Cool.
Showing posts with label paganism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paganism. Show all posts
Monday, October 29, 2007
30 years ago...
On October 27th, 1977, as near as I can figure out, I got my first initiation in the New Wiccan Church. This proves I have NO idea what, save for the fact that I'm getting old and I'm still alive so far to get older.
Cool.
Cool.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Sacred site to be cleansed after Bush visit
From correspondents in Guatemala City, Source: AFP, news.com.au
Indigenous Guatemalans said today they would hold a spiritual cleansing rite to remove bad spirits after US President George W. Bush visited the sacred Iximche Mayan ruins.
About 50 local people broke through a security cordon to reach the entrance of the park around the ancient city founded in 1470 by the Kaqchikel Mayans.
Four were detained by police, according to the protesters, who said they would carry out the cleansing ritual to remove "bad spirits and bad energy'' left by Mr Bush at Iximche, 90km west of Guatemala City.
Mr Bush and his wife Laura visited the site with Guatemalan President Oscar Berger and his wife Wendy.
In Tecpan, near the ruins, protesters set up banners that read "Out with Bush, the murderer, invader, fascist, criminal".
"No more blood for oil", said another banner.
Later in a visit to the village Santa Cruz Balanya in western Guatemala, another group of indigenous women weavers presented a hand-made woollen rug and jumper to Mr Bush.
Friday, March 03, 2006
The Thanksgiving Ritual of Coffee
JeanC posted something today on her blog, JeanC's Cat House and Shooting Society, about the Chocolate Ritual. I have always liked the Chocolate Ritual myself, although I prefer the Thanksgiving Ritual of Coffee, which I learned back in 1982 at a gathering. The Ritual of Coffee is a simple ritual of thanksgiving to the Gods and goes like this:
Pour a cup of the sacred liquid in the ritual morning chalice*.
Inhale the sweet fragrance, then raise the chalice to the heavens in adoration for a moment.
Bring the chalice to your lips and take a loud, ceremonial sip.
Raise it to the heavens again and shout the invocation:
"Oh, Gods!"
"I NEEDED that!!"
* There are multiple divergent sectarian differences about the nature of the sacred liquid used, including the Path of Delectable Darkness, the Way of Sweetness and Light, and a semi-heretical sect known as the Tea-osophists. Do whatever seems best to you.
Pour a cup of the sacred liquid in the ritual morning chalice*.
Inhale the sweet fragrance, then raise the chalice to the heavens in adoration for a moment.
Bring the chalice to your lips and take a loud, ceremonial sip.
Raise it to the heavens again and shout the invocation:
"Oh, Gods!"
"I NEEDED that!!"
* There are multiple divergent sectarian differences about the nature of the sacred liquid used, including the Path of Delectable Darkness, the Way of Sweetness and Light, and a semi-heretical sect known as the Tea-osophists. Do whatever seems best to you.
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Blessed Winter Solstice!
The old year ended on October 31st and we've been moving through the dark time.
Now, with the return of the light, the new year has begun at last and the Year Wheel starts another cycle.
Blessed Winter Solstice to all!
Monday, October 03, 2005
Andras and Deirdre
We could easily have spent a couple days exploring Lexington and Concord. It's charming there and we'd have loved to see the inside of the Wayside and there was plenty of touristy stuff worth doing in the towns from the look of it. Add another thing to the list for the next time we're in Massachusetts.
We headed west to Worthington. Andras and Deirdre (et al.) live on a farm out there. It was a longer drive than we thought it'd be (Massachusetts is a lot wider than I thought it was and the roads weren't necessarily as traversable as I might have expected), so we got there around 6:00pm.
I've known Andras and Deirdre since 1982, when I met them at an early Pagan Spirit Gathering. They were head of Earthspirit then (and now) and they did lots of good things for the pagan and Wiccan communities back then (and still do, from what I can see). I was also blessed with the chance to work with them in Covenant of the Goddess for a number of years. They are fine people, wonderful singers, well-read and thoughtful, and they have a delicious sense of humor. They are also delightfully pretty. All these traits have been passed on to both of their children. The last times I saw them was in 1989 at their old house in Boston and then a couple years later in Seattle, when they came out to visit us. Donovan was very young and Isobel hadn't been born yet. They have long since moved from the Greater Boston area and are living on 135 acres in as pretty a valley as you've ever seen.
Having braved the roads and heading out to roughly the middle of nowhere (but a very pretty nowhere, I hasten to add!), we made it to the farm. There were many hugs and introductions. I introduced the Babe to them (they'd not met her before) and we both met Donovan (who wasn't talking much when I'd seen him many years before) and Isobel (who hadn't even been born the last time I saw A & D). It was amazing: 15 years and Deirdre hasn't changed. I'm of the opinion that she's never going to show her age.
It being later than we'd hoped to arrive, we took a tour around the farm while there was still light. The first thing we saw was the stream. There are several streams on the property; this one is the biggest.
