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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 ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) 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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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, ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) 3cg_blog, ADF-Announce, and Oak Leaves for the next announcement!)
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) satisfied
Current Music: "Off to See the Lizard", -JB
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January 27th, 2008
09:51 am - Adventures in Linux (or, Saving Six Study Program Documents from Certain Doom)
Not long ago, I actually got "real" internet access at home. This consists of the cheapest possible DSL connection that I could possibly obtain: $15/month, which I split down the center with Tina. Since it's on my phone bill, it's not an extra bill, just more like an extra feature.
I also received red_sput's computer from my parents at about the same time. He had run into the classic confusing issue of "Windows just shuts down before fully booting," which indicated that there was some sort of issue with his WinXP installation. I offered to look at it, but he bought a new computer back in November, so it wasn't really urgent.
When I pressed the power button, the computer sprang to life, and I watched in amusement as the entire thing booted and popped into Windows with no problems at all. "I have it working," I told my father, who had seen it not work before. "What did you do?" he asked. "I turned it on." "Huh, nothing else?" "No," I said, "nothing else. There's a magical aura that tech support people have that makes it impossible to replicate an issue once the computer is in their hands. I have that aura."
It turns out that the issue was a combination of spyware, viruses, and (as I soon found out) a faulty hard drive.
Since then, I've been playing around with the machine (and am currently typing on it). I've used it for all sorts of things, from gaming to updating the Three Cranes site. But two days ago, I heard that ominous clicking on boot.
The hard drive had gone. Gone, daddy, gone.
While there was nothing of actual importance on this machine, I did have some ADF Clergy Training Program work saved on this machine and it was not yet backed up. While I can always re-write some of this stuff, I was kicking myself for falling victim to something I've told many, many Dedicants over the years: back your work up!
As a result, I went back to a solution I used last time a hard drive died: Linux.
( Geeky stuff ahead, but interesting )
In short, I think that the older versions of Knoppix are what I recommend and will probably stick with if I actually have to do anything in the future.
For the really short term, though, I'm just going to get a new hard drive for this bad boy and use my flash drive to back everything up until this one finally craps out. While it's on its last legs, I did manage to get back into Windows and boot from the hard drive. I noticed yesterday that the hard drive had appeared in Knoppix, meaning that it's working temporarily. So for now, the machine is intact. Sorta.
Did I mention there's also a c-clamp holding the monitor together?
I love computer repair and support. It can be so. . . ghetto.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Mac the Knife", -JB with Frank Sinatra
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November 1st, 2007
09:09 am - Transcription Project
Something I've always wanted to do but never really had the time for is to get all the omens from all our rites posted so that folk could see them, which would help with their DP writeups.
I think that, if I can find the time this weekend, I'd like to get on that, and start transcribing the Book of Three Cranes over onto a page on our site. I'm not sure if I'd just make the omens public, or if I'd make the writeups public, or if I'd just make the whole thing "members-only" on the site.
But I've realized that each Grove Dedicant needs this information, anyway (as does anyone doing the DP who might attend our rituals), so why not make it available? I get enough questions (usually about one per ritual) within a week of the rite to know that it's something we need.
Plus, given our history with losing sign-in books (and then subsequently finding them after we've changed to a new book), it wouldn't be a bad idea to actively keep another copy.
So, that's my weekend project. Well, aside from continuing to fill in the 1 ft. x 1 ft. hole in my house. And watching the Buckeyes with tesinth. And maybe getting a bit of sleep.
Heck, I haven't even had time to do my own Samhain rite yet. I'll be working off of last year's ritual, but I want to take the time to sit down and modify it, too.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "Carnival World", -JB
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October 26th, 2007
11:56 am - Walking the Path Again: Virtues (moderation)
In reviewing the virtue of moderation last night, I noticed something interesting: I had trouble really defining it, cosmologically.
Now, I have no trouble understanding many of the other virtues from a cosmological standpoint: integrity is about the maintenance of relationships, piety is about reaffirming (or recreating) the cosmos, perseverance is about drive toward what is right, and hospitality is the central aspect of our ritual work.
