Norwich Independent Spiritual Congregation

For those who have studied it, it is well known that war incurs many penalties. It makes enemies out of the opponents and many observers. It creates psychological harm to both the winners and the loosers. It damages the environment. It costs economies precious resources and forces the working class to incur a debt that can take generations to pay back.

But what of the spiritual costs of war. How does war affect the souls of those who are caught up in it? Is there anything to be gained? What of Karma or Orlog? How does this promote peace of mind?

In this article I provide links to several videos which are on You Tube. This compilation of videos is intended to provide a vignette into the soul of warfare from the eyes of those who make war.

After watching these videos, I invite you to ponder the question what is the true cost of war?

• Army Soldier testifies to Rape & Torture
• Mass-rape of women & children by American soldiers
• US Woman Gang Raped in Iraq
• US Troops rape 14 year old Girl
• What US Soldiers are teaching the Afghani Children
• Americans teach Iraqi children to say “Bomb Iraq”
• US Soldiers taunting Iraqi children w/ bottle water
• American Marines in Iraq Getting Fired Upon
• Iraq Veterans Against the War Speak Out (1 of 4)

Who is Lucifer and What is the Devil really doing?

The Devil card has a lesson for us all. When you look at the card closely you see a man and woman nude, and shackled by a chain attached to a collar around their necks. The Devil, represented as Baphomet, sits on a stony throne lording over the situation.

But look closely at the collar. It is ridiculously loose. The man and woman need only lift the collar off of their heads and behold, they are free. The choice is theirs entirely.

The Luciferian archetype is that of a fallen angel. Someone who comes down from high to walk among the lowly to teach them enlightment. The child who points out that the King is not wearing any clothes is an example of this archetype. Enlightenment is nothing more than a realization that the limitations we are taught to accept are not necessarily real. Enlightenment is the cultivation of true faith. Not faith like the modern Christians teach which would have you think that merely saying “I Believe” is faith. But rather faith is a careful dicipline of the will that can take a lifetime of dilligent work for some to develop while others simply realize it by accident.

Real faith is the power to cause changes, often seemingly miraculous changes, through manifestation of pure will. The bible has a saying, faith without works is dead. There is a secret in that statement. Faith is knowing that you can cause change, but it is also mindful of the accepted order of the Universe. If you want to move a mountain through faith then it is entirely possible that you could develop faith strong enough to do so simply by a look. But, are there more efficient ways to get the mountain moved? Why are you trying to move the mountain in the first place? Is it to get to the other side, or simply to show off? Is it possible that your true desire (or will) could be achieved more economically? How much do you really need to have that mountain moved? What are the consequences to others if you move it? Will you place the mountain in some farmer’s field thus destroying his livelihood?

Every action that we take is governed by a set of consequences. Lucifer is here to teach us that we have all of the power in the universe at our disposal to use for our own benefit or the benefit of all. The Devil stands in opposition telling us we aren’t good enough to drive fast and take chances, and that we are better off accepting the false illusion of the limits we accept.

Are we ready to take responsibility for wielding that power? Perhaps it is better, until we are sufficiently wise, to accept the yoke of this world until we can learn to wield that power in a manner that will not bring about consequences contrary to our ultimate desires.

But herin lies the rub. You will never grow wise unless you have the courage to make mistakes. The dog is kept safely on the leash and never knows the thrill of the wild hunt. The stag roams free through the wood, but is sometimes struck down by the wolf, or these days, a passing motorist.

If you want to taste freedom you must learn to accept the consequences of your actions. As Tupac Shakur was once quoted as saying

“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks or even months over-analying a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened … or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and just move the fuck on.”

Or as many children are taught in kindergarden:

Humpty dumpty sat on a wall, humpty dumpty had a great fall. All the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn’t put humpty together again.

“You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs”

This is the Luciferian paradox. You cannot obtain wisdom without first knowing foolishness. Like the hanged man who smiles on the tree, accept your fate for what it is. Most important, revel in your mistakes and your scars for they are your greatest teachers. Never fear death, there are things much worse than death, such as a life received but never lived.

