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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 ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) 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: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) excited
Current Music: "Lucky Stars", -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 13th, 2007
10:30 am - More CTPing
 Last night, I turned in at about 1 AM, after writing four of the essays for Magic 2. I simply couldn't hold my eyes open anymore.
I should be finishing the final two non-practice requirements tonight (I've been using my new-found lunch hours to outline my responses to wonderful effect), and then moving on to Divination 2.
I pushed for a much more verbose (and, resultantly, intensive) Divination 2 course originally. Most seers would have been able to take their CTP studies and publish a book on just the essays alone, if my original idea had gone through. I admit to being happy it did not. I should be able to complete Div. 2 in about a week, I imagine, with a couple of key exceptions:- The 5-month journal (which should match up some with my Magic2/Trance1 journal)
- Nine divinations done for others (for those I've done divination for, you'll get an email or note asking permission before I publish)
- Three omens taken by me in public ritual (a clergy-only requirement for Div 2)
Once that's done, I'll start in on the journaling, and I expect the next five months of my life to be pretty darn busy with trancework, magical work, and divination work. I find that the work I'm doing is intensely personal, and if the CTP's journaling experiences are anything like the Lit. Practicum 1 journaling experience was, well, I'll be having a hell of a good run.
I understand why priests in most other religions don't have dayjobs :) The dayjob gets in the way of studying (you can't study while you're maintaining email accounts, I've found), which means that you have to make time for your studying during what used to be "personal time" that was outside your other job: being clergy. Of course, a lot of my time designated as "personal" has recently also been "on-call," but I actually like that (odd as that sounds) and don't find myself minding if it continues to increase.
Anyway, by the end of the day today, I expect to be finished with all but two requirements for Magic 2. By the beginning of next week, I should be finished with all but one requirement for Divination 2. After that, I'll work on Trance 1 (I should have enough time over spring break to finish up the non-practice requirements there). Once I've finished Trace 1, I'll start my journaling and practicum for those courses.
I'm looking forward to it all!
[side note: while searching for a picture to match this entry, this freaked me out.]
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Bama Breeze", -JB
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March 9th, 2007
09:28 am - Getting deeper in the CTP
Last night, I finished Liturgy Practicum 1: Domestic Cult Practice, and I moved onto Magic 2, finishing the first two questions and starting on question 4 (question 3 is a journal).
[( note on Lit Pract 1 )] It struck me, at some point, that even though I wrote the Magic 2 course (with lots of input from the Clergy Council), I didn't make it easy for me. In fact, while I had a general concept about what I could answer, I appear to have gone beyond that point and stumbled into "things MJD thought he knew, but really doesn't." I've already had to re-frame things I knew before and had sources contradict what I thought was the case.
Plus, by increasing the word counts for Second Circle courses, there has been an obvious increase in general difficulty: the higher counts make me more likely to focus on creating scholarly, researched work than the lower ones from First Circle did. So, with increased difficulty comes increased quality, at least for me.
Heck, question 4, about the place of the Three Kindreds in magic, has me tearing out my hair because I know the answer, I just can't verbalize it yet. I certainly can't verbalize 600 words of it right now, with source citations and all that.
The Clergy Training Program ADF has put out has really had that central benefit to me: it takes things I know and turns them into things I can talk about. Further, when I find a shortcoming in my own understandings, the questions guide me toward the understanding I sought, rather than just asking me arcane questions that seem entirely irrelevent.
Anyway, on a lighter note, this silly thing has been floating around, and I figured, "What the hell?"
Crush this person!
Get your own ThisCrush.com CrushTag!
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: "Pre-You", -JB
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February 26th, 2007
10:36 am - Usas, Writing and Working
Yesterday, I sat at my computer. I'd gone to bed at gods-know-what hour after suffering through a major headache on Saturday, and woken up with suddenly nearly an enitre day to do two things:
- Practice my ASL
- Work on my book
The first thing I did was type up my ASL glossing for the test tesinth was going to help me record.
The second thing was sit down and move my book another step toward publication.
As I was writing a passage for the book, working on the "meat" of the book, which is chapter 6, "Deepening Your Practice," I found myself writing about sunrise rituals. I remembered the first time I had seen the sun rise, back when I was almost 19 years old, and thought about the effect it had on me.
