MysticKnyght's Musings

One of the things folks starting down a pagan path often consider is what sort of outward sign they should exhibit to express their beliefs.  For Wiccans and neo-Wiccans, that symbol is usually the Pentacle:



The Pentagram represents the elements of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth, along with the Spirit.  The circle that makes the Pentagram a Pentacle binds those five together into a unified symbol. 

The problem with the pentacle, of course, is that the five-sided star was co-opted by self-styled "Satanists" as their symbol.  Christians of many denominations freak out when they see pentacles/pentagrams.  There are many in the Earth-religion community who are quite willing to get in the faces of those who try to associate these symbols with Christian-defined/created evil.  But for those in the Catholic Closet, wearing a pentacle is just looking for not only arguments, but can have serious personal consequences. 

Teenage pagans and witches are willing to do the rebel-thing, wearing symbols that light up their teachers and principals.  The student wearing a pentacle in public school is looking for a fight.  The student in a Catholic school who does is looking to get kicked out.

There's an alternative to the pentacle, the Solar Cross:



The Solar Cross, unlike the Patriarchal or Calvary Cross, is equal-armed, and surrounded by a circle.  To many in the Earth-religion community, the arms of the Solar Cross represent the four Elements, bound by Spirit.  Another possibility is to wear a Solar Cross that has a stone set in the center, the stone representing Spirit.

If your goal is to acknowledge the relationship of the Elements and the Spirit, both the Pentacle and the Solar Cross do a fine job.  The difference is that the latter does not arouse panic and fear among the ignorant.  Christians see what they choose to see.  They'll look at a Solar Cross, see a Christian symbol, and leave it at that. 

A third symbol is often related to the "sun wheel" symbol, the Brigid Cross:



The Brigid Cross is generally regarded as a Christian symbol, but it's design is so untraditional that it will most likely draw more attention than a Solar Cross. My favorite use of the Brigid Cross is by Archbishop "Blackie" Ryan, the fictional sleuth created by Fr. Andrew Greeley.  Archbishop Blackie's episcopal cross is a Brigid Cross, which always gets noticed.  This cross is almost guaranteed to raise eyebrows and start conversations. 

Raised eyebrows are often something that one in the Catholic Closet wants to avoid, but still, it's a gorgeous cross.

Introduction

I was filling out a profile for a "pagan meetup" group, and it asked what sort of religious background I would be bringing to the group.  I answered "cradle Catholic." For New Orleanians, this pretty much says it all.  Like Earl Higgins says in his book The Joy of Y'at Catholicism, even da Jews are Catholics in New Orleans. 

It's no surprise that many of the Pagan/Wiccan types in the Crescent City were raised Catholic.  What's also no big surprise is that many people who still go to Mass on Sunday have "pagan leanings." Cradle Catholics often have no grasp on just how much overlap there is between their beliefs and those of the pentacle-wearing people who dance around fires. 

"The Catholic Closet" will address some of this overlap.  We'll examine what it is about Wicca that attracts Catholics, as well as looking at what it's like to be in the Catholic-specific version of the "broom closet."

What Is The Catholic Closet?

The term "in the closet" was most frequently associated with gay folks hiding out as straights.  Pagans/Wiccans cleverly adapted the term, referring to those who still practiced their family religion as being in the "broom closet."  Depending on which denomination of Christianity you were raised in, keeping both feet inside the broom closet can be a challenge.  Those in the Catholic Closet, however, not only have little problem staying firmly inside, they also can easily grow in their relationship with whatever Old Gods to whom they've developed an affinity.

Please understand that I'm not talking about these "Christo-Wicca" trads (or pseudo-trads some would say).  The notion of putting the New Testament together with the God and Goddess of Wicca and using Jesus and Mary as God/Goddess forms is one I can't wrap my head around.  I prefer to see the parallels and appreciate them rather than trying to merge theology. 

So, let's explore the parallels, the connections, and the positive. 

...from my Robin Wood deck. 

Regret, doubt, solitude, loneliness, wallowing. 

Since I'm good at a lot of these things, drawing the Five of Cups early in the morning is a caution to me to NOT follow that path and get something positive done. 

Which I shall!  :-)

I took my Witch's Tarot deck with me out of town this week, so it's still in my bag, and my Robin Wood deck is sitting here on my desk. I picked up the cards, shuffled, and drew the Three of Cups:

Friendship and community, two things I always feel when working on Daily Kos diary rescue...great people! :-)

from BeliefNet's "Daily Hindu Wisdom" today:

The spiritual weapon of self-purification, intangible as it seems, is the most potent means of revolutionizing one’s environment and loosening the external shackles. It works subtly and invisibly; it is an intense process though it might often seem a weary and long-drawn process. It is the straightest way to liberation, the surest and the quickest, and no effort can be too great for it. What it requires is faith—an unshakable mountainlike faith that flinches from nothing.

-Mohandas Gandhi

One of the best ways to "loosen the external shaclkes" is a purification bath, or ritual bath. I suggest everyone give it a try, particularly on a Monday evening. We come home with the psychic dust and grime of the world on us after our first day back at work, and what better time to purify ourselves a bit?

I had a very fitful night Thursday night. When I woke up Friday morning, wife says, "I'm mad at you, you woke me up twice." Turns out I was tossing and turning enough to really disturb her, and she said I called out something unintelligible at some point and woke her up with that."

