Some of the littlest things are big to Jeff Deck, who is traveling the country in search of mistakes.
May angels bear him up.
The God with Many Eyes
The new issue of The Entheogen Review carries a piece by David Luke on cross-cultural encounters with a godlike being covered with a multitude of eyes. (Yes, Ezekiel’s cherubim are one of the references.)
His article, “Disembodied Eyes Revisited: An Investigation into the Ontology of Entheogenic Entity Encounters,” describes such encounters and descriptions from Jewish, Muslim, Tibetan, and non-traditional entheogenic experiences:
Then the multitudinous eyes of the being before me suddenly and quite deliberately blocked my curious consciousness’s further explorations by mesmerizing me with its squirming, rhythmic eyeball hypnosis.
In Tibetan tradition, a multi-eyed being called Za functions as a “protector of the law,” being a guardian deity on the borders of our world and the Other Side. Luke hints at a connection with Python the guardian of Delphi, mythologically slain by Apollo.
Searching trip reports at Erowid, he finds more similar reports, leading him to wander, “But is there anything that can be found in this wayward meandering through myth and visions that offers a case for the genuine reification of ‘the other’ encountered in psychedelic spaces on the far side of the psyche?”
Yes, it is the interpretatio graeca, saying that all these experiences are of the same deity / psychic structure / whatever. And why not? In applied polytheism, you start with your own experience.
Meme: Passion Quilt
Ambulance Driver has tagged me in a post about teaching.
I let his request rattle around in my brain during spring break, hoping for inspiration. And by doing so, I violated Rule 1, which is “Don’t wait for inspiration. Start writing.” (But, Professor, I was on vacation!)
AD writes, “If I had but one message I could pass on to my students and my child, what would it be? What lessons am I most passionate about?”
Here are the full meme directions:
- Post a picture or make/take/create your own that captures what YOU are most passionate for students to learn about.
- Give your picture a short title.
- Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt.”
- Link back to this blog entry.
- Include links to 5 (or more) educators.
As I wrote recently, I am leaving the classroom. Passion is at a low ebb right now: I just want to get through the next month.
What keeps me going
What keeps me going is this: More time in the woods. No more saying that I can’t go hiking or hunting or fishing because I have papers to grade.
So as a teacher of (among other things) nature-writing, I would like my students to know that at least some of the time you need to be in your “Pleistocene body,” walking, moving, looking, listening.
And when you do write–anything–all the clichés are true:
“Once you pass your twentieth birthday, technique counts for more than inspiration.” (And if you are in rhetoric class, it counts more before you are 20.)
“Books are our grandparents (thanks to Gary Snyder for that one).
“Writing is thinking.”
“Use an action verb.”
And my favorite: “The first million words are just for practice.”
Now that I have stumbled through that (I suck at profundity), I tag Cat Chapin-Bishop, Gus diZerega, Macha, Anne Hill , and Mary Scriver.
Gaulimaufry to Fill Space 2
Still too busy to write the really startling post that’s in my head. So here some more links.
¶ “White folks Was Wild Once Too” — The video, in case you missed it.
¶ You thought that Lord of the Rings was about a Quest? Actually, it illuminates questions of property law as well.
¶ The Druidbook blog discusses homegrown American polytheism. I like this approach.
¶ You could call these people a sort of priesthood of the dead.
¶ An online petition for a European Pagan Memory Day. Interesting idea, but do online petitions ever accomplish anything? And do signatures of people not living in Europe help or hurt?
¶ Watch this, and you will never think of Bollywood music videos in the same way again.
¶ Contrary to what you probably have read, the Thuggees of early 19th-century India may not have been Kali worshippers at all.
¶ A definitive list of fluffy and non-fluffy Paganisms? It’s a wiki, so you can jump into the discussion. UPDATE: Comment on the list here.
Gallimaufry to Fill Space
Back from a week on the road to a full inbox and a desk covered with bills to pay, I offer a few links for your kind attention:
¶ Attention Kemetic reconstructionists: Don’t let your temple-builders become anemic.
¶ A list of things that offend Muslims. Anyone want to try the Pagan equivalent? I think it would be a lot shorter. Piggy banks and Easter eggs don’t bother me. Can you imagine Pagans rioting in the streets over the crappy remake of The Wicker Man and giving director Neil LaBute the Theo Van Gogh treatment? I can’t either. We prefer to just make fun of it.
