My Own Personal Jesus ~ The EPIC Easter Post

"I'm no missionary; I don't even believe in Jebus." "Save me, Jebus!"

~Homer Simpson, "Missionary: Impossible" (Simpsons, season 11)


"There's only three men I'm'a serve my whole life
It's my daddy and Nebraska and Jesus Christ"

~Lady Gaga, "You & I"

Happy Easter! It's also Pesach (Passover); tonight will be the second seder night.

Some may think that because my blog is called Pagan Spirits, I must not celebrate Easter or believe in Jesus, but this is not the case. I was raised Catholic, you know. Now when I want to go to church, I go to Episcopalian services, because I kind of fell in love with the Church of England's American sister. Just 'cause I'm a witch doesn't mean I don't love Jesus.

No, really, you can do that - ask Joan Borysenko. She wrote a fabulous, amazing book called A Woman's Journey to God.



On pages 218-226 of this book, Borysenko writes the passage that gave me a new appreciation of Yeshua bar Yahosef (Jesus, son of Joseph, in Hebrew) as the mythological archetype of the Annually Dying and Returning Vegetation God, like Tammuz, Osiris or Dionysus. Based on the work of Margaret Starbird, the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail (the same book on which The Da Vinci Code is partially based) and her own imagination, Borysenko created "Jesus and Mary: Partners in the Hieros Gamos."



Heiros gamos, as readers of The Da Vinci Code know, is Greek for "sacred marriage," a sexual rite in which the woman represents the Goddess and the man represents a male God. Borysenko envisions Mary of Magdala (Magdala being Hebrew for "watchtower") as a zonah, a word that means both prophetess and "prostitute." Not "prostitute" literally in the sense that they took money, but they had sex with the various worshipers who came to the temple. In modern Hebrew usage, "zonah" also means Jewish woman who has sex with non-Jewish men.

Mary Magdalene was a priestess of the Mother Goddess. In Borysenko's telling, Jesus comes to the temple of the Goddess, called Esther. Esther is a form of the goddess-name Asherah, or Ishtar. When the young priestess Mary reached a mature age, she and Jesus made the sacred marriage. It's a beautiful story.

Jesus is the archetypal solstice-born male god who becomes the consort of the Goddess, delights her with lovemaking, dies and goes to the Underworld and then is reborn to start the whole process anew.

In The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, Barbara G. Walker links Esther/Asherah/Ishtar with other Near Eastern goddesses, including Egyptian Isis (called Star of the Sea, a title also applied to Mary the mother of Jesus - Key West has a Catholic church called Mary Star of the Sea), Indian Kali and Astarte. Astarte was called Queen of Heaven, where she kept the souls of the dead in the form of the stars. She is recalled in the Bible in Jeremiah 44:19:

"And," said the women, "when we were burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and were pouring out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?"

A beautiful image of Astarte by the artist Amanda Clark can be found here at Love of the Goddess blog.

"Esther" is the Hebrew word for "star," and Walker contends the Biblical Esther celebrated at Purim is a version of Ishtar; Mordecai is Ishtar's consort Marduk. In this version of the myth, rather than Marduk/Mordecai being personally sacrified, a proxy is accepted in his place - Haman.

The virgin form of the mother goddess is Mari, and it is no coincidence that the mother of Jesus and the bride of Jesus have the same name. In the ancient Near Eastern legend, the Goddess is both mother and lover, the young God both son and lover in a never-ending yearly cycle of sacrifice and rebirth. It's an extended metaphor for the yearly cycle of the seasons and the crops, so try not to be too freaked out by the incestuous implications. The son is the grain-seed that has to be buried in the earth (his mother) and "die" so he can sprout/be reborn and we can eat.



For an alternate literary version of the son-lover's sacrifice, see "The Sacrifice" in The Virago Book of Erotic Myths and Legends by Shahrukh Husain.



I said in a previous Easter post that the name of Ostara, a Germanic goddess said to be the origin of the name "Easter," may not be historically accurate. This is still true, although I will point out that Walker traces "Ostara" to "Astarte."

In a movie by A Douchebag Who Shall Not Be Named During Passover, this is Jesus.

http://pinterest.com/pin/46936021088155415/

This gorgeous Italian-American is Jim Caviezel, and he's who I'm imagining when I'm envisioning the sacred marriage of Jesus and Mary. (We won't get into the whole issue of why Hollywood likes Jews to be played by Italians; that's a rant for another day.) Your image of Jesus may vary.

