Hurricane Irene

  So I am sitting here preparing to head out to Connecticut's pagan pride day, a great event that I think it's important to support. This year I am teaching a couple workshops at PPD as well as helping out by making posters of four of the neopagan wheel of the year holidays and an intro to Druidism poster. And you can't even imagine how hard it is to try to describe what Druidism is in a single poster, especially in a fair and objective manner, but that can wait for another blog...as I'm sitting here getting ready to head out in the back of my mind I'm thinking about Irene, the hurricane that's headed my way.
  We haven't had a hurricane (that amounts to anything) hit here since 1992, I think, with Hurricane Bob. In a practical sense I have bought supplies - water, batteries, non-perishable food - and come up with a Plan. Actually, being me, I have several Plans in a real practical sense of what I can do to keep myself and my family safe. I have done everything magically that I know how to ward and protect my home and strengthen what I already had in place. But still, I keep looking up at the large White Oaks that tower around my house and thinking that it won't hurt to appeal to powers beyond myself to help out here.
  This may be one of the few instances were my spiritual worlds collide, because I am making offerings to both sides of the aisle, as it were. I am asking Odin, who I often see as the Storm Rider, and Thor, God of Thunder, to ward the area of my home. I am asking Manannan to let the ocean be gentle here. And, of course, I am asking Macha to ward my home and family because I tend to ask either her or Odin, as the two I am dedicated to, for aid any time things get very serious. This time I don't think it's going to hurt to ask everybody....and of course I am asking the spirits of the land here to work with me in protecting my home and I am calling on my ancestors. My father especially has been very much in my mind with all of this; my whole childhood he used to spend each hurricane season with a dry erase map plotting the courses of each storm...
   At this point I feel as prepared as I can be, mundanely and spiritually, for this storm. It makes me wonder though for my other esoteric friends out there in Irene's path - are you doing anything "extra" to preapre for the storm?

‎"Ní chaitheann an chaint an t-éadach."

‎"Ní chaitheann an chaint an t-éadach."
The talk doesn't wear the clothes.
 - Traditional Irish proverb

  I've talked a lot about community, what it is for pagans and recons, how we build it and define it. One thing I haven't talked about yet is how the individual fits into the community structure and that's something I've been thinking about a lot lately, between different online interactions and preparations for Pagan Pride Day this weekend. I think there is often a perception of community as an entitlement; if you are pagan and a group is pagan then somehow acceptance should be immediate. This is not the reality and yet inevitably when friction arises individuals rarely seem to look at themselves and their own actions but they point to the group as flawed. Maybe it's just me, because both CR and heathenry put a lot of emphasis on personal honor and responsibility, but when I have an issue with a community the first thing I do is review my own actions. What did I do that contributed to the situation? Could I have responded differently? Should I have? Sometimes I realize I was wrong in my actions or words and I apologize. Sometimes I realize that I would do it all the same. So it baffles me to see people enter a group, or in a group, who plow head on into a controversy - or create one - and then blame the group at large without ever acknowledging their own part. American culture is very individualized, so maybe it is that constant tension between wanting to fit into a group but also wanting to stand out as an individual. Maybe it is a lack of social skills by people who have been marginalized all their lives and expect the neopagan community to be a Utopian solution for all of their alienation.
   Another aspect of this that I've been thinking about, especially in relation to online communities is what inspired me to start with the quote that begins this blog.  The talk doesn't wear the clothes. It is so easy online to say things that are exaggerations at best and lies at worst. Some times it's simply people exaggerating their experience or activities, but other times it's the actual invention of events and titles that never existed. People talk a good game but in the end that talk always shows itself as empty, because there is no real substance to it. It's a dangerous game pretending to be who we aren't and sometimes that results in situations that cause fractures in the community. Of course there are also people whose talk doens't reflect reality because they just aren't in touch with the reality the rest of us operate in. I mentioned this in my blog on discernment, but I personally never trust anyone who can't back up claims with outside sources; if you say you run a group I should be able to talk to other people in the group. If you say you wrote a book I should be able to find a copy of it. If you say you are the ordained grand high poobah of whatever there should be someone to confirm that. I'm Irish and I love a good brag, but without substance talk has no value. Without action words are just words. I actually have a lot more respect for the quiet ones who I know do a lot but don't talk much about it, because I know they do it. People who go around internet groups talking about cursing other people who disagree with them on the group, or challenging them to physical fights, amuse me to no end. Talk, talk, talk - no substance.
   The talk doesn't wear the clothes - if we want to have anything worth talking about we have to actively live our spirituality. Our lives need to be a reflection of our values and and our words should reflect our lives, not a fantasy of imagined deeds and actions. When we look at our words we should ask ourselves if they are a true representation of ourselves. Are we proud to have said them? Do we wish we hadn't?
   Who wears your clothes - your actions or your talk?