The stream was running low when we saw it (although we heard tales of the flood a few years back, when the stream was auditioning for a role as "The Gushing Torrent"), so we could see the bed easily. As we got closer to it, we saw that there were a number of rock sculptures sticking up on the banks.
A friend of theirs comes by and creates rock sculptures. I didn't find out how. When the stream is fuller, I'm sure that some of these are sticking out from under the water, Andy Goldsworthy-style. (If you're not already familiar with Andy Goldsworthy's work, check out some sample images here.) I really like what he's done.
In a field near the stream, there's a maze in the making.
The maze is currently laid out with stones. I've always thought that a large parcel of land is enhanced by the addition of a maze somewhere.
Not far from the maze is a Peace Circle.
In the Peace Circle is a pile of rocks brought from all over the world and deposited here.
We headed back up from the Peace Circle towards the house and the animals.
We'd seen the chickens (some of whom were stretching the concept of "free-range" to its absolute limit) as we drove up. They're a good-looking bunch of birds and fresh free-range eggs are a culinary bedazzlement, but, honestly, I've seen chickens and there's not to say about them but, "Yup, Maw, that's a fine-looking bunch o' chickens!" Goats, on the other hand, have character--usually on the pugnacious side, but character nonetheless. The billy has an amazing set of horns.
We then went up to see the llama, whose name is Sinta.
The llama lives in a pen with a bunch of the goats. The goats and the llama are reasonably friendly and tolerate people getting into the pen with them.
Quite apart from the convenience of corralling the llama with the goats, the theory is that the llama will protect the goats from coyotes should any show up. "Has it done so?" I asked. "Well, no, but there is a llama nearby that stomped a porcupine to death when it got into the pen." "How did they know for sure?" "They had to pull quills out of the llama's feet." Hokay….
The Babe didn't get too close to Sinta. She doesn't have a fear of big animals, but she has seen llamas spit on two different occasions (they do spit every so often). Both times, it nailed one of her brothers, so I guess that counts as a draw.
I got close enough to pet Sinta a little. Llamas are rather adorable animals, generally, and I have always enjoyed the fact that they hum.
We then hiked up the hill. The Babe's knees were bothering her so she didn't join us. We passed the back of the farm house and could peer into Andras's office, which looked to be about the level of hoorah's nest that mine usually is.
We also went past the remains of the old sugar shack, which from the looks of it remains standing mostly out of force of habit at this point. Donovan told me that up until a year or two ago, you could still smell the lingering aroma of maple sugar in the shack.
The sugar shack was up the hill from the house. The sugar shack was on my right as I headed up the hill. Looking straight up the hill, there was a large clearing. I heard stories about sledding aaaaaaall the way down the hill, navigating the path at the bottom of the hill onto the road by the house, and then going all the way down the road to the stream: about 1/4 mile! Quite a ride, I must say! (I tried enhancing the picture as best I could, but the light was fading at that point and it was tough getting a good shot. Next time, next time.)
Facing away from the sugar shack to the left was more field. Although the picture doesn't show it, there's a much sharper drop-off that leads down to where the llamas and goats and bunnies are. Isobel and Donovan were telling me about how they liked sledding and skiing on that part of it best.
A little ways above the sugar shack on the right was another clearing, in which was a standing circle of stones that Andras and Deirdre had created.
Andras told me that they'd gotten stones in place in three different ways:
All three ways were fun. And the circle is standing, so they were all effective.
One of the stones looked very much like the Barber stone of the Avebury circle. It's a fine stone circle, as good as any contemporary stone circle I've seen. Of course, the surroundings and company improve it, too.
We went back down the hill, snagged the Babe, and went inside. Dinner was fantastic and there were several other people in the community joining us. Afterwards we dug out songs that we hadn't sung in ages and new gems that we hadn't had a chance to share with each other.
Andras reminded me of one song that I'd completely forgotten that I used to do, entitled "You Can Sing Anything You Want to 'Alice's Restaurant'." Andras, Deirdre, Donovan, and Isobel all joined in for two songs with harmony. We were thrilled.
Sue was also able to join us later in the evening--huzzah!
We kept singing and telling stories until 11-ish, at which time we bade sorry goodbyes and headed off for the evening. I'd had a grand time and was very pleased with having been able to share some of my favorite people with my favorite person and vice versa.
The Babe was vastly impressed with Donovan and Isobel (me, too) said as much. We'll be visiting again and not in 15 years. We got to our hotel, crawled into bed, and fell asleep almost immediately after a rich, happy day.
Friday, September 30, 2005
Lexington & Concord
Boston was grand fun and we're going to do it again. (Note: We had plenty of lobster while we were there. I'm sure that'll elicit cries of deep and abiding sympathy from all of you dear readers.) It was time to pack up and head west to visit dear friends, Andras and Deirdre. But first, we needed to get our car.
