Why must Religious beliefs be absolutes and often exclusive? What part does Religion play in our lives? Why?

Religion does not have to be exclusive or absolute, but it often is because of fear. Virtually every religion exhorts its believers to have faith, but most people seem to think that faith in their own religion equates with condemnation of those who believe differently and thus justifies persecution. It's not really faith in a religion that makes its adherents act out against others, it's fear. As soon as a person disagrees with us it raises that niggling little doubt at the back of the mind... what if I'm wrong? All religions that declare themselves an absolute and solitary truth are the most vulnerable to this zealotry. It is self-doubt, not faith, which causes them to lash out at those who believe differently.

Still religion plays an important role in our society. When we are small, our parents provide us with a framework of acceptable behavior and hold our hands until we are ready walk on our own. They answer our questions and give us comfort when we fall and scrape our knees. In this way, religion is like a parent. It is a philosophy that gives meaning to our lives. It answers questions about life and promises to answer ever more questions upon death. When we are hurting, it offers comfort. No matter how advanced we like to think we are as a species, we still need this support. Religion nourishes a part of our psyche that never grows up. Even agnostics and atheists believe in something. They probably wouldn't call it religion, but it is still a philosophy which provides them with comfort and justification for their actions. A rose by any other name....

Ideally, religion is our security blanket. However, as soon as we start comparing.... it becomes a question of whose dad can beat up whose dad. Looked at on a person by person basis, religion does a lot of good for a lot of people, but once you look beyond individual merit, religion has been disastrous for large groups. Religion is a personal philosophy and should remain so, a private belief which infringes on no one's freedoms. It's a peculiar mania that causes someone to wake up one morning believing that only if people are in agreement with them can they live comfortably in the world. Historically speaking, the origins of various religions have not been erased by time, but even if the dates are not exact, we can still fashion a working timeline of religious origins which plainly shows the order in which various religions developed. Religions which extoll their virtue as being the most ancient are usually not.

prehistory - shamanism, anamism (earliest form of religion)
5500 BCE - Hinduism
3150 BCE - Khemet (Egyptian) religion
unknown BCE - various ancient "Pagan" religions contemporary with Egyptian and/or Judaic religions
1300-1200 BCE - earliest Judaic history
9-10th century BCE - Zoroastrianism
6th century BCE -Jainism
551-479 BCE - Confucianism
563-483 BCE - Buddhism
1st century AD- Christianity
2nd century AD- Taoism
7th century AD- Islam
16th century AD- Sikhism
19th century AD- Bahai
19th century AD- neo-Pagan revival

At best, religion provides a pacifier to our neotenic tendencies, giving us the psychological comfort our physical parents can no longer provide, but like children who lead an overly sheltered existence within their parents' home, religion can also be limiting and outright damaging. A religion which cannot bend to fit the issues at hand and instead falls back on dogma to lead its adherents falls short of its parental function. A person who falls back on their religion's dogma, rather than face the issues at hand, falls short of the expectations put upon them by the attainment of adulthood. To be of any use to an individual or a society, religion must be fluid, constantly evolving, just as people themselves must constantly adapt to new situations.

March 2nd

This day is sacred to Ceadda, god of healing springs and holy wells. He is also known as Saint Chad of Lichfield. His symbol is the Crann Bethadh, the tree of life. Honor a holy well today by cleaning it and making an offering of flowers.

The 17th day of Parmutit in the Egyptian calendar celebrates the Going forth of Seth, Son of Nut.

March 3rd
(no posts tomorrow - it's my birthday)

Aegir, a Teutonic sea god is honored today. He and his Christian counterpart, St. Winnal, control the sea's tide and weather. This day is associated with storms.

First comes David,
Next comes Chad,
Then comes Winnal,
Roaring mad.

