The Pagan Heart
Various Quotes
   

Quotes Used in The Pagan Heart

   

   

Content Page Quotes
   

And in the naked night I saw
10,000 people, maybe more.
People talking - without speaking,
People hearing - without listening,
People writing songs that voices never shared.
No-one dared disturb the sounds of silence.
~ Paul Simon, Contents Page, Issue #2

The boughs of the oak are roaring inside the acorn shell.
~ Charles Tomlinson, Contents Page, Issue #2

To understand people I must try to hear what they are not saying...what they perhaps will never be able to say.
~ J. Powell, Contents Page, Issue #2

In the midst of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.
~ Albert Camus, Contents Page, Issue #2

Our life is what our thoughts make it.
~ Marcus Aurelius, Contents Page, Issue #2

Dar'st thou die?
The sense of death is most in apprehension,
And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,
In corporeal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.
~ Shakespeare, Contents Page, Issue #3

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.
~ Charlotte Bronte, Contents Page, Issue #3

It is better to be hated for what you are, than loved for what you are not.
~ Andre Gide, Contents Page, Issue #3

There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love.
~ Washington Irving, Contents Page, Issue #4

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away
~ Anon, Contents Page, Issue #4

One day at a time - this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful it will be worth remembering.
~ Anon, Contents Page, Issue #4

This above all: to thine own self be true and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to anyman.
~ Shakespeare, Contents Page, Issue #5

Within ourselves there is a deep place at whose edge we may sit and dream
~ Lehrman, Contents Page, Issue #5

A truly great man never puts away the simplicity of a child
~ Confucius, Contents Page, Issue #5

Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be.
~ Henry David Thoreau, Contents Page, Issue #6

Thinking is like living and dying. Each of us must do it for himself.
~ Josia Royce, Contents Page, Issue #6

Fear is the thought of admitted inferiority.
~ Elbert Hubbard, Contents Page, Issue #6

We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible. You cannot educate a man wholly out of the superstitious fears which were implanted in his imagination, no matter how utterly his reason may reject them.
~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Contents Page, Issue #7

The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.
~ Wendell Berry, Contents Page, Issue #7

Faith... must be enforced by reason.... When faith becomes blind it dies.
~ Mahatma Gandhi, Contents Page, Issue #7

We think we know what we are doing. We have always thought so. We never seem to acknowledge that we have been wrong in the past, and so might be wrong in the future. Instead, each generation writes off earlier errors as the result of bad thinking by less able minds - and then confidently embarks on fresh errors of its own
~ Michael Crighton, Contents Page, Issue #8

Believing something doesn't make it true; refusing to believe it doesn't make it false.
~ Paul Little, Contents Page, Issue #8

Just as there is no loss of basic energy in the universe, so no thought or action is without its effects, present or ultimate, seen or unseen, felt or unfelt.
~ Norman Cousins, Contents Page, Issue #8

I object to intellect without discipline; I object to power without constructive purpose.
~ Spock, "The Squire of Gothos", stardate 2124.5, Contents Page, Issue #9

Reason guides our attempt to understand the world about us. Both reason and compassion guide our efforts to apply that knowledge ethically, to understand other people, and have ethical relationships with other people.
~ Molleen Matsumura, Contents Page, Issue #9

You and I as individuals can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but only for a limited period of time. Why should we think that collectively, as a nation, we are not bound by that same limitation?
~ Ronald Regan, Contents Page, Issue #9

There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills.
~ Buddha, Contents Page, Issue #10

He who knows nothing, doubts nothing.
~ Spanish Proverb, Contents Page, Issue #10

Doubt yourself and you doubt everything you see. Judge yourself and you see judges everywhere.
~ Nancy Lopez, Contents Page, Issue #10

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.
~ Cherokee Proverb, Contents Page, Issue #11

Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.
~ W. Clement Stone, Contents Page, Issue #11

I do believe that when we face challenges in life that are far beyond our own power, it's an opportunity to build on our faith, inner strength, and courage. I've learned that how we face challenges plays a big role in the outcome of them.
~ Sasha Azevedo, Contents Page, Issue #11

The conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them; their notions of good and evil are the result of the moral atmosphere they breathe.
~ Jean Paul Richter, Contents Page, Issue #12

Without an understanding of myth or religion, without an understanding of the relationship between destruction and creation, death and rebirth, the individual suffers the mysteries of life as meaningless mayhem alone.
~ Marion Woodman, Contents Page, Issue #12

