golden compass

well having kvetched about religion for a few blogs I want to say I am looking forward to see the Movie the Golden Compass a world in which ones daemon lives in the material world with one and works magic with one... A world dominated by a theocratic religion and with a girl-child as a savior and heroine..on there website one may find out the species of one's daemon...the daemon in this world is always the opposite in sex...I have been waiting to buy the books at the science fiction book club....Now I will wait until I see the movie... On monday I watched the new stephen king movie it was enjoyable as stephen king can be... Nothing is more frightening than his book in the 80's I stopped reading him because one of his books could induce insomnia and I need to sleep to go to work n' school or that is what I told myself when The Shining or the was it The Stand made his books verboten....Nothing could be more terrrifiying that when the Rock star character left a desolate and empty New York walking through the Lincoln tunnel unlite and full of rotting corpses. Or when the little boy would look and see the topiary garden change shape in scary quiet ways... So sitting and watching John Cusack go mano amano with a creepy hotel room was a joy... Merrie part from the hinterland and blessed be.

wiccan timeline

I just vented on the church taking 1900 years to discover women were people and owning people is not nice unless it is in a sweatshop full the deserving poor. Of course people are going to say Pagans Sacrificed Humans babies and Goddess Know assorted fauna and flora. That pagans owned slaves and kissed satan on the butt on the full moon..When it comes to brown-nosing monomaniacal religious people cannot point the finger.. YES, People in the past Did bad things and Sacrificed humans of assorted ages and faun and flora..evilbible.com will give biblical rules and regs on the killing for god of the mono's...Plus is not a soldier dying in a holy war a sacrfice to god. It does not matter at the end of the day neo-paganism is a new religion and Thank Goddess and a rationale religion that views women as individual human being not chattel, which rhymes cattle and is the same thing property. Despite people waxing poetic about the ancient religions they were not fullproof and enlightened about women and slavery...In using the Old Gods a templates and extrapolating the best that the classical world had to offer.... there is a chance to move forward and modernize Sprirtuality Make religion a force for enlghtenment and civil rights and human rights... Now all mono's that worked to better the world let us say that the way the monomaniacal religions are acting nowdays and the cowardice of liberals in these religions. What ever good they did was when their religions back was broken.. They accomplished good despite being montheistically inclined or to buy souls on the open market of charity.. Blessed be from the Hinterlands

today

I must say that I spent a good day surfin the net I have been lackluster in doing housekeeping. I must admit that my altar needs attention and so do my plants..this summer solstice was grand and wonderful for a whole 2 days I baked and cooked and brought to circle a good meal..I like when my interested in cooking and celebration of a holiday coincide...I took up the middle of the month the challenge of working on hone my practice of Wicca...Good thing come when I try to be diligent but even as an athlete I always needed down after intense activity..Daily one develops a idea of what is really going with ones self. I have left off bakhti and study to read and the book I choose was one recommended on a feminist site...It is called a Strange Piece of Paradise..in there is a quote "it has sometimes taken me ten years to understand even a little of some important event that happened to me. Oh I could have given a perfectly factual account of what happened but I didn't know what it meant until I the consequences" (katherine anne porter) I am at the beginning of the book and If I never finish it the book served a great purpose in my life by giving me that quote and by the author struggles in understanding a brutal assault that she was victim to.. I was assaulted brutally in youth but that is not what Is a defining moment to me in life the one that put me at odds with what my mother wanted me to be and that the family demand I believe...that had a more mundane and banal touchpoint...It was a moment in religion class at school on staturday...We were to investigate the altar and the instruments that were used in making communion wine and cutting the bread...I was excited because there talk on the news about altar girls in other religions and I maybe when I was older I could serve...But the church doesnot want women to serve the want them to submit...The boys went into the altar room and girl were told because they were unclean they could ..not..Maybe we really did not understand then we were to young to understand why we unclean just that we would bleed. I told the teacher boys bleed when hit in the nose and got patronized by the female teacher. This was bad women bleeding she strongly reiterated... Essentially that day the power structure was erected at the recesses the boys became more aggressive and violent in teasing and also more arrogant...It was easy to see boys that used play no longer could be bothered because they were better the teacher and church said so...Of course the word unclean wasnot understood until when at twelve puberty was ushered in....I can honestly say I truely hate my mother placing me in that situation and environment...I can truely say I hate the church destroying a part of that bold child and making her modest pure and shy... My mother I forgive because she was brainwashed but the church is an entity political and socially they I never have to forgive because>I am free as a Pagan no god coerces me to forgive a corrupt institution, that remains corrupt.. Of man made religion I do not believe any are the truth..Some saints and holy people might of been good and full of sanctity but served corrupt masters and I doubt they sit in paradise...When a religion cannot tell it followers that half its adherents are human being with unalienable rights like (THAT WOMEN ARE PEOPLE LIKE MEN) THAT THEY HAVE IN THERE LITERATURE RULES ON HOW TO BE A GOOD MASTER when you own slave the owning of humans as property as male servant or female family member is bullshit and taking 1900 years to figure it out is bullshit your prophets and church father were losers who need a gimmick to get in power They arenot great wonderful and enlightened beings because they ignorant and blind - Socrates had greater sanctity that christ and that bunch///If you think that the rights you have now were given to you by christ or allah or buddha you are a fool YOU ARE NOT ENLIGHTENED BUT A POLITICAL TOOL. of political entities that wish to turn back the clock to the place when they could physically own you.

