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The following reflects my personal religious and political
opinions, with which many readers, Pagan or not, may freely disagree.
Yet I believe this needs to be said and the arguments in our
community need to be started, while we are still capable of both.
Our Situation, Our Obligations
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Our Situation, Our Obligations
Fundamentalist Christian spellcasters, aiding and aided by
the criminals they helped put into power, continue to aim directly
at the roots of American democracy—the electoral process,
the Constitution, and our precious Bill of Rights. In the 1990s,
so-called “prayer warriors” of the Religious
Reich bragged about the curses they laid on Bill Clinton
and the Democratic Party. They announced an all-out spiritual
attack on liberal and moderate candidates for public office—including
the sending of death curses through “imprecatory
psalms.” Similar activities, combined with “stealth
campaigns” (where candidates for obscure but important local
offices are promoted through church meetings and deliberately
remain otherwise unknown) have taken place at subsequent local,
state and national elections, in the Christian
Reconstructionists’ never-ending campaign to replace
our democracy with a fundamentalist Christian theocracy. Today
they are bragging about casting death spells on President Obama.
Whether one is a Republican, a Democrat, a Green, a Libertarian,
or an Independent, such spiritual arrogance must be challenged.
The Religious Reich is performing—or at least advocating—acts
of what used to be called, “black magic”—the same
kind of spiritual evil for which their predecessors gleefully
accused, tortured, condemned, and murdered hundreds of thousands
of innocents over the centuries (something their missionaries
are still doing today in Africa and South America).
In recent years, leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, frustrated
by their loss of secular power, have used spiritual blackmail
against Catholic politicians who chose to represent their constituents
instead of the Church’s theologians. Refusing the sacraments
to Catholics is only one short step away from casting curses,
for devout Catholics believe that the Church’s magical rituals
are vital to their salvation. With the former Grand Inquisitor
now the Pope, we can all expect more of the same from Rome.
In the secular realm, the same people who short-circuited
the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections have hijacked the effort
to create an electoral system based on accountability, by promoting
easily-hacked
electronic voting machines, all manufactured by multimillionaire
donors to the Republican Party—machines that, by an odd
coincidence, produce no paper trail to allow verification or
recounting (see that link for details). And of course, this track
record of deception and crime led many to expect an “October
Surprise” from the Neo-Conservatives who hijacked the Republican
Party, to try to sway (or postpone) the elections at the last
moment. Instead, thanks to the secular and magical work of many,
in 2006 and 2008 the surprises were exposures of personal corruption
and electoral dirty-tricks, plus the election of a liberal-sounding
presedential candidate by a margin too large to scam away.
There are many important secular/mundane steps those of us
who belong to minority belief systems must take to protect ourselves
and our fellow citizens. These include registering to vote, participating
in political discussions, keeping track of the actions of those
elected, and most important, showing up on election days and
VOTING based on our spiritual and
ethical beliefs. Want to know why? Read 13
Reasons Why Pagans Should Vote.
An important note: while U.S. national and state elections
are usually held on the second Tuesday in November, often local
school board and county government elections, as well as party
primaries, are held in other months. We all need to be aware
of when they are happening, for these “little” elections
are the ones in which Religious Reich stealth campaigns are most
effective and their results most devastating to our children
and their futures. Don’t forget to send copies of any biased
“voter guides” handed out in local churches to the
Internal Revenue Service — tax-exempt
churches are not allowed to endorse candidates for public office,
even though that’s exactly what the Republican Party told
thousands of Fundamentalist and Evangelical churches to do in
2004 (New
York Times July 1, 2004), 2006, 2008, and will no doubt do
the same in 2010.
We have other obligations, however—magical and spiritual
ones. We must not allow half-baked, Christian Dualist concepts
of Neopagan ethics to excuse our own sins of “scrupulosity,”
that is, of being so afraid to do something wrong that we avoid
opportunities, no duties, to do something right. It is
well past time to apply our pluralist, polytheological beliefs
to decide what those duties and obligations are, and our superior
magical technologies and arts to exercising them. The groundwork
has already been laid.
Our Talisman in Washington
Many people are familiar with the Statue of Liberty that stands
in New York harbor. The people at the Pagan Voting Project have
a
nice page about Her, with links to others. Some may have
heard of Columbia, who was an early goddess image of America
(now known mostly through patriotic songs and the logo of Columbia
Pictures). Not as many know about another major statue of Her
under another name, high in the air over Washington, DC.
