Poly-All-In. Installment 1: Folly.

Installment 1 of an itch-driven yet somewhat spontaneous series of reflections on life as a modern day polytheistic animist.

Image appreciatively poached from the Open Gyre. 

I have been having this conversation in my head.

I have been having this conversation in my heart.

I have been having this conversation with my beloved kindreds.

And this current stint here in the sprawling majesty of the Desert continually reaffirms this sentiment.

No matter how I approach this concept, there is only one inevitable conclusion: IT is a Poly-All. 

Just Look at the breadth of diversity of all things in this incredible, vast Universe! I gasp!

Inner Space, Outer Space, both reaching, reaching, reaching ad infinitum with endless variations we can scarcely imagine.

"There is a place with four suns in the sky — red, white, blue, and yellow; two of them are so close together that they touch, and star-stuff flows between them. I know of a world with a million moons. I know of a sun the size of the Earth — and made of diamond. There are atomic nuclei a few miles across which rotate thirty times a second. There are tiny grains between the stars, with the size and atomic composition of bacteria. There are stars leaving the Milky Way, and immense gas clouds falling into it. There are turbulent plasmas writhing with X- and gamma-rays and mighty stellar explosions. There are, perhaps, places which are outside our universe. The universe is vast and awesome, and for the first time we are becoming a part of it." -- Carl Sagan, Planetary Exploration

How can there reasonably be only One-Big-Beardy with a plan -- a plan which tends to the smallest details of our human lives? 

No.

This shit takes a team.

I imagine the layers of the Unseen are as magnificently complex, diverse & interlaced as those with which we interface daily being living organisms on our delicately balanced planet. 

I believe it is best to give credit to all the varied, beautiful & essential Parts of the System rather than try to mono-simplify things for the convenience & security of my little mammalian brain.

As the Other-sides of Everything, the Spirits are equally diverse, "big" & "small." Our awareness can appreciate a scant few in the Great Scale of the Universe, but none of Them are truly knowable. So we Love them as we can, from our human frameworks & proclivities. 

And if you dig Big Beardy, this is a good thing. But I say it is folly to think for a moment that he is the only One. 

Theism digram by Moma Fauna.

Animist Blog Carnival: Science (& How It Is All About Relationship)

Two uncertain members of the genus Panaeolus,
(family Coprinaceae) & moose dung enthusiasts.

Writing specifically to the topic of how science is relates to my life as an animist is peculiar for me. Perhaps this is because it is a bit like writing about how breathing relates to my every day activities -- it just occurs innately. I believe some people are born with a scientific temperament, being highly inquisitive, constantly striving for original thought, always testing theories in their own unique ways. As for myself, the question of nature vs. nurture remains unclear: I was raised in a science-based family culture, yet an inventory of my various relatives shows that nearly all of them engage in one (or more) of three disciplines; science, medicine & the arts, the latter two of which are very much like science in certain respects. So is it learned or inbred? I do not know. Does it matter? Not really. But I suppose the fact that I am even asking the question points to a certain habit of thought.

I bandied about several ideas for addressing this month's Animist Blog Carnival* theme, among them was completing some long overdue documentation on the spiritual warfare myco-remediation project -- two phases of which were completed, but remain unwritten. I also considered discussing other forms of sciento-magick, various thoughts related to my personal Sciento-Paganism & even a story relating to one of the biggest nails in the coffin of my never-to-be scientific career which, in retrospect, I realize had everything to do with animism. But, after all the hemming & hawing, I find myself right back at Relationship. 

Observation: "Say, those little mushrooms
(Panaeolus spp.) sure like moose droppings..."

My experience with science (keep in mind that my exposure is overwhelmingly in the life sciences) is that all the various "ologies" are really about discovering relationships & understanding how relationships drive the universe. When you are busy being an ologist, you find yourself making observations like, "Say, those blue smoffets sure seem to have an affinity for haberknacker trees during the mating season, yet they seem to disapprove of them during every other time of the year..." & asking questions like, "I wonder what the relationship between blue smoffet mating habits & haberknacker tree structure might be?" Then, if you have a grant, or nothing but time & money on your hands, you devise a way to figure out just what that mystifying relationship is & test it. My point being, that built into the scientific culture is a deep seated desire to understand not just how things work, but how they work together (or not) on the micro & macroscopic levels.