I have spent a lot of time in these essays discussing how each of these virtues fits the Rta (or the orlog). I am a bit curious as to why I didn't relate moderation to the Rta as quickly as I have the others. I am feeling very much, at this point, like I have missed a key of moderation, a particular point that will cause me to see the Rta in this virtue.
So far, I think about it, basically, "as creating the fertile ground from which things can grow." There's a sense of quiet excellence that is formed from moderation, one that shines more brightly and more enduringly than the fast-burning excellence that lacks a long-range plan. Moderation creates a position from which things may grow healthfully, rather than recklessly.
I am not sure I like my moderation essay. I need to think more about how moderation affects the cosmos, and how the cosmos exhibits moderation, before I can say that I'm comfortable with the thoughts expressed in the essay.
Perhaps moderation, to me, is a synthesis between the chaos of potential and the ordering of the cosmos. It is maintainable, focuses on the ordinary, and creates excellence from a strong, supported place.
"Sail the main course, sail it in a simple, sturdy craft.
Keep her well stocked with short stories and long laughs;
Fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see,
Moderation seems to be the key!"
-Jimmy Buffett, "Barometer Soup"
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Music: "Brand New Country Star", - JB
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October 25th, 2007
09:46 am - Walking the Path Again: Virtues (courage)
There is a page about lost, stolen, or destroyed Victoria Cross medals (the UK's equivalent to the Congressional Medal of Honor). One in particular caught my eye:
"The loss of Samuel Harvey's Victoria Cross in the 1920s are variously believed to be: swapped for beer in a pub; lost in a wood near Ipswich whilst returning home from a pub; or possibly Harvey sold his Victoria Cross privately. There have been no sightings of the VC since."
I guess I'd rather swap mine for a beer than have my kids loose it in a field while playing "soldiers," like Duncan Home's VC was. . .
I was re-reading Medal of Honor and VC citations last night as I was working on my Nine Virtues essays, hoping to get a better feel for the virtue of "courage." Courage, of course, is different now than it was. The inscription on the monument to Periclean citizen-warriors at Yale University sums up our modern idea of courage best, I think: "Courage disdains fame, and wins it."
And yet, the ancient world (particularly the IE world) was very strongly centered on the immortality of fame. I might almost be willing to argue that the IE example is best described as, "Courage wins fame, and revels in it."
It is an interesting issue for me to consider. I love re-doing my Dedicant Path documentation, particularly since I did my work before the change in requirements in 2003/2004.
Every time I sit down to re-work my DP, I find that I am learning more from the process. It's an excellent Path for those who take it seriously: easy enough that if you want a hoop to jump through, you can use it as that; but if you're serious about the work, and you want to gain deeply from it, the DP can be as challenging and rewarding as you want it to be.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: working
Current Music: "No Woman, No Cry", -JB
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October 23rd, 2007
08:33 am - Meditations on the Ancestors
As I was reading the other day, I began to think about our ancestors as a long cycle of cosmic recreation, the microcosm becoming the macrocosm becoming the microcosm, and on and on. Stone becoming bone becoming stone becoming bone.
I even wrote a little preliminary chant (I'm showing my age):
"Bone to stone, stone to bone:
Never end, always change.
Breath to wind, wind to breath:
Rising up, crashing down.
Eyes to sun, sun to eyes:
Ever seeing, always knowing."
Really, I actually just wrote that down on the fly while writing to someone last night. It's not even thought out, honestly. I haven't thought of a rhythm or melody for the chant, or even checked it to see if it scans reasonably. I think it's really just an idea, not an actual attempt at any sort of chant.
But this led me into doing something I actually like to do, which is writing prayers, evocations and presenting pretty liturgical language.
I suspect I'll have my final version of what I wrote last night (much better than the chant) posted here by Samonios.
My eyes opened last night in such a way as they haven't before, to the way the Ancestors and the cosmos interact.
