Returning to Imbolc

Gorgeous pic by Luisclas at pixel.com

I told my family that I was dedicating more time to Imbolc and St. Bridget's day this year, after many years of working hard to keep kids in college and build a new business and raise two new puppies...  all good things.  Yet Bridget puja has been sitting in the back of my life, and I am re-invoking my Bridget contract as I start this new year turn.

When my kids were little we celebrated St. Bridget traditionally - for the folk of Northern Europe and America, winter meant the loss of milk from cows, sheep or goats, the loss of butter making and fresh cream; chickens would quit laying eggs and dishes requiring dairy and eggs had to put up before the solstice, to store for the long months ahead.  During my years in Wales, I can attest that February 1 is lambing, despite cold and snow, and I was blessed to head out to pasture and watch my Welsh cousins search for ewes lambing in the snow (oh it was cold!).

Paul Selling at pixels.com

Yet lambing meant milk and a return to things like cakes and sauces that we now take for granted.  So to celebrate, my kids and I gave up milk and eggs during the weeks of January, to celebrate the return of mothering and milk on St. Bridget's day.  (How long my kids could survive without dairy depended greatly on their age and interest!)

Taking away dairy during the cold month of January is a hard thing to do, even in modern times (and my vegan friends can delete their vegan butter and milk for the same idea...). We live in a culture here in the US that is so removed from farm life and cycles of nature.  I am in a rural state, 87% forested, and most of the families I see have no garden, no chickens, no livestock.  The coal industry and now the gas industry have ripped families from the land where they have lived for generations.  Milk here is mostly imported from China, sold at Walmart.  The sense of our land as a magic place of forests, birthplace of rivers, home to elk and cougars and hellbender salamanders, is lost to most families.

Most families I see also live removed from the cycles of light and dark.  Driving home through forests, I can see the light returning as the year moves into February.  It is still light at 5:30, when at winter solstice the sun went down long before then.  In the morning, the dogs are crawling out of bed earlier and earlier - in this crazy winter of melting arctic and cold then hot weather - cardinals were calling on the holly outside all week long.  I heard wrens the other morning.  I sip tea alone in the morning while my college neighborhood sleeps unaware of returning signs of spring.

There are so many ways to celebrate Imbolc, St. Bridget's day, Candlemas.  The festival of milk, of light, of Bridget, Celtic goddess of smiths, poetry and foster care, the return of spring, all come at the beginning of February.  The list of ways to celebrate are endless:  drink milk, bake cakes, light candles, make candles, clean your hearth, clean your kitchen, make St. Bridget's crosses, rise and pray to the sun, welcome Bridget to your home with Bridy dolls in her honor.  An excellent article for celebrating Imbolc is at Gather Victoria.  Or invent your own method to honor Bridget:  I continue in my ongoing care of so many children and teens, honoring the foster mother guise of Bridget, and I celebrate her feast day working to bring justice to children.  Here in the US, work to end the separation of immigrant children from their parents, of stopping trafficking of children, or help a child in need would all be ways to honor Bride.

For my father, February is the month of seed planting.  In Tennessee, he will be setting out broccoli and kale by the end of the month.  The seed catalogs coming to my door announce that our connection to this planet - to growing things, to pollinators, to clean air and water - all still matter.  Bridget's Fire is a happily eclectic bog about women, religion, faith, action, spirituality, reclaiming women's religious traditions, finding spiritual paths, creating and saving the world.  In that light, Bridget's day, a feast to a Celtic saint and deity, a woman Bishop in the historical church, a representative of welcoming, hospitality, blacksmithing, poetry, women's religious community, women's power, foster mothers, milk, and light, can all be celebrated in any way that connects women to power, the earth, growing things, building a better world.

pic by MarcusSpkiske at pexels.com

I am returning to a dedicated Imbolc this year.  Light is returning.  Ewes in the northern hemisphere are birthing lambs.  Soon, hawks will next.  Seeds will sprout.  Take St. Bridget's day, and commit to whatever you want to grow this year, and commit to nourishing yourself and your handiwork.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Irish Immigrants coming to America 

I am re-visiting Hebrews 13:2 as the United States plunges once again into anti-immigration hysteria in the name of a Christianity that in reality ALWAYS called for inclusion of all marginalized people.  After the attacks in Paris last week, and despite the ongoing media denial about attacks in places like Nigeria and Lebanon, the fascists of America are calling for the end of Syrian immigration, the registration of Muslims in the US, and closing Muslim places of worship.  This intense fascist exploitation of the tragedies in Paris is typical for the right wing in America - and that is right wing politicians, who continue to harness Christian prejudice despite the fact that Christianity in its roots was not anti-immigrant.

Hebrews 13:2 is a beautiful passage from Jewish Scripture.  "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."  While keeping Jewish teaching, in Christian Scripture, Jesus came as a new law, calling for people to join together in the name of Christ, not in the name of any one nation or one empire.  Governments of the day were astounded and threatened when slaves and masters, Jews and Romans, people of Palestine and people of Greece and people of Egypt gathered together to worship in a new community.  If you read my blog at all you know I have posted about Coptic polytheism in early Christian worship, about Paganism in both early Hebrew and early Christian communities, about open communion in Christian worship, about the importance of extending a shared worship to all peoples and from all peoples.

I have also been thinking this week about my many Muslim friends here in the United States.  Sasha and Saheim are goddaughter and friend, both born in the US, and both Muslim.  Sasha babysat my daughter for years, after I babysat for her years before.  Saheim befriended me and my daughter at a convention in his hometown, and continues to show the hospitality of Islam in his every action and gesture of friendship to me and my teen.  One of my greatest teachers, Mark, another US citizen, taught Islamic thought in his business classes, encouraging students of every faith to see the connection between business and spirituality.  And I have known immigrants, and been the better because of them.  Growing up, Noor was a visiting scholar from Egypt, who sat threw many high school classes with me while her parents studied in my hometown University.  Later, Ayesha was a family friend, also studying here in the States, whose family embraced me and my children with special needs when many Christian Americans would not.