I rolled back on my back and stared at the ceiling, closing my eyes to sort out what I was feeling, and the residuals from the night weren't pleasant.

Anger. Lots of it. And not from me, either, I haven't been that angry with someone/something in years. So, if it wasn't me, where did it come from?

I usually shield myself before I fall asleep. I have a little ritual I go through while lying there to get my shields to a level where I'm comfortable that no serious nasties will bother me while I sleep. Problem is, sometimes I crash before I can get to that, and Thursday night was a good example of that.

I've got two friends of late that I worry about and try to send positive energy regularly to. One of them has a combination of a bit of depression as well as your basic stress, so I like to fix on this person and send them the psychic equivalent of a big hug from a good friend. This is easy for me to do, since I've done a lot of work with astral projection over time. I try to get a basic geographical fix on the person, visualize them, and then go for a connection. Feedback I've received over time is that something is working right with this.

When it's simple "hug" energy, the overall implications for me are no big deal. I'll shield myself, then go out looking. True healing energy, however, takes more effort, which is why I wait usually wait until bedtime to attempt this. I cooked Thursday night, and we had a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio with dinner, and the natural impairment of a few glasses of wine clouded my process by bedtime. Instead of shielding properly, I went ahead and began to send my friend (who had a very bad day pain-wise) as much energy as I could. This drained me out, and I pretty much zonked out.

That combination left me way too open to others' influences. I think I've isolated the source of the anger, and have taken steps to block that. Here's how I make all this work from a visualization point of view:

Shielding: Start by laying down on the bed or a sofa. Relax your body from your toes up to the top of your head. Visualize yourself upright at this point, rising towards the Kether, the infinite. Open your mind to light from Kether and absorb pure white light from that source. Let that light flow through your body, then manifest it around your heart. Project that light out from your heart, letting it spill over onto your body as a protective layer. Use your will to adjust your intent regarding this shield. Is it to be a total defense, allowing nothing in or out, or something less than that?

Over time, you will want to alter the visualization of your shield from simple white light coming from your heart to a color or colors that better reflect your aura.

Blocking: Visualize the source of bad/unwanted energy. Place that person or that source in a corner of your mind, and construct a barrier between you and them. How you visualize the barrier will depend on the strength of the energy, and whether or not you want to keep contact with that person. For example, a simple chain-link fence might be all you need to make your point. If anyone was able to push into my shields to the point where I'm calling out in my sleep, I consider that a problem. In this case, I visualized a brick-and-mortar wall, building it up, row by row, until this threat was blocked out.

Try some of these if you're so inclined, I'm curious to see what mileage you get from them. Better still, tell me how YOU shield.

balance between the physical and spiritual...Yes, this is me today. It's a good day, I'm getting through my to-do list nicely, and it's a good balance of personal and work projects.

Two children are depicted on The Sun card in the Witches Tarot. The one on the left is long-haird and standing in water, the large orb of the sun in the upper left corner. The child on the right is short-haired and standing on land, the orb of the moon covering his? legs in the bottom right corner.

Both children are young enough that they're very androgynous. The left-side child could be a long-haired boy, and the right-side child could be a short-haired girl, or vice versa. They're holding hands, a stone wall behind them.

Ellen interprets the card as the search for knowledge, a decision to seek knowledge. That works with two things I've been working on over the last few days, one spiritual/religious, the other technical.

...seen on www.care2.com:

If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character. If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world. So let it be. —Scottish Blessing

I came to the Craft about 18 years ago, through a roundabout way. Having been raised Catholic, a strong background in mysticism combined with a keen interest in sword-and-sorcery fantasy novels led me to the study of Ceremonial Magic, mostly from a Christian perspective. Several events in my life at that time led me to seriously question Christianity. I continued my work with CM and Tarot, but shifted to a Pagan framework for worshipping the Deity. I began to investigate various on-line Wiccan/Pagan groups on places such as CompuServe, GEnie, the USENET, and FIDOnet, making some wonderful and interesting friends along the way. I was hesitant about joining a local coven or other face-to-face group, mainly because I was still pretty much in the "broom closet" at this time.

Around 1991, I discovered the late Scott Cunningham's most popular book, Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner. I was immediately hooked--his approach was exactly what I was searching for! Scott's simplification of Witchcraft made the Goddess and God very accessible for me, and enabled me to grow in the Craft.

Along the way, I picked up a tarot deck drawn by a fascinating lady named Robin Wood. At the time, I had been working almost exclusively with Chic Cicero's Golden Dawn Ritual Deck. The imagery of Robin's deck was so appealing and so totally pagan that it increased my awareness of the Goddess and God, as well as drawing me more and more into Tarot. The combination of these two teachers, along with all the people I've met and chatted with along the way, have led me to this point in my spiritual development.

I have no Wiccan lineage, pedigree, or "puppy papers." I come from no tradition save my own solitay workings. Not having the street cred of a Scott Cunningham, I prefer to call myself a "Solitary Witch," thereby avoiding direct confrontation with initiates of various traditions who see solitary practice as incompatible with Wicca.

My vocation is teaching. I currently practice that vocation in the computer field, teaching classes for several companies as well as doing consulting work. While I have not felt it was the right time for me to accept students in the Craft, the vocation is calling me and that may be changing.