~ Lammas, August 1, 2007 Supplemental Page~

Lammas

Continued . . . Although my Path does not practice animal (or human!) sacrifice, it is the way of a Priestess to participate in the cycles of nature. Much more than just observation of the change in seasons, the Rites of Lammas bring me in tune with the Gods, Goddesses, and my Mother the Earth. I have my sacrifice and my harvest – my work as a Priestess and my writing.

There is always some grasping at the last tendrils of Summer, wanting to hold back the ever-changing cycle, and then a change of mood with a yearning to move quickly in the dance of Winter preparation. It is the time for passages and maturity; the time of Harvest Blessings and understanding. I harvest what I have sown. My life at Lammas is in step with the season and the Wheel.

One of my favorite turns of phrase really applies: beginnings ending, endings beginning . . .There is a humid warmth in the air, but at night the breezes whisper of the cold season to come. Summer Moons have grown to ripeness as the Wheel Turns. They hurry crops and creatures, filling them with a sense of urgency. There is an ache and yearning in me. I feel like I want or need something, but I don’t know what. Tears prick behind my eyes and I get shivers and mentally I moan and sigh. What is it? This isn’t depression because I know what that feels like. Maybe it’s just wanting, needing what is waiting down the road that I know I can’t have just yet. Autumn Moons will shortly follow, glowing warm and abundant. Night’s breezes caress me with the loving touch of the Goddess and the God. The glass wind chime speaks to me from time to time, its Faerie voice calling to my restless Soul. I reaffirm my place in the Wheel.

www.turningthewheel.ws

My Planet Earth

by: Amanda Formaro

What you'll need:

$    Crayons in blue and green, brown and white are optional

$    Scissors

$    Wax paper

$    Paper towel

$    Iron

$    String

How to make it:

$    Lay a piece of wax paper out flat on the work surface.

$    Use a drinking cup or other stencil to draw a circle on the wax paper.

$    Parents should shave the crayons using the blade on a pair of scissors or the edge of a knife.

$    Have your child place the different colored crayon shavings within the circle however they like. Blue for water, green and brown for land, white for cloud formations.

$    Cut a piece of string about twelve-inches long. Double the string over and place the open ends together, lay them onto the crayon shavings. When the shavings melt in the following steps, the string will be melded into the cooled crayon to form your hanger.

$    Place another piece of wax paper on top of the crayon shavings being careful not to disturb the shavings.

$    Place a piece of paper towel on top of the wax paper.

$    With iron on low setting, a grown up can apply heat to melt the crayon shavings. Allow it to cool completely.

$    Once cooled, use scissors to trim the creation into a circle, trimming off any excess if necessary. Be very careful not to cut your string!

$    Carefully peel off one side of the wax paper, then the other.

$    Hang in a window.

Tips: 

The finished project is very delicate. Use this opportunity to discuss how our Earth is delicate as well and we should treat it with respect by recycling, throwing away our trash (not littering!) and conserving energy by closing doors and turning off lights.

If you prefer, you can leave one side of the wax paper on the project. This will help preserve it a little while longer and it will not be as vulnerable.

Before making this project, have a suction cup hook already hanging in the window. That way you can immediately hang the project out of eager little hands that may accidentally break it.

www.kidsdomain.com

I ASKED THE GREAT QUEEN MOTHER HOW DO I ACCEPT THE TASK AHEAD

She leapt down from the turbulent

calligraphy of a cloud, sprung her black tornado

hair out of its bun.  Great Mother advised;

Without so much as a thought,

pick it up as if it were your child.

Feel your back spasm

into a dowsing rod.

Obey like ribbons of smoke

that follow a slight current. 

Sometimes there’s the feeling

of watching a film run backwards

of someone smoking.

Be inclined over the precipice,

be ahead of yourself.

Look for the shadows

of things to come:  the skewered kabob

fallen through the rack,

the hairpin that sings

as it drops, the under-water sound

of certain cash registers,

or the feeling of security as you glance

at an ice bucket;

is it because you spy a shape

chiselled like your mother’s nose?

You must ask yourself this, and why

was the lurking bee

caught in someone’s briefs,

not in the car grill?

This opens a spot to place

 a piece of furniture just so,

and once done, you have placed

your mind just so. 