 In 1993 c.e., I led a group of Druids, Wiccans and
other Earth Religionists in consecrating the statue of the Goddess
of Freedom that now stands atop the Capitol Building’s dome—on
the same day, it turned out, that Masons were ceremonially (re)consecrating
a duplicate of the building’s cornerstone on the other side
of the Capital. In keeping with the ancient spiritual principle
of “as above, so below,” the Capitol Building now has
powerful magical talismans dedicated to freedom and democracy
physically in place above and below it.
According to the Architect of the Capitol, Office of the Curator,
“The bronze Statue of Freedom by Thomas Crawford is the
crowning feature of the dome of the United States Capitol. The
statue is a classical female figure of Freedom wearing flowing
draperies. Her right hand rests upon the hilt of a sheathed sword;
her left holds a laurel wreath of victory and the shield of the
United States with thirteen stripes. Her helmet is encircled
by stars and features a crest composed of an eagle’s head,
feathers, and talons, a reference to the costume of Native Americans.
A brooch inscribed ‘U.S.’ secures her fringed robes.
She stands on a cast-iron globe encircled with the national motto,
E Pluribus Unum. The lower part of the base is decorated
with fasces and wreaths. Ten bronze points tipped with platinum
are attached to her headdress, shoulders, and shield for protection
from lightning. The bronze statue stands 19 feet 6 inches tall
and weighs approximately 15,000 pounds. Her crest rises 288 feet
above the east front plaza.”
On October 15, 2000 c.e., there was another ritual in Washington
DC, at the Blessed Be and Meet Me in DC 2000 gathering. As before,
we invoked Lady Liberty, this time using talismans representing
the four branches of government: the White House, the Capitol
Building, the Supreme Courthouse, and the Pentagon, to bless
and consecrate those buildings. Our intent? To make it easier
for Her to influence all those who work in and near those buildings
to keep the oaths they have taken, in accordance with
Her highest ideals. Every year since, on the 4th of July,
I have renewed this consecration, alone or with others.
I repeat my proposal that we who live in the United States,
currently the most powerful and therefore the most dangerous
nation in the world, inaugurate a new Pagan Holy Day in
the Neopagan calendar. Around every 4th of July, let us
all invoke Lady Liberty, the Goddesses Freedom, Justice, Truth,
and other appropriate deities (the Roman pantheon is filled with
such personified abstracts and works well with the architecture
and thinking patterns of the American government). Begin by reconsecrating
the statue of Freedom in DC, the Statue of Liberty in NYC, or
other local statues of Her. Ask Her/Them to increase Their influence,
not just over Washington DC, but over all our state capitols
as well, so that our legislators, executives, judges, and military/police
will also act in accordance with Their highest ideals. In addition,
let us cast our own spells, every year with Their help and guidance,
to encourage our public servants to remember what they are: the
servants of the entire public, members of all religions
and none. (I have a page of Liberty
Rite Materials that will provide some ideas and I would be
happy to add more from my readers.)
Pagan Political
Spells
Those with the magical skills and spiritual courage to do
so should go beyond that essentially theurgical approach to ones
a bit more thaumaturgically active. This is why I founded the
Spells
for Democracy egroup at yahoogroups.com. We have around 150
members and hundreds of other Pagans around the world worried
about democracy in America, so we are able to try multiple approaches
simultaneously. Here are some of the spells we’ve been working
on for the last several years:
Doing guilt spells on all adults living within a twenty
mile radius of our members, to make them feel terrible if they
don’t register, pay attention to the news, and vote. From
Halloween night till election night, actively sending out
the vibe to the entire country for first-time voters, slackers,
stay-at-homes, cynics, seniors, and others who vaguely support
progressive candidates to actually get out and cast their votes.
Please note that we did NOT try to make
them vote for particular candidates or propositions, though
most of our personal preferences are liberal. If you haven’t
registered yet (shame on you!), go to <www.YourVoteMatters.org>,
answer a few simple questions online, and print out your completed
voter registration form. Use this as a magical talisman in your
spell, then mail it to the address provided and you’re registered.
These spells are the magical equivalent of making people feel
guilty for not fulfilling their civic duty.
Doing protection spells on candidates we think most
likely to be cursed by Christian spellcasters or victimized by
electoral skullduggery, using campaign photos or posters for
focusing devices. These spells are the magical equivalent
of providing bodyguards. With the enormous amount of racist
hatred and right wing lunacy being whipped up by the Republican
Party and its corporate owners against President Obama, protection
spells around him should be done by everyone on a regular basis.
