Category: commentary

As Luck Would Have It …

After several days (and nights) working over the main pages of this site, catching up, I got around to adding a link to John Beckett’s blog, Under the Ancient Oaks, in the Reading Room. He always has something useful to me. I randomly picked an older post of his that I hadn’t read, and it went to the heart of my musings.

Shall I call it Divination via Beckett, a version of the old method of opening the Bible to a random page and taking to heart what you read there?

What is Seen Cannot Be Unseen was right on.

A sign I used to see with some regularity said “In God we trust – all others pay cash.” It was intended as a comment on the realities of cashflow in a small business, but in a completely different context it explains the worldview of mainstream Western society. That is, it’s nominally Christian but highly materialist.

Most people don’t think deeply about spiritual matters. They pay them lip service, particularly when they’re used to justify their preferred cultural and political positions. They pray when they’re in trouble, but not otherwise. The nature of the divine? What comes after death? Why we’re here? Nobody’s got time for that.

When it comes down to it, they really don’t believe in ghosts, or demons, or even Gods. When they experience something that points toward the existence and agency of spiritual persons, they look for “a rational explanation” (by which they mean one grounded in materialism) and if they can’t find one, they’ll make one up.

But sometimes, people experience something that defies a materialist explanation. They have an encounter with a God, or an other-than-divine spirit, or they see magic work in a way that can’t be denied.

All of a sudden they’re confronted with the fact that the world is a lot bigger and a lot stranger than they thought it was.

And we know what happens when most people are presented with evidence that their core beliefs and opinions are false. They deny the evidence and double down on what they’ve always assumed was true. They tell themselves it was a coincidence, a trick of the light, their imagination.

But deep down, they know what they saw, what they heard, what they experienced. They may not have the context to interpret it properly, but at some level they know it’s real.

And it scares the hell out of them.

John Beckett: “What is Seen Cannot be Unseen” 13 January 2022

Politely-Unasked Questions

What crazy kind of church is this, anyway?

Welcome, friend, and thank you for asking.  You have found our on-line door, which is always open to people of any faith, or none, or who wonder, as we do, what being a person of faith is.  The technical details are in the regular pages, of course, but this may be a new experience.

We are a bunch of people who share an urge to, in the words of an Elder, “Think cosmically; act neighborly“.  For most of us, this is the closest we come to organized religion.  We gather, physically or virtually, to do for ourselves what brick-and-mortar churches or temples or mosques do for their congregations and for their communities.

Cosmically, our underlying spiritual path is Pagan, owing no allegiance or submission to any particular texts or teachers.  Rather, we each bring to this community the fruits of our exploration, experience, and gathered wisdom, and we grow as we share.  We have a formal spiritual tradition that provides a default framework and liturgy for our rites, but we are also free to craft ritual from scratch or to adapt others’ rituals to the needs of our guests and the moment.

The BhaktiWiccan Tradition of Sacred Grove is a growing and living tradition, with deep roots in the past and branches growing into the future.

Locally, we have been recognized as one of the northern Virginia faith communities that serves needs outside our congregation, near and far, and participates actively with other congregations to support the wider community.

So who is running this outfit?

Hi, I’m RedBird.  I am the Community Faith Group Leader (CFGL) — to use the term derived from the military usage, Distinctive Faith Group Leader (DFGL), for persons authorized to work with the uniformed chaplain to meet the spiritual needs of personnel outside the religious mainstream.  I maintain this site and our Facebook page, handle the administrivia, and keep us in compliance with the requirements of Sacred Well Congregation.

I am a Dedicant of the Fellowship of the Sacred Grove, Priestess and Witch. I am also Ordained Minister and Cleric Priestess of Sacred Well Congregation. Locally I serve as hospital on-call chaplain and am part of the Fairfax County Community Chaplain Corps, mother of two, grandmother of one. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Earth Sciences from MIT and a Master of Divinity in Pagan Pastoral Counseling from Cherry Hill Seminary.

How many members are in your congregation?

Hm.  Good question.  We have not been keeping membership rolls of late, since our rituals are public.  People are fairly mobile these days, and we keep in touch through the web.  When we need to take more formal notice of affiliation, we handle that on an individual basis and recognize that each of us may be affiliated with other faith groups as well.

Donations

We get by. We are trying this way to receive contributions, which are tax deductible for 501(c)(3) religious organizations, as we are through Sacred Well Congregation.

Donate

Glittery Bootprints

Sometimes the Goddess whispers gently that we might want to reconsider where we invest our time and energy.  If we shy away from that, She comes back later — and louder.  Eventually, in Her garb as Our Lady of the Silver Boot, She plants a glittery bootprint upon our posteriors.

