Hospital life is still eating up my time, so I missed the first week of B prompts. This week I’m writing about blood.

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Most Pagan groups are against using blood in ritual. I find that it can be useful in specific situations.

Menstrual blood has been useful to me in fertility rites, for example. It’s a symbol of life and death all at the same time. And one of my Matron Goddesses finds it to be an appropriate offering.

I’ve used blood to create a protective element for someone else before – someone I was sure needed my help, and who I trusted with that part of myself.

Mostly, though, I feel like there’s nothing we can’t use – if the Divine is immanent, it is in my blood and yours, just as sure as it is in the rocks and trees. Why wouldn’t we use this lovely symbol in our rituals?

It’s that time of year where all over the internet, there are assertions that the only acceptable greeting is “Merry Christmas” and that anyone who doesn’t agree is a horrible person. There’s even a photo this year that says we should just leave the US entirely.

I can’t help but think that it’s a terribly un-Christian thing to say. As the bracelet says, WWJD – What would Jesus do? My guess is that he’d follow the golden rule (That’s Matthew 7:12, for those following along in your Bibles), which says, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

So, you know what that means? That means you ought to greet each and every person with a greeting appropriate to the holiday(s) they celebrate this time of year, if you want people to greet you with a greeting that honors your sacred day.

And then remember that the God, Gods, or Goddesses we worship (or choosing not to worship any of them) is enshrined in the US constitution, and there’s no religion test to be a US citizen.

And since I don’t know which holidays each of my readers celebrates, Happy Holidays to you and yours, no matter what holidays those might be.

Over on The Wild Hunt, they’ve been discussing an alleged murder, where the supposed perpetrator has said she is Wiccan, and that she killed with her athame in self defense.

A commentor on one of the posts has mentioned that the alleged murderer is “unknown to the larger Pagan community.”  In these days of Wicca 101 books on shelves at most every book store, telling you how to initiate yourself, how does one’s standing in the community prove whether or not you’re Pagan?

Let’s think about that for a minute. Does this matter? Does it mean that asking for an excused absense from school for your child for a Sabbat in New Jersey means you’ll have to prove you’re Pagan, and that the way to do so is to be known by others who say they are Pagan too?

What about court cases and child custody? Will be be expected to trot our our community membership cards in order for the court to accept our beliefs?

Don’t  get me wrong – I think being at least passingly familiar with your local Pagan community is a good thing, no matter how the community functions…I just don’t think community involvement should be the standard of being Pagan.

Interestingly, along the same line of thinking, I ran across Project Pagan Enough this week:

As Fire Lyte says, “Project Pagan Enough seeks to say that – no matter your beliefs, practices, looks, or loves – you are Pagan enough.”

In case I haven’t mentioned it lately, there’s a whole list of reasons why I’m a Bad Pagan(TM), and most of them fall under the heading of “not Pagan enough.”  Not participating much in the larger community due to taking care of my own shit probably ought to be on that list.

I’ve been reading the blogs of a few big-name bloggers who recently went on a “mission trip” to Africa. While there, they learned what poverty looks like, up close and personal. They encouraged their readers to sponsor children. They saw both the natural wonders of the area they were in, and the misery of the people.

Several have said that they’ve come back, and are feeling spiritually broken – under attack – because they feel overwhelmed by this new knowledge, and by the comparison of their very comfortable lives at home to the lives of their hosts.

I think, though, that they’re not any more broken than they were when they left…it’s just that they see their disconnection from the world now, whereas before they could safely ignore what their consciences told them was true: Most of us talk a good game, but rarely get off the couch, and when we do, it’s only to move to a slightly less comfy position.

We don’t step out of our comfort zones.

We don’t help people who don’t look/act/think like us.

We think taking care of the earth means separating paper and plastic for the recycling guy to pick up.

I think being more mindful of our place in the world and the privledges we have come to expect is a good thing; I don’t think beating ourselves up over it serves any purpose other than to look for a way to close the door on the knowledge that we *are* separated from the world around us by the things we say and do.

…specifically, the smallest ones.

Granted, this issue comes up regularly in my head because I have a toddler, and I’m Pagan.

It seems to me that there are a lot of “Pagan Parenting” resources, if you’re willing to look for them, but that most are geared towards teens and tweens, and most assume that the child is something of a blank slate – they basically become Pagan 101 for big kids (actually, most are Wicca 101 for big kids, but that’s another essay)…and that leaves those of us with littles, exposing them to Pagan beliefs every day, in something of a black hole.

Part of the problem, of course, is fear – fear that others will use our religion against our children, fear that “concerned citizens” will try to have our children taken away. But the truth is that there are bullies everywhere – even Christian kids get bullied…and if the rest of your life isn’t in a shambles (ie, your house isn’t filthy, there’s food to eat, the utilities are working, and your kids have a place to sleep), even children’s services isn’t likely to do more than ask some questions.

Another part of the problem, though, is how things are structured. Because our communities are so small, most of us are solitary practitioners most of the time, or we belong to covens and circles meant for adults. While there are more and more Pagan “church” organizations out there, it’s still hard to find places that are really open to having children in ritual, or who have plans for the Pagan version of “kids church” and/or “Sunday school.” It leaves us with no obvious way to fulfill both our personal spiritual needs and those of our children.

We don’t know *how* to raise our kids as Pagan children, because we weren’t Pagan as children, and we see so few children who really are Pagan. We see parents who raise their children to be open minded…parents who teach their children to write in magickal alphabets and to recite lists of correspondences…but these are the outer trappings of being Pagan, like going to church is to Christianity. Sure, most Christians go to church, but not all who go to church are truely Christian, and so it is with lighting incense and colored candles.

This sort of hole for parents of younger kids frustrates me…and you’d think it’d be a source of inspiration for an aspiring writer, but right now, what I need is simple, straightforward information, because I’m the mom of a toddler, and chronically sleep deprived.