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June 30th, 2008
05:07 pm - Interfaith, Pride, and Bay Leaves
 I have a feeling of inadequacy. Well, sort of. More to the point, I have a feeling that I have more to prove when I walk up onto a stage, behind a pulpit, or to the altar at an interfaith gathering than most anyone else there.
I remember looking around before the service at World AIDS Day and seeing my fellow clergypersons milling about, chatting, and generally being social. I was the only person in the room off in the corner working hard to nail down my part of the service. That was a frightening experience.
I felt at the time like I was the only person who hadn't studied enough to be confident in his words, or to speak clearly, or to convey his meaning. I felt like everyone else there was so darn comfortable with what they were doing, so well-practiced and rehearsed. I really felt like a child who has been asked to sing a silly song among adults. My words were even printed in the program, so there was no way I could ad-lib if I decided to let the moment take me. It was the most strictly ordered ritual I had ever participated in, and ever have since, with one exception recently.
( More about World AIDS Day )
Having a chance to actively work toward planning the Pride service from this past weekend, however, things were a bit different. Rather than being a "token non-Christian," I was fortunate to have another Pagan there, this one from Green Faerie Grove, which made two voices for Paganism in the midst of a small sea of majority religions. Instead of being shuffled into the service with a part already written that needed to be re-edited to be even a half-truth, I was given the opportunity to not only speak from the heart, but to speak the last words of the service.
I spent time again that morning, while others in the service spent time socializing or trying to organize photos, to work out what I wanted to say. I approached trees and placed my hand on them, feeling the rough bark. I knelt to the ground and felt the grass and the dirt. I listened as closely as I could to the Mother.
I watched the entire service. Some presenters were good, some alright. None were bad. But I still felt that same oppressive feeling: I have to represent, and I have to do it well. I listened to readings from the Bible and things written by Humanists. I heard Buddhist chants and music that was catchy and spirit-lifting. And here I was with no words in my head except a general awareness of the Earth Mother.
When it was my turn, I spoke something like this (this is as I remember it, and nowhere near entirely correct. . I'm hoping that a couple of revisions will make it truer to my words that day):
"I am Rev. Michael J Dangler, of Three Cranes Grove, ADF, a local Druid fellowship. We have always felt it was important to celebrate Pride, for we are all Children of the Earth Mother. Whether we believe were formed from clay and given life by the breath of a deity; made up of the elements of the periodic table; or born directly from the Mother herself, we all share our one Earth Mother. As we prepare to depart, we will ask for blessings from our Earth Mother this day. Thank you for coming to this service, and thank the organizers for holding it. It is our tradition, though you need not follow it, to kneel and touch the ground as we call out to the Earth."
Earth Mother, your children call out to you.
You uphold us as we move through life, with each step we take.
Let every step we take upon you today in pride and unity
Be a step toward justice, understanding, and love.
Let us follow the footsteps of our Ancestors
Who blazed trails long before us and fought for what was right.
Let us hear the blessings of the Nature Spirits
Who play among the trees and upon the wind.
And let us go forth with the strength of the Shining Ones
The deities we follow and love.
Earth Mother, mighty Kindreds,
Bless our steps this day, and uphold us even in adversity.
Children of the Earth,
Go in peace and blessings:
This service is ended.
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) seamus_mcnasty and I had a conversation later on about why I feel the way I do around interfaith events. A lot of it has to do with a strong desire to prove that Paganism is worth inviting into interfaith events: no matter how much I may dislike it, each time I step in front of a mixed crowd, I am representing our religion to everyone there. I am very aware of that fact, and my natural stage fright and disinclination to speak for any other person at all starts to take over. This is probably why I appear so "together" at these interfaith things: I'm so very aware of how much responsibility gets placed upon me, and how ill-prepared I often feel to live up to that level of responsibility.
In the end, seamus_mcnasty said something that I really took to heart: we in ADF (and Cranes in particular) are not people who are inclined to rest on our laurels. We are always looking to better ourselves, probably because we see just how far we have to go. Zeno's Frog is apt here, for no matter how far we have gone, there is still just a bit further to get.
