“Haeresis est maxima, opera maleficarum non credere” ~Malleus Maleficarum
(The greatest of all heresies is the disbelief in witchcraft)
“My goal is to always come from a place of love, but sometimes I just have to break it down for a motherfucker.” ~RuPaul
“Character contributes to beauty. It fortifies a woman as her youth fades. A mode of conduct, a standard of courage, discipline, fortitude, and integrity can do a great deal to make a woman beautiful.” ~Jacqueline Bisset
…(although with all due respect to the ever wonderful Ms. Bisset, I’d say the same holds true for men as well ~ Geoffrey)
“Keep pure your highest ideal; strive ever towards it;
let nothing stop you or turn you aside.”
~From The Charge of the Goddess by Doreen Valliente
“The emotional health of a village depended upon having a man whom everyone loved to hate, and Heaven had blessed us with two of them.”
— Barry Hughart (Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was)
“Science is a method of talking about the Universe in terms that bind it to a common reality. Magick is a way of speaking to the Universe in words that it cannot ignore.” –Neil Gaiman
“I’m selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best.” — Marilyn Monroe
“Don’t be pushed by your problems…be lead by your dreams” ~ Unknown
“In the Midst of Winter, I finally learned there was in me an invincible Summer.” ~ Albert Camus
“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.” ~ Thomas Jefferson
(NOTE: There is, at best, dark irony embodied in this quote given it’s source was a slave-holder. The sentiment remains true however. It is only by confronting the complexity and truths and folly’s and tragic failings of the past that we are able to learn from it move forward from it and appropriately engage with it and with our Ancestors and their legacies.)
“Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.” ~ Alfred Adler
“There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.” ~ Goethe
“Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.”
-William Ellery Channing
“It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows great enthusiasms, great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
– Theodore Roosevelt
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else, is the greatest accomplishment.” – Emerson
Chrysalis 
Takes all kinds to make a world, doesn’t it?
I take it the stuff over at The Wild Hunt has really gotten to you, then?
Well,
That was a piece of it, but the 31st and the 1st were just my days to run into a lot of Negative Christian bashing stuff.
Peace,
Pax
Ah, you have my sympathies, then. I’ve been there before, myself. While I can occasionally be critical of fundamentalist Christianity, I also take great pride in several friendships I have with numerous Christians and have come to their defense on multiple occasions. It can be tiresome after a while.
Didn’t you mention that you’re dating a Christian? I’d imagine that could make the bashing all the more tiresome at times.
Dating?! I am partnered/engaged to The Big Guy!! We’ve been together for four years now and I would marry him tomorrow if I were legally able to do so!
It was actually some comments he heard at a Pagan event a few years ago that have him unwilling to participate in Pagan related social events for fear of hearing bigoted b.s.
I wrote a little bit about it for a Witchvox article…
http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usfl&c=words&id=11813
… hrm… some ideas percolating now…
Thanks Jarred!
Sorry, I didn’t catch how serious the relationship was. My congratulations though. We should all be so lucky someday.
I’ll definitely check out the Witchvox article.
Heck,
No worries Jarred… if you are anything like me… you spend a goodly chunk of your internet time chatting with far-flung friends, e-mail, reading a few dozen blogs, occasionally shouting and shaking your fist at the computer (followed, often, by frenetic and impassioned bouts of typing….)
So, no worries! 🙂
Peace,
Pax
Geoffrey, if that was OUR UU group that said all those nasty things at the Beltane rite, allow me to offer apologies. Joe and I are members of a UU pagan group here in Orlando, and I’m not sure if it was our Beltane rite you came to (over on Hampton and Robinson, near downtown) or a different UU group.
Joe used to be the VP of the group. I was the event coordinator.
I do know that there used to be a woman who hung out there who was very ugly about Christianity. But she is not there any more.
I really hope I didn’t inadvertently say something offensive!
GOSH NO!!! … I mean Gosh no Tracie, it wasn’t the Orlando Group, it wasn’t anyone there, and it most definitely was not you!
The quotes in the Witchvox article were examples and a juxtaposition of comments about Christianity with other hate speech… I had never meant to suggest that those were the comments The Big Guy heard.
He actually has never shared them with me…
Anyhow, I took care of the situation by e-mailing several of the Anchorage Area Pagan community lists (first having sent a warning e-mail to my friend who had coordinated the event for the budding CUUPs chapter in the Anchorage fellowship).
The e-mail and post was entitled “Dear Bigot,” and laid out in no uncertain terms that their words had hurt someone to the point where they were afraid of the hatefulness Pagans exhibit towards Christians… They had hurt someone I love and I did my best to vent my spleen upon them in the fiercely polite language that truly cuts to the core.
Anyhow, I hope that’s settled.
Peace,
Pax
OK, yeah, it’s always good to make sure we’re on the same page. 😀
Hmm, yes, why does everyone assume that all Christians are like the fundagelicals?
There are lots of different types of Christianity, and there are different types of Paganism too.
http://stroppyrabbit.blogspot.com/2008/12/theoretical-models-of-paganism.html