Some Dialogues

***

I've been reading up on Paganism lately, along with my continuing studies
of the Book of Changes.  I really feel drawn toward it.  I am especially
interested in Asatru.  Will you still be my friend if I become a born again
Pagan? :^)

I think in some ways Christianity has crushed our folk soul.  They've made
the popular image of pagans as wild wanton sex crazed drunken devil
worshipers.  Of course this isn't Asatru (or Paganism in general) at all.
It is more about love, vigor, honor, personal sacrifice, reverence for the
ancestors, etc.

I have been listening to music by Celtic artist Loreena McKennitt.  She has
a song called "All Souls Night" that really expresses our Pagan roots.  The
spirit expressed in that song is largely absent from our present day
society, which has only the faintest pulse of spiritual vigor.  Why?
Because we have lost our sense of kinship.  We've lost our folk spirit.  We
no longer honor our ancestors.  All Souls Night is the point in the great
circle where the End touches the Beginning, where they are one and the
same, where a door is opened between the living and the dead.  Of course
the Christian oppressors all but totally wiped this out of our lives and
out of the history books.  The early Christians were no doubt doing what
they felt was right and good, but I believe they were misguided and hurt
the natural high spirit of Pagan Europeans while giving little in return.

I think this is all about the archetype of man as being simultaneously
animalistic and angelic.  I readily subscribe to this image, as would most
Christians and most Pagans.  The difference is, Christians would like to
negate, suppress, or otherwise vilify our animal nature, whereas to the
Pagans our animal nature is worthy of honor and celebration.  The key to
this state of our being, and what I have learned from Taoism and from the I
Ching, is that the higher nature must rightfully rule the lower nature.
But the higher nature surely must honor and sanctify the lower.  In turn
the lower nature must "graciously submit" to the higher.  Unless it is just
so our existence becomes filled with discord.  It all takes place at a
subtle level of consciousness, but it is nonetheless real, and produces
dramatic effects on all levels of human experience, from the most abstract
down to the most mundane.

All this of course opens the door to speculations on the spiritual meaning
of suffering - yet another topic of keen interest we shall no doubt broach
again at another time!

Better get going now.  Thanks for the cool art pics etc.

Blessings Be,
Tom

Hey Tom:

Yes, you can still be my friend if you become a born-again pagan. ;) If you
become a born-again Christian, I'll have to think about it.

Asatru is cool. I myself am getting more and more Taoist, with a little Pagan
folk spirit thrown in. ;)  But I look at spirituality as encompassing the
various streams which flow into it, like Taoism and Paganism, but not being
encompassed by them. I know that there is way too much yet to learn to ever
confine myself to one "ism".

The fundamental mistake of religion, IMHO, is that it promotes the idea of
itself as something you think or believe. As long as you are believing your
religion, you are far from Godhead. You can think or believe all kinds of
things, and they can be good and helpful things too, they can be things that
will lead you in the right direction, but ultimately you must BE your religion
or it is nothing. Part of that for me is the realization that I may be a finger
(cell) of "God" but I am not "His" brain. I cannot hope to understand
everything but I can hope to inhabit my tiny role in the cosmic scheme with
grace.

I think that despite the tremendous materialism of present-day Western culture,
or perhaps even because of it, I think that there is tremendous potential for a
spiritual renaissance in this most crass of countries. People are having the
opportunity to fulfull most of their material wants because of the good
economy, and are becoming ripe for other values. In a world where money can buy
anything, a purposefully spartan way of life may be the ultimate chic and the
ultimate rebellion.

As far as Xtianity crushing the soul out of our pagan forebearers, that is
doubtless true, and doubtless we deserved it in some respects. Like Liberalism,
Xtianity thrived in it's early years on the idealism and stupidity of youth.
Unfortunately, practically everyone in the Roman Empire in which it grew was
dead by the age of thirty, so it had an abundance of prospects. The wise, old
religions that were there before Xtianity were too complex, and they refused
the politician's gambit of promising everything, so they lost out.

I think the real issue in the animal vs. angel debate is the despiritualization
of animals. Descartes said animals were machines, and ever since our attitudes
have been screwed up by that idea. After Descartes set up the straw man of the
mechanical animal, it was only a short while before a scientist would discover
that humans and animals are not so different after all, and come to exactly the
wrong conclusion, that we were machines too. Neither we nor animals are
machines. Contrast the Cartesian view to the view prevalent in all pagan
cultures, that animals are our brothers and possessed of spiritual powers.
Pretty much all Native American clans are named after animals. Their part in
Native American ritual extends the full gamut between rattlesnakes clamped in
your mouth and ritual items made of eagle feathers or bones of animals
considered powerful. European heathens were probably similar.

