Archive for March, 2009

First up in the News

I soapbox rant of mine made it on Witchvox last week. No great surprise there right? Another rant on the Vox.
What was surprising was is it actually lit a fire in the online pagan community at large, albeit a very small one.
I am no psychologist nor sociologist so I will not hazard a guess as to why this article, of all articles would catch on so well myself. Well I will but I’m not sharing them with ya…
Anyways I thought I’d share some of the responses I’ve gotten from folks. Interestingly enough, most positive responses came via email, comments here, or through the Vox. While the less than positive comments were never directly sent to me, but posted on other folks blogs and such. Once again , I am no sociologist…
For those of you wondering were said rant came from, if you go through the Vox’s archives back to last October/September sometimes, there was a series of articles of (mostly young) newbies complaining that there “Aren’t any good Elders, they’ve all abandoned us, people are obligated to teach us” etc etc. One article in fact was call something along the lines of “Where have all the Gardner’s Gone?” or something along those lines. Actually there may have been more than one titled like that. Anyhow…
I could try to clarify what I was trying to say, I could defend it. But I wont.
I will say this though:

Whether you liked my article or not. I’m glad I got you all TALKING.

Of all the emails here is an excerpt of my favourite:
“Do want to be, a Garderian High Priestess?

I read your acrticle and i sort of got the idea that, you might be intersted in takeing on a Garderian Linage, iam Garderian and i can pass this on to you if you like.”
I won’t share any other emails, as I will respect that they were sent privatley and not posted publicly. But I did get more than a few offers from folks to stand with their shield beside me, and I thank you all for that!!

Here are a few links to other blogs and such who commented on the article. Including the Wild Hunt (I feel special!)

http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/03/happy-st-patricks-day.html

http://dubhlainn.livejournal.com/246368.html

http://johnfranc.blogspot.com/2009/03/where-have-all-gardners-and-crowleys.html

http://northwestpass.livejournal.com/78166.html   http://northwestpass.livejournal.com/78412.html

 

In other news

I have actually taken much of the week off to get caught up with various Hedge related projects and more…

The Hearth Craft Class on the forum will finish off (Its DYI you can take it any time)

The Calendar project is winding up on the Forum, we are making our calendar, likely to wind up self published yay to free press!

The Cafepress shop will get updated and so will preparations for Beltaine, which I’m hosting a (quite) small gathering on my land for. Check out the forum for updates and discussion on those as well.

And if any Hedge members or friends want the link to their website or blog moved to the Friends of the Hedge link category, just let me know.

Cheers Folks!

I am hosting Beltaine (May 1st to 3rd, its a weekend) at my farm, Misty Acres.

Please come out and enjoy 55 acres in southern British Columbia that backs onto thousands of acres of back country. Misty Acres is located on a mountainside between Grand Forks and Greenwood.

Misty Acres has access to the Trans Canada trail on the property. There are several lakes nearby as well as the Kettle Valley river, which is world renown for its inner-tubing (though the water may be a little chilly for swimming). Also a short drive away is an old mine where you can take tours and collect your own crystals and semi-precious stones.

There are a few different groves and areas for ritual, so you or your group can have your own ritual. I will also be leading a (Celtic) Hedgewitch-y ritual.

There is plenty of camping space, and kids and dogs are allowed.
Dogs MUST be up to date on their vaccination and you will have to bring something from your vet to prove this (we are an animal rescue an cannot risk disease).
Kids must be supervised by their parents or older sibling at all times.

Activities planned so far include a wildcrafting walk, a BBQ (possibly a pig and veggie roast), a bellbranch and/or rattle-making workshop, a faux boar hunt hosted by the Druid’s Hearth, crowning May Queen and King, a processional (feel free to dress up), a land blessing, seed blessings and scattering, a hobby horse race (with prizes for “best in show”) and (hopefully) a maypole dance.

Possibly also a trail ride or pony ride for us and the kids.

As well as good old-fashioned campfire fun!

Access to Juniper’s house for bathroom and kitchen will be available. If there is bad weather, we can all move indoors.

No vendors please, or I will have to get festival status. Trade and barter is permitted however, juts no money can change hands.

There is ample parking for RVs, but you will have to drydock.

Bring food for yourself, and a potluck item for the BBQ.

No underage drinking (drinking age is 19)

Please bring camping gear, food and drinks, a broom or hobby horse for the race (loaners will be provided for those who do not bring one), offerings for the ritual, a knife or pruning shears and other supplies for the wildcrafting walk, a field guide or book on herbs and plants in BC if you have one, a costume or ritual robes for the processional and ritual, and anything else you wish to bring along.

