Inciting A Riot

Episode 78: Inciting A Threeway Riot

2013-05-19T00:12:00.000-05:00

Episode 78: Inciting A Threeway Riot

News: Maryland abolished death penalty, Coburn - self background checks, Jayson Collins comes out, Tylenol eases existential crisis pain, Arizona Trans restroom, Rhode Island, Delaware, & Minnesota legalized gay marriage, recreating faces from chewing gum

WOTD: verbicide

Tips & Tricks - Wishful Gardening

Music - Moonshadow - Mandy Moore

Gripe Department - Sylvia Browne

Music - You'll be mine - The Pierces

Spirituality - Maiden, Mother, Who?

Poetry - Bubbles are people

Email the show: FireLyte@IncitingARiot.com

Tweet the show: @IncitingARiot

Facebook.com/IncitingARiotPodcast

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

My Beltane (Or: Earning my 'Dirt-worshipper' Title)

2013-05-04T20:48:00.001-05:00

The beginning of an interesting summer.

Beltane happened this week. And, here in Chicagoland's south suburbs, it was a phenomenally beautiful day. The weather hit the low 80s; there was not a cloud in the sky, and I could not fathom any reason whatsoever to stay indoors. Funny, when I was a kid, I would stay inside on bright, sunny days in Texas - as bright, sunny days seem to plague Texas, which sounds nice, except for that whole lack of rain and 6 months of 100+ degree weather. No, here in Chicago, a beautiful day of sunshine is to be celebrated with being outdoors. So, what did I do? I dug in the dirt.

Admittedly, while I attempt a garden every year in my backyard, it is a pretty half-assed attempt. I've done container gardens since we arrived in 2009, which is fine, but they're not really ideal for herbs and veggies, the things I prefer to grow. Flowers are nice and all, but I like to stock up on both culinary and witchy plants, and the idea of making them myself has always appealed to me. Most herbs that I want to keep around - basil, rosemary, lavender - do quite well in Texas. The dirt is fertile, but the temperatures are warm with lots of sun. If I keep them well-watered and provide enough shade so that they don't wither in mid-July, I can keep most herbs all year.

But, I'm not in Texas anymore, and I've never really mastered the Illinois growing season. Just when I think I've got it down and I decide something crazy like planting rosemary and basil in a pot outside in, oh, mid-April, here comes the blizzard of the century. So, finally, I waited. I was told to wait until around Mother's Day to plant. Mother's Day. I ask you. That's mid-May! That gives me maybe 2-3 months to "be a gardener".

Instead, I bucked the system and said Wait til Beltane! It paid off. Did I mention the gorgeous day? So, I went to Home Depot, using a lovely gift card from my mother - a Valentine's Day present - and went a little crazy. I got a raspberry vine that is supposedly self-pollinating, a hanging basket with strawberries, a habanero pepper, jalapeño pepper, 2 Roma tomato plants, 2 rosemary, 2 basil, and 2 sage. I already plan to add some cilantro plants and probably another of each of the peppers so that I can make salsa directly out of my garden.

My garden.

But, here's the kicker: I actually put it all IN THE GROUND! I weeded a section of my back yard, which looked a whole lot like this before I started:

Overgrown with various flora that were not bad plants, mind you, but plants getting in the way of me feeling all gardeny. So, they had to go. Before you ask, yes, the daffodils and other bulb plants were saved. They were each dug up and transplanted to an equally overgrown area behind my shed. So, there's that. A little over an hour after I'd begun, my little patch looked something like this:

Dirt. Fertile, black, Illinois dirt. Rich and pretty odorous. Smelled like things would grow in it, as evidenced by the amount of plants I had to remove to get to said dirt. After I accomplished this, and drank a nice cold glass of water, I set about putting the plants in the actual ground. Now, I must say, I had no plan, and this was my first time...so you can't laugh about how haphazardly they're planted. Seriously, don't laugh. Ok...you can laugh a little.

But first... A bit of the spirituality of gardening, and the big impetus for why I finally decided to put plants in the ground where they belong.

At Ostara every year we decorate eggs with images and words describing our wishes for the coming year. Prosperity, joy, love, etc. These are typically the wishes of most people when making wishes. And, they're typically ours. Except for this year. This was the year where Partner and I decided that we were going to get all specific on the Universe's butt. (Yeah, that didn't come out the way I'd hoped either, but it's there in black and white and I'm not deleting it.)

This year Partner wished for some pretty specific things in his career, literally writing out the words on the egg rather than drawing a pretty pretty picture. I did the same. I wished for a closer connection to deity. To fall back in love with my spirituality and to truly find a way to believe wholeheartedly and fully of spirit in the Divine, in magic, in the realm of spirits and Other Beings. To hear the flap of faery wings. To smell the perfume of a spirit as she wanders. To see God/dess/SUPERIOR BEING's hand in creation and to stop doubting. I felt that this merited action.

And, yes, typically these egg wishes get buried in the back yard...in a pretty unceremonial hole in the ground. But, something urged me this year to let the wishes grow something, to literally let them feed the earth, to be the food for my magic and my belly, and to ingest that fertile, verdant spell.

So.... I did.

All the plants and Ostara eggs in one place.

I used my pestle to mush the eggs up and put a bit in each of the holes. So, a bit of each wish will become food for each plant, which will, in turn, become food and magic for me - with the exception o the strawberries, as they were already in a hanging basket and didn't need my assistance. After all was said and done, here was my garden!

I'm all proud and stuff. Annnnnd now a different angle:

It felt good, too, the digging. It didn't take long for me to ditch the spade all together and use my fingers to dig out the holes and fill in the holes. That tiny bit of connection brought me a feeling of closeness with my surroundings. I've not felt as connected with nature here as I probably should. Spent time in it on nature trails for exercise, yes, but not so much getting to know it.

Baby steps and all that, but I'm excited to see what the summer will bring.

How was YOUR Beltane? Do you have any gardening plans or pictures? Feel free to share your thoughts, links, and pictures in the comments below!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Maiden, Mother, Who?

2013-04-29T23:39:00.002-05:00

Neopaganism is chock full, loaded to the gills, filled to the brim (can I get a few more references for "there's a lot of this stuff in here"?) with allusions to a Great Triple Goddess. The Fabulous MMC is in the building. Can I get a what what?!

Word.

So, I'm in the middle of writing this fabulous new article and show centered on the modern Maiden, Mother, Crone archetype and whether we can truly relate to Her in all her many aspects if we haven't/cannot/don't wish to become one of those three things. Inspired largely by an email received for my joint show Inciting A Brewhaha, a listener asked how to relate to the Goddess when she isn't a mother. I've dealt with the issue of relating to myth before in the episode Inciting A Gay Riot, but I think the topic deserves revisiting.

Here I am, however, crowdsourcing feedback before you've even had a chance to hear or read what I have to say on the subject. Be that as it may, here's my question:

What are your thoughts on the Maiden/Mother/Crone Goddess archetype?

I'd love it so much if you'd leave your thoughts in the comments below so that everyone can join in on the fun. Do you find it hard to relate to these three? Are they too constricting? Too open? Do they apply to every person? Woman? Do they have to? Does the idea of a deity with multiple personality disorder keep you up at night?

Answer these and many more questions in the comments below!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Little Witch Academia & Bubbles are people

2013-04-28T09:38:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was seasonably warm. I almost typed unseasonably, because just a few days ago I was mulling over whether I should buy one more sweater this season or if I could wait. Let us all hope and pray that, with Beltane just 3 days away, we are finally - FINALLY - out of winter. But, it is the end of April and beginning of May and that makes it seasonably warm to be in the upper 60s.

I was sitting on a bench outside of my store enjoying the sunshine for the first time this year, and I wrote a poem. Now, a bit of me wants to make some sort of significance about the subject of that poem and the fact that Partner's family experienced a loss yesterday around the same time I was writing. But, we all know where my head has been lately, so this poem should come as no surprise.

I've been writing a lot more lately, but this one I liked. At the bottom of the poem is a movie about witches. So, stick around. The poem is called 'Bubbles are people'.

Bubbles are people and the
air in them are souls and
it all comes from the great
3-year-old at the end of the
fiery cold universe
waving around a wand
dancing in a field

like a stock photo

the perfect toothy smile
staring at us from behind
every pane of glass at
your store of choice's
frame aisle

a black and white window
into stock photo heaven.

Maybe that is heaven.
to become photoshopped and perfect,
hanging out with your
seven perfect
brothers at the end of a
pier in New England somewhere.

fragile fleeting
soap bubble spheres waiting to
be replaced by your less than
perfect Christmas photo
where the dog just wouldn't
look at the camera.

AND NOW FOR WITCHES!!!!

I stumbled across the most adorable little short film called Little Witch Academia this past week. I kept it in my cloud reader for the past several days, because I just never found the time and blah blah blah. I finally watched it last night, and it is adorable. And, here's the best part, you can watch it in its entirety at the bottom of this blog post! I KNOW!!!

The film is part of a Japanese government project called Anime Mirai, or the Young Animator Training Project, funded by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Though it is only a one-shot, many people around the internet are hoping and praying this somehow gets picked up for a full series. It is delightful, if squarely in the realm of Anime that has been derived from more western ideas - Harry Potter, chief amongst them. Despite any shortcomings, of which there are few if any, you can watch the whole bow-slinging, spell casting, wand waving, dragon hunting, Sorcerer Stone saving, bippity boppity boo-ness of the 26-minute short film/let's hope it eventually gets called the 'pilot episode'.

Enjoy!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Accidental Racist (Or: How to make a bad situation worse.)

2013-04-09T10:59:00.001-05:00

Brad Paisley is a talented, successful country singer. He's also the source of the hashtag that's been blowing up Twitter in the last day or so: #AccidentalRacist. It's a song that was released yesterday, featuring guest rapper LL Cool J (otherwise known as the guy that bicep-curled every lady on the View).