For those of you unfamiliar with Boston, let me explain something: you don't have to be crazy to drive in Boston, but it sure helps. Boston is post-graduate driving. I wasn't interested in trying to drive around Boston at all so we had made arrangements to pick up our Enterprise rental car at the airport (the offer of "free prick-up and delivery" notwithstanding).
We got to the Enterprise rental car location and they offered us an upgrade to the car we normally drive for an additional $5/day, which we jumped on. It wasn't the same color, but wotthehell; we knew what it felt like and how it handled. I got directions to a Bank of America. We headed to the bank. I had a lot to do ultimately, so it took a little while. I asked the teller, who was a very helpful person, where I might find a Starbuck's in the area. She wasn't sure, so she asked her boss who was in the next cage. He said, "Well, you know, this is actually an historic district of Massachusetts. It's probably the only place where there isn't a Starbuck's nearby." I laughed. He suggested we could head into Boston--only about 5 miles away as the crow flies but could've been an hour as the crow drives--where there were Starbuck's facing other Starbuck's across the street from each other (we'd seen 'em).
We got lost heading out from the bank. (It turned out later that there was a really confusing and unmarked roundabout we needed to have navigated differently.) I ended up going down one road and looking for somewhere to cut back up to the road and try again. No luck, so I turned the other way into a large parking lot to get back to the road and keep going until I found some way to get headed in the direction I was trying to go.
And then I stopped. And I got out of the car. And I took a picture. Yes, we'd stumbled onto the corporate headquarters of the NECCO Company! You can see the Necco Wafers on the side of the door. How very cool!! It had never dawned on me after years of enjoying NECCO Wafers that "NECCO" is an acronym for "New England Confectionary Company." According to the history on their web page, they recently acquired Clark Bar, so if you're a fan of Clark Bars, that's who makes 'em now.
Well, we finally escaped the Greater Boston area and headed north to Salem. The Babe had a desire to see the Salem Witch Museum and I had to admit a certain morbid curiousity myself. Salem's a very pretty little town and the museum isn't nearly as bad for misinformation as I thought it was going to be--in fact, the part on the witch trials themselves was pretty good--but the stuff on contemporary Wicca and paganism was pretty pathetic and the gift shop was truly ghastly for appealing to stereotypes. Oh, well, it could've been a heckuva lot worse than it was.
We were heading west to Worthington, but we made a couple stops on the way. Our next stop was up to the Lexington and Concord area. Some of this was for the Revolutionary War stuff, but the Babe had one very particular objective in mind: the Wayside. The Wayside was the home of Louisa May Alcott, Margaret Sidney and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Sadly, the house was closed the day we were there so we couldn't see the inside, but the outside was gorgeous. Hawthorne expanded the house considerably when he was there.
The Wayside is part of the Minuteman National Historical Park and very near to the house is the site of the first engagement of the British troops and the Minutemen. We drove up the road a little farther and then walked across a bridge to look at the Minuteman statue.
This was the battle that Paul Revere, William Dawes, and a few others rode to tell people about. The British were coming to Concord to destroy rebel caches of supplies. (They found some, but most of the caches were moved to other towns.) And it was here that the British first fired on the Minutemen and vice versa. The Brits prevailed against the first group, who were badly outnumbered, but were ultimately routed
I took photos of the fields around this. It's beautiful there and I had a hard time envisioning the battle. On the other hand, I was able to see how easy it'd be for the British troops to be harried along the road by snipers: it's very woody along the road from Boston to Concord and it'd be a piece of cake to hide in the woods and take potshots at the troops coming by, particularly when you know they're coming by and they're obligingly wearing red to make them easier to see.
I was able to sneak a good shot of the Babe while we were there (hence the look on her face). It's very difficult getting her to pose for pictures, so I takes 'em where I c'n gets 'em.
We walked back up the path to the main road. One of the things we'd walked past as we went down was Ralph Waldo Emerson's house.
The house is beautiful. It has a large, rolling lawn and several outbuildings. There's a vegetable garden that's probably about half an acre off to one side in the front. And the river is down the hill from the house to make lovely sounds in the evenings.
Before we left the area, we stopped at a delightful cheese shop in town and got provisions. Then, having driven by yet another Unitarian Church, we headed west towards Worthington for dinner and friends.
Monday, April 04, 2005
Monday in the wee hours
My body still thinks it's 12:50 and not 1:50am so I'm not nearly as sleepy as I could be.
An old friend asked me if I'd be the emcee at the CASA (Cascadia Alternative Spirituality Association) Spring Fling on May 1. Sadly, I had to say "No," as I'm going to be travelling a lot in the subsequent two weeks and won't be able to squeeze in a second trip to Seattle. But you should consider showing up--it should be a fun event.
CASA's mission is "to establish and maintain an urban physical facility for alternative spirituality communities to hold worship services, classes, meetings and social events, as well as to host offices for member communities." Given the difficulty that minority religions sometimes have in finding suitable meeting space, it's a boon to the community. Go check them out if you live in or near Seattle.
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