Notable and quotable: coronavirus (1)

/ Yvonne Aburrow

When I saw Nimue Brown’s post on the political implications of the pandemic, my first thought was that it was about the fact that mass gatherings are being cancelled and/or banned, and that in some places, something that looks very similar to martial law has been imposed. However, her excellent post was focused more on what this means about how we should change our priorities and look at working from home, remote meetings, and less travel (which we should have been doing anyway because of climate change):

Governments that put people before profit are clearly going to take better care of their people. Leaders who believe experts and take science seriously are going to be an advantage to their populations. Societies that organise for mutual aid and protection will do better than anywhere dominated by rampant capitalism. This may change how we think about politics and politicians.

Laura Tempest Zakroff has created an immunity-boosting sigil, with the important caveat that it is meant to supplement, not replace, all the usual precautions such as hand-washing and self-isolation.

Built Into This Sigil:

– protection

– responsible mindfulness

– community conscious

– promote cleanliness and good hygeine

– minimize transmission

– sustained good health

– enough resources for all (prevention and treatment)

– affordable access to those resources for everyone

– focus on lungs

– calm, let wisdom and common sense guide

Dana at The Druid’s Garden offers some spiritual self care practices to help people through these stressful times.

I’ve talked to many friends and family who are feeling overwhelmed, lost, panicked, and fearful about the near future. So today’s post is about taking a breath.  Its times like these that I am thankful for my druid practice, thankful for the healing nature provides, and thankful for the lessons of spirit.

An excellent YouTube video from Lora O’Brien on community and coronavirus protocols. She says that even if you don’t have symptoms, you should be behaving as if you already have the virus, because you could pass it in without knowing to people who are immunocompromised or vulnerable.

On March 11th, the Wild Hunt news site shared the US Center for Disease Control guidelines for faith-based organizations.

Another Wild Hunt article on Pagan events being cancelled or rescheduled quotes Irene Glasse:

“Historically, our community has been very physically affectionate – people frequently greet each other with hugs. … we are encouraging people to consider alternate forms of greeting – elbow bumps, waving, or bringing back the bow. We are also reminding people to obtain consent before initiating physical contact. That latter reminder is always good policy but is especially important now. It’s impossible to tell by looking whether someone is immunocompromised.”

John Beckett has some excellent comments and advice, especially this:

Take care of each other. If someone you know is at risk, run errands for them so they don’t have to go out. Patronize businesses likely to be impacted. Call your Representative and Senators and insist they fund all necessary relief efforts.

The boring mundane stuff is important. But do more than the boring mundane stuff.

You have skills others do not

Work your magic. Magic alone won’t keep you safe from the Coronavirus, but magic can give your mundane efforts some extra juice.

Maintain your spiritual practice. Or better yet, take it up a notch. This is a time to focus on your prayers, meditations, devotions, and other practices.

Pay special attention to meditation: this is a good time to listen to your Gods and other spiritual allies.

Indoor Pagan practice

A wonderful post from The River Crow on indoor Druidry if you’re self-isolating:

Monks and mystics in religions and cultures around the world have been known to isolate themselves in hermitage to deepen their spiritual practice.

If you find yourself suddenly stuck at home, see if you can connect to this same spiritual current. Continue your daily practice, or even deepen it. Make time for meditation and prayer, divination and ritual. Look inward and rediscover the still centre of your being that can sometimes be drowned out by the noise of everyday life.

An interesting article from Steven Posch about a Hindu goddess of smallpox and other infectious diseases.

Mark Green of the AtheoPaganism blog has written a post with suggestions for things you can do while in self-isolation.

Times of crisis are when people generally pull together. It’s tougher this time because a part of what we have to do to pull together is to stay apart. But this crisis brings opportunity, like any other. Perhaps now is the time when we can deepen our practices and fold more richness into our lives.

Julian Vayne has written an interesting post on all this, as he’s been observing the goings-on in some of the darker corners of the Internet. He also suggest that what we learn from this is a more community-minded way of being, and has some great suggestions for magical work.

In terms of result magical work. Rather than conjuring that I and my friends don’t get sick it makes more sense, and in my experience is much more beneficial, to work magic to inspire successful medical research, and to attack other variables of probability concerning the progression and management of disease. One approach to healing magic, which can be used globally as well as personally, is through the spirit Kawa Pohr developed by the Illuminates of Thanateros. Details of this occult tech were recently released by arch-mage Dave Lee and can be found on the IOT British Isles blog. As well as directing Kawa Pohr at specific individuals it can be installed in a location (as in the nightclub example given in the article) and also into a timeline or egregore in order to heal. 

I have written a post with some thoughts on the values shared by different religions including Pagan traditions. In a time of pandemic, when community is really important, it seems like a good idea to focus on the values we share.

Judaism, many Christian denominations, Sufism, and Unitarianism all have a deep love of Nature, or creation as some of them refer to it. There are many sacred texts and hymns from these religions that describe Nature, or use natural imagery. … Eastern religions (Taoism, Sikhism, and Hinduism) also have a deep love of Nature.

My latest post explores how to hug while standing two metres apart. We tested this technique yesterday and it worked.

Spare a thought for Indigenous communities affected by the coronavirus outbreak (and donate online if you can). Many of them are already struggling with a lack of clean running water, poisoning from industrial effluent, high rates of tuberculosis, and mould and overcrowding in inadequate housing, so they’re likely to be hard-hit by the coronavirus.

In Australia, there’s a special government task force for Indigenous communities, who were disproportionately impacted by the outbreak of H1N1 in 2009.

Correction: The Wild Hunt is a news outlet recognized by Associated Press (not a blog).

* I don’t normally link to Patheos blogs because of Patheos’ links to right wing evangelical groups, but these are extraordinary times.

Feel free to add a link to your coronavirus-related post in the comments.

Stay healthy, and blessed be!

The theatre in the sanctuary of Asklepios, Greek god of healing, at Epidaurus. [Hugo Petitjean on Pixabay]

10 thoughts on “Notable and quotable: coronavirus (1)”

  1. Thank you so much for this. I’m feeling completely overwhelmed by anxiety and grief. But reading these pieces has allowed the tears to flow at last. Much better than news reports, the chatter at work in a government office or social media ping pong. I really appreciate this.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Pingback: Notable and quotable: coronavirus (2) | Dowsing for Divinity

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