Druid's Apprentice

Bloggy business

2007-03-05T16:05:00.000-08:00

From now on, this blog is at: http://nettle.wordpress.com/

yes, that's

http://nettle.wordpress.com/

I haven't been liking the changes in Blogger and after giving Wordpress a try, I like it better. I'll leave up what's here, but any new posts from now on will be at

http://nettle.wordpress.com/

Goals for March

2007-02-25T19:51:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-11T10:17:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-06T19:35:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-04T14:08:00.000-08:00

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

2007-02-02T13:19:00.000-08:00

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.

Sun Path

2007-01-30T18:22:00.000-08:00

The Wheel of the Year is like the temporal version of the ritual circle - the circle marks where we are in space, the place on the Wheel marks where we are in time. Time is a wheel. We mark the points along the year to honor the rhythms of the world, to stay aware of the tides of the season. Each season has its own focus, and by observing each one as it comes around in turn we are connecting with the past and the future - the Imbolc I celebrate now is the same as I celebrated last year, and the same as I will celebrate next year. Yet, like a spiral, it changes as it turns back on itself. I was a different person and the world was different a year ago. Next year I will be a different person again. Marking the Wheel honors change and sameness, all at once.

Meditation is a solitary thing - even done in groups, the real goings-on of meditation can't really be shared. The Sun festivals, though - those are group events. I can celebrate them on my own, but I'd rather do so as part of a group. We are all in this together, we all travel the wheel together - if it's Imbolc for me it's Imbolc for everyone in the community and in this latitude. Marking the Wheel is the biggest single reason I want to be part of a spiritual community - so I have people to do this with. Doing it with the same people over and over builds the power and builds the community. We don't have to be friends, or really even like each other all that much, but we do have to walk this reality together and celebrating it together brings us all closer.

Festivals
Each festival has its particular energy and its place. Below I've outlined some of my strongest associations with each time. For each one, I lead a guided meditation for the group; given below is the setting for each meditation. I take us all to that field and lead a meditation based on the theme. The meditation is only part of the ceremony; each season also has its appropriate activities, and we always also do ritual to establish sacred space and honor the gods.

Samhain - barren time, dark time, time for regrets and letting go. Samhain meditation: a barren field. Samhain theme: releasing and letting go, of things we want to see gone and things we wish could stay.

Alban Arthuan(Yule)- time for rebirth, return of the light, celebration of home. Yule meditation: a snow-covered field, asleep and peaceful. Yule theme: honoring stillness, warmth of family.

Imbolc - time to wake up, poke your head out the front door, think about what's to come. Imbolc meditation: The field is bare, but the first stirrings of life begin. Imbolc theme: looking ahead to future goals

Alban Eiler (Ostara) - egg time, spring time, new growth. Ostara meditation: The earth has been turned and prepared for planting. Ostara theme: it has begun

Beltaine - fertility, sexuality, dancing, flirting. Beltaine meditation: The grain has sprouted, green covers the fields. Beltaine meditation: Coming together with others to create the new

Alban Heruin (Litha) - high energy, party time, time for joy and faeries. Time of fruit and sweetness and plenty. Litha meditation: The grain grows high and strong. Litha theme: Coming into fruition, we celebrate our accomplishments.

Lughnasadh - the first sorrow, the first harvest, celebration of the sacrifices made to feed us. Lughnasadh meditation: The grain is cut. Lughnasadh theme: We see the outcome of our work.

Alban Elued (Mabon) - harvest time, going into the dark again, gratitude that once again the Earth has provided. Mabon meditation: a field after harvest. Mabon theme: We give thanks for all that has been successful.

In the future, moving into a more Druidry-based practice (meaning, "when I have my own Grove"), I would like to adapt the AODA seasonal ceremonies as outlined in the Handbook and combine them with this guided meditation - the AODA ceremonies do nicely for calling upon the gods and making offerings, while the meditations encourage personal, internal work - self-examination on where the participant is in life and in relation to the turning of the Wheel.

Reflections on the Moon Path

2007-01-30T18:17:00.000-08:00

In preparation for my initiation this weekend, I’m reflecting on the paths and the spiral that got me here. The moon path is the path of meditation and inner reflection and contemplation, as described at http://www.aoda.org/curric1.htm#Moon

I’ve been on this path for a very long time. I have always meditated, even as a little kid when I didn’t know what the word meant. I sit and think. Or, sometimes, I sit and don’t think. It’s always been as natural to me as breathing, and I really have thought as little about why I do it as I think about why I breath. I do it because I have to.

My first formal education in meditation, outside of books, was at a Tibetan Buddhist center where I learned mantra meditation and visualization. Well, I didn’t really learn visualization because I have always done that. I was told over and over again by the Buddhists that visualization was really hard and I shouldn’t be discouraged not to get it right away. This made me embarrased to admit that I did actually get it right away and found it easy to hold an image in my mind. I also learned about energy anatomy and how to circulate energy through the chakras, how to connect with the earth and sky with these energies, how to become grounded and centered through breath and visualization. This was really where I learned the difference between having a talent and learning a discipline. I have always been able to slip into the Otherworld without much effort at all, to walk with the spirits and visit the faeries and all that sort of thing, as well as being able to come to single pointed concentration if I chose to. The advantage of learning meditation technique is that it gave me a vocabulary to talk about these things, and a way to share my experiences with others. It gave me ways to think about what I was doing. It’s still hard to describe but through knowing energy anatomy and such concepts I can help other people to do it as well, even if they don’t know the same vocabulary – there are subtler ways to help people along, but those only work if you actually understand what it is you’re doing in the first place.

Meditation gives me space. It opens me up, clears the cobwebs out of my head, and makes me feel open and whole. It grounds me into the earth and gives me access to worlds beyond this one. Practicing meditation gives space for the gods to enter my life. They are there anyway, of course, but if you don’t shut up long enough to meditate they are much harder to hear. And while I have described myself as having a natural talent for meditation, that doesn’t mean I can’t get out of practice. Meditation is a skill and without practice it’s much harder to do it well. The more in practice I am, the better I can do it and the more interesting it gets.

Movement meditation is another part of the moon path. I dance. I love to dance. I have always loved to dance but I also often think of myself as too clumsy, not pretty enough, not girly enough – all that crap that women tell themselves that keeps us from really being ourselves. I’m big, sturdy, and nerdy. There is nothing little or cute about me. There are lots of voices out there that would gladly tell me that I shouldn’t dance, including the ones in my own head. I do anyway, and I love it, and while I dance I do feel beautiful – free and strong and wonderful. Shutting off brain and engaging body, to music, is necessary for me. It also actually helps with the sitting kind of meditation, too – a strong body can sit much more comfortably than an out-of –shape one. It also helps when conducting ritual. I don’t actually dance when doing that (though I have done dance rituals) but dance helps me have a better idea of where my body is, how to move my hands, where to place myself in space to get the effect I want. A dancer knows how to create drama, and creating drama is also one of the skills of a priestess.

