More Random Musings...

I tried to do a reading for a lady on the Saturday morning.  It just didn't flow.  The story wasn't there, and it didn't make sense to either of us.

So I tried again.  Same thing.

I said, I obviously just can't read for you. No charge, and I'm sorry.  Her mother came back from her wanderings at the time and had just had the same experience with two other readers.

My first reaction is always to doubt myself.  If I'm consistently in conflict, I take a step back to see if I'm the problem, so if I'm unable to do a reading, I take a step back to see if I'm just not tuned in today or if there is a fault with me.

The next two readings were (I was told by the clients) accurate to the point of being quite spooky.  So I got my answer.

I was talking to someone from a neighbouring stall later on in the day about this, and she shook her head at me and said "You should never doubt yourself dear."

Never?

Isn't this arrogance?  If I'm wrong, I'd like to be able to see it before it's a problem.  I will always look to myself first (unless I'm really really mad - then I don't look at anything).

I'm not saying I want or need constant validation - I got over that a while back, although validation is nice when it just happens, it's not something I need.  I'm always just a little cynical when it comes to Tarot reading, it's often so vague it could be about anyone, and I'm aware that some of my readings have been so vague and generalised that this could be the case, and when I'm not getting any other messages with it, I do wonder.

But to never doubt seems, well, I can't find the words for how it feels to me.  It makes me think of all the stallholders and lightworkers who impose their truth upon you and deliver lectures about how life is supposed to be according to them.  I'm sure their truths work for them, but they just piss me off.  If I ever turn into one of those prats, someone please shoot me.

Maybe that's it.  If I don't doubt myself, and do an internal integrity check now and then, I'm afraid I'll turn into one of them...

Random Musings After a Body Mind Spirit Festival

Twice a year, in Christchurch is the Body Mind Spirit Festival, a two day mega-expo, filled with stalls where you can find everything from crystals, healers, readers to Christian healing prayer to an audit from the Dianetics people to SAFE with petitions for free range animals.

We've been doing this festival for (I think) 7 years now, and we've seen a lot of changes come and go in that time, our expectations have changed and at the moment it's fun again.

The thing I like the most is talking with people, the new seekers just starting out and not sure which is the right book for them, or those who want a new Tarot deck and want to discuss the differences between what we have on offer.  Or those who think I'm going to agree with the shite they've just rabbited off about how ancient Wicca is, or tell me how brave I am being out there when we're still so terribly persecuted.

This weekend just gone was different.  I met one awesome couple who seem to be just like me!! (so of course they're awesome right? :p) the similarities in our beliefs was surprising for me who usually manages to find something to upset everyone.  What they called "peace, love and f**king mung beans" I refer to as "happy, sparkly moonbeams" but we were talking about the same people.

I met a lovely chap who has just started to learn about magic and witchcraft, but isn't sure which direction (high or low) he's headed in, he was intelligent, and it was refreshing to have someone who isn't going to take everything in a book as gospel and use his own common sense when reading things!

Then late on Sunday, I met a lady who reads this blog.  In all honesty, I was kinda gobsmacked.  While I know this blog is public, and I can see the analytics telling me how many people have seen each page, I still pretty much assumed that it was mostly my friends who read it, or people who know me to some extent - some of them to have something to bitch about behind my back - yes I do know that still goes on, and if I'm the most interesting thing you can find to talk about, how sad your life must be aye? Move on and grow up! - and some in support of me because they're the most awesome friends a girl can have, and some because they like the way I think, or find my rants familiar and amusing.  I'm apparently following in the footsteps of someone we know and love (or love to hate).

It made me think about how I use this blog.  For the most part, this is me thinking aloud.  I don't think I have very good communication with myself, and writing brings out the internal stuff that my conscious mind is often not even aware of.  This is how I process some events, or thoughts, and certainly not all of it gets published.  Sometimes I have a point to make, sometimes I'm just being a bitch (but hopefully a useful one).  I've been told that I'm too honest - not so much from a tactless point of view (although that has been raised from time to time too) but that when someone asks me what's going on, I'll tell them.  There are some things that I shouldn't share because someone will use them against me.