What has people talking is the confusing nature of the song. At its heart, the song is obviously a working out of Paisley's assumed confrontation with a Starbuck's barista who apparently didn't like the singer's Confederate Flag t-shirt. Paisley says that he didn't mean anything by the shirt except that he is a Lynyrd Skynyrd fan. The country crooner goes on to lament about how he'll never understand what it's like to be a black person, because it's impossible to truly walk a mile in another man's shoes. He finds it sad that we can't rewrite history, that we must walk on eggshells when it comes to racial issues, and that he can't have 'southern pride' without assuming the southern blame for slavery.

And then LL Cool J is there. And there's a strange, rapped diatribe about how black people get mistreated for the way they look, too, and how it's not ok for him to assume that Paisley's confederate flag wearing, cowboy hat donning, southern pride having persona is racist...or something. It's a bit muddled as to why LL is there...other than the classic "I have black friends who will sing on this record with me, so I'm obviously not a racist" thing.

There's a lot to unpack in a song like this. Let's Riot, shall we?

The Confederate Flag Defense Brigade: I grew up in the south, and there's this thing where people still want to wave, wear, barbecue next to, sing about, sit on, and otherwise worship the confederate flag. Worship is a strong word. Revere? Idolize? Paisley is right in that it has become not just a symbol of southern pride, but of a kind of pride that is simultaneously saying 'Fuck You' to everything that is perceived as the North, as modern, as progressive, as liberal, as an 'other'. Unfortunately, while a flag is just a piece of cloth, it has become a symbol that is hard to ignore. It's a symbol of an awful time in our nation's history, a symbol that even the alluded to Lynyrd Skynyrd has distanced themselves from because of its assimilation into white power groups such as the KKK. It is used as a symbol by literally hundreds of hate groups in the United States - here's a convenient listing of said groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. I don't care what kind of fan you are of what band or how prideful you are of your hometown, which is in West Virginia for Mr. Paisley (contrary to what some article's authors would state, incorrectly, as being in Illinois), you know by now - hey, it's 2013 - what a derisive and divisive symbol that flag is...ya don't wear it unless you're making a statement.
Confusion for Two: The song's message seems to be muddled. Is this an apology? A defense of Paisley's shirt? A lamentation of the current state of racial affairs? A poor man's Nelly/Tim McGraw duet? The folks that have commented on the song thus far seem to be equally confused. The lyrics, without any pretty melody set to them, are confusing. Paisley has somehow found a fence with about 7 different sides and is trying to ride all of them. He's defending the confederate flag while advocating progress. He wants to relate to black people but seems to lament that he has to walk on eggshells for fear of offending a racial minority. Both he and his guest ~~black guy~~ rapper hammer the point repeatedly that they were neither slave owner nor slave, that this isn't the late 1800s anymore and nobody that is alive today was part of that mess. So...can't we all just get along and stop talking about slavery please?
The Cory Rule: Cory from New World Witchery has a lovely rule set: Does this need to be said? Does this need to be said by me? Does this need to be said by me right now? If you answer no at any given time, then don't say that thing. I think Paisley could have used a thorough lesson in this rule. Did this need to be a song? Did this need to be a song by him? Did it need to be a song by him now? This is by no means the first or the fiftieth song about race relations in America. But, it's not a very good one. Other, much better songs exist. Want to decry racism? Billie Holliday's Strange Fruit does it better than Paisley ever could. Every genre from contemporary Christian (dcTalk's Colored People), to the legendary Bob Marley (Redemption Song), to freaking Disney (Colors of the Wind) has its songs about race. The problem with this one, at least to my mind, is that its message is all over the place, the song itself is subpar, and it's such a mess that one wonders if it ever really needed to be made at all...

Or if it was made to ease a guilty conscience...

All in all, I'm left confused by Accidental Racist. It's not going to go alongside Bob Dylan or Billie Holliday or Michael Jackson or any of the much better written songs in this category. But, it's definitely going to make a splash. I'm not quite sure, yet, if that's a good thing.

Here's the song in it's entirety. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

The Podfade Question

2013-04-02T21:40:00.001-05:00

The question was recently posed on Twitter and responded to by a number of pagan podcasters, most recently - and most eloquently - by Gillian of Iron Powaqa. Has the era of Pagan Podcasting ended? I think it's fairly safe to say a new pagan podcast, at least one worthy of any kind of note, hasn't really come out since around this time last year. That was the time a show called The Pagan Rapport, hosted by Silver Shadow, was first released. The Pagan Rapport is a great show. I've likened it to Behind the Actor's Studio, but for Pagan podcasting.

While the term doesn't technically apply, since Pagan podcasts are not some collective series, I think there is an element of 'jumping the shark' attached to the inception and growth of the show The Pagan Rapport. It's a podcast about podcasts and podcasters. We've gone meta, folks.

Don't get me wrong. I love the Pagan Rapport, and I am very glad it exists. The host asks the questions many folks, myself included, have always wanted to ask our favorite personalities that keep us company on commutes, road trips, gym excursions, and house cleaning. But, it's definitely a full circle concept. If I'm being very honest, and I suppose I am, my opinion is that most of the longest running shows are kind of running on fumes these days. Shows that used to be about content and challenging, innovative conversations have become 5 minutes of introduction followed by 60 minutes of music. Shows that used to offer magical advice or tips on witchy living have devolved into diaries showcasing what they had for lunch on Tuesday. All of these things are nice in their own way. I like to be introduced to music I may not have otherwise found, and many of these voices have become like friends and I enjoy hearing about their lives. But, it's not why I tune in to Pagan podcasts.

In short: I think most of us have said what we wanted to say.

Each of us gets into podcasting for a different reason, but more often than not the reason I've heard from fellow podcasters is that they wanted to make the show they wanted to hear. They wanted to offer something that didn't really exist in the ether. And, it's a labor of love. It's incredibly time-intensive, not to mention energy-draining, to create regular shows based on innovative discussions of religious and spiritual topics geared towards one of the smallest religious communities on the planet. We get no money, no compensation, and very little in the way of interaction. Yes, there are the emails and tweets and facebook messages, but we don't get the audience numbers of big comedy shows or podcasts run by already famous personalities. We're dealing with audiences in the hundreds to thousands or people. Which might sound like a lot, but in the grand scheme simply isn't.

To a certain extent, what Gillian said in her latest blog post is true. There just comes a point when you don't have anything to say. No big main topic to cover. No new concept to tackle. With a show like mine, I can continue to discuss current events and social issues, but the biggest segment has always been my take on the spiritual. If that's not there, personally, I don't tend to record a show. As you may have noticed, I've been less than inspired spiritually these past 4-5 months, which has only exacerbated the lack of shows due to an increased work schedule. Mo' money, mo' problems, less podcasting, amiright?

However, I think we can also say that this past year has been a tough one for most of your favorite personalities. There have been divorces, job changes, faith crises, money issues, time issues, and issues that haven't been aired in public. There have been internal issues and external issues and honest to god lack-of-wanting-to-take-your-only-day-off-to-podcast issues. And, since there aren't any new podcasts out there, it seems like most folks are going away. We're not. At least, I'm not. We're just human and, sometimes, need to work shit out. We're allowed, especially since our priorities are in our mundane lives - families, jobs, food on the table, clothes on our backs, etc. - which are frankly not provided for by podcasting.

Personally, I'm just coming out of a spiritual upheaval, and, thankfully, I'm coming out of it positively. On good footing, but still a little shaky. Also, and I've been hesitant to share this, but I think my biggest, most pervasive issue has been a combined lack of conviction and determination. I've not felt the care I used to feel about issues, possibly because - due to the Dementor-like soul-sucking of retail - I've become rather complacent and self-doubting. It's been the basis for both my spiritual and personal halting. Fire Lyte, as a personality, doesn't doubt himself. This persona of FL is strong. Convicted. He's self-assured, and it's all that I can do to put that mask on every now and then and sit in front of a microphone.

But...

I got this packet in the mail this past week. It's from the state of Illinois. It's about a job opening in my field. It gives a date and information for my big interview that's happening on April 24. And, while this news hasn't completely filled my cup up, it has stirred something very deep within me. I've started watching the news again. With retention. I've started yelling at the TV again. Taking notes again. I've started outlining shows and making notes of things I actually have an opinion on, for once in a long while.

What I'm saying is that...at least for me...I think I'm coming around the bend. Should this new job happen, it would mean being able to put my feet on my chosen path for the first time in years. Years. YEARS. It's been years since I've gotten paid to do something I loved doing, that I felt a purpose doing. That I felt like the work I did actually mattered. This job, this calling, is important to me. It's one of the sources of how and why I care and the glasses with which I see the world.

As of late those glasses just see endless opportunities to gripe about how people don't fold their own damn clothes back after trying them on.

See how icky a podcast like that would be?

To answer the question: the Pagan Podcasting world isn't over. The era isn't quite done. I think, mayhaps, that 2012 was a breathing, transitional period for many of us. And, now that some dust is settling, we're all gearing up for a seriously witchy 2013. So...the only thing you need to ask yourself is...

Are you ready for a Riot?

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Women's Sizes? (Men, too!)

2013-03-31T22:58:00.001-05:00

Weight is a funny issue. Not funny in the sense that people clutch their rib cages in an attempt to calm the stitch formed from guffawing until tears streamed down their cheeks in a blushing river of chuckles, but funny in a dry, ironic kind of way. The way that internet memes aren't and are funny.

Weight is a sensitive issue. Delicate. Easily offensive and offending. But, we all come in different shapes and sizes, and ain't that grand.

Up until last year, I had never managed a clothing store. Since last year, I've managed two. One of the funniest phrases I hear women say to me is:

Where are your WOMEN'S sizes?! You know...for real women?!

What they're asking me is 'where is your plus size section?', but that's not what they say. They ask me where the clothes are for "real women", and, yes, I've had quite a number of women refer to themselves as "real women", whereas clothes for, say, a size 14 or a size 8 or a size 2 are for "skinny little girls". I think my problem with this is the same problem I have with gay men's obsession with wanting a "str8" acting partner, with muscle guys talking about shrimpy guys or slim guys making fun of meatheads. It's the problem I have when I hear the comic nerds making fun of the popular jock, and when the idiot muscle head makes fun of someone who'd rather spend their time reading than doing reps.

It's the fear and loathing of the dreaded OTHER....

