I have financial news on all day long. I’m not actively paying attention to it, but it’s usually on as a background for while I’m working. Occasionally, I flip around during breaks — CNBC, Bloomberg, Fox Business, repeat. With all the bleak economic news, I’m almost certain that turning the news off completely will make me much happier and more emotionally stable. Anyway, one of the segments that I’m finding that I’m usually flipping to (and thus not sure I’m getting all the necessary background information on) is about anecdotal evidence of good signs people are experiencing in their local areas. Erin Burnett calls these tidbit “crocuses” (like the flower) and makes references that someone else (was it Kudlow?) calls them “mustard seeds.”

Now I know what I’m seeing and hearing, but I don’t get the exact significance of it. You cannot really study money today without studying magic, since that’s the foundation of the system that we are presently dealing with. This is even more poignant considering ideas related to creating money out of thin air, such as fiat currency and fractional reserve banking. It’s just a re-hashing of the alchemist’s aim to transmute lead into gold (literally speaking), matter into spirit (allegorically speaking) or nothing into value (financially speaking).

So what does the crocus mean in this context? Damned if I know! According to lists of ritual herbs and their associated powers, the crocus is used in bringing about love and prophetic dreams. Some crocuses are harmful, but others such as the saffron crocus is edible and healthy. It just seemed a strange term to use when referring to these tidbits. Maybe it’s just a reference associated with our journey into spring. I’m kind of wondering who’s realizing the love and prophetic dreams associated this flower’s bloom. That’ll teach me not to be a chronic channel flipper.

Having already been stumped on crocuses, I probably shouldn’t attempt to decode mustard seeds. It’s a Biblical reference to faith (Matthew 17:20), but as most Biblical concepts makes its appearance in other religious and spiritual systems. To complicate matters, there are black mustard seeds (used to confuse and trouble enemies) and white mustard seeds (used for protection and healing). And to up the conspiracy content, there just happens to be a secret Order of the Mustard Seed (with its own secret practices and alleged hidden agendas). My previously consulted list of herbs and their magical properties say that mustard and mustard seeds are useful in hexing, gaining power and performing mental magic. The same questions abound about mustard seeds as are lingering about crocuses, but I can’t divorce myself from a euphemism a relative once used for mustard seeds being some other type of seeds.

The point of the matter is that there are symbols abound everyone. Those in the know about the symbols will be able to access the fine nuances and hidden meanings of things. Or, you can be like me and drive yourself insane by thinking an innocent comment about flowers is a prelude to actions by nefarious powers. It’s up to you which path you choose, I guess.

I go through this every year. I’m walking around town or work and see someone with some dirt smudged on their forehead. Being a compulsive cleaner, my first instinct is to say something like, “You’ve got a little dirt on your forehead,” pull a bandana out of my pocket and move forward to wipe off the dirt. Luckily, this year I was unemployed and didn’t have any pressing reason to leave the house, so I avoided the possibility of this happening. So, I turned on the TV and wondered why all the guests on news shows had dirt smudges on their forehead. Was there a building collapse or some sort of natural disaster that I wasn’t aware of? They seemed too calm for that. I don’t know why it takes me so long to figure out that folks are just celebrating Ash Wednesday, but it does. And worst of all, it happens every year. I’m just scared that one year I won’t catch on quick enough and make a complete ass out of myself before realizing what’s going on. How bad would that be to wipe someone’s smudge off?

The fact that I’ve spent about thirty years of my life not having a clue that Ash Wednesday or little cross smudgies existed baffles me. During my formative years, I lived down the street from a Catholic Church. Geez! And to top it off, lots of denominations celebrate Ash Wednesday in this way. Maybe I’ve only lived in neighborhoods filled with “bad” Catholics. Or maybe its just me. I’ve never had any previous religious affiliation that actively promoted this ceremony, but Ash Wednesday’s on the liturgical calendar of at least some Gnostic denominations, such as the celebrations and holy days of the Ecclesia Gnostica. Since the gist of the remembrances associated with Ash Wednesday seems to be repentance, and I have a lot to repent for, I may give it a try. Or maybe not. I’ll start by reading Reverend Steven Marshall’s homily for Ash Wednesday and then maybe consider it for next year. And if I don’t decide that I’ll get much from Ash Wednesday, at least I’ll remember it and not be weirded out too much when Ash Wednesday comes around next year.

Tonight I received an email for a project called “I Pledge God” from a guy named Nathan Tabor. I know I subscribed to his mailing list, but I would be hard pressed to remember how that came about. Anyway, the email suggested that we have problems in society because of the way individuals and society views God. I completely agree. In Chapter 1, God is smiting people left and right. Chapter 2 has God saying to love your neighbors and advising people not to smite others. If I wrote a book with that kind of poor character development, everyone would take it back to the bookstore and demand their money back. Yet, the Bible is considered one of the greatest books of all time. The result of this schizophrenic portrayal is that people just don’t do the “religion” thing and become either Christians-In-Name-Only or out-and-out reject spirituality by embracing atheism. I’m sure this has some sort of impact on society, for better or for worse.

I actually thought about falling back on my marketing coursework and creating a marketing plan for God (and thus God’s followers). In the end, religion needs to serve the needs of individuals (the customers in this case). I don’t think my views would be that popular, since I would have to make a decision as to whether God is evil (the God of Chapter 1) or good (the God of Chapter 2). Either way, you can find some usefulness to the customer, I guess. My official stance is gnostic in nature, that God is good and any entity that has to write a book saying he is God (while killing off most of his creation) is the Devil.

The whole thought of another marketing plan makes me think of two things. The first is the “What Would Jesus Do?” movement from a few years ago. I’m sure that benefited someone who really asked that question. Other than loving God and loving others, it always seemed nebulous as to what the answer would be, notwithstanding amazing revelations from the Jesus Seminar. The other thing that I think about is an episode of the cartoon, King of the Hill. In that particular episode, Bobby gets all hooked up with Christian musicians, skateboarders and overly cool youth pastors. Christianity appeared really fun, something that a teenage boy would totally love doing after school. But in the end, Hank pulled out a box containing items from all the fads that Bobby embraced, warning Bobby that he didn’t want God to be put into that box. Eh, I guess it’s more poignant if you are a Christian.

While I’m not joining the “I Pledge God” movement officially, I would like to take a shot at an unofficial pledge:  I PLEDGE TO MAKE GOD THE ISSUE… by not trying to name something that cannot truly be named or by not limiting something infinite to an “I believe in God” soundbite.

Amen.