Doing revelation spells on major criminal suspects
in Washington DC and our own state capitols. It’s
clear that Bush had some pretty heavy shielding around him, courtesy
of millions of theocrats praying (not to mention his psychological
density), so direct efforts to affect him didn’t
seem to work, without a specifically focussed effort to magically
“drill” through the cloud of pink fuzzy Christian prayers.
The people around him, on the other paw, were much more vulnerable.
We need more and more of them making mistakes in their public
speeches, revealing the truth about their long-term theocratic
and neo-conservative plans for our nation and the world.These
efforts appear to have been spectacularly successful in 2006.
and 2008 This process needs to continue, targeting those people
who are organizing town-hall riots to slow down health care reform.
You can get useful images from government, campaign, corporate,
media, and activist websites, as well as from the annual reports
of most corporations (available through public libraries). Using
a photograph or a corporate logo, direct the attention of deities
associated with truth, justice, and freedom, asking that any
criminal and unethical plans and actions of the individuals or
corporations be revealed to the world immediately, in ways that
even the uneducated and uninformed will notice and understand.
These spells are the magical equivalent of investigative journalism
actually getting done by the mass media.
Doing gonad transplant spells on journalists, especially
on the major TV networks, to give them courage, tenacity, rudeness,
and whatever else is needed to correct lies and errors by the
candidates, other politicians, corporate spokespeople, and lobbyists
immediately after they are made, rather than weeks after the
elections are over. Between elections, we want to increase their
coverage of scandals, crimes, and incompetence. These spells
are increasingly successful in 2009. These spells are the
magical equivalent of making people do their jobs.
Focusing energy on polling places in our states (or
other swing states) to make sure that all votes are honestly
and successfully cast and counted. These spells are the magical
equivalent of looking over the poll workers’ shoulders.
Now it is possible, of course, that members of the Religious
Reich (or Republican Pagans!) might try to do some of these same
spells on Democratic critics and candidates, which might wind
up getting some Democratic candidates defeated. That’s a
risk we’re willing to take. We’re not starting
a magical war here, we’re trying to get honest people to
start fighting back in a war that’s been going on
for a long time. Even though the theocrats may outnumber us by
a thousand to one, we actually know more about how magic works
than they do and can therefore cast more effective spells.
In previous years we were surprised by just what depths of
criminality and mud-slinging the theo-cons and neo-cons were
willing to sink. We have learned that lesson well and are prepared
for them.
Remember, only Christian and Islamic Dualists need to think
that spiritual matters and physical matters are innately different,
so as to require separate systems of ethics. The same ethics
by which you live your secular life are the ethics that should
guide your magical/spiritual life. Pagans and New Agers are free
to use pluralistic, complex ethics to decide their actions. As
one Neopagan polytheologian, I believe these spells are all ethical
ones. You may wish to consult divinatory wisdom on the matter.
But for the Gods’ sake, don’t just sit on your hands
doing nothing!
By the way, those of you who are, like myself, members of
a “third party,” should magically protect all of its
candidates and plan on voting for those running for non-federal
local and state offices. It will take several election cycles
of successful local and state candidates for any third parties
to be allowed to break into the Christian Dualist two-party system
on the federal level. I hate to admit it, but money and energy
(physical or magical) invested currently in third party
candidates for federal offices are essentially wasted,
except for whatever feelings of self-righteousness they may engender.
I know very well that not all Neopagans apply their polytheology
to their political views in the same ways that I do. To me it
seem obvious that politicians dedicated to making the USA a fundamentalist
theocracy, to encouraging the fundamentalists in Islam to see
this century as one dedicated to an un-Holy War between the two
lunacies, and, incidentally, giving a totally free reign to every
multinational corporation willing to pay big bribes to politicians,
isn’t going to give much attention to the needs or even
basic human rights of minority belief systems, at home or abroad,
including ours. The Neo-Con Imperialists and the Religious Reich
have been telling us for over a decade what their plans are.
It is way past time to pay attention and take action with
the only form of power they can’t take away from us: magic.
In any event, I think everyone eligible should register
and vote for whomever they think best, because I feel confident
that the resulting winners will not be Halliburton and Exxon.
Progressives in the USA may have to win campaigns for Congress
despite the official efforts of the Democratic Party,
but we seem to have done a pretty
good job of that in 2006 and 2008. Now, unfortunately, we
will have to set up watchdog groups to make sure they don’t
immediately sell out by jumping to the so-called “center,”
which is political code-speak for kissing up to the right. This
year, more than ever, progressives are the center!
Every year, in late October or early November, just before
most U.S. state and national elections take place, many Neopagans
celebrate the Feast
of Samhain, honoring our ancestors. At this most sacred of
times, let us remember all our ancestors who fought and died
for religious freedom and invoke them to shield every
polling place in our country from Christian warlocks and
political rogues.