The last part of this path is the Sphere of Protection ritual. I’ve been doing it every night before bed since I learned it, and I like it – it’s like a little bedtime prayer. I have been doing this kind of thing for a long time, but I haven’t always thought of it as “protection.” I do now because I have seen enough of these past few years to make me feel like I need protection, but it’s also a way of orienting myself in space. Doing the ritual requires you to stop and notice where you are in relation to the universe, and that’s how I used to use it. Now I do think of it as protection – sacred hygiene.

Sacred hygiene - that's kind of what all this is. Meditation cleans out the head, movement keeps the body functioning right, and the Sphere keeps the nasties away from the outer environment. Really, it's right up there with brushing your teeth and washing your hands - a way to stay healthy and whole.

Why I joined the AODA

2007-01-30T10:07:00.001-08:00

I wrote the following as a post to the AODA email group as a response to a question posted by a nonmember (and, incidentally, a good friend) asking "why should I join?", but didn't post it because others answered the question better and more succintly. There was no point posting it there but there is some point to posting it here, since it's relevant to what I'm doing.

A few weeks back, I went to an informal pub get-together for those interested in “Celtic spirituality.” Most of the attendees were Druids of one flavor or another, with a few Wiccans sprinkled in. All these people were strangers to me. When asked about my path, I said “Oh, I’m with the AODA.” Most of the people there knew what I was talking about. Some didn’t – I clarified, “John Michael Greer’s group.” That cleared it up for all but one, so I gave him a little spiel about the AODA and a reference to the website. That did it for an introduction – we were all free to go on talking about what we had gotten together to talk about, I met some interesting people and learned a few things, and it was all good.

AODA membership gave me a convenient shorthand for introducing myself – of course my group affiliation does not give the entire picture of who I am and what I do, but it's good enough to go on with. I suppose as a non-member I could have said, “Well, what I practice and value is the same as the AODA” and gotten the same result, but that feels dishonest to me – is it really the same if I’m not a member? After all, if I’m not supporting the group through membership then I’m just exploiting something that I haven’t done anything to support, which goes against those values. It’s one thing to explore the teachings and the community as a preliminary to joining, as I understand Nate to be doing – this seems totally legitimate. It’s quite another to openly identify with a group, as I did in my example – I like being able to do that and I couldn’t do so honestly without membership.

I want to establish a grove someday. I could do this without membership, and have it be my own thing and set myself up as a grand poobah. I could create my own rituals, prepare my own teaching materials, set up my own website, do my own recruiting – and to a certain extent I will have to do all of this anyway. I'm perfectly capable of it. The AODA, though, already has done lots of this work for me, including having an effective archdruid that has already taken on the demanding role of grand poobah, a role I have never aspired to. The AODA gives me an outline for teaching, a ritual format, guiding principles, an online community, initiation ceremonies, a textbook, support and guidance from elders – all for what amounts to a bargain price. When establishing my grove, I will also be able to say, “This is an AODA grove, here’s what we’re about” and have minimal confusion about the goals, values and practices of the group. By insisting that grove members also be AODA members, I know that they know what they are taking on and have already committed to a particular path of study and practice.

Group membership and participation in a degree system also give me credentials. Some dismiss these as “just a piece of paper,” but that piece of paper is important to me – it’s a record of my path so far and a map of where I want to go. Recognition from the Grand Grove gives me some authority and assurance to others that I know what I’m talking about. Some could argue that this isn’t important as long as I really do know my stuff, but how are other people to know this? Anyone who has taught a class will also understand the need to establish authority, and credentials are a very effective first step for doing so. With credentials, I start off from a position of authority, and it’s mine to lose from there if I do so; I don’t have to build it up from scratch.

I am a member, most simply, because I want to support this group. I like it and admire what it’s doing, and want to see it grow. It can’t do that without members, so here I am. I could get some of the spiritual benefits, though not all, without membership. I want more, though – I want John Michael, and any other members so inclined, to write more books, I want to see AODA gatherings and groves around the country, I want to see our online forum have hundreds of members (it’s here, by the way: http://forum.cyberdragons.org/aoda/) and host lively discussions – I want all this to happen, and it won’t without an active and involved membership.

Mark your calender!

2007-01-30T06:06:00.000-08:00

I am ridiculously excited that this is happening here. The Frouds! The Matthewses! At my convention center! Midnight faerie movies at the Troc!
whew.

Einigen the Giant

2007-01-29T18:40:00.000-08:00

"Three things Divinity has given to every living being: the fullness of its species; the uniqueness of its individuality; and the distinction of an original Awen unlike any other, and these three things set each being apart from all others." - Iolo Morganwg

I'm trying to work this out. I get "fullness of its species" - this is our inheritance. I have an essential human-ness, my cats have essential catness, my elder tree has her essential elderness - we come into this world with attributes of our species and this is the most basic starting point of identity. Uniqueness of identity I also get - my cat holds essential catness, but she is also a unique expression, that particular cat that has never before been and will never again be. But what is the distinction of original Awen? Is this something like the soul? I've never quite understood the word "soul" but I think I might be able to figure out "original Awen." It's going to be the next topic for meditation.

I've been working with poor Einigen the Giant as a meditation theme for the past month.
"Einigen the Giant, first of all beings, beheld three rays of light descending from the heavens. The three rays were also a word of three syllables, the true name of the God Celi, the hidden spirit of life that creates all things. In them was all the knowledge that ever was or will be.

Einigen took three staves of Rowan and carved all the knowledge upon them, in letters of straight and slanted lines. When others saw the staves, they misunderstood and worshipped the staves, rather than learning what was written on them. Einigen's grief and anger was so
great that he burst asunder and died.

A year and a day later, Menw happened on the skull of Einigen and saw the three Rowan staves had taken root and were growing out of the skull's mouth. Menw took the staves and learned to read the writing on them and became famous for his wisdom."
- The Druidry Handbook, JMG, p. 50

The three rays of light are the descending Awen, that three syllable word that is the hidden spirit of life. Coming from above, \| /, Einigen's experience, they represent the Awen that comes from without, the divine flash that comes from outside the self. Einigen gained this knowledge and carved it on staves, in Ogam letters. Others (who are these others? those, I suppose, who have not had the divine inspiration) don't realize that the importance is not in the staves but in what they represent - they are keys to something greater. These others look the wrong way for the knowledge.

I'm forgetting who said this - when I remember I'll come back and edit this and get the quote right, because it's just brilliant - I think it was Philip Carr-Gomm. He said that all the books and words and teachings of Druidry were all secondary sources. The words on the page, or from the mouth of the teacher, are not the knowledge of Druidry. The primary source of Druidry is the Awen, and it is found in the trees and the dirt and the fresh clean air. It's not in books. Those who think to find wisdom in books are like those who worship the staves - they miss the point entirely. If I wanted to be all snarky here I could talk about people with an authenticity fetish who insist that if it's not in the latest scholarly work on the ancient Celts then it's not "real" Druidry.

Poor Einigen can't take this and is totally shattered. The first of all beings, the visionary who sees the three rays of light, the receiver of all knowledge, is blown apart by the misunderstandings of the others. This seemed like a huge overreaction when I first read the story, but of course this is myth and has to be understood this way. It's kind of a Fall sort of creation story, where mankind has access to the understanding of the gods and blows it so completely that the knowledge is taken away forever. By worshipping the rowan staves, they annihilate the one with the true knowledge. He doesn't just die - he is broken to pieces; he disintegrates. He loses that which holds him together. I think it's the Awen that held him together, and his role as the divine receptacle was his entire identity - when he failed to teach the others, he lost himself and who he was and so could no longer exist. Kaboom. He had to go, though - like in any Fall story, the fall is inevitable. There is no possibility at all that things could be otherwise.

