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Excerpted from The Beltane
Papers (Issue 29, Spring '03) Psychic abilities and use of divinatory tools, such as tarot or runes, make some folks...uneasy or worse.The attitude of fundamentalist Christians that these are the "work of the devil" is well known. And Rabbi Shmuley Boteach warns: "religion is supposed to get us to be focused on this world...not telling us what happens in the afterlife. In fact, I even think that's quite dangerous." These people are not denying that psychic or mediumistic abilities exist, they are saying we are transgressing to use them. Then there are the secular cynics and professional debunkers who dismiss all psychic phenomena as coincidences or scams. They have a (usually unsubstantiated) explanation for every example of contact with spirit. Both groups’ objections are rooted in fear. The
fundamentalists are just more straightforward about it, the cynics
intellectualize it. What are they afraid of?..... For the full text of this column, including links to source material, and 13 other columns? Click here. |
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Excerpted From The Beltane Papers (Issue 33,
'04)
© Copyright 2004 by Judith Laura
Do We Create Our Own Reality?
by Judith Laura
"You create your own reality." How many times have you heard
this in the last few years? Have you wondered if it's true? Have you tried
creating your own reality?
Within the spiritual women's movement, I believe this phrase, this belief,
began as a way of empowering women who so often experience life as a series
of situations not of their own creation, and who feel there's nothing they
can do about it. If we accept that others create our reality, then we are
stuck in whatever muck we find ourselves in. But if we believe we can create
our own reality, then we are empowered–we have the energy, the courage–to
try to make changes.
But the belief that "you create your own reality" turns out to have some
unintended implications and repercussions. If I am a woman experiencing
emotional or physical abuse, can I think (or cast spells, or visualize) my
abuser into stopping the abuse? If I could truly create my own reality, this
would be possible.
If I'm an impoverished, starving person...can I think or visualize myself a house with indoor plumbing,
heating, air-conditioning, and a giant well-stocked fridge? If I could truly
create my own reality, this would be possible....
If I'm a child born infected with the
HIV virus can I create a reality in which my body is disease free? If I'm a
person with cancer that has spread to my vital organs by the time it's
diagnosed, can I turn all those cancer cells to normal cells through
visualization? If I could truly create my own reality... these things
would be possible.
It seems to me the insistence that "you create your own reality" has several
unforeseen, unintended outcomes. In the case of people being abused, it
takes the responsibility off the abuser and places it on the abused.....
For the rest of this column and the full text of 13 others
Click here.
From The Beltane Papers (Issue 31, Winter '03)
© Copyright 2003 by Judith Laura
DEATH
by Judith Laura
I’ve been afraid of death since the first time I thought about it deeply when I was about 12....Though I do remember being told that we return to "God," to me this meant the most likely afterlife scenario was total wipe-out. I remember trying to imagine no houses, no trees, no people, no ME! And I wondered: if you aren’t conscious of "returning to God," what’s the point?
Through college and into adulthood, this was my concept of death–loss of consciousness. Nothingness. And I still consider this a possibility. But my deepening involvement in spirituality has opened my thinking to other possibilities.
Goddess spirituality enables a spectrum of beliefs about death. Some of us
are comfortable believing there is no continuation of consciousness, that Mother
Earth recycles our bodies, and that’s that. There is contentment in being part
of the life-death cycle, and comfort in "letting go" of the ego. But many of us
have had spiritual experiences that lead us to believe that some sort of
survival of consciousness/soul/spirit is likely....
For the full text of this column, including
links to source material, and 13 other columns?
Click here.
More columns from
The Beltane Papers:
"Keeping Faith in
Stormy Times," "Authoritarian? Anarchist? Seeler? What"s Your Spiritual
Approach?" "Who Helps When You Create?">>>
Also: "Naming ourselves," "Goddess as Flow" "What Next?" and other writings>>>>>
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