Every now and then I like to take pictures of my altar space, so I have a record of how it’s shifted and changed over the years. I took some today, after a FB friend asked for altar snapshots, and I thought they’d be fun to share here.
Archive for the ‘General Things’ Category
Some Altar Pictures
Posted in General Things, tagged ADF, altar, cosmos sigil, Druidry, fire well and tree, paganism, shrine on January 18, 2021| 2 Comments »
This Is a Prayer for Lughnasadh. This Is a Prayer for Resistance.
Posted in General Things on August 1, 2020| Leave a Comment »
This is a prayer for Lughnasadh. This is a prayer for the Resistance. Lughnasadh is a fire festival, the first harvest, the beginning of our look towards the dark. Lughnasadh is the time of plenty, the time to gather in, the time to store what we have. Lughnasadh is a prayer for the Resistance.
This is a prayer for hopeful people who plant saved seeds in the chilly ground, in the February dark, charging the seeds and calling Ceres — people who want a clean harvest. This is a prayer for the Resistance.
This is a prayer for mothers bearing children, poets birthing poems, engineers who see how to strengthen a bridge. This is a prayer for the Resistance.
Lughnasadh is a fire festival, the first harvest, the beginning of our look towards the dark. Lughnasadh is the time of plenty, the time to gather in, the time to store…
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People as Things
Posted in General Things on March 25, 2020| Leave a Comment »
“…And that’s what your holy men discuss, is it?” [asked Granny Weatherwax.]
“Not usually. There is a very interesting debate raging at the moment on the nature of sin. for example.” [answered Mightily Oats.]
“And what do they think? Against it, are they?”
“It’s not as simple as that. It’s not a black and white issue. There are so many shades of gray.”
“Nope.”
“Pardon?”
“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.”
“It’s a lot more complicated than that–”
“No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.”
“Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes–”
“But they starts with thinking about people as things…”
–from Carpe Jugulum, by Terry Pratchett.
On Being a Cog
Posted in General Things on February 2, 2020| Leave a Comment »
I love this – especially the idea that while you may not be able to change the verbs in your life, you can change the adverbs. Great read for our troubled times.
Often we look at what is going on around us and we get overwhelmed at these huge systems that need so much fixing. We tend to take a stance in our language as though they are broken machines on a table in front of us needing to be fixed, or else these engulfing mechanisms in which we are trapped, whirring to some other purpose than our own. These two perspectives often feed each other. We look at them as though we are outside them, then we carry that sense of disempowerment back into them and get caught up in the narrative of being a cog in the machine (or whatever story most speaks to us in that context).
But we ARE embedded in them, not as mechanical parts but as persons with agency in relationship with other persons with agency*. So instead, let’s change the language and thus the story…
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Little Druid on the Prairie
Posted in General Things on February 2, 2020| 2 Comments »
I’ve done some updates to the site, including grabbing a domain for it. (You can now access my site at prairiedruid.com) Since I’m getting ready to move, there will be a good bit here about me changing my practice with the land, and saying goodbye to Houston and the Bayou Woman and the places I’ve spent the last 15+ years getting to know.
I’m excited about this new venture in my life, but will be sad to see my work with the waterways change and go away. There IS water in North Texas, but it’s mostly in creeks and lakes – it’s not the perpetually ebbing and flowing waters for the bayous. It will be a whole new landbase for me to learn and get to know, and that is both exciting and daunting.
I’ve lived in North Texas before (I moved to the DFW area when I was 12, and lived there until I moved to college in Waco at 18), but I wasn’t pagan then, so it’ll be a renewal of things and something that I’ll get to explore.
I won’t be leaving my druid practice behind – but I’m absolutely adding “witch” and “polytheist” to the list of things that will get talked about on this site. Because I am those things as well, and my practice will be expanding as I have more space from not being a full-time grove leader anymore. I will miss Nine Waves – I’ve spent every Friday night (almost) of the last seven years preparing and leading that group. But I am also looking forward to a break.
One thing I’m considering is doing some teaching via Zoom conferences – these will be seminars based on things I’ve done in ADF and beyond, and would be open to anyone who wants to join. (I might offer a donation basket, but at this time do not intend to charge for basic stuff. I reserve the right to change my mind about that.)
It’s an exciting time for me, and also one of very mixed emotions. But the renewal of my practice has already begun, and that is something I am very much relieved and refreshed by.
This Is a Prayer for Imbolc. This Is a Prayer for Resistance.
Posted in General Things on February 2, 2020| Leave a Comment »
This is beautiful, powerful – it resonates like fire and flood, like wind and darkness.
This is a prayer for Imbolc.
This is a prayer for when roads flood.
This is a prayer for the lingering dark.
This is a prayer for resistance.
We spark the fires to beg the light to return, but we never really know if it will work. The road may flood; this could be the year it all falls apart. The February rains may be too much. We fire up the forge to bend hard metal to our will, but we never really know if it will work. The road may flood; this could be the year that it all falls apart. The February rains may be too much. We write the poem to express what’s inside, but we never really know if it will work. The road may flood; this could be the year it all falls apart. The February rains may be too much.
