for Days of Old Long Since

Growing up is not a simple matter of  Self awareness and control.

People

Acting Our Age,Loving each other.

We are aware of the changes in Others  more than changes in  Our Self

Self Image and Ego,Social persona,environmental footprint.Karmic backside.Cultural Identity.

Our learning about Times passing,and our relation to it.

Teach to reach for connection outside of ones Self.

Season and Harvest ,Year to Year

Older before We know it,before we expect it,or feel it.

It is not about Spiritual preparedness,or Inner belief.

Resolutions or intentions of our Will and Mind.

this is Magic of the Heart,

Folksy future wish projection time in a nostalgic way that we remember, recall times,

The place of imagination and Dream,

Our reality and World View,

The Fruit We gather, and a toast to days gone bye.

An Externalization,an Action made real in this world., one step of many.part of a greater Cycle that got us here.

Ritual expression,Sacred specialization

The exchange of  Material and Energy transference localized .

Form and Flame, Shape and Shadow

A process of offerings, witnessed

We are Flesh and Fire. Families

Some how made unique and individual .

Character qualities that are not about what is done, but how it is done, or tried.

Style  or Spirit, spirit or style maybe it is Timing .

Stepping up to face the Occasion.

Our repeated actions have a accumulative Magic effect on our Development.and what we attract to ourselves.

The Practice of Seasonal realignment,Holiday group gatherings associated with the passing of Time seems to act as a experience accelerant.Gratitude enhancer ,psychic hormone,

A life changer, an eye opener or just pleasantly passing the time.

It is the Love that passes between bodies that keeps things going.

The Habits of invention,the instinct of curiosity, the love of Idea, the passion for Life

Joy! in the sharing!

Delivering the Solar disk

 

Some of the oldest Art I know of are depictions of the Sun

Petroglyphs scratched into weathered stone of the Solar disk, and the vessel that it moves with .

A Ship or Animal drawn Wagon carries the Sun Wheel on its journey beyond our view.

That is how it gets around.

More than a symbol of Light, Warmth and Value it is the Movement  of Time that is being represented for our eyes to see

Beyond the  Power, the Energy is the craft that guides it on its’ course

A common singular reference, the proto standard of measurement.

Plain as day , What comes around goes around.Monopoly,Monotheism,Mono culture

Cults  build up around the form of the blessing itself but institutions are born from distribution and control of the delivery of Blessing.   The Vehicle.

The Creation of Coins and Commerce  are bound by the magic religious belief in the token play or action expressed, symbolic value that can be exchanged, redeemed.

Post Pagan Europe is a matter of economic assimilation the Minting of Money is part of the same game, Skilled artisans are paid for their work building Cathedrals named in honor of the Mother ,not the Child, with little metal disks.

Taxing and Tithing are part of the same Idea of justifying the extraction of wealth or resource from locale to sustain and perpetuate the governing body.

Wage from time and place ,Fee, cost. overhead as perpetuated by The ability to profit.and Treasure Hoard.

This is Ancient socio-psychic luggage carried through the Agricultural Kingdoms into the Bank and Finance  Institutions of the Industrial age.

Religion and Money are Cultural expressions.

Holiday is time off Work in My Language.

Annual Holiday Bonus are expected.

Our Cultural expectations are shared within our Trade Community.

This is not the habits of  Peasantry or Nobles but of Warrior Merchants.

Such  charity expressed among Capitalists.

The Material World and the Spiritual World are the Symbolic Coin  and its’ Carrier,

with the hope of upward mobility.

We Pay Our Respect.

Ho Ho Who

 

Toy and Tool come from the same Old English Word.

That is what I read on the pop up on the cable holiday music channel.

It Must be True!

Maybe it is only true to those who really believe it in their hearts,? and then only to the good ones!

It makes perfect sense to Me

The two features that Identify the Gods and Goddesses of Indo - European Mythology .

The possession of a Magic Tool or Gift

and their sharing,giving,loaning,negotiable character .

This is what makes them Noble and distinctive in a cosmos of many mighty and powerful beings

 

I wonder if there might be something temporary and transient in need and help that plays with our work,that effects what we receive.and give.

Ex-change

Changing year to year  our tools and toys, jobs and joys. magic to make it through.

A Benevolent Sky Rider, fly round the globe annually.

Listener Listing on the Top of the World ,while little busy makers load up for the voyage.

The team and driver navigating by starlight,arriving  at every hearth and home.

coming down from the top, roof, chimney, smoke hole,exiting  the same way.

This seems like a folk contract,with the popular imagination, perhaps triggered by a winking, or one eyed, white bearded little man in a red suit..

Teleporting ,Time, technology is the same thing.

A dead give away

All of the light, all of the warmth and joy and goodwill may be Pagan customs dealing with the dark and the rebirth of the Sun,or older the secret is in your drying  socks.

Domestic celebration of Human comforting and comfort is vital in the dead of winter.

A cult of Shelter appreciation develops with inhospitable weather. Hosting the visitor,the traveler and being rewarded with luck may be the origin of the superstitions, beliefs. and customs of magical reciprocity.and Its” delivery Man.