We will have a nudity free area around much of the property, as well as my Mom’s (Sue) house and property next door; I doubt she wants to see it. Nudity will be encouraged in the more wooded and therefore private areas. Roughly half of the property is visible from the hiway, though you may be far enough away to look like an ant, you would still be a naked ant, so I don’t think nudity will be quite so prevalent here.

I will give families with children, elderly etc first choice in the main camp closest to my home.

Feel free to invite others; we can have a maximum of 50 people so that we do not have to get a festival licence. Plus as this is my first year on the property, I want a smaller and more family oriented gathering.

I’d like to know by April 15th if you will be attending.

We do rescue dogs on our property, and while most of them will be down on my Mother’s side of the land, I should mention there will be smaller dogs about, along with the ones that people bring. We do ask that people do not head over to Sues’ house, the kennel or horse area without an organizer along.

Non-Pagans are more than welcome, so long as they are open-minded. Prayers and toasts to non-pagans gods will be allowed as well if they wish to join in the toasting the meal or any such thing.

Yes this is a free event, though there will be a donation jar to go towards the costs of the festival and for the dog rescue as well. Just bring what you need.

Water is free but it is well water, it’s safe to drink but some folk are not fond of it.
There will be limited campfires and BBQs, and all bonfires will be communal, so if you have a camp stove or some such thing, you may want to bring it.
Refrigerator space will be communal as well.

This will be operated on the honor system and with only a few volunteers.
Guests will be asked to clean up after themselves and mind proper camping safety etc
Peeing in the woods will be encouraged. Leaving toilet paper in the woods is not.
Not unlike an old style clan gathering

As we are on the mountain itself, the weather is a bit changeable. The clouds like to hang out on “misty” acres. It should be sunny and warm during the day but the mornings and late nights tend to be misty and cool, so I recommend bringing layers and a extra blanket or two just in case. If the weather gets too bad there are two homes on the land and there will be a bit of a pavilion set up as well.

There is somewhat limited parking, so we are encouraging people to carpool if possible.

People will be free to do as they please, explore, hike, go into town, head for the river etc.
The schedule for events will be handed out to everyone, as well as map. If you or anyone wishes to do a little demonstration, poetry reading, workshop, lecture etc please fell free to do so. There will also be a soapbox set up in the main camp for anyone who needs to vent.

PS if you have Hawthorn or Blackthorn in your area, or sold in your area, I’d be glad to have one to plant here for the festival. Thanks

Email me at juniper@walkingthehedge.net or juniper@gmail.com for more information address and phone number etc

Please RVSP as soon as possible.

If anyone wants to volunteer and hour or two of time during the event just to help out with oddball jobs we would very much appreciate it!!! And it will make you look good to your pagan community *wink*

Trickster is what I am
Crooked is the Path I walk
Satire is the language I speak
Knowledge is what I seek
Acceptance is what I will never have
Space cadet is what they call me
Lost and not-lost is how I feel
Trust and truth is how I cope
Before the Horned One do I kneel
My soul was part of the deal
Strange is the life I lead
Lonely is what my heart beats
A different road lies beneath my feet
Curiosity is what drives me
Controversy is what I stir up
Coyote is my friend
Dog my family
Owl guides me
Crow whispers to me
Stag watches
Cat prowls
And I howl

One upon a time
On the misty moors of old Erin (Ireland)
The people had a faith
We now call pagan
They loved the land and honored their dead
They were good folk
Folk like you and I

And their Druids were oft called
The “serpents of wisdom”
For the snake did symbolize
Wisdom
Hidden meanings, cycles
Life and death
And the gods and goddesses

Then along came a man named Patrick
Who said to his priests and armed men
“Lets us drive out these snakes
From the shores of green Ireland”
And so he did, with word and sword
By threat and prayer and curse and more
Druids killed and witches burned
All in the name of old Patty’s
Jealous little god

So now they say there are no snakes
Not in tragic Erin
Not here, nor there nor anywhere
But my friend you must see
The lies that church will tell ye
For there are still snakes
In Erin and abroad
And I am one of them

An article I wrote a while back about how people need to stop complaining there are not enough Elders and start working on becoming Elders themselves was put up on witchvox this week. I was out of town and didn’t know until I got home!

Thank you everyone who has emailed me, and I promise to get back to everyone. Might take me a week but I will.

