NAMASTE'!!
Just to let everone know, 25 Apr to 2 May, my wife, our 3 y.o. & I will be in Dover, Delaware for my daughter's wedding on 26 Apr & to see old friends. I wouldn't mind meeting new friends as well. If you would like to meetup, please feel free to message me. You can come to Dover, we can travel a little, or we can meet somewhere in the middle.
Brightest Blessings!!

If you're looking for gatherings & happenings in your area, checkout http://pagan.meetup.com/ & http://witches.meetup.com/ . these are 2 good links for finding where like-minded people are getting together. and, they can give you ideas for starting your own meetings in your area & where/how to advertise it. what's also great about it is that if you're traveling, you can find out if there's going to be an event near your destination. I hope many of you find this helpful!!

Bright Blessings!!

I just finished reading "Whispers Of The Moon: The Life & Work Of Scott Cunningham" by David Harrington & deTraci Regula. it's a GREAT book, but I wanted to share something from it. "Happy Winter!" is a Yuletide letter he wrote in '92. The preface to this letter states that "Scott's Yuletide letter for 1992 gives no hint of his illness, and shows that his sarcastic wit was still intact:"

"As the days grow cold and storms blanket snow over lots of cities that are far away from me, I can only think of my home in California and say:

Heck, you'd never catch me moving to a place where you wake up and find that your dog's frozen, your house is doing its impression of an ice cube, and the heater's moved!

Spring and summer, of course, bring me new thoughts: Heck, you'd never catch me moving to a place by a river that floods every year, or that's smack dab in the middle of Tornadoville, or that enjoys languid days on 105-degree weather and 99% humidity sprinkled with insects the size of tank.

Fall prompts thought of: Well, it's 80 degrees, sunny, and all the tourists who don't realize that this is when we have perfect wether have gone back to their ice-damaged, sun-burned home to count the dead insects stacked up on their porches.

Winter, of course, usually follows fall (though Congress may have a thing to say about this - after they vote themselves a raise.) And unfortunately, even here in California, we share many of the same winter ills that the rest of the U.S. Faces.

I'm referring, of course, to the holiday(s) season. The government's delusion that everyone in the U.S. Of A. Follows the same religion has caused big problems for a lot of folks, including Televangelists who apparently believe that "Dollars Drive out Demons" is a pithy and deeply spiritual message. (But I'm getting off track.)

The great diversity of religion in America today is proof that we'll never, ever share the same beliefs - or the same taxis to religious services. Still, some confused persons try to merge different religions: a Christian man may decide to thrust a UL approved illuminated angel figure on top of a purely Pagan symbol of the Sun God's rebirth. Which religion is being honored here? Does the guy himself know? How does the angel feel about being rammed onto an itchy stick?

So many religious holidays are clustered in winter (among others - Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Macy's Day, After Christmas Sales Day, and lots of other that I won't even attempt to spell) that it's difficult to greet others with seasonal wishes. Anything other than "Happy Winter" may be politically incorrect (hence, this letter's title) and could lead to anything from lawsuits and sneers to thirty minute theological tirades delivered at high volume while waiting in line at the post office to send Yule packages to your beloved Witch friends.

Such difficulties are easily avoided (see below,) but the underlying problem can only be solved through greater understanding (in time, even most yahoos might begin to grasp the concept that religious diversity isn't a "liberal" plot).

For those of use who don't happen to belong to "conventional" religions, I have a few words of advice that may get us all through this trying time with the least amount of tension:

If a red-nosed, bell-ringing person says "God bless you" after you put a dollar in the kettle, don't ask "Which one?"

A cheery greeting of "Merry Christmas" should not prompt a response of "You're Mary? I'm Scott" or, even worse, "Why do you presume that I acknowledge your religion's main event?

When someone sets up a Santa figure on her or his front yard, don't become confused and say, "So - You worship an obese, grizzled man in a red suit on December 25th?"

Don't compare nativity scenes to picturesque, rural Mexican villages that you've visited; this may cause great offense.

Don't even think of the possible mythological entanglements of apparent reindeer worship.

And if, indeed, a friend of yours cruelly jabs a UL illuminated angel figure onto a purely Pagan symbol with no associations with the new religion, don't forget yourself and say, "Ah, Joe; they didn't have blondes in the Holy Land."

No. We must be strong. We must persevere. We must accept that there will always be persons who worship in far different ways and who'll never believe that most of their celebratory accoutrements were stolen from our religion. If we hold our tongues, we can survive this season and might even enjoy it.