But, back to sizes. Over the past few days, our store has been crazy busy thanks to the most ridiculous promotion ever. Seriously. Ridiculous. (But I got some great clothes out of it!) Funny enough - there's that word again - I had a man looking at the shorts, asking me where the sizes above a 38 inch waist were. I told him we didn't carry that size. The next words out of his mouth were "You don't carry men's sizes?" And in those words, there is a host of subtext. There is a derision of someone smaller than him. There is the embarrassment he's most assuredly experiencing at being told he's too large for the clothes at my store. There are things that I'm sure I don't understand and possibly never will because I am not the same size as him.

I guess other than stating that this problem of disparity exists, I'd like to explore why. Why does this exist? We've talked about the concept of in-group/out-group dynamics, and I think we can all agree that it is in plain effect in this instance. But, in-group/out-group dynamics are typically spoken of next to the word 'fear'. 'Fear of the other'. Fear of the unknown. Fear of what looks or smells or thinks or acts differently than we do.

Homophobia is based on this concept. All the way to its biblical roots, it was a fear of a culture that embraced sexual fluidity, a culture that was powerful and able to enslave and oppress the weaker culture. So everything they embraced must have been wrong. Evolution is a funny thing as well. Things evolve just as much as organisms. Thoughts, the kinds of thoughts people can have, evolve just as much as gills or number of limbs or a spinal cord.

Evolutionary biology tells us we evolved concepts alongside hair color and being bipedal. The concept at work here seems to be an evolving of in-group/out-group dynamics. It seems to be taking it a step further. It's no longer a fear of the unknown or of the unlike/unliked, but it is a derision of that which is different. If I am tall and lean and blonde and blue eyed and work out regularly, this concept would tell me that I don't fear the opposite, but I must see something that is different as 'lesser' than me. The short, fat, brunette/ginger, brown eyed, non-exerciser is not like me so they must be worse than me.

And...I don't think I'm wrong. I think this is where our society is heading. I think it's a strange combination of the Special Snowflake concept (we're all told from an early age that whatever we are is perfect and amazing and if someone else says otherwise, they're, like, super wrong) and our increasingly socially networked western culture in which everyone thinks everyone else wants to hear every single thought we have.

Especially the exceptionally assholey ones.

I challenge you, Rioters. Let's take some time to examine ourselves. What is your thing? What makes you your most derisive? Do you have a prejudice against the pretty/ugly person in your class? The popular, the whore, the flashy, the brainy. If it is not exactly like us in size and shape and conviction, it must not only be wrong, but it must be worse. It's easy to make fun, because we're told that, as long as you have a group of like-minded peers agreeing with you, you must be in the right.

Where do YOU size up on the issue? Leave it in the comments below!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

teetering (New Poem) & Book News!

2013-03-26T10:53:00.001-05:00

I'm organizing my poetry collection for its first official publication. Upon the advice of some friends who are authors or are in publishing or are just friends, I'll be putting it out myself. It will be available in both printed and Kindle format. Pricing is going to be really, really reasonable. (Like...under $10 for a print and under $5 for eBook...still figuring out the details.) I have an ISBN number already. Woot!

Hopefully some of you out there will like my poetry enough to want a book of it...maybe you'll tell your friends and they'll buy it, too? That would just be the bee's knees.

Ok... All that out of the way, here's a new poem. Not in the collection. From my fancy new poetry journal. Wrote it today. How many of you can relate?

teetering

When I am alone
and the only eyes observing
are pets and clock faces
as long as I don't look down
waistlines return to a night
when I owned the moon and
the beat of electronic temptation.

When moves were fresh and
sharp, crunchy and bony
not yet oiled or filled in.

When I am alone
there is still all the possibility
brought by screaming fans
embarrassing acceptance speeches
lovers
and a waistline not yet filled in
as long as I don't look down.

With a piece of chalk

2013-03-21T21:38:00.000-05:00

For me it was theatre and poetry working in tandem to keep me sane, keep me fulfilled, and keep my star burning bright enough that nobody else could squelch the light. For me it was bloody poetry that poured from my veins like I'd made a proper vertical incision on my wrist that kept me from carrying out the act. For me it was a spotlight and speaking events that nobody attended or cared about, but that I dominated and set records in and excelled.

For me

It was realizing that

they didn't control me

or my light

and not even my dark

because I am the spark

the light of the whole

fucking

universe.

And they could never, ever put it out.

For this boy, it is a piece of chalk and killer dance moves. Click to watch the movie below. It will steal your heart.

Bullies are wicked things. What was your sanity? What was your light?

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Writing to God

2013-03-21T11:06:00.000-05:00

Recently, I've taken up journaling. Again. I used to journal in high school - side note, if you ever happen to run across a brown leather bound journal with the word JOURNAL embossed on the front and all my deeply personal crazy scrawled across the pages...I lost my high school journal back in college. It's somewhere between Texas and West Virginia. So...you know...keep a look out.

This time, however, I've taken up journaling my prayers. Like to god. God. G-d. Whatever. To THAT that is.

As you know, I've been having some personal issues regarding deity, belief, etc. My response to all of that was the decision that I needed some kind of faith in my life. Something that connects me to the infinite. And, I get that on some level, my words might only be written down on paper in a black leather journal, but I've decided not to care. The act is cathartic at least and deeply spiritual at best.
I'd been toying with the idea of journaling for a while. Gratitude journals have sort of been all the rage in the last decade, and I had thought about doing something like that. But, I didn't. Art journaling is gorgeous, but so involved I just cannot honestly give it the go that someone like Effy Wild can. The bit of art I can do here and there is enough for me right now.

Seriously, the woman is so good.

So I'm praying to god in a journal. I don't know where it goes from here. Do you write prayers? Is there anything you've gotten from it? Any pitfalls? By the gods, I've already gotten so personal in that journal..... I can only think of what might happen should I take it on vacation and forget it. Well, I know what would happen. I'd buy another one. So, it lives in what passes for a night stand. (Seriously, all I want for my birthday is money towards new furniture.)

What does prayer in your household look like? Bent knee and bowed head at bedtime? Held hands at the dinner table? Ecstatic dance to electropop music in the den?

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Web Comicy Goodness!

2013-03-17T21:47:00.001-05:00

It's been almost exactly a month since I wrote a blog post. No reason in particular except... I finally, FINALLY bought a new computer! (Feel that jealousy sink in.) It was so horribly slow, and I just didn't want to take the time to write on it. While my iPad will do in a pinch, I have too many pages and links and such open when I blog that I just never ended up doing so. I changed jobs and have been quite engrossed in that move. Then there was that week my parents were in from Texas...which turned into the 2 weeks that Partner's mom was here...is here, actually. Upstairs. Making something that I hope wasn't once the stomach of something else...or the brains... At least it's not meatloaf.

I digress.

For whatever the reason, Happy St. Patrick's Day! In all the hilarious sharing that goes on in the social media sphere on a day like today, I found a new web comic to love called Happle Tea. It is described as 'a webcomic about mythology and other things.' I've only just started on the back catalogue, which extends to 2009, but I'm in love. Instantly. I rarely love webcomics, because there's so much that goes into loving a webcomic... You know...all that physical labor involved when you love something that is found on a website... Some examples of the goodness that intrigued me:

Click on over to HappleTea.com and enjoy the goodness of Scott Maynard. Here's one last strip, one of my new favorites from his early catalogue:

In vintage webcomic news

In case you haven't heard, the webcomic Oh My Gods! is coming out with an omnibus. OMGs! (The pagan based comic strip for the polytheistic masses.) has always been one of my favorites, and I was so sad when it vanished several years ago. But, the creator, Shivian, has put it all together in a two volume set. Here's the sitch: the hardcover, all together, will set you back $200. I know. It's a lot. Honestly, I'd love to put it on my bookshelf, but I can't think of anything I've spent $200 on that didn't end in a horizontal dance of love. Since I'm not a lover of paper cuts in areas where paper cuts should never, ever be...I'll unfortunately have to pass on the big, bad volume of awesomeness for myself.

HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shivian has also made the entire omnibus available for under $20 in eBook format!! (ALL THE EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!!!!!!) If you're like me and prefer an ereader to an ever-expanding library of books you apparently bought but neither intend to read nor can remember having actually paid hard earned cash for, then you're in luck! Via lulu, each of the two volumes is available for $9.95.

Buy. Them. Now.

Seriously, you won't regret it. If you've never read OMGs, or if, like me, you've loved them for years, they'll be an invaluable addition to your library. Most fun of all, you can keep the LOLs going for years. And, Shivian has assured his fans that all of the spelling and grammar mistakes you've grown to love/hate have been kept in tact for the print/eBook edition.

What's YOUR favorite webcomic?! Share in the comments below!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

The Age of Blog (Or: Are We That Important?)

2013-02-16T10:24:00.001-06:00

What's the importance of pagan blogs? This is a question posed by blogger Teo Bishop (Bishop in the Grove) on his Facebook feed yesterday. It came about because of a sentiment expressed at Pantheacon by pagan blogger Jason Mankey (Raise the Horns on Patheos) that in the grand scheme of pagandom, pagan bloggers aren't that big of a deal. No word yet on whether pagan podcasters rank in the realm of influence for Mr. Mankey.

I shared the question on my Facebook feed as well to mixed reaction. Some said that it was the content of the blog that weighed meritous or not. Other folks, like Sophia of Divine Community, agreed with the sentiment, stating that 'the vast majority of Pagans have no idea what's going on in the blogosphere.' But it was Rommy Driks who shared what would most likely be my reaction: yes and no.
See, Rioters, the thing is our community is small. Really small. But, it's still a community. There's still somewhere between a few hundred thousand, upwards of a million of us in the United States alone. Spread out amongst over 313 million people, that's not a lot, but it's still a sizable number. Nothing to sneeze at.

And, if the above sentiments were said even 5 years ago - that people aren't that interested in blogs, they'd be right. A 2006 Pew Research Center study found that only 81% of Americans access news in some way. Of that 81%, only 23% of people got their news online. And of that, only 4% got information from blogs and 3% from news magazines (something like Patheos, Slate, etc.).