Islam is part of American life, from my family and friends, to the Rumi poetry I read daily on Facebook, to the Mosque in Pittsburgh that gave out food weekly to the poor.  When fascist politicians talk of registering Muslims, they are talking of American citizens, of visiting children and scholars, of refugees and of highly skilled immigrants.  I am seeing many, many articles calling on Americans to welcome Syrian immigrants, and to stand against anti-Islamic rhetoric.  But I want us to remember that most of already know Muslims, and that the Islamic communities of America are already integral to our lives.

Bridget's Fire has long been a blog about women and religion, from puja and Hindu traditions, to Christian theology, to Jewish and Pagan traditions.  I need to be more purposeful in including Muslim feminisms, Muslim spirituality, and the centuries-old traditions of Muslim hospitality and political activism for peace and justice.

But today I am invoking Hebrews.  The passage:  Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers has deep roots in Western tradition.  Hospitality was central to the Bridget community in Christian Ireland, with open doors to all visitors.  Indeed, hospitality to strangers was a sacred value throughout Wales, Scotland and Ireland.  Celtic Christianity developed around monasteries, so the Christian believer in early Celtic lands had to travel to learn, to study, to pray.  Travelers required a welcome, and hospitality to a stranger became a cornerstone to early Celtic Christian thought.

The blog Godspace:  Spirituality, Sustainability, Creativity, offers a wonderful liturgy of Celtic Christian hospitality traditions.  They include the following traditional prayer:

We saw a stranger yesterday, we put food in the eating place,
Drink in the drinking place, music in the listening place,
and with the sacred name of the triune God,
He blessed us and our house, our cattle and out dear ones.
As the lark says in her song:  Often, often, often goes the Christ in the stranger's guise.

I invite all my readers, of any faith or none, to find ways to act in hospitality as a counter to the fascism surrounding us in the United States.  I also invite us to acknowledge and share the importance of our Muslim friends, family and neighbors, of Islamic traditions that shape our lives, of the importance of both American Muslims and immigrants of all faiths in the open table of hospitality that should be America.

Karen Tate Call for Action: Fight the GOP and Fox News

Ok, for those of you interested in magical action against the right wing, here is a call for spellcasting for March 3rd, 2011. Karen Tate, of Voices of the Sacred Feminine Radio show and streaming, posted this as part of a facebook group tired of the endless attacks from the GOP extreme rightwing and media like Fox News.

Here is the post from Karen:

On Thursday March 3, at anytime during that 24 hours, we're engaging in mirror magic to thwart the Republican (GOP) party and Fox News. We're tired of the Republican war on women, the middle class and poor, planned parenthood, and now the unions who helped build the middle class. We're tired of Fox News distorting truth for the benefit of Corporations and the GOP. Many of you probably saw independent studies that came out from universities showing how viewers of Fox are some of the most mis-informed viewers in the United States. They are hiding behind the Constitution to lie to Americans to pad their pocketbooks. They constantly try to divide Americans based on racism, sexism, immigrant bashing, religious intolerance, etc. Why? Because if everyone wakes up to the real enemies - the corporations who are the masters of the GOP, then they'll have quite a problem on their hands if the people unite against a common enemy and demand justice and fairness. Many are coming to believe the latest budget cuts economists say will cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, that the GOP has publicly said they don't care about, is actually an intention to sabotage the country's economy, then blame Obama, so they can win the 2012 presidency.

So, get out your mirror. Have some image that represents the Republican party and Fox News. Use their logos if you like. Google the logos of Fox News and the GOP and print them out. Place your mirror on your altar or kitchen table or where ever you plan to work this intention. Your focus is whatever bad intentions for Americans spews forth from FOX or the GOP, it is reflected back at them. That their deeds and lies are exposed and come back to haunt them. That people wake up to their misdeeds destroying average Americans so the rich can get richer. Basically, they are bringing this on themselves. What they put out in the world will be reflected back on them. Cook up the intention whatever way you want, but this is the central focus. They get back what they've been spewing. The damage they've been doing comes back as damage to their cause. So make your logos face the mirror, effectively reflecting their image and deeds back at them. Muster up all your pent up anger and passion and put it into this intention. Then release it into the Universe so it can do it's work. And leave the mirror and logos/pictures/images there if you can - giving it more energy everyday.

We have to use the collective power of our intentions. We certainly don't have the money Republicans have to buy off our politicians and make laws and tax codes that continue to benefit the rich. No one on the Right is calling for shared sacrifice. The War Budget isn't being tapped for money. The rich aren't getting tapped to pay taxes even at the Clinton Administration rates - instead they're getting tax cuts. Their rich accountants find ways they dodge taxes. So where do they want to get the money -- on the poor and middle class who have been reamed by Wall Street.

Wake up America -- fight against this economic terrorism.

Of course any magical work can be changed to suit your spirituality. Prayer to stop rightwing media and GOP assaults on the US and state budgets are always welcome. I am rather fond, myself, of writing letters to my representatives - a good spellcasting if there ever was one. Puja to a budget for justice is good. Offerings to saints or deities, all good. Whatever path to spirituality works for you, demanding economic justice is cornerstone to all faiths.

Join with Karen tomorrow!

Tell Congress to Extend Anti- Human Trafficking Legislation

As my gentle readers know already, after being homeless I am very committed to anti-trafficking laws to protect all people. Here is an action for readers in the United States from change.org:

"This year, the Administration and Congress have the opportunity to make historic bipartisan progress towards ending slavery at home and abroad. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, the cornerstone of U.S. efforts to combat human trafficking in the United States and around the world, needs to be extended this year and current funding levels need to be protected.

Please ask Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Reid to support federal funding for anti-trafficking initiatives at their currently authorized levels and ensure the renewal this year of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and President Obama to make the effort to combat human trafficking and modern day slavery a priority, including working hard to renew the Trafficking Victims Protection Act this year."

