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Roja, or Red Priestess, of a temple here in Philadelphia. One does not need to be of Hispanic/Latin descent to celebrate
Brujeria--I am not.
As a sample, allow me to offer you what is known as the Rule of the Brujo. Much of Brujeria is done in Spanish or in the
native language of Nahuatl, but much is being brought into English.
"The one who made the Rule known is not known, but from this person the Rule spread unto the Olmecs, unto the Toltecs,
unto the Aztecs, and ultimately the Rule has come down to us. That there is one piece of the rule for every full moon in
the solar year is a certainty.
The universe is a living thing (which is an idea brought into modern Brujeria from Aztec cosmology), and Brujeria is a method
of interacting with the living energy of the universe.
A brujo/bruja practices what could be termed magic by attuning himself/herself to this living energy.
This living energy can seize a brujo/bruja at any time, or through the concentrated work of an impromptu and inspired ritual.
An individual enters Brujeria through a personal encounter with the living energy.
Once a brujo, always a brujo. It is something that cannot be shaken off.
Brujos are born and cannot be made, even if they do not come to realize their place in Brujeria until much later in life.
A brujo has no ethical laws or limits to restrict his magic. However, he must also assume complete responsability for his
actions and be willing to submit to the consequences.
'A dead brujo is more powerful and more dangerous than a living brujo.' What exactly this means is up for interpretation.
As Mexican Presidente Beinito Juarez said, "Respect for the rights of others is peace."
Brujos are free to use their abilities for non-brujos. Example situations are healing, spiritual counselling, and the creation
of hechizos ("spellwork").
Brujeria is a community bound together by the living energy of the universe, and all brujos are brothers and sisters. A
brujo is pledged to assist a fellow brujo wherever and whenever needed.
Some of what makes Brujeria can be revealed to non-brujos but most of Brujeria must remain between brujos alone.
Brujeria is learned from brujo to brujo, and through interaction with the living energy."
Gender and Nature in Contemporary
NeoPaganism
In recent decades, several social and political movements have
had profound impacts upon the popular Western psyche.
Collectively, they pose a powerful challenge to religiously
grounded relational paradigms which until recently have been
accepted almost without question. These movements include the
human rights trio (ethnic/racial civil rights, lesbian/gay rights and
feminism) and environmentalism.
The last two of these, feminism and environmentalism, have been
converging to the degree that a common discipline, ecofeminism,
has been born. Although some affinities exist between these two
and the others, the only solid connection seems to be the choice
by some feminists of lesbianism on ideological grounds in spite of
their personal sexual preferences. What could the womenÌs rights
movement have in common with the attempt to preserve and
protect our planetary ecology which the homosexual and nonwhite
rights movements do not share? To answer this question, we must
take a look at the paradigm they are all opposing, and in what
ways each of them oppose it.
Our Present Paradigm
This paradigm is drawn from the moral laws set down in the holy
texts of the religions comprising mainstream Western
Monotheism. These religions mainly include Judaism,
Christianity, Islam and Zoroastrianism; their texts include the
Bible, the Koran and the Zend Avesta. For purposes of simplicity
and brevity, we shall call this the JCIZ paradigm.
JCIZ postulates a single omniscient, omnipotent and relatively
benevolent male deity (Jahweh, Jehovah, God or Lord, Allah or
Ahura Mazda), who created and populated the world but is
essentially transcendent with respect to it. This deity is opposed
by another somewhat less knowing and powerful, relatively
malevolent male deity (Lucifer, the Devil, Shaitan or Ahriman),
who is also essentially supernatural. These two opposed forces of
good and evil, light and darkness, contend with each other by
intervening in our affairs. Each of us shall spend eternity with
whichever one he or she allies with; in any case this earth is a
temporary inconvenience, unimportant in the greater order of
things. It is in our interest to ally ourselves with the Ïgood guyÓ,
and we know how to do this because HeÌs thoughtfully sent us a
male savior or prophet or avatar (Moses, Jesus, Mohammed or
Zarathustra) to so inform us.
We are now in a position to understand the special affinity
between feminism and environmentalism. Homosexuality is
condemned and slavery condoned in the JCIZ, but if these
tendencies were reversed, it would not compromise the
underpinnings of the theological structure; gay/lesbian rights
identical to those of straights and white/nonwhite equality are no
metaphysical threat to the integrity of the system. The religious
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