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Internet Book of Shadows, (Various Authors), [1999], at sacred-texts.com
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
(c)1986, Buck Jump
Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you. May the rain fall gently on your rhubarb. May the hail
fall in a lake or on a parking lot. May our little six-legged
friends develop an allergy to your pickle patch.
Now is the sweet season of our year. Our Mother the Earth
is pregnant with the harvest to come. The days are long and the
thoughts of the season are long, long thoughts. In the soft
afternoon sky the white thunderheads sail serenely on like ships
of dream in dreamland seas. Surely even such as I can be
forgiven for dreaming a bit, for letting the fancy roam free.
In dreams I see a world set free. I see the human race
living in peace, with each one going his own way but with
courtesy to all who go another way. I see us as one species,
which we are, and all of us acknowledging that fact. I see each
walking in beauty, with dignity, and respecting the other
person's dignity. I see us loving one another, helping our
fellow men along their way. When I dream, I don't mess around -
I rear back and dream up a doozy!
So much for dreams; back to the world we live in, back to
the life we know. Before I spring my question for the day, a
little background, a few facts:
Every one of us must come to terms with his environment and
his heredity. We all live on one Earth. That is the main part
of our environment, or at least the location of it.
We are all human beings, homo occasionally sapiens. That is
the basis of our heredity.
Anything that is done to one of us is done to all of us.
Anything that happens in one place on this planet has some effect
on every place on the planet.
We are, all of us, stuck with our whole species. Here we
are with a bunch of people we wouldn't willingly walk down a
country road with. Indeed, we are as ship- wrecked mariners in a
lifeboat with a bunch we wouldn't sit down to eat a free meal
with. To jump out of the boat is to drown. To try to toss those
_______________s out is very apt to upset the boat and drown all
of us. These facts are self-evident, axiomatic.
I have always held that we should all walk the path of life
with our hands outstretched in fellowship with respect and love
for all. Of course, I have a caveat - keep a Bowie knife handy
in case they haven't all heard the message.
As the Ultimate is reported to have said when the mountains
were made, "Now for the background". The present situation is a
mess. Violence is everywhere. Not even foolish violence, but
violence without reason. Surely a leopard is in our streets and
a shark loose in our swimming pool.
871
An armed bandit shoots down an unarmed clerk who is
cooperating. A litigant in court shoots down an attorney. A
parent beats a child to death. A driver gets cut off coming onto
the freeway and guns down the chap in the pickup who did the
off-cutting. An otherwise reasonable young man is annoyed by the
sounds of traffic on a mountain road and starts shooting at the
cars passing. Those are only a few examples culled from the news
in recent months. In truth, senseless violence is loose in the
land.
As it is with the individual, so with groups. From the
racist fringe movement on to great governments. Violence for the
sake of violence is epidemic. Each age of history has had a
plague - the plague of this age is senseless violence. I have
friends of the "born again" persuasion who tell me that it is the
Devil doing it. I don't think so. As far as I can determine,
devils are a disorganized bunch. Satan Mekatrig Lord of Chaos is
a confusion in terms. Seen another way, that's organized
confusion. As I see it, the flow of the power of the Universe is
organized and rational. So it seems to me that any force opposed
to that flow must be disorganized and irrational. That is to say
nothing of the personal devils within us. They must have a hand
in at least some of this senseless violence.
I have other friends who blame it on some as yet
unidentified virus. Could be, but it's a rare virus that has no
fever, nor nausea accompanying its onset....
Others hold that it is all explainable by Sigmund Freud and
others of that ilk. Again I say could be, but what mental
discomboomeration comes on suddenly with no sign of
disorientation nor disturbance until it suddenly manifests itself
in the acute stage?
For all I know, none of the above are correct. The fact re-
mains that a wild unreasoning violence is loose among us, a
danger to us all. The fact is, we are all in the same boat, and
the boat is encountering some heavy weather. Don't you think we
should do something about it? I personally can think of a whole
lot of folks who I don;t really care to rescue, but being as we
are all in the same boat, I am sure going to do my best for
them....... But what?
In case this is all some psychosis, maybe we should engage a
firm of head shrinkers to drag in a trainload of couches and get
everyone to undergo psychoanalysis. I refuse to consider the
logistics of this. The idea by itself causes my mind to boggle.
Or, suppose it is a virus. In that case when the
virologists and immunologists have a bit of spare time from their
search for the cause and cure of AIDS, they could do the same for
the senseless violence virus. In view of the fact that we are
all at greater risk from senseless violence than from AIDS, it
might be a worthwhile task.
Or, just in case the gnostics have some truth in their
ideas, and it is Auld Clootie, maybe a mass general exorcism is
in order. Once again, my mind refuses to consider the logistics.
872
In view of the fact that the cause of senseless violence is
still unknown, we might get a government grant to study the
problem. Considering the speed that such grants usually get
results, I would expect a definite answer by the twenty-second
century. Of course, such a grant would have the added advantage
of keeping a large number of researchers out of the pool halls
and off the streets.
Now I am going to go against my usual custom and make a
suggestion; only a suggestion, mind, and not to be taken as a
dictum, but only as an idea to be considered. It has been my
observation that there are only two occasions when magic is apt
to work. One is after all other methods have been tried and
found ineffectual. The other is when there is no other method.
Now I believe that I have explored the other methods and found
them impractical if not impossible. So I feel that I am safe in
saying it's going to take magic to stop this purposeless killing.
So how to go about it? What spell, what charm, what
ceremony shall we use? What power shall we invoke? What power
evoke? Magic works, the proper ceremony at the proper time, done
for the proper reason, will work. True for you, you may well
say, but which ceremony? When? Why?
I just told you. The proper one. The one that is proper
for you is the one you yourself believe is proper. This is not
an essay on morals and ethics, so I refrain from putting in my
two cents worth on what is in my estimation proper. When you are
fighting a grass fire is no time to discuss what sort of shovel
to use.
In my dream we were all walking each in his own way, each
helping the others as much as possible. So here let us not try
to all walk in one path. No point in the universe can be reached
from only one direction. Let us rather each from where it seems
most right and comfortable, try by magic means to stop this
senseless violence. Not-ice I said senseless violence, not just
violence. Some who follow the old Norse way could hardly be ex-
pected to endorse some anti-violent intention, but I know of none
who do not deplore reasonless violence. We have our differences,
but surely no one objects to improving all our chances of kissing
our grandchildren.
So, what I propose is this. Sometime in the next quarter
year, whenever it seems most proper, let us in our various ways
by whatever means one believes in, try by magic means to stop
this epidemic of senseless violence.
873
I have noticed a few things about power on the unseen side.
For a ceremony to be more than a mere charade, everyone involved
in it must believe in the ceremony and in whatever power is used
in it. Everyone must believe that the ceremony can and will
work. Everyone must want the ceremony to work. If anyone
involved in the ceremony does not so believe and want, that
person will be a dead weight on the others that do. When I say
everyone, I mean everyone, all, each one with one belief and one
resolve. What can be done by a group acting in true spiritual
harmony is indeed amazing, but first you must have that true
spiritual harmony.
That is why I suggest we go at this not as some sort of
super- coven ecumenical pagan group. I have seen a few of these
"lets all get together" bunches back in the sixties, and they
couldn't even get drunk.
I personally am in favor of any religion that don't practice
human sacrifice, interfere in the private lives of the
nonbelievers, or use force in conversion. I love 'em all, but
I'm not fool enough to yoke the ass and the ox together. So
let's all go, but let's not try to make it a parade.
That is my suggestion, and my question is why not? I'd
appreciate your ideas on this, I truly would. If you have any
ideas on the subject, please communicate them to the editors of
the RMPJ. Even if the ideas are along the lines of, "You're
Nuts!!", just say why you think so. I'd appreciate it.
May your dreams come true; may the wind cool without
chilling, and may you reap a harvest even richer than the seed
catalogue said you would. May your shadow fall long on the
Earth. Go in peace, remember your fellows, and with these words
I do part now from thee.
________Buck Jump. ....from RMPJ 8/86
874
The Heretic's Corner
Greetings, my Pagan friends, may your Gods be well disposed
to you. May the sad and ugly in your lives be covered by the
blessing of beauty even as the trash of Autumn is covered by the
beautiful snow. May all that is sad in your lives decompose
beneath the blessings even as the dry leaves decompose beneath
the snow; out of the dead past a living future. The flower of
hope ever springs from the mulch and compost of dead regret.
Remember, a curse may force its way into your citadel, but a
blessing only enters through an opened door. In other words, my
blessings upon you, may your Gods bless you, but do your part
too.
Samhain has come and past, the leaves of autumn have fallen
to the ground, the veil between the worlds is once more grown
thick. It is winter now, early winter, but winter none the less.
Our mother the Earth is now the old woman by the fire- side, past
all passion now, but also past regret. She is the loving wise
woman, the old one who looks back in order to show us the path
ahead. Youth is the time for courage and hope, but courage
without caution is spectacular suicide and hope without wisdom is
gentle madness. The fruitful Mother Summer changes the snow-
baby's diaper, but Grandmother Winter shows her how. The Romans
dedicated this quiet season to Janus who looks back into the past
and ahead into the future with good reason. It is the season of
history and prophesy. The sound of the pipes dies in a wail,
the nimble fingers of the harper are still upon the strings, a
hush falls over the hall and the blind seer of things unseen
makes his way slowly up the length of the Ard Righ's great hall,
tapping with his staff before him. It is the hour of telling the
King's fortune, the tribe's fortune. When the blind seer begins
to chant all tongues are stilled, all ears are straining to catch
every word. So it was, so it still is, and my guess is, it will
be so as long as men walk the earth.
Now for my questions. A heretic without questions is a
confusion in terms. I may be confusing and even [some say]
confused, but I am a bona fide heretic here to question any faith
- even my own.
First question: What do you see up the road before us?
There are Tarot cards, there are Runes, there are crystal balls
and dark mirrors, peep stones and visions in the mind. I can't
even begin to list all the ways of looking into the future, but
whatever method you use, won't you tell us what you see? As a
voting member of the human corporation you owe it to your fellows
to share your vision with us all. So come on all you
astrologers, scryers, mystics and shamanic prophets, give us the
word. Now I know how hard it is to go out on a limb, I lived in
a tree house for a while. No one but a masochist or a publicity
hound wants to be proved wrong in public. Even the delphic
oracle used to state her predictions in ambiguous terms. The
fact that any prophet can at times be wrong tends to make serious
prophets a rather close-mouthed bunch. I understand how that is,
no one's complexion is improved by egg on the face.
