30DOD – 13 – Relationships: The Solar Festivals

Tags

30daysofdruidry, druidry, paganism

 This is the thirteenth post in the 30 days to Druidry series.

Equinox. Solstice.

The four festivals of the sun break up the suns cycles into fullest, waning half, lowest and waxing half. The two halves are known as equinoxes and here, the length of day and night are equal. As the fire festivals relate to the turning of the earth, and of sunlight also, I wonder why they’re named as such. Surely these four are fire festivals too?  It’s interesting to ponder the use of language in these terms.

 

Solstices

The Winter Solstice is the shortest day, when I can sometimes see sunrise and the stillness reaches its own level of quiet. The candles are lit and we say goodbye to a winter we may have feared; yet we bid it farewell with a sense of loss. This space and this gentle quiet float on the winter air, begin to ripple and fade as spring arrives.

 

The Summer Solstice, in comparison, is the longest day. Where we awaken to a bright day and watch it fade well after the evening meal.

The warmth of the sun seems eternal in this moment and I usually forget, this is the goodbye to Summer. In that light I am eternal and time stops; bright and blazing.

 

In the moments of solstice; there’s a stillness of two different qualities; which I fail to find anywhere else in the year.

 

Equinoxes

We come to Spring Equinox, where the glimpses of Summer are around; the air not yet losing it’s crispness but the sun is out for longer and the temperature rises. The ground is alive and the flowers are waking. Life is here.

 

This week sees the Autumn Equinox; my favourite time of year. The sun is still out and summer still lies across the carpet of flowers around me; yet the air gets that crisp scent of coolness and the leaves rustle to make a different music to their normal songs. This is the time I begin to hear the silent gaps in space and feel that steady drum beat of the earth; slow, rhythmic and sturdy.

 

The representation of balance makes this my favourite festival, for the art of the trees, the crisp quiet of the air and my ability to wear knee-high stripy socks.

 

In light,
Rose

30DOD – 12 – Relationships: The Fire Festivals

Tags

30daysofdruidry, druidry, paganism

 This is the twelfth post in the 30 days to Druidry series.

 

Fire.

The festivals of the sun

Imbolc, the coming of light.

Beltain, the passion of the earth, the fullness of fire.

Lughnasadh, the harvest of heat, the reflection of the suns rays, and reflection in our heart.

Samhain, the goodbye to the sun, to fire.

My first group ritual was Beltain 2009. I did my own rites on the Friday, and attended a Wiccan ritual on the Saturday. I danced around a Maypole for the first time ever.

I even played a man as so many women attended.

I then found the Druid grove on the Sunday.

That weekend, was my first taste of Fire.

In my heart,

You ignited passion

And your energy flowed through

The rays of sunlight

To my inner flame of potential.

 

 

My Views

At Imboc, I remember that this coming of light is celebrated in other religions and cultures; that candlemas and lupercalia, groundhog day, and so on; which celebrate the return of the sun. I lift my head in the cool morning and feel the rays on my face.

At Beltain, I frolic and feel that energy within me. I wake each morning with the zest of life and the sun outside my window.

As Lughnasadh reminds me to bring in the harvest and reflect on the year, I begin to plan for the next, and stock up for winter – I get out in the sun and feel the heat.

And then, as Samhain comes closer, I remember. I remember my grandmother, who died that day, many years before I was born.

Fire, is a passion within us all;

And we find that flame

Within the earth’s own cycles.

The fire festivals bring me to life.

They emblazon me, and here I stand,

  Alight.

In Light,
Rose

Costume Party!

Tags

blazing-crusade, dancing-with-limitation, enchantress, metaphor

Today you can find me over at Taryn’s Costume Party!

Find out why I want some dragon wings and see my costume!

 

Maiden Castle

Tags

druidry, history, nature

 

On Saturday, my other half mentioned a Celtic Hillfort near his dorm, and suggested we walk to it. I’ve always liked visiting these places, despite not being interested in their history too much. Being a Druid student, I now have a rough timeline in my head of the movements of the Celts and Druidry in this country and have found myself really intrigued with dates. The Hillfort began life in 1800 BCE and was finally abandoned in 500-600 CE.

 

‘Near’ turned out to be 3 miles away, with hills and a lot of rain. We got to the top of Maiden Castle [132ft] and began to walk around the top of the 47 acre structure. Placards about the entrances defence interested him, while I looked across the fields surrounding. I felt the rain on my face and the softness of the ground beneath my feet.