All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.
~ Aldous Huxley, Contents Page, Issue #12

If an event is meant to matter emotionally, symbolically, or mystically, food will be close at hand to sanctify and bind it.
~ Diane Ackerson, Contents Page, Issue #13

People who know the truth have no business to allow the powers of darkness to silence them on any point that matters.
~ Marie Stopes, Contents Page, Issue #13

The trees that have it in their pent-up buds
To darken nature and be summer woods
~ Robert Frost, Contents Page, Issue #13

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
~ Marianne Williamson, Contents Page, Issue #13

   

Editorial Quotes
   

At some point, we all have to make the same choice. Go the safe route and do what's expected and acceptable because that's what society says we should do. Or go our own way. Make our own rules. Take a chance amd live life outside of ordinary. For some, its the only way they know.
~ SI, Winter 2005, Editorial, Issue #4

There is no spiritual peace for the ignorant, because they desire it and seek it in the external world; the wise realize it internally as ever achieved, and are at peace.
~ Ashtavaraha Gita, translated by Hari Prasad Shastri, Editorial, Issue #4

Although we saw the first promise of spring at Candlemas in the swelling buds, there were still nights of frost and darkness ahead.

Now spring is manifest. Demeter is reunited with her daughter, Kore (the essence of spring), who has been in the Underworld for six months and the earth once again teems with life.

The month of March contains holidays dedicated to all the great mother goddesses: Astarte, Isis, Aprhrodite, Cybele and the Virgin Mary.

The goddess shows herself in the blossoms, the leaves on the trees, the sprouting of the crops, the mating of birds, the birth of young animals.

In the agricultural cycle, it is time for planting.

We are assured that life will continue.
~ Waverly Fitzgerald, Celebrating the Spring Equinox, Editorial, Issue #4

"The first day of spring was once the time for taking the young virgins into the fields, there in dalliance to set an example in fertility for nature to follow."
~ E.B. White, Hot Weather, Editorial, Issue #4

Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth."
Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path."
For the soul walks upon all paths.
The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.
The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.
~ Kahlil Gibran, Editorial, Issue #5

One certainly has a soul; but how it came to allow itself to be enclosed in a body is more than I can imagine. I only know if once mine gets out, I'll have a bit of a tussle before I let it get in again to that of any other.
~ Lord Byron, Editorial, Issue #5

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
~ Bertrand Russell, Editorial, Issue #6

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
~ Albert Einstein, Editorial, Issue #9

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.
~ Anais Nin, Editorial, Issue #9

Believing something doesn't make it true; refusing to believe it doesn't make it false.
~ Paul Little, Editorial, Issue #10

I carried inside me a cut and bleeding soul, and how to get rid of it I just didn't know. I sought every pleasure - the countryside, sports, fooling around, the peace of a garden, friends, and good company, sex, reading. My soul floundered in the void - and come back upon me. For where could my heart flee from my heart? Where could I escape from myself?


~ Augustine, Editorial, Issue #10

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask oursleves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our prescence automatically liberates others.
~ Nelson Mandela, Editorial, Issue #11

...while there is a staggering amount of data, phenomena, of human experiences and expressions that might be characterized in one culture or another, by one criterion or another, as religion - there is no data for religion. Religion is solely the creation of the scholar's study. It is created for the scholar's analytic purposes by his imaginative acts of comparison and genralization. Religion has no existence apart from the academy.
~ Imagining Religion, Jonathan Z. Smith, Editorial, Issue #12

We cannot banish dangers, but we can banish fears. We must not demean life by standing in awe of death.
~ David Sarnoff, Editorial, Issue #13

One of the greatest contributions that Christianity and Judaism have imparted on our society is the institution of morality. Previous religions, especially those of Greece and Rome, placed little importance on the teaching of morality. This was left to the philosophers who in turn described their own moral beliefs and systems to their students, creating a moral code which was as diverse and disorganized as there were philosophers to listen to. It is difficult to imagine living in a society in which there is no absolute right and wrong...or is it?
~ Amethyst's Wicca, Editorial, Issue #13

   

Memories Over the Years Quotes
   

Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.
~ Desiderius Erasmus, Memories, Issue #11

   