Can't wait to see all those "Pagan New Year's Resolutions" start floating about LJ. . . My own resolution? Well, it's more of a hopeful desire: I want to get back to updating my website, Chronarchy.Com, with more regularity. I'm already started, and things are going well. I'm working particularly hard on my Dedicant Path documentation, updating that with better-quality essays. And yes, my old essays will remain available (part of the value of my website is to show that even a monkey with a typewriter can do the DP); I really did want, though, to provide some decent essays, especially after discovering that some of my essays which would not pass under the current requirements have been held up as "examples" of "what could pass." Even notes on some things saying, "This passed under the old requirements, and would not pass under the current Preceptor or requirements," haven't stopped folk from pointing to it. Just because I'm mediocre (at best) doesn't mean your work shouldn't be excellent.
So, I expect that to be a major update. But, now I've typed more than I intended, so it's back to the grind: I have so much to do today, and so little time to do it!
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "California Promises", -JB
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July 23rd, 2007
10:42 am - Three Cranes, Esus, and Tarvos
I've been working on further developing my connection with our Grove's namesake, Trigaranus (aka "Three Cranes", who we usually refer to in the singular as "Garanus" or "Crane"), within my own mind. If these 6th night rituals work out for the Grove, we'll talk about developing this a tad further as a Grove, too.
I started thinking about what names I could refer to each of the cranes as, and I started thinking about the Grove and what the Grove's strongest traits are.
I admit, my conception of Trigaranus is inextricably tied to my conception of the Grove.
As I was thinking about the Grove, though, I began to think about us in terms of the Nine Virtues of ADF, and I started thinking, "Which three virtues do we most exhibit?"
ADF's Nine Virtues are: Wisdom, Piety, Vision, Integrity, Perseverance, Courage, Moderation, Hospitality, and Fertility
Recent events were certainly on my mind, and I began to think about how our Grove is perceived inside and out. The virtue that stuck out most in my mind was Hospitality: we've seen a surge in growth recently, and we're becoming fairly well-known for providing hospitality (the joke has become that we are "Three Cranes Grove Home for Wayward Druids", which is great in our general opinion).
I thought about other virtues, and Integrity was the next to come to mind: not only in our words and actions, but relating back to the previous point of hospitality. We have a way of "integrating" folks into the whole here, and I'd like to see that continue and grow.
Vision was another obvious choice: I speak constantly about the Crane with "one foot on the land, one foot in the waters, and an eye constantly raised to the sky." I do that primarily to emphasize his tripartite nature as a creature of land, sea, and sky, but his eye to the sky could easily be interpreted as "looking into the future" while firmly "grounded in the present and past", if one wished to make a complicated explanation about it all (and this is religion: all explanations are complicated).
I then noticed that I had three functions with three cranes, and I was interested to see what I could do with the rest of the Nine Virtues (having six left over).
I started thinking about the parts of the myth that get no air play in our Grove: Esus and the Bull, Tarvos. I wanted to include them, as well, and so I set about giving them their own attributes from the Nine Virtues.
I ended up choosing the ones I did because I see Esus as a sort of "caretaker" to the tree: pruning it instead of cutting it down. This takes moderation, perseverance, and wisdom. I primarily see the bull, Tarvos, as a sacrificial bull, and thus connected it with religious action (piety), the continuance of cycles (fertility) and the courage bulls are renowned for.
It ended up looking something like this:
Esus, Tarvos Trigaranus, and ADF's Nine Virtues
| Trigaranus |
Hospitality
Integrity
Vision |
| Esus |
Moderation
Perseverance
Wisdom |
| Tarvos |
Fertility
Courage
Piety |
It's interesting to me to start, in earnest, taking the religion of the Gauls and really doing interpretive work off of it. It's also a bit scary, as I often don't quite know "how far is too far" yet, and the last thing I want to do is jump off the deep end and into fluff. The best I can do is avoid pretending that this stuff is "really the way it was" and say, "Well, if I were practicing Gaulish religion today, what on earth would I be doing?"
It's very interesting to re-imagine the cosmos. Very, very interesting.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: creative
Current Music: "Rancho Deluxe", -JB
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June 13th, 2007
02:33 pm - A distinct lack of poetic talent is my meter. . .
