h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Tea? I smelled yummy tea! Mmmmmm... thank you! Lemon!

Merry meet, all. I'm new. Ah! A cozy little sofa!



Isn't this a lovely little part of the multiverse? There have been a couple of attempts at a Guide, you know... but this might be the definitive one. And I get to fulfill a lifelong secret ambition and be a researcher. I guess my spell worked! Does anyone know when I get my sub-etha-thingamagiggy?

Oooohhhhh... cookies? Mmmmmmm....




B*B,
KayKay

Merry meet, Kaykay

This is getting to be a cozy little spot... is there any earl grey, by any chance?

< picking up the cat, sitting in the rocker, and petting away... >

There always seems to be someone new here. Truely a wonderful thing. I didn't know there had been other attempts at a Guide. Actually, this is my first forum. It has been most pleasing. How about you?

Did you say cookies?

Contemplation

Ohhhh....company! How nice.

merry meet, all. Yes, there is some Earl Grey here. UMMMMMM...smells great. Sugar cookies? or gingersnaps?

Yep, this is the real-for-sure-h2g2 Guide [Earth edition]. I read parts of a much more primitive edition [actually printed on paper!] quite some time ago. This version is 'lectronically updated, an' everything! Although I dont know if we are actually hooked up to anything outside of Earth, yet. So the sub-ether-thing-a-ma-jigs may not be issued for a while. But you DO need a towel.

This little corner of the Guide is for us pagans [and friends] to sit a while and chat. Just drop in anytime when you want to say hello; or start a thread if you have a new conversation topic or question to ask. If you're new and need help finding your way around the Guide, maybe we can help with that, too.

And the kettle is always on.

bb
blu
}:=8

Why, thank you. < mmmm > A good cup of grey is a joy indeed... And sugar cookies arn't far behind < munch >...

So what is the kitties name? Always make it a rule to make friends with the local felines when I visit a new place. They always seem to know what is going on, even if we don't

Hmmmm... I wonder.... How many of our kind have you seen around these parts? You seem to be in the thick of things around here, bluDragon, and I havn't had the time to follow up on the comments from passers by... just me and my curiosity, you know < purrrrr >

By the way, nice place

Contmplation

dunno if I am 'xactly in the 'thick of things', there are lotsa other researchers who do a more scintillating and purple job, like Fenchurch, and Shazz, an' a whole buncha others. I just have been here a long time [since the first two weeks or so]. And I like to add my two cents about stuff...

I am alway s suprised to find out how many pagans are around where ever I go. Truly, 'we are everywhere'. I have kept stumbling into folks, and would like to make a list, but guess I should ask 'em first. If you follow my postings in the Halloween and related forums you will see lots of 'us' replying.

Maybe a thread here for people to 'check in' if they want would be the answer????? I have invited people here from a few places, but so far comments seem to stay in their original threads. It is really hard to move to a new thread, 'cause until someone posts to it they don't see it listed on their page to remind them it's there.

Oh, and the kitty's name is Brownie [cause she's black]. She's pretty old now. Dropped in one day with her suitcase and sorta moved in. [She let us stay on as long as we do what she says.] She earns her keep, tho; she's a real 'killer'; takes care of the mice an all. She 'talks' a lot, 'specially in the morning when she wants breakfast. She really likes to sit on your lap too, but watch her claws; she likes to 'knead' with 'em.

So, what is your special interest/background in the Craft? And have some more tea if you need a warm-up.

}:=8

Gingersnaps .

Well, I'm a fairly new pagan. I've only gave into the urge in the last year or so. I say "fairly new", because I've been interested in Wicca for over ten years, but I've only just been dragged kicking and screaming by my higher, wiser self into The Craft during the last six months. Before that, I was a lapsed Catholic. Before I was a lapsed Catholic, I was a deeply spiritual Catholic Feminist practicing Creation Spirituality. And before that, I was an agnostical lapsed Catholic teenager occult-dabbling wannabe. It's been a trip and a half, dearies.

I met my first Wiccans in 1988, during my Freshman year in college. The I took a college course on the history of witchcraft in world religion, and we all got to visit a very pregnant pagan journalist named Margot Adler. She had the coolest, most beautiful apartment overlooking Central Park West that I have ever been in. And she giggled a lot. I was kinda hooked. I like giggling. But that time passed in my life, and I became interested in Christianity, except trying to go deeper.

I went as deep as I could, and at the heart of it all, the theology fell apart. I mulled around a bit in between religions and being new agey, and the pagan urge came back to me while I was visiting Germany during Christmastime last year as I was splitting my time between really old churches and really old Roman ruins. A few friends in Germany introduced me to a British band called "Skyclad". I asked them if they knew what "Skyclad" meant, and I had to explain. I think that really started the whole thing going again, going through the whole explanation of terms. I ordered some Skyclad through the net (hard to find certain things in the U.S.), and listened to them, read some Joseph Campbell, opened up Starhwak's "The Spiral Dance" and some other books I had in my collection... and the journey began again for me. I dedicated myself during the new moon shortly before my 29th birthday in April of 1999...ten years after a lovely party-lecture in Margot Adler's apartment.