When the wolf gets caught robbing the hen house and the farmer places an ounce of lead in his hide, the wolf does not lay there bleating for help, he runs away as best he can and licks his wounds till he either heals or dies. Next time he tries to be more careful.

As Janis Joplin used to sing:

“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to loose”

Freedom requires giving up our attachments, driving fast and taking chances. But only if you really know what you are doing. Wisdom, is learning to know when to push the pedal to the floor and when to set your cruise control for 15 MPH.

Baphomet, is a Hebrew epigram of Sophia, which represents wisdom. The Lucifer brings us the fire, but it is entirely up to us to decide whether we use the fire to cook our dinner, or to burn down the house.

Just remember, your limits are superficial, and you can lift off the yoke any time you choose. But be forewarned, with freedom comes responsibility. Freedom is not for cattle and lambs, it was always meant for wolves and rams.

I find it difficult sometimes to determine where to draw the line between generosity and firmness. I know that in the field of psychology the knowledge of this is called boundary setting. But the confusion is greater than that, it has to do with knowing whom you owe the most frith to, and how much compasion you should extend to people who are in need.

For example, do you stop to pick up the hitchiker on a cold and wintery day? Chances are that if there are kids in the car, you would choose not to, having heard the stories about hitchiker axe murderers and not wanting to put your children at risk. Fear for family is reinforced by media, and by social agencies. Now anyone who finds themselves walking in the cold is automatically placed into the category of axe murderer and is to be shunned even if they are simply someone who is down on their luck and just trying to get home to their own kids. You never know, and increasingly we are disconnected from each other so that we must view all people with fear and suspicion.

Is this healthy, is this wholesome? For those who have had bad experiences because they extended their trust to the wrong people, the answer is unequivocably yes. For them the motto rings true “better safe than sorry”. But what about those who are so afraid to trust, that they cut themselves off and place themselves in a place with no friends or companions. Is fear and suspicion healthy for those people. What becomes of them when they find themselves down on their luck walking home in the snow?

In recent readings I have been exploring I have run across sites that indicate that we are run by a devilish group of folks who seek only to oppress us through every conceivable trick of the law. I can certainly see how in our ever increasingly disconnected society, that could easily be the best explanation for the observed phenomena. Nevertheless, it seems to me that one of the key ingredints to the demise of the soul within our society is the fact that we do not know how to balance love and severity.

There are times when a compassionate helping hand is needed, but then there are times when the exact opposite is required. Enabling people does them more harm then good. Yet therein lies the crux of the question, at what point does positive helping become negative enabling? To what extent do you turn your back upon a friend or stranger because you are concerned about what the impact of helping them might have upon your own life and the lives of your family members?

In days of old people needed each other more and were more likely to help a stranger than they are today. This was because there was a shared expectation of reciprocity and a common code of ethics among most people. Our society is different now. We are integrating more perspecitves and points of view, all the while, our leaders are increasingly pathological and corrupt and have jaded us to our fellow man.

Where does trust end and self defense begin. I believe that this may be one of the central spiritual questions of our time. Is there a systemic solution or is it simply up to each individual to decide how best to position themselves within this declining situation? At what point (if ever) and at what cost will the pendulum swing, and people will embrace trust and love over fear and severity?

I don’t claim to be either right or wrong. But here is what I have perceived in my quest for truth and my opening to the truth.

I have percieved that the “Unity of God” concept is an important tool in aligning oneself with the law. It allows you to communicate with an all knowing all powerful being who can shape the Universe to instruct you at his will. I use him because in this manifestation he is most appropriate to the feeling and sense of the being. When the time comes to make a choice, it is HE who drafts the agreement and warns you of the consequences.

I have percieved that “Goddess” can bring comfort and healing to the heart that weeps. She can wipe the tears and hold you accountable. When the time comes for you to pay up and answer for the consequences of your choices, it is SHE who gives you comfort as you work through the learning. It is she who patiently explains to you how to avoid making the same mistake in the future.

I have percieved that there are millions upon millions of intelligences, that every molecule of the universe seems to have an individual intelligence, and that it is the intelligences beyond the veil that are responsible for most of the physical laws of the universe.

