It's that time of year again!

I love October, the wheel turns as the leaves do, and the whole place is beautiful... and we have Halloween!

As a kid I loved the dressing up and as an adult ...I still love dressing up!  As a Pagan, it's an important time too, not only because I start to find really weird stuff online from people who have some strange ideas about the holiday... todays top find has to be this:

 

WOW...This is a new one to me..... Satans Birthday...I really can't explain how many holes there are in this idea.  Thankfully a young child has covered some of them for me...

A friend posted this on Facebook and received some every interesting discussion (possibly from the teacher mentioned above!) 😞

I would post extracts from the discussion here but as the commenter (as usual) ended up falling back on petty insults when they were obviously outdone, I won't give them the space.

I will provide one quick easy lesson in basic logic however:

Satan is a construct of Christianity.  Pagan is an umbrella term for pre-Christian religions.  Therefore, Pagans aren't Satanists. 

Simple huh?!

Barbie gets serious...not decisive...but still serious.

I read this article recently, it's being doing the rounds on some of my friends Facebook pages.  I'm impressed.  It takes a huge amount of courage and strength of character to be able to face people who are potential threats to you so I very much applaud Mr Davis for his achievement. 

Reading the article made me think of my own recent internal argument relating to this subject....I admit that I have been a little disturbed of late by a number of posts I've seen shared by friends which are either a little questionable, or in some cases, outright offensive. I'm not going to share any of them here as I don't wish to add to their distribution.  Just to clarify, they are mostly posts which scream of religious intolerance and general misunderstanding of the subject they speak of.

 I've been in two minds on many occasions to instantly remove those posters from my friends list.  The internal argument goes something like this:

Voice 1: "do it! you don't want to be associated with people who actually think like that! Anyone who would share that is a bigoted ass hole." 

Voice 2: "but they're your friend, you've know them for "X" years and you know that they don't actually have that opinion.  Maybe they're being sarcastic or missing the point."

Voice 1: "or maybe they've changed...you haven't seen them for a while, friends drift and people's opinions can be influenced.  Maybe they are that person now."

Voice 3: "but I don't actually know. Jumping to conclusions in either direction may make me the exact person that I'm condemning.  I need to think on this more."

I know I said two minds, but there's always a little voice of reason in there!
(P.S. I'm not actually crazy...I have been tested ;) )

I did challenge someone on a post lately...I pointed out the inconsistencies and errors, and the response I got was confusing.  The person responsible for the post replied saying that they agreed with me and that they wanted to understand more about why people wanted to do such bad things and "ruin our country".  I know that not everyone has a pre-determined level of common sense, but surely, if you want to understand something (in this case it was Islamic beliefs) then the way to do that is to ask questions, or read and learn for yourself...not post intolerant garbage on Facebook. 

Is it me who's missing the point? 

My internal argument therefore rages on...the myriad of voices bickering over whether or not to hit that de-friend button...I guess that in some ways actually writing this post may solve that problem for me....I'll let you now if my friend count inexplicably goes down once this is published!

Barbie goes a'travelling

I've never been much of a traveller.  Don't get me wrong I do enjoy it and I love seeing different places but I've never really had much of a chance.  I've been lucky this year so far though as I got sent to India for a week for work in January!  (I know, everyone now wants my job...you can get to the back of the queue!)

I wasn't really looking forward to the 11 hour flight but I discovered that flying business class seems to be a very good way of getting over my fear of flying...I think was the glass of champagne that you get handed as you board that helped most. 

Then we arrived...oh. wow.  I was working all week, so sightseeing wasn't really high on the to-do list but we had managed to fit a day off into the schedule and several evening dinners that we had to attend so we did get to see a bit of Kolkata (Calcutta) and we were staying in the plushest hotel I've ever even seen (never mind stayed in!)

I've never stayed in a hotel with palm trees inside before...

My Humungous room!

the turn down service tray left every night 

Obviously I was a bit messy for the housekeepers...everytime I went out I'd come back to find more of my things neatly sorted and laid out on white cloths...My colleague even returned one day to find her earrings neatly sorted into pairs instead of heaped in a pile as she'd left them!

This was a downfall...every day fresh chocolates, fruit and wine left in my room..my waistline did not thank me!

Is this the biggest windchine ever?..(It reached down 5 floors)

 The small flower display in the lift foyer..

So, I think you get the idea that the hotel was huge and lovely, I found it difficult to be treated like such a VIP by the staff, but it certainly made for an enjoyable stay.

One our day off we did a little bit of sightseeing.  Kolkata isn't a highly tourist based area but that doesn;'t mean theres not an amazing number of things to see...

