Goals for March

The "Goals" thing was really helpful so I'm going to pick it up again, at least for now.

Earth path:
Get outside for at least twice a week - this doesn't include walking to and from work, but going out for the specific reason of Going Out and visiting the deer herd, or seeing the plants start to return, or just walking out the door and following my feet.
Attend the Llyn Hydd Equinox ceremony
Create and lead the ritual for my pagan group
Do a solitary version of the AODA Alban Eiler ceremony
Daily meditation, including work with the Avalon stuff I just found

Water Path
I have had in mind for some time to start a Druidry discussion group - I am going to take steps this month to make it happen, probably by talking it over with my Llyn Hydd friends.

Fire Path
I want to really study the Candidate Initation - not from the perspective of one who has taken it but as one who may someday give it. I want to break it down and work with coming to understand it.

Air Path
I want to write two book reviews, of Piggot and Ellis, and post them here. I've been looking at the ADF Dedicant program, and while I still don't particularly want to get involved with the ADF, they are a large and important Druid group and I would like to come to know them better, so I'm starting in on some of the Dedicant work. Most of it overlaps nicely with AODA work, so I see at as a sort of a supplement to the Air Path. I might do my "modern Druidry" paper on the ADF.

Spirit Path
I feel like this part of the path is kind of on hold for me - I have enough else going on right now that I'm not going to think in any explicit way about this aspect this month. Some of it is always churning along in the background, though.

Music Spiral
Practice my tin whistle every day; play "The Parting Glass" nicely

Divination spiral
I've started a practice of drawing an Ogham before bed, reading the entry on it in Mountfort, and falling asleep meditating on it. I'm continuing this practice through March until I have done this with each one at least once.

Wool spiral
Continue with my crochet project and with spinning practice. I want to learn to knit this month as well. I would like to be able to consistently produce workable yarn with the spindle by the end of the month. We'll see.

Avalon Within: Inner Sovereignty and Personal Transformation Through the Avalonian Mysteries

(cross-posted from Vox)

I read this book this week, while I was on my Internet fast and reading all the stuff on my shelf that I hadn't gotten to yet. It uses the Avalonian landscape - that is, landscape features from the vicinity of Glastonbury Tor - as the basis for a fivefold system that combines the Western magical tradition with the Mabinogion and a large helping of feminist psychology. To be honest, I wasn't expecting very much. I love working with women and female-centered magical groups have a particular energy all their own that I miss. However, such groups far too often fall into becoming annoying bitch sessions with lots of poor-meism, combined with shallow pop psychologizing.

Um, anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by the book. I do find psychology personally annoying, but that doesn't mean it can't be a valuable tool. To my surprise, the author really does know her way around the Western magical tradition and makes some impressively high-level observations - she seems to have done a great deal of her homework. I hope that doesn't sound condescending - I mean it with utmost respect. While there is ample room for plaintive bitching in the practices she gives, it's balanced out by an emphasis on taking that deep inner work and putting it to work in the outer world. I've started working with the system, and while it's too soon to make a comment about it, I like it so far. I am seriously thinking of joining the Sisterhood of Avalon, the associated order. I think it makes a good complement to my AODA work - the one complaint I have about the AODA is that there doesn't seem to be any acknowledgement of the varying experiences between the genders. It's not even really a complaint, but I do believe that there are women's and men's mysteries, and I want to keep that feminine power in my work. A woman's group would bring some more of that sort of thing into my life. I also checked their "required reading" list and saw that I have read all but two of those books, and that they include Franz Bardon, of all people, on the list - I can see where it is that she did her aforementioned homework. There is plenty of overlap with the AODA stuff - she even has a section of the book that talks about three-fold, four-fold, and five-fold systems that is very close to what is in the Handbook.

I have until Beltaine to decide -they only accept new members at certain times - so I'm going to work with this material a few times a week and see how I feel about it by then.