I have perceived that we are all a part of god, that we are all god, and that the universe is an illusion created by consensus and agreement between the individual perceptions of the individual intelligences that participate in the show. It is a dance of lovers, billions upon trillions upon quadrillions of lovers.

I believe at this point that the natural law is the ease that comes from following the path of least resistance in navigating the ever changing waters of the grand agreement. That the universe is the grand agreement. That we are all part of it’s creation and we are all subject to its arbitration. We hold each other accountable even while we sleep the slumber of confusion.

There exists the possibility of heaven on earth as promised in the Christian bible, but it must come with consent. It will be a new dance between new consenting adults so to speak in which love is the law, love that honors the will of each dancer, without the need for fear or dominion.

Allah Be Praised,
Goddess Be Praised,
Buddah Be Praised,
“Praise Jesus and AMEN!”,
Lucifer be Praised,
Promethius we honor your sacrifice,
Let every man and woman know the Dao.

(OM)

I have recently made a new friend in Colorado. He has a fantastic site worth reading http://www.roage.com.

I have copied one of his stories and placed it here for your perusal, but all credit goes to him and those whom he would credit.

The Man In His Cage by Roage

What evil trick has man fallen for that lead to this life we lead? We were once awake, free and conscious of that which men call God.

One day a man, being bored, in his idle time wondered that if there was a “good” force, meaning God, then there could be “bad” force. He became frightened of these thoughts. So rattled by this fiction was he that the man asked God to build a protective barrier to keep this “bad” force at bay and to protect him from this bad mental creation. As is often the case “could” becomes “should” and the man’s confusion drove him to action. God did not want to impinge on the free thought of his creation and thought it best to warn the man rather then allow the man to learn the lesson of his mistake. God told man, “You have confused yourself. You should not dabble in this fiction as it is folly and there will be consequences.” “What consequences?” the man replied. “You could lose yourself, forget all about me and even convince yourself that you can die” God explained. The man laughed, “Never!” The man became insistent that God build him a barrier to this “bad” force.

So God constructed this protective barrier for the man as the man requested and made the walls stronger then the man could breach. The man was pleased and walked inside and tested the walls. The man said, “I feel secure in here but the walls are confining and it is dark in here. Can you make the walls invisible and such that I cannot perceive that they are there? “Shall I do so?” God asked. “Yes, and can I leave at any time?” the man asked, “Yes” answered God. The man thought about it. He asked, “Can you make it so the barrier moves with me so that I cannot accidentally leave it even if I tried?” “Yes”, answered God. “Can you make the barrier larger then the earth so I can go where I please.” “I will not do that”, answered God, “There are other men and women on the earth that are not afflicted with your confused fear and I will not subject them against their will to your confusion.” The man thought about it for a while and asked, “If I can convince them all that they are better of within the barrier then without and they choose to enter then you will expand the barrier to accommodate them?” asked the man. “Yes”, answered God. “Under these conditions”, God added, “You cannot use force to bring people inside the barrier. They must enter willingly and know what they are giving up. Also”, God continued, “When a man or woman convinces themselves that they died then they will be removed from the barrier and rendered unable to return.” The man agreed.

The man set about his task of recruiting companions. Most shook their heads and said, “You are confused. There is no “bad” force.” The man was undeterred, “You cannot know this bad force as it looks just like God and speaks with his voice.” Soon, as word of his protective barrier spread, more people willingly entered the enclosure fearing this unseen “bad” force.

The man choose a wife from the multitude that now inhabited the ever expanding barrier and she bore him a child. “I wish my child to be protected within the barrier.” The man declared. “No!” God said, “The child is free to come and go until he is at an age where he can choose for himself.” The man was not pleased and since the child could not see the barrier the man choose to withhold that knowledge from his child. When the time came when the child grew to the age of consent the man told him that he was better off within barrier then without and used fear to influence his child’s will.

It was not long before all men and women had chosen to enter the barrier. As God predicted those that had died were removed from the barrier and never returned. God said, “This is madness! When will you cease this nonsense?” The people within the barrier became afraid and said, “You are the ‘bad’ force. Be gone from our sight and never trouble us again!” God reluctantly complied.

