133.33 and the Librarian Occultist

I am vexed, dear reader. It will come as no shock to you that I'm a librarian. I'm upfront about it right here in the "About Me" blurb on my blog: "I'm a librarian, a Hellenic Polytheist, a Traditional Wiccan, and an occultist." I first started working a library when I was in high school and I am now seeking my Master's degree in Library Science.

The overlap between my passion for libraries and my passion for occultism doesn't come up very often. True, I do see my work as a librarian as an abstract way of honoring the power of Athena, but I am "in the broom closet" at work. I am happy to serve quietly in my own way.

My frustration comes from a kind of open secret among the librarians I have known concerning occult literature. The secret is that books on occultism walk. What I mean by this is that these books (133.33 in the Dewey Decimal classification system) once checked out from the library never find their way back to the library. Often these books are not even checked out, but are blatantly stolen from the library. Go to any public library and examine the 133.33 section (it is an old habit of mine that I always go there first whenever I am in a new library). You will find it to be sadly lacking.

I've witnessed several responses to this dilemma. Some libraries choose to keep occult materials in a special "restricted" section, usually behind the circulation desk where they cannot be stolen outright. Other libraries keep the books as reference materials only so that they cannot be checked out. Still other libraries, and this breaks my heart, have elected to not carry occult materials at all. This is, of course, censorship, even if the library feels that it has no other course of action.

I have wondered for many years just who these occult book bandits are. The public library systems I have worked in have all been in very conservative rural communities. Is it rebellious teenagers looking for the small thrill of lifting a Wicca 101 book, or is it the rabid Christian fiction reading matrons attempting to save their community from "Satan"?

Who benefits from this form of censorship? Certainly not sincere seekers like the one I assisted earlier this week. Our online catalog showed twenty books on astrology, all of them listed as "long overdue" or "lost processing". The poor man simply wanted to know the stories behind the zodiac signs. I wanted very much to share with him the information orally, but, again, I am closeted at work and feared drawing attention to myself.

I am at a loss for a solution to this problem. Here at home I've enchanted my own personal library (which would make anyone with even a passing interest in witchcraft green with envy) so that any book loaned out (which, granted, only ever happens with those I trust implicitly) will find its way back home to me. The task of enchanting a public library collection seems daunting at best, and brings up some gray ethical issues for me.

I dream of someday directing a library filled with controversial books. Dangerous books. Books that open the reader's mind. For now I work quietly and wonder where have all the occult books gone?

Blogging for Choice

Because having the right to choose what is best for myself and my body is important every day.

An important factor for women's advancement in society is our ability to control our fertility. Without that, we are trapped by the realities of pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing; rather than a privilege and a gift, these aspects of being female become a burden.

I see attempts to limit women's reproductive freedom as no more than a gambit to keep women "in their place". To grant a fetus that cannot exist outside the womb greater rights than the woman carrying the fetus is fundamentally incompatible with the function of civil society.

In the words of supreme court justices O'Connor, Kennedy and Souter: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."

No one wants to plan an abortion. But the best way to prevent abortions is to prevent unwanted pregnancies: through sex education, improved distribution of birth control, and general empowerment of women to shape our own individual lives.

Among the many reasons that I'm pro-choice is because it is the only option that isn't poisoned with misogyny. I believe that we are responsible for justifying our beliefs, and just as one cannot claim that a given race is inferior to another because "it's what I believe", I don't think one can argue that men can assert control over a woman's uterus -- and future -- because they claim to believe that a fetus is comparable to a human life. That belief is a result of the fact that only women can get pregnant and only women would ever have to carry an unwanted fetus to term.

Can anyone really believe that abortion would even be an issue if men had to face the possibility of giving birth to and raising a child because of one night of failed contraception?

I think Florence Kennedy said it best: "If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament."

NARAL

On Health Care Reform and Xenia

Julia Ergane's blogs have quickly become some of my favorite destinations in the web. Really, how could I not like her? She's a Hellenic Polytheist devotee of Athena who knits and is a retired librarian. And here I thought I was so very unique. Ah well.

