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                                  THE HERETIC'S CORNER 
                                   (c)1986, Buck Jump
 
           Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
      to you.  May the rain fall gently on your rhubarb.  May the hail
      fall in a lake or on a parking lot.  May our little six-legged
      friends develop an allergy to your pickle patch.
 
           Now is the sweet season of our year.  Our Mother the Earth
      is pregnant with the harvest to come.  The days are long and the
      thoughts of the season are long, long thoughts.  In the soft
      afternoon sky the white thunderheads sail serenely on like ships
      of dream in dreamland seas.  Surely even such as I can be
      forgiven for dreaming a bit, for letting the fancy roam free.
 
           In dreams I see a world set free.  I see the human race
      living in peace, with each one going his own way but with
      courtesy to all who go another way.  I see us as one species,
      which we are, and all of us acknowledging that fact.  I see each
      walking in beauty, with dignity, and respecting the other
      person's dignity.  I see us loving one another, helping our
      fellow men along their way.  When I dream, I don't mess around -
      I rear back and dream up a doozy!
 
           So much for dreams; back to the world we live in, back to
      the life we know.  Before I spring my question for the day, a
      little background, a few facts:
 
           Every one of us must come to terms with his environment and
      his heredity.  We all live on one Earth.   That is the main part
      of our environment, or at least the location of it.
 
           We are all human beings, homo occasionally sapiens.  That is
      the basis of our heredity.  
      
           Anything that is done to one of us is done to all of us. 
      Anything that happens in one place on this planet has some effect
      on every place on the planet.
 
           We are, all of us, stuck with our whole species.  Here we
      are with a bunch of people we wouldn't willingly walk down a
      country road with.  Indeed, we are as ship- wrecked mariners in a
      lifeboat with a bunch we wouldn't sit down to eat a free meal
      with.  To jump out of the boat is to drown.  To try to toss those
      _______________s out is very apt to upset the boat and drown all
      of us.    These facts are self-evident, axiomatic.
 
           I have always held that we should all walk the path of life
      with our hands outstretched in fellowship with respect and love
      for all.  Of course, I have a caveat - keep a Bowie knife handy
      in case they haven't all heard the message.
 
           As the Ultimate is reported to have said when the mountains
      were made, "Now for the background".  The present situation is a
      mess.  Violence is everywhere.  Not even foolish violence, but
      violence without reason.  Surely a leopard is in our streets and
      a shark loose in our swimming pool.
 
 
                                                                              871
 
           An armed bandit shoots down an unarmed clerk who is
      cooperating.  A litigant in court shoots down an attorney.  A
      parent beats a child to death.  A driver gets cut off coming onto
      the freeway and guns down the chap in the pickup who did the
      off-cutting.  An otherwise reasonable young man is annoyed by the
      sounds of traffic on a mountain road and starts shooting at the
      cars passing.  Those are only a few examples culled from the news
      in recent months.  In truth, senseless violence is loose in the
      land.
 
           As it is with the individual, so with groups.  From the
      racist fringe movement on to great governments. Violence for the
      sake of violence is epidemic.  Each age of history has had a
      plague - the plague of this age is senseless violence.  I have
      friends of the "born again" persuasion who tell me that it is the
      Devil doing it.  I don't think so.  As far as I can determine,
      devils are a disorganized bunch.  Satan Mekatrig Lord of Chaos is
      a confusion in terms.  Seen another way, that's organized
      confusion.  As I see it, the flow of the power of the Universe is
      organized and rational.  So it seems to me that any force opposed
      to that flow must be disorganized and irrational.  That is to say
      nothing of the personal devils within us.  They must have a hand
      in at least some of this senseless violence.
 
           I have other friends who blame it on some as yet
      unidentified virus.  Could be, but it's a rare virus that has no
      fever, nor nausea accompanying its onset....
 
           Others hold that it is all explainable by Sigmund Freud and
      others of that ilk.  Again I say could be, but what mental
      discomboomeration comes on suddenly with no sign of
      disorientation nor disturbance until it suddenly manifests itself
      in the acute stage?
 
           For all I know, none of the above are correct.  The fact re-
      mains that a wild unreasoning violence is loose among us, a
      danger to us all.  The fact is, we are all in the same boat, and
      the boat is encountering some heavy weather.  Don't you think we
      should do something about it?  I personally can think of a whole
      lot of folks who I don;t really care to rescue, but being as we
      are all in the same boat, I am sure going to do my best for
      them....... But what?
 
           In case this is all some psychosis, maybe we should engage a
      firm of head shrinkers to drag in a trainload of couches and get
      everyone to undergo psychoanalysis.  I refuse to consider the
      logistics of this.  The idea by itself causes my mind to boggle.
 
           Or, suppose it is a virus.  In that case when the
      virologists and immunologists have a bit of spare time from their
      search for the cause and cure of AIDS, they could do the same for
      the senseless violence virus.  In view of the fact that we are
      all at greater risk from senseless violence than from AIDS, it
      might be a worthwhile task.
 
           Or, just in case the gnostics have some truth in their
      ideas, and it is Auld Clootie, maybe a mass general exorcism is
      in order.  Once again, my mind refuses to consider the logistics.
 
 
                                                                              872
 
           In view of the fact that the cause of senseless violence is
      still unknown, we might get a government grant to study the
      problem.  Considering the speed that such grants usually get
      results, I would expect a definite answer by the twenty-second
      century.  Of course, such a grant would have the added advantage
      of keeping a large number of researchers out of the pool halls
      and off the streets.
 
           Now I am going to go against my usual custom and make a
      suggestion; only a suggestion, mind, and not to be taken as a
      dictum, but only as an idea to be considered.  It has been my
      observation that there are only two occasions when magic is apt
      to work.  One is after all other methods have been tried and
      found ineffectual.  The other is when there is no other method. 
      Now I believe that I have explored the other methods and found
      them impractical if not impossible.  So I feel that I am safe in
      saying it's going to take magic to stop this purposeless killing.
 
           So how to go about it?  What spell, what charm, what
      ceremony shall we use?  What power shall we invoke?  What power
      evoke?  Magic works, the proper ceremony at the proper time, done
      for the proper reason, will work.  True for you, you may well
      say, but which ceremony?  When?  Why?
 
           I just told you.  The proper one.  The one that is proper
      for you is the one you yourself believe is proper.  This is not
      an essay on morals and ethics, so I refrain from putting in my
      two cents worth on what is in my estimation proper.  When you are
      fighting a grass fire is no time to discuss what sort of shovel
      to use.
 
           In my dream we were all walking each in his own way, each
      helping the others as much as possible.  So here let us not try
      to all walk in one path.  No point in the universe can be reached
      from only one direction.  Let us rather each from where it seems
      most right and comfortable, try by magic means to stop this
      senseless violence.  Not-ice I said senseless violence, not just
      violence.  Some who follow the old Norse way could hardly be ex-
      pected to endorse some anti-violent intention, but I know of none
      who do not deplore reasonless violence.  We have our differences,
      but surely no one objects to improving all our chances of kissing
      our grandchildren.
 
           So, what I propose is this.  Sometime in the next quarter
      year, whenever it seems most proper, let us in our various ways
      by whatever means one believes in, try by magic means to stop
      this epidemic of senseless violence.
 
 
                                                                              873
 
           I have noticed a few things about power on the unseen side. 
      For a ceremony to be more than a mere charade, everyone involved
      in it must believe in the ceremony and in whatever power is used
      in it.  Everyone must believe that the ceremony can and will
      work.  Everyone must want the ceremony to work.  If anyone
      involved in the ceremony does not so believe and want, that
      person will be a dead weight on the others that do.  When I say
      everyone, I mean everyone, all, each one with one belief and one
      resolve.  What can be done by a group acting in true spiritual
      harmony is indeed amazing, but first you must have that true
      spiritual harmony.
 
           That is why I suggest we go at this not as some sort of
      super- coven ecumenical pagan group.  I have seen a few of these
      "lets all get together" bunches back in the sixties, and they
      couldn't even get drunk.
 
           I personally am in favor of any religion that don't practice
      human sacrifice, interfere in the private lives of the
      nonbelievers, or use force in conversion.  I love 'em all, but
      I'm not fool enough to yoke the ass and the ox together.  So
      let's all go, but let's not try to make it a parade.
 
           That is my suggestion, and my question is why not?  I'd
      appreciate your ideas on this, I truly would.  If you have any
      ideas on the subject, please communicate them to the editors of
      the RMPJ.  Even if the ideas are along the lines of, "You're
      Nuts!!", just say why you think so.  I'd appreciate it.
 
           May your dreams come true; may the wind cool without
      chilling, and may you reap a harvest even richer than the seed
      catalogue said you would.  May your shadow fall long on the
      Earth.  Go in peace, remember your fellows, and with these words
      I do part now from thee.
             ________Buck Jump.       ....from RMPJ 8/86
 
 
                                                                              874
 
                                  The Heretic's Corner 
 
           Greetings, my Pagan friends, may your Gods be well disposed
      to you.  May the sad and ugly in your lives be covered by the
      blessing of beauty even as the trash of Autumn is covered by the
      beautiful snow.  May all that is sad in your lives decompose
      beneath the blessings even as the dry leaves decompose beneath
      the snow; out of the dead past a living future.  The flower of
      hope ever springs from the mulch and compost of dead regret. 
      Remember, a curse may force its way into your citadel, but a
      blessing only enters through an opened door.  In other words, my
      blessings upon you, may your Gods bless you, but do your part
      too.
 
           Samhain has come and past, the leaves of autumn have fallen
      to the ground, the veil between the worlds is once more grown
      thick.  It is winter now, early winter, but winter none the less. 
      Our mother the Earth is now the old woman by the fire- side, past
      all passion now, but also past regret.  She is the loving wise
      woman, the old one who looks back in order to show us the path
      ahead. Youth is the time for courage and hope, but courage
      without caution is spectacular suicide and hope without wisdom is
      gentle madness.  The  fruitful Mother Summer changes the snow-
      baby's diaper, but Grandmother Winter shows her how.  The Romans
      dedicated this quiet season to Janus who looks back into the past
      and ahead into the future with good reason.  It is the season of
      history and prophesy.    The sound of the pipes dies in a wail,
      the nimble fingers of the harper are still upon the strings, a
      hush falls over the hall and the blind seer of things unseen
      makes his way slowly up the length of the Ard Righ's great hall,
      tapping with his staff before him.  It is the hour of telling the
      King's fortune,  the tribe's fortune.  When the blind seer begins
      to chant all tongues are stilled, all ears are straining to catch
      every word.  So it was, so it still is, and my guess is, it will
      be so as long as men walk the earth.
 
           Now for my questions.  A heretic without questions is a
      confusion in terms.  I may be confusing and even [some say]
      confused, but I am a bona fide heretic here to question any faith
      - even my own.
 
           First question:  What do you see up the road before us? 
      There are Tarot cards, there are Runes, there are crystal balls
      and dark mirrors, peep stones and visions in the mind.  I can't
      even begin to list all the ways of looking into the future, but
      whatever method you use, won't you tell us what you see?  As a
      voting member of the human corporation you owe it to your fellows
      to share your vision with us all.       So come on all you
      astrologers, scryers, mystics and shamanic prophets, give us the
      word.  Now I know how hard it is to go out on a limb, I lived in
      a tree house for a while.  No one but a masochist or a publicity
      hound wants to be proved wrong in public.  Even the delphic
      oracle used to state her predictions in ambiguous terms.  The
      fact that any prophet can at times be wrong tends to make serious
      prophets a rather close-mouthed bunch.  I understand how that is,
      no one's complexion is improved by egg on the face.
 