Festival Quotes
   

Amorous Faunus, from whom the Nymphs flee, step lightly across my boundaries and sunny fields, and soon depart, leaving your blessing on my young lambs and kids, and leveled tender shoots.
~ Horace Carmina Liber, III.xviii.1-8, Festival - Hekate's Day, Issue #3

The happy feast of Anna Perenna is held on the Ides,
Not far from your banks, Tiber, far flowing river.
The people come and drink there, scattered on the grass,
And every man reclines there with his girl.
Some tolerate the open sky, a few pitch tents,
And some make leafy huts out of branches,
While others set reeds up, to form rigid pillars,
And hang their outspread robes from the reeds.
But they're warmed by sun and wine, and pray
For as many years as cups, as many as they drink.
~ Ovid, Fasti, Book III: March 15: Ides, Festival - Anna Perenna, Issue #4

Hekate, whom Zeus, son of Kronos, honored above all others,
for he gave her gifts that were glorious,
to have a part of the earth as hers, and a part of the barren sea,
and she, with a place also in the starry heaven,
is thus exalted exceedingly even among the immortals.
~ Hesiod, Theogeny, Festival - Hekate's Day, Issue #5

After the bonfire festivities, girls often carried home a partially burned peat which would be completely extinguished in a tub of "strang bing" (urine) and placed on the door lintel. The peat would be taken down the next day, broken in two and the colour of the peat within would foretell the colour of the girl's future husband.
~ Orcadian Midsummer ritual, Festival - Summer Solstice, Issue #7

Dame Ceres first to breake the Earth with plough the maner found,
She first made come and stover soft to grow upon the ground,
She first made lawes: for all these things we are to Ceres bound.
~ Ovid, Metamorphoses, 5.341 onwards, Festival - The Opening of the Mundus Cereris, Issue #8

Weave ye the dance, and call
Praise to God!
~ Euripides, The Bacchae, lines 1404-05, Festival - Ta Kat' Agrous Dionysia - The Rural Dionysia, Issue #11

If on Midsummer's Eve, you approach a fern leaf backwards, without looking, and - without touching the leaf - collect the seed (spores), they have to power to make you invisible.
~ Midsummer Traditions, Festival - Kupoliu Svente, the Lithuanian Midsummer Solstice, Issue #11

The grim frost is at hand, when apples will fall thick, almost thunderous, on the hardened earth.
~ D. H. Lawrence, Festival - Saulegriza, the Lithuanian Solstice, Issue #11

No potent herb, or prayer
Or magic spell can make you a mother:
Be patient under the blows of a fruitful hand,
And soon your husband's father will be a grandfather.
~ Ovid, Fasti, Book II, Festival - Lupercalia, Issue #12

"Now, afterward when the ceremonies of the New Year are celebrated, I will offer to my father, Amon, at his beautiful feast, when he makes his beautiful appearance of the New Year, that he may send me forth in peace, to behold Amon at the beautiful Feast of Opet; that I may bring his image forth in procession to Luxor..."
~ The Stela of Piye, Year 21, first month of the first season, under the majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Meriamon-Piankhi, living forever, Festival - Beautiful Feast of Opet, Issue #12

The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age. The most beautiful thing in life is that our souls remain over the places where we once enjoyed ourselves.
~ Kahlil Gibran, Festival - Imbolc, Issue #12

If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak then to me.
~ William Shakespeare, Festivals, Issue #13

The St. John's Wort
The young maid stole through the cottage door,
And blushed as she sought the Plant of pow'r;--
'Thou silver glow-worm, O lend me thy light,
I must gather the mystic St. John's wort tonight,
The wonderful herb, whose leaf will decide
If the coming year shall make me a bride.
~ Chamber's Book of Days, Festival - Litha, Issue #13

The wheel is turning, oh so quickly it seems. Live this moment while we have it. Pause and listen for the song of the birds of summer, breath the fragrance of a beautiful flower or take a moonlit walk. Soon the shadows of the coming season will turn us inward once more.
~ C. Austin, "Light and Dark Meet Again at Midsummer", Rituals and Activities, Issue #7

Listen! The wind is rising,
and the air is wild with leaves.
We have had our summer evenings,
now for October eves!
~ Humbert Wolfe, Rituals and Activities, Issue #10

Pixie, kobold, elf, and sprite,
All are on their rounds tonight;
In the wan moon's silver ray,
Thrives their helter-skelter play.
~ Joel Benton, Rituals and Activities, Issue #10

