News from Nowhere

[greygirlbeast]

By now, everyone who is a subscriber should have Sirenia Digest #29. It went out about 11:30 p.m. last night. It would have gone out earlier in the evening, but there was a slight hitch (Spooky forgot to attach the file, which is funnier today than it was last night). Comments are welcome, especially as regards "Concerning Attrition and Severance."

Today, I'll finish "Rappaccini's Dragon" for Sirenia Digest #30, and then, tomorrow I get a day off, the first in eighteen days, I think. And then I'll finish up the ms. for A is for Alien and get back to The Red Tree.

And now it is May again, and Beltane. Last night, there was something I wanted to write out about how I've come to view choice as regards belief and paganism, but now it's mostly slipped away from me. For a long time, I could not allow myself to involve choice in matters of belief, as I held belief back for objective science and material concerns. I did not see how one could ever choose to believe. Partly, the epiphany simply required a different perspective on things I've been saying for years. The Cosmos (=tripartite goddess/horned god/divine adrogyne/etc.) may, in my veneration of it, assume any form. It contains all forms within it that can be realized or conceived. It hardly matters if I "worship" Brighid or Mórrígan or Aphrodite or Kali. They are all merely attempts of a conscious being to sum up an incomprehensible and nonconscious universe. They may, perhaps, each function like characters in a novel, avatars that grant access to the story of existence. It does not matter if they are not factual in their existence, as their existence is true, if they are true in our minds. If they contain within them useful truths, as is the way with all myths. It is not their objective existence which makes them useful avatars, but their subjective truth, what these deities mean to each of us. For me, this is the heart of Neopaganism. Designing ritual and godforms to function as conduits between conscious organisms and the remainder of the Cosmos, which is generally a nonconscious entity. Anyway, it went something like that, and today is Beltane.

A beautiful first day of May. The sun and all the green. It's 75F outside. The holly bush below the kitchen window has a nest of fledgling robins.

I did not leave the house yesterday, which makes five days straight, I think. I wrote the prolegomena, did everything else that needed doing to pull the digest together. We finished the chili Spooky made on Monday. I got no packing done.

Some good roleplay last night. I am shifting away from trying to functon in large roleplay communities (such as Toxia or the late, imploded Dune sim), in favour of rp with a small group of individuals with an especial talent for it (and no, I haven't forgotten the "Sirenia Players": just let me get moved to Rhode Island, and I'll get that going). This way, I avoid the idiots and all the noise and strife that idiots bring. Last night, well, we were in 1920s New Orleans, a beautiful house with a grand piano. A street car rattling past outside. There was Paganini and a game involving truths and falsehoods, and blows from a walking stick, and blood drawn with obsidian sharp nails. A game, and a dance, and a cold tile floor. Sublime. Oh, and I also began planning the pterosaur exhibit for the new and expanded Palaeozoic Museum in New Babbage.

I was in bed by two ayem, so good for me, and asleep shortly after two-thirty, with is even better. Today, the moving guys are coming to look at all our furniture and junk and give us an estimate on the move. I'll slip out to Starbuck's or the park or someplace until they're done.

Another amusing Nick cave quote: "A man without a mustache is like a woman with one."

The platypus is grinding beans, so I guess that means I should wrap this up. The wheel of the year turns...

Comments

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

I think Paganism lets us express differently. When I read your posting, my first thought was, well geez she can use her dino replicas for the gods. Really, a triceratops would make a divine Horned God, or Goddess for that matter. I even admit searching at Xmas for anything with antlers for the altar. I have a Kenny and an Opus, plus there are the selections of Beanie Babies too.

Now I am going to spend the day thinking of which dinos match the attributes. A purist wouldnt mix up things from Jurassic with another era.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Really, a triceratops would make a divine Horned God, or Goddess for that matter.

Indeed, you are correct. I might suggest Maiasaurua ("good mother lizard") as a representation of the goddess. And, since Triceratops and Maiasaurua are both Late Cretaceous in age, throw in the Cretaceous sponge Cliona to represent the androgyne. And, no, I'm not being facetious. These representations would be as valid as anthropomorphic avatars, if they ring true to the mind that employs them.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

exactly! One uses what works. (I like to use snowball cupcakes as offerings because they seem to fit so well. Specially when they are in different colors. And they last.. )

Any representation of the Divine* that resonates with the believer is appropriate in context.

