FUndamentalist Hypocrisy (redundant?)

good but not the only book

i love how fundamentalists can use the strictest Biblical beliefs in being against homosexuality,  evolution, and in favor of proselytizing,  yet can use the loosest Biblical interpretations in "proving" that the Bible predicted numerous scientific advances, that a people can slaughter another,  that the "end times" are here

the Birth of a Religion

as we all should know, the Christians took most of the traditions celebrated before them by Scandinavian pagans, Roman pagans etc and Incorporated (double meaning intended) into Christmas. most traditions were pre Christan: the tree, gifts, feast etc.

this time of year was the beginning of my entry towards Paganism in many ways. years ago  i started to wonder why a holiday like Christmas is celebrated like it is. why the tree, fire, incense etc.

i started to look into the origins of the holiday and others. i found that most holidays, especially American christian ones, have their roots (as far as the practices, celebrations) in pagan traditions.

Paganism started to make more sens to me, including practices like seeing the evergreen as a great symbol of the strong Earth (and the Solstice as the time of the  turn around of the SUn to stronger light), which led to stronger belief in the power of the Earth, environment etc. it meshed well with the facts of the strengths  of nature, the bounty of Earth etc.

and that's how much of it began for me. not with the birth of a a human savior, but in my mind,  great gods like the Earth and Sun, and ancestors that have given us all so much.

Happy Winter Solstice

no it's not the first day of Winter. for those in NY this year especially, notice that on average the coldest days of the year start around the begin. of Dec. 


the Solstice is when the southern tropic, Capricorn, lines up directly with the Sun. so more day light in the Southern hemisphere, it's Summer etc. 


up here, since the Sun is lined up with the South, the Sun appears to us further south, less Sun, Winter. longer nights.


 that's what happens every year. 


on a spiritual note, a time of darkness yet introspection, spirituality. maybe a time to remember the spirits who have passed and give thanks. the spirits that have given, continue to give. 


also a time to look forward to the days getting longer from now til Summer Solstice. 

Darker Holidays, (short) Text

Halloween: half way between Equinox (equal dark and night), and Solstice (darkest)= darker days= more spirituality begin. (begin. Celtic year, Samhain, All Souls, Christmas etc)

Thanksgiving: harvest, think of who to thank, what etc ur thankful for, non naughty/nice list, gifts at holidays

please go to below pod cast

Souls, Ancestors, the Season etc

world's best mausoleum

this time of year  obviously there's more darkness. we're past Equinox where the Equator  lines up with the Sun, and the Southern hemisphere is getting more Sun, us less. so this brings on Halloween. it roughly  marks the half way point between Equinox and Solstice, sort of the begin. of the darkest days of year, hence belief in the supernatural, the "other world" active and  coming to Earth, but also spirituall belief in contact respect, thanks etc for ancestral spirits. this continues on to the Solstice (Xmas etc). 


as usual with original Pagan holidays, the Christians "adopted' the holiday, probably couldn't and can't stamp it out, and turned it into their "all saints, souls" or whatever. thankfully it's survived as Halloween but of course much of the commercial  superficial aspects survive, less the spiritual with US (this is one case where our "invading' friends from down south, Mexicans, can help us maybe in learning to pay more respect to passed loved ones etc.)


as many of you know, i think there should be times to celebrate, remember, give thanks etc to our passed loved ones, and this is a major time for such practice, with the dark days, spend. time  indoors, spending the holidays  unfortunately without them.  i think it  should be a time to remember them, welcome them back to our souls (or minds at least). small sacrifice, small energies, large thanks, large respect. 