A piece survives, though - the skull. A year and a day, the full cycle of seasons goes by and the world is made anew as it is every year. Severed heads are of huge importance in Celtic tales. The head is the seat of the soul, the home of the true identity - the source, as it were, and Einigen is the source of all knowledge - so his skull is an amazing talisman. The staves themselves have transformed as well. No longer plain sticks with writing, they are now living plants. The books (secondary source) have come to life and are now part of the great web of life (primary source) and this transformation happened within the skull of the first of all beings - knowledge and divine inspiration combined with the earth and the forces of nature. Menw (is this the same Menw as in the Mabinogion?) finds these transformed staves, and he reads them. How can he read them? Einigen is not there to interpret them for him. This, as Greer says, represents the other Awen - \| / - that which comes from within. I don't think he's just reading the letters that are on the staves - that's part of it, but he's also reading the rowan and the skull and all. Menw is like the revivalist druid, who has fragments of an old teaching, and through the use of these fragments as well as his own contemplation and mystical insight and the teachings of the rowan and the skull, he comes to Awen. Those others couldn't get there from the staves because they only saw the staves - Menw saw the bigger picture and put himself into it as well, and it was all those things working together that brought him wisdom.

There is so much packed into this little story - myths are funny that way. I'm sure I still only have a small part of it.

December Accomplishments

2007-01-07T17:45:00.000-08:00

December was a slow sleepy month for me in some ways. My activity levels were pretty low, but there was actually quite a bit going on at deeper levels.

Earth path:

1. Some nice outdoor meditations, the usual seasonal gardening stuff, that sort of thing. We also got totally switched over to compact flourescents this month - the electric bill has already gone down as a result.

2. I participated in Llyn Hydd Grove's Yule ceremony, which I enjoyed very much. I'm looking forward to getting to know this group better. I also did a solitary AODA ritual on Solstice morning. My usual group didn't meet this month - I feel like my energy isn't going that way anymore and I feel a little bad about that.

3. Daily meditation, of course

Water Path
I haven't done much on this path, at least in any outward way - I've really kept to myself this month. I read Philip Carr-Gomm's "The Druid Way," which was truly inspiring and felt like a great leap forward in my understanding of my spirituality.

Fire Path
I've been doing the AODA ritual form at least twice a week, usually more. This Yule was the first time in a few years that I haven't done a ritual of my own composition - I let Llyn Hydd and the Druidry Handbook tell me what to do instead.

Air Path
I read Beresford-Ellis' and Stuart Piggot's books on the Druids.

Spirit Path
I don't know that I've done anything overt on this path this month - though it's interesting that I decided to look into studying Episcopalian Christianity and suddenly found a grove led by a former Episcopalian minister.

Spirals
Music - Tin whistle is coming along nicely. It's really fun for me.
Divination - I've been doing a daily Ogham divination. Nothing too interesting to report yet - I need more practice and familiarity with it.
Healing - my usual herbalism stuff
Fiber art - this has been a HUGE success for me - I crocheted a scarf and a hat and am ridiculously proud that they both came out well.

Movies in my head

2006-12-07T14:47:00.000-08:00

My imagination has been invaded by cinema. I don’t know when or how this happened, but Malory played like a movie in my head. I was quietly making casting decisions, working out camera angles, deciding on costuming, and making a little movie in my mind through the whole thing. I haven’t done this before and wonder if it means I’m watching too many movies.

When the knights were pounding on Guinevere’s door, intent on catching her and Launcelot together, and he said three times, “If only I had my armor,” and then finally opened the door just enough to let one knight in, kill him, and take his armor, then get armed and open the door and slaughter all of them but Modred, well – it all played out in my head as a great action sequence. When Gawain goes psycho after Launcelot kills all his brothers, that imaginary actor playing Gawain nailed the role perfectly. When Launcelot goes to see Guenevere in the nunnery at the end, and asks for one last kiss, and she says no, and they part for the last time – well, I swear I heard violins.

I suspect that part of the reason is that I watch too many movies, but another part is that this form of entertainment seems pretty much in the same genre as a good summer historical action movie, like Braveheart or Gladiator - lots of confusing stuff that doesn’t make sense, is historically inaccurate, or could have been better written, interspersed with stirring action scenes, attractive leads, and really sublime moments. Yet I’ve never seen a decent movie version of this stuff. Lots of attempts – I think the best was one called “Excalibur” from back in the 80’s that wasn’t bad – I might have to netflix it and see if I’m remembering correctly. There was an awful one with Richard Gere, and another one a few years ago that wasn’t too bad as a movie (though nothing special) but not in any way about this King Arthur.

Me and a tree

2006-12-03T20:03:00.000-08:00

I don't usually like pictures of myself - they never look like "me" to me. I was just browsing through a picture folder and found this one and thought that it looked kind of like me, and kind of Druidish. I don't remember it but my husband always carries a camera around and it's obviously in Woodland Cemetary, where we go walking all the time. So there I am.

November accomplishments

2006-12-03T19:08:00.000-08:00

It's time for me to reflect on what I did this month. I'm learning things on this path that I hadn't expected and can't really be set down in a list form. This should be called "Outward accomplishments," because there are some inward accomplishments that are still cooking, not quite ready to be expressed yet but working on deep levels. Here's the things that can be listed. I cut-and-pasted the "Goals" post into here, so I can match up expectations with accomplishments.

Earth path
-Daily SoP
-Daily meditation

I haven't been as consistent as I'd like this month with the meditations. I've been doing them every day, but too often it's been "Eek, it's 11 pm and I need to go to bed but I haven't meditated yet, let me do it quick!" I need to get better at scheduling time for myself. The SoP is developing in its own direction and becoming more and more personal.

Water path

-Read Philip Carr-Gomm, The Druid Way (Shaftesbury: Element, 1993).

Loved this book - really loved it. Really really loved it. I want to keep this one on my shelf forever and reread it on regular occasions and give it away to people I like. Part of the goal of the Water Path is coming to an understanding of spiritual development, and this book expressed it so well and is helping me to better understand myself, past and future. Just reading one book doesn't sound like much, but this is definitely one of those inner things I was talking about where the real work is happening.

Fire path

-Memorize closing of ritual, work with full ritual form at least once a week

I still haven't quite gotten to the end of the ritual - I still have to peek on the Excalibur bit. It's getting there, though, and I'll have the whole thing by the end of December. I want a real sword, with a sheath. Once I have my Excalibur maybe the poem will come together better for me.

Air path
-Finish Malory, read Gareth Knight, start Geoffrey of Monmouth

I read Malory and Knight, but haven't gotten to any other Arthur materials. This stuff is so strange, and beautiful, and I want to do much much more work with it.

