PBP: Ancestors and me

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#paganblogproject, 2014pbp, ancestor worship, ancestors, pagan blog project

As part of my practice, I don’t venerate my ancestors.  I know its a popular thing to do in various Pagan communities, but I’ve never felt compelled to do so myself.

Specifically, I do not “regard with reverential respect or with admiring deference” or “to honor (as an icon or a relic) with a ritual act of devotion” (source) the “person(s) from whom one is descended, especially if more remote than a grandparent; a forebear” (source).  I have a number of reasons for this, which I’ve found can be somewhat controversial, as people often take someone else’s rejection of something they find important to be personal (If you, fabulous reader, don’t agree with me, that is A-ok in my book!):

• I know diddly-squat about most of them. I have a big family.  When it comes to my more recent ancestors, there’s quite a few I’ve never even met and my family isn’t the type that sits around and tells stories about “back in the day”.  And then there’s the fact  that two World Wars and two more wars to follow them up can do a lot to scatter family, leading to permanent loss of contact.  I consider this to be perfectly fine, considering the next point.
• Some of them are assholes.   I personally know that some of my ancestors have been complete and total jerks.  I see no reason to celebrate their life.  I’m not alone in this either…  AFAIC, the fact that a total creeper did the deed and contributed some genetic material and/or some family dysfunction down the line is not incentive enough for reverence.
• Some of them would be offended by reverence. Lets face it, for at least the past millennium my ancestors have been Christian.  Statistically speaking, just by looking at the countries that my ancestors have come from, not only were they Christian, but they were pretty darn strict Christians.  I already know for sure that some of them, though they might be worthy of honoring, would be offended (if not downright horrified) by the practice…and I’d be willing to bet that’s the case for most of my ancestors over the past 1,000-1500 years.
• Some of them aren’t dead yet.  Hubby and I have some long-lived kin.  Really long lived.  8 decade minimum.  Until my great-grandmother passed away last summer, we had five generations of women in our family.
• They are just people.  Its a bit idealistic to think that one’s ancestors were all healers and bards and white knights…most of them were ordinary people, and some of them are likely all-around assholes.
• Who the heck are my ancestors anyhow?  I’m an ethnic mutt.  Between myself and the hubby, our family can count in their ancestry Irish, Scottish, English, German, Scandinavian, Native American and (according to some rumors) African.  I can’t even revere my ancestors in a general, cultural sort of way. Its also fairly common to in Pagan communities to see people who are drawn to the traditions of their ancestors…I see this as highly problematic as a mutt, and…well, as a student of biology, humans are all related anyhow.
• Genetics are only genotype-deep.  I think my biggest reservation about ancestor veneration is the idea of placing that much emphasis on a chemical.  DNA is just a portion of what makes us who we are, biologically-speaking; as a whole person, it is even less.

So, here is what I think about ancestry.  I don’t really care who contributed to my personal DNA or what they have done in the past.  Sure, I find it interesting (I like history, after all), but I don’t ordinarily find it spiritually significant.  Instead, I choose to honor those people that have meaningfully impacted my life, related or not. Not everyday, or as a regular part of my worship, but at times like Samhain, or Memorial Day.  I choose to honor humanity as a whole, because at the end of the day, for all our cultural and biological diversity, we are all related genetically, and in purpose (just trying to survive).

What matters to me is what I am doing with my life right now.  Humanity isn’t a chain, one generation linking to the next, it is a river, flowing and overlapping.  What matters to me is remembering the lessons of history and human kind that have impacted our lives in a general sense, and in a more specific and personal sense.  Sometimes those people are our relations.  Sometimes those people are friends.  Sometimes those are people that we’ve never even met.  Sometimes, they might even be fictional.

Yup, I’m going to try this again and see if I can actually make the end of the alphabet this time! I’m only doing one post per letter though…

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Pagan Blog Project: Un=the Wild within

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#paganblogproject, pagan blog project, wild

Being wild is about being the “un”.

Unrestrained.

Unabashed.

Untamed.

Unabating.

Unveiled.

 Uncultivated.

Uninhibited.

Unaltered.

Unbridled.

Unworldly.

Unbuckled.

Uncivilized.

