Silence.

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
~ Elie Wiesel (1928 - 2016)

One may question why I am opening my post this evening with a quote from the late Elie Wiesel. It is timely for many reasons. Obviously there is a lot going on in politics and, unfortunately, you can not make the wall between politics and faith absolutely impenetrable. It seems that a great deal of trouble comes from the mingling of those two systems. I try to avoid that by doing my best to keep my posts here free from political overtones.

I, however, can not maintain my silence any longer. I am not speaking on political topics for the sake of gaining readership or swaying anyone to my personal political positions. There is not some ulterior motive to advance any one person's political race here. I make this preface for the rest of this post for one very simple reason, I want to be completely clear that what I present below is a complete position in its entirety and it is not some form of subterfuge or manipulation to win at some kind of political game here.

I am sure that you, gentle Reader, have observed the rising tide of xenophobia here in the US. I wish I could say that this was a new phenomenon and that it will pass away as quickly as the whims of fashion declared the mullet to be hideous. It sadly is something that has a long history in this nation and in the many nations of the world. You can not go to a single country and find a place completely free of this form of tribalism. Similar forms of tribalism, such as racism, are equally widespread. It is an unfortunate fact of human social structures and has been present for pretty much as long as humans have congregated together in any form of social structure. (Anyone who would argue that familial units do not engage in tribalism, I invite you to consider the iconic case of the Hatfields and McCoys here in the US or Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.)

While it is tempting to say that the xenophobic commentary that is about us is just people speaking from irrational emotion, this is a false argument because it decries emotion as some how inferior and is also a particularly insidious form of gas-lighting. As someone who believes that emotions are valid and that gas-lighting is one of the most abhorrent forms of psychological abuse, I adamantly reject this rather lazy false argument. And, to be honest, it is a lazy man's argument because it glosses over the complex things that give rise to these kinds of things.

Prominent members of the community have come out and said things that are xenophobic. I can not stand beside their messages. There are notable members of the community that have said things that are racist. I can not support their messages. And there are people who have been upheld as leaders or would be upheld as leaders who have said similarly reprehensible things. It is particularly problematic when people who are respected within the community, within ANY community, come out and state things that run contrary to what they would have us believe they are seeking.

When someone is demanding tolerance for their beliefs, their racial profile, or their practices, it is at best nonsensical and counter-productive for them to reject said tolerance for others upon the basis of these things as general statements. One who insists that their worship practices should be respected as sacred and protected from persecution, for example, should not call for the persecution of others on the basis of their worship practices. Yes, oppose the practices that you have reason to believe threatens the welfare of the common good. But do so in a manner that is not going to make you a hypocrite. Provide logical arguments that illustrate the actual threat that these practices present. And make sure that this threat is something more than the displeasure of your specific deity of choice, because that is the same as saying that someone in a restaurant can't have that slice of cake for dessert because you are on a diet.

The health and welfare of your spirit is not based in the relationship that someone else has with your deity. To argue this is the case robs you of your agency and slights your deity, maligning them as incapable of handling individuals on their own. I believe the ancient Greek term for that insult to deity is hubris and virtually all faiths of the world agree that this is an unwise thing to engage in. Indeed, I would suggest that you, dear Reader, should consider the things you would say on the behalf of your deity with great care because it does have an impact upon your relationship with your deity.

Now, thus far, my commentary here can pretty much be applied for everything. It is all somewhat general and, while timely, does not address the specific reason why I am posting this evening. I am unsure how to proceed, to be completely honest. Part of my uncertainty comes out of the fact that I look at the situation and see just how complex it is. I have watched it develop and I have hesitated to say anything before now because of the complexity that is rooted in the fact that I can not fully understand what motivates another person, that a great deal of emotion is involved here by all parties (myself included), and these matters are not as simple as words make them sound. Still, I can not maintain my silence any longer.

I am a lover of Loki. Loki is known as the Lie-Smith. He is also known as the Speaker of Unpleasant Truth. Loki is greatly maligned and disliked by many for the former and found himself tortured in horrific ways for the latter, if you go by the generally accepted lore. As much as people who despise UPG are going to protest what I'm about to say, Loki's made it pretty clear to me that he's got a lot at stake right now in the state of the world. Odin isn't the only one who plots and plans, y'all.

I am going to put my neck on the proverbial chopping block and say it as eloquently as I can:

Islamophobia is wrong. It is as much a case of spitting in the face of the Gods as pissing on their icons. Racism, xenophobia, misandry, misogyny, and the 'hate crusade' against LGBT+ people is as well. There is no 'love the sinner, hate the sin.' Especially in the Norse/Germanic faiths. It is literally a foreign concept.

