JamesLindenschmidt.com

I’ve written before that I conceive of health in terms of Mind, Body, and Spirit. All of these are necessary for total health. When I went back to school in 1998, obviously I spent a lot of time focusing on Mind. Since I graduated in 2002, I’ve reasserted Spirit, a practice that continues to this day. And of course this year I’ve been highly focused on Body.

Perhaps my first realization through this purification is that my mind is not as well-trained as it has been in the past. Not that I’m suddenly stupid or anything (or at least stupider than my standard stupidity level), but spending a few dozen hours per week working through a philosophy text and writing about it, focusing one’s thoughts, is like mental calisthenics. That’s a practice I’ve largely stopped. I do occasionally read philosophy, but not with the rigor or discipline of a formal, dedicated student. So I’ve missed that in a way. I’m also finding that while I remain aware of the political situation, I’m just not as invested in it as I have been; my outrage levels have faded into something like detached amusement. I still care, but I just don’t want to invest energy into being outraged anymore.

I also think my “strategy” in terms of social change has shifted somewhat. Rather than rage against the machine, I think living my life in a way that makes sense to me and promotes goodness and health is the best thing I can do to combat the fascist reality that exists today in America and the world. I sometimes wonder if this is just putting my head in the sand. But I truly believe that the best thing I can do to Change The World(tm) is to continue to focus on my music. It’s been a long, slow birthing process, but once our music is widely available I have no doubt that the message of optimism, entrainment, and reality-creation implicit in our music will effect wave after wave of positive change.

Damn, what a hippie I have become…. heh heh heh.

The purification ritual still goes well. It’s not as difficult as I thought it might be, actually. But then again, in terms of body, I’m feeling better now than I have in many years. I bought a new sledgehammer last week, an upgrade in weight so that my exercise routine is a bit more challenging, something that I welcome.

I’m healthier now than I’ve ever been as an adult. I have more muscle mass, I’m stronger, and I’m at my lowest weight in over a decade. I feel very good, yet I still think there is a long way to go. It is the difference between goal-oriented thinking, and process-oriented thinking. This time, I’m focusing on the process, on developing a healthy routine, as opposed to wishing I were at a specific goal in terms of health/weight etc.

Sustainability is so important, on so many levels. I continue to try to purify myself, in the interest of long-term sustainable health.

For several years running, a close friend of mine has undergone a purification ritual at the beginning of each (pagan) year, from Samhain to Yule. This year I’ve decided to join him, a somewhat austere yet quite healthy program to purify the body and forge the will. I’m a few days into it now, and it’s going well thus far, though it is not without its challenges.

I was talking with another friend of mine that “purification” seems to be a central theme this season. Indeed it is so. This past year has been a huge challenge on many levels for me, and now that much of the negativity has been cleared, it seems as if I’m purifying the space that’s left, cultivating sacred space in my life/energy system in which to place new endeavors looking forward. Ritual purification indeed.

Also, I’ve been feeling the Norse Old Ones calling to me lately. I figured it was a matter of time, given the large percentage of Norwegian blood flowing through my veins. One nice thing about neopaganism is that one is free to associate/identify with any chosen aspect of deity; yet that ancestral calling can definitely resonate strongly.

I went to a Halloween party dressed as Thor recently. I can especially hear Thor beckoning to me on some level; I’ve been wearing Thor’s holy symbol around my neck for several days, and of course I’ve been having fun with my own version of Mjolnir for several months now.

But in many ways, Thor represents the aspects of masculinity that I have always had the hardest time identifying with. Thor was the best warrior, and the strongest, yet I am a pacifist. Thor was quick to anger and frustration and violence, all qualities I have tried to quieten within myself. Yet, Thor was also the protector of the gods, the one who took care of the most challenging tasks.

I don’t know much about Thor yet, but I’m learning, and I’ve put the energy out there for Thor to teach me what I need to learn from him.

So I need to beware huge serpents encircling the Earth, giant cats that cannot be lifted, and drinking horns with one end connected to the sea. Or something.

John Chuckman strikes again:

The name War on Terror is itself perhaps the darkest example of Bushspeak. You cannot have a war on ideas, or a war on religious beliefs, or even a war on people’s feelings of grievance and injustice. The War on Terror is code for belligerent interference in the Middle East. It is also code for the suppression of dissent in America, something dear to the kind of people with which Bush surrounds himself, people who lie, cheat, and profit from billions of dollars being squandered. And all this crashes over us as a result of what the intelligence community calls blowback from bad policies and neglect of years ago.

The above is the final paragraph of this article, which literally deconstructs an entire recent speech by George Dubya. Essential reading for those who are easily mystified or are lulled to sleep by BuShite rhetoric….

More on the dreamspace thing. I mentioned that some dreams I have are significant to me. The measuring stick of this significance is not so much the plot of the dream, but more the feeling I have after having experienced the dream.

There are times when I wake up, knowing that the dream that has already begun fading from my memory is significant, and that I’d better remember it.

The dream the other night was one of those.

For as long as I can remember, I haven’t regularly remembered my dreams. Much of this is due to some sleep difficulties I’ve battled over the years, but these difficulties are largely behind me. Yet, I still don’t often remember my dreams. I wish I had more of these memories; there is a rich, millenia-old tradition of dreams and dream interpretation enhancing one’s spiritual experience. But every once in a while, I have a doozy that I remember with vivid detail, they are like small gifts, crystalline images punctuating my spiritual reality.

Last night was one of those dreams.

One of the keys to active work in dreamspace is to learn to trust the dreams, and to trust your interpretation of said dreams. It similar to the development of psychic awareness/abilities; we all have these abilities, it’s just a matter of learning to tune into them and trust one’s perception of them.

Yet I find myself in a quandary. I have the dream; its meaning, at least on the surface, is very clear and very vivid, and the plot of the dream very pleasing to me. Yet, I am hesitant to interpret the dream literally because the contents of the dream aren’t just about me. It could easily be wishful thinking on my part about the behavior of others. So I’m in that space where my rational mind is rejecting the immediate, literal interpretation on ethical grounds (no power-over, no asserting my will without regard to the will of others involved), and I haven’t yet found an alternative interpretation. There could be a serious disconnect between meaning in this dream, and meaning in everyday life. This difficulty is further complicated by the fact that another person — one of the main characters in this dream apart from myself — is also very active in dreamspace.

So yes, keeping this grounded, and looking at it from as many different angles as possible is in order here. I’m sure the meaning will become clearer to me over time.

A friend of mine pointed me to Alive in Baghdad, and wow. It’s a radical journalist doing the site, which “was formed with the intent of making the world, and particularly the United States, aware of the Iraqi experience.”

A must read. Start at the bottom and work your way up.

I’ve thought for many years that the function of Republican administrations, in general, is to push the limits as far as possible, maximizing benefits for corporations and private interests at the expense of the people, and that the function of Democratic administrations is to preserve the gains so that the outrageousness of these gains will be normalized in the minds of the people, a sense of relief and calm between Republican offensives against the rights of the people.

This seems to be happening now.

For example, gas prices have gone back down; I’ve seen gas at $2.39 per gallon recently. A year ago, people would have been outraged to pay these prices, but now, after being over $3 per gallon for much of the summer, most people are delighted to pay $2.39.

This pattern seems to be reasserting itself again with the Supreme Court nominations. I just read that Harriet Miers has officially withdrawn her bid to be on the Bench. I think she was nominated because she represents someone utterly unqualified, a completely outrageous example of cronyism at its worst.

So now that she is out of the picture, many people will be glad to get some experienced, right-wing, hardcore redneck judge who is “qualified” yet holds many of the same political positions as Miers. It was a win-win scenario for the BuShites: if accepted, she’d be a friend in a high place; if rejected, they could come up with another horrendous nominee that people would feel glad to get — New Nominee X isn’t as bad as that Miers chick.

Watch and see….

Today was pumpkin carving day with my daughter:

I don’t often underestimate my daughter, but she did far more to help today than I thought she would. The rind on this pumpkin was particularly thick, about 1.5″ on average, 2″ thick in places. So she didn’t quite have the hand strength to do the actual carving, but she made the dotted lines by sticking the tip of a nail through the template, so I’d know where to carve. I thought she’d maybe do a few and get bored, but once I got her started with this she did it all, finishing it by herself! It was very cool. She also did the bulk of the pumpkin-de-gutting.

It was fun and, of course, messy. Perfect for a dad and an 8-year old.

The Freakwitch.net reimagination is underway. We have new artwork brewing. Watch that space. There is also a demo recording available there, a 7:20 montage of a half-dozen songs from recent rehearsals.