Then I thought about my most recent actions regarding the sunrise, I realized that I had experienced the expanding days with a particular joy: Soon, I would be able to hold sunrise and sunset rituals again. Just today, it seems, the dawn comes at a time when I can rise before her, prepare the sacrifices, do my ritual, and still make it to work on time. I have truly missed this, and tomorrow morning I will re-start my dawn/sunset rituals.
I found myself, entirely to my surprise, suddenly writing about Usas, dancing on the rim of the world. She is the last of all dawns that came before her, and the first of all dawns that will come after her. She is that beautiful maiden whose bosom, rising from the waters of her bath, drenches the sky in the hues of morning. She opens the gates of heaven, the ways for Surya, the sun. She is greeted by those who make generous sacrifices and ignored by those who do not. It is almost as if the sacrifice can afford you a glimpse of her beauty, and it will forever affect you.
It strikes me as odd, that Usas and Ratri, so tied to perfect order, should call so strongly to me. Usas holds my heart, but there is a love for Ratri, too, and her prayers come at sunset. My facination with Usas might come from my stint as Surya at Walking With Fire in 2005, but it's hard to say. I suspect that it has more to do with the fact that I have done these dawn rituals, that I've seen Usas first hand, and every morning I fell in love with her again.
I agree with MacDonell, that there truly is no other figure in literature nor myth who is as charming or described with more deep love and emotion as Usas. I smile when I see the dawn, that knowing smile a lover gives to his beloved. I know how the poets felt when they saw her, and I know what they thought when they thought of her. I don't feel as if I can speak and do justice to her, and the things I write are never as beautiful as she.
Praised through my prayer are you who should be lauded. You have increased our wealth, Usas who loves us.
Goddesses, may we win, by your good favour, wealth to be told by hundreds and thousands.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: rejuvenated
Current Music: "Please Take Your Drunken 15 Year-old Girlfriend Home", -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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November 29th, 2006
08:40 am - From the LGSP Journal last night
I came home on Tuesday night and went straight to my altar. Something wasn't adding up, primarily centering around a discussion on ADF-Liturgists.
Sometimes, I find myself drawn into a discussion, and on occasion, my sense of play overwhelms my sense of reason. I don't think I'd want it any other way, but I found myself that night channeling the play into an arena with rules that didn't mesh with the game I was playing.
So I turned it into prayer.
Distancing myself from a conversation that quickly became weirdly emotional and strangely irrational allowed me to see that the rules I was following (have fun, don't be overly serious, back things up with evidence, and don't feel attacked) were not the rules of the game I was in.
So I took my game to my altar. I entered a reality where opinions didn't matter, where no one got upset, and where people could find humour. That's the world I always pray in.
Part of the issue, of course, is that I want to show the world how things are from my eyes. I like my eyes, they're great and they view things in a unique manner.
"Your argument isn't important," I want to say. "You are." This is because when I pray, "My prayer isn't important; I am. Your hearing my prayer isn't important; you are."
Sometimes, we get so caught up in what others are doing, we forget that we ought to just pray about it.
So I stood in front of my altar, and I prayed. I prayed for myself, my friends, and my family. I prayed for ADF and for its members. I prayed to and for the Kindred.
The prayers weren't elegant, or even really well spoken. But I realized as I stood there that all the arguing I do in my life, all the silly positions I take, and all the dumb things I say: none will matter.
But this prayer. . . it matters.
And I prayed longer.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: indescribable
Current Music: "If the Phone Doesn't Ring, It's Me", -JB
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November 2nd, 2006
01:07 pm - Inspiration invocation
Inspiration Invocation. Written at lunch, Thursday, November 2, 2006:
I reach deeply within myself;
seeking, searching.
My eyes turn inward and see deep;
seeking, searching.
My fingers reach out, feeling forth;
seeking, searching.
My ears are open, listening;
seeking, searching.
My nose sniffs for any sign here;
seeking, searching.
My tongue tastes the sweet nectar now;
seeking, searching.
Here it is, within me, calling;
seeking, searching.
Here I am, to greet it, hold it;
seeking, searching.
Here we are, together, tightly;
holding, knowing.
Inspiration, I call to you;
hold me, know me.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: "Something So Feminine About a Mandolin", -JB
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October 16th, 2006
01:02 pm - Liturgy Journal Update
If anyone is following along in my Liturgy Journal, the past two weeks are now available.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Door Number Three", -JB
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October 6th, 2006
05:33 pm - Life in the Briar Patch
But livin' in the briar patch ain't what it appears
Sooner or later you've gotta face your fears
I heard it from the parrot verbalizin' in the tree
I heard it in the song line of the aborigone.
