Be Not Afraid!

Dear Folks:

Are you afraid?

Does the spirit of fear stalk your dreams and haunt your days?

Are you troubled with fear of terrorism?

Does fear of natural disaster lurk somewhere in your consciousness?

Are you frightened of people who are different, perhaps from another country, who come to your nation with strange customs seem unsettling to you?

Does the prospect of your eventual death deliver a cold, stark dread?

Do those Sunday school tales of hell and damnation still lurk somewhere in your psyche, eating away at your serenity in the same way cancer devours healthy cells?

Take just a moment to think about what you fear, why you fear it, and what you can do about it.

You see; fear is something that is being sold to us as a product of torment.

The advertising campaign is that we ought to be frightened most of the time.

The merchandise of dread is peddled by politicians, religious leaders, media outlets, and even Hollywood and Broadway!

Fear is the product sold via the skilled propaganda of an elite cadre of special interests with an express purpose to manipulate and cower the general populace.

Think about who is behind all that fear:

Governments warn us to be afraid of terrorists and myriad bogeymen around the globe.

Churches constantly assail us with lurid descriptions of God's wrath, eternal torment, the devices of the devil, and damnation to hell for the rest of time!

We are constantly bombarded with messages urging us to be fearful of one thing or another, and to suspect the motivations of strangers and even our own neighbors.

I am here to tell you that we need not walk in fear. Nay, nor do we have reasonable cause to accept the constant litany of warnings of dire catastrophe coming our way in the very near future. It is vital for us to understand that most of the propaganda playing upon our fears is sheer baloney! In saying this, I am trying to be nice.

Pagans ought not walk in fear because we are a Magickal people who employ the Arts to change things for the better. Hidden Children of the Goddess, awaken! You have the power to change things in a positive way to overcome fear. As children of the Lady and Lord, we have access to Them directly. We can seek Their council when confronted by our fears. We can learn mastery over our fears rather than allowing fear to exercise mastery over us.

Christians should know that they too have power over fear. I believe that too many of them forget this and in kindness we might remind them:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18

Pagan people can benefit from adopting that last bit from Christian Scripture because it has overtones unique to our philosophy. We need not fear when we walk in Perfect Love and Perfect trust. In whom do we place such committed love and trust? Why, in the Lady and Lord, our God and Goddess! We are their children so need not fear anything, understanding who we are! As their children, we also have the power of creation at our command. And the greatest power in all the world is that of love! This is not far different from a view stated by Paul in the Christian Scripture 1st Corinthians 13:

Now there remain hope, faith and love. And of these, the greatest is love!”

President Bush holds himself forth as a Christian, but constantly promotes the spirit of fear among the people of the United States. If you listened to his delivery of the State of the Union address, he constantly reminded us there are terrorists in the world who wish to harm our people. He constantly speaks of terrorists, terrorism and the war on terror when he addresses our nation. He is a merchant of fear, and through fear, draws power to himself. This does not reflect the noble courage of my Christian friends, nor does it reflect the attitude of most Pagans I know.

Americans are a courageous people, and not inclined toward fear but rising to meet any challenge that confronts them. So what lies behind this emphasis on marketing fear to the American people? When the government of the United States promotes the spirit of fear, what can be the reason? Could it be that fearful people accept the loss of precious rights and liberties as a means to achieve a sense of security? That seems to be the psychology at work here, and it actually did work for awhile. But the American people have rallied their better nature, and risen above the constant exhortation to fear.

Preachers and ministers of various paths consistently drive fear of hell and damnation into the hearts of their followers because it loosens their wallets, helps drive contributions, and keeps them coming back for the hope of salvation from the very fear they are bathed in every Sunday. Preachers and ministers who behave this way are not working in accord with the teachings of their Master, as the Scriptures already cited make clear. We have not been given a spirit of fear, yet it is sold from pulpits all over America.

Even Madison Avenue uses fear to drive our buying habits. They show us that we should fear our body odor, whether our breath is offensive, whether we are able to satisfy our wives and lovers, have the right computer, drive the proper car, or even consume the right hamburgers. One example has King (a grotesque looking sort of thing) in bed between a young man and woman first thing in the morning. The inference seems to be that nobody is getting lucky until they’ve had a burger joint breakfast!!! Oh, my Gods!!!

To help dispel the influence of fear, let us remember:

Most of what we are told to fear never happens.

We haven’t had asteroids crash into our planet.

We haven’t seen bird flu wipe out significant populations of human beings.

Iraq was not in a position to use nuclear weapons against the United States.

Communists did not take over America.

All-out nuclear war hasn’t happened. (remember duck and cover?)