No, Hermoine - Santa Claus has nothing to do with Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule, Kwanzaa, Macy's Day, or the After Christmas Sales Day. In fact, Santa's main role is to separate adoring parents from their money in exchange for festive photos of Santa and their kid(s) taken by young women in green stockings.

(The jolly, almost-non-religious Santa has nothing to do with Happy Winter, or with anything else mentioned in this letter. However, I didn't wish to appear to be cheap and not fill up this entire secong page, so I padded it right here.)

"Happy Winter," then, expresses far more than glee that the trees all look dead and that it seems that the sun will never, ever ever come out again. This simple, cheery phrase actually containsdeep spiritual thoughts (which can, and will, be understood by our parents, employers and neighbors in many ways, most of which will be wrong.)

However, it's of the utmost importance to utilize this phrase as often as we can, if only to spread further confusion concerning this blessedly confusing time of the year.

I'm almost out of room, and must close this Yuletide - er, Wintertide letter. Please remember these things:

-Respect all religious paths, even those that haven't been celebrating at this time of the year for nearly as long as we have

-Try to sense the mystical connection between all religions, even if most of their representatives remind you of why you're not one of them.

-Finally, say "Happy Winter" often and loud, and perhaps someday, you'll touch a soul who'll look at you with trembling eyes and say, after careful thought, "Huh?"

Have a Happy Winter!"

I typed out this letter exactly as it is written. After reading this book, I'm saddened by the fact that I'll never get to know Scott Cunningham personally, but this book got me a little closer to knowing him. Had I been Wiccan since the first time I learned about it, I might've been graced by his presence when I was stationed in Hawai'i from his many visits to the islands. If you enjoy Scott's works, I HIGHLY suggest you get this book to get to know him better.

May Scott Cunningham live on through all whose minds have been opened up by his words!! So mote it be!!

When most people hear the word Pagan they immediately assume that it means something bad or evil, however, that is not true at all, just many years of assumed negativity from assumed definitions and the influence of many of the major organized religions of the western world.
What exactly do people think Pagan means. Many people think that it means "non-Christian." In fact, this is incorrect, are Muslim's, Hindu's, Taoist's, Buddhist's and others also then all Pagan by definition? I think not! Yes, they follow different religious Paths to the Judo/Christian, but they are not all Pagan!
There are also many people that take the connotation one step further and define Pagan as something "bad." I imagine that images of orgies and demons accompany this particular feeling. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary does, after all, starts off its definition of Pagan as "heathen."
However, neither of these ideas are actually accurate. Their presence in the modern "vocabulary" is a result of the circular nature of word definitions and the dominance of some religions, including Christianity, in today's society.
One of the best sources to examine for a definition of Pagan is the Old Testament. The word Pagan is used numerous times throughout the work to refer to non-Israelites. This is an immediate tip-off that Pagan does not mean "non-Christian," as the concept of "Pagan" is used in the Bible many years before Christ is even born.
We examine a bit farther to find what our disputed word does mean. The Israelites were different from rest of the world in two major ways. The first was their monotheism. Worshipping a single god was an incredibly radical idea during Abraham's life in Ur. Most people worshipped thousands of gods, from gods of the sun and the rivers and the sky to gods dealing with each individual city, profession, and time of day. Many monotheists were even ostracized, for their refusal to worship the gods of the city could bring downfall to the entire population! The other fundamental difference between the Israelites and their neighbours is not so obvious and takes an above average understanding of the Bible to comprehend. The nature of Yahweh, the god of the Israelites, and the gods of their neighbours were very different. For instance, Baal, the principal God of Abraham's neighbours, was a fertility and harvest god. Worship of him ensured a good harvest and, in turn, survival. Yahweh, however, was never worshipped particularly to ensure a good harvest. When the Israelites followed Yahweh's laws and kept the faith, Yahweh protected them from invasion. However, when they strayed from his laws and broke the covenant, they were conquered and endured hardship. This is the fundamental nature of Yahweh--a god of war and of history, not of fertility and nature. The Pagans were different from the Israelites not simply because they weren't Israelites, but because they worshipped many gods and worshipped directly in nature. We can see this in all of the societies described as Pagan in our well-taught but forgotten high school history classes--the Galls, the Romans, the Greeks, the Norse...
The Biblical evidence is supported by our current English language. Yes, it is true that the Merriam-Webster Dictionary starts off its definition of Pagan with the word "heathen." This word has negative meanings to everyone. However, if we take the time to look up the definition of heathen to which it is referring, we find:
- an unconverted member of a people or nation that does not acknowledge the God of the Bible
This certainly does not mean "evil"! In fact, all it's really saying is that a heathen is a person who has not been exposed to the ideas of Judaism or Christianity. The Merriam-Webster definition of Pagan continues as:
- a follower of a polytheistic religion (as in ancient Rome)
This supports our finding of Pagans as polytheists from the Old Testament. We can also examine the word origin that Merriam-Webster gives for Pagan:
- Middle English, from Late Latin paganus, country dweller; from Latin pagus, country district
This further supports our sense of Paganism as a nature-based religion. And this is, in fact, what myself and a whole burgeoning world of Pagans (or "neo-Pagans," as we are often called) mean when we present ourselves. The fact that I am Pagan means that I follow one of many religions that are polytheistic and nature-based. I myself am Wiccan (Wicca is a form of Paganism, but not all Pagans are Wiccan's!), a religion that worships both a goddess and a god and does so within a natural, fertility-based framework. Other Pagan religions include Druidism, Astratru (Norse), Native American spirituality, Ancient Egyptian religion, and many others--all of which still have many followers.
It can be difficult for some to understand all the different paths of Paganism that exist today, but if one looks at the various sects of Christianity, Church of England, Catholic, Mormon, Methodist, etc, then one gets the idea that within the blanket term of Christian there are many sub-divisions, much as there are within the Pagan community. The best ways I have ever been told to understand it are by visualizing a great tree, the branches of which are the various Pagan Paths, or to imagine a beautiful Forest with a Glade in the centre, which has many paths leading through the forest, all of which lead to the same place, the central Glade, but by differing routes.