Lights in the Tree,Energy of Place,Power of Space

 

 

The message is in the many, the multiplicity, supported by a common central structure, not a simple more is better accounting in revenue generation

The Seasonal Holiday ritual get together an opportunity to shine as individual contributors to the collective display occasion.

The Idea of the Idea grounded in location, and Habit. 

Specialness and belonging

Territorial  connections and the Odd Human  Nesting instinct with its’ competing qualities of accessibility and exclusivity in the divisions of Space and defining comfort,safety,personal,public,private,orientation of doors and windows,rooms and buildings, neighborhoods around patterns of behavior, life styles.

Many People,Many Gods,very little parking.

The Neo Pagan Druid concept of Sacred Space that is convenient and shared seems contrary to the Ancient impulse toward the limited and inaccessible . .

The Sacred Space of the past lacks the secondary egress that is the essential element of safe large group assembly.

We are ,

are We? the lights strung up on the Tree?

Time turning traffic travel traction or seasonal shelter spot lights glowing.

There isn’t any way to back out of this,

We can go around the block again,

might get lucky, or luckier

round and round again

Visiting Spirits

Twinkling

Trees and the two dimensional plane

Trees

The combination of longevity and stationary life make them  more anchored in Place,

occupiers of Space in this physical realm, this Material World,than We are.

Yet they feed and build up the mass and structure of their solid form and being from the moving dynamic  changing  unfixed energetic other worlds of gas liquid and light.

They are both overt and obvious and underground and mysterious.

returning theme,subject,object

The nature of Being,growing,interior and exterior.

 

Fire ,Well and Tree are recognized by some Neo Pagan Druids as making up the Sacred Center of Our Ritual Space'.

Fire Water and Shelter are old essentials for Immediate Survival.

The Tree is not only the Shelter aspect of survival but the origins of assembly and the domestic cult of comfort.It is the interconnection with surroundings, integration with environment Shared Space,Habitat, Home.,

 

I painted this group of imaginary Trees in My basement in two sessions.

The first session was establishing a background on the small pre-primed canvas surface, one of many bundled and wrapped in plastic purchased at the Giant craft store.

I was trying to establish an atmospheric color relationship on this flat, thin,, bouncy surface that reminded Me of the Sunset on the Water  that I see coming and going from My Home.

 

The Second session is the silhouettes of naked Trees,

a simplified suggestion of surface impression, representational illusion

Fore ground, Back ground ,and where we are.

The small finished painting was small enough to be scanned directly and posted on Social Media by My Wife.

I feel that there is a relationship between our Work,Our Sacrifice, our Way and what we do in this World.

Our Actions and deeds speak more of who we are than our body and face.

Believing that We are contributors, part of it all,valued or appreciated by Others is Magic Food,Spiritual Medicine,Creative Fertilizer.

To Feel overlooked or exploited marginalizes the social bonding of recognition in individuals and communities, Landscapes.

My second basement Painting is Big on Old Heavy Material , scrap from the recording studio,Primed and sanded again and again in the manner I learned as a studio assistant for a now dead master.

The  large canvas  removed from its stretcher sat in the studio for many years.

Exhibition space has become problematic for big Work.I need a stable platform for display.

I painted this on the floor of My basement, screwing it up on the cinder block wall next to My Son’s neglected Drum Kit, and the cats’ second litter box

 

I took a photo of the painting in progress that My Wife Posted on social Media where it was seen and praised in ways that fed Me as an artist,a Druid painting memories of local landscape,Time and Space, light ,color. shadow and form, composition, presence of place, and a love of being part  of it all. 

c0ntinUed edge you cay shunning?

 

The Computer had little to do with My Druid Religious Beliefs and practices.

Now, I take comfort in keeping my druid writings,opinions,thoughts in one place for any body to see.

I  would rather respond thoughtfully on My Blog than on Lists.

More often than not I feel my effort to reply is not rewarded.

So,  with my last Blog Post I share to a List, my thoughts and Link.

I am happy to receive a thanks off list, I plan a thanks for the thanks, but before I do,

I accidentally delete my off list thanks, when over run with the List of another subgroup.

Then I get a reply on list ,followed up with praise for the reply on list,Then another reply on list. seconded praise for the first reply on list this morning.

I am learning about understanding

It May be  the Hinge concept” Sacrifice”Freely given of oneself.

We don’t know what we are receiving from one another.

We are more aware of what is taken,than what is given.

Mistaking the exchanging of gifts as package content comparison competition.

Shapes of Boxes,wrapping, ribbons ,bows

We Know someone accepts a gift if they take it and say thank you, but do they really like it? do they get it?

When something is obligatory does that prevent it from being a genuine measure of appreciation? understanding of the transaction are limited by custom to the appropriate response.

Consensual relations are based on free will

It seems that the computer casts a binary shadow on the way subjects are framed, our response time sped up, our reaction channeled to enthusiastic support or dissenting opinion..

The lists of councils and guilds ,orders and kin

The millions of posts and threads and subjects

Bylaws, programs,

All developed with the authority of a counting tool.

