In nearly finishing the book "Not in Kansas Anymore" by Christine Wicker, the author brings us to a remarkable character named "Siva," a man who lived with a woman who has a magic and spell shop in California. He seemed, the author says, like a very decent, gentle man. It was not until the woman mentioned his "blood pact with Satan" that she had to think again - and interview the man.
Siva begins by explaining that Satan is the god of Earth, and his pact with him is a pact with nature, to help her in its proliferation and health. That seems good enough, and in accordance with some ideas from Wiccans and other naturalist believers who think Jehovah was the god of anti-nature and male/human dominance over the world. They believe that women once controlled everything in a gentle, earth-friendly way, and that the god of the Christians is a mythological monster that is responsible (through his humans) for all the troubles we see today. Look, say these neo-pagans, what they did to the pagans of northern Europe! Witch burnings and the slaughter of the Druids and nature-remedy doctors are highlighted, and some of it is true. So we understand this explanation of this man's Satan.
But no, we don't: he is also part of a society for "abortion, suicide, bestiality and sodomy." Asked about this - the worst of the worst, for many of us - he gives a few quirky explanations, and then the big picture in all as he proclaims that he is a martyr for the truth, just as Jesus was. Jesus, says Siva, was first and foremost an iconoclast. His actions at the time and place he was in were outrageous - he ate with the unclean, had social dialogue and sympathy for prostitutes and heretics (Samaritans) and violated the laws of Judaism in any number of ways. He scandalized his people and was justly, in their eyes, killed for it. And so Siva sees himself: an iconoclast, speaking out for those acts that we, or at least the mainstream, consider the most heinous, or nearly so. It is all about freedom - says Siva (through Wicker), "the Great Martyrdom Cult opposes societal repression, rouses people up, and rescues parts of human experience by mentioning things and performing actions that society considers abhorrent, as Jesus did."
A fascinating look at a mind captured by current cultural relativism, it does not matter that he got many ideas wrong. Jesus did not want to outrage for the sake of "rescuing forbidden aspects of human nature." This is the common fallacy of the relativists, and we hear it again and again. They continue to not listen to how Jesus ends all his scandalous intercourse with the despised - "Go and sin no more." Jesus never said "do what thou wilt," but rather pointed to the heart of the law, to those things that were meant to matter. The old Jewish keepers of the law knew this well, and so were called by Jesus "hypocrites" for keeping the law superficially while not living it internally. The turning inside-out of society was done not by throwing away the present morality, but going to the heart of the morality - and, in many ways, reaffirming it through loving, rather than through vindictive or self-righteous, actions.
But Siva is convinced of his own interpretation, as are more and more practitioners of personally formed religions, whether the truth backs them up or not. And it is this that is forming the real revolution that we are witnessing, now in a slower motion that may
change into explosive change. It comes from interconnections that increase the idea of relativity, as well as the power given to the individual through blogs and Facebook and U-tube. Some revolutions, like ours in America, reaffirmed already given notions; while other, such as the French Revolution, brought radical change and, for some time, bloodshed and chaos. We are now in a radical revolution, but it has not reached a violent level, accept in Muslim countries. It may never here. But sooner or later the center will give and a new one will come about. Although such a center may be temporarily formed through power, those that last longest are formed through a gradual arrival at the threshold of truth. But for this, consensus must occur - and how might that happen with a million, or a hundred million Sivas? Usually through a Great Man (or, just as likely now, a great woman). He may indeed be a martyr, but it is hard to believe he will be a martyr for "Do what thy wilt, especially if it angers the establishment."
We will continue to conjecture on our new revolution; for those who live another fifty years, they will probably see what God - or Hell - hath wrought. FK
Siva begins by explaining that Satan is the god of Earth, and his pact with him is a pact with nature, to help her in its proliferation and health. That seems good enough, and in accordance with some ideas from Wiccans and other naturalist believers who think Jehovah was the god of anti-nature and male/human dominance over the world. They believe that women once controlled everything in a gentle, earth-friendly way, and that the god of the Christians is a mythological monster that is responsible (through his humans) for all the troubles we see today. Look, say these neo-pagans, what they did to the pagans of northern Europe! Witch burnings and the slaughter of the Druids and nature-remedy doctors are highlighted, and some of it is true. So we understand this explanation of this man's Satan.
But no, we don't: he is also part of a society for "abortion, suicide, bestiality and sodomy." Asked about this - the worst of the worst, for many of us - he gives a few quirky explanations, and then the big picture in all as he proclaims that he is a martyr for the truth, just as Jesus was. Jesus, says Siva, was first and foremost an iconoclast. His actions at the time and place he was in were outrageous - he ate with the unclean, had social dialogue and sympathy for prostitutes and heretics (Samaritans) and violated the laws of Judaism in any number of ways. He scandalized his people and was justly, in their eyes, killed for it. And so Siva sees himself: an iconoclast, speaking out for those acts that we, or at least the mainstream, consider the most heinous, or nearly so. It is all about freedom - says Siva (through Wicker), "the Great Martyrdom Cult opposes societal repression, rouses people up, and rescues parts of human experience by mentioning things and performing actions that society considers abhorrent, as Jesus did."
A fascinating look at a mind captured by current cultural relativism, it does not matter that he got many ideas wrong. Jesus did not want to outrage for the sake of "rescuing forbidden aspects of human nature." This is the common fallacy of the relativists, and we hear it again and again. They continue to not listen to how Jesus ends all his scandalous intercourse with the despised - "Go and sin no more." Jesus never said "do what thou wilt," but rather pointed to the heart of the law, to those things that were meant to matter. The old Jewish keepers of the law knew this well, and so were called by Jesus "hypocrites" for keeping the law superficially while not living it internally. The turning inside-out of society was done not by throwing away the present morality, but going to the heart of the morality - and, in many ways, reaffirming it through loving, rather than through vindictive or self-righteous, actions.
But Siva is convinced of his own interpretation, as are more and more practitioners of personally formed religions, whether the truth backs them up or not. And it is this that is forming the real revolution that we are witnessing, now in a slower motion that may
change into explosive change. It comes from interconnections that increase the idea of relativity, as well as the power given to the individual through blogs and Facebook and U-tube. Some revolutions, like ours in America, reaffirmed already given notions; while other, such as the French Revolution, brought radical change and, for some time, bloodshed and chaos. We are now in a radical revolution, but it has not reached a violent level, accept in Muslim countries. It may never here. But sooner or later the center will give and a new one will come about. Although such a center may be temporarily formed through power, those that last longest are formed through a gradual arrival at the threshold of truth. But for this, consensus must occur - and how might that happen with a million, or a hundred million Sivas? Usually through a Great Man (or, just as likely now, a great woman). He may indeed be a martyr, but it is hard to believe he will be a martyr for "Do what thy wilt, especially if it angers the establishment."
We will continue to conjecture on our new revolution; for those who live another fifty years, they will probably see what God - or Hell - hath wrought. FK
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