I suppose that's why I spend my "free" time studying, and why I cut into things I really want to do for ADF: there's just so much further to go. I haven't even scratched the surface. . .
The comment about "resting on our laurels" reminded me of something more, too, and (I think) made our Sunday ritual better. But you'll have to wait until later for that story.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) calm
Current Music: "Rancho Deluxe", -JB
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June 23rd, 2008
09:37 am - Good response!
Thanks to those who have offered questions for divination up to now: so far, six people have sent things in, which is about perfect.
I will get to them starting tonight, and will start sending out notes in order received as I finish them!
Thanks (and if you still want a divination but haven't sent questions, I'm still able to do that).
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: "Island Fever", -JB
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June 22nd, 2008
10:52 am - Divination anyone?
*grins*
What are LJ friends for, if not there to respond to a feeling of frustration with assertions of support and friendship?
So, I asked in my last entry, "Frustration", if folks needed divination done. Looks like some folk are in need of it.
I'm not worried about quantity: I need five more, at minimum (I got one last night), but it's not so much about filling the requirement (though last night I just wanted to hit the nine and be done) as it is about getting experience doing readings for others. So, feel free to drop me a line and let me know what I can do for you.
You can use the contact form on my website* or you can email me direct if you have my email addy (I don't want to post it here) if you'd like a reading. Here are the simple things to note in the request:
1) a couple of questions, particularly questions that lead into each other. I prefer non-yes/no questions, though I can sometimes work with a yes/no. Examples might be: "What's my relationship with Tim like now?" "How does sleeping with Tammy affect this?" "What if I sleep with Brutus, instead?"
2) any background you might want to offer me (note: I won't pass this on. . . divination work is confidential, so far as I'm concerned).
3) How in-depth you're hoping to get with this. I can do a simple rune spread, with one rune for each, or I can do three runes per question, or something in between. You can also just leave it up to my discretion.
4) A note that it's okay if I include this in my CTP materials, which (as you may know) get posted on my website. All identifying information is removed, and I write these things in such a way that there's really no way to know who asked the question.
I hope to get back to folk within about a week or two (though ComFest is this coming weekend, which is hell). I'll get back around to everyone, however.
I use runes pretty exclusively, but for _crow365__, I'll only use the Necronomicon Tarot.
* - Yes, it asks for measurements. . . It's an old joke, that I'll explain later. Fill it in however you like or leave it blank, but I get the best responses to that little question. . .
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Volcano", -JB
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June 21st, 2008
05:03 pm - Frustration
Some days, I get frustrated with my progress through the ADF Clergy Training Program. It's hard (and it just gets harder as it goes on). I just stood up, my brain hurting from trying to manage answering a question, and walked around in a circle, not really knowing why I got up in the first place. There's a specter of fear in my mind telling me that I just can't answer them, and that I'm simply not good enough.
Right now, I'm stuck on Divination 2. There, I need to provide nine divinations I've done for others. Right now, I only have access to notes for three. I cannot find others (though I know I've done others).
So, if anyone needs any sort of divination work done, please let me know. It would aid me greatly to do some divination for you.
I'm within two questions of finishing Divination 2 and one question of finishing Trance 1. I have nearly all the information I need to finish the biggest question in Trance 2, as well, but actually doing it is really hard for me. It's so hard for me to see the end but to feel like I simply cannot get there. I feel like Zeno's frog.
Well, back to work: complaining about it doesn't make it finish itself. I really, really want to finish Trance 1 today, and get a solid start on Trance 2. Perseverance is the virtue of today.
(If I could choose two "moods" for this post, it would be "frustrated, hopeful." But, alas, I cannot.)
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/angry.gif) frustrated
Current Music: "The Captain and the Kid", -JB
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June 2nd, 2008
04:51 pm - 33% of bishops think 50% of priests suck? Huh?
On many levels, it is entertaining to me how interested I have become in the Church of England over the past year or so since I started reading the CartoonChurch blog by Dave Walker. I've graduated from his blog to a blog called the Chuch Times Blog, which features some of his artwork.
