This blog is an attempt to defend the concept of Intelligent Design from the many left-wingers who insist that it's a conceptual lackey of the Religious Right and that it's actually a form of Creationism.

First, perhaps I should explain that I am an evolutionary creationist. I believe in the scientific explanation of the origin of the universe and the life forms within it, i.e., that what we know of as reality is the result of a primal explosion known as the Big Bang and that life evolved slowly over the course of billions of years into its current forms through a process known as evolution. However, I also believe that the various stories of creation by the religions of the world actually describe the Big Bang and evolution in symbolic terms.  Hence, the Evolution vs. Creationism argument may well be moot.  For those who follow the Biblical story of creation, the statement that God created the universe in seven days may actually be describing cosmic units of vast stretches of time in metaphorical language rather than seven days as we mortals measure a week. What would the concept of time be to an immortal being of ultimate consciousness? Obviously, quite different from our own experience. The Biblical scholars described God's point of view in a manner in which we mortals could comprehend, including mathematical units of time that we could readily identify with.

Now, as for Intelligent Design. Yes, it's true that many right-wing Christian zealots support its introduction in the classroom. Yes, it's true that many of them probably consider this an underhanded means of sneaking Creationist rhetoric into the science classes.  However, I do not believe that Intelligent Design is a version of Creationism because it does not suggest that the universe was created according to Biblical literalism, or in a way that says the various stories of creation found in world religion occurred literally as described in mythology. Rather, it suggests that there was a guiding, intelligent hand behind the creation of the universe and the process of evolution.

Personally, I do not believe that life as intricate as the forms we see on Earth today (and probably elsewhere in the universe) was the result of random chance, as scientists say.  Atheists, like scientists, insist that the universe has no conscious aspect to it and that evolution occurred entirely at random, with no guiding hand at all. This just doesn't seem likely nor logical to me.  That is like finding a device as intricate and complex as a wristwatch on the sand and insisting that it was constructed entirely at random. Yes, proponents of a non-conscious universe will argue that this isn't a good comparison because wristwatches are made of metal and life forms are composed of organic materials, but I think the comparison is apt because it would appear that every device we are familiar with needs a designer.  What else are life forms but complex machines made out of carbon-based materials?  As such, I challenge the notion that the universe and everything in it, particularly forms of life and sentience of the sort that humans have, was created entirely at random by forces that had no consciousness to them whatsoever.

Is there evidence for Intelligent Design? Or, I should say, enough evidence that science professors can justify mentioning it in the classroom? That would depend on how one views evolution. Is there evidence that machinery needs to have an intelligent designer? Yes, there is, so why should life as we know it be an exception to this rule? Atheists have an ideology that there is no conscious aspect to the universe, and thus they insist that evolution must be random because if we acknowledge that the universe must be a conscious entity and that life as we know it had a designer then this would validate religion. Hence, their rejection of Intelligent Design is entirely based upon ideological grounds, and not anything that has to do with science or rationality, as they claim. They simply loathe any idea or principle that they feel is related to or evocative of religion. I believe that the idea of a consciousness to the universe should be readily explored by science and that if it was there would be no great need for religion in the world. Religion is simply one tool for exploring the mysteries of the universe that science refuses to comment on, and this is why religion remains a force to be reckoned with in the world today.

Of course, there is no way to prove Intelligent Design under scientific experimentation today. However, I think the evidence can be seen in observing the multi-faceted complexity of life and noting how elegantly everything pieces together. Obviously, if an intelligent designer is behind life, it's a much more advanced type of intelligence than human intelligence, something much higher, something on a cosmic scale. And until we fully understand the nature of consciousness in the universe, we shouldn't rule out Intelligent Design and we shouldn't allow the Religious Right to have the equivalent of ownership rights on the concept. I fully believe in the creation of the universe and evolution as described by science; I simply question whether or not it occurred over the course of billions of years as the result of complete random chance.

This particular blog is dedicated to explaining why I am part of an alternative spirituality and not a more standard type of spiritual system, such as Christianity or Judaism. After all, there are many practitioners of the mystic arts, such as Ceremonial Magicians (who practice what they call High Magick) who call to the archangels rather than the faerie folk.

One of the critiques of standard organized religion is that it is often anti-science. Wicca, thankfully, has never pushed me on an anti-science slant. I believe in science, and most importantly to this subject, I believe in evolution. I believe that the life forms on this planet (and elsewhere in the universe) slowly evolved from less complex organisms that were spawned in the primal soup (i.e., the seas) of the planet's early days and eventually evolved into increasingly complex organisms until nature's most intellectually evolved creation, humanity, came into being about a million years ago. However, I do not believe that this happened all according to random chance, as I was told in sixth grade science class and as the atheists insist upon. But more on the concept of Intelligent Design in my next blog.

Another problem with organized religion that Wicca thankfully avoids is the insistence by many right-wing Christians that government unites with religion, establishes faith-based programs, and offers government funds to faith-based initiatives. I fully agree with the political concept of the separation of church and state, and I believe that government and laws should have a secular foundation to them and should never be based on religious precepts, even "good" religious precepts.