The upper and lower trigrams of an I Ching hexagram more represent a polarity
between spiritual and mundane factors. The lower trigram can be thought of as
the innocent joy in pleasure of a person engrossed in worldy matters, versus
the discipline, firmness, and power of a sage as represented by the upper
trigram. Both are present in all of us, and each must have it's proper place.

As for suffering, my opinion is that PAIN IS GOOD. Especially mental or
emotional pain, that's the best. Getting hit in the head by a ball-peen hammer
is not really enlightening, I would think, but I have not experienced that
knowledge. ;o)

Bob
"What does not kill me makes me stronger, unless it gruesomely maims me, in
which case I could be getting a little weaker..."

Bob,

Thanks for the thoughtful reply.

"...You can think or believe all kinds of things, and they can be good and helpful
things too, they can be things that
will lead you in the right direction, but ultimately you must BE your religion or
it is nothing."

So true.  I have often considered the phenomenon of Faith.  Too often faith is a
vehicle for tunnel vision or outright delusion.  We have faith because we need to
"feel" we are okay in a world that sometimes doesn't make complete sense.  When the
real reason for believing is because the belief makes you more comfortable - what
does that have to do with reality?  Faith based on fear or emotions just seems
begging to distort the truth.  On the other hand I am not strong enough to make my
mind a "faith free zone".  Perhaps faith is a necessary evil or at best a crutch
for us feeble humans.  Sometimes "ya just gotta believe" - to keep from falling
into the dark pit of despair.  But we don't need faith to know love.  For example,
one of the most powerful human experiences possible is the love a parent has for a
child.  Do I need "faith" in order to "believe" I love my daughter?  Of course
not.  I love her directly, with no need of some intermediary mental process to
convince me it is so.  Pure love needs no faith, and a love that is based on some
belief is not true love.  Belief is actually a thing of the intellect, not of the
heart.

"...After Descartes set up the straw man of the
mechanical animal, it was only a short while before a scientist would discover
that humans and animals are not so different after all, and come to exactly the
wrong conclusion, that we were machines too. Neither we nor animals are
machines. Contrast the Cartesian view to the view prevalent in all pagan
cultures, that animals are our brothers and possessed of spiritual powers."

Wow you really opened up the lid with this one.  This alludes to a major grand
division of world view.  The question being, is man somehow distinct from the
animal kingdom.  In the Semitic mythological traditions and perhaps others, man is
indeed distinguished from animal life in that he has attained the Knowledge of Good
and Evil (interesting enough by countermanding God's law).  Man is an animal, no
question, and thus has affinity with all animals.  But at least to the Christians,
Jews and Muslims, man alone among the animals has a conscience.  He alone is
capable of feeling "shame" for doing evil deeds.  Not just remorse for making a
higher being angry with his conduct, but personal horror and guilt;  the ultimate
hell of self hatred.  Perhaps this K of G and E does not make us "better" than the
animals.  Perhaps it is actually an affliction, from which God would have had us
spared.  If you are a god you are above G and E.  If you are just an animal you are
below it.  God didn't need to punish us for eating the forbidden fruit against His
will.  The knowledge we attained seems itself to be the curse!

Is man indeed qualitatively different from the rest of the animal kingdom?  There
are some mighty big questions out there my friend, but this is surely one of the
biggest!  Nothing really new here, we went around it a few months ago, but the
ramifications are inescapable and confront us at every turn!

"The upper and lower trigrams of an I Ching hexagram more represent a polarity
between spiritual and mundane factors. The lower trigram can be thought of as
the innocent joy in pleasure of a person engrossed in worldly matters, versus
the discipline, firmness, and power of a sage as represented by the upper
trigram. Both are present in all of us, and each must have it's proper place."

Yes! Yes!

"As for suffering, my opinion is that PAIN IS GOOD. Especially mental or emotional
pain, that's the best."

Spoken like a true Heathen!  Well, I sometimes lament that pain seems to be a
precursor to wisdom.  Of course in our "comfort is king" consumerist decadence we
would hardly honor the value of suffering.  I guess for some "primitive" cultures
ritual suffering and asceticism were commonly accepted as valid methods for
attaining deeper understanding of life.  Through the alchemy of poetry, music, or
art, tragedy may be magically transformed into a thing of exquisit beauty.  (Talk
about using lemons to make lemonade!)  Along these lines I would like to believe
(faith?) that our tears do not fall on meaninglessness, but instead provide living
water to nourish the garden of the soul.

