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Posts Tagged ‘Druidry’

Arbor Day for Imbolc?

Posted in Druid In This Place, tagged , , , , , , on February 7, 2013| 1 Comment »

One of the things about living in the south (Zone 9) is that things that normally happen in late spring happen a whole lot earlier on the calendar here. Traditionally, Arbor Day is celebrated the last Friday in April (April 26 in 2013). In most of Texas though, and especially down here in the swamp, if you plant a tree that late, it will fry in the summer sun.

So around here we had Arbor Day instead of Groundhog Day. The city’s tree care organization came to our neighborhood last Saturday, and for February 2nd, I went and helped a group of volunteers plant about 100 trees. It felt like the perfect celebration of Imbolc, in a way, since the “first stirrings of spring” here mean the first inklings of how warm it’s going to get!

Planting the trees now ensures that they’ll have plenty of time to get over transplant shock before it gets hot, and the community association will still need to water them periodically over the summer to help them withstand the heat. These are native trees though, so once they get established they will live a long time. The ones we were planting were mostly to replace trees that had been lost in the severe droughts the last few summers.

A pagan friend and I went as a tree-planting-team, and we had a lot of fun. It was 75 degrees and brightly sunny, and really a perfect way for me to celebrate the coming of spring. I said a little blessing for each tree as we planted it, and I’ve also said a general blessing for all of the trees. Together, she and I put six new trees in the ground – a live oak and five pines. They were large and healthy (all taller than I am), and should be off to a good start. I hope that they will thrive in their new homes, and continue to bring shade and beauty to the community spaces in my neighborhood, as well as provide homes for all of the birds that live in the green areas (and the myriad squirrels).

I love that acorns and pine cones are so frequently thought of as symbols of trees, and that there are varieties of oak and pine trees that live in all kinds of diverse places, so I can enjoy these symbols as both part of ADF’s shared mythos and part of my own, local, personal Druidry.

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Ritual Redux: Imbolc/Ewemeolc

Posted in Dedicant Path Essays, Runes, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on February 5, 2013| 10 Comments »

My Imbolc/Ewemeolc ritual was performed on Friday, February 1 at 5:00 pm, just after I’d gotten home from work. This was a solitary ADF style rite, following the full CoOR. Using the published ritual template found here, I honored Nerthus as the Earth Mother and Heimdall as the Gatekeeper, and Frigga was the primary patron of the rite, as Queen of the Hearth. I may not use this association in the future, but it’s the one that seemed to fit as I was writing the ritual. I brought the following offerings:

  • Cornmeal for the Earth Mother
  • Milk for the Outdwellers, poured out in the back yard
  • Whiskey for Saga and Heimdall
  • Incense and my silver ring for the Fire/Well/Tree
  • A brownie for the Ancestors
  • Oats for the Nature Spirits
  • Whiskey for the Gods and for Frigga, as well as water shared from the pitcher I used for the waters of life

I offered whiskey even though I can’t drink it myself. All the offerings seemed well received, especially the brownie. Apparently my sweet-tooth is hereditary.

This was the first time I’d tried to go directly from “work mode” into “ritual mode” and the transition could have gone more smoothly. I will give myself more time for meditation next time, as I never really settled into the ritual. Also, this particular ritual script, though I like it a lot, was difficult to say at first – lots of alliteration (which is why I like it) was a little tongue-twistery until I settled into the poetic pattern. I’ll definitely use the ritual outline again though, as I liked it a lot – especially the Norse flavor of the poetry.

I felt like opening the gates went particularly well, but I didn’t feel as well-connected to Frigga as I’d hoped in this particular rite. My ease with the CoOR was definitely more apparent though, as I moved through the various steps, easily anticipating what would come next.

One thing I did notice about this particular ritual template was that I spent a lot more time “setting up” than I did actually celebrating the particular reason for the High Day. In the future, I’ll put more into the “celebration” aspect, so that it will feel more balanced. I definitely feel less at home with the Norse celebrations, so I need to do more research into their associations with High Days (or just do standard Neo Pagan celebrations, which I’m much more comfortable with, and give them a Norse flavor).