875
Now I think I have a way for you to share your vision
without going out on a limb and falling like Lucifer if the limb
breaks. Write your prediction to the editors of the R.M.P.J. and
ask that your name be kept confidential. It will be. I know
Kyri and Gary and I give you my word and oath, they are honorable
people who will respect your confidence. A Pagan Priest or
Priestess is no more apt to break the seal of confession than a
Christian one. In the case of astrologers this is hardly the
case. The stars are a matter of public knowledge and any error
in an astrological prediction is a matter of interpretation
rather than false vision. To some degree readers of cards and
runes are the same as astrologers - the error is more apt to be
in the reading than in what is read. Anyway, in these troubled
times [that is a redundancy] we all can use any guidance we can
get, so please pass on to the rest of us any vision you have. So
that is the first question. What do you see, and that's a public
question.
Here is the next question, and it is a private question -
that is, answer it, but don't pass the answer on. If you do, it
can only lead to quarrels, argument and sorrow. We have enough
trouble in the world without adding to it. Answer, but keep your
answer where you found it. The question is this: Is the future
you saw the only future possible?
The idea that the future is fixed, that the last day's
doings were inevitably programmed before the first day's dawn did
not begin with John Calvin. If the future is fixed then it can
be known - however, if it's fixed, knowing it won't help. In
fact in a totally known or knowable future even your finding out
is part of the programme.
Now as for me, I'm a heretic. I truly can't call myself a
Pagan and I'm sure not part of anything else either. I wouldn't
try to get anyone to share my beliefs. For one thing, being "a
poor seeker after the truth, whatever it may be" is lonely, for
another it is apt to give a person lots of shocks. So if I toss
in a bit of private faith at this point don't think I'm trying to
make any converts. I only bring this up for your consideration.
If you see a coyote chasing a rabbit and the coyote is
gaining, you can predict rabbit dinner. The odds are you will be
right unless... You didn't see the hole one jump ahead of the
rabbit, or you may have overlooked the hawk already stooping on
the rabbit. All of these, coyote, rabbit, and hawk, are living
creatures, self-directed by minds, so we must consider these
possibilities too. The coyote may become a vegetarian, the
rabbit may take a quick course in judo and the hawk may become a
guru and announce that she has become a butterfly. The future
will probably be a continuation of the past, what is in motion
will probably stay in motion, but so long as minds are a part of
the future, the future is changeable. The ability to change is
the chief attribute of a mind.
876
So, if I'm right any vision of the future, even if it cannot
be totally exact will be of value to me. If I'm wrong and the
future is fore-ordained, prearranged, fated or kismet, I would be
wasting my time even considering it. The worst part of that is
even my wasting my time must also be fated. I don't believe
that, but it is a consoling thought when I've lost the rent money
shooting pool.
Now the last question. This one can be public or private as
you prefer. I can't see how the answer or how you answer would
in itself cause any real trouble. Oh, those who agree with your
answer will call you wise and those who disagree will call you a
blind fool, but that goes on all the time anyway. The question
is this: How did some of the old-timers in the game of
prediction roll up their impressive scores?
There was the oracle at Delphi, the Roman spurinna, St. Malachy,
and Coinneach Odhar the Brahan seer; they all rolled, so far as
we know, a perfect score. How did they do it? Or did they? It
may well be that their hits have been remembered and their misses
swept under the rug.
Then there are others; Nostradamus, Homer Lee the hunch-
back, Roger Bacon and Robert Nixon the cheshire idiot, to name a
few. These all proved quite accurate after the fact. That is,
their pre-dictions have been seen to be accurate after the events
predicted have come to pass, but difficult to understand before
they happened. This in spite of the fact that both Lee and Nixon
were quite plain spoken.
Some have had dream visions, some have been suddenly granted
knowledge, some have had visions in trance and some of them were
correct. Others by the same methods or means have been totally
wrong. Is there a way to tell the true from the false before the
predicted event either comes to pass or passes beyond
possibility? If so how? Did they, the visionaries whose visions
were accurate beyond the laws of chance, see the real and only
future, or the most likely future? Did they perceive the causes
in their times and follow them logically to their final efforts,
or did they physically go forward in time?
No big deal, but something to while away the hours when the
snow keeps all but those employed outside (and brave fools)
isolated by the fireside with nothing but a bunch of books to re-
read and the idiot box to look at. When the white blanket cuts
us off from society it is well to have something to occupy the
mind. Figuring out the prophets of old ought to last even a busy
mind through a day of blizzard.
Any way, let us have a bit of prophetic prediction from the
readers. I have no doubt that there is at least one Michel de
Nostredame out there and probably several William Millers.
Miller, if you don't know, was the gent who predicted the end of
the world for Oct. 22, 1844. If you haven't noticed, he was
wrong. Let us hear a word from the future from these Rocky
Mountains.
877
The snow grows deeper up in the hills; old Yuler skiis over
the mountains and through the canyons, his long red cap trailing
behind like the tail of a comet and his merry laugh ringing in
the crisp air. Yuler of the winter stars, friend of wolves,
fools, drunks and children - enemy of armies, noble princes, and
"the brave of mouth, coward of heart", - may he take a liking to
you. Even more, may you be the sort of person he likes,
cheerful, full of laughter, not boastful, simple of heart, open
of mind and blessed with a generous giving hand.
Be of good cheer dear friends; listen to the voice of our
Mother. The longest coldest winter will end one day in spring.
However deep beneath the snow the seeds are buried, in time the
flowers will bloom again. I don't need a crystal ball to see
some rough times ahead. Times are hard and getting harder, but
we humans have weathered some bad times getting this far. We can
make it. My blessings on one and all, with which words I do part
now from thee.
__________Buck Jump
.......from RMPJ 12/86
878
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
Copyright (c) 1987 by Buck Jump
Greetings my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you. May the smoke go lightly up your chimney, taking the
ills and sorrows of your house with it. May your wood pile
diminish slowly and your fire kindle quickly. May you not lack
for ale nor friends to share it with.
Yule has come and passed, the sun has once more turned North
and the short winter days grow longer. For all that, the wolf of
winter howls the louder around our doors. The sky holds a
promise of spring; the wolf howls louder and prowls closer around
our doors for he knows his time is short.
We people of the North Intemperate Zone are the children of
the seasons. Our special magic is weather magic. Out of the
cold hard winter and the hot blazing summer we have fashioned our
arts and our inventions. All the strength under the sky is of no
avail without some-thing to push against. Yet for all our clever
inventions we are still shaped by the seasons, ruled by the
weather. here in the rockies, all our promises and our contracts
carry the unspoken clause, "If the road is open and the crick
don't rise."
Our Mother the Earth speaks to us by the seasons, in the
ever changing, ever repeated weather. Hereabout when Mother
speaks all men listen. Now in the hard season be-tween the
winter solstice and the vernal equinox the lesson Mother teaches
is one of patience and introspection.
Consider, my friends, how it is this time of year. We walk
abroad in a world that seems dead, or at least dormant and
sleeping. Yet out of this seeming death will spring the life of
the summer to come. Life into death, death into life the seasons
roll on. Under the frost the seeds of the plants to come are
waiting. Deep in their roots the grass and the greenwood trees
are gathering strength for the green to come. A person who won't
learn from nature won't long cast a shadow on the earth.
Now is the time for planning and preparation. Now, when
every thing is moving slowly is the time to set our minds for the
quick decisions to come. The time to plan for a journey is
while the road is blocked with snow. Perspiration without
preparation is a waste of effort. Now in this quiet time we
should prepare for the busy season ahead. In this life the quick
and the dead are judged. Those who ain't quick are judged dead.
True enough, but quick alone won't get it. The frog that means
to survive must be ever ready to jump, but he has to jump in the
right direction. Old Blue Heron gets many a meal from frogs who
jump the wrong way. We live in a hard world where to do nothing
is to die, and to do the wrong thing is suicide. The eyes that
look not ahead are soon stopped with grave dust.
879
Look into the future to plan for the future, but don't
forget the past. Old defects and mistakes are a better teacher
than old triumphs. Remember what went wrong in the past, so it
won't go wrong again. Anyone alive to read these words must be
at least fair at for-seeing the future, or have luck beyond the
ordinary. Now is the time to get out the crystal ball, cast the
horoscope, shuffle the Tarot cards, consider the predictions of
sages and experts, read the record to establish a pattern, and
then meld them all into some sensible plan of action. It's not a
bad idea to have a contingency plan or two on hand just in case.
Enough of this, I am beginning to sound like a guru, and I
only meant to pass the time of day. I have no certificate of
appointment signed by the ultimate and witnessed by our Mother
the Earth appointing me councillor to the human race. No, I'm
just the asker of questions, and I don't need an appointment for
that. Does a bird need an appointment to fly?
Don't pay too much attention to me, or to any other tribal
elder. We are all of us ever tempted to sit in the seat of the
oracle, and reveal to the young the words of the Gods, that we
heard in the age we call golden. If the elder is really good at
it he can even recall an age when every goose was a swan and
every goat a gazelle. The flower children who said "don't trust
anyone over thirty" had good reason for saying it. I would add
"Don't trust anyone under thirty, either." If you can't trust
your own observations and intelligence, you have a real problem.
I trust you to know the difference between gold and bull-
plop. I will propose questions, you will have to find your own
answers. If I, or any other old crock,knew the answers to all of
life's questions, do you think we'd be here casting our pearls of
wisdom to the winds?
When, and if you have a bit of time to consider general
questions, after considering your own specific problems, here are
a few good ones.
What should our relations be with one who has gone wrong?
We should love all life, even the self made mess, the scoundrel
who knows no law save his own appetites, the seeker after free
lunches, the T.V. evangelist and all the self proclaimed "great
leaders". We should love them, but how close should we get?
Holding hands with a fool who insists on standing under a tall
tree during a thunderstorm just isn't bright. The laws of nature
have no pity, and being an innocent bystander is the most
dangerous employment known to man. So the real question is, how
close should we get?
