Cross posted from The Juggler

I’m going to start with a very brief and woefully Incomplete list of some of the other things that happened at this year’s PantheaCon:

• Ivo Dominguez, Jr. helped us to see the shadow in our higher, middle, and lower selves.
• The Brotherhood of the Moon allowed us to see the face of the God in the face of every man.
• Selena Fox honored Pagan warriors and led a ritual of healing for ourselves, PCon, and the world.
• Christopher Penczak taught us how to work with the Three Rays of Love, Will, and Wisdom.
• Sam Webster held a discussion on how to bring the lessons of Hermes to the world, including an idea of creating a Pagan health care system.
• John Carosella led us on a shamanic journey to find animal medicine in some of nature’s smallest, most seemingly insignificant creatures.

And that is just what I attended.  With roughly 12 options available per session and seven sessions available per day, the program at PCon is enormous and varied.  There are sessions for everyone.  The vast majority of the offerings are open to all and focus on some form of spiritual growth, celebration, or healing.  They are led by wonderful people who do wonderful things in this world and for our community.

And yet, if you were paying attention to Pagan blogs over the weekend, you heard almost exclusively about one thing.  You heard about it in language filled with anger, threat, and hatred.   The picture painted of the con was one of violence and anger.  If you weren’t there, you would think that this anger overshadowed the conference.

I’m here to tell you it didn’t.  If you were there, you felt the charged atmosphere of togetherness.  If you were there, you could very easily have enjoyed every minute of the conference with zero knowledge of the fire that was burning in one small corner.  You would have grown and changed, partied and played, and come home recharged mentally, bodily, and spiritually.

I’m not going to name this issue.  To name it would give it energy. It is a complicated hornet’s nest that I, as a white, heterosexual male am not going to stick my nose into.  What I will say is this: choose where you put your energy.  Whatever you give it to will grow.  You can send your energy into the anger and hatred, thereby threatening your fellow Pagans, fanning the flames of more anger.  You can put it into revenge, aggression, or boycott, which will cause more strife, spreading fuel to the fire of anger on the other side.  Thus you energize that which you fight against.

Or you can put your energy into the majority of the conference.  There were 2,331 attendees at PCon, last I heard. Maybe 200 or so had any knowledge of or were involved in this in any way.  Most of the conference – indeed, most of the work done even by those who are central to the issue – was positive, loving, and healing.  Energy placed into healing engenders more of the same.  I choose to put my energy into the good stuff.

I’m not going to call anybody out.  I’m not going to name anyone’s names, even those I agree with.  It’s not my battle.  What I will do is point out to those who were not there that this year’s PCon was a space of overwhelming love, healing, and unity.  One issue, even if well publicized, will not change that.

Despite what you may have read, there was true unity in diversity this year.  I saw it every time I walked through the halls.  I saw it in the caring faces of both biological and transgender males participating in a men’s ritual.  I saw it as polytheistic Witches clamored for a ribbon from the Flying Spaghetti Monster guy.  I saw it as a heavily liberal Pagans sobbed openly during a ribbon presentation ceremony honoring Pagan soldiers.

Diversity doesn’t mean we all agree.  It means we honor our differences while working together.  It means that we CAN come together in one place despite our disagreements.  In that coming together, we can learn from each other and grow as a family of religions.  I choose to throw my gasoline on that fire.

If you are into nature as Kali the Destroyer, don’t miss Liam Neeson in The Grey. Not content with a gory plane crash and survival in the freaking frozen middle of nowhere, director and writer Joe Carnahan throws in the biggest, scariest wolves you‘ve ever seen, just waiting to eat you up. Yes, there is one waiting for you under your bed.

Man against nature, man against man, man against himself, and ultimately man against God, everything your ninth grade literature teacher taught you about a good story is here. Liam Neeson is terrific as the despondent and nearly suicidal Ottway, forced to lead the mixed bag of rag-tag survivors to safety. Frank Grillo plays the Lord-of-the-Flies counterpoint to Neeson’s quiet strength and real world savvy. There is something to be said for wanting to go out sipping the last of mini-whiskey bottles from the airline beverage cart, but Neeson and civilization prevail in this struggle for survival.

Rated R, I closed my eyes as the plane was crashing, men were screaming in agony and the guts were spilling out upside down. I’m good once the medical care is on the ground. My girlfriend and I were the only two women in the theater for the matinee, this is definitely a manly-man movie, but a must see for Neeson fans. Not for the squeamish, some of the scenes are excessive with the gore. Open Road Films.

Just as exciting as the last minute of Sunday’s Super Bowl game was the gathering of scholars and Pagans at the 8^th Conference on Current Pagan Studies on Feb. 4^th and 5^th. The conference at Claremont University promoted much discussion around the theme, “Identity and Community.”

William Blumberg of Cherry Hill Seminary, the conference’s Operations Manager, presented a paper contending that “myths become the background assumption of our world views.”  He believes Pagans need to be careful of the myths they tell themselves, especially those that set Pagans up as victims. Some myths, he suggested, set up Pagans against Christians, which leads Pagans into a false dichotomy of being right and the other wrong. William says we can use theological examination to analyze these myths and how they affect Pagan ethics. He asks, “Should Pagans be telling myths about the past or a narrative about how they want to live now?”