Best,
Tom

Dear Tom:

Whoa, Faith vs. The Dark Pit of Despair. Very Kierkegaardian. I can almost feel that
cold Copenhagen gloom seeping into my bones. ;)

The problem with faith is that there are so many gradiations of it. The spectrum runs
all the way from "I believe in the Life Eternal as promised to us by Our Lord Jesus
Christ" to "I believe I will be alive tomorrow". I kind of figure that as long as you
have small faiths, you are probably alright. Big faiths that have a whole lot of
specific things you must ascribe to disturb me.

But our conversations concerning the I Ching may lend a voice here. Just as the human
concerns represented by the lower trigram must yield to the objective and suprapersonal
view of the upper, so we as a whole must submit our inevitable tragedies, suffering,
and death to that for which the cycle of birth and death is an endless dance, if ever
we are to seize our oneness with it. You probably have seen the famous bronze casting
of the Hindu god Shiva, who turns the wheel of creation and destruction with one hand,
while the other is in the stereotyped gesture meaning "fear not". Fear not, for it is
you who destroys as well as you who is destroyed, and it is you who sits in the still
point in the center of the whirling chaos, as well as you who is swept away in it.

You, as well as all you will ever know or see, all those you love, your entire world is
but a infinitesmal bit of flotsam in the roaring torrent of being, all too soon to be
swept away and broken, but that bit of flotsam as well as all the other bits, can never
truly be destroyed. Being does not forever submit it's breath to the dust.

Love is indeed a more direct thing than faith, but nothing can bring more pain. For
those who can swallow the bitter medicine, love also carries it's own transformation in
pain. If there is any good to be derived from Christianity, it is in it's parables of
sacrifice, and in this and maybe only this Xtianity is elevated to something holy. For
as Christ, we have the opportunity to suffer and die in selfish love and be reborn in
universal love. We have the opportunity to suffer and die of craving and neediness, and
be reborn of fullness and compassion. There is nothing more true than that YOU WILL BE
PARTED FROM THAT WHICH YOU LOVE. The only love from which you can never be apart is
love of being, which is ultimately love of a greater self. Thus love comes full circle,
from the love of your lesser self, to love of another, to impersonal love of Being.

>Is man indeed qualitatively different from the rest of the animal kingdom?  There
>are some mighty big questions out there my friend, but this is surely one of the
>biggest!

This issue has been so poisoned by Judeo-Xtian and Cartesian thinking that it is
important to separate out the many subquestions implied in it. Are humans superior to
animals? We like to think so, but we are hardly unbiased in the matter. Have our
cerebral cortexes allowed a quantum leap above the cogitations of animals? Undeniably.
Are we in some sense spiritually superior? Now we are getting to the heart of the
matter. Indeed, our self-awareness has given us opportunities to express some part of
the cosmos that went unexpressed before, and in that respect Man is indeed good. But
can we denigrate the contributions of other animals? How little of our art or poetry
would exist without the inspiration of animals and plants? Are they not co-creators of
our vision?

Bob

Bobby,

You are a remarkable man.  How is it you are able to see the truth when so many
others are blind or willingly avoid it?  You have the markings of a shaman.  The
world is indeed covered in darkness.  The noble knights have fallen from their
rightful place.  They broke the cosmic laws and must suffer the fate of their
making.  The patriarchy that lifted our great race out of savagery has abdicated
in dissolution.  Our will is crushed, our resolve disintegrated by our own
greed, apathy, and decadence.  An era has come to an end.  But with the death of
patriarchy what will rise in it's place?  I fear the prognosis is grim.  The
higher ideals and protocols give way to pettiness and barbarism.  Perhaps you
are like those in the ancient Roman empire who saw generations before its fall
that it was already doomed.  Is it not the way of the Tao?  But the future is
unwritten, and magic dwells wherever human spirits roam.  What magic may yet
renew the broken spirit of the world?

Tom

My friend:

The world is indeed covered in darkness, but there is always hope. I once thought
that the way to restore wholeness was through external measures; to speak to others
and win them over to a better way. I do not scorn such measures, but I now know that
the best way to heal a diseased mankind is from within. People in this country and
elsewhere are so ill and sick inside that they no longer even know that they are
sick. They have been so long divorced from wholeness that they don't even know that
they are missing it, and don't know another way.

