MidMonth Kegel Blogging

Here's how. Or, you can pee whenever you sneeze. It's your choice.

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Hestia, known to the Romas as Vesta, is the Goddess of the hearth, the home, the well-cooked meal.


"Hestia, in the high dwellings of all, both deathless gods and men who walk on earth, you ahve gained an everlasting abode and highest honour: glorious is your portion and your right. For without you mortals hold no banquet, - where one does not duly pour sweet wine in offering to Hestia both first and last. And you, Argeiphontes [Hermes], son of Zeus and Maia, .. be favourable and help us, you and Hestia, the worshipful and dear. Come and dwell in this glorious house in friendship together; for you two, well knowing the noble actions of men, aid on their wisdom and their strength. Hail, Daughter of Kronos, and you also, Hermes." - Homeric Hymn 24 to Hestia


"Hestia, you who tend the holy house of the lord Apollon, the Far-shooter at goodly Pytho, with soft oil dripping ever from your locks, come now into this house, come, having one mind with Zeus the all-wise - draw near, and withal bestow grace upon my song." - Homeric Hymn XXIV to Hestia


"To Hestia, Fumigation from Aromatics. Daughter of Kronos, venerable dame, who dwellest amidst great fire’s eternal flame; in sacred rites these ministers are thine, mystics much blessed, holy and divine. In thee the Gods have fixed their dwelling place, strong, stable basis of the mortal race. Eternal, much formed, ever florid queen, laughing and blessed, and of lovely mien; accept these rites, accord each just desire, and gentle health and needful good inspire." - Orphic Hymn 84 to Hestia

Art found here, here, and here.

Even A Stopped Clock, Etc.

It's not very often that I agree with Christopher Hitchens on politics, and he'd find my faith as foolish as he finds all others. But his rebuttal in today's WaPo to yesterday's obnoxious opinion piece by Michael Gerson -- who asserted that, without relligion, there is no morality -- is rather good. Hitchens notes that religion certainly has led to some seriously "immoral" behavior:

Those of us who disbelieve in the heavenly dictatorship also reject many of its immoral teachings, which have at different times included the slaughter of other "tribes," the enslavement of the survivors, the mutilation of the genitalia of children, the burning of witches, the condemnation of sexual "deviants" and the eating of certain foods, the opposition to innovations in science and medicine, the mad doctrine of predestination, the deranged accusation against all Jews of the crime of "deicide," the absurdity of "Limbo," the horror of suicide-bombing and jihad, and the ethi=cally dubious notion of vicarious redemption by human sacrifice.

I think his comment about the "ethically dubious notion of vicarious redemption by human sacrifice" refers to the xian notion that they are "saved" from "original sin" because Jesus was crucified "for them." But, of course, ancient Pagans did, from time to time and in some places, practice human sacrifice. (Yeah, I know that there's an argument that some of those sacrificed volunteered for the job. We just have no way to know that as of now.) Some Pagans also kept slaves, although there's certainly little indication that it was "approved" by their Goddesses and Gods, the way that the Old Testament indicates that Yahweh "commanded" the Israelites to enslave others or "allowed" the Babylonians and Egyptians to enslave the Hebrews. So while I like to think that today's Pagans aren't as likely to commit outrage as are members of, for example, the three Abrahamist cults, we do have a history of doing some shitty stuff. (And, then, there's the way most of us dress and all that crap jewelry. Those are serious outrages, right there, and they're getting worse, not better. I am just saying.)

I do think that Hitchens misses the motive behind Gerson's screed. Gerson and other xianitst are determined to make it impossible for anyone other than fellow Abrahamists to hold public office in America, indeed, even to participate in American political life. (See, e.g., xianists this week making it almost impossible for a Hindu chaplin to offer a bland and nondenominational prayer to open the U.S. Senate. They argue -- seriously -- that only monotheists (and we all know they aren't talking about someone who believes that Loki is the one, true god) should be allowed that privilege.)) Digby makes a very similar point in an excellent essay concerning how the press lies about Democrats' religious affiliations. She says:

Since it doesn't seem to make any difference how much they talk about their religion or spend time in church or anything else, what could they possibly do to prove that they are really, truly, god-fearing religious people? Why, they could adopt socially conservative policies!

That's the real agenda. These people are not as concerned about Democrats winning, despite all the concern troll advice for the last decade or so, as much as they care about making the Democrats more socially conservative. Amy Sullivan just proved it again by writing a misleading article that assumes Democrats are going to lose because they aren't religious enough --- at a time when the country is sick and tired of their leaders' using their religious views to justify policies that the majority don't want enacted. And let's just say that all this religion talk in politics doesn't exactly have the same punch now that so many of the allegedly pious, evangelical Republicans have shown themselves to be lying perverts.

Again, I have no problem with Democrats talking about their religious views. But it will not buy them one Republican vote. The religious folk who vote GOP on the basis of religion are never going to vote for Democrats unless they become social conservatives. That's the formula and that's what the liberal religious lobby is really pushing. I just wish they'd be honest about it.

Only "religious" people have morals. And, in fact, only monotheists are allowed to participate in politics. To show that they are "religious" and "have morals" even monotheists (and, let's face it, there isn't a Democrat running for president who isn't a xian) have to adopt conservative social policies (which I wish Digby would go ahead and call anti-woman, anti-gay, patriarchial policies, since interfering in other people's private lives is emphatically not classical conservatism). Voila! Theocracy!

Tell Me What A Chickenhawk Looks Like

This is what a chickenhawk looks like

Hospitality

The power of really good wine. Or maybe she's read Les Miserables.

Oh Day Of Fire And Sun

Oh day of fire and sun,
Pure as a naked flame,
Blue sea, blue sky and dun
Sands where he spoke my name;

Laughter and hearts so high
That the spirit flew off free,
Lifting into the sky
Diving into the sea;

Oh day of fire and sun
Like a crystal burning,
Slow days go one by one,
But you have no returning.

Sarah Teasdale

Abrahamists Still Mad At Pagans Praying To Trees

While the government, the xians, the Moslems, and even some Pagans fuss and complain that everyone isn't doing it THEIR way, the people seem to have figured out how to have a lovely summer ritual.

Power to the people!!