So there's this poem I've been working on. Its initial lines were typed in on Dec. 11, 2001, though it may be a few months older. It very much follows a certain. . . shall we say. . . lack of meter?
I've never actually lost interest in this poem. It's four pages long, and I just added three stanzas to make it just over that, but I don't often work on it. The title is "Teachings of a Woodcutter", and it's sort of modeled after the Havamal thematically.
It's an outgrowth of my first work as an ADF Dedicant, as I tried to understand the Nine Virtues. Each virtue (listed, even that early, as "three times three") receives an introductory stanza and three explanatory stanzas, with seven stanzas to introduce the entire poem. Each stanza is four lines long, with the number of feet per line being. . . well, "arbitrary" is an understatement.
After this week's experiments with "Kubla Khan" and the month-long experiment with Lugus and Rosemerta, I'm looking at this particular work as "in desperate need of fixing". This is rather amusing, given that it's not even finished yet.
So, tonight, I'm likely to keep working on this particular poem. I'm so far behind on "stuff" at this point that it isn't funny, but I've gotten some things done. I'd grumble about money, but, ya know, grumbling doesn't pay bills, so I'm off to find new ways to make cash instead.
Something's gotta give, and it ain't gonna be me.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/sad.gif) exhausted
Current Music: "Off to See the Lizard", -JB
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May 30th, 2007
10:21 am - Wellspring 2007 - Just. . . wow.
 Wellspring, this year, was very, very good. Between my very first six hour ritual and having Isaac, ADF's founder, shout, "You troublemaker you!" at me, I can't really find much fault. (See Sunday for both of those oddities, plus some.)
( Thursday )
( Friday )
( Saturday )
( Sunday )
( Monday )
The last person I saw from Wellspring was Brian, who passed me just north of Columbus on I-71 while I was fumbling around to dig out my altar for my sunset ritual. (Yes, I sometimes do my sunset ritual while driving. Sue me.) :) I made it back to Columbus around 9 PM on Monday night, feelin' damn good.
Miss you all, all over again.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: grateful
Current Music: "We Are The People Our Parents Warned Us About", -JB
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May 11th, 2007
03:27 pm - Groovin' down the Path
Today's Jimmy Buffett Oracle is pretty straightforward:
64. I'll put on my Bob Marley tape and practice what I preach. I happen to know exactly what that means.
This morning, I updated my Liturgy Practicum 1 journal for what I hope is the final time (*fingers crossed*). . . there's a space for a final essay, but it's not required, and I'd like more time to reflect on the journal before I actually do it: it's only been about 5 months since I finished the course, and I'm very happy with how it worked out, but I want more "space" before I start trying to analyze and distill the lessons.
At lunch today, I found myself wondering about two questions in particular:
- Is there some code among girls that, if a guy makes you a mixed CD or mixed tape, he's "totally into you"?
- Why do I have no Patsy Cline in my entire music collection? How has it taken me this long to notice?
I also re-started my re-working of my Dedicant work today at lunch, and I began with the eight High Days. I expect to retain my old, original work on my website, but I will make a very clear demarcation between the "good stuff" and the "original crappy stuff".
So far, I'm finished with Imbolc and Autumnal Equinox. A key change I've made to the format of my previous submissions of High Days is to use the actual ADF terminology for the "Eight ADF High Days" (see Article 4 of the ADF Constitution). Well, close to it, as I numbered the "crossquarters" as "first crossquarter" and such, and also indicated the season the astronomical phenomenon fell in like "winter solstice". And I included both the "modern Neo-Pagan name" for each and the "Gaulish name" (from Ariotanos Iuranantantios' work).
I'm really enjoying the mental exercise of going back to the basics here. I've said, time and again, that anyone can gain from walking the Dedicant Path. I've been a major influence on lots of DP's in the past four years, and I'm finding a lot of worth in going back to re-do it.
And for all those Dedicants who have the habit of telling me that I'm somehow inspiring, I'd like to point out that it's your work that inspired me to go back and re-work my own DP. And I mean that.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: "Cinco de Mayo in Memphis", -JB
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March 7th, 2007
10:42 am - The Wheel of the Year, She is A-Turnin'. . .