I've recently realised that in order to make people think about some of the idiocy they spout, you first have to piss them off.  If you politely and tactfully raise a point it will often be ignored.  Take Hone Harawira's recent stunt for example.  If he'd used nicer words, no one would have paid him any attention, but by saying something as offensive as he did, he drew attention to a point he was trying to make.  Love him or hate him (and there doesn't seem to be a middle ground) he's doing his job.

So for all the good people out there who aren't my friends who read this, if I do say something that offends, ask yourself why.  If I push a button, what do you need to learn about that button?  And thank you to the people who do read it and support it I'll try not to let it go to my head.  :)

But I would also like to especially thank Mist.  Not only does he read it, he usually comments.  Now he could tell me his thoughts privately but he chooses to do so publicly.  He thinks sideways from the way I do, and so I learn a lot from his observations and comments.

Blessings

Debbie

Cynicism and Negativity

I was at an expo recently, and I was having a chat with another stallholder about pagan groups.  She mentioned that she’s only just joined one.  I know the group that she’s talking about and for my own reasons I have nothing nice to say about them.  So instead of coming out with my reservations, I asked her how she found it, I mentioned that a few years ago that group did a ritual at our PaganFest and there were a few members who were quite toxic and put half our attendees off attending the ritual with their manner and behaviour.  Apparently the bulk of those toxic members have gone.

She asked me if I had a group and I said no, I don’t do groups any more.  We talked for a while about it, I said that groups can be great especially when you’re beginning as it’s a good way to get some confidence about what you’re doing, in the early days when you’re not sure about anything it provides some validation.  I also made the comment that where you have groups you have politics.  “That’s your opinion” she told me, but then went on to say that it happens in any group not just pagan ones, which had been my point.  She also told me that I was only expressing the negatives.

Huh?

I’d just given her both the pros and the cons of groups, but it seemed she only heard the negatives and yet I’m the negative person?

This isn’t the first time I’ve been called negative, it’s been happening quite a bit lately.  There was a discussion on a facebook group started by a small piece about what witches are.  One of the women commenting said that all the witches she’s met are kind and caring and accepting and all-round wonderful people.  I said we can’t have met many of the same witches as the nastiest, most destructive people I’ve met have also been witches. Witches are still people first with all the good and bad, beauty and failings that are in everyone, witches are no better or worse than everyone else, we just kid ourselves about it more.

I got called negative for this.  I disagreed and said it wasn’t negative, it was honest and realistic.  Others joined in to agree with me.

I thought about this blog, and how it’s mostly rants lately.  I don’t believe that they’re all negative, well some aren’t, but some are.  Mostly they’re my reaction to outright stupidity, and these people breed!!

I’m cynical, I freely admit that.  I made a decision a few years ago to see the good in people.  It came from the realisation that you recognise in others what you know.  Someone who only sees the bad in people is not usually a nice person, and some of the sweetest people I’ve met have only ever seen the good in others.  I wanted to see the good in people, as a way to improve myself.  You would not believe how often this has bitten me on the bum.  Choosing to see only the good or only the bad is unbalanced and naive.  No one is purely good or purely bad, we’re all a blend and shades of both in between.  Nothing is ever that clearly defined.

I’ve also found a lot of fantasy and delusion within the Pagan and Spiritual communities.  There are some people who’s philosophy on life is so light and fluffy that at times I wonder how they manage to tie their shoelaces, but I’m of the belief that if it’s not harming anyone (including themselves) and it makes them happy then that’s great.  Their life journey may be taking them somewhere different to mine.  Perhaps they’re making up for a dark and heavy past life, and in their next one they’ll be more balanced and walk a middle line.  The dilution of Paganism and the blend of New Age ideas has also contributed to this.

My cynicism has come from too many years in the Pagan Community.  I sometimes think I’ve seen and heard the best and the worst the community has to offer, and I really hope that’s the case, because I don’t want to imagine it any worse!  I’ve heard all sorts of grand claims and read books so filled with idiocy that they almost make me feel ill, but still people buy and then recommend them to others.  One of the latest such that I read through told the beginner that Wicca has been around for more than 25,000 years!!