880
Another to ponder, how far should we go in turning one of
our fellows from the wrong path? "No effort to great to promote
the right" sounds good but is it? Consider: When does a
friendly word of warning become a pack of alarmist lies? How far
does friendly persuasion go, before it becomes `unfriendly
coercion? It's all very well to be the dedicated teacher, but
when does the teacher become the demagogue? How far can a
teacher go before he is interfering with the student's free will?
Where does seduction end and rape begin? Just how far can one go
in correcting a friend gone wrong without buying in to a real bad
deal? I was once picking apples with a fellow who was color-
blind. With the best intention he picked a small round hornets
nest. We learn by observation.
Here's one to ponder on long cold nights when old Fenris
howls outside the door, and ghost lights gleam in the northern
sky. Can right ever be wrong? At first glance, it looks like
the Old Heretic has drunk too deep from the good plum wine.
Could be, but consider before you judge. Take for instance the
statement "The Earth is our mother, we should all love, cherish
and protect her." Now, I don't think you can find a sane person
anywhere who don't agree with that statement, at least in spirit.
Self-preservation demands that we try to save our home and
our heritage. So far so good, but just how far should we go in
our protecting? What weapons should we use, and how use them?
Adolph Hitler had the idea that over-population was our big
problem, and he set out to fix it. The laws of nature don't need
a bunch of petit bureaucrats to enforce them. No judge and jury
are needed to sentence a fool to dismemberment for failing to
show the proper respect for high explosives. It doesn't take the
hand of Lud to drown a fool who shoots a hole in the boat. The
laws of nature have no pity, you who know better and are in the
boat with the armed idiot will drown along with him if he fires
the shot. The trick is to save the boat. In a case like that,
anything that works is right and proper--if it works. Throwing
the armed lunatic overboard is fine if you can do it without
upsetting the boat.
Anyone can cure a dog of running away by shooting him in the
head.
It's a poor medicine that causes more pain than it cures. It is
not enough to know right and defend it, you must still be right
after your defence triumphs. The end would justify the means
always, except any end must reflect the means and be a part of
them. So I lied a little, right can become wrong. The real
question is how does one defend right without destroying the
right defended? That's one we all damn well better have an
answer for every day.
881
These grey days that keep me indoors have gotten me full of
questions; a house-bound heretic is a menace to man's peace of
mind. Here is a question to discuss with friends by the fire
over a mug of ale. I toss this in as a gift. After you have
discussed the weather and displayed your knowledge of sports
you'll need a topic of conversation. That boring lull in the
conversation is all too easy to fill with remarks about the
neighbors, and that leads all to often to digging a grave in the
frozen ground. So here is my gift to the peace of the
neighborhood. When is it proper to work weather magic?
I won't bore you with a discourse on the ways and means of
weather magic, they are many and for the knowledgeable person
they all work. I know that there are a few world-class weather
fixers in my audience. Most of us are somewhere between poor and
fair at weather magic. In terms of snow we range from a white
frost to an occasional ground hider. The real adept can bring on
a real road-blocker at will. The question is not "can it be
done?", the quest-ion is "When should it be done?"
Why? Before you answer it might be well to consider another one
of those laws of nature. There is one that can be stated
`whatever you do by whatever means is your responsibility', or in
the vulgate "if you order it you have to take de-livery on it and
pay for it."
My first three questions are intended for private answers,
I don't want to know your answers, but I hope you do. As long as
your personal moral code doesn't endanger me, I'm in favor of
you keeping it personal. I have trouble enough with my own moral
code. I'm not interested in yours, but I hope you are.
I'd like some input on the last question. If you have any
ideas on the subject please pass them on to our ever-tolerant
editors. We who love our Mother Earth, and practice a bit of
benign magic owe it to each other and to humanity generally to
share our ideas. Some of the magi of the old times seem to have
worked out the morality of weather magic, but that was then, this
is now. Or does that make a difference?
I have done my best to give you something to think about,
something to keep boredom at bay and break the monotony of the
cold grey days. If this doesn't work you can shovel snow and
keep your body so busy that your mind won't have time to grow
bored. If you don't have any snow of your own to shovel I'll let
you come over to my house and have at the drifts with a shovel.
My blessing to one and all; may the green grass of spring
know your shadow - with these words I do now part from thee.
P.S. Women: Please read mankind for man, and Hers or His for
his. I respect all of you persons, but I plead `non culpa' to
the charge of male chauvinism - I did not invent the English
language, I only use it.
882
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
by Buck Jump
Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you; may the bugs flee your patch as from a crow; may the
gentle rain fall softly on your flower beds; and may your lovers
be all you wish them to be. Now at the season of long lovely
days and short passionate nights, when our Mother the fair Earth
is at her richest and most bountiful, it is hardly the season for
deep thinking.
When nature is at its very best and the season most
enjoyable are we not all of us tempted to shut of maymental
processes and enjoy life in a purely sensual mammalian way? Of
course we are, to do less would be an insult to creation.
At this glad time, here comes that old pest, the heretic,
like the ghost at Ceasar's feast. Consider, dear friends, even
as the screech owl is put into this world to scare goose bumps on
our backs, the here-tic is put into the world to ask hard
questions and discomboomerate the quiet mind. The only place on
this sweet earth where we can look for a quiet unchanging stay is
a graveyard. It is so with me, even as with you.
The other day when I was minding my own business [a most ha-
zardous occupation], a stranger came to me with a request. He
wanted me to magically restore to him a lost love. It seems that
he had, by his own actions, turned his lady's love if not to
hate, at least to an active dislike. He was sorry. He knew it
was all his own fault. He agreed that she was justified in
leaving him. He beat his chest and cried `mea culpa', but he
wanted her back, and he wanted me or someone to, as he put it,
"push the right button", and change the situation. Before he
came to me he had been to a friend of mine. The friend is a
scholar and practical magician who is rather more daring than
most- he had by magic means caused the lady to recall the best of
the past. With that, the lady consented to talk with her ex-
inamorata, and discuss, in a civilized fashion, her decision to
be done with him. At that, the magician bowed out. He pointed
out to the petitioner that from there on, it was up to him. My
friend maymagician can be, when he has to be, a most impressive
man, and I gather he dismissed the `lorn lover' with a definite
dismissal.
Then he came to me. I pointed out that there ain't no free
lunch in the universe and I had no intention o making on a
karmic debt of considerable proportion for his possible benefit.
I told him that it is easier to move a mountain than to move a
human mind if it will not be moved. I told him that he was
trying to find someone to do for him what could only be properly
done by himself. I pointed out to him that his situation was an
effect of a cause, a cause that he was responsible for. I told
him that magic is fine as a last resort, but hardly to be
considered as first aid. I told him ...... I wasted my breath.
Such a one hears only what he wants to hear.
883
The petitioner only said, "I just need someone to push the
right button - she used to love me. I am not asking much, I just
want things to be like they were."
I refrained from pointing out that Hitler could have said
the same thing in the bunker. Then he said, "I am willing to pay
you. Just tell me how much it's going to cost." Some things are
an insult from a knowledgeable person, and a joke from a fool. I
laughed. He was the sort who would ask "How much?", referring to
one's head.
Now I am, I think, a reasonable sort, patient, and in my own
way polite, but enough is enough, and this chap was rapidly
becoming too much. I told him flatly, that I was not about to do
any button pushing. I gave him what I felt was good advice.
That is, I told him that if he was determined to further his
amours by magic means to learn to do it himself. I referred him
to a most knowledgeable teacher. I was in that way certain that
he would either learn what was involved in his request and give
it up, or more likely abandon the whole thing as too slow and too
difficult. (The teacher informs me that he never bothered to
even go around to see what the teacher had to offer. A case of
"Gimme my daily bread, I'm willing to wait with my mouth open".)
Then he countered that if I wouldn't "push the button" could
I refer him to someone who could, or would. I inquired around.
One col-league I know is willing to try just about anything. He
once did a weather spell out on the high plains in tornado season
and another time worked a charm to rid a field of grasshoppers in
hail season. I add, both were successful in a disastrous way.
When I contacted him with the case, his words were, "I'd like to
but I'm going on a trip to South America." Surprised, I asked
about the trip, adding I hadn't known about it. He replied, "I
didn't know about it either, but if that dude shows up here, I'm
going!"
Failing to find a genuine scholar and practicing magician
to attempt the matter, I tried a couple of unethical charlatans.
In view of the fact that the petitioner was a large muscular sort
who would expect instant results, they regretfully declined.
I was beginning to feel like Sinbad the Sailor when he
carried the old man of the sea piggyback around the island. At
wit's end (where I have lived for years), I suggested that he try
religion. I offered to introduce him to some nice Pagan folks,
or even get him in touch with some T.V. type evangelists. He
refused on the grounds that they would be too slow and uncertain.
He wanted instant gratification.
At last, thanks be to the power that watches over well-
meaning fools like me, another lady hove into sight, and he took
off in her direction with deep breath and flashing eyes. This
sad fellow is but one of many I've had my misfortune to meet. I
am sure most of you could recount similar sad males. We'll all
have to get together and I'll haul out the portable wailing wall,
and we can share a cup of tea and all sympathize with each other.
884
I wouldn't have bored you with this all too familiar tale
except I have a question. How does one deal with such people?
Is there some way to tell a person with a real problem who can be
helped from the person who has an endless amount of wants and no
energy to help himself? That is, some way, without finding out
the hard way? I can handle skeptics (I am one myself), I can
handle cynics, I can handle atheists and deal with convinced true
believers of all sorts, but how do I deal with a person who
believes that I can work miracles?
One question leads to another. I have a few more on the
same line. How comes it that as soon as people, some of them at
least, find that one is not part of some main line orthodox
church, they straightway want you to work some magic? Are Roman
Catholic and Episcopal priests pestered by miracle seekers? Are
T.V. evangelists? If not, why not? They deal in magic as much
as any Pagan or free thinker. Is the prevalence of lazy
freeloaders the reason that Christianity for the last fifteen
centuries or so has been down playing the magical basis of the
early Church? This is a topic worthy of our consideration.
Another question comes to mind at this point. A question
about magic in general. I am sure you know what magic is, just
is I am sure I know what it is. The definitions are many and
varied, but they all basically state in one way or another, that
magic is the practical side of religion, and the practice of
magic is the art of causing changes in the tangible by intangible
means. Or, to put it another way, magic is a mental way of
changing the physical by means o the spiritual. That is what
magic is, no question there. The question is what does the
uninitiated, uninformed layman think magic is?