We need to hold the Republicans in Congress, since they always talk about being anti-crime, to their stated values. Fighting crime against children and adults needs to be funded.

Please sign the change.org petition!

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

New Quiz: Got Science?? Get a FREE Sticker, too!

A freebie quiz from the Union of Concerned Scientists, that doesn't tell you your totem sign, but does tell you how much you know about global climate change, and gets you a free sticker!!:

What do you know about global warming? Can you tell FACT from SCIENCE FICTION? Want a free "Got Science?" sticker?
Take the true or false quiz that pits your knowledge of global warming against public officials, media personalities, and political hacks. See if you can tell who's "Got Science" versus who's spreading propaganda that's "Not Science" about global warming.
Get a free "Got Science?" sticker -- no matter how well you do on the quiz. I did!
It's by the Union of Concerned Scientists and CREDO, so you know it's the real deal. Check it out!

Good luck on the quiz!

Action: Save the Whales (and thousands of other species)

This is an international call for immediate signatures on protecting literally thousands of species threatened by extinction due to human behavior. Please sign here:

Days left to stop mass extinction

The petition is from the international Avaaz.org, with the petition in multiple languages, and so PLEASE pass it on. The goal is to present millions of signatures to the Convention on Biodiversity currently going on in Japan.

So please act now. I have a whale totem in my life, and can't imagine this planet without whales. . . for all who follow a pagan/Christian/Hindu/UU/Jewish/Muslim/Wiccan/Celtic Recreationist/Shinto/Buddhist path, the sacredness of all life must be protected.

Sign now.

Action: Stop Child Trafficking in the US!

This cause is dear to my heart. I was homeless 4 times from childhood into my early 20,'s and I can not even now describe how terrifying homelessness is for a child. (And 9 out of 10 Americans who are homeless are children.) And though we in the U.S. like to think that child trafficking is something that happens in Asia, the truth is that the average age for a prostitute in the United States is 14. Read that again: 14.

Unfortunately, state and local law enforcement agencies rarely have the money to address child trafficking and child pornography. (This in the richest country in the world!) Now Congress is proposing funding for local agencies to combat trafficking and to support kids who escape. Clearly this is a minimum that needs to be done.

The bills before the US Congress are S. 2925 and HR 5575. Please ask your representatives to support this legislation! Or do it easily and sign a petition here:
Stop the Sex Trafficking of American Youth from Care2.com. I'm pretty sure these links work only for the US.

However for gentle readers elsewhere, there is work you can do. UNICEF has an international community working against child trafficking; read their bulletins and donate to them here. Check the data: children are at risk for trafficking everywhere on the planet.

Finally, remember that here in the US, many of the children on the streets are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered, and are on the streets because parents have kicked them out of their homes. For too long, police and other law enforcement agencies have considered these children unimportant. It is time to change that.

Please act now.

Karen Tate and Politically Honorable Goddess Worship

Ok, I am in love with Karen Tate. Her weekly radio show, Voices of the Sacred Feminine (available online at her website), connects millions of women and men to feminist religion from all angles; her e-books on sacred Goddess places worldwide inspire many a pilgrimage, and now she has written the most awesome article in L.A.'s the Examiner: Reconcile Your Spirituality With Your Politics; Goddess Is A Democrat.

I love Karen's article, not because of any deep love I feel for the Democratic Party ("I don't belong to an organized party; I'm a Democrat" - Will Rogers), but because if you believe in a world of social justice for all people of all colors, sexes, orientations, classes, abilities, ages, religions, cultures, languages - well if you believe in social justice for all people, then you have no choice these days but to speak out against the right wing of the Republican Party as it exists today. Naming the Goddess - or God - as a Democrat might seem extreme, but given how Republicans are acting these days and how we ARE a two party system, well then even deities have little voting choice.

And I have Karen's permission to publish her article here, and my thanks to her. We are coming up on another election season, and the "let corporations rape the world any way they choose" Republicans hope to make gains in the November elections. No matter where you are religiously - Christian, Pagan, Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Atheist, Humanist, Animist, Shinto - whatever you are if you've been reading this blog you need to get out and stop Republicans from winning this fall. Read Karen, and get active!


Reconcile Your Spirituality with Your Politics - Goddess is a Democrat

* August 25th, 2010 3:35 pm PT

I wrestled for sometime with whether to write this article. I almost wrote it when Sarah Palin hit the national stage and we learned her Church deemed the Queen of Heaven aka Goddess, a demon, and Evangelicals were at war with Goddess revering folk. I almost wrote this again when there was so much humbug on a previously friendly Pagan/Progressive Christian listserve I belonged to that suddenly, in the climate of Palin, became very anti-women’s rights and anti-Pagan. I almost shared these ideas again when Pagans on another listserve were more worried about what color candle to use on their altar than share political ideas that might advance our spirituality. Several asked why they should care if the Bible gives men and religions license to oppress women. (Slap hand to forehead!)

I guess I can say I was steadily getting filled up to my eyeballs with apathy, ignorance, intolerance and oppression. Then come the Tea Baggers wanting to take back their country from "big government" yet seemed to care little about corporate strangleholds on our democracy or that their movement was funded by the self interests of corporations. And more recently the ginned up controversy of the Ground Zero Mosque which is not on Ground Zero at all. Now, today, I read on the internet a cab driver got stabbed for being a Muslim and a Muslim group was prevented from renting a space for worship services based on a bogus excuse that was thinly veiled bigotry. And I suspect once this kind of intolerance and discrimination is let out of the bag, this is only the beginning.