The Content is  based around commentary on a proposal.

Electronic Committees have voted and polled.Passengers directing the Captain.

Have the proposed standards of Work,Sacrifice and Study caused participants of Our Religion  discomfort anxiety and sense of Failing? Has Elevating Priests become more important than the shame felt and perpetuated by the process?

Have we mistaken the approval of a adjusted and amended document for the ancient charm of making!

Is the Feeless  Study Program  institution  God requiring continuous  sacrifice in the form of its choosing?

Is this what I am supposed to be learning, continuing?

Continuing Education?

I don’t think we have any choice in the matter.
We learn things.
Life teaches us lessons .
Never too Old to learn, or too young to teach
Places of learning are places of growing. what is it? The text, the class, the teacher, your seat,and who sat next to you,The School, campus and community?
Rules, Routine,Regulation,Repetition?
I respect the work that it takes to create schools, buildings and classrooms,as much as Shrines or Temples, Clinics or Hospitals.
The Places  are more than the institutions they represent,
They are more than a formula of service and function
They are keeping up with Time

Accessing performance,recording achievement, Enforcing standards, group goals,
People are moved through these places in the name of Knowledge.
The Process becomes ritualized,enshrined
Tradition itself  is Idolized.
The opportunity for novelty is encoded in  review committee report proposals.
Administration organization,Social hierarchies, Subliminal Subservient Submissive.
How well do you follow directions? Instructions? Inclusion or exclusion in someone else's subjective reality?.
I have a Spiritually  significant different reaction between what I am free to choose to experience and what I am forced or required to do.
Required  Reading changes the nature of the offering from gift that can be accepted or refused politely to a  tax, an imposition on the relationship.
The degree of objectification and comparison,the comodification and competition Keeping Up, ranking in group, being told our place within the order, It doesn't seem necessary or helpful outside of the abstract model.
The giving of badges ,tittles. certificates or diplomas for performing,meeting expectations also takes away from the individuals ability to honor what they feel they discovered for themselves over the judgment and perception of the Institution.
One of the Tricks I have Learned is not sharing the wealth of My great Knowledge, but create opportunities for people to show themselves and each other how they made green, by mixing blue with yellow.
It is important to feel the place of learning is Our Body.
The Spirits that Inspire Thoughts don’t have to be bound up with disciplines of the Mind.,or quantified and qualified by rotating panels of experts
What have you got to say? not, tell me what I want to hear
It is not about submitting applications and tracking Program Progress.
Suggesting Sacred Study is one thing,Limiting and regulating  Tradition,Trying to Own or claim a Way tends to treat practitioners as products,  mistake sacrifice as suggested donation.Playing with the voluntary- volunteer supporting member feeling of belonging through an indentured   obligation.
  My continued education will continue to be one that is different than I can Imagine, foretell, or promise.
Perhaps Pagan Priestly Peer review is problematic,To much trouble to convert and calculate the experience?Is there shame in failing?Surprise at the realities of Group Worship?Danger in Boasting?
Confusing  the practice of tooting our own horn with Religious Piety? .

déjà vu , bon appetite, repeat, reality

 

If a Tree falls in a forest without any one to Blog about it does it make any sound?

 

I may have written that before, I’ll have to check some time.

 

 

 

The Blog title was what I was calling My Path in ADF , Our Own Magic.

Don’t need to get it, to know, it gets you!

Personal traditions as a guide or scout of the Frontier of a re constructed and reformed Neo Pagan, New world, New York and New Jersey, Metro-Druid Grove.

Group Traditions are Sensitive issues with or without transparency .

There is what is, what was,and the stories they inspire.

My Mad -Trad was  to be my storybook ,a richly illustrated Map of the safer relationship with the multiplicity of Spiritual Others that share Our same Space, Place,World. at times.

I moved away and it became  folders and portfolios occupying space in my attic.

I had no idea that print,publishing and distributing information,knowledge were to become digital and accessible all day,all night, almost everywhere.

,

Sacred texts and Search engines

what a strange distorted perceptual dissonance

Imagining the world outside the window,and within the screen

What of the scribes and clerics?

Last hold out Priests and petty bourgeoisie of bronze age bovine hierarchies?

No more middle man? as if it were safe to browse and graze, nibbling and sipping at what we are instantly served, Life as a collection of menu choices.

Recipricosity is a gift of the Hunter Gatherer Economies.

Value to the Work, Luck ,Magic in access to a resource.

This Blog, this computer network medium is a very new form of human expression.

For Me an extension of Sketch book, Magic Journal practice , It is a funny mirror,

an odd companion. strange to see and share

Fasting and Feasting,dynamics of digestion

Life speaks a language of Food.

Organic beings

Everything has to Eat, has an appetite for something special.

We have unique tastes.

We have the ability to exercise self regulation and control of what, when and how we eat,as well as the where and why

Most often it has to do with well being

What do we get out of it?

What is absorbed and taken into our being?

Are we fed by the care and attention?

The preparation of the meal?

