Druuid

If you need to dig holes for fence posts that you wait to do so after it has been raining for about a week straight. Much easier...

So i have this theory, the most powerful part of the song Scarborough Fair is the line "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme" ... one of may favorite songs of all time, and this is one of my favorite versions. Andy Williams, Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, the canticle version (the one with the additional lyrics). Every time I hear the final "Parsley, Sage..." with all three of their voices in perfect harmony it brings tears to my eyes.

I do not talk much about work here on the Journal, mostly because my work life is such a minor, minor part of who I am, but today I must say a few words.

I work in manufacturing, at a plant that creates Extruded Polystyrene Foam Insulation, I have been there almost seven years. My father used to work for the same company in International Sourcing, until his department was removed and he became medically disabled. My sister and brother-in-law also work in the same facility, although in different departments.

We have three lines which makes us the biggest producer within the corporation we are a part of, for Rigid Foam Insulation. As many of you may know, in 2010 all facilities that us HCFC must stop their use, with that in mind the "corporation" is investing 20 million dollars into our plant during that time for reconfiguration, this is a good thing, but being the biggest plant means we are also the most expensive. In a facility like ours the more square feet you cover and the more mechanical features the more people are needed to run, maintain, assure quality of the product. The more people needed for operations the more people needed to manage them and do paper work, the more product produced the more people to transport and store said product. All of this means that the cost per unit goes up.

This morning when I arrived at work, all three lines were down. There have been rumors for some time about us shutting down so naturally everyone was nervous. We all piled into a meeting to hear what was to be said and were informed that beginning in July we will become a 2 line facility, and that also at that time we will move from a 5 shift (2 weekend and 3 weekday shifts) operation to a undetermined as of yet setup of 4 shifts. We should also expect a reduction of 20 percent of the total work-force at that time.

So, as of now, if I still have a job at all come July, I have no idea of what it will be or what hours I will be working. The good news, however, is that they sent us home for the day... so at least I didn't have to stay in the same building and be tempted to kill one of them before the day is out. Best decision they ever made.

Forgot to mention...

I am officially published! LOL Along with some great stories and articles they, for some reason, included my own article about creating a ritual calendar in the Summer Issue of Oak Leaves which should be shipping out in the next couple of weeks. ADF members can read it online right now if they wish.

Thanks to the editorial staff for including it and to chronarchy for suggesting I send it in.

Hello All,

Been quiet as late I know... a lot going on. Not the least of which I have been ironing out details of two speaking engagements this summer. Both will take place at my own church, The Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron, so for anyone in the area who would like to come please feel free, we would love to have you! Services begin at 10:30 am, expect lots of pagany goodness in both services.

On June 8th, my friend Allan will be helping me present a service on "Myth and Religion",

And on July 20th, another friend, Verni (I hope) and I will be presenting a service I am very excited about called "With Shaking Hands and Heavy Breath" about religious experience, what it is, why it is so hard to recreate, and why we even bother. We hope to have some good old fashioned Gospel music for this service. Sounds weird right? A pagan looking forward to Gospel music? Well if I had to choose one thing that I miss about my Christian upbringing it would definitely be the music.

Also, not preaching but, we are talking about having our first Public Ritual for Silver Falls Protogrove, ADF for Harvest Home (Autumn Equinox) and I believe we are going to do a Dionysus ritual... I cannot wait!

~ Dubhlainn

As I take a look at all that we have accomplished and all we have planned for Silver Falls Protogrove I am filled with pride and excitement about our future, and yet I am left with a big worry as well.

We have all these beautiful seedlings, all these young trees that have the potential of becoming something beautiful and majestic. How do we get from where we are now to where we all picture ourselves being? How do we plant our grove?

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- X P O S T E D -

From the latest pagan_prompt

We've all heard of the so-called "Religious Right", who are characterized by their right-wing conservative political and social values. Individually, members of the Religious Right represent a variety of theological perspectives, but they are all unified by their conservative beliefs and alliance with the Republican Party (usually). While I'm sure there are many conservative Republicans whose religion is not the reason for their political affiliation, the Religious Right are so-called because their religious values are so intertwined with their political beliefs that there seems to be little to no separation.