Spirit path

-Read Jim Nollman, Spiritual Ecology (New York: Bantam, 1990
-Finish “Where the Wasteland Ends”

Totally fell down on this. I only got in another chapter on "Wasteland" and haven't started Nollman yet. However, elsewhere on the Spirit path, I find that I want to learn more about Christianity, of all things. I've gotten this far in life without even once attending a Christian church service. For the first time, this seems like a gap in my education that perhaps I should rectify. I've read the New Testament in Greek, and having read quite a bit in philosophy I've been exposed to lots of Christian theology, and naturally I've read the Bible from cover to cover - but what happens in church is pretty much a mystery to me, as is the way modern Christians see their own faith. My image of all that comes mostly from the Simpsons.Modern American Christianity seems to me, frankly, to be completely insane and I don't understand it at all. Since the Druid Revival came from an Anglican perspective, I'm going to make the Episcopalians my comparative-religion focus. My grandmother was an Episcopalian, and they seem overall to be less scary than some of the others.

Music spiral
-Practice whistle at least 10 minutes a day. Memorize 3 more tunes.

Tinwhistle practice is going great. I love it. Not much more to say about that.

Divination spiral
-Memorize first 10 oghams – names, trees, elemental correspondances, divinatory meanings.

Memorization is not going as well as I'd like. I'm going to continue to work on it, but I don't think I'll have them all down by the New Year. I'm still planning on doing a reading a day all next year.

Healing spiral
- Work with Dandelion daily

I've been doing roasted dandelion root brewed as a breakfast drink and I love it. Tasty and stimulating. It's hard for me to talk about my work with herbs because it's become so integrated into my life. I want to take a first aid course in the next few months to augment this spiral.

Elective spiral (Organic gardening)
-Read “Square Foot Gardening”
-start planning next year’s garden, find out about community resources.

This changed completely when I realized it couldn't happen right now. I found out about community resources, and found that I would have to wait a few years for a community garden plot. I'm still going to garden next year, as I do every year, but learning to do it on a bigger scale will have to wait until I have the room. Oh well. So, I changed my elective. I'm going to learn to spin and knit and crochet and weave and all that good fiber stuff. I don't have a drop spindle yet, so spinning isn't happening, but I'm working on my crochet skills. I enjoy this sort of thing, and want to be good at it, but I always got discouraged in the past because I have friends who are so brilliant at it, and I crochet like a five-year-old. My hope is that by making it part of my Druid practice, it will matter less that I'm not producing useful items right away. Right now it's just another meditation.

Negative/positive.

2006-11-30T16:56:00.000-08:00

There's a convention that "negative" is bad and "positive" is good, eg, "Banish the negative energy," or "Think positive thoughts!" There's another convention with negative and positive, that "negative" refers to "feminine," lunar correspondances while "positive" refers to masculine, solar correspondances. Most "Witchcraft 101" books will include both concepts without a hint of apology or embarrassment. It shows up in unrelated places, too; the publisher I work for sees fit to include this note in the style guide for our medical journals:

"negative/normal. Observations, results, or findings are normal or abnormal, not negative or positive. Cultures, tests, and reactions may be positive or negative. EEG, ECG, and radiographs are normal or abnormal."

In other words, people need to be reminded that "positive" and "negative" are neutral concepts, not moral judgements. A negative test result can be a very good thing, or it may be meaningless, or it may be horrible, depending on the test. Yet we use these terms all the time as a form of judgement.

I try to avoid using these words unless I'm really referring to polarity. The popular moral definitions is too vague and misleading for me. I don't "banish negative energy" because I believe that words have meanings, and even if I think what I really mean is "banish the forces that would harm me" my subconcious might not figure that out. I would rather say what I mean, rather than what I think I mean. If I want to banish the baddies, I do so explicitly. So, I usually subsitute "harmful" for "negative" if I come across the word, if that is in fact what is meant.

I also don't like the "positive/negative" construction because it is so strictly binary. This is fine when talking about polarities, but when talking about morality it implies that things can only be one or the other. I don't believe this, so I try not to talk about these things in a binary way.

"Purify" is another word I try to avoid. It's been used in such awful ways in the past, as an excuse for mass murder, as a motive for self-mutilation and self-starvation, as an excuse to exclude - it simply has too many unpleasant connotations for me. I use "bless" instead as a term that is neutral and pleasant, calling down the beneficial attention of the gods, rather than the "rejecting the unclean" ideas that lurk behind "purify."

In a similar vein, when I do the opening of the solitary AODA ritual, I change ". . . Without peace, our work may not proceed" to ". . . Only with peace, can our work proceed." I don't like starting any working with "our work may not proceed," whatever the context. I try to keep that sort of thing in mind whenever I compose a ritual.

by fire and fleet and candle light...

2006-11-20T19:41:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted much of anything this month, so consider this an update.

I'm wending my way through Malory, and loving it. I haven't read most of those stories since I was a kid. At the same time, I'm reading Gareth Knight on the Arthurian tradition, which is certainly thought-provoking and helping me to make some connections. I have a hard time with the whole Atlantis thing. Somehow I have to come to some understanding of that, because I can't believe in it literally but it's all over the Druid tradition, so I need to find some peace with it rather than have my brain come to a full stop every time I see the word. I'll have some better-developed thoughts about that once I've finished the book. I'm also reading Philip Carr-Gomm's "Druid Way" which is very sweet and poetic and makes me wish all the more that I could afford OBOD.

I've been working with my tinwhistle and having fun with it. I look forward to whistle practice every day. The two songs I'm learning for this month are "Lyke Wake Dirge" and "Lewis Bridal Song."

I wanted to do gardening as my elective spiral, but that's not going to work. The idea was to get a community garden patch and work at learning how to get some really good yields from an urban space. I found out that there's a three-year waiting list for a slot in any of the community gardens nearby. I'm already doing as much as I can with my tiny, shaded backyard. Learning more will have to wait until I have the space. Instead, I want to learn more about fiber techniques. I want to learn to handspin. I want to know how to take a pile of animal hair and transform it into a useful item using low-tech items: a comb, a drop spindle, a crochet hook.

Of course, I'm meditating and doing the SoP every day, and practicing the full ritual form once a week or so. I'm also studying the Ogham every day, trying to get them all by heart. Once I have that basic level of knowledge I will start doing daily divinations, but that will be at least another month or two. I might make that a New Year's thing - an ogham reading every day in 2007.

I'm so glad I found this path. I know that many people find labels confining, but I'm delighted to have found one - I have the opposite feeling: I find the label freeing. It gives me focus and an orientation, so rather than trying to run in every direction at once I have a particular point on the horizon picked as a heading.

November goals

2006-11-07T19:34:00.000-08:00

In order to keep myself on track, I'm going to make a list of goals for each month, and then report on what I actually accomplish at the end of the month. Here's my list for November:

November goals:

Earth path

-Daily SoP
-Daily meditation

Water path

-Read Philip Carr-Gomm, The Druid Way (Shaftesbury: Element, 1993).

Fire path

-Memorize closing of ritual, work with full ritual form at least once a week

Air path

-Finish Malory, read Gareth Knight, start Geoffrey of Monmouth

Spirit path

-Read Jim Nollman, Spiritual Ecology (New York: Bantam, 1990
-Finish “Where the Wasteland Ends”

Music spiral

-Practice whistle at least 10 minutes a day. Memorize 3 more tunes.

