Modo Speaks for Me

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

As I said to a friend just yesterday, if I don't seem angry about the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, it's only because when I'm angry and disgusted, my tendency is to be flip. In that I must doff my hat to the queen of flippantry Maureen Dowd. Yesterday's column is right on target.

It doesn’t seem right that the Catholic Church is spending Holy Week practicing the unholy art of spin.

Complete with crown-of-thorns imagery, the church has started an Easter public relations blitz defending a pope who went along with the perverse culture of protecting molesters and the church’s reputation rather than abused — and sometimes disabled and disadvantaged — children.

The church gave up its credibility for Lent. Holy Thursday and Good Friday are now becoming Cover-Up Thursday and Blame-Others Friday.

. . .


If church fund-raising and contributions dry up, Benedict’s P.R. handlers may yet have to stage a photo-op where he steps out of the priest’s side of the confessional and enters the side where the rest of his fallible flock goes.

Or maybe 30-second spots defending the pope with Benedict’s voice intoning at the end: “I am infallible, and I approve this message.”

Wesley Crusher's Dark Night of the Soul

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

I just watched, for the umpteenth time, Star Trek Next Generation's "Journey's End." Despite some rather sappy, idealized attempts to depict Native American culture, it's a good episode. One of the things that strikes me, not for the first time, is its depiction of Wesley Crusher's spiritual growing pains. From the Wiki:

Meanwhile, Wesley has returned from Starfleet Academy for a vacation. He's out-of-character though, snappish and depressed and he appears even slightly ill, which really worries Dr. Crusher. He is rude to La Forge in the engine room. Dr. Crusher tries to talk to her son, but initially gets nowhere.

On the planet, Wesley comes in contact with Lakanta, an Indian holy man of sorts. He guides Wesley on a journey of self-discovery, in which he talks to his long-dead father, who tells Wesley that he is destined to go down a path different from his own.

Easter is Coming

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Hippity, hoppity – Easter is really on its way. This Saturday, I took my son to the park for the town egg hunt. This year, it gave me a slightly bittersweet feeling to see just how big he has grown. He’s not the cute little boy wearing an Easter basket upside down on his head anymore. This year, he was one of the nonchalant big kids on the sidelines, feeling a bit too old to be chasing down plastic eggs stuffed with candy. A sadder thought than my son being too old for egg hunts and trick-or-treating is thinking about the loss of candy. This year, his big sister and I clued him in on why we make sure he gets to hunt those eggs – we raid his candy. Granted, we could go to the store and buy candy, but does it taste the same? No. It’s a good thing he’s not too fond of sweets and is nice about sharing.

Easter and Halloween are the two holidays that bring out the pagan and the hedonist in me. Here in the country where we live, the baby cows and sheep are frolicking now, the grass is greening, the daffodils and crocuses are blooming, and the birds are singing and nesting. It seems natural to give thanks to the goddess for all the vibrant life and to indulge in the delights of the senses. When I worked as a cake decorator, I especially loved the colors we used at Easter, like lavender, yellow, light green, and pink. It’s almost impossible to be anything but cheerful when you look at those colors.

Pope's Homily Finds its Mark

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

While I was sickened by the self-serving rhetoric used by his Holiness on Palm Sunday, his remarks seem to have hit home with Archbishop Timothy Dolan. It's the Pope who's the victim to pitied and protected. In fact, he's now a martyr to the cause of harboring pedophiles... just like Jesus!

In remarks following Palm Sunday Mass, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York urged Catholics “to express our love and solidarity” for Pope Benedict, who, given the recent media onslaught over sex abuse allegations, is “now suffering some of the same unjust accusations, shouts of the mob, and scourging at the pillar, as did Jesus.”

. . .

“No one has been more vigorous in cleansing the Church of the effects of this sickening sin than the man we now call Pope Benedict XVI,” Archbishop Dolan stressed. “The dramatic progress that the Catholic Church in the United States has made – documented again just last week by the report made by independent forensic auditors – could never have happened without the insistence and support of the very man now being daily crowned with thorns by groundless innuendo.”

Cafe

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Becoming a Person of Power

A person of power is effective, joyful, and creative in life, regardless of the circumstances, while enjoying radiant health and well-being. Anyone can become a person of power in any sphere of life. It is a matter of choice and awareness, plus discipline and imagination. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, as she explores the strange disconnect between the mystery schools and mystical traditions of the past and our contemporary desire to change our lives without changing. "Humans are uniquely designed to innovate and create, but mostly we create messes because we are unconscious of the demands of being an energy being in an energy body," says Pratt. "It's not enough to just live well. We must learn to take life as a Teacher and surrender to the transformations ahead" This week she shares the essential steps for engaging ancient practices of energy and spirit connection to empower you to become that person you glimpse in your dreams and long for with your heart and soul.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at 2PM Pacific

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Full Moon in Libra

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Today, a gentle spring rain is falling, I have head cold symptoms and the temptation to not write about the full moon is quite strong for me. It may have something to do with the fact that my natal moon in Aries is being tweaked by the transiting lunar opposition. Also, I have the sign of Libra intercepted in my natal chart and no other planets in the sign of Libra. When we have an intercepted sign in our chart, it can be difficult for us to get what that sign is about, especially if we have no planets in the sign. When there is absolutely no energy signature at all, we come to understand the intercepted sign through deliberate study or by getting to know someone who has personal planets in our intercepted sign. An intercepted sign can be thought of as an energetic blind spot. We can’t see it, and we can’t see that we can’t see it until someone shows it to us. After we are shown, we become aware, but all our knowledge of the intercepted sign remains on the intellectual level.

