Good Yuletide to all!

I have been a pagan priest for many years now and a hippie for a lot longer. It means that I do not put too much stock in Christianity or its brothers Judaism and Islam. For many years I kidded myself that I was a spiritual person and I suppose that I could be - at times. Because I knew nothing personally of any form of Divinity I was really lost in a sea of ideas and visions. Sometimes Buddhism would sound so RIGHT. Then I would get going on Gnosticism and it would sound so RIGHT. Then, shading off into Neo-Platonism I would eventually become enthralled with the most ancient Greek gods and goddesses, coming to rest with Hekate and Dionysus. The former I understood for her darkness and her hurricane-like movement through me. The latter I understood, pre-Hellenic Divinity of intoxication and what to the proto-Greeks who invaded the area deigned to call "madness." It wasn't intil Socrates that we had a handy catalogue of how this madness might make manifest. Love - and he spoke of the insane attachment two lovers might have for one another - was first. Other forms included the ability to say / sing poetry (rhapsodie) and powerful discourse (sophism). While love, poetry and the ability to wow people with what you say does benefit from practice and rules, a close reading of the Symposium (and I think the Phaedrus) (or Phaedo) makes plain that Socrates was talkjing about the on-the-hoof variety. And it was in such a state that I felt picked out first by Hecate, then by Dionysus.

I have no particular "duties" as a priest. Today being the shortest day of the year (maybe it was yesterday) I note the rebirth of the sun, Sol Invictus; while I can no longer drink alcoholic joyjuice I do my best to stay intoxicated, usually with hyperstimulants and smart drugs, during the Saturnalia - that time of protracted drunkeness in the Roman Empire which became The Twelve Days of Christmas. And, yes, in years gone by, I have been very drunk for all twelve of those days, although by the end of it I was gagging on whatever I was chugging down. So my entries here and at my secret hideouts tend to be a bit loony, and the rest of the Community suffers along gladly.

SAo today I thought that I would introduce another Community member, one who has been with me for at least ten years. His name is Maalyon, pronounced May-EE-LEE-un. He is a star elemental and has his permanent abode at a double star a long way from here. The stars have a huge frozen planet which sort of revolves between and around them. Neither "Kathy" or Alfedas have succeeded in locating it. And as Maalyon is capable of being in several places at once, he does not "go home," he always is home. Or does home. I suppose it would be unjust of me not to attempt a picture to go with this introduction and I might just do that when I get done writing this. Thing is it is difficult for me to "see" him in my mind's eye.

Without too many of the gory details I went through a period of intense paranoia in the mid-nineties and grew more and more distrustful of Seima. She had the sense to withdraw from my ability to perceive her, but not before the arrival of Maalyon. One of the things Maalyon did was to screen Seima from my ability to perceive her. On the other hand he was possibly the most laid-back friendly entity I had ever met. Somewhere in my Stuff I have a dialogue that he'd begun with William Blake and Sattoo, another being with another story. It tries to define "space," which is a damned hard thing to do.

But I tell Maalyon's story tonight because nine years ago I was reflecting upon what little impact that I as a long-haired person (read "hippie") had had on the world. It seemed all for nothing that night: December 22, 1996. He listened to me for a long time and said little. He was lost in thought. Then he turned to me and said: "You say that you have had no impact. You have, but do not see it. I can see it. And as far as what you are as a social entity, well - your job is not finished yet."

He was right. Today is as strangled a world as it was in 1953, 1959, 1963, 1965, 1971, 1979, 1984, 1992, 1999. There is unnecessary war. The leaders of America are criminals, just as they have always been; America the nation of the lawyers, by the lawyers and for the lawyers. Especially corporate and insurance lawyers. Too many people starve to death every day. The ozone layer is still saying buh-bye! On it goes. But I stand fast tonight, there are things that I can do and I shall keep on doing them. Join with me this Yuletide, because our jobs are not finished yet.

Hierophantou Dionysou Hekatoessou

kyrie magiou kyrie androgynou kyrie cthoni kyrie nyx

and, steward, Outlands Community