 

We climbed the steep hills and trekked around the sheep blessings. And then we found the temple.

The placard said “Romano-British”, sometimes known as Romano-Celtic and we stood looking at the few small squares made of grass. None of the sacredness seemed to emit, I felt no spirits of this place, steeped in rich history. The rain, sheep and time seemed to have left it empty. We didn’t cross the threshold, walking around this structure. No energy is needed to sense respect.

Yet something in me was moved, to imagine the people in huts over at the Eastern Entrance, walking to the temple of Minerva, a Roman version of the Greek Athena.

Even if no energy can be felt, taking your mind back to that space invokes feeling. Feeling of the place, of the people who lived and died. Of ancestry.

 

In light,
Rose

30DOD – 11 – Relationships: Ritual and Worship

Tags

30daysofdruidry, druidry, paganism

 This is the eleventh post in the 30 days to Druidry series.

I talk a bit here about my personal problems in Christian ritual. I do not wish to upset anyone, these are just my feelings on the matter – feel free to skip this post.

 

Ritual is important, in any aspect of life. I brush my teeth before bed. I make a cup of nettle tea when I first wake.

 

Ritual comforts me.

 

Worship… Worship is a word I struggle with, intellectually. I grew up in a Church of England youth group and a Catholic school… complete with nuns and a built-in chapel.

 

Worship still screams “Christian” at me, and I’m not fully comfortable with that. I have no problem with Christianity as a religion; however, I disagree with the intention behind a lot of the rituals. And through association, generally don’t use the term of Worship anymore.

 

Meaning behind Ritual

The rituals of Christianity do not match with my beliefs. My main issue is with baptism. I’ll save the jokes about vampire/cannibalism in Catholic Communion and the woman-possession in a father walking the bride down an isle.

Baptism. The purification of evil, or of sin… Often, from a baby.

I do not believe babies are born inherently in sin, with evilness within them. Instantly. And I do not agree with parents telling their child that they born with sin. Partly due to my developmental Psychology course. As if kids don’t have enough problems?

 

“you were baptised”
“you mean, you thought I was full of sin?”
“errrm.. uh..”
“thanks”

 

Yeah. Moving on.

 

Intention

I love ritual. I have a morning ritual, a getting home from university ritual and a going to bed ritual. I also enjoy rituals of worship with other Pagans.

I’m a member of a Druid Grove and I have Pagan friends who I meet monthly and four times a year, do ritual with.

Pagan Ritual is focused on intention. We follow the seasons and our own development alongside the Earth’s.

Cycles

We see her start to retreat in the winter; see the leaves fade and the crops and animals hibernate. And I feel this inner tug to sit in with a book and cup of chai. I feel the inner need to retreat too; to wear darker, thicker clothes and to do things quietly; in stillness and darkness.

We are a part of nature; humans are an animal. And we feel the energy of the Earth we live within… Even if you don’t feel those pulls, you automatically change your diet, sleeping and waking activities because the same food won’t grow and the light which we depend upon shifts.

Even on a practical level, humans follow the Earth’s cycles.

In ritual, we just take that to a higher level, we connect with the changes consciously, and make plans to utilise the best of each season.

 

In ritual, I return home to myself.

 

In light,
Rose

30DOD – 10 – Relationships: Spirits of the Land

Tags

30daysofdruidry, druidry, paganism

 This is the tenth post in the 30 days to Druidry series.

I’m a manifest theist, a pantheist and half an animist.

The key bit of that is “animist”. I believe non-human entities can have/be souls/spirits.

Spirits of the Land

Plants can be affected by our thoughts. Our consciousness can affect them. I view this as connecting to THEIR consciousness. Connecting to their part of the big energy field Deity and the world is.

Okay, so essentially I am Pocahontas, believing that trees and rivers have a sense of spirit in their particles.

The spirits of the land is a little different to this; suggesting that specific areas of land have spirits which guide and protect and hang around there.

Have you ever gone somewhere to feel really at home? To feel a chill that isn’t there?

Places have vibes and I’m attracted to those which have a welcoming feeling. This is quite often spaces like Churches; where energy is often invoked [and of course it’s possible they’re placed on old religious grounds too].

Spirits of the Place

I went to a secondary school which used to be an Empresses’ house. I stayed after-school in the library with maybe 30 others to do homework, and sometimes, would need to walk back to the classroom to grab a book (or to stretch my legs as the sisters hated movement of any kind).

