Pagan Posting: 12/26/09 "There is a difference between being peaceful and being a chicken-shit".

"There is a difference between being peaceful and being a chicken-shit".

Yes, there is.

We live in a world were a few men with box-cutters can (supposedly) hi-jack an entire airplane full of people and fly it into a building, killing thousands.

Setting the stage for decades of war and the attitude that we should allow our government unprecedented access to our fingerprints, DNA, medical records, phone calls and e-mails.

A box cutter? Really?

We are a nation of chicken-shits.

We cower in fear of everything from cell-phone induced cancer to the stinky guy on the bus. We don't speak out, we don't make waves and we cower.

Most of us would no more think of defending ourselves against someone armed with a blade so short (that unless the wielder gets very lucky and hits an artery in the neck) it can not do enough damage to kill you.

Most of us can be subdued by the THREAT of physical violence.

Most of us have no idea even how to have a heated disagreement without falling to pieces and resorting to immature back-biting and passive aggression.

Most of us, come down to the Apocalypse, are zombie bait.

We are a nation of chicken-shits.

So, then let us look at my fellow Pagans.
We want to be different.
We think that as followers of the Earth we should be peaceful, we should be passive.

We should do no harm. And that is true.

However,I have come to believe it is not "true" the way we have come to interpret it.

In trying to be peaceful and co-exist we have missed the point.

What we have become is impotent.

We are religions populated by women who still relegate the males of their faith to "guardian" to "consort". Denying them their rightful place as mates, fathers, sons and fellow magickal beings. We want that masculine energy to protect us, but some of us, still distrust the masculine. We are afraid of masculine power and label it "aggressive" or "dominant" up to the very moment we need someone to protect us, then we are all for that energy coming to our rescue. We are still a religion I would not raise a son in for the very reasons I will not raise a daughter in one of the Religions of Abraham.

Pagans SHOULD BE DIFFERENT.

We, in our goals to be different from the Religions of Abraham, have diminished ourselves. We have looked at nature through Walt Disney Glasses and rendered ourselves posers in the web of nature. We say we revere Nature, but we do not acknowledge Nature for what it is.

Nature is not passive.
Nature is not female-dominated.
And nature does not diminish itself for any reason.

Nature is not passive.
What is Nature then?
Nature is simply not aggressive.
Nature never uses more force than necessary and strives always for balance.

Nature grows, it expands, it competes, it kills, it eats and it protects itself to the best of it's ability. But it does not torture, it does not see any one aspect of itself as above or below another. Nature is comfortable in it's skin.

Nature does not relinquish it's intrinsic workings or values to "fit", to "make other people comfortable", and nature damned sure does not value the weak.

Now, I'm not saying that we should go all "Atlas Shrugged". That philosophy is also abhorrent. I in no way support or suggest aggression. I do however encourage self-reliance, self-defence and self-awareness.

What I am saying is...best summed up by Maryanne Williamson:
She speaks of The Human Spirit and it's "shrinking". Ms. Williamson is an X-tian, but hey, her thoughts are dead on to my point.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

There is a difference between being peaceful and just being chicken-shit.