The Spirit of intention?or alignment?

Is it the rate of consumption or retention that makes us feel satisfied?

Perhaps the flavor is not in the dish.

The recipe and ingredients not responsible for the way the meal sits with us, the drink is not the reason we raise our glass.

Soul Food for Thought Spirits, traditional comforts

This is what you see if you look left of my computer.

The Web

It was not part of my Cosmic World View

Knot even on My RADAR

blog

Extra dimensional Form and Shape

 

Substance?

We are aware of the physical material plane that we occupy

this World

this Dimension

with its’ invisible worlds of gas exchange, electrical fields,

Life and Death, Days and Nights,solids,liquids and vapors .

Our place in it all

There are the things I return  too,

Honoring , Loving , Respecting

The Earth Mother ,Mother Nature, This Planet that we are part of.

The Kindred Spirits, an overlapping group of different spiritual entities of various forms and names.

Giving Thanks

Gratitude as a practice seems to shape things.

An instinctive grooming urge that fosters the future.

A Magnet to another dimension.

Beneath,Between,Before

Are Words like Masks?

All of the knowledge we share about Soul and Spirits and Gods and Goddesses is in Human Language.

This was much more obvious in oral tradition,

It becomes confusing to the literate and literal.

The Experience is at best secondary to the language used to put it  into words .

Is Everything Subject, Verb, Object= Meaning?! Understanding%

I had found an explanation of the place name of the Mountain I live on.

I read in a book that Mombaccus  was Dutch slang for Tree Face, or Tree cheeks.

The Mountain on the western frontier of the Dutch settlement on the river ,had Faces carved on the trees.

This past Spring I attended a talk from a local Author who spoke to me about the place name.

He said that the Name came from Mummers and Bacchanal, in reference to the Ecstatic Mask Dancing .

The  faces on the trees were of   Mesingw .  an Algonquin Word.

A  Spirit in the form of a Mask who instructs, and judges skill and fairness.

Luck is given or taken by this referee of place who speaks the language of the Hunter and the Game…..        My words, 

I do not remember the Authors’ words even though he spoke English.

I took notes in My journal and read more on line,

Painted this Mask Painting,

and spied upon the dancing words description…...

Paleolithic premeditated preassembly pantheistic perseveration polymorphic polytheism persists

I recognize the Divinity in you.

A greeting roughly translated.

People telling People that they see in each other an expression of the Divine.

Namaste

We are raised in a Culture that encourages the Worship of People ,   

  Bow and respect, superiority ,authority, judgment.beauty

Maybe it is Human Nature to Idolize

Our Betters, Heroes and Celebrities, those that seem to have more Divine presence.

A predisposition for placing the bright and shiny up on an Altar.

or glorify and  associate with the Winners.

. We are Natural Fans, responding to awe with excitement and fanaticism , we have also been reared and groomed to be obedient and subservient  to Human Masters.

Perhaps it is ancient habit to see the Human Potential as the focus of it’s worship.

and Pray for each other ,and the Gods and Goddesses , to have a presence in our Bodies 

Our Flesh a residence,.a Home or Temple.

We are  material conduits , Lenses  for the passing light

Both formal and familial

changing relationships between extended boundaries

extended generations.

Seniority ,Status in the passing years

Our Prehistoric patterning unaffected by an Ice Age.

Our Body , Our Mind,Our Mortality

Human

Looking to other Humans

Prayer, Plea,or Promise

Peace

Again ! the changing form, qualities of dimension

Meanings Manners Mummers Mimes Masks Magic

 

 

maybe it’s the movement……………………….the changing or transforming nature

said in one breath standing on one foot

 

          Tales of Trick or Treat Tradition and Tragedy????????????????????????

                                      Happy New Year !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Secret Surprise Inside!

 

 

All things are containers of Spirits.

Humanity and our bodily form are intertwined and inseparable.

We know with a Human Mind, our flesh is a container in a Human form.

We Feel and experience the World around us with a Human Heart.

Love

It is one of the things that People do best.

Perhaps part of the design of the shape of our container .

An Ancestral commandment to look after yourselves and take care of one another..

Comfort to strangers……….. who may be  other

vision of the second gate

 

 

This from last months Order journey before the Clergy retreat

popular polarizing projected pagan paradox

 

On My way in,

 

Who is more Real? more well known as a Magic figure in the community?

Here is a large inflatable figure of Raven of Teen Titans

she is  seated in a classic eastern lotus pose  in  deep meditation.

I appeared  to be minutely levitating in front of her at this years New York Comic Con,

in an adapted asymmetrical coffee crouch , or squat in the lot .

I like to think I have more substance to my person than a vinyl inflatable

Of a copy righted cartoon network character creation.

The Balloon has a following, recognition and tethers holding it in place,Licensing lawyers merchandise.I would say it has super human dimensions in recognition.

super powers for a superhero the  teen daughter of a inter-dimensional demon that was developed on a cable network from an earlier published  print comic character.

I have half a coffee and a day pass,imagining I’m defying gravity with the powers of my mind. I am fascinated by what I am attracted and revolted by.