A recent story entitled "'Poor quality' of vicars alarms Church leaders" is based off a leaked, confidential report done by a division of the CoE that found that Bishops are worried about the standards they hold their priests to, as well as their continued enthusiasm for priestly duties. Once upon a time, this might have been an interesting news point or a blip on the screen for the CoE.
Of course, in today's blogging world where every jerk-priest has his or her own blog (says the jerk-priest you're reading), things are different.
The priests have reacted rather bitterly (imagine that) to being called "low quality" and insinuating that their motivations and temperament are not entirely level, and that their sermons just aren't up to snuff. You can read a sampling of their responses yourself. Fortunately, most seem to be waiting to actually see a copy of the report, rather than simply reacting.
I see the point of the study. As a very distantly (and somewhat disinterested) party, I know exactly what the Bishops wanted to see out of this: they were seeking constructive, honest criticism of their own methods of ordaining and promoting clergy.
One comment stood out in particular to me:
Dear Dave, I am the senior manager of a large firm. Currently, we are facing a few problems - rising costs, falling sales, poor morale, people leaving - that sort of thing. Recently I have decided most of my new staff are a bit rubbish. I have issued a management report pointing this out. What should I do next? PS I am ultimately responsible for staff appointments.
Indeed, those who are appointing and ordaining should be certain that they are ordaining at the quality that they wish to ordain. It is also vital that we don't necessarily look for people who are "perfect priests" when they're consecrated or ordained, just priests that we are confident will grow into the role (Gods know I'm still fumbling around in the dark half the time).
ADF's ordination process isn't actually "look-I-finished-this-study-program-now-when-do-I-get-consecrated?" though it often looks like that. Acceptance to the Clergy Training Program doesn't equal rights to become clergy, just the ability to become eligible. As I thought about this little hubbub over the CoE's own internal worries, I reflected on our own. I think that our Clergy Training Program goes a long way toward preparing people for clergy work, particularly as you advance through the second and third circles. Still, I find myself hoping that the Clergy Council Officers don't find themselves adding priests if they aren't sure that this person is capable and ready.
The CoE seems to be struggling even more than we are with the balance of providing support and the lack of qualified persons to provide that support (on the whole, I think we're actually doing pretty well). It's interesting to look at a four-hundred-plus-year-old institution and identify similar issues in our twenty-plus-year-old Org and ask, "Okay, how can we learn lessons from these guys?"
(And, of course, I can't help but wonder if my own consecration had issues of expectation or if those who consecrated me sometimes have doubts about me. But honestly, that thought isn't productive or important here. So this is just a note, in the spirit of openness.)
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "The Great Filling Station Holdup", -JB
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May 29th, 2008
08:51 am - Colour the Grey, baby
I belong to a group of magicians called (variously) "N14" and "ColourTheGrey". The goals of the group are many (primarily having to do with magically advancing human rights and new hope without the fear of nuclear war, imminent environmental destruction and the false promise of wealth-in-the-future-brings-happiness), and there are still about 84 members of the email list (which saw several hundred messages per month during the WTO protests of a few years ago).
Today, the ADF Office received this little gem of spam:
Tired? The world is grey? Can't see sunshine?
Take this <spam link removed>
(Girlfriends not attached!)
I've always found spam interesting, really. Here, we have something that promises to open your eyes to colour and sunlight, to enliven you. But, in the end, it's up to you to go out and do something with it (otherwise the girlfriends, I suppose, *would* be attached).
It's the Chaote's truest dream, right there in a little spammy pill offering.
The dreams of N14 are good ones, beautiful things full of colour and life. I know that most people look at Chaos Magic as if it's all just gloom and tentacles, child-like chest-pounding and bird-flipping stick-it's. N14 is what I grew up on as a Chaote, though: it was my deepest magical experience.
Perhaps it's time I write of it more fully, rather than selfishly remembering the glow.