Of course, this is one of the weaknesses of Wicca, also. The fact that it's not organized, and has no official book of revelation (simply the Wiccan Rede, a single Commandment equivalent that bids us to do what you want as long as you aren't harming anyone). Because of this, Wiccans are not heavily united on the political front, and also because of this Christians and people of the Jewish faith systems have considerably more power and influence with government than we do. Some Wiccans believe we should create more organizations to influence the political system, whereas others believe that we should almost entirely stay outside of politics.

Most Wiccans are mainstream liberals, meaning they are supposed to be open-minded on topics of love, marriage/co-habitation, and lifestyle choices. Are they? In my opinion, mainstream liberals will currently only support lifestyle choices that are politically correct to choose, and are only open-minded up to a point where it's politically "safe" to be open-minded. However, Wiccans do tend to push the envelope a bit and allow me to feel less restrained by moralism and instead allows me to develop a moral and ethical system where I seek to harm no being but I am still allowed to seek pleasure (as long as it's not hurting anyone). There are many liberal Christians and Jews also, of course, but they tend to be less "loud" than their right-wing counterparts, who believe that sex should be for procreation only, that women shouldn't have the right to control their own bodies, and that Creationism should supplant evolution in the science class rooms (as I will argue in my next blog, contrary to the claims of the atheists, Intelligent Design is NOT Creationism).

Nevertheless, even liberal Roman Catholics frown at the thought of women becoming priests, even though they do allow girls to become altar girls now (which is a step in the right direction, IMO).  This is a major injustice towards women in the religion, I believe. I am thankful that Wicca respects women and the feminine aspects of divinity so much, and that many women are valuable high priestesses in the various Wiccan traditions.

I should point out that Wicca is not for everyone, and it's not the right path even for many spiritual people. As a Wiccan, I have never been encouraged to believe that my path is the only viable path that one can choose on the road to greater enlightenment, nor do I believe that there is a realm of torturous fire and brimstone awaiting any spiritual person in the afterlife who did not choose Wicca. Instead, I believe that it's one of many viable paths towards spiritual enlightenment, and it encourages me to work with everyone who is open-minded and has chosen a path of acceptance for all paths.

I should also point out that I believe in scholarly research when it comes to Wicca. I do not believe that any Wiccan tradition as we know it today existed prior to the 20th century, and the religion was first introduced to the world at large by Gerald Gardner in the 1950's with his book WITCHCRAFT TODAY. Wicca is not an ancient religion, but rather it's a modern religion based on certain ancient ideas, including the concept of a Goddess, the reverence of nature as divinity, and the belief in an oscillating system of birth, death, and rebirth.

By paying homage to both a Goddess and a God, I feel like I have both a spiritual mother figure and a father figure in my life. As a Norse Wiccan, as I mentioned in a previous blog, I also have the Norse deities to call upon as a sort of spiritual family, and the Norse Wiccan Goddess and God-forms are the deities Freya and Frey, the Lady and the Lord, twins, deities of fertility who are the children of the sea god Njord.

By revering a Goddess as well as a God, I feel much more complete than if I was paying homage to only one of the two, as I believe that male and female polarities exist in the universe and both are equally important and equally capable of manifesting themselves in the human form. Everyone has a mother as well as a father, so it's reasonable to assume that both aspects are part of the Creator-force of the universe.

As I noted in this blog, Wicca is far from perfect, and it's only one of many paths possible, but I believe that it will be a particular path that is truly going to be a mover and shaker in the spiritual world of the future. It's far from the only path out there, but it is a good alternative to organized religion and I am thankful that cold atheism isn't the only alternative to organized religion.

This blog is based on a discussion I recently had in the chat room, a discussion which gave me much food for thought and got me really thinking regarding some of the goals I have placed on my life. This is part of the great thing about connecting with other spiritual people of great understanding about the cosmos...the growth and advancement of my own ideology.

One of my goals is to fight for a better world for humanity to live in. For many years now I have struggled towards the establishment of a world where poverty, rampant crime, rampant disease, war, economic inequality, and environmental destruction are things of the past. Such a world wouldn't be perfect, as humanity is a flawed species that probably would not benefit from an absolutely perfect world, but I do believe that humanity is capable of creating a much better world.

But there may be some unforseen consequences of creating a better world in regards to the spiritual realm. One of the perceived benefits to life in this highly volatile world in which we live in today, under the current economic system based on competition rather than cooperation, is that we have a huge array of diversity in regards to the types of lives that our incarnated spirits can experience. For some of us, living under impoverished conditions or growing up in a war-torn nation or environment may be necessary for certain of us to experience what we need in order for our spirit to grow and learn. If we lived in a better world bereft of poverty and war, wouldn't that mean that our spiritual growth would be stifled? Would we be subject to a lack of diversity that condemned our spirits to no longer being able to use the material plane of Earth for purposes of growth and learning?

