{"id":1705,"date":"2009-05-01T01:10:59","date_gmt":"2009-05-01T06:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=1710"},"modified":"2009-04-27T13:42:41","modified_gmt":"2009-04-27T18:42:41","slug":"forest-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2009\/05\/01\/forest-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Forest Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Change<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So, I pick up my pen once again to write my thoughts as they flow. But do they flow? Not always, but sometimes one must ponder. I look out my window, and it\u2019s raining outside and cold. Not the normal weather for Washington in June, it actually snowed in the mountains. You watch the news and see nothing but the murder and mayhem of today\u2019s society and you have to wonder where it\u2019s all leading. You know. I eat breakfast every morning in the Madigan Hospital cafeteria where I work in the Safety office and that\u2019s the only time I\u2019m forced to watch the news. I was thoroughly appalled the other morning to watch an old man crossing the street and get struck by a car in a hit and run and not a damn person out of twenty mind you even so much as moved to help him for one full minute. I say again, I\u2019m appalled. What if that was your dad. What if that was your grandfather. Has our society become so numb, so ignorant, and so apathetic as to simply leave our wounded where they lie? In combat you would never see that. Our motto in the military is \u201cLeave no man behind\u201d. The military isn\u2019t that great mind you, but some of the values they instill in their Soldiers shames the civilian sector. We lead the way in technology, we pave the way in the medical field, and we put our civilian counterparts to shame when it comes to values that all as a society should live by. Now don\u2019t get me wrong the military can learn a lot of valuable lessons about some values as well. We are told to be honest and have courage, yet the militaries own policy on homosexuality is don\u2019t ask don\u2019t tell so ultimately your told to lie about your sexual preference. Let\u2019s talk about the rank structure. If you are a Private and you don\u2019t want to go to war you will be court martialed and do some prison time potentially for disobeying a direct order; however, if you\u2019re an officer you will be moved to a cushy office where you can finish off your time even though you have abandoned your Soldiers since you didn\u2019t go to war with them. What is this telling our younger generation of Soldiers, and worse yet what is this showing our civilian counterparts as a whole. You are probably asking, \u201cEric, where are you going with this?\u201d and I\u2019ll tell you. Look out your window, look at the news if you dare. Everything is evolving, and everything must change. The keyword here is change. It is time for Mother Earth to move forward and She is changing with or without our approval. We will change with Her or we will die as a species that is the blunt truth. We, as a species have not taken care of our home, and we\u2019re getting to the point of not taking care of each other. I remember the days of not locking your doors, of being able to get gas without paying first and oh, wait, gas was only $1.50 a gallon and we thought that was high. Politicians are crooked as ever and you can\u2019t trust your neighbor anymore. This isn\u2019t a negative article, just a truthful one. Now, how do we fix the problem? We change. As Pagans it is our duty to take care of our Mother. You can also make a start by taking care of your fellow Pagans. Who cares what degree you are, who cares how many credentials you have. You\u2019re a Pagan and that should be all that matters, now own up to the name. Pagans take care of each other. I saw a lot of good when I started the Troop support system called Desert Moon Network, and I saw a lot of good Soldiers and Airmen come and go when we were deployed together both times in Iraq. Total I saw over one hundred Pagan Military come and go throughout Iraq between 2004 and 2006 when I was in Iraq. We had our good and we had our bad but at least we came home alive and we all grew spiritually. Our Pagan civilian counterparts ensured we had all supplies we needed and then some and it was a great support system that still goes on today. Combat makes one change, just as our Mother, will make us as Pagans change. Take a walk in the woods, enjoy the trees talking to you, the wildlife watching you and you will be reminded again and again of why you would want to change and stay with your Mother. Take the family and go out on a camping trip, which we as a family will be doing in July. Lastly go to your nearest Pagan Pride Day in your community and reflect with your fellow Pagans, attend a Pagan meet-up, or go to a Pagan coffee that is held in some communities. Put your differences aside, and talk the Path, talk about your commonalities be it Druid, Asatru, Wiccan, or just a good ole Witch. It doesn\u2019t matter; we all worship the same energy. Universal Energy everything is, was and will be. Some may be offended by these words, and so be it, if the shoe fits. Sometimes a shake-up is needed and Mother is shaking us all up so let\u2019s wake-up. I\u2019ll close with this. If we all got along as a Pagan community we would be stronger then most main-stream religions, Sabbats would be one