"From ghoulies and ghosties and long leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night,
Good Lord, deliver us !"
~ Scottish Proverb, Rituals and Activities, Issue #10

Sweet springtime is my time is your time is our time
for springtime
is love time
and viva sweet love.
~ e e cummings, Rituals and Activities, Issue #12

Summer set lip to earth's bosom bare,
And left the flushed print in a poppy there.
~ Francis Thompson, Rituals and Activities, Issue #13

   

Kitchen Witchery Quotes
   

A light supper, a good night's sleep and a fine morning have sometimes made a hero of the same man who by an indigestion, a restless night and a rainy morning would have proved a coward.
~ Lord Chesterfield, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #3

Namaste - I honour that place in you where the whole universe resides. And when I am in that place in me, and you are in that place in you, there is only one of us.
~ Anon, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #4

When food is cooked with a spirit of holiness, it becomes alchemy.
~ Christine Gruenwald and Peter Marchand, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #4

There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #5

Honey comes out of the air and is chiefly formed at the rising of the stars, and especially when the dogstar shines forth, and not at all before the rising of the Pleiads, in the periods just before dawn. Consequently at that season at early dawn, the leaves of trees are found bedewed with honey
~ Pliny, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #5

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.
~ Harriet van Horne, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #5

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.
~ Harriet van Horne, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #6

Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did.
~ William Butler, Kitchen, Issue #6

The greatest delight the fields and woods minister is the suggestion of an occult relation between man and the vegetable. 'I am not alone and unacknowledged.' They nod to me and I to them.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Kitchen, Issue #6

"Strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries thrive here. From these they make a wonderful dish combined with syrup and sugar, which is called 'pai'. I can tell you that is something that glides easily down your throat!"
~ Norwegian immigrant living in Beloit, Wisconsin, 1851, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #7

It was warm in Grandma's kitchen. Throughout this, her second apartment in the New World, the fiery steam heat rises with dawn and dinner from the coal-soaked furnace in the basement, but the kitchen is warmed all day by the cooking and washing. My mother, my grandmother, sit at the white enamel kitchen table, kneading dough, shelling peas, measuring pine nuts into the chopped lamb and onions, soaking the crushed wheat for kibbeh, filling dozens of meat pies, stuffing chicken and squash and green peppers and eggplant, rolling stuffed grape leaves and stuffed cabbage like cigars.....sitting and chatting over familiar tasks that are done must be done will be done every day without respite, my mother, my grandmother at the kitchen table with me between them on a stool in the corner where I watch and listen, tasting dough and stuffing, rewards for being content to observe and accept, with my silence, their love.
~ D.H. Melhem, Rest In Love, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #7

Nevyk Dievas i medi, paskui ir su pyragu neisprasysi - Do not drive Dievas up a tree, later you will not be able to coax him to get down, even if you offer him a piece of pastry for it ~
~ Lithuanian Pagan Proverb, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #8

"Wassail, wassail, all over the town,
Our bowl it is white and our ale it is brown
Our bowl it is made of the white maple tree
With the wassailing bowl, we'll drink to thee."
~ Wassailing Song, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #11

Food...can look beautiful, taste exquisite, smell wonderful, make people feel good, bring them together, inspire romantic feelings....At its most basic, it is fuel for a hungry machine...
~ Rosamond Richardson, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #12

Many so-called aphrodisiac recipes are basically wholesome ingredients prepared in a tasty way. The receptivity to romance probably comes from the general sense of relaxation and well-being good food induces.
~ Harry E. Wedeck, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #12

A number of rare or newly experienced foods have been claimed to be aphrodisiacs. At one time this quality was even ascribed to the tomato. Reflect on that when you are next preparing the family salad.
~ Jane Grigson, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #12

We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink...
~ Epicurus, Kitchen Witchery, Issue #13

   

Callum's Herbaria Quotes
   

The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.
~ Hada Bejir, Callum's Herbaria, Issue #3

The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life.
~ Jean Giraudoux, Callum's Herbaria, Issue #3

Many of the phenomena of Winter are suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant; but with the gentleness of a lover he adorns the tresses of Summer.
~ Henry David Thoreau, Callum's Herbaria, Issue #4

For the present let the moon shine brightly and the breezes of the spring blow gently, dying away from the gale of the day, and let the earth, who brings increase, bring peace.
~ E.M. Forster, Callum's Herbaria, Issue #4