My answer is: no. I think humanity is collectively evolving as a species just as we each evolve throughout different incarnations as individuals. In our current level of collective spiritual evolution, it's true that we need various degrees of suffering and hardship in the world, as defined by today's standards, in order for us to grow and learn as individuals and to provide us with a diverse array of experiences as opportunities for further individual growth. But in the future, once we evolve further as a species, I believe that suffering as we know it today will no longer be a necessity for spiritual growth. Is it not inconceivable that in a future time period of increased social and spiritual growth for the entire world that we will reach a level of existence where diversity is not measured in degrees of hardship but rather in a myraid degree of lifestyle choices and paths that are currently out of our reach or considered to be taboo by modern standards?

I have found our society to be very conformist and not conducive at all to diversity of lifestyle and I have seen our society push a "one path fits all" mentality on us. The fact that our world is embroiled in such turmoil often forces us to struggle for our very survival rather than giving us the time to think in regards to what we can do to build sufficient growth experiences for our spirits to develop further. Further, having to spend 24/7 of your life fighting for your very survival doesn't give you much time to develop our full talents and abilities to their highest level. It may be good for learning pure survival skills, but not in terms of learning the many other things that humanity is capable of learning.

In a future world where competition has been replaced by cooperation, and where many of today's severe problems have been conquered, people will now be able to work for the betterment and growth of the human species. Advances in medical science will enable us to stay in our physical incarnations and experience a state of good health and homeostasis for much longer periods than we are currently allowed. The introduction of a practical means of long distance space travel and exploration will give humanity the collective opportunity for new experiences and life lessons that are completely undreamt by our species today.

As a result of this unprecedented growth of experiences in the future, the spiritual realm will change remarkably. Our need for different experiences while in our physical incarnations will change, and the better world of the future that some of us envision will be filled with diversity of experience in ways that we can barely imagine today. In a universe of experience filled with lunar colonies, civilizations on other planets, and a world free from want where all of us can concentrate on developing our full potential, spiritual, psychic, and otherwise, I think we have a tremendous realm of opportunity and diversity of experience for us to look forward to in the better world of tomorrow once our species makes a collective evolutionary jump spiritually.

Chris

Karma, or wyrd (if one prefers), is one of the most mysterious forces in the universe yet it's also one of the most pivotal forces that human beings are subjected to. It's a force that guides our destiny. It's personified as various beings in the disparate world mythologies, most notably as the Norns in Norse mythology and the Fates in Greco-Roman mythology. It's also quite interesting that in both of the latter faith systems the force of karma or kismet is anthropomorphized as three sisters who weave the tapestry of reality and thereby create the destinies and fates of all human beings who are born. Even the deities in the various pantheons respect this power and see their own needs and requirements as subordinate to the whims of fate.

Of course, the atheists scoff at the existence of karma. They believe that the events that happen in the universe are entirely random, with no purpose or guidance of any sort by higher forces. To them, any force that cannot be measured in a scientific laboratory cannot actually exist in any shape or form. But for those of us with a special affinity for the inner workings of the universe, and for those of us who have kept a careful eye on the events of our lives, we can actually sense and witness this force guiding our actions and weaving a tapestry for our destinies to follow.

Now I am not saying that karma, wyrd, kismet, destiny, fate, the Norns, or whatever name one may prefer for this great force that guides us through our life and influences the events that we experience nullifies free will. In fact, free will is an important component of our lives because in order for us to grow spiritually and to acquire experiences that help evolve our soul we need to be able to make decisions that effect the course of our lives. Karma merely gives us the general series of events that we then earn metaphysical "points" for or against our progress by how we choose to react to them.

Sometimes the Norns can be ruthless beings indeed. I have always felt that I have acquired a large amount of karmic debt from a past life (or for any number of them) that my karma is now in the process of making me "pay" for in this lifetime. It has resulted in the Norns weaving a particular web of events that has caused me to experience countless instances of heartbreak, loss, and disappointment, all to get me to experience what it's like to be without certain things that I must have taken for granted in a past life. Sometimes learning and experience can be very painful despite how much we grow as a result of each.

Now don't get me wrong again, I love learning, but sometimes I pray to the Norns and ask them to please make my subsequent learning experiences to be less harsh than previously. Sometimes they listen and sometimes they don't. But overall, I know that my own decisions will ultimately decide how severe of a learning experience I will next receive from them.

Others may choose not to personify karma in humanoid form like the Norns and the Fates and may instead appeal to it as a disembodied force of great power. Either interpretation is valid, depending upon the individual discerner.

Some people seem to have it relatively easy in life compared to others, as they seem to gain a lot of easy victories, a lot of happiness, a lot of romantic partners, a lot of friends, a lot of respect from others, and a lot of monetary success in life without much of an effort. It has always bothered me that such people, who sometimes become arrogant because of all that their karma have awarded them in this particular lifetime, have it so easy compared to me, when I've had to strive very hard to have even a small measure of happiness and success, and I still frequently fail to achieve these things despite my best efforts. Why is this the case? Why is karma so unfair to some individuals compared to how generous it is to others?