helluva celebration, and imagine the energy we would raise to heal our Mother. Until next time. Blessings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Change So, I pick up my pen once again to write my thoughts as they flow. But do they flow? Not always, but sometimes one must ponder. I look out my window, and it\u2019s raining outside and cold. Not the normal weather for Washington in June, it actually snowed in the mountains. You watch the news and see nothing but the murder and mayhem of today\u2019s society and you have to wonder where it\u2019s all leading. You know. I eat breakfast every morning in the Madigan Hospital cafeteria where I work in the Safety office and that\u2019s the only time I\u2019m forced to watch the news. I was thoroughly appalled the other morning to watch an old man crossing the street and get struck by a car in a hit and run and not a damn person out of twenty mind you even so much as moved to help him for one full minute. I say again, I\u2019m appalled. What if that was your dad. What if that was your grandfather. Has our society become so numb, so ignorant, and so apathetic as to simply leave our wounded where they lie? In combat you would never see that. Our motto in the military is \u201cLeave no man behind\u201d. The military isn\u2019t that great mind you, but some of the values they instill in their Soldiers shames the civilian sector. We lead the way in technology, we pave the way in the medical field, and we put our civilian counterparts to shame when it comes to values that all as a society should live by. Now don\u2019t get me wrong the military can learn a lot of valuable lessons about some values as well. We are told to be honest and have courage, yet the militaries own policy on homosexuality is don\u2019t ask don\u2019t tell so ultimately your told to lie about your sexual preference. Let\u2019s talk about the rank structure. If you are a Private and you don\u2019t want to go to war you will be court martialed and do some prison time potentially for disobeying a direct order; however, if you\u2019re an officer you will be moved to a cushy office where you can finish off your time even though you have abandoned your Soldiers since you didn\u2019t go to war with them. What is this telling our younger generation of Soldiers, and worse yet what is this showing our civilian counterparts as a whole. You are probably asking, \u201cEric, where are you going with this?\u201d and I\u2019ll tell you. Look out your window, look at the news if you dare. Everything is evolving, and everything must change. The keyword here is change. It is time for Mother Earth to move forward and She is changing with or without our approval. We will change with Her or we will die as a species that is the blunt truth. We, as a species have not taken care of our home, and we\u2019re getting to the point of not taking care of each other. I remember the days of not locking your doors, of being able to get gas without paying first and oh, wait, gas was only $1.50 a gallon and we thought that was high. Politicians are crooked as ever and you can\u2019t trust your neighbor anymore. This isn\u2019t a negative article, just a truthful one. Now, how do we fix the problem? We change. As Pagans it is our duty to take care of our Mother. You can also make a start by taking care of your fellow Pagans. Who cares what degree you are, who cares how many credentials you have. You\u2019re a Pagan and that should be all that matters, now own up to the name. Pagans take care of each other. I saw a lot of good when I started the Troop support system called Desert Moon Network, and I saw a lot of good Soldiers and Airmen come and go when we were deployed together both times in Iraq. Total I saw over one hundred Pagan Military come and go throughout Iraq between 2004 and 2006 when I was in Iraq. We had our good and we had our bad but at least we came home alive and we all grew spiritually. Our Pagan civilian counterparts ensured we had all supplies we needed and then some and it was a great support system that still goes on today. Combat makes one change, just as our Mother, will make us as Pagans change. Take a walk in the woods, enjoy the trees talking to you, the wildlife watching you and you will be reminded again and again of why you would want to change and stay with your Mother. Take the family and go out on a camping trip, which we as a family will be doing in July. Lastly go to your nearest Pagan Pride Day in your community and reflect with your fellow Pagans, attend a Pagan meet-up, or go to a Pagan coffee that is held in some communities. Put your differences aside, and talk the Path, talk about your commonalities be it Druid, Asatru, Wiccan, or just a good ole Witch. It doesn\u2019t matter; we all worship the same energy. Universal Energy everything is, was and will be. Some may be offended by these words, and so be it, if the shoe fits. Sometimes a shake-up is needed and Mother is shaking us all up so let\u2019s wake-up. I\u2019ll close with this. If we all got along as a Pagan community we would be stronger then most main-stream religions, Sabbats would be one helluva celebration, and imagine the energy we would raise to heal our Mother. Until next time. Blessings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1701,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1705\/revisions\/1701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}