blessed be from the Hinterlands.

peace

well I was on pagan news site and one of the writers was castigating the pagans for not en masse writing the pastor of a burned out baptist church to offer condolences as a Group of adolescent Satanists burnt it down and he (the pastor) needed to drag the pagans good name into brouhaha..Basically the peacefull person implying that our indignation at being falsely accused of a crime is one of the reasons we are to blame for our own discrimination- is this peaceful person a outed pagan or a brain-dead buddhist. It does not work this way especially in the Bible Belt...But again we pagans are walking along in life and blamed for a horror...or a demented teenager calling themselves a Wiccan goes of the deep end and kills someone or ruins porperty suddenly joe-blow pagan in Poughkeepsie must buy a condolence card and send it. Whyfore??? Too repair our reputation..When local Catholic kid down the block goes dinghy or protestant kid it is never implied that the religion is to blame and if it was the screaming of the church of libel would be so loud it would drown out all condolences of the perps family. If an idiot pastor and he is an idiot needs to show the world his ignorance so be it...If pagans want to bitch about the idiots ignorance so be it...But do not confuse brown nosing with being superior in enlightenment and peacefull vibes...

such a liitle thing

Today I went awanderin I went walking at the lake to do my daily walk. The Sky was overcast and for the hour and 20 minutes it promised to rain> I love a stormy sky and it is one of the reasons I love the plains...If texas could accomadatingly flood and kansas be scrunched into a mountain range it would be more perfect here than in california...But the plains are the steppes of AMerica and to me it calls to some ancient nomadic genes...Both sides of my family where steppe dwellers the european and the asian sides...I hate the Heat of summer but I love winter and I love it especially if spring and summer are wet. What is great about the lake is that with the democrats in control of the city...they have adopted a policy of allowing large swathes of the land in the park to return to native species of foliage...with this has come a return of many bird species and so the park is alive...With the abundance of rabbit this season, the wild cats are leaving the birds alone...For three years the plains have been in drought and now the lake is full...When the rains started to come and the lake filled up people began arriving to fish at night after work young men and couples were showing up...The geese are back and it is most beautiful, I am most thankful to the storm gods for their generosity. I was walking and I felt A great deal of happiness and as I walked and got my exercise...Out of the bottom of my brain came the thought thank Goddess I am fat....At that moment I had a appreciation for being a Fatty...Why would I have such a heretical thought??? What blasphemy is this???Why even young feminists would rather be oppressed than fat...Being fat proves I do not have the discipline to be truely radical and strong...Sorry I am obese and I cannot run the perequisite 10 miles a day that ran as young woman but I can bench-press 100 pounds and high-row 95 pounds and amaze the trainers at our gym when my husband runs me through my weight lifting routine...The equation of fat and weak by the slenderati is a funny one. When it comes to weight lifting I have never lifted at such high weight when thin. I might not be fast but I am not weak...I am very lucky that in my life I have lived fat, thin and fragile. I have been ill in thiness and in obesity....I am not brain dead I do wish to weigh less but I am no longer tormented by that wish...The tyranny of slenderness is gone and no I am not what society says is a normal weight(a living coat hanger for clothes size with hugemongous boobs)...Nor am I the healthy weight bigot size normal( you can weight as much as your grandmother did at 20, forgetting that the depression and wwII food scarcity had a great deal todo with the svelte figure) Which means you screwed unless you look like marilyn Monroe or Scarlett Johansson...The thing is that being slender is a terrible thing if you are like 98 percent of society and do not heave coal for a living and come from famine prone countries or your ancestors did. Fat is only bad now because it is a feature prominent to poor people...If tomorrow every fat person could genetically remove from themselves and their descendants the