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BOOK I THE PAGAN
Assumptions
THE STRANGER AND THE CHILD -- On Assumptions. .
"Assumptions are internal poisons that lie in wait to place barriers between us and
others. They take away our humanity and the humanity of others by denying
what is real, by denying the essential nature of other human beings."
Persecution
THE BURNING TIMES
"The belief that my religion, my politics, my race, my culture, my lifestyle is better
than anyone else's religion, politics, race, culture or lifestyle also belongs to the
Inquisitioner. Once we begin setting ourselves up as judges of others'
behavior, we have accepted the rationale behind the Burning Times."
Can We Save Our Planet?
DEEP ECOLOGY -- THE RADICAL PHILOSOPHY OF EARTH SCIENCE.
"Ecology is basically a scientific pursuit -- a serious study of the entire planet and its
systems and the interrelatedness of those systems. As such, ecology is based
on the scientific method, and many serious thinkers have questioned whether an
attitude which holds that "the environment exists for use by humans" and "the
environment is scientifically knowable by humans" is valuable or wise in the
current world situation."
Is Human Nature Really Dog-Eat-Dog?.
STRANGERS INSIDE US -- Some Thoughts on Biological Cooperation
"The ruling principles of evolution in reality are two: diversity and cooperation. No
species could ever have survived on the basis of "dog eat dog"! And many,
many species have survived the process of evolution."
Taking the Anti-Cosmic View of Things!
OVERPOPULATION -- A CANCER ON THE BIOSPHERE
"Instead of seeing the earth as a floating ball of iron and other minerals, wandering
through space covered haphazardly with forms of life -- the traditional view --
we must now begin to recognize the earth as a single, living organism, which
functions as an individual in maintaining conditions suitable for life."
O Brave New World, That Hath Such People In't!
NO MORE WHIPPOORWILLS? -- On Biodiversity
"What we face today is a bleak future without whippoorwills. Unless something is
done soon, most of the species populating the earth today will be gone in a
little over 50 years."
The Goddess of the Old Testament
CAKES FOR THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN
.
"'But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to
the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we
and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the
streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw
no trouble.' Jeremiah 44:17"
The Ancient Earth Goddess
WHO IS HECATE? .
"To the ancient Greeks, Hecate was the primary earth goddess, ruler of the three
worlds: the sky, the earth and the underworld. She also represented the three
stages of womankind: maid, mother and crone. And her names as these would
be: Persephone, Demeter, and Diana or (in other places) Hebe the Virgin, Hera
the Mother, and Hecate the Crone."
Can Men Be Feminists?
THE PLACE OF THE MALE IN THE GODDESS MOVEMENT
"In a matrifocal system, actually, roles ought to be absolutely inter-changeable. Both
males and females should be recognized as having within themselves the power
to do whatever they want to do. This, we say, is the goddess within each
person. Both males and females need to recognize the human family as more
important than any individual human. This also is the goddess within."
Relatedness as a Function of Reality
A PAEAN FOR THE WHITE LADY -- A Message for Winter's-eve
"Because it is the end of that segment of linear time we call life, we fear death.
Because growing old presages death, we fear old age. We envision death as a
starkly ominous old man -- in skeleton form -- brandishing a scythe to cut
down the living. The Seven Riders of the Apocalypse are all forms of the
death our culture perceives."
You Must Be Born Again! Really.
PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION THROUGH RESURRECTION
or You Too Can Be Saved by Jesus (or by John Barleycorn, or by Sol Invictus, or by
the Great Purple Bird)
.
"Eternal truths made into supposed reality. When Buddha becomes a god, or the
creative principle becomes a white-robed Yahweh, or Jesus becomes the super-
human Christ, the truths behind the concepts are lost. People are left
reverencing things instead of ideas. And that, of course, is idolatry."
Have We Lost Our Sense of Wonder?
ON ELVES, HOBBITS AND THE LITTLE FOLK
"Some say the little people are nothing but the ancient gods still remembered by the
common folk. The Giants of the Scandinavians are now the trolls (or gnomes)
of northern countries. The leprechauns are the remains of the great Cu
Chulain, the ancient Irish hero. The fairies of Europe are the last vestiges of
the Roman fauns, and the pixies are British versions of the ancient dryads (in
fact, the ancient English word for dryad was wudaelf, or elf of the wood.)"
A Step Program for Happiness
.
THIRTEEN STEPS TO HEALTH AND HAPPINESS
"Thirteen is a lucky number. Always has been. Only the male-dominated, politically
oriented culture has used propaganda to make us think otherwise."