¶ This will go onto my must-see list: Jason Pitzl-Waters notes an upcoming movie about the philosopher Hypatia. An uncompromising Neoplatonist, from what I understand, she was murdered by a Christian mob after some bishop put out a fatwa against her.
Time Warped in Taos
A slow day today: a couple of hours at the Wired coffeehouse in Taos, N.M., a visit to the art gallery where a friend was “working” on a slow Easter Sunday (in other words, M. and I were the only people to drop by) and continued reading of Stephen Oppenheimer’s book at World Cup Coffee and on a bench in the central Plaza after the sun came out.
Just back from drinks at the Sagebrush Inn, where we normally might have stayed, but it was full due to spring break and the sudden influx of snowboarders, now that they are permitted at Taos Ski Valley.
It’s good to come to Taos. We have friends here, and it the super-secret cut-off road is not snowed in, it’s only 175 miles from our house.
The trouble is that I keep running into this guy here. He is tall with long hair in a ponytail, dressed in denim with a white straw cowboy hat.
He is me from thirty-some years ago, when I worked a construction job for a couple of summers.
It is here (well, Talpa actually) that I decided I really was a Pagan — possibly the only one in the world. (Don’t laugh, it was the early 1970s.)
But he keeps creeping into my mind every time that I visit. Sometimes it is minor stuff, as when I suggested to M. that we eat lunch at El Patio, a restaurant that for many years has been known as the Alley Cantina.
So I look for restaurants that are here no longer, expect to see people that are here no longer.
He was at a loss about his future, so I wish that I could tell that it has turned out all right so far.
DNA, the Celts, and Roman Britain
I have started reading Stephen Oppenheimer’s The Origins of the British, which I referenced earlier in my series of “Who’s a Celt Now?” posts.
, which I referenced earlier in my series of From a genetic analysis — his main tool — buttressed by linguistic studies and ancient written sources, he appears to be making these points:
- The people of Ireland, Wales, western Scotland, western England, and the Atlantic coast of France came north from Iberia and southwestern France after the ice melted. These people spoke Celtic languages.
- Conversely, they did not come from central Europe and are not connected to the so-called Hallstatt and La Tene cultures.
- After the ice melted, eastern England did receive settlers from the Continent–but remember that back then, people could walk from what is now France to England, until the sea levels rose.
- During the 400 years of Roman colonization, many (or most) inhabitants of the province of Britannia were probably speaking a Germanic language (related to Dutch or Frisian), not a Celtic language. If true, that is the biggest revelation for me.
- The subsequent Anglo-Saxon invasion was not a genocidal “wipe-out,” but was more like the Norman Conquest of 1066. One ruling class replaced another, but life for Jane and Joe Commoner went on as before.
I will post again after finishing the book.
All Charged Up
M. and I are preparing to hit the road to where we can eat some good red chile sauce and look at some 17th-century churches. So what am I doing? Charging …
- the iPod
- the digital camera
- the cell phone
- the laptop computer (correction, twoPowerBooks. M. needs her in case of student crises.
It didn ‘t use to be so complicated. We packed clothes.
But this way you might get to see a photo from where we are going.
Blogging on a Snowy Day
A traditional Colorado St. Patrick’s Day: dank and snowy. If I were not bogged down with grading, I could contemplate which one of seventeen Irish recipes sounded most appealing. Guiness-and-cheddar fondue?
M. and I will be hearing some music tonight, though.
I finished reviewing the proposals for the American Academy of Religion’s Contemporary Pagan Studies Group.
Our theme for this November’s meeting in Chicago is “The Polytheistic Challenge,” and it looks like we will have enough good papers for our two sessions — about ten papers total. Add to that a session shared with the Popular Culture group, and we will have more.
Gallimaufry with Beheaded Statues
¶ When monotheists turn violent (which is often): Mormon missionaries vandalize Catholic shrine in southern Colorado. Mormon higher-ups ask forgiveness of Blessed Mother. That was a joke. Actually, they apologized to the San Luis, Colo., town board: one quasi-theocracy to another. They also want to build a huge church in the little town.
¶ Indigenous religious leaders meet about environmental crises. News of the meeting did not apparently make it to the BBC, for instance. I applaud what they are doing, but, unfortunately, they need better media relations. Or else to invite some Pagan bloggers such as Jason.
¶ Wicca is the “designated Other” for comics artists too.
¶ Maybe the Church of Google monotheists would not behead unbelievers.
¶ No pardon for Helen Duncan, convicted under the 1735 Witchcraft Act. (Earlier post here.)