During discussion William took note that oppositional claims in Pagan identity-building are not as important now as they once may have been. He and others stated that blending of paths is happening more and more in Paganism now.

Kimberly Kirner, presented “Living Paradox: Defining Community and Identity in Non-Exclusive Spirituality.” A cultural anthropologist at Cal State Northridge, she reported that she found through a research survey that many Pagans identify with a variety of Pagan traditions, as well as with religions outside the Paganisms, even the exclusive monotheistic religions. Kimberly found this across the board from Pagans who follow general paths to those on the narrower, specific Reconstructionist paths. She called the Pagan path a spiritual trip around “the neighborhood” and the Christian path a road trip, a straight line towards salvation. Christians say “I am Christian,” and point to a conversion. Pagans say “I am Druid, but I trained with a Wiccan and I’m a member of a Buddhist temple and affiliate with Unitarians.” Kimberly said Pagans are mobile churches and temples; they bring many things with them, and into themselves.

Dr. Kahena Viale, photo by Charles Elliott

It is an embodied faith, as Kahena Viale, the conference director and founder, spoke to in her paper, “Identity without Revelation: Embodied Knowledge as an Alternative to Revealed Text.” Kahena, who teaches at Cal Poly Pomona, said that performing sacred  dance helps one to know their beliefs in their own bodies, and brings “ecstasy and joy of spirit” not known to those who follow book-based spiritualties. In each dance you reflect the ancient motion of the cosmos, and “you may feel something different. Keeping fluidity of vision,” she added, “is the only thing that can save the world and save us.”

Another presenter, Amy Hale, an anthropologist from St. Petersburg College, suggested during discussion that Pagans are in a phase of institution- and policy-building. She considered how to balance the fuzziness of Pagans identity with the need to boil down who we are when explaining ourselves to the larger population. She mentioned that we pick identities because we are working for rights, and not necessarily because we need identities. It is politically strategic to pick a category.

Kim stated that society now seems to be more accepting of diversity in religions, so it’s time to have an identity that is political and not institutional. Presenter Seth Clark, an M.A. student at Claremont Graduate University, said that he hopes we “stay fuzzy,” because he likes the openness and reach of Paganism and how it answers the existential questions of body and earth that Christianity cannot. Kim said that we can stay fuzzy and not get stripped down like the Mormon religion – once a cult, now claiming to be a Christian denomination – which Doe Daughtrey, a Ph.D. candidate at Arizona State University, discussed in a presentation about newly-emerging Pagans within Mormonism.

Sam Webster, M. Div., presented “Can a Magician be a Pagan?” and said he thought Paganism could work like Hinduism, which isn’t a religion, but a set of cults. Under such an arrangement, one day a Pagan could be a Druid and the next a Thelemite, depending on the need. He did state it was important not to try to be both at once, but to honor each tradition as it is.

An interesting discussion occurred around the presentation of Alfred Surenyan, “The Goddess Sings: The Musical Identity of Modern Paganism.” Alfred, a composer with a doctorate in musical arts, discussed how chanting and drumming seemed to bring Pagans together under that larger umbrella. Audience members talked about the chants they used and how they began to realize, as they traveled to different regions, the ways a particular chant was slightly different in various regions. Chant is, even in this day and age, an oral tradition.

“The Pagan History Project: Toward a Cohesive Narrative of Actual Fact and Mythic Histories,” another important paper, was presented by anthropologist Murtagh A. anDoile. He said funding is being sought for a project to gather the history of Paganism in the U.S. during the 20^th century. He said such a project should trace the early history of Paganism in the U.S. beginning around 1930 and continuing to the present. It is particularly urgent to conduct interviews and gather documents now, he said, because many elders are dying off. “Every year we get further from our origins and our primary sources,” he said. “We need to save our history before it is too late.” Murtagh noted that origin stories help validate who you are and to form your identity. Much of the discussion after this session centered upon this project, so it looks like there will be many eager to get involved in collecting Pagan history.

History of a particular movement was the subject of another paper, too. Wendy Griffin, a Cal State Long Beach emeritus, and Marie Cartier, who teaches at UC Irvine, presented “Herlands: Finding God/Goddess on Lesbian Land.” This movement to the land for women came about due to a split in women’s movements back in the 1960’s, they said. Some women thought you could change society from within and others thought change from within the system was impossible. The settlements where women lived communally and created a new life for themselves were revelatory and transformative for women, according to Wendy. In a world where women were mostly dependent on men and their institutions, women came to realize they could be self-sufficient. They began to heal by being on the land amongst other woman. The magazine “Woman Spirit,” published for 10 years beginning in the 1970s, started in one of those communities and became widely read, planting the seed of woman’s spirituality and women’s independence. Marie described the emergence of  “Theeology,” “a religion of friendship” with four major tenants:

1. To see each other and be seen (Baptism)

2. To have each other (Ecclesiology/Community)

3. To love one another (Eschatology/Salvation)

4. To see the other in ourselves and another (Testifying/Witnessing)

Some heated discussion came about during the Q & A after session six. Presentations in that session focused upon psychological aspects of Pagan community and identity. Whether Pagan leadership should be trained to deal with or at least be able to recognize when a student or coven member needs psychological help was discussed. Most seemed to agree that they should, since many said they were dealing with such things already.

