The last four days have been fun, in a not-working-or-having-to-think-about-work kind of way. I needed this break.

Next week begins the Year end surge, when things are done at break neck speed in order to move us from one financial year to another. All this, just to keep the bean counters happy.

Next to Lawyers, Accountants are my least favorite people. In fact some of them kick Lawyers off the top spot. I mean here's the thing. Laywers, generally speaking, represent you in the arena. They go up against the Lion so you don't have to. They have a purpose, albeit one that has been blown out of all proportion by the excessive over-complication of the legal system.

Accountants, on the other hand, have no true purpose except to figure out what other people have done, and provide suitably pretty balance sheets and income statements to go along with it. Their whole raison d'etre is to add up how much of the illusionary system of money is moving around within their environment. Money really is illusionary. It has no meaning or value beyond the meaning we assign to it. To make their job seem more worthwhile, accountants add levels of complexity (GAAP etc) and then charge people to figure out these levels of complexity for them! I have to admit its pure genius. But it is also meaningless. It adds nothing to the human condition except confusion and obstacles.

Wow, guess I'm a little ticked at accountants today, huh? Hmmm... Sorry if any of my regular readers are accountants. Please don't go off and hang yourself because your life has no meaning. It's not that bad. Really. At least you can write yours stuff down on paper if the electricity goes out. The results of almost my entire professional career exist solely on little magnetic pieces of iron that would make very ugly paperweights if the world ever gave up computers.

On the other hand, my non-professional career (that of priest, ceremonial magician and spiritual teacher) continues to deepen in its complexity and expand in its reach.

Pagan News is now #1 on google. Go to google, type in Pagan News, and you'll see us. I'm still working on my Correllian second degree, and my Zelator grade for Golden Dawn, although I haven't done the neophyte initiation yet. Hopefully that will be next week.

A thought occurred to me yesterday in the Indian restaurant, as we chowed down on Chicken Tikka. If PaganNews is really taking off as well as it appears to, if people are coming to it and using it for research and entertainment, and to stay current with world events, then I have a responsibility to give something back to all the people that have made the site successful. I came up with this:

Over the next few months, I want to talk to Witchvox, the Pagan Pride project, and some of the other top sites, and see if we can't get some kind of mandate from our readers. A list of issues that are important to them. Then we write to all politicians running for election, and request answers to these questions. Then we post the answers, and advise people who to vote for.

Now I know a bunch of you that read this drivel daily are not pagan, so don't worry, we're not planning to overthrow the government and starting holding skyclad initiation ceremonies on the white house steps. But the pagan community needs a political voice. Maybe not much of one, I'll grant you. After all, there are only about 750,000 pagans in the US right now (probably x3 in the closet). I think this is more of a long term project, rather than something we can put together for 2004. There simply aren't enough pagans out there right now for politicians to give a rat's ass about, to be blunt.

I need to comment on something I just said, about me being a pagan. That isn't entirely accurate, but its the closest match, so we can use it for simplicity, but let me try and elaborate.

I believe, ultimately, there is one Supreme entity, from which the Universe was formed in a blinding flash of self-awareness. But below the level of all-in-one, it has many aspects and attributes, that are attributed to different deities (egregors, if you will), Angels and spirits. Finally, once you reach the material plane, you find us. A bunch of miserable bastards who don't have sense enough to come in out of the rain. But ultimately we are all part of the same single source. So you see it really doesn't matter which deity you believe in. In the end you pay homage to the same god as everyone else. The only people it really seems to matter to are some of the extreme christian sects. But I think that just comes from being a little insecure ;>

You still here? Wow, I figured I'd have run you off by now. Quite the little chatterbox today, aren't I? Oh well, can't be helped. Guess I need to go begin the day and see where it takes me :)