It is much simpler to do with coffee tables,

and thus it is now complete.

In the morning you will awaken,

hear a sweet simple bird’s cry

and alight on your own breast.

            — Barbara Perry, Chicago Poet & Artist

(In the Taoist tradition the Great Queen Mother of the West is head of a complex hierarchy of feminine/yin divinities.)   Exhibition brochure, Art Institute of Chicago, February 2001

Book Review—Mary Magdalene: Bride in Exile

by Margaret Starbird

Published by Inner Traditions, 2005

Continued . . . Through  the extensive research and well told story of Mary Magdalene: Bride in Exile we come to know that Mary Magdalene was titled “the Magdalene”, which means  “the tower”, “the stronghold” of the people, and even “the great”. The deeper significance of her title was underscored through her Sacred Number equivalency of 153, which is the gematria of her name. It’s meaning is “Womb of All”, “Sacred Cauldron of Creativity”, “Vesica Piscis”, and “Matrix of Life”.

She performed the role of the anointer so that Jesus could assume the role of prophesized should be prophesied king, it being known that a king could not rule without permission of a queen, i.e. the Goddess in her earthly role.  In this way, Mary Magdalene represents the  ancient pattern of the Sacred Marriage, which is the Goddess’ pattern of the cyclic renewal of earth .  And of course, cyclic renewal is the pattern that our own human psyches live within. It is evident that it was their shared intention to bring forth this ancient wisdom, despite what subsequently happened in the mis-development of Christianity.

One of my favorite aspects of Starbird’s research is of medieval art and artifacts. There are beautiful color plates of historical artwork in Bride in Exile. We all know that you can’t destroy consciousness and that certainly proved true during the time of horrifying repression of the Feminine Divine. Goddess and Sacred Marriage symbols  came through the imaginations of artists as they incorporated many representations of the Magdalene in their art. It may have resulted in excommunication or death if an artist openly declared himself to be a follower of “the alternative church f Love”, but the symbols in the paintings somehow “passed”. Looking closely with newly opened eyes, we can see many yoni symbols, many green dresses of the Goddess’ fertility, many brocade bridal gowns, many obviously pregnant Magdalenes, and of course, the ever present alabaster jar takes on new life as the holy grail itself.

This book is richly researched and written in an accessible style. It may make you hungry for more of it’s illumination of early Goddess Christian symbolism. Luckily, another of Starbird’s books, Magdalene’s Lost Legacy, can satisfy your curiosity about the interesting symbolic system called gematria.  And she also has a book on tarot called The Tarot Trumps and the Holy Grail. All available from Amazon, and all will give you new respect for the much maligned Magdalene.

Afghan girls traded, sold to settle debt.
By ALISA TANG

Continued . . . Such exchanges bypass the hefty bride price of a traditional betrothal, which can cost upward of $1,000. Roughly two out of five Afghan marriages are forced, says the country's Ministry of Women's Affairs.

"It's really sad to do this in this day and age, exchange women," said Manizha Naderi, the director of the aid organization Women for Afghan Women. "They're treated as commodities."

Though violence against women remains widespread, Afghanistan has taken significant strides in women's rights since the hard-line Taliban years, when women were virtual prisoners - banned from work, school or leaving home unaccompanied by a male relative. Millions of girls now attend school and women fill jobs in government and media.

There are also signs of change for the better inside the largest tribe in eastern Afghanistan - the deeply conservative Shinwaris.

Shinwari elders from several districts signed a resolution this year outlawing several practices that harm girls and women. These included a ban on using girls to settle so-called blood feuds - when a man commits murder, he must hand over his daughter or sister as a bride for a man in the victim's family. The marriage ostensibly "mixes blood to end the bloodshed."  Otherwise, revenge killings often continue between the families for generations.

Jan Shinwari, a businessman and provincial council member, said a BBC radio report by a female journalist from the Shinwari tribe, Malalai Shinwari, had exposed the trade of girls and shamed the elders into passing the resolution to end the practice.

"I did this work not because of human rights, but for Afghan women, for Afghan girls not to be exchanged for stupid things," Jan Shinwari said. "When Malalai Shinwari reported this story about exchanging girls for animals, when I heard this BBC report, I said, 'Let's make a change.'"