She changes everything She touches, and everything She touches changes — sooner or later.

Science proves God (MIT) by Gerald Schroeder, PhD

Published on August 2, 2014

 

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Gerald Schroeder is a scientist with over thirty years of experience in research and teaching. He earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees all at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with his doctorate thesis being under the supervision of physics professor Robley D. Evans. This was followed by five years on the staff of the MIT physics department prior to moving to Israel, where he joined the Weizmann Institute of Science and then the Volcani Research Institute, while also having a laboratory at The Hebrew University. His Doctorate is in two fields: Earth sciences and physics.

Schroeder’s formal theological training in biblical, talmudic and kabalistic interpretation includes fifteen years of study under the late Rabbi Herman Pollack, Rabbi Chaim Brovender and Rabbi Noah Weinberg, of blessed memory.

The scientific career that Schroeder chose has given him varied and often unusual experiences. In his work with nuclear disarmament, he has been present at the detonation of six atomic bombs. Work in control of radioactivity has put him hundreds of meters below ground in U.S. and foreign uranium mines. Within this research, he invented and had patented the first real time monitor for airborne alpha beta gamma emitters. The government of the People’s Republic of China, during the decade before it established direct contacts with Israel, was willing to overlook his Jerusalem address and had him as a frequent advisor. He also has consulted for agencies of the governments of Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, USA. Invitations for him to lecture have come from around the world. He has over 60 publications in the world’s leading scientific journals on topics ranging from the radon atmosphere of the moon (in Science) to the metabolism of mother’s milk (in Nutrition Reports International). The results of Schroeder’s work have been reported in Time, Newsweek, Scientific American and in newspapers as far apart as Boston and Adelaide. His formal training in chemistry, physics and the Earth and planetary sciences provides the basis for the broad scientific perspective he brings to his books and lectures.

For the past twenty-five years, Dr. Schroeder has also pursued a study of ancient biblical interpretation. An ability to handle the biblical material in the original languages allows him to tap the subtle depths contained in the original texts. These nuances are often missed when working with translations. The uniqueness and success of Schroeder’s approach integrating biblical and scientific knowledge is demonstrated by the success of his first book, Genesis and the Big Bang (published by Bantam Doubleday), and the wide acclaim for his second book The Science of God (published by The Free Press of Simon & Schuster and Broadway Books of Bantam Doubleday) which was on the Barnes & Noble list of non-fiction best sellers and was Amazon.com’s best selling book in the field of physics/cosmology for all of 1998. This was followed by The Hidden Face of God, discovering the unity that binds all existence (published by The Free Press of Simon & Schuster). His book, God According to God, A scientist proves we’ve been wrong about God all along, was published in May 2009 with HarperOne and has enthusiastic endorsements by leading theologians, both Jewish and Christian, and a Noble Laureate scientist.

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Website: http://SinaiSpeak.com
http://geraldschroeder.com
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New theme and new content in Book of Shadows

Just in time for the [insert winter solstice holiday of your choice here], I converted to a new theme that should be easier for me to handle and invested in some customizing capability, relocated the home page to the Sacred Grove SWC domain name (which I have renewed for at least 2 years), restructured the menus a bit, and started filling in the Book of Shadows.

Our liturgy was initially developed by Wilddragon about 20 years ago, and it has served us well ever since.  For a course in liturgy and ritual design at Cherry Hill Seminary I tweaked it a bit and fleshed out some rituals and the Wheel of the Year.  The Wheel of the Year is in place, most parts under construction, but examples of the form are there.  More to come.

Please comment (I haven’t seen how that is working yet) or email me at webweaver@sacredgroveswc.org when you’ve had a chance to look it over.

Blessed be.

RedBird

A caution against Pagan fundamentalism

Aed Dubh comments oHughn the Therioshamanism blog for January 16, 2013

A caution against Pagan fundamentalism

It’s worth pointing out that the author gets misunderstood by some commenters- as far as I can tell, Lupa is not saying that polytheists are more likely than other Pagans to be fundamentalist, just that the polytheism discussion brings the concept up…

Non-denominational Natural Burial site in Virginia — by Aed Dubh

Hugh— by Aed Dubh

So, I get my spouse a Monastery fruitcake every year for Yule (she is one of Those Who Love Fruitcake…).  I must have ended up on Holy Cross Abbey’s mailing list, because I just got an email about their natural cemetery:

https://www.virginiatrappists.org/cemetery/

Pricing looks reasonable, their policies are environmentally-friendly, and you do not need to be Catholic or even Christian:  “There is not a religious affiliation requirement at Cool Spring, but elements of your specific religious tradition may be incorporated into your burial service.”