Terry

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 03:37:09 GMT

Chocolate martinis, the great truth serum... He says he wants to be my wife!!! I'm holding him to that one. I think I'll get him an apron and some high heels and tell him to cook me something in the kitchen (hehe)...

Also schnoozled...

My honey, the Youtube junkie...

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 02:28:43 GMT

You know, now that I have an LJ account, I never have to wonder what cryptoron does when he's home during the day...

Are all choices valid?

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:46:15 GMT

I just read an article in the UUWorld magazine ("Not my father's religion" by Doug Muder) which really made me think. I am posting this here because I believe it brings up issues that apply to the philosophy of Thelema as well as to Unitarian Universalism. (If someone wants to discuss the UU side of this with a fellow member, I'd be delighted, but I'm framing it in the context of Thelema because more of my LJ friends are Thelemites.)

The article makes the case that the ideas of UUism don't serve the working class as well as they serve the professional class. That a philosophy that preaches: "Do the hard thing you don’t want to do, so that you and the people who are counting on you won’t be punished..." better prepares working class people to deal with the reality of their lives than a philosophy that says to: "find a consistently inspiring path through life." (<- read True Will here.)

This to me has a lot of parallels between Thelema and the "slave" religions. So my questions are:

1.) Does Thelema have value to people who face difficult, limited choices on a daily basis? (I think it does, but I can see the other point of view...)
2.) Are we fine if some people, even after explaining the power of our philosophy, don't find it relevant to their lives?
3.) Or is there a failure in the way we present ourselves that we don't make clear how Will is relevant to their lives?
4.) If these same people then choose to follow a philosophy that better helps them with their lives, do we respect their choice? Do we see their choice as having value and worth? Or do we dismiss them as "slaves", somehow inferior?

Ah, I love a lively debate...

Why the King of Staves?

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 02:44:46 GMT

For over a year and a half now, I've been drawing a Tarot card each night and recording it my journal, to learn about the cards and see they had to say about the upcoming day.

I've been fascinated by the cards. I had hoped that the cards would give me new insight, but what I didn't expect was that they would give me a whole new language. Their pictures tell entire stories, their symbolism is deep and universal, and using them in my journaling has made them very personal. I find myself using cards to describe people and situations. The 5 of Pentacles always means too much to do and not enough time, the 4 of Swords is always drawn when I'm up too late, and the 2 of Cups will always be Cryptoron and myself.

Which brings me to why I chose the King of Staves as my LiveJournal name. I am heavily influenced by Rachel Pollack's interpretations ('Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom'). Under the King of Staves, she speaks of a person honest, confident, and optimistic, full of fire to accomplish their goals. She also speaks of the King of Staves as intolerant of weakness and self-defeating habits, unable to understand what holds others back or to remember that they have not always been strong themselves.

I celebrate and struggle with both the light and dark aspects of the King of Staves in myself. To acknowlege this, I have chosen the King of Staves to represent me as I am right now.