The world needs more Chaotes willing to go the extra mile.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "The Hangout Gang", -JB
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May 16th, 2008
11:08 am - Easing on down the Path of Study in ADF
Over the past weekend at Desert Magic, I was fortunate to sit around and banter about a variety of things with some great minds within ADF. And, because you all know me, no one will be surprised that we spoke about the current state of ADF's study programs.
Now that we have people working on Second Circle Clergy Training Program courses (and by Wellspring there will be at least one more person, with several more shortly after that), it's becoming more pressing to make sure that the courses are ready to go.
The CTP Outline shows how many classes need to be approved for Second Circle: four out of 12 are listed as "unwritten," though that word doesn't really indicate the fact of the matter.
There are completed requirement sets undergoing fine-tuning before presentation for three of those four, meaning that, really, only one class is still outstanding in the second circle of the CTP.
When Kirk and I sat down to revisit the Liturgist Guild Study Program last Sunday (and others joined us, notably Ceisiwr Serith, whose input was/is invaluable when it comes to liturgy), we hammered out five new courses, three of which should transfer directly into the Third Circle of the CTP as well (should the Clergy Council wish to go that route). We're also revisiting the structure of the original LGSP, which had a few issues. Fortunately, it won't affect current students at all.
It looks like only one course is left for the LGSP second Circle, and druidkirk is working hard on that one. We may have a lot of stuff done for our students by Summerland.
I'm excited to see where we can take this program, and where other programs will go as well.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: excited
Current Music: "Lucky Stars", -JB
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May 6th, 2008
12:48 pm - Lectures, rites, and festivals . . .
I was fortunate enough to be asked to give a presentation on ADF and Discoridanism yesterday. This meant that I got to talk about two of my favourite things ever during my lunch hour. I was very pleased.
Dr. Urban asked me in to speak on these things to his class, which is doing an entire quarter on "Neo-Paganism, Witchcraft, and Satanism". The next class meeting is on Chaos Magic and Play, and I had a wonderful discussion with the class (well, I enjoyed it. . . I hope they did too. . .)
I'm spending the next few days working with the ADF Dedicant Path Documentation, trying to work up a monthly schedule for Grove Meetings. I'm also working on the outline for the next few Druid Moon rites, since I realized that as I head out to Desert Magic, I'm leaving shawneen_bear and tanrinia without much guidance, and because we're still feeling this out, I want to make sure that we get that guidance in place in the future.
This next rite is a lovely fire ritual, so I'm excited to see what they come up with.
It's odd, but with Desert Magic right around the corner (I literally leave from work tomorrow to go to the airport) I find myself most excited about Summerland coming up in August. . .
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "Tampico Trauma", -JB
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April 29th, 2008
05:19 pm - Vision
"For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;"
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Locksley Hall"
 Four months ago, I was given the opportunity to take on a new role within my unit at Ohio State. Right now, the position is interim, as a new Chief Information Officer needs to be hired before the position I'm currently filling can be officially filled (this position reports directly to the CIO). A CIO has been selected, and has (it seems) accepted her new role with OSU, so I expect to know more about whether this position can become permanent in June or July.
Yesterday, I received a payraise to reflect new responsibilities. That was nice, but not at all what this entry is about. Instead, it's about Vision.
Vision is something I have come to think much about recently. Running a Grove required vision, and being the Grove Priest for 3CG seems to require it even more. This new job requires vision, and even the debate over whether to accept the new responsibilities or to go to Colorado involved much intense soul-searching and testing of possible options, with one solid and sure path finally appearing before me. My life has been consumed by vision in the past six months.
As I go into this job in particular, dealing with many different kinds of people and entities, I find that I'm developing vision almost like one would develop a muscle: though constant use, pushing its limits, and working hard to keep it in good working order.
I have found myself slowing down, taking stock, and deliberating a lot more with myself. My choices are certainly better than they used to be, and my understanding of the long-term effects of my actions is clearer and more defined. I have seen my actions bear more fruit than they have in the past, and understood how they work over time. I have watched tiny seeds of action and thought grow into strong young trees that have weathered fierce storms.