Book review - The 21 Lessons of Merlin

I've decided to dedicate Monday's blog to book reviews. These will be fairly short and to the point, and try to focus on books relating to CR Paganism, Druidism, and Heathenry.
  To start, here is a basic book review of the (notorious) 21 Lessons of Merlin  by Douglas Monroe:
   21 Lessons is allegedly based on the secret teachings of Merlin, as revealed through the Welsh Book of Pheryllt; however this is nothing but a ploy to draw the reader in - the Book of Pheryllt is a well known forgery and there aren't any existing "ancient" lessons of Merlin. Rather the author seems to use these claims to set up his own authenticity as a teacher of true ancient Druidry while actually inventing a system almost whole cloth. I say almost because the author does include at least one "ancient" chant stolen from the 1981 movie Excalibur; anyone familiar with the movie should recognize it right away.
   I found this book was not worth reading as well because it was poorly researched and is full of historical inaccuracies and anachronisms. There is little to no actual Celtic mythology or material in the book at all, which is clearly a problem. Monroe at various points asserts that the ancient Druids were vegetarians and that Easter was a Druidic festival to the Goddess Ishtar, neither of which is either true or even possible. He mentions pumpkins as if they were a native European plant when they aren't and also talks about using pumpkin flowers at Samhain, long after the plant has stopped flowering. Worse than all of that though is Monroe's deep-seated misogyny which is displayed throughout the book. For example in 21 Lessons the Druids are divided by gender based on the theory that men generate magical power but women can only gain it by taking it from a man, something that not only makes no sense but goes against basic Celtic cosmology which says that all beings have their own power and which tends to see women as specifically holding the keys to sovereignty and the power of the land.
   It may well have spiritual value for some people - as does The Mists of Avalon, another Arthurian novel - but it loses credibility with me for trying to pass itself off as nonfiction. The argument put forth by some supporters of the book that anyone who criticizes it is not enlightened enough to truly understand it is typical of books that can't back up what they claim - since there is no "ancient" document or tradition of Merlin's lessons, which are entirely the author's invention, the only possible defense is to denigrate the spirituality of the books detractors.  It might have been alright as an Arthurian novel except for the fact that by passing itself of as legitimate "ancient Druid" teachings I feel that it is actually hurting modern Druidry and Celtic spirituality by misleading people who are new to the spirituality. This book, in fact, has little to do with any actual ancient Druidry and even less to do with modern Druidry, and is worth reading only as a poorly written novel.
     If you like Arthurian fiction I'd recommend the The Mists of Avalon series and for studies on ancient Druidry try Hutton's the The Druids or his Blood and Mistletoe or Markale's  The Druids: Celtic Priests of Nature. For modern Druidry Brendan Meyers' Mysteries of Druidry, Bonewit's Bonewits's Essential Guide to Druidism or Carr-Gomm's Druid Mysteries: Ancient Wisdom for the 21st Century would be a good start.

