Below are the 2 most recent journal entries recorded in Views from the Cyberhenge's InsaneJournal:

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
4:51 pm	Meet the Deities Halfway http://neopagan.net/blog/?p=225 There’s an old story, which I will now shamelessly steal and Paganize, that goes like this: There once was a Pagan, we’ll call him Dru Iolo, who was very poor. Every day he would go out to the sacred grove and exclaim, “Gods and Goddesses! Why can’t I win the lottery? I’ve been a good man, I help my neighbors, I love my family, I go to all the holy day services. Surely I deserve some blessings. So why can’t I just win the freaking lottery?” Finally, after many months of this daily complaint, he heard the sound of loud voices coming from the trees and the earth and the sky, saying, “Iolo! Meet Us halfway — buy a ticket!” I was watching a news piece about yet another lottery winner who had received the winning ticket as a gift, and wondering why there weren’t more of us Pagans, like Ellwood “Bunky” Bartlett, winning the lottery. Surely we have plenty of deserving Pagan Elders and seniors who could use even minor prizes of the sort given away daily by lotteries. Then I remembered the story and it occurred to me that there are probably thousands of Pagans who buy lottery tickets on a regular basis. Sure, it’s a “tax on people who can’t do math.” Yes, it’s a difficult goal to affect magically, since zillions of other people are all competing for those winnings. But it’s meeting the deities halfway, and if you only buy a couple of tickets a week, it’s a harmless pleasure. Then the crystal ball lit up over my head. Lots of people have truthfully told me, when I’ve been pushing my “Adopt an Elder” program (see my most recent post here at Views from the Cyberhenge), that they can’t afford to send $10 or $20 regularly to their local Pagan seniors or to their favorite Pagan Elder. So here’s my suggestion: if you are someone who regularly buys lottery or instant-win games, just buy an extra ticket each time and give it away to someone worse off than you are — which is most Pagan seniors and Elders. If they started getting a dozen tickets a month, sooner or later some of them would be winners. There wouldn’t be many Bunky Bartlett-sized prizes, of course, instead almost all of them would be smaller amounts. A few hundred extra dollars, however, will buy an older Pagan extra food, get their car fixed, pay the heating bill, etc. Or, you could do what Rev. Bartlett did, make a promise to the Gods. In this case, promise to devote a percentage of any winnings to helping out older Pagans. Either way, if you can’t afford to “adopt” a Pagan senior or Elder, meet the Gods and Goddesses halfway — buy a few tickets! (Comment on this)
Friday, January 2nd, 2009
2:09 am	Adopt an Elder 2009 http://neopagan.net/blog/?p=224 I’ve just spent some time updating an essay on this topic. Here’s a bit from the opening: Every local Neopagan community has one, two, or more older members who may be struggling to survive on a day-to-day basis. Whether thay are seniors or Elders, and regardless of what tradition they belong to or teach, or what local “witch wars” they may have been part of years ago, now they are getting old and needing help to get by. If they are Elders, the main reason for their poverty is usually having devoted most of their lives to serving a Pagan community instead of earning their livings in nice middle-class jobs at corporations with good retirement plans and health coverage. Even worse, sometimes they did have such jobs, and juggled holding them down with serving a community, and then got downsized and/or had their pension plan looted by the top executives. Either way, like most Neopagan clergy, the odds are high that they are living at an economic level dramatically lower than most of the other Pagans they serve or have served, often for decades. And, of course, there are plenty of Pagan seniors around who may never have been leaders or teachers, but who are still struggling to keep their heads above water, especially in the current economy. January through March are the worst months for Pagan Elders. The weather is cold, there are few (if any) festivals to pay them for teaching, authors’ royalty checks from the Yule shopping season don’t arrive until late March or April, any food gifts from relatives have run out, and everybody in the mainstream culture is broke (or feels that way) . What does or should this mean to non-elderly Pagans? It means that winter is the most important time to check on your local Pagan seniors (and any Elders living in your area) to see how they are doing. Is their rent or mortgage paid, or is their landlord/the bank trying to evict them? Is there heat in their home? Is there food in their pantry? Is their walk shoveled? For the rest of this essay, visit Adopt an Elder! I also made some updates to Our Blatant Hucksterism Page. (Comment on this)