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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

Lord Shiva and Buddha ...

 

Really, it's good, sound ancestral logic.

A man broke into a Shiva temple in India and stole many valuable items from the temple treasury. When the man was apprehended, he freely admitted the break-in, but nonetheless contended that he was innocent of theft.

Innocent?

Yes indeed, said the man. I stole nothing.

But the goods from the temple were found in your possession, said the authorities.

Nevertheless, I am innocent of the charges, said the man.

In India, a temple and everything in it belong to the main god enshrined therein. This is good, sound ancestral lore: any ancient Greek would have said the same. To steal something from a god—the original meaning of the word sacrilege—was accounted by the ancestors as one of the most terrible of crimes, in the same category as incest or murder.

How is it, then, that the man claimed innocence?

Because, he contended, the god Shiva does not exist. To own, you must exist. A non-existent person cannot be said to own anything. Therefore, to take things from the temple was not theft. You cannot steal something that is ownerless.

The case went up through the courts, which—understandably—were unwilling to rule on whether or not gods actually exist. One readily understands their reluctance. Courts simply don't have the standing to rule on such a question. To rule for their existence would be to exceed judicial authority. To rule against their existence would—as the case itself demonstrates—create a deeply dangerous precedent.

Finally, the case reached the Supreme Court. Their ruling was elegant in its simplicity.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

Snow Way! Safe Shoveling Tips ...

 

Call it a moral failing if you like, but I actually enjoy shoveling snow.

My next-door neighbor once asked his yoga teacher, “Which is the best yoga?”

Dr. Arya smiled. “Putting-on-your-shoes yoga,” he replied.

Indeed. The best exercise of all is the exercise that you get in the course of everyday life.

Up here in the Land of the Northern Star, thanks to Winter and the Mother, we have our own exercise program, ours to us. Call it Snow Yoga. Who needs the gym?

The idea is to move as much snow as you can while doing as little work as possible. Done well, it's a lean, spare choreography, consisting—counter-intuitively, maybe—mostly of pushing.

The snow is your partner. Push, push, push: then lift. Lift with your legs, though, not with your back. If you're a true snow artist, your butt will hurt by the time that the driveway is clear. Welcome to the North Country, land of toned and shapely butts.

Done properly, a good shoveling-out will take you to the place of No-Mind, where mind and body, stillness and motion, are one. The Zen of snow-shoveling.

The fine art of shoveling snow even has its own philosophy. No matter how daunting the amount of snow to be moved, you'll get there eventually, one shovelful at a time.

One shovelful at a time will move a mountain of snow.

We only got an inch of snow this time, but fortunately that still counts—as we say hereabouts—as a “shovel-able” amount.

First thing after breakfast, I put on my boots and hit the walks. I shovel myself out, then the neighbors on both sides, including Dr. Arya's chela. Hey, it's the neighborly thing to do, and they're both old, past their shoveling days.

I'm an old guy too, of course, but I'm a young old guy. Young enough to shovel, anyway.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

Black White and Red Flag for sale | Buy ...

 

Gods, flippin' America.

I hate that, in America's hyper-racialized mindscape, colors become shorthand for people.

I hate that—so hyper-racialized is that mindscape—to the American ear, the racialized meanings can tend to become the primary meanings of color words: that, even when used to describe color, and no more, such words tend to take on racialized implications.

Ye gods. Is there no way out?

So entrenched has such usage become that I recently heard a local heathen elder advise against using the term “wight” in public without qualification—land-wight, tree-wight—lest someone should mishear racial implications.

(The term “wight”—literally a “being”—refers to the other, non-human, peoples of the land. Some speak of “land-spirits” and the like, but personally I prefer "wight" because it doesn't specify kind of being—personally, I don't believe in spirits—only that they are.)

And yet. And yet.

Last night, the ancient language of the rite of Imbolc opened up before me with a possibility of hope for a greater enrichment.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs

Dumbarton Oaks Birthing Figure - Atlas ...

The Mother's Way

 

Does the Great Mother squat to pee?

That's how you say “Well, duh” in Witch.

 

It's the natural way to sit.

It's the natural way to shit.

It's the natural way to give birth.

Welcome to the squat.

 

Born to Sit This Way

Think “sit on the ground” and you tend to think “cross-legged,” right?

But what if the ground is wet? Or covered with gravel?

Obviously—does the Great Mother squat to pee?—you “sit on your heels.”

The chief sits cross-legged. The war-band squats.

Why? Easily told.

The chief deliberates. The warriors act. From a squat, you can rise more quickly. Pushing off the ground with both hands will give you added speed and momentum.

That's why the Horned, drighten to our dright, sits with legs folded beneath him.

 

Born to Shit This Way

Think about it. Squatting is the human body's ideal position for evacuating.

That way, Earth and her gravity help pull the waste from your body.

Why are Westerners so prone to constipation and back pain? Blame the sitting toilet, which makes you do all the work.

The best form of exercise is exercise that you get in the course of everyday life. Consider how much full-body exercise you're getting when you squat down several times daily to empty your bowels.

 

Born to Give Birth This Way

Same deal with giving birth.

Doing so prone is for the doctor's convenience, not the mother's. When you give birth squatting, you have the Mother and her gravity to help pull the baby from your body, instead of having to force it out with sheer muscle power.

 

If you can't squat, it's well worth learning to. In fact, I'm squatting, perfectly comfortably, as I write this. How can I still do this at the ripe old age of 69?

Easily told.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
My Monster Powers January 2025 part 2

Continuing my diabetes health, weight loss, and perfumery journey, summarized as Gila Lizard Powers (GLP-1) or my Monster Powers. (For those who have not seen my other Monster Powers posts, the Monster Powers series starts last fall. The early posts contain a more complete explanation of how that relates to Gila Monsters.)

 

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Why Glaukopis, why Athena? – Glaukopis

 

You know the stereotypes.

5000 years ago, a horde of milk-drinking, trouser-wearing, pastoralist warriors rode (on horses) out of the Pontic-Caspian steppes to take over much of Eurasia. We can follow the trajectory of their expansion by the kurgans—burial mounds—that they left behind, in which those very warriors were buried with full panoply of arms.

There's a certain amount of truth to the stereotypes, certainly. But with the advent of genetic science, a fascinating new window of insight into the ancient Indo-Europeans opens up for us.

In fact, one in twenty-five of those warriors buried with arms in those barrows was a woman (Winegard 99). One in twenty-five.

Take that, Marija Gimbutas.

Really, we shouldn't be surprised. We know that women in historic Celtic-speaking societies underwent arms training. (Think of Boudicca. Being able to defend yourself is a valuable skill.) Well into historic times, the Scythians—essentially, Indo-Europeans who stayed on the steppes—were known for their women-under-arms, who gave rise to Classical legends of the Amazons. Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great, unifier of Persia, lost his head (literally) after treacherously attempting to annex the kingdom of Scythian warrior-queen Tomyris of the Massagetae. (He had previously proposed marriage to her, but she turned him down.)

Warrior goddesses turn up all across Indo-Europeandom, from the Morrigan in the West, to Durga in the East, with Athene in-between. Why would we be surprised to find an underlying social reality to match? Religion reflects society, as every student of either knows.

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
The Rites of Eleusis to Return

Restored Rites of Eleusis to Return for 39th year at Spring Mysteries Festival

 

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