Living reconstruction

I've been talking lately with a couple friends about recon. and, in the course of the conversation, we end up sharing stories of past experiences. Somehow the conversation had turned to the way that people often misunderstand what recon. is and the funny and frustrating discussions that result and that got me thinking about how many people really don't understand what recon. is all about. So the following is my attempt to clarify a couple things and my own impression of what reconstructionist religions are.
   First off many people seem to think that being a recon. means trying to live like or have the spirituality of an ancient culture - sorry, no. Reconstruction is about learning as much as we can about what the anceint culture was like and what the religion was like in order to bring the core of it forward in a workable modern way. We are not trying to bring ourselves back or create a backwards looking religion, rather we want to envision what that anceint paganism would have grown into had it not been interupted. By researching and using archaeology, anthropology, history, mythology, and linguistics we can gain a better understanding of the beliefs and practices that existed thousands of years ago and find the best ways to bring that forward in a viable modern way.
  Secondly reconstructionism is not a static faith; it is not only about picking out bits and pieces of old pagan practices to use. Achieving a thorough grounding in the ancient culture and the principles of modern recon. allows people to then create new material in the spirit of the old material; songs, poems, invocations, rituals, and all the other essentials. No religion can survive long if it is not living and growing and that is equally true of recon. Now it is true that new material has to be in line with the old, because part of recon is not introducing foreign elements, but the world we live in today is very different from the world thousands of years ago - if we can't create a religion that is modern and that is adapted for the modern world, then really, what's the point?
   So to me recon is a viable modern faith that is rooted in an ancient pagan faith, brought forward as we envision it if it had never stopped being practiced. Each individual and every group will have their own ideas on what that would look like depending on their own views and interpretations of the available material, creating a very similar situation to what it was like back then when each tribe had it's own particular ways within the larger culture. Nonetheless we all share a common goal and a common vision that should hold us together as a community. We keep the core cultural values, the main religious practices and beliefs, and we use critical thinking and inspiration, along with a deep understanding of the historical culture, to adapt the surviving material and to create new material in the spirit of the old. Because recon. is not just about the book-knowledge or the research - it's about actively living the spirituality we find there.

Leaping off the edge...

   I'm taking a break from the more spiritual discussion topics and going personal today.
   I've always been a very self-sufficient person. I pretty much took care of myself from about age 12 on, and I knew that if I didn't no one else would, at least not consistently. I had what you might call a difficult childhood that way, but it made me a strong person. I moved out of my parents house when I was 18 and was married by 19, working 3 part time jobs and handling all the messy details of life like finances and groceries - because you know the old joke about drummers right? (What do you call a drummer that breaks up with his girlfriend? Homeless.) I started babysitting for pay at 12 and had my first "real" job at 16, and in my adult life I have rarely worked less than 2 jobs at once, even after having children. I've always been the one who did what needed to be done...
  Yesterday I quit my job, gave up my nice weekly paycheck, and I'm kind of terrified about that. I worry about what will happen, how we will manage. Although I will be picking up what I can doing tarot, rune, and assorted card readings, teaching esoteric classes, and helping out at my friend's store this is the first time since I was 16 I haven't had a set income. So, why did I do it?
  I took a leap of faith, with every logical ounce of my being screaming the whole way. I did it because my youngest daughter, who is 3 years old, has several chronic health problems and it has gotten to the point where doing what I need to for her and giving my job a 100% was impossible. And when it comes down to it no matter how scary this is for me, no matter how much I worry about what will come tomorrow, I promised myself when she was a baby that I would do whatever I could to make her life one that is defined by possibilities and not limitations. I made a choice to put what I feel is best for her in front of the security that has been the focus of much of my life so far, because I love my children more than I love my own desire for security. Did I do the right thing? I don't know. It will mean changes for the entire family and that certainly brings up the very Star Trek debate of whether the good of the one should outweigh the good of the many. But in my heart I feel I made the right choice and now I can only have faith that somehow it will all work out, even though it goes against my nature to step blindly over that precipice.
    I'm usually the one with the map, backpack full of supplies for every possible eventuality, compass, and 12 emergency back-up plans....but not anymore. Now I am leaping into the unknown. And we shall have to wait and see what happens.

Familiars and why I don't believe in them

This is from a response I wrote to a question on an email group.
 