Divination spiral

-Memorize first 10 oghams – names, trees, elemental correspondances, divinatory meanings.

Healing spiral

- Work with Dandelion daily

Elective spiral (Organic gardening)

-Read “Square Foot Gardening”
-start planning next year’s garden, find out about community resources.

Samhuinn

2006-10-31T19:06:00.000-08:00

This was my second seasonal ritual done "by the book" - the book being the Druidry Handbook, of course. The first, Alban Elued, was done shortly after I first learned that there was such a thing as Revival druidry, and I didn't really know much about the symbolism I was using. I'm glad I did it because it gave a nice little taste - and you have to start somewhere, after all - but it lacked profundity. Samhuinn was more in-depth. It helps to have the opening memorized, but I need to memorize the seasonal ceremonies as well. I'm used to winging it a little in ritual. I'll have an outline in my head and important points to hit, but usually what happens between formal opening and closing is improvised. It's always worked well for me, and it's nice to be able to shift on the fly to account for energy changes in groups.

Working from a script is kind of new to me. I see all sorts of things I want to add in. My husband joined me for this one, and I never like to feel like I'm performing for an audience - everyone in a ritual should have the opportunity to contribute something, so I gave him his space to speak and contribute, and I felt that this helped enormously. I feel like what I need to do for the seasonal rituals is memorize what is provided in the book, but leave spaces for improvisation and group participation. The ritual as written seems a little dry, with no room for sharing those "aha!" moments that come. I suppose it's intended as a solitary ritual.

So, tonight's ritual - we did it in the living room. I set up the altar, the four cauldrons, and decorated the altar with a white silk cloth, candles, autumn leaves, some mums from the garden, and an acorn squash. It looked nicely festive and seasonal. My cat came and sat under the altar table as she always does when I do ritual like this, and stayed the whole time quietly observing. I brewed mugwort and lavender tea for the Hirlas horn (which in this case was a nice ceramic mug, since I haven't gotten it together to buy an actual horn yet) and my stone athame stood in for Excalibur, (since I also haven't found budget room for a sword yet, though when I do it will be this one) I've gotten the opening memorized well enough that it went without a stumble, which was a great feeling. It was altogether a solemn, somewhat sad ritual, but we wound up talking about black holes and the creation of the universe, and how every ending contains a beginning, and the bigger the ending, the bigger the new beginning. Which for us right now is a very profound and comforting thought.

Overall it was a nice little ritual. I like wearing my robe and cord - it feels very... hmm... correct, I guess. I'm doing the bigger one for my eclectic pagan tribe on Sunday, the full moon, and it will be interesting to see how it compares. It will of course be completely different, but I'm most interested in analyzing why it's different.

Thoughts on reconstructionism

2006-10-23T20:19:00.000-07:00

I just joined the ADF out of curiousity, and because we have a fairly active ADF grove in the area. I thought it was worth a look. I really admire that they have created such an active and well-organized system.

Anyway, I found the following paragraph in their offical Membership Guide that kind of made my eyes bug out, and I’m wondering what others’ thoughts are.

Here’s the quote: “We’re not wasting our time with romantic or ideological pseudo-scholarship by such “authorities” as Lewis Spence, Robert Graves, H.P. Blavatsky, Iolo Morganwg, Barbara Walker, Merlin Stone, or D. J. Conway. Instead, we rely on the work of serious mainstream scholars such as George Dumezil, Stuart Piggott, Mricea Eliade, Patricia Monaghan, A. & B. Rees, Anne Ross, C. S. Littleton, Miranda Green, Ronald Hutton, etc.” (from page 3 of the 6^th edition of the ADF Membership Guide, Isaac Bonewits.)

Now, getting past the brief cognitive dissonance brought on by a Druid group using “romantic” as a dirty word, I find the two categories presented here to be thought-provoking. Bonewits sets out two different kinds of writing – “serious mainstream scholars” and “ideological pseudo-scholarship.” I’m fairly new to this path, so not all the names he lists are familiar to me, but I recognize a few.

Thinking about what all the “pseudo-scholars” have in common, it seems that they all write for practitioners rather than scholars (with the exception of Spence and possibly Graves). Walker and Stone both write for a feminist audience, and they retell the myths in a way that speaks to that audience and, Stone especially, gives them a mythic world that resonates with the way women experience life now. Blavatsky was writing for the Theosophists. Conway writes for modern pagans who are looking for relatively simple and easily followed material to help them along their paths. Morganwg related (and possibly created) a system for practicing Druidry, and accomplished some really great things in the process.

Now for the second list – the “serious mainstream scholars.” I have no idea how Patricia Monaghan got onto this list – I like her work but it’s hardly scholarly. Hutton is great for giving modern Pagans some welcome historical context. The rest seem to be Celtic scholars who were hot stuff 20 years ago or so (I may be wrong about this – as I said, I’m new to this path – but most of them look a little dated.) I don’t know well enough to judge, but I’ll take Bonewits’ word that these are all mainstream scholars, writing for a scholarly rather than a popular audience (though the inclusion of Monaghan on that list makes me wonder – I suspect she was put there as a feminist foil to Stone and Walker from the other list, but I don’t really know.)

Background on me – I was a classics major with a minor in classical archeology at a college that takes its classical studies department very seriously. We were always told when writing an archeology paper to rely on the most recent possible sources, because it’s the nature of scholarship to constantly change. Journal articles and books from more than ten years ago were generally frowned upon – after all, what’s the point in citing something from a conversation that happened a decade ago when the conversation has moved on since then? Scholarship is a conversation. One person writes, another reacts, more research gets done, theories are revised – it’s ongoing. So it seems like a really dangerous thing to make “serious mainstream scholars” the (however unaware) authors of practical religious texts. The ADF says it’s here for the long term, but what happens when, twenty years from now, the mainstream scholars become the ideological pseudo-scholars? It happens all the time. Does the whole religion change?

I actually feel much better about basing a practice on actual mystics like Iolo Morganwg. While he may have made some stuff up, he did give us the basis of a self-contained system that is built on methods that seem practical and sustainable. It might make the serious scholars giggle, but the fact is they’ll giggle at us no matter what.

Lugus

2006-10-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

This whole Druid thing started for me with Lugh. He showed up around June of this year and said, "OK, now you need to learn about me and about your ancestors." This was a little confusing to me since I'd never done a whole lot of studying or work on the Celtic path, and I had a longstanding allergy to the ADF, which I'm trying to get over. I also have no more than a few drops of Scottish or Irish blood in me. I knew without a doubt who the god was talking to me, though, and I'm not one to ignore a message like that. So I started reading about Celtic mythology, history, and druidry, which led me to the AODA.

Out of curiousity about my ancestors, I've been doing some genealogical research. My dad's side of the family is all Acadian. My last name is Acadian, I look kind of Acadian, and it's an easy and well-documented line to trace. My ancestors on this continent (on that side of the family) all came from a band of about 100 families that traveled to Acadia in the 1600's. Their names appear all over my family tree - I have the last name of one of the families, but I'm descended from pretty much all of them. So I looked for the place in France where they came from.