My New Name For A Blog

What Pagan Godspell Said:

As I understand it - you have to dive really really deep to even begin to rise above. You have to go the Underworld first. You have to get down with your bad self. You have to begin to love the shit before you love the gloss. You have to die before you die. Deep in the heart of the heart of hearts - the infinite point, the smallest world where the further in you go the bigger it gets, the horizon star, the densest, heaviest point of infinite expansion, the darkest place under the darkest place where there is a sudden blossoming of light, a seed and a sky at the same time - illumination and awareness roil around in timeless, sexy, shattering adoration, yes….yes….the stars beneath the earth….

You owe it to yourself to go read the whole thing.

Bush Unchained

This Is Why We're Supposed To Have Separation Of Church And State

Disruption Of Hindu Chaplain's Senate Prayer Shows Religious Right's Intolerance, Says Americans United
Thursday, July 12, 2007

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today deplored the disruption by Religious Right activists of a Hindu chaplain’s prayer to open the U.S. Senate.

“This shows the intolerance of many Religious Right activists,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “They say they want more religion in the public square, but it’s clear they mean only their religion.

“America is a land of extraordinary religious diversity, and the Religious Right just can’t seem to accept that fact,” Lynn continued. “I don’t think the Senate should open with prayers, but if it’s going to happen, the invocations ought to reflect the diversity of the American people.”

Hindu Chaplain Rajan Zed, a Nevada resident, gave the opening prayer in the Senate at the invitation of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). As he began his remarks, two protestors interrupted the proceedings, asking for forgiveness from Jesus Christ for the “abomination” of failing to pray to the “one true God.” (The sergeant-at-arms had to restore order.)

Religious Right groups have been agitating against the Hindu leader’s prayer since it was announced. The Rev. Donald Wildmon’s American Family Association has asked his members to complain to their senators about the invitation. The group’s news service reported that “Christian nation” activist David Barton said that Hinduism has few followers in the United States and that prayer to a “non-monotheistic god” is “outside the American paradigm.”

Said AU’s Lynn, “The Religious Right promotes a deeply skewed version of American history. Our founders wanted separation of church and state and full religious liberty for all faith traditions. The episode today shows we still have a ways to go to achieve that goal.”


/hat tip to wtfwjd? at Eschaton

This is fun, in the same way that using the Fourth Circuit's ruling to get Yule and Atheiset Summer Camp flyers handed out at schools was fun. One imagines that even some of the the more crazed xianits might begin to understand how the rest of us feel having their religion shoved down our throats and why it might be better if we actually had a wall between church and government. But, really, their cognitive disonance is far too well entrenched and they are far too irony-impaired.

Update: Josh Marshall has video, as well as the press release from the fundies:

Theology Moved to the Senate and was Arrested

Theology has moved from the church house onto the floor of the United States Senate, and has been arrested.

Ante Pavkovic, Kathy Pavkovic, and Kristen Sugar were all arrested in the chambers of the United States Senate as that chamber was violated by a false Hindu god. The Senate was opened with a Hindu prayer placing the false god of Hinduism on a level playing field with the One True God, Jesus Christ. This would never have been allowed by our Founding Fathers.

"Not one Senator had the backbone to stand as our Founding Fathers stood. They stood on the Gospel of Jesus Christ! There were three in the audience with the courage to stand and proclaim, 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me.' They were immediately removed from the chambers, arrested, and are in jail now. God bless those who stand for Jesus as we know that He stands for them." Rev. Flip Benham, Director, Operation Save America/Operation Rescue

It's As If She'd Never Heard The Old Saying That You Put Your Hand On The Bible And Swore To Defend The Constitution; Not The Other Way Around

First Principles

1. Everything is connected. Literally. What happens to you affects me. What happens to me affects the trees. What happens to the trees affects you. What happens between the worlds affects them all. This is the animating principal behind all magic.

2. Divinity is immanent, embodied within the world, contained within you, larger than you can ever be.

3. The Earth is our Mother.

4. There is no duality. There is no light over dark, or life over death, or man over woman.

5. All acts of love and pleasure are rituals of the Goddess.

6. It's all real. It's all metaphor. There's always more.

7. The noosphere exists and grows daily.

Seriously, This Should Lead To Impeachment

Sweet Kali on a croissant, yesterday's testimony from former Surgeon General Carmona would, in a rational universe, be enough, all by itself, to impeach George W. Bush. Carmona, Surgeon General during Bush's first term, testified that:

* He was ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches. You know, this is the kind of megalomaniacal, stupid-shit, ignorant, petty rule that only the most deranged of emperors puts in place. Carmona needs to be forced to say who ordered him to do that.

* He was asked to make speeches to support Republican political candidates. Shades of Lurita Doan, Bush's head of the GSA, who asked her employees "How can we support our candidates in the next election?"

* Bush administration officials discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics because, he said, of that charitable organization’s longtime ties to a “prominent family” that he refused to name. I don't know why he's playing so coy; everyone knows that the family is the Kennedys. I want this incident thrown in the face of all the David Broders of the world who whine about how Democrats need to be "more bipartisan." The Bush administration won't even turn off its relentless politicization of everything to help out retarded kids who want to play softball or run races. I want this incident thrown in the face of every talking head on tv who moans about liberals with their "irrational hatred of Bush."

* He attended a meeting of top officials in which the subject of global warming was discussed. The officials concluded that global warming was a liberal cause and dismissed it, he said. He tried to explain the science to them; he was never invited back. Again, I don't ever want to hear again about "reaching across the aisle" on issues of "common concern." The Republicans' only concern was whether an issue was "liberal" or "conservative" -- the fact that the entire Earth might be at risk was irrelevant. You've really got to stop for a minute and let that sink in.

* When stem cells became a focus of debate, Dr. Carmona said he proposed that his office offer guidance “so that we can have, if you will, informed consent.” “I was told to stand down and not speak about it,” he said. “It was removed from my speeches.” Informed decision making? This junta don't' need no informed decision making! Karl Rove decides that a given position will play well with the irrational, batshit insane, fundie base and that's the end of the matter. Meanwhile, American medicine and research lags behind the rest of the world and other countries patent and profit from new medical discoveries. The Republicans don't care. They care about being in power. Period.