For one thing, I have learned that I need to stop being bitter over this. Though it may always annoy me to see some people succeed in life easily compared to how hard others have to work for it, I have come to realize that different people need different life lessons. For those of us who have to strive hard in order to have the things that we want and need in life we eventually learn not to take any good thing for granted and to appreciate it all the more when we are lucky enough to have such good things enter our lives. We learn to treat our romantic partners better because we have learned how incredibly lucky one can be to have someone who cares for us in this manner in our lives. And ultimately, I think we learn to have a greater respect for Deity and for human life simply because we understand how fragile life can be. 

Of course, some of us who karma is particularly harsh to have allowed themselves to be overcome by bitterness and envy of those who have it easy and as a result they take a walk down the dark side, incur a lot more karmic debt than they already had, and choose a self-destructive path that hurts both themselves and others around them. They then waste a lifetime and have to start again in their next incarnation, experiencing the same problems as before, until they make peace with it and become a better person, thereby "paying off" their karmic debt and earning good points.

I almost became swallowed up by the dark side on more than one occasion in the past due to how hard my karma has always been on me. But in the end, I chose to love humanity and (hopefully) stay on the side of the angels. I have committed myself to helping those people who are experiencing a lifetime where karma is unduly harsh on them. What we all ultimately hope to earn is a lifetime where we are relatively free of karmic debt and where we can become a more enlightened person who does not take for granted any of the good things that life may give us as a result from being largely free of karmic debt. It's a long path towards this level of enlightenment but all of us are making good progress on this path simply by being a part of this community and by making a commitment to helping others.

I believe that my karma led me to become a part of this community and this time I will receive a learning experience that is pleasant and though I have a lot of work ahead of me I'm very glad to be having the opportunity to help others. It leaves me with a good feeling inside as well as paying off some karmic debt that my higher self has incurred by past life actions. My ultimate goal is to become an enlightened individual who makes a positive difference in the world by working with my karma so as to improve both my life and those of others around me. I thank the gods that I have learned to make better decisions when pushed hard by my karma at this point in my life and I treasure every friend and lover that I have because I know what it's like to lack these things.

Karma may be a scary and mysterious force but by learning to work with it rather than against it (though defiance is sometimes necessary and understandable) we can learn to accomplish great things in life and to become a better and more enlightened person.

Chris

This particular blog has been inspired by the blog composed by angelicamy last week.

Ever since I was little I was different. I was aware since I was 6 years old that I had the unique tendency to think outside the box and develop ideologies that the average person didn't. Most people that I knew simply spent their entire lives accepting the status quo as it is, never questioning anything, believing that being a Democrat or a Republican, or a liberal or a conservative, were the only options and being good little Christians.

My family wasn't happy with me because I was "different." I had a very rough time in school making friends. I was never a bad kid but I was treated like a pariah for having different interests than the majority. I wasn't interested in sports at all (though I later developed a great love for the martial arts) and this alone was enough reason for ostracizement from my peers. My family seemed to feel that if I would just try to fit in and be like everyone else I would be liked and accepted more.

So I thought the solution to the problem was to change schools when I was in 5th grade and to start out fresh. This time, I told myself, I would do my best to fit in and I would pretend that I liked sports. Of course, this didn't work and I was as ostracized in the new school as I was in the old school. People just knew that I was different. Embarrassed by this situation I lied to my family and pretended that I enjoyed my time at the new school even though I was miserable there. The trauma of being rejected by all of my peers affected my learning abilities and I was believed to have learning disabilities when I was in middle school. This situation continued into high school. I remember one girl asking me, "Why does everyone hate you?"

In addition to the social rejection I was often physically abused by my peers, and while I was never a slouch in the toughness department I was greatly outnumbered by those who disliked me. And there were always kids who were tougher than me. I remember certain people absolutely hating me for no reason other than the fact that I was different, despite the fact that I never did any harm to any of these people.  I was forced to attend counseling when I was in middle school and I remember asking the counselor why the "normal" kids weren't also there for the type of abuse they put me through. Was it "normal" to hate and abuse other people simply for being different? Was trying to physically hurt people that they disliked a trait that I should aspire to? If that was "normal" behavior, then I was glad to be different.

However, the abuse I endured took a heavy toll on me. I was a hater of the human race for a long time, and while I elected to leave Christianity when I was 13 due to the negative views of Christianity I developed as a result of being abused and rejected by my fellow Christians at the Catholic school I attended, I was agnostic for many years. I couldn't believe that a God existed in a universe where certain people could be singled out for unhappiness and abuse.

But as the years passed, and I realized that I was destined to be different in many other ways that aroused the ire of my peers, I realized that I wasn't cursed. I was given a great gift. The ability to see things outside of the box and to be able to adopt alternative views and ideologies made me realize that there was a consciousness to the universe that guided humanity through existence. I wasn't rejected by the universe, I was singled out for a great purpose. There were others like me and I had only to seek them out to be accepted and to make great new friends. That is why I'm here right now.