All the offerings, once made into their various bowls, were spread in my gardens as part of the blessing of the coming spring. My lime tree is in full bloom, so hopefully we’ll have a bumper crop of limes this coming year.

I drew runes for the first time in a long time for this ritual, since I was honoring Frigga, and it seemed appropriate. I received the following when I asked for the blessing:

  • Uruz – Aurochs: strength, dross
  • Nauthiz – Need/Necessity: oppression, lessons learned
  • Inguz – Ing: fertility, ancestors

I’ll admit to being really unfamiliar with this particular divination tool, so the “textbook” keyword meanings don’t mean much yet. I’ve had to do some researching to find deeper meanings, both in the rune poems and in other sources. From the Anglo-Saxon rune poem, I found the following:

Ur
The aurochs is proud and has great horns;
it is a very savage beast and fights with its horns;
a great ranger of the moors, it is a creature of mettle.
Nyd
Trouble is oppressive to the heart;
yet often it proves a source of help and salvation
to the children of men, to everyone who heeds it betimes.
Ing
Ing was first seen by men among the East-Danes,
till, followed by his chariot,
he departed eastwards over the waves.
So the Heardingas named the hero.

I found that just going to the Rune Poems helped a lot with finding a bigger meaning. From this, I get the following impression of the omen.

You will be given strength as you need it to overcome the coming troubles and trials, but that trouble will lead you toward fertility and peace.

This is, honestly, pretty similar to other omens I’ve been drawing on this Dedicant Path – that things are going to be rough at first, but that I just need to stick with it, and I’ll be glad for having made it through. I’m taking the similar omen to mean I’m not done with the troublesome part yet, which seems about right, as I’m still feeling a lot like I’m in the “action” part of “belief follows action”. Still, I am further along than I was, and I know this will take time.

This message is applicable to my personal life right now as well, which I can’t really discuss here.

It’s also a little trite, to be honest. It’s one of those divination messages that could apply to anyone at any time, and maybe that’s because I asked a very generic “What blessings do you give in return” question. As a blessing, it’s somewhat of a positive one, or at least has a positive outcome.

Either that or I’m totally barking up the wrong tree – a possibility that I’m not leaving behind, as almost every divination I’ve done (or had done) regarding ADF has said something about being troublesome and difficult but with a good outcome. We’ll see how the rest of this year goes.

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Virtue Essays: Wisdom

Posted in Dedicant Path Essays, tagged , , , , , on January 29, 2013| 1 Comment »

From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Wisdom:

1:
a : accumulated philosophic or scientific learning : knowledge
b : ability to discern inner qualities and relationships : insight
c : good sense : judgment
d : generally accepted belief <challenges what has become accepted wisdom among many historians — Robert Darnton>

2: a wise attitude, belief, or course of action
3: the teachings of the ancient wise men

From Our Own Druidry (82):

Wisdom: Good judgment, the ability to perceive people and situations correctly, deliberate about, and decide on the correct response

I directly disagree with the first definition of Wisdom from the dictionary, at least as it functions as a virtue. Perhaps it is presumptuous of me, but I see wisdom as distinct from knowledge – though knowledge is certainly necessary to make wise choices, it’s not knowledge itself. The two have very different functions. Knowledge functions to inform, where wisdom functions to discern; knowledge is knowing what to say, and wisdom is knowing how to say it, and whether or not to say it at all.

Perhaps this comes from my experience with roleplaying games, where Wisdom and Intelligence are counted as two separate abilities, and you can be very strong in one without necessarily being strong in the other. I agree with that division, and believe that the ability to understand the truth of a situation can be enhanced by knowledge about it (or knowledge about similar situations), but that ultimately the virtue of wisdom lies in perceiving the immediate truth. As a result, I rather like the definition from Our Own Druidry – particularly the bit about perceiving people and situations correctly. It takes a great deal of wisdom to see the truth in a situation, and to discern what is real and what is not. Many times wisdom is seen in the final outcome of a situation – it looks farther ahead than the immediate part or challenge and strives to see the whole in its entirety.