We went to the Birla Mandir Hindu Temple, made of the same marble as the Taj Mahal..No photos are allowed inside, but heres a taste of outside...

Then we went to Parshwanath Jain Temple, where we became a tourist attraction ourselves as people came up and asked to have their photos taken with us.  It was a lovely calm place and we unwittingly arrived on an important day so there were a large number of visitors

Yes...he is cutting the grass with scissors...He turned around so we could get a better shot of him!

 I think they knew I was coming.. the colour scheme was very barbie!

Then to finish off the sights we went to Mother Theresas Tomb.  It was an odd yet lovely experience, and one I could appreciate even though I have no affitiation to the catholic church.  Photos were only allowed in the tomb itself, but there was a small museum and up some steep stairs you could go and see the room she lived in as it's been preserved the way it was left. 

 The tomb itself..

  Fresh flowers are laid out every day.  A small pot of them was left on the windowsill from the day before that were left there so people could take them home as souveneirs

We disovered that we were visiting during the wedding season, two of the dinners we were invited to also conincided with weddings being held in the same venue so I saw some amazing clothes and highly extravagant parties. 

This does make Kolkata sound like a very happy and lovely place...and it is, for some...I thought I was prepared for what I was going to see while I was there, we see pictures on TV of the poverty in countries like India all the time, but trust me, they don't.  I can't even start to describe how conditions I saw people living in, at every point in every street was someones living space, whether they were lucky enough to have a tarpaulin strapped across two trees or whether they just sat in the street with a candle.  It puts a whole different perspective on what we in the UK class as poverty and what we consider as "having nothing".  This side of India certainly leaves a lasting impression, but it also helped in many ways to make this an amazing trip, and I'd certainly be pleased if I got the opportunity to go again. 

Easter

Sometimes I prepare for a post and then hold onto the information...waiting until the time is right to strike!....or at least until that event comes round again so my posts aren't completely out of season!

This weekend has been Easter, and having had a couple of conversations with various people I noticed that most people don't know anything about Easter. Especially why the date changes every year!

so here it is... Barbies guide to Easter/Spring festival...

The date of Easter changes every year - This seems a little odd to my mind, as Easter in the form it is commonly celebrated in Christian countries, is a celebration of the death and rebirth of jesus - Surely the date of such an event wouldn't change? So why does it? The answer seems to be that instead of out-rightly adopting the pagan celebration at the Spring Equinox (usually accepted as 21 March) the church decided to use this date as a starting point and work from there. Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. (Anywhere between March 22 and April 25)

Traditions surrounding Easter vary wildly in different countries. I recently saw a TV programme where a guy from the UK visited Mexico during Easter and was often heard muttering "but where's my chocolate eggs?" whilst watching the celebrations. In the UK the majority of people celebrate Easter by buying, and exchanging chocolate eggs. So what is this fascination with eggs at easter? There could be several reasons for this, one is that the pre-christion religions often incorporated eggs in their spring traditions, and this was adopted to enable a smoother transition to Christianity. Other ideas include that eggs are forbidden during lent (along with many other items) so the giving of eggs in the following festival would be considered something to celebrate.

The eggs are delivered by the Easter bunny - Santa Claus in a rabbit suit maybe... - Rabbits and hares are another common symbol among pre-christian traditions in relation to fertility so this connection is - to me at least - fairly obvious.

As always there are many other ideas and beliefs out there that could be included here, but each post would take hours to read!

Regardless, whether you celebrate Easter, Vernal Equinox, Ostara, Passover, or Zombie Jesus Day (I know its a little late for some of those) I wish you peace, joy and chocolate. (because regardless of your faith everyone needs chocolate!)

Hated by the Daily Mail...

Some of you will know what this post is about by its title, if you do and aren't perplexed by the story then I apologise for any regurgitation that follows:

On Monday the Daily Mail published an article following on from the news that Druidism has been recognised as an official religion by the Charities Commission. Personally I think this news is a breakthrough for minority religious groups, and that can't be too much of a bad thing. However one lady in particular doesn't seem to agree...Melanie Philips - the author of the aforementioned article officially titled Druids as an official religion? Stones of Praise here we come.

I'm not a druid, but I do have many friends who are, and to be honest upon reading this article I am pretty offended on behalf of the human species in general not just the pagan faith(s). I'm not certain but I think some of the contents could be considered as inciting religious hatred (but then again Paganism in all its forms isn't considered an official religion so it doesn't count.) I do find myself a little restricted on just how offended I can get based on the fact that this comes from the Daily Mail in the first place - a newspaper that whenever I have picked it up usually finds me throwing it away in disgust due to the close minded bigoted views they peddle to an unassuming nation. With that in mind however I have a few points for Ms Philips (who may want to do more research before jotting any further pieces)...