How do your religious beliefs influence your politics? Could/should there ever be a Pagan political movement?

My religious beliefs very much influence my political beliefs. My reverence for nature, for instance, drives in me a desire to not only take care of our Earthly home on a personal level but also in the political sense in that passing laws and regulations for the protection of our future. However my religion most affects my political life in a simple idea. Everyone should have the ability to seek out their most most true selves, and at the same time, everyone is responsible for their own actions, mistakes, and success. This is true in our relationships with deity and one another, true in our working of magic and in our mundane lives.

Politically I fall very much in the Libertarian area, and although I lean somewhat left in this stance, I believe liberty is the hallmark of this nation and an essential part of who we are. This is true of individuals, businesses, and governments.

As for having a pagan political movement. I am sure they already exist, and I am unsure how I feel about them. In a community that refuses in many ways to define itself I find it hard to believe there could be any organization that would be encompassing of our varied viewpoints, however I am a big fan of pulling together with like minded peoples to make ones world more beautiful and meaningful, if the shape of that shared experience is political action than more power to them.

I just finished The Other Side of Virtue: Where our virtues really come from, what they really mean, and where they might be taking us by Brendan "Cathbad" Myers.

I need to start this review with an admission. Although I do not know him, never have even met him in fact, Brendan is on my friends list (he found this blog by reading another review I had done of one his books actually) and I intend on pointing this review out to him as well. It is a different experience, I find, writing a review that you know the author will most likely read... still I promise to be honest and upfront.

The Other Side of Virtue is an impressive book. It is not only an examination of virtue throughout the ages but also a ... guide is not really the right word, there are no "how to's" in this book, but it is a guide none the less in that Dr. Myers lays out (from his perspective) what a virtuous life looks like, and how to know when one is on the right track. As Brendan explains it "familiar" virtue is the following of laws and rules, the "Other Side" of virtue is the exploration of "who we are". The very first thing I can, and should, say about this book is that it is amazingly well researched. There would be no doubt in my mind, even had I not known, that Dr. Myers received his Doctorate in Philosophy, he obviously has a fantastic grasp of philosophy and an ability to distill very complex theories and perspectives into easy to read and understand segments.

The book follows virtue through the ages. Starting with heroic cultures (Cheiftan societies), moving through civilized societies (city states), through the Renaissance, Age of Reason, Romanticism, and even into modern expressions of fantasy like Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings. He then begins the exploration of how these expressions of virtue are manifest in our lives. The primarily vehicle he uses to explain this is in the experience of what he calls "an Immensity" that is a situation that calls to us to make choices which in turn create changes in our lives. From my understanding of his meaning, an immensity is a problem or situation one faces in which ones life will be forever changed. How one responds to these experiences or, to to use Dr. Myers language, an Immensity is when one most clearly lives with virtue.

It is an incredibly moving book one of the few I have ever read that have really wormed its way into my mind and made me really look deeply into who I am. I suppose I have never viewed virtue from this "other side" before... I do not think it is obvious while reading the book, but I do know that my idea of being "virtuous" has meant to me in the past following the rules and laws. Being hospitable, for example, because that is what is expected, not because it is the best, most beautiful way to move through life.

The only really issue I have with the book, and this is true of the other book I had read by Dr Myers, is the way he terms his opinions. It is very strong, so much so that I was put aback by it a couple of times. His descriptions, for instance, of one who excels in spirit, as opposed to one who is bereft of spirit, seemed to me to be coached in terms so extravagant and extreme to actually loose some of their meaning. Or, another example, Dr. Myer's understanding of the soul is coached in terms that are very disparaging of other understandings. Taken in the totality of the book, however, these small instances were not enough to "turn me off" or make the book any less meaningful.

A great book, and one I think I am better for the reading, I look forward to Dr. Myers future works.

