Journal Entries
Taking out the Trash.
Posted Feb 3, 2009
Up and down the country as I write, there are many sincere people trying to work magic. They are performing rituals, casting spells and concocting potions. Some of these people will be doing this based upon decades of research into medieval and ancient texts, others will be following instructions in popular books, quite a few will be making it up as they go along - relying on instinct perhaps.
The one thing that unifies all these endeavours is this - they will all fail. There will be a small proportion that will seem to work, mostly through the forces of serendipity, but this is not because of any 'magic'.
In all my years on the fringes of the occult establishment I have never seen, or heard of (from reliable sources), a single spell or ritual actually succeeding. Yet despite this failure they will carry on, buoyed up by faith and hope rather than any real expectation of success. I have been roundly and extensively cursed both in my presence and my absence, but never felt a thing. I have been blessed and promised the earth, yet never got it.
Isn't it about time we took out the trash and put all these spells, lotions and potions in the dumpster of history alongside creationism and heliocentricism?
Despite this I still believe in magic, though not in the terms that these many hopeful practitioners would necessarily accept or even understand. For them magic is an act of will by which they can change some portion of the world - often as not to their own benefit. A hope supported by the popular literature and media of our times.
I see magic in every act of creation, from the birth of a baby to the making of a pot or a poem. Each time we reach beyond our natural capabilities to achieve something we did not believe we could I see magic. I find magic in the land where sit in wonder and listen to the spirits and to my gods.
I can perform magic through kindness and generosity, releasing others from doubt and pain. I can perform magic through friendship, helping others to become more and becoming more myself as a result. This is true magic, perhaps if more people practiced it we might really change the world.
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Latest reply: Feb 3, 2009
Hating everyone equally.
Posted Jan 19, 2009
Here's a sample of one of the essays on my Blog [http://mochenddu.wordpress.com]. I'll put a few more up over the coming weeks...
Everyone has a line across which their tolerance should not be pushed. A line where they believe common sense is left behind and we begin to wander in a world we no longer recognise. For me that line was crossed when the British New Labour government proposed and then forced through an Act of Parliament regarding 'incitement to religious hatred'.
As has been proven by previous anti-discriminatory legislation, such as the notorious Race Relations Act, this will have no appreciable effect on the attitudes of the public at large and may even harden antipathies and prejudices previously only vaguely held before. Yes, it will slowly change discriminatory practices in government agencies and some, but by no means all, commercial organizations. Open prejudice in such places is now criminalized, but what lies behind our eyes has not changed one jot as a result of this infringement of our civil liberties.
From living through the times in which it happened I believe that the public changes in attitude and behaviour towards people of differing ethnic backgounds came about as a result of educating their children alongside ours, and the more frequent and positive view of ethnic minorities in the media (especially on TV). Legislation had little or nothing to do with it.
Racial hatred is not actually wrong? Stupid? Yes. Wrong? No. You should not criminalize someone just because they don't like people of another ethnic origin. You should not criminalize them just because they are ignorant - think where that might lead?. If we were to do a real blind survey of opinion in this country you would find a surprising number of ordinary people, of all ethnic origins, who harbour prejudices against people from other ethnic origins. We all do, including me, and I was a front line supporter of the Anti-Nazi League for twenty years.
The criminalization of racial hatred in this country has been an unmitigated disaster, dividing communities along ethnic lines and reinforcing prejudice. Prosecutions have consistently failed to nail even the most open bigots, such as the leaders of the BNP. Indeed such prosecutions have been used by these ambitious men to feed the feelings of persecution amongst poor, working class whites and now we are seeing them elected to councils up and down the land.
But at least we can recognise racial hatred when we see it. How can you define a religious bigot? What is religious hatred?
If we were to strictly enforce the clauses of this act every copy of the Bible, Torah and Qu'ran would have to be taken off the shelves of shops and public libraries. Each one requires its followers to exclude those who are not of their faith, a clear case of flagrant discrimination. Some parts of these texts even openly advise or demand discrimination on grounds of religion, race, sex or sexuality, and worse, much worse.
Turn on the TV and there are many satellite channels where religious (mostly Christian and Islamic) preachers hammer home their messages of exclusivity, and thus discrimination. Many stray well over the line into full blown bigotry and hatred. People watch these channels and their prejudices are informed by them. Similar sermons are preached up and down the land in churches and in mosques. Will the government begin a campaign of censorship against these?