"After a four-year campaign, the Commission says it accepts that the Druids worship nature and that they also believe in the spirits of places such as mountains and rivers, as well as in ‘divine guides’.

This, apparently, makes them qualify as a religion."


Ummm. Yes. Worshipping tends to be something quite vital to being a religion.

..."the latest example of how the bedrock creed of this country is being undermined. More than that, it is an attack upon the very concept of religion itself.

This is because Druidry is simply not a religion. Now, it’s true that religion is notoriously difficult to define. But true religions surely rest on an established structure of traditions, beliefs, literature and laws."


And those religions always start out with that do they? I think rather than "true religions" I believe the phrase you're looking for is "modern mainstream religions" Also I would like to offer this author a read of my dictionary...Druids practice Druidism - think about it, Buddhists practice Buddhism rather than Buddhistry.

..."legal definition of religion included a ‘significant belief in a supreme being or entity’, he saw no contradiction. Druids, he said cheerfully, might venerate many gods, inanimate objects or nature. How very inclusive of them! But the key point is surely that none of these beliefs involves a ‘supreme’ being that exists beyond the Earth and the universe. On the contrary, Druids worship what is in or on the earth itself."

Would you like to tell this to your local catholic church? Surely they can't be a religion either seeing as Jesus was reportedly mortal (albeit hailed as the son of god) and so was his mother Mary who is highly venerated (not to mention the many numerous saints who have reached that level since their death) I'm sure all of those count as earthly beings.

"If the Druids qualify as a religion, can other cults such as the Scientologists be far behind?"

At this point I'd quite like to point out that even Scientologists don't like being called a cult, so I'm not sure anyone else does either. Also that Scientology or rather the Church of Scientology applied for a charitable status waaaay back in 1999. They were turned down. If you want to read the reasons a transcript of the report can be found here.
(if you cant be bothered to decipher it however the long and short of it is that the core practices of Scientology, namely auditing and training, and the private conduct and nature of these practices together with their general lack of accessibility meant that the benefits of Scientology were of a personal as opposed to a public nature. Therefore, the public benefit had not been established.)

By three quarters of the way through the author changes tack and openly attacks Paganism (and free thought) in all its forms, complaining that Pagans in the Military, Police force and Prison get *gasp*....Rights!.... like time off...(OK so maybe not the prisons)....

"They have been given the right to take days off to perform rituals, such as leaving food out for the dead, dressing up as ghosts and casting spells, or celebrating the sun god with ‘unabashed sexuality and promiscuity’."

My workplace do this too...its called Annual Leave.

..."legitimised by the doctrines of equality of outcomes and human rights — which, far from protecting the rights of truly religious people, aim to force Biblical morality and belief out of British and European public life altogether.

This is because human rights and equality of outcomes are held to be universal values. That means they invariably trump specific religious beliefs to impose instead equal status for all creeds....And without the Judeo-Christian heritage there would be no morality and no true human rights."

So humans only have rights because of the Bible?...and human rights and equality aren't already considered universal values?...Which century is this woman from? (and she dare call us primitive!!)

"There is nothing remotely enlightened about paganism. It was historically tied up with both communism and fascism, precisely because it is a negation of reason and the bedrock values behind Western progress."

Paganism generally pre-dates both of these concepts (along with the dictionary, I'd also like to offer the author a history book.)

Its good to see that the author who obviously prides herself on her high (biblical?) moral values feels that she should spew hateful propaganda instead of 'turning the other cheek' and 'loving her neighbour'.

Solstice 2010

Its that time of year again. I normally visit a roman hill fort on solstice as its deserted and has great views, this year however I couldn't get a car to drive up and taking the bus would have meant having a fairly long uphill hike. Thankfully B-Man had a brainwave and suggested we try a local piece of coastline...I've never been there before but after a short bus journey (at 03:15!) we settled ourselves on a bench looking out across the sea (ok, its actually an estuary - I'm sure someone will point that out!). Sunrise, as usual, was beautiful and we shared our offerings of strawberries and apple juice with the local seagulls...

Pre-dawn...

Peaking over the horizon...

Radiating...

Maybe they read this...

A friend posted a link on FaceBook to an interesting article in Church Times....Yes, you read that right I clicked into a page called Church Times!... It leads on from my post earlier this year about the similarities in symbolism of Christmas and Midwinter...

