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? .