So, where did these Pagan peoples come from originally?
Well, I've recently received the following via email (which comes from Conversations with a Jehovah's Witness by Oberon (Otter) Zell, an article from (the now defunct) Green Egg magazine - back issues can be seen via Green Egg Archives), and uses the Bibles own words (from the original texts)) to show where we Pagan people may have originated from, us being of the Other People, those mentioned by the Bible but not of the nation of Israel.
These point to the Christian God being only one of the Elohim (an original Pantheon perhaps?), and in Genesis of various hints that point to there being 'other people', not of the biblical race (so just who did Cain marry when he was cast out from his tribe?) that would point to the existence of other races that worshipped other Gods in those times, which in itself point to inaccuracies in the Christian story as given by the bible. See what you make of it, I found it amusing and also interesting to say the least! Whether you believe in the Creation story as given by the Bible, in evolution or whatever, this remains a thought provoking piece of work!
I am one of the "Other People"......"Huh? What?" you say. Using your own book for reference: (Genesis 1:26) The [Elohim] said, "Let us make humanity in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild beasts and all the reptiles that crawl upon the earth." Elohim is a plural word, including male and female, and should properly be translated "Gods" or "Pantheon." (1: 27) The Gods created humanity in the image of themselves, In the image of the Gods they created them, Male and female they created them. (1:28) The Gods blessed them, saying to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and conquer it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all living animals on the earth." Now clearly, here we are talking about the original creation of the human species: male and female. All the animals, plants, etc. have all been created in previous verses. This is before the Garden of Eden, and the Christian god Yahweh is not mentioned as the creator of these people.

The next chapter talks about how Yahweh, an individual member of the Pantheon, goes about assembling his own special little botanical and zoological Garden in Eden, and making his own little man to inhabit it: (Gen 2:7) Yahweh God fashioned a man of dust from the soil. Then he breathed into his nostrils a breath of life, and thus the man became a living being. (2:8) Yahweh God planted a garden in Eden which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned. (2:9) Yahweh God caused to spring up from the soil every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden. (2:15) Yahweh God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it. Now this next is crucial: note Yahweh's precise words: (2:16) Then Yahweh God gave the man this admonition, "You may eat indeed of all the trees in the garden. (2:17) Nevertheless of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat, for on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die." Fateful words, those. We will refer back to this admonition later. Then Yahweh decides to make a woman to go with the man. Now, don't forget that the Pantheon had earlier created a whole population of people, "male and female," who are presumably doing just fine somewhere "outside the gates of Eden." But this set-up in Eden is Yahweh's own little experiment, and will unfold to its own separate destiny. (2:21) So Yahweh God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and enclosed it in flesh. (2:22) Yahweh God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man. Right. Man gives birth to woman. Sure he does. But that's the way the story is told here. (2:25) Now both of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they felt no shame in front of each other. Well, of course not! Why should they? But take careful note of those words, as they also will prove to be significant...Now this next part is where it starts to get interesting. Enter the Serpent: (Gen. 3:1) The serpent was the most subtle of all the wild beasts that Yahweh God had made. It asked the woman, "Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?" (3:2) The woman answered the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden. (3:3) "But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, 'You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death." (3:4) Then the serpent said to the woman, "No! You will not die! (3:5) "God knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil." What a remarkable statement! "Your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil." The Serpent directly contradicts Yahweh. Obviously, one of them has to be lying. Which one, do you suppose? And, if the serpent speaks true, wouldn't you wish to eat of the magic fruit? Wouldn't it be a good thing, to become "like gods, knowing good and evil"? Or is it preferable to remain in ignorance?

