Letters 45

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Chaos Science and Vampires

I feel compelled to write about your reply to the letter Cuddly Vampires? I certainly agree with the conclusions you draw regarding vampires, having tangled with a few myself. However I strenuously disagree with the use of the word chaos to describe them and their actions. When one follows the path of chaos and When one deliberately chooses chaos over order, one chooses destruction. I think this shows a great misunderstanding over the role of chaos and order in the universe.

Chaos and order form the great yin-yang of the universe. It is the same as choosing the light over the dark. They form a duality, the dynamic balance of which measures the ebb and flow of our lives. Would you choose the orderly rows of the corn field over the haphazard chaos of the wild wood? Personally, they both have their attractions for me. I like to eat corn, but I prefer treading the woods for pleasure.

Think of our society. Many people equate chaos with lawlessness and violence, but I prefer to think that free men and women could learn to live peacefully, not needing the multiple layers of laws that most folks think are needed to control our lives. Would you really want to live in the orderly society of Nazi Germany, for example?

The most important reason for chaos in our lives is that it allows magick to function. If everything were orderly and predetermined, there would be no room for the quantum indeterminacies that many believe cause magickal effects to take place. I for one would miss that. Fortunately, there seems little that humans can do to really remove chaos from our lives.

I suggest you investigate modem chaos theory. An excellent book is Turbulent Mirror. Another is Chaos, by James Gleick. It could be very enlightening and possibly provide some future articles.

Bright Blessings

Lyrus Landholder

This is a critical point that highlights the unfortunate dualistic prejudice of our culture. It is difficult to not talk in terms of Good and Evil. When you try, you often end up with the same ideas clothed in new words. Judith's comments on Vampires were not meant to say that chaos is bad. It was an effort to get away from such characterization. She does not adhere to duality. There is only One Power behind everything. Evil does not exist except as an illusion of unbalance in our lives. It is usually an excess of chaos, according to our society. You are right; chaos is necessary for half of evolution. One needs friction to grow and evolve. That we label evil anything that pains our ego is the point she was trying to make.

Perhaps it would have been better to say that Vampires are chaos out of balance with order. This implies that order can be out of balance with chaos, which can be just as bad as in Lyrus' example of Nazi Germany. But the point is that vampirism is parasitic and counter evolutionary and destructive to people and systems that should, for the time being, be supported for the benefit of all. Unfortunately this is awfully bulky. In trying to make a coherent response it is too easy to get trapped in social prejudice, so we welcome gentle reminders.

I would also like to second Lyrus' recommendation of Turbulent Mirror (I have not read the other book). It is a good explanation of the mathematical and scientific understanding of chaos, and it is easy to see its profound metaphysical implications.

SR

The Amazing

Letter/Editorial/Review!

Spiritual Vampires

by Marty Raphael

($14.95, The Message Company)

Last issue I answered Michelle's letter asking about vampires. Since then I found Marty Raphael's book Spiritual Vampires, the Use and Misuse of Spiritual Power. This book is a wonderful description of Marty's journey to enlightenment through various paths and what she discovered about the people teaching and leading these communities. Most important is what she discovered about herself through her reactions to each sect she encountered. She writes:

I have known many spiritual vampires in my time. In fact, I have done some vampiring myself. In coming to an awareness of the vampiring process, I have discovered that there are three basic types of vampires: the parasite, the predator, and the perpetrator. Vampirism is a progressive disease that begins with parasitic activity, devolves to predatorial activity and finally erupts into some type of serious perpetration.

I do not believe anyone is born a vampire. We are all born filled to the brim with truth. Our spiritual journey is a process of discovering the truth that lives inside us. The way we ordinarily discover this truth is through the mirroring we get from our family, spiritual teachers, helpers, therapists, and so on. And there are many mirrors. But, unfortunately, there are not many mirrors that reflect the truth without distortion. Who are the vampires? They are the spiritual teachers who are distorted mirrors. They can't reflect the truth clearly because they are busy serving their own selfish and desperate needs for love, validation, and power. Whether ignorantly or consciously, they feed on the spiritual blood of others, and they are vampires. Not everyone who sits under their tutelage is vampired. Whether or not vampiring occurs depends on a student's level of susceptibility to vampires. Unfortunately, when children are the victims of vampires, they are often bled far beyond any possibility of recovery. These children grow up to be vampires themselves.

Marty also outlines ten characteristics of spiritual vampires, seven characteristics of spiritual vampire groups, and five ways of warding off spiritual vampires. She also lists sixteen questions to ask when choosing a therapist and six ways to pick the good spiritual workshops and avoid the bad ones! I recommend this is book to enable those seeking help on a spiritual path to avoid this unfortunately common hazard.

