I did some driving in rural Arizona and New Mexico this last week.

One of the big differences between urban areas and rural areas is the amount of light at night. Depending on the size of the town or city, even as little as thirty miles is enough to reveal a whole other world.

Headlights are visible for miles if the road is in view. The shadows wrap around you so you feel like you could just reach out the window and gently stroke it. The desert night air has it's own scents and promises. The plants rustle in your side vision which seems a notch or two sharper. The land hints at it's shape rather than revealing.

And then the stars. Oh gods, the stars.

In a city, you see a few twinkles of the stronger stars, but that is nothing compared to what you see when you get away from the city lights. Suddenly the words "Milky Way" make sense. When I have been away from all the stars, my first instinct on a clear night is to strip down and bathe in all that silver starlight.

It's not just lights. In the desert and away from the roads and cars, you swear you can hear every single sound for miles around. Maybe it's just psychological. You're away from the normal stimulus so you pay extra close attention to the ones you do sense.

There are times I am very much in hermit mode and there are reasons for that. I can't tell you the name of the American Idol contestants. I have no idea what the Top 40 is these days. I have no interest in having Dr. Phil solve my problems on national television. More importantly, I've no real desire to think about these subjects. But they wrap themselves around you, insidiously. It's all that most people talk about.

It's the same with religion, at least for the people who want to get noticed. Folks are so busy making noise for their gold stars that they don't pay attention to the "stillness of the soul." The Blessed recognize that as the place where your inner journey begins, the gateway to your higher selves.

So away from the churches every block, the people mouthing the noise they think the Divine wants to hear, the flood of television and radio evangelism, and away from all those bits that we humans like to wrap ourselves in, that is the where the inner soul can wake and the outer soul can sleep.

I need to go camping again soon I think.

The posts on discipline and Indigo kids got me in the mood to go exploring the Pagan web again, just to see what is happening. It's getting harder and harder to do that anonymously, but I still have a few technopagan tricks up my sleeve.

Much of what I saw hasn't really changed in the last few years. There are still very few experienced Pagans who are willing to go online, at least publicly. There are definite trends towards political correctness and silencing dissent. And the most visible Pagans online aren't necessarily the ones that anyone should be listening to.

Although that doesn't just apply to Pagans. Imagine if Christians only listened to Jesse Jackson or Pat Robertson.

To me at least, the most disturbing thing is the growth of the "Pagans will save the World" theme. Save the world from what, I am not quite sure, but there are some out there who are only a few steps away from conquering in the Name of the Goddess for the Betterment of Humanity. Or at least trying.

It always worries me when I can hear the capitals in what other people say, even if it is only what they are typing on a computer screen.

I am not quite sure where this messiah complex comes from. I only know that it is there. I get frustrated when I deal with newbies. Online, my experience is "one upped" by some kid who read the "right" books and started "practicing" six whole months ago. It's times like that when I understand exactly what Oberon Ravenhart-Zell wants to do with his so-called Grey Council.

Intentionally or not, this "save the world" thing comes across as recycled Christianity. I'm not sure that is what they need, although they believe it's what they want.

*sighs*

And that is the rub, isn't? You can't tell them until they are ready to believe it. Even if I could, I am not sure I should stop them from tripping and falling. Although the gods know I am tempted. I understand now what the Blessed who were around me were saying when I "broke out," although I ignored them then.

I'm pretty sure that the World can take care of Herself, maybe with a little help from her Consort.

It's the rest of us I am not so sure about.