I've had this stuck in my head for days. The end gives me the same feel as the Color the Sky song by Two Steps from Hell. God, I freaking love symphonic/choral music like this. Best song genre. Ever.
*Opens up iTunes to check her Honor & Glory playlist*
I think my favorite bands/artists in this genre are:
Two Steps From Hell
Nightwish
Epic Score
Thomas Bergerson
Immediate Music
Bear McCreary
Steve Jablonsky
Audiomachine
John Powel
Jan Morgenstern
Craig Armstrong
Jesper Kyd
Geoff Zanelli
Hans Zimmer
Jeremy Soule
UNKLE
Keiki Kobayashi
Cornerstone Cues
Mark Petrie
Zack Hemsey
Killer Tracks
Omnia
Loreena McKennitt
The last two aren't really quite the same genre as the rest, and don't use whole orchestras, but their vocals and instruments as just as harmonius and amazing.
This song...holds the meaning of life. Not just of life, as we think about it in petty human terms, but of all existence, for all time. Honestly, I listened to this song for three hours straight, and had a spiritual revelation. It's hard to describe, because to understand it you must be in this trance state. It went a little something like this:
Life is transience
Time is an delusion
Existence is a divine illusion
The whole of all is rapture
All stems from the whim of creation
God is an author who lives through his characters
We are all God
God is all of us
Life unto death unto life again
Plunging in and out of existence
Eternally reinterpreting self
Circle, circle
Forever
I wish I could explain it better. I really do. But it cannot be explained, only experienced. You must forget everything. You must forget your sense of self which tethers you to a single form, a single mind. You must realize that you are everything--that neighbor cutting his grass, that pilot flying through the sky, that dog barking as you pass by, trying to protect his home. Everything, everyone, every life of every kind is the same thing. Everything exists simultaneously. There is no past, no future, only the moment, and all happens within the moment. The moment of creation, of experience. The divine is experiencing life as an ancient hominid, wandering nomadically with their tribe at the same time as it is experiencing being a minuteman in the American Revolution, at the same time as it is writing this blog, fingers tapping on the keyboard, at the same time it is staring at a computer screen, reading this other person's blog. Time does not exist. We are all the same force played out over and over again, reinterpreting, experiencing, becoming, changing. Everything exists separately as it experiences all from one consciousness, but everything is happening simultaneously. Consciousness' interact with one another, because time is a delusion.
God is not a form, a person, a figure. God has no gender. God is only the Divine, that from whence everything comes, and everything returns. The Divine is simply a force of creation, taking rapture in creating, experiencing everything, like a newborn child, or an author. This is God. There is no good or evil. Only existence, and the whole of existence is rapture. The divine goes through one full existence as a single consciousness, then is reborn as a new one. The divine is both aware of itself in its primal form and unaware of itself in it's eternal transmutational forms of existence.
I'm sorry. This is getting really confusing sounding. As I said, it can't be explained, only experienced. I think authors will grasp it more easily. They write to experience from a certain consciousness. To create. That is what they an impulse drives them to do. They cannot not create. At the same time that they are their character Mathew enjoying a cup of coffee and reading a great new book in their favorite cafe, they are the waitress Allison at that cafe, asking Mathew if he'd like more coffee, and Mathew's friend Shawn, showing up and seeing Mathew unexpectedly and feeling a rush of serendipitous joy. At the same time they are Mathew's father, fighting in WWII, meeting Mathew's mother as a nurse. Keep going. Keep the story unfolding. Past and present are created simultaneously, because time is a delusion. The story never ends. It continues on forever.
As Tsou, who is my character and therefore myself, just as I am also a 'character', puts it, "Such is mortal life: a fleeting rapture."
In a way, as we are but an experience of one consciousness, and our characters are but an experience of one consciousness, we are equal, and neither is more "real" than the other. All fiction is real.
And some words from one of my top favorite people ever--Abraham Lincoln! Totally one of the best presidents ever. O Captain, my Captain!
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
-Abraham Lincoln
Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.
-Abraham Lincoln
Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.
-Abraham Lincoln
Whatever you are be a good one.
- Abraham Lincoln
All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow in thought and mind.
-Abraham Lincoln
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
-Abraham Lincoln
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
-Abraham Lincoln
How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.
-Abraham Lincoln
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.