Science is about understanding, or at the very least, a concerted effort to understand relationships. Relationships are about understanding, or (ideally) at the very least, a concerted effort to understand one another. Animism (at least for this animist) is all about relationships. This webby mesh of understanding creates a queer circular process that happens when you combine science & animism -- science feeds relationship with understanding. Before your eyes glaze over with weirdness, let me illustrate.

Most of us have heard someone, usually young & freshly enamoured, say in a gushy tone, "Oh, I want to know everything about you/them!" Ah, ha! Relationship & understanding (or at least the desire for it) at work! As humans in relationships with other humans, we have the advantage of having a great deal of understanding already under our belts. We have gobs of basic knowledge about our own kind; how we communicate, eat, sleep, reproduce, breathe, move, defecate & to some general extent, think. We know, without even having to pause or consider, that humans do not thrive underwater, tend to be attracted to foods with fats & sugars, usually have one baby at a time, have a propensity for manufacturing stuff, etc. This leaves us with lots of time for gravy (also fatty & generally quite likable, unless it is not) -- that is, getting right into the rich, individual relationships. 

Spore prints --
one way of getting to know fungi.

When we enter into relationships with anyone other-than-human, we have to do extra homework. We don't know right out of the gate what pH that fish prefers for their water, or how to approach the virginia creeper next door or why that freaky mold in the corner of the bathroom carpet keeps coming back to needle us. We also don't have a clear grip on what their relationships with the rest of their world looks like. The whole situation is so much more complicated. Even relationships with more familiar mammalian acquaintances leave us wanting a background check, a supplementing of our base knowledge. How many humans look into the breed attributes of that saucer-eyed puppy at the pound before they offer them a home? We already know how dogs eat, sleep, reproduce, breathe, move, defecate & to some general extent, think & communicate, yet we feel a need to know more than the basics when entering into these generally "known" relationships. When the relationship begins with an unknown, science can be of great help in the process of understanding -- especially with those who are less commonly sought out for connections. 

There are probably several reasons why I lean towards a scientific knowledge as an animist versus various other forms of lore, myth & correspondences. One of these is basic practicality: I spend a copious amount of time among fungi & most fungi are not well addressed in human texts of the past. Many aren't even well addressed in more recent writing. They are poster children for the unknown or unfamiliar. Also, as I have discussed before, I find that much of what I encounter in the "lore" is just the opinions, reflections or imaginations of some human who happened to have the good fortune of getting published first. Finally, I am more concerned with authentic, personal relationships with the other-than-human world, than I am with aping other people’s relationships, attitudes or ideas. Thus, as part of my starting point, I seek to learn what the ologies may have discovered about an other-than-human, so that I might better understand how they exist & interface with this world, theirs & ours. It is like understanding etiquette, it is simply good manners.

How does this actually manifest in my own wandering animist life? I will illustrate with the story of a fungi.

Sample cluster of Panaeolus spp. that came home.

For several years now, on very rare occasion, I have noticed some diminutive fruiting bodies presenting themselves on moose droppings. However, the task of becoming fluent in the fungal world is beyond daunting, particularly for the self-taught. So, upon encountering them, I have simply taken note, tipped my hat & moved on to the self-proscribed lessons at hand. This past Autumn, while playing peek-a-boo with a patch of lingonberries (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), I stumbled across a relatively large cluster of these interesting creatures & since the mushroom season was winding down, I felt that perhaps it was a good time to take some home & try to learn something more about them. 

Panaeolus spp. gills. So pretty.

I made some observations & took many photos of them in situ. After asking permission, I sheepishly took a small group of the mushrooms home for spore prints & an examination more easily managed while not up to my elbows in lingonberries. Spore prints are more than just helpful identifiers -- they are magickal. I interpret them as the fungal soul's artful pronouncement. I often take prints for no other reason than just to see this form of expression. Of course, I also consider the basic key attributes of size, shape, colour, whether or not they changed colour with handling, gill spacing, etc.

Sometimes I feel weird about identification. When we label something, we confine it to a set of predetermined beliefs & assumptions. This fundamentally limits how we observe, interact with & interpret that which we have labeled & classified. Yet, as a human, I live in a world of classifications. To do otherwise would be not particularly human & I fear I would complicate things further striving to behave otherwise. Because of this, I have opted to simply be what I am, a human, one who identifies, labels & classifies in an effort to understand my relationships.