Fast forward just a few years, however, and the story changes. Hey look! A pretty infographic:

Or, if you prefer less pretty pretty colors and more numbers (and anything from Pew Research), here are numbers from both 2010 and 2012.

In just the last 5 years, the number of people that read blogs daily for information has tripled to 12% of the population. More people get their news and information online than from a print, television, or radio source. Also, PODCASTS have entered the picture, where they weren't even registering as a viable source of information 5 years ago. (And, at 5%, they're outpacing where blogs were at that time.) And, sure, blogs still aren't competing with social media outlets for news like Twitter or Facebook, but I conjecture that it's a bit of a misnomer. When I publish a blog, it gets shared via facebook, twitter, Google+, and more. People put the blog RSS feed into their readers and consume it on an app, on their tablet, etc.

When I'm watching my news programs, there is invariably a reference to some news blog that broke or added to some news story. Rachel Maddow, Anderson Cooper, Bill O'Reilly...you name your talking head, and they're referencing bloggers.

Shrink that down to the scale of Paganism. Sure, our blogs may not have the numbers of other parts of the population, but they're no less powerful, no less influential. References to bloggers and blogs, specifically, have creeped into the references section of quite a few recently published pagan books, directing people, not to other books, but to online resources. If you do a web search for terms like 'Pagan', 'Wicca', 'Witchcraft', etc., you'll get taken to your typical Wiki sites, but then on the same first page you're directed to places like About.com...which will then direct you to blogs.

I'm going to reach a little bit here, but let's just say that our population mimics the greater population's intake of news and information. Let's do some addition. Let's say that, like my blog, other blogs are being shared via social media. The ideas put out there also appear on Fan Pages, Like Pages - whatever Facebook is calling them these days. Let's say, also like me and my contemporaries, our blogs and links and information are going out over a Twitter feed. So let's add those up. 20% social media + 3% Twitter + 5% Podcasts + 12% blogs = 40%. Bloggers and podcasters like myself influence that little string of online intake a bit more than someone that does just one or the other, but they're all referencing the ideas of bloggers and other folks who publish news and opinions online. And, as we've seen, that number is only growing.

But let's just say for the sake of not inflating statistics and doing that whole 'confirmation bias' thing that 20% of people get information regularly from pagan blogs/podcasts, etc. That's 1 out of every 5 people. 1/5th of our population. Do you really think that the opinions expressed by bloggers and podcasters to 1/5th of the Pagan population don't seep into conversation? Do you think they don't influence the books published, the messages put out there, or the ideas propagated at your local witchy shop?

We're already being referenced in your books. Hell, there's going to be a book just about the opinions of pagan podcasters.

We're not that important?

I humbly disagree.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Hello Meditation (The Rise of Insomnanxiety)

2013-02-14T23:15:00.001-06:00

Tonight the anxiety washed over me again in an unexpected wave. I should have known I wasn't out of the woods quite yet, most eespecially due to the fact that I've gotten by these past few weeks by avoiding and simling through these issues. But, I wonder, how does one deal with a problem the size of infinity? How do I go about computing and charting the issues, categorizing them into data sets to be dealt with in a fashion befitting each issue?

I knew as soon as my head hit the pillow that I would not sleep tonight. At least, not without the aid of sleep medication, which, of course, we are all out of. Must remember to put that on the grocery list for tomorrow. I'd been in bed maybe 10 minutes before I gave in to the insomnanxiety (you're welcome for the new word) and got up. Normally, I'd have gone to the living room, turned on the television, and attempted to find something funny, something mind numbing to lull me out of my ish and put me into a head space that would accomodate sleep.

Read: I would watch tv until I physically can't stay awake any longer.

Something, an instinct whose gears were rusted and weary from not being used, told me to go to my altar. To meditate. To sit in silence. I have to admit, sitting in silence doesn't work for me. I'm an ill-tempered child when it comes to sitting and silence. Entertain me now! I don't do well in solemn circumstances. My hands need something to do. But...tonight...they found a welcome respite with their palms open to the ceiling.

I wish I could say that I got lost in meditation. That I found the divine after sifting through layers of internal muck before finally finding that mystical pathway to the infinite. I didn't. I put my phone away and let the room be dark. I lit a match, lit some sage, made the room nice and smoky... Not sure I felt relieved, but it was a start.

Sitting in what I think of as a universal meditation pose - legs crossed underneath me, sitting on my heels, hands on my knees, palms facing upward - I sat still. As still as one who would pass any ADHD test you could throw at him could sit. (SQUIRREL)

And after a minute or 5, I asked to be rid of my anxiety, to be rid of my fear and panic and dread. To be rid of the worry that was keeping me up tonight. To let the attack on my emotions and well-being pass. I poured out my worry and angst and rage at the fragility and temporary nature of life. I spoke that I wanted to make peace with these things. And then I sat still again...as still as I can sit.

Then all this mind noise starting popping up. Lyrics to songs. Things I want to buy. Books I want to read. Topics for future shows. More song lyrics. (Two black cAAAdillacs meeting for the first time...) How good dinner was. How much I'd like to go back to sleep. Whether I should spend the money for auto show tickets tomorrow knowing we've got plans to go to the movies on Sunday. Basically, anything my mind could think of rather than not thinking.

So, I searched my altar for a candle. Any candle. I was looking through storage bins in drawers and shelves for a tealight, a used votive...anything that would hold a flame for a little while. Nothing... Nothing except Partner's candle he keeps on his desk. It's one of those candles with a wood wick, so it makes a delightful crackling noise at it burns. (And it smells like apples, which was appropriate for a meditation on dying.)

When I lit the candle, I forced myself to focus on it alone. Visually, at least. The mind noise sort of turned into white noise, background murmurs. And I could just focus on the internal message - bring me peace, relieve my anxiety, ease this burden, bring me joy.

After a few more minutes of this, my hands wanted to lift, so I let them. I realized the background noise had stopped and the tears I was shedding had quieted down, not that I had been bawling or anything - though I kind of wish I'd had that release - but my internal pleas had led to those hot tears that build up around your eyes and won't for the life of you fall... Then there was a voice.

It was my voice. Don't worry, I'm not crazy. Well, at least not 'hearing voices' crazy. But, my voice was calm and measured and full of confidence. It was me and it was not me, at least not the me who'd gone to my cluttered altar to escape insomnanxiety. I took my hands from reaching straight up, slowly moving to the floor. Here is what came from my mouth:

I am the stars.

I am the heavens.

I am the air.

I am the water.

I am the fire.

I am the earth.

I am the Void.

I am all things.

I come from all things, and to all things I will return.

I am infinite.

I am special.

I matter.

It was somewhere in the last two that I knew the voice was wholly mine again, as I kept repeating the words 'I matter' over and over again as though it were some sort of mantra or prayer or Hallelujah chorus. Which, it was. It was a prayer to myself from myself, pleading with my internal ick to break apart, to allow joy into my heart. And in my mind's eye I saw all the potential of life, all the things I can do. The child(ren) I will raise. The love I will feel and return. The people I will touch. And, as I bowed in gratitude for the blessings found in that meditative experience...

Kika licked my ear. She had decided she'd been patient with me long enough and smothered me in kisses. My left ear is quite clean right now, as is my nose, my right ear, most of my right arm, my left shoulder, and both eyelids. Whether she was playing conduit for the universe or merely being the world's most adorable puppy, I took that joy and let it dwell inside me.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Episode 77: Inciting A Lost Riot

2013-02-14T14:49:00.002-06:00

Episode 77 of Inciting A Riot: the Podcast finds us Inciting A Lost Riot. I'll be discussing my personal crisis of faith as well as a moderate take on gun legislation.

News:

Boy Scouts allowing gay members

Postal Service now 5 days a week

Women in combat zones

Tennessee don't say gay

Manti Te'o fake girlfriend

WOTD: Unused opposite words

Tips & Tricks: when gods fight over you

Sociology: A common sense look at gun control.

Gripe Department: pastor bad tip at Applebee's

Music : past Lives - Ke$ha

Spirituality: Surviving a crisis of faith

Music: Review Kellianna album

Vote, subscribe to, and rate the show on iTunes. Join the TwitterRiot by following me @IncitingARiot. Enter the Swag Contest through a donation on PayPal. Check out my art on TorchAndPaintbrush.Etsy.com. Send any and all feedback to IncitingARiotPodcast@gmail.com!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Home Page: http://www.IncitingARiot.com

Podcast Alley: http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=86829

Etsy: http://TorchAndPaintbrush.Etsy.com

iTunes: http://www.itunes.com/podcast?id=337689333

Twitter: http://twitter.com/IncitingARiot

Project Pagan Enough: http://www.incitingariot.com/p/project-pagan-enough.html

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Movie Review: Hansel & Gretel (feat. a bonus Gripe!)

2013-02-06T00:44:00.001-06:00

This is the first opportunity I've had to sit at my keyboard and actually type out a review and response to the film Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters since I went with Partner to see it last weekend. I must say, my review will be pretty short and sweet, as I fucking loved this movie. Yes, the profanity is necessary, as it indicates the sheer degree to which I enjoyed the film.

Hmm... Can't think of why I loved the movie so much... Hmm... I'll get back to you on that.

Yes, Jeremy Renner has enough gratuitous shirtless scenes that I probably would've sat through a film about drying paint just to see them, but whatever. Lady Lovers, Gemma Arterton looks pretty delish in her skin tight leather, too. But, beyond the eye candy...was the eye candy. The film is visually gorgeous. The antagonist - the dastardly witch played by Famke Janssen (of Jean Grey fame) - is probably the most beautiful bad girl ever in a sci fi movie (right up there with Charlize Theron's Evil Queen in Snow White & the Huntsman). The tone was just right. I saw it in 3D, only because that's the only version my theater of choice was showing. I'm not sure it added anything except the minor annoyance of wearing 3D glasses over my real glasses. I felt like a grandma with those giant shades that go over her already giant prescription frames for driving.

The story could have been bad. Really bad. It could have been Season of the Witch/Black Death bad. ~~Dare I say 'The Wicker Man' bad?~~ But, the film neither took itself too seriously, the problem with Season of the Witch, nor did it forget to inject humor and snark, the major problem with the dry, depressing Black Death. It was the right balance. It was like Bad Boys, but with witches (and a shirtless Jeremy Renner...have I mentioned this yet?).