Now I find out we hold similar political views as well. Julia blogs thoughtfully on the concept of Health Care Reform in the U.S. as an obligation to Xenia, hospitality. I have read criticisms of this concept that refute that Xenia has nothing to do with government entitlements, and that it rather highlights personal responsibility. I respectfully make the assertion that a public option in health care is more than just Xenia, it is Ethike Arete, the practice of habitual excellence, or ethics. How are we as a culture to protect ourselves from the miasma of disease when we cannot afford to treat those diseases? How is allowing a disenfranchised person to languish without adequate health care ethical?

I will readily admit that I have a personal stake in the fight for a public option. I am a hard-working, educated adult who is currently without health insurance. I do not currently have a primary care physician, as I cannot afford to pay out of pocket to see a health practitioner. I am currently without hormonal birth control, as I cannot afford to pay for both the ongoing cost of a prescription and a full yearly exam. I am not a freeloader for expecting the right to affordable health care for myself and my family.

The public option is the ethical choice. It is the hospitable choice. It is the right choice for Hellenics.

Thelemic Woes

Spent last night visiting Anita for class night. We discussed Thelemic dieties/godforms. I've been thinking about Thelema alot as I prepare for Minerval, assist in building the Babalon Rising festival, and help to start a local camp body. I've noticed that I've got alot of animosity towards two aspects of Thelema.

Primarily, I have come to perceive my "belief system" (for lack of a better term) to be composed of three distinct parts: a "religious" system, a "magical" system, and a "philosophical" system.

Religiously I'm a Pagan. I talk to Gods, Gods talk to me. I try not to ask too many question of how this happened, and would rather dance naked with wild abandon around a bonfire than chat over coffee about Gods as archetypes, egregores, thoughtforms, or whatever. I can be snippy and defensive when it comes to the subject of my patron, and other occultists my find my beliefs to resemble schizophrenia. Oh well.

Magically I'm a Witch. I like rustic tools, herbal elixirs, black cats, strange chants, and ritual by candlelight. I think Strega is cool. I think Robert Cochrane was a genius. I love my ratty old walking staff. I am a whore for good ritual. Other occultists think I'm a little daffy, and I recognize that I'll often overlook good scholarship in favor of magical value.

Philosopically, I'm a Thelemite. I may not understand your path, but if it's working for you, good. Keep your opinions out of my way and I'll try not to step on yours. The sandbox is big enough for both of us. You're divine and so am I. Do what thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Yup. Works for me.

So, I get my panties in a wad when I start to feel like because I'm playing in one paradigm means that I should automatically be playing in another. Life might be easier if I was a sheeple-Wiccan who bowed to the authority of every self-proclaimed Queen dripping in amber and jet. It's certainly assumed that because I'm religiously Pagan-identified and magically Witchcraft-identified that I must be philosophically Wiccan-identified. But I ain't.

And when chatting with (some) Thelemites over religion, my internal compass screams "Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. Over!" as Crowley tells me from beyond the grave that these are not gods, but concepts: Nuit = Infinity, Nox = nothingness, Chaos = chaos, Pan = All-things, Babalon = the unknowable as anima... it's enough to make a Pagan's head spin. Sheesh. I've spoken with Nyx and Pan, and they think all of this conceptual stuff is hilarious. As for magic, well, Thelemites give good ritual. I'm looking forward to Minerval like a kid looks forward to Christmas, so I don't mind working the system.

A Thelemite will tell you that the Gods are what you make of them. Crowlianity says that the gods are what Crowley says they are at whatever stage of his life you may be reading from. So I guess it's the Crowleyites that I have the big grumble with. Geeze I wish these people had another prophet. Anyway.

Gripe #2: Crowley doesn't know shit about the mysteries of the cup and the paten. He at least recognizes this, and there is hope that eventually a lady with a firm grasp of ritual will come along and clean some things up. Primarily the nauseating amount of phallus worship involved in the magical system, and the recognition that women magicians, no matter how much we rock, are not automatically "beyond the veil" with ultimate understanding of the supernal triad. Crowley didn't understand women. He didn't understand them to such a ridiculous degree that he thought women would make a great magical symbol for that which is unknowable. Excuse me while I climb off of this pedestal before I fall and break my unknowable little neck.

Reposted from LiveJournal Jan. 28th, 2006