When I looked at the literature, I narrowed their identity down to a couple of possibilities. I think. Maybe. Without a microscope, getting down to species is sometimes impossible & herein lies the fabulously challenging lesson in being comfortable with ambiguity. Relationships of ambiguity. 

What I hoped was that they might be these fabulously rare fungi: 

Abstract & full article can be accessed at jstor.org.

And perhaps they are, as they did not exhibit signs of a partial veil, but only new encounters (or a microscope!) will bring me closer to certainty. They could also be the more common Panaeolus sphinctrinus, (also known as the Petticoat Mottlegill) who were old enough to have the veil margin withered away. An interesting anecdote about this alternative identity is that P. sphinctrinus is a scheduled drug in Japan where they are referred to as waraitake, or "laughing mushroom." Laughing mushroom. I like that. Oh! So many things to learn & know!

April 14: Sketching fungal talismans.
It's relationship therapy. Or something.

Of course, relationships are not only about fact-finding for me, there's Love, reverence, respect & sometimes even "woo" too. In mid-April, in the darkness of the drag-out winter blues, I spent some time working on happiness in the greenhouse. I sat on the floor in the weak sunlight with my sketchbook & drew doodles of my husband & children playing in the snow. My mind wandered to warmer times & inevitably, to fungi. These little dung-loving, Horned-One-bonded mushrooms affectionately entered my thoughts & suddenly, (as it wont to happen) I was struck by this woo-ey feeling. An image came to mind. 

Quickly, I sketched it out & recognized it as a very personal symbol: bioregionally relevant, ungulate-related, lunar oriented, fungal friendly, etc. I knew right away I wanted it printed on clothing for dance -- my entirely intuitive & untterly idiosyncratic syncretism at work. A talented, fungi-loving & screen printing-skilled friend of mine loved it too & offered to help me make that venture a reality. 

Antidepressant Talisman
including neurotransmitters &
Panaeolus symbolism.

Almost exactly one month later, on May 15, I was still doggedly working on cultivating happiness in the greenhouse. I integrated the personal talisman above into a larger magickal working, which you can see here: Working It: Antidepressant Talisman (A Wee Bit 'O Sciento-Magick). In that talisman I had added the chemical structures for certain neurotransmitters, namely, serotonin, dopamine & norepinephrine. Serotonin, one of the primary mood regulators in the brain, is the sunshine neurotransmitter. Of this I was well aware, hence my loitering about in greenhouses. What I didn't know, until I began doing background research for this piece two days ago -- herein lies more woo-ey weirdness -- is that all the fungi in the genus Panaeolus contain serotonin (See: Trial field key to the species of PANAEOLUS in the Pacific Northwest, Pacific Northwest Key Council/Oregon Mycological Society). Whoah. Woo. 

Scientific information isn't the be all, end all of knowing, but it provides me personally with a healthy beginning, a foundation. So now, with some solid background information thanks to those busy ologists & their science, I await a new encounter. I will arrive this time better informed & prepared once the proper season, with its proper conditions & the proper droppings presents itself. I have my foundation, now to build on this relationship. What will I ask them? How will we relate? I think I should smell them next time we meet... I neglected to do that. I might ask them, "What is it like making your way through the bowels of a large ungulate?" or, "Poop & serotonin... is there a connection?" or, "What makes you so shiny?!? I love shiny things." I might snap a few more feral papparazzi photographs. I might just listen. Or, I might choose to sit among them, enjoying the blessing of their company & conjuring ways to express my gratitude -- how fortunate I am to be here & share this world with them. 

Fungal expressions. Panaeolus spore prints. 

* This piece was written as part of the Animist Blog Carnival for June. Headquarters for the ABC has been moved to Glen Gordon's Post Pagan website: see future & archived carnival topics HERE. June's theme, Science, has been graciously hosted by Matt at Naturalistic Pantheist Musings. Please visit his blog to read other animist writings on this topic. If you are wondering where you can access Heather Awen's writing, she will be publishing her works for the ABC at Glen Gordon's Post Pagan. 

Spiritual Nomads Module IV: "Reinventing the Wheel"

"There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to move through the year, as long as it feeds you."  -- Dianne Sylvan

The main homework 'assignment' for week four of the Spiritual Nomads e-course was to examine your annual holidays & celebrations by starting with a blank slate (or blank circle, rather) & filling it in from scratch. I loved this exercise. Loved it. 