fat genes in them...Rich people and the middle class would be mainlining cool whip...Fatty porn would be enshrined in playboy and CAmeron Manheim and Kristy Alley would be fashion Icons.... The slenderati really do not have fat people interest at heart and Having been slenderati it is simply spite and jealousy that informs their action and beliefs...To say fat people donot care about their health is ludicrous I know many that refuse to smoke or quit smoking for reasons of health. I do not see amongst the slender such health motivation as many smoke to make not eating palatable...But the most Ironic is that the more of a pain in the ass you are to the fat ones the greater is the occurance of you becoming a Fatty as you age...Oh low is level and the pride of the formerly slender and now fat...But If one can put aside the self loathing and disgust in oneself that western society demands from fatsos... there are perks... Men do not hit on you continuely especially when they see the ring on your finger...(what ever made men think putting a ring on a finger of a woman would magically make her out of bounds and they think Harry Potter people are gullible)... no nasty remark and cat-calls walking down the street...No one wants to Fuck with a angry fat woman and Buffalo Bill withstanding serial killers are afraid of fat women...That is why they do not kill their obnoxious female relatives...So there is a joy to being fat and if you exercise diligently and wisely alot of physical ailments of fatness are negated.... Will the charming sexist bastards want to date you??? no!!! even if they are in to fatties image is all to them, but who cares that is another plus and a major one it prevents heartache and divorce and being taken to the cleaners Fat people of the world unite....No longer allow the Elitist Slenderati to control your happiness and self- love....And enjoy your meal...

internet puzzles

When I am on the internet and then off it for a while I am amazed at some new trick I am able to do...Of course the new trick usually has something to do with selling something and I can rarely ever repeat it if I wish to...But these little things to someone as illiterate as I am with a computer are what makes the internet seem like A large Chinese Puzzle box... It is part of the allure of it... I went to a function at the unitiarian church and I saw something there that I am beginning to see at the VA Hospital...Veterans that are usually the most conservative in faith and political beliefs are becoming radicalized...Unlike the sixties were liberals attacked them as conservatives exploited them ...Many soldiers are seeing that they have been recruted to fight a Holy war that they did not sign up for...Deep cynicism from people that do not publicly criticize authority >show they are unsettled ...Growing up in a country that has freedom of religion and a separation of church and state, then living and fighting in countries that are theocratic dictatorships has opened many eyes. I am much relieved and heartened by this turn as it means that the evangelizing of the military is losing strength under the reality of soldiers seeing eexactly what it is like for people to live in a Theocracy. In this way the fundies of america have lost momentum...I feel that the turning of America into a christian Theocracy is lost and I must say that I am ashamed that I doubted the common sense of the common man..The fundies have been waving a theocratic USA in front of the growing numbers of disenfranchised working class and middle classs as a cure to their socio-economic ills, like a carrot that is rotten in the inside but still looks fresh and nourishing....The Iraq WAr is a major blunder on their part as young working class and middle class men and women are returning to the U S in droves now dissaffected from religious absolutism...I believe that all things can be made into a force for good... Maybe this war with Iraq was necessary for americans to wake up and get over their flirting with religious Absolutism...I once had a Psych prof that stated before one can accept a new mode of behaving or belief, one would inevitably relapse in old patterns, behaviours and beliefs before growing and moving on healthier beliefs and habits... I view the growth of the Religious fundamentalism as that a relapse in immature and unhealthy belief in the divine ...All I can do is pray for the indigenous societies around the world that they survive the onslaught of the attention of these religious entities. merrie part from the hinterlands.

