On Being Pagan

Today I offer up this poem. A blessed Alban Eilir to you all…

On Being Pagan

Whether by chance or choice we walk a road unlike any other
There are no side roads on this route – it only leads forward
If we turn around, it disappears and we are lost

Most dare not even look down this path
Uneven, cloaked in darkness,
Root and stone, eyes in the night,
Shadow claws

They banish the darkness with Light
The place where they dwell is brightly lit,
but the scene never changes
And they sit,
Waiting for the story to come

We are different

Leaving the fire behind,
We step through the doorway and out under the open sky
Opening our arms to be embraced by the Night

We walk,
We stumble in the dark,
Tripping over tangled root, slipping on wet stone,
Falling,
Only to discover each time a new root, a different stone
With our ears close to the Earth, they share with us their stories,
new stories beyond the simplicity of good and evil,
stories of wonder,
of knowledge,
of inspiration,
fear and movement,
danger and intelligence,
violence and truth,
love,
lust,
joy,
birth and death,
Nature tales

In the darkness we find the stories,
And the stories illuminate
Before our eyes, light burst forth in rays of inspiration
Shining onto new vistas, new lands that few have seen
Lands filled with beauty beyond all imaginations.

Ever onward we travel down this road whose only sign post says,
“To Freedom”.

By Snowhawke /|\

Living our ideals by doing

This is a re-post from a few years ago. It seemed applicable for where my mind is at today…

Yesterday I spend a wonderful late afternoon walking through the woods down to the Saco River with my English Animist grovemate. We had a very fruitful talk about action, about living our Druidry as compared to practicing our Druidry.

In all religions there are theological concepts, rituals and traditions. Once one has thoroughly ingested these, what is left? What is Paganism outside of the seasonal and lunar rites? Outside of the rituals, folk magics, myths, stories, legends, poems, and music? Outside of our traditions? What is at the heart of it all?

I practiced a martial arts that had a lot of mystique, cool outfits and unique weapons. It was so cool working out with a group where everyone had a uniform and gear. Over time the mystique wore off and I questioned myself, “What is left when you take all the reference of tradition and the class away, the uniform and the gear?” That is the same question I now apply to my Druidry.

When people get involved in Pagan traditions, I think the mystique is something that feeds them on a deep level. They aren’t in Kansas anymore. The incense, smudge, altars, ritual clothing, and all the other mysterious ritual tools, songs, chants, etc. take them to a state of mind that is different from the norm. The goal being to stop and take the time to open our awareness to the sacred, to become aware of our own soul and to sort out where it fails and succeeds in relationship. We find healing. We find connection.

Over time this state of being is easier to get to. The tools and ritual aren’t needed. It is a matter of stopping our busy minds and taking a breath. And there we are, in a state of presence recognizing the sacred, finding connection on a soul level to land, the community, and the gods.

And then things shift again, we find these periods extend. It isn’t a practice anymore. It is a way of being in the world, every moment. Presence is about the moment, not the activity. I think the goals of Druidry and Zen are very similar. Bobcat once told me not to think of these things are skills but rather as potentialities. I think this very wise. And that simple statement opened some doors in my mind. A skill is about the individual. Potentiality is about relationship.

So the conclusion that my grovemate and I came to was that we need to live this. Our spiritual ideals have to be integrated into every activity we do during the day. Time set aside for ritual, celebrating the 8 major festivals, and the moon cycles etc, are important but they can be a distraction from the real point of it all. And the “point”, well that is up to the individual to decide, but for me it is this; to be fully alive, living in the freedom of the moment, finding inspiration through my connection to the land, the community, and the gods.

We decided is this; our grove gatherings should not be about taking time out, but rather for doing things, to further engage. We want to have our grove get out and do things, like cleaning up the side of the river where people are dumping trash, helping each other garden or make repairs around our homes. These activities should be every bit as much a spiritual experience as our Samhain rituals. We need to carry this into every activity we do, from corporation to the deep forest. Chop wood, carry water. We have moved past the mystique and more into the heart of our paganism. It is time for our practices and expressions to shift with this new paradigm.

I watched a red wing black bird this morning and wondered at the magnificence of its life. It is living completely integrated into Nature. There is no separation between its spiritual ideal and that way it lives in the world. That is what I am working towards.

Ethical Consuming

I have been meditating on the ethics of consuming. We as living beings have to consume to live. It is in our nature to use tools, to feed, to create art, to procreate, to preserve and pass on knowledge to the next generation. We are part of the cycle of life. We consume. It is natural.

