Month: June 2024

Books, music, festivals

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Changing Paths challenge day 25: books šŸ“š

I love reading books. I love writing books. I love talking about books. I love having a to-be-read pile. I love rereading books that I have enjoyed.

A book is a little world and its characters are mirrors you can hold up, and try identifying with them to make sense of who you are.

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Changing Paths challenge day 24: Music 

I love music, especially any piece where the artist really put their soul into it. This is often the case with the music of oppressed, displaced, and marginalized peoples.

I have very diverse tastes in music but some of my favourite genres are Cajun, klezmer, zydeco, blues, baroque, medieval and renaissance music, and protest songs.

I have recently been listening to Palestinian music and it is beautiful. Check out this list of Palestinian artists by Christina Hazboun from 2021.

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Changing Paths challenge day 23: Festivals

I love Pagan festivals and I am very glad that thereā€™s one every six weeks or so, as it takes the pressure off of Yule. If you only celebrate Yule and Easter (and Thanksgiving in North America), thereā€™s so much pressure to get it right and have a good time. But with Pagan festivals, if Yule doesnā€™t go so well or isnā€™t your thing, thereā€™s another festival coming soon.

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Journalists in Gaza

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The story of Press House in Gaza ā€”and some of the journalists who worked from it who were killedā€” is on the Guardian today: ā€œā€˜An incredible loss for Palestineā€™: Israeli offensive takes deadly toll on journalistsā€ (25 June 2024) By David Pegg, Hoda Osman and Manisha Ganguly. (The Guardian does not have a paywall.)

Press House was important because it did not belong to any of the various factions in Gaza.

It had a small exhibition of old Palestinian radios and 13 trees planted in the yard, in memory of 13 journalists killed in 2013.

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Changing Paths posts

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Changing Paths challenge day 22: feast

I love to have a feast (shared food / Pagan potluck) in sacred space, so that we are feasting with the gods. However itā€™s got a bit impractical with the numbers of people involved and so we tend to have our feast after circle these days.

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Changing Paths challenge day 21: solstice

The sun pauses on her journey
Around the horizon
Waiting for you to stop
To look around and see
The beauty of the world

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Changing Paths challenge day 20: cycles.

All four classical elements have cycles.

What goes around comes around.

Everything is always changing, nothing is ever lost.

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Changing Paths challenge 19: Time šŸ•°ļø ā°

Humans havenā€™t always thought of time as linear. A cyclical view of time seems to me to be more in tune with Nature.

Many cultures see time as cyclical, or as a set of interlocking cycles: the cycle of the sun, the moon, the stars, the rotation of the Earth, the seasons, geological cycles, and so on. Many Pagans see time as cyclical, and we talk about the Wheel of the Year. The phases of the moon have always been important, as shown by the ancient moon calendar carved into a piece of horn or antler.

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Changing Paths challenge day 18: Intuition

Spidey sense, gut feeling: we might call these a sort of bodily knowledge, but they are key components of intuition.

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Changing Paths challenge day 17: my journey

Despite the adage that one supposedly becomes more conservative as one gets older, I have in fact become more left-wing. Iā€™m generation X but apparently this is also true of millennials. Good job millennials, keep it up.

In terms of my Pagan path, my goals have shifted towards community buildingā€”perhaps in response to the trend towards social isolation.

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Changing Paths challenge day 16: life.

ā€œMy mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.ā€ ā€” Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou also said that none of us are free until we are all free. The bottom line is that everyone should be able not merely to survive but to thrive. 

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Letter to my Alma Mater

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I have just emailed this to the university where I did my undergraduate degree.

Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellor, and Pro Vice Chancellors,

As an alumna of the University of Lancaster, I am very disappointed to learn that the University has links with BAE Systems, which produces weapons such as the F-35 and F-15 fighter jets. Since 2016, 15% of every fighter jet sent to Israel has been produced in the UK by companies including BAE Systems. I understand that the Universityā€™s links were strengthened in November 2023 and that the University has a joint campus with them in Barrow. Given that it was already evident in November 2023 that a mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians was underway, that would have been an excellent time to review and end such links, not to strengthen them.

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Roots and wings

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Changing Paths challenge day 15: the sky.