The Japanese Doll festival, O-Hinamatsuri, is celebrated with paper dolls designed to either draw off illness and evil spirits or to act as representatives of the good attributes people want to draw to themselves. The Girls Festival, Jomi No Sekku or Munakata-no-kami, also occurs today. Most Shinto temples actively participate in the Hina-matsuri, Momo-no-sekku, or Jomi-no-sekku.

There are mainly three kinds of dolls: the hina, the tachibina (a paper doll and probably the oldest) and also wooden dolls. Every town is decked with dolls, and every doll-shop in Tokyo, Kyoto, and other large cities is gaily decked with O Hina Sama, the whole Japanese Court in miniature. Many hina dolls are family heirlooms, handed down from mothers to daughters for generations. The regular set (Dairi-hina) consists of fifteen dolls: the lord and lady (Dairi-sama), three ladies-in-waiting (Konjo), five musicians, two retainers and three guards. Many modern hina now represent actors, actresses, baseball players, etc.

Placed beneath the main dolls are various tiny household utensils and furniture, including trays with food bowls, mirrors, musical instruments, boxes, smoking units and many other things. The dolls are offered mochi (rice cakes) dyed in three colors - red, green and white, as well as shirazake, a sweet mild rice wine. New furniture is often added annually. Traditionally, this festival is said to commemorate the birth of the three Muna Katano-Kami, the three daughters of Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess. It is also a favorite day for marriages.

Rhyfeddod Lleiaf o Rhiannon, the Lesser Mysteries of Rhiannon, begins at sundown and continues till dawn of March 6th. Rhiannon is the Welsh ancestor goddess of the moon and horses. The horse is a shamanic animal symbolic of movement between worlds. Rhiannon is similar to Epona and Mare, two other goddesses of horses. Mare brings dreams and Epona has the power of transformation at her disposal.

An old Irish custom has it that if fires are lit just before dawn at each corner of a perfect crossroad (according to the cardinal points) before sitting down at the side, you may be able to spy Epona fleeing from the coming sunrise.

What qualities does a person need to have in order to be a good leader?

Once upon a time I wanted to be president, but I have too many marks against me... Pagan, female, socialist, liberal. Still, I think we tend to want leaders with the qualities we have or would like to see in ourselves. To that end, I think the most important quality a leader can have is a willingness to listen to what the people want and try to moderate between all their wants and needs to reach a middle ground. One of the worst things a leader can do is consistently cater to one group or another. Without followers, a leader is nothing, and by catering to one group over all others, a leader alienates his or her people. No matter how powerful the leader may think that one group is, or how much the leader may identify with that group, a leader is elected to represent all of his or her people and so they must act accordingly... even representing those people who did not vote for him/her.

The second most important quality a leader should have is patience. A leader without patience will lead us into war at the drop of a hat. A leader without patience will support whatever idea is proposed first by those s/he trusts without taking the time to learn whether it is the best choice. A leader without patience is frivolous and a wastrel who tends to throw money at a problem without any clear understanding of how the problem might be solved. An impatient leader lets others make decisions for him/her and by that measure tends to consider him/herself decisive, rather than easily led by his/her "supporters."

This naturally leads to the next quality important in a leader... a willingness to ask questions. If someone tells a leader that their idea is the best idea for dealing with a problem, they should be ready to define the exact nature of the problem and why their idea is the best answer to it. The president's cabinet is supposed to be a gathering of advisors but it's turned into rampant cronyism. You don't appoint brown-nosers and yes-men to advise you; you appoint people who disagree with you so that you get the widest range of feedback possible. Then, once you've heard from everyone and asked questions, then you make your decision.

A good leader is not vengeful, arrogant, or self-centered. A good leader is compassionate, forgiving, and thinks of others before all else. Being a leader is not about having a prestigious position; it's about accepting responsibility for all the people who look to you for protection and direction.

It becomes quite obvious based on my interpretation of a good leader that we have not had one in some time.   