(Gen. 3:6) The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was desirable for the knowledge that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She gave some also to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. (3:7) Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized that they were naked. So they sewed fig leaves together to make themselves loincloths. The author makes an interesting assumption here: that if you realize you are naked you will automatically want to cover yourself. Further implications will unfold shortly...

(Gen. 3:8) The man and his wife heard the sound of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from Yahweh God among the trees of the garden. (3:9) But Yahweh God called to the man. "Where are you?" he asked. (3:10) "I heard the sound of you in the garden," he replied. "I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid." (3:11) "Who told you that you were naked?" he asked. "Have you been eating of the tree I forbade you to eat?"

And so the sign of the Fall becomes modesty. Take note of this. The descendants of Adam and Eve will be distinguished throughout history from virtually all other peoples by their obsessive modesty taboos, wherein they will feel ashamed of being naked. It follows that those who feel no shame in being naked are, by definition, not carriers of this spiritual disease of original sin!

(Gen. 3:12) The man replied, "It was the woman you put with me; she gave me the fruit, and I ate it." Right. Blame the woman. What a turkey! (3:13) Then Yahweh God asked the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman replied, "The serpent tempted me and I ate. "So of course she blames the serpent. But just what did the serpent do that was so evil? Why, he called Yahweh a liar! Was he wrong? Let's see... (3:21) Yahweh God made clothes out of skins for the man and his wife, and they put them on. Out of skins? This means that Yahweh had to kill some innocent animals to pander to Adam and Eve's new obsession with modesty!

And now we come to the crux of the Fall. Yahweh had said back there in chapter (2:17), regarding the fruit of the tree of knowledge, that "on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die." The Serpent, on the other hand, had contradicted Yahweh in chapter (3:4-5): "No! You will not die! God knows in fact that on the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil." So what actually happened? Who lied and who told the truth about this remarkable fruit? The answer is given in the next verse: (3:22) Then Yahweh God said, "See, the man has become like one of us, with his knowledge of good and evil. He must not be allowed to stretch his hand out next and pick from the tree of life also, and eat some and live forever."

Get that? Yahweh himself admits that he had lied! In fact, and in Yahweh's own words, the Serpent spoke the absolute truth! And moreover, Yahweh tells the rest of the Pantheon that he intends to evict Adam (and presumably Eve as well) to keep them from gaining immortality to go with their newly-acquired divine knowledge. To prevent them, in other words, from truly becoming gods! So who, in this story, comes off as a benefactor of humanity, and who comes off as a tyrant? THE SERPENT NEVER LIED!

This story, to digress slightly, bears a remarkable resemblance to a contemporary tale from ancient Greece. In that version, the Serpent (later identified as Lucifer, the Light-Bearer) may be equated with the heroic titan Prometheus, who championed humanity against the tyranny of Zeus, who wished for people to be mere slaves of the gods. Prometheus, whose name means "forethought," gave people wisdom, intelligence, and fire stolen from Olympus. Moreover, he ordained the portions of animal sacrifice so that humans got the best parts (the meat and hides) while the portion that was burned to the gods was the bones and fat. In punishment for this defiance of his divine authority, Zeus condemned Prometheus to a terrible punishment for an immortal: to be chained to a mountain in the Caucasus, where Zeus' Gryphon/eagle (actually a Lammergier) would devour his liver each day. It would grow back each night. Zeus promised to relent if Prometheus would reveal his great secret knowledge: Who would succeed Zeus as supreme god? Prometheus refused to tell, but history has revealed the answer... The interesting thing about all this is that the Greeks properly regarded Prometheus as a noble hero in his defiance of unjust tyranny. One may wonder why the Serpent is not so well regarded. On the contrary, snakes are loathed throughout Christendom. (3:23) So Yahweh God expelled him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he had been taken. (3:24) He banished the man, and in front of the garden of Eden he posted the cherubs, and the flame of a flashing sword, to guard the way to the tree of life. So that's it for the Fall. But the story of Adam and Eve doesn't end there. (Gen 4:1) The man had intercourse with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain... (4:2) She gave birth to a second child, Abel, the brother of Cain. Now Abel became a shepherd and kept flocks, while Cain tilled the soil. (4:3) Time passed and Cain brought some of the produce of the soil as an offering for Yahweh, (4:4) while Abel, for his part, brought the first-born of his flock and some of their fat as well. Yahweh looked with favour on Abel and his offering. But he did not look with favour on Cain and his offering, and Cain was very angry and downcast. Well, why shouldn't he be? Both brothers had brought forth their first fruits as offerings, but Yahweh rejected the vegetables and only accepted the blood sacrifice. This was to set a gruesome precedent: (4:8) Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let us go out;" and while they were in the open country, Cain set on his brother Abel and killed him.