Sam Webster, who presented, “Can a Magician be a Pagan?” mentioned that leaders in the community could get a clinical pastoral education and it is relatively inexpensive to do so. He also suggested that Pagans could take tools developed by the Protestant movement and gear them toward the Pagan community. Z Budapest took exception to that. She didn’t think anything from Christianity would be helpful, but Sam countered that they could and have and noted that many of these tools were developed by women.

The darker side of some Paganism was explored by Amy Hale, a Celtic Studies specialist, in her paper “Locating Identity and Authenticity in Radical Traditionalism and the Pagan New Right.” She said there is a more menacing element emerging within Paganism and within Heathenry in particular. That element is racist and supremacist thought. Some neo folk music groups have been very effective in getting people to emotionally hook to them without revealing the darker politics of their movement, she said. Some Paganism is being coopted into the New Right movement as a way of organizing people. Amy stated that Pagans like folklore, emphasize communion with nature, are attracted to tribalism, and may have generalized antimodernist attitudes. This sympathetic framework provides opportunities for the New Right.

Z. Budapest, photo by Charles Elliott

Z Budapest, a leading Dianic witch and women’s activist, was one of two keynote speakers this year. She told how her identity was formed by both her past as a Hungarian refugee and her work in the world leading Dianic rituals, lecturing, teaching classes, giving workshops, and writing. Z spent much of her life helping women. Los Angeles’ Woman’s Center was born from this life’s work, and her efforts there helped many women to learn to be self-sufficient. A woman’s bank was also created during a time in the 1970s when women couldn’t get loans or a credit card. She said that “women have to get over male worship,” and that “women represent peace.” She challenged us to stop any talk or action towards another war.

Hyperion, photo by Charles Elliott

Hyperion, the leader of The Unnamed Path, an emerging shamanic path for men-who-love-men, was the other keynoter. He showed us how we have varied ideas about what Paganism is by going around the room and asking. What was discovered was that those present were quite universalist. He said these universalist ways of defining Paganism create an absence of a place for minorities within Paganism. “There needs to be a space for all,” says Hyperion. “It’s becoming Pagan Unitarian Universalist, but that’s not the Aquarian Age.” He also warned that appropriating deities out of their culture does a disservice to them, and to their original cultures and contexts, and may unexpectedly unleash powerful negative energies. How do we balance what comes from the heart without blindly appropriating? He told us that when we are drawn to a divinity we should learn from a practitioner of the related faith and only then bring it into our own practice.

He also offered three things we really need to remember on our personal journey, three mystical questions:

1. Who am I? (Exploration of personal alchemy)

2. What is it? (God, cosmos, life – try to understand what you are in relationship with)

3. What is my role in it? (What’s my role in it and its role in my life)

This conference is an annual, two-day, idea- and discussion-packed event. Keynote Coordinator Alfred Surenyan estimated the 2012 attendance to be at about 60, which was down slightly from last year. Although I’d like to mention all 23 speakers who shared their research and ideas, space does not permit. Here I have tried to sample and share the ideas that might be of the most interest to the Pagan community at large. You can read about them all online via the conference website. And there are more pictures here.

“Identity and Community” in Paganism will be the focus of  the 8^th annual Conference on Current Pagan Studies Feb. 4 and Feb. 5 at Claremont Graduate University (CGU) School of Religion in Claremont.

“I am so excited about this year’s conference,” says Kahena Viale, the current Conference Director. “Not only are we continuing to work on building community, but we are dedicated to that being an inclusive community.” Last year’s theme, “Building Community” has been an important theme for Pagans and this year’s conference will continue that conversation.

There will be many papers presented on the topic as well as two keynote speakers this year.

“We are lucky to have Z Budapest and Hyperion as our Keynote Speakers; they will bring points of view that we have not covered in depth in the past,” says Kahena.

Born in Budapest, Hungary in 1940 to a practicing witch and medium, Z grew up appreciating Mother Nature as a god. When the Hungarian Revolution broke out in 1956 she fled and finished school in Innsbruck, then won a scholarship to the University of Vienna where she studied languages. She came to the U.S. in 1959 and by the time she was thirty she became involved with the women’s liberation movement in Los Angeles and became an activist herself, staffing the Women’s Center there for many years. Seeing the lack of a spiritual dimension to the movement she started the Woman’s Spirituality Movement and created the Susan B. Anthony Coven Number l, the first feminist witches’ coven. This was a model followed by many as this movement grew throughout the country.