Elders and spiritual leaders from all walks of life have been telling us we are teetering on the edge of a knife and with the right push, we’ll fall either way. Considering that, I don’t want to be complicit by my silence with those others standing mute. If by speaking out I can perhaps be that metaphoric 100th Monkey to help stem the tide from tipping toward more oppression, inequality, war, intolerance and hate, let me try. And particularly as a Pagan, a member of a fast-growing spirituality perceived to be in the religious minority in this country, with a history of being oppressed by Christians zealots, I would think other Pagans would be concerned enough to speak out too. Can you imagine the anti-Pagan hate that would be conjured up by The Right if in the near future some disturbed Pagan commits some crime in this climate of religious intolerance? We already have to suffer the discrimination of tier one versus tier two religions. I will not be one of the quiet lurking in the shadows as hate-mongers set the tone. The escalating lies and hate-filled propaganda have pushed me over the edge. My hair is on fire and the only way to put it out is let loose my sacred roar!

So, agree with me or not, here goes....Goddess is a Democrat!

I’m not alone in my views. Riane Eisler has said it. Starhawk has said it. If Goddess had to choose between the current two major political parties, she would choose voting for Democrats. Others elders and leaders too numerous to mention have supported this clear choice by either their word or deeds which reconciles our spirituality and politics. If our country, our world, is to move forward it has to break the shackles of war for economic gain, ignorance, racism, bigotry, homophobia, plutocracy, exploitation and sexism. We have to start caring if everyone’s boat floats, not just the boat rich white conservative men and women book passage on. We have to worry about The Many and not The Few. That means if you are a Goddess Advocate, an environmentalist, a feminist, if you want a caring culture, a culture free of war and one of advancement and enlightenment, societies who value science as well as spiritual freedom, where people aren’t constantly being duped to vote against their economic interests, or their rights are taken away to satisfy religious dogma - then you cast your vote for Democrats. It is really that simple.

No, the Democrats are not perfect - far from it! Especially the Blue Dog, Faux-Democrats. I’m not happy the more sweeping change I voted for has not come yet, but we can’t dig ourselves out of catastrophic circumstances over night, especially in the face of such overwhelming obstructionism, lies and propaganda working against Democrats. And as reasonable citizens, you do not throw a tantrum and get even for your disappointment and switch sides and vote for the people mostly responsible for causing the cataclysm! People tell me, " I’m not a Democrat or a Republican, I’m an Independent." Great. But given the two choices we have in our political system, you usually have to cast your vote one way or the other, Democrat or Republican, and today’s Republican leaders are a dangerous bunch. They are either ignorant and intolerant with no sense of compassion, economics and history or they are hypocrites and liars who care little for you and me and care everything for the richest 2% of the country and people making $250K annually. They talk about wanting smaller government and less interference in our lives until it comes to telling people who they can marry, what is tolerated in the bedroom and what women can and cannot do with their bodies.

And then there are the issues of social justice. If there is to be social justice in this country, it will not be promoted by Republicans. This is the party that let people die in the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina. This is the party that belongs to Fox News and vice versa. Bush broke the sacred oath of trust between himself as Commander in Chief and our armed forces by sending poor and middle class men and women into a bogus war which many believe was really an excuse to pad the pockets of the military industrial complex and oil companies. He’s been caught on tape saying the way to revive an economy is war. George Bush and his cronies gave this country a black eye around the world, making us less safe and his party is doing it again now with this Ground Zero Mosque issue. The GOP says they want to distance themselves from Bush, but the Bush policies are in their blood. It’s who they are.

In fairness, I should say, probably not all conservative Republicans are of this ilk, but if there are any Republicans wearing white hats where are they? They are letting the crazies run their party figuring the end justifies the means. They rarely, if ever, dispute outright lies spun to further polarize our country. Their silence leave people like me thinking when you do find homophobes, racists, those who would dumb down Americans to steal their vote, those who would take reproductive rights away from women, those employing fear to control, whether they’re scaring white people about those different from them, about terrorists, the French, or people of different religions, they will more than likely be Republicans. They are the ones that would balance the budget on the backs of the poor by taking away Medicaid and Social Security or privatize it so their rich cronies can find a loop-hole to steal it in another Wall Street crash - OOPs!. They are quick to say the poor are lazy rather than admit the inequity in our society that holds some people back. I’ve heard some say they think wealth is a gift from God and greed is perfectly okay while believing the flip-side of this is poverty is a punishment from God for the sins of the poor. How convenient that theory to justify subsidies for corporations and ignore people! Yet they are the ones who always vote to de-fund education - maybe because an informed electorate employing critical thinking, with a sense of fairplay, not hate and fear and a sense of white entitlement, will not vote for their vision of the future.

Bottom line. Pagan or not, do you want to be responsible for perpetuating the power and ideology of these people? People who are galvanizing a movement based on lies and non-issues used to divide people and make us hate each other. People always ready to fund a war while Americans go to bed hungry. People who are against reform of Wall Street-run-amok and demonize the idea healthcare for all. They believe in people working more and more for less and less to fund insatiable greed. Perhaps once there was a time when Republicans could sit down with Democrats and work out some equitable compromise. Not anymore. The Republicans of today are a mean, selfish, ignorant, racist and homophobic bunch. That’s not just my opinion. Just turn on the news. That’s who they have speaking for them. They won’t approve unemployment benefits for people who lost their job in the economy they helped destroy, but they can twist themselves into a pretzel to try to protect big corporations from having to follow safety and environmental regulations and help the rich get richer while the corporate and political vultures pick the meat off the bones of the poor and ever-shrinking Middle Class. The media will not say it because it’s considered politically incorrect, but let’s shine the light on this. This is a culture war. Make no mistake.

I could lament the death of the American Dream for the Middle Class. I could cite statistics about how women make 70 cents on the dollar and most retire in poverty. Or how wages of the Middle Class have been stagnant for years while the richest in the country have gotten more powerful and wealthier. How CEO’s used to make 50 times as much as their employees and now they make 350 times more than their employees who are getting less and less benefits and salary. I could cite how other countries of the West take so much better care of their people with real family values, not lip service, but corporate interests in the U.S. have convinced their sheeple this sort of social justice reflects that scary word - socialism! History, truth and statistics are not on the side of Republicans and if you aren't making $250K a year, you shouldn't be either.