That said, as a species, our consuming is creating massive environmental disaster. Currently, the rate of species extinction is 100 – 1000 times higher than what we see in the fossil records. There is no place on Earth where the affect of humans isn’t felt. The human population just keeps growing. In my short life of almost 46 years, the population has doubled! Three and a half billion is now seven billion! And everyone keeps consuming. As I said, it is in our nature to live – and living requires consuming.

So where do we draw the line ethically speaking when it comes to consuming? Obviously we can’t continue as we have. Within a few decades we will reach the limits of Mother Earth, and then will come the inevitable collapse (and it will be ugly). So how to live now? What is okay and what is not okay? What is the ethical question we need to ask when we consume? My mentor posed this question: “Would it be okay if everyone was did what I am about to do?”

Think on this in all aspects of your life. What if everyone bought what I am about to buy? What if everyone took out of the environment what I am about to take? One quickly realized that almost everything we consume is unethical.

So how do we live? That I can’t answer for you. Sometimes I wonder if we should live at all. Obviously Nature cannot support the current population; much more the geometric growth we are achieving. But to me, while I have something to offer, while I can make a difference, living is the ethical choice. When I don’t have these things anymore, it is time to stop living and give my body back to the Earth.

We as a species need to fight our own nature when it comes to consuming and procreation. We can do this. We do this all the time. The sex drive is huge. Do we sleep with anyone who says yes? No we don’t. We negotiate relationship. Most everyone is monogamous. We control the instinct. So I know we can control the urge to consume. We need to separate need from desire. And the most important place we need to do this is in the desire to have children. There is no need to breed. Giving the current state or our beloved Earth, we have to stop procreating. We can do this consciously or we can let Nature do this cataclysmically. Either way, we will have to lower the population. All ethics aside, we have no choice.

These are heavy truths that most people just do not want to think about. We do everything in this country to avoid talking about it. We still have fertility clinics for people whom Nature has said, “don’t breed.” And we interfere. We add more people when all over the globe there are millions and millions of children who need a home. We have a cult of life in this country. People spend endless resources to prolong life. This time is paid for by the environment. We fear death so much, we sell off our children’s future to avoid it. It is time for this culture to stop making death the enemy. Death is a friend that allows the cycle of life to continue. I forget who said this but it is so wise, “Life shouldn’t be measured by the length but rather by the breadth”.

Why I am writing this depressing stuff? What does this have to do with Druidry? For me is has everything to do with my spiritual life. Learning to live in sacred relationship to the Earth is what this is all about. And the Earth is telling me something. I think we as pagans can lead the culture in establishing a new paradigm where we walk within the bounds of Nature; considering our actions; considering the future generations; working to restore the ecosystems; ending consumerism; and honoring all aspects of Nature as sacred (especially the importance of death which is currently the enemy of the cult of life). We can do this. We as people whose entire religion is based in Nature, should lead the way forward. If we don’t, who will?

Blessings of peace and simplicity,
Snowhawke /|\

Heat

February in Maine and it feels like spring during what is usually the heart of winter. The scent of mud while soothing to my senses give no comfort to my soul. I begin to worry about my forests here in Maine and the animals that are usually hibernating. I worry for the bears who are bearing their cubs in dens not covered with the usual insulating and protective snow. I look at the thermostat and can’t get the thought of oil out of my head. There is no escaping the struggle to stay warm is damaging the environment. The wars for oil killing hundreds of thousands all over the globe. The global financiers playing high stakes for fun and passion. Fun and Passion the two biggest distractions fed to the masses in “reality” TV and internet porn.

It doesn’t take a gifted seer to see where all this leads. I walk outside, smell the air, listen to the wind, look at the open water on the river and it is obvious where it all leads – death, pain and suffering, and endless environmental disaster. So what to do? I don’t have the answers. It is too big for my simple human mind. I only know that I hear the stories from the land, and if I try, I see my own part in it. Can I change my own story? Can I change my entire way of life so that I begin to get beyond the idea of just living sustainably, and move into a way of living that one might call restorative.

I have been wondering at the speed of my life passing by. Thoughts of it ending permeate my thoughts. A mild panic hits and I think I need to “Do something”! But really I need to do less. Just sit, listen and do nothing for a while. Let Nature instruct. Stop damaging and learn to walk in silence again.

Heavy thoughts on a overly warm day in February.