A sample of the papers to be presented are:

• Susan Harper, Ph.D. – We Are the Stories We Tell: Narrative and Pagan Identity
• Sabina Magliocco, Ph.D – Indigenousness and the Discourse of Authenticity in Modern Paganisms
• Sam Webster – Can a Magician be a Pagan?
• Wendy Griffin, Ph.D. and Marie Cartier, Ph.D. – Herlands: Finding Goddess on Lesbian Land
• Kimberly D. Kirner, PhD – Living Paradox: Defining Community and Identity in Non-Exclusive Spirituality
• Tony Mierzwicki – Cyberpaganism
• Joseph Futerman, Ph.D. – Identity and the Magickal Name

The annual scholarly conference was founded in 2005 by Kahena. She is a Pagan from Upland who earned her Ph.D. in Women’s Studies in Religion from CGU.

The conference fees are: Claremont Consortium Students $25; students $45; others $55. You can save $2.50 by bringing your own coffee cup and $2.50 by bringing your own plate or save $5 when you bring both. Register at The Pagan Conference website by downloading the form and mailing it in with your check or by registering via the website using Paypal. Food is included. “We use a local independent bakery for our morning pastries and a local independent restaurant for our Saturday lunch,” it says on their website. “This year we hope you will help by bringing your own coffee cup/water bottle. Of course, we will still provide cups, etc. but would like a lighter carbon footprint.”

There are less than three weeks to sign up. It is well worth the price of admission. If you would like to get a feel of what you can expect you can read about last year’s conference here. More than 70 attended last year. Kahena says the average has been about 50 to 60 with some years being as many as 80 or 90.

“I’m very committed to the Pagan community,” says Kahena. The Pagan Conference website adds that the public is also welcome to take part: “Embodied knowledge, practically learned knowledge, and inherited knowledge are important contributions to the epistemology of Pagan thought when viewed through the analytical lens that all knowledge is seen through in the academy.”

Cross posted from The Juggler

The title says it all: Apocalypse Not: Everything you know about 2012, Nostradamus, and the Rapture is wrong.  This little volume by prolific AODA Archdruid John Michael Greerperfectly encapsulates the origins, proliferation, and modern manifestations of humanity’s strange longing for Armageddon, tracing each strand to its point of origin and eviscerating it at its source.

Not content with discussing only the belief that the world will end on De­cember 21, 2012, Greer plunges deep into what he calls the “Apocalypse Meme.”  He likens the meme to a virus, an infiltrator that buries itself deep into the human psyche and propagates itself be spreading from person to person.  Outbreaks occur over the centuries, but these are merely flare ups of the virus-like way of thinking that has plagued humanity for over 2,000 years.  Any new ideas, from the ancient Chinese longing for the Kingdom of Great Peace to a modern computer geek’s conviction that artificial intelligence will lead us to a singularity that brings a new Eden to the world are part of the overall sickness.  These days, according to Greer, the most virulent strain of the virus began as really bad scholarship on the Mayan culture and spiraled into a worldwide fear of impending doom.

The 2012 phenomenon, Greer argues, is really only a symptom of a problem that has plagued humanity for well over two millennia.  He traces the idea of Armageddon back to the beginning of Zoroastrianism, the world’s first major monotheistic religion.  Zarathustra, the prophet that brought Zoroastrianism to the world, had to deal with one major problem: If there was one all-powerful, good god, why did evil and suffering exist?

This is something polytheistic religions did not have to concern themselves with, but the first monotheistic religion had to deal with it directly. Zarathustra gave the answer to this question which has followed monotheistic faith through time: our world is temporary and will “sometime very soon be replaced by an eternal, perfect world in which evil and suffering will have vanished forever.”  Thus, Greer claims, began apocalyptic thought.

Once introduced, the thought pattern began to spread.  Greer pinpoints its entry into Jewish theology, but finds that Judaism was only a temporary home.  The implicit idea of a good god battling the forces of evil toward the inevitable end of eternal paradise was accepted naturally into early Christian theology, and the evangelical nature of that faith, according to Greer, spread the idea throughout the western world and introduced the apocalyptic meme to the globe.

Greer details the many forms which the meme has taken in Christian thought over the centuries.  Early writers predicted that the end would come in 497, 800, and 1,000 CE.  When these prophecies failed, further prophecies of the Antichrist and doom that followed his birth proceeded through the centuries. Some predictions took a gentle form, seeing the end of the world as the beginning of a new era of peace and love, where, “free from the burden of original sin, humanity would once again be naked and unashamed,” worshiping in the nude and practicing free love in their new Eden.  Needless to say, the early Church authorities didn’t look too kindly upon that.

Other versions were decidedly more militaristic.  Greer details each of these, from the violent Taborites of fifteenth century Bohemia to the twentieth century obsession with the Rapture that culminated in the breathless Left Behind series. Despite their differences, all of these things had in common the original apocalyptic idea of, “we’re good, they’re bad, and soon our god will get rid of them.”