To conclude, if you are a Pagan or a Goddess Advocate, I suggest you vote for people who promote ideals and laws geared toward values that run parallel with our spirituality - ideas that promote the highest good for The Many. That’s you and me. As a formerly oppressed religion and an Earth-based spirituality, you must stand for equality, balance and fairness in our legislation and for environmental and economic sustainability - not people who work against that! By Her many faces across continents and cultures, Goddess Spirituality represents diversity. Likewise, I believe Pagans should embrace diversity. I, for one, don’t want to live in a narrow little conservative box with tight corners filled with hate and fear. I want to live in a spacious, rich and diverse world where there are lots of ingredients in our cultural gumbo. It’s really so much more delicious than plain white bread.

So please, consider supporting and helping people with ideals that will help us fall from that tipping point of the knife onto the side of peace, tolerance, equal rights for all including religious freedom and human rights, which includes a woman’s right to choose what she does with her body. No church or state should legislate a women’s reproductive rights lest she is a slave to her body! You push back and speak out against those who throw these ideals under the bus. And you go out and vote for Democrats and take three people with you because the Wolf is at the door and we cannot afford to have this crop of Republicans setting the tone for what this country stands for. We are better than their ideals. We need to be raising the bar and setting the tone, direction and values for a better world. It’s really that simple.

-Karen Tate

Action: Tell Chevron Clean Up the Amazon!!

This is an Amnesty International USA call to action though I hope those of you gentle readers in other countries can participate. Sign the Petition HERE.

Texaco/Chevron dumped over 19 billion gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon region of Ecuador, and the health impact has been far reaching for Indigenous communities. Now Chevron wants to limit its clean-up operations. We can't let that happen. Multinational corporations are bankrupting local and national governments to clean up the messes the corporations made.

This isn't just a Gulf of Mexico or Amazon problem. In my own neighborhood, the creek at our neighborhood playground is so polluted the stink can be overwhelming. A chemical corporation in the 1950's contaminated the creek; since gone bankrupt, my local strapped township can't afford to pay to clean the creek. US government clean up funds are available, but our playground is not a top priority. Instead generations of children have grown up with the toxic sludge yards away from their swing sets, and yards away from neighborhood homes.

Corporations are not counting the health and clean up costs of their pollution, instead preferring to pass on their costs to us, taxpayers, parents, children. If companies know they can pollute, drag in profits, and then declare bankruptcy while running abroad with our dollars and tax incentives, - while leaving their messes behind - now that is Taxation without Representation. Corporate greed and irresponsibility are enemies of democracy - and balanced budgets.

Please take action now! Chevron, BP. . . it's all the same thing.

Stop Puppy Mills - action!

Meet Nico!! My youngest puppy, now 2 and he has finally quit chewing barbie dolls! Of my four rescue dogs, he is the easiest - eager to please, smart and friendly. (Cookie, rescued from starvation and abuse in West Virginia, took months to quit biting men and to gain some weight; Skye, also abused before her adoption - as well as hit by a car while a stray, has tremendous health problems after her accident; and then Bingo, our criminal mastermind, the smartest - and shyest - dog I've ever met, who nipped until age 2, would be a shoe in for euthanasia if we hadn't worked and worked and worked to help her shyness.)

Nico was a puppy mill dog. He was born with health problems - no tear ducts, so as you see in his picture, he has constant tears streaming down his face and coloring his poodle hair. His first owners abandoned him in a park at the age of six months.

But good for him, he was abandoned near our old home, with the most wonderful "poodle lady" in the neighborhood, and when Nico was found our neighbors took him straight to Miss Julia and her rescue. She then placed Nico in our home, as she already knew all my dogs, going back to wolfhound/shepherd mix Murphy years ago. And despite 6 month old puppy teething, Nico was a delight from day one. Today, he and Cookie live in our laps - or your lap if you come visit.

Puppy mills are a huge problem here in the WV/PA/OH area - along with illegal dog fighting. Many of the farms that breed puppies either shoot the dogs that don't sell by the age of 6 months, or they sell the puppies to dogfighters. Thank heaven there is also a huge and thriving rescue community working to save as many puppies as possible.

Yet the best thing would be to shut down the mills. No dog should churn our litter after litter, in small cages, year after year. And no puppy should be kept in a wire cage, with no socialization or exercise. Yet that is what puppy mills do.





Help stop them.

Take Action at Care2Causes Here

Solstice Activism

I call on everyone today to celebrate this Summer Solstice with some spiritual or direct activism. From the tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico, to the pending meeting of the International Whaling Commission (who propose lifting the ban on commercial whaling), to the heat waves, monsoons, floods, hurricanes, tornados and storms that are taking over summer worldwide, we have plenty of work to do as Pagans or Christians or just as humans who share the planet.

Some activism ideas, all gleaned from various groups of mine locally and on line:

First of all, a petition to keep the ban on commercial whaling, please sign! Or write the President, urging his administration to oppose lifting the commercial whaling ban. And hurry, this vote is coming this week.

Here is a call to turn off your electricity on June 21st, and to pray for mother earth. Juliane Poirier interviewed Lakota Dakota Nakota Oyate Chief Arvol Looking Horse, who agrees with my great grandmother:

""A man or a woman without spirit is very dangerous," Looking Horse explained in a recent phone interview. According to this Sioux chief, the absence of spirit is causing suffering everywhere. "We are in a time of survival," he said. "But we don't want to believe it because we have forgotten our spirits. We have forgotten that Grandmother Earth has a spirit." Disconnected souls, according to Looking Horse, are "hurting others without even knowing they are hurting others." Those being hurt include animals, trees and waterways."

Poirier's interview goes on:

"Looking Horse seems surprised to be a global spokesperson for the environment. "It seems like it was just yesterday when a woman had no voice in this country, when our people were fighting for their rights," he said. "Just a hundred years ago, our people were in concentration camps called reservations. Our ceremonies were outlawed, and we were put in boarding schools. I never thought I would have the opportunity to go to the White House. Now today, people all over the world are listening to us."

