JamesLindenschmidt.com

Piercing the peer-to-peer myths: An examination of the Canadian experience has been published. Looks like interesting reading, but the basic idea is that p2p filetrading hasn’t really affected artists income at all. I’ll try to read it at work today.

I’ve been thinking about how I would describe my spiritual reality to someone whom I’d just met. In general, I try to avoid labels as I find them limiting and constricting — “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes).”

But labels can be useful in a descriptive sense, so long as one does not mistake the map for the territory. In my life I have used some of the following labels at one time or another to describe my spiritual existence (in approximate chronological order): Catholic, Christian, Neopagan, Wiccan, Grailseeker, Philosopher, Pagan, Buddhist, Process Metaphysician, Energy Worker. And indeed, all of them still ring true on some level (apart from the first two).

But that doesn’t really say much. For example, what do I mean by “pagan”? This word (its origin is Latin for “redneck”) simply means country-dweller; it was a term used by the Christian power establishment to describe those not under their direct control, those who did not live in the cities where their behavior could be easily monitored. These people, who were not constrained by urban routine, tended to live their lives more closely attuned with the cycles of nature (day/night, summer/winter, etc.).

These days I see “pagan” as being broader than “wiccan,” in that all wiccans are pagans but not all pagans are wiccans. Wicca, while I appreciate its map, is really too narrow for me. I’m not so much into ritual or tools these days, though I still find them useful as a parent raising a child. When I do my own spiritual work it tends to be introspective and conceived in terms of chi/qi/ki/universal life energy (“chi” from now on), or simply “energy.”

I’m already babbling. I’m trying to imagine what I would say to someone interested in my spiritual path. Where to begin?

OK, like a good Buddhist, I’ll begin with the Now.

Now, I am more spiritual than religious; I am more metaphysician than theologian. I believe in the divine (how can any awake person not?) but I don’t find much divinity in rigid codes of behavior and simplistic modes of religious expression. I am panentheistic in my view of divinity: the divine is in all of creation, and all of creation is animated by the divine. I am intrigued by the relationship between this notion of the divine and chi, the notion of universal life energy. I’m not necessarily convinced that chi is the divine, but I have no doubt that there is a correlation between the two.

For instance, consider any religious experience. Those experiences whose intensity is palpable, you can feel God in you, you get goosebumps on your skin, your heart rate goes up, and your breath is quickened. These instances, in my experience, are utterly charged and suffused with chi. This is what the divine feels like inside of us.

I have spent the last several years learning to feel this energy, and indeed trying to cultivate its intensity within myself. There are many ways to do this — T’ai Chi and Reiki among the most well-known — but once I began to focus my attention on the energy, it seemed to come naturally to me. I do have some basic T’ai Chi Ch’uan training, and I have received Reiki attunements, which have undoubtedly helped.

But working with this energy is, in my view, the closest way we have to be in touch with the divine. Awareness of this energy IS awareness of the divine at work in and around us. Prayer becomes something other than linguistic; moments of true communion with the divine can be felt, and this feeling at its most intense is indistinguishable from love.

This energy, by the way, is not a noun but a verb. My view of this sort of energy is highly informed not only by direct experience, but also by the metaphysical map of process metaphysics. This view sees all of creation as being in motion, things constantly move and shift in a neverending state of becoming tempered by endurance. And this view is consistent with chi; the divine energy ebbs and flows as creation vibrates and breathes; all of creation is suffused with chi, some more active than others.

So much of my spiritual practice these days is working with this energy, raising it, directing it, feeling it. And I’m particularly interested in working with this energy with other people who are also trained in this sort of work. One example is music; when I play music with other attentive energy-workers, it produces some of the most vivid examples of energy I know of.