Dreams Begin to Take Form

As I have written previously on several ocassions, in Druidry the tide between Samhain and Yule is a time of chaos, a time where we allow ourselves to drift and dream, floating in the cauldron, letting go of the need for handles to hold on to. Out of this dreaming come ideas that begin to move from raw potentiality into real possibility. And for me, this season has yielded two possibilities that I will hold as seeds to be planted for the new year’s cycle of growth.

The first idea is the creation of a pagan dance ritual that is a deep dive into the intuitive, a rite of shared vision. I have observed in the pagan communities a sense of fierce independence, which I think a core strength in our traditions. But often this independence comes at the expense of our shared interdependence. I think as a community, we are going to need to become closer, more reliant on each other as global economic recession/depression really begins to take off. Life is going to have to become more local. And as people of the Earth, pagans can lead in this process of learning to live in cooperation and harmony with the land, building resilience within our local communities.

Bringing this communal consciousness to the pagan community will involve deep ritual. Within the Native American traditions there are numerous rites that are all about holding the community together. People gather to seek vision, not for themselves, but for the tribe. Sundance, Naraya, the Long House and Vision Quest are just a few rituals that are about healing the tribe and not just for the benefit of the individual’s spirital journey. I see no counterpart to these within the pagan community. So I am working with others to create one. It will be a pagan rite through and through, honoring the Spirits of Place and held within our own cultural heritage. It will be local.

The second dream that has bubbled up from the cauldron is that of Druid College. I am working with another druid priest to create a new organization that is completely geared toward the training of priests (within Druidry, “priests” refers to both men and women). Again, this has everything to do with community. While many organizations offer courses on Druidry, they are geared towards presenting Druidry to the individual, to be used to their own ends. We are crafting a place where people can learn to become priests that are in service to the land, the people and the gods – priests of Nature. Rather than individuals who are “followers” of Druidry, we want to teach and support people to become “carriers” of the tradition. And to that end, we will be offering training for people who want to step up and be of service. A lot of work ahead to craft such a college, but this is so needed. The need for priests is so great and the number of people stepping forward are so few. For those willing, we want to share what has been giving to us by our teachers, passing on the knowledge to the next generation, completing the cycle of inspiration that is at the heart of Druidry.

So the common thread between these ideas is the concept of community. At a recent lecture by Nicole Foss of The Automatic Earth blog, she made the comment that in the face of the coming global depression, we need to transform virtual communities into real communities. This is happening beautifully within the Permaculture community. And I thought about the state of our pagan community. Other than Beltane on the Beach here in Maine at Popham Beach, we pretty much exist as a “virtual” community. Yes, we have real groups, groves, tribes and covens that gather, but the interconnection and sharing between them is very limited, most of it taking place on the internet. So how do we make the tribe stronger, more connected, more resilient?

My answer is to simply start with reaching out and making connections. This pagan dance for vision will happen here in Maine. It will be the counterpart to Beltane on the Beach, the inward journey to Beltane’s outward celebration. The Druid College will be a place to reach for potential and bring those learning into service for the whole community.

I am sure we can have a stronger more resilient tribe of pagans that care for and support each other. And if we put our collective heads and hearts together, we can show the world a way to live on the Earth with honor and consciousness, while minimizing the harm we do as we express our humanity. This dream needs to be realized.

Thoughts? Would love to hear feedback on these projects as well as your own dreams moving into possibility for the new year ahead.

Blessings of new growth found in the depth of the darkness,
Snowhawke /|\

A Samhain Poem

One of my grovemates expressed that she felt she had nothing really to release this Samhain. She has had a great year, riding on smooth currents, finding purpose, love and ecstasy.

Sometime we manage to find a current in life that doesn’t feel like baggage. These currents are precious as they can fuel us through the difficult times. So we feel we have nothing really to let go of. But still there is work to do.

As my musical hero, Bruce Cockburn, wrote in his song Feet Fall on the Road, “Though chains be of gold, they are chains all the same”. A lot of wisdom in that phrase. Even though we may not be carrying any emotional baggage, no intellectual burden, no new health issues that restrict us, there is no way getting around the fact that the past year is behind us. Those days and nights have been spent and we will never get them back, no matter how fond our memories. The past year of our life, is done. And this is always the case as the moments pass by.