Practicing wisdom is something I see as crucial to any religious undertaking, especially one as complex as Our Druidry. When working with complex systems and a variety of myths and Gods, it’s important to step back and remember the whole. Also, as a Druid, I seek to embody wisdom in my relationships with others, helping them make wise choices whenever I can (though it is often easier to be wise about someone else’s problems than your own). Applying a discerning, wise eye to my own life is more difficult, and why I strongly agree with practicing wisdom as part of my Druidry.

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Meditation Journal – Week 12

Posted in Dedicant Path Essays, Meditation Journal, tagged , , , , on January 28, 2013| 1 Comment »

Nothing new and exciting to report. I did a 10-15 minute seated meditation three times this week, and found that my focus is getting better again. Also that I tend to focus better when I meditate sitting in front of my altar – which is probably a combination of quiet space, a place that I’m used to doing work, and something about sitting on the floor feeling more “meditation-y”.

Also, this week, one of my cats has decided that he wants to try meditation too. Or rather, he finds my sitting on the floor to be a good excuse to bug me for pats. I’ve had to start locking him out of the room when I want to really focus, though at one point I just made HIM the focus of the meditation and tried to be really in the moment about it. Both approaches worked alright.

I did the full Two Powers meditation once this week as well. I’m getting better at feeling the sky power consistently – aided by the fact that it’s been very warm and sunny this week.

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Rebalancing – Life and Druidry

Posted in General Things, tagged , , , , on January 22, 2013| 2 Comments »

I’m feeling a little off-balance lately, both in my spiritual practice and in my everyday life. Things seem to be right on the edge of teetering out of control, which usually means it’s time for me to really step back and get things back in order. The struggles I’m having with my meditation practice are a pretty good indicator that I’m generally lacking focus as well – which isn’t a surprise, though I hadn’t really thought of using that as a metric before.

I’ve added in a lot of new things to my life in the last few months, and I think I need to do some evaluating of what I want to keep and what I want to let go. Not that I have a really good way of doing that, since I don’t want to overstructure things either.

Basically I’m trying to find the balance between the things that I need to do (cook/eat, work, exercise, sleep) and the things that I want to do (read, play games, do crafts) and figuring out where Druidry fits into that picture. I think it’ll end up somewhere between the two – it’s not a need the same way eating is, but it ranks higher up than knitting. At least in my mind that’s how it should work.

Fortunately it’s easy to build little bits of Druidry into daily life, like my morning devotions in the parking garage, or lighting candles on my “hearth” in the evenings. I need to keep THOSE things in mind (along with blogging!) and let go of some of the bigger desires for lots of ritual and dramatic experiences. I’m kind of a ritual junkie, and I should throw that energy at planning for Imbolc (which I’ve done very little of) instead of dreaming up new rituals and things to work on all the time. I don’t have a lot of time before the Holy Day (next Friday!) so I really do need to find a little focus to work out a ritual script.

Hopefully with a little conscious thought and planning, I can get things back into harmony again. I want my Druidry to integrate rather seamlessly into the rest of my life, and hopefully I can get to that point.

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Tea with the Kindreds

Posted in Kindreds, tagged , , , , , , on January 17, 2013| 5 Comments »

I was talking with my DP Mentor about connections, and she mentioned that another person she knew had done a regular “beer with the Kindreds” devotion. She’d get a beer for Them, and a beer for herself, and sit and drink and talk with Them, and then journal about the experiences.

I loved the idea, so I’m trying my own version. I can’t drink beer (gluten), and mead is hard to find, but I’m a regular tea drinker, so I thought I’d do it with tea instead of beer.

Last night I brewed up a pot of my favorite (non-caffeinated) tea, poured a cup for myself and a cup to set on my altar, and sat to meditate and chat. I was a little worried that the Kindreds would prefer something … er … stronger than tea, but it seems to have been well received (and I suppose I can always put a little whiskey in THEIR cup, even if I don’t drink it myself).

I got a very good feeling from doing it, sort of a warm acceptance (that also made the hair on the back of my neck stand up at first). I didn’t feel alone, though I can’t say for sure which entities exactly showed up. It was definitely a little bit weird at first, and I’m not yet brave enough to talk to Them out loud (since I wasn’t alone in the house). Still I think I managed to create a space for communication. I imagine with time I’ll get better at identifying who I’m talking to as well. I ended up sitting with Them for about half an hour, talking about whatever popped into my head, and making sure I took time to listen as well. I didn’t hear any definite answers though. Maybe that will come with time and practice.