A flower's fragrance declares to all the world that it is fertile, available, and desirable, its sex organs oozing with nectar. Its smell reminds us in vestigial ways of fertility, vigor, life-force, all the optimism, expectancy, and passionate bloom of youth. We inhale its ardent aroma and, no matter what our ages, we feel young and nubile in a world aflame with desire.
~ Diane Ackerman, Callum's Herbaria, Issue #5

Garden writing is often very tame, a real waste when you think how opinionated, inquisitive, irreverent and lascivious gardeners themselves tend to be. Nobody talks much about the muscular limbs, dark, swollen buds, strip-tease trees and unholy beauty that have made us all slaves of the Goddess Flora.
~ Ketzel Levine, Talking Plants, Callum's Herbaria, Issue #6

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.
Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Callum's Herbaria, Issue #7

"These most famous of all sunflowers in art hold at their heart a simple parable about the brevity of life; they are at varying stages in the life cycle, from withered and wilting to vibrant full bloom."
~ BBC Four on Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Callum's Herbaria, Issue #7

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
John Lubbock, Sr, Callum's Herbaria, Issue #7

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.
~ John Lubbock, Sr., Callum's Herbaria, Issue #8

These bursting yellow pears I hold,
In burning hands so lately cold,
My quiet autumn day confound;
I feel my fingers pressing round
In quick delight - old thoughts renew...
Ah, who's to say when summer's through?
~ E. F. Weisslitz, Callum's Herbaria, Issue #13

   

Pagan Thought Quotes
   

"The moral code of our ancient faith, the stories of gods and goddesses, relics, rituals, chants, and the wisdom itself was handed down to us."
~ Jonas Trinkunas on Romuva, Pagan Thought, Issue #2

"The gods of different peoples and localities are not just the divine forms of the nature's vital powers. Their power grows and spreads together with people who have strength of faith."
~ Jonas Trinkunas on Romuva, Pagan Thought, Issue #2

"The Baltic faith unites all the faithful - living and dead."
~ Lietuvos Romuva, Pagan Thought, Issue #2

"Blessed is the man, who seeks the way to the eternal Romuva,
And desires, in the light of everlasting fire,
To live forever. Naught will stand against him.
May we see what is eternal and sacred.
Throughout the ages it will bless us all!"
~ Vydunas, Pagan Thought, Issue #2

"If they are calling on their God against us, though they bear no arms, they still fight us by pursuing us with hostile prayers".
~ The Heathen King Aethelfrith refering to the Christianity of Welsh monks, Pagan Thought, Issue #3

"The words and promises you bring are fair enough, but because they are new to us and doubtful, I cannot consent to accept them and forsake those beliefs which I and the whole English race have held so long."
~ King Ethelbert to St Augustine, Pagan Thought, Issue #3

"Arm rings and necklaces, Odhinn you gave me
To learn my lore, to learn my magic:
Wider and wider through all worlds I see."
~ Voluspa - The Song of the Sybil, Pagan Thought, Issue #3

In what is seen, there should be just the seen;
In what is heard, there should be just the heard;
In what is sensed, there should be just the sensed;
In what is thought, there should be just the thought.
~ Sutta Nipata II, Pagan Thought, Issue #3

"I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.
I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me.
I love you for the part of me that you bring out."
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Pagan Thought, Issue #4

"Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be."
~ Karen Ravn, Pagan Thought, Issue #4

"The Religio Romana involves a collection of beliefs and practices honoring ancestral and divine spirits through precise actions and prayers in order to gain favor and achieve peace with the Gods (pax deorum.)"
~ Temple of Religio Romana, Pagan Thought, Issue #4

"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others."
~ Cicero, Pro Plancio, 54 B.C.E, Pagan Thought, Issue #4

We make a vessel from a lump of clay; It is the space inside the vessel that makes it useful.... Thus, while the tangible has advantages, it is the intangible that makes it useful.
~ Tao Saying, Pagan Thought, Issue #4

The only tyrant I will accept in this world is the "still small voice" within me.
~ Mahatma Gandhi, Pagan Thought, Issue #4

Do I point my camera outwards to the existing world or turn it inward towards my soul?
Am I taking photographs of existing reality, or creating my own world, so real but non existent?
~ Misha Gordin, Pagan Thought, Issue #5

"How to Share the Gospel with Pagans"
First and foremost, never, and I repeat, never attack. I make a point of reading every Christian tract on Paganism I encounter on the Internet or elsewhere, and the overwhelming majority of them are based on attacking Pagan religions, and those who practice them as "evil", "devil-worshippers", and "calling them to repentance before they are doomed to hell forever".