Since I put the Wheel of the Year document (WotY) on my CaféPress site in late October of 2005, I've sold 37 copies of it. I made $3.02 off of it before I revised it and published it at cost last July. 15 copies were then sold at no profit to me. I've only once held an actual published copy of WotY, thanks to _crow365__: I don't even own a copy of my own book. It's kinda funny, thinking about how much work I've put into it, and what the return has been.
That return has been amazing.
It's interesting: the monetary return has been so darn low (so low I can't even collect it from CaféPress), but the value I place on the experience and the comments I've gotten back from it has been extremely high. Watching Dedicants use the plan (even if only for a month or two) has been very good, and a fairly solid indication that the program is helpful to at least some people.
My original, stated goal with the WotY was this: "If it helps one person, it will have been worth it."
I think WotY has surpassed that original goal.
The highest validation I got that it was a Good Idea™ was from Ian, who said he saw the next edition of the DP as including the WotY, possibly as an appendix, or even as a "book two". That, of course, was before the newest call for DP revisions* took place.
( Now, WotY is in an interesting fix )
* - FYI: These DP "revisions" don't affect the exit standards, so don't worry about work you're doing somehow becoming obsolete. The booklet is just being cleaned up.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Tonight I Just Need My Guitar", -JB
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February 22nd, 2007
10:44 am - Going back to the work I long to do. . .
 In a discussion last night, I realized that I have been slacking on my Clergy Training work. I need to get back into it.
So this morning I started in on the essays for Magic 2, and I'll start the trancework for that and Trance 1 shortly.
I will need to finish transcribing my Liturgy Practicum 2 work over from my paper journals, as well.
Also, I am going to begin to use the divinations I've been doing for others for my Divination 2 work (don't worry, I'll ask you before I use something I did for you, and you are encouraged to say "no" if the idea makes you even the least bit uncomfortable). Because of the recent upswing in requests of that nature and my attention to the notation of those readings, I should have my requisite nine very shortly.
Of course, now here I sit thinking that it would be good to do Divination 2 based off the Magic 8 Ball on my desk, a powerful (and wholly IE) divination tool, if I do say so.
The journaling requirements in the second circle of the CTP are huge, but not really daunting. We took into account that a lot of journaling would be done in this circle, and so we merged two requirements for different courses, and set the time limits to be reasonable so that people could complete them all in a year. I don't really have an issue with 5 months of trance practice, or 5 months of daily/weekly divination. The four months of journaling for LitPracticum 1 were, simply put, amazing.
ardgruntler indicated that the first circle of the CTP requires (roughly) 26,800 words. I don't know if she counted "Law and the Church", which is technically Second Circle at this point, but that does put things in perspective. I never thought about it in terms of "total wordcount". Shockingly, after having done it, I'm surprised that I had so few of my essays that scraped by at the minimum. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that I learned so much in the process, that what once looked like a daunting task turned into such a learning experience that I didn't have problems making it happen.
With the second circle of the CTP being roughly 25,500 words with 5 out of 12 courses still unwritten, it's safe to say that Clergy Training in ADF will become twice as "hard" with every Circle you pass. But, as I look at the requirements and read through them, I can't help but smile and say, "Yes, this is harder, but the previous Circle prepared me well for this, and I can certainly do it."
For reference, the Dedicant Path has about 7,700 required words, if you're looking at the requirements.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/wink.gif) mischievous
Current Music: "West Nashville Grand Ballroom Gown", -JB
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February 7th, 2007
01:41 pm - Piety on the pilgrimage
"A mountain temple, Senyuji stands out for having had its main image carved by a woman. The figure of the thousand-armed Kannon was carved in the seventh century by a young woman, who is supposed to have prostrated herself after every cut of the knife. Several of the temples where the main image was carved by the Daishi also claim this kind of reverence during the making of the image. The next level of holiness in carving requires prostrating and reciting a prayer before each cut, as well as the post-cut recitation."
-Temple 58, Senyuji1 This particular quote is one I stumbled across while bringing mazisexton a copy of the book it's found in. There's something about this sort of action that speaks to me deeply.