Paganism is not a distant or very different religion
Christians and Pagans should reconsider the similarities of their beliefs, and forge more understanding says Penelope Fleming-Fido...


Maybe I'll keep a print of this in my bag next time I see protesters near pagan conventions...

Solstice 09

We had a fab solstice this year. I hired a car so we could get to my favoured spot in the hills and pitched the tent - with some thanks to the wind helping us get the top sheet on after the undertent was already 6 feet up - and settled in for the night.

We had taken a pack of cards, some magic cards, and a dice game with us for entertainment, but didn't even break them out. Instead we laid listening to the land around us, the sheep bleating, the wind and rain bouncing off the tent. It was calming and blissful. In the morning we got up and wandered down the hill a little to watch the sunrise.

Unlike the thousands of people at Stonehenge we were granted a beautiful sunrise through the trees. The sun rose as a red ball over the horizon, slowly drifting up into a large cloud bank, looking similar to an eye rolling back into its socket.

I did try to get some photos but it my phone's camera just didn't capture the view well so you'll just have to use your imagination!

Another myth fails...

I was most amused some years back when I first heard of The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. (FSM)

Lately though when seeing the news about somali pirates FSM came back to mind. One of the lovely theories that FSM have (other than that a Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe) is that that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s.

Maybe this new rise in piracy will slow the global warming?...Maybe not then.

Second coming

In my work I see a lot of names from all over the world, Annabelle waved a form at me Friday from a man named Jesus - Not that unusual really and yes, I'm fully aware that its probably pronounced He-sues - But what did amuse me was that he is currently living in Chigwell, Essex. Home of the mighty Chav. Obviously someone else has met him too as I found this nativity scene on the net....

Witchfest and back again...

Last weekend was the infamous Witchfest. I love it but its held in Croydon which is a pretty long way away from here. After the Barcelona holiday got doomed I figured that I should still use the bus tickets down to London that I had booked so I changed the dates and used them for the Witchfest trip. This was not the best idea I have ever had. For the first leg of the journey I was the only person on the bus to have someone sitting next to them - obviously I didn't look scary enough - the lady who sat down fell asleep about 30 seconds after the bus started to move and stayed that way until Newcastle. Great I hear you thinking....no. She ended up dropping her head on my shoulder for half the way. At least it was quiet I suppose. The journey really was pretty uneventful, which just added to the boredom of 9 hours on a bus. Anyway I finally got to Croydon and found my hotel with ease. I struggled a little to find the reception desk, as it was on the first floor and there was no sign to tell you that but I got there.

After dumping my stuff in my room and headed out to find my friends . I knew that there were two places to track people down and Jurys was closest (being the next hotel along the same road) I headed into the bar and after grabbing a highly priced pint found myself a seat on a sofa, I spotted lots of people I knew but they were all engrossed in conversations so I waited a while. This obviously got boring after about 3 minutes and I spotted Drew, one of the very first people I ever met at Witchfest in 2003, whose whole group took me in when I didn't know anyone. I tapped him in the shoulder and was nearly deafened by the high pitched scream he gave before he hugged me like I was an old family member. After some frantic chat someone else did something similar and he ran off to the bar so I went back to my seat and started chatting to someone else. Halfway through that conversation however drew arrived back by launching himself across the room at me and throwing me backwards over the sofa, much to the surprise and amusement of the table opposite. (At this point I should state that Drew is both in a relationship and gay so this isn't an unusual thing for him to do to a woman) lots of chatting and a couple of pints later I decided that my bed was calling me and retired.

Saturday morning I was up bright and early (a bit too early really) I got myself dressed and ready for the day in my big purple dress which is a staple outfit for Witchfest and went to get breakfast and supplies for the day. Sorry for the lack of smile but taking photos in a mirror isn't my forte.
I have a running joke with another friend that I have to carry cakes in my basket so I popped into the newsagent to buy some, this really shouldn't have been anything of note but when I went to the till to pay the man running the shop asked me if I was going to Fairfield and what it was all about. Someone from one of the hotels had commented to him that he might get some odd people in over the next few days because the witches were in town! We had a really good chat, he told me some of his background of being brought up in a Hindu mystic family and converting to Catholicism, and how he believes in miracles and magic powers and was genuinely interested in the subject. About 30 mins before the doors were due to open I walked through the drizzle to get in the cue for the day. Through the day I went to several talks and workshops and was quite literally buzzing by the end of it. I met lots of new people and learned a lot of interesting stuff but by the time dinnertime came at 7:30 it was a much needed break before heading back to party for the rest of the night.

