It is a common complaint among various pagans, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, Muslims and New Agers that whenever the U.S. media mentions "religion" it always refers to Christianity as though that's all there is. Even the existence of other major religions has been erased from much of the public mind unless you count Muslim extremists, as a religious group.

I have been astonished to read the savage comments on Facebook about the ‘mosque’ that is being planned a couple of blocks away from what is called ground zero of the 9/11 incident. What was apparently planned as a conciliatory gesture was turned into an insult by the spinners.

I am a Reiki Master in two traditions of Usui Reiki and have taken dozens of students from beginner through Master Teacher certification in Reiki at the Ministry of Sophia. A not unusual question from those who first experience the flood of energy through their hands that apparently does good things to improve the health of their clients is: “Was Jesus doing Reiki? Is this how he healed people?”

Hallowe’en is just around the corner and the stores are filled with hideous masks for children, and not only children to wear. I thought it might be of interest to readers who didn’t know about it to see where these commercially made monsters originated, and how they connect with today.

It all began with ergot. This is a fungus that grows on rye, under certain circumstances. It needs a special set of weather patterns for this to occur. These include a rainy spring, so that it can germinate on the young rye, a windy summer so that the spores can be blown around the fields, and a damp harvest time to fix the ergot on the grain.