-Abraham Lincoln
Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
-Abraham Lincoln
I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.
-Abraham Lincoln
Surely God would not have created such a being as man, with an ability to grasp the infinite, to exist only for a day! No, no, man was made for immortality.
-Abraham Lincoln
I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.
-Abraham Lincoln
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
-Abraham Lincoln
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.
-Abraham Lincoln
The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.
-Abraham Lincoln
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
"The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." -Abraham Lincoln
Hello everyone and blessed be~! I've been super busy with college starting back up and working on renovating my house with my brother, so I haven't had much time to blog (or do much of anything else for that matter). But I have weekends free, so today I would like to discuss the impact of intolerance, ignorance, and mob-mentalities on the pagan community today. And this isn't just about Wiccan, pagans, or one particular group, this goes for everybody. Discrimination is wrong no matter who does it or why. Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Wiccan, Jewish, whatever you are, you have the God (or Goddess) given right to religious freedom! (We should also support LGBT--lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders--but that's a topic for another day)
"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people." -John F. Kennedy
So far I haven't had any (real) issues with discrimination myself, thank the Divine, but that doesn't mean it's not a big problem for others. People may just brush this off with a "you're being overly-sensitive", but honestly there is still a lot of discrimination today and it's not even vaguely funny. People have been fired from jobs, shunned by their classmates or communities, received hatemail or any other number of cruelties based upon intolerance of religion. This is truly an outrage because the Unites States is and should be a haven for all kinds of races, cultures and religions. Don't we ourselves fondly call it a "melting pot"? Yet the amount of intolerance that still pervades American culture is astounding and quite shocking.
Some accounts include:
Schools banning the pentacle (but not other religious symbols) saying it is a symbol used by Satan worshippers or gang members
Burial wishes to have the pentacle carved into gravestones denied by the military/US government (This has since been resolved, after 10 years of protesting and hard work)
Being told that Wicca is inappropriate or blasphemous for employees, teachers, or students to practice, believe, advocate, or display via apparel
Pagan sites being banned on certain WiFi networks (being labeled as inappropriate right along with porn sites or other such things)
Being verbally attacked for one's religious views
Being fired from jobs, suspended without pay, etc. simply for being pagan
Having others deface property with graffiti bearing hateful messages
Having people actually stand outside one's house protesting one's religion
Being told that one's faith will send them to Hell
Government officials disallowing access to pagan information or tools (such as candles, bells, books, etc.) for inmates while other inmates are free to practice their own religion. (I will point out that obviously some things have to be denied for safety such as athames and bolenes, and possibly candles because of the fire risk, though electric ones seem fine, but things like books should be fair game).
And yes, even young kids being kicked out of Boy Scouts.
On a more personal note, I just found out (literally about 4 seconds ago) that my favorite store, Hot Topic, has apparently banned the sale of any "witch or Wiccan" goods. Well gosh, maybe when I go to the mall now I might be more inclined to visit Spencer's to get a shiny new pentacle...
"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." -Noam Chomsky
Many actions have been taken to stop this all too antiquated practice of intolerance, but it's simply not enough. Yes, some legal actions such as lawsuits have been won, but compared to how any have been lost and gone unnoticed it is a disgrace. The Constitution clearly states that all US citizens have the basic right of religious freedom and the freedom of speech, yet these rights are continuously denied by other citizens and sometimes even the government itself.
"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too." -Voltaire
Even when you lie battered and bloodied at the feet of your enemy, treat them with love and forgiveness, as you would they treat you. Stand tall and resolute, and exemplify the merciful love of the Divine to all, especially those who oppose you--they need it most. If you allow your enemy to instill anger and vengeance in your heart, they have already won. Only through peace of mind can we be secure in our beliefs. As Gandhi once said,
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
and "You can't shake hands with a clenched fist."
Keep the Wiccan Rede always in your heart--"An harm ye none do what ye will"--and you will find strength to carry on even under persecution. Love thy neighbor even if he doesn't love you back, I say. It is only through agape, boundless love, that we will bring about the peace we so desperately desire.
Another thing to remember is that the second best defense against discrimination is knowledge. You need facts and a good angle with which to argue equal rights treatment, and if you can't back up your points with a little good ol' fashioned wit than people may not consider your argument valid.