If you are going to make a living repairing televisions and
radios, it is not enough that you know electronics. You must
also know what your customers believe about electronics. The
degree of success in the TV-Radio repair business is generally in
direct proportion to the amount of customer knowledge the
proprietor of the business has. The rule is, if you deal with
the run of humanity, you must understand the general run of
humanity. You must not know only what you know, but also what
people ignorantly suppose you know.
I pass this bit of wisdom on to you, for I think it has
value to any serious student of matters intangible. An old
doctor of medicine told me this some forty years ago. The
occasion was a patient of his inquiring about an operation for a
then inoperable condition. I, only an army medic, was astounded
at the fellow's ignorance and when the Doc and I were alone, said
as much. "Son," the old doctor said, "Here is something to
remember Anything that works that you don't understand is magic
and a magician can do anything. That's not the truth, but
ninety per cent of the human race believe it is." That is how
people who have never studied the arts of magic see it. To them
it is a power without cost and without limit.
885
Now, the final question for this time is, what should we do
about this situation? How should one handle a request made in
good faith, to do something clearly impossible? Don't tell me
the answer is nineteenth century elitist secrecy. Even if one
is a member of The Mystic Confraternity of the Aureate, six
fifteen A.M. some well intentioned ill informed citizen is going
to crawl out of your woodwork either begging for a miracle or
demanding one. Secrecy restricts the free flow of information
and the cross fertilization of ideas, besides which it don't
work. I fear that people more or less like the chap I described
at the start of this will ever be with us. What can we do about
them, how should we do it? I am as always serious with my ques
tions. If anyone has some idea on the subject please let us all
know. Write the editorial staff of the RMPJ. Don't hide your
light in this dark world.
Now, having done my best to dispel the boredom of too much
of a good thing, I part now from you. May the sunshine fall
softly on you, tanning but not burning. May our sweet Mother the
Earth long know your shadow. May you go ever with the current of
the power of the Absolute. My blessings on one and all.
(c)1986, by Buck Jump .........from R.M.P.J. 8/86
886
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
Copyright 1987, Buck Jump & RMPJ
Greetings, my Pagan friends--may your Gods be well-disposed to you.
May the rain be sufficient unto the needs of your gardens but not so much
as to change the creek bottom geography. May the fish be attracted to your
bait and the deer flies and mosquitos find you nauseating.
Now is the sweet season of our year when our sweet Mother the Earth is
at Her most satisfying, must nurturing aspect. Ripe Summer just a moon to
come, Spring with her fickle teasing just a moon past. Now the days are
long and our thoughts are longer. The nights are short and our sorrows
even shorter. To add my blessing to the blessing of being alive in this
glad season would be to lay a penny on a gold-piece. Rejoice and be glad
that you are alive in this season.
According to my Almanac, which holy writ I have so far found to be
true, on the night of June 25 the Sun and Moon will both be in Cancer.
That night if the clouds are not intervening we will be treated to the
sight of the new moon with the old moon in her arms. The earth light then
is so bright on the moon that we can see it from here.
The Teutons call it the geigenschine, and, in the old times at least,
believed it was the time when one might peer through the veil of time, to
see both past and future. The Celts held that the new moon was pregnant
with the harvest to come on these nights. Those who follow the seasons in
their doings hold it a grand time for beginnings. A good time for marrying
and giving in marriage. The Hebrideans hold it to be the luckiest of times
for launching a fishing boat. Come to think about it those two things are
not very different.
Any way it's a fine night for a bonfire and a picnic. I must confess
in my own case it's hard to think of a night that isn't good for a fire and
a feast, but when the new moon holds the old moon in her arms seems the
best of nights for partying and feasting. It is a time without equal for
blessing ceremonies -- especially ceremonies to bless the beginning of
something.
Most of you, I am sure, know more about this than I do, but I thought I'd
just give you all a gentle reminder. Another thing -- it is generally said
to be ill luck to start the new cider in the fall with over half the old
cider still not drunk. Party time, friends!!
887
Now I may seem to change the subject. I have found that only the
Absolute Ultimate Intelligence and the tables of mathematics can be trusted
totally. That is why I trust the Almanac, the axioms of geometry, and the
equations of physics more than the revealed words of all the prophets. Not
that I think prophets are liars, far from it, but one man's truth may be
another man's fairy tale. If you don't think that is so, consider: Three
honest, fair, sober citizens witness the same event, say a wreck on the
highway. One is a farmer from the San Luis Valley, one a Denver truck
driver, and one a sheep herder from Craig; they tell their story in what
they all fondly believe to be standard English. What do we hear? Three
different stories that don't even seem to concern the same event. Now take
three metallurgists, or chemists, or physicists - any three people all
knowledgeable in the same physical discipline. Let one be a Swede, one a
Chinese and one an American; let them all make the same observation and
report on it each in his own language. The equations they use explaining
the observation will be identical. That is why I hold Almanacs and such to
be holy writ.
Interesting, but what has that piece of information to do with a feast
by a bonfire or a ceremony under the new moon? Music is what. Music is
that form of mathematics that describes and evokes emotion. A ceremony
without music is like a feast without food, a confusion in terms.
I can't speak the highland Gaelic, but when a good piper blows "I will
see ye no the more" I understand what it is to go bravely into a battle
knowing you won't win, and can't win, but can't avoid either. They had no
piper, but I wonder if someone didn't whistle that sad brave tune inside
the Alamo that morning when Santa Anna's trumpeter blew "Death and Glory."
A native American blowing on a bone flute can tell you more about the Hopi
nation and what the coyote's song means than a whole library full of
anthropological studies. A classic Chinese orchestra playing "Dragons
Crossing a River" will put you more in tune with China than a year spent
studying Kung Fu Tse in translation. A drummer from the Congo banks and a
drummer from the Shetlands don't have the same beat, nor do they carry the
same message, but each can understand the other.
Magic is at least in part emotion, a mood-thought or as we say in the
country `you have to hold your mouth right.' So if you do plan some
ceremony for the night of the double moon, give a thought to the music. It
is not enough that a ceremony "work" it has to "work right."
Now for my question. I am not just being silly with this, I ask it in
hope that we can establish some uniformity of terms. At the night of the
new moon we who count time by moons begin a new count. Different folk in
different places name the moons differently. That is, the full moon
occurring when the Sun is in Cancer or first after the Summer solstice is
called Green Corn moon, Catfish moon, Strawberry moon, or First Heat moon,
to name only a few designations. I am not trying to establish any
uniformity in these names. As the heart feels let the mouth speak. Any
way a list beginning with the Full moon next after the Vernal Equinox is
easily translated from one name system to another.
888
What I'd like to know is something else. The other day I was playing
trivial pursuit and one of the questions was "what is the second full moon
in a month called? I missed it. The answer was a "blue moon." I lost
fair and square, a game is played by the rules of the game and damn the
facts. In fact, a blue moon occurs whenever there is a cloud of volcanic
dust in the stratosphere. We had several after St. Helens blew up. There
were some emerald sunrises at that time too. We had `blood on the moon'
some fifty years ago during the dust storms. That red moon phenomenon
occurs during forest fires too. Signs in the moon of impending doom and
disaster are too well known to warrant comment, so I won't make any.
What I want to know is what does one call the second full moon
occurring in the passage of the sun through a single sign of the Zodiac? In
four full years there are 48 sun signs, but 49 full moons. What does one
call that extra full moon? For instance it happened now would it be
"second full moon", or "early currant moon", or "more catfish moon", or "If
you didn't catch 'em last time moon get 'em now moon"? Being as I'm not
color blind I know it's not a "blue moon" but what is it?
So dear friends the year rolls on. Enjoy the good green days when
Summerland is here and not hereafter. To look ahead at the cold to come
will spoil the enjoyment of Summer but it won't make Winter any less sharp.
So enjoy the sweet days while you may. May you so live that the Summer
days will live in your hearts throughout the whole cycle of seasons and be
with you even when you pass this way again. May our Mother bless you and
guide you. With these words I do now part from thee.
--Buck Jump
889
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
(c)1986, Buck Jump
Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you. May your harvest be bounteous, may your winter meat be
fat and easily gotten, and may the autumn sun warm you for the
cold to come.
Now is the time of the grand payoff when what we have worked
for throughout the long summer is at last laid in the granary. A
little while to enjoy the sweet earth, the time between harvest
and wood chopping. Our Mother is especially sweet just now - past
bearing but not yet the wise old grandmother, our Earth is still
warm with passion, a lover of pleasure without consequence.
Autumn is the year's reward. May yours be rich and filled with
ecstasy.
The black birds flock for the long trip south; the wild
geese return from the arctic barrens. The coyotes sing their
wild song of life and love. A night wind rustles the drying
leaves under the Hunter's moon, and I hear the horn of the wild
hunt rushing over the land. The veil between the worlds grows
thin and the past comes back into the present.
There is a sweet nostalgia in the past. Old loves still
warm the cooling blood; old triumphs still make the heart beat
faster; old mistakes still bring a blush to the cheek. "Old
mistakes", as the English sailor said in the Japanese bath house,
"Aye, there's the rub."
I hope the wild hunt in passing your house, starts only such
game as you will want to see. I fear that old Herne has started
a hare in my woods that I neither knew was there nor wanted to
see.
My Pagan friends, forgive me... I goofed. Mea Culpa, and I
should have known better. At least I give thanks that I can
acknowledge my goof before it goes farther, and thanks too that I
haven't entirely dislocated my arm patting myself on the back.
When last I wrote in these pages, I suggested that we all
work some magic to put an end to senseless violence. I thought I
was being reasonable, I thought my idea would perhaps inspire an
outpouring of spiritual power that might well improve our common
environment. It seemed like such a good idea. I was proud of
myself. Well, pride goeth before a forced landing.
890
I have a friend with whom I've debated many an issue of
moral philosophy over many a cup of coffee. He shall remain
nameless here, but I can identify him as a Talmudic scholar who
has taken a post graduate course in human nature in the "second-
hand" business. He is a master schooled in both theory and prac-
tice. As soon as you issue of the R.M.P.J. came out, I
rushed down to the coffee shop to gloat and play `one-up' with my
friend. I went in like a falcon and got shot down like a goose.
He read my prose carefully, and re-read parts of it. He is a
scholar and a gentleman. The former kept him from agreeing, the
latter kept him from being nasty about it. Every philosopher
should have such a friend, someone to keep our feet on the
ground.
