Blogroll Update: Pharyngula

Please welcome Pharyngula to the ol' Prophet or Madman blogroll. Pharyngula is the brainchild of Professor Myers. As an associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota, Morris, the good professor is well-positioned to report on matters pertaining to evolutionary developmental biology and any other odd bits of biological interest. What exactly falls under that latter category? Oh, how about Intelligent Design, the dumbing down of science, and the dangers of religious belief, to name but a few. Yes, Professor Myers is a self-professed "godless liberal" and a public critic of intelligent design (as well as the creationist movement in general). Myers is an activist in promoting atheism -- or at least nontheism -- in America. So why, given that my blog does indeed focus on matters of the spirit, would I add Pharyngula to my blogroll? Well, Pharyngula is quirky and fun to read. Plus it is chock full of good science information. Some of the best science writing on the web can be found on Pharyngula. Besides, I'm quite comfortable with science (I earned my Physics degree from Penn State), and I happen to support his stance against creation theory. So, you'll find Pharyngula under the Sci & Tech label in the right sidebar. What else can I say about Pharyngula to get you to try it out? I really cannot summarize Myers' blog and do it complete justice. It really is that damn good. So I'll just tease you a bit. I'll tell you that he has posted such interesting thoughts as God as an abortionist, argued against compatibility between religion and science, and bemoaned the state of academics. For more information, check out his about page which explains what exactly pharyngula is, summarizes the good professor's background, and provides a quick summary of the three main aspects of the blog (random quote file, list of science articles, and his own blogroll).

Blaze of Glory

I'm blogging this article for two reasons:

1. It mentions Ásatrú.
2. It concerns a matter of religious freedom/choice.

Hindus In Britain Demand Traditional Cremation

More:

• wikipedia entry on "Cremation"
• Death in Banaras (scholarly treatise on why Hindus cremate their dead)
• Internet Cremation Society
• Cremation versus Burial (Mainly concerned with Jewish/Christian burial at ReligiousTolerance.org)
• "Beowulf" and Cremation

Quotable | Art Function

It is the function of art to carry us beyond speech to experience." -- Joseph Campbell (1904 - 1987), American mythologist, writer, and lecturer, from his book Sake and Satori (New World Library, 2002; edited by David Kudler)

Image is part of The Weather Project, by Olafur Eliasson, as shown in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, London, in 2003.

Pagans in ... Israel?

The headline brazenly proclaims, "Paganism returns to the Holy Land," but the truth is so much more subtle. Of course, one could make the argument that paganism never really left Israel. That, at most, it was driven underground. And that seems to be the way things still are. Consider the following quotes from Ofri Ilani's article:

• ...most Israeli pagans reveal their beliefs only to those who share them. They usually keep religious gatherings ... secret.
• "Some guys live with religious families. They can't tell their parents, 'I don't believe in Judaism, I'm a pagan.' They'd chop off their heads."
• "In a country like ours ... being a pagan is not easy ... Worshiping other gods is something very sensitive in Judaism. We all were educated [to think] this is intolerable and illogical."
• "...Judaism has only one god, and if you do not believe in him, you will be driven off with stones."

Due to this environment, it's not much of a surprise that there is not all that much information about pre-Judaic divinities or practices. So some Israeli worshipers pray to Nordic or Celtic gods. But there is a movement to revive the worship of ancient Canaanite gods. Hail to all those who seek to revive, preserve, and make relevant their ancient ancestral practices. Especially those living in what is considered the capital of monotheism. Read the article at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072829.html

Hail Spring!

On this, the day of the Spring Equinox, I wish the blessings of Ostara (Eostre, Oschder, Alban Eilir, etc.) upon all my family, friends, and kindred spirits.

Frigga, ever wise, Mother of all
Freya, our Lady of love, beauty, and fertility
Nerthus, earth Mother, womb of the world
Sunna, Lady of the heavens, bright and glorious in your return
Ostara, the spring Maiden, it is in your name we gather this day
  Winter is over
The land is awakened with your creative and sustaining powers
Flowers long to bloom
The light quickens, lengthening the days
And, soon we hope, warming them as well.
  Thus the cycle continues.
Spring is nigh upon us:
Ostara takes root in our hearts
And then blossoms in our deeds.
We depart knowing her blessings.

