From Solstice to Sunday Morning

On Saturday night, I celebrated the Summer Solstice with with a good friend.  We danced around the fire, sang, laughed, and had a great time as we celebrated our Horned One in his highest power of the year.  I felt like a free, powerful, beautiful woman.  Then came Sunday morning…

My daughter had invited me to her church.  Now, I am a very open-minded person-I see value and beauty in all religions.  I have no quarrel with Christianity as a whole, it is just the bigotry among some of its believers that I dislike.  My daughter’s church could not be any more opposed to all of my core beliefs.  They are a United Pentecostal church, and the pastor is very strict.  Women in the church are expected to wear long skirts or dresses at all times (even while swimming, seriously), they are not supposed to cut their hair-at all, they are not supposed to wear makeup or jewelry, and they are told to submit to their husbands.  The women of the church are, from my experience, expected to stay home and raise children, and if they do go out into the world to work, it seems that most work in “typical” gender occupations, like teaching or nursing.

The church had a guest pastor on Sunday.  He was the fire and brimstone type of preacher, and if they wanted to make a convert out of me, they were going about it in all the wrong way.  The man gave me a headache and I tuned him out after a while.  Frankly, some of the things he said frightened me.  He spoke of how God could heal your life from addiction, depression, etc.  I fully recognize the mind/body connection, and believe spirituality is an important part of healing for most people.  However, what scared me is that he said “You don’t need more antidepressants, no more counselling, no more AA, Jesus has the power to heal you right now!”.  Now imagine a person with a severe addiction or mental illness is sitting in that audience.  I can only imagine the severely ill thinking it suddenly ok to stop their counselling and medication because they believe they are totally healed.

Toward the end of the service, they did sort of an altar call, and I then had to explain, as politely as I could to my twelve year old daughter that I do not share her beliefs.  It was an awkward and heart-wrenching situation.  She looked so disappointed, I know she probably feels that her mother is damned.  How do you explain to a child that you are not lost, that you are so very whole, beautiful and happy now, and it is not because of some church.  I got this way from inner strength, counselling, medication, and faith in a religion that believes in duality, not patriarchy.

Wtf is a Pagan? And What is With all the Queer Pagans?

I have noticed among the Pagan community, there are a large number of queer Pagans.  I started to reflect about why that is.  I have a variety of theories about this.

First of all, what is a Pagan?  The definition is kind of a hard one to pin down.  Pagan was once a derogatory word used to refer to country dwellers.    Paganism includes a broad range of traditions, and can include Wicca, Druidism, Shamanism, Voudun, Santeria, Asatru, and many other traditions and beliefs.

There are a lot of reasons I believe many LGBQT people turn to Paganism.  First of all, the mainstream Christian religion hasn’t exactly made the queer community feel welcome.  Historically, the Bible has been used as a means to persecute many groups.  The Bible has been used to persecute Jews, has been used to oppress black people, and now we see persecution of the LGBQT community.  While I see change from that, there is still a lot of hatred, and nobody wants to stay where they don’t feel welcome or like they don’t fit in.

Another thought is that there is a lot of room for the “grey area” within Paganism.  Since there is no central, patriarchal religious leaders, and no central power structure, practitioners are allowed to interpret things for themselves.

There are male and female deities within Paganism, depending on the tradition.  This shows that there is a need for both, and an appreciation for both sexes.  Without one, we would not have the other.  We would not be.  And with that comes the idea of the Yin and Yang.  There is a little bit of male and female within all of us.  To the degree that is expressed varies, and I believe that Paganism largely celebrates that.

Another, similar thought I had to this affect is the triple aspect of the Goddess.  She is maiden, mother, and crone, all at the same time.  The three phases of the moon represent this.  This triple aspect can apply to gender…bear with me a second here.  Look at the symbol.  One side we can have male, and another female.  In the middle is transgender, intersex, androgynous or gender queer people.  They are all connected, they are all a part of each other.  They are all what makes up this world.  Life cannot exist without the others; we all cannot exist without each other.