It could be Christian Bale in Mary, Mother of Jesus. But it could be.

It probably won't be this.



Related songs in a Jesus groove:

"Personal Jesus," the Depeche Mode original

"Rock Me Sexy Jesus" from Hamlet 2

"Like a Prayer" - Madonna

"Jesus Walks" - Kanye West

"Crucified" - Army of Lovers

"Crucified" - cover by German Goth-rock band Atargatis - appropriately, named for the Syrian mother-goddess, the mother/lover of Mithras according to Husain

"Judas" - Lady Gaga as an Italian-American Mary Magdalene - wouldn't she go great with Jim Caviezel as Jesus?

Preview of 'The Dark is Light Enough for Me' by John Claude Smith

Good Friday, all. I say that as in "Have a good Friday," but on some of the Christian calendars, today is Good Friday, the commemoration of the death of Jesus. Today represents the ancient tradition, largely observed by women, of mourning the death of the Annually Dying and Returning Vegetation God. 


This will make tomorrow Holy Saturday, or to people of Polish descent, Święconka. I've been pronouncing it "Swiss Sanka," but that may not be very authentic. The Sweiconka tradition is to make Easter baskets filled with the food that will be eaten on Easter Sunday, take them to the Catholic church and have them blessed by the priest. 


I am excited for my upcoming Epic Easter Post - can you tell? 

Now, please enjoy the work of John Claude Smith in these two excerpts from his The Dark is Light Enough for Me. 


John Claude says: The first sample is from, “Not Breathing,” a kind of Burroughsesque romp through the horror of addiction...with Horror being as much a part of what’s transpired as addiction. Hmmm... The second piece is from, “The Sunglasses Girl,” a hint of things to come as she, a woman who seems simply a prostitute, though we learn so much more about what she really is, shows the main character, Trane, a little of something he shouldn’t be prying into seeing, hehe...

Excerpt 1: 

“The sheets are devoid of anything but stale smells and my quaking body and the needle that still protrudes from my scarred arm.
 
I force myself from their tangled grasp, slouch into the bathroom. The mirror is broken but I can still see my reflection—our reflection—skin draped sickly over a hunched skeleton splashed in the middle like a shattered ripple across a restless lake; restless because I convulse in disgust, scratching scabs off of bruised arms. 

Off of dead arms, the bruises indicative of decay, of death.

I move closer, staring into the void that is my pupils, my eyes; eyes I used to know so well. 
The mirror disavows my presence. The fog of breath is absent. 

I hit the mirror with my bony fist; it is not the first time. My reflection splints even more, pieces raining to the sink, the floor. 

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men… 

Each piece holds a sliver of my soul, of what used to be my soul. Of what was abandoned, but has never found a home after…

What remains is the body, the rotting flesh and abysmal vestiges of what once was human. 
The silence of my scream, the bloodless stump that is my ragged hand, the soot collecting on my transfixed orbs, all is grim confirmation that the monkey riding my back is a weighty gorilla intent on breaking it.

Having opened my eyes to the possibilities, it is made excruciatingly clear that my reality has been shaped by the needle, ever since my death, the death of my soul, and the bewilderment that accompanies my being, my still being here, existing somehow, a zombie but not a zombie, a dream of being human again.”

Excerpt 2:

“... She smiled, all teeth, vicious, gleaming with disgust, and took off her sunglasses.

“Remember, you made this choice,” she seethed.

The moment was brief. Description was useless, but Trane’s mind flashed with unexpected images: vast gulfs of infinite, starless space; yawning abysses where the lost tumbled for eternity; black scars that oozed blindness. He felt an oppression begin to suffocate him. She had no eyes, per se, just the empty sockets where they should be, empty sockets that defined the word “empty” in new, disturbing ways: fathomless wells in which the echoed response of the dropped stone would never speak. They epitomized nothingness, a vast, turbulent nothingness that indicated there was no soul within her, no self, nothing of substance—nothing!—but something of unspecified definition that roiled like a cavern of agitated bats. The nothingness started to leak like viscous black rivers from a whirlpool of resentment and hatred and loathing and spite and so much more negativity—negativity, that was what he witnessed; the whirlpool writhed with an omniscient negativity—Trane’s head pulsated with the pummeling weight of her wrath. He gasped, his erection went south, and she put the sunglasses back on. 

It was only one moment.”