A Visit to the Lower Manhattan Muslim Center Site

tolerance and equality, please

today, out of curiosity, finally.  


it is really close to the World trade center, i thought. but then i also thought about something more important: that Muslims died in the tragedy as well. 


talked to a cool cop that was stationed there. said they have to be around 24 hours now. but not much trouble since Sept 11. 


i think the deal that i feel worst about is the fact that the building, which housed a Burlington coat factory (holy ground!), is a nice,  old fashioned, i think neo Federalist style building.  i think a military guy is trying to get it on landmark status now (which im sure he would've  done if there were no Muslims moving in, and im sure he's not doing it to keep Muslims away!) 


old fashioned bigotry also  still runs in NYC though unfortunately, lately: literal  gay bashing (even in the STONEWALL INN and Chelsea recently!), immigrant bashing, and the above.  the first area settled by European colonialists, still bigoted after all these years. 

Steve Hawking, "God," Paganism

great god

Hawking backed up  why i follow science so fervently, and why that has led me to Paganism. i think his viewpoint  is that physics, creation, the cosmos, matter, life, energy,  death, etc has occurred greatly and vastly  in the Universe, probably always has, always will, and for those events, entities, evolutions etc, "God';, the "invisible man in the sky" master, doesn't have to exist. physics, science, evolution etc can happen without his "invisible hand". 


i realized the above at least in part  in my agnosticism, then my Paganism. that the world, Universe, Earth, Sun, were miraculous enough to worship without a ghost, a supernatural figure to guide them all. we realize that more and more now as more worlds, planets, stars etc are discovered. in my Paganism, the  deities are  the scientific  bodies that as a matter of fact create life: Sun, Earth (and probably more bodies). life is our greatest gift, and again we  do not see a need to worship the supernatural, invisible, theoretical, mythical, folkloric,  faith based. 


i have never claimed that science and/or paganism can explain everything, especially phenomenon like the  big bang, "in the beginning", is there an afterlife etc. but as the Pagan deities have given us so much, they are more than qualified to earn us our utmost worship, thanks, energies. 

Doublespeak, Bigotry in Lower Manhattan

law for all groups

"Away from sacred ground" =Not In My Back Yard. a  sacred ground with strip joints (as i mentioned i used to work at one),  Wall street sociopaths, and a pre WTC  mosque 4 blocks away


. so let's send the  new Muslim center  to parts of Staten island, California, Tennessee, Wisconsin. just not the parts of those states that have protested against having the second biggest religion in history worship in peace. 

"Compromise" =Discrimination against a religious group. compromise means holding them to different standards than other legal groups, religious or otherwise. anti First amendment. (im sure their god forbids any treading on the 2nd amendment!) treat them differently because they're different (than American Christian white hegemony). 


Opportunistic and Hypocritical Politician: "It's disrespectful, offensive" etc. . real meaning: im using this political football to score political points. usually the same politicians that bitch constantly about big overreaching  government. 

Bigotry: "Ground Zero" (Tolerance) Mosque

"O.K" Mosque: Malcolm X's

 i live in Harlem and i've driven thru Brooklyn many times. i've been near  many mosques. i've never heard a bomb go off, never read about it, seen it, etc. surprise: this recent bigotry is not really against Muslims (keep in mind the nation with the most of them is Indonesia, an Asian nation). it's against  Mid-easterners. so it's literally (at least in Iraq)  double barrelled bigotry. 


how many of my brethren  of Irish decent have condemned the mosque? when the Irish  came to this nation en masse, the natives were saying the same about us: go back to where you came from, we don't need Catholics here etc.

FANATICS killed innocents on Sept 11.  how many "patriots", "god loving Americans", "simple folk", "freedom fighters", "regular folk", etc have killed TENS OF THOUSANDS OF MUSLIMS OVER -SEAS!!!????

the Financial district is right near ground zero too. you know, the place that ruined so many lives of Americans during the financial crisis which blasted out in  fall 2008. any calls to get them out of the area because of their awful practices? when in comparison the organizers of the mosque are pretty damn  innocent.

of course it's terrible to have big government and "heartland politics" overreaching their jurisdiction to another area, except in this case, it's perfectly o.k for some local politician down south to act  and involve himself in our local politics, right right?