In Druidry, we are in a constant process of reaching for wakefulness. So even though the year may have been blissful, it is gone, now an illusion living only in memory. So here at Samhain, as with all of our spiritual activities, we reach for wakefulness, acknowledging the year behind us, finding our feet under us again, here now, in this moment, in this place. And fully present, we check in with our loved ones, our tribe, our coven, our grove, and our own soul. Honoring the tides of Nature and the Spirits of Place, we ready ourselves for the long darkness ahead. And through these sacred rites, we find inspiration.

So on this Samhain, in honor of the inspiration I’ve received, I offer you this poem.

A Samhain Poem

Snowstorm greets the darkness
Precious sunlight slips away from river valley
Our breaths are visible, crystalline in the muted twilight
Sacred river offers up our lesson for this rite

All of our days past are like waters run to the ocean
The river remains
But our days and nights,
Our thoughts and dreams,
Our successes and failures
Our love and our ecstasy
All carried away on currents into nothingness

The Art of Not Knowing

Every year we experience the Samhain tide – the time between Samhain and Yule. It is a time where the cycle of growth has ended and the new cycle of the year has yet to begin. Natural death in Nature comes with the first killing frost. Our harvest is in or it is lost. The temperature grows colder as the winds come down from the North. The days continue to shorten, falling ever more into darkness until Yule when the light begins to return and the hope of a new growing season can be held. Such is the nature of this season here in my beloved Maine.

This time between the end of the growth cycle and the rebirth of the sun at Yule is a time of deep unknowing and chaos. It is time to indulge in dreams, to dive into Ceridwen’s mythological cauldron, dreaming without limits. As the darkness grows, we instinctively go inward, exploring our inner landscape. It is a gift Nature gives us every year.

The leaves have fallen off the trees, sloughing off the dead flesh of last years growth. They aren’t needed. Their purpose served, they return to the source of Mother Earth, their creativity coming apart as they become leaf mould.

There is a profound lesson in this – that of letting go of the past that no longer applies to our life today. Following the wheel of the year, the Craft offers us an opportunity to look in the mirror and see ourselves in the present, to stop long enough from our toils to take an assessment of our life. As we face the long winter, the harvest in, Samhain is the perfect time to do so.

During the Samhain tide, I take the time to review my life and rid myself of everything in my home that isn’t beautiful, useful or valuable. In Maine we will be spending the next six months inside for the most part and I don’t want to spend it surrounded with useless clutter that has no place in my life anymore.

Nature has shown us what natural death is, the dead vines in the garden once so vibrant with green now lie brown, dried and crackled, decaying into source that will feed next year’s garden. Our death will come too at some point, our cycle of growth coming to an end. While I don’t know when this will be, I want to be prepared. So at Samhain, I take the time to review the Death and Dying package that I put together with my wife and another pagan friend. In this package I put all my personal information regarding my eventual death. I put in personal contact information, financial contact info, obituary details, burial plot location, my Advanced Directive, funeral wishes and on and on. The idea being that should I pass suddenly, those left behind won’t be scrambling trying find all this information at the worst of times.

One part of this package involves an activity which I think is a beautiful gift to those who will survive us. I write farewell letters to those people important in my life. Imagine having a letter left to you from the person you loved most after they passed suddenly. Writing these letters is a deep look inward at what we value most. Perhaps we keep the letters or perhaps we burn them in next Samhain’s fire and write new ones, honoring the ever-changing nature of relationship. The act itself is highly freeing and I can not recommend this mediation enough. It is a powerful act to own one’s death and to prepare for it. The final step is one we make alone. I want to be prepared to take that step when the time comes, and to do so without worry that I’ve left a mess for those I leave behind.

This cleaning out, letting go and preparing for Death is extremely freeing. We don’t know what life holds for us in the future but freeing ourselves to face the present as consciously as possible is a powerful step toward approaching the future with courage and enthusiasm. We become unchained and the not knowing becomes an enticement instead of a fear. Samhain offers us a powerful yearly opportunity to reach for more freedom. Although death may be all around us, assessment, acceptance and release can free us like leaves swirling in the wind taking journeys of flight they couldn’t dream possible while attached to the tree.

So embrace the darkness. Open your arms to the cycle of death that comes every autumn. And most of all use your freedom to dream in endless potentiality. Time will move potentiality towards possibility and then into opportunity. But now is not the season for deep plans. It is a time to just dive deeper than ever into the cauldron, dreaming your life into being. Free yourself to dive without the chains of the past tied to your soul, holding you in the realm of the known. The unknown path is always the safer one.

Blessings of Samhain,
Release, freedom and ecstasy,
Snowhawke /|\