Sometimes I get despondent when I think of all the years I wasted resenting humanity for the way I was treated by the ignorant and the "normal" people in society. I spent so many years being low in confidence and possessing low self-esteem that I effectively lost a huge chunk of my youth to such negative personal feelings. My potential development as a human being was greatly delayed. But since I have developed a strong and abiding love for humanity I have realized the potential of my species and I realized that the slew of different-minded people in the world hold the key to humanity's future. I am not saying that I believe that I am better or superior to the average person simply because I see outside of the proverbial box and they do not. Quite the contrary. I realize that if I got too elated about being different and "special" that I could potentially become arrogant and develop delusions of grandeur towards the rest of humanity. I knew I had to be very careful about that.

When it comes down to it, I have many of the same desires as the average person. I love many people in my life and I desire to be loved and accepted in return. I want to find something that I am successful at. That makes me similar to the average person. What sets me apart is how I have the capacity to question the status quo and to see a better world. I no longer worry about having popular views or "fitting in." I am happy to find a group of people who accept me and who I care about and receive love and support in return. I don't believe that I am better than anyone else but I do know that if only there were more "different" people in the world, real change would happen sooner.

I am thankful for the opportunity to reach out and help others along their many disparate paths in life, and luckily this community gives me the chance to do that.

Whenever I tell my fellow Wiccans that I have a strong affinity with the Norse deities, I tend to get mixed reactions at times. Just in case anyone in this community believes that it's an odd dichotomy for me to be Norse Wiccan, I thought I would take a blog to explain the finer points of how the Norse way fits into my spirituality.

I once had a fellow Wiccan of a more eclectic tradition look at me with bemusement and ask me, "How can you, who purports to be part of a spiritual system that favors peace and love for all humanity, revere a pantheon of war-like deities? I think that is a major contradiction in your faith."

Such a question betrays a lack of insight on the entire picture regarding the Norse faith. To start with, in the Norse schema, the gods were composed of two separate tribes of deities, the Aesir and the Vanir, who merged togther to become the Norse gods. But the beginning of their relationship was much more tumultuous. According to the myths, the Aesir and the Vanir had a war that ended in a draw, with the final result being both tribes coming together to form a single tribe of deities. Now, in regards to what my aforementioned fellow Wiccan said to me...yes, it's true that the Aesir have many warriors among them and as such had a knack for engaging in warfare, and in fact it was the Aesir who picked the fight with the Vanir. However, the Vanir were peaceful fertility deities despite their warrior aspects and they only fought when absolutely necessary.  When they merged with the Aesir, the Vanir shared all of their peaceful, artistic attributes with the Aesir.  It should also be noted that the Aesir weren't themselves bereft of aspects that had to do with art, poetry, love, psychic abilities and other attributes that had to do with peace. For instance, Frigga, wife of Odin, was a goddess of marriage, Baldur was a gleaming god who was famous for representing peace and harmony, and Mimir was likewise a god who embodied peace and education.

Hence, the Norse deities are not all about war. Warrior attributes were important to the ancient Norse, as they lived in a much more harsh world than we do today, and in their time it was considered very important to have warrior skills because they could mean the difference between life and death for not only every person but also for the entire community. As a result, they favored such aspects in their deities. But they were part of a culture that also valued friendship, loyalty, love, honor, and the liberal and fine arts. 

This brings me to perhaps the most popular and well-loved deity in the Norse pantheon, who I have a special affinity with and who I consider to be my patron god (as you can tell by the pic I have chosen to represent me to the community)...Thor.  Since he is among the most well known of the Norse deities in our culture, and is often used as a metaphor for many things in both language and symbolism, I thought I would explain a bit why I feel such a strong spiritual connection with this deity.

Yes, it's true that Thor was essentially a warrior and the myths describe him as being a champion against the giants (or Jotuns), who were a third race of beings that the Aesir and the Vanir were constantly engaged in conflicts with (but more on them in a bit). I do not ignore Thor's warrior aspects, as despite my opposition to war and my belief that violence should only be resorted to when absolutely necessary, I am NOT a pacifist. I do pray to Thor to enable me to be able to defend myself, my loved ones, and the weak in any situation where it may be absolutely necessary to do so. However, Thor is far from a mere totem of unbridled machismo to me. He symbolizes strength, integrity, and honor in the moral and spiritual domain, as he was depicted in the myths to be a loyal and trustworthy friend, and a deity who knew the meaning of honor and integrity. These attributes are very important to me, as I strive very hard to be an honorable person who is very loyal to my friends and I greatly value the trust that people place in me. Every time I see a pic of Thor or his mighty battle hammer, Mjolnir, I am reminded of the vastly important traits of honor, friendship, and trustworthiness, and I resolve to place these things on a very high pedestal in my life.

Further, since Thor was worshipped in times past by the common individual in Norse society, and was probably more popular than any other god to the common individual, in later times he came to symbolize the working class and the strength and integrity they needed to survive, stay united, and eventually work together to create a better world where everyone has an access to the abundance that modern technology makes possible for the world, not just the wealthy few. 

It should also be noted that Thor is a weather god, as the myths contend that his enchanted hammer Mjolnir gave him control over the forces of nature, particularly thunder, lightening, and rain. Farmers would often pray to him for rain to feed their crops, and Thor can still be called upon for that same purpose today. So he and his hammer are also symbols of crop fertility and abundance. As such, Thor can be called upon for all manner of things connected to these endeavors, including the search for a new job. But as I noted before, he is an important symbol of strength and honor above all else, as well as a dashing symbol to the common person in society.