 Words: © Brian Weis 2008
photo credit: Frank Black 2008

A New Breastplate (And a Message for St. Patrick)

Ah, yes. Today is St. Patrick's Day. Well, I for one will not be putting on the green and celebrating. I do not celebrate the lives (real or imagined) of those who tried to put down my ancestral faith. (For those of you who didn't realize, the driving out the snakes thing is most likely a metaphor for stomping out the ethnic and traditional practices of the Irish people). Patrick, if you truly existed (even if only as a composite of several individuals as I suspect), I have a message for you. You did not drive out the "snakes" -- you merely forced them undergound. Nor did you eliminate their traditions. In fact, your beloved Church is riddled with more of my ancestor's traditions than those of the early Christians, and by this I am referring to practices from the first few decades of Christianity, or "the Way of Yeshua" as it was likely known by its earliest adherents. And in case you missed it, Patrick. The "snakes" are back. We are back, and every year our numbers grow as more people awaken to the old ways -- be they Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Romanic, etc. -- and make them relevant today. For our ways are relevant as they are a means of being in this world, being with it, and not trying to simply control it or ignore it in the hope of achieving some afterlife. Originally written and posted last year, "A Heathen's Breastplate" is still appropriate to post on this day:

The Lorica (or Breastplate) is a prayer written in Irish and Latin that is often attributed to Saint Patrick. There are many variations of it (one can be found here), but I have decided to rewrite it in "honor" of the old saint who is said to have driven out the pagans. Now it has a nice Heathen slant...

A Heathen's Breastplate 

I arise today 

Heir to the strength of Asgard; 

Light of the sun, 

Splendor of fire, 

Swiftness of wind, 

Depth of the sea, 

Stability of earth, 

Firmness of rock. 

I arise today with mine own strength to pilot me; 

Thor's might to uphold me, 

Frigga's wisdom to guide me, 

Odin's hand to guard me, 

Heimdall's watch to shield me, 

Freya's love to bless me. 

Afar and anear, 

Alone or in a multitude. 

The ancestors are with me, 

before me, behind me, 

on my right, on my left. 

As sure as 

The Earth beneath me, 

The Sky above me, 

The Holy Powers within me. 

I arise today 

Rooted in the mighty traditions of my past. 

And I walk Midgard, 

Sending forth the blessings of this day's deeds to generations yet unborn. 

copyright 2008, BSW

Book Review | Words That Work

[This review is cross-posted to Amazon.com and Facebook (LivingSocial:Books)]

Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear (Dr. Frank Luntz, Hyperion, 2008, ISBN: 1401309291)

Luntz's book will interest anyone who loves words, especially folks who are interested in the careful use of words to get a message across to other people. Most of Words That Work deals with framing language issues of the political and corporate varieties, and some folks may be turned off by Luntz's work with big corporations, the Republican Party, or both. But the non-partisan reader will enjoy the discussion of how a word's meaning can change over time, or through the careful control of context. The examination of polling's role in shaping a message or affecting public opinion is eye opening as well. 

In the end, understanding the concept of "words that work" will help just about anyone regardless of the specific communication situation. But what, perhaps, impresses me most about this book is that, after all the "meanness and abrasiveness" that Luntz has witnessed and experienced, he remains dedicated to finding the positive. He writes: "...there is much to be gained by being upbeat and optimistic. When you trash the opposition, you simultaneously demean yourself. The best warrior is a happy warrior. Accentuate the positive ... eliminate the negative. Negative definitely works, but a solid positive message will triumph over negativity." 

Some may call that naive, maybe even accuse him of attempting to sugar-coat or dumb down important issues (I know I kind of felt that way at first). But after going through the examples in the book, and looking for others on my own, I can see the value in his approach. Hopefully, others will, too.

National Book Critics Circle Awards

Amazon.com has a list of the 2008 and 2007 nominees for the National Book Critics Circle Awards. Looks to be some interesting reading: NBCC Awards

DelanceyPlace: Business Education

I cannot believe I am sharing an excerpt from Delanceyplace twice in one week (previous one was about The Twilight Zone). But when I consider the current shambles of our economic system, and see the hand wringing, the blame games, and the extreme politicking playing out, I have to wonder about the role of business education in this whole mess. Today's excerpt reinforces a view I've had for a while about "business" as a college major, and about going for an MBA after earning one of those business degrees (instead of first earning a degree in a more specific discipline): It's a bad idea.

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In today's excerpt--writing in the late 1990s, the authors contrast the business leaders of the immediate post-World War II period to contemporary businesses leaders raised on a steady diet of business publications, management books, MBAs and consultants--and conclude that it is unadorned critical thought, not the current business fad, that brings business success. As T.S. Eliot lamented in Choruses from The Rock: Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

