Thinking you are knowing what you are getting into, and remembering what you thought you got out of- it .

Prop- Drop Cloth - Contract

                       
  Premonitions of  a  probable paradigm of the procrastinating Phoenix performance  perhaps ?
                 

                The Holy, The whole is linked with this notion of encompassing,coverage,protection.
                                       



It is nice to have a finite limit or boundary on event experience.
In the," which came first?"  --"the chicken, or the egg?" of cause and effect.
Who made Me a Maker? What makes Me make Things?
Appreciator of things Others make and do, the Work involved, the Sacrifice and Skill.
I respect building and creating, the Arts and magical power of Human Hand crafting.
I am a compulsive creator and keep out of the way of the process and projects of Others.

I am not into Spiritually Meddling, or Managing or Monitoring or Modeling Others.
People are not a Material that I manipulate in the name of Art or Religion.
My Neo- Pagan Practice is full of skeptical inquiry, A healthy lack of Trust in the illegible fine print,
Unnecessary commitment, hidden cost, psychic tax, paranormal burden.
It is  Action!
It is now!
It is passing.....

 Paganism as Promise, as pleasure, as play!

left behind right ahead

belonging and place
feeling you are part

I suppose that much of My Public Pagan awakening  at the end of the eighties was a symbiotic circumstance
Artists Studio Tours were developed by Local  Real Estate.
A strange and intimate annual open house, weird exhibition  opportunity.
As a young struggling artist , it wasn't cleaned up for the crowd,in plain view,
all my works and doings.
Fine ART
less than fine art
commercial jobs
and the never before seen Perrin's personal Pagan Art and Idolatry.

My case is not one of coming out of the broom closet, but allowing the community at large a look at what I do, My practice ,My work as it is, or was.
.

" How much are you paying for your space?"

My Old Space is gone,      The Building tore down.   No more.

I moved on before that

But I was there then

when she said she was going to use an interview for a Book.

Twenty Years Later
Here Now
My Wife got a copy of , A Legacy of Druids , Conversations with Druid leaders of Britain, the USA and Canada, past and present.   by Ellen Evert Hopman.   -   Moon Books
It arrived on St Patricks Day.
Earrach commented on the Blog.
All is doing
then and now

Sacrifice and creation,Idea and Action

Ymir and Offspring

The Original Sacrifice/ Creation Myth is significant and unique not in the violence= victory lesson of the primordial event but the sharing and distribution of the Flesh of the Larger Older Selfish  Being by the Triumphant Young Generous  Family of  Skilled Gods.

That sets the pattern of Material and Making
Patterns and Plans-authority and rearrangement
A preexisting extroverted Bias, value and importance in the outside  .......outside of Self, individualism.

My ADF Religious Experience quickly focuses on fostering the group holiday ritual.
For Me the distribution of  parts of ritual, as a way of sharing- Spirit of Belonging.
I am blessed to have been part of ADF's primordial past when you didn't need Rank, Title or claims of Mastery to hold office or form a Grove.
                                              crazy times

I didn't need to be trained, or presume to train anyone.      with that I was free to learn a lot.
I knew that our Work, our Art,.our Sacrifice, would take many different forms.
Involvement in a Neo-Pagan Druid Grove was not about bringing a prescribed offering for collective judgement.or how  you perform as a group ritual specialist.

                   Wholesome Neo-Pagan Ritual " original recipe with eleven herbs and spices"
                                                                   PEACE!
Nothing  in Our Making ! should hurt harm or make others feel bad in the name of the group, the Gods,or the Magical Ritual efforts, any Religious affiliations,cults, sub sects and schisms are to cease hostilities .
The Event is one of Hosting...Others.

 It is not about individual free expression or Community recognition and acceptance of Magical Personas
Observe the Sacrifices of Others, Make Sacrifices Yourself. Keep the motives and intentions Clean.
Simple is better.
 Don't confuse the level of participation and involvement  of  individual Ritual  attendees with the qualities of individual rituals

The Ritual  provides an opportunity for people to experience Group Honoring and Respect of a number of often neglected, or forgotten ,Spiritual Companions and Aids.
It also provides Ritual Roles and Function, helping it's Participants discover a stronger spiritual bond and relationship reinforcement, of their choosing or spiritual direction.
It is the echoes of the ancient sharing.Our Praise offerings, Our gathering, Our Work, a gift of devotion,to The Living Growing World .

 This is Art
More than Sacred Talent Show
We are in the presences of  audiences unknown.
They Make their own Judgments.
They have their own ideas about our group ritual performance,
what they are witnessing,
 How are We behaving together?
    How they work their Blessings on us..
We are the Material that is Shaped.
We are Their Art.
Art that is Peaceful Action
Art that is Healing Transformation
Art that is Making- Doing-for good
Art that is clearly displayed
Shining Through Our Ideas and Actions!