Walking through the dark corridors past the haunted tapestry and those paintings with eyes that followed you, I’d walk to the other end of the school – through the refectory, down the corridor past the music room, past the chapel entrance and the tuck shop, past the locker-room and up the winding stairs which still have the marks where the empresses’ heavy wrist-jewellery knocked the wood so much it left indents. I’d run up the stairs two at a time, past the languages office and the other classrooms to my own. In first year, my books where kept in my desk, under the fold-up lid: seriously old-school for a desk in 2002.

And then I’d run back, afraid of the dark, of the paintings eyes and of the creaking floorboards. I’d usually run the other way in case some spirit had followed me – I didn’t want to run head first into them.

So I’d run down to the maths block and then slide down the metal banisters [I miss my school skirts for this reason; they were very easy to slide on] of the stair well by the science block. Running down to the main hall where we had assemblies I’d begin to walk because the room echoed so loudly and if you’re scared in the dark, you don’t want to hear echoed footsteps behind you. But as I re-passed the chapel; now facing the doors themselves I’d stop and feel okay again. I remember standing the choir’s area at the top/back of the chapel and feeling something there. Something real.

To get there, you had to go up about 150 stone steps on a conical staircase – each step less than the length of my foot. But at the top; there was a locked door. And I could always feel something behind it.

And again, in my final years, I would hide down the bottom of the Maths block – the handrails were metal, the steps were stone or cement of something – and there was a door with a NO ENTRY sign on it; and a tiny window. No-one went down that far as it was a dead-end. And I would sit, afraid of how dark it was, but needing space to sit and write.

After two years of spending most of my breaks and lunch-times there, I found comfort in that space. I found peace and darkness; where I could meld into the shadows and just be free of people, of chatter and of expectation.

Minus that one time my Math’s teacher found me and thought I was doing drugs because, why else would a teenager hide at school. INFJ lady, INFJ.

Land Meets Place

If you spend a lot of time in a space, you come to feel those vibes yourself; you can come to know the spirits of that land. And spaces that once felt fearful can cradle you in safety.

The spirits of the land are still unknown to me; but I’ve my spirits of place and they’re the first step towards knowing the world, in all its energy.

In light,
Rose

30DOD – 9 – Relationships: The Ancestors

Tags

30daysofdruidry, druidry, LiteratureLessons, paganism

 This is the ninth post in the 30 days to Druidry series.

I’m an eighth Irish, and since my surname is French; something’s probably related in there, from around 1600.

The Irish Side

Having been to Ireland and learnt 100 words of Irish ‘Gaelic’, I’m especially interested in this side. Growing up in English I feel English; but I’ve always been impressed with my grandfather’s views and his manners, and when looking up our genealogy, managed to get a little closer to his side of the family.

The History Unfolds
His father was Irish, his mother English. But they got married and moved to Ireland, as the father was in the Royal Enniskillen Fusiliers. I have a photocopy of a diary, written in short-hand from when his father was part of the British Expeditionary Force in France in 1915. He was 19. He later spend his 21^st birthday in a Prisoner of War camp in Minden, baking potatoes on a fire to celebrate the event.

Two weeks ago, I turned 21.

As someone who fell asleep during history at school and when said I had to choose it or Geography which I hated just as much; I choose Geography. I just didn’t get on with History – minus the Native American Indians we studied in year 9.

Stories of Life

Yet, now I’m taking a course, effectively, in Celtic history of Druid Revivals and Mythology. I can watch Natural history programs and if the war which my family fought in is the subject; I can tolerate it.

Through finding my roots, I find a fascination in a subject I’d always written off as boring.

Ancestors

The Ancestors of this land are important, but in my personal practise, I’m getting to know my own heritage and that connection is something I feel is limited by time – if another family member dies; I lose the information, the connection to those long-past ancestors.

I can (and do) connect with the Ancestors of this sacred isle at any space in my life (climate change aside). My ancestors are those I look up to in times of need; asking what they’d advise me to do.

And on my birthday, I ate rice in a pub with my friend and parents; and we took part in the pub quiz. And I wondered if Arthur Robinson had friends around him to share the event with, if his potatoes were burnt and if he had to hide it from anyone.

In Light,
Rose

30DOD – 8 – Relationships: Gods/Deities and Spirit

Tags

30daysofdruidry, druidry, paganism

 This is the eighth post in the 30 days to Druidry series.