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March

March, named for Mars, was the first month of the Greek and Roman calendar. Mars is god of war but also of fertile soil, equivalent to the Greek Ares and Tiu or Tiwazn an old sky god of Europe. He is also equated with the Celtic Teutates and the Norse Tyr. Mars' original name was Mavors. After Jupiter, he is the chief Roman god, often called Marspater, "Father Mars." He has three aspects, the martial god Gradivus, the rustic god Silvanus, and the patron of the Roman state Quirinus. The wolf and the woodpecker are his sacred animals.

March was called Mi an Mháárta or am Mart in Ireland, the seed time, and Hrethmonath, "Hertha's month," by the Anglo-Saxons, honoring the earth mother Hertha or Nerthus. The Frankish name for March was Lentzinmanoth, "renewal month." The Asatru call it Lenting.

The first Full Moon of this month is called the Worm or Sap Moon. More northerly tribes referred to this as the Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signals the end of winter, or the Full Crust Moon because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night.  It shares the names Storm Moon with February and Moon of Winds with April. It may also be referred to as the Moon of the Snowbird, Sap Moon, and Lenting Moon.

Pisces and Aries hold power over March, the Zodiac turning to Aries around March 21st. The flower for those born in March is the daffodil and smaller jonquil. Bloodstone or jasper, or sometimes aquamarine, are the jewels for the month of March. Pisces birthstone is the amethyst, while diamond is the stone for Aries. Albite, amethyst, chrysoprase, fluorite, green tourmaline, labradorite, moonstone, and opal are other stones for Pisces, and Aries also lays claim to amethyst, carnelian, garnet, fire agate, pink tourmaline, and topaz.

Lunar Holy Days

Over several days preceding the Full Moon, the Hindu festival of Holi is held to celebrate the arrival of spring and the destruction of the demon Holika who was burned to death for devoring children.

The celebration of Chahar-Shanbe Suri (Wednesday Feast), is an old tradition in Iran, marking the eve of the last Wednesday of the Persian year. It falls on the Wednesday before the Vernal Equinox.

March 1st

This is the first day of the Roman festival of Matronalia, sacred to Juno Lucina. It is the anniversary of the foundation of the temple of Juno Lucina on the Esquiline. In homes throughout the empire, prayers are offered to Juno for a prosperous wedlock and women receive presents from men. Traditional gifts consist of fruit or honey. In the temple of the goddess, flower crowned women and girls pray and bring her pious offerings of flowers. The goddess is represented veiled with a flower in her right hand and an infant in swaddling clothes in her left. Female slaves were free on this day while their mistresses waited on them.

During the Strenia, the old laurel branches of the old New Year's Day kept before the doors of the rex sacrorum, the great flamines, the curiae, and the temple of Vesta are replaced by new branches. A new fire is lit in Vesta’s secret shrine, to mark the rekindled flame of the New Year. This fire can only be rekindled by a burning glass or by the friction of boring a piece of wood from a fruit tree.

In Bulgaria, this is Granny March's Day. Women are forbidden to work today or incur the wrath of Granny March who will call upon the weather to demolish the new crops. Tomorrow is Mother’s March.

In Wales, this day is holy to St. Davis, their patron saint. The leek and daffodil, representing the vigorous growth of spring, are his emblematic plants.

Gwyl o Merriddyn is the Feast of Merlin celebrated beginning at sundown.

In Scotland, March first through the third is known as Whuppity Scoorie. Designed to wake Mother Earth from her long wintry nap, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic customs held that people must go out and ritually tap the earth three times with a staff or wand, calling Mother Earth by name and telling her it is time to wake. This is a very rowdy and noisy holiday. Mother is a deep sleeper sometimes. Pennies are thrown out for the children who scramble to pick them up, and participants strike each other with balls of paper tied with string (or bonnets).

Iduna, Norse goddess of Spring, is honored today.

The Golden Dawn was founded on this day in 1888.

The Covenant of the Goddess (COG) was formed in 1975.