An Ostara Prayer and a Poetry Giveaway

First, the giveaway: I have four copies of the April 2012 Poetry magazine to give away to the first four readers who ask. All you have to do is let me know you want them. I'll send you an e-mail asking for a mailing address. I'll also include bookmarks from author Katie Salidas.

Today on some Christian calendars is Holy Thursday, known in the Church of England as Maundy Thursday. It commemorates Jesus' last seder meal, the Last Supper. Modern Christian celebrations of Maundy Thursday often involve foot-washing ceremonies. In the Catholic church, this is day for the yearly blessing of the holy oil used in baptisms and other sacraments.

Some Christians mark Maundy Thursday with a tenebrae (Latin for "shadows" or "darkness") service, a special service in which a series of readings are read aloud in church and a candle is extinguished after each reading, the last of which leaves the congregation in near darkness. (Some Christian denominations observe tenebrae services on Good Friday.) Tenebrae services are meant to recall the betrayal and anguish of Jesus.

Public domain image

The mood of anguish and betrayal lasts no more than four days, however. Easter, whether one observes the Christian traditions, the Pagan ones or both, is triumphant. The following Ostara/Easter prayer written by Diana Paxson comes from the publishers of Witches&Pagans, Crone and SageWoman magazines. It captures the change in mood that accompanies the spring holidays.

Ostara, public domain image

You can sign up to receive the publishers' e-mail updates at news@bbimedia.com. 

Hail Ostara, eastward arising,
Laughing goddess, Lady of Light —
To dawn, dominion over darkness
Thy glory has granted, gone is the night!
Winter’s wrath by winds of warmth
The maiden’s might has melted here
Everywhere green plants are growing,
Flowers flourish, she-beasts bear;
Let Thy light’s illumination
Banish sorrow, blessings bring,
Grant success, and a good season
To those who seek thee here this spring!
You are the sunlight on the leaves,
You are the music of the stream,
You are the scent upon the wind,
You are the dreamer and the dream.
You transform sorrow into joy,
You transform darkness into day,
You transform winter into warmth,
And death’s dominion fades away.You are consistency in change,
You are the patterning of chance.
You are never twice the same,
You are the dancer and the dance.

This article is an excerpt from “Ostara, Lady of Spring” first published in SageWoman 41, Spring 1998.

Diana Paxson is a leading loremistress, author, and seer in the Pagan and Heathen communities; her column “She of 10,000 Names” appears regularly in SageWoman. Find her at www.diana-paxson.com 

Paxson is the author of Taking Up the Runes: A Complete Guide to Using Runes in Spells, Rituals, Divination and Magic. When her mentor Marion Zimmer Bradley's health began to fail after she wrote Mists of Avalon, Paxton took up the series and wrote the sequels. 

WIP Wednesday with Rue Allyn

Guest authors needed - all genres! Are you an author? Would you like to share a little bit about a current work in progress on a future WIP Wednesday? Then I invite you to be my guest. Please e-mail Erin O'Riordan (erinoriordan AT sbcglobal DOT net).

Kindred Spirits akin to Pagan Spirits? by Rue Allyn

I love the title of this blogsite and thank Erin for having me as a guest blogger so that I may share with you a little of my new erotic romance, Off Limits. When I first visited Pagan Spirits, I asked myself if Kindred and Pagan Spirits shared anything in common? The question might be considered irrelevant to a good story. Pagan or not, when kindred spirits collide passion results. This is the common denominator of all romances regardless of sub-genre.

Off Limits is a story of kindred spirits at war with themselves over passion and duty. My publisher describes the story this way: “The attraction between a hunky Senior Chief and a smoking hot Lieutenant breaks all the rules—his, hers and the US Navy’s. Unable to resist, the couple yields to desire’s command. Both expect their incendiary passion to burn out long before it can endanger their careers. Neither expected the insatiable sex they share to become an enduring love.”

Please take a moment to view an excerpt of Off Limits. If you like what you read, you can find more information at the Rue Allyn website.

Short Bio for Rue Allyn:

I wrote my first story around the age of five and read my first romance at the age of eight. I’ve been in love with being in love ever since. I’m happily married to my sweetheart of many, many years. We share the home of two cats, who condescend to allow me to feed them and clean their litter box. They occasionally permit me to pet them but demand my love and attention as their right. I am in awe of their feline ability to dominate with half a glance or a mere twitch of tail. I am insatiably curious, an avid reader and traveler. I love to hear from readers about your favorite books and real life adventures. I also love my work. Seriously, what could be more fun than sharing love and adventure with all your friends. That’s what I do when I write and publish a story. I’m delighted you are here to join me in the love of reading and writing.

