Wednesday, December 31, 2008

New Year's Eve Madness

If you want to know everything that is wrong with human beings in this age, all you have to do is come to my neighborhood right about now.

It's New Year's Eve, a holiday that most people have off.

And what are people doing with their time?

All I can hear is the sound of power tools.

Obnoxious, loud, buzzing, grinding, dirt-bike sounding power tools.

And not just any power tools.

Someone is cutting down a tree.

Yes, I'm hearing the sounds of chain saws.

These losers have nothing better to do with their time than to cut down trees.

And don't tell me there's anything "heathen" about that.

Because if you think so, you ain't a heathen.

You're a Roman calling upon Germanic ancestry. You're part of empire. You live on the wrong side of the Rhine.

Anyone who was a true heathen would be a warrior for the trees.

It pisses the fuck out of me when I see people thoughtlessly cutting down trees. I know these people have no feeling for life. Everything exists for their convenience, for their utility. They are utilitarians with no sense of the sacred.

How about a holiday from harm? How about a holiday where things are holy?

The same thing happened around here on Thanksgiving.

Losers.

Losers! It's a shame there's not a tribe of warriors ready to show up with spears to surround that tree and say, "You try to take this tree down, and you see what happens!"

Those would be the kind of warriors that I would respect. In fact, the only kind of warriors who would actually deserve the name.

Our Beloved Mother Earth First! Or you ain't a heathen.

Throwin' down the gauntlet again.

Get a real life.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Aphorisms

For a short time here, I will be posting small, little aphorisms in stead of longer essays.



Most people look first to advantage and then only secondarily to justification. The good man takes this into account and never confuses the latter with authentic fairness.

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Presume that people will behave dishonorably -- rather according to inclination, convenience, or desire -- and prepare yourself accordingly.

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In terms of advantage, one should always be looking for a fair bargain, with an emphasis on the strong meaning of both words, understanding, however, with some street-smarts how often people cheat.

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Odin doesn't know everything not because he isn't powerful, but because the Mystery inherent in the universe is truly inexhaustible.

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The Gods teach you how to be a full human being : mature, multifaceted, appreciative of the worth of everything, and whole. They do this through the folkways, through the working of the indigenous wisdom tradition.

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The dead rarely speak. That is in the order of things. The exceptions, through oracles or visions, are few and far between. That accentuates the preciousness of the life time we've been allotted ; if there's something you want to say, say it now, for afterwards you shall, for the most part, "hold your peace". The dead are not in the manifest world of speaking, but the infraworld that is within every nook and cranny, present but not manifest. The dead are always present --- never absent, but they are almost never manifest ; thus they rarely speak. Seances tread against the path of the river, and thus can only go so far against its powerful currents. That does not mean the dead are not with us. They are always with us.

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Superstition is the result of trusting fear instead of continuing to search for depth and truth.

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Seldom does one not seek advantage ; only a fool turns down the chance for a good bargain. A wise man will bypass advantage only if in so doing greater advantage can be reaped. Indeed, the advantages of righteousness may be enough for some.