Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca Update

I've had lots of people asking about the status of my first book, The Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca. You'll recall that the publisher of the LEG went out of business, so the book has been out of print for a number of years. Acorn Guild Press will be releasing a new, improved edition of this book in the Spring of 2010. The title of the new book, which has been expanded to include Druidism and Asatru, will be: Pagan Religions: A Diversity Training Manual. I will keep you all posted with details.

BB Kerr

Malthusian Collapse

I heard a Christian on the radio the other day going on about how it was right and proper that we all should be having lots of children. I sat there in amazement, wondering how a person like this could justify this position in the face of the current global situation. The population of the world is now approaching 9 billion people. Our food reserves are down to record lows: In 2007 the carryover stocks were down to a 61 day supply, the lowest on record. As a result food prices have skyrocketed and there are more poor people than ever. Ever increasing populations are consuming ever increasing amounts of fossil fuels, resulting in global warming. This world of ours is being pushed to a breaking point.

Decades ago agricultural scientists came up with a “Green Revolution” involving monocultures, fertilizers and industrial type farming. This increased yields alright, giving many the impression that the crisis was over. What actually happened is that we ended up driving water tables down, pushing water resources to all time lows and leaving many rivers and bodies of water polluted with chemical runoff. Monoculture crops took everything out of the soil and put nothing back in, leaving soils depleted and eventually driving crop yields down. Much of our grain, instead of going to feed people, is going to feed animals and produce bio-fuels. The grain that it takes to feed one animal for food can feed 5 people. As Thomas Robert Malthus, in his 1798 Essay on the Principle of Population, pointed out that human population increases at a geometric rate, doubling about every 25 years if unchecked. On the other hand, agricultural production increases arithmetically. Thus unchecked population will always outstrip agricultural production. And if the population just keeps on growing, taking up more and more land, where exactly do you figure we are going to be able to grow this food?

It is time for a change, people. We have to abandon the current idea that we are “rulers of the earth” and replace it with the idea that we are “stewards of the earth”. We need to switch to sustainable farming, involving interplanting with plants like legumes to put things back into the earth. We need to compost and reduce our reliance on pesticides and fertilizer. We need to engage in smarter irrigation practices and use mulching and cover crops. We need to come up with alternative, clean sources of energy. And I really think that we need to start paying attention to the concept of zero population growth. We’ve reached the point of Malthusian collapse. We need to do this now, before we push our dear Mother Earth past the point of no return.

BB Kerr

Facebook Rant

Someone just sent me another one of those annoying Facebook “What kind of (enter name of animal, vegetable, inanimate object, famous person, only-the-gods-knows-what here) are you?” quizzes on Facebook. Some of these I’ve been more annoyed with than others: For instance, one recent one asking me what kind of alcoholic drink I was. I never participate in them: I consider them meaningless in the extreme. They are as bad as those automatic “We’ve just sent you a (rock, flower, drink, only-the-gods-knows-what) that are about as sincere as a counterfeit $20. I never comment on them and usually don’t do anything other than quietly block these stupid things, but this one that was sent to me today pushed me over the edge. The question was: “What kind of sniper rifle are you?” Let me rephrase this: They’re asking “What kind of instrument of violent, unexpected death are you?” Are you serious? As a former ERT member who managed to apprehend every one of his suspects WITHOUT shooting anyone, I take serious exception to that request, and said so on Facebook.

NOT a fan of Facebook, can you tell? My support goes to Twitter.

BB Kerr

Precept of the Month for July

This month’s Precept of the Month is: Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye. Perception is a tricky business: Things aren’t always the way that they seem on the surface. The Warrior must learn to see through deception and illusion to grasp the true nature of her situation. The Wiccan Warrior must learn to dip below the surface and arrive at a true understanding of things in order to act appropriately and effectively.

The only way to control something is to understand it. The more you know about something, the more control you have over it. Knowledge is power. Magick is knowing. There is an old Japanese saying: "From one thing know ten thousand things." The Warrior uses knowing to take charge of his life. Knowing is the foundation from which accurate perception stems. From this foundation the Warrior can separate what is real from what is illusion.

At the Motherhouse we constantly engage in psychic challenges in which I challenge members to find things that I've left around the Motherhouse or in our astral temple. We also periodically engage in "divination sessions" in which all of our members bring their preferred divination tools and read for one another.

Bright Blessings, Kerr

Not Knighthood

Last night I dealt with a 911 call from an Asian male who'd been in the underground parking lot of his building with his wife. As they got out of their car, they unexpectedly encountered a dangerous looking character lurking in the parking lot. The Asian male was pretty sure that this menacing suspect had a knife in his hand. So he immediately took action: He pushed his wife in the direction of the suspect, fled to his apartment several floors up, thought about it for a few minutes, and then called 911 to report that he'd left his wife to do rearguard action while he escaped to safety. Would we please now come quickly and rescue his wife? To complicate things even further, he'd left the device to buzz open the garage door downstairs in his car in his haste to seek safety.We responded code 3 and rescued her.I'm wondering if a divorce is now being considered by the wife. I hope so.
Bb Kerr