And most of all, unrepentant about it.

an on-schedule (finally!) post for U

 

Pagan Blog Project: Roots

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#paganblogproject, pagan blog project, roots

The roots of plants host a bacteria, with which it has a symbiotic relationship. The bacteria fix nitrogen into a form that the plant can take up and use. Roots also take in water and other nutrients necessary for the plant to thrive. The roots of many species can store those nutrients for later use. Roots hold the plant fast, different types of plants have adapted different sorts of root systems to different soil types.  They are capable of splitting stone and transforming a harsh landscape into usable soil, given enough time.  And some roots can even grow an entirely new plant, should the parent plant be damaged or fall.

Roots are pretty amazing…consider this:

• The roots of the mangrove tree tolerate salt levels that would kill other plants and filter out much of the salt that would even kill the mangrove itself
• The roots of the quaking aspen give rise to new ashen, forming enormous colonial organisms–one of these, named Pando, have the honor of being the oldest (80,000 years old) and the largest (by mass).
• The roots of the bald cypress grow verticals projections called “knees” that are thought to act as a sort of buttress to anchor the tree, which has a shallow root system in stagnant, swampy waters (it was once thought that they played a role in providing oxygen, but experimental data isn’t supportive.
• The roots of the black walnut leach out a substance (actually, every part of the plant does, including the fallen and decaying leaves) that acts as an herbicide for most other plant species, reducing competition, so the plant can thrive.
• The roots of the banyan tree transform themselves from ariel roots into supportive trunks, able to survive the loss of the original trunk.

Our roots matter, just as if we were a tree.

The breadth and depth of our roots are our anchor and our support. They sustain us in times of plenty, and most especially, in times of hardship. They offer us a way to renew ourselves when we’ve been damaged by the storms of life and trials by fire.  Roots can take unpalatable and uncomfortable surroundings iand make something better, something enriching.  It is only with roots that we can grow.

Often, roots are allegorically understood to be “where we come from” in the sense of people or places, but I think that are roots are something else.  Our roots are those values and ideals that filter what we get from our surroundings, and that pull the meaning from an otherwise meaningless existence.  They are shaped in part by our experiences, but once we are conscious of them, we can manipulated how and where we are rooted.  We can transform our existence by filtering out more of the muck, or butressing ourselves in unstable soil.  Properly rooted, we can flourish.

a catch-up post for R

Pagan Blog Project: Honest Consumption

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#paganblogproject, 2013PBP, beach pollution, conservation, consumption, disposable plastic, pagan blog project, plastic pollution, recycle, refusing plastics, trash

Not quite two years ago, I wrote this really long post on why replacing disposable plastic matters, and ways that they can be replaced in the home.  I’ve also written a bit on how we pick up trash at our stretch of beach, as an active devotion to the place where we live (since we worship it as if it were a deity).

A few weeks ago, I was  reminded of why this matters.

On a recent beach clean-up, this is what my children and I found. This particular day, we picked up more than usual–we filled one and a half 55 gallon drum trash bins.

If it comes in a single use, disposable container that isn’t reusable (or that you won’t end up reusing), biodegradable, or recyclable (or that you won’t end up recycling), you can refuse it.  

The simple fact of life is that plastic ends up in the ocean.  From here on out, every time you see a juice bottle, a soda bottle, a water bottle, a container of body wash, a milk jug, shampoo and conditioner, throw away lunch containers, Styrofoam, lighters, shopping bags, produce bags, or anything else you can think of, I challenge you to think the following:

This is going to end up in the ocean. If I were an albatross, would I want my baby to eat this? If I were a minnow, would I want my stomach full of this? Do I want my food chain  filled with the same chemicals parent’s won’t allow in a container their child drinks from? Should our children (or ourselves) have to play on polluted beaches, building castles from plastic sand? As a Pagan, what kind of reverence am I showing (and teaching my children) for the home of the gods we worship (not to mention the home we share with every other living thing)?

I get it, sometimes its just not convenient, efficient, or effective to eschew the plastic-wrapped whatever.  I’m certainly not perfect–I’ve been known to pick up individually packaged applesauce for pint-sized guests (less dishes, and apple sauce containers make awesome jello molds and paint containers).  And sometimes there’s just no alternative–I’ve yet to find certain products that aren’t in plastic packaging (medication) or I can’t afford the alternative as part of my shopping habits (milk in glass bottles is about twice as expensive as milk in a plastic jug).  Just as often though, its an easy change to make–pick up the eggs in the cardboard carton instead of the plastic or Styrofoam one (plus, when you are done with them you can make fire starters from your dryer lint in them or use them for noise reduction).