Vision has an interesting effect on the individual, as well: it makes them more confident, happier, and responsive. I've noticed it within myself, too. I know what I want, I know I will achieve it, and I know what actions I need to take to obtain that goal. I am more often achieving said goals, and I am reaching that achievement in manners that are far more concerned with virtue than previous means I have used.
Vision brings knowledge and joy. The joy it brings is as deep as the joy of ignorance, but the breadth of this vision-joy is wider than the broad earth that supports the mountains and nourishes the trees, not slim like the path of a rock dropped in the ocean of ignorance.
I don't consider myself "visionary," nor do I think of my self as always "acting with vision." But I do find myself seeing more, and interpreting what I see in better, more complete ways. It is like walking past a bright, spring green tree against a deep blue, empty sky and saying, "I have never seen those colours before in my life, but I know them well, and they are natural together."
"The true voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes; in seeing the universe through the eyes of another, one hundred others—in seeing the hundred universes that each of them sees."
-Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922), "Remembrance of Things Past"
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Wonder Why We Ever Go Home", -JB
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April 28th, 2008
10:46 am - Grove Blog, Books, and Pride
The new version of WordPress is a tad different, so I'm forgetting to actually "publish" the ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) 3cg_blog posts after writing them on occasion. I caught it earlier this time than I did last time. Still, it just showed up on LJ.
I ordered a book the other day from Miami University of Ohio, called Ecstasy: Trance, Dance, and Transformation. I thought this would be a great resource for my Trance 2 work, figuring that a book like that would be wonderful for more information about trance.
Well, it's not about trance. Or dance. Or even transformation. It's about the damn drug ecstasy. Quite honestly, I can't figure out why anyone would want this particular book. The author is trying to be some sort of Tim Leary and not doing a very good job of it at all. I find myself shaking my fist at MUOhio and thinking smoldering thoughts in the direction of Oxford, as if it's somehow their fault.
 Last Thursday, I attended a Pride organizational event. Three Cranes Grove, ADF, has been asked to help with the intertraditional service before Pride this year, and I'm very excited about this. As a result, I find myself with a dire need to accessorize my ritual gear (no, I'm not kidding at all). I was thinking that I need either a rainbow stole or perhaps a rainbow sash to replace my usual belt, but something with the ADF sigil on it. Anyone willing to give me a hand and help me by making it (or keying me into where I can get such a thing)?
I really enjoyed the Pride meeting, by the way. As I reflected back on the meeting, I wondered if I should have felt out of place, or if I had felt out of place. I really didn't, and I suspect that because there was a representative from Green Faerie Grove, I didn't feel as out of place as I had in the initial meetings I had during my last interfaith foray for World AIDS Day (where I was the only Pagan in the room and service, though my discomfort cleared up quickly in that setting). I've always really liked the Pride movement, but involvement isn't always easy for allies. I'm very happy that I've been offered this particular chance to show my support (and my Grove's support) for the movement.
It's clear to me that I'm going to have to get over my general discomfort with certain terms, though, particularly "queer," which is a term that I've known most cleary from its use on the playground during my primary education in Kentucky, really, so those connotations still stick in my head. I'm not sure that the word had passed my lips since at least 1999, when I last mentioned playing the game "smear the queer" on the playground to my girlfriend (who was appalled I had played it: I'm pretty sure I hadn't thought of the socio-political impacts of the game's name before that). This is an entirely different community with a very specialized vocabulary that I'm not at all used to, and I'm pretty darn sure that the vocabulary isn't agreed upon by the entire population.
Ah, well: it's an adventure, and one that I'm very eager to take part in.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: "Bama Breeze", -JB
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April 27th, 2008
07:46 pm - Raw Numbers
Final numbers from ritual today:
- Attendance: 78
- Canned goods: 91
- Number of speaking parts I had in ritual: 0
I love the way my Grove has grown. . .
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Barefoot Children", -JB
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April 25th, 2008
08:53 am - Dreaming the CTP
This morning, I awoke to a dream that I had been working on the ADF Clergy Training Program.
Now, if only I could remember what I wrote, because I think I finished Trance 2 in the dream. . .