That was more than you wanted to hear, I know. But I don't have a specialty as yet. I'm fairly eccelectic, working with the Teutonic pantheon right now, solitary... but open to the right group.. just havent found them yet.

So anyway....



Oh yeah, I post to the pagan and Wiccan usenet groups as "Brightowl" under my own name (Karin Rosner).

KK

Margot ADLER???? THE Margot Adler??????

That's sorta like saying a few years back you were in a field with this drunk guy looking up at the stars and talking about hitchhiking through the galaxy...

I am quite envious. And also curious about what she talked about...way back then.

[I also like the giggling part]

I am an old, crochety, 'kitchen witch'. [the old and crochety part came before the witch part] and at one time in my dim past was what I would term a recovering catholic. I was mostly an atheist after that. Still am--and manage to be a witch in spite of it. May find the right group to discuss that combination with someday...

Anyway, the paths we all take are interesting, aren't they??? Please share more about Ms Adler if you wish.

More tea?

}:=8

Well now... I see that you two have shared your lives, so it seems only right that I should follow suit...

But first, a little more tea would be wonderful, please

I don't really consider my "field" to be witchcraft, though many don't seem to see the difference. Theologically speaking, I was raised by a non-practicing Methodist father, and a non-practicing Baptist mother (how is that for a combo, hmmm?). The only times I entered a church was for some wedding or such, and didn't go to my first Christian service till I was about twenty. I come from Maine, and I must say, hearing a Catholic priest reciting latin with the Down East accent is quite humorous. But that is getting away from the subject...

My father spent some time in the Masonic order, and I think a lot of it rubbed of on me. Certain ideas and mind sets, you know. A good bit of up tightness from my mothers upbringing was thrown into the mix, and here I am. There is bits of several other faith mixed in over the centuries... little Jewish here, little Irish Catholic there, and some good old fashioned Protestantism... it has left me with a bit of a veiw on everything.

At a very young age, I realized that I was not Christian.It was just too sheep like for me, no offense. That, and things that I saw and heard and felt,... I should have been exorcised and burned right in the begining In trying to figure things out about me, I fell in with the Wiccans, but I really don't feel as though I am one of them either.

My father tried his best to help me figure things out. Mostly because he went through the same things when he was young, like his mother before him. I could hear what people were thinking, feel what they were feeling, know what they knew. Not all the time, but enough to make things difficult. I would have dreams, see what was going to happen, see different places that I would eventually go... It is still kind of weird to talk about it all. I also knew things... I was taught when I was young that everything that is to be known, we already know. It is just a matter of remembering it. It actually works...

Well... things progressed, and eventually he was unable to help me out. I began "finding" what I needed to know, or more oft than not, it found me. I am still figuring things out... With any luck, it won't stop any time soon. Thus I love to discuss what others have been through, and gleen little bits of wisdom from them to create the whole of truths.

I am not a witch, or a Wiccan, but I am honored when they consider me to be one of them. Oh, and I am part feline... at least in spirit

Hope that doesn't sound too wierd for you... just the way it is, I guess. What do you think, Brownie?

< mwrow? >

Contemplation

I once knew someone named Ginger Snap... Step mother of a friend of mine from high school. No kidding.

Can't even look at them with out laughing. (giggle)

Contemplation

Thank you for the tea-offerings, dearie. Don't mind if I do! See if you can conjure up Celestial Seasonings Irish Cream Mist Tea and you'll have a friend for life. Oh, I miss that tea. I haven't been able to find that in years and years.

Yes, the Margot Adler. It would be different if she knew who I was. It would have been great if I were able to study magick with her.It would have been even better if I studied broadcast journalism with her (secret fantasies of radio broadcasting career here, as yet unfulfilled. ) None of these things happened. It's not a big deal. Really! The New York City Craft Community is so small.

What did she talk about? I remember her giving the introductory Wicca lecture, giggling a lot. She spoke about her pregnancy, and I think she mentioned something about her handfasting to her partner the summer before. She was having a difficult pregnancy. She originally was supposed to lecture to our class at the college, but she was ordered to rest. We trudged up to her apartment on the Upper West Side instead. About 35 of us sat cross-legged in her jungle-like living room. A few students of hers milled around and helped us get settled. Yeah, I got a bit star-struck when she signed my copy of _Drawing Down The Moon_, and I got really angry when someone borrowed it a few years later and it came back to me ripped and torn. So that's my Margot Adler story.

One of the points Margot asserts in DDTM from her survey (and it's high time for another update) is that there is a percentage of Pagans that are aetheists. I can see that.

Oooh... time to lock up the old laptop and get out of this office.