Tribalism by itself is not necessarily a bad thing. It can lead to great good. It encourages us to work together and be better humans. But the manifestation that leads to the abhorrent things I mentioned above, it must be rooted out and crushed beneath our collective heel. Because these things are a rejection of one of the most basic tenets of the Norse/Germanic faiths. We are called to be Hospitable to they who come to us.

Hospitality is not telling that man with the skin of a different color than yours that he deserves to die for it. Hospitality is not telling people of a different faith that they are a blight upon the Earth on the basis of the actions of a small, radicalized sect. It is not working to deprive people of their rights on the basis of the fact that you are uncomfortable with how they identify, dress, or what they do in their bedroom.

Now, one may ask, how do I know that these things are violating the tenet of Hospitality?

We wouldn't do them if the Gods showed up on our doorstep. If we knew that that man with the olive colored skin and the Arabic features was Oðinn, we would not scorn him on the basis of those features. If we knew that the person who is of a gender presentation that didn't lend itself to immediate and comfortable classification within the overculture's system was Freyr, we would not scorn him. If we were to engage in such behavior, we are committing hubris.

How? We are saying that the Gods appear to the world in a manner that we are comfortable with and is in accordance with our personal preferences. I may be a bit mad. I will concede that point. I, however, am not so mad as to say that I have a direct line on how the Gods present to the world nor that my sense of comfort and aesthetics has even the remotest influence upon what They do. I am sensible enough to know that I don't begin to know a damn thing about what the Gods do and that my efforts to influence Their will is about as powerful as Cnut's command that the sea does not make his feet wet when he sits at the shoreline.

If the Gods walk the worlds, it is possible that any person you encounter is one of them in disguise. There is a reason why in the Hávamál, one is advised to be respectful and cautious in their dealings towards all people. One is that the Gods may be before you in the flesh and one is that any you meet may be a friend or a foe after but a few words. If the All-Father thought it necessary to advise us to be cautious in our dealings and our words, what folly do we commit when we are rash?

I understand that a great deal of fear and anger motivates the negative aspects of tribalism. I understand that it is an exceptionally difficult thing to battle these emotions. As someone who struggles with Bipolar, I engage in this struggle on a personal level just about every day. I truly do comprehend how these feelings can spur us to rash speech. I have made errors based upon the clouded thinking that comes from the grip of these emotions. I also recognize that when I have made these errors, I must attempt to resolve the problems created and take responsibility for my actions because that is the honorable way to conduct myself.

I ask you, gentle Reader, to do your best to resist the temptation to succumb to fear and anger. Do not let them rule your speech and deed because you will be like a horse that is running in darkness over uncertain ground. At some point, you will stumble and things will go horribly wrong, perhaps in an irrevocable fashion. If you must voice your fear and anger, do it somewhere that no ill will come of it. I keep a paper journal and I write in it for just this reason. If I feel that the work I have written is important, I come back to it when I am calmer and can view things from a more reasoned perspective. And I will ask those around me to look at it and consider if I am presenting things in a manner that is conducive to the world I seek to create.

Words have power. Use them wisely. In this age of the internet and instant communication, words are becoming a more powerful facet of our deeds. May it be that our deeds are honorable.

Now that I have done the work that my love Loki has set me to, let me close with the words of his brother.

Cattle die, kinsmen die,
thyself too soon must die,
one thing never, I ween, will die
fair fame of one who has earned.
Hávamál, Vs.75

Godphone: Lessons & Ephemera

A series of posts discussing that popular topic of Godphone.

Introduction This post explains what 'godphone' is and gives an introduction to some of the concepts behind it.

Can it be taught? This post discusses if 'godphone' is something based on innate talent or if it is a skill that can be acquired.

Lesson One: Inner Silence This post presents the first basic skill required to engage in the practice of 'godphone'.

Lesson Two: Determining Authenticity This post addresses the questions of if godphone is accurate or authentic.

Lesson Three: Filtering and Isolating Thoughts This post addresses the second basic skill required to engage in the practice of 'godphone'.

Lesson Four: Dissonance and Mental Noise This post addresses the challenges of engaging in 'godphone'.

Godphone: Lesson Two - Determining Authenticity

Note: I apologize that it has taken me so long to get back to posting along these informative topics. It has been rather difficult to get myself organized enough to do these posts. Throw that together with the tumult that has been going on outside of the basic elements of writing preparation and I have had a lot of difficulty with being more frequent in my updates here. I apologize for this. Thank you for your patience and forbearance in this matter.

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I previously discussed the basics of reaching the mental state that I have found to be best in using 'godphone.' An enormous amount of what is used in the skills for 'godphone' is based within your ability to track and sort out your own mental information. This means one must acquire the ability to distinguish between what is wishful thinking, anxiety, and legitimate psychic input. This skill is necessary if one is engaged in mediumship or 'godphone.' It is, however, at times very tricky when one is seeking answers to a specific question.