In short, it was right up my alley. I enjoy just about anything with a witch, a witty script, and bad ass action sequences. All three together is a guarantee of future ownership of the Blu-Ray. (My birthday is in April. Just sayin...)

HERE'S WHERE I WANT TO BEAT MY HEAD AGAINST A WALL UNTIL THE STUPID STOPS:

I actually thought we might go one round of a movie involving a witch without the typical pagan shitstorm of "WHY CAN'T HOLLYWOOD PORTRAY US CORRECTLY?! WHY DO WE HAVE TO BE THE GRIZZLED OLD HAG?! WHY CAN'T THEY SHOW MAGIKKKKK HOW IT REALLY IS?! WHY IS FAMKE JANSSEN SO DAMN GORGEOUS?!" Ok, maybe not that last one, but seriously... I was somehow lulled into believing that we'd grown up a bit. We'd finally realized the difference between real life and the hyper-fantastical-non-reality created by the entertainment industry to entertain us. We knew that not one religious, racial, sexual, insert-sub-category-of-the-populace-here group is accurately represented by the film industry, because that would make for one god awfully boring movie that nobody would pay to see. I know Velma & I have discussed this at length...multiple times...on our joint show (Inciting A Brewhaha). If they were to do a movie about a real pagan, it would be all grocery shopping, television watching, and the like. People, generally speaking, are boring. We are. That's why Hollywood makes life seem interesting by editing out all the dumb bits and tidying things up with jokes that most people wouldn't think of and happy endings most people don't get.

CASE. IN. POINT.

Real Witches against Hansel & Gretel. Seriously....I just die watching this. A little. Inside. Deep down in the part of my brain where my reason and sanity sleep restlessly. These people, I firmly believe, cause a poison to be released into that region of the brain, forcing it to deteriorate. Because, WHATTHEHELLITSAMOVIE?! This little YouTube video isn't all! The culture wing of the big bad PNC flirts with the idea of how awful it is that the film has to portray witches as the evil bad guys and seems to decry the creation of a good witch character - which they insist on calling the 'New Agey witch' for some reason I cannot fathom. There wasn't a quartz crystal or spiral tattoo or vaguely checked out look to her. (They also seem to think she didn't use magic. I don't know if they saw the same movie, but I remember a pretty epic showdown between wands for the Good Witch/Bad Witch duel at the end.) Woe to Hollywood for using the archetype of the evil witch as a bad guy...

The story is about two kids who nearly get eaten by an evil witch in the woods. Of course the Big Bad is going to be an evil witch. What would you like it to be, a werewolf? I know a werewolf. They're good people. They can also take a joke.

Once again, part of our community seems to think this is about us. That this is some sort of commentary on 'real witches', forgetting entirely that witches, werewolves, faeries, and the like - while very real to some in one way or another - have been figures of story and lore for far longer than our movements of the last 50-150 years. They aren't owned by us who claim their titles, rather, they are owned by anyone who wants to tell a story involving that type of character.

I ask you, here and now, can 2013 be the year we as a community finally find that damn bridge and get the hell over ourselves? Please? Our divergent, evolving community has far too many real issues to hash out to be wasting our time fighting over whether we're being portrayed properly in the latest fairy tale-made-film.

What are your thoughts? Did you like the movie? Should pagans be accurately portrayed in film? Would you pay to watch that? Do you like Jeremy Renner's shirtless body?

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

We love women...just not all women.

2013-01-31T21:48:00.001-06:00

Disturbed doesn't even cover how I felt this week. In two separate meetings I was told exactly who I should be hiring and who I should be firing, and...get this...in 2012...working for a company that's supposedly all about female empowerment...

The one and only requirement was looks.

Does the candidate look like the models in our campaign ads? Is she tall? Thin? Something like a size 2, perhaps?

Right now in my store there are about half a dozen women of all ages that have no idea they're on the chopping block. Why? One girl is too short and doesn't wear the trendiest clothes. Another tends to wear a black & white color palette - funny, as she's one of our top sellers. Clients love her, but that's not what's important.

This language is especially trigger-y for me. I don't know that I've told this story before, but a long time ago, in a Texas far, far away, there once was an incredibly skinny blonde kid who worked as a cashier at the big red anti-Walmart. One especially unassuming shift was interrupted when a woman came through my line with her child. She looked at me and, when my head was turned, she said, "He's so disgusting. Really, he should eat a cheeseburger. This place shouldn't let people with eating disorders work here." I handed the receipt to her with tears in my eyes and she left in a huff. Coincidentally, that afternoon when I got in my car to go home, I heard a new song on the radio called 'Beautiful' by Christina Aguilera. Still can't hear that song without becoming a blubbering infant.

See, Rioters, women aren't the only ones with image problems. For years and years and years - somewhat to this day - the mirror was an enemy. And, I don't take kindly when someone is discriminated against because of how they look.

Before you ask and miss the point, yes, I stood against this to my boss and our President - who echoed similar sentiments on an all-store conference call this week. Yes, I've complained to corporate, but given that our President is behind the policy, I doubt that complaint will get much of anywhere. Suffice to say, I'm actively looking for other employment, and will be handing my notice within the week.

But I'm writing all this to say that discrimination is still alive and kicking. It's pervasive and it's disgusting. It doesn't care if you're great at your job or if you get a ton of compliments by customers. It just cares if you fit some mold.

So, Rioters, what do YOU propose we do about it?

I'd actually love to hear your thoughts regarding workplace discrimination. Leave them in the comments below.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Wicca's a Religion, y'all! (Literary edition)

2013-01-19T13:43:00.000-06:00

Over at the Llewellyn blogs, there's an interesting new article that's surely going to have quite a number of pagan bloggers weighing in during the coming week. I haven't done much in the way of Pagan news recently, so I thought this might be fun.

To understand the fuss, we must first understand a few things:

There's this organization called The Book Industry Study Group that comes up with something called BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communication) codes. These codes are used by publishers to codify their books.
Book stores - like Barnes & Noble - have book buyers. In fact, most of them have a buyer and budget for each category. So, there's a buyer and a budget for gardening books, young adult fiction, religion, etc.
While a publisher can recommend a certain code for a book, the book store can shelve the book wherever they think their customers are most likely to search for the book. So, if there's a book about kitchen witchery, it's most likely getting put in the occult/New Age/Witchcraft category instead of the cookbooks because that's where most buyers of kitchen witchery books will go a-searchin'.

All up to speed now? Good, let's talk MAJOR UPSET FOR WICCANS!

The BISG changed the BISAC code for Wicca/Witchcraft books into two separate categories. One, Witchcraft, will be in the formerly 'Occult' now 'Body/Mind/Spirit' category along with other occult/New Age/majjjikkkal books. The other, Wicca, will now be categorized in the 'Religion' category.

CUE THE PAGAN OUTRAGE!!!!

Ok...Maybe not outrage, but annoyance and confusion.

This means that Wicca is now going to be considered a religion to book buyers. So, books about Wicca will be sitting alongside books about Christianity, Hinduism, Shinto, Taoism, Mysticism, Zoroastrianism, Demonology, Satanism and more. While books of spells, witchcraft, etc. will be categorized next to books on tarot, crystal magic, Divine Feminine, magick, and communing with angels.

Honestly, this makes sense to me. Wicca is a religion in all senses of the word. It has a system of beliefs and practices that can be written down and seen as fairly universal by most adherents. It is considered a religion by the US military, the IRS, the Parliament of World Religions, and the Veteran's Administration. In 2007, the Department of Veterans Affairs agreed to add the pentacle to a list of approved religious symbols after a legal battle lasting over 10 years in which we tried to get them to see Wicca as a religion.

But, all of a sudden, book stores might be putting Wicca into the religion category and we're scared. Well, not necessarily scared as in 'I'm a teenage bikini clad brunette and this is Texas Chainsaw Massacre', but more along the lines of 'irrationally annoyed by the potential for something to happen that is almost guaranteed to not happen'.

The debate that is about to occur in the pagan community is this... Actually, let me quote from the Llewellyn blogger's post:

Because if our books do have to be sold to the Religion buyer, and that person is someone of faith who is much more comfortable with buying Christian books than Wiccan books, or has no understanding of our categories the way current New Age buyers do, we will have problems getting our books into stores. If the Religion buyer has only X amount of budgeted dollars to spend across their entire category, they will choose to spend it on mainstream religions, because hey, there are simply more of them, and more potential for greater revenue. It’s a business, folks. And yes, I can see how that could be potentially disastrous for book sales. If we were pushed out of the chain stores, we’d still have independent metaphysical shops to fall back on, but not everyone has access to one and they operate on very limited budgets, meaning we simply wouldn’t be selling enough books to survive. Amazon and ebooks would become our main lifeline if chain bookstores stopped buying our books.

Honestly, I am left scratching my head a bit here. So, we know for a fact that for book stores - and by definition - the word 'religion' does not automatically mean 'Christian', right? We know for a fact that if you walk in to a major book store, you'll find books in the religion section ranging from, yes, Christianity to Buddhism to a host of other religions, both bigger and smaller than Wicca. I don't know about you, but when I read statistics on religion, Satanism and Zoroastrianism don't rank in the 'mainstream religions' category. And yet, books about them are also bought by the Religion book buyer and placed on book shelves.

We also know that Wicca has had its own aisle in the book store for quite a long time. Wicca has pretty much owned the New Age/Occult/Body, Mind, & Spirit category for a number of years. And, book stores can still choose to place books in the Witchcraft/New Age category if they believe that's where they'll sell best. And, honestly, they probably will sell best there. At this point, that's where the consumer has been trained to shop for them.

But, here's the flip side... Haven't we been fighting for religious equality, to be seen as just as valid and just as good as the big religions? When there's a problem at school with a teacher denigrating your child's beliefs, aren't we swooping in to the principal's office to explain our religion? Then, when a book store finally says, 'You know what? You're right. You are a religion. Welcome to the club.' We start second guessing whether it was a good idea to fight for that nomenclature.