Poison Ivy

Robert Patrick, one of my fellow druids, posted a wonderful blog entry today about tending his grove. He talks about poison ivy and blackberry brambles, and that got me thinking about those incredible plants.
Poison ivy is amazing. It's a small, modest-looking plant; not unattractive but not showy, growing low to the ground, hardy in various climates. It springs up along verges and anywhere the ground has been disturbed. That's where its magic shows - for all its modestly it is actually a fierce guardian of the earth.
The places where it grows are places where plants are working to reestablish themselves after a disturbance. Poison ivy rings groves of trees that have been left standing after a forest is cut, as if to say, "You got the rest but you won't have these!" Humans can be stunningly unconscious to the ground beneath our feet. Poison ivy makes us pay attention, or suffer the consequences. Mow it or weed whack it and the oils from the crushed leaves will hurt you. People have died from burning poison ivy - we may not simply burn or trample whatever we want, because poison ivy will be there to retaliate.
I have always been immune to poison ivy. I was raised on goat's milk and our goats ate poison ivy, passing on an immunity to me. In other words, the food I consumed was a product of my immediate local environment, and so by eating that food I became part of that environment. I know there are scientific explanations for this sort of thing, but to explain it in a mystical way, I was part of the land and the land knew me, and kept me safe. It's the same reason I have no pollen allergies when I'm at home but I do when I'm away. I don't take that immunity for granted, since it's been many years since I've lived off of my local environment, and I maintain a healthy respect for poison ivy.
Nettles (my own favorite) are another plant like this. They like scrubby "waste" areas and will sting anyone careless enough to brush past them. Nettles sting, especially when approached carelessly. If you know them well, though, and can grasp them just right, you won't get stung. I've harvested nettles without gloves on and gotten away unscathed (though not always.) Unlike poison ivy, nettles are edible, delicious and nutritious, and while all they have for the unwary or unconscious is a sting, if you take the time to get to know them they reward you.
Blackberry brambles are yet another protector plant. They are tenacious and prickly and create almost impenetrable barriers. There is no immunity to blackberry prickles - they are sharp and will cut anyone who is unwary enough to approach. When I was a kid I used to crawl on my belly through brambles, getting the occasional scratch, in order to sit amongst the canes and feast on blackberries, feeling utterly safe, protected and well-fed. I'm much too big to do that anymore, but I still like seeing bramble patches because they look like islands of safety to me.

Here in Philadelphia, we have a huge park system. Fairmount Park has wide open fields, forests, scrubby areas, areas that are tended and those left wild. It also features packs of feral dogs, packs of semi-feral teenagers, random dumped trash, outdoor crackhouses - Philadelphia has some serious social ills and it's all reflected in the park system. And yet, there are places where it's clean, quiet and safe. These are the areas that are ringed with poison ivy and brambles - beyond these barriers, there's no trash, no signs of human activity - these groves have guardiand at the gates, and it's only by respecting and honoring the guards that one can get past.

Writing

I put this over on my vox but thought it belonged here as well.



There's a thread on the AODA mailing list about authorship. It's left me feeling like everyone in the world has been published except me.
Every now and then, in my work, I wind up with a title page credit ("Photo editing by... " "Research by...," that sort of thing.) Sometimes I even get a thank-you in an acknowledgements section. Seeing my name in print thrills me to no end. All of the books that contain my name in the acknowledgements or title page contain lots and lots of my own words. I write figure captions and test questions and credit lines and bullet summaries, and I rewrite huge amounts of bad prose. I've never gotten an author credit for anything. I'm not saying I deserve an author credit for any of that - I'm just a member of the pit-stop crew to the author who is driving the racecar.
I want to drive the racecar, though. I want to write something that is my very own and have it published somewhere besides a blog. I'd settle for an online publication; it might be a good place to start. I want to be in print, though - actual print, on a page, with real ink. That's my goal for this year.
I'm probably doing this backwards, because I have no idea what I want to write about. I imagine most authors think of something they want to write, figure out how to write about it, and learn about the publishing process. I'm completely backwards. I know the publishing process intimately, I have a pretty good idea about how to prepare a manuscript, but I have no idea what to write about.

What's my subject?

Imbolc

This Imbolc has caused me to see how I'm just a wee bit overcommitted. It's hard to complain about - for so long I had to do this all alone that it seems silly to complain about having too many to satisfy. Friday night, I did a private AODA Imbolc ritual. Saturday, I did a "non-demoninational pagan" ceremony with my eclectic group. Sunday, I joined Llyn Hydd Grove for their Imbolc ritual. Sunday afternoon, I performed my Druid Apprentice initiation ceremony. One solid weekend of Imbolcing. I enjoy all the groups I work with, and I don't want to give any of them up. Still, it feels scattered to me.
I wish my imaginary grove existed. With the power of imagination in mind, here is how I would like next Imbolc to be:

On the afternoon of Saturday, Feburary 2nd 2008, a grove of druids meets. Some of us have been with this grove since its inception, some are first-timers, some are in between. A few of us are AODA initiates, but some are either followers of a different path of Druidry or merely curious. We establish the grove according to the AODA format and perform the ritual. It's longer and more involved than the one given in the Handbook because we've met a few weeks before to talk about what we want to do and some people have ideas to incorporate. The ceremony is partially AODA and partially uniquely ours, and we do it in the early afternoon to catch the waning sunlight, since it's fairly cold out.
After the ceremony is done, we come in (I'm picturing this in my backyard but I don't want that to limit where I might end up by next year, so it's a generic backyard) and warm up with hot cider and a bowl of nourishing soup, and other nice food items contributed by grove members. We share a meal and talk about whatever we want - we enjoy each other's company and become better friends over the meal. After all that, we have a brief meeting to formally go over Grove business and set times and dates for activities between now and Ostara.
Tonight, it happens that one of our members has joined the AODA and wants to be initiated into the Order as a Candidate. Anyone who hasn't already been through that initiation heads home at this time. We have planned for this, of course, and have set up a space indoors (since it's cold and dark out now this is better done inside). We send the candidate off to prepare himself while we set up the altar and transform the room into a sacred grove, and when all is set the candidate enters and the ceremony is performed.

