59 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
59 lines
3.5 KiB
Plaintext
How I "Heal"
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by Matrika of PAN - the Psychic Awareness Network
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You asked what forms of healing people do and included things that might
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not be considered healing in the usual sense. Well, one of my special
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interests is Pagans in Recovery. This is a group of Pagans who are in
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12-step recovery programs - Alcoholics Anonymous and other self-help groups
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that are based on A.A. such as Gamblers Anonymous, Al-Anon, Narcotics
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Anonymous, Overeater's Anonymous, Adult Children of Alcoholics, Emotions
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Anonymous etc. etc. etc. If you can think of an obstacle in your life or
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somebody else's, chances are that someone somewhere has started a 12-step
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program to deal with it.
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The problem is that many Pagans, Feminist Priestesses, Shamans, Druids, and
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any other type of Magickal folk you can think of, often don't feel
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comfortable in AA and these related groups. WHY? THe meetings CLOSE with
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the Lord's prayer or the "our father" and have many Christian overtones
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taken from the general culture, although they are technically supposed to
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be non-sectarian in their spiritual approach. Many Pagans in these groups
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find that they have trouble applying the steps of recovery in the context
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of what they believe to find recovery for their specific problems. This is
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particularly difficult in cases of Alcoholism and Drug addiction - and
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these problems DO exist to a great degree in the Pagan/Magickal communities
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- in which A.A. and Narcotics Anonymous are often the most successful
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treatment approaches available to the average person and that feeling
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exclueded from them can mean death, insanity or jail to the person who does
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not find the help they need.
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While living in New England I wrote a series of articles on how to apply
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the steps of recovery in a Pagan/Magickal context in HARVEST - a popular
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newsletter for the Craft in that region, that is now becoming nationwide.
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THe last of these was printed in Yule of 1989, just before I left to move
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here. At the same time I discovered PAGANS IN RECOVERY had been formed on
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a national basis in Ohio and had a list of a large number of people, as
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well as nationwide contacts for networking. (Pagans in Recovery is
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published for $8.00 a year - address Pagans in Recovery Newsletter c/o
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Bekki 6500 S.R. 356 , New Marshfield OHIO 45766)
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An interesting note is that we both started doing this work seperately and
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originally I also had a network called PANTHEISTS IN RECOVERY. Neither of
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us had known of the others existence at the time of starting the work and
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taking these names. Pantheists in Recovery has since merged with the
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national network, as I saw no need to duplicate their excellent efforts.
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Another interesting note is that, in my case, doing this was inspired by
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J.A.C.S. - an organization for Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically dependent
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people and their Significant others. It had been founded for the same
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purpose by some Jewish folks in A.A. in New York City and has now spread
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across the country, to Canada, and to Israel with several thousand names on
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their mailing lists. These people also felt the need for support to
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integrate their recovery program with their religion because they were
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non-Christians.
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A very special part of this extended "healing" work for me is that I have
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the support of my partner Koren, the sysop of PAN, who is my partner both
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in the Craft and in our lives together. Although he is not himself in any
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of these recovery programs, he has been very helpful and supportive of my
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work in reaching out to other Pagans who are also in these groups.
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