 
                                                                              875
 
           Now I think I have a way for you to share your vision
      without going out on a limb and falling like Lucifer if the limb
      breaks.  Write your prediction to the editors of the R.M.P.J. and
      ask that your name be kept confidential.  It will be.  I know
      Kyri and Gary and I give you my word and oath, they are honorable
      people who will respect your confidence.  A Pagan Priest or
      Priestess is no more apt to break the seal of confession than a
      Christian one.  In the case of astrologers this is hardly the
      case.  The stars are a matter of public knowledge and any error
      in an astrological prediction is a matter of interpretation
      rather than false vision.  To some degree readers of cards and
      runes are the same as astrologers - the error is more apt to be
      in the reading than in what is read.    Anyway, in these troubled
      times [that is a redundancy] we all can use any guidance we can
      get, so please pass on to the rest of us any vision you have. So
      that is the first question.  What do you see, and that's a public
      question.
 
           Here is the next question, and it is a private question -
      that is, answer it, but don't pass the  answer on.  If you do, it
      can only  lead to quarrels, argument and sorrow.  We have enough
      trouble in the world without adding to it.  Answer, but keep your
      answer where you found it.  The question is this:  Is the future
      you saw the only future possible?
 
           The idea that the future is fixed, that the last day's
      doings were inevitably programmed before the first day's dawn did
      not begin with John Calvin.  If the future is fixed then it can
      be known - however, if it's fixed, knowing it won't help.  In
      fact in a totally known or knowable future even your finding out
      is part of the programme.
 
           Now as for me, I'm a heretic.  I truly can't call myself a
      Pagan and I'm sure not part of anything else either.  I wouldn't
      try to get anyone to share my beliefs.  For one thing, being "a
      poor seeker after the truth, whatever it may be" is lonely, for
      another it is apt to give a person lots of shocks.  So if I toss
      in a bit of private faith at this point don't think I'm trying to
      make any converts.  I only bring this up for your consideration.
 
           If you see a coyote chasing a rabbit and the coyote is
      gaining, you can predict rabbit dinner.  The odds are you will be
      right unless...  You didn't see the hole one jump ahead of the
      rabbit, or you may have overlooked the hawk already stooping on
      the rabbit.  All of these, coyote, rabbit, and hawk, are living
      creatures, self-directed by minds, so we must consider these
      possibilities too.  The coyote may become a vegetarian, the
      rabbit may take a quick course in judo and the hawk may become a
      guru and announce that she has become a butterfly.  The future
      will probably be a continuation of the past, what is in motion
      will probably stay in motion, but so long as minds are a part of
      the future, the future is changeable.  The ability to change is
      the chief attribute of a mind.
 
 
                                                                              876
 
           So, if I'm right any vision of the future, even if it cannot
      be totally exact will be of value to me.  If I'm wrong and the
      future is fore-ordained, prearranged, fated or kismet, I would be
      wasting my time even considering it.  The worst part of that is
      even my wasting my time must also be fated.  I don't believe
      that, but it is a consoling thought when I've lost the rent money
      shooting pool.
 
           Now the last question.  This one can be public or private as
      you prefer.  I can't see how the answer or how you answer would
      in itself cause any real trouble.  Oh, those who agree with your
      answer will call you wise and those who disagree will call you a
      blind fool, but that goes on all the time anyway.  The question
      is this:  How did some of the old-timers in the game of
      prediction roll up their impressive scores?
      There was the oracle at Delphi, the Roman spurinna, St. Malachy,
      and Coinneach Odhar the Brahan seer;  they all rolled, so far as
      we know, a perfect score.  How did they do it?  Or did they?  It
      may well be that their hits have been remembered and their misses
      swept under the rug.
 
           Then there are others; Nostradamus, Homer Lee the hunch-
      back, Roger Bacon and Robert Nixon the cheshire idiot, to name a
      few.  These all proved quite accurate after the fact.  That is,
      their pre-dictions have been seen to be accurate after the events
      predicted have come to pass, but difficult to understand before
      they happened.  This in spite of the fact that both Lee and Nixon
      were quite plain spoken.  
 
           Some have had dream visions, some have been suddenly granted
      knowledge, some have had visions in trance and some of them were
      correct. Others by the same methods or means have been totally
      wrong.  Is there a way to tell the true from the false before the
      predicted event either comes to pass or passes beyond
      possibility?  If so how?  Did they, the visionaries whose visions
      were accurate beyond the laws of chance, see the real and only
      future, or the most likely future?  Did they perceive the causes
      in their times and follow them logically to their final efforts,
      or did they physically go forward in time?
 
           No big deal, but something to while away the hours when the
      snow keeps all but those employed outside (and brave fools)
      isolated by the fireside with nothing but a bunch of books to re-
      read and the idiot box to look at.  When the white blanket cuts
      us off from society it is well to have something to occupy the
      mind.  Figuring out the prophets of old ought to last even a busy
      mind through a day of blizzard.
 
           Any way, let us have a bit of prophetic prediction from the
      readers. I have no doubt that there is at least one Michel de
      Nostredame out there and probably several William Millers. 
      Miller, if you don't know, was the gent who predicted the end of
      the world for Oct. 22, 1844.  If you haven't noticed, he was
      wrong.  Let us hear a word from the future from these Rocky
      Mountains.
 
 
                                                                              877
 
           The snow grows deeper up in the hills; old Yuler skiis over
      the mountains and through the canyons, his long red cap trailing
      behind like the tail of a comet and his merry laugh ringing in
      the crisp air.  Yuler of the winter stars, friend of wolves,
      fools, drunks and children - enemy of armies, noble princes, and
      "the brave of mouth, coward of heart", - may he take a liking to
      you.  Even more, may you be the sort of person he likes,
      cheerful, full of laughter, not boastful, simple of heart, open
      of mind and blessed with a generous giving hand.
 
           Be of good cheer dear friends; listen to the voice of our
      Mother.  The longest coldest winter will end one day in spring. 
      However deep beneath the snow the seeds are buried, in time the
      flowers will bloom again.  I don't need a crystal ball to see
      some rough times ahead.  Times are hard and getting harder, but
      we humans have weathered some bad times getting this far.  We can
      make it.  My blessings on one and all, with which words I do part
      now from thee.
      __________Buck Jump
      .......from RMPJ 12/86
 
 
                                                                              878
 
                                  THE HERETIC'S CORNER 
                       Copyright (c) 1987 by Buck Jump
 
           Greetings my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
      to you.  May the smoke go lightly up your chimney, taking the
      ills and sorrows of your house with it.  May your wood pile
      diminish slowly and your fire kindle quickly.  May you not lack
      for ale nor friends to share it with.
 
           Yule has come and passed, the sun has once more turned North
      and the short winter days grow longer.  For all that, the wolf of
      winter howls the louder around our doors.  The sky holds a
      promise of spring; the wolf howls louder and prowls closer around
      our doors for he knows his time is short.
 
           We people of the North Intemperate Zone are the children of
      the seasons.  Our special magic is weather magic.  Out of the
      cold hard winter and the hot blazing summer we have fashioned our
      arts and our inventions.  All the strength under the sky is of no
      avail without some-thing to push against.  Yet for all our clever
      inventions we are still shaped by the seasons, ruled by the
      weather.  here in the rockies, all our promises and our contracts
      carry the unspoken clause, "If the road is open and the crick
      don't rise."
 
           Our Mother the Earth speaks to us by the seasons, in the
      ever changing, ever repeated weather.  Hereabout when Mother
      speaks all men listen.  Now in the hard season be-tween the
      winter solstice and the vernal equinox the lesson Mother teaches
      is one of patience and introspection.
 
           Consider, my friends, how it is this time of year.  We walk
      abroad in a world that seems dead, or at least dormant and
      sleeping.  Yet out of this seeming death will spring the life of
      the summer to come.  Life into death, death into life the seasons
      roll on.  Under the frost the seeds of the plants to come are
      waiting.  Deep in their roots the grass and the greenwood trees
      are gathering strength for the green to come.  A person who won't
      learn from nature won't long cast a shadow on the earth.
 
           Now is the time for planning and preparation.  Now, when
      every thing is moving slowly is the time to set our minds for the
      quick decisions to come.  The time to plan for a journey is
      while the road is blocked with snow.  Perspiration without
      preparation is a waste of effort.  Now in this quiet time we
      should prepare for the busy season ahead.  In this life the quick
      and the dead are judged.  Those who ain't quick are judged dead. 
      True enough, but quick alone won't get it.  The frog that means
      to survive must be ever ready to jump, but he has to jump in the
      right direction.  Old Blue Heron gets many a meal from frogs who
      jump the wrong way.  We live in a hard world where to do nothing
      is to die, and to do the wrong thing is suicide.  The eyes that
      look not ahead are soon stopped with grave dust.
 
 
                                                                              879
 
           Look into the future to plan for the future, but don't
      forget the past.  Old defects and mistakes are a better teacher
      than old triumphs.  Remember what went wrong in the past, so it
      won't go wrong again.  Anyone alive to read these words must be
      at least fair at for-seeing the future, or have luck beyond the
      ordinary.  Now is the time to get out the crystal ball, cast the
      horoscope, shuffle the Tarot cards, consider the predictions of
      sages and experts, read the record to establish a pattern, and
      then meld them all into some sensible plan of action.  It's not a
      bad idea to have a contingency plan or two on hand just in case.
 
           Enough of this, I am beginning to sound like a guru, and I
      only meant to pass the time of day.  I have no certificate of
      appointment signed by the ultimate and witnessed by our Mother
      the Earth appointing me councillor to the human race.  No, I'm
      just the asker of questions, and I don't need an appointment for
      that.  Does a bird need an appointment to fly?
 
           Don't pay too much attention to me, or to any other tribal
      elder.  We are all of us ever tempted to sit in the seat of the
      oracle, and reveal to the young the words of the Gods, that we
      heard in the age we call golden.  If the elder is really good at
      it he can even recall an age when every goose was a swan and
      every goat a gazelle.  The flower children who said "don't trust
      anyone over thirty" had good reason for saying it.  I would add
      "Don't trust anyone under thirty, either."  If you can't trust
      your own observations and intelligence, you have a real problem.
 
           I trust you to know the difference between gold and bull-
      plop.  I will propose questions, you will have to find your own
      answers.  If I, or any other old crock,knew the answers to all of
      life's questions, do you think we'd be here casting our pearls of
      wisdom to the winds?
 
           When, and if you have a bit of time to consider general
      questions, after considering your own specific problems, here are
      a few good ones.
 
           What should our relations be with one who has gone wrong? 
      We should love all life, even the self made mess, the scoundrel
      who knows no law save his own appetites, the seeker after free
      lunches, the T.V. evangelist and all the self proclaimed "great
      leaders".  We should love them, but how close should we get? 
      Holding hands with a fool who insists on standing under a tall
      tree during a thunderstorm just isn't bright.  The laws of nature
      have no pity, and being an innocent bystander is the most
      dangerous employment known to man.  So the real question is, how
      close should we get?
 
 
                                                                              880
 
           Another to ponder, how far should we go in turning one of
      our fellows from the wrong path?  "No effort to great to promote
      the right" sounds good but is it?  Consider: When does a
      friendly word of warning become a pack of alarmist lies?  How far
      does friendly persuasion go, before it becomes `unfriendly
      coercion?  It's all very well to be the dedicated teacher, but
      when does the teacher become the demagogue?  How far can a
      teacher go before he is interfering with the student's free will? 
      Where does seduction end and rape begin?  Just how far can one go
      in correcting a friend gone wrong without buying in to a real bad
      deal?  I was once picking apples with a fellow who was color-
      blind.  With the best intention he picked a small round hornets
      nest.  We learn by observation.
 
           Here's one to ponder on long cold nights when old Fenris
      howls outside the door, and ghost lights gleam in the northern
      sky.  Can right ever be wrong?  At first glance, it looks like
      the Old Heretic has drunk too deep from the good plum wine. 
      Could be, but consider before you judge.  Take for instance the
      statement "The Earth is our mother, we should all love, cherish
      and protect her."  Now, I don't think you can find a sane person
      anywhere who don't agree with that statement, at least in spirit. 
 
 
           Self-preservation demands that we try to save our home and
      our heritage.  So far so good, but just how far should we go in
      our protecting?  What weapons should we use, and how use them? 
      Adolph Hitler had the idea that over-population was our big
      problem, and he set out to fix it.  The laws of nature don't need
      a bunch of petit bureaucrats to enforce them.  No judge and jury
      are needed to sentence a fool to dismemberment for failing to
      show the proper respect for high explosives.  It doesn't take the
      hand of Lud to drown a fool who shoots a hole in the boat.  The
      laws of nature have no pity, you who know better and are in the
      boat with the armed idiot will drown along with him if he fires
      the shot.  The trick is to save the boat.  In a case like that,
      anything that works is right and proper--if it works.  Throwing
      the armed lunatic overboard is fine if you can do it without
      upsetting the boat.  
      Anyone can cure a dog of running away by shooting him in the
      head.  
      It's a poor medicine that causes more pain than it cures.  It is
      not enough to know right and defend it, you must still be right
      after your defence triumphs.  The end would justify the means
      always, except any end must reflect the means and be a part of
      them.  So I lied a little, right can become wrong.  The real
      question is how does one defend right without destroying the
      right defended?  That's one we all damn well better have an
      answer for every day.
 
 
                                                                              881
 
           These grey days that keep me indoors have gotten me full of
      questions; a house-bound heretic is a menace to man's peace of
      mind.  Here is a question to discuss with friends by the fire
      over a mug of ale.  I toss this in as a gift.  After you have
      discussed the weather and displayed your knowledge of sports
      you'll need a topic of conversation.  That boring lull in the
      conversation is all too easy to fill with remarks about the
      neighbors, and that leads all to often to digging a grave in the
      frozen ground.  So here is my gift to the peace of the
      neighborhood.  When is it proper to work weather magic?
 
           I won't bore you with a discourse on the ways and means of
      weather magic, they are many and for the knowledgeable person
      they all work.  I know that there are a few world-class weather
      fixers in my audience.  Most of us are somewhere between poor and
      fair at weather magic.  In terms of snow we range from a white
      frost to an occasional ground hider.  The real adept can bring on
      a real road-blocker at will.  The question is not "can it be
      done?", the quest-ion is "When should it be done?"
      Why? Before you answer it might be well to consider another one
      of those laws of nature.  There is one that can be stated
      `whatever you do by whatever means is your responsibility', or in
      the vulgate "if you order it you have to take de-livery on it and
      pay for it."
 
           My first three questions are intended for private answers, 
      I don't want to know your answers, but I hope you do.  As long as
      your personal moral code doesn't endanger me, I'm in favor of
      you keeping it personal.  I have trouble enough with my own moral
      code.  I'm not interested in yours, but I hope you are.  
 
           I'd like some input on the last question.  If you have any
      ideas on the subject please pass them on to our ever-tolerant
      editors.  We who love our Mother Earth, and practice a bit of
      benign magic owe it to each other and to humanity generally to
      share our ideas.  Some of the magi of the old times seem to have
      worked out the morality of weather magic, but that was then, this
      is now.  Or does that make a difference?
 
           I have done my best to give you something to think about,
      something to keep boredom at bay and break the monotony of the
      cold grey days.  If this doesn't work you can shovel snow and
      keep your body so busy that your mind won't have time to grow
      bored.  If you don't have any snow of your own to shovel I'll let
      you come over to my house and have at the drifts with a shovel.
 
           My blessing to one and all; may the green grass of spring
      know your shadow - with these words I do now part from thee.
 
      P.S.  Women:  Please read mankind for man, and Hers or His for
      his.  I respect all of you persons, but I plead `non culpa' to
      the charge of male chauvinism - I did not invent the English
      language, I only use it.
 
 
                                                                              882
 
                            THE HERETIC'S CORNER 
                                by Buck Jump
 
           Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
      to you; may the bugs flee your patch as from a crow; may the
      gentle rain fall softly on your flower beds; and may your lovers
      be all you wish them to be.  Now at the season of long lovely
      days and short passionate nights, when our Mother the fair Earth
      is at her richest and most bountiful, it is hardly the season for
      deep thinking.
 
           When nature is at its very best and the season most
      enjoyable are we not all of us tempted to shut of maymental
      processes and enjoy life in a purely sensual mammalian way?  Of
      course we are, to do less would be an insult to creation.
 
           At this glad time, here comes that old pest, the heretic,
      like the ghost at Ceasar's feast.  Consider, dear friends, even
      as the screech owl is put into this world to scare goose bumps on
      our backs, the here-tic is put into the world to ask hard
      questions and discomboomerate the quiet mind.  The only place on
      this sweet earth where we can look for a quiet unchanging stay is
      a graveyard.  It is so with me, even as with you.
 
           The other day when I was minding my own business [a most ha-
      zardous occupation], a stranger came to me with a request.  He
      wanted me to magically restore to him a lost love.  It seems that
      he had, by his own actions, turned his lady's love if not to
      hate, at least to an active dislike.  He was sorry.  He knew it
      was all his own fault.  He agreed that she was justified in
      leaving him.  He beat his chest and cried `mea culpa', but he
      wanted her back, and he wanted me or someone to, as he put it,
      "push the right button", and change the situation.  Before he
      came to me he had been to a friend of mine.  The friend is a
      scholar and practical magician who is rather more daring than
      most- he had by magic means caused the lady to recall the best of
      the past.  With that, the lady consented to talk with her ex-
      inamorata, and discuss, in a civilized fashion, her decision to
      be done with him.  At that, the magician bowed out.  He pointed
      out to the petitioner that from there on, it was up to him.  My
      friend maymagician can be, when he has to be, a most impressive
      man, and I gather he dismissed the `lorn lover' with a definite
      dismissal.
 
           Then he came to me.  I pointed out that there ain't no free
      lunch in the universe and I had no intention o    making on a
      karmic debt of considerable proportion for his possible benefit.
      I told him that it is easier to move a mountain than to move a
      human mind if it will not be moved.  I told him that he was
      trying to find someone to do for him what could only be properly
      done by himself.  I pointed out to him that his situation was an
      effect of a cause, a cause that he was responsible for.  I told
      him that magic is fine as a last resort, but hardly to be
      considered as first aid.  I told him ......  I wasted my breath.
      Such a one hears only what he wants to hear.
 
 
                                                                              883
 
           The petitioner only said, "I just need someone to push the
      right button - she used to love me.  I am not asking much, I just
      want things to be like they were."
 
           I refrained from pointing out that Hitler could have said
      the same thing in the bunker.  Then he said, "I am willing to pay
      you.  Just tell me how much it's going to cost." Some things are
      an insult from a knowledgeable person, and a joke from a fool.  I
      laughed.  He was the sort who would ask "How much?", referring to
      one's head.
 
           Now I am, I think, a reasonable sort, patient, and in my own
      way polite, but enough is enough, and this chap was rapidly
      becoming too much.  I told him flatly, that I was not about to do
      any button pushing.  I gave him what I felt was good advice.
      That is, I told him that if he was determined to further his
      amours by magic means to learn to do it himself.  I referred him
      to a most knowledgeable teacher.  I was in that way certain that
      he would either learn what was involved in his request and give
      it up, or more likely abandon the whole thing as too slow and too
      difficult.  (The teacher informs me that he never bothered to
      even go around to see what the teacher had to offer.  A case of
      "Gimme my daily bread, I'm willing to wait with my mouth open".)
 
           Then he countered that if I wouldn't "push the button" could
      I refer him to someone who could, or would.  I inquired around.
      One col-league I know is willing to try just about anything.  He
      once did a weather spell out on the high plains in tornado season
      and another time worked a charm to rid a field of grasshoppers in
      hail season.  I add, both were successful in a disastrous way.
      When I contacted him with the case, his words were, "I'd like to
      but I'm going on a trip to South America."  Surprised, I asked
      about the trip, adding I hadn't known about it.  He replied, "I
      didn't know about it either, but if that dude shows up here, I'm
      going!"
 
           Failing to find a genuine scholar and practicing magician
      to attempt the matter, I tried a couple of unethical charlatans.
      In view of the fact that the petitioner was a large muscular sort
      who would expect instant results, they regretfully declined.
 
 
           I was beginning to feel like Sinbad the Sailor when he
      carried the old man of the sea piggyback around the island.  At
      wit's end (where I have lived for years), I suggested that he try
      religion.  I offered to introduce him to some nice Pagan folks,
      or even get him in touch with some T.V. type evangelists.  He
      refused on the grounds that they would be too slow and uncertain. 
      He wanted instant gratification.
 
           At last, thanks be to the power that watches over well-
      meaning fools like me, another lady hove into sight, and he took
      off in her direction with deep breath and flashing eyes.  This
      sad fellow is but one of many I've had my misfortune to meet.  I
      am sure most of you could recount similar sad males.  We'll all
      have to get together and I'll haul out the portable wailing wall,
      and we can share a cup of tea and all sympathize with each other.
 
 
                                                                              884
 
           I wouldn't have bored you with this all too familiar tale
      except I have a question.  How does one deal with such people?
      Is there some way to tell a person with a real problem who can be
      helped from the person who has an endless amount of wants and no
      energy to help himself?  That is, some way, without finding out
      the hard way?  I can handle skeptics (I am one myself), I can
      handle cynics, I can handle atheists and deal with convinced true
      believers of all sorts, but how do I deal with a person who
      believes that I can work miracles?
 
           One question leads to another.  I have a few more on the
      same line.  How comes it that as soon as people, some of them at
      least, find that one is not part of some main line orthodox
      church, they straightway want you to work some magic?  Are Roman
      Catholic and Episcopal priests pestered by miracle seekers?  Are
      T.V.  evangelists?  If not, why not?  They deal in magic as much
      as any Pagan or free thinker.  Is the prevalence of lazy
      freeloaders the reason that Christianity for the last fifteen
      centuries or so has been down playing the magical basis of the
      early Church?  This is a topic worthy of our consideration.
 
           Another question comes to mind at this point.  A question
      about magic in general.  I am sure you know what magic is, just
      is I am sure I know what it is.  The definitions are many and
      varied, but they all basically state in one way or another, that
      magic is the practical side of religion, and the practice of
      magic is the art of causing changes in the tangible by intangible
      means.  Or, to put it another way, magic is a mental way of
      changing the physical by means o    the spiritual.  That is what
      magic is, no question there.  The question is what does the
      uninitiated, uninformed layman think magic is?
           If you are going to make a living repairing televisions and
      radios, it is not enough that you know electronics.  You must
      also know what your customers believe about electronics.  The
      degree of success in the TV-Radio repair business is generally in
      direct proportion to the amount of customer knowledge the
      proprietor of the business has.  The rule is, if you deal with
      the run of humanity, you must understand the general run of
      humanity.  You must not know only what you know, but also what
      people ignorantly suppose you know.
 