"I agree with your position", he told me, "I think you have
a noble idea, but your first premise is false. There is no
senseless violence -- all violence seems sensible to the one who
does it. Now you, I, and every well intentioned reasonably
intelligent person must agree the examples you cite are
senseless. To us they are senseless, but to the people who did
them they were sensible."
Then he proceeded to show how, from the warped viewpoint of
these violent people their actions were, to them, both sensible
and justified. He convinced me that I was making a moral and
value judgement rather than a positive statement of natural fact.
In order to achieve what I wanted, I now realize, would require
some drastic reshaping of a lot of minds, an overhaul of millions
of psyches. I didn't realize what I was asking. Well, when I
dream, I dream big....
If all the moral philosophers, gurus, religious leaders,
prophets and shamans who have tried and failed to re-shape
humanity en masse were gathered together in a single place, it
would take a Texas wheat field to hold them. In order to stop
senseless violence it will be necessary to get everyone to agree
on what is senseless. I know what is right, you know what is
right, but that wierdo next door has some other idea. Before we
can feel safe around him we have to get him to agree with us.
I'm not too optimistic about a mass mind change even by magic.
It is worth a try, but recall - in the past, some real eternity
class magicians have tried and failed. Some of those old boys
could control the weather, transmute metals, turn juice or water
in to wine instantly and levitate, but they couldn't change the
mind set of mankind. It's easier to move a mountain than a mind.
To use force either real or implied, either physical or social,
is only to replay the inquisition, and we've already had too many
remakes and sequels to that. Education seems to be the only
method that works, and that's as slow as evolution.
891
Right and Justice are not to be had in job lots, even with
magic. Every case must be approached individually one by o@e.
To change minds in mass lots can be done magically; however
people who are so changed are not really changed, but only
suppressed -- what you get are a bunch of zombies. So far as I
know this sort of thing is only done by magicians on the dark
side. Adolph Hitler and Jim Jones are two examples that come
readily to mind. For all I know both of the named examples may
well have started with the highest motives. When you start
superimposing your mind o@ the mind of another or others, things
have a way of coming unglued. History is full of examples of
groups that acted with one mind for a while and then unravelled
when the guru leader either died or ran out of gas. No my
friends, it won't work, even with the noblest of motives it just
won't work.
I knew all this from long ago, but I was misled as to what
was going on. I thought the senseless violence I saw around me
was from some outside source. A mad spirit, a virus or some sort
of "dis-harmonic vibration". If that were the case my idea would
have been a good one. On the off chance that something like that
is now afoot in our world a general intention for reason and
against violence can't hurt, and may well do some constructive
good. I'm all for anyone who tries to clean up our environment,
seen or unseen. Considering the sort of good folk who read the
R.M.P.J. I'm not too worried that anyone who read my last little
effort will be misled by it. I fear that at worst, those of you
who followed my suggestion may have wasted both time and effort -
- I hope that at best, you may have done some good by promoting
reason and discouraging confusion. Cleaning the house won't stop
a fire, but it will lessen the chances of spontaneous combustion,
and make a fire easier to fight if it does break out. As I see
it, my mistake was in supposing we all have more or less the same
values and in externalizing he source of senseless violence.
Enough of apology and explanation. Breast-beating and
patting your back are both good exercises .....in futility.
One good bray from the donkey, o@e good hoot from the owl, and
then back to work. We are still at risk from some angry fool
armed and dangerous. What can be done? What should be done?
I can think of several things to do. First, learn to
perceive the violent odes. Some of us can see auras, some can
pick up on "bad vibes", some can "smell" trouble -- however,
whichever, my advice would be to use it. An antelope don't long
survive in the veldt without looking, listening, smelling and
generally keeping on the alert. Second, surround yourself with
protection. Some walk in a sphere of protection, some are guided
by some unseen force, I rely on my guardian spirit, guardian
angel or however you call her. In any case, whatever protection
you have, use it. Whatever ceremonies, prayers, incantations or
deep meditations you use, don't neglect them. That is about it.
We're back where we were when we wore fur bikinis and hunted with
stone-tipped spears, but haven't we always been there? Safety
is, in this life, I fear only an illusion.
892
One thing more we can do, and should do -- we can teach.
Part of the debt we all owe to life is to clean the place. Non
only should we pick up the trash, but we should also clean up the
vicious bull-shit wherever we find it. Like it or not we are all
teachers. Whatever we do, whatever we say is part of the
lesson we teach.
Before all the Gods I wish I had some magic formula to give
you that would clean up the world both seen and unseen, but I
don't. The life of mankind is a hard road to travel, that is why
the ultimate designed a hard bunch to travel it. My blessings on
you one and all. May you find enlightenment. You are smart, may
you find wisdom. Let this subject now be closed between us. If
you have any ideas on this subject pass them on to our long-
suffering editors.
Now it may be that I can resume my clown suit and once more
arm myself with my gadfly stinger and get back to the heretic
business and leave metaphysics to those better equipped to deal
with it. A silversmith shoeing a horse rarely does a good job of
it.
In the spring the wild plums were a'blooming. White
blossoms on the bough, lace for the bride. In the long summer
the little green plums grew and changed to a lighter green color.
When the first frost was still up in the high country the plums
grew sweet and turned a lovely purple-pink shade. Then at the
time of the autumnal equinox, they were picked and crushed. Now
the new wine works behind the air seals in the fermenter. The
promise of spring blossoms is redeemed in the good strong wine of
winter. What we learn in any one place we can use in another
place. The wild plums are a part of life; from them we can learn
about other parts of life. When the wine falls clear, a drink
all around, a toast to life. May we all go our separate ways
bound for a common goal. May the flowers bloom where we have
passed. Go in peace, well disposed to your fellows. With these
words I do now part from thee.____Buck Jump
.......from RMPJ Oct '86
893
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
Copyright 1987, Buck Jump
and the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal
Greetings my Paganfriends; may yourGods be welldisposed to you. May
the breeze of Autumn cool your sun-browned skin while the heat of summer
past still warms your heart. May you find pinon nuts in plenty -don't
forget to leave a few for our furry friends. May the cider of your apples
be finer than the best champagne. May the sacred blue corn from your corn
patch be enough to see you through the winter, enough to plant next spring,
and still enough to make cornbread for all your friends when your next
year's corn is as high as your knees.
The full moon of Libra rides now in the sky. The Blood moon, the
Hunters' moon, time for such of us as are not vegetarians to go on the
hunt. Now is the time to make proper apologies and then lay in the winter
meat. The fine days of Autumn are upon us. Enjoy the beauty of the season
even as you work like one bailing a leaking boat in the middle of a large
lake, to prepare for the cold to come. These are fine days, these are hard
days. Our Mother the Earth loves us, but she is a stern parent. It's work
or die for us Her children. Be glad that this is so; if Mother only gave
what a bunch of spoiled brats we would be. So dig your potatoes and while
you dig remember the folks who held this land before us. Bless them for
the potatoes and the sacred blue corn. Tread lightly on the ground -who
knows whose graves we walk upon.
The other day a lady inquired of me as to where to get some clear
quartz crystals. I referred her to a couple of rock shops that I have
found to both reasonable and reliable. In the course of our talk she began
to question me about the ghostly and magic qualities of crystals generally.
I had to tell her that as to crystals, my knowledge was rather like my
knowledge of electronics-- purely academic. I know that both are useful in
the hands of one knowledgeable about them, and I know that I am not so
knowledgeable. I advised her to get some of the good books on the subject
and to enroll in a class to study that discipline.
I wonder why it is that people assume that because I have some
incomplete knowledge of magic sticks and enchanted rings that I would know
about crystals. Some folks suppose that since I can play a mountain
dulcimer I can also play an indian flute - I can't. Do they also suppose
that a stone mason knows the cabinet maker's trade? Most of the
definitions of magic I have read were written by magicians, from within as
it were. Here is one written by one not at all knowledgeable about magic,
from without. It is this, "Magic is anything that I don't understand that
works." It also has a corollary: "A magician can do anything." That's
another good reason to soft-pedal your pagan beliefs. Besides the people
who want to throw stones at you, you have to contend with a pack of nuts
who expect you to turn their leaden lives into fine
gold with no effort on anyone's part. I digress, but I feel this paragraph
may be of use to you.
So back to my conversation with the crystal seeking lady. She next
remarked that I probably had never had a lucky piece nor a lucky stone.
Again, I surprised her. I told her that I had several such. That led to a
discussion of lucky stones in general, and the difference in crystals,
metals, and shapes that will work for any knowledgeable person, and special
talismanic tokens that have power usable only by an individual or a small
group of people.
894
A true lucky stonehas a value,at least to itsowner, that hasnothing
to do with its price. A natural crystal has a price fixed more or less in
relation to its value. Such a stone is rather like any other tool or piece
of equipment. Personal lucky stones are another matter - I know a good
deal about them, learned by both study and experience. Any solid object
may be a lucky piece. Usually it is a natural object, but it can be
something manmade. There is extensive literature on the subject. If you
are interested you can look up talismans, mazels, gluckenstinen, destiny
stones, Indian medicine rocks, lucky stones, they are all the same thing,
no matter the language. I personally prefer "lucky stone", the common
American term, and why not? I am a common American. So much for
nomenclature, how do they work and where can you get one?
As for the first question, life is too short to give a good positive
answer. I have a private guess, but for anything definite you'll need to
study cosmology, physics, metaphysics, geology, psychogeology and
"energyology." If you should come up with a good positive answer, one that
can be proved by demonstration, please let me know.
Now for whereto obtain alucky stone or luckypiece. First,you can't
buy one - oh, you might buy the stone, but the seller loses the luck and
the buyer don't get it. I guess it goes back to wherever it came from.
Second, you can't steal it. True, a clever thief can lift any solid
object, but the act of theft reverses the luck. If you doubt that, I refer
you to the history of the Hope diamond. So, having forewarned you what not
to do, I'll proceed to what you can do. You can obtain a lucky stone by
gift. You can be given a lucky stone provided the gift is made in love,
without fear nor hope of future favor. I have one such, which I got by
inheritance. The best and cheapest way to acquire a lucky stone is to have
it thrust upon you. A gift from the hands of the Gods, as it were. To put
it another way, a lucky stone becomes a lucky stone at some moment in time
when you and the stone come together in some, to you, great event. For
example, bringing down a deer when you are really starving; being
near-missed by a bolt of lightning; a truly monumental moment of love.