Popular Culture          unconventional conventions   rebirth of Neo-Paganism

the Science Fiction / Fantasy / Horror genres of popular entertainment and the effect on  imagination and expectation of audience. What is Magic?The Occult? Spiritual Powers?

Much of Neo-Pagan belief is inspired by or in reaction against portrayals of magic in fiction.

Often we find ourselves on the spot, trying to set the record strait , fact from fiction.

Do Guided Meditations have more to do with the narration of Dungeon  Masters in role playing games than the ecstatic journeys of Shamans?

Is there something in the tradition of telling Hero stories that demand an Antagonist?

Are we  summoning super villains into our world ? or do we lower ourselves down to them? Is it evil to bring Monsters and horrible thoughts into the public imagination..

Becoming obsessed or possessed by   fictional characters instead of Mythical ?

Is there  a difference ? What about Fan Art? Where is the Hubris?

Does play acting. dress up and behaving like another become sacred and social,and secularist?

when is it encouraged? when does it self identify as a community?  or subculture?

I try to communicate that in a non verbal pose and gesture in conversational Klingon with the aid of an unidentified Human in Star Trek Turtle Head  on My way Out.

Who is your favorite Doctor?                  The Waters of Life!

uncertainty is a door

 

 

I wonder

 

 

children of chance? cousins of coincidence? 

Formed by Fates?

Rooted in ambiguity the context of the change ,       the way between

probability and possibility ,                           shadow and obscurity.

what are the odds?  what is the likely hood?

unusual attention reflection detection

reformed retro rustic renegade religion raiding

look for the hook

the thing that draws you in

I like the weird endings

the strange twists

Ironic turnabout

 

Poetic Justice

ancient spooky spirit possession and social media

service for guests

As Hosts we become Hostage

A guarantee on an agreement

Ancient Animal Ancestors made with Sun and Earth.

Our physical form

,a temporary residence of flesh

.part of a Cosmic Contract of long ago.

The Mythic first sacrifice, the slaughter and gore,

the dismembered body with its entrails heaped up  to make our world

Its’ split skull cast into the heavens

strange  this stuff that Life is,     All around us within and without

We are bigger than our skin

more influential than our stats

Not limited by Self image or society

A bunch of bones and blood and guts

breathing and sometimes screaming.!

There is no denying the horrible spectacle of public executions,Human and Animal sacrifice as the way of Ancient Pagan Religions

It seems to be excessively bloody and visceral often competitively being more horrific to establish a Name and and reputation for group.

sending Messages to their Gods in their ways, in their times,

I wonder if they knew ,or cared, that people of the future would morally judge  their sacrifice as

Inhuman butchery

shock and shame enhanced , terror = obedience  Panic reflex herding and bonding instincts dramatized for mass consumption defensive desire.

Spooky control of the population.

Maybe  they Knew I would write this?

They had a vision of Me and my Humanist Neo-Pagan Moral outrage

, a glowing screen, with no way to comment, reply or follow .

Maybe

artistic animist assumptions about addressing audience

 

I assume they see Me,even if they can not.

Maybe they can only feel My Actions.

Some how sensing My Intent

Reading My Mind

Touching My Heart

They may not see Me, any more than I can see Them.

Some how We Know , or believe we know .

I assume They may be listening,even if they can not hear.

Perhaps they can taste My disposition

Smell My thoughts

I seem to be as transparent in substance to Them as They are to Me.

All of Us

fragments and conglomerates

particles in motion

shadows and imprints

odors and echoes

Worship of the Imperfect ,the Unfamiliar

I have come to honor more than the spirits of my own known family and friends.

I have come to see that things are not as they appear  on the outside.

A Spirit exists inside

Unexpected Surprise appreciation or anticipated preparedness anxiety

Be gentle                     Be Kind            Because

A Pan Cultural Human Nature Spirit .

Perhaps the common Ancestor of Most of Human Kind

Some way that people are related to one another,

Sharing Respect, Not being Afraid of one another, A Common understanding of simple kindness .

Humans have a relationship between feelings of Fear and Respect on a very Primal  Level, the desire for calm and the hope of peace are just as deep rooted

Rumored risks and reputations

It is all about how we respond

Shape changing Masks

How You Treat the Stranger

It gets Tricky

Hospitality at Summers End

Mentoring on local land spirits Seasons ,Changing Faces of Nature and the nature of changing faces

 

We have a tendency to attribute a Mood or Disposition to the atmosphere of the moment when we are making an offering., taking it as a immediate response.

I have found that the communication is taking place but in its own time, in its own way.

The language of exchange, the understandings are convoluted and tricky but the repetition and simplicity of offering and acknowledging the Spirit or Soul.of another

creates a resonance and a rhythm over Time.

People are taught that they are the only being with a soul. Denying the Spiritual essence of animal, vegetable, mineral and composite interaction and life character that goes along with Place

Judging Place by  human hospitable conditions that serve our selves, that are transferable as wealth from the Land is human wishful thinking .

It is easy to mistake the ambivalence or harsh demeanor of Nature as  Unfriendly.