I had been meaning to reexamine the "Wheel of the Year" anyway, especially after my whole existential meltdown around Samhain. More importantly, as a gypsy snowbird with an eye towards bioregionalism, I find that the "traditional" wheel does not always work very well, particularly in the climes I inhabit. I worked on it with my husband, our effort comprised of part instinct, part reflection. This is the culmination of our work so far:

One Animist's Wheel of the Year.

The simplest way to discuss this will be to move from the centre outwards, moving clockwise around each circle, when appropriate.

I. The Core: The centre of the wheel shows our bioregions & the approximate portions of the year during which we reside in each. I never noticed this before, but this pictorial exercise reveals that our year is split very nearly by the Solstices; the waning half of the year in a boreal forests/coastal region of Alaska (I think it should be noted that this area is also urban), the waxing half of the year in a high desert region of Utah (this area is very isolated & rural). These two disparate sets of conditions shape our lives & are the building blocks for the most of the events on the outer wheels.

II. The Moon: (Esbats) The full moons are perhaps the most important for me, or maybe they are simply the most personal. My relationship with Lady Moon goes way back -- back to my childhood. So recognizing the ebb & flow of Her cycles remains a basic observance. However, do I have difficulty with the Esbats that fall after Midsummer in Alaska when the Sun remains in the sky most of the night. Recently, I have been considering using the window between the Summer Solstice & the Autumnal Equinox as a time to focus on Solar observances. 

III. Seasonal Events: These are the major, astronomical events that create the quarters. I stopped to consider if they were really actually important to me, to us as a family, or if maybe I was just clinging to the old wheel, but frankly, as an Earthling, they just make sense. We have been observing all of them as a family in one way or another, all along & for the most part, they played a part in my "days of yore" as well. For the Winter Solstice & Vernal Equinox we have well-developed family traditions. The Summer Solstice & Autumnal Equinox we prefer to share with our community in Alaska. (Especially the Summer Solstice which is an ever-developing, ever-growing weekend-long festival.)

*Season Names, (between the Esbat wheel & the Seasonal wheel) will be discussed in section V. Bioregional Influences/Events.

**The symbols for the Solstices & Equinoxes come from A Save The Universe Club (ASTUC), creators of this: A Bioregional Calendar (ABC). The purpose of the "ABC" is to provide "humanity with the ability to organize while encouraging autonomous cultural expression." Although I find the nomenclature of the calendar confusing, I am very attracted to its premise.

IV. Calendar Events: There are a handful of observances which are tied to the Gregorian calendar that we felt were important: birthdays, Thanksgiving & Lughnassadh. (Only our immediate family's birthdays are on this version. We did not include all the important birthdays because space was limited.) Lughnassadh is not exactly a carry-over from the "days of yore" because it has evolved & holds additional meanings for us. It is certainly remains a time to reflect on our harvest, but over the years of sharing this holiday together, it has come to represent the winding-down of Hubby's epic work season. It is a time when we celebrate the onset of a new part of the cycle, a time when he can slow down & we can spend time together as a family again. Lughnassadh is about creating a beautiful meal together & actually sharing it, or going to a park with a great ale & just enjoying the togetherness. 

V. Bioregional Influences/Events: The outer wheel. This is the rich & complex part where the natural world co-mingles with life & we find ourselves in a dance with the seasons. I begin at the Migration South which is followed by a brief rebalancing & the onset of our Season of Creativity & Production. During this window, little work is done outside the home except for volunteering, so there is much time for creativity, home improvement & preparedness. As time moves toward the Vernal Equinox, familiar signs of Spring emerge; my mother's hens resume laying, the cattle begin birthing, sleeping desert creatures begin to stir, etc. Passing the Equinox, signs of the waking Earth continue. Hubby must leave & the time for Planting & Preparing begins. During this time, the children & I tend to plants & prepare ourselves & our home for our departure.

After the Migration North, we have another period of rebalancing, coupled with the Summer Solstice which, in Alaska, is most decidedly a significant bioregional event. (All hail the Midnight Sun & then some!) The First Bolete is our symbol for the commencement of the Foraging Season. During this phase, we take our cues from the land & it's creatures most keenly. Fungi reign supreme in our hearts & minds while wild berries & salmon follow, a close second. Shortly after the Autumnal Equinox (typically) the arrival of the Termination Dust signals the beginning of a rapid shift into cold, darkness. This is a period of waiting, a time to Pause & Rest before gathering ourselves up & returning to our southern climes.