The key theme for this lunation is relationship. With Sun, Venus, Mercury in Aries opposing moon in Libra and Saturn retrograde in Libra, what comes to mind for me is thwarted desires, petty and illogical arguments over who is right or wrong or who gets what. Relationship behaviors and patterns will come to light now. Things we may not have been able to see about ourselves or someone else will suddenly be glaringly obvious. It may be time to reevaluate agreements. Unfortunately, until Saturn goes direct in June, I suspect no compromise will be agreeable to both sides.

Watching Creation

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

On Zak's recommendation I took a look at Andrew Sullivan's recent blog entries on the Vatican scandal. But I got distracted by this magnificent video depicting how sacred geometry expresses itself through nature. It's an elegant depiction of the Fibonacci sequence and the golden mean. Really lovely.

Pope Starts Off Holy Week on Wrong Foot

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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Pope Benedict did not directly address the escalating abuse scandal in his Palm Sunday homily. But his oblique reference could not have been more offensive or inappropriate.

Jesus Christ, Benedict said in his homily, guides the faithful "toward the courage that doesn't let us be intimidated by the chatting of dominant opinions, towards patience that supports others."

I have little doubt his Holiness is feeling besieged from all sides but make no mistake. It's the clergy that's under the gun; not the laity. So it can only be the clergy he exhorts not to be "intimidated;" not the people. Once again, it's very clear where his sympathies lie. With church officials, including pedophile priests who have been sheltered and protected for decades. Not with the children, nor with the adult survivors of child abuse. Not with Catholic parishioners whose faith is being rattled daily by new revelations.

Is Sex Abuse a Christian Value?

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

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I've been watching, with growing horror, the unfolding drama in the Catholic Church. The ongoing scandal over child abuse by clergy and attempts to conceal these crimes has again erupted dramatically into daily headlines. The furor now threatens to engulf even the Pope who has been personally implicated. This issue has plagued the church for years now. But the whole mess seems to be reaching a kind of critical mass.

While the Catholic Church is not alone in harboring abusers, the sheer numbers are disproportionate. New York Times contributor Peter Schneider is not the first to suggest that the church's celibacy rules provide cover to sexual deviants.

I would go further and suggest that an institution that lays claim to the moral high ground is inclined to bury its improprieties which causes them to fester. Many organized religions have been guilty of extending their benevolence more to offenders than to their victims in an attempt to hide their toxic secrets and maintain their positions of social leadership. Stealing attention from the Catholic Church's problems, allegations recently came to light of similar incidents within the Boy Scouts of America under the patronage of the Church of Latter Day Saints (aka the Mormons). The Catholic and Mormon churches are two of the most vociferous arbiters of morality. Both invested heavily in promoting the passage of Proposition 8 which rescinded the law allowing gay marriage in California. Both are sponsors of Boy Scouts of America and have campaigned against allowing gays and atheists to participate. The Mormons threatened to pull their memberships if the Scouts changed their rules, which would have devastated the bottom line for the organization.

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"Why Shamanism Now?" with Christina Pratt

Your Shadow Self and the Divine

Your Shadow Self is an important aspect of who you are. Engage it well and it will show you your greatest assets and deepest passions. However, if left unexplored the Shadow Self can generate physical, mental and emotional unwellness, leaving life flat, disappointing, and depressing. Join host and shaman, Christina Pratt, this week as she explores shamanic ways to engage your Shadow Self effectively. Shadow work is messy and it defies all logic-logic, emotional, mental, and physical logic. Anything goes in the Shadow realms, which frightens and challenges the order loving beings that we are. However, by engaging our direct relationship with spirit through shamanic skills we can learn to follow the crazy logic of the Shadow realm. We can meet the juicy, but frustrated parts of our self we have stuff in the Shadow Closet and negotiate their return. In this way we reengage with our passion, sensuality, creativity, sexuality, sense of humor, and overall joy for life.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 2PM Pacific

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William Henry on the Barque of Millions of Years

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.

This ten minute snippet of a William Henry lecture is surprisingly dense. In it he explores his theory of the correlation between the ancient Egyptian Barque of Millions of Years and the modern depiction of a wormhole. There are more images and some explanation of this theory on his blog here. This theory makes perfect sense to me. Like so much of Henry's work, speaks to images I've been seeing in dreams, meditation, and journeys, for years.

What struck me in particular about this presentation of the theory was the Barque image he chose; the Mesektet, or night, barque used by Ra.