By wayof illustration, here'show two ofmine came tobe lucky stones.
The first is a sort of family lucky stone, the one I got by inheritance.
One day in early June some sixty years ago a gang of relatives were putting
up the hay crop on my grandfather's farm. Purely by chance, everyone there
was a member of my mother's family. You may wonder what a boy not ten
years old was doing there. In those days a kid to load the stacker pony
was a regular part of most haying crews. Suddenly there was a flash of
greenish light, a sonic boom, the earth shook and a thin wisp of smoke or
steam rising from the meadow. One of my uncles took a shovel and ran over
to investigate. A wisp of smoke was rising from a hole in the ground. He
dug up a red hot meteorite, rare enough in its self, but this particular
one is an isotropic form of copper. It is somewhat cylindrical in shape,
about the size of a large salt shaker. That is the family lucky stone. It
has been handed down in the family ever since. All I can say is,
comparatively we have had better luck since then than most other families.
The keeper or custodian of the piece has always been favored with unusual
good fortune.
895
The other that I will describe is a piece of red and white Oregon beach
agate. It is about the size of the first joint of my thumb, polished and
shaped by the random tumbling of the waves and sand - it seems to have a
sort of Salvador Dali eye on one side. What a certain lovely lady and I
were doing in an Oregon beach cave at low tide I leave to your imagination;
when we again returned to the world we usually live in I was gripping the
stone in my hand. My own personal love charm.
I know a manwho carries with himeverywhere a watch, meltedand fused
into a worthless chunk of brass, but still recognizable as a watch. He
found it smoking in his pocket as he hastily shed his pants after being
knocked off his feet by a bolt of lightning. That is his lucky piece.
Soit is withall lucky stones,they are souvenirsof a great occasion.
Magic sticks are made, the result of human intention. Lucky stones are
given or granted by power or powers outside the ken of man. If you are
fortunate enough to get one, you will know it. We have an instinct about
some things. If you have one, guard it well. Remember, the difference
between worthless and priceless is in that inner wisdom that only a
superior person possesses.
My question this time rises from this: In the regalia and equipage of
Kings, the royal orb and scepter of royalty are second only to the crown
itself in importance. Now what I'd like to know is this... In the old time
of "the simple rule and antique plan - of him to take who has the power and
him to keep who can", was the scepter the head man's shillelagh and the orb
his lucky stone? Along the same line another related question. Would
kings still rule as well as reign if the scepter were cut with appropriate
ceremony from a living tree and the orb of power was a true lucky stone? I
have noted in history that royal power began to wane about the time kings
began to rely on courtiers and craftsmen for things they had better done
them-selves.
It is well to have friends, it is well to be a part of a group, but
when you inwardly begin to identify your self with some thing or person
outside yourself, you begin to inwardly diminish. Yours should be a part
of you while you have custody of it, otherwise it's only trading stock and
capital.
So much for magic sticks, and lucky stones for history and kings,
autumn is upon us. The wild hunt rides the night wind, the veil between
the worlds grows thin, it's time to prepare for the cold to come. Now is
the time when the long long thoughts rise in our minds unbidden.
May you have food and fire for the winter and thoughts to meditate upon
when your paths are blocked with snow. May you be blessed, may neither
boredom nor hard living trouble you, with which words I do now part from
thee.
___ Buck Jump
896
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
(c)1986, Buck Jump
Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you. May your harvest be bounteous, may your winter meat be
fat and easily gotten, and may the autumn sun warm you for the
cold to come.
Now is the time of the grand payoff when what we have worked
for throughout the long summer is at last laid in the granary. A
little while to enjoy the sweet earth, the time between harvest
and wood chopping. Our Mother is especially sweet just now - past
bearing but not yet the wise old grandmother, our Earth is still
warm with passion, a lover of pleasure without consequence.
Autumn is the year's reward. May yours be rich and filled with
ecstasy.
The black birds flock for the long trip south; the wild
geese return from the arctic barrens. The coyotes sing their
wild song of life and love. A night wind rustles the drying
leaves under the Hunter's moon, and I hear the horn of the wild
hunt rushing over the land. The veil between the worlds grows
thin and the past comes back into the present.
There is a sweet nostalgia in the past. Old loves still
warm the cooling blood; old triumphs still make the heart beat
faster; old mistakes still bring a blush to the cheek. "Old
mistakes", as the English sailor said in the Japanese bath house,
"Aye, there's the rub."
I hope the wild hunt in passing your house, starts only such
game as you will want to see. I fear that old Herne has started
a hare in my woods that I neither knew was there nor wanted to
see.
My Pagan friends, forgive me... I goofed. Mea Culpa, and I
should have known better. At least I give thanks that I can
acknowledge my goof before it goes farther, and thanks too that I
haven't entirely dislocated my arm patting myself on the back.
When last I wrote in these pages, I suggested that we all
work some magic to put an end to senseless violence. I thought I
was being reasonable, I thought my idea would perhaps inspire an
outpouring of spiritual power that might well improve our common
environment. It seemed like such a good idea. I was proud of
myself. Well, pride goeth before a forced landing.
897
I have a friend with whom I've debated many an issue of
moral philosophy over many a cup of coffee. He shall remain
nameless here, but I can identify him as a Talmudic scholar who
has taken a post graduate course in human nature in the "second-
hand" business. He is a master schooled in both theory and prac-
tice. As soon as the last issue of the R.M.P.J. came out, I
rushed down to the coffee shop to gloat and play `one-up' with my
friend. I went in like a falcon and got shot down like a goose.
He read my prose carefully, and re-read parts of it. He is a
scholar and a gentleman. The former kept him from agreeing, the
latter kept him from being nasty about it. Every philosopher
should have such a friend, someone to keep our feet on the
ground.
"I agree with your position", he told me, "I think you have
a noble idea, but your first premise is false. There is no
senseless violence -- all violence seems sensible to the one who
does it. Now you, I, and every well intentioned reasonably
intelligent person must agree the examples you cite are
senseless. To us they are senseless, but to the people who did
them they were sensible."
Then he proceeded to show how, from the warped viewpoint of
these violent people their actions were, to them, both sensible
and justified. He convinced me that I was making a moral and
value judgement rather than a positive statement of natural fact.
In order to achieve what I wanted, I now realize, would require
some drastic reshaping of a lot of minds, an overhaul of millions
of psyches. I didn't realize what I was asking. Well, when I
dream, I dream big....
If all the moral philosophers, gurus, religious leaders,
prophets and shamans who have tried and failed to re-shape
humanity en masse were gathered together in a single place, it
would take a Texas wheat field to hold them. In order to stop
senseless violence it will be necessary to get everyone to agree
on what is senseless. I know what is right, you know what is
right, but that wierdo next door has some other idea. Before we
can feel safe around him we have to get him to agree with us.
I'm not too optimistic about a mass mind change even by magic.
It is worth a try, but recall - in the past, some real eternity
class magicians have tried and failed. Some of those old boys
could control the weather, transmute metals, turn juice or water
in to wine instantly and levitate, but they couldn't change the
mind set of mankind. It's easier to move a mountain than a mind.
To use force either real or implied, either physical or social,
is only to replay the inquisition, and we've already had too many
remakes and sequels to that. Education seems to be the only
method that works, and that's as slow as evolution.
898
Right and Justice are not to be had in job lots, even with
magic. Every case must be approached individually one by one.
To change minds in mass lots can be done magically; however
people who are so changed are not really changed, but only
suppressed -- what you get are a bunch of zombies. So far as I
know this sort of thing is only done by magicians on the dark
side. Adolph Hitler and Jim Jones are two examples that come
readily to mind. For all I know both of the named examples may
well have started with the highest motives. When you start
superimposing your mind on the mind of another or others, things
have a way of coming unglued. History is full of examples of
groups that acted with one mind for a while and then unravelled
when the guru leader either died or ran out of gas. No my
friends, it won't work, even with the noblest of motives it just
won't work.
I knew all this from long ago, but I was misled as to what
was going on. I thought the senseless violence I saw around me
was from some outside source. A mad spirit, a virus or some sort
of "dis-harmonic vibration". If that were the case my idea would
have been a good one. On the off chance that something like that
is now afoot in our world a general intention for reason and
against violence can't hurt, and may well do some constructive
good. I'm all for anyone who tries to clean up our environment,
seen or unseen. Considering the sort of good folk who read the
R.M.P.J. I'm not too worried that anyone who read my last little
effort will be misled by it. I fear that at worst, those of you
who followed my suggestion may have wasted both time and effort -
- I hope that at best, you may have done some good by promoting
reason and discouraging confusion. Cleaning the house won't stop
a fire, but it will lessen the chances of spontaneous combustion,
and make a fire easier to fight if it does break out. As I see
it, my mistake was in supposing we all have more or less the same
values and in externalizing he source of senseless violence.
Enough of apology and explanation. Breast-beating and
patting your back are both good exercises .....in futility.
One good bray from the donkey, one good hoot from the owl, and
then back to work. We are still at risk from some angry fool
armed and dangerous. What can be done? What should be done?
I can think of several things to do. First, learn to
perceive the violent ones. Some of us can see auras, some can
pick up on "bad vibes", some can "smell" trouble -- however,
whichever, my advice would be to use it. An antelope don't long
survive in the veldt without looking, listening, smelling and
generally keeping on the alert. Second, surround yourself with
protection. Some walk in a sphere of protection, some are guided
by some unseen force, I rely on my guardian spirit, guardian
angel or however you call her. In any case, whatever protection
you have, use it. Whatever ceremonies, prayers, incantations or
deep meditations you use, don't neglect them. That is about it.
We're back where we were when we wore fur bikinis and hunted with
stone-tipped spears, but haven't we always been there? Safety
is, in this life, I fear only an illusion.
899
One thing more we can do, and should do -- we can teach.
Part of the debt we all owe to life is to clean the place. Non
only should we pick up the trash, but we should also clean up the
vicious bull-shit wherever we find it. Like it or not we are all
teachers. Whatever we do, whatever we say is part of the
lesson we teach.
Before all the Gods I wish I had some magic formula to give
you that would clean up the world both seen and unseen, but I
don't. The life of mankind is a hard road to travel, that is why
the ultimate designed a hard bunch to travel it. My blessings on
you one and all. May you find enlightenment. You are smart, may
you find wisdom. Let this subject now be closed between us. If
you have any ideas on this subject pass them on to our long-
suffering editors.
