Yoga Wicca Buddha

Exploring a personal, eclectic path by looking at the intersection of three great traditions.

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Archer

Archer

 
Archer has been trying to make sense of religion since her parents first abandoned her at Sunday School in the 60s. She’s a mom, yoga teacher and repository of useless bits of information on ancient religion, spiritual practices and English grammar. Check out her column “Connections” in Witches and Pagans.
 

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Knock on Wood

I knock on wood from habit and superstition. But lately the act has taken on both a Pagan and a Buddhist resonance for me.

 

Trees stand up like us but are taller and more grounded. Even so we are intimately linked: trees breathe out what we need to breathe in, and we return the favour. Trees are witness to our short lives and beacons directing our attention both above and below.

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Suspension of Belief

I was swept away by the healing ritual, chanting with a hundred others as we worked with the energy of Isis. My friend from the other side of Paganism, however, was aghast. 

 

“You invoke the gods and then do nothing for them. You’re not even properly grateful.” For her the gods existed externally and needed to be honoured and thanked, not used as props in a psychodrama. I just knew that the ritual had worked. I felt alive and uplifted.

 

As I fumbled to explain, she asked in exasperation, “I mean, what exactly do you believe?”

 

Well, I don’t. Believe that is. 

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The Tragedy of Growing Up

“I don’t know what to do. They wonder why I don’t visit but when I do it’s so painful.” My friend, just cresting her forties, was dealing with a difficult relationship with her parents. They refused to accept any responsibility for—or attempt to change—the behaviours that she’d found hurtful since childhood. She was struggling to find forgiveness, to be able to maintain some connection with them, but every interaction reopened old wounds.

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The Tin Cup

 

Krishna Das tells the story of an important teaching he received from a fellow disciple of his guru, Maharaji: The disciple showed him with great ceremony an object hidden deep in a cupboard, wrapped in a dirty cloth. It was a small beat-up aluminum pot. The disciple unwrapped it and showed it off reverently. “Do you see?” he said. “You don’t have to shine. You don’t have to shine.” *

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Kaleidoscope of Kraft, Or The Joy of Spiritual Flexibility

I used to joke with friends about what I called my “checkered religious history” — I’ve been a Jehovah’s Witness, an Anglican, a wannabe Catholic, a Pagan, a Yogini and a Buddhist—the last three all at once (and still). I have always felt free to choose and/or drop beliefs without a great deal of angst. This shows either a lightness of spirit…or a lack of seriousness. Perhaps both.

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  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Archer, Thanks for sharing the story of your spiritual evolution. As always, great stuff...like a Thanksgiving Dinner of ideas in

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My Pagan Saints

 

On Hallowe’en I carve a pumpkin and give out candy. That same night, the Pagan feast of Samhain, I honour my ancestors beyond the veil. The next day, All Hallows, I honour my favourite saints. 

 

Saints you ask? Oh yes. You can take the girl out of the church, but you can’t take the church out of the girl. So I have saints too, just Pagan ones.

 

But what is a Pagan saint?

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  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Archer, Great list! I love the quote by Symmachus, and the choices of Feynman and (the admittedly fictional character of) Spock a
  • Archer
    Archer says #
    I'm so excited to learn about Thomas Morton! Thank you as always for your kind words and knowledge-sharing.

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How Deep Should You Dig?

“Now it seemed like everyone suffered from some trauma; they just didn’t know it yet.” (1) 

 

Trauma awareness does indeed seem to be everywhere these days, spurring the use of trigger warnings and encouraging the adoption of various practices, from analysis to hallucinogenic journeys, meant to help uncover and heal it.

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  • Archer
    Archer says #
    Thanks as always Jamie! Very interesting about stoicism and Buddhism and Marcus Aurelius. (You know, whenever I look up Spock's ph
  • Jamie
    Jamie says #
    Archer, Great article as always. Those spiritual exercises sound pretty intense, but I'm glad they helped you. Who among us [adul

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