* He wanted to address the controversial topic of sexual education. Scientific studies suggest that the most effective approach includes a discussion of contraceptives. “However there was already a policy in place that did not want to hear the science but wanted to preach abstinence only, but I felt that was scientifically incorrect,” he said. See above re: Rove.

* A surgeon general report on global health was never approved because he refused to sprinkle the report with glowing references to the efforts of the Bush administration.

* A surgeon general report concerning health care in prisons has also never been released. “The correctional health care report is pointing out the inadequacies of health care within our correctional health care system,” he said. “It would force the government on a course of action to improve that.” Because the administration does not want to spend more money on prisoners’ health care, the report has been delayed, Dr. Carmona said. “For us, the science was pretty easy,” he said. “These people go back into the community and take diseases with them.” He added, “This is not about the crime. It’s about protecting the public.” Protecting the public is so low on this administration's list of priorities that it's laughable.

Interestingly, Dr. Carmona described himself as politically naive. He's not the only person chosen by this administration who can be described that way. Remember John J. DiIulio Jr., director of the faith-based office, who eventually accused the the Bush White House with being obsessed politics but dismissive of policy, and slammed them as "Mayberry Machiavellis"? David Kuo, who was deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, later charged much the same thing. You get the impression that naivete was what the Bush administration wanted, especially for positions such as Surgeon General. Let's face it, if they were starting from scratch, Republicans would never even have a Surgeon General. Given, however, that they had to fill the position, they filled it with a naive dupe who would follow their instructions to mention the boyking three times on every page and allow them to use him to mislead the American public. Sometimes, even naive dupes insist on trying to do their actual jobs. In that case, they are never invited back to meetings and are let got at the end of the first term. And, here's how the Bush junta thanks them:

Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman, said the surgeon general “is the leading voice for the health of all Americans.” “It’s disappointing to us,” Ms. Lawrimore said, “if he failed to use this position to the fullest extent in advocating for policies he thought were in the best interests of the nation.” That's cute; isn't it? Dr. Carmona failed to advocate for policies that would help Americans. Shame on him. The denial of reality is positively breathtaking. The man just testified under oath that when he tried, for example, to advocate for sex education that included information on contraceptives, "there was already a policy in place that did not want to hear the science but wanted to preach abstinence only." When he wanted to release a report that would have prevented released prisoners from spreading AIDS to the general public, the report wasn't released because that might have impacted Paris Hilton's tax cuts. When he wanted to release a report on global health, it was trashcanned because he hadn't sufficiently larded it with praise for Republicans.

Someone impeach Bush and Cheney and do it fast.

Poly

Greek pagans still trying.

Now Can We Impeach Them?

President Bush's first surgeon general charged today that administration officials prevented him from providing the public with accurate scientific and medical information on such issues as stem cell research and teen pregnancy.

"The reality is that the 'nation's doctor' has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas," Dr. Richard H. Carmona told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried.

"The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds," said Carmona, who served from 2002 to 2006. "The job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation — not the doctor of a political party." . . . Carmona said he was told to "stand down" from playing any educational role because a decision had already been made. He also said administration appointees who reviewed his prepared speech texts deleted from them references to stem cell research.

Likewise, on the issue of preventing teen pregnancy, Carmona said he was not allowed to deviate from the administration's position that abstinence was the best approach.

In fact, he said, he believes a variety of approaches are needed, including contraception for sexually active teens. But the administration "did not want to hear the science," he said, and instead "wanted to preach."

You really need to go read this post.

Maybe the most empowering sentence in the whole post is: I went to priestess my sister’s wedding.

But there are other amazing bits.

I loved New Orleans the first time I laid eyes upon her. It was on that trip that I understood how the elements are embodied in our great cities. The four directions and their elemental correspondences play out in our nation’s landscape and our cities serve as great Guardians of the Directions. New York in the east has the power of intellect, with Air holding reign there. Chicago, that mighty meatpacking city in the north, holds the power of Earth. On the west coast, Water rules the city of dreamers that is San Francisco. And in the south, in New Orleans, sex and death are always dancing a hot tango, paying tribute to Fire’s power.

and


I’m back now in my city of dreams, one that the seismologists predict will see another great quake in the next decades to come. This weekend there were house parties and concerts all over the globe to raise awareness about climate change. I know there will be many more catastrophes and disasters of all types in this lifetime, some I may personally experience, and one I may even die in. There will be unkindness, selfishness, and even cruelty. And yet, there also will be resilience, and people reaching a hand out to help. How can we not marvel on how great cities and regular people come back, again and again and again?

My brilliant friend E. keeps going back to NO and saying what Deborah's girlfriend says: Go.

I'll add, if you go, eat at Bayona's and have afternoon tea at the Ritz.

My New Name For A Blog

What BooMan said.


Americans need to learn: if someone tells you how to act sexually, hide your children and vote for the other party.

Xianists Need To Stop Hurting America

One of the guiding principals of my religion is that all acts of love and pleasure are rituals of the Goddess. And,you know, I can conceive of a society that treated prostitution as a valued career and viewed prostitutes as important caregivers. We don't live in that society. We live in the patriarchy which, by definition, can't allow prostitution to be anything other than what it is: a crass attempt to completely commercialize and colonize women's bodies, to turn women from humans into meat.

So, I've got nothing but contempt for men who hire prostitutes. But that contempt turns into true anger when the man is a xianist, wingnut, hypocrite who wants to impose on the rest of us a set of sexual prohibitions that he can't even live up to himself. The records of the D.C. Madam (who claims that what she ran was an escort service that involved sexual fantasy but no actual sex -- whatever) have been released and, surprise, surprise, look who was using her services:

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) apologized last night after his telephone number appeared in the phone records of the woman dubbed the "D.C. Madam," making him the first member of Congress to become ensnared in the high-profile case.

The statement containing Vitter's apology said his telephone number was included on phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates dating from before he ran for the Senate in 2004. . . . This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter, 46, said in a statement, which his spokesman, Joel DiGrado, confirmed to the Associated Press.

"Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling," Vitter continued. "Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there -- with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way."

Want to know what I love, I love how he can't really discuss this embarrassing incident because, well, somehow it was ok to cheat on his wife with a sex worker, but it would be way out of bounds for him to have to actually, you know, talk about that. For the sake of his family, you understand.