Many generations had come and gone. The people did not pass on the knowledge of the barrier to their children had all forgotten of the barrier’s existence. Without the counsel of God, men and women engaged in ever more self-destructive behaviors. They were now firmly convinced that death was the end and God was a powerless force as only “bad” things were happening. Many did not even believe in God and tried to make friends with this fictional “bad” force by employing more and more complicated fictional procedures and rules.

God, complying with the wishes of their parents, was left outside of the barrier unwilling to break his word, by the people’s request, kept from taking action. The people within began suffering in ignorance and pleaded to God for help. God sent messengers into the enclosure to try to teach them where they went wrong. God continued to honor his word. A few people listened and heeded God’s direction and although they remained in the cage their lives became better for doing so. However, most had become confused and a few people even sought to dominate the rest. They used the fear of the “bad” force to scare people into submission. Things became worse.

God decided that he would enter the enclosure in the form of a man and teach those inside of the barrier and what it is like to live free on the outside and the proper ways to live. He said death is not the end and you can live free and not be confined in the barrier. The people would have none of it. Those that dominated the rest attacked God in his disguise and attacked those people that choose to listen to his words. They tortured and destroyed the disguise and it became lifeless. God left the barrier to observe if the lesson had been learned. Some had retained the knowledge of the barrier and how to escape. Those that dominated sought out those who were free and convinced them that they would be provided everything if they would not reveal the secret on how to become free. Those who were free conceded and lived like kings. Those that dominated then located all writings and references to the secret and killed all people that were still trying to learn the secret. The people were threatened with torture and death if they sought to escape and be free of the barrier. They lied and said if you do not obey us then the “bad” force will make you die forever.

Even with that, the secret was spreading. It became necessary to create a structure to manage the people who were looking for God. Those that dominated had destroyed all references to the secret of freedom but allowed some of the proper ways to live to remain. They then made a hero of the disguised man. They codified the proper ways to live among other things in a book and threatened the people that they should look no farther then the book for answers.

The children of those that escaped by listening to the words of the disguised man, after a few generations, themselves forgot the secret to escape and the secret remained only with those that dominated. The people were not only firmly under the domination of the few but captive within the barrier. As time went on a few of the enslaved people, through following the proper ways to live, began stumbling upon the secret. They created a nation and began living outside the power of those that dominated. That again would not do, so those that dominated decided that they had to corrupt the people and confuse them that God was a fiction. They invented new fictions to confuse the people and made those that sought to obey the proper ways a laughingstock so that the people would abandon their search and once engage is self-destructive behaviors.

Then one day, an odd man thought, “what if what is happening in my life is a lie? What if the man in the disguise was right? What if I do live forever? If there was a God then what do I need to do to find him and ask him to make me free?” So he set about his life to find this God that people referred to but could not see. God saw this initiative and began giving this odd man clues. The clues were subtle and only for the odd man to see. Men standing right next to the odd man attributed these strange occurrences to chance or luck. The special occurrences and events stuck out in the odd man’s mind because he had thoughts come to him coincidently about what was about to happen had already prepared him for what he was to see. The odd man noted that he could not relay these thoughts to others as they would not listen or believe. It raised even more questions in the odd man’s mind like, “What if these curious coincidences, that are happening more frequently, are not coincidences at all? Where were these thoughts coming from? How is it that I became perfectly positioned to see these wondrous events and had this foreknowledge?”

As time went on the odd man noticed that he was being led and sometimes had no choice but to see the clues that God was sending him, in his mind, in his life and that he was amassing interesting knowledge and views that no one around him shared. The odd man then concluded that these wondrous things could only be the work of this unseen God. He began to address the open air to prompt this unseen God to communicate in a voice that he could hear. God did not answer but more thoughts came to his mind. They were specific rules by which he would be allowed to perceive God without seeing God or hearing God. The odd man then studied the rules so that he knew them by heart. The rules provided all that he must do and they were surprisingly simple.