     Do Wiccans and neopagan witches have familiars? It really depends on who you ask. There are plenty of people that will say that a familiar is an animal who is bonded in some way with the witch and that helps them with their magic. Familiars are often beloved pets, are said to choose the witch, and seem drawn to magical workings (http://www.netplaces.com/wicca-witchcraft/the-animal-kingdom/familiars.htm). It seems like everyone has a familiar these days and people will talk about theirs with little reason to - and show pictures. New witches will wring their hands and worry about why they don't have one and how to get one, and be offered sage advice from those who do claim to have them. Familiars are a hot commodity.
    In all honesty I am in the other camp, which is the minority; I do not believe that familiars exist in the sense of pets we bond with. The idea of familiars is medieval, based on accusations that "witches" were assigned a demon to serve them and that this demon took the form of a common animal to blend in - the word familiar itself is shortened from familiar spirit, as in "she hath a familiar spirit". Obviously since Wiccans don't make pacts with the Christian Devil or work with demons they don't have familiar spirits, ergo no familiars. There is a secondary approach that views familiars as faeries that attach themselves in animal form to specific people, especially those who practice cunning craft or are closely allied with the Fey, but this concept is not as well known or widespread and would apply on in very specific cases. In either case the historic views of what a familiar was are not often understood in a modern context.
    The modern idea tends to focus on familiars as closely bonded pets who are sensitive to magic workings, but historically a familiar would actually be used for a variety of magical purposes such as carrying messages, enhancing magic, delivering spells to their targets etc.,, effectively making the animal a source of magical energy and an energetic servant. How many of us actually want to use our beloved pet as a magical battery? Others will argue that a familiar is an animal that is not a normal animal but has a special spirit, sometimes even the spirit of a person or guide within it. Do you really want to believe your cat is possessed or overshadowed by a secondary spirit? Because the alternative is to believe that the spirit has permanently bound itself into flesh for the lifetime of the animal which is very limiting to the spirit and would reduce its ability to effectively guide you.
    To me it seems like some people who are very very close to a particular pet choose to view that pet as a "familiar" because it sounds special and important, not because the pet is actually serving the traditional role of a familiar. I would not want my cats to "serve" me magically, or to be possessed, or to be anything but happy kitties living happy kitty lives; maybe that's my bais showing ; )  I do think there may be certain cases where an animal actually is a familiar or at the least is bonded to the person in a way that is genuinely unusual, but I think these cases are far less common than the ones that are just pets. And there's nothing wrong with that. I can love my pets as they are without needing them to be anything but pets.

Bibliography:

Davies, O., (2003). Cunning-Folk: Popular Magic in English History. London: Hambledon Continuum.    

Thomas, K., (1973). Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England. London: Penguin. 

Wilby, E., (2005). Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits: Shamanistic Visionary Traditions in Early Modern British Witchcraft and Magic. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press. 

Massello, R., (1996). Raising Hell: A Concise History of the Black Arts and Those Who Dared to Practice Them. Perigee Trade

the dream of pagan unity and why it's so hard to achieve, part 2

This is a reprint of the second half of an article I published on witchvox in February 2011 http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=&c=words&id=14414, but it still seems appropriate...

    As a group pagans need to stop nitpicking each other; if another tradition has a different way of doing things that you disagree with on purely theological or personal grounds let it go. If it's not your group, why do you really care how they are doing things? If a group is engaging in dangerous, illegal, or manipulative practices thats a whole different issue, but differences in approach shouldn't matter. We waste way too much energy fighting over how other people do things, instead of looking for the common ground.

   So I asked if pagan unity can be achieved, and I think the answer is yes, and no. Yes we can unite as a larger group if we find a way to put aside the differences that can be put aside, like letting go of the ideas that any one particular way is "the" way, or the tradition. As soon as people start saying that they are the "true" witches (heathens/druids/etc.,) they have set up a rigid dichotomy of us against them and if you aren't with them then you aren't "real" and therefore aren't legitimate, and that attitude has to go right from the start. I may not agree with someone, I may even hate everything about what they do and how they do it, but that doesn't make them less "real". Of course acknowledging that they are really pagan, or whatever they are identifying as, does not mean that anything they are saying is true or accurate. (There is also a deeper argument about people claiming to be part of initiatory traditions when they aren't - that isn't what I'm talking about here, I simply mean the broad labels like witch, or heathen or pagan that are largely matters of self-identification). The flip side of that coin, and this is where the "no" part of the asnwer comes in, is that some things can never be compromised and we as a community need to stop acting as if anyone calling themselves pagan is automatically a good person. People are people no matter what their faith and some pagans are good people and others are pretty crappy people, just like everyone else. It's okay for us to say, "no I won't be associated with that person" if the reason is legitimate and we have really looked at whether we can compromise on this, but that means that true complete unity will never be possible because there will always be people identifying as pagans who contribute nothing but dissention to the community. There are online "trolls" and there are real life ones, there are mentally unstable people, there are pedophiles and violent people, and there always will be and these are issues that the community will always have to contend with. Being pagan does not mean that all the bad in the world and in people just disappears, but we can acknowledge this fact and deal with it. So unity is a utopian idea, but building a strong ecumenical community isn't. That dream could be possible.
    