The book does spend a little too much time on the Christian narratives of Armageddon, and some of them are a bit of a stretch, but he does follow the apocalyptic meme past Christianity and into secular culture.   We learn, for example, about Charles Fourier’s idea in the late 1700’s that our world’s attainment of a state of Harmony would “turn the seas to lemonade” and that “lions would give up their carnivorous habits and become friendly, vegetarian anti-lions.”  We also learn the history of the UFO movement that has expanded so much of the modern idea of apocalypse.  There was Dorothy Martin, who in the 1950’s predicted aliens would save her and her followers from the earth’s destruction, and whose failure ultimately led to valuable sociological research on the concept now known as “cognitive dissonance.”  We also learn how the meme led to the tragic Heaven’s Gate suicides of 1997.

Only after careful analysis of the history of apocalyptic thought does Greer turn his full attention to what is currently the most fashionable apocalyptic storyline, the Mayan calendar’s supposed ending on December 21 of this year.  Greer details the misunderstandings, intentional cover ups, and utopian dreams that have fueled this particularly strong line of apocalyptic thinking and uses Mayan culture’s own writings to show that the upcoming winter solstice was just another day on their calendar, and was neither the cataclysmic destruction nor the dawning of a new age of peace and understanding that many people claim it to be.

One of the best parts of the book is the afterword, in which Greer discusses the wishful thinking that drives behind the apocalypse meme.  He thoughtfully details the hopes and dreams of each subgroup of society, each of which yearn for a world which has been cleansed of those who disagree, a world in which all of those who agree with “our” line of thinking will live together in joy and harmony.  It’s a powerful image that has seduced many a Taoist, Christian, computer scientist, and New Ager over the centuries.

But despite the oddly enticing siren song of our planet’s demise, the Earth’s existence will end on its time scale, not ours.  So read Apocalypse Not, then go ahead and make plans for December 22.

If you want a 3-D treat this holiday, be sure to take in Hugo. Based on the children’s book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, this wasn’t a movie initially rushed out to see. I am very happy I went though; Martin Scorsese has created a world that fully maximizes the use of 3-D images. The opening train station shots are breath-taking and the images make this movie, which would be wonderful without the 3-D, a must-see film.

Asa Butterfield gives a winning performance as the orphan-in-all-of-us Hugo Cabret. With Dickensian bad luck Hugo’s loving father [Jude Law] dies and leaves him alone. His only close relative is alcoholic Uncle Claude [Ray Winstone] who works at the grand Paris train station. A family of clockmakers, Hugo assists his uncle in keeping the massive, tunneled, wonderfully dark and creepy inner workings of the train station clocks running. Hugo plays cat and mouse with Papa Georges so he can collect the workings of mechanical toys from Papa’s station stall. Hugo makes friends with Isabelle [Chloë Grace Moretz], Papa George’s stepdaughter, and the two children are off and running with their adventures. Hugo has an automaton he and his father had treasured; Isabelle mysteriously has the heart-shaped key that winds it up. Together the children solve the mystery around the automaton, Papa Georges and open up the adult hearts in the process.

Sasha Baron Cohen is terrific as the scary train station cop who almost finds his heart at several points during the movie. He is just the right amount of terrifying as he chases the orphaned kids at the station, kids struggling to survive in 1931 Paris.

During the second half of the movie the mystery surrounding Papa Georges’ becomes a bit tedious and overplayed. But the biographical information the movie provides on the life of early filmmaker Georges Méliès [aka Papa Georges] is worth the theatrics.  A creative genius who pioneered sets for fantasy, science fiction and horror movies, his work fell out of fashion at the time of World War I. Of the hundreds of films that he made in the very early days of cinema, many were melted down for their chemicals during the war effort. Méliès destroyed many of his own films, sets and costumes in a fit of anger and frustration over his life’s professional disappointments. At the end of his life he did receive some of the recognition he deserved, and some of his films were saved and a few have been recovered over the years.

This movie is about keeping your heart and finding the magic when the world seems intent on destroying any possibility of happiness in your life. For those who love imagination, creativity, film and a good story with 3-D fun, Hugo is the ticket. Four out of five broomsticks for Hugo. Paramount Pictures, rated PG.

The Descendants is a move that I appreciate on three levels, as a Pagan, as a lapsed Buddhist, and as someone who grew up in a family. The main story line is about Matt King (George Clooney), a rich Hawaiian of mostly haole, or white, blood, but who is also a descendant of Hawaiian royalty.  Matt muses on suffering, the relationship of the descendants of colonialists to the beautiful Hawaiian Islands, all while dealing with two unhappy, moderately self-destructive daughters and a dying wife. From director Alexander Payne, of Sideways, you will either love this movie or hate it. Reviewers and viewers don’t seem to have lukewarm feelings about The Descendants. I loved it, I give it four out of five broomsticks, but there were some weaknesses.

Matt King’s wife Elizabeth, played by Patricia Hastey, is shown in the opening scene, a close-up of her laughing while zooming along in a speed boat, no voice-over to explain what is going on in the shot. That is the last time we see Elizabeth awake, she ends up unconscious from an accident, and the remainder of the movie revolves around her comatose form in a hospital bed.