Final Considerations: I have been thinking about other celebrations & festivals that might be meaningful additions, but when I consider that Esbats alone make up thirteen events every year, it seems as though our year might already be adequately filled with revelry. However, I am attracted to the Chinese tradition of having a festival during the largest full moon of the year, I have a personal attachment to World Refugee Day (there is an explanation, but I don't want to elaborate here), I intend to look more carefully at the formal observances for specific deities & I have some interest in tracking astronomical events more closely. In the end, I believe there is room for adaptations & possibly further additions, but I will wait & take my cues from my Family, Community, Spirits & the Land.

DianneSylvan.com

Sciento-Paganism, Entry 3: Deep or Nominal?

Questions & Her deepest Mysteries. Isn't that what spiritual journey is all about? 

I wandered across a blog this past week wherein the author discussed her search for a "path." She had many questions. She was uncertain about what her "path" should be. Should she be a Druid? A Wiccan? A Heathen? What? She had concerns about "mixing paths," she was looking for the "ONE." So many questions... 

Good, I thought. 

But then I read the comments section & found a statement akin to (but not exactly, lest I offend), 'when you find peace of mind & are no longer asking questions you will know you have found the "ONE."' This made my skin crawl. But that was my skin, not the commenters. Perhaps her skin is ok with complacency. Perhaps her skin dislikes the noise of a mind filled with questions.

This morning the folks at Scarlet Imprint released part of an interview with Nemeton (I confess I am unfamiliar with this personage) which is to be released in the February edition of The Cauldron. This part of the interview is titled: Question 13 - The Future of Paganism. Scarlet Imprint's purpose for republishing this segment is because they are hopping mad about some redacted text, but I was more engrossed in their general message & the essence of Nemeton's answer to Question 13:

"Paganism and witchcraft should be seething with green fire in the face of the ecological collapse...  

We need to embrace a Deep Paganism, a Deep Witchcraft in the same way that we need to embrace a Deep Ecology...

This is something that we need to be united about, regardless of the other petty struggles that can dominate the Craft. It does not matter a damn who owns the real estate of what is or isn't traditional, or who initiated who, or what survived, if the planet itself is dead. We are in an ecological end game and it is time to take sides on this greater issue. 

Witchcraft needs to rediscover its radical heritage and with urgency."   

 Ooooh... good stuff. Really good stuff. But it gets better.

In his response, Nemeton references an article in The Pomegranate: The International Journal of Pagan Studies (a peer-reviewed journal of Pagan studies) in which the author Michael York describes two kinds of Paganism: "deep or natural paganism" & "nominal or blind Paganism." His description of Deep paganism is:

“Humanity’s spontaneous response to Nature, the world around us and our unaffected sense of the animistic or numinous... this primordial paganism is atavistic and as such I am calling it root religion, the root of religion, the root of all religions.”

I must infer then, that "nominal or blind Paganism" refers, at least in part, to the folks who find a how-to book or perhaps a guru & then settle in with the "one," walking it without question, without seeking for more, without going deep into the Mysteries -- the folks who seek a "path" so that they no longer have to be bothered with questions. 

I personally prefer to ask questions, grapple with doubt, get dirty digging for that precious root deep in the belly of Mama Nature.

I mentioned in Sciento-Paganism, Entry I: The Mystery of Relationship that I have been reading a peculiar book on dreamwork. This book mystifies me. Is Mr. Kaplan Williams really actually discussing dreamwork? I am suspecting as I read ever-onward that his subtext is significantly more existential. He expresses my recent thoughts on the nature of questions & the Mysteries so precisely, so succinctly:

"Give the person questions, not answers...

When we truly ask a question we are admitting we do not have an answer. How many of us are willing to get down off the throne of authority and humble ourselves before the mystery? 

My life is my answer. Your opinion is not the answer for anything. I will accept your questions if they evoke the search for truth in me..."  (emphasis mine)

In the spirit of Mr. William's words, I leave you with this, a question: Does your "path" provide you with questions? Questions that kindle the search for truth in you? 

Question Onward.