"During the 1990s virtually an entire generation of top executives left their businesses, retired, or passed away. Many of these executives had achieved legendary status--[David] Packard at Hewlett-Packard, [Akio] Morita at Sony, [Sir John Harvey-] Jones at ICI, [Sam] Walton at Wal-Mart, and [Jan] Carlzon at SAS, to name a few. These leaders shared some notable characteristics that differentiate them from their successors. They lived through the Great Depression, which crippled the world's economy in the 1930s; they experienced the horrors of World War II; they served their business apprenticeships in the postwar rebuilding period of the late 1940s and early 1950s. But what may differentiate them most from their counterparts of today is the issue of management.This 'old guard' was the last of a breed of executives who developed their management skills almost entirely in the workplace. They were building businesses while management 'science'--if it can be called that--was still in its infancy. "In 1948 ... the Harvard Business Review had a robust circulation of fifteen thousand. That number had reached nearly two hundred fifty thousand by the mid 1990s. The Harvard Business School itself and the few other graduate business schools in existence in 1948 awarded 3,357 MBAs--a far cry from the 75,000 MBAs awarded forty-five years later. Even McKinsey, the best known of consulting companies, was a relatively small firm with annual revenues of under $2 million, compared with 1994 revenues of more than $1.2 billion. Management guru Peter Drucker was a youngster of thirty-nine. Seven-year-old Tom Peters was probably 'in search of' a new bike. "The executives of [the immediate post-war] period were not uneducated--in fact, many were extremely well educated--but they did not learn their approach to business from a business school, a management expert, a celebrated management book, or an outside consultant. Options such as these were not generally available. These executives learned their business skills in the industrial jungle. ... "The forty-year-old executive of the 1990s, by contrast, probably holds one of the tens of thousands of MBAs awarded each year. His formal management education is supplemented by dozens of business periodicals and hundreds of management books. If, however, a situation seems resistant to even this mass of management wisdom, there are several hundred consulting firms and more than a hundred thousand consultants ready to provide additional management skill and knowledge. In 1993 businesses around the world spent $17 billion for consultants' recommendations, and AT&T alone lavished $347.1 million on outside expertise. "That does not necessarily mean that the business executives of the past were superior to those of the present. ... Still, we suspect that if those [managers] of years gone by found themselves at the helm of any of today's extraordinarily complex and competitive business enterprises, they would steer a straight and successful course." Quinn Spitzer and Ron Evans, Heads You Win!, Fireside, Simon and Schuster, Copyright 1997 by Kepner-Tregoe, Inc., pp. 15-17.

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Delanceyplace is a free service that provides a daily email with an excerpt or quote they consider interesting or noteworthy. There is no theme other than the fact that most excerpts come from a non-fiction work (usually, but not always, works of history).

What Ancient Heathen Practices Do We Keep?

[The original version of this essay was submitted to my mentor in the Clergy Program. I was asked whether I could clearly state "what aspects of our ancient practices we wish to keep and which we do not? What policy would you formalize that would help you tell someone else when they should accept a practice and not accept other practices or beliefs of our ancestors?"]

What Ancient Heathen Practices Do We Keep?

What aspects of our ancient practices do we wish to keep? Which ones can we discard? How do we determine which beliefs and practices we should accept?

I have been wrestling with this set of questions for a few weeks. I must admit, however, that even after accepting the assignment, I felt that trying to work out a coherent, reasonable approach seemed far too huge a task for me. Truly, who am I to answer such questions? The first strike against me is that I have only been involved in the tradition for a short time. Other folks had been actively researching and promoting the religion, even starting organizations and writing books, well before I knew of it. Strike two is my lack of proficiency in the lore. I do work to regularly add to my knowledge, and I love to do the readings, but the simple fact remains that I am not a "lore hound" -- that is, I do not have a vast repository of lore or historical data committed to memory.

And the third strike?

I actually got well beyond a third strike against myself. But then I started to calm down a bit. I realized that, although there were others who were superior to me in knowledge, I have a sincere desire to be of service to the Gods and Goddesses and all who approach them. I have been serving in this capacity, albeit with small steps, and no one has questioned my capabilities or worthiness to do so. I further realized that the questions that lead this piece are the very questions that everyone involved in the Reconstruction must answer. And we must continue to evaluate and answer these questions as the movement grows and matures, as new folks are awakened to the path. And if I am going to be successful in my service, I must be part of the conversation regarding those questions.

Third -- and here I am continuing my previous meme of the three strikes, but now in a positive bend -- I realized that this query really boils down to a single question: What ancient practices are relevant today?

Although I have already taken a tangential path to bring several questions down to one, I am going on another slight tangent. I believe it will serve a useful purpose, and I hope that will be evident when I return to answering the question of relevant practices. During my brief forays into studying theology, and by that I do actually mean theology of a Christian persuasion, I came across an interesting approach to Biblical interpretation. I say it was interesting because I felt that the approach, although espoused by two Evangelical theologians, could be applied to the study of just about any "scriptures" -- please note the use of quotes here implies that while not all faith traditions can be said to have their own scriptures, as the Abrahamic faiths do, many of them do have writings of some form or at least some historic record to be translated and interpreted for a modern audience. I recall that one of the instructors referred to the method as a triangle because it had three points. I cannot remember what specific name, if any, he gave the triangle -- I have the lecture recorded somewhere, but cannot find it or my notes. I do, however, remember the basic gist. And it goes something like this: When considering a writing of a spiritual nature (or even one of historical record), one has to approach it in light of its literal context, historical context, and eternal context. In other words:

• What is the literal meaning of the passage?
• What did it mean to the original hearers?
• What does it mean today? (The Christian approach tries to determine the "eternal truth" or meaning of the passage for all time. But I would simply look for a relevant modern meaning.)