They all came from the vicinity of the town of Loudun, about 60 km south of Tours - smack dab in the heart of old Gaul. So there's that Celtic ancestry I was looking for. What's more, a little research into the town of Loudun revealed that the name came from "Lugudunum," meaning "fort of Lugus."

Home

2006-10-21T23:16:00.000-07:00

Book review: Voluntary Simplicity, by Duane Elgin

2006-10-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

Book Review: Voluntary Simplicity
Duane Elgin's Voluntary Simplicity is a plea for a simpler, more balanced way of living. I never quite figured out why the lifestyle he describes is any more simple than other ways. I have what I suspect is a knee-jerk annoyance with those who have always had enough to eat and hot and cold running water in their lives, who romanticize pre-industrial living. I tried to keep an open mind for this, but I think I'm just not the correct audience for this book.
The audience seems to be affluent urbanites. Elgin is clear that he's not talking about actual poverty, just a clever simulation. He describes what he means by "simple," and while I don't think it's actually all that simple, I get what he's talking about. Simplicity involves reducing spending and possessions to the things that are really needed, getting in touch with the really important things in life such as family and vocation, and maintaining awareness of the plight of the poor.

I think it's the "voluntary" part that I have a hard time understanding. The audience seems to be affluent urbanites. Elgin is clear that he's not talking about actual poverty, just a clever simulation. He makes it clear that this is a choice, so if you're not making the choice it's not voluntary and, apparently, less worthwhile or laudable. While I practice much of what he talks about, I don't know how "voluntary" it is. I don't own a car, and I walk, bike or take public everywhere I go. Is this voluntary? Well, I hate cars and think they're evil and dangerous. I also can't afford one right now. I live in an area where it's not difficult at all to live without a car. I prefer not owning a car, but right now I couldn't have one if I wanted one. So is this voluntary?

If I lived out in the country, I'd have a car. I'd use it as little as possible, because I hate cars, but I'd have to use it now and then. Is my lack of a car now voluntary? Would my car ownership at my rural home be voluntary? I mostly am just reacting to my circumstances. How could I make this voluntary?

I buy local produce and meat as much as possible. This qualifies as "simple" in Elgin's scenario. It tastes better and the produce is usually cheaper. It's also really convenient to go to the farmer's market down the street. I like it better. If you told me tomorrow that it would benefit the planet for me to buy at the supermarket instead, I might still buy at the farmer's market - I'd feel a little guilty about it but cheap, tasty, healthy and convenient are all important to me. So is this voluntary? Should I be feeling the warm glow of moral superiority when what I'm doing is exactly what I want?

It sounds like, to really practice voluntary simplicity, you have to be an affluent urban professional who enjoys shopping at the supermarket, driving a cushy SUV, and buying lots of toys. It would be a sacrifice for this hypothetical person to give all this up, but that warm glow I just mentioned is meant to make up for all those nice things. I don't like any of that stuff. I dress like a librarian. I shop at the farmer's market. I take SEPTA. I'm not the right audience for this book - I'd be miserable with the kind of lifestyle he describes as what we'd all choose if we weren't volunteering to be simple. I think there was something he was trying to say that I just didn't get, because I'm just not the right audience.

I got more out of the last part of the book, "Simplicity and Social Renewal." Elgin take a complete turn from the personal to the global, and this is where I really got interested. He discusses the importance of a positive shared vision of the future, which is something really lacking right now. He gives a plan for creating that future, and that kind of practical approach seems much more useful than the exclusionary and elitist kinds of talk he engages in at the start of the book.

October Accomplishments

2006-10-13T20:57:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that this got posted as an October 13 post - which is the day I sarted a draft copy, to make this an ongoing list. I didn't finish this until October 29th, which is the actual day it was posted. Not sure how to change this in blogger - anyone?

Here's a summary of what I've been up to in Druidry practice for the month of October. I've arranged it as though I'm working on the second degree curriculum - I appealed to JMG to "skip ahead," and I've yet to hear the results of that appeal. Over the course of the month, I've realized that it wouldn't be such a bad thing to do Candidate work for a year - there's always more to learn down that path. So this could all get reorganized into a "first degree" format. Either way is becoming OK with me.

The Earth Path

-Gathered dandelion root, burdock root, chamomile and rosehips in the park; brought several students to show how to find and gather wild plants in an urban setting
-Bought and started using a kitchen compost pail, in order to become more conscientious about composting kitchen waste - I compost already but sporadically, as often I was just too lazy/busy to walk the scraps all the way down to the heap. Now with this bucket, I can fill it in the kitchen and empty it once a week.
-Wrote a short essay on foraging as a Druid practice
-Meditated daily, did Sphere of Protection daily.
-Planned, designed and carried out three completely different Samhain rituals: the one from the Handbook (solitary), one for my Witch circle, and one for my magic group.
Books read:
Theodore Roszak, Where the Wasteland Ends
Mother Earth News Yes, it's not on the reading list, but I have a subscription and read it every month. It counts.

Water Path
-Took three students on an herb walk; explained spiritual importance of gathering and using herbal medicine.
Books read:
Judy Harrow, Spiritual Mentoring: A Pagan Guide

Fire path
-Memorized opening of Druid Grove ritual
-Created and conducted Samhain ceremony
-Performed Candidate initiation on myself
Books read:
Pauline Campanelli, Wheel of the Year: Living the Magical Life
John Michael Greer, Inside a Magical Lodge

Air path
Books read:
Sir Thomas Malory, Mort d'Arthur - still in progress, actually
Ross Nichols, Book of Druidry - also still in progress - this book will take me a decade or so to get through, and then I'll find things I missed and need to start over. I'm including it on the Air path because I see it as Revival scholarship, but it could go anywhere. There's a whole lifetime worth of work in this one book.

Spirit path
Found and pledged myself to Lugh as my patron deity (saying this is very quick but wow is this a huge deal for me).
Books read:
John Michael Greer, A World Full of Gods (again, not on the list but I think it belongs here)

Healing Spiral:
-Collected herbs, selected (or was selected by) Dandelion as my green ally for the coming year.
Books:
Ellen Evert Hopman, A Druid's Herbal for the Sacred Earth Year

Divination Spiral
-Started ogham notebook, began working with ogham sticks as divination tool
-Memorized the first aicme - symbol, names, meaning, elemental associations and divinatory meanings for each one.
Books:
Caitlin Matthews, Celtic Wisdom Sticks: An Ogam Oracle
John Michael Greer, The Druidry Handbook - so far this is my main source for Ogham information.

Music path:
Started practicing the tin whistle regularly. I'm finally starting to figure out ornamentation, however slightly.
Books: The Clarke Tin Whistle Book (a how-to book)

Odd Fellows

2006-10-12T19:48:00.000-07:00

The tall square building is the old Bartlett Odd Fellow's Hall. Whoever has it now put a coat of paint on it. When I lived there, it all looked like that top dormer, and the letters "IOOF" could just be made out above the second story windows.