Did you know that every x on your palm is all the times you’ve been burned at the stake in past lives? 

Or that this chap clearly remembers a past life from 600 years ago when he was working with Merlin at Stonehenge in Scotland. (Or sadly how many people find only one flaw with that statement).

Or this woman who likes to tell everyone that she’s got fairy blood because her Dad had an experience that he doesn’t remember that turned his hair pure white. 

Or this couple who frequently state that a 12 year old girl can be a Wiccan High Priestess. 

Or all the people who go on (especially at Christmas) about how those dirty Christians stole our holidays. 

Or the much respected High Priest who is frequently caught out lying or changing his story for community politics, can’t keep his mouth shut about things he should (and I don’t believe that it’s ever ok to laugh your tits off while telling people outside your coven how you turned someone down for second degree initiation because “she’d be a shit HPs”), and justifies telling a destructive person other people’s secrets with “there’s just something fun about her.”

Or the psychic/druid who needed me to do a house clearing because there was a draconian in the house, and draconians are masonic and masons and druids don’t mix.  (Google draconians and reptilians if you want a laugh)

Or the guy who was getting psychically attacked by everyone he stood up to and he had proof!

I have genuinely met all of these people.  Seriously. They all firmly believe these things, some are not so much in the realm of fluffy as dangerous - 12 year old HPs is a case of sexual misconduct if ever I heard one - and there is no way that anyone outside of your coven should ever hear any of your coven business.

I realise that after 10 years of running coffee meets and being involved in Pagan Festivals that I’ve put myself in a place where I do seem to attract an overly heavy dose of the flake factor (as one friend called it).  He was really surprised when I went through some of the people who have crossed my path and/or asked for my help over the years.  This is part of the reason I’ve stepped back from that, the other is, it’s thankless and draining and it’s about time someone else took over.  I’ve also met some wonderful people, ones who’ve become true friends or have inspired me.

Being cynical is my way of protecting myself.  Part of me wants to believe that everyone who comes to me is sincere and intelligent and has genuinely had this or that happen, but that’s never going to be the case.  I’m often not outwardly cynical, I’m mostly pleasant and understanding on the surface, but there are times that you should be glad that you can’t read my mind - especially those who tell me that they can, but should have at least flinched when I projected that at them mentally.  It’s too easy to test sweetie, stop kidding yourself - because what I do express when I choose to express my cynicism is nothing compared to what can go on inside.

I did go back to the first lady and tell her she’d given me a few things to think about.  She beamed in that way so many lightworkers do when they think they’ve helped you learn a life lesson.  What I learned is where she is up to on her path.  She told me she understood why I was probably cynical, but I need to let go of the negatives and just focus on the positives.  I could see that telling her how superficial, unbalanced and unhealthy that would be was going to be a colossal waste of my time, and she wouldn’t get it yet.

What a lot of beginners don’t realise is that it’s not all sweetness and light, it’s not happy sparkly moonbeams and unicorns pissing rainbows.  There is a dark side.  And it’s you.  Any genuine spiritual journey is a journey of self-discovery, and there are dark parts of our souls that society teaches us we should hide from the world.  In Modern Magic by Schele de Vere, he talks about how any true ecstatic moment reached by a mystic is followed by depression and despondency.  Aleister Crowley talks about the Long Dark Night of the Soul, Kabballah students find themselves experiencing the vices, virtues and obligations of each sephiroth.  All the myths and legends that touch on the mysteries involve a descent into the underworld.  For the journey to be an honest one, you need the balance of the negative as well as the positive.

Since I originally wrote this piece, I felt that putting it up on my blog would somehow be wrong.  I felt as though I’m touching on secrets that the average beginner or seeker isn’t ready for.  Since then I’ve read a couple of books (yes they were small ones but well worth the read) that made the same points.  There was also a friend on facebook asking for advice about the BBD (big black dog - another name for depression) and I made the comment that it’s part of any true spiritual journey, it’s the balance and noticed that the friend said that since she stopped medicating her BBD, she has high points and an appreciation for the beautiful things in life that was lacking when she was taking the ‘happy’ pills.  Another friend who I consider to be a very spiritual person commented that when you accept the low times as a part of life then they pass more quickly, and they have something to teach you while they’re there.  It’s not about removing them, it’s about understanding them.

I’m not negative for expressing both sides of the story, I’m doing my best to maintain a balance.

Don't Feed the Troll

I was added to a group on Facebook a short while back.  A Pagan group combating plagiarism.  A subject dear to my heart as we know.  For the most part it was fairly quiet to begin with, except for frequent reminders that anyone who has the admins blocked will be removed from the group and that lurkers will be removed.

A bit strange on the lurker front, but okay.

Then someone posted about a new-old-recycled-but still with all the same errors book that had popped up on Amazon.  I very quickly learned about an interesting person or group of people (theories are varied) who have published a number of books.  When the first book was approaching publication, the publisher pulled it as the plagiarism content was too high.  They even blogged about it here and here.

If I’ve understood this correctly, the books were then self-published and up for sale on Amazon, where they met with resounding criticism.

Now identical books have been (self) published but this time by someone else who claims to have no knowledge or association with the previous author.

Read all about it here  or here it’s worth reading through the archives, it’s quite entertaining.

The Amazon reviews on the new books are certainly um, well, interesting, but it gets frightening when the author or friends of theirs start attacking the reviewers.  Claims are made about sock puppets and then private information (addresses and phone numbers I believe) are posted on these reviews and on facebook.  What’s even more frightening is that someone got a threatening phone call from one of this group, and they had gotten the wrong person.  Similarity of Amazon pseudonyms had caused the mistake, perhaps, but what started out as defending their dreadful work has become stalking and something a whole lot more sinister.

After all of this was documented and discussed on the facebook group, someone states that these people are the reason this group was created and the reason behind the lurker rule.  The whole reason is to keep an eye on these people? Really?

Now I do understand that these people are more than just a little unhinged, obviously out for the quickest buck they can and their books are cut and paste from google searches.  But to create a group purely for the purpose of keeping an eye on them and combating their crimes against paganism?  Strangely enough, a link was provided for the website Problematic Pagans and yet none of this problematic group seem to be mentioned on it.  Wouldn’t this be one of the most appropriate places for such information?

Maybe there is a reason that this “author/coven” are paranoid and now on the offensive – people are out to get them.  If they were ignored and allowed to sink into the obscurity that their work deserves they wouldn’t be quite so prominent or getting as much attention as they are.

Has the phrase “Don’t Feed The Troll” never occurred to this group? 

The more attention they get, the greater their notoriety, the more people wonder if perhaps they’re just being picked on by big bad meanies.  As my mother used to say, ignore them and they’ll go away.

Personal Responsibility

So the new law has our tobacco displays covered up and there is talk of there being a requirement for plain packaging as well.  I’ve heard oh so many people going on about how smoking will be (or should be) made illegal by a certain date.  Staff in shops where tobacco products are sold are not allowed to talk about it or even open the cupboard door very wide.  I remember when The Australian Rugby League competition was the Winfield Cup and we had the Benson and Hedges Fashion Awards.  Removing sponsorship and naming from these events has clearly not made any difference to the numbers of smokers, so what will hiding tobacco products altogether achieve?

There is no mistaking that smoking is bad for you.  The barrage of anti-smoking advertising on bus stops as well as throughout the media has made certain that there is absolutely no doubt about that.  I am aware of the dangers and I still exercise my right as a thinking free adult to smoke.  I am sensible about it, I do not smoke inside where I would be putting others at risk with second-hand smoke.  My partner is a non-smoker, and agrees with all the legislation that is being talked about, but I am concerned.  I’m concerned not from the point of view of being a smoker, I’m concerned about where this kind of thing will stop.

You see, over the years there has been a gradual shift to wrap us all in cotton wool.  We have to wear seatbelts, get minerals (whether we need them or want them) baked into our bread and I have to wonder what will be next.

