I read the other week that witches are moody. This was a wonderful revelation to me because I've always been moody and always been known for it. After being so excited last week, I feel drained and irritable this week. The moon is waning, and in true witch fashion, I suppose, so is my energy.
I get so frustrated with christianity around the holidays. It's very pervasive, intrusive. I found some guy's article online today with a misleading title about why critics see "myth and legend" in christianity. He boldly proclaimed that yes, the critics are halfway right. But his argument had nothing to do with scientific or historical fact. All he was really concerned with was the split between the orthodox/catholic church and protestantism. In the end, the author called for christians to return to a focus on Jesus, which I couldn't agree with more only because if they're focusing on Jesus, they'd be much more caring and stop encouraging war. I noticed a bunch of other articles by this same author, one title probing the link between DNA and god, and another title saying to return easter to its "true meaning."
Whenever a christian uses the word "true" or "truth," I fly through the roof. Nobody has less information about anything than christians. They base their lives on a single text most of them haven't read, a re-re-translated book combining pagan legends with thinly veiled historical violence and tall tales. The same people who dismiss Greco-Roman mythology believe that one family (Noah's) can collect two of every animal on earth during a flood they somehow know, without today's technology, is flooding the entire world. And if you confront a christian with all these improbabilities, they don't come back at you with fact. They don't try to reason it out. They just get huffy and try to make you feel stupid for not believing it. Somehow everyone agrees that Paul Bunyon and the blue ox Babe weren't real, but many people believe the biblical Joshua could bring down a whole city by blowing a trumpet. As children, we're taught to enjoy a song about this event and celebrate Joshua's real-life slaughter of the men, women, and children of that city. Parents are worried about violent movies and video games? And what do they think singing "Amazing Grace" does to your self-esteem?
Let me follow this tangent for a second. There is a psychological condition in which an abuser will create situations in which they can become the hero. The real example I saw was of a grandmother harping on her grandson, always lauding his brother, until the poor boy was terribly upset. Then the grandmother embraced him and soothed him like she was an angel. Now examine "Amazing Grace" and the same tenant that I've seen in other hymns. You are coerced into "admitting" you are nothing more than a sinner, a "wretch," who would be "lost" if not for jehovah. They put you down to bring you up, and then people act like christianity has done wonders for their self-worth. According to the bible, pretty much nobody has any worth at all, especially according to many saints, who say that women are only female because of a weakness in one parent or the other. You're supposed to be on the earth but not of it, which means a rejection of everything on the physical plane, including your own body. If people feel self-worth through christianity, it's because they want you to feel good so you'll keep coming and supporting their cause.
Considering everything I've read in the past few weeks, I have to boil christianity's effectiveness down to one thing: the fear of death, the quest for immortality. They say animals don't fear death. They just live by instinct and then eventually die. But death is rarely presented to christians as a natural process. The uncertainty of it is always stressed along with the fear of that which is uncertain. But if you don't fear death, all the trappings of organized religion fall away. You don't need communion because it's a cannibalistic rite designed to pass immortality on to you from Jesus, who already achieved it. If you don't need communion, you don't need to fixate on Jesus because according to the bible, he only lived and died to ensure you the chance for eternal life which you now don't need. Not needing Jesus, you surely don't need jehovah because without Jesus' message of peace, jehovah is reduced to a jealous war-mongerer.
For a supreme being, jehovah is the most childish and immature of them all. No story that is supposed to exhibit his greatness or love is complete without violence. He let Moses go but only after hardening Pharaoh's heart. The only way for Moses to escape is through the drowning deaths of his pursuers. Jehovah created rainbows as a promise of kindness but only after killing all but 8 people and 2 of each animal. He decided to open up heaven to his most devoted worshipers but only after raping Mary, sending Gabriel to explain things to her, and having his son betrayed and publicly executed. And after 2000 years, there's still a debate about what became of those who had a hand in Jesus' death. Some say Judas was sainted and abides in heaven. Others insist Judas and the Romans were sentenced to hell.
Perhaps my biggest beef with christianity is this focus on everything except what's important. Christianity is way more worried about premarital sex and homosexuality than it is about genocide, poverty, world hunger, war, and everything else that hurts humanity. Here's a whole group of people who have nothing better to do than to focus everywhere but here. They're worried about pleasing jehovah way up there. They're worried about avoiding hell and getting to heaven. They're worried about virginity. They're worried about any ideas that Jesus had sex or had siblings. They're only worried about their beliefs, unquantifiable beliefs. They spend their lives worrying about what some being might think out there in the cosmos instead of reaching out and helping a living thing. They deny their own personhood to serve a plan they're told they can't understand even though somebody is always claiming to know what's going on. It boggles my mind that otherwise intelligent, clear-headed, down-to-earth people will hold on to these blatant lies.
My second biggest beef is probably the built-in hypocrisy of christianity. They generally assume that all christians are good and everybody else is bad, inferior, uninformed. Some of them get very excited about the end of the world. They congratulate themselves for "knowing" the apocalypse is coming and that they're safe. Isn't that pride, one of the seven deadly sins? Making fun of people for trying to stop war and save nature in the face of the second coming? Which, I might add, Jesus would be at the forefront of, peace. The hypocrisy continues in other ways, too, like the putting down of women while the feminine aspect of life is attached to jehovah and Jesus. There are biblical passages referring to the loving bosom of god. It's like the writers couldn't bear to part with women completely but still didn't feel like giving us any reverence, so they stuck breasts on their sky god, and why not? Men are perfectly capable of caring for, embracing, and raising children, but they still can't produce milk, the sustenance that vulnerable infants need to live. So if you're going to cut women out but still need a reference to nurturing the body, you have to attach this kind of imagery to the male deity.
