When I look at the world

‘The information nation took their clues from all the sound-bite gluttons’ REM – Ignoreland

I spoke to Mel last night for the first time in weeks. One of the many reasons that she is one of my best friends is her ability to make me think & question without even realising it. She asked my how my ‘witchy stuff’ (as she put it) was going and when I answered I answered with comments that I didn’t even know I thought, until I said them. I’d love to know how she makes me do that.

The last week has made many people question many aspects about both themselves & life generally. For a while now I’ve been grappling with my progress on my spiritual path and my direction. These last few days have made me see more clearly and I wanted to write it here, more as way to record the changes I feel.

I belong to a number of pagan/wicca groups on Yahoo. I’m not really an active speaker on those, I prefer the boards on a couple of other websites I also use. I tend to find the lists get bogged down in stuff that is of little interest to me whilst the sites have up to 20 boards I can get involved in. But anyway, I get emails everyday of what people have been saying and obviously a lot of it has been around the events in America, and to be honest I was shocked by the reaction of some people. During my first few months reading, participating, etc I came across people who were compassionate, caring and respectful of human life. It was a huge part of why I felt so at ease. It felt like a caring religion. But this last week has changed somewhat. These same people, those ones who were all against Dubya and his environmental policies, who abhored his stand on guns & abortion, now want to kill, and it makes me sick. I’ve read email after email and post after post about why we should all be nuking (and yes, someone actually suggested nuclear attacks) Afghanistan to find Bin Laden. The few dissenting voices, the ones who really don’t want to see the military anywhere near the Middle East, are scorned for their naivety & rose-tinted view of the world. It’s not a great way to start the day off, reading hate & murder filled emails. I always thought Pagans advocated tolerance, especially religious tolerance, but these last few days have made me wonder.

I realise that it isn’t every Pagan, and I know that the feelings aren’t limited to Pagans alone, I’ve read too many diaries on here that advocate attacks on innocent people as well, but I just felt that….maybe I expected better from these supposedly ‘like-minded’ people. I fell let down almost. And it’s made me question my path even more. I know that I am heading in the right direction, I just have a lot more things to work out first I guess.

Until there is a next time…

xx