Some of the other Norse deities that I have a strong affinity for include Baldur, god of light, a deity of harmony and a staunch friend who never fails to come when I am in need of some support; Frigga, queen of the gods and goddess of marriage, as she is a strong spiritual mother figure to me; Bragi, god of poetry and eloquence, who I have called upon for creativity in my writing and for literary inspiration; Freya, goddess of love and fertility, as well as a mistress of magick and the runes, perhaps one of the most important goddesses in the modern world; and despite his ominous and unpredictable reputation, I do often call upon Odin, king of the deities, who is also a master of medicine (I remember calling upon him  when my beloved grandmother was almost lost to us when she had her aneurysm and I have called upon him to soothe my own symptoms of chronic fatigue), a patron of psychics and a master of the runes, as well as one of the most powerful sources of energy in the cosmos.

There is one more accusation that has been leveled against the Norse deities that I would like to address here. Because of the constant conflict between the Norse gods and the giants, it has been suggested that this is indicative of a form of racism. I don't see it that way, since the gods are composed of two tribes with different attributes who ultimately worked out their differences and came together in peace to form one tribe. The giants are believed by some to be devalued god-forms who were once worshipped by human tribes before the Aesir and the Vanir came on the scene and eclipsed them as figures of worship. To me, I see the giants in the myths as symbolic of the many conflicts that we face in our life, and the warfare of the gods and the giants has always metaphorically represented the eternal struggle between order and chaos, or on a scale we can more easily relate to, the constant efforts we make to conquer the negative things in life that constantly challenge us, such as illness, money problems, crime, broken relationships, etc.  The gods in the myths represent our inner strength and finer attributes that allow us to resist the negativity in the world and become stronger and better people as a result of this conflict. It should also be noted that a few members of the giants, such as Loki and Skadi, ended up on peaceful terms with the gods and actually joined the pantheon as fellow deities, and Frey, Freya's twin brother and the god of agriculture (the Norse equivalent of the ancient Horned God), married a female giant named Gerda.

For anyone who may want to read more about Norse Wicca and the deities from a Norse Wiccan perspective, as well as their creation myth and more indepth descriptions of all of the deities, as well as a critique of certain websites on the Norse deities, you can check out my essay on my website for Wicca:  http://angelfire.com/ny2/wiccan/norsewicca.html

Of course, there is much more to my spirituality than my reverence for the Norse deities. Though I am Norse Wiccan, I believe that being a spiritual person is much more important than adhering to any one religion. I have currently chosen an alternative religion for myself to help me explore the mysteries of the universe, such as the spiritual world and reincarnation, and I see it merely as a tool of self-discovery and as a means of getting closer to the consciousness of the universe (as I articulated in a previous blog). I believe that in addition to angels, spirits, and other such beings that share the cosmos with us, there are the various pantheons of deities, greater in power than humans but of a lesser status than the divine creator-being (who some may call "God"). I believe that we share the universe with many such beings, and we should strive to form a harmonious relationship with them, because there is much to be mutually gained from our spiritual symbiosis with such beings. I am not certain what the origin of such beings are, but I believe they were created by the central consciousness of this universe much as the mortal life forms in the universe were.

The gods are a mystery of the universe that deserve exploration, as humankind has pondered their true nature since ancient times, much as they have the angels and other spiritual beings, and I believe that as more spiritual-minded people come into the world, it's good to develop a positive rapport with such beings. Of course, being involved with the deities is not for everyone, as some may choose to simply call upon the divine essence of the universe directly, without any "go-betweens," and this is perfectly fine, as all paths and methodologies have equal validity. I am simply highlighting one particular methodology that works for me personally, and also hoping to answer a few questions as to why I revere the Norse deities in particular, in case anyone in the community was curious. I believe the gods of Asgard (the realm where the Norse gods live) have chosen me to have a strong connection with them, as I always had a strong affinity for them from the time I first began studying mythology and from the time I first began wondering about the mysteries of this universe. It just feels "right" for me to connect with them, and they have been stalwart friends and companions of mine for well over a decade and a half now.

Chris

It was approximately 12 years ago that I first became afflicted with a baffling and debilitating medical condition known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).  As a result, I have had to curtail my martial arts training entirely, and that really broke my heart as I was once a very avid practitioner of the martial arts. I have had to cut back on travel plans and I have had many other limitations thrown my way as well, including job limitations.  There is no treatment for this cruel and agonizing disease and medical science still has no good explanation for it.  There are a few theories, however, and I am now confident that I acquired this disease as a result of a nasty bacterial infection in the lymph nodes of my neck and lower jaw area, followed by a severe secondary infection of my ear, that resulted in damage being done to a section of my brain connected to sleep. 

As a result of CFS, I am constantly assailed by feelings of exhaustion, I freqeuntly feel ill as if I have a very miserable case of the flu, and I suffer from what is known as post-exertional malaise every single time I exert myself in the slightest.  I have since learned to work out again with weights, but I have to be very careful and I have to be prepared to get sick after such exertions. Hence, I have learned to only work out on days when I have nothing else planned. Some people recover from this disease on their own in anywhere from six months to a few years to sometimes over 20 years. A few unlucky souls have this disease for life after first acquiring it.