Now a lawmaker in Parliament, Malalai Shinwari said her report had the impact she intended. She called the changes to tribal laws a "big victory for me."

About 600 elders from the Shinwar district put their purple thumbprint "signatures" on the handwritten resolution.

More than 20 Shinwari leaders gathered in the eastern city of Jalalabad, nodding earnestly and muttering their consent as the changes were discussed last week.

They insisted that women given away for such marriages - including those to settle blood feuds - were treated well in their new families. But the elders declined requests to meet any of the women or their families.

"Nobody treats them badly," Malik Niaz said confidently, stroking his long white beard. "Everyone respects women."

But Afghan women say this could not be further from the truth.

"By establishing a family relationship, we want to bring peace. But in reality, that is not the case," said Hangama Anwari, an independent human rights commissioner and founder of the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation.

The group investigated about 500 cases of girls given in marriage to settle blood feuds and found only four or five that ended happily. Much more often, the girl suffered for a crime committed by a male relative, she said.

"We punish a person who has done nothing wrong, but the person who has killed someone is free. He can move freely, and he can kill a second person, third person because he will never be punished," Anwari said.

A girl is often beaten and sometimes killed because when the family looks at her, they see the killer. "Because they lost someone, they take it out on her," Naderi said.

There are no reliable statistics on blood feud marriages, a hidden practice. When it happens, the families and elders often will not reveal details of the crime or the punishment.

Several years ago in nearby Momand Dara district, a taxi driver hit a boy with his car, killing him. The boy's family demanded a girl as compensation, so the driver purchased an 11-year-old named Fawzia from an acquaintance for $5,000 and gave her to the dead boy's relatives, according to the Afghan Women's Network office in Jalalabad.

Three years ago, Fawzia was shot to death, according to a two-page report kept in a black binder of cases of violence against women.

The story of Malia and the nine sheep illustrates the suffering of girls forced into such marriages.

Malia listened as her father described how he was held hostage by his lender, Khaliq Mohammad, because he could not come up with the money to pay for the sheep, which Ahmad had sold to free a relative seized because of another of Ahmad's debts.

Ahmad was released only when he agreed to give Malia's hand in marriage to the lender's 18-year-old son. Asked how she felt about it, Malia shook her head and remained silent. Her face then crumpled in anguish and she wiped away tears.

Asked if she was happy, she responded halfheartedly, "Well, my mother and father agreed. . . " Her voice trailed off, and she cried again.

Does she want to meet her husband-to-be? She clicked her tongue - a firm, yet delicate "tsk" - with a barely perceptible shake of her head.

The answer was no.

Hindu Prayer in U.S. Senate Disrupted

Continued . . . A Hindu clergyman made history Thursday by offering the Senate's morning prayer, but only after police officers removed three shouting protesters from the visitors' gallery. Rajan Zed, director of interfaith relations at a Hindu temple in Reno, Neveda, gave the brief prayer that opens each day's Senate session. As he stood at the chamber's podium in a bright orange and burgundy robe, two women and a man began shouting "this is an abomination" and other complaints from the gallery.

Police officers quickly arrested them and charged them disrupting Congress, a misdemeanor. The male protester told an AP reporter, "We are Christians and patriots" before police handcuffed them and led them away.

For several days, the Mississippi-based American Family Association has urged its members to object to the prayer because Zed would be "seeking the invocation of a non-monotheistic god."

Zed, the first Hindu to offer the Senate prayer, began: "We meditate on the transcendental glory of the Deity Supreme, who is inside the heart of the Earth, inside the life of the sky and inside the soul of the heaven. May He stimulate and illuminate our minds."

As the Senate prepared for another day of debate over the Iraq war, Zed closed with, "Peace, peace, peace be unto all."

Zed, who was born in India, was invited by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Speaking in the chamber shortly after the prayer, Reid defended the choice and linked it to the war debate.

"If people have any misunderstanding about Indians and Hindus," Reid said, "all they have to do is think of Gandhi," a man "who gave his life for peace."

"I think it speaks well of our country that someone representing the faith of about a billion people comes here and can speak in communication with our heavenly Father regarding peace," said Reid, a Mormon and sharp critic of President Bush's Iraq policies.

Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the protest "shows the intolerance of many religious right activists. They say they want more religion in the public square, but it's clear they mean only their religion."