We have our Haunted Houses,and Ghost Towns, Urban Decay and abandoned Communities, fear of the encroaching Wild programed into Our Domesticated Nature.

Yet we share the same World with Bugs and Beasts and can sense the Hostility and potential for aggression that is exhibited in the struggle for life,defense of territory…

Life is not easy

We are in the Age of Easy = Friendly

Instantaneous=convenient     command =connection

A culture that has embraced Salesman as Prophets We have little life interaction with livestock for food or transportation, little knowledge of the interconnected cycles of life of plant and animal and season,We have been artificially separated from knowledge of our ability to directly access worldly sustenance, unable to accept Nature in its raw unrefined  form, Our reality controlled , Our Environments  tamed. as if the world exists for our comfort and service. Void of suffering

Nature is eccentric and bizarre, at times beautiful and aesthetic oriented coordination,at other times weird , gross, nasty,hostile.

It is Natural that all Spirits are not our loving friends and beneficial companions,

There are those that come to aid us in crisis, and those that feed from our anxiety and fear. Appearances are deceiving Either way it is important to not speak ill or curse.openly naming and empowering a Spirit as Enemy.and waking up a bogey man of your own making

The Purpose of the offering is not to explore the dangerous, but to establish the Safe, Ironically this often feels spooky and scary.

We try to respond with love and respect, we have no reason to intrude or explore or entertain notions of diabolical dualism,No need to confront the dark side and worship the gloomy wood.We are making Spirit Friends ,with an emphasis on Free will of our and their choosing,to relate and be related,a relationship of mutual agreement,

Complex and diverse Colony forming units built up of multiple factions Spirits are no more monolithic in opinion or composition as any other functional structure  or group body.

They are the hidden souls of things, the character  of objects, the life within.struggling with conflicts of their own.

I look for a head of a Spirit before I have any idea what to call it.

I look for the intelligence, seek the face that I can try to speak too, a will I may be able to reason with.,some primal directive instinct I can appeal to.

 

Repeated Liberally applied simple offerings of appreciation to a broad range of Special Spiritual Relationships, that  support us transitionally naturally  come and go, make for a special awareness of Our Lucky Nature and establishes a pattern of favorites over time.

People are Nature Spirits

We may be cultivated and domesticated, but we are made up of the same life stuff Everything  alive or dead on this planet

Our bodies, physical substances made up of material that was eaten, converted to making organs and flesh, growing ,breathing,circulating, feeling, sensing ,thinking ,responding

We are all the product of  living communities of life.

We are the result of habitat, ecosystem and niche.

Our structure is not of our own design.

We are the seasons adaptation of a theme.

Mother Nature generationally updating another living breathing eating ageing thing.

What we are is Natural

Animal, Vegetable and Mineral all show a relationship to Climate and Time.

Weather and the World

Wind and Water

Cycles of Sun and Moon.

Passing Days and changing Tides.

Time ,Mentoring ,Metaphysical fitness, Druid magic, Moons and more!

A few questions when you have time. How is Druid magic done? Is there a ritual to it or is it a personal affect that is done separate? Do people do rituals for the full moons? And can people for the dedicant path chose 2 hearth cultures?

People are often divided in opinion as to what is and is not  magic.

Is it the willful manipulation of events or things to a desired outcome?

A gathering and bundling of Symbol power and psychic energy to act as a simple machine, a cause and affect phenomenon.

Or is Magic a field we are immersed in, an experiential recognition that is often in hind sight, of the strings of coincidences that twist into our life thread . An unseen  order manifesting that is relationship based .

Or other, none of the above, or all of the above, and more!

I believe there is a multiplicity of magical exchanges and meanings  taking place within ADF ritual.

it is not necessary ,or possible,to be aware or informed completely about the Magic in the Hat, but where there are rabbits you will find poop.

There is a Magic working opportunity after all have been blessed by the Waters of Life.

Before the thank you and goodbyes. 

Because Holiday  performances are times of family Drama.

I don’t push for complex or coordinated group effort and intent.

I often pass it by, not everyone is comfortable or experienced with participating in group Magic stuff.

I like to emphasize worship, reverence, gratitude as the driving reason for our gathering.

We are seeking Blessing,by Acknowledging how we are Blessed,

When people are focused on the outcome or result of a Magic working

things change. expectations,function, a lingering judgment suspended.

Increasing the likelihood that some one or the group will feel that they have made a magical error, Mystical mishap, or didn’t have things turn out exactly as they planned.

ADF founder Isaac Bonewits’s  first book Real Magic is a must read. all of his work is insightful.

The ADF magic guild is a great resource, different
backgrounds and approaches to the subject,
interesting and refreshingly respectful
.
Some Druids make a point of lunar observance, some
No. I think the popularity of the monthly Tree
calendar tradition became a call to action in ADF for
real scholarship!

A single hearth culture is suggested,this is the
easiest way for dedicant and reviewer and ADF as an
organization
However, I think the program is at it's Best when it
serves to bond our relations with our Kindred Spirits
If you feel like taking on a couple hearth cultures,
Go for it!                   You wont be the first!

