Worry

These are worrisome times. 

There are numerous worldwide issues causing anxiety. Wars in Europe and the Middle East. Concern about international conflicts spinning out of control. The effects of climate change. The renewed political power of bigotry and the threat of authoritarianism.

It’s not limited to just global concerns but also domestic. Low unemployment numbers mask the problem that many people need more than one job to make ends meet. The cost of rent is skyrocketing, while it’s more difficult to acquire a mortgage due to interest rates. Inflation has dropped, but the cost of key products, such as food, remains high. There’s a sense that crime has become dramatically worse. There’s also concern about the impact of advances in AI and robotics on jobs in the near term and existential dread in the future.

 

For some, anxiety rises to the point that it interferes with the quality of life. It may even lead to thoughts of self-harm or suicide. If this is true for you or someone you know, there is help. Consider talking with your primary physician. In the US, the National Suicide Hotline is 988. Also, some organizations may be able to help. I recommend the following source for hotlines.

However, for many, anxiety doesn’t rise to the point of the need for professional help. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t address it. There are a variety of steps one can take. Healthline.com has several recommendations: getting more physical activity, eating a balanced diet, minimizing phone use and screen time, and more. 

As a Dark Pagan, I recommend additional steps.

There are several schools of thought in Western philosophy that can help. Stoicism is a powerful tool for handling stress and anxiety. I highly recommend the book Stoicism For Inner Peace: Ancient Philosophy for Everyday Life by Einzelganger. I also find the school of Epicurus to be very helpful. Unfortunately, most of the stuff written about his views are rather academic. I recommend the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy website for a good summary. 

If Eastern philosophy is more your speed, I recommend Taoism. Taoism teaches us to live within the flow of life. It embodies its philosophy through practices such as Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and acupuncture. There are a lot of books and resources about Taoism. For the purpose of this topic, I recommend The Tao of Inner Peace by Diane Dreher.

Finally, there’s magick. This includes theurgy (or religious magic), such as prayers and offerings to gods, spirits, and ancestors. There’s also thaumaturgy, which includes spell casting, divination, and more.  

Self-love is one of the Nine Dark Pagan principles. Take care of yourself.

Hanging Together

I recently joined an organization that I’ve known of for a while. I’ve long been impressed by its charitable work and advocacy. In addition, I knew their fundamental tenets fit well with Dark Paganism:

I One should strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason. 

II The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.

III One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.

IV The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo one’s own.

V Beliefs should conform to one’s best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit one’s beliefs.

VI People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one’s best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused.

VII Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

You might be surprised to learn that some hate this organization despite its fundamental tenets. Some have gone so far as to try to firebomb their headquarters. Maybe it’s something to do with their name:

The Satanic Temple. 

I’m sure their name doesn’t help with their lack of popularity. It’s not called The Virtue Temple, so their agenda isn’t readily apparent. Plus, the word “Satan” conjures up an image of evil in the minds of many people, especially Christian Fundamentalists.

 

However, I suspect that the hatred The Satanic Temple (TST) faces has less to do with their name and more with the fact that they walk the walk when it comes to their stated values. Along with collecting goods for those in need, they actively work on hot-button issues such as reproductive rights, separation of church and state, and religious liberty. Not only do they actively live their values, but they’re also very vocal and have successfully defended them in the courts. 

In these times when our civil liberties are at risk, I decided I needed to step up and join TST in solidarity. To quote Benjamin Franklin, “We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”

Visit The Satanic Temple website for more information.

Rings

“There are many magic rings in the world, Bilbo Baggins, and none of them should be used lightly.” – Lord of the Rings.

I suspect most of my readers are familiar with the novels of J.R.R. Tolkien and the movie adaptations. For those unfamiliar with The Lord of the Rings series, it takes place in a fantasy realm called Middle Earth and involves a magic ring, called the One Ring, that grants invisibility. The One Ring was created by an evil being named Sauron, who, if reunited with the ring, would obtain the power to conquer all the land. To keep Sauron from obtaining the ring, the protagonists go on a quest to a far-off land to destroy the ring and head off Armageddon.

