Well another Lughnasa has come and gone…
 This year most of my plans for celebrating had to be cancelled due to illness, but I was able to have a nice quiet celebration yesterday with my family. We started off with a nice breakfast of oatmeal and raspberries we picked from our yard and then the girls and I spent the day together while my husband worked. We cleaned the ritual room and re-did the main altar while talking about what Lughnasa was to us. My 3 year old decided it was a …
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  Nothing is more useful in paganism or can cause more confusion than labels, and both of those apply in equal measure to the word “Druid”. Labels, of course, serve an important purpose in connecting to people’s schema and helping to give an instant understanding of what you’re talking about or trying to convey; they create a common ground, although sometimes defintions differ and discussion is required to get on the same page.
  The best words to describe my spirituality are probably …
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Today’s blog post has been pre-empted by illness. Instead, please enjoy this 1893 W. B. Yeats poem:

Into the Twilight

Out-worn heart, in a time out-worn,
Come clear of the nets of wrong and right;
Laugh, heart, again in the gray twilight;
Sigh, heart, again in the dew of the morn.
Thy mother Eire is always young,
Dew ever shining and twilight gray,
Though hope fall from thee or love decay<br …
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   One of the key aspects of practice as a recon is the idea of offerings and sacrifice. It comes up in discussion on groups all the time, both people discussing what the ideas mean to them and also talking about what constitutes an acceptable offering or sacrifice.      For myself I define a sacrifice as the giving to a Power something precious and valuable – often irreplaceable –  and I see an offering as the giving of something special but not unique. Put another way I see a sacrifice as a gift while an offering is more of a sharing. These are purely my own definitions of course; if you look both words up in the dictionary you’ll see the meanings are essentially identical. When the subject of sacrifices comes up people usually think of animals, but other things like jewelry, silver, and weaponry can also be sacrificed. Offerings might include incense, flowers, food, candles, …
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There’s a saying in neopaganism “ask three pagans a question and you’ll get five answers”, well I think if you ask three neopagans about prayer you may get seven answers. It always surprises me that something that seems so essential to me can cause so much controversy in the larger neopagan community; after all prayer can be found (as far as I know) in every culture and religion around the world. Yet there are some people who are very firm in their opinions that prayer has no place in neopaganism. The same is true in Recon. although I’ve seen it more in heathenry than CR. There just seems to be something about prayer – especially daily or devotional prayer – that really puts some people off. Now don’t get me wrong I’m all in favor of personal practice being unique and I don’t think what works for me should be required for anyone else; I may pray daily and someone else may never pray outside of ritual, or at all, and that’s fine. What I don’t understand is people who are totally against …
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The Deer’s Cry is a portion of a prayer called Saint Patrick’s Lorica, or breastplate from around the 8th century CE in Ireland. The portion that makes up the Deer’s Cry is thought to be a survival of an older traditional prayer by some people; whether it is or not it is a beautiful little prayer and very useful.

Old Irish:

“Atomriug indiu
niurt nime,
soilsi gréne,
étrochtai éscai,
áni thened,
déni lóchet,
luaithi gaíthe,
fudomnai mara,
tairismigi thalman,
cobsaidi ailech.” *

Modern Irish:

“Éirím inniú
I gcumhacht na bhFlaitheas,
I soillse gréine,
I ngile na gealaí,
In áilleacht tine,
I mire lasrach,
I luas gaoithe,
I ndoimhneacht farraige,
I mbuanseasmhacht talún,
I ndaingneacht carraige.”**

English:

“I arise today
through the strength of heaven
the light of the sun,
the brillance of the moon,
the splendor of fire,
speed of lightning,
swiftness of wind,
depth of the sea,
stability of the earth,
firmness of rock.”

*Old Irish courtesy of http://www.daltai.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/daltai/discus/show.pl?tpc=12465&post=10574#POST10574
** Modern Irish courtesy of http://www.cumannnasagart.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=18&Itemid=45

I hadn’t intended to do another post on this but recent discussions made me realize I left out one major area where discernment is vital and very underused…so let’s start with a story…
   I had made an appointment for an Ogham reading at a local pagan shop, because, well I had never run across an Ogham reader before and I couldn’t resist. When I arrived for the appointment I was told the original reader was out sick but that another man was in who also read Ogham so I agreed to see him instead. We went back and sat down and he began the normal introductory speech about what the Ogham are; as soon as politely possible I broke in and said I already knew what they were.
  Reader: “Oh, are you interested in Celtic things?”
  Me: “You could say that.”
  Reader: “If you ever want to really learn about Celtic magic or practice I’d be willing to take you on as a student. I’m the arch-druid of the Northeast and I mentor for the Ancient Order of Druids in America.”
  Me: Blink. Blink.
  This was the point when I should have used some discernment and politely gotten the heck out of there with my money, but sadly I chose to stay…and ended up reading for myself, after the “reader” pulled out the book that came with the Ogham set and asked my opinion on the interpretation….but as soon as I left I emailed the AODA to confirm that he was telling the truth, or more to the point that he wasn’t, about his claim of being a mentor for them. I received a very nice email back from John Michael Greer confirming my suspicion that his organization did not include this person as a member and that he in no way taught or mentored for them.
  The point of this story? Discernment extends to claims people make about themselves; we can’t just blindly trust that people are what they say they are, and more importantly there is absolutely nothing wrong with checking on people’s claims. I have several “titles” which I don’t often use but if I were to use them they could all be easily confirmed with the groups I belong to. For example, if I were to tell someone, perhaps at the next pagan pride day, that I was a Druid that can be confirmed through my Order (the Order of the White Oak – you can check too). When someone claims to belong to a group or organization it can be checked. When they claim a specific title or position within a group that can also be checked. Don’t be afraid to check. It isn’t rude, especially if you are thinking of this person as a potential teacher.
  So, you’re asking, what about the things that can’t be checked? If someone claims to be solitary priestess or a Druid without a group affiliation? That is when discernment through observation comes in. Do they embody what they are claiming to be? If they do, good. If they don’t then they aren’t. Pretty much anyone can claim to be anything – claiming it doesn’t make it true. Being it makes it true. This doesn’t mean you have to do anything about your conclusion, necessarily, but if someone is claiming to deserve respect because of a false title you aren’t obligated to give them special treatment or to excuse bad behavior. If someone is offering to teach you or include you in their group but they can’t seem to find their butt with both hands you have every right to back away slowly and politely decline. And never surrender your own opinion to anyone just because they claim a big fancy title. It can be easy to get over-awed by a person throwing around impressive sounding credentials and in the pagan community there seems to be this unspoken rule that we just take people at their word, but if the credentials are sound they will hold up to scrutiny, and if the person is what they say they are then you should know it because they should embody it.
  Oh, and that whole “arch-druid of the north east” thing?  Some groups like ADF do have archdruids, but if someone claims to be the head of an entire pagan population without having a group affiliation it’s pretty obviously BS. Anyone can claim to be the archdruid of the north east, or the witch queen of CT, or whatever…sounds impressive but it’s nothing but ego talking.<><>