Saturday, December 31, 2005

From Sai Baba, on my birthday

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As written at PRASANTHI NILAYAM Today






30th December 2005


Our devotion and prayer to God should not be for the sole purpose of obtaining something or fulfilling some desire of ours. It should be for the sake of securing the bliss of being close to the Lord and becoming one with Him. Do not ask for this or that from Him in return for prayers you offer or the sacrifices you make. Do not calculate returns or plan for the consequences. Act, because you have to and since it is your duty. Dedicate the deed as well as its consequences to Him. That is real devotion.

- BABA



namaste.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Seasonal Greetings

posted also on my MySpace Blog




Sad Songs



A friend on myspace sent out a list " songs that make you cry", and ironically she had listed the first song that comes to mind for me: Perdename, by my beloved Del Castillo.



DC is one of many unsigned bands I am into, but by far the most important to me. I have been a fan from the first time I heard those amazing flying fingers of the DC brothers. They are both world class guitars and absolutely astounding to listen to and watch. The other guys are just as important; Del Castillo would not be what it is without any of them- they are a family - but the first impression most people have is of those astounding guitars.



Perdename means forgive me. This particular song is about remembering to forgive one's self; it is in the spiritual way to learn forgiveness, but mush of the time we forget that we too are deserving of our own forgiveness. We make mistakes, we hurt others and many times without meaning to. To hold a grudge aganst one's self for being as human as any other limits one, keeps the possiblity of growth down.



Whatever your faith, in this holiday season that has lost so much of its meaning to crass commercialism, I wish you the little step inside yourselves that might open the door. I hope you can forgive yourself- and be free.



namaste

Thursday, December 08, 2005

A Positive Side To Witchcraft

I am a witch. To be more politically correct I am Wicce. (See an early entry on this blog about proper use of the word/ words.)

I have been a part of a pagan group at a website called MySpace.com for a couple of months now. It is a generalized site, not specifically Wicce, but I hav efoubd a lot of like minds there. The onesI relate to are intelligent, witty, and light-hearted. Some of the ones I have had some difficulty with, on a purely personal level, are into what they are into for perhaps, at least at the moment, the wrong reasons. Either way, I had noticed a tendancy to forget the positive side of what I have been a partof for well over 30 years of my life. I wrote a piece about it, tried to publish it as a thread (Internet term for a new subject) on the group discussion board, and had a terrible fuss with the whole thing.
As a result, my work never did make it to the board, though I did manage to save it as an
entry into my blog area there. I think enough of what I had to say, I have decided to publish it here.
I am not looking fo affirmation, debate or condemnation. I am simply making a statement. I hope it gets through.



A Positive Side To Witchcraft
I think one of the things I have come to dislike lately is all the doom-n-gloom aspects of the Wicca faith that have been put up here. Even this bit about "dark" poetry, and evil spirits, etc., ad nauseum. i got into this because it offered me a light, a hope where nothing else ever did. It told me that TRUTH was more important that ritual - that enlightenment was for everyone, not just the priests. It reaffirmed to me that though I saw and spoke with spirits at an early age, no, I was not possessed, save with a greater openness than most around me.

There is nothing wrong with being happy in this world. It doesn't mean you are blindly conforming to society's rules. As a matter of fact, most of the ones who do conform are absolutely fucking miserable, because what mass media says should make us feel better (buy-buy-buy! more-more-more!) doesn't fill the hole. They walk around, pockets full of expensive electronics, hair done just so, the "right" clothes and shoes, and they are dead inside. These stadium sized "churches", where they PAY to go worship, can't be helping things a wit. At most, a short term bandaid for too big a wound. I am sorry for them, and afraid of what it teaches them too.

Strangly enough, being truly happy is living outside of society's box. It means the "They" cannot control you. And it comes from inside yourself, not from something external. That's what Wicca is about for me: taking back control of my life, and my innate happiness.


How about you?