This is the burden we bear for having a liberal society that is supposed to value free speech. Unfortunately the government has different ideas. It believes it can change people by criminalizing free speech. After all it worked so well for race relations didn't it?
My primary concern though goes beyond these generalities to more specific areas.
The first is the definition of a religion. What is it? What do you have to do to become recognised by the government as one? I should tell you now that the government has not yet recognised any branch of paganism as a religion. We are too vague in our beliefs and disorganised. We don't have a body of scripture or a hierarchy to work with.
The second is who are the government going to come after? Well the Police and the CPS at the moment are focusing their efforts on a handful of Jihadi Islamic preachers that they can get no other way. Phew! That's us off the hook then...? If you just thought that then perhaps you should look up the works of Pastor Niemuller - google him you lazy drones 
.
What happens when some evangelical missionary fanatics decide that stand-up comics, or religious columnists, or loud-mouthed pagans have upset them? If they can gather enough evidence of these people employing their right to free speech they can demand the CPS prosecutes them. Thus if I publish a blog that attacks the fundamental beliefs of christianity (and that would be so easy) I could be prosecuted for inciting religious hatred.
So now you can be criminalized for publically not agreeing with christianity. Don't worry about the blasphemy laws, this is serious. All but two of the present Law Lords are practicing christians and 70% of the Judiciary claim to be. The Act has some really nasty penalties for those found guilty, including imprisonment.
What one might like to consider is this - who promoted this Act? Well the New Labour Cabinet at the time was led by a High Anglican (now converted to Catholicism), two other Catholics (including a member of Opus Dei), the son of a Presbyterian Minister, three Anglicans and two Evangelicals. Get my drift? This Act was not created to defend all religions, nor even to hunt down a few radical muslims, but to defend Christianity.
We shall see over the next few years how they choose to use it, and how the radical christians try to abuse it. Remember that this government has wilfully misused such legislation before. The first people to be arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2001(?) were Mr.Wolfe, the septugenarian concentration camp survivor who dared to call the Home Secretary 'bonkers' at a New Labour party conference, and two people reading out lists of British Iraq War Dead on the pavement by The Cenotaph.
Personally I am an equal opportunity bigot - I discriminate against everybody based upon their behaviour, but don't worry there will be an Act along soon to get me too...
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Latest reply: Jan 19, 2009
Stonehenge - National Icon or Pagan Cathedral?
Posted May 23, 2008
Well the old rockpile is back in the news so I thought it might be time for me to vent my heretical spleen about it.
Few places on this good green earth get as much bollocks talked about them as Stonehenge. Every politically-ambitious archaeologist, drippy hippy and pompous pagan seems to want to theorize or venerate or preach about it and its origins. Perhaps it is time to step back and actually examine what this site really means to us here and now.
I have been going to Stonehenge since the late seventies. I was there for the free festivals in the early eighties, the battles of the late eighties and more recently for its reopening to the public at solstice. I have seen it go from hippy gathering, to battlefield, to Europe's largest neolithic rave site and finally to rededication as our national Pagan/Druid Cathedral.
I have no problem with the site per se. It is an amazing grouping of stones and deserves its place as a world heritage site. However, the attention it gets distracts from the hundreds of other sacred neolithic, bronze and iron age sites that dot our islands. There are larger henges than this, more complex ones and many that are under threat or all but abandoned/forgotten by English Heretics in favour of Stonehenge.
The truth is that it is EH's biggest money maker and it is very accessible to tourists. As a result it has become an arena of dreams and disappointments. People are drawn to it from all over the world and most leave feeling somewhat let down. It has suffered the fate of many world heritage sites and has become a must see like the Tower of London and Anne Hathaway's house.
In pagan terms it really has become the national cathedral, despite the fact that it is not the most special henge or stone circle in the British Isles. This was exemplified by the recent planning debacle when the government (keen to push a another major route through to the south-west) offered to pump heaps of money into the site and 'restore' its place in the landscape.
Every pagan worthy, and not a few fruitcakes too, lined up to preach to the enquiry. So vehement was the reaction to the government's preferred options that, fearing the spectacle of thousands of pagan protestors swamping any construction efforts on the evening news and trebling the costs, they abandoned all plans to improve the site altogether. English Heretics gnashed its teeth, Wiltshire Constabulary breathed a long sigh of relief, and the druid community walked off with a truly undeserved sense of achievement.