God watched from outside of the barrier and decided that those, like this odd man, who could not be logically held to the original agreement, truly wished to be free and acknowledged that God would free them would be given the secret and could count on God’s assistance. To protect these free people, like the odd man, God would allow them to live unnoticed by the confused people and even unnoticed by those that dominate. These free people remain undetectable and appear as any other man or woman but they are free of the barrier. God communicates with them in ways the confused, or those that dominate, are not able to perceive. The secret is only available to those who really want to be free and are willing to allow God to protect them.

Years went by as the odd man mulled over the rules and procedure in his mind. He noticed that things in his life were changing. He found he was not free to do certain things and he was being led somewhere. He could not yet discern the reason but he had attributed it to God. Towards the end he found that had little freedom to do anything he wanted. In a fit of frustration the odd man decide that he would try to comply with the rules and the procedure.

Suddenly, the odd man was startled when he was able to perceive God. He was able to communicate with God freely. It was not that he could see God or hear God but he could know in his mind with absolute certainty that God was there and what God was telling and teaching him. The odd man then understood why man had chosen that God remain silent and that God was simply complying with man’s will.

The odd man was allowed to share his secret only with those others that God deemed ready to be free and only those people. Those that were not ready would not understand, not believe or simply be distracted from the secret knowledge the odd man relayed.

The odd man also realized that God decided that the original experiment had run its course. He could not allow the confusion to continue. God decided that most people had become so confused that they had no chance of ever returning on their own. God would decide to allow the rest of the people to “die” their painful “death” and at last break free of the barrier. It pained God but most people willfully decided to remain confused and engage in self-destructive behaviors. God simply complied with their wish. To allow them to suffer in the cage no longer served a valuable purpose as the lesson was learned but the way back for these people was obscured and out of their reach as they chose to be so confused.

Now if you are such a man or woman that wishes to be free. The only thing that keeps you enslaved is fear of this thing called “death” or the intimidation of those that dominate. One can easily live free on this earth, free from the confused and free from those few people that dominate. The barrier is a fiction that we have ourselves constructed along with the fictional reason for the barrier in the first place. When we really want out and we can face our unfounded fear, we can live free of this fictional barrier or this fictional “bad” force. We are then free on this earth and live side by side with the confused. They will not know. How can they? God does not permit them to know. That is the protection that God offers. They cannot see or think that we can be free while they remain enslaved. Those that “die” are also free but they are not allowed return to the cage. Why would anyone want to anyway? It is, after all, a stupid idea.

If you are interested in knowing how things are instead of what we are told and want to know how to escape then Click Here.

You must remember that if you truly do not wish to be free and you do not want to meet God then the words will not have meaning, they will be confusing or you will not be able to allow yourself to believe.

A friend of mine named Andy shared this with me today and I felt that it was worth sharing.

“Over the years I have read a lot of stuff and have come to realize that there are no “one size fits all” program’s to enlightenment out there, which is not to say that one can’t learn (and I certainly have) from other peoples insights. I am always open to new ideas but most often, when I really explore them I find that the underlying principals of those ideas are already part of my spiritual foundation.

Each new idea is a stepping stone that can be laid on your path but once the path is clear I have found it best to just walk it. If you find that you often loose your way, you can always look for guidance but I will tell you from my own personal experience that I have learned a great many things on life’s little detours.

As long as your not walking in endless circles your probably not really lost.”

I originally posted this article with only the above text. I knew that it resonated with me and that it was an important observation. But today the importance of it became much clearer. Sometimes things need to germinate before they spring forth and bear fruit I suppose.

Aleister Crowley is attributed with the quote “Every man and every woman is a star.” He later explains that what he means by that is that “…every human being is intrinsically an independent individual with his own proper character and proper motion”. He goes on to begin to lay the framework regarding the meaning of true will by pointing out that “Every man and every woman has a course, depending partly on the self, and partly on the environment which is natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is forced from his own course, either through not understanding himself, or through external opposition, comes into conflict with the order of the Universe, and suffers accordingly…A man whose conscious will is at odds with his True Will is wasting his strength. He cannot hope to influence his environment efficiently…man who is doing his True Will has the inertia of the Universe to assist him.”