Testing the authenticity of a result may sound like you are 'looking a gift horse in the mouth' but the practice is not inherently disrespectful. It is, actually, a very sound way of clarifying what information is being received and ensuring that you are getting the message correct. In any conversation, working to make sure that you are properly decoding the messages given is an indication of respect for all parties involved in the discussion.

There are multiple ways to test one's impressions. The most basic one is asking yourself if the information coming to you matches your own personal stream of consciousness internal monologue. If the psychic impressions do not match, there is a good chance that it is genuine. I have also found that the psychic impressions will have a different 'tone' to them. Thus, if your inner 'voice' has a certain pitch to it (most often it will mimic what your physical voice sounds like) and something that 'sounds' different arises, it will have a good possibility of being psychic input.^[1]

Using an alternate divination tool to read upon a matter that is the focus of the 'godphone' session is an excellent method of authenticating your impressions. While the information presented from this alternate format may be different in many respects, it should convey the same general message and give additional supporting details to the specific message. Thus if your 'godphone' session has you leaving with the impression that deity [insert name] wants you to do [activity], your tarot reading should present information that conforms to this apparent desire and give details about how said activity should be done, who will be involved, the tools used, etc.

Establishing some sort of sign between yourself and the deities you work with that indicates their presence is helpful for some people. This sign becomes a door of sorts for your divination sessions. It will eventually become present when the deities wish to contact you at times other than your dedicated session times. It may be that you have a specific item that you use as a ritual tool to focus your mind upon your session. That tool may become a sign between you, showing up within the session and at other times when the deities wish to contact you.

For example, a witch I know has a wand with a feather attached to it that she uses in her divination sessions. It is her meditative focus. As she engaged in her use of 'godphone' that feather will move in a manner similar to a pendulum to indicate the legitimacy of the information she receives. At other times, when she is not engaged in a planned 'godphone' session, she has had feathers appear when the deities are either giving her physical signs or conveying messages via 'godphone.' In this instance, the sign that indicates a message is incoming is a feather. 

Perhaps one of the most effective methods of determining the authenticity of the information presented is asking questions that can have concrete answers that are not immediately apparent to you but can be ascertained in short order. One psychic I know keeps a pack of regular playing cards at his desk. At the beginning and the end of the session, he asks the ones he is communicating with what card is next in the set. Sometimes they will tell him precisely what color, suit, and rank the card is. More often, he is given something less specific but still identifying of the next card. He makes a point of shuffling this deck prior to every session. The same could be achieved with a simple coin flip even.

The biggest thing to focus on when seeking to authenticate a session is to get as many details as possible. The more precisely detailed the information drawn from a session is, the easier it is to prove or disprove it. When faced with a situation where it may be difficult to personally authenticate the divination session, it is good to reach out to others who are engaged in this craft.

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1. Discretion is advised in considering one's mental state when engaging in this sort of work. If you are experiencing the signs of psychosis, seek out medical assistance.

For Loki.

So many sing saccharine songs to and of him. So many forget the blood on his lips and the venom that burns his face. They forget the thread and threats that closed his lips for a time, and the mockery that came with it. Lovers blind their eyes to his ferocity. I'm sure he laughs at them. He laughs at me on a regular basis.

Still, the Cunning One will smile his beguiling smile and put on a fair form to bewitch our eyes so may be he proves true their assertions even though they are incomplete. The fox that arrives in the late hour that is somewhere between shadow, illusion, and reality manages to slip off with that golden goose when we are trying to figure out just what and where he is. But, this does not give me cause to shutter my heart against him.

The Mischief Worker has brought plenty of chaos in his wake as he dances along. Perhaps his glad heart is celebrating the tumult or perhaps his burning wrath is spreading with a wildfire's unpredictability. I will not turn away from him. At times, I may find myself ready to throw something at the one who laughs at my angry frustration just before he tips his hands and drops something wonderful into my lap. I know that my vexation with that sudden shift in the wind brings him joy, so I will not begrudge him it.

Oh, how his passion consumes. He burns with it and at times I find myself filled with passing pyrophobia due to it. Ah, but how his lips can be so sweet. His words rip me open and pull the hidden things from my hands. A rough whisper or a harsh challenge, still he beguiles me. Just when I think I am lost, he takes me by the hand and leads me deeper into the madness. I have no need to follow the Will o' Wisp. Sky Treader has brought me along hidden paths to places not seen by even the Fair Folk.

And yet, he carries me when I have no strength to go forward myself. He breathes life into my lungs when all breath fails me. And he feeds me words that illuminate the darkness so that I may know myself and be whole.

So it is, that I love and am loved in return. Mayhaps I am upon a strange path but I do not walk alone, nor am I lost. He walks with me and points the way towards home. Sly Fox is always one who knows the way into and out of trouble, after all.