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "First Look", -JB
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April 24th, 2008
09:33 am - Cancer Run/Walk [Komen Race for the Cure]
Over the past year (or, in some cases, longer), my family has been dealing with cancer in various ways. We're not exactly low-risk, I've noticed. This goes for both my "real" family and my extended [ADF, PSA, and other Pagan] one.
The Grove and I have been walking in the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Columbus race each may since either romandruid brought it up the first time as a service project for the Grove in 2004. We've had varying attendance throughout the years, but as I've thought more and more about it, I want to make sure that we bounce back to at least 8 people walking with our Grove. At $25 per person, that's $200 for research.
(I'd also like to have people who can't make it or can't walk 5 clicks or who don't want to get up to do it, "Sleep in for the Cure," which entails buying a $25 sponsorship and not bothering to show up.)
The Race is in downtown Columbus, on Saturday, May 17, 2008, at 8:00 AM. We usually walk instead of run (we often refer to it as the "amble for the cure" given the speeds we reach), but you can do either.
Please, mark your calendars and let us know if you'll be walking with us (or sleeping in and dreaming about walking with us). Everyone is welcome.
[Oh, for those interested, I've updated Chronarchy.Com.]
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "One Particular Harbor", -JB
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April 23rd, 2008
02:49 pm - Skip's Ogham Book
Thanks to smithing_chick, I see that Skip's book on Ogham is out in a new edition. Go pick it up!
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: working
Current Music: "False Echoes [Havana 1921]", -JB
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April 22nd, 2008
04:05 pm - Trillium 08 in pictures
Some pictures from Trillium:
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Help for Mormons | Trillium's Fire | A cool road sign
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sleepingwolf stirring the shit | juxtaposem stirring the shit
(much shit was stirred at Trillium this year!)
juxtaposem and me at Fish Hatchery Road
Check out my hair!
(picture taken primarily because of the name
of the road, and singingwren's fondness for it)
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "On a Slow Boat to China", -JB
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April 14th, 2008
02:37 pm - 10% off what?
Guess what? ADF Regalia is apparently having a sale: 10% off of most everything, from shirts to runes to bumper stickers.
But the best thing that's on sale?
Donations!
Yes, that's right! For a limited time only, you can make a $1 donation to ADF for only 90¢! You can even donate $100 at the bargain price of $90, and there's a wide range of other increments for sale, too!
Don't delay: donate to ADF while it's cheap!
edit: turns out this wasn't exactly intentional, so it's just become a limited time offer, to boot!
second edit: Well, time is up: prices are back to normal. But still: feel free to donate!
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Frank and Lola", -JB
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April 7th, 2008
02:31 pm - No one at the TSA likes the priest of a fire-cult
It is an interesting experience, seeking to travel across the country by plane. With the security standards in place, you have to check and see if everything you wish to take is, indeed, still allowed since the last time you flew, or if the things you wanted to take last time but could not are now allowed.
I pack very light when I travel. I no longer check bags, and I have never had to do without. I do, however, travel with a lot of ritual gear. When I saw that there are no shopping areas near the Desert Magic Festival this year and the point after that is "bring offerings!" I started to think about this again.
You can bring one book of "safety" matches on a plane. I didn't find anything (outside the general restrictions on liquids) on the TSA pages about highly flammable liquids (whisky and everclear, anyone?), candles, or other things of that nature. In general, I presume that makes it "okay."
Then again, I have found a new tin for my portable altars, which might just wow the TSA into submission, if they're of the correct generation.
It becomes more complicated, too. While I will (thankfully) be on the ground at sunset on May 8 (that was planned, right druidkirk?), I won't have any way to light a fire, which just makes things ever more inconvenient. Add to this that I will be in the air at sunset on May 12, and I just sort of look at it and sigh. They really frown on open flames on planes.