To begin with, I have never yet seen anyone converted back to Christianity by threats and attacks on them. I say "back" for a good reason. Unlike the majority of Christians in this country who are raised in their faith and accept it almost as a matter of course, most Pagans have made a conscious decision to become what they are - usually after a long period of study, reflection, and practice. They thus have a strong personal and spiritual commitment to their religion. Remember also that the great majority of Pagans in the U.S. come from Judeo-Christian family and cultural backgrounds, and a scripture-filled attack usually does little more than confirm that they made the right decision in the first place.

Another important point to remember is that, to most Pagans, the need to attack others is viewed as a sign of fear and lack of self-confidence on the part of the attacker. It is generally felt that if a person has a strong grounding and foundation in their own religion, they will not feel any need to fear - or attack - others. While a fiery assault on Paganism makes many Christians feel better about their faith, and themselves as a "defender of the truth", the Pagan sees it as a kind of spiritual immaturity on the part of the attacker, and as a result will take neither the person, nor the message, very seriously.

Finally, attacks frequently have an odd way of backfiring. No matter what the pamphlets may say to the contrary, the overwhelming majority of Pagans are fundamentally good and decent people, who live their religion to the best of their ability, and raise their children to become mature, responsible members of their communities.
~ Exerpt from an article by Gwydion at WitchVox, Pagan Thought, Issue #5

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.
~ Blaise Pascal, Pagan Thought, Issue #5

Doubting God's existence is okay and perfectly acceptable within Christianity as long as the person doubting remains obedient and committed to the Christian path.
~ Real Live Preacher, RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, Pagan Thought, Issue #5

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.
~ Thomas Jefferson, Pagan Thought, Issue #5

Run your fingers through my soul. For once, just once, feel exactly what I feel, believe what I believe, perceive as I perceive, look, experience, examine, and for once; just once, understand
~ Anon, Pagan Thought, Issue #6

That's the problem with religion: you beat your way past the clerics, fight your way through the demons, stand before the holy of holies, and when you rip away the veil, there's nothing there but a mirror
~ Owen Rowley, Pagan Thought, Issue #6

Seek the true Master with faith, love, and patience. He will give the Light to find the hidden entrance.
If with constant effort you attune the Inner Ear, The way to God opens and the Path will be clear.
~ Tulsi Sahib, C19th Master of Sound & Light, Pagan Thought, Issue #6

I do not have a soul
I AM a soul;
I have a body and a mind

The frailties, fears, and inflexibilities of my mind and body are gates to my freedom; passing through them ignites the fire of self knowledge

I am a waking soul rediscovering my true nature and source

Soon I will be Atma Rama, all my desires will be fulfilled

Free of fear and full of divine love I am able to serve the complete whole and can choose to fulfill my original purpose
~ Atma Yoga, Pagan Thought, Issue #6

High above in the Lord's mansion ringeth the transcendental music.

But, alas, the unlucky hear Him not; They are in deep slumber.
~ Guru Nanak, C16th Sikh guru, Pagan Thought, Issue #6

Some of us Christians, myself included, would even go so far as to say that God is working through all people, through all religions, through all peacemakers, and through all cultures to bring this about. For us, Christianity is no longer an "imperialist" religion. We are comfortable to be devoted deeply to our own Christian faith while seeing that other faiths are valid, as well.
~ Rev. Dr. Kim A. Hauenstein, Pagan Thought, Issue #7

As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit.
~ Emmanuel, Pagan Thought, Issue #7

A man told his grandson: "A terrible fight is going on inside me -- a fight between two wolves. One is evil, and represents hate, anger, arrogance, intolerance, and superiority . The other is good, and represents joy, peace, love, tolerance, understanding, humility, kindness, empathy, generosity, and compassion. This same fight is going on inside you, inside every other person too."
The grandson then asked: "Which wolf will win?"
The old man replied simply: "The one you feed."
~ Anon, Pagan Thought, Issue #7

The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbors as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant of others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.
~ Eric Hoffer, Pagan Thought, Issue #8

