Greetings from the future!

I've been in Western Australia for a week now and I've already managed to turn the Outback into a classroom of religious studies! The organization that I work for buys former bush that's been damaged by farming and then re-vegetates it with native plants, converting it back to its natural state so that all of the endangered animals and plants that live here have a larger habitat. I've been lucky enough to participate in a cultural mapping survey of one of the newly acquired properties this week with an archaeologist and a local Noongar elder.(Noongar is the broad term for the indigenous people of this region, encompassing many smaller clans). We looked for (and found!) artifacts indicating ancient activity all over the place!

I've actually gotten a lot of uncomfortable looks so far upon telling people that I majored in religion, so when Eugene, our Noongar guide, asked me about my interests, I was relieved to find someone so excited to share his traditions with me! I have not begun to grasp Noongar spirituality. It's impossibly intricate and many aspects of the “Dreamtime” can only be revealed to insiders. However, I can confidently say that nature and “religion” are deeply connected, making knowledge of indigenous spirituality crucial in forwarding the environmentalist objective. The Noongar have an intimate relationship with the earth and see themselves as the protectors of their land. Ideally, the Noongar and naturalists should be working together, but this isn't always the case. Fortunately, Gondwana Link, my sponsors, are really great about accepting indigenous input when restoring the bush. I'm really looking forward to furthering my understanding of this spiritually rich culture.

P.S. SUPER excited about this: The Noongar creation myth features a serpent creator-god! COMPS NEVER ENDS!

Love and miss you all!

Singing for Jesus

http://usreligion.blogspot.com/2010/08/stuff-that-makes-jesus-tap-or-just-cry.html

Religion for the Summer

My family has a summer house in Maine. I know what you are thinking, very posh, but it's better than the Hamptons and my grandparents live here so it's nice to be close to them when we can. But this post is not about Maine or my family-it's about Seasonal Religion. I live near this old church. It is beautiful, made of round stones and sits right on the rocky edge over looking the ocean. There is even an outdoor pulpit for those who want to get married outside with the sea as the backdrop. Now when we went for a stroll and decided to go on, I was undeniably excited. I was expecting some church from early settlers time filled with coastal history.

I was severely disappointed. I mean, the church was old, but only about a hundred years or so. The church was built around the time when Maine became the "vacationland" that it still is today. Tons of mid-atlantic city folk coming up for the crisp summers and fresh air. Basically this is a summer church, a church for old vacationers. Nowadays, of course it's mostly full of weddings and pomp, but I still am intrigued about a church built for temporary practitioners, seasonal practitioners, if you will. At the same time it feels both "lived religion-y" and an extravagance. Maybe that's just my impression of old time vacationers who came to Maine. Anyways, it's a pretty church.

JewishJobs.com

Posting for Adventure Rabbi, one of the many fun jobs i've found on jewishjobs.com

Qualified rabbi or student rabbi with strong background in outdoor and nature studies to conduct "adventure weekends" for locally based Jewish retreat center. Charismatic personality to attract nature-loving men and women to join him in hiking trips from a camp base with a kosher kitchen about 20 miles from Big Bear, California. Celebrate Sabbath in the mountains with a magnificent backdrop of San Gorgonio Mountains. Conduct services that can over reach sectarian issues and appeal to a wide variety of age levels and backgrounds. Help develop a new program from the ground floor. This is a part time activity that will occur as frequently as its popularity may indicate. Willing to be flexible in all matters in order to create a successful program.

Names and Philosophers

At my job, I look at a lot of names.

I am going through forms of employees to look for mistakes, I read their names.

I created a new questionnaire for a certain group of people the non-profit supports, I read and write their names.

So it gets me thinking on names and what I would want mine to someday be named. Then, I think about Soren and Lori. I lament that I have not read or loved Kierkegaard to name a son after him. BUT out of all the philosophers and religion scholars-who would I a)love enough and b) has a cool enough name that I'd bestow it on a child, my child nonetheless.

So far, Ludwig (Feurbach) is near the top of my list (though my mom had a dog with the same name-so it's a little awkward). Perhaps Victor or Turner in remembrance of Victor Turner-nothing original or quirky in those names though. And of course Clifford or Geertz would both be pretty rad names...

any other thoughts?

Last night I dreamt that I was going to class Michael was teaching in (a larger version of) the living room from the house I lived in growing up. I hadn't done the reading and when I got to my living room I realized everyone else had done the reading and it was a huge book. So then Michael shows up and turns on music and everyone starts dancing perfectly with intense, elaborate choreagraphy (apparently the reading set it all out). I tried faking it/copying the person next to me but was failing. Then Michael turned off the music and started to teach us something simpler. Then he stopped and said (something like) "and at the end we should just dance and sing along to this" and started playing "California Dreamin'" (the Mamas and the Papas). I was happy there was finally something I could do in class as I knew all the lyrics and sang along until I woke up.

So, last night I had a dream that Michael McNally taught us dance. I might be going insane.
(and California Dreamin is an awesome song)

MISS YOU ALL
Julie

ps. Abby (& Kaitlin) I am jealous, Salem sounds like so much fun. Now I want to get my fortune told, although psychics sort of scare me...
pps. Jared, Will & Lisa stories? Share please!

Psychics, what do you think?

Hey all,

So I spent two lovely weeks with Kaitlin Barnet- which I'm sure you can imagine, was a riot. Amazingly, Religion, Sports, and Education were all integrated into our travels along with... well... fitness and sunbathing and boating and such.

Since Carolyn so thoughtfully reminded me of our wonderful blog, I thought I'd share a little story from Kaitlin and my travels: a visit to Salem and a consultation with a witch!

I decided at some point in the beginning of the summer that I wanted to get a psychic reading done- this is such an uncertain time in our lives, you know? so I wanted some mystical insight. When I realized that I would be visiting Kaitlin in the town next door from Salem, we decided that a psychic reading from a Salem witch was a MUST. So we drove over to Crow Haven Corner, the shop originally owned by the official Witch of Salem, Lorie Cabot and I met with Lorelei- read more about her here: http://www.crowhavencorner.net/aboutus.html

There's a lot of interesting parts of my consultation with Lorelei, but here are a few thoughts/moments that I thought all of you as religion majors would appreciate or be able to respond to:

- How do you feel about Witches offering up their services to the public? Does it make what they are doing less legitimately religious? I felt momentarily guilty or wrong for being a part of a sacred service that I didn't actually subscribe to- but I got over that for interest in what the reading would produce.

- In the beginning of the Reading, Lorelei claimed that everyone has psychic abilities, she has just trained hers more than others. What do you think about this?

- At the end of the meeting with Lorelei, she did a Witches circle where we stood around some candles, anointed us with some sort of oil on our wrists, and welcomed in the God and Goddess and the Elements. After all of the welcoming, she announced: "we are now in a sacred space"- of course at this point my religion major alarm went off like no other- I can't decide what I think about such a rash declaration of the creation of Sacred space. And it made me wonder, does or should it matter how or in what time frame sacred space is established? What does it mean about my understanding of religion if I think that more is required in the creation of sacred space than the lighting of candles and announcing that it exists?

So, there's some food for thought. Just know that I'm thinking about and missing you all, hope summer is being wonderful to you!

Abby