Tag: Human

Intolerance: A Curable Disease

Intolerance: A Curable Disease

Author:   Kestryl Angell 

For some years now, I have been in solitary practice and have purposely placed myself in a position that allows me to observe the growth of the modern Pagan movement in the United States. One very significant thing has come to bother me through those observations. One that leaves me, to say the least, perturbed with my fellow human beings of every belief system, but assuredly of some that call themselves Pagan, as well.

Now, I realize that everyone on this planet is here for his or her own reasons, as well as for cosmic ones. I also realize that everyone grows, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually at his/her own individual pace. But some things, to my mind, are basic points of human respect and are sadly and sorely missing from a society that is supposed to be “the most advanced society history has ever known, ” as some would phrase it.

Though there are many points of human weakness that are causing overall weakening ripples throughout the newer generations when it comes to ethics, I feel that there are a few that are particularly problematic and need to be addressed at every opportunity. I hope to write about several of these in the coming weeks, as I feel that discourse is where all solutions may be found. With that in mind, I’d like to begin with a personal favorite.

Let’s begin with intolerance.

What, really, is the point of going through a life-changing, spiritual awakening, a “rebirth” as many coming to their Paganism as adults from other more mainstream backgrounds often state they go through, if all they come to be is not Pagan at all, but really could be better characterized as “anti-Christian?”

Coming to a new spiritual path does not automatically make the one you came from innately “wrong.” It simply makes it wrong for you.

Perhaps you did have experiences with the darker side of human nature packaged as harmful behavior, selfishness, egotistical preaching, the use of fear as a control and all the bad things that are written about in the news every day. That does not automatically make every single person that practices that belief system wrong, evil, awful, stupid or deluded.

Therefore, it is just as wrong to condemn others in a blanket fashion as it was for them to condemn the various Pagan paths throughout the course of history. In other words, coming to Paganism just so you can feel justified in Christian- (or other belief systems including alternate paths of Paganism from your own) -bashing is as hypocritical as the day is long! Get real and lose the excuses!

Allowing something to exist and realizing it is different from yourself doesn’t give you the right to pass judgment on it’s correctness for another soul’s growth or it’s validity in the Universal scheme of things! You are not their Creator/Creatrix. You are not here to live their path. In fact, you have no idea what is going on in their karmic path, in their personal development that might be assisting them to be learning lessons you don’t even have the strength to recognize, much less deal with yourself.

If you consider those who follow “younger” faiths than your own to be “deluded, ” it is you that does not understand the growth of the soul. It is you that is still struggling with the idea that the Universe has bigger plans than your little human eyes and mind can fully comprehend and it is you that is making a fool of yourself by stomping your proverbial feet and saying you KNOW better!

For yourself, yes – you may know that what you left behind isn’t what you need. For others? That is theirs to choose and theirs to choose free from your judgment and condemnation of that choice – just as your choice to become Pagan was your own and was equally as worthy of not being judged negatively by their fears or ignorance.

Just because you yourself happen to be in “spiritual middle school” doesn’t mean you have the right to pick on the “spiritual kindergartners.”

Furthermore, spiritual middle-schoolers don’t have anything on the spiritual college students and PhD s, but nearly every single time you will see them shining loudly in their personal struggle with their own ego by the way they attempt to play children’s one-upsmanship-games with their Elders, while showing glaring examples of their own ignorance by their complete lack of basic respect for the efforts, knowledge base and wisdom of the Elders they’ve been honored to come to know and learn from.

They would rather argue entomology of a specific word of a specific dialect than seek out the fullness of all meanings of the given word to more fully explore its meanings before making a decision as it applies to their own cause.

They would rather see other’s ignorance as “proof” of their own self-proclaimed greatness while never realizing that those things greatest in this world don’t need human declarations to make them great.

It was said by the writer, John G. Neihardt, “Humility is bowing before Truth. Humiliation is bowing before people.” Humility, Tolerance and Compassion are the internal partnership that should come to a truly spiritually awakened being – not their old set of personal and world grievances packaged in a new dogmatic format.