Know what else I love? Paying for sex may or may not be a sin; I guess for xians it is. But it's not "just" a sin. It's also against the law. And asking Jebuz and your wife to forgive you doesn't mean that you didn't break the law.

Here's some of the legislation this creepazoid has sponsored:

* S.RES.132 : A resolution expressing support for prayer at school board meetings.

* S.RES.354 : A resolution honoring the valuable contributions of Catholic schools in the United States.

* S.2206 : A bill to amend title X of the Public Health Service Act to prohibit family planning grants from being awarded to any entity that performs abortions

* S.2786 : A bill to amend title 5, United States Code, to permit access to databases maintained by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for purposes of complying with sex offender registry and notification laws, and for other purposes.

* S.3939 : A bill to require the Food and Drug Administration to establish restrictions regarding the qualifications of physicians to prescribe the abortion drug commonly known as RU-486.

Nuff said.

His webpage says: As a strong believer in the dignity and sanctity of all human life, I stand with many other Louisianans in defense of those who cannot defend themselves. Together, we work daily to turn the tide toward respecting, protecting, and dignifying innocent human life.

To this end, I have supported all pro-life measures before Congress, including:

Supporting an immediate ban on partial birth abortions.

Expanding tax credits and other support for adoption.

Authoring legislation that would absolutely prohibit taxpayer funding to private providers of abortion services.

Supporting a full ban on human cloning.

Authoring legislation to codify safety measures designed to protect the health of women who use RU-486, responding to the misguided and politicized approval of the drug.

Participating in National Adoption Awareness Month.

Supporting legislation requiring that pregnant mothers be provided information on their unborn child's ability to experience pain 20 weeks after fertilization.

Supporting legislation prohibiting the transportation of a minor across state lines for the purpose of obtaining an abortion.

His website also notes that last month he: authored a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee expressing support for reauthorization of the Title V Abstinence Education Program of the Social Security Act. Twelve senators joined Vitter in writing in support of the program. “This a valuable program with proven results, but it is nearing its expiration. We must reauthorize this program so we can continue the incredible strides we have made in teaching teens about both risk avoidance and protecting themselves from potential abuse,” Vitter said.

So while he can't stop running to prostitutes, he's demanding that we spend tax dollars telling teens to just abstain from sex. He didn't even have to abstain; he's got a wife who's already borne four kids for him. He can't even limit himself to just one sex partner and teenagers are supposed to just abstain from sex? WTF?

Xianists are hurting our country. They need to stop.

Update: As always, Greenwald says it better than I.

What Thorn Said

Some days, she's so good that it hurts:

We are only as good as our delusions allow us to be. Sometimes we shine around them, or despite them, or even because of them. Therein lies our work.

Self awareness. Self awareness. Self awareness.

That, and some compassion.

We cannot force the work upon another. We can only make our own attempts.


Not that this is a call to abandon political work; it's not. It's a call to enlightened political work, oxymoron though that may be.

Fuck You, Leslie

Michael Moore rips Leslie W. Blitzer a new asshole. It is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Go watch it if you don't watch anything else, all day.

Note how Blitzer doesn't even try to defend CNN's record on the war.

Duckpit. Come the revolution, Blitzer goes into the duckpit.

Sunny Jobs

From today's EEI newsletter:

Solar Said to Potentially Create 123,000 Texas Jobs by 2020

A white paper by the IC2 Institute of the University of Texas estimated that solar generation could create 123,000 jobs in Texas by 2020, UPI Energy reported. The study advocated incentives for solar development as a way to create as many as 11 times more jobs per MW as coal-based generation. It claimed that solar-related jobs in Texas would include solar farms in West Texas, silicon plants on the Gulf Coast, and manufacturing centers in Central Texas.

Study contributor Joel Serface was quoted as saying: "Worldwide, the cost of converting sunlight to electricity is rapidly decreasing. The right public policies, combined with emerging and increasingly efficient technologies in solar power, would create a solid opportunity for Texas to build an economic engine on this non-polluting resource."
UPI Energy via Earthtimes.org , July 6.

Eleven times more jobs per MW than coal. Even that Texas idiot George W. Bush should be able to do the math.

From today's EEI newsletter:

Sodium-Sulfur Batteries Could Boost Grid Strength by Storing Power

The use of room-size sodium-sulfur batteries is seen as a potential way to improve grid reliability by storing power at night for consumption during daytime peak demand periods, USA Today reported. American Electric Power already has installed a $2.5-million, 1.2-MW battery in West Virginia and plans to install another battery with twice the capacity in 2008.

Ali Nourai, AEP utility manager of distributed energy, said the device has allowed a seven-year postponement in the previously planned $1-million upgrade of a substation. The battery scheduled for installation in 2008 will be used as a backup in case of blackouts. Dan Mears, consultant for Japanese battery manufacturer NGK Insulators, said the batteries use a porcelain-like material for bridging electrodes to create a 15-year battery life. He said dozens of utilities may install the batteries.

The batteries also are seen as a way to store wind generation from strong nighttime winds for use during summer demand peaks, when the air is often stagnant. Stow Walker of Cambridge Energy Research Associates was quoted as saying: "If you've got these batteries distributed in the neighborhood, you have, in a sense, lots of little power plants. The difference between these and diesel generators is these batteries don't need fuel."
USA Today , July 5.


Sounds like a great way to deal with the variable nature of wind and solar power. Informative video here.

Air

Mercury finally goes direct. Enjoy better communication, clearer thinking, easier travel.

He Has A Point, You Know

Love's Philosophy
by: Percy Bysshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In another's being mingle--
Why not I with thine?

See, the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower could be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;--
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

~Shelley

Sunday Akhmatova Blogging

I have learned how faces fall to bone,
how under the eyelids terror lurks,
how suffering inscribes on cheeks
the hard lines of its cuneiform texts,
how glossy black or ash-fair locks
turn overnight to tarnished silver,
how smiles fade on submissive lips,
and fear quavers in a dry titter.
And I pray not for myself alone . . .
for all who stood outside the jail,
in bitter cold or summer's blaze,
with me under that blind red wall.