Matt King has always been, by his description, the back-up parent and he his now trying to deal with two very scared and angry daughters, pre-teen Scottie (Amara Miller) and teen-ager Alexandra (Shailene Woodley). George Clooney gives one of his best performances as King. The close-ups of his face while he makes decisions for his dying wife and for his larger family show a man who is suffering and trying to come to terms with a rapidly unraveling life. Matt finds out from Alex that Elizabeth has been having an affair with a real estate agent tied to the family land deal. Things are bad for Matt on all fronts. At the end of the movie, as the camera shoots up from the urn of Elizabeth’s ashes, the haggard look on Clooney’s face is a heart breaker.

Woodley and Miller both give great performances as the daughters. At times, though, the gutter language Scottie and Alex use seems forced, and Matt’s passivity in the face of the girls chronic nastiness unrealistic. The language might be off-putting for some; I saw it as an unnecessary distraction from the story.

While Payne provides us with a study on life’s messiness and our ultimate ability to accept, or at least make peace with, the chaos, he also provides some very, very funny moments. Nick Krause plays Alex’s friend, Sid. Sid is one of the last people you would pick to have at your back in a crisis. Krause is well cast as Sid, and in a deft turn we come to appreciate even goofy Sid’s suffering.

I found the two sub-plots of the movie very intriguing, and the light touch left me wanting a more in-depth exploration. After the clip of Elizabeth on the speed boat, Matt begins his voice over with an introduction that I found very Buddhist, voicing reflections on the egalitarian nature of suffering. Matt is a man who has everything. He is handsome, rich, about to become event richer, he has a family and lives in one of the most beautiful places in the world. And yet there is suffering, and he tells us that his suffering is no different just because he lives on a lush tropical island. He ends this opening monologue with a not-very-Buddhist “f*ck paradise,” and we move into the story.

Of great interest to Pagans is the land issue that Matt is also grappling with. It brings up many questions for those of us of European descent. How do we relate to the land? What right do we have to this land that belonged to native peoples, most of whom died from the diseases our ancestors brought over?

This issue goes much further than white guilt. For earth-centered worshipers and shamans, how do we reconcile this blood price that was paid several generations before we were born? If we are trying to connect to the land where we live, do we ignore the people who were here before? If there is native blood in our veins, how much is enough? How many generations does it take before this is home? Do blood lines matter? Is it simply where you are and what you are doing that matters spiritually? As I become more sensitive to the land I live on, to the journey work I do here, with these rocks, with these waters, I see some answers but plenty of questions remain for me.

Matt King also grapples with these questions. His family owns a huge piece of land on Kauai; he is the legal representative for his extended family’s property. Natives and haoles alike are watching to see what he and his cousins will do with the pristine land. He has a lot on his plate: a dying wife; distressed daughters; the revelation of Elizabeth’s affair; and a huge decision regarding the Kauai property.

This is a movie about suffering, about colonialism and the paradox of loving the land we live on as recent arrivals, about the messiness of family life, and ultimately about acceptance. Not a flimsy, self-serving disingenuous forgiveness that is expected, voiced by Judi Greer as Julie Speer, who plays the betrayed wife of Elizabeth’s lover. This is a mature acceptance of what is, without the self-serving sin-and forgiveness paradigm that Julie indulges in at Elizabeth’s bedside. Matt faces his own feelings and then accepts both the mess and the responsibility, also very Buddhist and refreshing to see in a movie. In the end, Matt comes to full acceptance of Elizabeth, her gifts and flaws, to an acceptance of his role as preserver of the land; to his role as a father. He faces the possibility that he made some poor choices in his marriage and family life. He also accepts that there are some questions that don’t have easy answers, or possibly don’t have any answers at all.

Go and see this movie before it leave the theaters. I hope you love it.

Cross posted from The Juggler

South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa is known for one thing above all others. The theater has been mounting a brilliant and moving adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol for 32 years.  While stage and film adaptations of Scrooge’s journey are a dime a dozen, there really is something truly special about this one.  Generations of children have come to see the show, and they are now sharing the experience with their own children.  For many local families, the Holiday season does not begin until they see the show.

Much has changed over the years, as it should.  Various actors offer different interpretations of their characters, new sequences are added while old ones are removed, and new technical effects give more life to the story.  However, the heart of the play has never changed.  The same actor has been playing the role of Ebenezer Scrooge for the past 32 years (Hal Landon, Jr., who you may know as Ted’s father in the Bill and Ted movies).  He has had exactly one director the entire time.

In the past, SCR’s show had to compete with the The Glory of Christmas, a lavish Nativity musical performed at the Crystal Cathedral.  It involved live camels and flying angels, all in the church’s opulent sanctuary.  Now, the Crystal Cathedral is bankrupt and A Christmas Carol is still going strong.

What keeps people coming back?  With all the bright lights and distractions of the season, with live theater less and less a part of community life, what brings audiences back to this classic tale of redemption year after year?  Perhaps it is the same reason many Pagans continue to celebrate on the 25^th:  Christmas is not just a day in December.  Christmas is not just a Christian holiday.  Christmas is a living, breathing spirit.

