(no subject)
Brace yourselves, this is going to be longwinded.
As I said previously, last weekend I went to my cousin's wedding. The wedding itself was very nice. It was a casual, secular affair on a clifftop overlooking the ocean. The groom was wearing board shorts and a white shirt and looked as nice as I've ever seen him. His bride was wearing a very pretty white dress. The whole thing was short, sharp, romantic, and pretty. They hadn't hired a photographer at all, and they were lucky I turned up with an SLR and a tripod. With help from my gorgeous photoshopmagician, we put together a decent set of photos for them.
Outside the wedding however, it was a circus. The entire extended family (i.e. three generations worth) of family stayed in the one large house and spent the weekend drinking heavily and fighting and arguing. To me it's such a strange thing as I'm not much of a fighter. I like a good discussion or debate, but pointless and vicious arguing just doesn't turn me on.
This weekend we went to a friend's wedding. Although she's a close friend, she's from Bathurst and so I didn't know anyone at the wedding apart from her immediate family, who obviously were mostly fairly busy with organising... Unlike my cousin's wedding, this one was a very religious and very formal affair. It was essentially a 'traditional' wedding. Something new for me! To my way of thinking though, the wedding was less a wedding and more an opportunity for all concerned to obsess over the notion that Jesus died for our sins. All the music was about this notion. It was also referred to as often as possible by both ministers who were present, the bride, the groom, the best man, the maid of honour, etc. The only people who didn't constantly return to this theme were the bride's parents. The wedding went for at least an hour and a half. We didn't sing the songs/hymns since as non-christians it was a bit disingenuous singing praise for an interpretation of the divine that we diverge from. I got at least one dirty look for the fact that I wasn't singing. But I have no idea who she was so it hardly matters.
I should stress here that I'm truly happy for my friend, and seeing her happy and joyful in her wedding made me feel fantastic, and made me feel that it was worth making the flying trip over to see the wedding! She looked absolutely fantastic in her dress and veil, which suited her perfectly. Her boy was quite dashing as well...he and the groomsmen had slightly military-styled jackets with big gold buttons every 4cm or so down the front, and vests underneath to match. They looked very tough.
The reception continued the Jesus bandwagon. We heard the story of how my friend had converted to christianity. It went something along the lines of her having a rough time during a particular period and the maid of honour befriended her and invited her to the church. Greeted with that enthusiasm that seems reserved for evangelical christians, she quickly joined up. I'm not much of a fan of this kind of 'preying on the down' but at the same time I appreciate that my friend is happier than I've ever known her. I completely reject her and her friends' efforts to proselytise in Thailand. I think the Thais are happy enough being buddhist or whichever religion the individual Thai happens to be. I could so much more about the differences I have with my friend on religion, but I'll leave it for now and just say that I'm happy that she's happy.
One positive spin on the enthusiasm the entire lot of them were showing for their faith was that both Jess and I are a lot more inspired to bring our own religious beliefs much more into our daily lives. We've been attending the full moon rituals on and off, though we haven't been for a while due to them always clashing with other things. But I'd like to incorporate a much stronger sense of ritual into our lives.
I used to be fairly anti-ritual, most likely in reaction to Catholicism. I couldn't see the point of it. I went to a Lutheran service and was attracted to the fact that it was more focused on what was being said than on the carrying out of the service. The sermon appeared to be the most important part of the service, as opposed to the Catholic Mass where the preparation and receiving of the Eucharist seems to be the most important part. I also stalled reading Cunningham's book Cunningham's book once it went beyond the philosophy and started dealing with ritual. Yet attending the Greek Orthodox church service has changed my mind. The orthodox service is to Catholicism what Catholicism is to Protestantism in terms of ritualism. The service is conducted in ancient greek (I'm not sure what timeperiod, but probably Koine). During the entire service a group of old men are singing/chanting, also in ancient greek. Apart from the sermon which is repeated in both modern greek and english, the entire service is meaningless on an immediate level. Yet the singing/chanting resonates at a deeper level within you, bringing you up into a higher level of vibration within yourself. While you don't understand the words, the music speaks to you in a language beyond language. Similarly the rituals are something akin to magic, expressing in themselves a desire for the continuity of Greekness, as though the life of that race is inextricably linked into its rituals and stories.
So I plan to revisit Cunningham and learn a little of how he has developed his own Book of Shadows (his personal description of the rituals he has developed for himself) and begin to develop our own with Jess... Rituals not dictated by a heirarchy who insists that worship must be conducted in a specific way (as with Catholicism) or handed down unquestioningly from ancient time (as with Orthodoxy). Just a little piece of magic each day that reflects something held dear at a level deeper than words. Whether a one minute session of thankfulness to Lugh for the gift of music, or an invocation to Apollo to chase away the interminable Sydney rain, the idea is to connect to and be thankful for those things we hold dearest. And also an effort to reconnect with the stories of our own races, the celts and the hellenes. Because to paraphrase Nullah, the young boy in the movie Australia, if you don't have a story, you don't know who you are.
I think to a certain extent the reason why the whole Judaeo-Christian shebang doesn't appeal to me is that it's not my story. It's not a bad story but it doesn't resonate with me the way celtic and english/germanic stories resonate with me because it's not a story of my ancestors. It doesn't tell me anything about where I'm from and gives a very narrow view of where I'm going. I think the West has let stories become something that is just about entertainment, about selling things, or even about just about passing the time. But they go a lot deeper than that.
I was going to write a bit of a review about Australia... But I'll get round to that. This post is long enough.