*****

President Bush has declared that he has a heretofore unrecognized inherent power to seize and imprison any American citizen whom he alone determines to be a threat to our nation -- without an arrest warrant, without notifying them of what charges have been filed against them, and without even informing their families that they have been imprisoned. The president claims that he can simply snatch an American citizen off the street and keep him or her locked up indefinitely -- even for the rest of his or her life -- and refuse to allow that citizen the right to make a phone call or talk to a lawyer -- even to argue that the president or his appointees have made a mistake and imprisoned the wrong person. . . .So a constitutional right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness that we used to think of in an old-fashioned way as "inalienable" can now be instantly stripped from any American by the president with no meaningful review by any other branch of government.

~Al Gore in The Assault on Reason

Too Cute By Half

I'm already tired of Cloverfield. Just saying.

Oh, Just Bite Me.

In the twentieth century, Paganism organized into discrete communities of belief and joined the panoply of America’s religious denominations.

Goddess, does this chick have a lot to learn about Pagans. "Organized" -- hah! "Discrete communities of belief" -- hah! The WHOLE POINT of Paganism in the 21st Century is the disorganization and the overlapping communities of belief.

This week the "On Faith" section of the on-line WaPo has been talking about Pagans and, generally, getting it wrong, albeit in a nice, we like you, we really like you, kind of way. Saying that Pagans are sometimes called Wiccans. Bitching that Pagans won't act like a nice, organized denomination of Protestantism, with clear catachesims and structures of authority. Pretending that Pagans are "organized into discrete communities of belief."

I'm glad that there are nice xians who want to reach out to Pagans and who agree that, yes, going out on a limb here, if there are Pagans in the military then they are probably entitled to at least one whole Pagan chaplin. Really, I am. But this week has been, IMHO, a clear demonstration of just how much the xians "don't get" about Paganism.=

I Dream In Female

When women replace the symbol of the Father with that of the Mother, we, too, are committing a political act. The image of the Mother does not lose its old connotations of earth, intuition, nature, the body, the emotions, the unconscious, etc. But it also lays claim to many of the connotations previously attributed to the father symbol: beauth, light, goodness, authority, activity, etc. . . . What is significant here is that the duality, no matter wich opposite is preferred, gives us only two choices. We may choose the reasoning, observing, dominating ego; or we may choose the annihilation of the personality. But if we learn to think beyond the binary, beyond the given choices, we can honor, equally, the conscious and the unconscious mind.

~Barbara Starrett, quoted in Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler

Saturday Goddess Blogging

Wow. It's hot. And dry. Mercury's STILL retrograde and tempers are short, patience all used up. This evil junta has another 500+ days left to screw the world up even worse than it already has (if you can imagine such a thing) and the wingnuts won't go gently into their good night. Meanwhile, the Dems in Congress are keeping their very precious dry powder very nice and very dry, my Precious.

I think we could all use a good laugh. The kind of laugh that releases endorphins, relaxes all your muscles, floods your immune system with antibodies. The kind of laugh that makes you feel comradly and warm towards everyone laughing along with you. Sacred laughter. Healing laughter. A good long belly laugh.

We could invoke Uzume, Goddess of Laughter.

Amy Sophia Marashinsky writes:



Before the Rock Cave of Heaven
where Amaterasu Omi Kami, the Sun Goddess
had hidden her radiant face
where all the assembled Gods and Goddesses had tried
and failed
to lure her out
I stepped up to the Cave
with utmost seriousness
with grave determination
with proper decorum and a lofty mien
and with a bump and a bump and a bump bump bump bump
lifted my kimono and revealed myself in ways
that caused the mouths of the exaulted ones
to water and fall open.
Then I played puppet with my labia
and paid myself a little lip service.
I heaved my breast over one shoulder
then the other over the other
and landed on my ass
with a bump and a bump and a bump bump bump bump
amidst the explosions of laughter and merriment
of the esteemed crowd.
With breasts tied in a knot
my legs spread like a welcome mat
I called in the Spirits
and offered them my body . . .
but they refused to take it.
The crowd howled and laughed as I continued my dance
till Amaterasu Omi Kami couldn't stand it any longer
and rushed out to see what was what.
And thus did laughter
win the Sun Goddess from her dark cave
and bring light and warmth back into the world.

Art found here, here, and here.

This Is Simple And It Will Help

You've probably read about efforts to wean America off of those godawful plastic bags that you get every time that you buy anything from a book, to a loaf of bread, to a bottle of aspirin, to a pair of jeans. Good Magazine reports that:

Each of our featherweight plastic shopping bags carries a hefty cost: Americans use 100 billion plastic bags each year, and toss the majority of them after a quick trip to the store. Since the bags take nearly a millennium to break down in landfills, they'll be haunting the planet long after we tote home the groceries. Today, local governments pay to have wind-blown bags plucked from trees and telephone wires; in San Francisco, cleanup efforts run as high as $8 million a year. Plus, more than a million sea birds and a hundred thousand marine mammals suffocate from plastic litter each year. [Co-founder of California's Green Party, Ross Mirkarimi says,] "Long before I was elected, I've thought the plastic bag was emblematic of what our country and planet have been suffering from." Mirkarimi authored a bill banning the use of plastic bags in San Francisco and estimates that the plastic prohibition will save 450,000 galllson of oil and prevent 1,400 tons of trash from ending up in a landfilll.

Of course, net and cloth bags that you carry with you and re-use over and over are best for the environment. But paper bags, which biodegrade and are easily recyclable, are better than plastic. Many times, you really don't need any bag at all. You can slip the book into your purse or put the bottle of aspirin in your pocket. You can carry the gallon of milk by its handle and put it straight in the fridge when you get home. But if you're buying enough things that you need a bag, you know what to do the next time the clerk asks: "Paper or plastic?"

Fire

Earth

Or, The Vatican Could Bite Me

Vatican finds Seven Wonders list biased

VATICAN CITY, July 6 (UPI) -- The Vatican suggested an anti-Christian bias in the short list of candidates for the new Seven Wonders of the World.

Only three Christian sites made the list of 21 -- the Christ the Redeemer Statue in Rio de Janeiro, and two Moscow cathedrals, St. Basil's and the Kremlin.