The Shikoku pilgrimage interests me quite a bit: architecturally, spiritually, and academically. To say nothing of the fact that I promised mazisexton that I'd make it happen sometime with her.
But today, I ran across the paper I'd written that quote down on, and I remembered how much I just wanted to share it, to mention it, particularly to ADF Dedicants working on their understanding of piety. And I remembered how good that felt. And I certainly remembered the fact that that's really all I want to do on so many days. And that felt good to remember.
1 - p. 195: Readicker-Henderson, Ed. The Traveler's Guide to Japanese Pilgrimages. Weatherhill:New York, NY. 1995
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: quixotic
Current Music: "Little Miss Magic", -JB
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December 22nd, 2006
09:51 am - Reading through the DP
 According to my spam this morning, no one can tell that I'm bananas.
But that's not important. What is important is this:
Last night a number of people posted ADF Dedicant Program-related entries: journal entries, book reviews, a DP Oath, lots of Virtues, and some meditation work.
I would just like to say one thing: You, the Dedicants of ADF, make me proud. Very proud.
What gets to me most is the depth that our newest students can plumb with their essays and oaths. I know that my DP work is, well, rather juvenile and even petulant in some places. Okay, in most places. It is not good example work.
Every time I read the work posted to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) dedicants, adf, or to the various personal journals that populate LJ and a few other sites, I am amazed at the entries.
I no longer read a lot of final DP submissions. To some extent, it's a time thing. To a greater extent, though, it's that I've gotten so darn close to a lot of DP's that I simply can't review them objectively. I read at least one DP-related post per day, probably averaging closer to five, and I try and comment on all of them.
Sometimes, It's really hard to offer a suggestion about how to improve the essay: a lot of times, there's no improvement needed. I feel a bit sheepish just posting, "Good essay," but sometimes, the essay is at least as good as I could have written it, and usually it's better. I'm not joking when I talk about how much I learn from the Dedicants of ADF: every one of them teaches me something new (some teach me lots of new things).
I was recently having a discussion with another ADF member about where ADF has been and where it's going in the future. In that discussion, I noted that I feel ADF is very much on the right track: our focus on spirituality is deepening and the focus on administrative stuff is lessening. Over the past year, in particular, I have seen the spiritual focus of ADF flourish, and it excites me to watch that, to be a part of that.
Sometimes I wonder if folks get bored or annoyed with my posts about how much I really enjoy DP-realted stuff, or even ADF in general. Then I remember that I prefer to use my journal to share my joys, and that this is one of the main ones in my life.
[about the picture with this entry: I wanted a pic to go along with this entry, and this is the first picture that shows up on a Google Image Search for "Dedicant Program". In the picutre, druidkirk and Gannd, two of our Clergy, are disposing of SSG's offerings in a lake. Click on it to enlarge. And giggle.]
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Boats To Build", -JB
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November 21st, 2006
02:03 pm - Thinking about where to go from here, web-wise
I've been looking over Chronarchy.Com's backend specs. The site sits at about 275 MB in size, out of a possible 400 MB. My virtual "rent" is fairly cheap (which is good: I could never afford more), but I'm thinking about what I'd like to do with the site, and it *does* just keep growing.
So as I look at it, I start to size it up. There's ever the option of adding wiki. . . A fun tool that ADF members will know well (as will users of that silly depository of "knowledge," Wikipedia), but it doesn't seem to serve my needs. There are mailing lists and polls and things like that which could really enhance the "experience" of Chronarchy.Com, but they're not so much useful as "cool."
I could create a "members only" section, but that bothers me on a lot of levels: I'm one of those rare people who really likes the transparency that the Internet provides, the openness it promotes and the weird quirks of oh-shit-I-shouldn't-have-posted-that moments that we all have. They make life interesting, at the very least. Only one directory on my pages is password protected, and all it's got are four images.
I can create a nifty chat function (I did this on the Three Cranes site, but more as a fun thing to play with than an actual tool), but I don't have the time to staff it or really participate in it to any extent.