Not only does jehovah become synonymous with violence, independence in women is likewise met with violence. Jezebel's only "crime" was carrying on her family's worship in the pagan tradition. Historically speaking, she was from a different area and culture than her husband, which was part of how the patriarchy took over, by following rules of intermarriage to get where and what they wanted. Other women in the bible are shown following the pagan traditions as well, even and especially weeping for Jesus' resurrecting predecessor Tammuz. For her disobedience, Jezebel is murdered by being pushed out her window, and no one in the bible or modern times seems upset by this. Meanwhile, all the women who were presented to me as role models had weaknesses I couldn't identify with. Ruth was very loyal to her mother-in-law, which is a good quality, but despite her hard life, she didn't seem to have any real strength. And although I admired the man she would later marry for sympathizing with her enough to leave extra wheat behind in the fields, I didn't think she needed to be treated like she was helpless on the basis of being a woman. Another figure I liked was Esther. She was one smart cookie and loved her uncle enough to persuade the king to save his life. On the other hand, she became queen when the king's former wife refused to parade around in front of his friends like a trophy. Esther was chosen for her beauty, not her brains. And of course every time she wants to approach the king to talk to him, she has to bow and ask his permission to take up his time. A catholic once presented me with Mother Mary when I complained I didn't have a role model in that religion. I have wrestled with Mother Mary because of who the church and bible turned her into. How in the name of Hel am I supposed to identify with a woman who gives birth without having sex? A woman who supposedly never consummated her marriage? A woman who was raped by a deity and didn't care? A woman who didn't die but rose into the heavens in corporeal form? A woman who is a symbol of antisexual motherhood, perfect trust, love, and no real life outside of her connection to Jesus? If you read books that contain actual fact, you'll learn that Mary's titles Stella Maris (Star of the Sea) and Queen of the Universe were stolen from the great mother goddesses of the area, notably Ishtar, Inanna, and Isis. These goddesses, like Mother Mary, were connected to the underworld through their sons or lovers in the same way Jesus spent the three days before his resurrection in hell. Their returns and the Greek Persephone's return, like that of Jesus, signals the beginning of spring. (Not very original, is it?)
I admire Mother Mary for her patience, strength, and mercy, but my admiration is detached from the biblical rendition. Not to mention, I was raised protestant, without Mary, and this little incident shows me first hand why the church maintains her, a single line of defense against the female need for self-identity. The other great independent women of the bible are Mary Magdalene and Lilith. Lilith isn't even mentioned for telling Adam the N word: No. They say she left and had children with someone else, children that are demons, which actually gives her the power of creation, and through sex! Mary Magdalene is put down by so many people, called a whore and greatly overlooked. But as the old word for virgins was twisted to mean someone who'd never had sex, the word for "holy woman" was mistranslated as "prostitute." The more I read, the more I can see how myth and cultural divides created the bible stories. Both Mary's--and this was an acceptable cultural thing--spent time as young women serving the Goddess in her temple, losing their virginities to men without strings attached. These women were actually doing men a great favor according to the belief of the time because sacred sex brought men a taste of the Goddess. This is how I believe Jesus was conceived, which is confirmed by the translation for Gabriel's name and explains why Joseph isn't upset by her pregnancy. It was also common for these children, whom we would call bastards, to be called something akin to children of the gods. Mary Magdalene is also important because Jesus loved her more than all the other disciples, and as a feminist catholic once asserted to her brother, following the resurrection, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene first, not his male disciples.
One thing that makes me sad as much as angry is how christianity treats other religions. Most try very hard to make it an either/or question. You're either christian or you're not religious. You get to choose, then, between agnostic and atheist. Only the christian holidays are wished well to you publicly. I've been wished a merry christmas on the Winter Solstice. If I would've gone out on Ostara, I probably would've been wished a happy easter. As it is, I know Josh and I both got bombarded this year about what our plans would be for easter and then afterward how our easter was and what we did. There doesn't seem to be a doubt in anyone's mind that we care about the holiday, that we celebrate it, or that we're christian. What's funny is the ever-present call to remember the reason for these holidays, to break away from commercialism. Not only is commercialism the only thing that kept christmas around--because the church fought the pagan symbolism--but the message doesn't make sense. Are they trying to make new converts of the people who just want the candy and gifts? Or are they trying to remind themselves not to be materialistic? Because these aren't my holidays, so I don't need to remember squat about them, and christianity is not the national religion. I strongly dislike the brush-off other religions get. Christians are so immature when we ask that we're all included under the heading Happy Holidays. I'm still angry that pagans were laughed at during the last christian event I wearily attended. People literally laughed that pagans would call themselves the sibling or offspring of the earth or stars or moon or sun. This goes back to my point about them not being down-to-earth. We feel such a great connection to nature and recognize our place in it. They're so focused on what might happen when they die that they're willing to condemn the planet and all future generations. That to me is ridiculous.