Tease Your Senses with a Rue Allyn Romance
http://RueAllyn.com
Off Limits (available April 1, 2012)
The Widow's Revenge (available now)

Meditation Techniques ~ Guest Post by Jill Magso

The benefits of meditation are many, and we are learning new ones everyday. In general, meditation lowers stress levels, anxiety, and risk of depression. It improves our ability to concentrate and helps stabilize our moods. It even helps us sleep better. Meditation helps us have better lives and sharper minds.

The reason it is being studied as a miracle-worker is because those who meditate on a daily basis are showing some very surprising traits. They tend to visibly age slower, and they show improved memory, intuition and reaction time. Most notably, they are happier than other individuals, no matter what their particular life circumstances are.

Very few regular meditators have a hard time studying, learning or keeping a stable job. In fact, the opposite is true. Those with a regular practice are usually very well-adjusted, resilient and positive. Researchers think this has something to do with the way meditation exercises the mind and limits negative thoughts, fears or worries.

During any form of this practice, the participant is completely relaxed and at rest, yet awake and aware. The brain and body are able to regenerate, and many of the methods used in meditation are intended to turn the thoughts toward positive things, such as universal love, uplifting visualizations, and, finally, bliss. Bliss is a state reached by meditators when the mind slows and relaxes and thoughts disappear. It has actually been measured as an experience by neuroscientists.

The more time each individual spends in a relaxed state, letting go of stress, the healthier it is for him or her. Stress is very dangerous to humans, both psychologically and physically. Studies show that when human beings experience elevated anxiety levels, they stop digesting food, store more fat around their hearts and are prone to high blood pressure. Stress may indirectly kill more people each year than just about anything else, since it is a major cause of obesity and heart disease.

One of the best ways, aside from adequate exercise, to relieve ourselves of chronic stress, fear and anxiety is to cultivate thoughts and feelings of security and well-being. This is what meditation does. During any form of meditation, when the mind is at rest, the true state is one of utter peace. The more we experience it, the better its effect on us will be.

To get benefits from meditation, it is suggested we meditate for at least 20 minutes a day, 3 days a week. Many avid meditators say it is better to meditate every day, even if only for ten minutes. As it becomes easier and more of a habit, many find they begin to look forward to a meditative session as a way to shrug off the day and prepare for sleep or time with one's family or friends.

Meditation is difficult at first. Our minds are certainly used to running the show and being able to chase any thoughts they choose. This makes them resistant when we first sit on the mat and attempt to silence our thoughts and focus inward, but it becomes easier and easier, and it even turns into a welcome relief from the brain's endless chatter. This is how meditators are able to remain more peaceful and serene than other people; they know how to control their own thoughts and emotions so that those things don't get the better of them.

We can all achieve this. We merely have to take a step in the right direction by signing up for meditation classes, checking out CD's, books, or videos, and then choosing to try meditation for ourselves. Especially if we are currently overworked, don't feel we have time, or struggle with depression, beginning a practice is a must. The sooner we start, the sooner we will experience relief and become happier, healthier people.

Remember, with each session, we repair our minds and bodies, create feelings of peace, bliss and serenity, lower our blood pressure, open our hearts, and find release from the stresses of our daily lives. This means we age slower, live happier, feel better, and have more mental energy to participate in the world. Research shows, through one simple practice, we can become more satisfied, engaged and engaging people. What reason do we have for not listening? Why wouldn't we want to experience this for ourselves?

Interested to learn more about meditation? Download the free Silva Method guided meditation technique here

Related posts:

Relaxing into Meditation with author Ngakma Nor'dzin

The Call of Sedona ~ Journey of the Heart

Tao Song & Tao Dance by Dr. Zhi Gang Sha

"Meditation: Poetry & Spirit" by Ruby Sara

Image: Jpatokal in April 2004, Creative Commons license.

Blue Monday #6 ~ Blue Book Value, Part Two

These beautiful book covers all have something in common: the color blue. They all come from my Books Worth Reading board on Pinterest.

On Monday I link up with Baxtron{Life} and A Night Owl for Pinning! On Wednesday it's The Vintage Apple for Oh, How Pinteresting!!! If you're dropping by from either of these blog hops, welcome. If you're returning the visit because I commented on your blog post, bless your little heart. I appreciate it.

Are any of these blue books your least favorite/most favorite? Let me know.