Space aliens haven’t attacked our world!

And many more examples, perhaps thousands of them, that could be cited.

However, I would like to review one specific example that gripped the world in a carefully orchestrated marketing campaign to promote fear:

Perhaps you remember the mythology surrounding the arrival of the new millennium. We were told that computers were not prepared to handle the arrival of the year 2,000. They weren't programmed to function properly after December 31, 1999. Remember how horrific the consequences were supposed to be?

Planes would fall from the air and crash. Electrical generation would grind to a halt because the computers in the control rooms would suddenly crash and cease to function. Nuclear facilities would soon escape control and overheat, releasing toxic clouds of radiation into the atmosphere that would kill millions. Our economic systems would grind to a halt because computers handle most banking transactions. Violent gangs of thugs would roam darkened streets seeking to prey upon the unprepared, and police would be unable to respond because their computerized systems would interfere with dispatch. Why, even cars with onboard computer systems were supposed to become useless. We were told there would be chaos, terror, death and destruction with the arrival of Y2K.

As the prophets of imminent doom seized the spotlight on radio and television, I scoffed at all this silliness. Yet, there were even some in our local Pagan community who spent a significant portion of their income buying survival rations, building fortifications (like survival shelters) on their property, and arming themselves with an ample supply of weapons and bullets. They bought electrical generators, water recycling systems, air purification systems, and a whole range of survival gear to ensure they would fare better than most during the social collapse brought about by Y2K. How quickly they forgot to trust in the Lady and Lord! How red-faced they were when nothing materialized!

Through it all, I laughed and wrote extensively of the folly of it all. Some wrote back to say I should take the gravity of Y2K much more seriously. Some charged that I was going to be among the first victims of my failure to prepare for the looming catastrophe. Others claimed I was simply ignorant of the calamity ahead.

Yet when the year 2,000 finally arrived the lack of any significant impact was astounding. The days ticked by, one followed by the next. From January 1, 2, 3, 4 and onward, little disruption actually materialized. There were very few glitches and no catastrophic aftermath. Most of the "troubles" were more comedic than tragic. One example was a bloke who got a phone bill for something like 1.5 million dollars! I am confident he did not find this amusing, but it made the press and most of us enjoyed a giggle or two over the few stories of this sort.

The point is, propaganda flooded the airwaves. Magazines devoted a great deal of attention to the subject, books were written with dire warnings, and none of it proved significant.

What we need, as the Age of Aquarius begins to unfold, are more men and women of courage and hope. We need more leaders like Franklin D. Roosevelt, who said this after the attack on Pearl Harbor:

The only thing we have to fear… is fear itself!”

We don’t need leadership repeating like a mantra: “Be afraid! Be very afraid!”

We need leaders like Bobby Kennedy who quoted George Bernard Shaw when he proclaimed in a speech: "Some men see things as they are and say 'Why?' I dream things that never were and say, 'Why not?'"

We need men and women of courage, like Martin Luther King, who said:

If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.”

We need to heed the words of men and women of courage and hope, like Barak Obama who writes of the “Audacity of Hope”.

It is through hope that we manifest the Magick of positive transformation. Hope drives out fear, and knowing that we can manifest our hopes of a better tomorrow drives the creative powers toward manifesting that bright new day! It matters much less whether we are Pagan, Christian, Jew or follower of Islam. One does not need to follow any religion to live a life of courageous hope!

Thomas Jefferson wrote: I steer my bark with hope in the head, leaving fear astern. My hopes indeed sometimes fail, but not oftener than the forebodings of the gloomy.

And Sri Chinmoy had this to say:

" Hope abides; therefore I abide.

Countless frustrations have not cowed me.

I am still alive, vibrant with life.

The black cloud will disappear,

The morning sun will appear once again

In all its supernal glory. "

Let us recall the words of Ambrose Redmoon:

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”

In closing, dear brothers and sisters, let me say plainly there are problems on our collective horizon. Global Warming is something we must address. Plagues may yet sweep around the globe. Wars still exhibit the folly of humankind. Yet do not be dismayed by these things. They are inherent in the passing of an age, and the birth of a new day of hope and courage. We are midwives to the birth of a new dawn, and we can raise it up in accord with our highest ideals.

The world we fashion tomorrow will be made by those with the courage and vision to create it in accord with their will.

Do not allow fear to render you incapacitated while others create the world of tomorrow in their own image and likeness. Have the courage of your convictions to make the world over in accord with your own highest ideals.

That, beloved, is what I believe our mission on this earth to be!!!

Brightest Blessings,

M-Taliesin