Bernard Weber, a Swiss photographer, began working to create a new Seven Wonders list after the Taliban destroyed giant statues of the Buddha in Afghanistan. The short list was drawn up by a panel of architects.

Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, head of the pontifical commission for culture and archeology, found the omission of the Sistine Chapel, with its frescoes by Michelangelo, "surprising, inexplicable, even suspicious," The Times of London reported.

He pointed to other world-famous Christian sites, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and the Sagrada Familia Church designed by Antonio Gaudi in Barcelona.

The short list included such acknowledged marvels as the ancient Cambodian temples at Angkor Wat, the city of Petra in Jordan and Stonehenge, a pagan religious monument in England, The Times said.

Rosemary, That's For Rememberance

Go listen to the Furious Spinner talk about harvesting lavender and rosemary. My v. creative friend K. is working on a Summer Solstice ritual that involves harvesting rosemary. I love that it's a friendship plant.

Last weekend, in the hot, bright sun of 3:00 pm mid-day, I went out and transplanted Datura from my back deck to the sunny west of my yard, near the planters, out where the sun shines so bright that it gives you a furious, viscious headache. And every day since then, I've been taking the water from the sump pumps and pouring it on the Datura seedlings, telling them how much I love them.

It's diffucult for me to grow rosemary because my yard is so shady and I simply can't grow lavender at all in this shade. My brilliant friend E grows rosemary in her backyard which gets lots of good afternoon sun. I hope soon to have raised planters with sandy soil where I can grow rosemary and lavender in my front yard, which actually does get a bit of sun. This is my will. So mote it be.

The Beckoner by Theodora Gos

The Beckoner

She rises at night with her robes all around her,
Rises just like you rise from sleep,
In a fairness of heavy unbound tresses
So rich they could make you weep.

The moon is a pale and a horrified witness,
The cypresses moan as they sway in the dark,
And even the grasses lament in whispers
As she surveys the park.

Then she is away, and soon we will see her
Reaching her hand like an alba rose
To tap, so lightly, upon our window,
Holding an elegant pose.

Beauty is deadly – how well we know it –
Her cheeks have a treacherous living stain,
And we will kiss them, and come to her beckoning,
And never return again.

Necropolis Now

S'easy to see why she's the hot young thing in Pagan Blogistan.

You want to add her to your daily list.

How To Be A Witch

I get this question over and over in e-mail.

If I were brand new to the Craft and wanted to learn about Wicca, I'd start by reading The Spiral Dance by Starhawk. I'd follow that up with the newly-revised edition of Drawing Down the Moon by Margot Adler. After that, I'd check out Twelve Wild Swans by Starhawk and Hillary Valentine to learn basic techniques and Witchvox to find some local public rituals. (If you have time, read Charlene Spretnack, Robin Morgan, Zuzanna Budhapest, and Circle of Three by C. Bird.) You can show up at a public ritual, leave early if it's too weird, stay and participate and then leave, stay, participate, and make local contacts. Many areas have Pagan Nights Out; Witchvox will know. I'd see if there were an Elements of Magic class run by local pagans and if the first one that I attended sqished me out, I'd try another one run by someone else.

After that, I'd go outside under the almost-full moon, and say three times: "I am a witch, I am a witch, I am a witch." Then, I'd start to grow herbs, study Tarot, ground (as per Spiral Dance) and do the Ha Prayer ( as per Evolutionary Witchcraft by T. Thorne Coyle), and start looking for womyn who want to form a circle. Then, I'd sit back and enjoy the show.

Once in a while, I'd look up, realize how blessed I am, and pull my head back into the hood of my magical cape. It's the easiest thing in the world to become a witch. It's the work of an entire lifetime to earn the title: witch.

I Assure You That It Made Sense At The Time

The Chance To Love Everything

So, more than I believe almost anything else, I believe that the entire purpose of being alive -- the entire point to the amazing gift of having been in-car-nated (made into meat) in this charming and mad little node of the space/time continuum -- is to be aware, in every single moment, of the way that Divinity permeates through and shines through and breaks through and illuminates and connects everything.

I think that the real point of being given the gift of existing at this time (still eagles, still oaks, still jack-in-the-pulpit, still wheat, still citrus-and-other-bee-dependent-sex-organs-cum-fruit, still air, still water, still glaciers) on Gaia's surface is to be AWARE every single minute, with every single breathe that you draw, that you live infused with divinity, carried on the pregnant stomach of Mother Earth, interconnected to everything -- everything, everything, everything -- from Coyote Trickser to orchids to viruses to molten lava at the Mother's very core. If you were truly aware, with every breath you take, that this is what you were living, you could never waste what Mary Oliver calls your one wild and precious life. You'd use it for your higher self, for the greater good, for your highest purpose.

And, for some reason, today, of all days, I wake up aware that the fur and claws pawing at me is Goddess, and that the roses and gardenias outside my breakfast porch are Goddess, and that the cold-brewed gift of the first drug of my day -- coffee -- is Goddess, and that the river -- Potomac -- that I drive along on my way to work, all pearly pink and gold, is Goddess, and that the trees and vines and mad green growth on Roosevelt Island are Goddess, and that the music that I hear on the way to work, both Wynton Marsalis on the trupmet and T. Thorn Coyle singing about Seven Evening Stars, is Goddess, and that the chance to explain to young lawyers how to write pleadings is Goddess, and that the chance to read blogs is Goddess, and that my by-now-dear-old-friend Robert, who does my hair, is Goddess, and that Clydes' crabcakes and a martini are Goddess, and the that e-mail from my idiot co-counsel trying to fuck up my petition is Goddess, and that my chance to go back to my office and do what I do best in all the world -- write and edit -- is Goddess, and that my ability to mange everyone's emotions is Goddess, and that getting to read a perfect ritual proposed by my brilliant friend E. for my genius friend B. is Goddess and that a half an hour -- a whole half an hour -- alone in the car with the gorgeous man-Son-Scorpio lawyer that I bore and raised all by myself -- a whole half an hour with Son -- is Goddess, and that his beautiful, kick-ass, wonderful mother of a wife is Goddess, and that, more than anything else that has happened to me all week in a week of living with witches and brilliant litigators and my garden and interesting policy issues and all of my own spiritual issues, more than anything else in the world, getting to hold my Grandson IS Goddess --

well, that is simply an amazing day.