Following is a post that I made on the AODA_Public board, but I also want to put it here because it's kind of important to me, and it gives a brief review of a book I just read that is relevant to the topic of this blog:

"I just got this book [Inside a Magical Lodge, by John Michael Greer] based on the posts here, and I have to add to the chorus of praise - I love this book! As a founder and leader of a small magical/religious pagan group, I've found that there aren't many helpful books on the subject - the only other really valuable one I've found was Judy Harrow's "Wicca Covens," which has more of a psychotherapy-influenced group-process approach. Everything else I've found on the subject seems to be aimed at teenage girls.
"Inside a Magical Lodge" comes from a different perspective and has gotten me really interested in the old fraternal orders. It's also very practical and useful.

When I was about 11, my mom bought a big, falling-down old building that had the letters "IOOF" in faded paint across the top of the third floor. This place was totally unsuited for being a home, but it was lots of square footage for cheap. I now realize that my bedroom throughout my early teenage years was most likely the antechamber to the main lodge hall. There was a peephole in the door into the big
main room whose purpose I now understand. I knew what "IOOF" stood for, but I never gave it that much thought - though I spent many hours in that room as a kid reading books by Crowley and Regardie and others, wishing that there was something like the Golden Dawn for bright twelve-year-olds. Kind of gives me another perspective on the
whole thing.

. . . [edited out irrelevant bit about OES floor cloth, and bit about PA Grand Lodge. Leaving in the link for those who might be interested]

Here in Philadelphia we have an enormous and spectacular Masonic temple. "

I had forgotten about much of this. I mean, I remember that we lived in an Odd Fellow's Hall, but I never thought of it as anything all that interesting. Mostly I resented the place. It was drafty and cold and sort of embarrassing. I wanted a real house. As an adult, people hear that I lived in a tipi and an Odd Fellow's Hall and we had sled dogs and stuff, it sounds interesting and exotic. At the time, I felt poor and wierd. I'm grateful now for much of it, because it made me into the person I am, and I like me. I'm not "normal" and I would have felt even worse trying to pretend that I was. I don't think I realized that as a kid, so it didn't help back then.

I'm now overwhelmed with curiousity about the history of fraternal orders in New Hampshire. I've tried to find information about the chapter that would have used our house as their lodge, but to no avail. The NH historical society seems to have the information on the IOOF in New Hampshire, but I'd have to go use their library to find out more. I may still do that, but not for at least a few months yet. I also found that there was a Knights of Pythias lodge in town, as well. I'm trying to find where that would have been - I have a suspicion but I don't know. It's not like it's a huge town.

That's another thing - such a small town, with two fraternal orders? Every man in town must have belonged to at least one. The Hall is a huge building, as you can see, and if the K. of P. lodge was the place I think it might have been, it was almost as big. I don't know of any Odd Fellows or Knights in town anymore. There is a Masonic lodge in N. Conway, and the Grange is active all over, but those two seem to have melted away.

I looked into the IOOF, to see if I wanted to join. There doesn't seem to be a Philadelphia chapter, but even if there was, monotheism is one of the requirements for admission. I don't qualify. The OES sounds interesting, and there is a lodge, here, and I was tempted in spite of the "Supreme Being" thing when I found this from the Chick people. If they think it's a source of evil, then there has to be something good going on. They want you to be related to a Mason, though, and I'm not.

When I finally get back to something like rural life, I'll look into joining something - it seems really important, in spite of the Christian thing. Actually, I should say because of the Christian thing - it's not like I'll be joining a church, so this is a way of getting to know the neighbors. As long as they don't burn me at the stake, we should be fine.

*Apologies to whoever I swiped the above picture from - I did a web search to find a picture, and I think that came from someone's Flickr vacation pictures (seems to have been taken from the train). I right-clicked, saved, and moved on without recording where I found it, and now I can't find it again. I wanted to find some old photos of Bartlett, but couldn't. Got homesick looking for them, though.

Book review: "Spiritual Mentoring" by Judy Harrow

2006-10-10T16:14:00.000-07:00

I was sitting down to write this review, when I got an email from a friend asking about mentoring. Imagine that. So, my response to him also counts as my blog entry. Here's the email:

By an Amazing Coincidence, I was just sitting down to write a blog review of one of the AODA's Required Reading books, "Spiritual Mentoring" by Judy Harrow, which is all about how to help people along in their spiritual development, from a specifically Pagan perspective. So, instead of writing the review, I'll tell you all about it so maybe you can help your friend.
First, a quote from page 39:
"Mentoring is both a relationship and an activity. The relationship is more important because the goal of the activity is personal development rather than either training or education. Information can be shared without any personal relationship at all; all of us have learned from books or from broadcast documentaries. Skills can be transferred from one person to another through very narrow interactions; I can learn how to bake bread or write a computer program quite well from someone who is otherwise dysfunctional. But only a truly spiritual person can show another how to become spiritual - and not by precept, only by example."
This is really the heart of what Harrow has to say. You can't teach someone how to be spiritual. You can't personally introduce them to the Divine. You can teach techniques, practices, lore, ritual - but a book can teach that just as well. So what is there to teach? The best thing a spiritual mentor can be is a good example, and that example is shown through relationship.

The rest of the book is about developing that relationship, and an exploration of religious and spiritual development, using models from both within and without the Pagan community.

Here's a list of questions she recommends "for people considering commitment" Here she defines "commitment" as a stage of conversion marking the decision to join a new faith community. The focus in this book is on people working within specific traditions and communities, but I think what she says applies just as well to someone looking to commit to their own solitary path.

What do you experience as Sacred in your life?
What is your source of hope? of pride? of power?
To what are you loyal? To what are you devoted?
For what are you thankful?
Where do you find nurturance?
Which Deity guides or empowers you?
How would that Deity describe you?
Whom or what do you trust? Whom or what do you fear?
What are your most inspiring goals, your most Sacred hopes?
With whom do you share these things? What are your sources of human guidance or support? Whom do you trust?

Harrow recommends really pondering and meditating on these answers, because the answers will show you the callings of your own heart. I would also add that having thought about the answers to these questions leads to greater commitment to the Path, because the answers are reminders of what is really important. This set of questions seems very much like the questionnaire that you are working on.

The concept that stood out the most for me from this book, the thing that was really an "Aha!" moment for me, is a description of the three main concepts of Deity. She (actually, not Harrow here but a pair of elders whom she refers to) categorizes them as "colors."
The "red" concept is the orthodox deist position. Gods are real, personal, individuals whose existence is objectively verifiable.
The "blue" concept is that Deity exists as the Ultimate Sacred/Great Mystery/Source. Humans cannot comprehend the Great Mystery, so we have gods that are humanlike metaphors for aspects of the Ultimate (this sounds like your concept below)
The "yellow" concept is that the gods are constructs of the human imagination. They are Truths in the abstract sense - personifications of concepts. They are not Facts in the objective sense.
The neat thing about this model is that it's a triangle - red, yellow, and blue are the points, but your own personal deity concept can fall anywhere on the triangle, and can change depending on your state of mind or where you are in life. My deity concept is kind of purplish, with a little more blue than red - but there are occasions where it suddenly goes bright red, and others where it mellows to a cool blue. It's hardly ever yellow, though it has been in the past - I've had a few too many Red experiences to go back to Yellow.

The book is terrific, and I highly recommend it to anyone on the Path, whether you have any intention of mentoring others or not. It's been my experience that students show up whether you invite them or not, so you might as well have some idea of how to relate to them.