The Lord of the Rings series, a sequel to his children’s book The Hobbit, has been loved by generations of readers. The complex and rich world he created, the beauty of his writing, and the tales of adventure have captured the imagination of many. Tolkien drew upon his vast knowledge of myths and language to build his stories. Along with incorporating many mythical creatures, mostly from Norse mythology, it’s widely thought that he adopted several classic myths about magic rings. 

There are two classic stories involving magical rings that Tolkien likely drew upon. One was the Ring of Gyges, and the other was the Ring of Andvaranaut. 

The classic Greek story of the Ring of Gyges is in Plato’s book The Republic. In this story, a shepherd finds a ring on the corpse of a giant. Shortly after, he accidentally learns that he becomes invisible if he turns the ring one way. Using the power of invisibility, the shepherd successfully seduces the queen, murders the king, and gains the throne. 

The Ring of Andvaranaut was a Norse myth about a magical ring of the same name. To summarize this rather long myth, Andvaranaut gave the wearer the power to acquire vast amounts of gold. However, it was cursed, and everyone who wore it was murdered by those who craved the ring. (Fun fact: Andvaranaut also appears in the German epic poem Nibelungenlied. The Nibelungenlied inspired Wagner’s opera Der Ring des Nibelungen.)

In The Lord of the Rings, the magic ring is more than just another myth he incorporated into the story. Nor is it simply a MacGuffin (commonly an object in a story that motivates the characters. Think of the statue in The Maltese Falcon). The One Ring is a metaphor for the dangers that can come from the desire for power. 

It should be noted that the power of the One Ring isn’t just any power. According to the story, ‘into this Ring, he poured his cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate all life.’ What we find in the story is not a critique of all power but the desire, driven by hate, to have power over others. 

Would you be able to walk away from the power of the One Ring?

Missed Opportunities

“Missed opportunities were never superficial wounds; they cut straight to the bone.” - Jodi Picoult, American Writer.

The American football player Harrison Butker, with the Kansas City Chiefs, has recently been in the public eye for all the wrong reasons. For those who missed the news, back in May, Butker was invited to give the commencement speech at the Catholic university Benedictine College. During the speech, he spewed a message that was homophobic, transphobic, anti-Semitic, anti-choice, and anti-diversity. He capped it off by telling the female graduates that the most important titles they could have would be housemakers.

I won’t point out all the errors in Butker’s views, for they are legion (to use a Biblical allusion). Many others have done that already. Even the nuns of Mount St. Scholastica publicly criticized his statement about women’s roles.

I want to do something different. In this post, I want to focus on how he could have handled this speech better, regardless of his beliefs. 

American football has a history of remarkable personalities that he could have drawn upon. For example, there is a quote by the legendary coach Vince Lombardi, “Football is like life. It requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication, and respect for authority.” Being a successful football player, this quote would have been perfect. Butker could have built an entire inspirational speech around this without touching on religion. 

Some may push back, saying that, as a Christian, he was obligated to “preach the gospel.” However, according to his own Bible, “To everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). To put it in less poetic terms, there is a time and place for everything. That includes when and where to express what he knew would be divisive and controversial.

But let’s say he still insisted on inserting religion into his speech. He could have worked in that you should treat others as you want to be treated (Matthew 7:12) or the importance of being gracious (Colossians 4:6). Today, when there’s so much rudeness, anger, and strife, those passages seem appropriate. I don’t have to be a Christian to know that these are universal virtues that build up rather than tear down.

Unfortunately, Harrison Butker missed the opportunity to be remembered as one who builds up others.

Measuring Life

Recently, I saw the following meme posted on social media: 

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”

From what I understand, this quote, in its current form, came from the book Tahitian Choreographies by Vicki Corona, published in 1989. 

There’s a profound truth in this quote.

It’s through physical existence that we have a chance for experiences, both great and small. The feeling of heat from the sun on a warm summer day and the brisk chill of a winter morning. The joy of hearing the beautiful laughter of a small child and the shock of the bone-rattling sound of thunder from a spring storm. 

These, and so much more, are experiences that life offers us.

Embodiment in this world is an opportunity, not an endurance test.

Soft Polytheism

There are two competing views of the gods found in contemporary Paganism. According to one view, known as soft polytheism, the great multitude of gods and goddesses are avatars of two supreme deities, the Horned God and the Great Goddess. The alternative view, hard polytheism, is that each god or goddess is not an avatar but an individual with autonomy and agency. 

Personally, I’m a hard polytheist. While I think the gods are more complex than some fellow hard polytheists give them credit for, I believe that each god has personal autonomy and should be treated as individuals.  

That being said, soft polytheism isn’t as new as some of its critics claim. There is some historical basis for soft polytheism.

Photo of Isis statue Andrew Winning/ Reuters / Corbis

The ancient Roman novel titled Metamorphoses, also known as The Golden Ass is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety. Written by Apuleius between 158 C.E. and 180 C.E., the story revolves around a character named Lucius who has an intense curiosity about magic. In the novel, Lucius performs a spell to turn himself into a bird. However, it goes horribly wrong, and he accidentally turns himself into a donkey or ass. He then goes on a long journey throughout the classical world as a donkey. 

In the last chapter of the novel, Lucius encounters the Goddess Isis. This excerpt is lengthy, but it’s important. I’ve emphasized details pertinent to the subject at hand:

Behold, Lucius, here I am, moved by your prayer, I, mother of all Nature and mistress of the elements, first-born of the ages and greatest of powers divine, queen of the dead, and queen of the immortals, all gods and goddesses in a single form; who with a gesture commands heaven’s glittering summit, the wholesome ocean breezes, the underworld’s mournful silence; whose sole divinity is worshiped in differing forms, with varying rites, under many names, by all the world. There, at Pessinus, the Phrygians, first-born of men, call me Cybele, Mother of the Gods; in Attica, a people sprung from their own soil name me Cecropian Minerva; in sea-girt Cyprus I am Paphian Venus; Dictynna-Diana to the Cretan archers; Stygian Proserpine to the three-tongued Sicilians; at Eleusis, ancient Ceres; Juno to some, to others Bellona, Hecate, Rhamnusia; while the races of both Ethiopias, first to be lit at dawn by the risen Sun’s divine rays, and the Egyptians too, deep in arcane lore, worship me with my own rites, and call me by my true name, royal Isis.

If that excerpt sounds familiar, it should. Compare it to the first sentence of the Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valiente:

Listen to the words of the Great Mother, who was of old also called Artemis; Astarte; Diana; Melusine; Aphrodite; Cerridwen; Dana; Arianrhod; Isis; Bride; and by many other names.

Others have noticed the similarity between the two. According to historian Ronald Hutton, it’s likely that at least part of Charles Leland’s Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches drew on Metamorphoses. Hutton writes that while Valiente was fine-tuning the work of Gerald Gardner, who had incorporated the work of Charles Leland and Aleister Crowley, she kept the Leland source and wrote the more succinct Charge. The rest, as they say, is history.

With this, we can draw a connection between the 2nd-century beliefs of a specific Roman pagan cult and the Wiccan belief formulated in the mid-20th century, which many contemporary Pagans follow today.

Whether or not one agrees with the concept of soft polytheism, there should be no doubt about its ancient pagan roots.

The Self as Paradox

In an April 14, 2024 post, I wrote about how the Self is a contradiction. Meaning that the Self is both real and nothing. I want to address a related aspect of the Self in this post. 

The autonomy of the Self was significant to existentialists and absurdists such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus. As evidenced by my writings, the autonomy of the Self is an essential issue of Dark Paganism. Personal autonomy allows the individual to grow and achieve authenticity.

However, while the Self is autonomous, it’s dependent upon forces outside itself. The popular idiom, “No man is an island,” is very true. From the cradle to the grave, we depend on others for all aspects of who we are, including life itself.

Therefore, the Self is both autonomous yet dependent. It’s through autonomy that we reveal our true Selves. However, the very existence of the Self is dependent on others.  

The Self is a paradox.