Man Hating She-Beasts

Hello all, this blog started off as a well written and intelligent analysis of duality in the world and neo-paganism and the like…however as I continued to write I realized that I was trashing paths that view females as superiors to males.  So I said to myself well I can’t do this because I claim to respect all belief systems and to trash them would mean I don’t respect their belief system.  Well as it turns out I don’t respect all belief systems because I cannot respect a system that that values one gender over another just as I could not respect a system that valued one race over another. So In writing this I found a truth about myself, how awesome is that?   While I completely understand that there is far more favor for men than women throughout the world, it just seems so completely absurd that any neo-pagan path would value one gender over the other, and I understand that most of this is based on individuals and extremists more so then the actual paths…but right now I am angry...So without any further adieu I present a rant about man hating she beasts!  

 Most life on this planet has a male gender and a female gender; both play an integral part in the societies they live in, most importantly both are required for reproduction.  This my friends, is balance in the most basic and vital role of life as we know it.  Now for whatever reason human society has created many concepts that place a higher value on one gender of the other.  While most mainstream societies have placed more value on men over women, there are groups that place higher value on women over men…this of course happens in some neo-pagan paths.  Some people seem to get the idea in their head that the Goddess is all powerful and the God is just her bitch for reproductive purposes; that being said this must prove that female humans are far superior to male humans.  This concept is so utterly ridiculous that I will not even attempt to understand the reasoning behind it, instead I will just trash the concept because to me in is just as bad as racism.  I believe in a plethora of deities, each having unique and significant value, while some of their significance may be based on their roles as males or females no single deity is more valued then the other based on their gender.  I really think that we all need the influence of both male and female deity in our life, it provides us with balance.  I think a lot of the man hating groups in the neo-pagan community stem from their old religious beliefs, since most neo-pagans where probably raised in a Abrahamic religion, they were taught God was a man and women screwed it all up for mankind blah blah blah.  Now we all know that new to the path neo-pagans are hard core anti-Abrahmic for ruining the lives of the ancient pagans and the burning times and all of that nonsense…but eventually we grow up and realize that that crap never happened and we realize that all of that hate was a waste of time and made us sound stupid and we move on with our lives.  However these man hating neo-pagans have not moved on, they are still bitter about the man god holding them down and oppressing their rights and such nonsense.  So essentially they never grew up, and they are just as ignorant as some newbie to the path…great job on the spiritual development!  Maybe they are just so damn insecure about themselves that you need to put others down, and since the evil man has always put you down you should turn the tables…it’s laughable and pathetic.  These people are seriously no better the your run of the mill ignorant racist, they are making a judgment about me based on the fact that I have a penis…this is called stereotyping…and stereotyping is ignorant.  Many of the man hating women like to claim they a feminists, this of course is bullshit; true feminism is about gaining equality to men, not being superior to men.  I am all for equality in genders, both in mainstream society and in religion.  I think it is a bunch of horse shit that certain religions won’t allow a woman to join the priesthood, I think it is horse shit that statistically men make more than women for the same job, and I think it is completely absurd that there are parts of the world that women have almost no rights…however none of this give anyone the right to claim that their female goddess is superior to any of my male gods reducing them to some breeding tool.  It also does not give anyone the right to claim they are better them me because they have different “gear” then I do.  If you want to fight for something fight for gender equality if not then fuck off.  You are no better than any other bigot out there and you are just as bad as any man who seeks to oppress a woman. 

I learned a great deal in this rant, first was that I cannot claim to respect all belief systems , because I cannot have any respect for a system that would degrade a person or a deity because of their gender.  As always balance is a key factor in my spirituality and I cannot even begin to comprehend a belief system that so purposefully seeks to disrupt balance.  Nature is balance, the union of male and female is the perfect balance, and it is what creates life…and that is a beautiful thing.  I truly wish that all people who feel the need to favor one gender over the other would just stop and see that without each other there is no life, therefore we are all equals in that regard.      

Stuff in my pockets...

Today I would like to discuss physical items that we view as holding some kind of power...talismans, jewelery, stones, bits of wood, bones, ritual tools etc.  Many people of a non Pagan persuasion, and even many Pagans themselves, view the practice of creating and venerating such items as a silly superstition or very "new age."  I could not disagree more with the aforementioned view, these items are often very personal and hold a great deal of value to us!  I am not saying that anything of the things we hold near and dear to us have any grand mystical power, however they have a strong impact on us as individuals.  The question is, what gives these items their power?  In most cases I would say that is the individual that gives the item power; by focusing so intently on the value of said object we project upon it the power we want it to hold.  With that being said I'm sure many people would say that the power is inside of us all along and we do not need an object give us that power.  I do agree with that to a degree, however having a physical object can act as something for us to channel our thoughts and energy...a focus.  Now the next question I ponder is, could your personal focus hold value to another individual?  That is a tough question to answer, I think sometimes yes sometimes no.  I suppose that after a long period of time of focusing so intently on the purpose of an item it could possibly retain some of that purpose without actually the original user channeling their thoughts and energy through it, but I feel the receiving individual would have to focus their own thoughts and energy into to produce the same results.  Then their is always the question of items that supposedly hold some inherent power on their own such as gemstones.  While various stones have been used through out the ages to symbolize certain things or act as talismans, I think it is a relatively new age concept that each and every single gemstone has inherent power.  Now those of you that know me would be sort of confused right about now, as I regularly work with gemstones and have more crystals and things around my house then I will ever know what to do with...do I think gemstones have power? Absolutely!  They are a piece of the planet and a part of nature, their formation probably took years longer then the human race has existed.  That being said they certainly have power inherently, but I think we project a good deal of the specific metaphysical properties they may have.  What about biological materials such as plants and animal products?  There is energy in these things, that is not metaphysics that is scientific fact.  Anything that was once alive has energy; it is why we eat formerly living things, it is how we fuel our bodies.  I think the same can be said spiritually; but once again out side of medicinal uses of various plant or animal compounds, I believe we project a good deal of the specific qualities into these things.  To sum it all up...I am all about the stuff in my pockets everyday, the jewelry that I won't ever take off, the tattoos on my body, the herbs and tools I use in rituals.  All of these things aid me in focusing my thoughts and energies to various purposes and I don't think I could ever be without them, it's just not as hocus pocus as many outsiders would view it as.