           I pass this bit of wisdom on to you, for I think it has
      value to any serious student of matters intangible.  An old
      doctor of medicine told me this some forty years ago.  The
      occasion was a patient of his inquiring about an operation for a
      then inoperable condition.  I, only an army medic, was astounded
      at the fellow's ignorance and when the Doc and I were alone, said
      as much.  "Son," the old doctor said, "Here is something to
      remember  Anything that works that you don't understand is magic
       and a magician can do anything.  That's not the truth, but
      ninety per cent of the human race believe it is." That is how
      people who have never studied the arts of magic see it.  To them
      it is a power without cost and without limit.
 
 
                                                                              885
 
           Now, the final question for this time is, what should we do
      about this situation?  How should one handle a request made in
      good faith, to do something clearly impossible?  Don't tell me
      the answer is nineteenth century elitist secrecy.  Even if one
      is a member of The Mystic Confraternity of the Aureate, six
      fifteen A.M. some well intentioned ill informed citizen is going
      to crawl out of your woodwork either begging for a miracle or
      demanding one.  Secrecy restricts the free flow of information
      and the cross fertilization of ideas, besides which it don't
      work.  I fear that people more or less like the chap I described
      at the start of this will ever be with us.  What can we do about
      them, how should we do it?  I am as always serious with my ques
      tions.  If anyone has some idea on the subject please let us all
      know.  Write the editorial staff of the RMPJ.  Don't hide your
      light in this dark world.
 
           Now, having done my best to dispel the boredom of too much
      of a good thing, I part now from you.  May the sunshine fall
      softly on you, tanning but not burning.  May our sweet Mother the
      Earth long know your shadow.  May you go ever with the current of
      the power of the Absolute.  My blessings on one and all.
               (c)1986, by Buck Jump  .........from R.M.P.J. 8/86
 
 
                                                                              886
 
                                THE HERETIC'S CORNER 
                           Copyright 1987, Buck Jump & RMPJ
 
           Greetings, my Pagan friends--may your Gods be well-disposed to you. 
      May the rain be sufficient unto the needs of your gardens but not so much
      as to change the creek bottom geography.  May the fish be attracted to your
      bait and the deer flies and mosquitos find you nauseating.  
 
           Now is the sweet season of our year when our sweet Mother the Earth is
      at Her most satisfying, must nurturing aspect.  Ripe Summer just a moon to
      come, Spring with her fickle teasing just a moon past.  Now the days are
      long and our thoughts are longer.  The nights are short and our sorrows
      even shorter.  To add my blessing to the blessing of being alive in this
      glad season would be to lay a penny on a gold-piece.  Rejoice and be glad
      that you are alive in this season.
 
           According to my Almanac, which holy writ I have so far found to be
      true, on the night of June 25 the Sun and Moon will both be in Cancer. 
      That night if the clouds are not intervening we will be treated to the
      sight of the new moon with the old moon in her arms.  The earth light then
      is so bright on the moon that we can see it from here.  
 
           The Teutons call it the geigenschine, and, in the old times at least,
      believed it was the time when one might peer through the veil of time, to
      see both past and future.  The Celts held that the new moon was pregnant
      with the harvest to come on these nights.  Those who follow the seasons in
      their doings hold it a grand time for beginnings.  A good time for marrying
      and giving in marriage.  The Hebrideans hold it to be the luckiest of times
      for launching a fishing boat.  Come to think about it those two things are
      not very different.  
 
           Any way it's a fine night for a bonfire and a picnic.  I must confess
      in my own case it's hard to think of a night that isn't good for a fire and
      a feast, but when the new moon holds the old moon in her arms seems the
      best of nights for partying and feasting.  It is a time without equal for
      blessing ceremonies -- especially ceremonies to bless the beginning of
      something.  
      Most of you, I am sure, know more about this than I do, but I thought I'd
      just give you all a gentle reminder.  Another thing -- it is generally said
      to be ill luck to start the new cider in the fall with over half the old
      cider still not drunk.  Party time, friends!!
 
 
                                                                              887
 
           Now I may seem to change the subject.  I have found that only the
      Absolute Ultimate Intelligence and the tables of mathematics can be trusted
      totally.  That is why I trust the Almanac, the axioms of geometry, and the
      equations of physics more than the revealed words of all the prophets.  Not
      that I think prophets are liars, far from it, but one man's truth may be
      another man's fairy tale.  If you don't think that is so, consider:  Three
      honest, fair, sober citizens witness the same event, say a wreck on the
      highway.  One is a farmer from the San Luis Valley, one a Denver truck
      driver, and one a sheep herder from Craig; they tell their story in what
      they all fondly believe to be standard English.  What do we hear?  Three
      different stories that don't even seem to concern the same event.  Now take
      three metallurgists, or chemists, or physicists - any three people all
      knowledgeable in the same physical discipline.  Let one be a Swede, one a
      Chinese and one an American; let them all make the same observation and
      report on it each in his own language.  The equations they use explaining
      the observation will be identical.  That is why I hold Almanacs and such to
      be holy writ.
 
           Interesting, but what has that piece of information to do with a feast
      by a bonfire or a ceremony under the new moon?  Music is what.  Music is
      that form of mathematics that describes and evokes emotion.  A ceremony
      without music is like a feast without food, a confusion in terms.
 
           I can't speak the highland Gaelic, but when a good piper blows "I will
      see ye no the more" I understand what it is to go bravely into a battle
      knowing you won't win, and can't win, but can't avoid either.  They had no
      piper, but I wonder if someone didn't whistle that sad brave tune inside
      the Alamo that morning when Santa Anna's trumpeter blew "Death and Glory." 
      A native American blowing on a bone flute can tell you more about the Hopi
      nation and what the coyote's song means than a whole library full of
      anthropological studies.  A classic Chinese orchestra playing "Dragons
      Crossing a River" will put you more in tune with China than a year spent
      studying Kung Fu Tse in translation.  A drummer from the Congo banks and a
      drummer from the Shetlands don't have the same beat, nor do they carry the
      same message, but each can understand the other.
 
           Magic is at least in part emotion, a mood-thought or as we say in the
      country `you have to hold your mouth right.'  So if you do plan some
      ceremony for the night of the double moon, give a thought to the music.  It
      is not enough that a ceremony "work" it has to "work right."
 
           Now for my question.  I am not just being silly with this, I ask it in
      hope that we can establish some uniformity of terms.  At the night of the
      new moon we who count time by moons begin a new count.  Different folk in
      different places name the moons differently.  That is, the full moon
      occurring when the Sun is in Cancer or first after the Summer solstice is
      called Green Corn moon, Catfish moon, Strawberry moon, or First Heat moon,
      to name only a few designations.  I am not trying to establish any
      uniformity in these names.  As the heart feels let the mouth speak.  Any
      way a list beginning with the Full moon next after the Vernal Equinox is
      easily translated from one name system to another.   
 
 
                                                                              888
 
           What I'd like to know is something else.  The other day I was playing
      trivial pursuit and one of the questions was "what is the second full moon
      in a month called?  I missed it.  The answer was a "blue moon."  I lost
      fair and square, a game is played by the rules of the game and damn the
      facts.  In fact, a blue moon occurs whenever there is a cloud of volcanic
      dust in the stratosphere. We had several after St. Helens blew up.  There
      were some emerald sunrises at that time too.  We had `blood on the moon'
      some fifty years ago during the dust storms.  That red moon phenomenon
      occurs during forest fires too.  Signs in the moon of impending doom and
      disaster are too well known to warrant comment, so I won't make any.
 
           What I want to know is what does one call the second full moon
      occurring in the passage of the sun through a single sign of the Zodiac? In
      four full years there are 48 sun signs, but 49 full moons.  What does one
      call that extra full moon?  For instance it happened now would it be
      "second full moon", or "early currant moon", or "more catfish moon", or "If
      you didn't catch 'em last time moon get 'em now moon"?  Being as I'm not
      color blind I know it's not a "blue moon" but what is it?
 
           So dear friends the year rolls on.  Enjoy the good green days when
      Summerland is here and not hereafter.  To look ahead at the cold to come
      will spoil the enjoyment of Summer but it won't make Winter any less sharp.
      So enjoy the sweet days while you may.  May you so live that the Summer
      days will live in your hearts throughout the whole cycle of seasons and be
      with you even when you pass this way again.  May our Mother bless you and
      guide you.  With these words I do now part from thee.
                                                                      --Buck Jump
       
 
 
                                                                              889
 
                            THE HERETIC'S CORNER 
                            (c)1986, Buck Jump
 
           Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
      to you.  May your harvest be bounteous, may your winter meat be
      fat and easily gotten, and may the autumn sun warm you for the
      cold to come.
 
           Now is the time of the grand payoff when what we have worked
      for throughout the long summer is at last laid in the granary.  A
      little while to enjoy the sweet earth, the time between harvest
      and wood chopping. Our Mother is especially sweet just now - past
      bearing but not yet the wise old grandmother, our Earth is still
      warm with passion, a lover of pleasure without consequence. 
      Autumn is the year's reward.  May yours be rich and filled with
      ecstasy. 
 
           The black birds flock for the long trip south; the wild
      geese return from the arctic barrens.  The coyotes sing their
      wild song of life and love.  A night wind rustles the drying
      leaves under the Hunter's moon, and I hear the horn of the wild
      hunt rushing over the land.  The veil between the worlds grows
      thin and the past comes back into the present.
 
           There is a sweet nostalgia in the past.  Old loves still
      warm the cooling blood; old triumphs still make the heart beat
      faster; old mistakes still bring a blush to the cheek.  "Old
      mistakes", as the English sailor said in the Japanese bath house,
      "Aye, there's the rub."  
           I hope the wild hunt in passing your house, starts only such
      game as you will want to see.  I fear that old Herne has started
      a hare in my woods that I neither knew was there nor wanted to
      see.
 
           My Pagan friends, forgive me... I goofed.  Mea Culpa, and I
      should have known better.  At least I give thanks that I can
      acknowledge my goof before it goes farther, and thanks too that I
      haven't entirely dislocated my arm patting myself on the back.
 
           When last I wrote in these pages, I suggested that we all
      work some magic to put an end to senseless violence.  I thought I
      was being reasonable, I thought my idea would perhaps inspire an
      outpouring of spiritual power that might well improve our common
      environment.  It seemed like such a good idea.  I was proud of
      myself.  Well, pride goeth before a forced landing.
 
 
                                                                              890
 
           I have a friend with whom I've debated many an issue of
      moral philosophy over many a cup of coffee. He shall remain
      nameless here, but I can identify him as a Talmudic scholar who
      has taken a post graduate course in human nature in the "second-
      hand" business.  He is a master schooled in both theory and prac-
      tice.  As soon as you issue of the R.M.P.J. came out, I
      rushed down to the coffee shop to gloat and play `one-up' with my
      friend.  I went in like a falcon and got shot down like a goose. 
      He read my prose carefully, and re-read parts of it.  He is a
      scholar and a gentleman.  The former kept him from agreeing, the
      latter kept him from being nasty about it.  Every philosopher
      should have such a friend, someone to keep our feet on the
      ground.
 
           "I agree with your position", he told me, "I think you have
      a noble idea, but your first premise is false.  There is no
      senseless violence -- all violence seems sensible to the one who
      does it.  Now you, I, and every well intentioned reasonably
      intelligent person must agree the examples you cite are
      senseless.  To us they are senseless, but to the people who did
      them they were sensible."
 