Somehow when I got back to Fairfield I could see no one that I knew very well so I sat with a couple that I had met on Friday night chatting and drinking mead.

Theres no photos allowed in Witchfest which is always a shame as there would be some fantastic ones to show of everyone otherwise.

Thankfully the journey home on Sunday was much better, I had lots of legroom and there was only 4 people on the bus! I still got bored though so next time I'll stick to the train.

GodBlogs

I've taken on a new project at work recently and part of that is to set up an html newsletter for our participants. I've done a little research, and people have sent me some samples, one of which came in today from the evangelical alliance. (obviously not a newsletter I would normally receive) but I was highly amused by one of the articles on their recent addition of GodBlogs. I couldn't help myself but take a peek. They weren't quite as interesting as I had imagined however and simply had posts on the ten modern commandments being online etc.

What a disappointment! I was half hoping to find blogs on what its like to be a god...

Witchfest 2008

I know its not something I mention here often, but I am pagan, a hedgewitch to be a bit more precise. I don't really feel the need to harp on about it much though, its my belief and I don't expect anyone to agree with me or anything. Anyhow, now thats straight, an organisation that I have been a member of for some years host an event each year in London amusingly (or not) entitled Witchfest. Its a fun weekend and I usually try my hardest to go along. I wasn't planning to this year due to the holiday in October but with that cancelled I figure that I can :) I've even managed to book a hotel far cheaper than I normally get too so I'm extra happy!

Camping for solstice

We are trying to get organised for a camping trip next week. We are heading north to Aviemore(ish) area for 4 days of wild camping. Gurn originally only wanted to go away for 3 days and stay on a campsite but I managed to be a bit selfish and convince him to opt for wild camping instead so we could elongate the trip. I have a yearly ritual of camping out (often without a tent...) overnight on the eve of the summer solstice so I can get up stupidly early and watch the sunrise. It really is a fantastic sight and I tend to feel very connected for a good while afterwards, kinda like filling the faith glass every year :)


Last year I went to Castle Hill Fort, It's not far from Edinburgh but was high enough to ensure some great views...I never got to post my photos so here are some...
My Little tent...Predawn, you can see the mist stretching halfway up the hill, I was so glad to be up so high, else I would have missed everything...
The beginning, just a sliver of the sun peeking over the horizon...A few minutes later and the suns nearly up, the beams shooting out over the mist
A few minutes more and shes finally up, I took about 20 photos in total over the whole sunrise but I wholly understand that lots of them look very similar.
I'm hoping that this year will be just as spectacular, I'll be leaving the campsite at about 3:45am and walking up a hill to get a good viewpoint armed as always with strawberries and mead :) I'm happy not to be driving this year, last year I had to take apple juice instead of mead as I needed to get home afterwards!

I'm far more organised this year, mainly due to B-Man and the fact that we are going to be away for more than just a single night. We've been shopping today to get all our supplies ready, including a new utility knife thingy, a cool box, a rubber mallet, and snap lights, torches, compass, the list goes on...tons of stuff but all pretty necessary (ish - we probably could so without the snap lights but they re fun and B really wanted a couple) all we really have to get now is food and charcoal for the fire and we're good to go!

New training room and a protest

My martial arts class has moved and I'm gutted. The new place (Commonwealth Pool) is far better and bigger than Meadowbank, but ITS ON A SUNDAY! evil evil people making me get up and do stuff on a Sunday. That's a day for not getting dressed and suffering hangovers isn't it???

Oh well, Up I got on Sunday and trundled off to training, I always enjoy it once I'm there even though I bitched and moaned about getting out of bed and wasting my day. It was a good session, especially as I was referred to as "Truly Terrifying" (That's a massive compliment and I have told everyone since!) The only downside of the new location was the heat - We were under a swimming pool so it was almost unbearably humid, I even took my T shirt off from under my Gi to stop myself turning into a puddle of sweat (ewww...I know!)

2 hours and 10 pints of water later I found myself on my way home, On the way down south bridge I noticed some guys handing out leaflets (Not that unusual as its coming up on the festival and theres lots of weirdos!) then I spotted some more just a bit further on, with placards and I realised that they were protesting opposite the Scientology building (Hubbards Academy) The Placard amusingly read "BEWARE Scientology wants your mind (and your money)"

It struck me as funny simply because all of the protesters were wearing masks and dancing about. I wasn't fast enough to take a photo though as the bus moved on! If they re there again next Sunday I might have to get off the bus and get them to pose for one though! ...watch this space...