I am more blessed than I deserve to be. I am more blessed than I expected to be. i can work hard night after night at my altar, pursuing a spiritual practice, working hard to become my Better Self. And then, out of nowhere, as pure Grace, comes the realization that, every moment that I am alive is like walking at the edge of the surging surf, feeling my ankles washed and bathed in foamy water, bathed unexpectedly in grace. Grace is a gift. Grace isn't earned, or worked for, or deserved. Grace just happens. Grace is the giant sting ray that doesn't eat Son's finger. Grace is the priestesses who surround you and call you to your Better Self, with gifts of chants about bread and roses, green stones for Lilith, chicken and eggplant, mad Tarot. Grace is the gift that guides a gorgeous, brilliant woman into your family. Grace is a Grandson that you never deserved, all alive, and all Id, and all smooth blushing skin, and all brave-beyond-brave toddling, and all new. Grace is the chance to work at fun and interesting and important work that you know in your core that you can do. Grace is, in Mary Oliver's words, the chance to love everything. Grace is what happens when you are expecting other things.

May it be so for you. May Grace break through the clouds, and ceilings, and hard slate rooves and flood into your lives. May Grace be the crack in everything that is how the light gets in. May Grace show up as unexpectedly in your life as does your Shadow and may Grace fill your every waking and dreaming moment with the realization that it's all real, it's all metaphor, there's always more.

This is my will. So mote it be.

Go Find Three Things That You Can Turn Off, RIGHT NOW

The article in today's NYT sounds just like the stories from this time last year:

A heat wave sizzling across the West showed little sign of letting up Thursday, with Las Vegas forecast to tie a record high and even northern Idaho expected to top 100 degrees.

''You can become dehydrated really quick before you know it. You step outside and, 'wow,''' said Charlie Schlott, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas was expected to hit 116, which would tie a record for the date set in 1985. Near-record highs were also forecast for Southern California, where the mercury was expected to top 115 in desert.

A high of 101 was forecast Thursday in Spokane, Wash., and nearby Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, which would exceed the record of 100 set in 1975. Friday's forecast didn't hold much relief from the nearly weeklong heat wave, either.

In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the opening of state cooling centers in 13 counties, and the operator of the statewide power grid ask Californians to try to conserve energy to avoid brownouts.

Turn off all of the electrical appliances that you don't need. Pay special attention to so-called "vampires" -- appliances that use electricity even when they're "off". These include many chargers such as cell phone chargers, mp3-player chargers, Blackberry chargers, etc. They also include tvs, for example, that display LED clocks even when the tv is turned to "off". Every electron that you don't use means less greenhouse gasses and less chance of blackouts.

Stars,Stripes, and Pentacles

Stars and Stripes has a respectful, heartwarming story about the dedication of at least the third pentacle-engraved headstone at Arlington National Cemetery.

On Wednesday [Reverend Selena] Fox, members of her congregation, and other pagans held a consecration ceremony at the grave site of Jan Deanna, a Wiccan minister who passed away more than two years ago.

Her husband, Army Capt. William O’Rourke, passed away nine years earlier and had the Christian cross engraved on his tombstone. But Deanna’s side was left blank, because until May the Department of Veterans Affairs had no symbol to recognize her faith. Several weeks ago, the headstones of Wiccan Rosemary Koolman and her military husband were engraved with the pentacle and dedicated. As Stars and Stripes explains, Wiccans have been fighting for some time to have their religious symbol on their military headstones; the Veterans Administration recently settled a suit by Wiccans, caving completely when embarassing e-mails came to light indicating that the VA was dragging its heels on the Wiccans' request because George Bush doesn't consider Wicca a "valid" religion.

The Stars and Stripes article is objective and well-written. It avoids the "let's get a xian to provide a negative quote about Wiccans" ploy so often used by the press when reporting on Wicca. Oddly, when the press writes stories about xians, they don't go looking for a witch to provide "balance"-type commentary.

The article also mentions that Amy Staff Sgt. Frederick Twombly, a member of the 63rd Engineer Support Battalion, helped set up a Wiccan worship community in Baghdad during both of his deployments over to Iraq.

“We had guys from all over, all different units, all different ranks,” he said. “People would look and say, ‘Wait, he’s a major and he’s a Wiccan?’ And then they’d understand that it’s not just some hidden thing.”

Bravo Stars and Stripes!

Pardon Her, For Pete's Sake!

The Telegraph repots on efforts to secure a pardon for Anna Goeldi, a Swiss woman executed as a witch.

The execution of the last European witch to be sentenced to death by a court of law has plunged Switzerland into an unlikely political debate over whether she should now be pardoned.

Anna Goeldi, a housemaid, was executed by decapitation after being found guilty of witchcraft in the small Alpine town of Glarus in 1782.

Now, 225 years later, a group of local and federal MPs has prepared a parliamentary motion demanding the full rehabilitation of Goeldi, who was tortured into confessing to being a witch and was subsequently beheaded. Campaigners claim she was the victim of a conspiracy between the eastern town's juridical and Protestant church authorities.

Of course, A spokesman for the Swiss Protestant Church said: "History has made its judgment on the case and we need to move on. It would be better to focus our energy on the more acute problems of today." Yeah, what a surprise that you'd say so. Ass.

The Stupid! It Burns!

It's true. Jonah Goldberg is, in fact, the stupidest man in the world. His father, after all mated with Lucianne.

Pagans To Rally Tomorrow Outside The White House

From Associated Content:

Chesapeake Pagan Community [has] been working for months to arrange a Pagan Religious Rights Rally and Ritual, to be held on the Fourth of July 2007 in Lafayette Square Park, in front of the White House and catty-corner to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Originally, our intent was to support the Veterans' Pentacle Quest. Now that we have won the Pentacle, there are many other issues to put forward. Advocating a military chaplain in the U.S. Armed Forces is one of the most pressing issues. Adding the symbols of more Pagan denominations to those religious emblems approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs is another vital issue. Even the mere act of demonstrating publicly for Pagan religious rights is empowering.