The topic for this particular blog is connected to the issue of my CFS.  How has suffering from a chronic illness like CFS affected my spirituality? The answer: in profound ways.

After suffering from this horrid disease for 12 years, I have since concluded that it may be necessary for me to experience this disease for karmic reasons. I have attempted to utilize vitamin treatments and magickal spells to cure myself, with the former being utterly ineffective (despite a lot of recommendations) and the latter helping reduce the severity of the symptoms from time to time. But the general symptoms, at varying degrees of severity from day to day and hour to hour, have remained. I often pray to the Norse deity Odin, as he is a master of medicine, but for reasons of his own he has thus far chosen not to go against the greater will of the universe.

I have long believed that suffering is sometimes necessary for the soul to learn and to grow. Only by being in the physical body can we experience certain types of pain and trials, and this pain helps us to learn both humility and a sense of respect for the limits of the human condition. On the other hand, I think suffering from a chronic condition like CFS can boost our character by making us struggle all the harder with life. When you have a chronic medical condition you learn not to take what life offers you for granted and you come to more appreciate the meaning of struggle and perseverance.

Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that suffering from a chronic illness is a "good" thing. I pray that we can one day live in a world where a combination of medical science and better living conditions eliminate most or all such illnesses from our lives. I believe there are more things we can accomplish when we are healthy. But good health is not the birthright of everyone, and for various random and karmic reasons some of us will have to experience certain illnesses in order to learn and to grow. I am not suggesting that we should ever stop trying to get well or looking for a cure because striving to recover from a debilitating illness only enhances our strength of character and the depth of our life experience.

However, for the time when you do suffer from such a disease, even if it's life-long, the important thing is to never give up. Never stop trying to live your life to the fullest, regardless of whatever your limitations are, and do not allow yourself to give in to resentment of the universe, or to the spiritual consciousness of the universe (God, if you prefer to call it that). The universal consciousness doesn't hate any of hir children, and s/he never brings any condition down upon us that we are incapable of handling. This doesn't mean that the universal consciousness is always fair. Sometimes, feeling a bit of resentment and even jealousy towards every healthy person that you see is a normal way of dealing with such a trying illness. But you must never allow this resentment to get the better of you or to deter you from your life purpose. Life goes on even when you are constantly sick, and you must strive to accomplish all that you were meant to accomplish despite such an affliction. And you must continue your love for your fellow humans in the process and not let jealousy taint your spirit.  Once you succeed, you will only be a stronger person in the end, and at the end of this trial there will always be succor and a huge spurt of positive growth for your spiritual essence.

If you succeed in recovering from your illness after a long time of striving and effort, then you will emerge a much better person and much more appreciative for the gift of life. And if you never recover in this particular lifetime, your spirit will still have made a great accomplishment and you can rest assured that your next life experience will be bereft of the need to suffer a chronic illness in order to grow. In either case, those of us with chronic illnesses need to persevere and work all the harder towards accomplishing our life mission and to evolve spiritually and in life experience.

As I am an active participant in the dialogue of various intellectual groups I have found myself under extreme pressure in many instances to convert to atheism and to deny the spiritual aspect of the universe in all its myriad forms. Atheism is truly all the rage among the intellectuals, and it's gradually picking up speed among liberals and other progressives who have declared ideological war on anything remotely to do with religion.

But why haven't I caved to this pressure? After all, I'm a socialist, and wasn't Karl Marx a complete materialist who was against any spiritual interpretation of the universe?

The reasons I haven't caved to this pressure are many.

For one thing, while I fully support science and secularism in government, I believe that our scientific knowledge has made it clear that there is much more to the universe than our five physical senses and modern technology can perceive. I think there is much more wonder to the universe than the atheistic mindset conceives of. I do not slavishly insist that only the things that my physical eyes--or modern technology--can currently behold are all that exists to the universe. Psychics and mystics receive brief glimpses and insights into the glory of all that exists in the universe beyond the five physical senses of the average human being, and I think what we can perceive in the moments that a door fleetingly opens between the worlds is but a hint of the many extraordinary wonders that have yet to be discovered and categorized by science.

For another thing, the atheists and complete materialists have (at least in my opinion) a very somber and bleak worldview, one where our lives are meaningless and without purpose in this universe, and that our essence simply ends when we experience physical death. In other words, after the biological brain ceases to function, we simply embrace dark oblivion for eternity. To me, this seems to be a monumental waste of the universe's resources. Based on my personal experience, I believe I have noticed a beautiful symmetry to the universe's design and structure, which implies that everyone and everything in the physical universe is imbued with a purpose and reason for existing. I have read enough accounts of OBE's and NDE's and various spiritual accounts over the many centuries to believe that there is plenty of evidence that human consciousness is an energy that continues to exist after our physical demise and which goes on to temporarily inhabit otherdimensional realms beyond the material realm until such time that our consciousness is ready to be recycled in another physical incarnation. This belief has nothing to do with religion. Religion is simply a tool that many people utilize in an attempt to connect with these mysteries of the universe, because science currently wants little to do with answering these questions. Atheism insists that what science has yet to prove cannot be real simply because religion has attempted to probe these mysteries. In my opinion, the attempts by atheistic proponents to connect the idea of the universe being a conscious entity and the continuation of human consciousness after our physical deaths with religion and philosophy alone does a great disservice to the many people who want valid answers to these questions.