The Llewellyn blogger was right. There's a huge battle in the Pagan community as to whether we want to be a religion. Many of the folks under our umbrella prefer the term 'spiritual' rather than religious. It's kind of like how many in the gay community don't care or don't want gay marriage, because we 'get to be different' from what 'mainstream society thinks a relationship should look like'. (To the latter I say, if you want to be in a 5-way relationship with consenting adults, go ahead. I'm not stopping you. I just feel bad for person number 5. Imagine being the fifth wheel. The lack of cuddling must suck.)

I think, however, that we should get what we ask for. We want to be a religion. I think it says something of supreme value for us to be shelved alongside those other religions. Books on Wicca have always been a steady, solid seller. There's no reason to think this change would do anything to hamper those numbers. Heck, they might even improve when the questioning seeker wanders into the Religion aisle hoping to find some guidance on their path.

What do YOU think? Would you support this change? Do you think it might hamper sales?

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

A place of Belief

2013-01-15T11:49:00.000-06:00

The conversation that I've been having with you lovely Rioters lately in social media has centered on belief. Generally speaking. Funny enough, that question has been coming from you, without prompting from my blog or social media postings. Quite a number of people have been emailing me, messaging me, sending smoke signals...

I feel I've lost my faith, my connection to whatever I considered the divine... How do I get it back?

Seems to be the prevailing question. In case you haven't read the blog lately, I've been asking myself the same question. Though, I think I'm beginning to come to some conclusions. Go on this mental journey with me for a moment.

What is the cornerstone of your belief? And, I'm using the word belief, because when you're beginning to question...everything...you need to back up from a place of 'faith'. Faith is a bit more concrete. Faith is believing in something and putting your energy and time into a relationship with that something. It's abiding in a space where belief is a constant and assumed thing. So come to a place of asking yourself

Why do I believe?

Not why do I believe in faeries. Not why do I believe in an afterlife. Not why do I believe that Mercury trine Venus means the mail will run funny on Friday. But...why do I believe in anything? Does it benefit you in some way? If you made a T-chart and listed pros and cons of belief, would your list of pros be outweighed by 'fear of demonic possession' or 'fear of the devil' or 'fear of bad faeries spanking me in my sleep and not in the sexual way I like so much'? Or, would your list be weighted in the pro's category: 'feeling spiritually connected to my fellow man and the earth around me', 'feeling I'm part of a greater story', 'feeling I have more control over my life'. Whatever it is... Feeling protected by a deity, looked after. Feeling like magic is a tool of personal betterment.

Does believing in something make your time on this planet better? If so, then you've got a choice to make. And, that's something you need to understand about belief...it's a choice. I didn't choose to be born in Huntington, West Virginia to a woman from Texas and a man from a holler in Huntington. I didn't choose blonde hair or to be gay or whether I'd be tall or short. There are a lot of things about my life and the way I see myself or others see me that I did not and cannot choose or change. But, something that every person must choose for themselves is belief.

What your belief looks like is going to be 1 in nearly 7 billion, because your circumstances and quirks and needs are different than everyone else's.

psst... Here's a secret: that is totally and completely OK!

But, when you're in a place of questioning... Is the Goddess real? Does magic exist? Is Christianity/Judaism/Unitarian Universalism right for me? Am I just the dream of some guy named Phil? The first thing you must do is FORGIVE YOURSELF!

I realized something... I do a lot of questioning and have done a lot of hole poking. And I think that I hadn't sat down and thought out what that meant. If you just spend your time poking at theories and searching for evidence and coming up with something to say, you're not spending your time following that logic stream to a degree several levels out. If this isn't real, and that's not possible, and there's a guy on the Colbert Report saying we pretty much know everything that exists in the universe...and now we know the full boundaries of the sandbox and have names for just about everything...what does that mean? Well, I think the reason that I got slammed so hard a few weeks ago with this near-crippling anxiety is that it would naturally mean we're just a scientific accident that happened on one planet in the entire known universe. We mean nothing, came from nothing, and return to nothing.

And, for me, the first thing I had to decide was whether I was going to accept that. Whether that was better for me. Whether I wanted to live in a world that had no belief. I was reminded, both positively and negatively, of an article I'd written called The Importance of Belief. The negative side was the thought process that this universe doesn't have an ounce of what we'd call justice or love or fairness, and anthropomorphizing reality itself doesn't get me much of anywhere, because there are so many flaws with that. A compassionate, living, breathing deity doesn't allow a shooter to wildly destroy the lives of a couple dozen people in an elementary, and if you tell me that your deity would allow it because it's part of some plan I don't comprehend, then I'd just like to say...

FUCK YOUR DEITY.

Because that means your deity is a sociopath that needs to be put down. So, belief in a god or multiple gods or sentient energy that creates and destroys...that's...big. And it's a bit bigger than where my head is at right now.

But, there's a comfort received, that warms me a bit, that alleviates some of the anxiety in that many of history's most respected scientists have said that the more they analyzed the universe, the more they examined reality, the more they believed in a god. Sure, there are a lot of atheist scientists out there. That's the side of the T-chart they landed on. It works for them. It makes sense to them.

I'm the nearly 27 year old (Oh my god, when did I get old) that searches out Disney movies still. That wants to read a good fairy tale over the latest James Patterson (bad example, as he put out a Harry Potter/Hunger games thing...but...whatever). My inner kid is alive and well, and I was reminded of a passage in the Bible from the book of Matthew (18:2-4):

2 Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. 3 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. 4 So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Many people feel that this passage is an instruction to have a 'childlike faith'. To believe not without question, but with wonder and marvel at the creation and let that be evidence enough.

I got this sign in San Francisco at the shop owned by the collective throuple of Devin Hunter, Chas Bogan, and Storm Faerywolf called The Mystic Dream. It's a beautiful wooden sign that just says 'WONDER'. I think that's going to be my motto for 2013. Wonder. Marvel at the beauty of the creation. I've come down on the side that belief is better FOR ME than non-belief. Now, what I'll do with that belief, whether I'll get to a place of faith in something...that's going to be my path and continued making of daily choices. But, I'm in a place of belief right now. And, it feels good.

Remember, there was a bang. There was something before the bang. And the universe exists in a space. Reality is made up of things that blink in and out of existence. Energy is neither created nor destroyed. Wonder at that. Marvel at that. Everything - in the biggest sense of the word - came from somewhere. That is where I've begun.

Also, admitting to myself, that rainbows exists whether a dog can see them or not. Dogs can hear a whistle that I cannot. We see the tiniest, itty bittiest segment of the light spectrum, which means there are colors that really exist that I cannot and will never see. And, every now and then, out of nearly 7 billion people, 2 people find each other and fall in love.

Life is a fucking miracle. And I believe in that.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Music Review: The Ancient Ones by Kellianna

2013-01-13T08:38:00.001-06:00

Kellianna is possibly my favorite pagan musician. There are a lot of bands and singers whose music has found its way to my iTunes library, but very few of those musicians have continuously put out music that I like and want to share. I recently had a chance to listen to Kellianna's latest offering, The Ancient Ones.

Being up front and honest, I don't like chants. At least, not to jam to in my car or listen to at home while I'm washing dishes. Chanting is something I might do in a group setting, but not by myself when I'm heading to IKEA. So, I greatly enjoyed the fact that this album included a mixture of both chant music and songs, since her last album - Elemental - was nearly all chants. At only 10 songs, this album is nearly the perfect length for a commuter. If you're close enough to work, you can start and end your day with her.

The music is good. It's in the same wheelhouse as Elemental, and its lyrical content is strongly connected with chants, Arthurian legend, and the Maiden goddess/Artemis. I'm not sure I heard an anthemic, iconic addition to her repertoire as she's given us on previous offerings, but every artist evolves. Her first album's 'Lady Moon' is an incredible, bluesy addition to pagan music, a moment of true greatness that showcases the full power of her voice. Kellianna's sophomore effort, I Walk With The Goddess, is possibly her most far-reaching in terms of content, but it's possibly her best album to date - stand out moments include the title track and Ancestor's Song.

The Ancient Ones has some great moments as well. I loved The Ancient Ones, the title track; in many ways it's a return to that bluesy feel of her first album's best moments. Personally, I'd love to see more of this tone from Kellianna, as it's perfect for her voice. Odd that I liked this song so much, as it's a chant, but there you have it. Wild Maiden is also a fun track, again, a chant. Daughters of the Earth is possibly the album's best vocal, and To the Summerlands is going to be a track you'll add to your Samhain mixes. (Attention Velma Nightshade.)

Some tracks, though, had a 'going away to camp and singing around a fire with a camp counselor' vibe to them. Mists of Avalon, Bless Our Planet, Thank You Mother, and Lugh were a bit on the lighter, happier side. I like sugar in my tea, but this was tea with my sugar.

Kellianna is still the absolute best, in this Rioter's opinion, in modern pagan music. Her voice is far beyond that of her contemporaries, and when she nails it she gives us a radio quality track that would do well on any mainstream chart out there. Test it out with the recommended tracks above, or just dive right in and get the full album. It's under $10 on iTunes and $9 on Amazon for the MP3.

What's YOUR favorite Kellianna track?

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Hugh Jackman and my crisis of faith.

2013-01-11T22:27:00.001-06:00

Stop me if you've this one before... You're watching Les Misérables, because you're a giant fan of musicals and you want to appear a bit more cultured than the folks watching The Guilt Trip, when Hugh Jackman is singing some incredibly sad song about how sad and unfair life is. I knew that's what this movie was about, the sadness of life, but I'm dumb enough to hope that there would be a happy ending...that in the generations of people depicted throughout the film...it would end well for one of them, that all the suffering would have been worth it.

I realized somewhere in the middle, when Hugh Jackman was singing, that this wasn't going to end well. And, then something else happened. I began to get a little bit short of breath. My heart started racing. My head hurt. I felt the ghost of nausea creeping up through my innards. I was experiencing early signs of a panic attack. I did not want to be in that movie theater any longer, but I wasn't alone and I paid a lot of money for tickets and a bucket of popcorn the size of Idaho.