My tattoo artist has his health department certificate displayed in his shop.  There are strict hygiene requirements that he has to adhere to and given the nature of his business, it’s quite understandable.  His complaint is that in several years of having this business he has yet to have a health inspector come out to check his shop and hygiene practices.  He got a certificate based on him telling them over the phone what he was doing.  Then he was pulled over and fined $150 for cycling without a helmet.  So in a situation where the only person who could get hurt was himself he was fined, but in a situation where he could be passing lethal diseases around the population no one seemed to care.

There is a lot of debate about whether fluoride is good for you.  It’s clear that a little is good for your teeth, but I’ve read articles about how too much is quite toxic.  When there is fluoride in our toothpaste, do we really need more in our water?  Do we have any choice?

There was a law passed that made all bread manufacturers put folic acid in the bread.  This is because some mothers don’t have enough in their system during pregnancy and don’t take it as a supplement. A lack of folic acid causes spina bifida in the unborn baby.  Apparently, everyone in the country who eats bread is a pregnant mother now.

My daughter’s preschool sent home a list of acceptable foods for lunches.  The staff had discussed what they considered to be acceptable and what was on the not acceptable list.  They said that they’d take the “bad” foods out of the kids’ lunchboxes and return them at the end of the day.  No nutrition training had gone into the list.  I wasn’t allowed to give my daughter a home-baked chocolate muffin, but pizza, luncheon meat and salami were ok.  I protested that as her parent, it was my choice what she ate and that I wouldn’t be adhering to their lists, I had to take it to head office, the Ministry of Education and also got the Heart Foundation involved before they backed down.

I don’t want to sound paranoid, but it seems that slowly and surely the small things in our lives are being regulated, we are losing our choices and at this point it seems like a good thing.  It’s being served up to as as being for our own good and to protect those who aren’t smart enough to know better.  Our benevolent kindly Nanny State is looking out for us.  We all know the saying about good intentions.

What happens when there are no more little things to regulate?  Do we then get to the big things?  At what point do we suddenly wake up and realise that we have no choices left, that they’re all made by someone else.

There is a poem about the Holocaust -

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

~Martin Niemoller 1946

I’m finding this going around and around my head a lot lately.  First they regulated for our safety (seatbelts and cycle helmets) and I said nothing because it was sensible and I used them anyway.

Maybe a little overdramatic, but my point remains.  Where are our choices going? Where is the personal responsibility?  When do we get to grow up and take control of our own lives?  And at what point do we wake up and say enough?

Copyright and Fair Use

Copyright is an issue that I find myself constantly having to deal with.  So much so, that at times that I’ve considered giving up writing for the net.

I frequently have to do a check to see if any of my work has been stolen and used elsewhere on the net, and often enough, it is.  I’ve been criticised for my use of the word stolen, but under copyright law, that’s exactly what it is.

It doesn’t matter if you credit me, it doesn’t matter if you provide a link back to the original, if you have used an article of mine without my permission, you have breached copyright laws and I can file a takedown notice with your service provider.  Usually, I will contact you first however.

I struggle with it.  It is flattering that someone likes my work enough to copy it and put it up on their page.  Sometimes.  I started writing for the web to see if I could write in a way that people want to read, and this is how I find out that apparently , yes I do.  When I find blogs filled with stolen work (including but not limited to mine) and massive amounts of advertising on those blogs, I know someone is just out for a quick buck.  Not quite so flattering.

When I find my work on someone else’s blog and credited to them, that’s a whole different story.  And when their clixsense stats show that they’ve made 100 times more off it than I have, well that means war.

You see, when I’m writing on the web, on some sites (not this one however) I get paid for it.  That payment comes from page views, ad-clicks and a whole lot of other stuff that I don’t really understand.  So when someone rips off my article from one of those sites, they’re taking away my potential to earn.

That may sound grasping and a bit greedy to you but consider this.  I found that working for other people wasn’t working for me (pun intended).  I feel that women are expected to be men that look different.  That we are supposed to carry on every day and not need some time out when we have our periods – which is idiotic to say the least.  That we are supposed to just send sick kids to school and not take all that time off.