What makes me wonder is where were most of these self-important pagans when a quarry company wanted to turn Thornborough (a far larger and more impressive henge complex than Stonehenge) into an island, or when the Rollrights were desecrated, or a dozen other threats to our ancient heritage?
Fifty years ago, when the then Ministry of Works, re-erected many of the stones to produce the henge we know now, no-one batted an eyelid. Indeed most people thought it wonderful that this national treasure was getting a facelift. I cannot imagine the Legion of Whining Pagans allowing any future government to pour concrete into the site again.
The problem is that we, the pagan community, have got far too bloody precious about these sacred sites. We seem to have completely forgotten that Stonehenge was rebuilt several times during the pre-christian period. Each time to reflect the needs and desires of the times. Everything these days must be preserved in aspic lest we lose our romantic view of it.
It seems to me that this is reflection that for many pagans their 'religion' is actually dead. They will not stray from what little survives in terms of lore or archaeology from the pre-christian era. For example: I got into a row recently on one of the very best pagan fora regarding an observation by an ancient writer that when dining with some gauls he noted that the mead horn/cup/whatever was passed in one direction only, in fear of upsetting the gods. A few of the assembled and learned throng on the forum thought we should adopt this as a standard. Besides the fact that this was just one, non-gaulish, source I also pointed out that I could not imagine my gods giving a pink fig about which way I passed a cup. As usual I was the heretic... ho hum.
If the modern pagan paths are to survive and blossom then they must be fit for the age we live in now. Yes, respect the past, but live in the now. The gods have never left us and none, in my experience, wish to turn back to the clock.
Anyway now for the real heresy.
If I had control over Stonehenge I would do the following:
1. Excavate the entire site to a depth of thirty feet. No more of this pussy-footing around, let's give the archaeologists their head for ten years.
2. Re-erect every stone we can find and replace the ones we can't and restore the henge to its full glory.
3. Let the government have their bloody road tunnel and then restore the Avenue and other aspects of the original landscape.
4. Let people have unfettered access to the actual stones. You only need a couple of security/guides to stop the idle and the stupid from carving their names on them.
Then we would truly have a pagan cathedral for the 21st century.
Oh well, I am now expecting militant paramilitary druids to kick my door down any time now.........
[This can also be found on my wordpress blog - 'mochenddu'. Yup the old luddite has finally crawled into the 21st century, led byt erh example of Az and Eddie].
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Latest reply: May 23, 2008
More on Burma
Posted Sep 27, 2007
I picked up a copy of The Sun this morning at our local Burger Van. Front page was the news that a little Morroccan girl was not Madeleine. I had to ferret well into this estimable and widely read chronicle to find just half a page on the situation in Burma. There was more coverage of the 'campaign' for an EU Referendum. This reminded me so much of the quote by Neville Chamberlain about the German threat to Czechoslovakia in 1938, that it was...
"... a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing." (Neville Chamberlain)
Burma is a Chinese satellite. It's regime cannot survive without explicit support from China. If we let the dictators in Burma ride roughshod over unarmed and peaceful demonstrators, then we are sending a clear signal to Beijing. As Edmund Burke said so well:
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
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Latest reply: Sep 27, 2007
The World leaves the Burmese Monks to die.
Posted Sep 27, 2007
Despite its hand wringing sentimental statements, and much vaunted role as the protector of Human Rights, once again the UN has chosen to let a venal dictatorship imprison, torture and kill its people right before its eyes.
The Monks and Democracy protestors in Burma are being rounded up and taken away. On the streets they are beaten and shot, and the West does nothing.
Why?
Well the cynics would say there is nothing in it for us. There are precious few natural resources for the West's corporations to plunder and this particular dictatorship is in the thrall of the power the West fears most - China.
China will continue to block any attempt to condemn or act against the dictatorship as they rely on this country for its oil and gas pipelines, as well as a source of illegal timber. To the Chinese government, who see Tianamen Square as a victory for stability, the Burmese Army is doing nothing wrong. Freedom and democracy are threats to be dealt with harshly.
So the West does nothing. Even if a hundred thousand Monks die or are dragged away to a fate worse than death we will do nothing. We will even reward China by gracing their blood-soaked Olympiad next year, and continue to buy its shoddy goods.
Bush rattles his sabre, promising (but almost certainly not enacting) new embargoes. Embargoes that will not work and the Burmese can get anything they want from China, including all the Western luxuries that China now makes for the West.
Another example of the West's moral turpitude and the failure of the democratic process.
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Latest reply: Sep 27, 2007
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