philosphy and Pagans

Well again another movement is afoot to legitimize the Pagan or Wicca religion. We must forthwith develop a body of wisdom to charm the world into taking us seriously..I have read alot of christian philosophy as a child and young Adult and I believe it was the arguement over Hallelujiah and Allelulia that got me to throw up me hands up in disgust and start checking out eastern Philosophy..My opinion after years of reading Philosophy of the religious bent is that it is Bullshit and Mental masturbation for people of these religions and various sects. All this literature in so-called philosophy allows christian countries to practice paternalistic toletarianism with laws that favor those who read the philosophy while explaining away the vicious mysogny and abuse of children and disenfranchised male..Keep the Idealistic ones reading church philosophy that way their attention will not be on human rights..It is the same in buddhist countries read this High-faulutin' stuff and ignore slavery around you and the rampant mysogny. The pagan religion is popular because it lacks a body of work because this lack allows one to live with their formation of a spiritual path if pagan wanted a body of philosophy they would of remained in mainstream religion and continued to mentally jack off to sacred literature.

JOY OF MOVEMENT

Kneel and Kiss the Ground (yoga dreams) I wish not to kneel I want to raise my arms upward in exhaltation I wish to bow and touch the ground I want to touch the heavens with my palms

I wish to lay prostrate on the earth I want to dissolve into the earth Be part of her pregnant beauty

I wish to hail the night sky I want to exhalt the cosmos Be a one of starlight I want to root my feet into the earth I want to sail my heart unto the moon May my body bridge the immanent and the trancedent Cleansing my soul before all consciousness and all existence. 5-8-07 Sophia M There has only been 3 activities I have done in life where I have almost felt A one with existence as though the I of Sonia left and the we of existence had entered me and none of those activities were meditation or ritual..They were long-distance running, long distance Backpacking and yoga..Long distance running was a lesson in ecstasy, the glory of movement and the joy discipline, Long distance backpacking was the experience of mindfulness and experience the physical world in the now and the beauty of mindfullness and patience, endurance and a sense accomplishment in the now. Melded with the beauty of nature and the Mother., Yoga after years of illness is a return into the body and joy of movement and the wonder of a recovering body..I suppose that when it comes to spiritual experiences I am a physical and hands on girl>that is probably why being a pagan is so rewarding a religious vocation to me... It is a hands on religion in interaction in a physical sense is demanded from drumming to dancing up energy it demands action instead of observing liturgy and trying to decipher church slavonic...Like when I am driving down the street passing inane signs of dubious spiritual value I will break out in gratitude and Sing THANK GODDESS I AM A PAGAN GIRL..

web wanderings

I was web wandering and came up on a site Radical Goddess Thealogy in it she mentions the Bull dancers of the ancient minoan culture and the fact that modern matadors say that it is an impoosibility to do what is recorded in the ancient friezes in the ruins in Crete.. I suppose to a modern matador who is in combat with the modern bull would find it hard to imagine a bull allowing such liberties from a human... But a matadors job is to torment a bull to death not to dance on a bull in a religious/entertainment ritual. theirs, the matadors, is a death and tormnet of an animal entertainment like rodeo but withthe extra kick of death at the end. What if the bull dancer had raised the bull since a calf training it to accept the jumping of the dancer on his back, to be taught that the grabbing of the horns is a game as the bull tosses the dancer over himself knowing he will land hopefully safely.. I would think that bull dancing would be a team effort of the dancers and bull, a bit like the trained Lippizaner horses of Austria that cavort and jump with riders seated on them.. These bull would be selectively bred the way Lippizaners where for the talent of bull dancing.. It was probably a dangerous entertainment more for the human than the bull, but not one that is unimaginable... I donot think a Matador is someone to ask about the probablilty of bull dancing as their experience is with bull killing.

Oh Bull by Mark W. Atwood