Justice

Week 19

JUSTICE

1. The quality of being just; fairness.
2. a. The principle of moral rightness; equity.         b. Conformity to moral rightness in action or attitude; righteousness. 
3. a. The upholding of what is just, especially fair treatment and due reward in accordance with honor, standards, or law.                                b. Law The administration and procedure of law.
4. Conformity to truth, fact, or sound reason

Is it me, or do pagans feel outraged more about injustices? The smallest slights against them and it's end of the world stuff, citing lack of honour etc etc.  Not just me? Good.. thought it was.  Is it because Playgans like to fantasise about the olde days of yore, of chivalry and the such? A lot of them do live in a fantasy world. So maybe it's only the natural progression of their life to be outraged about injustice to them. By outraged I mean talking a lot about (and by talk, I mean slag off to the nines) the wronger and not actually doing anything about it. 

When I started this particular blog 3 weeks ago, things were kicking off in the little world I occupy.  Maybe it was right to leave it until after it had all settled to finish what I was blogging, or it could have been a very angry soap box session.  Ok, it WILL be a soapbox but now with some more perspective and calm thrown in lol.

People come and go in our Warband. They blow in with big intentions, even bigger declarations of respect, get branded with tattoos, tabbards, the whole nine yards and then blow out again with even bigger noise on their way out.  Usually with their noses in the proverbial slings citing some bullshit reason why they now hate us.  Having been around in the Warband for the last decade, I've seen them come and go.  Those who stick around, work quietly in the background, not looking for any kind of glory and they are ALWAYS there when they are needed most.  Quality, not quantity as they say.

Now the last lot that just left were just unbelievable. 'We don't do gossip' and yet.. that's right, in spite (spite being the operative word!) of their claims of wanting to leave quietly, they are still kicking off about us being big meanies.  Now, I wouldn't mind but they won't even say what it is about! How can you make things right, when they ALL won't discuss it? How can you amend any wrongs if they won't tell you what you've done wrong? How can you move forward, without knowing what's holding you back?  Now as far as I'm concerned, I tried for ages to mediate with them and got the biggest loads of wankybollox you've ever read... big long posts that contained absolutely NO explanations to why they were pissed off.  Hail and farewell, says I....  and then when we didn't plaster it all over social media and slag them off, guess what? Yes, that's right, they started and they told enough people of their 'hurt' that others felt bad for them and then also started.  Shitstirring I believe it's called. So I posted up their own words and then some said 'aha' and realised they'd been lied to and some didn't.  Victim mentality at it's finest.  I have no patience with people who play the victim.

If it's not known by now, know it now... I keep all the messages, emails and screenshots of the shit I have sent to me.  I will quite happily post it up as proof that you are talking shit. I do not tell people who they can and cannot be friends with and I don't encourage others to unfriend others because of a fall out I've had. People can read both sides and make their own minds up.  I have quite a collection now of these screenshots and emails going back years.  I keep them because I need too.  I don't like having to argue with people I previously thought highly of.  But it seems I do indeed have a target on my back and you know what? This warrior will fight back, especially when I know I'm right. Sticking up for myself and my friends is Just. Anyway, as I've seen, they all come back eventually eating humble pie.  They are welcomed back every time but that doesn't mean I don't remember the poisons they poured in others ears. I watch. I wait. I hope they got it out of their systems and I don't have to add yet more screenshots to my folder.

So Justice.  The last word in our Oath we take under the Sword of Britain - Truth, Honour and Justice. They are words I live by.  I even had them included in my paint job on my bike. They are not words I will just discard like many others have done before.  You don't throw away an Oath like that because you don't like Arthur and the Warband anymore.   Those who can, never truly believed in the value of those words they swore to uphold.  You can throw away the friendships you made when you were declaring we were your family, your brother and sisters; you can turn your backs on those who loved you but the Universe is watching and you will be measured in Time for what you have done to others.  Is that karma? Nah, I think karma is something different but I can't exactly put my finger on why it's different... not yet anyway.

From my own personal experiences, I know that wanting Justice for wrongs levied against you and yours, can soon turn into holding on to those traumas and letting them consume you.  Some times you just have to ask the Universe to serve up it's own Justice and move on with your life.  Hindsight is a bitch!  I do hold on to these things, I do feel them deeply and I do take them personally.  Is that a character flaw on my part? No, I don't think so. I think it's a character flaw for those who take advantage of those with good natures who welcome them to their heaths and heart.  I know what personal trauma is, real nasty horrible stuff, and what these people are doing now, doesn't really register on my scale of giving a shit.  It's as simple as that.