When I was done, I poured out the tea from the altar outside in my garden.

I will definitely do this exercise again, and I think I may combine it with a divination at the end as well. I’ve been wanting to do divination more regularly (I’ve gotten away from a weekly practice), and this seems like a good way to keep that communication line open as well. I’d also like to add invitations to specific God/esses once I get to know some of them better.

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Working on my Ancestors Essay

Posted in Dedicant Path, tagged , , , , , , , on January 15, 2013| 3 Comments »

I’ve been working on the Ancestors essay for the DP, and finding that it’s a little hard for me to work with. I really like the division of Ancestors into different types of kin – from those whom you are actually related to by blood to those you have a spiritual connection to the ancient ones who worshiped in your chosen hearth culture. Even though I’ve had favorable interactions with them in the past, I’m still not sure exactly how I want to bring the Ancestors into my spiritual practice.

Part of this hesitation is that my blood-kin are extremely devout Protestant Christians (like the rest of my family), who would have looked very unfavorably on Druidry in life. I know I should expect that they have a different viewpoint on spiritual things from wherever they are in the afterlife, but I really don’t want to make anyone angry or upset.

At the same time, my great grandmother raised 11 kids on a farm in the Great Depression, and lived to read Peter Rabbit books with me when I was small. She was, by all accounts, a force of nature, and I’d love to have her advice on homemaking and life in general.

I think my first step will be seeing if I can track down some pictures to have with the other family pictures in my house. I don’t have a lot of experience working with the Mighty Dead, but I could sure use some extra wisdom some days.

My family doesn’t spend a lot of time talking about those who have passed away, at least not at this point in time, but I think a lot of that is because my extended family is still relatively intact. My paternal grandparents are still alive, and that’s the part of my family that has the most connection (my mom’s family consisted entirely of my maternal grandmother, who passed away some years ago, so I have no cousins or aunts and uncles to talk with about her). Both sides of my family have done some research into our family history and lineage, but it’s treated very intellectually as opposed to as a way to find family ancestors. I find myself more drawn to the photographs anyway, since I feel like I can actually get a sense of them as actual people as opposed to just names in a book.

As for the other types of ancestors, I have a few people who were mentors and teachers of mine who have since passed on. I truly value the time I spent learning from them, and am very glad I had their friendship. I don’t really have anything I can connect to them easily, though, aside from stories and experiences that I had while I was learning from them. Unfortunately I have no pictures of any of them, either. I’d like to represent them somehow on my altar, but a) it’s cluttered enough already and b) I’m not sure what I would use, since they represent a pretty diverse body of people.

Connecting to the Ancients who also practiced Druidry is something I haven’t explored at all yet, other than naming them in my Samhain ritual as part of the ancestors who were welcomed and honored at that feast. This might be an area where some focused meditation could work out well, or just working to remember them in my rituals.

This particular Kindred seems to include such a wide variety of people and entities. I think that may be why I’m struggling to get my mind around how to honor all of them. I can, of course, lump them together (as will usually happen in a High Day ritual, when one offering will be poured out for the Ancestors specifically), but I think I’d like to make a space for some of them separately as well. If nothing else, I can, when pouring out offerings to the Ancestors, pour out a little to each kind of Ancestor and remember them by type, if not by name. I’d also like to explore how the Norse remembered THEIR Ancestors, since I know they were venerated in that culture. Hopefully with a little more study I can find a balance of things that resonates with me.

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Meditation Journal – Week 10

Posted in Dedicant Path Essays, Meditation Journal, tagged , , , , , , , on January 14, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I’m feeling a little bit of a slow down in my meditation practice, here at the halfway point of my mental discipline requirement (5 months = 20 weeks, more or less). I did a walking meditation early in the week, which didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. On Friday, though, I was sent a link to Andy Puddicombe’s TED talk about meditation and mindfulness that inspired me to get back to my 10 minute sitting meditation practice.

I recommend it highly, as a good introduction to the benefits of meditation. You can see it here.