Suggestion for Daily Dedicant Mental Training

Begin and end each day or night with mindful breathing and a moment of Self comfort and calm.with a small drink of Water.

Toast the marriage of Spirit and Form Our Living Bodies are,

Basic Meditation is the ability to control or manipulate our own thinking and thought .

It is a developed awareness of our Self control, our ability to breathe and swallow.

fundamentally related to what we take in or accept.

This simple daily devotional is not an affirmation of belief in any thing more than our ability to breathe and drink and find peace within ourselves sometimes.

It is a personal living relationship between our thoughts and our being.

A minor ritual of self recognition and habit of self control that is more hygienic than ceremonial.

Part grooming instinct, Part mind game - it is the psyche and the flesh,

It is the required comfort,

A micro-meditation in the bathroom with a sink.

A momentary silence , a pause or stretch,                    close eyes

Take note on the inhale that this simple yet fundamental relationship, caring bond between our lungs and the air, the satisfaction of release in the exhale.

Inhale deeply and fully as best as you can manage with the thought of your self.

Your expanding chest, your beating heart, letting the breath go, free – invisible-  air

Passing through us all the time.

Make contact with the Water, breathe, feel and -if you can- taste the air and the water while thinking of your Self, your own wellbeing.

Refreshment, relief, flowing blessing, caregiving sustainer Water

You can drink it up,  feel its movement in your body, conclude with an exhale, and the knowledge that you are a vessel or container, made up of many things. Open your eyes

This simple devotional is not full of complex imagery and Cosmic Models.

The Spirit we are recognizing or honoring is the spirit of life itself in our form.

Before we can venerate, meditate, worship or ponder the great mysteries we need to acknowledge the wonder in being naturally part of it all.

A preliminary for days and dreams.

Morning and Night, book ends

Honoring our ability to perceive what we cannot always see, but can trust to feel what keeps us alive.

Polydimensional planes, conductivity,transference

Time and space

 

 

The Surroundings reflected in the Surface of a tiny pond painted a few years back.

Actually it has probably been more than a few years,and it is not a natural pond but a fishing hole dug out by a retired fireman a few decades ago.

Still

How many clouds have passed?

reflected on its’ surface

How many leaves from how many seasons?

reflected on its’ surface

How many stars from how many nights?

reflected on its’ surface

Witness to change and movement

stillness and memory

Improbability and Contact

There was a time when shooting stars, Hummingbirds and Fairies were things others saw, I would just miss the moment…..

I wonder if my questioning of their existence drew them out to Me, the rarity of the encounter insuring it’s Special or Sacred communication, or association and relationship.

They did not present themselves to Me because I believed in them or even looked for them. 

Eventually when  I  do see them,  and I may have instinctively pointed,

A Pantomime to alert others may take place.

My Eyes remain locked on the Subject.

Till  gone from sight.

This was not about the Summoning or Stalking  of Magical Associates.

It is Their choosing to reveal themselves at that Place and Time that makes the encounter significant.

Spirits  in Transit, Blessing in passing

It is not a fixed and rigid Order, understanding or relationship that is counted on or built up, It is the significance of the special shared fleeting moment.

The Magic is in the truth of the experience.

Beginnings and Endings all around us, all the time.

Exotic pollinators, Migrations of Souls,Catalysts of Contact

 

 

Knot of one Skin and Not of one Sight, Quorum Sensing

Biofilm and the Aura of Place.

After being admitted to the City Hospital, the water Main Broke, we had a day of bottle Water, I was feverish, sweating, trembling and Parched.

After being released and back in My Home

The Mayor ,of the place of My Ancestors makes National News by declaring the City Water Supply  unsafe for Drinking ,Washing or anything. The Source  from the Lake was infested by a Algae Bloom.

My Mother and Family made it through the Multiday Event on bottle Water.

Although referred to as an algae bloom, The Toxic presence in the water was not an overgrowth of a simple plant, but something Older, Simpler and Smaller.

Lacking  a clearly defined Cell wall and organized Nucleus, Cyanobacteria  are older than dirt.

They are possibly the creatures who began the process of Climate Change, paving the way for the Green Photosynthesizing  Breathing Life. They are  colonial Beings, Mothers of the Vegetable world, the Carbon Cycle, and Possibly Fossil Fuel .

I saw some NOAA satellite shots from 2011 to present .

As the river drains into the bay the Super colony forms as soon as it is warm enough.

It appears and masses as a scum or slime on the surface of things , at a certain critical Population density it can change it’s form and organize in Macroscopic structures.  often filamentous  it often partners with a Fungus to form Lichens outside of the water, It has a desire for Sun and adhesion it is Social but not as motile as larger  phytoplankton or zooplankton it is not comfortable adrift in liquidity and will attempt to fix itself in place.They establish a Habitat or seek out a Home.

Extra cellular polymeric substances are what holds these individual  lives together part of the thread of connection. the worm holes of the Micro World. They are thoroughfares interspecies intersections They are the Out of Body- Extra Self Awareness of Microscopic animals and plants, an active interaction with Surroundings that is not centrally individually directed yet sensitive to perceived territorial toiletries, An implied Differentiated sense of Self and Other, Friend and Foe .