However, while I make and grow a lot of things that most people would buy, I still need money.  I can’t grow teabags or dish-washing liquid or laundry powder.  I still need to pay a mortgage, pay for my electricity and pay insurance.  So I still need a source of income.  Writing is something I enjoy, and writing about pagan-related concepts is a passion.  I thought I’d found a way to make a little bit (and it is only a little bit) of money doing something I enjoy and am passionate about.  So it hurts to have my meagre few cents a month stolen from me.

Anyway, back to the original point of this rant.

I’ve become extremely familiar with how copyright law works, that an excerpt can be used under ‘fair use’ but not taking the whole thing.  So when I recently come across someone explaining that ‘fair use’ means you can take anything you want from the net as long as it’s credited and no one is making a profit from it, I’m rightly a bit offended.

As it’s a common misconception, I was polite.  I explained that this wasn’t true, that depending on the license (it was a photo being discussed), you needed to contact the copyright owner and ask for permission first.  The response I got was interesting:

“Debbie, I'm 52 and been blogging for years. Read this and then tell me I'm lying. http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html Not true my foot.”

Firstly, what was the point in telling me his age?  Does being 52 automatically make you an expert on copyright law?

Secondly, I followed the link.  I read through the fact sheet on fair use of copyrighted materials.  Nowhere in there did it back his theory of “credited and not for profit”.  It said that they were factors that would be taken into consideration, but it didn’t make the leap that he had.

The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.”

Here is fair use, directly from the source provided by this chap.  It also states:

The safest course is to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material. The Copyright Office cannot give this permission.

When it is impracticable to obtain permission, you should consider avoiding the use of copyrighted material unless you are confident that the doctrine of fair use would apply to the situation. The Copyright Office can neither determine whether a particular use may be considered fair nor advise on possible copyright violations. If there is any doubt, it is advisable to consult an attorney.

From US Copyright Office Fair Use

Which was my point.  If you don’t need permission, why would this be there?

I said to him that his proof didn’t back him up at all, but apparently, because he’s been blogging for years and uses photos all the time and never had a takedown notice, that’s further proof – these people obviously actually know the law.

So now, not getting caught is the same as doing it legally?

New Zealand copyright law is more specific.  And we are in New Zealand. 

“Fair dealing” exceptions to infringement

A “fair dealing” with copyright material does not infringe copyright if it is for the following purposes:

• research or private study;

• criticism or review; or

• reporting current events.

From Copyright Council of New Zealand Fair Dealing Information Sheet 

I had a look over his blog and found it fascinating.  There’s hardly an original piece on it.  There are entire news articles copied and pasted with random interjections that say things like “Exactly!”  or a couple of sentences at the end expressing his opinion on the subject.  It is tempting to contact the copyright holders of these works and ask if they were aware of this, but why waste my time on him?

OOPS, it appears I had the wrong blog.  I googled some more and found his name come up in many varied and interesting places before I actually found his own blog.  This chap has issues, and copyright infringement is the least of them.  Death threats to MPs and internet based vigilante-ism is more his line. 

I thought about it some more.  If this was fair use, then why is there varying degrees of licenses for photographs on the internet?  If you go to Google Images, and click advanced search, you can filter by licence – the different licences are:

Free to use or share

Free to use or share, even commercially

Free to use, share or modify

Free to use, share or modify, even commercially

If you filter by any of these and a picture comes up, then you can use it.  If it doesn’t, then you need permission by the copyright holder.  It’s not rocket science, and I would have thought it’s quite clear but apparently it’s not.  If it was fair use in any application that wasn't commercial, why would there be a distinction?

So all the blogs that don’t have advertising and credit my work back to me are just fair use?  If that was also the case, then why are the takedown notices upheld?

But every now and then, you come across a disclaimer on a web page like this:

http://www.spiritualdimensions.co.nz/disclaimer.php

If you have a look through the rest of the website, you’ll find pages copied directly out of books and from websites.

Please try and have some respect for the copyright holders.  We’re not all complete money grubbing bastards.  And FFS, if you have a blog, write your own stuff.  If you really need to share mine, a paragraph and a link will suffice.