Tough Financial Times and the Goddess

Much of what Starhawk wrote here is often how i feel about things these days. I can't help but wonder why people don't work harder to only take what they need and give something back? Why does it take a crisis for someone to say 'hey, maybe we should be doing things differently TO BEGIN WITH?'

As far as finances go.. we're finally getting back on track after getting derailed after looking after an ailing friend here in the house. (While still ailing, he has found someone to finally appreciate him the way he deserves to be, even as sick as he is.) Even though it put us on shaky ground, I'd do it again for him in a second if he needed it.

Hubby's paycheck is up.. and mine is steady, if nothing else. But since my company wants to take away our weekends and evenings for VERY little money and LOTS of travel and not pay extra for it.. well, if I quit tomorrow I wouldn't be disappointed. On my team alone there are three people doing the work of six since two just quit.
I refuse to give up my life for my job. I'm not bound by kids or anything, and they don't pay enough to even remotely consider it.

But we are able to do most things we want. We don't own a home but we have a great place with wonderful landlord and lots of space.. and I'm able to pursue my musical career interests as well as being active in our local community. It's a very full life. Are we poor by most folks' standards? Probably.

But riches are about more than money, as Lepi said. I get to wake up next to someone who loves me completely. And visit people who are excited to see me- and a faith that is all around me. I get to see the sun everyday and hear my little bird chirping hello to me each morning.

It might sound trite or corny, but I've got everything I need.

Paganplace,

Damnit, I don't understand damnation either! (LOL)

I don't look to God for favors - at least for me, except for guidance. I give Him thanks. I give Him thanks for you, too, by the way. And I do pray for others. But there is no silver bullet here.

Ya gotta understand that my view of Christianity is not necessarily shared by many others. And I am not their apologist.

And I want ou to understand, Arminius, you can't un-F certain situations through 'faith' or 'belief.'

Or rewrite the damage done to real people by notions of 'forgiveness.'

Guess it's another one of those nights here where we hunker down and hope no one gets to 'morally-absolute' about what I was hoping was our home.

&#&$&%#!

Not again.

I don't actually really understand your concept of 'damnation,' but I think to me the expletive, 'Dammit,' just means, 'Not again.'

Dammit.

Erf, Arminius. Pardon the polytheism, but maybe your God could un f*** something done in his name, I would consider it a personal favor.

It's kinda personal. In that way calling in markers is.

Can't have a Mother-lovin discussion of poverty before something gets personal, can we?

This essay of the remarkable Starhawk is profound, moving, and true.

Here I am, a Christian old fart, undergoing bankruptcy, and now dependent on social security. Sharing a car with my son. But there is hope, there is still joy. Just yesterday morn, out in the dawn, with my ex-wife (get that!), helping to move our daughter.... a spectacular sunrise, in my mind a painting done by angels, but surpassingly beautiful to anyone with any belief or lack thereof. Then - Oh my God! in the west, a rainbow! Such beauty of this world must be cherished, protected, and nurtured.

Despite what Genesis says about dominion, some of us Christians hold that we are stewards of this world. We must not loot, rape, and pillage. You wonderful Pagans have this belief more than others. We Christians must be taught. Some of us are close to you on this - we look at something, see it differently, but both of us cherish and honor it. You see the Goddess, the Mother - I see the hand of God. But our intent is the same.

Wealth is not measured in money or stuff. It is not what you have in this life that makes you rich, it is who you have.

Arminius

What I notice the most about harder economic times in terms of the Pagan community, is that it tends to make *community* that much harder: people get out less, so you see less of people who don't live in immediate proximity... events and such, usually all on our own dime and in venues we don't own, get harder to manage, ...people are often forced to move because of jobs or living expenses, or work longer hours, etc etc.

So it's important to take the extra effort to get together, I'd say. The cost of food and fuel going up can be a major dissuader for those who put a very big percentage of their income to housing, and I've even heard of a case or two of someone canceling phone service.

I'm not sure what effects all this might have on those of us who do like craft-work, small farming, and other little ventures. Certainly local and community-supported agriculture seems to be starting to be more competitive of late, and I do note we've got a lot of doing-for-ourselves-and-conserving resources skills in our community, which could be very helpful toward getting ourselves and maybe some of those around us through leaner times than most are used to. Things to think about.

It's not hypocrisy to use electricity and plastic, Serendipity. In fact, you may well be using one of the more power-efficient methods of talking to us from Queensland *possible.* We're not Luddites. But we don't have to base our economies on blind consumption, expansion, and waste, either.

"You don't need a Goddess to be ecologically-minded."
Nope you don't. But if Goddess is ecology it helps to know She is living and can be harmed. Kind of gives a perspective.

I and my hubby live on his pension and Social Security...so it is a frugal life. We have enough...enough for needs and for a few wants. We have a quiet life with a loving, enduring relationship...friends, our animals...and the Goddess.