Stay tuned to your local news about the freak accident involving a strip-search of a fire priest by the TSA and strike-anywhere matches.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "False Echoes [Havana 1921]", -JB
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April 4th, 2008
08:57 am - I thought for years that Socrates had a guy named "Playdough" on the payroll
I have been reading an interesting argument that Plato's work doesn't fit with Indo-European religious worldviews (or, using a term I prefer, "cosmovision"), and that they are a complete 180° turn from the basis of IE religions.
I find this freakin' hilarious, for a variety of reasons. Later work based off Plato doesn't really fit with IE religious norms, anyway: theurgy, for instance, leaves behind many IE norms and stops making sense pretty quickly in IE religious contexts, and his cosmological understandings affect add to the speed at which later theories take off (anyone who has suffered through the cave metaphor in his Republic will know what I mean).
I think I like this most because getting out from under the burden of Greek philosophers is pretty darn tough, and it really does help make sense of why we do ritual when we sort of step away from them and reconsider things more objectively.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: "Beyond the End", -JB
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April 2nd, 2008
08:45 am - The Fire on Our Hearth - A Devotional of Three Cranes Grove, ADF
 Three Cranes Grove, ADF, is proud to release our first book, entitled The Fire on Our Hearth - A Devotional of Three Cranes Grove, ADF.
Thirteen different people are represented in the pages of this book, only three of whom are not current Grove members. The first sixty pages are prayers for all occasions (the bulk of which are original to this book, though a couple have been published elsewhere). There are also eight chants that were created by Three Cranes members which are not on the ADF website or available through other means.
Significant events from our history are recorded, too: not only in our Grove poem, "Clutiā Trion Garanonon," but also in the evocations and rituals included: the poetic drama of last year's ComFest, the Ritual for Healing after Hurricane Katrina, the prayers to Belenos at Summerset, and our Grove Inception Statement are all included.
Prayers don't only appear in English, either: there are a few prayers in Latin and a couple in Spanish, too (translations provided)! There's also a table for translation of the Coligny Calendar month names into English.
In short, The Fire on Our Hearth does an excellent job of capturing the Voice of Three Cranes.
Rev. Kirk Thomas, ADF's Vice Archdruid, supplied us with a marvelous quote for the back of the book, saying, "This is a great book for solitaries, new Groves and Protogroves interested in investigating new rites and traditions for their personal and grove practices." He also informs me that he has submitted a review to Oak Leaves!
You can purchase The Fire on Our Hearth at the Three Cranes CafePress site, or via this direct link. We expect to bring copies to the ADF Festivals that Cranes attend, too, but don't wait: get them while they're hot!
The book is $16.99 from CafePress. Please do help support our Grove: the profit from this book all goes back to the Grove for ritual space rentals, ritual gear purchases, and all those little things that just aren't free when you're running a church. And thank you in advance for your support, as well!
This book is not available on my CafePress site, but only on the Grove's CafePress site.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Coconut Telegraph", -JB
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March 30th, 2008
06:00 pm - The Dedicant Path Through the Wheel of the Year has been updated!
 A new edition of The Dedicant Path Through the Wheel of the Year (often known simply as "WotY") is now available. Resources have been added, some sections have been expanded, typos have been found and fixed, and submission information has been updated.
For those looking to finish the requirements for the DP documentation, this book will walk you through all eleven requirements in a 52-week period, offering homework, resources and reading for every requirement, and explanations and breakdowns of the requirements to help you understand exactly what the exit standard is asking.
Hard copies are available for $12 on my CafePress store, and they come wire-bound so that they lay flat for easier working. Buy it here:
http://www.cafepress.com/chronarchy.35511346
The book is *still* free for download from the ADF site, too! You can find it among other supplemental publications here:
http://www.adf.org/members/training/dp/publications/index.html
[The .pdf file at the above address is also now full of live links: no more copy/paste from the document! Just "click and go!"]
Thanks to all those who have offered feedback, encouragement, and support on this book over the years, and a *huge* thank you to all the Dedicants who have taught me so much over the time I've been in ADF!
(This isn't the only book announcement you'll see from me this week. . . Watch our Grove site, 3cg_blog, ADF-Announce, and Oak Leaves for the next announcement!)
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: "Off to See the Lizard", -JB
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