JR

A Witch at the Millennium's Edge

The 21st century is already here. What does it mean? Is the sky going to change color, or the French bread will taste different? What is it that will change at 2000?

Hopefully it is ourselves. We need to change, we need to embark on a new agenda, we as the Goddess's people must become visible, accountable, and with a clear mission that is mainstream. The defense of the earth of course must remain our prime focus, but there is more.

In this sub age of Aquarius (started in 1962 it will last a good 179 years) we have an opportunity to lead, influence, and manifest the Aquarian future even if it's not yet the proper Age of Aquarius. We are the soul mothers/fathers of the next century. This is the delivery room.

I think it is a privilege to do the work of the spirit. It is exciting to change the negative values in the world, and most gratifying of all is to bring back the female principle of the Universe to a well-deserved prominence.

Having said that, I pause and think, what would it take to bring this about? First of all the birth has been successful done. Let's congratulate ourselves! The Goddess Movement is a quarter of century old, a robust ruddy cheered youth. Sage Woman magazine is a visible sign of this growth. Happy 20th Birthday! It was just yesterday that Womanspirit folded after ten years of successful run. Beltane Papers is still the high quality teaching tool as it was about the same age. There are many, many newsletters that bind together covens and gatherings, such as the Reclaiming newsletter or the Pagan Muse. Bless you all who keep it going and all the other magazines of the Goddess.

There are Goddess festivals in almost every nook and cranny of this country, and abroad. The long road to awakening is extended to the new generation. Morning Glory Zell at the International Goddess 2000 Festival said, it's like herding kittens. Women came all the way from Moscow, Russia, and Boise, Idaho. Women have reclaimed their own spirituality, and exploded in a rich library about the Goddess that fills shelf after shelf in most bookstores. Remember when only the women's bookstores dared to carry The Feminist Book of Lights and Shadows, my first book? Remember when that was the| only book? Now she has hundreds of sisters! Blessings on all of you who have organized events, wrote Goddess books, bought and read them. You were the first breast milk for many centuries that womansoul was able to nourish on.

I have a suggestion right now to make our child go to college. Imagine us all being dandelions. Just as dandelions, we are indestructible. We are beautiful, and we are useful. As dandelions, we reach our hands out to each other, like roots. Have you looked at dandelions lately? They are all holding hands! This holding each other's hands can be done today in the blessed sub age of Aquarius electronically. Celebrate your Goddess spirit by merging mailing lists with those you trust. The 21st century is the information age. How to reach each other is the only information we need to grow. When you send your change of address to those who labor to get you in the know, about events and ideas, you have taken a very important magical step. You reached out your roots to hers. This will count. In order to nourish yourself, help you resource yourselves, getting together with others, worshipping the Goddess openly and joyously will build your own self esteem and courage level. Project yourself into the 21st century, and see how your role may change. Look without fear. Inhale the opportunity and exhale the inner objections and fears.

Step One, send your address to the Women's Spirituality Forum (PO Box 11363 Oakland, CA 94611) who want to be connected like dandelions, holding hands. We have 30,000 names around the world and nationally. It's nothing compared to what we could be. Women still complain that they haven't received our mailers for the Goddess 2000 Festival, that we haven't reached them. Mailing lists don't work on telepathy. Give your permission to those organizations you already belong to, to share mailing lists with us. It is stupid to have to reinvent the wheel each and every time we want to organize something important. I noticed how cumbersome this is, when I went to L.A. and could not have my own spiritual daughters share mailing lists with me because We promised we don't give out our names to anybody. Let's get out of the kindergarten! Goddess Movement grow up and start making decisions: Let's share power, because that is what mailing lists are, the power to reach out.

The religious right gained their clout when they could mail out 35 million pieces of mail propagating their brand of fear and hatred. They can demonize us, collect a lot of money, blackmail and lobby with power. What can we do to just reach each other for a festival? A few thousand names. When the Goddess goes to college, I want her to have a smooth learning experience. We don't want her to use anything but the best and easiest tools. I want the Goddess Movement to grow in conscience effortlessly and successfully because we protect her passage into the next century. We are the smart soul mothers.

Like dandelions, we can communicate directly via e-mail as well. You want to reach me, my address is now (I may change services in the future) silverzb I do have an issue very close to my heart. I think this is a unifying issue, a future issue, and a horrifying one as well. I want the Goddess Movement and pagan groups to come out politically, out of the broom closet, and start acting up. I also want especially men to come and help with this issue. This is where we need both sexes, the issue is so loaded.