Community as a trail or path.Tracks of growth,Group Identity a sense of Self preservation and Will.An active director or collective decider or Survival Instinct is playing out every second in Simple Life that will Die in a few days,or go dormant for how long?.some passive monitoring for the right conditions for their Life Force to activate.Part of a Survival Strategy to optimize opportunity by multi million year old Germs, less sophisticated or complicated than mildew with an appetite for place.

They are Time Travelers.Shape changers.all around Us.Transformers, they are currently being genetically modified showing the greatest potential for Biofuel of anything we’ve learned to grow.

Between the root and the soil the plant has to Know and search for the Nutrients it will absorb and avoid.

This shopping takes place outside of the flesh of the plant. A judgment, or intelligent response, a Taste and Thirst.

   A process of excreted enzymes and responsive Digestion,  Distant touch , Field sensitivity, psychic powers and perhaps the exchange of microbial information.

A Pre synaptic sense or awareness or Auto Inducer is found beyond the Bodies of individuals and colonies of plant or animal ,

We are born with the ability to tune into the language of locale, to listen in, watch and learn. to adapt our behavior, all of Nature does.

The Glass City Has a River full of Agricultural runoff and suspended detritus, this spins around in the glacial puddle that is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, looking much like a cloud by satellite, A colony of Microscopic Life Forms that is many square miles across , there are fears that it  may grow so large that it Hives off and spreads to effect other water supplies  in other States and Nations.

I suspect that the local crop has shifted the last decade from Corn as Feed to Corn as Fuel,requiring extra Nutritional Supplements that have been washed away from their Field during increasingly  heavy storms over such a flat place.

I have long taken note of the passage of the weather in conversations with my Mother,

Most often the winds pass over her and head in the general direction of Me and My Mountain home in a day. The Weather connects us,

The movement of Water suspended in the Air, and the particles snatched up by the wind , the clouds and mist and dew,         

How it Looks, Feels, Smells,Tastes, and Sounds like

The Energy released in its’ passing,Its’ temperament and character.

Precipitation events are part of Life, that is why we have shelters, thankful for our roofs.

We can and will weather many Storms, but Access to Drinking Water is secondary only to respiration, Breath,,as a Vital necessity for Life large and small.

 

I am reminded of the quote of Vincent Van Gogh’

“ Exaggerate the essential and leave the obvious vague.”

I think I see why ,

the Bird King’

sends his champion,

away from the battle’

in the burning Hostel,

to fetch him a Drink.

Host-Hostel .Hospital-Hospitality

Entanglement, intertwined bonds of relationship

Territorial control of Space ,or sense of Responsibility for Events.

Mock Combat,     Conflict,                 Ritualistic Competition 

Adversarial Attention. - Sensitivity   -  Pain – Need –Comfort

I began this Summer without the ribbon of the May Pole in My Hand. But a carefully tailored  plastic Picc line inserted in a Vein in my Arm, and run up to my Heart.

Peripherally inserted central catheter

I was to have daily Infusions of an Anti Biotic to Kill the Microbial Life I had become Host to for the last four years..

exaggerating a essential Tremor and effecting my sense of Touch from a Distance .

Temporary accommodations were given of My Insides to Medicine and Science

A Great Act of Personal  Trust.

By Midsummer The Foreign Object had been removed ,

I was assured that My Guests were all Dead.

I may be still feeling the damage they made,   It takes Time to Mend.

I was Completely  Clueless as to what could have precipitated the Violent Warp Spasms that sent Me on  My First and second Ambulance Trips to the Hospital.

The Hurt was so focused and specific, so severe and direct,

Yet I had experienced no Injury

The Hospital  is a place of Hope and Help.Drama and Tragedy

Doing It’s Best to anticipate the needs and care of the diverse  community it serves,

I was in Need of special Care,

they found  a room for Me to share

on the second floor.

Almost two weeks and two Roommates later’

After Every conceivable form of Testing and Imaging available for lease by My Healthcare Provider  the source of the infection was not determined .

After three negative blood cultures,I had a Picc line put in so I could get out of the Hospital.

I love Home

I had responded to the Antibiotic treating a different life form the presence of golden clusters of  grapes, not the cork screw crazy Makers

,A different Enemy, I am told

Somewhere inside Me

Three times a day I slow push the Medicine kept in the Refrigerator, taken out a half hour before.

I hate that I cannot mediate this internal conflict myself. Requiring outside assistance.

Odd to put such a willful expression to being Unwelcoming .Inhospitable

To distancing myself from my Discomfort, disassociating from my circumstance.

The connection,and conflict involved with Free Will and Destiny.

What is infectious?

Life Drama and Location, Borders and Boundaries

Caring and Attention and Spirit

Kindness and cruelty, subject and object

Elements of Story that we are bound to, part of.

Travelers needing rest

interwoven

Holding on,trying to Help

Our Place to Be.