Herin lies the dilema of the guru, or for that matter the pupil. If the guru has found the path to enlightenment, he most certainly cannot share it with his pupil, because the path of the guru, and the path of the pupil must inevitably be different paths. While both may be able to reach the same destination, they cannot follow the same path in the spacetime continuum. It follows then that there are facts and then there are facts.

Crowley points out that “One asset in the Audit of a fact is the amount of knowledge which it covers.” he gives the following example:

(2 + 5)2 = 49; (3 + 4)2 = 49; (6 + 2)2 =64; (7 + 1)2 = 64; (9 + 4)2 = 169 are isolated facts, no more; worse, the coincidences of 49 and 64 might start the wildest phantasies in your head—”something mysterious about this.” But if you write “The sum of the squares of any two numbers is the sum of the square of each plus twice their multiple”—(a + b)2 = a2 + b{2} + 2ab—you have got a fact which covers every possible case, and exhibits one aspect of the nature of numbers them- selves.

So here we find the true value of an enlightened one. What sort of quality facts can he or she observe that begin to get to one aspect of the nature of man (and woman’s) existence. What postulates might the guru provide to the pupil that will enable him to order the more common facts into a framework that will allow that pupil to be what they are meant to be?

So, traveling through life and observing the experiences and cherishing the memories with an open heart and mind and in love, seems to indeed be the most basic “fact” of existence for those who follow the path toward peace of mind. But are there any things that can be said about the true nature of existence that will serve others as valuable signposts as they find and follow their own unique paths?

If there is reincarnation, do you ever wonder what you may someday come back as?

What if you came back as what you eat?

Modern man has become divisive. The divisiveness was once a virtue. Dividing the subtle from the gross, dividing things into categories and phylums, dividing tasks into specialties gave rise to the society we have today.

Dividing things allows us to examine things in isolation in order to discern their nature. It allows us to focus on a relatively small number of variables in order to perfect a portion of the whole.

However, any good thing taken to extreme becomes a very bad thing. Today we are so divided that specialists in one field are unable to communicate with each other. Families and individuals are increasingly isolated. Social welfare systems are unable to communicate with each other and people end up falling through the cracks.

Division is only one part, without being followed by synthesis, it becomes counter productive. Pieces and parts are only perfected when they themselves are as refined as they can be but are also carefully integrated back into the fabric of the whole machine.

There is a certain knowledge that can only be obtained by looking at the whole manifestation. Division has it’s place but is not the end of the process.

We divide our politics from our churches. This is good because it protects those in the minority view from the oppression of the majority (who are often the least creative of our species). But taking all spirit and conviction and concience out of politics leads us to the place we have got to today. With criminals running our country spending trillions of dollars and not just a few good lives of our patriotic young in order to pursue their own selfish and immoral agendas.

Separating spirit from the flesh presents us with significant hazards as well. Spirit, mind, and body are interconnected and what affects one affects them all.

The health and well being of the body are as necessary to true religion as true religion is necessary to a healthy and balanced body. By true religion, I do not mean the dogmatic teaching of any one church or sect, but the law of Life and Living, and wisdom the manifestation of powers working through and with men and women to their ultimate perfection and with mankind as a whole to its ultimate perfection.

Today I was asked by a dear friend of mine who is a long practicing Witch whether or not I followed the Rede as espoused by Gerald Gardner. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Rede, it is simply this: “An it harm none do what ye will” which in contemporary English simply means: “Do what you will, so long as it harms none”

While this is a very pleasant and wonderously idealistic notion, any thoughtful person will soon realize that there really isn’t much at all that a person can do without harming something somewhere. Harm is a very personal thing. The cockroach in the kitchen will feel harm if the cook in the kitchen takes steps to sanitize he kitchen. Likewise if the cook considers the cockroaches feelings, then something else must in turn be harmed.