While this is mindfulness meditation (as opposed to trance meditation or visualization meditation, both of which are more directly related to the practice of Druidry), I got a lot out of renewing the practice as a way to combat stress and difficult mental states, and the mental training is useful for other types of meditation. The ability to focus on the present moment, without distraction, feeds into being able to focus on a visualization or magical intent without distraction as well. Since I frequently deal with difficult mental states, which are (among other things) hindrances to focus and causes of distraction, I really like and benefit from the practice of mindfulness, even in little 10 minute chunks.

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Working with the Two Powers

Posted in Dedicant Path, Meditation Journal, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 10, 2013| Leave a Comment »

There’s been a lot of talk on the Dedicants list about the Two Powers meditation, and eventually I have to write an essay about it, so I figured I’d get some of my thoughts about this particularly ADF style of meditation written down.

I was already very accustomed to the “grounding” and Earth Power part of the Two Powers meditation before I started on this path of Druidry, so getting started with the Two Powers was pretty easy for me. That first connection happened almost without thinking about it, since I was already used to the tree roots imagery for grounding and centering energy.

Connecting to the Sky Power was a little more difficult, but I found that getting outside into the sun really helped. Fortunately, we don’t have too much grey here, even in the winter, so I have been able to actually feel the sun on my face, instead of trying to visualize it. I only had to do that a few times before I could get the visualization down. I’ve always been “solar powered” (which is a good thing to be, if you live in southeast Texas), so I just had to warm up to calling down that power instead of just basking in it like a lizard. (I may have been a lizard in a past life, for as much as I like basking in the sun.)

I love using Ceisiwr Serith’s prayer as the central point of my meditation, when I get both powers fully flowing:

The Waters support and surround me.
The Land extends about me.
The Sky reaches out above me.
At the Center burns a living flame.
(A Book of Pagan Prayer, p. 36-37)

There’s something really centering and powerful about saying that once I get the two powers flowing. It helps me to get a good feel for the mingling of the powers, as opposed to just housing the two currents themselves.

Also, I am looking forward to doing this meditation as an active meditation when I’m putting in my garden, since I’ll be elbow deep in the dirt, but standing in the sun. There’s a very tangible current to the two powers in a garden (or even in a potted plant grown from seeds) – the untapped potential lives in the earth, and is drawn forth and materialized and made orderly by the sun.

Overall I really like this meditation, and I’ve come to do a mini 5 step form of it when I’ve got a few minutes and feel like I need to ground and center at work:

  • relax
  • draw up the Earth Power
  • draw down the Sky Power
  • feel the two currents mingling
  • release

It takes only a minute or two, and it’s a nice desk-visualization. Connecting to the Earth Power is a little hard from the 9th floor, but after a little practice I can usually feel the current in a few breaths. If I was consistent about it, I’d make it a part of my lunch break every day, especially since I bring my lunch, and everyone else in my multi-cubicle goes out most days, so I have the place to myself.

I took to this form of visualization and meditation relatively easily, but I think that’s just a factor of having had a good bit of experience with both visualization and grounding before I came to ADF. This was a new way to experience grounding and centering (particularly the adding in of the Sky Power), but the function is something I was pretty used to doing. I don’t know if I will continue to use it as a daily practice long term, but it does seem to work well for keeping my brain engaged when I’m starting to get distracted.

In ritual, I try to focus on it for longer than I do in my daily practice, since I think it’s a little more important to be truly and fully grounded before attempting magic (which is what opening the gates really is). Sometimes that works and sometimes not – I still get a little anxious before full ADF rituals, so pausing to do this step is something I definitely need to focus on.

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A Question of Gods and a Tarot Reading

Posted in ADF, Dedicant Path, Tarot, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on January 3, 2013| 5 Comments »

I’ve been rather at odds with myself on the question of hearth cultures. I started this druidic journey pretty firmly convinced that I was going to stay in the Celtic pantheon that I was already familiar with. Unfortunately I’ve not felt myself overly connected to that pantheon in my devotions, to the point of not really finding that I like my options for devotional rituals. It just doesn’t “feel” right. I love keeping a hearth in my kitchen, but working with Brigit just doesn’t seem like it’s working out, for example. I’m not feeling any return energy.