Rating 7 (out of 8) Pointed Star

I am deeply immersed in The Other Side of Virtue tonight and do not really have anything to write about, although Brenden is blowing my mind with some of this stuff.

Full review to come, probably tomorrow, and I have about 4 thoughts coming from the book that are going to be full entries... so if the measure of a book like this is indeed an inspiration to explore who I am... I can honestly say it is already working and I have not even finished it!

~ Dubhlainn

The subject of this week's pagan_prompt:

Acculturation or so-called "cultural theft" is an enormous source of debate in the pagan community.  There are some who feel acculturation is as natural as breathing and that every religion and culture has evolved by "borrowing" from others and thus ecceltic and neo-pagan paths are justified in their "borrowing".  Others feel that it has been taken too far and religions lose their meaning when they are diluted by other traditions.  Where do you land in the debate?

This is a very tough one for me, and I think one that spans both of my religious expressions (neo-pagan and Unitarian Universalist) but I will keep the answer to a neo-pagan perspective.

As a member of ADF we are very focused on limiting our hearth cultures to an Indo-European matrix. What this means is will not find Egyptian deities or Native American motifs explicitly being used within ADF. However, as we still do much meditative, trance, and magic work and the truth is; we just cannot know how most ancient Indo-European cultures did these things and in order to excel at our own practice we often find we look to other better documented practices. These might include Native American or Asian shamanism, Hindu-Buddhist meditation techniques, and ceremonial magic forms. Most neo-pagans today are in one way or another borrowers. When we encounter something that resonates with us we attempt to integrate it into our own practice. I use the term totem myself but the idea of totemism as used by most Neo-pagans and New Agers is often completely different that its root meanings. We think of it as a personal animal spirit that protects and guides us, but in its original culture a Totem was intended for an entire clan or tribe (or other group) and not the individual.

It is this kind of acculturation that I think can lead to problems (although I think the cat is out of the bag in regards to Totemism and Shamanism) when we take a concept that is in use by a living culture (of which we are not immersed) and bend its meaning to make meaning for ourselves. I see nothing at all wrong with being inspired by other cultures, in fact I think it is an essential aspect of being human, I do think it is a form of misappropriation to take snippets of that culture and use it out of context, or even in a completely unauthentic way, and then pass this new practice off as something more magical or mysterious because of the culture that it originated.

For me it is a requirement to say something like "I read about this practice from this culture, and although I am not a member of that culture, it did inspire me to investigate another part of my life more fully." For instance I can tell you that reading about Tantric Buddhism (especially the Four Purities) has inspired me deeply and better enabled me to understand the nature of deity in my own life. I would even go so far to say that I have a desire to uphold these four purities in my own life... only; I do not refer to them as the four purities, and i do not claim to be a tantric practitioner in any way. Over more it is essential that I say, I have read maybe 3 or 4 essays on the topic, I am not an expert and never will be. From my point of view, when acculturation becomes a problem is when one reads 3 or 4 essays, or even 10 books, and suddenly pronounces to the world that they are a neo-tantric American guru, and then promptly changes the meaning behind many of the concepts of the source material. This is in fact what many neo-pagans and new agers do (on a, granted, less obnoxious or obvious a scale), which often causes so much hurt and anger in the living culture from which the practitioner has taken.

As far as ancient cultures go... well in those cases I am less clear at where, or if, to draw the line. I know Asatru practitioners who uphold The Morrigan, and I myself as a primarily Gaelic culture have a Minoan Deity (perhaps... I am not sure what the heck he is) that I have come to find is an essential part of each day. In neither case would I say that either of us is "eclectic" but we are also not practicing a closed, pure reconstructionist type of practice. Is it fair for me to argue that someone who may be more eclectic in utilizing ancient cultures has "got it wrong" and if so where to draw the line? In my opinion no, it is unfair for me to do so.

So I suppose, for me, cultural theft can only really exist when there is a living culture to steal from, and even then when one is honest and upfront about their practice it is not theft but an openness and ability to be inspired by other humans. And if there is no living culture? I just cannot see theft at all in those cases.