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March 22, 2012
"Ex fide, pax."
I couldn't stay away. Back last November I wrote an entry here called "May it be finished in beauty" and said that I had a paper/longhand journal and didn't need a Blog, and so forth, see ya, The End. That was then.
THEN, a few days ago, I contacted the Webmaster of this Blogging service and said, Well, gosh, I think I've missed blogging, but I'd really like to change the title, how do I do that ...
And THEN I couldn't even bring myself to change the title.
Ex fide, pax: "From faith, peace" -- something I cobbled together from the remnants of Jr. High School Latin I remember and a lot of help from Internet translation utilities. And I'm still interpreting what exactly it all means to me.
If my life has been nothing else, it's been spiritual. There's a lot of discussion in my household, with my Atheist/Skeptic/Asatru same-gender-(un)spouse, about faith, belief, religion, spirituality, the "supernatural," and the legacy of my "Mad Poet" self that has one foot in each of the three worlds of Christianity, NeoPaganism, and Science. (And that's not excluding Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and good middle class American psychopathology.)
I never called myself "the Mad Poet." Back when I was more formally NeoPagan, a friend just blurted it out, referring to me as his token mad poet friend. Well gosh, voila, there was my "Magickal" or "working name." I've never forgotten and I won't give it up. Too bad I can't have it printed on my St. Andrew's Episcopal Church nametag, because it's probably more exact than just my given name.
And because Naming is a significantly magical/religious act on the part of shamans and heroes throughout history and literature, putting on the Mad Poet for me is shapeshifting into a shamanic identity.
At church, when I'm Acolyte, I put on garb (an alb) and light altar candles. These are the instruments of Magick, where "magick" is changing consciousness at will to undertake personal transformation.
And WHERE are we transforming to? To find the Treasure of the Templars? All those past lives you can't remember, but were necessarily more fun than the one you've got now? Fame? Immortality?
For me, Peace.
Ex fide, pax.
Posted by lizcal at March 22, 2012 03:01 PM