New Year blessings, one and all!

Thank you all for taking the time to circle back around and follow up on the end of this work. Gods be good, y’all got something out of it (I know I did), and when looking back over the past year, we can all see how and where we've grown. 

Having had the opportunity to go within and explore my own inner landscape through the Stoic lens, I gave more thought to things like time, and death, and ego, and excellence, virtue, as well as come away with a more realistic perspective, a deeper commitment to action, and a more resolute will. I have to say that if anything, my spirit feels better, if that makes sense… and it’s not the kind of better that comes from self-delusion, but the kind that comes from deep acceptance, and right-relationship with reality. 

I first took on this Stoic year to test my personal opinion that many (not all) pagan/polytheist folx don’t have a good opportunity or framework with which to explore certain themes, such as interconnectedness, interdependence, basic-goodness, mortality, and happiness without relying on Buddhist influenced modalities. In the past, when I brought up the need to explore and discuss some of the above-mentioned themes, I was met with “that’s not what we do” or “that’s what Buddhists do”. I disagreed, as I believe those themes are related to the human condition and not the buddhist condition. What I needed was to make a good case for similar teachings and perspectives from a Western, polytheist-influenced mind. 

My wife, Rev. Missy, suggested that Stoicism might fill the bill. She, as usual, was right. 

Sympatheia, Summum Bonum, Amor Fati, and Memento Mori… all principles from the Western, ancient world, all informed by both cultural polytheism AND post-Axial human thought. I believed this could work as the perspective pagans need to enter in to this kind of work… and so, I tried it out for a year. Every day. Why? Well, I’m not going to ask someone to consider things from a particular perspective unless I can personally assure that it’s a reliable and healthy one. Essentially, I injected myself with the cure before offering it to others. I considered it to be the right thing to do. 

At the end of the year, I can say this… Stoicism works, when it’s the right tool for the job. Stoicism is meant to address things in the everyday world, from the everyday mind… not mystical things from the magical mind. When the right tool is used, the outcome can reflect that, and I believe adding a gentle Stoic practice to one’s paganism and polytheism can offer some spirit-spackle with which to fill any remaining cracks not already filled from our religious endeavors. 

So… after all that, I still have opinions, I’m still sassy and salty, and I’m still working for the good of the folk with the intention to help how I can to get us all to wake up. 

The difference is that now I have a more cohesive practice from which to do that work. 

Thank you all, each and every one of you who have hung around and read my thoughts, and at times my haikus, sentiments, stories, and sometimes even songs. I consider myself truly blessed to have maintained your attention for this long. Thank you for that gift. I’ll treasure it, always. 

Myriad blessings, dear readers!

Yours, 
Rev. Wm. E. Ashton, ADF

Now that we’ve been through this year together, what’s next? More reading? More studying? More contemplations? 

No. 

Now is the time for doing. The time for reading is done. 

The answers aren’t found in another text… 

… they’re found in each decision and choice we make. 

When Death comes for me, I don’t want Her to catch me reading. I want her to catch me doing. 

(An end has come… and so has a beginning.) 

​Dear readers, 

I’ll be making one final post within the next week or so, after I’ve had some time to sit with finishing this past year of introspective learning. I’ll be sure to post links to the final entry on Facebook and Twitter. 

When I make that final post, I’ll express my gratitude for y’all then. 

Myriad blessings, 
Rev. Wm. E. Ashton, ADF

​We can take the sting out of painful and stressful situations by bringing to those situations a calm, disciplined mind. 

What would our deaths look like if we approached then with that same calm and disciplined mind? That powerful mind, in those times of trouble, will bring more comfort than any amount of religiosity or philosophical phrases. 

The prepared mind is prepared to die, too. 

(See y’all tomorrow)

​Gratitude is one of the most contagious human feelings we have at our disposal. We can apply it to anything and anyone. 

Even if this were the day we were going to die, we have ample opportunity to express that gratitude in each moment. 

Well… since we don’t know if today is or isn’t our last, what’s stopping us? 

(See y’all tomorrow)

​If our actions are motivated because we want to be remembered, then our egos have won, and we miss the opportunity to live in the present. 

When we’re motivated to simply do good in the world, without thought to being remembered, we can truly live in the present… 

… the very place where our best is needed. 

The best we can count on is to be remembered for a day. The rest of those days, and the fantastic story surrounding those days, we just have to release. Let them go. 

Take comfort in the good works in front of us in each moment for the fantasy of being remembered is a waste of our time, and only serves our ego… and none of that will make any difference when we’re dead. 

(See y’all tomorrow)

The signs of a soul that’s given up are over-abundant anger, ever-present bitterness, and mouths full of only complaints and reason why failure is a foregone conclusion. These souls have constant grievances with life, and see every challenge as a personal attack and crisis. These souls have lost sight of the world-at-large because they’re too busy rummaging about in the land of ego. 

What about the signs of souls that haven’t given up? Kindness and compassion in action, and potential and possibility in speech. Success is boundless, and as such, can always be found. Life is a blessing and wonder, and meant to be understood. Ego, while present, is meant to be avoided… why? 

Because it’s what causes an otherwise healthy soul to surrender. 

(See y’all tomorrow) 

​There’s not a single one among us, including the greatest of seers, fortune tellers, psychics, and soothsayers, who knows how long we have to live. We can’t guarantee any certain number of hours of days or years. There is, however, one thing in which we can offer ourselves as guarantee: 

We will, most certainly, waste a lot more time than we thought we did, or wanted to in the first place. 

The wild things is that most of us won’t even notice how much of our lives we’re allowing to waste away. So, the next time we say we “don’t have the time”, let’s commit to taking a pause to examine how much of our time is taken up by unnecessary things. 

Properly used time makes life abundant. Wasted time is so… quotidian. Don’t you agree? 

(See y’all tomorrow) 

As someone on sabbatical, i really resonated with today’s quote from wise Seneca from his work, On Tranquility of Mind (17.5): 

​Seneca is talking about what we now call work-life balance. The mind, like our muscles, must be given both chances to work AND changes to rest. Too much of either is detrimental. 

With that said, I’m going to get back to my family. 

Y’all have a merry day, filled with as many blessings as you can find! 

(See y’all tomorrow)

​At the end of things, it doesn’t make an ounce of difference if we lived extravagantly. At the end of things, just like wise Seneca says, we’re merely filters. Not only do food and drink “pass through” us, but so too legendary experiences, interesting stories, meaningful memories, and fancy stuff. 

The “particles” that get stuck in our filter are what comes to define our egos, which is why cleaning out one’s filter (oneself) is imperative for health-conscious living… 

… as well as a healthy-spirited death. 

(See y’all tomorrow)

​Most people, in varying degrees, are afraid of death and dying. 

Why? What are afraid of losing? Hours of television watching? Eating excessively? Gossiping about others? Reporting daily to a job that holds no meaning? Wasting potential over and over again? 

Is that what we’re afraid of losing? Is all that really worth the fear, or anxiety, or anguish we put ourselves through when it comes to death? 

Doesn’t sound like it to me. 

(See y’all tomorrow)