Capitol police identified the protesters as Ante Nedlko Pavkovic, Katherine Lynn Pavkovic and Christan Renee Sugar. Their ages and home towns were not available.

NHS gives its blessing to Paganism

Continued . . . But the move has outraged some Christians, who claim it represents an insult to the nation's religious heritage. One senior member of the Church of the Scotland claimed it proved "the devil had been busy" in Tayside.

Modern Paganism is characterized by the worship of gods and goddesses linked to nature and the seasons. Pagans flatly reject claims they are Satan worshipers and insist theirs is a religion of tolerance and harmony with nature.

Under the agreement reached between NHS Tayside, which runs Dundees Ninewells Hospital , and the Pagan Federation Scotland, newly trained Pagan chaplains will be officially allowed access to wards to minister to patients.

A Pagan hospital visit will involve meditation, prayers, private counseling and possibly a simple healing ritual, which might include the use of healing stones.

However, Pagans have decided to tone down what are seen as the more exotic and striking forms of Pagan worship and ritual, such as carrying flaming torches.

Under the agreement, the Pagan chaplains are not allowed to use their time in hospital to attempt to spread their own faith, and they may only minister to patients who have requested a Pagan visit.

Tina Stewart, the Hospital Visitor Coordinator for the Pagan Federation Scotland, said: "We have had a very successful meeting to discuss the needs of the Pagan patient. Things are moving forward. There's an understanding that patients of all faiths should be treated equally and that they all have the right to pastoral care while in hospital."

John McIntyre, spokesman for the Pagan Federation, added: "There is a lot more recognition of Paganism in Scotland nowadays. There are about 30,000 people in Scotland who would regard themselves as Pagan and many people are very sympathetic to elements of Pagan belief without necessarily calling themselves Pagans. The equality of men and women and caring for the environment are all parts of the Pagan outlook, and most people would agree with these things."

However, the move has angered church-goers. Moira Kerr, a Kirk elder who in 2005 campaigned against a move by Tayside to remove a communion table from a hospital chapel in case it offend non-Christians, said: "I'm very saddened to hear about this. Scotland needs to get back its Christian heritage which has done so much for us over the years. There's no doubt the devil is at work in this."

Gordon MacDonald, the parliamentary officer for the Christian values charity CARE, said: "I would question what the point is of all this.

Very few people in Scotland identify themselves as being Pagan by faith and I would have thought a health board would have better things to do. This is a sign of how much confusion there is in society nowadays. People need to think through the values which we have received from our Christian heritage, such as respect, the value of the individual, and personal freedom."

But Osama Saeed, Scottish spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, said: "As a minority faith ourselves, I don't think Muslims would object to others receiving pastoral visits. Nothing illegal would be happening and people have the right to spiritual care."

Rev Chris Levisson, who advises the NHS in Scotland on provision of chaplaincy services, said: "The fact is that we treat patients of all religions and faiths - and even those of none - equally. If they ask for care and a visit from a particular religion then the duty is to facilitate it, as far as that is possible."

He added: "There has been research from elsewhere which suggests that patients who receive visits from chaplains can do better in hospital than those who don't. The very fact of having a person come in and talk and show that others care, can itself help the process and even get a better outcome. It is actually one of the most cost-effective elements of care."

A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside said: "If people ask for a chaplaincy visit, of whatever faith, we will facilitate it, without making any judgment."

PAGAN medicine, in its modern form, is based on trying to rediscover and develop ancient wisdom relating to herbs and natural remedies.

Ancient druids were the healers of their time and thought that mistletoe could cure all manner of ills and even make a person who wore mistletoe invisible. Some druids insisted on cutting mistletoe using a golden knife or sickle at special times, such as midsummer or during special phases of the moon.

Regardless of the merits of a golden sickle, some herbs the druids venerated have recently been found to have more to them than previously thought.

The herb meadowsweet, for instance, has been found to contain salicylates, which are aspirin-like substances that help reduce inflammation and relieve pain. It also contains tannins and other constituents that help protect the stomach and intestines from acidity and ulceration, which can be caused by too much aspirin.

In addition, St. John's Wort was used in the past to treat emotional and nervous conditions, such as depression, anxiety and tension.

Source: http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com