           Then he proceeded to show how, from the warped viewpoint of
      these violent people their actions were, to them, both sensible
      and justified.  He convinced me that I was making a moral and
      value judgement rather than a positive statement of natural fact. 
      In order to achieve what I wanted, I now realize, would require
      some drastic reshaping of a lot of minds, an overhaul of millions
      of psyches.  I didn't realize what I was asking.  Well, when I
      dream, I dream big....
 
           If all the moral philosophers, gurus, religious leaders,
      prophets and shamans who have tried and failed to re-shape
      humanity en masse were gathered together in a single place, it
      would take a Texas wheat field to hold them.  In order to stop
      senseless violence it will be necessary to get everyone to agree
      on what is senseless.  I know what is right, you know what is
      right, but that wierdo next door has some other idea.  Before we
      can feel safe around him we have to get him to agree with us. 
      I'm not too optimistic about a mass mind change even by magic. 
      It is worth a try, but recall - in the past, some real eternity
      class magicians have tried and failed.  Some of those old boys
      could control the weather, transmute metals, turn juice or water
      in to wine instantly and levitate, but they couldn't change the
      mind set of mankind.  It's easier to move a mountain than a mind. 
      To use force either real or implied, either physical or social,
      is only to replay the inquisition, and we've already had too many
      remakes and sequels to that.  Education seems to be the only
      method that works, and that's as slow as evolution.
 
 
                                                                              891
 
           Right and Justice are not to be had in job lots, even with
      magic.  Every case must be approached individually one by o@e. 
      To change minds in mass lots can be done magically; however
      people who are so changed are not really changed, but only
      suppressed -- what you get are a bunch of zombies.  So far as I
      know this sort of thing is only done by magicians on the dark
      side.  Adolph Hitler and Jim Jones are two examples that come
      readily to mind.  For all I know both of the named examples may
      well have started with the highest motives.  When you start
      superimposing your mind o@ the mind of another or others, things
      have a way of coming unglued.  History is full of examples of
      groups that acted with one mind for a while and then unravelled
      when the guru leader either died or ran out of gas.  No my
      friends, it won't work, even with the noblest of motives it just
      won't work.
 
           I knew all this from long ago, but I was misled as to what
      was going on.  I thought the senseless violence I saw around me
      was from some outside source.  A mad spirit, a virus or some sort
      of "dis-harmonic vibration".  If that were the case my idea would
      have been a good one.  On the off chance that something like that
      is now afoot in our world a general intention for reason and
      against violence can't hurt, and may well do some constructive
      good.  I'm all for anyone who tries to clean up our environment,
      seen or unseen.  Considering the sort of good folk who read the
      R.M.P.J. I'm not too worried that anyone who read my last little
      effort will be misled by it.  I fear that at worst, those of you
      who followed my suggestion may have wasted both time and effort -
      - I hope that at best, you may have done some good by promoting
      reason and discouraging confusion.  Cleaning the house won't stop
      a fire, but it will lessen the chances of spontaneous combustion,
      and make a fire easier to fight if it does break out.  As I see
      it, my mistake was in supposing we all have more or less the same
      values and in externalizing he source of senseless violence.
 
           Enough of apology and explanation.  Breast-beating and
      patting your back are both good exercises   .....in futility. 
      One good bray from the donkey, o@e good hoot from the owl, and
      then back to work.  We are still at risk from some angry fool
      armed and dangerous.  What can be done?  What should be done?
 
           I can think of several things to do.  First, learn to
      perceive the violent odes.  Some of us can see auras, some can
      pick up on "bad vibes", some can "smell" trouble --  however,
      whichever, my advice would be to use it.  An antelope don't long
      survive in the veldt without looking, listening, smelling and
      generally  keeping on the alert.  Second, surround yourself with
      protection.  Some walk in a sphere of protection, some are guided
      by some unseen force, I rely on my guardian spirit, guardian
      angel or however you call her.  In any case, whatever protection
      you have, use it.  Whatever ceremonies, prayers, incantations or
      deep meditations you use, don't neglect them.  That is about it. 
      We're back where we were when we wore fur bikinis and hunted with
      stone-tipped spears, but haven't we always been there?  Safety
      is, in this life, I fear only an illusion.
 
 
                                                                              892
 
           One thing more we can do, and should do -- we can teach. 
      Part of the debt we all owe to life is to clean the place.  Non
      only should we pick up the trash, but we should also clean up the
      vicious bull-shit wherever we find it.  Like it or not we are all
      teachers.      Whatever we do, whatever we say is part of the
      lesson we teach.
 
           Before all the Gods I wish I had some magic formula to give
      you that would clean up the world both seen and unseen, but I
      don't.  The life of mankind is a hard road to travel, that is why
      the ultimate designed a hard bunch to travel it.  My blessings on
      you one and all.  May you find enlightenment.  You are smart, may
      you find wisdom.  Let this subject now be closed between us.  If
      you have any ideas on this subject pass them on to our long-
      suffering editors.
 
           Now it may be that I can resume my clown suit and once more
      arm myself with my gadfly stinger and get back to the heretic
      business and leave metaphysics to those better equipped to deal
      with it.  A silversmith shoeing a horse rarely does a good job of
      it.
 
           In the spring the wild plums were a'blooming.  White
      blossoms on the bough, lace for the bride.  In the long summer
      the little green plums grew and changed to a lighter green color. 
      When the first frost was still up in the high country the plums
      grew sweet and turned a lovely purple-pink shade.  Then at the
      time of the autumnal equinox, they were picked and crushed.  Now
      the new wine works behind the air seals in the fermenter.  The
      promise of spring blossoms is redeemed in the good strong wine of
      winter.  What we learn in any one place we can use in another
      place.  The wild plums are a part of life; from them we can learn
      about other parts of life.  When the wine falls clear, a drink
      all around, a toast to life.  May we all go our separate ways
      bound for a common goal.  May the flowers bloom where we have
      passed.  Go in peace, well disposed to your fellows.  With these
      words I do now part from thee.____Buck Jump
      .......from RMPJ Oct '86
 
 
                                                                              893
 
                                   THE HERETIC'S CORNER 
                                 Copyright 1987, Buck Jump
                           and the Rocky Mountain Pagan Journal
 
              Greetings my Paganfriends; may yourGods be welldisposed to you. May
      the breeze  of Autumn cool your  sun-browned skin while the  heat of summer
      past  still warms  your heart.   May you  find pinon nuts  in plenty -don't
      forget to leave a  few for our furry friends.  May the cider of your apples
      be finer than the best champagne.  May the  sacred blue corn from your corn
      patch be enough to see you through the winter, enough to plant next spring,
      and still  enough to make  cornbread for  all your friends  when your  next
      year's corn is as high as your knees.
 
              The full moon of Libra  rides now in the sky.  The  Blood moon, the
      Hunters' moon, time  for such  of us as  are not vegetarians  to go on  the
      hunt.  Now is the time to make proper apologies and then lay in  the winter
      meat.  The fine days of Autumn are upon us.  Enjoy the beauty of the season
      even as you work like  one bailing a leaking boat in the middle  of a large
      lake, to prepare for the cold to come.  These are fine days, these are hard
      days.  Our Mother the Earth loves us, but she is a stern parent.  It's work
      or die for us  Her children.  Be glad that this is  so; if Mother only gave
      what a bunch of spoiled brats we would be.  So dig your potatoes  and while
      you dig remember the folks  who held this land  before us.  Bless them  for
      the  potatoes and the sacred  blue corn.  Tread  lightly on the ground -who
      knows whose graves we walk upon.
 
              The  other day a lady inquired of me  as to where to get some clear
      quartz  crystals.  I  referred her to  a couple of  rock shops that  I have
      found to both reasonable and reliable.  In the course of our talk she began
      to question me about the ghostly and magic qualities of crystals generally.
      I had  to tell her  that as to  crystals, my knowledge  was rather  like my
      knowledge of electronics-- purely academic.  I know that both are useful in
      the hands  of one knowledgeable  about them,  and I know  that I am  not so
      knowledgeable.  I advised her to get some of the good  books on the subject
      and to enroll in a class to study that discipline.
 
              I wonder  why it  is that  people assume that  because I  have some
      incomplete knowledge of magic  sticks and enchanted rings that I would know
      about  crystals. Some  folks  suppose  that since  I  can  play a  mountain
      dulcimer I can  also play an indian flute - I  can't.  Do they also suppose
      that  a  stone mason  knows  the  cabinet  maker's  trade?    Most  of  the
      definitions of magic I have read were written by magicians,  from within as
      it were.  Here is  one written by one not at all knowledgeable about magic,
      from  without.  It is this, "Magic is anything that I don't understand that
      works."   It also has  a corollary: "A magician  can do anything."   That's
      another  good reason to soft-pedal your  pagan beliefs.  Besides the people
      who want to throw  stones at you, you have  to contend with a pack  of nuts
      who expect you to turn their leaden lives into fine
      gold with no effort on anyone's part.  I digress, but I feel this paragraph
      may be of use to you.
 
          So back to my conversation with the crystal seeking lady.  She next
      remarked that  I probably had  never had a lucky  piece nor a  lucky stone.
      Again, I surprised her.  I told her that I had several such.  That led to a
      discussion  of lucky  stones in  general, and  the difference  in crystals,
      metals, and shapes that will work for any knowledgeable person, and special
      talismanic  tokens that have power usable only  by an individual or a small
      group of people.
 
 
                                                                              894
 
              A true lucky stonehas a value,at least to itsowner, that hasnothing
      to do with its price.  A natural crystal has a price fixed more or less in
      relation to its value.  Such a stone is rather like any other tool or piece
      of  equipment.  Personal  lucky stones are  another matter - I  know a good
      deal about  them, learned by both  study and experience.   Any solid object
      may be a  lucky piece.   Usually  it is  a natural  object, but  it can  be
      something manmade.   There is extensive literature on the  subject.  If you
      are  interested you can  look up talismans,  mazels, gluckenstinen, destiny
      stones, Indian medicine rocks,  lucky stones, they are all  the same thing,
      no  matter the  language.   I personally  prefer "lucky stone",  the common
      American  term, and  why  not?   I  am  a common  American.   So  much  for
      nomenclature, how do they work and where can you get one?
 
          As for the first question, life is too short to give a good positive
      answer.   I have a private guess, but for  anything definite you'll need to
      study   cosmology,  physics,   metaphysics,   geology,  psychogeology   and
      "energyology."  If you should come up with a good positive answer, one that
      can be proved by demonstration, please let me know.  
 
              Now for whereto obtain alucky stone or luckypiece.  First,you can't
      buy one - oh,  you might buy the stone,  but the seller loses the  luck and
      the  buyer don't get it.   I guess  it goes back to  wherever it came from.
      Second, you  can't steal  it.   True,  a clever  thief can  lift any  solid
      object, but the act of theft reverses the luck.  If you doubt that, I refer
      you to the history of the Hope diamond.  So, having forewarned you what not
      to do, I'll  proceed to what you can  do.  You can obtain a  lucky stone by
      gift.  You can  be given a lucky stone  provided the gift is made  in love,
      without  fear nor hope of  future favor.   I have one such,  which I got by
      inheritance.  The best and cheapest way to acquire a lucky stone is to have
      it thrust upon you.  A gift from the hands of the Gods, as it were.  To put
      it another way, a lucky stone becomes a lucky stone at some moment  in time
      when you  and the stone  come together in some,  to you, great  event.  For
      example,  bringing  down  a  deer  when  you  are  really  starving;  being
      near-missed by a bolt of lightning; a truly monumental moment of love.
 