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.
~ Albert Einstein, Pagan Thought, Issue #9

At ebb tide I wrote a line upon the sand, and gave it all my heart and all my soul. At flood tide I returned to read what I had inscribed and found my ignorance upon the shore.
~ Kahlil Gibran, Pagan Thought, Issue #9

Too often we give our children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.
~ Roger Lewin, Pagan Thought, Issue #9

Our fear of death is like our fear that summer will be short,
but when we have had our swing of pleasure, our fill of fruit,
and our swelter of heat, we say we have had our day.
~ John Donne, 1620, Pagan Thought, Issue #9

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
~ Thomas Jefferson, Pagan Thought, Issue #10

Faith consists in believing, not what appears to be true, but what appears to our understanding to be false.
~ Voltaire, Pagan Thought, Issue #10

What we fear comes to pass more speedily than what we hope.
~ Publilius Syrus, Moral Sayings, (C1st B.C.E.)., Pagan Thought, Issue #10

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
~ Frank Herbert, Dune, Bene Gesserit "Litany Against Fear", Pagan Thought, Issue #10

Inside us there is something that has no name. That something is what we are.
~ Jose Saramago, Pagan Thought, Issue #11

A writer who does not speak out of a full experience uses torpid words, wooden or lifeless words, such words as "humanitary," which have a paralysis in their tails.
~ Henry W. Thoreau, Pagan Thought, Issue #12

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.
~ Blaise Pascal, Pagan Thought, Issue #12

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.
~ Thomas Jefferson, Pagan Thought, Issue #13

I am the slave of my baptism. Parents, you have caused my misfortune, and you have caused your own.
~ Arthur Rimbaud, Pagan Thought, Issue #13

When most of us imagine ancient Greek religion, we think of the grandiose: the towering temples, the processions of garlanded priests and worshippers, the smoke rising fifty feet from the altar. Those large festivals were impressive, worthwhile, and a wonderful part of an ancient Greek's life. But they weren't the heart of everyday religion. Less grandiose, but much more essential, were the daily expressions of spiritual devotion.
~ by Oenochoe, Pagan Thought, Issue #13

   

Tools of the Trade Quotes
   

Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience.
It isn't more complicated that that.
It is opening to or recieving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.
~ Sylvia Boorstein, Tools of the Trade, Issue #3

Without truth, without the strength to pursue it and the guts to turn the glaring light back upon ourselves, to look unflinchingly at our own lives, we spend hours caught in the mists of illusion.
~ Denise Brown, Tools of the Trade, Issue #4

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation... Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation.
~ Jean Arp, Tools of the Trade, Issue #4

Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.
~ Buddha, Tools of the Trade, Issue #4

For those wounded by civilization, yoga is the most healing salve.
~ Terri Guillemets, Tools of the Trade, Issue #5

Dreams are answers to questions we haven't yet figured out how to ask.
~ X-Files, Tools of the Trade, Issue #5

The discovery of song and the creation of musical instruments both owed their origin to a human impulse which lies much deeper than conscious intention: the need for rhythm in life...the need is a deep one, transcending thought, and disregarded at our peril.
~ Richard Baker, Tools of the Trade, Issue #5

That's the thing with magic. You've got to know it's still here, all around us, or it just stays invisible for you.
~ Charles de Lint, Tools of the Trade, Issue #6

As an artist, I find that I am in a constant state of mutual vibration with the natural energies that surround me. If I am not being creative I feel as if a part of my spirit has died - or at least is hidden from me. My creativity and balance wane and I feel lost. My connection with the universe that surrounds me is severed.
~ Heather, Tools of the Trade, Issue #6

Gopi Krishna on Kundalini Awakening:
A new Center -presently dormant in the average man or woman -has to be activated and a more powerful stream of psychic energy must rise into the head from the base of the spine to enable the human consciousness to transcend the normal limits.

This is the final phase of the present evolutionary impulse in man. The cerebrospinal system of man has to undergo a radical change, enabling consciousness to transcend the limits of the highest intellect. Here reason yields to intuition and Revelation appears to guide the steps of humankind.

