Tuesday Post for Peace on Humpday

I dunno, kids. I spent the better part of yesterday following yet another flame war across the blogosphere. This one just happened to be another supposed Feminist issue. As near as I could tell after reading some 20 posts and over 500 comments, the issue was the "bashing" of "Radfems" by some more moderate Feminists who felt bashed by them. I never really did get exactly how everyone felt so terribly offended, but it was easy enough to see both sides and that it had simply spiraled out of control, ultimately aquiring a life of its own as these things are wont to do.

I know I had the Tuesday Post For Peace on my mind while I was reading, and I was nearly overwhelmed with sadness. By the end of the day I was exhausted, disheartened, and couldn't even imagine how I could write about peace. By the end of the day, I couldn't even imagine what peace would look like. What it would feel like... sound or taste like. By the end of one more day cruising the blogosphere, the word "Peace" was just that; a word.

An empty concept.

Nothing real, that I could get a hold of with my mind and even begin to imagine.

I could sit here now and spin you a tale of magick and mystery; of mythical beasts inhabiting a world of colour and sound and sweetness that would fill your heart and feed your spirit. A world that you could see and touch; if only in your mind.

But, peace? I can't do it. My mind is stifled with reality; my imagination clogged with human nature. I'm overwhelmed with people doing the wrong things for the right reasons. With people whose intention is unity while their actions divide; whose goal is education and enlightenment, while their means become dogma.

I know I started writing about the Feminist flamewar, but I need to be clear; flamewars abound in the blogosphere, and they are called wars for a reason. Our discontent, our outrage, our righteous anger has overflowed in nearly every arena I can think of.

Democrats bash republicans bash democrats while greenies and libertarians bash them both. Religions bash each other while religious fundies bash secularists bash religionists and they both bash the moderates while the moderates bash them both. Feminists bash each other bashing the patriarchy which bashes feminism. Men bash women bash men.

There is no peace. We are all so sure we have the answers that no one is willing to listen to anyone else. S/he who yells loudest or carries the biggest stick wins. The moderates in any arena get swept into the fray and decried as "fence sitters", or even attacked for their unwillingness to "choose sides".

When I began this blog, I hoped for some interaction; some debate, discourse. I was "spoilin' for a fight", because isn't it fun. When I'm in a mood I am wont to troll fundy clips at clipmarks and do a little baiting. There is always something to argue about. And if the opposing opinion is rude or undereducated or dyslexic ins't it wonderful to shut them down with snide remarks or wow everyone reading with my intellect and reason. And even when I'm not looking for a fight there is always something or someone who offends me in their righteous surety of their position, although I'm just as righteous of mine. And don't I just feel so superior in my own surety.

There is no peace.

Peace must needs be found within me. I have found myself wanting.

This seems to be the central truth I have discovered. How can I possibly preach or teach peace when I have so little within me. I call myself "Idealist" and am as unable to live up to my ideals as is the majority of humanity.

If I choose peace, I must needs be peaceful.
If I choose love, I must needs be loving.
If I choose knowledge and education, I must needs educate and know myself.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Love under Will. Love is the Law.

From Wikipedia:

"The three Aeons

The first Aeon of Isis was maternal, where the female aspect of the Godhead was revered due to a mostly matriarchal society and the idea that "Mother Earth" nourished, clothed and housed man. It was characterized by pagan worship of the Mother and Nature. Crowley describes this period as "simple, quiet, easy, and pleasant; the material ignores the spiritual" (Equinox of the Gods).

The Classical/Medieval Aeon of Osiris is considered to be dominated by the paternal principle and the formula of the Dying God. This Aeon was characterized by that of self-sacrifice and submission to the Father God. Crowley says of this Aeon:

Formula of Osiris, whose word is IAO; so that men worshiped Man, thinking him subject to Death, and his victory dependent upon Resurrection. Even so conceived they of the Sun as slain and reborn with every day, and every year. (Heart of the Master)

He also says of the Aeon of Osiris in Equinox of the Gods:

the second [Aeon] is of suffering and death: the spiritual strives to ignore the material. Christianity and all cognate religions worship death, glorify suffering, deify corpses.

The modern Aeon of Horus, is portrayed as a time of self-realization as well as a growing interest in all things spiritual, is considered to be dominated by the principle of the child. The Word of its Law is Thelema (will) which is complimented by Agape (love), and its formula is Abrahadabra. Individuality and finding the True Will are the dominant aspects; its formula is that of growth, in consciousness and love, toward self-realization.

Of the Aeon of Horus, Crowley writes:

the crowned and conquering child, who dieth not, nor is reborn, but goeth radiant ever upon His Way. Even so goeth the Sun: for as it is now known that night is but the shadow of the Earth, so Death is but the shadow of the Body, that veileth his Light from its bearer. (Heart of the Master)

And also:

The Aeon of Horus is here: and its first flower may well be this: that, freed of the obsession of the doom of the Ego in Death, and of the limitation of the Mind by Reason, the best men again set out with eager eyes upon the Path of the Wise, the mountain track of the goat, and then the untrodden Ridge, that leads to the ice-gleaming pinnacles of Mastery! (Little Essays Towards Truth, "Mastery") "

*emphasis mine

Peace out.