And here's the message. "On June 21," said Looking Horse, "shut off the electricity and let's pray.""

Here is a prayer from Looking Horse for you to use today:


****** A Great Urgency ******
To All World Religious and Spiritual Leaders

My Relatives,
Time has come to speak to the hearts of our Nations and their
Leaders. I ask you this from the bottom of my heart, to come together
From the Spirit of your Nations in prayer.

We, from the heart of Turtle Island, have a great message for the
World; we are guided to speak from all the White Animals showing
Their sacred color, which have been signs for us to pray for the
Sacred life of all things. As I am sending this message to you, many
Animal Nations are being threatened, those that swim, those that
Crawl, those that fly, and the plant Nations, eventually all will be
Affect from the oil disaster in the Gulf.

The dangers we are faced with at this time are not of spirit. The
Catastrophe that has happened with the oil spill which looks like the
Bleeding of Grandmother Earth, is made by human mistakes, mistakes
That we cannot afford to continue to make.

I asked, as Spiritual Leaders, that we join together, united in
Prayer with the whole of our Global Communities. My concern is these
Serious issues will continue to worsen, as a domino effect that our
Ancestors have warned us of in their Prophecies.

I know in my heart there are millions of people that feel our united
Prayers for the sake of our Grandmother Earth are long overdue. I
Believe we as Spiritual people must gather ourselves and focus our
Thoughts and prayers to allow the healing of the many wounds that
Have been inflicted on the Earth. As we honor the Cycle of Life, let
Us call for Prayer circles globally to assist in healing Grandmother
Earth (our Unc'I Maka).

We ask for ! prayers that the oil spill, this bleeding , will stop. That
The winds stay calm to assist in the work. Pray for the people to be
Guided in repairing this mistake, and that we may also seek to live
In harmony, as we make the choice to change the destructive path we
Are on.

As we pray, we will fully understand that we are all connected. And
That what we create can have lasting effects on all life.

So let us unite spiritually, All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer.
Along with this immediate effort, I also ask to please remember June
21st, World Peace and Prayer Day/Honoring Sacred Sites day. Whether
It is a natural site, a temple, a church, a synagogue or just your
Own sacred space, let us make a prayer for all life, for good
Decision making by our Nations, for our children's future and
Well-being, and the generations to come.

Onipikte (that we shall live),
Chief Arvol Looking Horse
19th generation Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe





And here, from Druid Ellen Evert Hopman, a re-invisioning of the Carmina Gadelica, to pray for the healing of the Gulf:


I plan to use this on Solstice. I will apologize to the waters, thank the
waters and then make offerings to a stream as I intone this
blessing. My hope is that Druids and Celtic folk all over will do this too.
Go to the ocean if you can, if not then make your offerings to a stream. All
streams flow into the sea, eventually;

"O Gods of the sea,
put health in the drawing waves,
to enrich the vast ocean,
to liven the dying waters"

"I come here in prayer on this day,
Day to send healing on the vast waters,
Day to send health to fish and fowl,
Day to put right the web in the warp.
Day to put life in the briny waters,
Day to place health back in the ocean,
Day to cleanse, day to bless,
Day to put right a great wrong.

Day to put life back in the tide,
Day to send health to the life in the sea,
Day to make a most effective prayer,
Day of power, Gods bless the vast ocean,
Day of power, may the ocean be blessed."

(adapted from the Carmina Gadelica, a collection of traditional Scottish
prayers and invocations)

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _
Ellen Evert Hopman, author of "Priestess of the Forest: A Druid Journey",
"The Druid Isle", "A Druids Herbal - Of Sacred Tree Medicine", "Walking the
World in Wonder - A Children's Herbal" and other volumes
http://www.elleneve rthopman. com
Visit the Virtual Shrine of Brighid ~ http://shrineofbrig hid.com/
'The Order of the White Oak' - World Druid Council Ord na Darach Gile -
Comhairle Domhanda na nDraoí
www.whiteoakdruids. org
Is maith cech dál dia ticc síd. Any meeting that produces peace is good.





Turning off electricity for part of a day and saying a prayer for our planet seems a good way to celebrate this midsummer. (Ok, jump a few bonfires, too!)

If you want to be more active, here are ideas:


DragonNetwork (ok, half my friends are going to be jumping with joy at a pagan group with dragon in the name, and the other half will be moaning. . . bite me again!) is a UK environmental pagan network, with a yahoo group and a ritual directory! Worth checking out for environmentally activist pagans! (Yup, I'm a member.) (Nope, I will not argue about dragons.)

Another, and this time Christian web presence, is the Fund for Christian Ecology, with lots of links for getting active in your church community.

And if you want some kick-ass Christian theology on environmentalism and the sacred, check out Daniel T. Spencer's fabulous book, Gay and Gaia: Ethics, Ecology and the Erotic. A little mix of LGBT theology, eco-feminist theology, and no-apologies Christian ethics. Why not do some heavy duty reading for the solstice?

At the least people, please sign the Avaaz petition. Say a prayer. Send some energy. This longest day of the year, our planet needs us doing something.


June 23rd Update:

BP is now burning sea turtles alive in the gulf. Ok, petition to stop this here. And while there sign up for Credo environmental alerts. . .

And my apologies: readers in Australia and now the UK tell me the Credo link won't work for them. Here is the link to BP's own comment form! Use it!

And another update: June 27th

The International Whaling Commission upheld the ban on commercial whaling.

Huzzah everyone!

The Dark and Playgrounds for the Soul

"You must fight for the light."

Thus starts a book I began last night, one much recommended by church friends - where for the past year a group of parents and I have loosely explored vampire/werewolf fiction, while searching for a positive "Twilight-equivalent" for some of our obsessed daughters. (I am blessed to have a daughter and son who, so far, have found Twilight sacharine and poorly written!) One of the disadvantages of my kindle, however, is that when a book is utterly annoying, one can't just throw an expensive ereader against the wall as one can a cheap paperback. How frustrating!

