sedition Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

Last Total Lunar Eclipse

I couldn’t get ‘you guys’ out of my head as I took a walk this evening. Observing the waxing gibbous moon snuggling up to Jupiter, both bright as headlights in the sky, my thoughts turned to the total lunar eclipse we’ll be experiencing at 5:59 a.m. (EST) this Tuesday. This will be the last total lunar eclipse until 2025, which feels significant. Good grief, it’s hard to imagine the geopolitical circumstances under which we’ll (hopefully) be experiencing that celestial event.

So we might as well look up and appreciate this one. For those of you in the eastern Pennsylvania region, here is a nifty link.

Waxing Moon Flirting with Jupiter 4Nov22 – Photo: L. Weikel

Momentous

We all know how momentous this Tuesday, November 8, 2022, will be for all of us. Of course, I’m speaking to all citizens of the United States – but I’m especially looking at you, fellow women (and those who identify as female). If we don’t step up now and take responsibility for ensuring our bodily sovereignty by voting for those who will protect and defend our rights as equal citizens, we could easily find ourselves living in a Christofascist hellscape by the next total lunar eclipse.

I can only hope that we learned our lesson in 2016. As shell-shocked and pit-in-the-stomach terrified we felt at the result of that election six years ago, I’m pretty confident few of us would’ve predicted the tidal wave of misogyny, racism, antisemitism, outright cruelty, and insanity that would nearly drown our country in its wake. But here we are.

And of course, the momentous nature of our election impacts the rest of the world, too. “With great power comes great responsibility,” which means our responsibility to not only vote but also stand up for democracy and the rule of law extends beyond our own precious lives. The fate of many hang in the balance of how we respond to the myriad shameless attacks being made against facts, truth, and reality. We are responsible not only for ourselves and our country, but also the myriad countries that rely on us as an ally and role model. Perhaps most importantly, the consequences of our election will impact the very planet on which we all live and depend.

Last Total Lunar Eclipse (May 2022) – Photo: L. Weikel

A Perfect Storm

It’s no secret that circumstances are such that a perfect storm is brewing on both an emotional and ideological level. That’s why the fact that our turmoil is mirrored in the sky takes on even more chilling significance.

There’s the total lunar eclipse (with eclipses often providing jarring, unexpected revelations and reactions).And we’re still experiencing the final ‘pass’ of the Saturn squaring Uranus configuration that we experienced three times in 2021. You may recall Saturn is associated with rules, foundations, and tradition, while Uranus is often thought of as revolutionary, unpredictable, a disrupter of the status quo, and an innovator of lightning-quick change.

Too much of either energy can lead to unintended and chaotic results. And we’re pretty much assured that we’ll experience both, at least in the short term. We can only hope (and set our intentions) that balance can and will be achieved sooner rather than later. We had our warning on January 6^th. Shame on us If something similar unfolds as a result of this election. There’s no excuse for us not to see it coming.

Our Best Strategy

As always, our best strategy is to keep our own centers and allow our sense of calm, faith in our system, and peaceful respect for ourselves and each other to ripple out into our environment. When challenged, we need to feel our feet connecting to Mother Earth, reminding us of who we are and why we care. We also need to look up, and remember that while the Earth may be causing the moon to be in dusky, blood-red shadow for a moment, this will pass.

What matters is that we hold firm to our values and the common good of all, including Nature and Mother Earth. We must stand strong for each other, ourselves, and our ancestors – those who’ve passed and those who will inherit the results of our decisions today. Remember to keep looking up, my friends; no matter what. The next seven generations are depend upon us.

(T+136)

Photo: L. Weikel

Words Matter

I imagine many of us are still trying to get our bearings as to what country we woke up in this morning. Talk about whipsawed emotions and prospects. The outcome of the Georgia Senate run-off election is how we started the day (although we weren’t sure about Ossoff’s victory until later in the day). But then, oh look. By shortly after noon we were witnessing a debacle, a travesty – an appalling tidal wave of conspiracy-minded people swarming the sacred ground of our Capitol and defiling chambers and Congressional offices. The thing is, words matter. So I’m offering this post as a service to help us accurately assess what we are witnessing.

A lot of different words have been bantied about to describe today’s events. It’s an affront to all of us to dignify the heinous actions of both our current president’s speech and the events immediately following that speech, with the words such as ‘protest’ and ‘protesters.’ No, we need to dig a little deeper into our lexicons.

Black’s Law Dictionary

I happen to have a vestige of my first profession easily accessible in my living room bookcase, my copy of Black’s Law Dictionary*. It seems like an appropriate tome from which to derive some accurate definitions of what I believe we may have witnessed today. Let’s see:

Insurrection. A rebellion, or rising of citizens or subjects in resistance to their government. Insurrection consists in any combined resistance to the lawful authority of the state, with intent to cause the denial thereof, when the same is manifested, or intended to be manifested, by acts of violence. It is a federal crime to incite, assist, or engage in a rebellion or insurrection against the United States. 18 U.S.C.A. § 2383. See also Internal security acts.

Although I’m not about to parse the definitions I’m providing the way we’re taught in law school, I’m confident in the abilities of you, my readers, to break these down enough into their components to get the gist that yes, there is a good chance federal crimes were committed today by a number of individuals. It’s wise to note that, besides those who actually participated in any such rebellion or uprising, those who incited it are also culpable. Food for thought.

Another Couple of Definitions

Another word we occasionally hear (and may hear more often now) and for which I thought you might find a definition helpful in your reflections on what we witnessed today is sedition.

Sedition. Communication or agreement which has as its objective the stirring up of treason or certain lesser commotions, or the defamation of the government. Sedition is advocating, or with knowledge of its contents knowingly publishing, selling or distributing any document which advocates, or, with knowledge of its purpose, knowingly becoming a member of any organization which advocates the overthrow or reformation of the existing form of government of this state by violence or unlawful means. An insurrectionary movement tending towards treason, but wanting an overt act; attempts made by meetings or speeches, or by publications, to disturb the tranquility of the state. See 18 U.S.C.A. § 2383 et seq.; see also Alien and sedition laws; Smith Act.

Two ancillary definitions you might find interesting:

Seditious libel. A communication written with the intent to incite the people to change the government otherwise than by lawful means, or to advocate the overthrow of the overnment by force or violence. Smith Act, 18 U.S.C.A § 2385. See Alien and sedition laws.

Seditious speech. Oral advocacy of the overthrow of the government by force or violence.

And Finally

Treason. The offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance; or of betraying the state into the hands of a foreign power. Treason consists of two elements: Adherence to the enemy, and rendering him aid and comfort. Cramer v. U.S., U.S.N.Y., 325 U.S. 1, 65 S.Ct. 918, 932, 89 L.Ed. 1441. See 18 U.S.C.A. § 2381. A person can be convicted of treason only on the testimony of two witnesses, or confession in open court. Art. III, Sec. 3, U.S. Constitution.

I confess that I would have to read the specific wording of 18 U.S.C.A. 2381, but the action described in the first clause of the definition as written above sure has a familiar ring to it.

Words Matter

In the coming days and weeks, I have a feeling there will be attempts to draw a lot of false equivalencies to the actions that took place today and actual protests and marches that took place earlier this year. When words of art are used, it’s helpful to have definitions before us that we can reference. I hope this is helpful. May you use them wisely and judiciously.