In applying this triangle methodology to our ancestors' practices and beliefs, I would add a fourth and final context: Is it practical (feasible)? So, I have taken the triangle method of Biblical interpretation, which originally had no application to our faith, and developed a model for evaluating practices and beliefs. A visual aid for this model appears below [click image for larger version]:


Next I will show the model in use in evaluating two practices.

Ancient Practice Analysis #1: Bog Justice According to the Free Dictionary, a Bog Body is any one of the approximately 700 preserved human remains found in natural peat bogs, mostly in western Europe, from about c. 8000 BC to early medieval times. "That they have been variously found with cut throats, severed limbs, ropes around the neck, and so on suggests the possibility of ritual killings, murders, and ignominious burial (since none was found within a proper grave)" [thefreedictionary.com]. There is debate as to whether these bodies represent certain evidence of executions for a crime, sort of a "bog justice" if you will, or as a human sacrifice, or something else entirely. Even with the debate, the fact that our ancestors seemed to have a practice, even minimally so, of placing bodies into bogs will suffice for the purpose of analysis. 

Q1: What is the literal meaning of placing a body into a peat bog? A: It is a dead body dumped into a bog. It is not a pleasant burial. 

Q2: What is the historical meaning (i.e., what did it mean to our ancestors)? A: I will use the Free Dictionary information here and conclude that this is an "ignominious burial." While we cannot know for certain, in looking at other historical records, we can safely assume that this was not a desired end. It was likely something to be avoided. 

Q3: What is the modern relevance of bog justice? A: Modern relevance in killing someone and dumping the body? If we are to assume an historical basis of justice, then the modern relevance would be retribution, or perhaps vigilante justice. In either case, it would be an extreme punishment. 

Q4: Is bog justice practical today? A: It is neither practical nor feasible. Our modern society has a legal system for addressing grievances and crimes. And as flawed as it may be, it is a system we have to work within, otherwise our actions will be branded as criminal and then we will be subject to it (the system). Besides, depending on one's geography, a peat bog might be very difficult to find. A similar analysis can be applied to the concept of raiding, and the same conclusion can be drawn: it is not practical in today's global society. (Greg Shetler briefly covers this very topic in his book, "Living Asatru"). 

Ancient Practice Analysis #2: Animal Sacrifice  Animal sacrifice is the ritual consecration, killing, and then offering of an animal to some form of divinity. Depending on the tradition, this was (and, in a small number of cases, is still) done to appease or maintain favor with the divinities. Animal sacrifice has a long history in poly- and monotheistic traditions. [More information: Pagan Institute: Animal Sacrifice and About - Alt Religion - Which Religions Involve Animal Sacrifice.]

Q1: What is the literal meaning of sacrificing an animal to the Gods and Goddesses? A: It is a communal giving of a gift to higher powers. 

Q2: What is the historical meaning of animal sacrifice (i.e., what did it mean to our ancestors)? A: A sacrifice of this nature was not taken lightly. It was a "gift for a gift" -- a gift with a very high price. Additionally, our ancestors believed that blood was a very powerful gift because it represented life itself. 

Q3: What is the modern relevance of animal sacrifice? A: In this case, I feel that the modern and ancient meanings are roughly equivalent. However, there is little question as to which perspective placed a greater value on the sacrifice. For our ancestors, giving up an animal to sacrifice was a risky prospect and it bespoke a great trust in the natural powers to provide. Today, we have convenience stores and giant grocery outlets -- and most of us do not grow or raise our own food. 

Q4: Is animal sacrifice practical today? A: From my perspective, living and working as I do in the post-agricultural (even post-industrial) world, animal sacrifice is not practical or feasible. I could follow one of the alternative practices, such as making a bread or cake "animal" and sacrificing it. or making a work of art and offering it up. But I do not have the resources or knowledge to raise an animal for sacrifice, nor do I have the proper training do conduct such a sacrifice. There is still a minority of folks for whom animal sacrifice could be practical. As I recall from a recent interview on RavenCast, Kveldulf Gundarsson lives on his own farm and conducts animal sacrifice at the high holidays. This is entirely appropriate for him and his wife in their practice.

So, in conclusion, there are four qualifiers I use for determining whether to adopt a practice or belief from our ancient ancestors: Literal Context, Historical Context, Relevance, and Practicality/Feasibility. And, as I have shown in my second example, sometimes there is room for variance as the practice in question will be appropriate for some, but not all, the faithful. That, of course, makes perfect sense in a religion with no established dogma.