But I think that as Pagans, we have the duty to be what my bloggy friend Deb calls “lessatarian”.  To examine our privilege and its accompanying consumption habits (as individuals and in our communities), and to make conscious decisions about the resources we use and the waste we create.   If we don’t do at least that, how can we claim to either be revering the Earth itself or celebrating the cycles of the Earth?  How can we claim to be paying homage to the Spirits of a place we’ve treated like a dump?  How can we claim to honor the Spirit of the Bear or the Fox or the Turtle, etc  when we are destroying the habitat and poisoning the young of bears and foxes and turtles?  How can we claim to be respecting our ancestors when we fail to preserve a legacy for our children? How do we claim to be worshiping gods that represent the forces of this world, our world, if we aren’t respecting that world?

We need to start asking ourselves:  Is this necessary for our  physical existence?  Is it necessary for our mental or spiritual health?  Is this a luxury that is worth the cost of its production?  Can we get it used?  Is there an alternative with less packaging, or more product for the package?  If there is not a feasible alternative, is it reusable?  Is it recyclable, compostable, biodegradable?  If not…why the heck are we buying whatever it is?  And if we aren’t buying it because of how its made and how its packaged (or if we have no choice), why aren’t we letting the company in question know?

I’m not calling on us to be perfect.  I’ve already admitted that I certainly am not.  I’m not pointing fingers, and I’m not making any claim to moral or ethical superiority.  I am calling upon us to do better when and where we are able.  I’m calling upon all of  us (myself included) to be honest with ourselves, to admit when and where we are being hypocritical, and to commit to a future where our purchases are made with more than just ourselves and our convenience in mind.

This has been a post for the Pagan Blog Project.

Pagan Blog Project: Grokking it

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#paganblogproject, 2013PBP, cauldron of consciousness, consciousness, experiental validity, grok, pagan blog project

Grok means to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because of our Earthling assumptions) as color means to a blind man.

Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlen

Perhaps one of my favorite made-up words, grok was coined by science fiction writer Robert Heinlen in Stranger in a Strange Land.  If you haven’t ever read the book, you should pick up a copy next time you hit up the library.  I won’t promise that you will love it (it was okay), but its a (modern) classic, and you should give it a go.  Anyhoo…when you grok something, it means that you intuitively understand it so deeply, so profoundly, that you become part of it and it becomes part of you on both a figurative and a literal level.  The ultimate end result of “grokking” is to become something that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Check out this week’s posts!

Paganisms are mostly experiential religions.  Orthopraxy (right practice) is generally emphasized over orthodoxy (right belief). We Pagans vary a bit in whom or what we choose to worship, though the vast majority of Pagans seem to view deity as  polytheistic, and/or earth-based, and/or Goddess-centric.  There is also a bit of variety in how we connect in our individual Paganisms–with the self, and/or with the earth, and/or with deity, and how that connection informs our experiences.

Ultimately, what we believe informs what experiences we seek to have, and the outcome of those experiences further inform our beliefs.  But this isn’t a closed, stagnant circle–I talked before about how I think that each of us are ‘cauldrons of consciousness‘, and that “I think it is here, in the place between the firing of neurons, the flow of electrons, the transmission of neurotransmitters, and the conceptualization of the experience that our experiences with the Divine occur, whether it be in the making of magic or the encountering of deity.”

How and what we grok is a product of this bit of mystery.  Our preconceptions, our ideas, our logic, is changed by what happens between the firing of our neurons, what happens between the transmission and reception of neurotransmitters, between the experience itself and our internalization and conceptualization of that experience.   Those experiences become part of our Paganism and part of ourselves and our souls.  They embed themselves in our psyche, in our consciousness, and ultimately, becomes how we grok the self, the earth, the divine.  What each of us groks (or not, and how) is highly individualized…and equally valid and authentic of an experience, whether we are polytheists, dirt worshippers, Goddess devotees, or something else all together.