Sciento-Paganism, Entry 2: In Between

It might have been the startling realizations generated by a chain of books beginning with Ronald Hutton's Triumph of the Moon, spiraling me through Aidan Kelly's Crafting the Art of Magic & landing me in the lap of Chas S. Clifton's Her Hidden Children, but I don't think so. Perhaps I was brainwashed into habitual skepticism by my astute, fact-checking Ásatrúar friends: envision baby-Pagan me enthusiastically waving a D. J. Conway book, hear the response, "Um... yeah... don't believe everything you read, especially in that." Perhaps it is my lack of formal training compounded with my scientific upbringing, or my obsession with reading source materials to the exclusion of anything recently published, or maybe it was the many years in isolation...  Whatever the reason, I have always been something of a Spiritual In-Between & unaware I was in such good company.

This is not for lack of want of a formal "path." I longed to have inherited a Fam-Trad, ala Elizabeth Pepper or Paul Huson. Theirs is the only brand of "formal" Pagan tradition (I use that loosely) that fully appeals to me. Alas, the grandmother story eludes me & perhaps that is just as well because if I had been raised in a Fam-Trad, I would probably would have been questioning it all along & still questioning it right now. There is no Pagan tradition/path of which I am aware, that works for me as a package deal. 

I thought I was alone in this because so many people assert their wholehearted allegiance to this-or-that & the voices of the irresolute eluded me. But then I re-discovered the internet. This In-Between-ness (a term I borrow from Teo Bishop) is rife: 

"But then, I’m standing in the kitchen with my friend, who’s not a Wiccan, thinking that Wiccan theology makes a lot of sense, just as parts of ADF Druidism make a lot of sense, and OBOD philosophy makes a lot of sense, and I come face to face with the awareness that it all makes sense, a little." -- from, Holy Crap… I think I may be a Wiccan

"I was talking to a friend about spiritual nomads... studying & trying to settle on one path vs. delving into multiple spiritual paths, creating your own, strictly following one or trying to mold one to fit into your ideal... How can I honor all sides of my spirituality?
...Druidry does satisfy me... mostly. The rituals, the Kindreds and 3 Realms, the community aspect....they all make sense. But where does my Goddess, that integral Divine Feminine energy in Nature, fit into my Druidry?" -- from Amazon Druidry

"My witchery is more mine that it has ever been. I’ve defined it by adding to my knowledge, making changes to my magic, and at times excluding bits that don’t work for me... I am no longer the girl who listened in front of a library counter more than twenty years ago. I am a Witch who loves diversity, balance, growth…" -- from Bruja de Luz and Darkness, Too

"My biggest problem is that I seem to have a problem with walking multiple paths... I’m seeing path multiplicity becoming more the norm now anyway... In the end I still find little difference... What I want is a life lived in ritual, surrounded by the whisperings of the spirits who have always been there since time began, to bask in the comforting presence of my gods, and live a life suffused with spirit." -- from Becoming Whole: Reconciling Multiple Paths 

"Spirituality is an ever-evolving thing, and while some folk can do that within the structure of one religion... some of us always have a weather eye on the horizon.  We learn a bit here, and a bit there, and gather tools and souvenirs from every tradition we visit, but ultimately we prefer to keep on walking and do our own thing...  I found that, when I could no longer reasonably call myself Wiccan, I was sort of floating in the Sea of Muddled Eclecticism, and I had to tread water for quite a while." -- from Becoming a Spiritual Nomad

"Basically I was not happy with any one label, but when I would simplify it to Magician, or Witch, I would be met with questions about what lineage or Order I belong to... a large part of my calling in magic is based on my ability to see the common threads (and stark differences) between traditions, and also to see what lies behind them – that eternal stream from which all expressions of magic emerge as bubble from. Every time I tried to stick to one stream, I feel like I am betraying the deepest part of my soul." -- from Jealousy of the named path

If you take the time to read bloggers' profiles or "About Me" pages, you'll find a fascinating (& wonderful) hodge-podge of mix-&-match Paganism:

"...a spirit-worker on the margins of Hellenic polytheism, with ties to English, Germanic and Slavic folk traditions as well." -- from A Forest Door

"A Pacific Northwest spaewife practicing hedge witchery, animism, and ancestor worship... a folk magic practitioner with a focus in Scottish witchcraft and folk religion; which itself is a unique combination of Scoto-Scandinavian and Irish influences. As I live in the new world I also incorporate local traditions of ethnobotany and folklore into my practice." -- from The Witch of Forest Grove

" After studying British Trad Craft for a while, I realized what I wanted most was some kind of traditional witchcraft, but one more relevant to my actual home soil.  Currently, I work with several New World magical systems and I’m trying to understand how to be an American witch in the modern age." -- From New World Witchery

Of course, I could copy & paste until dawn, but you get the point. There is an abundance of "freestyle Pagans" (to borrow a term twice-borrowed already) out there who are just doing what works (for them) -- I just didn't know it. I find this comforting after experiencing a protracted pressure (whether real or imagined) to provide a label with "legitimacy." Somehow, I feel I just came home.