There is nothing about the birth of Christ in this Christmas classic.  True to Dickens’ style, it is a story of people living difficult lives. We see charwomen selling their stolen goods on the streets. We see families huddled together desperately against the cold threatened with eviction.  We see poor Bob Cratchit, working himself to the bone while he struggles to feed his children.  In counterpoint, there is Scrooge – one who has everything but hoards it, a man who has lost his heart and is in jeopardy of losing soul along with it.  Dickens’ London is teeming with what he later calls humanity’s two greatest evils: Want and Ignorance.  Not exactly what the little kid behind me expected from a Christmas show.

But as Scrooge faces his shadow and slowly transforms into a kind, generous soul, we learn where he went wrong.  We see the times in his life where transformation occurred.  With the help of his spirit guides, we watch as he travels into the darkness and into the light.  His guides help him see where he lost his spirit and help him rekindle it.

Scrooge finds that there is more to the holiday he so despises than money and gifts.  There is a shared camaraderie, a connection to humanity, a joy in life that he never had despite his wealth.  What good is money, he realizes, if it just sits around helping no one.  Conversely, he finds that the poorest people have more in life than he does.

Society seems to be in a search for meaning this time of year.  Commercials pound the need to spend into our heads; shopping malls beckon with their twinkly lights and promise happiness in a box.  We complain about these things every year, but still get lured to Black Fridays that start on Thursday.  Deal-crazed consumers pepper spray fellow customers just to get to whatever trinket they need this year.  This search will never end until, as a society, we learn what Scrooge learns: gifts come from the heart, not the wallet.

Here’s an example.  Another of our local institutions is the “Charlie Brown House.”  For 40 years, owner Jim Jordan brought love, joy, and holiday cheer to families all over the area.  He created an annual Christmas display of beautifully crafted, whimsical Charlie Brown-themed sets.  All around the front of the corner home were moving scenes of a Peanuts band, Woodstock skiing, characters throwing snowballs at each other, Charlie and Lucy ice skating (with hapless Charlie Brown tripping halfway through), and teams of Woodstock-like birds playing hockey.  On the other side of the home were humorous scenes of elves making toys and reindeer preparing for their big flight.

Throughout December, crowds gathered nightly around the home.  A live Santa came each night to a waiting throng of children who stood patiently in line to get their lap time. The guest book included signatures and messages from the same people going back for decades, all of which described the joy they get by coming back every year.

Last Tuesday, Wells Fargo foreclosed on the house.  The set pieces were too big to be moved, so they may have to just be dumped.

First Act Scrooge would be happy that his riches kept him from the same fate.  He would say that if the owner spent less time with foolishness and more time with business, he would still have his home.  Second Act Scrooge realizes that Jordan’s 40 years of bringing cheer to the hearts of both children and adults makes him the richer man by far.  This is the spirit of A Christmas Carol.  I think this is what people are searching for.

I think that’s why people come back.  They want to be reminded of the spirit of the season, separate from religion and consumerism.  They want a break from the consumer madness.  Pagans may even need a break from the “my god was born before your god” debate.  They want the heart of the season, unattached to its baggage of churches and department stores.  This season, let’s cast off Marley’s chain (and his pepper spray) and enjoy the spirit of the season.

There has been a lot of talk lately about the state of our economy in the United States, and quite frankly world-wide.  As we head into the holiday season, many of us are feeling challenged to take control of our money and consider where and how we spend it.  In our family, we have cut back significantly on the gift giving, opting for spending time together, making donations to charitable organizations, and sometimes even making things for one another.  In 2010, Small Business Saturday hit with a bang, and while it is officially sponsored by American Express, I think that the values of Small Business Saturday encompass many important values that we should take into consideration.  In honor of Small Business Saturday and the values of taking control of our money, today I would like to feature a local business, a local artisan, and a good cause to donate to this holiday season.  These are my personal picks based on my own personal experience and things that move me personally.  Please consider adding your personal suggestions for participating in my version of Small Business Saturday in the comments.

Small Business: The Green Man, North Hollywood.  The Green Man is more than a Pagan Shop, it is a thriving Pagan Community.  They offer regular public rituals, workshops, readings, reiki, and healing faires.  Both times that we have visited for rituals, we have felt very welcome and part of the community.  The rituals were extremely powerful, and the community truly came together to worship through each ritual.  The store features a gorgeous selection of stones and herbs, along with books, cards, some music and jewelry.  Some of the members of the community have items available on consignment, including the very cute Magikal Kabinets, handcrafted oils and incense blends and ritual tools.  Their apothecary products are truly a draw, so when you visit, be sure to carve out some time to sit at the barstool and chat with store employees (and owners) while they measure out the items on your wish list. 

