Archive for the ‘Links’ Category

Yes! I am alive and back online. A million thanks to my well wishers!!!

In other news: The Interview Dizzy did was posted on Witchvox yay!  Which means we have many NEW MEMBERS and READERS to the Hedge this week (hullo all!) which is one reason why I post stuff on Witchvox and such.

Since I haven’t been around and will be doing a lot of catching up, its time for me to post some links to other people’s articles, stuff that I have been reading. (This is what I usually do when I’m busy)

Practice Practice Practice

“… So often we get these people appearing on witchcraft sites announcing to all and sundry that they are a font of natural talent. The less egotistical of these folks will at least admit that theirs is untrained, untapped or newly bourgeoning…but they can just tell already that they are on the verge of being the next big deal.Well guess what —- you can’t be considered a witch if you don’t actually practice witchcraft. Same way you can’t be expected to be a piano virtuoso at Carnegie Hall if you only ever bothered to learn to play “Chopsticks”….and that was 30 years ago! …”

Who are the Elders?

“… My proposition for the pagan movement is that we should use the word Elder to signify people who work to benefit the pagans of their immediate area, in whatever way appears good to the people who are so benefited. It obviously includes what we have hitherto meant by ‘teacher’, ‘organiser’, and even ‘leader’, but I have in mind something a little wider. It can mean someone who organizes or helps to organize a local pride day, or pub moot, or public pagan temple, or camping festival, or the like. It can signify those who lead open teaching circles, in any tradition, or who regularly perform public or semi-public pagan rituals, be they seasonal, like the Sabbats, or who do rites of passage like handfastings, wiccanings, or first blood ceremonies. It can include people who possess significant cultural and traditional knowledge, whether practical, as in the case of blacksmiths and carpenters, or spiritual, as in the case of teachers, counselors, and perhaps even seers and prophets. It can include musicians, artists, painters, storytellers, and artistic performers of just about any kind. It can also signify those who work for the whole tribe of pagans everywhere, on a national or international scale, for instance by writing well respected books, or managing organisations with hundreds of members, or regularly publishing a journal or magazine, or some online electronic equivalent. But most importantly, they have been doing it well, and they’ve been doing it their entire adult lives…”

Pagan values: immanence

“The immanence of deity means that there is no “out there”; there is only “right here.” The Divine is present on earth and in us. She is present in mountains, springs, trees, compost piles, cities and slums, my pit bull, you, and me. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote that “earth’s crammed with heaven.” More prosaically, I think of the world’s being infused with divinity.”

*

And a little piece of something I’m working on (one of many things as always):

I lay snuggled in bed, tucked under light cotton covers. The window abouve the bed is open; open to the forest, to the wind and rain, the thundering of a distant summer storm, the rushing of the forest. The sighing of wind weaving its way through the forest soothes me, a welcome guest, like the gentle snores of a new lover. I listen to the breath of the land; feel its trace and blow gently against my face. I drift off to sleep contentedly knowing I am safe, I sprawl and take up the whole bed, glad to be alone with my bed, my dog and the land.

The dead of winter; I huddle beneath many covers and curl close to my dog for warmth; with out her I would truly be alone. The window is closed to keep the drafts out. The land sleeps but I cannot. There is no rustle of leaves, no gentle rushing of the wind through trees, no tinkle from the now frozen stream bed. No birds sing, no animal pass by. Even the coyotes are tucked away somewhere, hiding from the cold. The silence of snow falling on a northern landscape is deafening. The cold and the silence make my solitude that much more acute. The knowledge that with the snow comes the isolation of being snowed in, and thus not able to travel come morning makes the night even bitterer. I curl up into a tight ball and wish for another human being to share my bed.

Cheers!

“Guts are important. Your guts are what digest things. But it is your brains that tell you which things to swallow and which not to swallow.”
~ Austin Dacey

“In June the sun is at it’s height in the Northern Hemisphere and nearly hidden from view in the Southern Hemisphere. Midsummer and Yule, festivals of fire and of light.

Let us then use our hearts and minds and words, invoking the fires of inspiration; let us write of the virtues and ethics and morals and values we have found in our Pagan paths, let us share how we carry these precious things forward in our own lives and out into the world.

Join me, in the month of June 2009 in writing about Pagan values.”

 

The abouve quote come from Pax, over at Chrysalis

 

 Lots of folk have answered the challenge, so go to his site and check out all the links folks have posted.

To begin my contribution I will link you to two articles I wrote along these lines last month, and promise a fresh one to come.

Dancing With the Ancestors    &    “Not I”, Said the Witch

There is something of a discussion on the subject going on at the Hedge’s forum so check that out as well.