              By wayof illustration, here'show two ofmine came tobe lucky stones.
      The first is a sort  of family lucky stone,  the one I got by  inheritance.
      One day in early June some sixty years ago a gang of relatives were putting
      up the hay crop on my grandfather's farm.  Purely by chance, everyone there
      was a  member of my  mother's family.   You may wonder  what a boy  not ten
      years old was doing  there.  In those days  a kid to load the  stacker pony
      was a regular  part of most haying  crews.  Suddenly  there was a flash  of
      greenish light,  a sonic boom, the earth shook and  a thin wisp of smoke or
      steam rising from the  meadow.  One of my uncles took a shovel and ran over
      to investigate.  A wisp of smoke was rising from a hole in the ground.   He
      dug up  a red hot meteorite, rare  enough in its self,  but this particular
      one is an isotropic form of  copper.  It is somewhat cylindrical in  shape,
      about the size of a large salt shaker.  That is the family lucky stone.  It
      has  been  handed down  in  the  family ever  since.   All  I  can  say is,
      comparatively we have had better luck  since then than most other families.
      The  keeper or custodian of the piece  has always been favored with unusual
      good fortune.
 
 
                                                                              895
 
          The other that I will describe is a piece of red and white Oregon beach
      agate.  It is about the size of the first joint of my thumb, polished and
      shaped by the random  tumbling of the waves and  sand - it seems to  have a
      sort of Salvador Dali  eye on one side.   What a certain lovely lady  and I
      were doing in an Oregon beach cave at low tide I leave to your imagination;
      when  we again returned to the world we  usually live in I was gripping the
      stone in my hand.  My own personal love charm.
 
              I know a manwho carries with himeverywhere a watch, meltedand fused
      into a  worthless chunk of  brass, but still  recognizable as a  watch.  He
      found it smoking  in his pocket as  he hastily shed  his pants after  being
      knocked off his feet by a bolt of lightning.  That is his lucky piece.
 
 
              Soit is withall lucky stones,they are souvenirsof a great occasion.
      Magic sticks  are made, the  result of human  intention.  Lucky  stones are
      given or  granted by power or  powers outside the ken  of man.   If you are
      fortunate enough to get one, you will  know it.  We have an instinct  about
      some things.  If you  have one,  guard it well.   Remember,  the difference
      between worthless  and  priceless  is in  that  inner wisdom  that  only  a
      superior person possesses.  
 
          My question this time rises from this: In the regalia and equipage of
      Kings,  the royal orb and  scepter of royalty are  second only to the crown
      itself in importance.  Now what I'd like to know is this... In the old time
      of "the simple rule and antique plan - of him to take who has the power and
      him to keep who can", was the scepter the head man's shillelagh and the orb
      his lucky  stone?   Along the  same line another  related question.   Would
      kings still rule as  well as reign if the scepter were cut with appropriate
      ceremony from a living tree and the orb of power was a true lucky stone?  I
      have noted in history  that royal power began to wane about  the time kings
      began to  rely on courtiers and  craftsmen for things they  had better done
      them-selves.  
 
              It is well to have friends, it is well to be a part of a group, but
      when you inwardly  begin to identify  your self with  some thing or  person
      outside yourself, you  begin to inwardly diminish.  Yours  should be a part
      of you while you have custody of it, otherwise it's  only trading stock and
      capital.
 
              So much  for magic sticks, and lucky  stones for history and kings,
      autumn  is upon us.  The  wild hunt rides the night  wind, the veil between
      the worlds grows  thin, it's time to prepare for the  cold to come.  Now is
      the time when the long long thoughts rise in our minds unbidden.  
 
          May you have food and fire for the winter and thoughts to meditate upon
      when  your paths are blocked  with snow.   May you be  blessed, may neither
      boredom nor hard living  trouble you, with which  words I do now  part from
      thee.
                ___ Buck Jump
 
 
                                                                              896
 
                            THE HERETIC'S CORNER 
                            (c)1986, Buck Jump
 
           Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
      to you.  May your harvest be bounteous, may your winter meat be
      fat and easily gotten, and may the autumn sun warm you for the
      cold to come.
 
           Now is the time of the grand payoff when what we have worked
      for throughout the long summer is at last laid in the granary.  A
      little while to enjoy the sweet earth, the time between harvest
      and wood chopping. Our Mother is especially sweet just now - past
      bearing but not yet the wise old grandmother, our Earth is still
      warm with passion, a lover of pleasure without consequence. 
      Autumn is the year's reward.  May yours be rich and filled with
      ecstasy. 
 
           The black birds flock for the long trip south; the wild
      geese return from the arctic barrens.  The coyotes sing their
      wild song of life and love.  A night wind rustles the drying
      leaves under the Hunter's moon, and I hear the horn of the wild
      hunt rushing over the land.  The veil between the worlds grows
      thin and the past comes back into the present.
 
           There is a sweet nostalgia in the past.  Old loves still
      warm the cooling blood; old triumphs still make the heart beat
      faster; old mistakes still bring a blush to the cheek.  "Old
      mistakes", as the English sailor said in the Japanese bath house,
      "Aye, there's the rub."  
           I hope the wild hunt in passing your house, starts only such
      game as you will want to see.  I fear that old Herne has started
      a hare in my woods that I neither knew was there nor wanted to
      see.
 
           My Pagan friends, forgive me... I goofed.  Mea Culpa, and I
      should have known better.  At least I give thanks that I can
      acknowledge my goof before it goes farther, and thanks too that I
      haven't entirely dislocated my arm patting myself on the back.
 
           When last I wrote in these pages, I suggested that we all
      work some magic to put an end to senseless violence.  I thought I
      was being reasonable, I thought my idea would perhaps inspire an
      outpouring of spiritual power that might well improve our common
      environment.  It seemed like such a good idea.  I was proud of
      myself.  Well, pride goeth before a forced landing.
 
 
                                                                              897
 
           I have a friend with whom I've debated many an issue of
      moral philosophy over many a cup of coffee. He shall remain
      nameless here, but I can identify him as a Talmudic scholar who
      has taken a post graduate course in human nature in the "second-
      hand" business.  He is a master schooled in both theory and prac-
      tice.  As soon as the last issue of the R.M.P.J. came out, I
      rushed down to the coffee shop to gloat and play `one-up' with my
      friend.  I went in like a falcon and got shot down like a goose. 
      He read my prose carefully, and re-read parts of it.  He is a
      scholar and a gentleman.  The former kept him from agreeing, the
      latter kept him from being nasty about it.  Every philosopher
      should have such a friend, someone to keep our feet on the
      ground.
 
           "I agree with your position", he told me, "I think you have
      a noble idea, but your first premise is false.  There is no
      senseless violence -- all violence seems sensible to the one who
      does it.  Now you, I, and every well intentioned reasonably
      intelligent person must agree the examples you cite are
      senseless.  To us they are senseless, but to the people who did
      them they were sensible."
 
           Then he proceeded to show how, from the warped viewpoint of
      these violent people their actions were, to them, both sensible
      and justified.  He convinced me that I was making a moral and
      value judgement rather than a positive statement of natural fact. 
      In order to achieve what I wanted, I now realize, would require
      some drastic reshaping of a lot of minds, an overhaul of millions
      of psyches.  I didn't realize what I was asking.  Well, when I
      dream, I dream big....
 
           If all the moral philosophers, gurus, religious leaders,
      prophets and shamans who have tried and failed to re-shape
      humanity en masse were gathered together in a single place, it
      would take a Texas wheat field to hold them.  In order to stop
      senseless violence it will be necessary to get everyone to agree
      on what is senseless.  I know what is right, you know what is
      right, but that wierdo next door has some other idea.  Before we
      can feel safe around him we have to get him to agree with us. 
      I'm not too optimistic about a mass mind change even by magic. 
      It is worth a try, but recall - in the past, some real eternity
      class magicians have tried and failed.  Some of those old boys
      could control the weather, transmute metals, turn juice or water
      in to wine instantly and levitate, but they couldn't change the
      mind set of mankind.  It's easier to move a mountain than a mind. 
      To use force either real or implied, either physical or social,
      is only to replay the inquisition, and we've already had too many
      remakes and sequels to that.  Education seems to be the only
      method that works, and that's as slow as evolution.
 
 
                                                                              898
 
           Right and Justice are not to be had in job lots, even with
      magic.  Every case must be approached individually one by one. 
      To change minds in mass lots can be done magically; however
      people who are so changed are not really changed, but only
      suppressed -- what you get are a bunch of zombies.  So far as I
      know this sort of thing is only done by magicians on the dark
      side.  Adolph Hitler and Jim Jones are two examples that come
      readily to mind.  For all I know both of the named examples may
      well have started with the highest motives.  When you start
      superimposing your mind on the mind of another or others, things
      have a way of coming unglued.  History is full of examples of
      groups that acted with one mind for a while and then unravelled
      when the guru leader either died or ran out of gas.  No my
      friends, it won't work, even with the noblest of motives it just
      won't work.
 
           I knew all this from long ago, but I was misled as to what
      was going on.  I thought the senseless violence I saw around me
      was from some outside source.  A mad spirit, a virus or some sort
      of "dis-harmonic vibration".  If that were the case my idea would
      have been a good one.  On the off chance that something like that
      is now afoot in our world a general intention for reason and
      against violence can't hurt, and may well do some constructive
      good.  I'm all for anyone who tries to clean up our environment,
      seen or unseen.  Considering the sort of good folk who read the
      R.M.P.J. I'm not too worried that anyone who read my last little
      effort will be misled by it.  I fear that at worst, those of you
      who followed my suggestion may have wasted both time and effort -
      - I hope that at best, you may have done some good by promoting
      reason and discouraging confusion.  Cleaning the house won't stop
      a fire, but it will lessen the chances of spontaneous combustion,
      and make a fire easier to fight if it does break out.  As I see
      it, my mistake was in supposing we all have more or less the same
      values and in externalizing he source of senseless violence.
 
           Enough of apology and explanation.  Breast-beating and
      patting your back are both good exercises   .....in futility. 
      One good bray from the donkey, one good hoot from the owl, and
      then back to work.  We are still at risk from some angry fool
      armed and dangerous.  What can be done?  What should be done?
 
           I can think of several things to do.  First, learn to
      perceive the violent ones.  Some of us can see auras, some can
      pick up on "bad vibes", some can "smell" trouble --  however,
      whichever, my advice would be to use it.  An antelope don't long
      survive in the veldt without looking, listening, smelling and
      generally  keeping on the alert.  Second, surround yourself with
      protection.  Some walk in a sphere of protection, some are guided
      by some unseen force, I rely on my guardian spirit, guardian
      angel or however you call her.  In any case, whatever protection
      you have, use it.  Whatever ceremonies, prayers, incantations or
      deep meditations you use, don't neglect them.  That is about it. 
      We're back where we were when we wore fur bikinis and hunted with
      stone-tipped spears, but haven't we always been there?  Safety
      is, in this life, I fear only an illusion.
 
 
                                                                              899
 
           One thing more we can do, and should do -- we can teach. 
      Part of the debt we all owe to life is to clean the place.  Non
      only should we pick up the trash, but we should also clean up the
      vicious bull-shit wherever we find it.  Like it or not we are all
      teachers.      Whatever we do, whatever we say is part of the
      lesson we teach.
 
           Before all the Gods I wish I had some magic formula to give
      you that would clean up the world both seen and unseen, but I
      don't.  The life of mankind is a hard road to travel, that is why
      the ultimate designed a hard bunch to travel it.  My blessings on
      you one and all.  May you find enlightenment.  You are smart, may
      you find wisdom.  Let this subject now be closed between us.  If
      you have any ideas on this subject pass them on to our long-
      suffering editors.
 
