LJ Interests meme results

cats:
Cats are the most wild of all of the domesticated animals. They're our connection to the more-than-human world out there. They keep us grounded in the real. Also, I was born into a family of cats -- I had cats shedding into my baby formula. When I came home from the hospital after 5 weeks in an incubator, there was a six-month old kitten named Tiger who was bigger than I was -- he'd lie with me and keep me warm.
disability rights:
I've grown up with a disability. I have cerebral palsy and use a wheelchair. I have an uneasy relationship to this fact. It has both shaped who I am and how I see the world, and is also completely trivial to my humanity. And I don't know exactly where that line falls. It seems to shift continuously, sometimes, several times a day. And there are still people in this modern world that seem to think that because I have CP, I deserve to be treated as less of a human being. It's no longer as blatant as it was a few generations ago, with the Eugenics Movement of the first half of the 20th Century, but the subtle discrimination still stings.

earth-based spirituality:
Another word for "Pagan," without referencing any particular religion, pantheon or ritual practice. Frankly, I consider myself "Trad-less," rather than "ecclectic," because I've yet to find any existing Neo-Pagan religion that is a comfortable fit for me. But still, for me, the Divine is life itself, rather than the "Creator" of life. And life, for me, is Earth-Based (and the Sun and Moon and Milky-Way Galaxy are all part of Earth, as far as I'm concerned, because it's all part of one continuum).

frogs:
Frogs are one of those beings that show up in my dreams on a recurrent basis, and when they do, it's always in a power dream. So I figure they are one of my totem animals.

i ching:
"The Book of Changes," an ancient system of Chinese divination that is based on the idea that everything is in a state of flux, and that when any one force becomes too strong, it will break down into its opposite of its own accord. The I Ching is a collection of 64 visual metaphors, and several thousands of years of commentary on those metaphors, which are described in poetic and affirming ways. The discriptions focus primarily on those parts of your current situation which is changing, and the stable stuff is sort of background noise. It's a good read, even if you don't believe the divination part of it (though every time I've used it, I've gotten good insights). I sometimes use it in writing fiction, when I want to clarify my visualization of a character I'm working on, and the subtextual conflicts going on with that person.

mythology:
More metaphors and Earth-based Pagan stuff. Plus, any story which gets passed down through so many generations must be a ripping good yarn in its own right, right?

pantheism:
The belief that Divinity exists in everything. See my answer on Earth-Based spirituality (Yes, we are getting repetitive, here; there are advantages to using synonyms in your interest list, if you want to use that list for connecting to other folk).

runes:
Ancient Norse system of writing an divination. I find them useful, but not as much as the I Ching. I have a private theory that the traditional order of the Fuþark (runic alphabet) tells a basic hero's journey myth, with each letter representing an archtypal stage along that journey. Once upon a time, I thought I'd write a book of runic interpretation based on this theory. I may still... who knows?

storytelling:
Many expert-type people will say that it is language that distinguishes humans from the other animals. But many other animals, even if they don't produce language that we recognize, understand our language -- so there must be a language part of their brains, somewhere. However, there is one behavior that I've seen all humans do that I've never seen in any other animal -- and that's storytelling. So it's not our language, it's what we do with it. I think the ability to tell good stories must somehow be tied to our survival as a species, and that the urge to tell better stories is what drove the evolultion of our complex language, rather than our developing complex language, and then telling stories with it, once the "real" work was over.

women's spirituality:
I am a woman. I am spiritual. I believe the Earth is alive and divine, and that I am as much a part of the Earth as the mountains and the oceans and the moon. What more is there to say?