|
Post by I AM the Way on Dec 4, 2012 10:33:57 GMT -6
I had the opportunity to talk about our religion last night, just an overview, although there were a few specifics. 3 people called in to join the conversation and a 4th just called the station to say they enjoyed the show. I've been asked to come back in about 6 months for a follow-up.
www.wortfm.org/archives/
Go to the access hour on Dec. 3rd and either play or download it.
Awake!
VS
|
|
|
Post by sin on Dec 4, 2012 11:26:33 GMT -6
That first caller gave you a run for your money about RHP/LHP with his questions and comments.
When trying to nitpick at the differences between a RHP/LHP Magician for example, if you dig deep enough you'll find that these RHP/White-Lighters are really dong it for themselves, to alleviate their own suffering and even glorifying their own ego.
I used to attend this local drum circle, most of the attendees were some form of Neopagan. There was a 'healing list', you just added a name or cause to the list, and at about 9pm they would call out the names, to channel healing energy towards them. Some people took issue with it, because it presumes that the listees want this energy sent to them. The argument was that it 'Do no harm, do as ye will'.
In other words, it can be reduced to: "Well, 'I' feel bad about this person/cause that is suffering, so 'I' can choose to send the energy raised at the drum circle their way to heal from it." When I pointed out how truly selfish it was, I'd receive the counter-argument that it was a selfless act. People don't like to believe they are selfish but how can they not be?
Some folks would claim that the'gods' played a role. That some external force would decide if the energy was warranted to go to the person/cause that was suffering. They refused to take any credit for the energy they expelled as they sang, danced and drummed together.
Some would claim that the energy that people produce at something like a drum circle was their spiritual essence sent out into the ether, and it was simply to connect with other essences floating around in the universe. Like, making some kind of ethereal connection. A lot of Neopagans believe in connectedness.
And Some would just take it for what it was, being in the moment, and alleviating personal suffering. It made them feel better believing that they could heal by thinking of that person/cause in a tribal environment.
People really got into it. Once I added my Uncle's name to the list for shiggles, because he was having Heart Surgery the following day. People called out his name like they knew him, or at the very least were trying to tap into his essence to let him know he'd make it out ok. It was fascinating to watch, at the very least.
The reconstruction of a tribal family is fairly common in modern paganism. It makes people feel like they are part of a whole and it affects their sense of being. Even if it's one day a week, and they end up in a coffee klatch talking shit about those very people the next day.
People are weird. That Eldritch weirdness of our human condition is neither right or left, it's just being human. We suffer, what we do in the face of suffering can be categorized, boxed and packaged as something like RHP/LHP but I bet you could identify both ideologies in every person in some capacity. Even the fluffy white lighter that gives human innovation credit to external things.
I watch these religious nutters and you can see it in them. They want to be glorified for leading people into Oblivion.
Hell, some of them demand that you worship them as gods. Even we crazy cult leaders can get lost in the Ethereal Ooze.
CS
|
|
|
Post by shawnhartnell on Dec 5, 2012 13:54:20 GMT -6
It's this kind of thing that makes me proud of my school.
|
|
|
Post by cortwilliams on Dec 6, 2012 10:50:52 GMT -6
Nice-I liked Lord Satanis' riff on Gnosticism. I think Lovecraft and Gnosticism are very harmonious-Both presenting a spiritual reality which is alien to the world as most of us know it. The first caller posed an interesting question regarding political/historical examples of practitioners of the Left-Hand path. I'd like to present a couple(admittedly going back pretty far in time): Alexander the Great and Napoleon. They both transformed the world and altered the course of history. They were both destroyers and creators-Alexander destroyed the 3000 year old dominance of the middle-eastern empire as the foremost power in the western world and paved the way for Rome. Napoleon marked the death-knell of monarchist Europe and paved the way for the emergence of the secular nation-state. They were both fond of self-aggrandizement, and in the case of Alexander, self-deification.
|
|
|
Post by shawnhartnell on Dec 6, 2012 12:08:47 GMT -6
I'd say Benjamin Franklin and Steve Jobs. Even though he's not well known, the best example I can think of is Henry Rollins.
|
|
|
Post by cortwilliams on Dec 6, 2012 12:28:51 GMT -6
Yeah those are both good ones I think, Benjamin Franklin was a member of the Hellfire Club after all
|
|