From without, by external means, the problem is insoluble, and the disease must
await the inevitable morbidity and death. But the thing that is missing from the
hearts of mankind can itself provide a cure, because the holy force within all
things is what is missing from Man's heart, and It itself is not bound by external
cause but can reach the inwardness of Man. Every one of us that has the will and
power to do so can help heal the Earth and Man. It is the only thing that will.

The ancient myths of Arthur or the Fisher King are just stories to most people, but
within these stories is the tale of a cure for Man's ailments. The land and the King
are intertwined and one, like Man and the Earth are intertwined and one, and the
illness of the King laid waste the Earth. When the call for a cure went out, the
cure was not a doctor or some herbal potion but the Grail, the cup of lost oneness.
When the King drank of it, he remembered who he was, and that life is holy, and he
and the land were cured.

Just a fairy tale? I have been lucky and priveleged enough, perhaps of no particular
merit of my own, to take the tiniest of sips from that cup of lost oneness, and it
has healed me. It can heal Man, too, if enough of us work together on it, starting
with ourselves and moving out from there. To the ears of those still poisoned by
sickness, this seems hopelessly idealistic, but I know that without this, we will
fail.

Namaste, my friend. In the Light all are One.

Bob

I have had a series of experiences today which indicate that a watershed
of some kind has been reached. I think that things have happened which
may dictate the future course of my life.

I have been meditating in drainage ditches frequently over the past
several days, as well as practicing Qigong in the woods, and have had
intense feelings of communion with the universal life force. This all
started in earnest when my Qigong teacher used Reiki healing on me which
precipitated a mystical experience. After meditating in a ditch today, I
walked over to the store, and sat down at a blood pressure machine.
While I was getting a reading, my eyes fixated on a word on the machine,
FOLLOW. The word seemed to be the only thing I could look at until the
machine finished.

I returned home, and opened the I Ching at random. The hexagram I opened
it at was hexagram 30. Here is some of what it said:

"The trigram Li means 'to cling to something'...'to depend or rest on
something,' and also, 'brightness'. ...Li stands for nature in it's
radiance."

"Everything that gives light is dependent on something to which it
clings, in order that it may continue to shine."

"Human life on earth is conditioned and unfree, and when man realizes
this limitation and makes himself dependent on the harmonious and
beneficent forces of the cosmos, he achieves success.'

'By cultivating in himself an attitude of compliance and voluntary
dependence, man acquires clarity without sharpness and finds his place
in the world.'

'The great man continues the work of nature in the human world'

I think what this is trying to tell me is that now I have come into some
kind of communion with a cosmic beneficent force, it is time to adopt an
attitude of dependence on and compliance with it, to make myself and
whatever selfish interests I might have subordinate to the service of
this force. I don't know whether to call it Tao or Reiki or God or what.
But this would appear to be it's message. Given the nature of the
experiences of the last few days, I cannot but comply.

Bob

Dear Bob,

This one of the most beautiful hexagrams in the I Ching, at least it has
always been one of my favorites.  I will reread hexagram 30 tonight.  Last
night I cast the I Ching and recieved Opposition, changing to Inner Truth.
I think I understand what this means in my life but I need to read it again
and contemplate all the relationships where it might apply.  I got out my
Tai Chi book and have been practicing some of the movements.  I think one of
the keys is to let the movements follow the breath, and not the other way
around.  It sure seems to have a balancing effect on the mind and body.

I know you have really been pushing the boundaries lately.  It sounds like
you are getting very close to both heaven and hell.  I wonder must there
always be a hell  in order to have a heaven?  To enlarge one must the other
expand in equal portion?

If you feel you are being called by a higher life force I would encourage
you to give yourself over to it, as you have been doing.  You have always
been out of step with the mainstream.  It's like you were born different
from the rank and file of humanity.  That's why I feel you have the signs of
a shaman.  Perhaps you already are a shaman.  Perhaps if you submit to this
higher force it will allow you to use it, but probably only for the benefit
of others.  Wherever your road leads I hope we can continue to support each
other as we have in the past.  I am lucky to have a friend like you.

May you acquire clarity without sharpness and find your place in the world.
May God be with you on your intrepid journey.

Your friend,
Tom

Dear Tom:

Hexagram 61 is a really inspiring one, and one that speaks to me of a stage of
initiation. Perhaps you are headed for some kind of initiation into shamanic
magic.