A tidbit of mine that came from that thread:

“What matters? What is necessary?

 For myself, it is service to my gods, helping animals, being a steward of the land, living on a mountainside at the edge of the forest.
 My clan, kith and kin, my ancestors, my community.
 Being but one more person out there doing my own thing, adding my voice, my vote, living as green as I can, being one more blade in the grass roots movement that is modern paganism and Earth centered spirituality.
 It is connecting with the land, contacting the divine, being one with nature, walking in Otherworlds.
Seeking near forgotten lore…

 These things are what I need to grow and live and love and laugh as human and spiritual being.”

What do you really need?

Cya after the Spirit of the West Druid Gathering this weekend folks!

Know Thyself,

Juni

I will be attending the Spirit of the West Druid Gathering June 12 – 14 in Alberta, Canada.

 

I’ll be vending, selling some of my arts and crafts, as well I might enter the Second Annual Spirit of the West Eisteddfod – a Bardic gathering and competition. Entering some of my poetry *yikes*

Get your tickets by the end of the month folks. Hope to see you there!

I am currently writing about my Beltaine experince. We had a few rainy days, and the mood just isn’t right to write about Beltaine when suffering the rainy day blues.

In the mean time, here are links to a few articles and blog posts that have been interesting or inspiring to me lately.

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!

Happy Holidays from the Hedge folks!!!

I have been quite busy here at Misty Acres for the holiday season but will catch you all up on the goings on as soon as possible.

In the mean time, here is some interesting reading material to help you keep your sanity during Yuletide, Christmas and etc…

First, in the news:

Bee Sanctuary Established

Häagen-Dazs has announced that it is making a $125,000 donation to the UC Davis Department of Entomology to launch a nationwide design competition to create a one-half acre Honey Bee Haven garden at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility at UC Davis.

Druids mark solstice at Stonehenge

Hundreds of druids, pagans and tourists braved the gloomy weather to gather at Stonehenge on Sunday morning to celebrate the winter solstice. The mystical stones attracted a crowd of 1,900 people, with some dressed in cloaks and robes, to see sunrise at the prehistoric site in Wiltshire.

A Solstice Tribute

Sunday morning was a nasty time to be out and about in New York, with cold rain falling hard, but the predawn hours were worse. Sleet was blowing at just the right angle to find its way into tightly drawn hoods and mittens, and yet 17 people got out of bed anyway, all with the same thought:

“I shall go stand in the middle of an intersection in Brooklyn and bang on a drum.”

Edmonton City hall hosts solstice festivities

Edmonton City hall hosts solstice festivities for the first time! Hundreds gathered at city hall yesterday afternoon to celebrate the holiday season through pagan ritualistic chanting and calling to the four corners of the universe. Winter solstice celebrations are among many alternatives that replace conventional Christmas traditions for thousands of Edmontonians. “It’s a celebration of darkness, and a return of the light,” said Westwood Unitarian Church spokeswoman Sara McEwan.

And some Yule articles:

Santa’s Many Faces

Pagan celebration of Winter Solstice is a tradition with its roots in the ancient past, twining from hunter-gatherer cultures through the Old Religion of Europe, influenced by the rise of Christianity from the Middle East. A look at some of the history can help you design your personal Solstice traditions.

Yule logs

What in the world makes a log a yule log? I can remember campfires where we joked about great big logs being “the yule log” and you hear about it during the holidays, but what is it? I’ve also seen log-shaped cakes called yule logs, confusing the topic even more.

And some random but interesting articles:

Crooker of the Derwent and Malevolent Water-Weirds

In my most recent work regarding Traditional Witchcraft, The Toad Bone Treatise, I present an “occult bestiary” of types, outlining some of the many strange experiences and even stranger sentient beings one may run across when engaged in explorations of this world through different modes of perception. Those “fire-sighted” people will often discover that the “ordinary” things of this world- including the features of the landscape- reveal themselves in a non-ordinary fashion, sometimes as entities every bit as sentient and self-willed as they believe themselves to be.

Cornish Witchcraft

Cornwall, the ‘horn’ of land at the very south west of England has been described as one of the ‘last strongholds of Witchcraft’ in Britain. Indeed Cornwall is rich in Witch lore and heritage with many Witchcraft traditions, stories and legends most of which are connected to specific sites or locations in Cornwall. There are many mysterious ancient sacred sites in Cornwall – particularly in the Penwith region at the far western end of Cornwall. These include stone circles, quoits or chamber tombes, standing stones or menhirs, fogous – mysterious underground passages or chambers and holy wells. Today many of these sites retain a deep association with magic, the supernatural, divinatory and healing practices, which at some sites may have continued unchanged for centuries.

Cheers folks!