tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23362604687961514.post8835264274058589944..comments2023-10-30T04:31:42.031-07:00Comments on THE TEMPLE: DON'T DIS DEMETER: THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES: PART ONEPegasushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12122356371487253798noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23362604687961514.post-52400748262434125272008-09-24T05:30:00.000-07:002008-09-24T05:30:00.000-07:00I'm in total agreement with you, Daniel. It all co...I'm in total agreement with you, Daniel. It all comes from the fact that we now live in a primarily urban society where the seasons can more or less be ignored. When you live in the country learning to live with the natural rhythms of nature is taken for granted but in cities, night can be day thanks to lighting and winter can be warm and summer cool thanks to central heating and air conditioning. It all plays to our sense of immortality and defiance of our own natural being. The effect is to deracinate ourselves completely from the cycles of nature which, unfortunately, deracinate us from ourselves. You remember how over the last few years we have barely had a summer in the north? After eighteen months of rain and extended winter/autumn, everyone started feeling depressed and miserable. The cause was that our body rhythms were out of whack because we had missed the sun. Another reminder that we are natural beings with a holistic relationship with our environment.<BR/><BR/>All religions have festivals plugged into the natural cycles of the year. Persephone's return to the world coincides with Easter, Hannukah coincides with the turning of the Light. But if we cut ourselves off from our natural selves we lose. Its another sign of how out of tune we are with Reality. When we went industrial we started raping Demeter. After a while she was bound to get pissed off and start hitting back. This is why, once again, knowledge of our spiritual inheritance through legends and myths is so important. Past spiritualities sprang out of our relationship with the world around us. Thus they tell us great truths about who and what we are. Science has told us for too long that we are invincible, that we can subjugate, control and manipulate nature. And look where it has got us. We need to listen to the Old Wisdom a little bit more...Pegasushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12122356371487253798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23362604687961514.post-80147174903277244482008-09-24T03:42:00.000-07:002008-09-24T03:42:00.000-07:00I have often felt that some form of spiritual unde...I have often felt that some form of spiritual understanding of the seasons is integral to a persons harmony with their surrounding environment. Neo-paganism does offer this to a great extent but is still lacking in many areas as the emphasis has shifted in the last few decades to more high magick ritualistic practice than grass roots study the wheel.<BR/><BR/>What is of concern to me though is the new developing popular concept of the seasons. It appears that your average Joe is so out of sync with the seasons it is mind numbingly annoying. MID-winter is toted by the television as the beginning of winter and people then take that as a given. More disturbingly is what I see on children's television. In about 6 weeks time from now cbeebies will start their autumn watch season of programmes. The programmes are very good in themselves, educating children about their local woodland and animals, but it does give a very wrong perception of when autumn is seeing as it starts in October according to them...<BR/><BR/>Regardless of religious inclination I believe that educating our children about the seasons can be an enriching and rewarding thing to do - for those of us that are pagan, it gives us a great way to introduce our children to the various mysteries.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com