I have gotten the strongest response from HPs and community leaders, half a dozen emails from Head-so-and-so of such-and-such group. Yikes! *hides* Actually, they’ve all had good things to say *shines*

Something I would like to mention to everyone is that I am not making the assumption that there are no more Crowleys and Gardners myself, but addressing that very attitude in the community at large. So please stop emailing me that there are good Elders out there, I know that. Though I may think there’s less out there than you do, I like to set the bar pretty high.

Thanks for reading it and;

YES you may reproduce anything I write just take my name (and better yet a link to Walking the Hedge at the bottom)

A link to the article on the blog (may have less typos)

Cheers!

(I wrote this one years ago, but I still bring it out every spring when the roads open up and the construction season begins)

My mother is a Traffic Control Person, also known as a flagger. You know, one of those people in the orange or yellow vest who stop you at construction sites.
Many people hate to see a flagger with a stop or slow sign in their hand step in front of their vehicle. After all, you don’t want to be 2 minutes late to get wherever you are going. Its such a pain in the butt to have to wait a few minutes, or to slow down when traveling through a construction zone. Many people tell my Mother that her job could be replaced by a bucket of sand, just stick the sign in that, who needs some person telling them how to drive?

The purpose of my Mothers job is very clear to her, even if you may not understand it. Her job is to protect the lives of everyone working in and driving through a construction zone.
Her job is to stop you from driving into a sinkhole, or from driving into a dump truck; its to keep you from going into head-on traffic when there are lanes closed.

Did you know that when a road is closed off, many crews will dump the load of gravel or dirt from the dump truck right in the middle of the road? Or that they will park heavy equipment in the middle of the hiway? When traffic is stopped, they know it only takes a minute or two to move it, so they leave it there, to make their jobs easier. So, what happens when you blow past that stop sign and drive right into a pile of dirt, or a giant backhoe? You just might die; you just might kill somebody else.

What happens when you speed through a construction zone? You put the lives of everyone around you at risk. People’s loved ones work here.

Did you know that firemen and police officers have been killed by people speeding past a parked fire truck or police cruiser with flashing lights and everything going?

In some States and Provinces, a flagger can make pretty darn good money. Not in my Province though, my Mom makes 11 dollars an hour to step in front of moving vehicles.

Flaggers work long hours, often 12 or more.
They rarely get lunch or even potty breaks.

They stand out in all kinds of weather, including below freezing conditions, or extreme summer heat.

All day long, they get to listen to people yell at them, call them awful names and threaten them just for trying to keep those people safe.

My Moms job is to keep you safe and alive, but many people call her terrible names for this. They flip her the bird, they throw objects, like beer bottles, at her from their cars. There has even been a few times where angry men have gotten out of their cars, intent on attacking my mother because they didn’t want to wait any longer. My Mom is 50+ years old, she is 5 feet 3 inches and weighs 120 pounds soaking wet, thank the Gods for the guy on the work crews who have saved her from attack every time!

I don’t care if they’re making 25 dollars an hour; these people risk their lives everyday to make sure you get home safely and to make sure the guys working the construction zone get home too. There is not enough money in the world to justify losing my Mom to a drunk driver or speeding a**hole.

I know, I know. Obviously these people are horrid, uneducated blue collar slobs who can‘t even get a real job. They MUST be drunks or something to wind up working construction. Somebody has to do that job, would you prefer a lottery? Maybe you’d be cleaning my toilets next week.

A few years ago I was especially relieved that my Mom had taken a few days off .
On March 2006, at about 11:40 pm, a speeding Camero came roaring through a construction site on the hiway in my hometown.
The driver swerved around another vehicle, clipping marker pylons before swinging back and ploughing into a parked vehicle and the flagger.
The flagger was standing beside her work truck when he hit her.
She was squished between the two vehicles before being thrown across the hiway.

The car then slammed into a dump truck and a backhoe working on the crossing of Highway 97 and Highway 33.

The flag person was pronounced dead at the scene.

The flagger was a friend and co-worker of my Moms. She was 43 years old and her name was Theresa. She was a single mother of a teenage daughter, who now has no family at all. Imagine waking up to hear the news that some drunk driver killed your Mom.

Please, I beg you. SLOW DOWN, OBEY THE SIGNS, WAIT PATIENTLY, DON’T ROAD RAGE, DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE, TURN THE CELL PHONE OFF IN THE CAR
And don’t kill my Mom too.

Thanks, Juniper