You may think it strange, but I knew several days ago that the hexagram of
Opposition was in your near future somehow, and I think it may have something to
do with me. You remember our less-than-fruitful debate on politics? I think that
the I Ching is saying that while we may differ in our opinions in a variety of
ways, in the final analysis we're on the same team. However, I don't know enough
about what is going on in your life to say that it definitively relates to this.

>I think one of the keys is to let the movements follow the breath, and not the
other way
>around.

Yes, absolutely, but even better is to feel your breath moving your body. It
should almost feel like your body is made of pneumatic tubes and the breath is
filling the parts of your body to make them move. You can get to the point where
you vividly feel parts of your body BREATHING. I get very intense and real
feelings of breathing from the palms of my hands up my arms when I do qigong.
Just as if I had nostrils on the palms of my hands and were breathing up my
arms.

Also, immediately after the next time you practice Tai Chi, place your hands
together as if you were holding an old-fashioned squeezebox-type accordion. You
may feel a kind of spiderwebby-tingling in the palms of your hands. This is Chi.

Another indicator that you are working the Chi effectively is, if someone is
nearby, ask them to touch the palms of your hands or your back. They should feel
hot to the touch.

>I know you have really been pushing the boundaries lately.  It sounds like
>you are getting very close to both heaven and hell.  I wonder must there
>always be a hell  in order to have a heaven?  To enlarge one must the other
>expand in equal portion?

I never used to believe the idea that there was some kind of big cosmic battle
in the world between good and evil: I am beginning to believe it now. Part of
that has to do with my coming into contact with the Reiki energy, which is so
unqualifiedly good and healing and encompassing, and part has to do with the
feeling I have that my psyche or soul is a battleground at present. I think the
good guys are winning, though. ;o)  I have to continually take to heart Hexagram
15, Modesty, lest I forget to be thankful for my blessings and be arrogant about
them instead.

>Perhaps if you submit to this
>higher force it will allow you to use it, but probably only for the benefit
>of others.

There is no question that this is true. The force I have been in contact with
can be invoked, but it cannot be USED. I could never use this force for harm: It
wouldn't let me, and I would never try. Contact with it brings feelings of great
peace and thankfulness, and a kind of universal love, because it seems to break
down separateness. I have been trying to send some of it to you, perhaps when I
am more knowledgeable I will be able to show you what it feels like.

There is no doubt about who is in the driver's seat: It is. I want it to be. The
only way for me to achieve my goal of transcendence is for me to become an ever
more perfect servant of the Holy Life Force.

The only thing that scares me is the idea that I could make a mistake, that I
could blow this once-in-a-lifetime or once-in-many-lifetimes opportunity to come
under the influence of this powerful energy, or that I could fail to make the
most of it. But I think I know what I need to do, at least short-term.

>Wherever your road leads I hope we can continue to support each
>other as we have in the past.

I hope that will always be true. I have some things to do here in Dallas for a
couple years, most notably take Reiki training, but once I am finished with my
training and if the Higher Force is willing, perhaps I can come to that
community you are trying to form? I'm sure that rural Southern Missouri is just
as much in need of a resident Reiki master as any other place. ;o)

>  I am lucky to have a friend like you.

And I also, my friend. May the hexagram of Inner Truth presage a shamanic
journey in your future, and may you seek to use such knowledge for the
betterment of all. May a circle of Light push back the age of darkness and bring
healing to this broken earth.

In The Light of the Creator, We See Only Love.

Bob

I forgot to mention it in my previous email, but it is very important to
practice Tai Chi in the open air if at all possible. I know that
circumstances may not always permit this, but Tai Chi in the outdoors
somehow or other intensifies the energy. Fresh air is extremely
important: it has some unexplained but very real effect on Chi.

I think that fresh air and sunlight have a beneficial effect on Chi
whether you are practicing Tai Chi at the time or not. Even in this
fierce 102 degree Dallas heat, I spend about 6 hours a day outdoors.
What was it they said about mad dogs and Englishmen?  :o)

Here in Dallas, the insects are pretty fierce, and maybe in Omaha as
well, but they usually don't bother you much when you practice Tai Chi
or Qigong: they can probably sense that your life force is stronger and
don't mess with you.

Also, if there is a balance beam in a playground or schoolyard near you,
spend some time walking on it, or build your own. Building up your sense
of balance seems to be important in developing your Tai Chi practice, or
at least it seems so to me.

Happy communing with the Tao!

Bob