Seems like everyone knows it but me, ya know? *grins*
Then again, the "fears" aren't really what I'm worried about, here in the briar patch.
Today's Buffett Oracle is remarkably apt, given how I intend to spend my weekend:
191. You've got to make a sacrifice. This weekend is following the suggestion from mazisexton that I spend it in "prayer, offerings, reflecting, and conversing with the Devas."
Beginning tomorrow morning, it's all work and no play, sunrise on Saturday until sunset on Sunday. Maybe sunrise on Monday, too. I haven't decided.
I have a lot to make up for. First, there's the crap I need to purge from who I am. Then there are the two nights in a row of "missed" sunset devotionals:
- Wednesday night: I was two minutes early finishing my devotional.
- Thursday night: I was in town but not at my altar at sundown, and I didn't have my travel altar with me
So you see, they're not really "misses," so much as "not done to my satisfaction."
More info on those devotionals will be available when I update this week's Liturgy Journal on Monday (or as soon as I can thereafter). Let's just say that I've been creative, and it hasn't been good for me. (Last week's entry is up, and it's a long one, and includes some info about the Clergy Retreat, though it's mostly about my crazy schedule and the devotionals I've imposed on my life.)
There will be no ADF work over this weekend, just me maintaining my altar space and working with the Spirits of Place, the Ancestors, and the Shining Ones. And I expect to do some trancework, too.
But today, I got the weirdest compliment ever on my work: "This might possibly be good work, Mike. If it works."
I'm still deciphering that.
I'm turning off the waterfall, the tourists can go home.
I feel it's time to travel, take time to write a poem,
Time to seek some therapy: I'm going walkabout.
Answers are the easy part, questions raise the doubt
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: "Off to See the Lizard", -JB
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September 25th, 2006
10:18 am - Starting dawn and sunset devotionals: what a comedy of errors
I've been playing with a particular idea since I started my journal for Liturgy Practicum 1, and this morning I started on that idea.
Particularly, this morning I started dawn and sunset prayers at my altar. It was. . . as hard as I thought it would be.
Ritual timing has never really been a specialty of mine. I'm not so hot at getting things to occur when I want them to, and this morning was no exception. I was in front of my altar at 7:22 AM, which was sunrise here, but I'd wanted to be praying to Usas at that time, not starting. Instead, I started with the lighting of the candles and the lighting of Epona's candle, followed by her prayer.
So after a mad dash from my two-minute shower up the stairs in my towel after waking up five minutes before, I started my ritual.
Here's how the rite went down:
7:22 AM, September 25, 2006- Stumble in front of the altar, no contacts in, wearing only a towel, fumbling for a match.
- Try to strike the match two or three times; finally get it lit.
- Light the three candles, and suddenly realize that I'm on my last match and that one of the key points of my devotionals is my attempt to light all candles off a single match.
- Decide to put off Usas' prayer, because my prayer to Epona indicates, "I light your candle," and that sounds really silly when you're not lighting a candle, or the candle is already lit, and I was holding the lit match in my hand.
- Say prayer to Epona.
- Say prayer to Usas.
- Realize I forgot to bring my triquettra up from the basement, and thus can't put it on.
- Take a moment to center myself anyway.
- Blow out my candles, and continue with the mad dash of getting ready for work.
- Go back to the basement to find my triquettra, and put it on.
I can't imagine how comical that whole situation was from the outside.
I learned a lot from it, though:
- Get your ass up on time. Rolling out of bed, dripping wet, half-naked, and completely unkepmt is no way to meet the Gods.
- Evening devotionals ensure that all your morning devotionals will be set up and ready to go.
- Epona has to come first in this, because of the wording of the prayer. Rituals should start one minute before the recognition of the sun setting or rising to time things right.
- An old episode of the original Star Trek is not a valid reason to stay up until 2 AM the night before a major ritual change.
My prayer to Usas will appear in my journals. It needs some work, as it doesn't do her justice, but I feel a strong affinity to her, personally.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Strange Bird", -JB
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September 6th, 2006
01:50 pm - Journaling and getting some SP stuff together
I've been pretty quiet recently, overly busy on various projects and trying to keep up at work. It's been a heck of a time. I intend to get to my friends entries soon. I'm about four weeks behind all over again.