And so, we invite you to join us on the Glorious Fourth of July! Meet us in front of the White House to listen to our leaders articulate a further agenda for Pagan Religious Rights.

. . .

Diana L. Paxson, acclaimed author and Pagan Elder, will lead us in circle as we invoke the Founders of Our Nation. This will be the first public Pagan ritual in Lafayette Square Park, in the President's front yard. Diana has been invoking the Founders for some years now. . . .

Diana describes the Fourth of July ritual this way: "We will honor those who established our fundamental freedoms, especially Washington and Jefferson, and those who built on their ideas, from Lincoln to Teddy Roosevelt and FDR, offering our energies to preserve the liberties they fought for and the land they loved. We will offer our will to carry on the work of our Founding Fathers and Mothers, and to help America become what they hoped it would be."

To do such a ritual on the Fourth of July outside the White House will create a very powerful resonance, and have far reaching consequences. We invite you to co-create this ritual of religious freedom with us, and help us further the intent of universal religious freedom and free expression for all. Please join us in meditation or trance, or in ritual where you live, if you cannot be physically present at the Washington ritual.

More info here.

Lyra, Lyra, Compass On Fire

I sure do want to ride that polar bear like that.

Hope Of Deliverance

May The Goddess Guard Her. May She Find Her Way To The Summerlands. May Her Friends And Family Know Peace.

Beverly Sills is dead .

Water

Blog Against Theocracy July 1st through 4th, 2007

Holidays

In Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy, Barbara Ehrenreich writes about the sharp decrease in holidays (days off) between the Middle Ages and the Industrial Revolution.

[T]he repression of festivities was, in a sense, a by-product of the emergence of capitalism. The middle classes had to learn to calculate, save, and "defer gratification"' the lower classes had to be transformed into a disciplined, factory-ready, working class -- meaning fewer holidays and the new necessity of showing up for work sober and on time, six days a week. Peasants had worked hard, too, of course, but in seasonally determined bursts; the new industrialism required ceaseless labor, all year round.

. . .

In part, [the appeal of Protestantism] was probably similar to that of much evangelical Christianity today; it offered people the self-discipline demanded by a harsher economic order. Curb your drinking, learn to rise before the sun, work until dark, and be grateful for whatever you're paid. . . . Protestantism, serving as the ideological handmaiden of the new capitalism, "descended like a frost on the life of 'Merrie Old England,'" as Weber put it, destroying in its icy grip the usual Christmans festivities, the maypole, the games, and all traditional forms of group pleasure.

Today, of course, it's worse. It's worse because even when we do get a holiday, we're checking e-mails, answering cell phone calls, watching the "news," worrying about work. Why? Why do we allow this?

The Furious Spinner notes that we have all been coopted by the corporatists:

Today I was moved by the words of Robert Shetterly. He is writing about the social activist Eva Peterson. He is also writing about us.

He writes in "When Does Drowning Mean Drowning," "We are now up to our necks in a culture of programmed complicity. Just as the Hutus in Rwanda made sure that all the men killed someone so all would be complicit, the corporate culture here teaches consumption rather than citizenship, isolation rather than community, teaches that predatory capitalism is democracy. If there is an answer, it must be climbing out together, giving a hand up to the weakest and most vulnerable, reinforcing our virtues, denying the culture that preaches making virtue of vice, heroism of spectacular, unsustainable greed.

"Eva Paterson, when she did complete the quote for her portrait, included this sentence: 'Drowning in silence, we are brothers and sisters drowning each other.' We are drowning, my friends, suffocating in complicity and lies. As surely as trees give life sustaining oxygen to our atmosphere, truth and accountability, fairness and compassion provide the social oxygen for our culture. I’m sure that the epidemic of asthma in our children is attributable in equal parts to environmental and cultural causes. A culture living on lies leaves everyone gasping. The oxygen has gone out of America. The waters are rolling down, but they are not the waters of justice."

I want my holidays back. I want the leisure to stop and think, the time to grow flowers, an end to capitalism-induced Koyanaskatsi.

Real Problems

If the news programs want a world threat that they can report on 24/7, they could do much better than to a few inept would-be-car-bombers in the UK. They could report 24/7 on the fact that the bees are disappearing and we won't have much food at all in another season or two. I'm going to miss honey.

Honey At The Table

It fills you with the soft
essence of vanished flowers, it becomes
a trickle sharp as a hair that you follow
from the honey pot over the table

and out the door and over the ground,
and all the while it thickens,

grows deeper and wilder, edged
with pine boughs and wet boulders,
pawprints of bobcat and bear, until

deep in the forest you
shuffle up some tree, you rip the bark,

you float into and swallow the dripping combs,
bits of the tree, crushed bees - - - a taste
composed of everything lost, in which everything lost is found.



- Mary Oliver

First Of The Month Bazooms Blogging

Women! It's the first of the month; time for your breast self-exam (BSE). BSEs can help detect breast cancer when it's still in its early, easier-to-cure stages. BSEs are easy to do: here's a short video that shows you how to do a BSE. If you prefer to do your BSE at a different time in your cycle, now's a good time to calendar it so you don't forget.

Men! Are there women you'd miss if they weren't around? Mother, Wife, Girlfriend, Daughter, Friend? Why not help them to do their BSEs by taking the kids to the park for half an hour, picking up dinner, reminding them, doing the dishes?

Exactly

The Mad Melancholic Feminista makes an excellent point about empowerment, William James, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

My New Name For A Blog

What Digby Said


Modern Big Business Republicanism has thoroughly entrenched its amoral worldview into politics, which over time absorbed its belief that civic virtues are irrelevant. (The denizens of DC did, however, attempt to cover this worldly sin by adopting the GOP's cynical and manipulative stand-in for virtue --- puritanical sexual morality --- a grotesque and ill-fitting substitute for personal integrity coming from such decadent creatures.)

Sunday Akhmatova Blogging

The Death of Sophocles

That night an eagle swooped down from the skies onto
Sophocles' house.
And the garden suddenly rocked with a cry of cicadas.
Already the genius strode toward his immortality,
skirting the enemy camp at the walls of his native city.
Then it was that the king had a strange dream:
Great Dinoysus ordered him to lift the siege,
so as not to dishonor the service for the dead
and to grant the Athenians the solace of his fame.