I have long held to the notion that the Crowley rede was much more workable:
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law - Love is the Law, love under Will

It is likely that Crowley derived this rede from the writings of Francois Rabelais who in 1534 wrote:

DO AS THOU WILT because men that are free, of gentle birth, well bred and at home in civilized company possess a natural instinct that inclines them to virtue and saves them from vice. This instinct they name their honor

John Stuart Mill advocated that “the sole purpose of law should be to stop people from harming others and that should people want to participate in victimless crimes, crimes with no complaining witness, such as gambling, drug usage, engaging in prostitution, then they should not be encroached in doing so.”

In chaper 1 of his treatise “On Liberty” he defines the harm principle as follows:

The object of this Essay is to assert one very simple principle, as entitled to govern absolutely the dealings of society with the individual in the way of compulsion and control, whether the means used be physical force in the form of legal penalties, or the moral coercion of public opinion. That principle is, that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinion of others, to do so would be wise, or even right… The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.

The foundation of the Constitution is built on this very principle, that all men are created equal and are entitled to certain basic freedoms. However our constitution doesn’t seem to go so far as Mr. Mill.

In recent years we have seen an increasing amount of legislation passed to prevent people from doing things like using drugs, or prostitution on the premise that these actions harm others. My thinking on this of course is that the motive behind most of this legislation is twofold: 1. Accumulation of power by corporate interests, 2. Pandering to fundamentilists of one flavor or another in order to further the aims of number 1.

An analysis of the structure and method of enforcement of such legislation will quickly reveal that it is largely ineffective in promoting the greater good of the members of society and therefore it is unlikely that more compassionate motives are behind it.

But getting back to harm and law. The Gardnerian Charge of the Goddes contains the following:

“Keep pure your highest ideal, strive ever towards it; let naught stop you or turn you aside, for mine is the secret door which opens upon the door of youth”

This is supposed to serve as a guide in dealing with ethical dilemas and in truth it is a pretty good one. However it doesn’t assure that great harm will not be done. Adolf Hitlers higest ideal was to promote the “Creative” races and to eliminate the dissolution that mixing with the “Emulating” or “Destructive” races caused to civilization so that once and for all a civilization could be built that would stand the tests of the ages because there would be nothing to dilute the purity of the blood of the “Creative” race.

Now I sincerely believe that Hitler stuck to his highest ideal. None the less, a great many people were harmed. As it turns out, the so called “Emulating” and “Destructive” races had more creativity than he anticipated and they kicked his behind in WWII. Lucky for anyone who was not of “pure” blood.

I love taking walks in the Woods. Nature has a beauty that is un paralelled in any human art. But how is this beauty created? What makes a tree so beautiful? Does it strive to be beautiful? I don’t think that it strives for anything but what it needs. A tree strives to fulfil it’s own needs and to make itself as healthy as it can be by reaching for the sun, and digging deep into the earth for nourishment. In so doing it creates a structure upon which we gaze and percieve beauty.

Does a tree do no harm? Of course it does harm. Other light craving plants that are unable to reach as high or as quickly as the tree, will die in it’s shadow. Yet, there are other plants that depend upon the tree’s shadow for protection from full sunlight. These latter types of plants grow up around the tree. Nature and it’s beauty come from the interplay of forces each of which seeks to fulfil it’s own ends without regard to the other beings of nature. These forces are self serving, but not intrusive. A blade of grass does not try to pass legislation against purple flowers simply because purple is a lewd and offensive color.

Each being in nature tries to meet it’s own needs and other than that, adopts a live and let live philosophy. Some of nature’s beings have learned to work together for the collective good of the group.

Mankind, took this principle much further and over the course of ages achieved a critical mass in which man was able to create a separate ecology that emulates nature while at the same time being separate from it. This ecology is referred to as civilization. While the ecology of civilization is separate from nature, individual men (and women) cannot be separated from nature and survive. We still depend upon nature to obtain that which we need for our bodies to survive. Without the bodies, the minds would loose their place in the material world, and this separate ecology called civilization would vanish into thin air.

So civilized man has a special problem that no other creature faces. He is part of 2 ecologies. The ecology of man, and the ecology of nature. To thrive he must thrive in both worlds. For 2000 years men have emphaisized the ecology of civilization, but now is the time to return our attention to the ecology of nature because we need both to survive.