-Kay

I think about how we apply the definition of "pagan" to ourselves in this movement, and it's actually very interesting. I've got a mixed background too, Jewish Rabbinical on one side of my family and devout Roman Catholics on the other. I chose Paganism and Wicca not because of this great resounding call... but because I "fit" more into the pagan world view, or my beliefs did, at any rate. I'm a Jospeh Campbell kind of pagan, I suppose. I chose Wicca because it's close enough to accomodate my spiritual world view, and it's open-minded enough to encompass the idiosyncrasies of my personal theology. I also really needed a system to work through spiritually at this time in my life. I go through periods when I need a bit of religious structure, and Wicca has only a little bit. That's perfect.

Ack.. I have to continue this ramble later. Gotta go.

KK

Oh, what a poor host I am, leaving you sitting there without a fresh pot of tea. Here's a nice new pot. English Breakfast this time. [Do they have that in the UK, or it it another one of those American inventions?]

Anyway, I understand what you mean KayKay about wanting a little structure for your sprituality. That also appeals to me in wicca. Sorta somewhere to hang my spiritual hat. We seem to find patterns in our lives helpful, don't we? And the nice thing about the Craft is that we can recreate the pattern to best meet our needs, but still draw on it.

Oh, and I would be really interested in an expansion of what you know about atheists as wiccans. Any other discussions you are aware of?

So the tea should be nice and strong, now: pour yourself a nice cup. The cookie of the day is oatmeal raisin...


}:=8

I know I may sound to be a bit of a hick here, but who is Margot Adler? I am not too familiar with people...

Contemplation

Margot Adler wrote Drawing Down the Moon [DDTM] back in the 70s. It was one of the first non-sensationalistic discussions of neo-paganism. Sorta made it 'respectable', as she has degrees from UC and Columbia and was a Harvard Fellow. It quickly became a classic, and basic reading for pagans.

Here is a blurb from an on-line bookseller:
"The only detailed history of a little-known and widely misunderstood movement, Drawing Down the Moon provides a fascinating look at the religious experiences, beliefs, and lifestyles of the Neo-Pagan subculture. Margot Adler attended ritual gatherings and interviewed a diverse, colorful gallery of people across the United States, people who find inspiration in ancient deities, nature, myth, even science fiction. Contrary to stereotype, what Adler discovered was neither cults nor odd sects, but religious groups that are nonauthoritarian in spirit and share the belief that there is no one path to divinity."

Margot is currently a highly respected correspondent for National Public Radio in the US.
http://www.npr.org/inside/bios/madler.html

******

The cookie of the day is molasses. The tea is Red Zinger [one of my favorites]

bb
}:=8

Thank you for the 'blurb'. I never seem to remember who is who unless I meet them first hand, and then I never seem to find the famous ones in person. Usually a friend of a friend, you know. Good history lesson.

Ooooo, molasses My great Aunt Lena used to make some of the best ones... brings back memories...

Okay, another odd question: How much do you know about the properties of different woods? I know willow and applewood and oak all have special gifts, but what about something like mahogany? Or rosewood?

That reminds me... probably a good time for me to toss another log on the fire.

That is, if Brownie will let me up < ooff! >

Contemplation

I will take the 'wood' question to a new conversation, if it's OK with you. Makes it quicker to load, and easier for someone else to find that way [if anybody's interested, that is ].

Look for a 'properties of wood' conversation. I will post it soon, either tonight or tomorrow.

Sure, now the cat is on MY lap...how am I going to get up???

}:=8
PS Definition of catatonia: being covered by sleeping cats and unable to move without disturbing them. *hee hee*

LOL Yeah, I've spent most of my life catatonic, then

Contemplation

I spent a few days contemplating your question about other thoughts regarding Wicca, witchraft and aetheism. Hmmm....... yummmy tea, thank you kindly. I'm still pondering it. I don't think a religion neccesarily needs to have a deity or deities in order to be a religion. I regard organized aetheism in the U.S. as a real religion, for instance. From what I know, there are religions, like the "native" religion in Korea, that don't have a "god" concept at all. (I might be wrong on that one, I haven't really studied that one yet.)

I think that a practice of witchcraft just needs an acknowledgement of the "mysteries" of existance to be effective. I put "mysteries" in quotes, because I really don't believe that there really are any mysteries (I'm big on science and psychology).

When it comes to a practice of Wicca, Deity is a big question. I personally believe that there is "something" out there, "The All" or whatever it is, and the Wiccan personification of God and Goddess (in the singular and the plural) are nice metaphors to connect with when I need to. I'm a bit of an agnostic in that I don't know what God is and I refuse to only believe in only one label for "God". That's what led me to Wicca as a spiritual practice: it's so accomodating of this, at least when you're a solitary practitioner.

As for other discussions of this idea... I don't know. We might be the first!

-KK

Hi KayKay!

This is a very interesting question [at least to me]. If it's ok with you, I am going to move it to it's own thread: Wicca and atheism.

This thread is getting sorta long, and also with it's own thread others might find it easier to find and add their perspective.

Look for a new conversation in a little bit. I will copy and paste some of our earlier comments, and respond to the above message. I have never discussed this with anyone, so I would like to pursue it if you and/or others are interested. Check out the postings on atheism http://www.h2g2.com/A142804 as well. There might be something you find intersting there, too.

bb
}:=8