There are those under the Pagan umbrella who will say, “Well, I don’t believe in karma like that.” or “Respect is earned, not just given willy-nilly.” or “Well, in my belief system the world runs on the eye for an eye principle so if someone screws me over or makes me feel stupid, I can do whatever it takes to level that playing field.”

You don’t have to believe in karma to understand that what goes around comes around.

Universal principles exist and show themselves, with or without your belief in them or your petty arguments on terminology for said events. The seasons, the life/death cycle, “acts of God” weather and other Universal events will soon show you differently if you truly feel you’re the one in control of the entire world’s development!

The only thing that glaringly, embarrassingly shows, like a run in your brand new stockings, is your own overblown ego if you refuse to understand there are forces larger than yourself at work in the Universe as a whole.

Respect should indeed be earned within specific arenas such as professions and education, to name but a few. However, there should also be a basic, human respect of one living being to another, without the need to prove anything other than that they too are a person living on this planet with the same basic needs and desires as every other human being on the planet – good, nutritional food, clean water, community, family and the like. Even if their needs and desires don’t immediately meet or match your own doesn’t make yours or theirs any more or less vital or valid than the other.

As for the “eye for an eye” folks, all that happens when you take out the eye of another based on that principle is that you end up going blind, in one way or another, yourself.

I am not saying forgiveness is always the answer or that “turn the other cheek” is the answer in all situations either. But more often than not, when a human being thinks his or her own bruised ego, knee-jerk, forceful, violent ways are the answer; it is the opposite answer that is usually the one that would actually solve the problem for good.

Differences in personal dogma have been call and cause for the culling of our world populations for centuries, since the beginning of known, current history. Do we really need to continue to prove to ourselves that human beings can find constantly new and more awful ways to be horrendous to one another?

Furthermore, why are we still actually entertained by such violence or allow something as petty as big business concerns to be the reason our fellow human beings proudly go off to die by the hundreds of thousands in service to their country – with a very few that make it home alive only to find that they have no home to come back to?

This is not to say that I am all the “Light, Love and Happiness, Rainbows and Pretty Unicorns All Day Every Day!” kind of dreamer. I simply feel that the Universe itself already has chaos and death and violence in its own makeup without human beings adding to the mix out of basic ignorance, ego, selfishness and intolerance.

Mother Nature has that whole destruction thing down pat, people! She doesn’t need our scum covered little human toddler hands muddling up the works by trying to “help!”

Like kids in the playground sandbox, we’re still caught up, after all these centuries in basic Intolerance-based border skirmishes! Pagan communities are just as guilty of this issue as many Christian organizations and many of the “problems” that I hear bantered about in mainstream organizations are just as rampant in Pagan ones because we still aren’t addressing Intolerance actively as individuals, much less as a community! You cannot claim to be better than the thing you abhor and left behind if you’re guilty of the same crimes against humanity after you change sides.

Border skirmishes based on differences of dogma were a good portion of the basis of the Middle Eastern conflict since long before the US ever became interested enough in the business aspects that finally rooted our entry into the wars in the Middle East.

Border skirmishes based on intolerance, racial differences, religious differences are at the root basis of much of the gang violence rampant in Los Angeles and many other parts of the US and have even gone so far as to spawn their own subculture out of the necessities of their living circumstances rather than strengthening as a community to truly fight the issues that took them to that point of de-evolution that effects gang neighborhoods.

Border skirmishes based on Intolerance, lies and violence were what displaced every Native American in this country when the English, French, Spanish and others all came to a land the Natives had already figured out how to live harmoniously upon.

Did those people who were new here listen to those that had lived there for generations?

Oh no, they were seen as “ignorant savages” who knew nothing of community elderly and child care, community health care, balanced inter-tribal politics and trade or even the simplest necessities for making it through the winter alive.

Yet, here we are still stuck in wars where body counts, gun counts, missile counts and cash numbers, advertising and fear tactics, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction threaten the supposedly “enlightened” peoples of this day and age? Seriously?

Can’t we just get out of the sand box, stop fighting over who brought the coolest toys or who can do the most damage and have some dang milk and cookies like good little spiritual brothers and sisters here?