Accursed and marked for fratricide, (4:16) Cain left the presence of Yahweh and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. We can assume that the phrase "left the presence of Yahweh" implies that Yahweh is a local deity, and not omnipresent. Cain settled among the people of Nod, and married one of the women of that country. Here, for the first time, is specifically mentioned the "other people" who are not of the lineage of Adam and Eve. i.e.: the Pagans. So let's look at this story from another viewpoint: There we were, around six thousand years ago, living in our little farming communities around the Caspian Sea, in the land of Nod, when this dude with a terrible scar comes stumbling in out of the sunset. He tells us this bizarre story, about how his mother and father had been created by some god named Yahweh, and put in charge of a beautiful garden somewhere out west, and how they had gotten thrown out for disobedience after eating some of the landlord's forbidden magic fruit of enlightenment. He tells us of murdering his brother, as the god of his parents would only accept blood sacrifice, and of receiving that scar as a mark so that all would know him as a fratricide.

The poor guy is really a mess psychologically, obsessed with guilt. He is also obsessively modest, insisting on wearing clothes even in the hottest summer, and he has a hard time with our penchant for skinny-dipping in the warm inland sea. He seems to believe that he is tainted by the "sin" of his parent's disobedience; that it is in his blood, somehow, and will continue to contaminate his children and his children's children.

One of our healing women takes pity on the poor sucker, and marries him... (4:17) Cain had intercourse with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. He became the builder of a town, and he gave the town the name of his son Enoch. With both of their first sons not turning out very well, Adam and Eve decided to try again: (4:25) Adam had intercourse with his wife, and she gave birth to a son whom she named Seth... (4:26) A son was also born to Seth, and he named him Enosh. This man was the first to invoke the name of Yahweh. Now it doesn't mention here where Seth's wife came from. Another woman from Nod, possibly, or maybe someone from another Neolithic community downstream in the Tigris-Euphrates valley. But her folks also, cannot be of the lineage of Adam and Eve, and must also be counted among "the other people." But whatever happened to Adam? After all, way back there in chapter Gen. 2:17, warning Adam about the magic fruit of knowledge, Yahweh had told him that "on the day you eat of it you shall most surely die." So, when did Adam die? (Gen. 5:4) Adam lived for eight hundred years after the birth of Seth and he became the father of sons and daughters. (5:5) In all, Adam lived for nine hundred and thirty years; then he died. Hey, that's pretty good! Nine hundred and some odd years isn't bad for a man who's been told he's gonna die the next day!

Suffice it to say that those of us who are not of Semitic descent (i.e., not of the lineage of Adam and Eve) cannot share in the Original Sin that comes with that lineage. Being that the Bible is the story of that lineage, of Adam and Eve's descendants and their special relationship with their particular god, Yahweh, it follows that this is not the story of the rest of us. We may have been Cain's wife's people, or Seth's wife's people, or some other people over the hill and far away, but whichever people the rest of us are, as far as the Bible is concerned, we are the Other People, and so we are continually referred to throughout.

Later books of the Bible are filled with admonitions to the followers of Yahweh to "learn not the ways of the Pagans..." (Jer 10:2) with detailed descriptions of exactly what it is we do, such as erect standing stones and sacred poles, worship in sacred groves and practice divination and magic. And worship the sun, moon, stars and the "Queen of Heaven." "You must not behave as they do in Egypt where once you lived; you must not behave as they do in Canaan where I am taking you. You must not follow their laws." (Lev 18:3) For Yahweh, as he so clearly emphasis, is not the god of the Pagans. We have our own lineage and our own heritage, and our tale is not told in the Bible. We were not "made" like clay figurines by a male deity out of "dust from the soil." We were born of our Mother the Earth, and have evolved over eons in Her nurturing embrace. All of us, in our many and diverse tribes, have creation myths and legends of our origins and history; some of these tales may even be actually true.