I Grieve.

It takes but a cursory glance through the news from the last year to see the reasons why my heart bleeds right now. I see the atrocities that we commit against ourselves, against the world, and in the name of the Divine. I grieve these things. I am in anguish for more reasons than the horror and repulsion I feel at the evil that humanity has done.

I do not use the term evil lightly but these things, these slayings, they are evil. The denial of the humanity of our fellow humans as they seek to escape the ongoing campaign of evil and terror perpetrated by Daesh and other monsters of their ilk is no less evil than what these poor people flee. Oh, if I had but the voice of the raging storm and the ability to command this to stop. I would do so as quickly as I could if it were in my power because this must stop. Turning the world into an abattoir is not what we should do.

I look at the news articles that talk about mass murders and I remember Columbine. I remember the day I talked a classmate on the school bus out of bringing in their father's rifle and shooting the students who had been harassing them (and the staff who turned a blind eye to that harassment). I remember the way ignorant peers of mine hailed the murders at Columbine as 'cool' and something that 'needs to happen here.' At that time, I was in college, but the kids I knew (who were technically part of my cohort if you go by the different descriptions of generations) praised the incident. I was horrified and sickened by it.

When I see news about violence about people in the LGBT+ community, I find my blood runs cold. Matthew Shepard was just a bare year older than I was when he died. People who are close and dear to my heart have suffered harassment and threats to their life and liberty because of who they are and whom they love. I spent most of my life with my sexuality in conflict because it simply wasn't safe to be openly bisexual where I grew up. The mass murder in Orlando did more than break my heart. It moved me to literal tears because at a different time in my life, under different circumstances, I could have been one of the people at that club. Be it with a friend, a family member, or just on my own.

The bombardment of images from young African-American men (predominantly) dying due to maltreatment from law enforcement makes me feel physically ill and frightened. I have friends who could die simply because they are the wrong color. Philando Castile made that clear. He did all the things he was supposed to. He was a law abiding citizen and a pillar of his community. Yet he was gunned down like a rabid dog. Even worse, this was done in a setting where if a bullet ricochet, his child and girlfriend could have died. It makes me want to weep, scream, break things, and hide in terror.

I could continue my list of reasons why I grieve right now. I know that my grief does not rectify the atrocities done. I know that my grief is a thing of privilege in many cases. Looking at me on the street, I seem a hippy-ish white woman of the middle class. I am college educated and I live what appears to be a fairly standard hetero-normative life, complete with 2 children. If I could somehow move all who are disenfranchised to a place where their merely inconvenienced for not fitting the 'mold' I would do so in a New York minute. If I could somehow end the injustice that runs rampant around the world, I would.

I know, however, that is not the way of the world. Midgard is not a place of 'perfection' and my vision of that ephemeral concept is not the same as anyone else's. Indeed, part of the chaos of this world comes from a great many people trying to impose their vision of what is correct on the world and all of them fighting over who is right. I would ask that there be justice for they who have been wronged, but I do not trust the government of any nation to bring that to pass. Offering up thoughts and prayers is such a shallow expression in the face of all of this horror.

Especially if that is all you have done. You might as well expect liking some meme is going to cure cancer. Prayer must be supported by deeds. It is not our words that prove our measure. It is our deeds. I grieve. I pray for justice to be done. I pray for they who grieve to be comforted and midwifed through the process into a place of health on the other side of mourning. I pray for they who are as terrified as I am, if not more so, that they may be both given the strength to continue on despite their terror and to have respite from it.

And, I do what little good I can to push back against this tide of evil in the world. I make hats for preemies. I do them in memory of the dead. I teach my children to be kind and gentle to all life, except for when it it necessary not to be and then how to conduct themselves ethically when they must not tread a gentle path. I pour out offerings for the dead and speak to them in the hopes that I will bring them some comfort in the abruptness of their passage from this life. And I write.

Mostly, right now, I grieve and struggle with despair.

Voiceless.

The horror of the last week has rendered me mute. I simply can not put into words what I feel. I can not find words for much of anything. May the good Gods have mercy upon us all. May justice be seen in this world.

Forgive me, my gentle Reader, I am too caught up in the emotions I am feeling and unable to process what I have witnessed. I ask that you join me in prayers for all who are afflicted by the violence that happens in this world and doing at least one small thing to help someone else.

For Freyja.

Hail to the Beautiful One!
Hail to the Lady who walks at the water's edge.
Hail to the Vanadis, the Bountiful Heart's Giver.
Hail to She who knows the reason for the seagull's mournful cry.
Hail to She whose tears are laughter and sorrow eternally gleam bright.
Hail to the Mother of Treasures.

Blessed are we to bask in your kind smile.