I could add a blog, but between MySpace, Facebook, and LiveJournal, I am totally blogged out. Enough that my webpage, which I always wanted to keep primary, is wasting away for lack of new content (don't tell me you haven't noticed. . .)
I could sell stuff, but given the lackluster response my CafePress site gets (even with ADF-related material available on it being published at cost), I have a feeling that's a losing proposition. Besides, the CafePress site is linked off every page of the site, and in a year and a half, it's earned all of $6.02.
But what actually interested me was a little program called "Moodle". Moodle is a course management system that allows people to take courses on your website. It allows for virtual workshops, assignments, chat sessions, creation of resources, etc.
I look at it and I think that, hell, I could put the WotY up on that. I could set it up to assign things on a regular basis, create due dates, quiz people over the material, and seriously upgrade and reorganize the resources available. And I could also create something like that for the various GSP courses, or clergy training. And honestly, I'm a little excited.
The central problem with it is the installation size. It's nearly 50 MB, and that'll put me dangerously close to the edge, given my current usage and the rate the site has grown at: about 68 MB/year on average.
With additional size, there's additional cost. So now I'm thinking: is it worth the upgrade cost? How can I make the additional virtual "rent?" Would anyone use it? How much backend work is needed: can it run itself? Is it fair to offer the course for cash (the idea makes me somewhat uncomfortable), or should I just check ADF membership and make it a free-for-all romp if I decide to do it?
Yes, these are things I wonder about during sunny lunch hours in winter.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/thinking.gif) contemplative
Current Music: "If the Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me", -JB
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August 5th, 2006
12:57 pm
I've been playing with an idea that sleepingwolf gave me: Visual Liturgy.
It's a program (with several sister programs) developed by the Anglican Communion for liturgical work. Basically, you start with the basic Order of Services, and then you kinda pick your sermons, bible readings, prayers, hymns. . . everything.
I imagine that extensive use of such a program, even though the number of options are huge probably have a seriously detremental affect on the individual creativity of Anglican priests (there's suddenly no need to write your own, or spend a lot of time on liturgy), but I see that there's a use for it within the Pagan community. So I'm exploring options to make my own version.
It's a bit more complicated, though, when you have . . . essentially an infinite number of deities to find prayers for. :)
On Thrusday, the Three Cranes site went down. Hard. There was a real messup with my credit card, where for some reason my billing address was listed as "69 W. Weber Rd., Columbus, AL". Everything got cleared up, though, and the site no longer points to "find information on jib cranes, crane rental, construction cranes, grove cranes." Thank the gods. :)
On Thursday night, I found myself wide-awake when I got fully prepared for bed, so I got up and started in on the Liturgist Guild Study Program. There are only four classes I'd have to do (in addition to the GSP which I just finished, but haven't heard back on yet), and two of them (apparently?) count toward the second circle of the Clergy Training Program, so I figured, "Eh, what the hell?"
I wrote up everything for Liturgy Practicum 1: Domestic Cult Practice in ADF that didn't require the 4-month wait that night, and got a start on Liturgical Writing 1. The next morning (yesterday), I wrote hekatatia and asked to enroll in the LGSP.
Then, at lunch, while looking through the requirements for the program (again), I notcied that there's a requirement in the "bardic" portion of the program that requires the writing of two poems, at which point I realized that we need another voice to the Grove poem, which we update every year for Autumnal Equinox.
And I also thought about something I could do for a praise offering that ritual.
I'm moving back to seeking excellence in personal ritual, something that I haven't really thought of in a while. Not since Yule 2004, at least, when I wrote a solitary Yule rite because I had to miss Saturnalia. I have mentioned that I really want to re-do my Dedicant Program, too. I've told a lot of people who wanted to "test out" of the DP and various requirements that everyone has something to learn from going "back to basics", and I've always believed it.
Now, it's time to prove it.
Last night, I had a dream that tesinth and I were wandering through the Generations Religious Supply Store, collecting items for our own religious organization. In my dream, they had really great items for sheep sacrifice (like, big troughs to move the blood to a drain, a little table for examining the liver, and such like). If they have those in reality, then they must have a back room somewhere, because I didn't see any when I was there. . .