Now it may be that I can resume my clown suit and once more
arm myself with my gadfly stinger and get back to the heretic
business and leave metaphysics to those better equipped to deal
with it. A silversmith shoeing a horse rarely does a good job of
it.
In the spring the wild plums were a'blooming. White
blossoms on the bough, lace for the bride. In the long summer
the little green plums grew and changed to a lighter green color.
When the first frost was still up in the high country the plums
grew sweet and turned a lovely purple-pink shade. Then at the
time of the autumnal equinox, they were picked and crushed. Now
the new wine works behind the air seals in the fermenter. The
promise of spring blossoms is redeemed in the good strong wine of
winter. What we learn in any one place we can use in another
place. The wild plums are a part of life; from them we can learn
about other parts of life. When the wine falls clear, a drink
all around, a toast to life. May we all go our separate ways
bound for a common goal. May the flowers bloom where we have
passed. Go in peace, well disposed to your fellows. With these
words I do now part from thee.____Buck Jump
.......from RMPJ Oct '86
900
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
(c)1986, Buck Jump
Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you. May the rain fall gently on your rhubarb. May the hail
fall in a lake or on a parking lot. May our little six-legged
friends develop an allergy to your pickle patch.
Now is the sweet season of our year. Our Mother the Earth
is pregnant with the harvest to come. The days are long and the
thoughts of the season are long, long thoughts. In the soft
afternoon sky the white thunderheads sail serenely on like ships
of dream in dreamland seas. Surely even such as I can be
forgiven for dreaming a bit, for letting the fancy roam free.
In dreams I see a world set free. I see the human race
living in peace, with each one going his own way but with
courtesy to all who go another way. I see us as one species,
which we are, and all of us acknowledging that fact. I see each
walking in beauty, with dignity, and respecting the other
person's dignity. I see us loving one another, helping our
fellow men along their way. When I dream, I don't mess around -
I rear back and dream up a doozy!
So much for dreams; back to the world we live in, back to
the life we know. Before I spring my question for the day, a
little background, a few facts:
Every one of us must come to terms with his environment and
his heredity. We all live on one Earth. That is the main part
of our environment, or at least the location of it.
We are all human beings, homo occasionally sapiens. That is
the basis of our heredity.
Anything that is done to one of us is done to all of us.
Anything that happens in one place on this planet has some effect
on every place on the planet.
We are, all of us, stuck with our whole species. Here we
are with a bunch of people we wouldn't willingly walk down a
country road with. Indeed, we are as ship- wrecked mariners in a
lifeboat with a bunch we wouldn't sit down to eat a free meal
with. To jump out of the boat is to drown. To try to toss those
_______________s out is very apt to upset the boat and drown all
of us. These facts are self-evident, axiomatic.
I have always held that we should all walk the path of life
with our hands outstretched in fellowship with respect and love
for all. Of course, I have a caveat - keep a Bowie knife handy
in case they haven't all heard the message.
As the Ultimate is reported to have said when the mountains
were made, "Now for the background". The present situation is a
mess. Violence is everywhere. Not even foolish violence, but
violence without reason. Surely a leopard is in our streets and
a shark loose in our swimming pool.
901
An armed bandit shoots down an unarmed clerk who is
cooperating. A litigant in court shoots down an attorney. A
parent beats a child to death. A driver gets cut off coming onto
the freeway and guns down the chap in the pickup who did the
off-cutting. An otherwise reasonable young man is annoyed by the
sounds of traffic on a mountain road and starts shooting at the
cars passing. Those are only a few examples culled from the news
in recent months. In truth, senseless violence is loose in the
land.
As it is with the individual, so with groups. From the
racist fringe movement on to great governments. Violence for the
sake of violence is epidemic. Each age of history has had a
plague - the plague of this age is senseless violence. I have
friends of the "born again" persuasion who tell me that it is the
Devil doing it. I don't think so. As far as I can determine,
devils are a disorganized bunch. Satan Mekatrig Lord of Chaos is
a confusion in terms. Seen another way, that's organized
confusion. As I see it, the flow of the power of the Universe is
organized and rational. So it seems to me that any force opposed
to that flow must be disorganized and irrational. That is to say
nothing of the personal devils within us. They must have a hand
in at least some of this senseless violence.
I have other friends who blame it on some as yet
unidentified virus. Could be, but it's a rare virus that has no
fever, nor nausea accompanying its onset....
Others hold that it is all explainable by Sigmund Freud and
others of that ilk. Again I say could be, but what mental
discomboomeration comes on suddenly with no sign of
disorientation nor disturbance until it suddenly manifests itself
in the acute stage?
For all I know, none of the above are correct. The fact re-
mains that a wild unreasoning violence is loose among us, a
danger to us all. The fact is, we are all in the same boat, and
the boat is encountering some heavy weather. Don't you think we
should do something about it? I personally can think of a whole
lot of folks who I don;t really care to rescue, but being as we
are all in the same boat, I am sure going to do my best for
them....... But what?
In case this is all some psychosis, maybe we should engage a
firm of head shrinkers to drag in a trainload of couches and get
everyone to undergo psychoanalysis. I refuse to consider the
logistics of this. The idea by itself causes my mind to boggle.
Or, suppose it is a virus. In that case when the
virologists and immunologists have a bit of spare time from their
search for the cause and cure of AIDS, they could do the same for
the senseless violence virus. In view of the fact that we are
all at greater risk from senseless violence than from AIDS, it
might be a worthwhile task.
Or, just in case the gnostics have some truth in their
ideas, and it is Auld Clootie, maybe a mass general exorcism is
in order. Once again, my mind refuses to consider the logistics.
902
In view of the fact that the cause of senseless violence is
still unknown, we might get a government grant to study the
problem. Considering the speed that such grants usually get
results, I would expect a definite answer by the twenty-second
century. Of course, such a grant would have the added advantage
of keeping a large number of researchers out of the pool halls
and off the streets.
Now I am going to go against my usual custom and make a
suggestion; only a suggestion, mind, and not to be taken as a
dictum, but only as an idea to be considered. It has been my
observation that there are only two occasions when magic is apt
to work. One is after all other methods have been tried and
found ineffectual. The other is when there is no other method.
Now I believe that I have explored the other methods and found
them impractical if not impossible. So I feel that I am safe in
saying it's going to take magic to stop this purposeless killing.
So how to go about it? What spell, what charm, what
ceremony shall we use? What power shall we invoke? What power
evoke? Magic works, the proper ceremony at the proper time, done
for the proper reason, will work. True for you, you may well
say, but which ceremony? When? Why?
I just told you. The proper one. The one that is proper
for you is the one you yourself believe is proper. This is not
an essay on morals and ethics, so I refrain from putting in my
two cents worth on what is in my estimation proper. When you are
fighting a grass fire is no time to discuss what sort of shovel
to use.
In my dream we were all walking each in his own way, each
helping the others as much as possible. So here let us not try
to all walk in one path. No point in the universe can be reached
from only one direction. Let us rather each from where it seems
most right and comfortable, try by magic means to stop this
senseless violence. Not-ice I said senseless violence, not just
violence. Some who follow the old Norse way could hardly be ex-
pected to endorse some anti-violent intention, but I know of none
who do not deplore reasonless violence. We have our differences,
but surely no one objects to improving all our chances of kissing
our grandchildren.
So, what I propose is this. Sometime in the next quarter
year, whenever it seems most proper, let us in our various ways
by whatever means one believes in, try by magic means to stop
this epidemic of senseless violence.
903
I have noticed a few things about power on the unseen side.
For a ceremony to be more than a mere charade, everyone involved
in it must believe in the ceremony and in whatever power is used
in it. Everyone must believe that the ceremony can and will
work. Everyone must want the ceremony to work. If anyone
involved in the ceremony does not so believe and want, that
person will be a dead weight on the others that do. When I say
everyone, I mean everyone, all, each one with one belief and one
resolve. What can be done by a group acting in true spiritual
harmony is indeed amazing, but first you must have that true
spiritual harmony.
That is why I suggest we go at this not as some sort of
super- coven ecumenical pagan group. I have seen a few of these
"lets all get together" bunches back in the sixties, and they
couldn't even get drunk.
I personally am in favor of any religion that don't practice
human sacrifice, interfere in the private lives of the
nonbelievers, or use force in conversion. I love 'em all, but
I'm not fool enough to yoke the ass and the ox together. So
let's all go, but let's not try to make it a parade.
That is my suggestion, and my question is why not? I'd
appreciate your ideas on this, I truly would. If you have any
ideas on the subject, please communicate them to the editors of
the RMPJ. Even if the ideas are along the lines of, "You're
Nuts!!", just say why you think so. I'd appreciate it.
May your dreams come true; may the wind cool without
chilling, and may you reap a harvest even richer than the seed
catalogue said you would. May your shadow fall long on the
Earth. Go in peace, remember your fellows, and with these words
I do part now from thee.
________Buck Jump. ....from RMPJ 8/86
904
THE HERETIC'S CORNER
by Buck Jump
Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
to you; may the bugs flee your patch as from a crow; may the
gentle rain fall softly on your flower beds; and may your lovers
be all you wish them to be. Now at the season of long lovely
days and short passionate nights, when our Mother the fair Earth
is at her richest and most bountiful, it is hardly the season for
deep thinking.
When nature is at its very best and the season most
enjoyable are we not all of us tempted to shut off the mental
processes and enjoy life in a purely sensual mammalian way? Of
course we are, to do less would be an insult to creation.
At this glad time, here comes that old pest, the heretic,
like the ghost at Ceasar's feast. Consider, dear friends, even
as the screech owl is put into this world to scare goose bumps on
our backs, the here-tic is put into the world to ask hard
questions and discomboomerate the quiet mind. The only place on
this sweet earth where we can look for a quiet unchanging stay is
a graveyard. It is so with me, even as with you.