What Hitler percieved to be the “Creative” races were those folks who tended to focus their attention to the ecology of civilization. Whereas those “Primitive” peoples whom he referred to as the “Destructive” races were frequently the same folks who remembered that they were part of the ecology of nature as much as the ecology of man. He was doomed to fail even if he had won the war and taken over the world because he would have tilted the balance too far in favor of civilization at the expense of the natural.

We need to be cognizant of the fact that harm is a natural part of the ecology of nature. The more dynamic a civil ecology becomes (sometimes an aspect of the civil ecology is referred to as economy, but that only describes a portion of he elephant), the more that it will emulate nature. This is because the two systems are isomorphic. Therefore as civilization progresses, it will look more and more like nature and natures law will prevail.

In recent times I have been engaged in a meditation on the Norse concept of “orlog”, as well as a learning of the Bhudist concept of Dharma. Both of these concepts refer at their basis as the law or the way of things. Law as in the law of nature versus rule of law though on closer examination there is little difference.

Modern scientists might refer to the concept of Orlog, or Dharma, as the law of cause and effect, whereas the Wiccan practicioner refers to it as the Threefold Law. Each of these three notions in one way or another describes this thing which I will refer to here as the Way of Things in order to try to remain neutral. But each of the other three concepts examines a different part of the elephant.

I will examine what may be simply a fourth part in this blog.

I often hear people with a Christian ubpringing when accused of a misdeed saying “It’s not my fault”. My budding understanding of the Way of Things says “Yes, you are right, it is not your fault you did this thing or that. You were influenced by the emotional states brought on by your past experiences which were the result of the effect of your earlier actions which were the result of your thoughts which were the results of your previous emitional states and your circumstances at the time…” And so the wheel of Dharma turns, and the Orlog is built up in layer upon layer of cycles through many seasons, generations, incarnations and ages.

In effect this understanding shows me that what we do is “Not our fault” and “Totally our fault at the same time”. This is all predicated of course on the presumption of re-incarnation and an immortal stream of conciousness which makes up both our individuality and our oneness with all things. If there is no re-incarnation, if we simply die and cease to exist at the end of our relatively short time on this earth, then ceartainly, “It’s not my fault” carries more weight.

Nevertheless, something in me tells me that biological death may not be the end of it all. In either case our progression is determined by our ability to remain calm and clear headed and to think before we act. Manifestations of abilities developed demonstrate that dilligence has been applied to this notion of thoughtfulness and concentration at some point or another.

But it is all to easy to become attached to the abilities we have been able to manifest through our past dilligence, and in so doing we become thoughtless in our skill. This can lead to a dissolution of our karmic credit so to speak.

To illustrate my point:

I have been running for about 6 months now and have gone from being able to run only about 3/10 of a mile, to running 4 miles in about 49 minutes. I have become somewhat addicted to running. Initially it took concentration to develop the dilligence to go run 3 times a week, and the pain often reduced that to 2 times a week. I would initially use the elliptical mill as an alternative to running while my calves and knees healed. Now I have learned techniques that enable me to run for quite a distance without injury and running is now pleasurable.

However before when I was breaking things up with different pursuits I began to loose weight and look better. Lately since I have been running for my cardio almost exclusively I have begun to feel a dull pain in my shins and my weight loss has stopped.

It occurs to me that whatever pursuits we engage in for the betterment of ourselves and to develop ourselves as individuals, we need to be careful to not become attached to any one or other of these pursuits, or staleness sets in, and eventually we regress.

This brought me to the realization that pausing for a moment , closing my eyes, and opening my mind and heart to something else in the same way we sometimes close our eyes and take in the breath and smells of the country or a well kept kitchen, this pausing puts me in touch with what I believe to be a higher self. In doing this, I find that thoughtless action becomes thoughtful action and that a beter plan of action with better consequences ensues.

This is a new discovery for me and may seem old hat to others. But I share it none the less in the hope that my perspective will in some way be of benefit to someone else who is close to attaining this understanding. For whatever it is worth.