I would like us to protest the growing trafficking in women and children. Trafficking means women and children are being sold secretly, and on open streets in cages, right now in our times. There has been some exposure about it in the mainstream media, but ultimately this is very embarrassing for men to look into, so after the obligatory mention, or article, 60 Minutes segment, it's gone. Brothers have to get over being embarrassed by this evil, and use the energy to speak out against Thailand, India, Nepal, and at home. Boycott Thai! Boycott India! Boycott Nepal! Brazil! Boycott all kinds of prostitution, men; don't support the sex industry anymore. Sacred prostitution is a dream. Some pioneers may experiment with the ancient concepts, even revive them, but the reality is, it's too early. It is not the time yet to bring back the sacred sexual practices in the temples. First of all there are no temples. Second, the world is engulfed by prostitution as males get wealthy. Women are getting poorer. These countries used to be holy places but no more. Here the government allows for twelve-year-old girls to be sold in cages. Affluent males go on sex junkets from the USA to these places where they can buy the females and males, children or youth, to use for sex and then move on. These sex junkets must be our focus. Money does not entitle men to abuse children and women. It is not acceptable to enter the new millennia with sexual slavery raising its ugly head again. This time it's not race it's sex.

Two friends of mine experienced ail this horror first hand. Melissa went to Thailand, after the Beijing conference. She said, there were villages with no women, only very old ones, all taken to the city to work the sex industry. The poor parents are told the girls will work in shops, they never come home. Raped repeatedly on their long journey from the country to the city, braking their spirit. Peggy, my other friend saw a 14-year-old girl pulling razor blades from her vagina crying. In the darkness Asian, white, and black males masturbated to her pain. When she started documenting this, taking videos and pictures, thugs attacked her on the street and robbed her of expensive equipment, she said she herself was almost killed. Yes, trafficking in children and women has grown to be the biggest new organized crime cartel. This new business is equal now with that of the weapons industry. Can you just linger on that thought now? The weapons industry equals that of sex slavery. Not good for the Goddess.

We know that the Goddess is all that is female in the universe. She is being hurt seriously while we are reading our meditation books, and making great advances in our personal lives. But personal lives take place in the larger context of communal lives, and when the Goddess is sold, and abused, it does effect us in our own homes, dream life, self esteem, fear level. Already 2000 or so children disappear in the USA without a trace. Those vanishing children have strong connections to this trafficking in children business.

Another friend some years ago told me how her daughter was shopping at Price Club. Her head was buried in the blouses looking for her size and her other hand rested on the shopping cart with her toddler in it. She pulled out of the rack only to find her child gone! She was smart and yelled FIRE! then started doing damage that attracted security officers. She told them the story; they quickly locked down the doors and searched for her child. Very lucky woman! They found her toddler already drugged in the back room; two teens were painting his hair black. All this took place in minutes! The teens were getting $10,000 for this blond, blue eyed kid. On the market he would have sold for $25,000.

This is where our brothers come in. We need male faces on this fight. We need male speakers to renounce publicly abusive sexuality. We need you to call upon each other as warriors for the human race and publicize, speak out against violence such as this. Men tend to do what other men see as manly. Sex junkets must be represented as shameful and unmanly. Manhood must be redefined; Pan must be called forth in his beauty, gentleness, and creativity. 21st century men must become brothers. Brothers with talent, vision, and leadership. The Men's Movement must grow into their own. Enough of the drumming weekends, vacations with other men, crying over daddy. You have to reinvent daddy. Reinvent daddy and manifest the new daddy. Stand up for your daughters. Stand up for your sons. You must come together over political issues in large numbers. You must help us stop this rising evil; slavery of children and women must stop. Are you with me? If you are with me I also want to start a men's mailing list, we have none. I would like to work on this issue, organizing boycotts, protests, raising money for ads with you. Send me (Women's Spirituality Forum) your address, join the dandelions connection. The sub age of Aquarius has put the good winds into our sails, if we spread our passion about this, this can and will grow into a global fight. Slavery is an old scab, fueled by dire poverty, the business of male sexuality is still devouring our children, eating the young's soul, hurt the future. We need the men to change manhood forever. Blessings on those brothers who have internalized the globe into their hearts.

This will take up a lot of our young Goddess Movement's energy while she matures into a global force. But this is the road, that can unite all of us, and give us a noble high goal towards the 21st century.

Blessed Be!

Z Budapest

Women's Spirituality Forum

PO Box 11363

Oakland, CA 94611