So I’ve started looking around at other options, wondering if maybe my lack of connection to the Divine is a result of not trying to get in touch with the right Gods. I really enjoyed the Gaulish ritual I did for Yule, but resources are very thin about Gaulish paganism, and I’ve had trouble getting anything beyond a few web articles. I couldn’t do my hearth culture study book on Gaul, since I can’t actually find any books!

I’m getting to the point, though, where I’m going to have to face up to the possibility that I’m being drawn to the Norse culture. I keep running into things that make me feel like I should be looking there, even though I’m more than a little uncomfortable with some of the Norse gods. I especially seem to be running into mentions of Odin, which makes me nervous, for while I don’t know a ton about Odin, I do know that he can be a challenging patron.

On some levels, it doesn’t make any sense. My ancestry is Scottish and Italian, with a little bit of English and French thrown in. I don’t really have any Germanic cultures in my recent ancestry, and it seems like that’s a big pull for a lot of people who end up following the Norse Gods. I also know very little about their mythology (and what little I know seems dangerous!), and I’ve tried, quite unsuccessfully, to use Runes for divination in the past.

On the other hand, when you start seeing ravens (and other birds of prey), or realizing that your clueless dolt of an uncle gave you a set of runes for your birthday when you were 10 that you just can’t make yourself get rid of, or that you keep running into High Day rituals in the Norse Culture that look wonderful and strong and beautiful, or that your closest Pagan friend is an Asatruar… Maybe I’m just not getting the hint, you know?

I also have a much stronger relationship with the land spirits, and an increasing relationship with the Ancestors, things I’ve been told are very important in Norse Paganism, so that’s a welcome idea.

But I just… it doesn’t seem right, or something? I’m really resisting the idea that I should work in a Norse culture, for some reason I can’t yet put my finger on. Maybe it’s all of Asatru’s bad press bubbling up from my subconscious, or just the fact that I’ve never felt like it should be for me. Maybe I need to remember that I’m looking at the Norse part of ADF, and not giving up on this dedicant path, and that questions are what being on the DP are all about anyway.

Given my turmoil about it, I figured I should do a reading. I didn’t figure an ogham reading was the best bet, since they’re so strongly connected with the Celtic lore, so I decided to do a tarot reading instead. Of course, I thought of doing that reading while I was at work, so I used the tarot deck I have on my smartphone (Mystic Dreamer Tarot, if anyone’s curious), and did a little lunchbreak divination.

Three Card Spread: How Should I approach my search for a Hearth Culture?

  • The Heirophant – Learned Truth, a teacher, balance of belief with practice – can indicate that you know the solution but need to put it into practice. There are two ravens on this card, bringing messages to the Hierophant.
  • The Two of Cups – Strong, passionate relationship (not necessarily romantic). Two things that come together to create a third union that is strong, beautiful, and passionate
  • The Hermit – Self Knowledge, seeking the truth within yourself. Withdraw from outside sources and review all of your knowledge, understanding, and experience.

I didn’t set this card up as a past-present-future spread, and in fact I didn’t assign meanings to the placements at all, since I want an overview more than a specific set of answers. I prefer to look at how the cards interact with each other.

In this case, I think the Heirophant and the Hermit go together:

Learned truth and self truth provide the foundation for a profound and meaningful new relationship.

Hopefully the deep and meaningful relationship will be the relationship with the Divine that I’ve been looking to establish. It fits with the Dedicant Path as well, since both learned knowledge and self knowledge are goals of the DP. I also didn’t expect the cards to have a strong Norse symbolism (which isn’t something this deck is designed for), but with the two Ravens, I get a strongly Odinic feeling from The Heirophant card – even if the man in the card has both of his eyes.

I didn’t ask a particularly pointed question, so (as expected) I didn’t get a particularly pointed answer, but I think the reading is ultimately positive. In some ways, it’s a bit of a “duh” response, not anything I didn’t already know. I’ll keep searching though, and I’ve borrowed a copy of Gods and Myths in Northern Europe to start digging through. That’ll be the learned knowledge part, at least. And if nothing else, I can’t go wrong learning about it, and I’ll continue to do meditation and devotional rituals that attempt to suss this out.

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