Intolerance should have no place in the modern human mind.

Look to the simpler, tribal times of our ancient ancestors and to those who are still living in those harmonious ways in many places in the world today that we spoiled Americans call “third world, undeveloped” countries. Perhaps they don’t have our amenities in their homes, our advertising and fast and un-nutritious foods on every corner of their city streets or even have motorized vehicles.

But when women group together to gather the water for entire streets and neighborhoods while singing, serving more than just their own family’s needs every single day, it is we who could learn something from their joyful song and service.

When villages in South America that have disagreed for generations can work together to build pipelines for water for both villages’ benefit, we have something to learn from those “savages.”

When doctors and shamans in Tibet still ride donkeys or walk, sometimes for days, to treat the ill in body, mind and spirit and the community comes together to see to the needs of that doctor if the patient cannot pay for services themselves, it is our “modern physicians” and spiritual healers that could learn something about true caring compassionate healing for a patient and our community’s selfishly spoiled upper crust could learn what it means to make sure that all are cared for instead of arguing over whether or not our individual choices can remain as cushy as we’re selfishly accustomed to as we begin to explore a National Health care system in the US.

Get a clue, people! In the United States, our biggest sign of malnutrition is the over 65% of our citizens suffering from obesity! There are currently over 154, 000 US veterans – those that fought for our right to be this freely spoiled rotten – living on the streets, homeless!

Our ignorance, gluttony and selfishness is written all over us in our own fat flesh and high blood pressure ratings while these other “uncivilized” peoples starve from lack of food and clean water, but have us completely beaten on how to treat each other as human beings!

How can that be acceptable to educated, aware, community members? ANY community, much less ones who supposedly WORSHIP Nature’s balance and bounty?

Let’s also be keeping in mind that most of the other major countries of the world have already gotten some of these questions, such as National Health care, answered successfully decades ago and it is the US that is catching up and griping all the way about rises in taxes to help the overall common good of all Americans, top to bottom of the food chain.

Canadians are thrilled to only be paying 10% taxes right now, down from the 18-20% its been in the past to help pay for their health care system and other social amenities currently underdeveloped and desperately needed in the US.

Those in the UK have paid the English equivalent of anywhere from $10-20 per gallon for gasoline for years and yet Americans were having fits over gas hitting $4 per gallon within the last year? Who is it really that needs to get real, learn some Tolerance for people and for change and learn to attune as citizens of the world’s needs instead of for their own selfish, individualized gains and stunted, silent caste systems of bigoted intolerance so obviously still active in many places in our country?

How can it not be seen that intolerance is at the root of all of these issues…and that it is a curable state of being that, if taken on by the whole of a community, doesn’t really weigh all that hard on the individual?

As a student of the Universe, I do not look for a time when all people will “believe as one.” I do not believe that Harmony requires everything be alike, as that in itself would also be an imbalance. Diversity is a necessity of life. If sameness were the truth of how things should be, music wouldn’t have different notes that make up the chords that sing the songs of the Universe through orchestrations. Harmony is created when notes co-exist on different lines for their own sake and in their own timing to a rhythm that is greater than each individual note.

Therefore, what I look forward to is the day when individuals can learn from and about other’s beliefs without their own being threatened in any way, without fear or disgust. I look forward to the day when those that do not believe the same way can simply agree to disagree and still work for the common good of all living beings on the planet. I look forward to the time when tolerance and compassion is as common a pair of qualities in human beings as ego, laziness, selfishness and desire.

I look forward to the awakening of human beings to the idea that tolerance is not acceptance nor is it automatically an admission of support of the differing idea or practice presented. I look forward to the day humans sing in beautiful, diversified harmony, the song of the planet’s common good.

Tolerance is simply the ability to allow all things to exist, as the Universe would have them, not as you would have them. Tolerance means allowing even those things that you do not agree with personally to exist for those who do believe in them.

Tolerance is difficult, however, as it requires a type of fearful and fearless faith in the patterns of the Universe to be “correct, ” whether we human beings see that correctness, the fullness of the pattern or not. This is not a concept that many human beings find easy to comprehend, much less practice inside themselves or in their daily lives. However, if goals such as this were easy, there would be no need for the inner battles that make each of us better people.

I believe Tolerance is a worthy and attainable goal for every individual that can have the bettering ripple effect of creating a harmony as yet unseen by modern history.

Care to join the experiment?

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Your Tarot Card for December 31st is The Hierophant

The Hierophant

Monday, Dec 31st, 2012

Traditionally known as the Hierophant, this card refers to a Master and the learning of practical lessons from the study of Natural Law. This energy of this card points to some agent or resource that can reveal the secrets of life, the cycles of the moon and tides, the links between human beings and the heavens.

Because monasteries were the only places a person could learn to read and write in the middle ages, a Hierophant was one to whom a student would petition for entry. He was the one to set the curriculum for the neophyte’s course of study.

Often pictured with the right hand raised in blessing, the Hierophant is linked with the ancient lineage of Melchezidek, initiator of the Hebrew priestly tradition, the one who passes on the teachings. All shamans of any tradition draw upon this archetype.

I’m Right, You’re Wrong: The Fight to be Different

I’m Right, You’re Wrong: The Fight to be Different

Author:   Sarrestia 

I was thinking about writing all the examples and instances up front, and then lay out the bottom-line, but then I decided, what the heck:

Ladies and Gentlemen, there is not a damn thing you can do to be anything like the person next to you. No matter what you do, no matter how you live, no matter what you think, you will always, from before birth to after death, be different. This is not an opinion, this is not an ‘in-a-perfect-world’ statement, and this is fact, genetically to psychologically to metaphysically.

Every single person is built on two things: their genetics and their environment, not one or the other, but simultaneously.

Your genes are the product of half of two people’s genetics: your mother and father. Though you have their genes, you do not have all of them; you have a combination of genetics that they can never have. You are different! Even if you suddenly start looking ‘like’ your parents, or acting ‘like’ your parents, you are still not your parents. It is a genetic, biological impossibility.

Your experiences are the product of your environment, your genetics, and most especially, the thoughts and emotions you keep within your mind of those experiences. From the moment of birth, you begin to the act of experiencing the world around you, and within you. You are different!

Even identical twins, with the same exact genetic combinations, due to their experiences, will never, can never, be the same; they will be different. Though many studies of identical twins have shown that separated twins will display similar likes and dislikes, similar activities in their lives, but they are vastly different because of the families and environment they were raised. In addition, identical twins that were not separated, but were raised together have shown, repeatedly, that despite the same environment, they develop different personalities.

So, the very core of every single human being — in the genetics and experiences and behavior — will never be the same as another; we will always be different.

If this is so, then why do people demand that they be different? Why do children develop the intense, rebellious nature to become different from their parents, when they are and always have been? Why do people fight and kill to be different?

As to the title: I’m Right, You’re Wrong, it is this very thing of proving to another that they are different, in their personalities, their ideologies, etc that causes so many issues when it isn’t even about who is right or wrong. The point of any of this is that we are both right and we are both wrong. We are right in ourselves, to ourselves, but we are wrong to everyone else.

I would love to say that this problem is only the vice of the major religions, but alas, no. From the major religions to atheists, everyone thinks they are right and everyone else is wrong.

I will take this moment, before I continue, that this species of ours is blessed with the few individuals who have pulled themselves away from this trap to understand that it doesn’t matter what you believe in, they are happy with what they believe in and who they are; your beliefs, though nice to know, are irrelevant to their happiness. Sounds harsh, yes, but honestly it is the only way one can be happy, is to not allow everyone else’s opinions about one’s beliefs or their beliefs to be of any concern.

Unfortunately, this right vs. wrong attitude is deeply impeded in the pagan community. From the ceremonialists and traditionalists looking down at eclectics and solitaires to pagan women vs. pagan men to Wiccans vs. Witchcraft vs. New Agers vs. Fluff Bunnies… I can go on, of course. For a spirituality that is so ambiguous that the beliefs and actions of an individual is based on what feels right to him/her, and a spirituality that is far more accommodating to a person’s choice of lifestyle in any manner, it seems ridiculous that we would carry this issue with us. Of course, it may just be the result of the majority of pagans carrying this right and wrong issue from their previous religions, but I’m going to be optimistic (or pessimistic) and say it is just human nature.

By stating that I’m Right and You’re Wrong is human nature, it may be a lost cause and we, except for individuals, may never overcome this issue. However, at this point, I will be optimistic and say that the people who are formulating one of the greatest spiritual movements this world has seen in such a long time have the ability, if not the necessity, to overcome this pitfall and rise to a higher form of thinking with regards to anyone who is in the least bit different from you. Because guess what, they are, and will never see the same thing you see or feel or think or smell, and NEVER have the same spiritual experience as you.

Let the main religions continue their never-ending fight to be right and destroy, even if not physically they are still trying mentally and emotionally, those they feel are wrong. Let atheists struggle in their fight to convince people to shrug off millions of years of myth-based philosophies. Understand that you are different and will always be different and embrace that; embrace your weirdness, your difference, while at the same time acknowledging what we all share.

Which brings me to another point: despite all of our differences, we are still all members of the human species (unless there is someone that is reading this that does not currently carry human DNA within them…beg my pardon, no offense) . Every single person feels the same emotions. Whether they are expressed differently or triggered differently, a happy person in Iraq will look and act the same as a happy person in Nebraska (I know, I’ve seen happy Iraqis but I’ll have to debate the extent of a happy Nebraskan) .

We are different and we are the same, we are all right and we are all wrong. We are all individuals within one species on one planet, with DNA that is at its most basic the same with every single living creature on this planet.

Pagans, we are a fractious bunch from the very start because we choose to follow what is right within our hearts and souls, not because of what someone else says is right. So why do I constantly see people writing and commenting on their opinions of another person’s spiritual choice? Does their decision to join a coven, take the best from all the rest, or follow the creeds of people with less than credible sources change your beliefs, affect your beliefs, make you doubt your own? If so, then your heart and soul are telling you that the path you are currently on isn’t the one for you.

Your Tarot Card for December 11th is The Hierophant

The Hierophant

Tuesday, Dec 11th, 2012

Traditionally known as the Hierophant, this card refers to a Master and the learning of practical lessons from the study of Natural Law. This energy of this card points to some agent or resource that can reveal the secrets of life, the cycles of the moon and tides, the links between human beings and the heavens.

Because monasteries were the only places a person could learn to read and write in the middle ages, a Hierophant was one to whom a student would petition for entry. He was the one to set the curriculum for the neophyte’s course of study.

Often pictured with the right hand raised in blessing, the Hierophant is linked with the ancient lineage of Melchezidek, initiator of the Hebrew priestly tradition, the one who passes on the teachings. All shamans of any tradition draw upon this archetype.

Today’s Tarot Card for November 21 is The Hierophant

The Hierophant

Wednesday, Nov 21st, 2012

Traditionally known as the Hierophant, this card refers to a Master and the learning of practical lessons from the study of Natural Law. This energy of this card points to some agent or resource that can reveal the secrets of life, the cycles of the moon and tides, the links between human beings and the heavens.

Because monasteries were the only places a person could learn to read and write in the middle ages, a Hierophant was one to whom a student would petition for entry. He was the one to set the curriculum for the neophyte’s course of study.

Often pictured with the right hand raised in blessing, the Hierophant is linked with the ancient lineage of Melchezidek, initiator of the Hebrew priestly tradition, the one who passes on the teachings. All shamans of any tradition draw upon this archetype.

The Pentagram (A Poem)

The Pentagram

I invoke Ancient Powers of The Star
The Powers of Five
The Spiral Powers
The Powers of Earth
I invoke the Ancient Powers of Life
Star in the Circle
In the Iron Circle
Quaint, ancient symbol
So ancient, primordial and timeless
Dark symbol of life
On planets bearing life
Deep in DNA
Deeply branded in the Heart of our Earth
Touchstone of Wisdom
Of Ancient Knowledge, NOW,
Living in the stars
I call out through the Circled Iron Star
For my Star Power
Out through the Galaxies
Claiming Dark Powers

Similodon

Daily OM for July 12 – Universal Timing

Universal Timing

Life’s Natural Rhythm

by Madisyn Taylor

 

Slowing down and listening to your own natural rhythm can quickly connect you to the Universe.

 

Nature’s natural rhythms orchestrate when day turns to night, when flowers must bloom, and provides the cue for when it is time for red and brown leaves to fall from trees. As human beings, our own inner rhythm is attuned to this universal sense of timing. Guided by the rising and setting of the sun, changes in temperature, and our own internal rhythm, we know when it is time to sleep, eat, or be active. While our minds and spirits are free to focus on other pursuits, our breath and our heartbeat are always there to remind us of life’s pulsing rhythm that moves within and around us.

Moving to this rhythm, we know when it is time to stop working and when to rest. Pushing our bodies to work beyond their natural rhythm diminishes our ability to renew and recharge. A feeling much like jet lag lets us know when we’ve overridden our own natural rhythm. When we feel the frantic calls of all we want to accomplish impelling us to move faster than is natural for us, we may want to breathe deeply instead and look at nature moving to its own organic timing: birds flying south, leaves shedding, or snow falling. A walk in nature can also let us re-attune is to her organic rhythm, while allowing us to move back in time with our own. When we move to our natural rhythm, we can achieve all we need to do with less effort.

We may even notice that our soul moves to its own internal, natural rhythm – especially when it comes to our personal evolution. Comparing ourselves to others is unnecessary. Our best guide is to move to our own internal timing, while keeping time with the rhythm of nature.

 

Are Pets A Luxury?

Are Pets a Luxury?

by Nicolas, selected from petMD

Ever marveled at how much more livable your life is now that you’re  lucky  enough to have pets in it? Wondered how you could function without  their  presence? Yet you constantly field annoying comments questioning  how much you  spend on them, right? As if keeping pets was a mere luxury…

Driving to work early Sunday morning I caught a snippet of the American  Public Radio show, On  Being.  Among other ontological tidbits, the guest, celebrated poet and  scholar  Elizabeth Alexander, addressed the following question: Is poetry a  luxury?

Her answer, a thoughtful “no” to the notion of poetry’s ready dispensability  for its elite or cushy connotations, was based primarily  on its permanence as  cultural touchstone through the ages. When did we  not have poetry? This form of  communication is purportedly as old as the  earliest civilizations. Hence, it’s  posited, we must harbor a  quintessentially human need to engage in it.

Which, of course, got me to mulling over much the same with respect to our  pets: Are they a luxury?

Excessive, indulgent, inessential, hedonistic, frilly, sumptuous,   extravagant. Such are the adjectives the word, “luxury” denotes. None  of  which, I’d argue, apply to my own conception of the animals I keep as  pets.  Nor is it likely to jibe with your worldview of petdom — not if  you consume  animal infotainment, like this blog, on a regular basis.

After all, some of us don’t necessarily see animal keeping as a personal   choice. We view animals among us as the result of the millennia old  process of  domestication — a complex, symbiotic relationship that serves  as a significant  measure of our humanity.

Which is perhaps why so many of us feel almost compelled to live  alongside  animals. This, despite the fact that with all our modern  advances we’ve mostly  “aged out” of keeping pets as ratters, hunters,  and defenders (among other  survival-based uses). Because, as the  argument goes, there’s something so  fundamentally co-evolutionary (about  dogs and cats in particular) that we  continue to forge lasting bonds  with them in spite of the less pressing need to  keep them close.

No, pets are decidedly not luxuries — not any more than  anything  else we might consider “essential” to our quality of life that  can also be said  to be a luxury. After all, we humans need no more than  food, water, clothing  and shelter to survive. All else is luxury, by  that standard.

Yet I’m also convinced the same cannot be said for all pet owners (we all know who they are). Nor do I expect everyone to agree that pet keeping can possibly be essential. Pets, they’ll say, are nothing more than a self-indulgent drain on personal resources.

Though, to rebut the naysayers, I might offer the case of the old woman   whose only reason to get out of bed is to feed her cat. I do understand  the  reasoning of those who wonder how far we as a society should go to  shoulder the  expenses not only of our human citizenry, but that of their  animals as  well.

Because if animals are deemed essential, non-luxury goods, our social   services would surely expand to meet the demand for low income pet care. Which  is sort of where we’re headed… for better or worse.

Then there’s the other end of the spectrum within the animal crowd: The   puritanical animal rightists who believe pets are the ultimate luxury, and that  keeping them “enslaved” to humans is no less morally egregious  than wearing  their fur or killing them (in the case of wolves) from  helicopters for  sport.

Moreover, the fact that we can and do subjugate them to our will and  call  them essential to our personal psyches and to our need to thrive is an affront  to their own physical and psychological welfare.

High-volume arguments from both camps aside, it’s clear the case is  thick as  mud. All of which only serves to make me ponder this gem all  the more: If  pets are a luxury, what does that say about veterinary medicine?

‘THINK on THESE THINGS’ for June 20

By Joyce Sequichie Hifler

At those times when we have planned for something and have our hearts set on our affairs going in a certain direction but they fail to materialize, we are disappointed. If we have any faith at all, we must remember that one door never closes but another opens. That which once seemed the right thing to plan for may not hold all the things that would be for our good in the long run. It may have been right in the beginning, but as time passes and other events come into being, a change may be necessary for the benefit of the over-all picture.

Sometimes we fix our attention so rigidly on one thing, one part of life, one person, that a change throws us into a state of extreme disappointment. But disappointment, like all of the emotions, can serve to strengthen rather than take away. The attitude with which we face life can determine its outcome.

We can look with woeful eyes on the negative mental attitude and wallow in self-pity, or we can flip the mind to the upper side and let the positive mental attitude bring to us the strength and peace we need.

Disappointment is something no one has escaped. The many plans we make sometimes fade like mist in the sunlight. A cherished dream may take another shape and to lose that vision can throw a dim view on all of life. Because one tiny part could not be fulfilled, we are so tempted to let all of the rest go with it.

But if only we could wait a bit. So often we then come to realize the reason for our change in plans.

Sometimes disappointment is the very thing that keeps us mounting the steps upward, keeps us stretching our minds to understand. And it may test our spirits. For if disappointment can make a spirit bitter, the joy of accomplishment would have soon soured.

There is no joy in a disappointment, but it may be the thing to save us from a life of mediocrity.

English novelist Edward George Bulwer-Lytton wrote, “Man must be disappointed with the lesser things in life before he can accomplish the full value of the greater.”

*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*<<<=-=>>>*

Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.

Visit her web site to purchase the wonderful books by Joyce as gifts for yourself or for loved ones……and also for those who don’t have access to the Internet:

 

http://www.hifler.com
Click Here to Buy her books at Amazon.com

Elder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site: http://www.whitebison.org

Lilith, Queen of Our Hearts

 

Author: Zanaffar

Lilith is one of the most mysterious and enigmatic beings who, in one way or another, put her imprint on the human race. Most spiritual beings that we perceive as gods and goddesses have very distinct roles, and their relationship with humans is merely a supportive one. Since they all belong to a certain sphere, or represent a certain force of the Universe — some even in our planet’s nature — they offer their support to each human who performs an activity, or studies and works within their sphere or the force they represent. This support comes in form of energy and never, or extremely rarely, takes the form of an intervention or personal implication. This is perfectly understandable, because they are not human. Their knowledge and experience seems limitless compared to ours and so they know better than to interfere with human matters.

Many practitioners may say that a specific god or goddess offered them direct help, but this is only how we look at things. By drawing a certain power to themselves and combining that energy with their personal desires and will the result may seem like a divine grace or intervention. Power and energy is free for all to possess. Since you are free to do what you think is best (supporting the consequences of karma of course) with it… in this sense, a specific representative of a force may seem to have helped you. But Lilith is an entity who proceeds very differently.

We can find the story of Lilith in Jewish mythology, according to which she was the first wife of Adam. She refused to submit to a male’s will and chose a different path for herself. Her image is also associated with Ishtar, Astarte, and many other goddess images. Thanks to these legends, the Christian currents made her one of the most feared and dangerous of female demons, and this continual spiritual ‘gossip’, so to speak, nowadays creates a very false image of what she really is.

The following information is based purely on my personal spiritual research and cannot be found in any book. So here comes my version of Lilith’s story based on my experiences and research:

The origins of Lilith, where she came from, in what form she came, the nature of her spiritual essence is unknown. It’s certain that her true origins are alien from the spheres we know, and the structure of our world. What is certain that she is a female entity, she has a very well defined and strong personality and she has human characteristics … and because of these attributes, she probably is close to humans, our world, and our plane of existence.

Many say that her native element is fire. My opinion is that it is all of them, especially their combination that we might call the psychic plane. It is for certain that Lilith was in contact with humans and eventually those entities that are dominant in the Jewish mythology, and it is also certain that she rejected all for of dominance from others. From her first contact with the entities native to our world (even before humans) she underwent an intense and rapid process of evolution, thanks to which she mastered the energies of our natural spheres just like other entities. From the legends, we can understand that she learned from both demonic and angelic forces, embracing all the aspects of the Universe and placing herself in the middle… surprisingly similar to what humans do.

Some legends say that she had “sexual intercourses” with certain angels and demonic beings all suggesting an energy transfer, a process of learning. (We all can understand that a sexual intercourse from a spiritual point of view is something very different than we perceive from a physical point of view) . This energetic transfer, which the legends speak about, is a totally different phenomenon that clearly underlines her unique nature since neither angelic nor demonic beings are known to manifest in this way. (They are in permanent contact with each other, and in order to keep the sacred balance of our world, there are numerous phenomena of energy transfers, but nothing of this nature.) This manifestation… is highly unusual.

Thanks to her unique evolution, this female entity earned herself a very distinct position in our world. Unlike other beings, even goddesses who represent love, attraction, fertility, birth, reproduction, Lilith represents attraction in every form, both human, physical, psychic, spiritual energetic… you name it.

To many, this nature and role of hers is against the rules of nature, against the balance of our world. It can be seen as a spiritual and energetic perversion. This might be true, but it can also be seen in a very different way. By sacrificing her purity, in the sense that she might interfere in the delicate rules of our world, by releasing patterns of unusual, and unlikely attraction she catalyzes, encourages and helps evolution.

This act of hers can be considered as a huge, unspeakably valuable boost to all evolution in our world. And this doesn’t just affect humans; it affects every spirit who by its nature is susceptible to attraction. Only if two different, separate elements that resonate on an energetic level meet each other, can a third one, totally new and unique, be born. Without her attraction, this “mutation” so to speak, would take place in very, very slow paces.

Her power makes sure that if two elements are formally incompatible, this difference of manifestation can turn into attraction, reciprocal exploration and atone point unity, a change of experiences, a change of energies, fortifying both, offering something new and unique to both and, in some cases, even result in the birth of something new.

Thanks to this role of hers, she is a goddess, an entity of true love, because only love is that special force which attracts energies, matter, particles, spirits. Excluding another element because it’s different or formally incompatible is NOT unconditional love anymore, and this is what she is all about.

As I told you before, she doesn’t submit to any rule or regulation and this is what makes her relationship with humans so different. She is a guardian of women and believes in the superiority of the female element and she does encourage its perseverance in an active fashion. In other words, she sticks her nose into other beings’ businesses and this gesture of hers could be considered extremely outrageous spiritually. Very few entities present in our sphere do this; but all who do, in one way or another, consider themselves free from all rules and obligations and follow their own personal paths.

Lilith may be a harlot, temptress, seductress, goddess of prostitutes, source of the primordial sin, but her attraction and the forces she mastered make her the true queen of love and devoted defender of women.

For her free spirit, her incredible activity, and for her sense of justice and for her unequaled talent and power, I respect her and thank for what she is offering our world.