Like the descendants of Adam and Eve, many of us also have stories of great floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other cataclysms that wiped out whole communities of our people, wherein "I alone survived to tell the tale." Not being born into sin, we have no need of salvation, and no need of a Messiah to redeem our sinful souls.

Neither heaven nor hell is our destination in the afterlife; we have our own various arrangements with our own various deities. The Bible is not our story; we have our own stories to tell, and they are many and diverse. We are the Other People.
(By Oberon (Otter) Zell, first published in Green Egg.)
It is these 'other peoples' that I believe myself and most of those who live in the UK to have originally belonged to, and that the Christianity that is currently the foremost religion hereabouts is actually an import that is not our original Religion, and therefore doesn't match with our own character as a people!
Whether you believe that man and woman were created whole by the Gods, or evolved over Millennia, (possibly shaped into their new forms by the hands of the Gods) is something of a Moot point, we exist, and by allowing Deity (in whatever form works for yourself) into our daily lives can only enrich us as individual human beings.
Adapted from information courtesy of
"About Wicca" by Lori L. Ceangailte
The Other People, conversation with a Witness by Oberon (Otter) Zell :http://www.flindersclubs.asn.au/pagan/humour/otherpeople.html
And from discussions with other Pagan people.
Other Useful resources concerning Pagan influence in Biblical stories.
Pagan Origins of Christian Myths The Jesus Mystery
Historical Origins of the Bible & Christianity
© Spiritwolf & Silver Dove 2001-2004

Quiet Mind

Quiet Mind is a meditation designed to clear and discipline your mind by training you to quiet the voices and images in your head. As you try this exercise, you will learn things about your desires and fears, and about the way your subconscious mind works. Your subconscious mind is like a freight train. It is designed to head you in a direction and to maintain that direction, despite what your conscious mind is doing. When you try and change the direction of your subconscious mind, it will try to resist the change.

For this mediation, you will need a string of 50 or more beads. The beads should all be the same size and texture and the size of a pea or larger. The purpose of the beads is to have a physical stimulus to help create a mental reality and to keep score.

Pick up your string of beads and set an alarm for 5 minutes. Close your eyes, sit comfortably, and clear your mind of all dialogue and images. It is ok to experience what is going on around you but the goal is not to talk to yourself or make images about it. Every time you catch yourself in inner dialogue or making images, recognize it, go back to quiet mind, and move a bead. Chiding yourself for making images or talking to yourself is counterproductive and is making dialogue. Move a bead. Only move a bead when you have re-established quiet mind. You may find that you find it difficult to either (a) quiet the voices or (b) stop the images. Count each instance as one event and when you have re-established quiet mind move a bead.

You are unlikely to come to a place where you can sit for 5 minutes without moving any beads. The goal is to reduce the number of beads moved during each session. When you start out, you may move as many as 40 or 50 beads in a 5 minute period. As you get better at it, the number will reduce until you are only moving 10 beads or so. When you reach this point, if you choose, you can go to the next meditation, Mental Focus.

Mental Focus

Mental Focus is like empty mind in many ways. Here you pick a topic or image and hold it in your mind. Simple is best. Try picking something simple that readily comes to mind. Anything will do. The focus could be an image (the color green for instance) or a word (try to avoid phrases). Every time you lose the subject, or change it, go back to the subject and move a bead. Once again, the inertia of your subconscious will try to resist the change. Stick with it. Once again when you are down to 10 beads or so, you are ready to move on to Subject Focus.

Subject Focus

Now you are down to the meat of all this hard work. The goal here is to focus your mind on solving a problem or creating a plan. again, if you lose concentration, drift, or get off topic, go back to your focus and move a bead. After the previous mental training, you will be able to do this meditation anywhere and under almost any conditions. You may be able to do away with the timer altogether. At this stage, you may find that ideas and plans will pop into your head fully formed. You will also find that in high stress situations if you get into "the zone", answers and solutions will pop up for you.

You have rerouted the train of your subconscious to be a more effective tool and the inertia is moving in a new path. You will need to keep up with the meditations to keep it all working smoothly and to keep it from getting overgrown with weeds.

Bon Voyage!