Imbolc is a chance…
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Endings and Beginnings
Posted in ADF, General Things, priesthood on January 26, 2020| 4 Comments »
I started this blog back in 2012, and I really didn’t know where it was going to take me. I was newly started on the path of an ADF druid, and wanted to chronicle a year of study. It’s turned into much more than that over the last eight years, and there’s a wealth of information here that I hope I will always have access to. It’s humbling to go back to your beginnings, especially once you’re in a more established practice, with a lot of learning under your belt.
That said, my time as the Druid in the Swamp is coming to a close. I am moving about 300 miles north in May, to a small city in “North Texas” (not really Dallas Ft Worth but sort of). I will no longer live in the swamp – I will be living in the biome known as blackland prairie.
Nine Waves Grove is also coming to an end with my leaving. We do not have the requisite number of people to maintain our 501(c)3 status with the government or with ADF (though our rituals are very well attended). So at the end of April, Nine Waves will close its doors, something I consider a roaring success.
What is to become of my personal path though? I am still a druid – but druidry and priesthood are different things to different people, and I’m growing and changing as I contemplate moving somewhere that I will be a participant and co-religionist rather than “Senior Druid” or even “Grove Priest”.
I won’t be deleting this blog, certainly, but I might be creating a new one. It seems silly to continue to identify as the Druid in the Swamp when I’ll be doing druidry and witchcraft and polytheism differently, and when I won’t live in the swamp anymore.
I’d love to hear what your thoughts on this process might be. Should I rename the blog? Keep it and archive it with a farewell to this chapter in my life and start something new? I don’t have much of a readership, so it’s not like I’ll lose people, and I can always put a link to the new blog here if that’s what I decide to do.
Shoot me your comments – I’m really at a loss for how to handle this.
Prayer a Day – Week 1
Posted in General Things, Poetry, Prayer, tagged ADF, Druidry, jan avende, paganism, poetry, prayer, prayer a day, prayeraday, praying, priesthood on November 8, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Every year, ADF priests and others get together to celebrate the month of November by writing a prayer a day. Started by Rev. Jan Avende, this year marks the third year of this prayer-writing festival, and is something I look forward to doing each year.
Things are a little tough for me right now, so I expect a lot of my prayers will reflect that, and also this year I was out of town from Nov 1- Nov 4, so I’m one prayer behind still (today’s the 8th and I’ve published 7 prayers).
But here are the first week of prayer images for this year’s Prayer A Day. I hope you enjoy them. Feel free to share, but please leave the attributions on the images, or attribute the written text to Rev. Lauren Mart, ADF.
Enjoy!
*****
An Airport Prayer –
Liminal spirits of the airport, hear this prayer of mine. I make you this offering that my flight may be on time, my seatmates pleasant, and my phone battery not run out. And should I be delayed, I pray for patience and calm, that I may make it home today.
A Daylight Saving Time Prayer
I say this prayer to ease the transition from one time to the next. The clocks have fallen back and the streetlights come on early. May we all ease into this time of transition and find respite in the ever shortening days.
A Day of Rest Prayer
For the beauty of a day of rest, away from the chaos and noise of the wider world, I thank you today, oh spirits. May I care for myself today, that in the coming days I may rejoin the world with a fighting spirit and a hunger for what is just and true and right.
A Prayer for Election Day
To the three sisters whose spirits guide our country, today we pray. Hail Liberty; Hail Columbia; Hail Justice. May we each make our voices heard. May our votes ring out like the sound of many beating wings; the sound of freedom, lifting us to fulfill the dreams we have for our country and our fellow citizens. May we, today, speak truth to power – truth that does not need to yell for it to resound through the halls of government like the strike of a bell. May we always seek to lift up what is true. what is just, what is right, and what is honorable. To you we pray, Liberty, Columbia, Justice, for the future of our nation and all nations.
A Prayer for Election Night
Tonight, as the world rages around us, spun up into a froth about so many (important) things, let me remember to breathe. Let me make tea and drink it, allowing only space for myself and the tea, that I may find my center. And then tomorrow, let me go back to work, no matter the outcome of tonight. Let there be stillness. Let there be peace. And then, from the stillness, let us move in the direction of justice.
A Cold Front Prayer
Oh Winter Winds, whose arrival is heralded this day by the sounds of far away thunder, come to visit my city. Bring your chill that we may know the blessings of warmth, bring your rain that we may be renewed, bring your darkness that we may appreciate the light. As you blow cold through my city, turning leaves to amber and gold, I welcome you, first winds of winter. May you renew us over these next months, that we may appreciate the spring.
A Prayer for Loneliness
May my loneliness be transformed to solitude
May my suffering be transformed to compassion
May the experiences which have changed me help me to become whole
May I know peace, and wisdom, and clarity of mind
Oh spirits, I place all these things as offerings
Lauren Mart – NOD Candidate Video 2018
Posted in ADF, General Things, tagged ADF, election 2018, Mother Grove, Non-Officer Director on March 14, 2018| Leave a Comment »
In the vein of several other excellent videos, I’ve made a brief ballot introduction about me, who I am, and how I approach this whole Non Officer Director thing that I’m running for. It’s about 3 minutes, and as always, if you have any questions you know where to find me!
And remember, voting starts tomorrow, so be ready to make your voice heard!
Little Druid on the Prairie 