As I said previously, last weekend I went to my cousin's wedding. The wedding itself was very nice. It was a casual, secular affair on a clifftop overlooking the ocean. The groom was wearing board shorts and a white shirt and looked as nice as I've ever seen him. His bride was wearing a very pretty white dress. The whole thing was short, sharp, romantic, and pretty. They hadn't hired a photographer at all, and they were lucky I turned up with an SLR and a tripod. With help from my gorgeous photoshopmagician, we put together a decent set of photos for them.
Outside the wedding however, it was a circus. The entire extended family (i.e. three generations worth) of family stayed in the one large house and spent the weekend drinking heavily and fighting and arguing. To me it's such a strange thing as I'm not much of a fighter. I like a good discussion or debate, but pointless and vicious arguing just doesn't turn me on.
This weekend we went to a friend's wedding. Although she's a close friend, she's from Bathurst and so I didn't know anyone at the wedding apart from her immediate family, who obviously were mostly fairly busy with organising... Unlike my cousin's wedding, this one was a very religious and very formal affair. It was essentially a 'traditional' wedding. Something new for me! To my way of thinking though, the wedding was less a wedding and more an opportunity for all concerned to obsess over the notion that Jesus died for our sins. All the music was about this notion. It was also referred to as often as possible by both ministers who were present, the bride, the groom, the best man, the maid of honour, etc. The only people who didn't constantly return to this theme were the bride's parents. The wedding went for at least an hour and a half. We didn't sing the songs/hymns since as non-christians it was a bit disingenuous singing praise for an interpretation of the divine that we diverge from. I got at least one dirty look for the fact that I wasn't singing. But I have no idea who she was so it hardly matters.
I should stress here that I'm truly happy for my friend, and seeing her happy and joyful in her wedding made me feel fantastic, and made me feel that it was worth making the flying trip over to see the wedding! She looked absolutely fantastic in her dress and veil, which suited her perfectly. Her boy was quite dashing as well...he and the groomsmen had slightly military-styled jackets with big gold buttons every 4cm or so down the front, and vests underneath to match. They looked very tough.
The reception continued the Jesus bandwagon. We heard the story of how my friend had converted to christianity. It went something along the lines of her having a rough time during a particular period and the maid of honour befriended her and invited her to the church. Greeted with that enthusiasm that seems reserved for evangelical christians, she quickly joined up. I'm not much of a fan of this kind of 'preying on the down' but at the same time I appreciate that my friend is happier than I've ever known her. I completely reject her and her friends' efforts to proselytise in Thailand. I think the Thais are happy enough being buddhist or whichever religion the individual Thai happens to be. I could so much more about the differences I have with my friend on religion, but I'll leave it for now and just say that I'm happy that she's happy.
One positive spin on the enthusiasm the entire lot of them were showing for their faith was that both Jess and I are a lot more inspired to bring our own religious beliefs much more into our daily lives. We've been attending the full moon rituals on and off, though we haven't been for a while due to them always clashing with other things. But I'd like to incorporate a much stronger sense of ritual into our lives.
I used to be fairly anti-ritual, most likely in reaction to Catholicism. I couldn't see the point of it. I went to a Lutheran service and was attracted to the fact that it was more focused on what was being said than on the carrying out of the service. The sermon appeared to be the most important part of the service, as opposed to the Catholic Mass where the preparation and receiving of the Eucharist seems to be the most important part. I also stalled reading Cunningham's book Cunningham's book once it went beyond the philosophy and started dealing with ritual. Yet attending the Greek Orthodox church service has changed my mind. The orthodox service is to Catholicism what Catholicism is to Protestantism in terms of ritualism. The service is conducted in ancient greek (I'm not sure what timeperiod, but probably Koine). During the entire service a group of old men are singing/chanting, also in ancient greek. Apart from the sermon which is repeated in both modern greek and english, the entire service is meaningless on an immediate level. Yet the singing/chanting resonates at a deeper level within you, bringing you up into a higher level of vibration within yourself. While you don't understand the words, the music speaks to you in a language beyond language. Similarly the rituals are something akin to magic, expressing in themselves a desire for the continuity of Greekness, as though the life of that race is inextricably linked into its rituals and stories.
So I plan to revisit Cunningham and learn a little of how he has developed his own Book of Shadows (his personal description of the rituals he has developed for himself) and begin to develop our own with Jess... Rituals not dictated by a heirarchy who insists that worship must be conducted in a specific way (as with Catholicism) or handed down unquestioningly from ancient time (as with Orthodoxy). Just a little piece of magic each day that reflects something held dear at a level deeper than words. Whether a one minute session of thankfulness to Lugh for the gift of music, or an invocation to Apollo to chase away the interminable Sydney rain, the idea is to connect to and be thankful for those things we hold dearest. And also an effort to reconnect with the stories of our own races, the celts and the hellenes. Because to paraphrase Nullah, the young boy in the movie Australia, if you don't have a story, you don't know who you are.
I think to a certain extent the reason why the whole Judaeo-Christian shebang doesn't appeal to me is that it's not my story. It's not a bad story but it doesn't resonate with me the way celtic and english/germanic stories resonate with me because it's not a story of my ancestors. It doesn't tell me anything about where I'm from and gives a very narrow view of where I'm going. I think the West has let stories become something that is just about entertainment, about selling things, or even about just about passing the time. But they go a lot deeper than that.
I was going to write a bit of a review about Australia... But I'll get round to that. This post is long enough.