So fine then. Sciento-Pagan: labeled, legit.

I have a great deal to say about it.

Moma & Amanita muscaria. Just a couple of In-Betweens.

Sciento-Paganism, Entry I: The Mystery of Relationship

I have been struggling with where to begin this discussion, so I begin here. Perhaps this is an arbitrary decision, perhaps not. I myself, cannot say.

I am reading a very peculiar book entitled The Jungian-Senoi Dreamwork Manual, a type-written & self-published text by Strephon Kaplan Williams & the Jungian-Senoi Institute. There are several reasons for my selection of this book, but an explanation would lead to tangential discussion & it is much too late in the evening to commence such an endeavour. What is important to this entry is how acutely relevant Mr. William's words are to the foundation of my beliefs. All the concepts & techniques he discusses are in relation to dreams & he constantly reminds the reader of his dream-centeredness; "The central factor is the dream itself. The dream. Always the dream." Yet, I cannot shake the feeling that he is talking about much more than just the dreamworld. 

Many passages in this book have moved me, inspired me to deeper thought, or even prompted a desire to write, but none so much as the following statement:

"The discovery of relationship is the experience of meaning."

I have a single, one-word response to this assertion: Exactly. 

Before I elaborate, I would like to add a few more points from the Dreamwork Manual which expand upon this principle. Williams places great importance on the process of "question-asking" during dreamwork & writes: 

"A question is the central response to life... A question is a great mystery... The more ways we can ask questions of ourselves, the more possibilities we will have for living life. Let my life end in a way that it ends as a question, a mystery, and not an answer. Answers end reality. Questions begin it anew." 

I would argue that this "question-asking" is essential to the pursuit of spiritual development & awareness. It is an avenue, a channel, a path to the mysteries & to the gods. It is not the only way, but it is a vital one. Of course, I speak for myself, but I could not be without it. It is my way.

Allegoria della vita umana, by Guido Cagnacci. @Wiki.

Encountering, uncovering, discovering the relationships, the connections that make up our universe is for me, a spiritual process. Every time I learn something new, two particularly significant phenomena occur: 1) I am forever changed by the new knowledge, 2) a deluge of new questions flood my mind. It is not unlike initiation: I enter the lesson a neophyte -- a small fragment, a thread, of the web that is Nature's Great Mystery is revealed to me & I emerge transformed, yet yearning for more. 

He will be surprised to learn this, but some of the most profoundly spiritual moments in my life were brought about by my father, a professor of biology who has spent the greater part of his research career working in the field of functional morphology (a branch of biology which seeks to understand, within an evolutionary context, how anatomical structures work to allow an organism to accomplish certain tasks). My childhood was filled with questions, relationships, wonder... & a deep reverence for mysteries of the Natural World. My father engendered this in me by asking me questions. He never simply explained something. He always asked me to figure it out myself, leaving me to ponder, to chew on it for awhile. When he finally gifted me with a lesson, he left me with more questions.

See photo credits below.*

If you have ever been in the presence of a researcher on the brink of a major discovery, you can attest to the alchemy that takes place as the observations, bits of data & ideas condense in the alembic of the scientist's mind. The same distillation of thought, the experience of personal epiphany, happens for me when I read a book, take a course, hear a lecture or have an encounter or insight which pieces together loose (sometimes seemingly disparate) ends in the great web of our existence. This process of stumbling upon connections, having "aha!" moments, recognizing, understanding & relishing relationships brings me closer to deity:

"The discovery of relationship is the experience of meaning."

Life, Nature -- the web of connections -- are wondrously intricate. They are the mystery of mysteries. They can be unpredictable, inspiring & sometimes unpleasant. Chasing their threads is part of my journey. Asking the next question is my way.

* The Alchymist, In Search of the Philosopher’s Stone, Discovers Phosphorus, and prays for the successful Conclusion of his operation, as was the custom of the Ancient Chymical Astrologers, by Joseph Wright of Derby, now in Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby, U.K. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.