This Mechanism, known as Kundalini, is the real cause of all so-called spiritual and psychic phenomena, the biological basis of evolution and development of personality, the secret origin of all esoteric and occult doctrines, the master Key to the unsolved mystery of creation, the inexhaustible source of philosophy, art and science, and the fountainhead of all religous faiths, past, present and future.
~ Dr. Lee Sanella, The Kundalini Experience Tools of the Trade, Issue #7

Breath: "When we practice zazen our mind follows our breathing....The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think, 'I breathe', the 'I' is extra. There is no you to say 'I.' What we call 'I' is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no 'I,' no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door. So when we practice zazen, all that exists is the movement of the breathing, but we are aware of this movement."
~ Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, Tools of the Trade, Issue #8

"Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil is rightwise king born of England."
~ T.H. White, The Sword in the Stone, Tools of the Trade, Issue #8

When we practice zazen our mind follows our breathing... . The air comes in and goes out like someone passing through a swinging door. If you think, 'I breathe', the 'I' is extra. There is no you to say 'I.' What we call 'I' is just a swinging door which moves when we inhale and when we exhale. It just moves; that is all. When your mind is calm enough to follow this movement, there is nothing: no 'I,' no world, no mind nor body; just a swinging door. So when we practice zazen, all that exists is the movement of the breathing, but we are aware of this movement.
~ "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind", Tools of the Trade, Issue #8

Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil is rightwise king born of England.
~ T.H. White, The Sword in the Stone, Tools of the Trade, Issue #8

If you talk to the animals they will talk with you and you will know each other.
If you do not talk to them, you will not know them,
And what you do not know you will fear.
What one fears one destroys.
~ Chief Dan George, Tools of the Trade, Issue #9

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
~ Shakespeare, Macbeth: Act IV, Scene I, Tools of the Trade, Issue #9

Health is the proper relationship between microcosm, which is man, and the macrocosm, which is the universe. Disease is a disruption of this relationship.
~ Dr. Yeshe Donden, physician to the Dalai Lama, Tools of the Trade, Issue #10

Just for today, don't get angry
Don't worry
Be grateful
Work hard
Be kind to others
~ The gokai - the Five Principles - of Reiki, Tools of the Trade, Issue #10

to be nobody-but-yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
~ e.e. cummings, Tools of the Trade, Issue #11

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
~ Steve Jobs, Tools of the Trade, Issue #11

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
~ Marcus Aurelius, Tools of the Trade, Issue #12

A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.
~ Henry W. Thoreau, Tools of the Trade, Issue #12

Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with everything, suddenly there's shadow - no, not just shadow, but fullness. You've got to be willing to mix black into your palette if you want to create something that's real.
~ Amy Grant, Tools of the Trade, Issue #12

Thus meditating you will no longer strive to build yourself up in your prejudices, but, forgetting self, you will remember only that you are seeking the Truth.
~ James Allen, Tools of the Trade, Issue #13

Truth is the need of the soul and the conscience is the voice of the soul. If there is slightest imbalance then mind grows narrow in proportion to the soul grows corrupt. This is the law Eternal.
~ unknown, Tools of the Trade, Issue #13

No cord or cable can draw so forcibly, or bind so fast, as love can do with a single thread.
~ Robert Burton, Tools of the Trade, Issue #13

Submission to what people call their "lot" is simply ignoble. If your lot makes you cry and be wretched, get rid of it and take another.
~ Elizabeth von Arnim, Tools of the Trade, Issue #13

   

Pagan Families
   

The loss of faith is no trivial passing from illusion to rationality. It is a revolutionary shift in consciousness; we move out of an orientation in which the world is held together and makes sense and into an orientation where nothingness and desolation cast their shadow across our path.
~ Clark Pinnock, Pagan Familes, Issue #10

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
~ William Shakespeare, MacBeth, Pagan Familes, Issue #10

"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy. So there ought to be."
~ James Matthew Barrie, Pagan Familes, Issue #12

"Live free, child of the mist, -- and with respect to knowledge we are all children of the mist"
~ Henry D. Thoreau, Pagan Familes, Issue #12

Tom should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them...
~ Brooke Shields, Pagan Familes, Issue #13

Before you were conceived I wanted you.
Before you were born I loved you.
Before you were here an hour I would die for you.
This is the miracle of life.
~ Maureen Hawkins, Pagan Familes, Issue #13

I walk without flinching through the burning cathedral of the summer.
My bank of wild grass is majestic and full of music.
It is a fire that solitude presses against my lips.
~ Violette Leduc, Pagan Familes, Issue #13

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Catherine M and The Pagan Heart - All Rights Reserved