Each issue of the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal is published by
High Plains Arts and Sciences; P.O. Box 620604, Littleton Co.,
80123, a Colorado Non-Profit Corporation, under a Public Domain
Copyright, which entitles any person or group of persons to
reproduce, in any form whatsoever, any material contained
therein without restriction, so long as articles are not
condensed or abbreviated in any fashion, and credit is given the
original author.!
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
(c)1986, Buck Jump
Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well
disposed to you. May your harvest be bounteous, may your winter
meat be fat and easily gotten, and may the autumn sun warm you
for the cold to come.
Now is the time of the grand payoff when what we have
worked for throughout the long summer is at last laid in the
granary. A little while to enjoy the sweet earth, the time
between harvest and wood chopping. Our Mother is especially
sweet just now - past bearing but not yet the wise old
grandmother, our Earth is still warm with passion, a lover of
pleasure without consequence. Autumn is the year's reward. May
yours be rich and filled with ecstasy.
The black birds flock for the long trip south; the wild
geese return from the arctic barrens. The coyotes sing their
wild song of life and love. A night wind rustles the drying
leaves under the Hunter's moon, and I hear the horn of the wild
hunt rushing over the land. The veil between the worlds grows
thin and the past comes back into the present.
There is a sweet nostalgia in the past. Old loves still
warm the cooling blood; old triumphs still make the heart beat
faster; old mistakes still bring a blush to the cheek. "Old
mistakes", as the English sailor said in the Japanese bath
house, "Aye, there's the rub."
I hope the wild hunt in passing your house, starts only
such game as you will want to see. I fear that old Herne has
started
a hare in my woods that I neither knew was there nor wanted to
see.
My Pagan friends, forgive me... I goofed. Mea Culpa,
and I should have known better. At least I give thanks that I
can acknowledge my goof before it goes farther, and thanks too
that I haven't entirely dislocated my arm patting myself on the
back.
When last I wrote in these pages, I suggested that we
all work some magic to put an end to senseless violence. I
thought I was being reasonable, I thought my idea would perhaps
inspire an outpouring of spiritual power that might well improve
our common environment. It seemed like such a good idea. I was
proud of myself. Well, pride goeth before a forced landing.
I have a friend with whom I've debated many an issue of
moral philosophy over many a cup of coffee. He shall remain
nameless here, but I can identify him as a Talmudic scholar who
has taken a post graduate course in human nature in the "second-
hand" business. He is a master schooled in both theory and
practice. As soon as the last issue of the R.M.P.J. came out, I
rushed down to the coffee shop to gloat and play `one-up' with
my friend. I went in like a falcon and got shot down like a
goose. He read my prose carefully, and re-read parts of it. He
is a scholar and a gentleman. The former kept him from
agreeing, the latter kept him from being nasty about it. Every
philosopher should have such a friend, someone to keep our feet
on the ground.
"I agree with your position", he told me, "I think you
have a noble idea, but your first premise is false. There is no
senseless violence -- all violence seems sensible to the one who
does it. Now you, I, and every well intentioned reasonably
intelligent person must agree the examples you cite are
senseless. To us they are senseless, but to the people who did
them they were sensible."
Then he proceeded to show how, from the warped viewpoint
of these violent people their actions were, to them, both
sensible and justi-fied. He convinced me that I was making a
moral and value judgement rather than a positive statement of
natural fact. In order to achieve what I wanted, I now realize,
would require some drastic reshaping of a lot of minds, an
overhaul of millions of psyches. I didn't realize what I was
asking. Well, when I dream, I dream big....
If all the moral philosophers, gurus, religious leaders,
prophets and shamans who have tried and failed to re-shape
humanity en masse were gathered together in a single place, it
would take a Texas wheat field to hold them. In order to stop
senseless violence it will be necessary to get everyone to agree
on what is senseless. I know what is right, you know what is
right, but that wierdo next door has some other idea. Before we
can feel safe around him we have to get him to agree with us.
I'm not too optimistic about a mass mind change even by magic.
It is worth a try, but recall - in the past, some real eternity
class magicians have tried and failed. Some of those old boys
could control the weather, transmute metals, turn juice or water
in to wine instantly and levitate, but they couldn't change the
mind set of mankind. It's easier to move a mountain than a
mind. To use force either real or implied, either physical or
social, is only to replay the inquisition, and we've already had
too many remakes and sequels to that. Education seems to be the
only method that works, and that's as slow as evolution.
Right and Justice are not to be had in job lots, even
with magic. Every case must be approached individually one by
one.
To change minds in mass lots can be done magically; however
people who are so changed are not really changed, but only
suppressed -- what you get are a bunch of zombies. So far as I
know this sort of thing is only done by magicians on the dark
side. Adolph Hitler and Jim Jones are two examples that come
readily to mind. For all I know both of the named examples may
well have started with the highest motives. When you start
superimposing your mind on the mind of another or others, things
have a way of coming unglued. History is full of examples of
groups that acted with one mind for a while and then unravelled
when the guru leader either died or ran out of gas. No my
friends, it won't work, even with the noblest of motives it just
won't work.
I knew all this from long ago, but I was misled as to
what was going on. I thought the senseless violence I saw
around me was from some outside source. A mad spirit, a virus
or some sort of "dis-harmonic vibration". If that were the case
my idea would have been a good one. On the off chance that
something like that is now afoot in our world a general
intention for reason and against violence can't hurt, and may
well do some constructive good. I'm all for anyone who tries to
clean up our environment, seen or unseen. Considering the sort
of good folk who read the R.M.P.J. I'm not too worried that
anyone who read my last little effort will be misled by it. I
fear that at worst, those of you who followed my suggestion may
have wasted both time and effort - I hope that at best, you may
have done some good by promoting reason and discouraging
confusion. Cleaning the house won't stop a fire, but it will
lessen the chances of spontaneous combustion, and make a fire
easier to fight if it does break out. As I see it, my mistake
was in supposing we all have more or less the same values and in
externalizing he source of senseless violence.
Enough of apology and explanation. Breast-beating and
patting your back are both good exercises.....in futility.
One good bray from the donkey, one good hoot from the owl, and
then back to work. We are still at risk from some angry fool
armed and dangerous. What can be done? What should be done?
I can think of several things to do. First, learn to
perceive the violent ones. Some of us can see auras, some can
pick up on "bad vibes", some can "smell" trouble -- however,
whichever, my advice would be to use it. An antelope don't long
survive in the veldt without looking, listening, smelling and
generally keeping on the alert. Second, surround yourself with
protection. Some walk in a sphere of protection, some are
guided by some unseen force, I rely on my guardian spirit,
guardian angel or however you call her. In any case, whatever
protection you have, use it. Whatever ceremonies, prayers,
incantations or deep meditations you use, don't neglect them.
That is about it. We're back where we were when we wore fur
bikinis and hunted with stone-tipped spears, but haven't we
always been there? Safety is, in this life, I fear only an
illusion.
One thing more we can do, and should do -- we can teach.
Part of the debt we all owe to life is to clean the place. Non
only should we pick up the trash, but we should also clean up
the vicious bull-shit wherever we find it. Like it or not we
are all teachers. Whatever we do, whatever we say is part
of the lesson we teach.
Before all the Gods I wish I had some magic formula to
give you that would clean up the world both seen and unseen, but
I don't. The life of mankind is a hard road to travel, that is
why the ultimate designed a hard bunch to travel it. My
blessings on you one and all. May you find enlightenment. You
are smart, may you find wisdom. Let this subject now be closed
between us. If you have any ideas on this subject pass them on
to our longsuffering editors.
Now it may be that I can resume my clown suit and once
more arm myself with my gadfly stinger and get back to the
heretic business and leave metaphysics to those better equipped
to deal with it. A silversmith shoeing a horse rarely does a
good job of it.
In the spring the wild plums were a'blooming. White
blossoms on the bough, lace for the bride. In the long summer
the little green plums grew and changed to a lighter green
color. When the first frost was still up in the high country the
plums grew sweet and turned a lovely purple-pink shade. Then at
the time of the autumnal equinox, they were picked and crushed.
Now the new wine works behind the air seals in the fermenter.
The promise of spring blossoms is redeemed in the good strong
wine of winter. What we learn in any one place we can use in
another place. The wild plums are a part of life; from them we
can learn about other parts of life. When the wine falls clear,
a drink all around, a toast to life. May we all go our separate
ways bound for a common goal. May the flowers bloom where we
have passed. Go in peace, well disposed to your fellows. With
these words I do now part from thee" Jump.......from
RMPJ Oct '86