When we moved here it was scrub brush and tall hardwoods...it had been logged 20 years before we bought, so it was cement hard ground made up of too much clay and a top soil that was two inches thick. Bad..nothing grew and nothing lived here...not a bird, a bee, no rabbits, not a wild creature at all. So I planted things that did not need polination by bees..they came, so did the butterflies and birds. The birds dropped gifts of seeds and they took root and brought rabbits and deer and wild turkeys...I planted a garden and got chickens and guineas, we have a young fruit orchard...and figs. The horses give us lovely manure for the roses and garden...the chickens and guineas keep the ticks and bad insects ate up. We grow herbs for healing and herbs for food...and as I am Wiccan...healing and tastey herbs are also magickal.

We have peace and we have contentment...and it was with working with the Goddess and Her consort. It was hard work and it was so fulfilling. We have hit hard times, when you live on little, it does not take much to feel the pinch. But we have luxuries such as Satilite TV and the internet. We are spoiled with so much that is not absolutly nessecary for our lives.

There will come a time when we all might have to decide what we need. For me Goddess is there...when I go outside and see the peaches growing on the trees... or sit at my window and watch the cardinals again empty out the feeder, or gather up the eggs from Mabelline or Covergirl the hens... I know what is needed for my life. Those are things I can not live without, they feed my body and soul, and are Goddess.

terra

i agree with what you say - but feel we are all so hypocritical. i am using a laptop computer made of plastics and metal. this was produced by using the oil you speak of. i am using electricity purely for my own personal satisfaction in reading this entry.

our culture has grown and structured itself so that it feels dependent on the very things we shouldn't be dependent on.

food for thought....i am writing this from queensland australia.

"You don't need a Goddess to be ecologically-minded."

Nope, ...but She's all manner of practical that way.

Helps on our end, though.

Especially when it comes to realizing this is not just about 'ecology' in terms of 'You can't get away with despoiling the Earth,' but also understanding that in terms of the people's much-described hunger for meaning and purpose, and perhaps oft-unknowingly-balance...

Well, it ain't *just* about 'hugging trees.'

It's also about building lives, where possible, where 'hard times' aren't a product of corporations not being able to sell our health and the future for quite as many billions as last quarter.

You don't *need* a Goddess for that, but it helps.

For Her part, She's not the jealous type. You want to do good all on your own auspices, She'll appreciate it. And not even give you a hard time about what you don't believe about it. ;)

You don't need a Goddess to be ecologically-minded. Actually, you don't need a God either.

Merry meet, Gaby!

Blue Fire Witch,
I know what you mean.
My husband's and my combined income is low by US relative wealth standards, but we manage to have a nice house and two vehicles that we keep maintained so as to minimize repair bills and fuel consumption. There's always food on the table, and we manage to keep all the utilities on.
We garden, compost, and recycle plastics, glass, metal, paper, and our dish water.
As funds become available, we're making improvements to the house to make it run more greenly. We participate in a program offered by our electric company where we pay a small extra fee each month for a portion of our power to be derived from green sources. Our next tax refund will go to the purchase of an on-demand water heater. We'd love to put in solar panels and a gray water recycling system when we can - maybe when we have sufficient equity in the house to borrow against it and re-finance - or when we win the lottery, whichever comes first.
We both have a good bit of debt - mostly medical bills, some several years old, some recent, which we're paying down a little at a time. Hopefully, within the next few years, our only debts will be the house note and our student loans.
There isn't much money for frivolous stuff like expensive entertainment tickets or travel. Every now and then, my husband will say something about wishing we weren't always so broke. Then he thinks about it for a while, and decides that while we're often broke, we're rich. We participate in several faith communities, we have lots of friends, we have an abundance of love from the furry co-inhabitants of our home, and we get to fall asleep and wake up in the arms of someone we love. We're rich.

And whose fault is it that we don't have a book of maxims? Hmmm??? ;-)

Thank you for this. I could hear the Goddess' voice read this to me in my head. Bluefirewitch, I'm in Chicago too! And praying that the Goddess will give my alderman enough sense to send over a recycling bin.

Poor, Happy and Spiritual.

My husband and I make a modest income. We have a nice apartment, new furniture, newer car, cell phones, etc.

We have been together for a decade now, and we reminisce about the days when we first got together, living in a trailer park with no TV, furniture from the Good Will, barely scraping by. We recycled, had a garden and only had to work part time jobs. Granted we didn't have health care and our credit was horrible. But, we remember how happy we were. We were in our early 20's and in love. For fun, we used to go out to parks at night for amatuer ghost hunting.

My husband is agnostic and I'm Wiccan. We both believe that the world is much larger than the Nominalist view point. We share that common belief and it has anchored us.

I am still madly in love with my husband. But now we work over full time to afford the life that we have. We no longer recycle as avidly as we did because Chicago doesn't support recycling. We no longer go Ghost Hunting because we simply don't have time.

I am still active in my faith, but I would never have gotten the time to study if it hadn't been for our minimalist lifestyle.

Poor doesn't mean unhappy, I think poor can be enlightened.

Star Hawk,

As always, an awsome essay!!!