The Spell-casting Power of Words
SOMETHING ELDRITCH ABOUT WIDDERSHINS
"There is something magic about the word widdershins. It bespeaks of arcane goings-
on, of witchcraft, and sky-clad nights beneath a full moon."
BOOK II THE EXISTENTIALIST
Responsibility -- The Greatest Fear of Our Age
THE EXISTENTIAL MEANING OF ANGUISH
.
"Anguish is the realization that what we create involves not only ourselves but every
other human being alive -- and, ultimately, the very fabric of the cosmos itself.
The existentialist says that the human being is anguish. Whether we want to
be or not, we are totally responsible for every action we take."
What Happens When We Really Meet Another?
THE CREATION, THE FLOOD AND THE RAINBOW.
"But tears we block become a barrier, a wall against the release of those poisons
harmful to our bodies and our minds. We hurt ourselves when we don't cry the
tears that must come out. Witness the experience of many men in our culture.
Witness the ulcers, the heart attacks, the hypertensions that came from never
being able to cry."
A Much Maligned Way of Thinking.
THE MEANING OF RELIGIOUS EXISTENTIALISM.
"The only real way to define human beings is to examine the fact of our existence.
That's what we mean by existentialism. Those things which were important to
the traditional philosophers are not important to the existentialist. We examine
what happens rather than what ought to be."
On Made-up Words
YOUR TESSERACTIC SOUL -- PART I
An Introduction to the Concept
"A tesseract is a cube projected into the fourth dimension."
When You Get to the Bottom of You
YOUR TESSERACTIC SOUL -- PART II
The Primal Cells.
"The theory of the tesseractic self points out that finding the first cells of one's multi-
chambered identity is not that easy. First of all, the primal cells aren't really
hidden. They are right at the surface (or they wouldn't be having as much
effect on us, would they?) And second, since all cells (all identities, if you
prefer) occupy the same space, it is possible to move from one personality into
another one at will. It is not necessary to move from a particular cell in
order to get into another one."
The Blessings of Being Neurotic!
YOUR TESSERACTIC SOUL -- PART III
The Neurotic Cells
"This is precisely what neuroses do for us -- provide a poison to protect us from a
greater one. Usually, the conditions neuroses counteract are -- like Monte
Cristo's poison -- fatal ones. Neuroses, therefore, save our lives."
Dream-time Inventories
YOUR TESSERACTIC SOUL -- PART IV
The Complex House of the Mind
"For many years I had a recurring dream. Over and over again I would be exploring
this large house. I always knew the house should be familiar and I knew it
was my house, yet I always needed to look into ever more unfamiliar rooms.
When I was a child and for many years afterward, the house was filled with
frightening things: dark, disturbing dungeons that I dare not explore and vast,
bat-filled attics and secret towers that I explored only fearfully."
Self-therapy Made Easy
YOUR TESSERACTIC SOUL -- PART V
Meanderings in the Labyrinth of the Mind
"Yet the human mind analyzes more complex image structures than a television screen
every minute of every day, and retains huge quantities of that information in
memory! The mind is capable of handling immense storage of data and of
analyzing that data in varieties of ways which are so far not possible by
computers."
New Frontiers of the Mind
YOUR TESSERACTIC SOUL -- PART VI
The Preternatural World Beyond Four Dimensions
"This is what Dr. Rhine proved, that something other than pure chance was operating.
He proved this for telepathy (communication between minds), telekinesis
(moving of objects --in this case dice -- by the mind), and precognition
(knowing what will happen in the future)."
Playing Dice With the Universe
CONSENSUS AS A CREATIVE PRINCIPLE
"The mind is, therefore, a holographic instrument. Memories are not stored
sequentially as in a computer, but rather are impressed holographically as
interference patterns at a level of reality outside the physical construct of the
brain. The organic structure called the brain is far too small to contain the
immense complexity of the holographic recorder we know our mind to be."
Some Thoughts on Deep Trance -- or, Preparing for Death
.
BEYOND SPACE AND TIME
"Perhaps the dreamworld is our contact with a more natural existence for ourselves,
the state of being beyond time and space. If it were, how would we be able to
describe such existence to our fourth-dimensional brains in this plane of
existence? Probably much as our present dreams are "described" by our
minds."
A Synthesis of the Ancient and the Modern
THE EXISTENTIAL PAGAN
"You can learn to escape this ignorance by accepting -- and putting into practice --
this one simple existential principle: I create my world on a daily basis
through the choices I make. I am always free to make whatever choice I wish
-- every second of every day of my life."
Afterword