   Building a larger community depends on putting aside the little things like personality conflict, pride, and mistrust of other traditions, and embracing the things we have in common. It means working together to build a larger sense of community, not to homogenize all the traditions into one; it's our diversity that makes us such an interesting group. Pagan community can be built and made strong, but not without real effort and soul searching from all of us - and that's why it remains a dream and not a reality.

the dream of pagan unity and why it's so hard to achieve, part 1

This is a reprint of the first half of an article I published on witchvox in February 2011 http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=&c=words&id=14414, but it still seems appropriate...the second half will be posted here on thursday.

I've been thinking a lot lately about ecumenism among Pagan groups; maybe its the recent flurry of Pagan Pride Day planning, maybe its the common refrain that so many people love to sing about wanting the community to all get along. Either way it's been on my mind a lot, because it seems like, if everyone who wants unity among the various groups meant what they said, then we would already have it; yet as a community we are divided in many different ways.

Some people are limited by their own views of those outside of their particular group or tradition, some are stuck in old feuds or in personality conflicts, and some are simply stuck in the idea that their way is the only "real" way. So how do we overcome this? It seems easy enough, if we could only get everyone to acknowledge their own hang-ups and issues with unity we could all pull together - but realistically can it be done? Should it be done? Are there compromises that simply should not be made, not even for so often dreamed of a goal as this one?

When I started writing this I began by thinking of my own biggest block, a particular local leader that I have a small laundry list of issues with. And I asked myself, can I let these go? Some of them, I can answer yes for even though it would take effort. I am capable of letting the past go if I really put some energy into it, especially when he never did me, personally, any direct harm. It wouldn't be easy but it could be done; however if I am honest with myself there are other issues as well that I don't know if I could move past, ongoing things relating to integrity, truth in teaching - or I should say deception in teaching - and intentional perpetuation of ignorance that touch on areas where I have a much harder time looking the other way. And the bottom line of all this soul searching is that even when I try to put my personal feelings for this person aside, I am still left in a place where I do not want to be associated with him in any way.

How do we build community unity from that? And there is no other way; unity is not the same as tolerance. To be united as a community we must all stand together, and that is more than problematic when - in my own case - I have to always fight the urge to speak out against this person. How do we let go of the desire to let personal conflict and dislike interfere? How do we embrace community members that we simply do not like on a personal level?

How do we define our community? Who is in and who is out? Even within Paganism, in the subgroups of traditions and religions, this is a massive issue. How do we define "us"? We cannot hope to unite as a larger group of Pagans until we figure out who we are as smaller individual groups and that seems an impossible task when every sub-group is fractured by inner disputes. Group self-definition is like the Holy Grail, everyone is searching for it but no one can really find it. Do we include or exclude people convicted of crimes? All crimes, or only some?

Do we push out the snake oil salesman and false prophets that are selling lies while proclaiming it the only "real" Witchcraft/Heathenry/Druidism/etc., or would that very attempt put us on the same level of the more-pagan-than-thou types who cause so much dissention already? We must set boundaries for the safety of the community if nothing else, but how do we decide what those boundaries are and how do we enforce them?

Another Yeats poem for a Monday

THE HOSTING OF THE SIDHE

The host is riding from Knocknarea,
And over the grave of Clooth-na-bare;
Caolte tossing his burning hair,
And Niamh calling, 'Away, come away;
Empty your heart of its mortal dream.
The winds awaken, the leaves whirl round,
Our cheeks are pale, our hair is unbound,
Our breasts are heaving, our eyes are a-gleam,
Our arms are waving, our lips are apart,
And if any gaze on our rushing band,
We come between him and the deed of his hand,
We come between him and the hope of his heart.'
The host is rushing 'twixt night and day;
And where is there hope or deed as fair?
Caolte tossing his burning hair,
And Niamh calling, 'Away, come away.'

 W. B. Yeats, 1902, Celtic Twilight

Moon of Blessings

"When I see the new moon,
It becomes me to lift my eyes
It becomes me to bend my knee
It becomes me to bow mt head
 
Giving you praise, you moon of guidance,
That I have seen you again,
That I have seen the new moon,
The lovely leader of the way.

 Many a one has passed beyond
In the time between the two moons,
Though I am still enjoying earth,
You moon of moons and of blessings!"
 