The book is yet another of these young adult mage/wizard/witch genre, following in the Harry Potter path. And it, like Harry Potter, gives into Western stereotypical and racist visions of magic as "light = good," and "dark = evil." Given that Black liberation theologians have been railing against these themes for several decades, you would think authors who care about social justice - and write for young adults encouraging them to fight against "evil," would erase these racist themes from their novels.

At the same time, in on line conversations with other Goddess worshiping Christians, I have joined in talks about seeing deity as "light" and "against dark." Clearly I oppose this dualism. Between Kali Ma and the Morrigan, and among God and Goddess and deity and the holy - all are ever dark for me, and the dark itself thus sacred. When I light candles for Bridget, I am not fighting back the darkness, and indeed that darkness is as much part of her hearth as any flame is. My candles are lit for the darkness as well.

And little did I know how profound that darkness can be! Spirituality is ever surprising!

I've been realizing today that the dark can be a holy playground. I have ever approached darkness as a place where seeds and life begin, where dreams begin in the night, where hope and aspiration find sustenance. Yet over the past year I have been playing in the dark as well, in many ways exploring pretend play for the first time in my life. That play has been so creative and explosively spiritual, that I remain in utter awe that so much growth is possible from the most simple of childhood games. In my role as an early childhood caregiver for so many years, I have over and over stood up for the importance of play for children, and yet that same play is also good for adults. I have only just learned that.

Such learning is a gift. A friend has written me of his different sides in his role playing game life, and clearly sees pretend play as something that helps him grow. Which leads right back to that playground. The dark becomes more than holy ground and holy sustenance and holy night. Play becomes holy as well.

Defending play as necessary for children is something many parents from every religious tradition are doing. My own school district long ago eliminated recess, and schools all over the country are slashing art, music and science programs. Kids get little play time anymore. Adults, working two and three jobs, get even less. Yet part of the growth all humans need is time to play. Sacred and holy playgrounds have to be maintained.

I think here we find a service pagans do better than many Christians. I think of the rituals I have attended when pagans dress as everyone from the ubiquitous Cerrunnos to Jedi warriors and male and female goth bellydancers. Churches aren't typically places for guys to explore dresses (unless you are a priest or choir member, and then the exploration is far from playful), or anyone to dress in Harry Potter robes. My own church, fortunately, does provide such a playground for children with its wonderful arts and theater program - open to all of every faith. The kids, at least, are dressing up and donning roles and pretend play. Perhaps the long and lasting memories of Christmas church pageants reflect not only the wonder of Christmas, but the joy of dressing up.

In other hats, I often get to talk to other parents whose kids love pretend and dress up. As capitalism forces our kids to be more and more adult at younger and younger ages, I know many parents all over the world who have fought to preserve pretend play and dressing up in safe places for our children. Despite its racism, Harry Potter book release parties long provided my own children with a safe place to dress up (I have compared the many parties for the Harry Potter book releases to superbowl events for readers). Ren faires, science fiction and fantasy fairs, the Society for Creative Anachronism, and pagan and fairy festivals have all figured in my children's life. Clearly, given that adults outnumber kids at most these events, adults need pretend and fantasy as much as kids!

All of these places are playgrounds for the soul. As are online book groups, support groups, RPG games, and plenty of pagan rituals. Finding creativity and play is counter to the goals of human life as profit, and finding that creativity and play can lead to the divine.

So wherever you stand on childhood and adult play, on racist stereotypes in religion and literature, on the soul murder that Western dualisms have fostered on us all, part of religious exploration is embracing the dark. Challenging racism. Embracing the night.

Here I offer my own song, sung for my Sunday School attending kids, and in honor of all their skin colors. I've sung this at church, at pagan circles, to sleepy kids. Take it and share as you see fit.

To the tune of "This Little Light of Mine"

The dark inside of me,
I'm gonna let it grow.
The dark inside of me,
I'm gonna let it grow.
The dark inside of me,
I'm gonna let it grow.
Let it grow, let it grow,
Let it grow.

I used to sing this to my kids, other Sunday school kids, to others exploring religion and anti-racism. I am only just realizing that wow, that dark really is inside of me, and it is wondrous.

It is Gay Pride over in Pittsburgh today! And I keep learning how many, many ways there are to come out! Yet for this pride day, where I've marched as a bi woman and lesbian mom for decades, I think I will march as a child at play in the darkness of God, a new world for me, and a holy one. I pray that whatever dark playgrounds I lose, I will find new ones.

Hebrews 13:2 Revisited: No Humans are illegal

I've wanted to re-visit the topic of Hebrews 13:2 ever since Arizona passed an egregious law requiring police to ascertain citizenship status of people in that state. Police across the country oppose the law; anyone concerned with racism opposes the law; the Obama administration is investigating the very constitutionality of the law.

But what about the law and spirituality? Mystic Blue Rose, on her great blog, posted a wonderful piece by a Christian friend of hers that she has given me permission to re-print here:

"I've been avoiding jumping into this conversation, but I think I'm going to just...not debate anything or argue with anyone, but just state a position as far to one side of the spectrum as I can go, and let it be part of the soup. Sometimes I find myself rationally pondering the U.S. immigration issue; and then I say to myself, "Wait a minute...what I really believe has nothing to do with these rational and practical considerations." So here's what I believe at the bottom of my very best heart.