 There
are millions of Paleopagans, Mesopagans,
and Neopagans living in the U.S.A., as well as millions more
New Agers, metaphysicians and religious liberals. Every year,
let every group of us bless our local polling places, and place
divine protection around those candidates in our areas who have
been targeted for destruction by these demon-obsessed Satanic
Panickers and cynical manipulators. Let us allow the people of
America to make their own choices, in the privacy of the voting
booth, without the influences of malevolent spells from those
who wrap themselves in the garb of Christian holiness. For that
matter, let us become polling place attendents and politically
active watchdogs to stop rigged voting machines, mysteriously
missing translators in minority language neighborhoods, misplaced
paper ballots, illegally disenfranchised voters, or other secular
schemes (all of which were used in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, and
2008).
If Christian “prayer warriors” and Neo-conservative
scoundrels want to attack those who resist their theocratic and
imperial ambitions, then true spiritual warriors must protect
the innocent and level the playing field. May the Earth Mother
and the Goddess of Liberty bless all those who stand for Them
in battle.
P.S.: Having good images with which to focus your prayers
is always a good idea. Here’s a page of Spells
for Democracy Images you can print out and use for ritual
purposes. Unlike all the other pages on my website, this one
has no “Back” link at the bottom, so that everything
will fit on one 8.5"x14" sheet of paper—just use your browser’s Back Button
instead!
It is way past time that the 75% of the Neopagan community
who are progressives and liberals stop letting the 25% of right-wing
contrarians prevent us from organizing to support Pagan-friendly,
Goddess-friendly, and Earth-friendly politicians and policies.
But whatever you do, brothers & sisters, do Something!!!
Don’t just sit on your hands piously asserting your
virtue.
Some 2006 and 2008 Afterthoughts
Sometimes democracy really works! With the American House
of Representatives and the Senate being swept by progressive
and other Democratic candidates, plus the election of a progressive-talking
President, important steps towards restoring sanity have been
taken.
I have to admit to be really surprised that there were so
few problems with the electronic voting machines and the new
election laws in so many states (only a few thousand reports
instead of a few million). Perhaps the Republicans just decided
that the polls were so indicative of a landslide that they didn't
want to get caught stealing another election -- especially with
tens of thousands of self-appointed journalists showing up at
the polls with cameras -- but I'd like to credit our spellcasting
of protection and justice around the polls as having played a
small role as well.
This is not the end of the job, however, since there is plenty
of work remaining for American progressives. The House and Senate
are still going to be full of people in both political parties
who enabled the previous Administration's vile, unamerican, and
treasonous policies. People who voted for an unending "war"
against a military tactic, who voted to allow the invasion of
Iraq for the benefit of Exxon-Mobile and Halliburton, who voted
to gut the Constitution, who voted for kidnapping and torture
of suspected "terrorists," who voted to avoid
investigating war profiteering and corruption...
Spells for Democracy will still need to be cast in the months
and years to come. Progressives within the various political
parties will need to find new candidates to run against the enablers
in 2010's primary and general elections. We will be able to assist
by doing more revelation spells to expose more crime and corruption.
Prime targets for these spells should be corporate lackeys enslaved
by lobbiest bribes -- beginning with those who come from states
with progressive governors who could replace them with honest
progressives.
We can also work on spells to support real election,
campaign, and lobbying reforms that will open up the political
process to multiple political parties and make the entire process
as transparent and open as possible. This will require us to
keep track of such issues on a regular basis by reading right-wing,
left-wing, and middle-of-the-bird political blogs and websites,
plus doing our our research into the complexities involved in
true reforms. We will need to set up databases to keep track
of all the info.
Those of you who are ready to let the world know that fundamentalists
aren’t the only ones who are willing to take political action
in the ongoing culture war between dualists and pluralists may
wish to join the NeoPaganPAC e-list by sending an empty
email to <NeoPaganPAC-subscribe@yahoogroups.com>.
My friend and successor as Archdruid of ADF, Adr. Skip Ellison,
has started this list and he is particularly looking for people
who “have experience working in the formation of
a PAC, working on a PAC, working as a lobbyist, or are willing
to donate time and, more importantly, money to have our viewpoint
known.”
I'm planning to devote more time to coordinating the research
necessary to make our magical work as precise, focused, and effective
as possible. I hope that the other members of our Spells
for Democracy e-group will stay with the process for as long
as is necessary to create an America we can all be proud of again.
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