- the Silver Bough

  There is no evidence that the Celts had a particular deity associated with the moon, as far as I have ever seen, but there are many little charms and prayers, like this one form McNeill's Silver Bough, volume 1, that praise the moon and it's blessings. It was traditional in several areas of Scotland and the outer Islands to make certain gestures towards the new moon when it was first seen in the sky each month, as Carmichael notes in volume one of his work,
    "When they first see the new moon they make obeisance to it as a great chief. The women curtsey gracefully and the men bow low, raising  their bonnets reverently. The bow of the men is peculiar, partaking somewhat of the curtsey of the women the left knee being bent and the right drawn forward towards the middle of the left leg in a curious but not inelegent manner.
     In Cornwall the people nod to the new moon and turn silver in their pockets. In Edinburgh cultured men and women turn the rings on their fingers and make their wishes. A young English lady told the writer that she had always been in the habit of bowing to the new moon, till she had been bribed out of it by her father, a clergyman, putting money in her pocket lest her lunar worship should compromise him with his Bishop. She naively confessed, however, that among the free mountains of Loch Etive she reverted to the good customs of her fathers, from which she derived great satisfaction!" (Carmichael, pp 123-124, 1900).

     Last night I spotted the first sliver of new moon, breifly as the clouds cleared and then closed in again. I felt my heart lift to see that shining silver crescent hanging there, promising another month of moonlight and I said the prayer from the Silver Bough. I found myself feeling a sort of kinship with my ancestors who must have seen that light each month with the same feeling of promise, felt even more strongly since, without elecrtic lights, they would have relied on the moon far more than we do today. So I prayed and spun my rings on my fingers and I thought about the power of these little things to make me feel connected to my spirituality and to my ancestors. Every month I find myself searching the sky for the new moon until I see it and when I do my heart always lifts at the sight and a little prayer falls from lips, almost of its own accord.
   When people think of bringing back or reconstructing the old pagan ways of different cultures many seem to go automatically to the big things, the seasonal rites, worshipping the Gods, rites of passage, but it is the little things, the daily things, that really matter the most because these are the backbone of living the faith, I think.

References:
Carmichael, M., (1900). Carmina Gadelica. Retrieved from http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/cg1/cg1057.htm
McNeill, F., (1956). The Silver Bough, volume 1. Canongate Classics
    

Community conundrums

   I've been thinking a lot lately of community. How do we define who belongs to our community? Is it as simple as who we like and want to see as our community? Is it anyone who follows tha same spirituality we do? Is it the larger pagan community? Or is it more subtle and complex than this? I don't actually have an answer yet, except that community is a nebulous thing that can include people where I live, people I choose to interact with, people online in groups I choose to belong to, and people with common interests to mine. Doesn't really clarify much, I know, but it's a work in progress.
   I started wondering about this a little while back after someone began trolling a facebook group I was part of. Another person extolled the troll to keep frith on the board and was promptly told that no frith was required on an imaginary group that didn't qualify for any rules of hospitality. Without digressing into a discussion of frith versus grith in situations like that, I thought the situation raised some interesting questions about how we define community and how behave based on our definitions. Both CR and Heathenry view hospitality - both being a good host and a good guest - as an important quality as do many other cultures. Does this only apply when we feel like it does? Can we pick and choose the circumstances were we must be polite, as the facebook troll said? Is it okay to be an obnoxious jerk outside our percieved community because hospitatlity somehow doesn't apply?
   Personally I don't think so. I think that in the world we live in today nothing is as cut and dried as it may have been a thousand or two thousand years ago and our community is a fluid, shifting thing. I have people in my community who hold antithetical religious views, political views, and social views but I still consider them a part of my community and I feel I owe them hospitatlity. I can't use my own religious views as an excuse to act like a jerk and then brush it off with "Oh, well, you aren't really part of my community so I don't owe you anything". Another key aspect of any recon. community, CR or Heathen, is a person's reputation and that is influenced by how someone treats other people inside and outside the community. Hospitality is one part of being an honorable person, in my opinion, and I don't think you can go into a situation with the attitude that it's okay to be dishonorable because the people you are dealing with aren't within your community. Maybe an odd sentiment for someone who is fulltrui with Odin, but that's where I'm at with it right now. The gods have a lot more leeway with some things than people do. Of course if someone else starts it first how you react to it is a different issue, but it's that initial approach, that first defining of what is appropriate based on who is and isn't part of the group that I'm thinking about. It's true that there is a structure to it, especially n Heathenry with it's clear ideas about innangard and utgard, but defining what falls where in a modern context can get very complicated...hence the conundrum....