*as long as its legal in most states and no living things were harmed.

[kalamah.livejournal.com]

I've always felt this way about paganism. That's the wonder of it!

Also, where were you in SL old New Orleans? I'm interested in places that aren't just cheesy versions of Bourbon Street.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Also, where were you in SL old New Orleans? I'm interested in places that aren't just cheesy versions of Bourbon Street.

Check out the New Toulouse sim. 1920s NOLA. Much better build than average.

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

'Spooky forgot to attach the file'

And here I thought that was the ultimate horrific nihilistic Sirenia. 'This month, I give you...nothingness. I give you the Void. Gaze into it and despair. We are naught but motes of dust moving through light before we die, forgotten.'

I thought it was such brave and brilliant work, and then came a Sirenia with content, and...I was just crestfallen.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

And here I thought that was the ultimate horrific nihilistic Sirenia. 'This month, I give you...nothingness. I give you the Void. Gaze into it and despair. We are naught but motes of dust moving through light before we die, forgotten.'

*snork*

[teacup-carousel.livejournal.com]

Hi there, I think I've hardly ever commented here on your journal (if ever) since usually I'm at a lack of witty things to say about your work, and while that won't be changing today I wanted to let you know how grateful I am that you ended up including "Concerning Attrition and Severance" in the last issue of Sirenia. I've gone through periods of my life where I've exclusively read nothing but horror and of all those works I can honestly say that up until yesterday Mr Blackwood's "The Willows" was the only piece I've read that made me sleep with the lights on, that is, until I made it through this issue of the digest. So for that alone - brava! I think I must have tossed and turned all night and this morning when I reread it I *still* flinched. I'll stop now before I slip further into some sort of unintelligible gushy praise, so I'll just repeat my thanks for having brought back this particular souvenir from your journeys into the unknown and that I'll continue to faithfully wait for more.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. I can think of no better company to be in than Mr. Blackwood's. I am pleased you found a bit of unnerving distraction in the story.

Paganism

[cliff52.livejournal.com]

As I formulated this question (seeking a tone of respectful intellectual curiosity) I realized it might be a story idea, also - Were paganism the dominant expression of spirituality in the world, or just in the US, how would pagans perceive and deal with a minority of Judeo-Christians?

Re: Paganism

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Were paganism the dominant expression of spirituality in the world, or just in the US, how would pagans perceive and deal with a minority of Judeo-Christians?

A great deal of speculation would be required to answer this, even in a cursory way. I would begin by questioning a strict division between branches of Neopaganism and the Judeo-Christian traditions. I think the integrity of this dichotomy would quickly collapse in a rigorous examination. It might be more useful (maybe) to discern between polytheistic and monotheistic traditions, but then the question of belief in a strictly nonconscious Cosmos represented by useful avatars (my proposition) as opposed to autonomous super-entities (gods, demi-gods, etc.) existing independent of their believers must still be confronted.

[sovay]

They may, perhaps, each function like characters in a novel, avatars that grant access to the story of existence.

I may wish to quote this line sometime.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

I may wish to quote this line sometime.

No problem.

[nightwitch.livejournal.com]

"It contains all forms within it that can be realized or conceived. " ...I like that. I also believe that you can choose whatever form you want to worship the Divine in because that's what it is - a form, or vehicle. One chooses the form because it speaks to them in some way. One can be drawn to whatever God or Goddess because it speaks to them in some fundamental, archetypal kind of way... and what way you worship them is also only form.

I know you're drawn to Wicca...ritual magic. While I enjoy attending rituals, it's not a way I personally use to practice because to me all that seems too much work. My preference is sexual magick, which is less ritually-based. But again, both Wicca and sexual magick are forms, and a matter of personal preference. Both will get you to the same place. It's a matter of intent.

Also...

[nightwitch.livejournal.com]

"...and the remainder of the Cosmos, which is generally a nonconscious entity."

This is the only piece that I would disagree with. How do you know the Universe isn't conscious? We are part of the Universe, expressions of the Universe, and if we're conscious and expressions, isn't it possible that the Universe is also conscious, but because of our limitations we can't see it? We only see a very small part of what is. We are very small creatures after all.