The best advice I can give is to be yourself, and allow your friend to be himself too, but that's probably an irritatingly vague way of putting it. You have the advantage of a long friendship there, so you don't have to worry about that horrible idealizing transference thing (the whole "I bow before you O great witch queen" thing - which Harrow also talks about - she thinks it's necessary to put up with at the start, but it just gives me the creeps) and you have a basis of trust. Show him what you do, tell him why you do it, and be there to answer questions - that's about what it boils down to.

I get a little warm in my heart when I think of winter...

2006-10-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

Me, only little

2006-10-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

Book review: "Plant Spirit Medicine" by Eliot Cowan

2006-10-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

I wanted to like this book. It's the sort of thing I ought to like. I didn't, though.

There are parts of it that are beautiful and wise, especially the interviews with traditional healers. I loved those. Cowan's insistence on the power of using local plants is right in line with my own feelings, and his focus on the spirit of the plant, as opposed to the physical constituents, as the source of healing is an important point, except...
it's not actually "as opposed to", it's "along with." That's a big part of why I didn't like the book. We live in a culture that vastly privileges the physical over the spiritual, but going completely the other direction isn't healthy either. Cowan talks about working with plants, and he makes a very good point about the fact that plants are far more than "little phytochemical factories," but he seems to completely ignore the fact that the phytochemicals are still there, and still very powerful. I believe that it takes the substance AND the spirit of the plant to help the body heal.
The healings that Cowan describes are entirely unhelpful. He doesn't have anything useful to say about his technique. The pattern throughout the book is to describe a patient with some kind of big, complicated health problem. The patient comes to Cowan, Cowan gives a vague, usually unspecified treatment, and within moments the patient is all better. Many of the problems he describes, such as trauma from childhood abuse, are deep-rooted complex issues that take time and work to heal. Perhaps the patient felt better after a treatment, but what about two weeks later? A year later? He never says. The worst example of this was the patient with pancreatic cancer. Cowan treats the patient, the patient instantly feels better, and we never hear the end of the story. Pancreatic cancer is fatal. If the cancer was healed, that would be wonderful and miraculous, but Cowan doesn't say that. If the treatment allowed the patient to meet his death with courage and serenity, that would be less miraculous but also wonderful. Cowan doesn't say that either. Patient has cancer, Cowan treats patient, patient feels better. It's unsatisfying both as an explanation of a healing technique and as a story.

Cowan also gives the impression that he's the first person ever (besides native shamanic healers, who apparently don't count) to connect with plant spirits in healing. He seems completely unaware that there is an ongoing tradition among European and European-American folk healers that connects with plant spirits, in spite of the fact that these people have been writing books for years before Cowan did. He speaks of making a connection with a plantain spirit, who tells him that the plantain have been waiting 200 years for someone to connect with them and ask for healing. Rubbish. People have been working with the plantain spirit continously for a very long time - it was brought to this continent by the Europeans for its healing power.

At one point, while rhapsodizing over the power of the mother's breast, he laments that "Women are no longer solely devoted to motherhood..." If he really believes that there ever was a time when women were solely devoted to motherhood, then it's no wonder that he's missed all those female herbalists who have been quietly and effectively working with plant spirits all along.

I also have to disagree with his whole philosophy of healing. He claims that you cannot heal yourself, and that only another (person) can heal you, because when you're ill you are too sick to figure out what you need. There is a grain of truth in this, in that a sick person needs counseling and care, but there is no one that can heal you but yourself. The "healer" doesn't heal you. The plants deserve a little more credit, but they don't heal you either. All anyone can do, however skilled or knowledgable they may be, is help you to have the best conditions where your body can heal itself. Not only can you heal yourself, you are the ONLY person who can heal you.

"Plant Spirit Medicine" has some good moments and is worth reading for the voices of various Central and South American healers who speak through it. Cowan's own voice is much less interesting or useful. He may indeed be able to help people as well as he claims he does. I hope so; we need that sort of thing. I'm less than convinced by this book.

Welcome, and all that

2006-10-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

I've always been a Pagan. The world is alive, in every detail, and there is magic all around me. I love this awareness and have found that the rituals and much of the philosophy of Paganism speaks to and enhances that awareness. The practices keep me on my toes and keep me paying attention. The connection to the gods is the most important relationship in my life. Yet, there was no particular path that felt right.

Wicca has become too vague and watered down in the past decade or so, and it doesn't provide all that I'm looking for. I love the ritual style, the poetry, and the magic of it, but it seems to have come ungrounded, if it ever was grounded. I can't find a center to it, and people who call themselves Wiccans can have widely diverging concepts about what their religion is about. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and it's not meant as a bash at Wicca, but as a path for me it's not satisfying. I'm sure there are niches within Wicca that would fit me well, but I don't know what they are or how to find them, because the term is so vague. The Wiccans I have met have been, for the most part, wonderful people, but even they seemed really uncertain as to what they were doing and why they were doing it.

I found, and rejected, the Druid path years ago. In theory, it seemed ideal for me - more strongly and explicitly nature-based than Wicca, rooted in a tradition of scholarship, with a background of Celtic mythology and that dreamy, misty Celtic way of thinking. I went to a few Druid rituals, all put on by ADF groups, and found them to be the most ponderous, deadly dull rituals I had ever attended. If it's all about standing around listening to Mr./Ms. High Mucky-Muck talk, then it ain't ritual, no matter how many people are wearing robes or how nice the altar looks, and that's all this was. The Druids I met were mostly porky bearded guys who tried to impress me with their (bad) scholarship. There seemed to be no connection with the Divine, just a bunch of people in robes standing around repeating things that they'd read in books. It was like the SCA with all the fun parts sucked out. So I said "meh" to Druidism and moved on.

I've focused on the Greek pantheon over the years because they are part of a culture that is at the root of our civilization. Neo-Platonic thoughts informs so much of modern Pagan practice that it seemed important to me, and still does, to learn about that tradition. There's still more to learn - one does not "finish" Neo-Platonism - but all that Hermetic stuff seemed so disconnected from the Earth, what drew me to Paganism in the first place. When I think of the Gods, I think of the smell of moss and damp earth and leaves on the forest floor. I want my religious philosophy to reflect that.

A few months ago, the Celtic deities showed up in my life with a thundering force I don't quite understand. After years of paying no attention to them and having very little interest in them, suddenly I can't get enough of Celtic stories and writing. The Celtic gods, particularly Lugh, are suddenly present for me in a way I don't understand but can't ignore. My way of dealing with this sort of thing is by reading everything I can about it, so all of my reading lately (with the exception of the occasional Terry Pratchett novel) has been about the old Celtic stories. I also started looking into Druidry again, and finding that things have grown since the last time I checked it out. One of the books I read recently was this one, and I was delighted to find a philosophy of religion similar enough to mine that I decided to, finally, after all these years, join an organization and give my path work a name. So, I'm a student of Druidry now. Imagine that.

I started this blog to give myself a place to write about my AODA work that could be shared. Much of the work I'll be doing is private and won't be shared, but I want one place that I can send people to and say "Here. Read this, this is what I've been up to."

So, hi, welcome, and all that.