Hugh Jackman didn't give me the heebee jeebees or anything. Something happened that hasn't happened to me in quite some time: I became consumed with the fear of death.

Did you see that one coming?

When I was little, I used to be afraid of death. There were times in the dark of night that the thoughts would consume me, making it hard to sleep. Sometimes I'd be afraid of going to Hell and what that might be like, but mostly I was afraid of oblivion - that's a word you learn when you're older and people don't sugarcoat things anymore. See, when you're a little one growing up in the south, you're told stories not of death, but of waking up in the afterlife. The act of dying is called 'going to sleep'.

You're not dead. God called you home. This is easier to swallow when it's an old person you barely knew in your church and had no real connection to, but it becomes tougher to use as an answer to THE BIG QUESTION when you're in high school and someone you grew up with gets killed in a motorcycle accident. God called him home? Really? He died putting himself in front of his sister, so that he would take the full force of the impact. He was painted as a hero, but you cannot tell me that this was what he was supposed to do on this earth. Grow up in a small town and then die before graduating high school because a logging truck didn't secure its load properly and all the logs fell off.

I didn't make a big deal about leaving Christianity. I sort of morphed into this 'spiritual-other' person. I didn't leave the church in some big drama-filled ordeal or create some formal ritual in which I divorced Jesus and got hitched to Cernunnos. I just...evolved, for lack of a much better term.

I decided the word 'pagan' fit me, because I liked the belief in magic, and I think just calling yourself 'spiritual' is a form of a cop out. Sometimes. It means you don't have to decide anything...which...I dunno...

Whatever. Not the point.

But, I'm telling a story about Hugh Jackman and Les Mis and a crisis of faith. Somewhere in the middle of the movie - which is brilliant; you should see it - I was so overcome with how awful people's lives can be, how we can be affected by such insurmountable circumstances far beyond our control (where we're born, who our families are, how poor or wealthy they/we are, the color of our skin, the time period we're born into, and so on) and how for people all around the world, stretching all the way back through time, life was horrible...there was no good. They were incredibly poor and hungry and treated badly and there was such great sadness. And then they died.

My problem with all of this is the possibility - the very real possibility - that that's it. That's their whole story. They're not living somewhere else. They don't get a second chance. They're not coming back. There's just...oblivion. That's what science would tell us. When we expire, when we die, when we cease to breathe and function...that's it.

And it's so sad and it's so unfair and it makes it all so...pointless. Even now, typing this out, it's hard not to cry, to curl up in a ball and weep until there are no tears. I cannot tell you why it consumes me so. Why, after so many years between those childhood nights and today of this not being an issue, why it's suddenly come about, but there you have it.

Part of me says that this is the price one pays for continuing to ask questions, for poking holes in spiritual theories and wanting to inject 'reality' or 'science' into the realm of spirit. The two have a place, but the mixing of the two leads to uncomfortable questions. Uncomfortable, because the answers on paper aren't good. For the spiritual folks, at least.

That's where faith comes in, I suppose. You believe in things, because...why the hell not? If this is really it, then what in the world does it hurt to believe in something beyond us, beyond this? The only problem that arises in faith is when whole societies of people decide that you must believe in such and such, or we're going to vote you off the island...or...you know...torture you, burn your cities, and rape your women. Because of belief.

Belief in deity is as old as man. We worshipped the great power of the thunderstorm, the lightning, the rising and setting of the sun and moon. We worshipped bodies of water, and fertile soil, and places of destruction and death. We have worshipped rocks and sky gods and spaghetti monsters and all sorts of things. There are deities who were worshipped for thousands of years who are nothing more than words in an encyclopedia now, if that.

For most people on the planet, that means there's got to be something to it. Right? So many people believing in a god(dess) for as long as they have, believing in an afterlife in some form or another for as long as they have...that many people can't be wrong. They just can't.

Yet, for about the last month or so...this is where I've been. (One of the reasons you haven't heard much from me here on the blog or on the podcast.) I've been scared to write this...no...not scared...unwilling? Unwilling to admit that I'm going through a hard time with my faith. I don't know if it's in my nature not to have an answer to something. I suppose if I die and there's no afterlife, I won't know the difference, huh. Can't be disappointed if there's no me.

Ugh.

I've let go of so many things. I feel I'm on a sense of pause, and possibly because things for me are in a place of stagnation in many senses, I'm feeling a bit worried that this is it. That I'm going to be retail guy for the rest of my life and then I'll die. That I won't have truly lived, because I'm hoping it'll get better. Oh sweet gods, I almost did an Anne Hathaway 'I Dreamed A Dream' joke. I'll spare you.

Funny, though. I still light my candles. I still pray. I'm not really sure it would be right to think that my 'crisis of faith' is something that will end my faith, because I don't think I'm the kind of person who can go through life without the greater meta story of the gods, the spirits, the magic. I think this is a moment of evolution for me, however. That the questions I've asked and the answers I've come up with and the faith I want and the hard reality of the spinning universe are all coming together, sitting at a table somewhere in my gray matter, and they're hashing stuff out. It'll be interesting to see what comes out the other end.

Have YOU ever had a crisis of faith? Have you ever questioned the reality of the gods? The veracity of an existence beyond this physical world? They're called big questions for a reason, I suppose. They're tough. They're big. Really, really big. Hurt your head big. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. (Or Les Mis...you know...whatever.) Leave them in the comments below, as a few people have emailed me recently with similar 'crisis of faith' conundrums, and it might be good for them to see your answers, too.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Confessions of a Job Hopper

2012-12-29T11:22:00.002-06:00

Partner and I moved to Chicago in May of 2009. The day before I packed up my little box of a car and drove the thousand or so miles north to my new home, there were a few things that were absolutely true:

I was a college graduate who was assured acceptance into my school's Master's program. I was well-thought-of by the faculty, and my educational future was bright.
I was in a job I absolutely love, that to this day I still consider my favorite job. I was doing something I felt bettered my fellow man, which filled up my personal cup - so to speak. I loved going to work, and I made a good enough living to save money and still pay all my bills.
I had no credit card debt, and I had a sizable amount in savings.
My job and prospects were pretty much secured, and I was on a career path that would last at least the next 10 years of my life.

But, for reasons far too human - read: both complex and simultaneously simple - we moved to Chicago. The day after we moved, a few things changed:

The job I was supposed to begin - in the same field doing similar work - fell through. They had lost the funding to employ new people. So that contract and verbal agreement...meant nothing.
I no longer was in school, nor was I anywhere close to forming a relationship with a college and gaining admission - not to mention the fact that paying for school was now problematic due to issue 1.
We used savings to move and live while looking for a job, which quickly ran out. Thus, credit card debt now was a part of my life.
I had neither financial nor educational security, was over a thousand miles away from anything remotely resembling home, and had no idea what I was going to do.

And that, folks, is how I became a Job Hopper.About a month after we moved here, I finally got a job...making coffee at a book store. It wasn't much money at all, but it helped slow the bleeding. Partner gained employment, too, a short while after that, which, combined with my income, didn't come close to equaling our income pre-move, but we made do. A few months after this, I got a job as a waiter in a big chain "Italian" restaurant and made even more money. All this time I was trying to get "back to work".

Finally, about 4 months into waitering, I got a job doing what I wanted to do. It lasted 3 months. No funding, and other complications, meant I was tossed back into the ether of the overeducated/underemployed milieu. This was only the beginning of 2010. A few weeks later, I entered the world of retail. Since that time, I've worked for 5 different companies. 3 months at that first one, 4 months at another, about a year and a half at the third, a disastrously humiliating run for less than a month at the fourth, and I've been with the fifth since July. I like to pretend the fourth didn't happen, as it lasted such a short time, but it did.

All told, since we moved here in May of 2009 I've had 8 different jobs working for 8 different companies. 8 jobs in less than 4 years.

I belong to a group of people known as the Millennials. Quite a lot has been written and reported about us in the last few years. The global financial crisis that raged not just in America but around the world between 2007 and the present has caused heretofore unheard of unemployment for my generation. Yet, we're also the most educated generation to have ever lived. More of us have graduated high school, college, and gotten advanced degrees than in previous generations. We're more tolerant, more comfortable with technology, faster learning, and able to adapt much better than previous generations.

As a whole, though, we're more narcissistic, more self-serving, and feel more entitled than previous generations.

A lot has been said about my generation, about me - in a universal sense - and while we get lauded with praise for how tolerant we are of people's differences, how smart we are, how socially conscious we are, we get slammed much more often for how entitled we are, how flighty we are, how we change jobs and career paths at a rapid fire pace. Employers don't want us in their companies, and the pieces of paper we have hanging on our walls mean absolutely nothing when we're stuck working 2-3 crappy jobs just to pay our share of the rent in our studio apartment we share with an out of work nuclear physicist and an MD who delivers pizza.

I'd like to say something back. I'd like to let you know 'why' we feel entitled. Why we hop from job to job. Or, at least, tell you what I've seen.

You know how you tell your kids that you work your ass off so that they can have a better life than you did? You want them to have a better education, a more secure financial life, a better home, be more tolerant, a better everything. Well, it worked...sort of. Our parents' generation - the folks that grew up in the 60s and 70s - created a world where we were able to go to college at a rate never before seen. We were able to express ourselves and be ourselves and study what we wanted and learn at our own pace and be individuals and not fall into the clockwork society of the past. We didn't have to go straight into the work force, because you made that better world. We were told all our lives that if we got a good education, worked hard at being smart, at understanding new technologies, philosophies, cultures, and ideas, that we would succeed.

We were told 'Go! Be! Live! Thrive!' So we went. We were. We lived. We thrived. We got an education. We learned more, saw more, and did more than our predecessors. Then, it came time to enter the real world...and...through no fault of our own...the economy collapsed. The job market evanesced, evaporated, went POOF. No longer were employers seeking fresh young minds straight out of college. They wanted the candidate to have 5-10 years experience on the job. They didn't want to waste time training. They want to put somebody straight to work.

All those degrees in all those subjects we liked, all those degrees in art or philosophy or theatre or even social science...all those civic minded, technology-driven, idea-generating degrees...they didn't help us like we were told they would. The job market didn't care that we'd spent 8 years of our lives getting a doctorate in the subject of our personal bliss.