I love the first two-thirds of this book, and then the last third takes a weird turn. Cool cover, though.



I still never read The Time Traveler's Wife, but I love the movie. Same deal as The Help.

Every English-speaking household should have one of these.



Also worth reading, even if it's not my favorite Jewish book ever.



If, like me, you love puns and can't resist a bit of wordplay, this is the book for you. I didn't read it until I was an adult, but I understand it's a middle-grades favorite.



Last things last. This copy appears to have been much-read and well-loved. By a quirk of finding a copy at a used book sale, I read this one right after I read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, so my Narnia experience was all out of order. I highly recommend you start with The Magician's Nephew if you have not read the series yet.

Go Mutants!, Cat Women and the Ikette ~ Sunday Randomness

I won't be adhering to the rules of SOC Sunday this morning, because I feel an untimed, unthemed ramble coming on. I need to collect my literary thoughts.

First, I read Go, Mutants! by Larry Doyle this week. Doyle is a former writer for The Simpsons, so he gets my sense of humor. The blue-skinned, James Dean-esque alien on the cover is J!m. (Like P!nk. Only blue.) His mother is Miw, a cat woman. Brief mention is made of the mysterious death of Miw's sister Sakhmet.

Sakhmet, also spelled Sekhmet, is one of my favorite Egyptian goddess. A personification of the harsh and sometimes deadly rays of the sun, the death-goddess is depicted as a woman with a lion's head. In Beltane, Allie - a priestess dedicated to the fire goddesses of the world - is tattooed with the image of Sekhmet.

The B-movie convention of cat women from outer space was kept alive in the '90s by Shakespear's Sister. It was a theme of the album Hormonally Yours, which included a track called "Catwoman." I seem to remember hearing on the radio that the track, and some of the other visitor-from-another-world-themed songs on the album, were inspired by the old film Cat-Women of the Moon.

But the original cat woman, Sekhmet, was from ancient Egypt, and so (according to her belief in reincarnation) was Tina Turner. In her autobiography (co-written with MTV reporter Kurt Loder) I, Tina, Turner expressed the belief that she is a reincarnation of the Egyptian woman pharoah Hatshepsut.



I had to get I, Tina off the shelf when Anderson Cooper had as his talk show guest Robbie Montgomery. I recognized her name from the book - she was one of the original Ikettes. The story goes that in 1965, the Ikettes scored a string of pop hits independent of Ike & Tina. To capitalize on their newfound fame, Ike Turner sent out touring groups composed of three random female singers under the name "The Ikettes."

Screwed out of royalties (they were paid as band members, not recording artists) and not even getting to tour behind their accomplishments, Robbie Montgomery and the other two original Ikettes walked. Since Ike Turner owned the name, their attempt to make it on their own fizzled.

If you're a '90s girl and you knew exactly what I was talking about when I said Shakespear's Sister, you probably know the Salt N Pepa jam "Shoop." I have to share it just for the fashion alone, the very epitome of '90s style. (Well, this and X-Girl by Kim Gordon.)



You may or may not remember that it contained a sample of The Ikette's "I'm Blue," with Tina Turner as a backup singer.

According to Anderson, Robbie Montgomery, who was homeless for a time, now stars with her son on a restaurant reality show called Welcome to Sweetie Pie's on Oprah's OWN network. (I don't have cable, and I've never seen it.) It's never too late for a comeback. I wish her restaurant venture much success.

My Irish granny and I both like to watch Anderson. When I was a high school girl in the '90s, Anderson Cooper was a reporter for Channel One, the news program we watched in class at the start of every school day. (So was Lisa Ling, the reporter who has her own show on OWN.) Next week he has some more great guests: Janet Jackson on Monday, Madonna on Wednesday.

Random fact: Janet by Janet Jackson was the first CD that I ever bought.

Sometimes I also watch Dr. Phil. He had Eric Roberts last week. Eric Roberts is sexy, with his lazy Southern accent - even as the smarmy gangster in The Dark Knight. (Not sexier than Christian Bale, of course - or Cillian Murphy, my new fave since I saw him in In Time. I would never have guessed that he's from County Cork - his American accent is really good.) But Roberts is on my permanent shit list, not only because of his domestic violence conviction (he admits he shoved his wife into a wall) but because he's one of those really damaged addicts that it's so hard to love. I finally know how Julia Roberts feels - my brother is mean when he's drunk, too. I wish him much success - just away from women.

This is Cillian Murphy.