Recently I have experienced this sort of energy work in a new and very intense way, energy work from a distance. This type of work for me is very informed by my Reiki work, which can include distance Reiki, or energy-exchange/healing without physical presence. These recent experiences have, for me, been very powerful in a way I’ve never experienced, though the energies at work in this situation are not just Reiki; they contain Reiki, but there is more to it than that. There is a very deep connection I feel and am cultivating with this person. And it feels wonderful. As I’ve been saying to people when I try to describe it: for the first time in a while, my intensity in this sort of work is being reciprocated in a very familiar way. I think we just work very well together. ;-)

In general, I really try hard not to whine. But to go outside on a glorious Maine spring day, with the temperatures in the 60s, the brilliant blue Maine sky that I love so much, a gentle breeze, and the warm sun shining down on my vitamin-D-deprived skin, only to get into my car and drive to an office building where I’ll sit for 12 hours in front of a computer with a window teasingly to my immediate right, just isn’t fair.

Well, I went out today and bought a Shovelglove. And it is now officially a Shovelglove, because rather than wrapping an old sweater around the hammer like some Nazi purist, I covered it with 2 square feet of carpet padding and duct tape.

I was hoping for a 12 pound hammer, but was faced with a choice of 8, 10, or 16 lbs. I erred for a 10 pounder, because a) I’m not concerned with strength, more cardio and endurance; and b) this way hopefully other people (ie, my wife) can use it too.

Looking forward to getting onto the Shovelglove routine.

Spring is definitely here. My daughter is outside riding her bike. I’m having some coffee, but I think today will need to be spent outdoors.

JWL.Freakwitch.net (syndicated by LiveJournal.com) is now operational. I don’t mean for this post to be redundant, but it actually is running now. I do plan to become more active in LJ. If you are an LJ person, my friends list is here.

I am attempting to syndicate this site on LiveJournal. The username for the syndication on LJ is jwlindenschmidt.

And for anyone seeing this on LJ, the original is at JWL.Freakwitch.net.

When I left the studio tonight, I looked up and saw bright, shining, orangish Jupiter, sitting smack dab in the middle of Cancer. I’ve only recognized Cancer in the sky a handful of times, but tonight it was unmistakeable.

UPDATE: well, it turns out Jupiter is actually in Virgo. That’s what I saw and mistook for Cancer. Shows you how much I know my own constellation…. *rolls eyes*

OK, so if I understand the way karma works, we are supposed to repeat our actions until we get them right, culminating in a state of Enlightenment, Boddhisatva, or even Nirvana. Makes sense.

But if that’s the case, then aren’t we obligated to seize every opportunity we have to repeat a past pattern, but with more skill? If we have a chance to do something right — something that we’ve failed at in the past — aren’t we obligated from a soul work perspective to do it right? Doesn’t that move us one step closer to these goals? Isn’t some old karmic debt repaid?

I’m beginning to think so. Skillful means, indeed.

Alright, OK. Once again I am demonstrating my depths of insensitivity by singing a song when a man beloved by millions dies.

Cough, cough.

Witch, Pope, what’s the difference? It’s a stupid song. Doesn’t even matter.

But what gets me about the news of the depopification of the catholic church by natural causes is that the man is being celebrated because he “took on the Soviet regime and emboldened eastern Europeans to bring down the communist system.”

Um, yeah. Because you know the Roman Catholic church is all about freeing the common man from the oppressor.

Why so bitter? Well, I grew up Catholic. Oh, and I’ve spent a lot of time cultivating the ability to think for myself and to question authority. A combination of those two will bring about bitterness every time.

I can hear people now: “but JPII was a good soul, he was a great man.” Perhaps. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never met him, I’ve never felt his soul energy. What I do know is that while he was in office, he upheld ridiculous, atavistic policies that don’t make any sense at all. The Catholic Church is still against birth control, when things like AIDS are floating around. The Catholic Church is still anti-choice, when the issue is far too complicated for any sort of systematic policy to address. The Catholic Church remains one of the largest political structures that systematically oppresses women. He ignored and suppressed a horrific epidemic of pedophelia in the US, a cancer that festered within the organization he is responsible for. All of these policies were upheld under JPII’s watch.

So yeah. Maybe he was a great man. What do I know.

May he rest in peace, and may the next pope be more forward-thinking. The Roman Catholic church is becoming increasingly irrelevant, and JPII presided over much of that trend.