Beannachtai Lughnasa

Well another Lughnasa has come and gone...
 This year most of my plans for celebrating had to be cancelled due to illness, but I was able to have a nice quiet celebration yesterday with my family. We started off with a nice breakfast of oatmeal and raspberries we picked from our yard and then the girls and I spent the day together while my husband worked. We cleaned the ritual room and re-did the main altar while talking about what Lughnasa was to us. My 3 year old decided it was a time to honor the "Goddess in the earth", while my 7 year old described it as "a really fun harvest time, that's hot, when we get to eat yummy food." I told them stories from Irish mythology: the tale of Macha racing the kings horses, how Tailtiu cleared the plains, the story of when Lugh came to Tara...and we had our own sorts of athletic games, which were far more comical than athletic really, but were very fun nonetheless.
   After my husband arrived back home form work there was music, although his style is far from traditional, and some more general cleaning and re-arranging, before dinner. The main course was roast chicken, fresh veggies from the local farmer's market and oat bread (from the bakery down the street) with honey.  And after all that cooking and good food, the children's favorite part of the meal was the orange frosted sugar cookies we had for dessert. A plate was made up as an offering to the Gods and another for the daione sidhe and later on both were placed outside on the outdoor altar. The ritual itself was private and simple.
   I'm left today reflecting on my own harvest this year, on the things that have gone according to plan and the things that have decidedly not. I always find that Lughnasa ends up being a period of introspection for me, perhaps because I don't have much of a physical harvest in terms of planting and reaping. As I see the world around me ripening and offering up it's abundance to those able to recognize and collect it I can't help but look at the things in my own life that have changed since spring, good and bad, and about what I can harvest.
   Blessed Lughnasa to you all!

the "D" word

  Nothing is more useful in paganism or can cause more confusion than labels, and both of those apply in equal measure to the word "Druid". Labels, of course, serve an important purpose in connecting to people's schema and helping to give an instant understanding of what you're talking about or trying to convey; they create a common ground, although sometimes defintions differ and discussion is required to get on the same page.
  The best words to describe my spirituality are probably págánacht and heathen since the first is specific to Irish recon. and the second is general for an eclectic Norse/Germanic spirituality. I don't mix the two together but rather follow them both seperately; four holidays for one, four for the other and I am dedicated to a deity in each pantheon. Maybe not the ideal solution in some people's eyes but it works for me. I like having nice single words to use as descriptors in a conversation because sometimes precision is a virtue. When I'm asked what my religion is or what path I follow and my answer is a paragraph long explanation it tends to put people off, but a nice simple answer can open up further conversation and a more detailed follow up explanation. So instead of starting off with "I'm an Irish recon. and heathen who practices witchcraft." I generally tell people I am a Druid.
   Druid is a highly controversial term in CR because many people feel the old Druids are dead and gone beyond being brought back. They were the educated class of their society, the doctors, lawyers, advisors, priests, seers, and elite musicians, so there is some weight to the argument that re-creating them as they were is impossible. In modern usage the word has come to denote a practitioner of a religion, Druidism, although I personally don't see it as describing a religion but as a title for a position within a religion, like priestess or imam. That's what it was always supposed to mean, and it was only after the Druids were seperated from Celtic paganism during the revival period in the 18th century (to allow Christians to be "Druids") that it took on an -ism of it's own. Or an -ry depending on your viewpoint. I think those of us trying to reconstruct Celtic paganism should include the clergy (not everyone agrees with me) and go bcak more to the old model of Druids and lay people all practicing Celtic polytheism, but it may be that too much time has passed with Druidism being it's own religion for that to ever happen. Things change and evolve...and that may be a whole other blog post topic.
   So, having said that, why do I use the word Druid? Why call myself a Druid when I practice Irish recon. and I know how controversial the word is? It would certainly be easier in some contexts not to call myself a Druid. Part of the answer is that I feel that it is the best word *I know* to describe what I do in a public setting, as someone who acts as clergy to a larger community. Part of the answer is that I belong to a Druid Order and have earned the title through that Order. And it is the single word that best encompasses what I do and believe, even with the misconceptions and vagueness around the term, to use when talking to someone who is not a reconstructionist. Realistically most of the people I talk to about religion have no idea what reconstructionism is, but everyone has some idea of what a Druid is. It gives me something to work with, a place to start and build on. So I use it because it does describe who I am and what I do and because it is an effective way to talk about my spirituality. Controversy and all.