Today, I need to give perlgirlju a call and let her know when I'm free so that we can watch bad vampire movies.
But first, a shower is absolutely necessary.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Wonder Why We Ever Go Home", -JB
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August 2nd, 2006
11:58 am - More on the GSP and DP
This morning's Buffett Oracle seems pretty straightforward:
145. You've got to take a chance, you got to let somebody move you. Sometimes, the best advice, though late in coming, is the obvious advice :)
Last night, I outlined a book to write, but as I look at it, I realize I probably already wrote it at some point or another, so it's off to build another Dedicant Requirement Packet, I think. Meditation is next on the list of things to write about, there.
I mentioned in a comment that I want to go back and re-work the DP. I'm seriously thinking about actually re-doing the entire thing, including the meditation bit. I think that, if I re-did the DP at this point, I'd not only write (much) better essays, but I'd also get a lot more out of it.
I'm really liking the idea of approaching the meditation bit again. I'll probably hate myself for that somewhere around week 3, but hey, gotta do what you gotta do, you know?
Hey, now that my GSP is sitting around pending someone else's action for a change: What can I do for you folks working on your DP's?
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: "This Hotel Room", -JB
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July 3rd, 2006
09:53 am - Deforestation and Erysichthon
I was startled, when reading an article called "Lucan's Caesar and the Sacred Grove: Deforestation and Enlightenment in Antiquity" that describes the episode of desecration of the sacred grove by Caesar and what it means. Kinda cool article, and some copies will likely be made for a few people. What startled me, though, was that it referenced me to a passage in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book VIII, lines 738-884, the story of Erysichthon, who cuts down a sacred tree.
Get this: Erysichthon cuts into the sacred tree, and blood flows out "like a fountain from the neck of a great bull, who falls before the altars of the gods."
If there were cranes involved, too, I'd die. Literally, I'd be dead and gone of shock. But there are no cranes, so I'm guessing it's just an interesting, poetic coincidence.
But for a moment, I wondered.
(I think I'm going to suggest this passage for the "piety" and "nature awareness" requirements in the DP. . .)
Before anyone says anything anti-Roman, there's no actual evidence that Caesar destroyed any groves. Just an FYI, because we have a popular tradition in Neo-Paganism saying he did.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Train to Dixieland", -JB
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April 26th, 2006
10:57 am - As the Wheel of the Year turns. . .
I hit a sudden writer's block last night. I was doing so well, too: I'd finally managed to crack the main problem with the DP Through the Wheel of the Year book that I wrote: the fact that I managed to fit nine freakin' High Days into one year.
I mean, I'm a magician, sure, and a Chaote to boot, but who can fit nine High Days into a single year?
But I wrote out the entire schedule in dates, and I think I managed to set it so that the High Day rites are at least somewhat more correctly spaced, and there are now only 8 of them.
Of course, with the removal of two lessons (each High Day includes two lessons: one on the High Day and traditions associated with it and the other about the ritual recap), I now have two weeks left to make up lessons for: the last two weeks.
One of those weeks was easy: it's basically just a list of items that need to be included, to ensure that the Dedicant has everything. It includes where to send it, what to expect when you send it, etc. I should have included that before.
The other one is more difficult. It's about reviewing what you learned and creating an idea of where you want to go from there. It's designed to show that the DP isn't an end, but a beginning (which I firmly believe it is). So I'm trying to work up some things about that, but that's where the writer's block comes in.
I've got two sentences on that lesson. If anyone wants to help on this topic, though, I have some very specific ideas of how you can. I just need to think about it more, I think.
For those using the current draft, I doubt anything has changed up to the point you're currently at. The first change was at week 15, and it was just a re-ordering of dates. The biggest changes are at the very end, where things started to get massively shuffled around.
A full list of changes is available to ADF members on the ADF Wiki, at MJDProjects, if you're interested to see what the difference in editions will be. It's toward the bottom.
But I'm using the DP book to take my mind off other things, and it's helping a bit. Hopefully, version two can be out shortly.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: "Death of an Unpopular Poet", -JB
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