Many people, like myself, are dissatisfied with atheism's scorn and dismissal of all the questions that spirituality attempts to unlock for us simply due to the widespread dislike of religion that such people harbor.

Because I have a strong curiosity about the universe and its various mysteries, because I cannot attune myself to atheism's dreary and sour worldview of a meaningless existence and eternal nothingness after I die, and because I have a strong intuitive feeling that human life is more than just the sum of its biological parts, I cannot sincerely embrace total materialism, and though I support the materialist view in regards to economics and human history (for the most part, as I believe that spirituality has had a role to play in human history as well), I do not accept this same view when applied in a macrocosmic extent for the entire universe. This is what led me to mysticism and spirituality...a desire to know. Most of all, I have a desire to simply understand why I exist and to achieve harmony with that purpose of mine.

All things considered, atheism answers none of my questions about the universe and seeks to keep these questions eternally unanswered by the human species simply because of its disdain for one of the methods used by humanity (for better or for worst) for coming to understand these various mysteries.

Since I have been a civil rights activist for most of my life, I often receive severe challenges to my opinion that humanity is worthwhile and has a positive, glorious destiny before it. I always hear opinions from a lot of intellectuals and other intelligent people that humanity is inherently evil, is incapable of creating a better world, that we are fated to destroy each other completely in a nuclear holocaust or some other type of environmental disaster, etc. 

I hear these attacks on humanity's collective character so often that I sometimes wonder why so many people even bother to remain civil and social rights activists despite their bleak opinions of humanity, and I have been inevitably forced to question why I still struggle so hard for the spiritual salvation of humanity if we are all supposedly doomed to destruction from our own evil nature. Keeping in mind that this is not a forum dedicated to politics but rather to spirituality and metaphysics, I will tackle this question from the latter perspective.

Though I believe that the current global socio-economic order is mainly responsible for causing most of humanity's blatantly negative traits to manifest on a daily basis, I think a lack of spirituality is another major problem. Interestingly, many politicians and intellectuals on the liberal side of things eschew spirituality and attempt to take an entirely materialistic view of the universe. As such, many of them tend to envision a better future for humanity as one that contains no religion or spirituality of any kind. Though I do not believe that religion is necessarily the bastion of evil and deception that many intellectuals seem to feel, I would like to mention that I think pure spirituality is distinct from religion. It's hard to describe what spirituality is on paper, but it's well known to every spiritual person. The closest I can come to defining spirituality is a strong sense of connection to the world and the universe and a powerful sense of understanding. Many intellectuals are very intelligent, but they lack a spiritual side, and as such, they feel free to harbor a negative view of humanity that ignores the many good things that human beings do for each other.

Yes, it's true that humanity is involved in many savage wars. We have serial killers among our number, not to mention people who rob and steal from others. But look at all of the countless numbers of non-wealthy people that give their time to volunteering and charity work. Not only that, but I remember seeing a TV show many years ago about disasters. I remember seeing how average people were caught on film risking their lives to save people that they didn't even know. That moment greatly inspired me, and it filled me with a deep understanding and strong inner feeling that humanity is not doomed, but is quite capable of reaching a spiritual horizon where love and mutual respect wins out over war, crime, rampant violence, environmental destruction, etc.

Now, many intellectuals that I know of would yell at me for that previous sentence and say, "We don't need spirituality to create a better world!"  That is true, as I would never try to suggest that atheists or materialists were any less capable of good than any spiritual person, but people on the spiritual side have a strong inner understanding that humanity is worthwhile and that we have a glorious destiny before us. We have a strong sense of understanding of the world that goes beyond politics and economics, and as such we are in a unique position to benefit the world with our insights.

Personally, though I know it will be a long time before humanity reaches a higher spiritual level collectively, those of us who reach some degree of spirituality at the present time can do our best to help our fellow humans reach that higher plane. We can continue to offer our insights to the public via blogging, phone, and other ventures for anyone who is willing to listen. Though I understand that many people will not choose a spiritual path, and I respect those for choosing a strictly materialist path for themselves, I will continue on the spiritual path for myself because I believe that it helps keep me focused on humanity's collective potential, and that helps me better fulfill my own individual potential as well.

I pay attention to all the good that humanity does and for all of the wonderful people that I have known in this world and whom I continue to know, and simply viewing all of these people and their positive activities is enough to convince me that humanity is worthwhile. Even during these times of hardships for humanity and the trying nature of our currrent global order on our collective psyches, I still see enough good to make it clear to any spiritual person that humankind will eventually overcome its major obstacles and create a higher civilization that everyone will be proud to live in.

Chris