           Now it may be that I can resume my clown suit and once more
      arm myself with my gadfly stinger and get back to the heretic
      business and leave metaphysics to those better equipped to deal
      with it.  A silversmith shoeing a horse rarely does a good job of
      it.
 
           In the spring the wild plums were a'blooming.  White
      blossoms on the bough, lace for the bride.  In the long summer
      the little green plums grew and changed to a lighter green color. 
      When the first frost was still up in the high country the plums
      grew sweet and turned a lovely purple-pink shade.  Then at the
      time of the autumnal equinox, they were picked and crushed.  Now
      the new wine works behind the air seals in the fermenter.  The
      promise of spring blossoms is redeemed in the good strong wine of
      winter.  What we learn in any one place we can use in another
      place.  The wild plums are a part of life; from them we can learn
      about other parts of life.  When the wine falls clear, a drink
      all around, a toast to life.  May we all go our separate ways
      bound for a common goal.  May the flowers bloom where we have
      passed.  Go in peace, well disposed to your fellows.  With these
      words I do now part from thee.____Buck Jump
      .......from RMPJ Oct '86
 
 
                                                                              900
 
                                  THE HERETIC'S CORNER 
                                   (c)1986, Buck Jump
 
           Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
      to you.  May the rain fall gently on your rhubarb.  May the hail
      fall in a lake or on a parking lot.  May our little six-legged
      friends develop an allergy to your pickle patch.
 
           Now is the sweet season of our year.  Our Mother the Earth
      is pregnant with the harvest to come.  The days are long and the
      thoughts of the season are long, long thoughts.  In the soft
      afternoon sky the white thunderheads sail serenely on like ships
      of dream in dreamland seas.  Surely even such as I can be
      forgiven for dreaming a bit, for letting the fancy roam free.
 
           In dreams I see a world set free.  I see the human race
      living in peace, with each one going his own way but with
      courtesy to all who go another way.  I see us as one species,
      which we are, and all of us acknowledging that fact.  I see each
      walking in beauty, with dignity, and respecting the other
      person's dignity.  I see us loving one another, helping our
      fellow men along their way.  When I dream, I don't mess around -
      I rear back and dream up a doozy!
 
           So much for dreams; back to the world we live in, back to
      the life we know.  Before I spring my question for the day, a
      little background, a few facts:
 
           Every one of us must come to terms with his environment and
      his heredity.  We all live on one Earth.   That is the main part
      of our environment, or at least the location of it.
 
           We are all human beings, homo occasionally sapiens.  That is
      the basis of our heredity.  
      
           Anything that is done to one of us is done to all of us. 
      Anything that happens in one place on this planet has some effect
      on every place on the planet.
 
           We are, all of us, stuck with our whole species.  Here we
      are with a bunch of people we wouldn't willingly walk down a
      country road with.  Indeed, we are as ship- wrecked mariners in a
      lifeboat with a bunch we wouldn't sit down to eat a free meal
      with.  To jump out of the boat is to drown.  To try to toss those
      _______________s out is very apt to upset the boat and drown all
      of us.    These facts are self-evident, axiomatic.
 
           I have always held that we should all walk the path of life
      with our hands outstretched in fellowship with respect and love
      for all.  Of course, I have a caveat - keep a Bowie knife handy
      in case they haven't all heard the message.
 
           As the Ultimate is reported to have said when the mountains
      were made, "Now for the background".  The present situation is a
      mess.  Violence is everywhere.  Not even foolish violence, but
      violence without reason.  Surely a leopard is in our streets and
      a shark loose in our swimming pool.
 
 
                                                                              901
 
           An armed bandit shoots down an unarmed clerk who is
      cooperating.  A litigant in court shoots down an attorney.  A
      parent beats a child to death.  A driver gets cut off coming onto
      the freeway and guns down the chap in the pickup who did the
      off-cutting.  An otherwise reasonable young man is annoyed by the
      sounds of traffic on a mountain road and starts shooting at the
      cars passing.  Those are only a few examples culled from the news
      in recent months.  In truth, senseless violence is loose in the
      land.
 
           As it is with the individual, so with groups.  From the
      racist fringe movement on to great governments. Violence for the
      sake of violence is epidemic.  Each age of history has had a
      plague - the plague of this age is senseless violence.  I have
      friends of the "born again" persuasion who tell me that it is the
      Devil doing it.  I don't think so.  As far as I can determine,
      devils are a disorganized bunch.  Satan Mekatrig Lord of Chaos is
      a confusion in terms.  Seen another way, that's organized
      confusion.  As I see it, the flow of the power of the Universe is
      organized and rational.  So it seems to me that any force opposed
      to that flow must be disorganized and irrational.  That is to say
      nothing of the personal devils within us.  They must have a hand
      in at least some of this senseless violence.
 
           I have other friends who blame it on some as yet
      unidentified virus.  Could be, but it's a rare virus that has no
      fever, nor nausea accompanying its onset....
 
           Others hold that it is all explainable by Sigmund Freud and
      others of that ilk.  Again I say could be, but what mental
      discomboomeration comes on suddenly with no sign of
      disorientation nor disturbance until it suddenly manifests itself
      in the acute stage?
 
           For all I know, none of the above are correct.  The fact re-
      mains that a wild unreasoning violence is loose among us, a
      danger to us all.  The fact is, we are all in the same boat, and
      the boat is encountering some heavy weather.  Don't you think we
      should do something about it?  I personally can think of a whole
      lot of folks who I don;t really care to rescue, but being as we
      are all in the same boat, I am sure going to do my best for
      them....... But what?
 
           In case this is all some psychosis, maybe we should engage a
      firm of head shrinkers to drag in a trainload of couches and get
      everyone to undergo psychoanalysis.  I refuse to consider the
      logistics of this.  The idea by itself causes my mind to boggle.
 
           Or, suppose it is a virus.  In that case when the
      virologists and immunologists have a bit of spare time from their
      search for the cause and cure of AIDS, they could do the same for
      the senseless violence virus.  In view of the fact that we are
      all at greater risk from senseless violence than from AIDS, it
      might be a worthwhile task.
 
           Or, just in case the gnostics have some truth in their
      ideas, and it is Auld Clootie, maybe a mass general exorcism is
      in order.  Once again, my mind refuses to consider the logistics.
 
 
                                                                              902
 
           In view of the fact that the cause of senseless violence is
      still unknown, we might get a government grant to study the
      problem.  Considering the speed that such grants usually get
      results, I would expect a definite answer by the twenty-second
      century.  Of course, such a grant would have the added advantage
      of keeping a large number of researchers out of the pool halls
      and off the streets.
 
           Now I am going to go against my usual custom and make a
      suggestion; only a suggestion, mind, and not to be taken as a
      dictum, but only as an idea to be considered.  It has been my
      observation that there are only two occasions when magic is apt
      to work.  One is after all other methods have been tried and
      found ineffectual.  The other is when there is no other method. 
      Now I believe that I have explored the other methods and found
      them impractical if not impossible.  So I feel that I am safe in
      saying it's going to take magic to stop this purposeless killing.
 
           So how to go about it?  What spell, what charm, what
      ceremony shall we use?  What power shall we invoke?  What power
      evoke?  Magic works, the proper ceremony at the proper time, done
      for the proper reason, will work.  True for you, you may well
      say, but which ceremony?  When?  Why?
 
           I just told you.  The proper one.  The one that is proper
      for you is the one you yourself believe is proper.  This is not
      an essay on morals and ethics, so I refrain from putting in my
      two cents worth on what is in my estimation proper.  When you are
      fighting a grass fire is no time to discuss what sort of shovel
      to use.
 
           In my dream we were all walking each in his own way, each
      helping the others as much as possible.  So here let us not try
      to all walk in one path.  No point in the universe can be reached
      from only one direction.  Let us rather each from where it seems
      most right and comfortable, try by magic means to stop this
      senseless violence.  Not-ice I said senseless violence, not just
      violence.  Some who follow the old Norse way could hardly be ex-
      pected to endorse some anti-violent intention, but I know of none
      who do not deplore reasonless violence.  We have our differences,
      but surely no one objects to improving all our chances of kissing
      our grandchildren.
 
           So, what I propose is this.  Sometime in the next quarter
      year, whenever it seems most proper, let us in our various ways
      by whatever means one believes in, try by magic means to stop
      this epidemic of senseless violence.
 
 
                                                                              903
 
           I have noticed a few things about power on the unseen side. 
      For a ceremony to be more than a mere charade, everyone involved
      in it must believe in the ceremony and in whatever power is used
      in it.  Everyone must believe that the ceremony can and will
      work.  Everyone must want the ceremony to work.  If anyone
      involved in the ceremony does not so believe and want, that
      person will be a dead weight on the others that do.  When I say
      everyone, I mean everyone, all, each one with one belief and one
      resolve.  What can be done by a group acting in true spiritual
      harmony is indeed amazing, but first you must have that true
      spiritual harmony.
 
           That is why I suggest we go at this not as some sort of
      super- coven ecumenical pagan group.  I have seen a few of these
      "lets all get together" bunches back in the sixties, and they
      couldn't even get drunk.
 
           I personally am in favor of any religion that don't practice
      human sacrifice, interfere in the private lives of the
      nonbelievers, or use force in conversion.  I love 'em all, but
      I'm not fool enough to yoke the ass and the ox together.  So
      let's all go, but let's not try to make it a parade.
 
           That is my suggestion, and my question is why not?  I'd
      appreciate your ideas on this, I truly would.  If you have any
      ideas on the subject, please communicate them to the editors of
      the RMPJ.  Even if the ideas are along the lines of, "You're
      Nuts!!", just say why you think so.  I'd appreciate it.
 
           May your dreams come true; may the wind cool without
      chilling, and may you reap a harvest even richer than the seed
      catalogue said you would.  May your shadow fall long on the
      Earth.  Go in peace, remember your fellows, and with these words
      I do part now from thee.
             ________Buck Jump.       ....from RMPJ 8/86
 
 
                                                                              904
 
                                  THE HERETIC'S CORNER 
                                    by Buck Jump
 
           Greetings, my Pagan friends; may your Gods be well disposed
      to you; may the bugs flee your patch as from a crow; may the
      gentle rain fall softly on your flower beds; and may your lovers
      be all you wish them to be.  Now at the season of long lovely
      days and short passionate nights, when our Mother the fair Earth
      is at her richest and most bountiful, it is hardly the season for
      deep thinking.
 
           When nature is at its very best and the season most
      enjoyable are we not all of us tempted to shut off the mental
      processes and enjoy life in a purely sensual mammalian way?  Of
      course we are, to do less would be an insult to creation.
 
           At this glad time, here comes that old pest, the heretic,
      like the ghost at Ceasar's feast.  Consider, dear friends, even
      as the screech owl is put into this world to scare goose bumps on
      our backs, the here-tic is put into the world to ask hard
      questions and discomboomerate the quiet mind.  The only place on
      this sweet earth where we can look for a quiet unchanging stay is
      a graveyard.  It is so with me, even as with you.
 
           The other day when I was minding my own business [a most ha-
      zardous occupation], a stranger came to me with a request.  He
      wanted me to magically restore to him a lost love.  It seems that
      he had, by his own actions, turned his lady's love if not to
      hate, at least to an active dislike.  He was sorry.  He knew it
      was all his own fault.  He agreed that she was justified in
      leaving him.  He beat his chest and cried `mea culpa', but he
      wanted her back, and he wanted me or someone to, as he put it,
      "push the right button", and change the situation.  Before he
      came to me he had been to a friend of mine.  The friend is a
      scholar and practical magician who is rather more daring than
      most- he had by magic means caused the lady to recall the best of
      the past.  With that, the lady consented to talk with her ex-
      inamorata, and dis-cuss, in a civilized fashion, her decision to
      be done with him.  At that, the magician bowed out.  He pointed
      out to the petitioner that from there on, it was up to him.  My
      friend the magician can be, when he has to be, a most impressive
      man, and I gather he dismissed the `lorn lover' with a definite
      dismissal.
 
