we forget, and will deliver up her memories. Or not. Whenever she decides, really.

Homeric Hymns are a true miracle from the muses.  Poetry seemed to die with the muses. The finest of what came thereafter  hasn’t yet approached the stream of transcendent prose that spilled from the stylus of Homer. And Hesoid. And Orpheus. And Ovid and a number of others within the canon of Greek Paganism.

The “gods” are gone, and so are the art forms. Luckily, the art remains, and as long as we have the art, we have access to the art from.  Lose the art itself, and the gods will be gone from memory, it must surely follow.

However, if the artifact is unearthed, the god can be resurrected into cultural memory, and once the god is resurrected, so is the art.

Forged in the  reconstruction of a hitherto forgotten civilization, the art form recreates itself in the process of re-discovering of the gifts of the gods re found.   Somewhat reminiscent of “refund”.  Indeed, these are priceless cultural treasures.

Poetry on the Homeric scale was surely “god” given, and kissed by the muses – the blessed progeny of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Chosen of god.  In the form of a metaphor.

 

Copyright 2012. All Rights Reserved.

Late For Lent

Some years ago, I saw the connection between Lent, and the Eleusinian Mysteries, so for some years I made a point of observing Lent in my own way. I sometimes forget how much power there is, in the practice of observing something to help you shed bad habits and promote good ones. Since I’ve lost sight of Lent in these last few years, I’m losing site of this wisdom.

The practice of feasting and fasting is woven into every myth, and for a very long time, our lives were governed by these healthy practices. The benefits were manifold. Strong bodies, stong minds, and the ability to materialize goals. Some lucky people don’t need all that to be effective in life, but I’m not one of them.

As much as I relish the intellectual exercise of puzzling out where it all began, I think I’d like to take these next few days and grab some every day wisdom from various mythologies, and relate how it might apply in my life.

Perhaps readers will also find some mojo in these ancestral traditions.

We Won. Let’s Eat!

Genesis 1: “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth.”

This line is a direct reference to Purim, the recently celebrated Jewish Holiday which observes the death of Haman, and the first recorded reading of the first line of the Torah, as read by Ezra to his fellow Jewish kinsmen when they returned to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon.

Purim was celebrated by Jews in Babylon and in Jerusalem alike as they defeated a would be Hitler by the name of Haman. Their people, rather than finding enslavement or annihilation, grew a measure stronger and empowered themselves to return to Jerusalem, a broken city, and reconstitute it to its rightful glory. Jerusalem, Ezra felt strongly, was home base for the Jewish people..

The Genesis story it seems, is written by one or more Jewish priests/scribes – keeping in mind that Jews distinguished themselves from 10 of the 12 tribes, who did not adopt Jewish practices.  The ten “lost” tribes are none the less descendents of the Hebrew nation.

It seems reasonable to assume that the vast number of scattered Hebrews likely adapted themselves to their myriad indigenous surroundings and people.  A profound amalgamation among cultures likely occurred. The merge seems so complete, it’s all but forgotten which traits arise from whom and where. On the other hand the Jews preserved their share of the Hebrew inheritance and appear to have given it a new name – Jewish.

This is very reminiscent of Zeus defeating his father Cronus in the battle for supremacy in Heaven and on earth, or in this case Greece,  with the Jewish story far more nuanced. Indeed the Jewish people were likely more nuanced than the Cretes or Greeks, as Ha Shem is Johnny-come-lately to the pantheon, and would represent, among other things a much later and much more sophisticated culture.  At least I’m assuming Zeus came first, and was a barbarian compared to Ha Shem – two more sweeping assumptions that I should either confirm, or sweep aside. God I need timeline software.

It is assumed that the date of creation of the Torah is much earlier than the date it is read aloud. Creation, according to the Torah, occurred during 3950 b.c whereas the first public reading of the Torah would have occurred after the Babylonians captured Israel, which was around 688 b.c..  I have assumed that the language in which Ezra read the Torah to his kinsmen in Jerusalem was a working and written language since the inception of the Torah’s version of the creation myth at the aforementioned 3950 b.c.. If the language in which Ezra read the Torah did not exist at the inception of the Torah, then it begs tracing the origins of the Torah.

The connection between the first Sabbath, which occurred on the seventh day of creation, the sabbatical year, which occurs every seven years,  Noah, whom represents the 7 Noahide Laws, the seventh sabbatical year, and whose name means “rest” is underscored. It seems that Hebrews adapted their creation myth from the Iranians, or from Noah’s line. An an ancient Iranian calendar needs finding.

What appears is that there was a marriage between Noah’s religion, and the religion of the Hebrews when Eber married in. Because the Iranian influence over the book of Genesis seems to dominate the evolution of the Jewish religion, it causes me to suspect that the scaffolding of the Hebrew/Israelite/Jewish religion and laws was provided by Noah’s line.

Can it be discovered if Hebrew was grafted onto an Iranian tree? Is it possible to discern which aspects of the religion derive from the Hebrew people, and which aspects from the Iranian? The Jewish adaptation would represent a later time, but it could be inferred that their religion, when parsed down to its elements would closely mirror its Hebrew/Iranian origins.

Noah is a fallen Hero, which is another reflection of the recurrent mythological theme of a father felled at the hands of a son.

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.

You Can Call Me BIG Daddy When I Back My Claims Up..

And NOW, heeeeer’s wiki!! How I  could have missed this the first time, I don’t know. But I’m not out on a limb here like I thought I was. I’m sure I wouldn’t have felt this way if I had found the link in my initial searches. Maybe I ignored it, but that was a mistake, because it would have saved me a lot of time and toil over the question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrews

If  my inferences are correct, the Hebrews were a big tribe prior to the birth of Issac, Abhraham’s son. Issaac’s son, Jacob sires the Isreaslites as I believe he changed his name to Isreal and sired 12 sons wo became the 12 tribes. But they are a branch off the Hebrew tree.

Thank you Wikipedia for helping me to find a sense of direction in which to head next!!