I am nice right up to the point when they cross the line... and then they wish they hadn't.  No, not hexing or any of that. It's quite possible to go through life without threatening people with magic.  If you can't use your own Truths to fight your battles, then you shouldn't be commanding a damned thing, let alone magical intent. As Granny Weatherwax says, you might know how to do magic, but that doesn't mean you should.

Oh and before I go, I just remember this pearl of wisdom someone shared once.

When you point the finger of blame, three fingers point back to yourself. Think about it... even me lol

Granny, Green Man and Guides

Week 14 - as I can't decide which one, I shall discuss these three =o))

Paul Kidby - love his work! Just how you imagine the characters to look.

Granny Weatherwax
I love the Discworld novels, I've read them all countless times. My favourite ones are the ones with the witches in.  If you want to know about witchcraft, real witchcraft - read these books. I met 'Grandad' a few years back, he runs the Hitchhikers fan club and was telling me about how he knows Terry and apparently the witches are based on real people.  I love the fact that there's actually people out there like this.

Granny: “I don’t hold with paddlin’ with the occult. Once you start paddlin’ with the occult you start believing in spirits, and when you start believing in spirits you start believing in demons, and then before you know where you are you’re believing in gods. And then you’re in trouble.”
Nanny Ogg: “But all them things exist.”
Granny: “That’s no call to go around believing in them.  It only encourages ’em.”

“There’s magic, and then again, there’s magic. The important thing, my girl, is to know what magic is for and what it isn’t for. And you can take it from me, it was never intended for lighting fires, you can be absolutely certain of that."

I don't read craft books. I like Granny's attitude to 'Boffo' and I agree, you don't need a special knife to cut air with for ritual, you don't need coloured candles, you don't need trinkets and triple goddess pendants to be a witch....... but if that's your thing, more power to you... we all need something to make it 'real'.  I don't but that's me lol

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Green Man

I love going into old churches and going Green Man hunting.  You can guarantee that if it's an old Norman church or from around that time, there will be a Green Man, on the ceiling.  The picture above is one that I took in St.Mary's church in Hitchin, nearly 1000 years old.  Just because they are churches, doesn't mean that the craftsmen that built them were Christian.  In the really early churches, you can also find Sheela-na-gigs - sometimes described as 'imps' in the church logs but these are often a female figure pulling open their lady parts and some have their tongues lolling out... there's lots of stories about them and no one can agree on their meaning.  It's the meaning you give it, I suppose, as with all things. Also another Green Man spot, is sometimes you find the old lecterns have what looks like Jesus with leaves and vines coming out of his mouth, which is actually very early Green Man carvings. 

When I'm gazing, I have seen the outline of a big green face in trees before. I feel that he is the spirit of the nature, of trees and things that grow. I have no thesis behind my attraction to the Green Man, nor have I read up on it to form an educated opinion. I just feel connected to him.  As always, I like to provide links to sources of information and I found a good one I think you'll enjoy, there's also a regular podcast. 

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Owl - one of my animal guides

Guides

I work with spirit. I have been made aware of several guides over the years. Each guide will come to work with you depending on what help you need.  It seems that everyone has a red Indian guide... no seriously, how many people have you heard speaking about their guides, haven't boasted about their Native American? Been in a spiritualist church lately? Seen the Indian pictures and then there's all those books on people channeling an Indian guide.  It's a bit of a phenominononononon lol

Just because you don't know they are there or who they are, doesn't mean they aren't there and helping you.

When I was sitting in development circle, I became more aware of my guides. I'm afraid to say that I lost the way a bit and didn't do much spirit work for a few years and lost touch with my guides. They are still with me though, I'm just not aware of them all the time.

There's a bit of a craze with people claiming to have animal guides.  Everyone always purports to have eagle, wolf or some power animal as a guide.  What's wrong with the other animals? I have been doing the Medicine Wheel cards for 20 years and there's a wide spectrum of creatures, all with stories from Native American cultures.  The nature of the creature, it's mannerisms and character, depicts those within yourself or ones you need to akin to.  We already met Rabbit in my Fear blog.  

You cannot always be eagle or wolf or some other noble creature... you have to learn the ways of all the animals, for they all have a lesson to teach about ourselves.  Claiming to be just the one, isn't a guide, it's your fantasy.  Fantasy has it's place but it's not spiritual growth to deny yourself these lessons. 

I've encountered a nun as a guide before. It surprised me at the time because I don't have any love for dogma or the confines of church.  But Cara (the name she gave me) was a carer, a healer and helped me understand the journey I was making as a healer.  There was four that I knew of at this time... all had something to teach me, not that I was fully aware of those lessons. Doesn't make them any less valid, knowledge can be glimpsed in dreams and the world around.  

Hope that makes sense... it's nearly 5am, my eye is twitching and telling me it's time for bed.

Thanks for reading my rambling thoughts x