           Then he came to me.  I pointed out that there ain't no free
      lunch in the universe and I had no intention of taking on a
      karmic debt of considerable proportion for his possible benefit.
      I told him that it is easier to move a mountain than to move a
      human mind if it will not be moved.  I told him that he was
      trying to find someone to do for him what could only be properly
      done by himself.  I pointed out to him that his situation was an
      effect of a cause, a cause that he was responsible for.  I told
      him that magic is fine as a last resort, but hardly to be
      considered as first aid.  I told him ......  I wasted my breath.
      Such a one hears only what he wants to hear.
 
 
                                                                              905
 
           The petitioner only said, "I just need someone to push the
      right button - she used to love me.  I am not asking much, I just
      want things to be like they were."
 
           I refrained from pointing out that Hitler could have said
      the same thing in the bunker.  Then he said, "I am willing to pay
      you.  Just tell me how much it's going to cost." Some things are
      an insult from a knowledgeable person, and a joke from a fool.  I
      laughed.  He was the sort who would ask "How much?", referring to
      one's head.
 
           Now I am, I think, a reasonable sort, patient, and in my own
      way polite, but enough is enough, and this chap was rapidly
      becoming too much.  I told him flatly, that I was not about to do
      any button pushing.  I gave him what I felt was good advice.
      That is, I told him that if he was determined to further his
      amours by magic means to learn to do it himself.  I referred him
      to a most knowledgeable teacher.  I was in that way certain that
      he would either learn what was involved in his request and give
      it up, or more likely abandon the whole thing as too slow and too
      difficult.  (The teacher informs me that he never bothered to
      even go around to see what the teacher had to offer.  A case of
      "Gimme my daily bread, I'm willing to wait with my mouth open".)
 
           Then he countered that if I wouldn't "push the button" could
      I refer him to someone who could, or would.  I inquired around.
      One col-league I know is willing to try just about anything.  He
      once did a weather spell out on the high plains in tornado season
      and another time worked a charm to rid a field of grasshoppers in
      hail season.  I add, both were successful in a disastrous way.
      When I contacted him with the case, his words were, "I'd like to
      but I'm going on a trip to South America."  Surprised, I asked
      about the trip, adding I hadn't known about it.  He replied, "I
      didn't know about it either, but if that dude shows up here, I'm
      going!"
 
           Failing to find a genuine scholar and practicing magician
      to attempt the matter, I tried a couple of unethical charlatans.
      In view of the fact that the petitioner was a large muscular sort
      who would expect instant results, they regretfully declined.
 
 
           I was beginning to feel like Sinbad the Sailor when he
      carried the old man of the sea piggyback around the island.  At
      wit's end (where I have lived for years), I suggested that he try
      religion.  I offered to introduce him to some nice Pagan folks,
      or even get him in touch with some T.V. type evangelists.  He
      refused on the grounds that they would be too slow and uncertain. 
      He wanted instant gratification.
 
           At last, thanks be to the power that watches over well-
      meaning fools like me, another lady hove into sight, and he took
      off in her direction with deep breath and flashing eyes.  This
      sad fellow is but one of many I've had the misfortune to meet.  I
      am sure most of you could recount similar sad tales.  We'll all
      have to get together and I'll haul out the portable wailing wall,
      and we can share a cup of tea and all sympathize with each other.
 
 
                                                                              906
 
           I wouldn't have bored you with this all too familiar tale
      except I have a question.  How does one deal with such people?
      Is there some way to tell a person with a real problem who can be
      helped from the person who has an endless amount of wants and no
      energy to help himself?  That is, some way, without finding out
      the hard way?  I can handle skeptics (I am one myself), I can
      handle cynics, I can handle atheists and deal with convinced true
      believers of all sorts, but how do I deal with a person who
      believes that I can work miracles?
 
           One question leads to another.  I have a few more on the
      same line.  How comes it that as soon as people, some of them at
      least, find that one is not part of some main line orthodox
      church, they straightway want you to work some magic?  Are Roman
      Catholic and Episcopal priests pestered by miracle seekers?  Are
      T.V.  evangelists?  If not, why not?  They deal in magic as much
      as any Pagan or free thinker.  Is the prevalence of lazy
      freeloaders the reason that Christianity for the last fifteen
      centuries or so has been down playing the magical basis of the
      early Church?  This is a topic worthy of our consideration.
 
           Another question comes to mind at this point.  A question
      about magic in general.  I am sure you know what magic is, just
      is I am sure I know what it is.  The definitions are many and
      varied, but they all basically state in one way or another, that
      magic is the practical side of religion, and the practice of
      magic is the art of causing changes in the tangible by intangible
      means.  Or, to put it another way, magic is a mental way of
      changing the physical by means of the spiritual.  That is what
      magic is, no question there.  The question is what does the
      uninitiated, uninformed layman think magic is?
           If you are going to make a living repairing televisions and
      radios, it is not enough that you know electronics.  You must
      also know what your customers believe about electronics.  The
      degree of success in the TV-Radio repair business is generally in
      direct proportion to the amount of customer knowledge the
      proprietor of the business has.  The rule is, if you deal with
      the run of humanity, you must understand the general run of
      humanity.  You must not know only what you know, but also what
      people ignorantly suppose you know.
 
           I pass this bit of wisdom on to you, for I think it has
      value to any serious student of matters intangible.  An old
      doctor of medicine told me this some forty years ago.  The
      occasion was a patient of his inquiring about an operation for a
      then inoperable condition.  I, only an army medic, was astounded
      at the fellow's ignorance and when the Doc and I were alone, said
      as much.  "Son," the old doctor said, "Here is something to
      remember  Anything that works that you don't understand is magic
       and a magician can do anything.  That's not the truth, but
      ninety per cent of the human race believe it is." That is how
      people who have never studied the arts of magic see it.  To them
      it is a power without cost and without limit.
 
 
 
                               A PLEA FOR INITIATION STANDARDS 
 
           I'm full of radical ideas.  I think the terms  "Priest, Priestess, 
           High Priest and High Priestess" are more than titles.  I think
           being a member of the Priesthood means more than status.  I think
           a coven is more than a study group, or a social gathering.  I think
           being a Witch is more than a protest against the patriarchy.
             
           I think receiving a First Degree should mean you have worked and 
           studied and grown and dedicated yourself to your path and your 
           Gods.  I think an initiation should mean something.
             
           I know of a young man who received a third degree after having 
           proved he could lead a ritual.  That's all he had to do, lead a 
           ritual.
              
           I know of a woman who claims third degrees in both the English and 
           American traditions of a well-known tradition.  She shows 
           absolutely none of the qualities by which one usually recognizes a 
           High Priest or High Priestess.
              
           I know of a woman who refused to accept the standards set by her 
           High Priestess, who threw a fit when she didn't get her First on 
           demand.  She went to another teacher, secretly received her First, 
           and a year later, her Second.  Considering her attitude toward her 
           first teacher, I have absolutely no faith that she did any work to 
           earn her second.  Yet she calls herself a High Priestess.
               
           When two members of Sothistar received their first degrees last 
           year, they had:  studied and worked with the five magical 
           elements, worked at developing personal relationships with the 
           Gods, studied astrology, symbology, qabala, Tarot (both as a 
           divinational and meditational tool), several forms of divination, 
           writing rituals, leading rituals, drawing down the Moon, basic 
           spell-casting and various methods,ethics, the Egyptian deities and 
           mythology, ritual etiquette, the laws of the coven, the use of 
           stones and crystals, meditation, conducting rituals, the meaning 
           and duties of the priesthood, and the use of chants and songs.  
           Both had chosen (or been chosen by) deities to whom they wished to 
           make a special dedication.  Both had proven their loyalty to the 
           coven and the Craft.  Both had served as vessels for both the God 
           and the Goddess, and both had led rituals.  After all of this, 
           they received First Degree.
                
           Am I saying that mine is the only way--that if your coven does not 
           study these subjects your initiations aren't valid?  Certainly 
           not!  I am saying that our tradition has standards for initiation.  
           Many other covens have standards--some more stringent and some 
           less demanding than mine.  What I am saying is that I wish 
           everyone had standards.
               
           Why?  Because when you have standards, the initiations you give 
           mean something.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                             908
           
 
 
           When we took the two mentioned above around to the four quarters and 
           pronounced them Priest/ess, they could not have been prouder of their
           achievement.  Nor could we.  We had no doubt they could serve as 
           competent dedicated Priest and Priestess in a ritual.  In the time 
           since, they've proved it over and over.  When they make Second 
           Degree, and Third, and eventually have a coven of their own, they'll 
           continue to make us proud.  When they represent the coven other 
           places, they do so in a manner that reflects well on the coven.  
           I've met many First Degrees of other covens who did not reflect well 
           on their teachers.  (I've also met many who have.)
             
           You ask again, Why?  I'll give you a personal reason--because it 
           irritates the hell out of me that the people mentioned at the 
           beginning of this article can put their noses in the air and claim 
           a higher status in the Craft than my two dedicated, hard-working, 
           sincere students.
 
           Once upon a time, a high school diploma meant something.  You 
           couldn't get a decent job without one.  These days, it means 
           nothing.  These days, a Bachelor's Degree doesn't mean much.  I 
           don't want that to happen to initiations!
 
           Perhaps I should discuss what I think initiation is.  A true 
           initiation is not a ritual, it is not entrance into a club, 
           it is not just a dedication.  An initiation is a spiritual step to 
           a higher stage in spiritual growth.  There are many such steps.  
           Such "initiations" are not given by High Priest/esses.  They are 
           given by the Gods.  An initiation ritual is an acknowledgment by a 
           coven leader that the Initiate has, in that leader's opinion, 
           reached a certain stage in spiritual growth.  
              
           Coven leaders are not omniscient.  Although I'm sure such leaders 
           strive to serve as worth representatives of the God and Goddess, 
           they (the coven leaders) are not the God and Goddess.  All of them 
           must find their own ways of determining whether their students 
           have achieved this growth.  They must also give what guidance they 
           can to those attempting to achieve it.  Our study program includes 
           many things not mentioned above, exercises and spiritual work 
           that, we hope will help our students reach that goal.  If our 
           students apply themselves to all they are given to do, it is 
           possible for them to reach that stage.  When we give a first 
           degree initiation, we are saying that the Initiate is *already* a 
           Priest/ess of the Goddess.
             
           I do not ask that all covens adopt our particular standards.  I do 
           plead with you to *have* standards beyond simple attendance at 
           ritual for a year and a day.  Insist that they work hard, that 
           they learn and grow, that they struggle, that they strive, that 
           they become, in your opinion, worthy servants of the Gods.
 
           Some months ago, I mentioned this to two leaders of a newly-formed 
           group north of here.  Their eyes lit up and they said "You can 
           help us.  We were just talking about setting standards!"  No true 
           standards had been set for their initiations, and they felt the 
           lack.  Oh, they had third degrees from their teacher, but they 
           wanted more meaning for those they gave than was given to their 
           own.  Bravo!  There's hope for the Craft yet!
                                                             Ellen Cannon Reed
             
 
                                             909
 


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