Purpose of Life?

the question: should you take full advantage of your talents, as much as possible? recognize them, and use them to the fullest? even if you can't earn much from them (da Vinci himself didn't earn much money from his varied talents, including invention, architecture, medicine), you take the time and efforts with the talents?

or is it to help your fellow man, people, Earth as much as possible? to sacrifice yourself to help the greater good more, help people, teach, volunteer, help save the Earth?

or is it to enjoy yourself as much as possible, hedonistic, maybe, but enjoy, travel, pleasurable comforts, as much leisure time as possible, with as many loved ones as possible, the finer things: food, sex, music, etc?

or to live above humanity, spiritual, supra man (Heller, Yossarian, Catch 22), try to divine yourself towards your higher power, sacrifice yourself for that?

super deep stuff i know, but feel it should be out there, for myself at least.

the Summer Solstice

what actually happens at the Solstice is that the northern tropic, Cancer, is directly lined up with the Sun. it's the northernmost that the sun is directly in line with the earth, which is why there's tropics. so maximum Sun in the northern hemisphere (all this of course is the opposite in the south).

the "beginning of Summer" belief is pretty much bs: warmest days start begin. June thru begin. of Sept on average. peak in July since the Earth takes a little time to be heated up. this can be observed daily: highest Sun is at noon, but it takes a couple of hours for the Earth to be heated, so usually hottest time of day is a couple hours past noon.

so a good time of course to enjoy the Sun and Earth, but also to give thanks, maybe even energy and a little sacrifice (of your time and effort at least) for all that they provide, life, and all parts of which humans survive. giving us nature, vegetation, feed etc. not to mention enjoyment, other health (e.g sunlight stimulating vitamins within us), the mental and physical light of day. a great great entity unto itself.

Beltane/May day

it's celebrated around the world in most regions, either as a Spring festival or a time of celebrating labor rights etc.. im focusing on the spring.

between the Equinoxes and Solstices (the days that the sun is directly lined up with the Equator or Tropic lines), are half way points. usually around the 7th but usually celebrated around the 1st, i suppose to keep the calendar neat. so they're more like movable feasts. some of these days are still celebrated much like the above, Samhain (halloween), Imbolc gives way to ground hog day, candlemass. there's also aug 1, Lughnassad. these are all Celtic names, and pre christian Pagan festivals.

anyway around now is the half way point where the Sun is really becoming more prominent in the Northern hemisphere. the Earth is more tilted towards it in the Northern hemisphere. more day light, warmth. celebrated with spring celebrations, fertility, hence marriage (i won't go on an argument against it for once), flowers, youth etc. lovely time, and of course time to send thanks, energy, sacrifice (like prayer and worship) to the Sun for all of the life it gives (most of life on Earth), and the Earth itself for the same reasons. thanks be to the Sun and Earth for giving us this most precious gift of life.

Jesus Christ! Bunnies?

for those who don't know, a lot of Christian symbolism, practices etc were adopted from pre christian, usually pagan ones. so if you ever wondered where the rabbit and egg came from in the holiest day of the christian year:

passover, the crucifixion etc took place in spring. spring has of course been associated with fertility and new life since probably earliest human time. eggs and rabbits (hump like a rabbit e.g) have for very long been understandably considered symbols of fertility. so in Spring the pagans celebrated with their symbols, then when Christianity rolled in, they were adopted for the birth and re birth (resurrection) similarities. or maybe the cute little bunnies and fun filled eggs were just kept for the kids.

of course this practice is very evident in a lot of christian holidays, especially Christmas: the evergreens, lights, being with loved ones etc all were celebrated pre christian almost world wide.

other christian and secular holidays "borrowing' from paganism: groundhog day (the ending of the darkest days), Midsummer (Summer solstice), timing of holidays like Jewish high holy days, halloween (all pagan, desperate attempts to steal by church with 'all souls day' etc).

so keep in mind that Paganism at least in general form is the oldest and probably the most widespread (in area at least) of all spirituality.