The sky has a huge impact on my mood. If itā€™s blue with a few clouds, Iā€™m happy. If itā€™s dramatic, Iā€™m excited. If thereā€™s a rainbow, I love it (especially the rainbow that appeared the day after Ireland voted for same sex marriage). If itā€™s grey and overcast, then Iā€™m sad. If thereā€™s a beautiful sunset, Iā€™m awed. If I see the stars shining, Iā€™m awed.

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Changing Paths challenge day 14: my path.

I donā€™t really describe my path as a spiritual path anymore. I think of it as an embodied path. My practice is to notice the beauty in the everyday: flowers, trees, music, the landscape, the sky, food, and poetry.

As The Charge of the Goddess says, all acts of love and pleasure are her rituals.

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Changing Paths Challenge day 13: Roots and wings

Todayā€™s prompt is a reference to Carolyn McDadeā€™s classic song, Spirit of Life, which contains the line ā€œroots hold me close, wings set me freeā€.

My family roots are in nonconformist churches but thereā€™s also a strong tradition of loving Nature. My Mum loved Nature and so did her Mum. I feel very strongly rooted in the chalk and flint hills of Hampshire and Sussex in England.

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My award-winning book, Changing Paths, is published by 1000Volt Press and is available from all the usual online stores. Ask your local bookseller or library to stock it!

The goal of the book is to help you decide your own path by guiding you through the perils and pitfalls of the terrain, and asking questions to help you deepen your understanding of the reasons for your desire to change paths.

Music, wonder, awe

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Changing Paths challenge day 12: Songs.

Singing has always been a big part of my spirituality, and I love being in choirs. I dream of organizing a Pagan choir again one day.

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Changing Paths challenge day 11: wonder and awe.

I experience wonder and awe in response to Nature, whether in the form of mountains, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, trees, or on a smaller scale such as the beauty of flowers or the complexity of a spider web. 

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Dreams, drama, fauna

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Changing Paths challenge day 10: animals and birds.

I love animals and birds and Nature. It feels like such a privilege to see animals and birds in the wild. In our garden we have chipmunks and cardinals and robins and rabbits. We were once visited by a very floofy skunk. We have only seen one raccoon in the garden.

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Changing Paths challenge 9: drama.

I took a photo of a rather dramatic sky the other day. Whenever I see clouds like this, it reminds me of the bit in The Blues Brothers movie where one of them says ā€œweā€™re on a mission from Godā€.

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Changing Paths challenge day 8: dreams

The world is dreaming of alternatives to capitalism and colonialism.

The student encampments are temporary autonomous zones (TAZs) where students are demonstrating alternative ways to live: that people from different backgrounds and religions can live side by side, and cooperate. If we want to move away from capitalism, colonialism and the dogma of perpetual growth and exploitation, we need to start creating alternative ways to live. The cooperative movement is an excellent example of this principle, as are Hakim Beyā€™s ideas of the temporary autonomous zone, and the successful anarchist movements and villages.

Change and reconnecting

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Changing Paths challenge day 7: Change

Most people do not cope well with change, especially if it involves loss or destruction of their former way of life. It is hard for people with privilege to imagine losing more than one person in your family or friends group at a time: imagine losing all of them at once, and your home as well, your entire way of life, and the destruction of your environment. Thatā€™s what is happening in G a z a, but also to Sudan and the Congo, the eastern part of Ukraine, uncontacted tribes in the Amazon, Indigenous African communities displaced by greenwashing conservation (see @survivalinternational), and more.

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Changing Paths challenge day 6: Reconnecting

Reconnecting with your spirituality when you feel uninspired, or heartbroken. Heartbroken at the multiple genocides, wars, massacres, injustices happening in the world. Heartbroken over climate catastrophe and species destruction.

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Nature, peace, hope

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Nature (4 June)

Changing Paths challenge day 4: Nature.

Many years ago, when I was a child, I was told that the Israeli settlers had planted trees in the desert and made Israel greener. I was told this at an event organized by evangelical Christians. This shows the prevalence of Zionism among evangelical Christians. Continue reading ā†’

Peace (3 June)

Changing Paths challenge day 3. Peace.

Deep within the still centre of my being
May I find peace.
Silently within the quiet of the Grove
May I share peace.
Gently, powerfully, within the greater circle of humankind
May I radiate peace.

ā€” Druid prayer for peace (OBOD)

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Hope (2 June)

Changing Paths challenge day 2: Hope.

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My values (1 June)

Changing Paths challenge day 1: my values.

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