Artisan: Raven’s Daughter Designs.  I first found Raven’s Daughter Designs at The Long Beach Women’s Spirit Summer Solstice Faire, and later talked to her at the Los Angeles/Orange County Pagan Pride Day.  Pictured here is my beautiful Celtic Curlz meditation plate, which I have had some very impressive meditation sessions with (including the one that became the brain child of this post on PNC!).  As someone who works with trauma victims for a living, but who has trouble getting people to slow down and listen to their inner voice, I bought a meditation plate in order to help my clients find some mental peace within themselves.  I am impressed by Raven’s Daughter’s beautiful imagery on her meditation plates, and I’m also very impressed with the work that she is doing to help with autism with the use of meditation plates through the use of Celtic Art Therapy.

Good Cause: The Power of 10: Give Kids the World $1 Million Challenge.  For many Southern Californians, a trip to Disneyland is an essential part of our holiday plans.  The parade down Main Street, lights on the castle, and The Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion overlay all help us get into the spirit of the season.  Give Kids the World, an Orlando based charity provides children with life threatening illnesses the opportunity to experience their own Disney Dream, which includes a “Christmas” celebration each week.  One of the Disney Podcasts that I listen to, The Dis Unplugged, has launched a fundraising campaign to help support Give Kids the World in their mission to provide these heart warming wishes to little ones and their families.

Last night I went to see the movie Martha Marci May Marlene written and directed by Sean Durkin. Most of the reviews I’ve scanned seem to focus on the performance of Elizabeth Olsen, the younger sister of the famous twins. This movie is much more than a showcase. It provides a strong portrayal of the dark (in the bad way) underside of the American search for spirituality and truth, for family and structure, for meaning and love. John Hawkes is perfect as the scumbag cult leader who preys on the insecurity of the young and the unsure, leader of a patriarchal cult who controls his “family” with slimy pseudo-ethics and twisted philosophies.

Because much of pagan life happens in small groups and behind closed doors, necessarily so that we can practice deeper energy and journey work, it can leave us vulnerable to egocentric, cultish style leaders. True cult-style leaders take followers slowly down the path so that they forget themselves in the quest and don’t see that they are losing their moral compass. This movie brilliantly shows that slow descent into the buy-in, the push and pull, seductions and punishments that takes place in the abyss of cult life. Hawkes does this perfectly as Patrick, a villain who makes your skin prickle as you watch him slowly reel in Martha.

We meet Martha-Marci-May-Marlene in the first scene as she is running away from a farm house early one morning. She hides in the woods as others search for her in the misty trees. This is one zoned out chick, lights on, nobody home, and we find out why as the story unfolds. She makes it to town and calls her sister, who picks her up and takes her back to her summer house where she is staying with her new husband, about three hours away from the cultville farmhouse.

This girl is severely withdrawn and with the symptoms of serious PTSD. The filming deftly cuts between her new life with her sister and her sister’s husband, played by Sarah Paulson and Hugh Dancy, and the cult family. The dysfunctional early life of the sisters unfolds in these segments through dialogue, with guilt being played out by big sis Paulson who abandoned her younger sister to go to college after their parents died. It quickly becomes obvious that Martha’s seriously ill behavior is more than the couple can handle. Paulson and Dancy’s life is portrayed as upper middle class and somewhat superficial, but after a tough youth, Paulson is achingly making an attempt to create a normal family life. She is a person looking for some happiness through doing all the right things and doesn’t want to examine her current life too closely. She’s been worried about Martha during her two year disappearance but she chalked Martha’s disappearance up to simple flakiness and and disregard for others after hitting the road with a new boyfriend.

The camera merges scenes very skillfully; we aren’t sure where we are as the segments begin, at the farm or at the lakeside home, with the cult or with the relatives, for the first few seconds into each scene. We are moving inside Martha’s head and memories, and we become part of her dreamy world that weaves back and forth. Her seduction and traumas within the cult unfold chronologically, interspersed with the growing concern and anxiety of her sister and brother in law as they deal with her bizarre social behavior. She refuses to talk about the past two years. She draws us all in with her bruised persona, then lashes out with something cruel and disjointed at the people who are trying to help her. At the end we understand how this damaged and fragile person has come to be.

Durkin ends the movie abruptly and ambiguously. Some viewers will like it, I did not. I understand that life is often untidy and ambiguous, but in this situation, it seems clear that a strong resolution was building, a swell of dramatic tension that just gets dropped at the end. Too bad, I was totally with Durkin up to the very end and then walked away very disappointed with the film school ending.

Cults happen, and they can happen with Pagan or any religious or tightly knit group. A reminder to readers to take a look at Isaac Bonewits’ cult evolution checklist if you or someone you know looks like they are heading into those destructive waters: http://www.neopagan.net/ABCDEF.html

If someone is walking into that swamp, pull them back if you can! Any type of mind or body control, manipulation, emotional or financial extortion by a teacher or leader can be indicative of a cult or cultish behavior. What might look initially like a friendly, balanced coven or circle can have cult elements that are being hidden. Don’t be totally paranoid about new groups; just stay alert to any red flags that pop up and to your intuition. Check with the larger community about a teacher. Don’t go drinkin’ any Koolaid unless you know it’s safe.