Nations and their boundaries are an utterly human concoction, a development of our tendency to self-centeredness and sin, and are in no way, shape, or form part of the divine reality and divine goal for the human race revealed in Jesus Christ. God did not create a world of nations. Jesus did not die and rise for this or that nation. The church from its very beginning knew no national boundaries, welcomed people of all nations, and has been and is a trans-national body owing allegiance to no nation on earth. A Christian is a member of the human race whose allegiance to God through Jesus Christ is untainted by allegiance to any human entity. A truly Christian response (you can tell a truly Christian action because it has a fair chance of being fatal) ... a truly Christian response to immigration would be to stand at any border anywhere on earth, and lean across it and say, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

I believe I'll stop there. That sounds sufficiently breath-taking in its arrogance and naivete -- or, perhaps, sufficiently childlike in its simple-minded devotion to the One who made, redeemed, and cherishes all human life, and all creation. Again, this is not meant to be an argument against anyone else's position. I doubt that I think and act consistently with this myself all the time (another test, in my own mind, for when something is true!). I'm just putting it out there.

Peace and blessing,

David R."

Thank heaven, many have Christians have followed David R.in asking similar questions, and most Christian denominations across America are vehemently against Arizona's law.

I am going to assume most Pagans are, too, though I have seen less on-line from Pagan viewpoints. I expect Starhawk, intrepid political witch that she is, to speak out with her Reclaiming group (sometime soon remind me to re-print her anti-racism statement on here); I know that LGBT Pagans have also spoken out. Yet in keeping with my former post, I want to encourage everyone, regardless of spiritual orientation, to ask how one can host angels unawares if we treat other humans as legal or illegal?

And I want to add some fact to the discussion (something rarely seen in newspapers around the country right now. . .)

FACTS:

"This data, compiled independently by both the F.B.I. and the University of Colorado-Boulder shows that, contrary to political rhetoric from the right, immigration, and even illegal immigration, does not make communities more dangerous. The research, which appeared in a peer-reviewed paper in the June 2010 issue of Social Science Quarterly, specifically avoids mistaking correlation for causation, instead providing the most compelling data to date to back up claims that the anti-immigration sentiment in this country is rooted not in fact but simply in fear.

The data is even more compelling than simply rebutting the ideological argument that immigration is connected to crime. The evidence suggests that immigration appears to make the cities immigrants call home safer. According to Harvard sociologist Robert J. Sampson, that's because immigrants often move into neighborhoods abandoned by locals and often have tighter family structures which can stabilize urban neighborhoods on the brink.

And a crack-down in immigration may just have the opposite effect, much to the dismay of SB 1070 supporters. Law enforcement officers like Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck notes that when immigrants fear being arrested for immigration offenses they stop cooperating with law enforcement. These communities will withdraw further into themselves, making those immigrant ghettos ripe for exploitation and abuse and further marginalize, rather than integrate, immigrants into the American experience. Not only does this make getting information more difficult for law enforcement, it increases the amount of crimes law enforcement needs to respond to." Care2Causes

Welcoming angels means welcoming immigrants, who actually improve our country. Since most of us are immigrants, you would think we as USA citizens could make the connection. (I keep writing letters to the editor asking the so many vocal opponents to amnesty just how many of their families had greed cards from the Wampanoag??)

And welcoming angels unawares, means allowing angels access to all doors. At the least, I hope anyone following Bridget - she who welcomed all to her hearth - will write their newspapers or call their representatives, and demand the country repeal Arizona's law.

Hebrews 13:2 Hosting Angels

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

I spent part of Easter with my good friend, and asked her if she could dedicate a space to angels. Yes, she could. I had forgotten how Protestant friends - often uncomfortable with Goddesses and devas and spirits and totems - are quite happy to accept angels. I don't really understand the Protestant hierarchy of where angels stand in the cosmos thing, but of course don't really worry about it. Angels come in too many packages so it makes sense to me that they cross religious boundaries with ease.

Angels make up a tremendous part of traditional and Celtic pagan belief, especially within the construct of hospitality. Indeed, God welcomes all - each of us a stranger - to the household of heaven, and extending that hospitality to all strangers is a deeply rooted part of religious expression. Hospice, hospital, hostels, hotels, all are rooted in notions of hospitality. For centuries, providing hospice, hospitals, hotels, hostels, was an important part of Christian and Celtic practice.

Bridget, of course, as Celtic Goddess and Christian Saint, shares both traditions of hospitality: To welcome a stranger to your own fireside is to follow the example of Brigid, who made a welcome for all and made the Abbey a safe place of refuge and sanctuary. The fire to Bride was a flame that welcomed all, women and men, whatever faith, whatever nation.

The notion that a stranger may be an angel "unawares" makes our smallest relationships holy. My own encounters with angels are in this vein: a little old man on a train in central Wales shocked me by taking my hand and telling me lovely things about myself and my life just minutes before he popped off to Welshpool. I headed on to Brum thinking I had been sitting with an angel without even noticing! Another time, while living on the bus during summer vacs, a navy midshipmen gave me a week of food on a busride near Newport News. Those sandwiches were the only change from peanut butter and apples that I ate for well over a month! Since the midshipman boarded in Richmond at midnight and bopped off to the Navy Yard around 4 a.m, I never even saw his face.

In later travels through Wales and Ireland, welcoming strangers drove me to Welsh chapels, remote stone circles, cairns and dolmens, out of the way churches and holy wells, gifted me with food and drink and free places to kip for a night, and almost all cited the traditional custom of entertaining angels. A Christian Unitarian chapel in Carmarthenshire, with services in Welsh, actually invited me to communion - the only time in my entire life when I was so welcomed - despite my protests that I was not Christian nor ever baptized - and the entire congregation of 12 assured me that sharing communion with me was a religious necessity - for them. Thus I have had communion once in my life. And I would ask who in this story was the angel?

Entertaining angels, then, can be a part of puja anywhere on a pagan/Christian boundary. Asking angels to help with matters of the heart, or work, or family or creativity, does not deflect from a Christian belief in God. In parts of Scotland, that most Protestant of countries, it is still custom to leave food to the angels. Surely doing so today is not idolatry.

So, I will add Bridget to the angel category. She spread her magical mantle over Ireland to claim room for her hostel, and she welcomed strangers for centuries to her bed and board. This is angelic behavior.

The angel Bridget. Ok. Works for me.

Light her a candle today, and see what arrives in your life.