 

I’m going to cheat here, and direct you to a previous post where I feel I’ve covered my relationship for divinity. However, I will explain where I stand now in terms of beliefs; and then cover relationship in the link.

Beliefs

I believe in science, especially in biology and physics.

I believe that atoms have energy and that energy has consciousness.

The energy which makes up every atom of the universe; I believe can have a combined consciousness; a Field, as Lynne McTaggart would call it.

As every atom of my brain has a consciousness from the combined energy of cells; why can’t that tree have the same? 

Close people have the same thoughts; finish each others sentences, – their consciousnesses’ can connect.

So why not the conscious universe + conscious me?

That is Deity to me – a connection of energy communicating with a collection of energy.  Given a name and a face to make the communication easier.

The Relationship

Here it is; my journey with the Goddess Nyx and my fear of the dark. A post about my relationship with the divine.

What is your relationship like? How do you view deity?

In light,
Rose

30DOD – 7 – Foundations: Day-to-Day Practice

Tags

30daysofdruidry, druidry, paganism

 This is the seventh post in the 30 days to Druidry series.

 

Practice.

Every day is just a practise for the next.

There will always be more opportunities, other chances. Better-versed practises.

In terms of Druidry, this speaks to me as practising what you preach. Do I live each day as a Druid, practising Druidry?

I’d say so. As the fresh air seeps through my open windows, the rustle of leaves sounds and the smell of the damp earth rises; I feel still. I catch a bus, sit in a dingy lecture hall and write essays while eating junk food – yet in each day, I find the sacred. I light my candle, stop for ten seconds to hear the rain or give a quick prayer of thanks for a meal.

Daily practise need not be an elaborate ritual.

Find a space, and breathe it in. For ten seconds.

And then look for that each day.

In light,
Rose

Month IX – the September version

Tags

3/2/1, blazing-crusade, SlinkySummer

It’s September!!! How did THAT happen?

I’m so overwhelmed with preparations for the new course and keeping old promises that this will be brief.. but here’s how Slinky Summer Vol. 2 is ending…

Last Month – August

Last month, a few key events took up my time:

* saying goodbye to friends
* moving home
* housemate suddenly decided to leave
* the money that should have automatically come out when I hit 21 didn’t, and it’s worth less than it should be
* my birthday!
* registering for Masters course/ filling in forms
* mum’s birthday
* applying for jobs/placements
* making plans for Shivanata/Reiki sessions
* preparing for Fresher’s week – I still run a society
* launching my new website; The Phoenix Mind

September – My Plans

This month, I’m catching up with friends and family from home, working on the new site, scheduling work/shivanata sessions, beginning my new volunteering role (same company, redefined job), attending druid and wiccan circles, reading, moving back to Brighton, looking for new paid jobs, tying up the ends of my old volunteering job and hopefully starting a new one.

In terms of the goals, I’m focused on exercise the most; body-weight exercises and walks. Meditation is my next focus; I’ve not meditated in too long and it’s really showing. Diet is iffy while I’m here, so I’m happy to get back to that once I’ve moved back toBrighton.

iv/iii/ii/i

iv. Finance: frugal-fifteen
My frugal-15 challenge is over for the Summer, yet I’ll likely be putting something in it’s place as, due to complications with savings and interest rates, the money I should have to pay for my course and rent is going to fall short. Therefore, money is a key priority for this year.

iii. Exercise; physical strength
I’ve been doing at least 10 press-ups every 2-3 days, stretching and doing physio about as often. This month I’m walking to town, swinging, walking to the station and playing on the Wii. I’ve also got back to doing regular Shivanata. I think I’m going to put bellydance on hold due to the financial instability.

ii. Diet: energy/vitality
I’m working my way to waking at 8am again – currently waking at 8:45 most days. Food is somewhat out of my control until I return to Brighton, although I have actually made my own lunches at weekends; spinach pasta with fruit salad.

i. Meditation; spirit/strength of mind
I really need to get back to meditation. I do keep sitting on my bed and trying, but my mind just won’t relax.. I can let the thoughts pass; yet there’s no relaxation. It’s like I’m meditating while all tensed up. Not quite sure how to go about that yet, but it’s my next focus.

Strengthening aspect for Month IX
August was meant to be about poise… Which only kind of happened. For September, I’m returning to “capacity” in terms of rest. My focus is rejuvenation and rest and relaxation. Three Rs.

What is yours? What goals do you have?

In light,
Rose