So...we make coffee. We sell clothes. We wait tables. We pursue our bliss when we can and how we can, but we've got bills to pay and a doctorate that is just good enough to make an origami cow. Why do we hop from job to job? Because right now, nobody is promoting anyone. I've seen people spend 10 years of their life at a job only to continue being passed over for the newcomer from outside the company. The rest of my generation saw that, too. So, when we want to advance, we know that it's going to take a hop and skip to a different company, a different job, with a better title and paycheck.

And we won't feel guilty about it.

Because we are able to adapt to our surroundings. And, our surroundings are crap. Why don't I show a company loyalty? Simple. Right now, companies aren't showing their people any loyalty. They're not giving out raises, they're not promoting from within, and they're all scrambling to make sure their CEO and executives can make millions of dollars and fat bonus checks while the folks making them their money figure out whether this week is peanut butter and jelly or ramen.

So stop complaining about my generation. Sure, we can whine with the best of them, and some of us are horrible examples of the coffee shop hipster prince who's just waiting for a golden egg to fall in his lap, but the rest of us are survivors. We're just trying to make it in the world we were given.

I was told recently by someone who will probably be hiring me for my 9th job that job hopping was going to ruin my resume. Well, maybe so, but I looked her square in the eye and said, "Listen, I have bills to pay. I'm damn good at what I do. I will be damn good at the job you put before me. I will be impressive. I will be one of, if not your best employees. But, at the end of the day, my loyalty is to myself, and what I've learned of the job market is that it does not favor my age group. So, if I'm a bit opportunistic, it's only out of self-preservation."

She said she can't wait to work with me.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Seeking Yulemas Submissions

2012-12-19T09:11:00.001-06:00

I'll be recording the annual Yulemas show this Friday morning, first thing. It will be another round of stories, poems, songs, and lore with the running theme of wintertide holidays. While I have a rough idea of what I want in the show, I'm asking you, the Riot community, to help me find the absolute best, most original and fantastic, music, stories, poems, etc.

Do YOU have an original piece you'd like shared with the world? Send it in!

Could you or your band use a bit of exposure? Send me your take on a winter classic!

Or, just send in a link to a great story or piece of music.

All submissions are welcomed and encouraged! I look forward to hearing from you! Remember to send all suggestions and submissions to FireLyte@incitingariot.com, or you can leave your links in the comments below for everyone to share!

Also: I now have greeting cards available in my etsy shop - TorchAndPaintbrush.etsy.com - prices are $3 for 1 or $10 for 6! I've put up some La Befana (Christmas Witch) greeting cards available for purchase, or you can choose your favorite print to turn into a group of cards. There's still time to get them before Christmas (and, depending on the distance, before Yule!).

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Episode 76: Inciting A Truthful Riot

2012-12-17T09:27:00.000-06:00

Episode 76 of Inciting A Riot: the Podcast finds us Inciting A Truthful Riot. It's a long show that includes a mini-interview with author Rob Kroese, Teach Me Tarot, and a look at why we should learn the truth behind the myth (a redux of my class taught in San Francisco).

News: Hostess closes, Black Friday protests galore, HRC shopping scores released, Supreme court of the United States taking on gay marriage.

Word of the Day: skeuomorph

Gripe Department: Retail at the holidays

Teach Me Tarot: The High Priestess (email Liz@IncitingARiot.com & twitter r0sered1ster)

Music: Wild Maiden - Kellianna

Sociology: Gender inequality in toys

Literature: Dis-Enchanted & Mercury Rests by Rob Kroese. Find Rob's books here.

Spirituality: Truth behind the myth - learning the 'why' behind the 'what'.

*Note* From the time I began recording this episode and the time of its release, the horrible tragedy at Sandy Hook elementary in Newtown, CT happened. I mention this at the end of the show, and it's one of the reasons why I cut out a few planned segments. I hope you'll join me in sending prayer, love, and energy to these families.

Subscribe to, and rate the show on iTunes. Join the TwitterRiot by following me @IncitingARiot. Enter the Swag Contest through a donation on PayPal. Check out my art on TorchAndPaintbrush.Etsy.com. Send any and all feedback to IncitingARiotPodcast@gmail.com!

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

Home Page: http://www.IncitingARiot.com

Podcast Alley: http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=86829

Etsy: http://TorchAndPaintbrush.Etsy.com

iTunes: http://www.itunes.com/podcast?id=337689333

Twitter: http://twitter.com/IncitingARiot

Project Pagan Enough: http://www.incitingariot.com/p/project-pagan-enough.html

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Unpacking the Newtown Elementary shooting.

2012-12-15T00:44:00.000-06:00

There was a tragedy today. As with any tragedy, there has been a lot of information and misinformation flying around the media and internet. There have been debates, and there are friends and family members that have gotten into heated debates over issues of increased laws and government oversight. There was a tragedy today, and, now - as respectfully and factually as I can - I will attempt to unpack some of the facts and surrounding issues.

Quick note: As with any tragedy, I am sure there are details that haven't come out or are still incorrect that are floating around, information that I will get wrong. Please know that I am writing this article utilizing as many good sources as possible. Also, a warning, this information will be full of triggers and sensitive topics. If you prefer not to read such material, turn away now.

27 people in Newtown, Connecticut are dead today. A mass shooting happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School around 9:30am on Friday, December 14th. 20 children ranging in age between 5 and 10. 18 died immediately, while 2 that were taken to the hospital died from their injuries. 7 adults - including the shooter - are also dead. 1 person that was shot is reported to have survived their injuries.

The shooter was a 20-year-old named Adam Lanza. Reports say that he had shot his mother, Nancy Lanza (who possibly worked at the school, though this is not confirmed), earlier that morning at their home. 3 weapons were recovered from the scene: a rifle that he left in his car, and two pistols that he used to commit his crime (a Sig Sauer semiautomatic pistol and a Glock 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol). The guns were legally purchased and registered to Nancy Lanza.

At this time, officials are not releasing any information as to the motive of Adam Lanza, what made him kill his mother and then drive to the local K-4 elementary school and open fire. Many are speculating mental illness, some claiming he had Aspberger's syndrome, others saying that he was intelligent, introverted, and nervous. To be fair, after a tragedy like this, people tend to retroactively assign negative attributes to the shooter, whether they would have described them as such before or not.

So, those are the facts. That is what happened today. It is awful. It's horrible. If there is any resolution, it is that the shooter is dead and the families will not be subjected to a drawn out trial, having to relive it daily for years of trial dates and appeals and appeals for the appeals.

My heart goes out to all those affected by this horrendous tragedy. I hurt all over for the victims and their families. I have cried and lit candles and prayed to the gods of my understanding, and I hope you join me in doing the same.

There are a lot of issues regarding guns, gun control laws, safety, and more. I am going to do my very best to provide a solid academic understanding of these in the coming days. Suffice it to say, we need to have a conversation about gun policy. Our gun control laws are disjointed and non-functional as they are. Between gun shows that don't require much of a background check, to after market/internet sales, to stealing weapons...it's far too easy to get a gun in this country. A terrorist puts a bomb in his shoe, and shoes have to be removed at airports and checked. Someone pulls a gun and kills a few dozen people, and we legalize carrying guns on school campuses. There's a disconnect happening, and it needs to be fixed.

Hug your friends, family, children, and loved ones closer. Light a candle to remember. Be a bit kinder to others. Spread some love around right now.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

We're all fine here

2012-12-14T10:35:00.001-06:00

This past week we had a visit from our Regional Vice President. Some companies call that position Regional Manager, but we're, apparently, a bit more pretentious. Two weeks before Christmas is not usually the time companies decide to pop in for a visit, as we're crazy busy and don't really have the time to turn the store upside down, inside out, and backwards for a visit. There is a lot of minutiae that is seen and cleaned and buffed and polished and moved and thrown out and scrubbed within an inch of its life for a visit of this magnitude.

Now, I'm all about having a "good" visit. I want the Regional Person to leave my store thinking that I know what I'm doing, that we're doing well overall, and generally (thanks to my Type A personality) want to get the equivalent of a good grade during a visit. I do! For all of my - pardong the language - bitching and moaning, I do actually want to do a good job at my job. Hey, if you're going to pay me to do something, I'd like to do it well.

However, I am also of the idea that I want to have an honest visit. I want my Regional Lady In Power to come to my store and get a realistic view of what it's like to work in that store on a daily basis. I want her to see that, because of her decisions, we are incredibly understaffed, many of our employees haven't received raises in years, and there are a lot of problems that can't really be solved at the store level. I want to ask her why I'm supposed to hire 20 seasonal associates, only to have my budget slashed to bits weeks before the holidays, leaving me with about a dozen employees who aren't getting any hours at all.

But...That's not what happens with these kinds of visits...

What happens is that my boss goes nuts and schedules a week of late night/early morning shifts to get the store looking cleaner than it ever has, the back room more organized than it ever can look, and makes sure that we generally portray an image of "Everything is Fine".

Everything is fine...

I kind of have a problem with this. Not just at work, but in general. We don't get what we need if we portray the image that everything is fine. I can't tell you how many times I've sat in a pagan group gathering and seen someone nodding along, acting like they understand everything that everyone's saying. Except, they're not getting it. They don't understand who the authors are that are referenced in conversation or the terms used or historical events mentioned.

Nobody every improves, nothing ever gets better if you just slap some paint on it, nod along, or overall play a game of make believe as though everything is okay. But, there's a taboo in admitting you need help. At work, I was given strict instructions not to mention any of the little things we need...it might reflect poorly on my boss! Yikes! We don't want to ask what seem to be fairly obvious questions of our pagan brothers and sisters, because we might seem stupid.

I was sent an email this week, thanking me for my previous post on the difference between ignorant and stupid. I'd like to reiterate, there's nothing wrong with being ignorant. There can be no fault for a lack of knowledge. The problem is when you know you need more or better information, and you actively pretend like everything is okay...like it's all fine here.

So... ASK QUESTIONS! Get answers! Don't settle for 'fine'.

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte