songs from a Pagan heart

A dear friend and temple sister suggested, last month, that a few of us get together and create a Pagan women's choir. Always the chantress, I eagerly agreed to participate. Five of us have come together, and thus far gathered twice to rehearse; our next meeting is this evening. We're planning our first performance to be at a peace-centric event on World Peace Day in November.

At our first meeting, we chose a lovely piece found on Shawna Carol's Goddess Chant CD, "Blessed Be." The sound of our voices, united at first, but then bringing in lovely harmonies, filled my heart. In my mind, sacred music has always been important, whether it was the Christian hymns of my youth, joining voices in kirtan, chanting while my good friends drum, or hearing voices lifted in familiar Pagan song.

Music can be an escape from the every day mundane, or it can lift us toward the Divine. As the music flows, and the mind wraps around the lyrics, all other thoughts are pushed aside... music brings us fully present - completely focused. Seems to me there should be more music in ritual, and I envision, someday, a complete rite in song.

I love having a song in my heart.

so much for diversity...

Many of my Pagan friends consider themselves "recovering ex-Catholics," those who were raised in the faith but walked away from it for one reason or another. From my point of view, Catholicism never came into play -- I was raised attending the (Greek) Orthodox and Methodist (what a combo!) churchs, favoring the Orthodox church for the incredible ritual that was mass. I enjoyed ritual from a very young age!

Earlier this week I wrote about religious diversity and how important it is to overcome differences and speak from our heart, where our true spirituality and commonalities reside. It seems a sensible thing to me as we are far more alike, you and I, than we are different.

Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI endorsed a Catholic church document which states that Orthodox churches are "damaged" and that other Christian denominations are not "true churches." In addition, earlier this week he instituted a return to the Latin mass. Shades of the dark ages... Pope Benedict says the non-Catholic churches are ecclesial communities rather than true churces and, thus, do not offer "true" salvation. The key to being a true church? The ability to trace apostolic succession as the Catholic church can; the ability to trace their bishops back to the original apostles. The Orthodox churches do have apostolic succession but the "damage" is their refusal to recognize the leadership of the Pope.

Frankly, I'd love to see the documentation on apostolic succession which the church must have in order to make this broad claim. Perhaps it is hidden deep within the Vatican's archives. However, it is my feeling that the Bible is mythology and that, rather than the word of God, it is the word of those architects who wanted to create a new religion and place of power over others, thus the one "true" church, the Catholic church.

While there are people in leadership positions like the Pope, and those others who claim they are speaking the word of their God, can we really find a place where we will be accepting of religious diversity? Although there may be voices within various religious institutions which echo mine, I don't expect it to happen in my life time. Religious leaders have too much power, particularly over those who blindly follow their words as true gospel.

We need more independent thinkers -- maybe another Martin Luther with a more neutral sensibility.

religious diversity

The Rev. Stephen V. Sundborg wrote a wonderful guest column in the Seattle Times last week on religious diversity, putting into published words many of the thoughts I've had and expressed to others over the course of the last ten or so years, as my own spiritual practice has become more central to my life.

Sundborg states that, while there are many causes for war, they are ignited by differences in our religious beliefs. The fundamentalist can wear a multitude of different spiritual hats, with their one way the "right" way. This head-blindness, the refusal to accept other spiritual paths as viable, can fuel an inferno.

My heart-of-hearts is filled with love. For the beauty of the natural world around me, for those whom I count among family and friends and for all those fellow human beings whom I have yet to meet. I simply cannot presume I will dislike a person based upon their spiritual path. As a Pagan, it might seem I should be naturally inclined to disfavor those who follow the predominant religious path in this country, Christianity. That's not the case -- indeed, I have met many wonderful Christian folks whose hearts are as full of love as mine.

Sundborg believes, and I agree, that all religions command their followers to engage with their fellow human beings, to love and appreciate them, to work with them no matter what spiritual path they follow. Somewhere along the way, though, we've lost that ability to speak peacefully and rationally with our spiritual voice -- too often the voices are raised in an effort to convince the other that our way is the right way.

The best phrase in Sundborg's comment, from my perspective, is "I define "spirituality" with five words: one's lived relationship to Mystery." Isn't this the reason for all religions? Religions try to answer those eternal questions to which we have no solid answers, those mysteries -- why am I here, is this all there is, is there more to life? Don't we touch mystery when we witness a birth, when we find true love, when we behold a scene of incomparable beauty? Those things tell us there is more to life than our day-to-day mundane existance. Our spiritual beliefs seek to help us define and comprehend these mysteries.

Thanks Rev. Sundborg. I agree, it's time to dialog from our heart-of-hearts. It's time to open our hearts to the hearts of others, and to hear their voices with love and deep understanding.

on the separation of church and state

In 1802 Thomas Jefferson wrote, in a letter to the Danbury Baptists, of the First Amendment creating a "wall of separation" between the church and state. Jefferson's simple, but well-penned thoughts on the First Amendment are thus a key to what many of us aver are our legal right.

The two pertinent clauses of the First Amendment are the establishment clause,"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." and the free exercise clause, which declares that religious practices not be restricted by the government.

James Madison, one of the principals involved in the creation of the Bill of Rights, wrote "strongly guarded is the separation between religion and the government in the Constitution of the United States."

The young Supreme Court first quoted Jefferson's words in 1878 in the Reynolds case and then in a series of decisions beginning in 1947 and ending in the 1970s. Since then, the Supreme Court has backed away from using the phrase "separation of church and state" suggesting it conveys hostility in opposition to Jefferson's original meaning. Critics of the concept echo this and other similar thoughts. Many of them claim the United States was formed as a Christian nation.

Today, supporters of fundamentalist Christian doctrine are the most vocal detractors of this wall of separation. Leaders of the Religious Right seek to control our leaders, if not our government, offering what they claim to be "a mainstream vision for America." For followers of other faiths, and even some more mainstream Christians, this effort is frightening; many of us envision a turning away from the Constitutional Republic toward a more theocratic form of government. Leaders such as Focus on the Family's James Dobson claim our nation has turned its back on faith, and that this will bring about the downfall of our country. Dobson avers that unless we, as a nation, embrace his narrow view of faith, we will be unable to save ourselves from destruction. Evangelist D. James Kennedy declared, at a 1999 Fort Lauderdale, Florida gathering entitled Reclaiming America for Christ, "Not only are the culture wars not over, and not only have we not lost, but the fact is we are winning."

Dobson, Kennedy and other leaders and members of the Religious Right seek to exclude the freedom to practice a religion of our own choosing. In fact, 32 percent of like-minded respondents to a recent Barna Group poll say they favor a Constitutional amendment making Christianity the official religion of the United States. While the Barna Group's mission is to partner with Christian ministries and individuals in an effort to effect moral and spiritual transformation in the United States, and, thus, sampling numbers are suspect and likely lean toward a positive response to such a query, this implication is of concern.

How would such a vision impact the small but steadily-growing numbers of Pagan spiritual practitioners in the United States? Might we be forced to hide the practices which many of us have so very recently, and tentatively, brought out into the open? Worse yet, could it involve persecution? Even in these supposedly "secularist" times, there have been cases in which neo-Pagans have been persecuted; fired from jobs, turned away from offering prayers at town hall meetings, and most recently, attacks on the Democratic County Chairperson in Kennebec County, Maine, a Pagan woman.

We've seen what happens in theocratic countries... People of other faiths and, indeed, people of different sects within the same faith fight for control, demanding their narrow interpretation of religion guide the country, killing their fellow countrymen whose interpretation of the same religion differs from their own.

The symbol most commonly used by neo-Pagans, the pentacle, implies for many the practice of Satanism -- things demonic and evil. No matter how often neo-Pagan practitioners proclaim they do not worship Satan those indoctrinated to fundamentalist beliefs declare this to be untrue. Detractors seek to induce fear in those who will accept their words at face value.

Recently, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State represented a group of Wiccans seeking to have the pentacle included as an allowable religious symbol on the headstones of American veterans. After a long struggle, more than ten years in the making, the Veteran's Administration agreed (due to the presentation of incontrovertible proof of discriminatory actions) to recognize the pentacle as an emblem of belief. An editorial published shortly after the decision in the Madison "The Capital Times" said, "No matter what religion any of us chooses to practice, or not to practice, we should all recognize that America was founded in struggle against state-sanctioned definitions of which faiths were acceptable and which were not."

At this time, much as our forefathers did, it is important all Americans support the separation of church and state, keeping religious freedom safe for generations to come. As we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it's the patriotic thing to do!