By the time that's done, it's gotten late and we're all kind of tired, but happy and excited for the new initiate. Everyone goes home, I clean up, do the dishes, and sleep until noon on Sunday.

That's more intense and involved than anything I did this weekend, but it's all compressed into one afternoon and evening. It's also much more focused and more got done.

Mill Creek Grove

Note – what follows is entirely fictional. I know very few druids and no AODA’ers in the area, so I don’t think I could get together enough people to support the kind of structure I’m outlining below. It’s something that has been on my mind, though, so I thought I should write it down – you never know what might happen. I have tried to integrate AODA practice with my own preferences and with lessons I’ve learned from past group work.


Mill Creek Grove

We meet for each of the eight seasonal festivals of the Sun Path. Our ritual will take place on the weekend day nearest to the date of the festival. Everyone is also encouraged to do their own private observations on the day of the festival, alone or in smaller groups. However, the main ritual should not be neglected in favor of private practice.

We meet once a month, on a date determined in the previous month’s meeting, for a group meditation. The date is flexible here so that schedules can be accommodated. These are Moon Path meetings, and all respect will be paid to the phase the moon is in at the time, but I have found that restricting the date to a particular moon phase results in awkward scheduling problems. All phases of the moon have value and can be honored, so there’s no need to proclaim one particular phase as the correct one. The goal here is for as many of us to be able to participate as possible.

We also meet once a month, in a separate meeting on another night, as a study group. All members are encouraged to come but the study group can be considered optional – two and sometimes three meetings a month can be onerous for many people, especially those with children, and the goal here isn’t to place a burden but to give opportunities to those who want it. Study group members should be earnest and committed to the topic of the evening, doing reading and giving serious thought to the subject before coming to the group. Do not come to the study group if you have nothing to contribute – this is not about one or two people hearing themselves talk, but an exchange of ideas. If any one Grove member is particularly knowledgeable about a subject, that person is encouraged to step up as a discussion leader.

This is the basic foundation for the grove. Other activities, such as community service work, may come up in the course of things. I can also see sub-groups forming of those working the various Spirals – if two or more people are working on the same spiral, they should get together to compare notes and practice together. It would be wonderful to have something like a “Spiral Night,” where the poets could read their poetry, musicians could play for us, diviners could do readings, that sort of thing.

All activities should be conducted outdoors as the weather and circumstances permit. While no Druid should be particularly bothered by cold or damp weather, especially in a seasonal festival, it is obviously going to be more difficult to focus on meditation or a discussion topic in heavy rain, extreme cold, or oppressive heat. It’s also often difficult to find private outdoor space in an urban area, and I for one have a hard time conducting ritual if I feel like a public spectacle. My backyard is one option if we can get a fence up but the subject of location is one that needs further discussion. Any location has to be accessible within reasonable walking distance of public transportation – I don’t own a car and I don’t want anyone to be limited as to participation by transportation issues. My living room is open for meditation and study but I would prefer it if we found some other, more neutral space for this.

Leadership – founding members and any who have regularly attended Sun and Moon gatherings for more than three months have access to leadership roles. I am a strong believer that anyone who has something to contribute in this way should do so, but I have also seen what happens in the absence of strong leadership, which is chaos. Consensus is encouraged but can only get us so far. I see my own role as a sort of master of ceremonies – composing, opening and closing rituals, leading guided meditations, and making any final calls on decisions when consensus cannot be reached. This leads many other leadership roles. We need someone to be an organizer – figure out where and when we are meeting, and communicate this information to everyone. We need leaders for study groups, which I imagine as being passed around to various individuals as they have areas of particular expertise. I would refer to JMG’s “Inside a Magical Lodge” for descriptions of various roles within a lodge environment – while we are not quite creating a lodge here, the lodge system has some tried-and-true methods which we would be smart to emulate. I would encourage all members to read this book. A system of officers such as a lodge employs would eliminate so much of the disorganized confusion that I’ve seen in other circles.

This is all set up with an AODA structure in mind, and I’ve used terminology particular to that group here. I don’t know if AODA membership should be required – honestly, it’s hard enough to drum up participants for this sort of thing without adding yet another requirement. Also, I don’t have the requisite credentials to start an “official” AODA grove, so it seems a bit much to ask that of people. I would gently encourage it, though. If this were to happen in real life, I would check with the Archdruid for his thoughts before proceeding.