                                     

before the Gods

My Painting of

Audhumla the Cosmic Cow
Her Milk feeding Ancient Ymir and It's Race.
Her licking  exposing Buri ,the Ancestor of the Gods.
Before the World as We Know it was Made....
The Painting  did not completely fit onto the scanner,
Cutting off the Cosmic Cows tail, and My Last Name on the signature.
I can still use it here, in this Space, in this context of The Cosmic Cow's Tale,
with the color saturation punched up, and My Tag digitally sprayed on the primordial proto -landscape

finding comfort from the doing

belonging and place
feeling you are part

"They sure Love him!" I say to My Wife, waving the Spring 2016  Issue No.72 of OAK LEAVES open to the inside cover Thank you , full page color portrait of the Current Arch Druid leaving after six years.

I  quickly look past that , curious to see who produced this particular Issue, having gotten no response  about advertising in it, and having heard of Staff changes and questions about the subscription print publications continued existence in the future in a non electronic form.

I wasn't aware of the overlap of circumstance and situation at the time.

I had the inside front cover of ADF's Publication The Druids' Progress   report number 16 Final Issue- twenty years ago .
I have a scribble black and white drawing with thanks and farewell, explanation of sorts as to the changes that took place while I was Chronicler of ADF, the transition from the original founding Arch- Druid to the  vice  arch Druid turned Second Arch- Druid to the first elected Arch- Druid who would be number Three Who's Wife would be re branding the publication  as Oak Leaves.

The next Day

I suggest to My Wife that I want to walk over to Mirabai of Woodstock.
We run into two sets of three friends crossing the street past the village green, now stone.
I say something out loud about hoping there would be something....
To My Surprise there was,
   The Solitary Druid,
 Walking the Path of Wisdom and Spirit
by      Rev, Robert Lee (Skip) Ellison                ADF    Publishing.
My Wife asks if We should  purchase through ADF?
( $No!)
The fact that I found something  that I had not ordered, not built up expectations about made this a special
                                                     Omen
I sat in the car and  looked at the book while My Wife got groceries from the Health Food Store.
Ecstatic in the Parking Lot,
This work, The Book, much more than the name would  imply.
It appears to be the best singular Druid Book on the Market.
Some how avoiding the condescending instructional tone of the
 "How to be a Druid like Me school of publishing."
It is a abundantly sourced and credited ,
 dedicated to solitaries in ADF and to the members of Muin Mound Grove ,ADF

Surprised ,but not surprised by the density and peculiarities  of the Lore and knowledge contained in its pages given My old past with the Author.
There is a lot of passion and Love between the foot notes
The rituals and chants trans formative, Inviting,
It is more reflective of My ADF experience and practice than anything projected by its Officially constructed committee programs and medias.
The Books got Soul! Makes Me feel Welcome, part of Family.
Without calling itself " the real ADF",  for Me,
It is.
My Wife spots something on Face Book, at home later that evening ,            asking Me if I knew him.
I did , I think I met Him the first Time at Wellspring when I was ordained, and a second time at the Clergy Retreat I attended
 Strange and Unusual in the sense that I know so few in ADF, and remember less
 Now in a Day, I pick up a Druid Book and It's credited Layout Artist becomes a Widow?

I think My new wallet sized Senior Priest of ADF card arrived with the next Days mail, from the Clergy counsel secretary from Michigan.
They have expiration Dates
The ADF elections are taking place now.
There are those that have twisted the concept of Sacred knowledge Quest into a mechanism for Editing,and manipulating Membership.
Using Our Necessity of a Religious Training System as a way to exclude and neglect the contributions of some, more than others.
Titles, Trinkets and Training are not what My ADF is about.
 I do not pledge My alliance  to the system or My Reliance on the Program as the Basis of My ADF.
I am revolted that students felt the need to progress and advance through rankings at others expense , that it is necessary to purge and cull.

Despite being one of the Oldest Members Of ADF Clergy Counsel and consistently critical of the moral- ethical- magical repercussions of taking away-separating- sacrifice in the name of ________.
I have no impact upon the opinions of the dominate officers who see the Heirarchy of " what do you think a ADF priest should be?"     school  as Our Religious Brand      The righteous integrity of technocrats

Funny thing is it's not polite to cast doubt about the authenticity  and motivation of others in this company.
To point out any cause and effect correlation between "Training" experience of study program enrichment and the development of Local Groves, Their expectations? Resentment, feelings of failure , loss or pressure.
Who are We to tell someone "I wont accept your work if it is not submitted properly on time when I say, in the form I say- cause that's the Way! Religion Brand,created by officers and rubber stamped by committee!"

The traffic on the clergy list is slowing,The Author, Arch-Druid number four for Nine Years is on his way to Tredara the place of Arch- Druid number two and his Wife,for the Memorial of Rev A J Gooch of Stone Creed Grove ADF,                                                  

Overlap

 Identities intertwined,three bodies and the energetic field  inter-relationship .influence as witness to being



Outer boundaries and definition  of inner Spirit
Sometimes it becomes a challenge separating one thing from another.
Each form a projected quality of response- sentience of space, settling in place
nucleation
The attractive , compelling principal that orders and assembles the dust  into shapes with mass and density,
The stuff that is Spirit Home.
unseen depth hidden within,
Magnetic Polarity and Spin
layer after layer
all moving
extending above and beyond
moving as part of a inseparable  Greater Whole
The space Between things is never empty.
Distance and Time  Irrelevant.
Life paths,  orbits ,all around us ,and within us as well.