The other day when I was minding my own business [a most ha-
zardous occupation], a stranger came to me with a request. He
wanted me to magically restore to him a lost love. It seems that
he had, by his own actions, turned his lady's love if not to
hate, at least to an active dislike. He was sorry. He knew it
was all his own fault. He agreed that she was justified in
leaving him. He beat his chest and cried `mea culpa', but he
wanted her back, and he wanted me or someone to, as he put it,
"push the right button", and change the situation. Before he
came to me he had been to a friend of mine. The friend is a
scholar and practical magician who is rather more daring than
most- he had by magic means caused the lady to recall the best of
the past. With that, the lady consented to talk with her ex-
inamorata, and dis-cuss, in a civilized fashion, her decision to
be done with him. At that, the magician bowed out. He pointed
out to the petitioner that from there on, it was up to him. My
friend the magician can be, when he has to be, a most impressive
man, and I gather he dismissed the `lorn lover' with a definite
dismissal.
Then he came to me. I pointed out that there ain't no free
lunch in the universe and I had no intention of taking on a
karmic debt of considerable proportion for his possible benefit.
I told him that it is easier to move a mountain than to move a
human mind if it will not be moved. I told him that he was
trying to find someone to do for him what could only be properly
done by himself. I pointed out to him that his situation was an
effect of a cause, a cause that he was responsible for. I told
him that magic is fine as a last resort, but hardly to be
considered as first aid. I told him ...... I wasted my breath.
Such a one hears only what he wants to hear.
905
The petitioner only said, "I just need someone to push the
right button - she used to love me. I am not asking much, I just
want things to be like they were."
I refrained from pointing out that Hitler could have said
the same thing in the bunker. Then he said, "I am willing to pay
you. Just tell me how much it's going to cost." Some things are
an insult from a knowledgeable person, and a joke from a fool. I
laughed. He was the sort who would ask "How much?", referring to
one's head.
Now I am, I think, a reasonable sort, patient, and in my own
way polite, but enough is enough, and this chap was rapidly
becoming too much. I told him flatly, that I was not about to do
any button pushing. I gave him what I felt was good advice.
That is, I told him that if he was determined to further his
amours by magic means to learn to do it himself. I referred him
to a most knowledgeable teacher. I was in that way certain that
he would either learn what was involved in his request and give
it up, or more likely abandon the whole thing as too slow and too
difficult. (The teacher informs me that he never bothered to
even go around to see what the teacher had to offer. A case of
"Gimme my daily bread, I'm willing to wait with my mouth open".)
Then he countered that if I wouldn't "push the button" could
I refer him to someone who could, or would. I inquired around.
One col-league I know is willing to try just about anything. He
once did a weather spell out on the high plains in tornado season
and another time worked a charm to rid a field of grasshoppers in
hail season. I add, both were successful in a disastrous way.
When I contacted him with the case, his words were, "I'd like to
but I'm going on a trip to South America." Surprised, I asked
about the trip, adding I hadn't known about it. He replied, "I
didn't know about it either, but if that dude shows up here, I'm
going!"
Failing to find a genuine scholar and practicing magician
to attempt the matter, I tried a couple of unethical charlatans.
In view of the fact that the petitioner was a large muscular sort
who would expect instant results, they regretfully declined.
I was beginning to feel like Sinbad the Sailor when he
carried the old man of the sea piggyback around the island. At
wit's end (where I have lived for years), I suggested that he try
religion. I offered to introduce him to some nice Pagan folks,
or even get him in touch with some T.V. type evangelists. He
refused on the grounds that they would be too slow and uncertain.
He wanted instant gratification.
At last, thanks be to the power that watches over well-
meaning fools like me, another lady hove into sight, and he took
off in her direction with deep breath and flashing eyes. This
sad fellow is but one of many I've had the misfortune to meet. I
am sure most of you could recount similar sad tales. We'll all
have to get together and I'll haul out the portable wailing wall,
and we can share a cup of tea and all sympathize with each other.
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I wouldn't have bored you with this all too familiar tale
except I have a question. How does one deal with such people?
Is there some way to tell a person with a real problem who can be
helped from the person who has an endless amount of wants and no
energy to help himself? That is, some way, without finding out
the hard way? I can handle skeptics (I am one myself), I can
handle cynics, I can handle atheists and deal with convinced true
believers of all sorts, but how do I deal with a person who
believes that I can work miracles?
One question leads to another. I have a few more on the
same line. How comes it that as soon as people, some of them at
least, find that one is not part of some main line orthodox
church, they straightway want you to work some magic? Are Roman
Catholic and Episcopal priests pestered by miracle seekers? Are
T.V. evangelists? If not, why not? They deal in magic as much
as any Pagan or free thinker. Is the prevalence of lazy
freeloaders the reason that Christianity for the last fifteen
centuries or so has been down playing the magical basis of the
early Church? This is a topic worthy of our consideration.
Another question comes to mind at this point. A question
about magic in general. I am sure you know what magic is, just
is I am sure I know what it is. The definitions are many and
varied, but they all basically state in one way or another, that
magic is the practical side of religion, and the practice of
magic is the art of causing changes in the tangible by intangible
means. Or, to put it another way, magic is a mental way of
changing the physical by means of the spiritual. That is what
magic is, no question there. The question is what does the
uninitiated, uninformed layman think magic is?
If you are going to make a living repairing televisions and
radios, it is not enough that you know electronics. You must
also know what your customers believe about electronics. The
degree of success in the TV-Radio repair business is generally in
direct proportion to the amount of customer knowledge the
proprietor of the business has. The rule is, if you deal with
the run of humanity, you must understand the general run of
humanity. You must not know only what you know, but also what
people ignorantly suppose you know.
I pass this bit of wisdom on to you, for I think it has
value to any serious student of matters intangible. An old
doctor of medicine told me this some forty years ago. The
occasion was a patient of his inquiring about an operation for a
then inoperable condition. I, only an army medic, was astounded
at the fellow's ignorance and when the Doc and I were alone, said
as much. "Son," the old doctor said, "Here is something to
remember Anything that works that you don't understand is magic
and a magician can do anything. That's not the truth, but
ninety per cent of the human race believe it is." That is how
people who have never studied the arts of magic see it. To them
it is a power without cost and without limit.
A PLEA FOR INITIATION STANDARDS
I'm full of radical ideas. I think the terms "Priest, Priestess,
High Priest and High Priestess" are more than titles. I think
being a member of the Priesthood means more than status. I think
a coven is more than a study group, or a social gathering. I think
being a Witch is more than a protest against the patriarchy.
I think receiving a First Degree should mean you have worked and
studied and grown and dedicated yourself to your path and your
Gods. I think an initiation should mean something.
I know of a young man who received a third degree after having
proved he could lead a ritual. That's all he had to do, lead a
ritual.
I know of a woman who claims third degrees in both the English and
American traditions of a well-known tradition. She shows
absolutely none of the qualities by which one usually recognizes a
High Priest or High Priestess.
I know of a woman who refused to accept the standards set by her
High Priestess, who threw a fit when she didn't get her First on
demand. She went to another teacher, secretly received her First,
and a year later, her Second. Considering her attitude toward her
first teacher, I have absolutely no faith that she did any work to
earn her second. Yet she calls herself a High Priestess.
When two members of Sothistar received their first degrees last
year, they had: studied and worked with the five magical
elements, worked at developing personal relationships with the
Gods, studied astrology, symbology, qabala, Tarot (both as a
divinational and meditational tool), several forms of divination,
writing rituals, leading rituals, drawing down the Moon, basic
spell-casting and various methods,ethics, the Egyptian deities and
mythology, ritual etiquette, the laws of the coven, the use of
stones and crystals, meditation, conducting rituals, the meaning
and duties of the priesthood, and the use of chants and songs.
Both had chosen (or been chosen by) deities to whom they wished to
make a special dedication. Both had proven their loyalty to the
coven and the Craft. Both had served as vessels for both the God
and the Goddess, and both had led rituals. After all of this,
they received First Degree.
Am I saying that mine is the only way--that if your coven does not
study these subjects your initiations aren't valid? Certainly
not! I am saying that our tradition has standards for initiation.
Many other covens have standards--some more stringent and some
less demanding than mine. What I am saying is that I wish
everyone had standards.
Why? Because when you have standards, the initiations you give
mean something.
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When we took the two mentioned above around to the four quarters and
pronounced them Priest/ess, they could not have been prouder of their
achievement. Nor could we. We had no doubt they could serve as
competent dedicated Priest and Priestess in a ritual. In the time
since, they've proved it over and over. When they make Second
Degree, and Third, and eventually have a coven of their own, they'll
continue to make us proud. When they represent the coven other
places, they do so in a manner that reflects well on the coven.
I've met many First Degrees of other covens who did not reflect well
on their teachers. (I've also met many who have.)
You ask again, Why? I'll give you a personal reason--because it
irritates the hell out of me that the people mentioned at the
beginning of this article can put their noses in the air and claim
a higher status in the Craft than my two dedicated, hard-working,
sincere students.
Once upon a time, a high school diploma meant something. You
couldn't get a decent job without one. These days, it means
nothing. These days, a Bachelor's Degree doesn't mean much. I
don't want that to happen to initiations!
Perhaps I should discuss what I think initiation is. A true
initiation is not a ritual, it is not entrance into a club,
it is not just a dedication. An initiation is a spiritual step to
a higher stage in spiritual growth. There are many such steps.
Such "initiations" are not given by High Priest/esses. They are
given by the Gods. An initiation ritual is an acknowledgment by a
coven leader that the Initiate has, in that leader's opinion,
reached a certain stage in spiritual growth.
Coven leaders are not omniscient. Although I'm sure such leaders
strive to serve as worth representatives of the God and Goddess,
they (the coven leaders) are not the God and Goddess. All of them
must find their own ways of determining whether their students
have achieved this growth. They must also give what guidance they
can to those attempting to achieve it. Our study program includes
many things not mentioned above, exercises and spiritual work
that, we hope will help our students reach that goal. If our
students apply themselves to all they are given to do, it is
possible for them to reach that stage. When we give a first
degree initiation, we are saying that the Initiate is *already* a
Priest/ess of the Goddess.
I do not ask that all covens adopt our particular standards. I do
plead with you to *have* standards beyond simple attendance at
ritual for a year and a day. Insist that they work hard, that
they learn and grow, that they struggle, that they strive, that
they become, in your opinion, worthy servants of the Gods.
Some months ago, I mentioned this to two leaders of a newly-formed
group north of here. Their eyes lit up and they said "You can
help us. We were just talking about setting standards!" No true
standards had been set for their initiations, and they felt the
lack. Oh, they had third degrees from their teacher, but they
wanted more meaning for those they gave than was given to their
own. Bravo! There's hope for the Craft yet!
Ellen Cannon Reed
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