and the "war" rages on

I don't get it, and honestly need someone to explain it to me.

I waited until today to watch the Fox News video. There were several things that caused this delay, but the foremost was I just did not really want to see it.

I knew how pissed off I would get and just did not have the strength to deal.

For anyone else who was hanging out under a rock with me until today, here is the piece of crap video that passes for "news" over at Fox.

Let me tell you the specific thing I don't understand.

It's not the intolerance, or even the ignorance. I don't expect such rabid right-wing mouthpieces to actually have any idea about the Pagan faiths. Why would they? I don't expect them to have the knowledge, just to acknowledge that Paganism is a group of religions that has the right to exist.

It is the absolute and overblown attitude that, although these types of "Christians" are the loudest to demand respect, to give respect to any other faith is somehow damaging to their faith. That is what drives me batshit.

I do not understand this, I never have and unless someone provides a good explaination  I never expect to. I have no grasp of this notion. I do not understand why dismissing the faith of others in some way validates your own.

Do not misunderstand, I have no issue with poking a little fun. I personally found the line about liking to burn incense funny, and I am certainly not above poking a little fun at other religions.

I do, however, find it to be a big leap from joking to ridicule. It is also a big leap to holding the position that you hold the only correct position, and so broker no tolerance for the belief or practice of any other faith.

Freedom of religion, not freedom for your religion. Just because you think we're weird, or even wrong, does not grant you the right to decide our holidays are not worthy of observation.

If you want respect, if you really want to end the "war on Christians", maybe you should stop picking fights.

Patagonia Fall Festival

We had a great girls day at the craft fair in Patagonia today. Good food, great crafts and music, and fabulous people!

Hippie Samhain!

Samhain is upon us yet again, and the Wheel of the Year has turned back to the beginning. The Veil has thinned, and the Other Side is bleeding through. By now you know, we like to keep things simple here in the Hippie household. That does not, however, make our observation of this Festival any less meaningful or powerful.

Our Jack-o-Lanterns will be lit, to guide our ancestors to our door and drive away those spirits who mean to be tricksters. We will dress up in costumes to fool those same tricksters into thinking we are one of them. At dinner tonight, we will set a place at our table for those who have passed. We will pass a cup and toast to memories of them, and when we have finished leave an offering out for the spirits and the faeries. Once our girls are down from their trick or treat sugar high and tucked into bed, The Hubs and I will walk, hand in hand, to our outdoor altar and call a quiet circle. There we will thank the Quarters and the Lady and Lord for the blessings of the dying year. Then we will stand in silence, feeling the night and looking at the stars, until we are moved to open our circle, 

Whatever you do to mark this day, may it be blessed, and may you all be blessed in the coming year. Magick and ritual need not be grand, showy, or great solemn and complicated ritual, although those have their place. If all you are able to do is light a candle and quietly acknowledge Samhain tonight, that is as powerful as any ritual, because it put Samhain in your heart and mind.

Brightest Blessings 

Halloween Economics: Scariest Numbers Around

By JOSH HERR, The Fiscal Times

October 27, 2011

Total American Halloween spending is estimated to hit $6.86 billion this year – making Halloween the second largest commercial holiday in the U.S. behind Christmas.  And while the holiday has always been about marketing, ghosts, zombies, vampires, witches and even pets dressed as Robin Hood will (rightly) take the spotlight.

As the early Catholic Church spread its teachings across a largely pagan Britain, it needed a hook to sell the populace. Incorporating rituals of Celtic end-of-summer festivals into a minor Christian holiday, the church created All Hallows Day (today called All Saints Day) and with it, All Hallows Eve, the night-before festivities in which the Celts were given license to exercise their pre-Christian urges. 

Later, poor Scottish and Irish children used the holiday as an excuse to go “souling,” or traveling door to door in costumes begging for food, in a manner similar to Christmas caroling of the time. In Victorian London, All-Hallows became an outlet for the frustrations of the working poor (take note, OWS protestors). But when those Scots and Irish came to the land of opportunity as immigrants, they brought their traditions with them – and Halloween as we know it began to take shape.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Holidays!

Happy Yule!

Hello all and Happy Yule! The winter has come, and through the long, cold nights and short, snowy days we know that the Sun has been born again in the sky and grows stronger and brighter each day until the spring.  As I have said in other posts, I am very much looking forward to Yule this year. For a lot of reasons it has great meaning to myself and my family this year. My daughter, Jiji, is now 5, and at an age where she wants to participate in more and learn about out festival traditions. This is the first year I feel like she really understands why we bake shortbread cookies with chocolate kisses in them to represent the light overcoming the dark. Or that we decorate our house and tree with lights and burn candles to represent the warmth and light of the Sun returning from the dark. We did most of our Yule traditions yesterday, since H.H. is out in the truck today.  We made the cookies, taking time to talk about the egg being a sign of fertility for the spring, and how the egg hold the dark and light in it's yolk and whites, and about the wheat of the fields in the flour. We also made Peanut Butter and Jillys just for Jillian! I guess we will need to come up with a special cookie for Mojo in the next few years...Some of these cookies get saved back for Santa Claus on Christmas, since we celebrate both. My mother and sisters are Christian, but very awesome and accepting of our faith and we want the kids to grow up with those traditions as well. We also made the first of a new tradition of making a Yule candle lantern with the kids. The old tin can with a nail hole design, that will be on our altar, then get moved to the outdoor altar (in a bowl of water for safety!) at bedtime. So tonight, when the sun goes down for it's longest sleep of the year, we will call H.H., sing songs and light candles, tell stories about the Goddess giving birth to the new God, and pray the darkness gives birth to our dreams as we sleep on Solstice night. My family wishes the same for you.

Brightest Blessings, Hippie Witch, Hippie Hubs,Lala, Jiji, and Mojo,

Yearning for Yule

Once more, Yule is just around the corner.  I cannot recall a year when I looked so forward to the Yule festival. I am in dire need need of a reminder that things must sometimes be consumed in Darkness before the Light can be renewed.  I am thankful for the gentle reminder that the Mother, who will soon give birth to the light of a new year, gives only gifts to her children. Although I may not like how it was wrapped or delivered it was a gift none the less.  The world shifts, the wheel turns, and if I am not who or what I wish to be, now is the time to make it so.  The birth of the Old God as the Sun reminds me that each day is a gift and a blessing.  Each day is the chance to shuck off the past and create a new today and a new future.  Things in our lives, even beloved and cherished things, must die so that something greater can be reborn.  This year as the Light faded and the nights grew longer I came through my own dark night, and I now know with all my heart that the dawn is coming to light my life as I light the candles on the Yule altar with my family.  We are overwhelmed with blessings, and in their counting they make the dark spots of the past year a tiny price to pay for those blessings. Always remember, dreams are born in the dark.

H.W.