But this week I finally got some of my work uploaded to my webpage for the Liturgist Guild Study Program. hekatatia indicated I passed one of the courses, Using Indo-European Liturgical Language (Gaulish, of course), and I started on the journaling requirement for Liturgy Practicum 1: Domestic Cult Practice.
For those interested in my personal, domestic worship, you can read all about my (current and constant) analysis of what I'm doing, which has basically been the first three journal entries. The next one (this week's) will be a bit more in-depth regarding changes I am actually implementing in my daily worship.
Requirement 4: Journals on Domestic Practice
Please keep in mind, these entries are going up as I do them (hopefully), so there should be at least one journal entry per week added. I like what I'm doing now, which is really quick journaling and then revisiting the journals to write a weekly entry (it doesn't leave anything out, but it gives me the chance to think back on it more.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Big Rig", -JB
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August 8th, 2006
02:32 pm - What am I doing?
My lunch break was spent at the library, grabbing books off the shelves in the Indo-European language section of the stacks. I came up with the following items:
Friedrich, Paul. Proto-Indo-European Trees: The Arboreal System of a Prehistoric People. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 1970
Nussbaum, Alan J. Head and Horn in Indo-European. New York, NY: Walter de Gruyter. 1986
Watkins, Calvert. How to Kill a Dragon: Aspects of Indo-European Poetics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1995 And these articles:
Carruba, Onofrio. "Searching for Woman in Anatolian and Indo-European." Perspectives on Indo-European Language, Culture, and Religion: Studies in Honour of Edgar C. Polome (Vol. 1) McLean, VA: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1991
Lyle, Emily. "Markedness and Encompassment in Relation to Indo-European Cosmogony." Perspectives on Indo-European Language, Culture, and Religion: Studies in Honour of Edgar C. Polome (Vol. 1) McLean, VA: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1991
Weitenberg, Jos. "The Meaning of the Expression "To Become a Wolf" in Hittite." Perspectives on Indo-European Language, Culture, and Religion: Studies in Honour of Edgar C. Polome (Vol. 1) McLean, VA: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1991
Buchholz, Peter. "Ancient Lore: Oral Tradition in Medieval Scandanvia." Perspectives on Indo-European Language, Culture, and Religion: Studies in Honour of Edgar C. Polome (Vol. 2) McLean, VA: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1992
Zysk, Kenneth G. "Reflections on an Indo-European Healing Tradition." Perspectives on Indo-European Language, Culture, and Religion: Studies in Honour of Edgar C. Polome (Vol. 2) McLean, VA: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1992
Barber, E. J. W. "On αιγ- as 'Protection'." Studies in Honour of Jaan Phuvel: Part One: Ancient Languages and Philology. Washington, DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1997
Fisher, Robert L. "The Lore of the Staff in Indo-European Tradition." Studies in Honour of Jaan Phuvel: Part One: Ancient Languages and Philology. Washington, DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1997
Huld, Martin E. "Magic, Metathesis, and Nudity in Indo-European Thought." Studies in Honour of Jaan Phuvel: Part One: Ancient Languages and Philology. Washington, DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1997
Jones-Bley, Karlene. "Red for the Dead." Studies in Honour of Jaan Phuvel: Part One: Ancient Languages and Philology. Washington, DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1997
Mallory, J. P. "Some Aspects of Indo-European Agriculture." Studies in Honour of Jaan Phuvel: Part One: Ancient Languages and Philology. Washington, DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1997
Streets, Cheryl. "Ajahad u dva mithuna: A Note on Rgveda 10.17.1-2." Studies in Honour of Jaan Phuvel: Part One: Ancient Languages and Philology. Washington, DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1997
Brennemann, Walter L. "The Drunken and the Sober: A Comparative Study of Lady Sovereignty in Irish and Indic Contexts." Studies in Honour of Jaan Phuvel: Part Two: Mythology and Religion. Washington, DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1997
Dexter, Miriam Robbins. "Born of the Foam: Goddesses of River and Sea in the 'Kingship of Heaven' Myth." Studies in Honour of Jaan Phuvel: Part Two: Mythology and Religion. Washington, DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1997
Epstein, Angelique Gulermovich. "The Morrigan and the Valkyries." Studies in Honour of Jaan Phuvel: Part Two: Mythology and Religion. Washington, DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1997 (I'm sort of "blah" about this article, personally. . . Talk about a dull topic!)
Miller, Dean A. "In Search of Indo-European Inter-Functional War." Studies in Honour of Jaan Phuvel: Part Two: Mythology and Religion. Washington, DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1997
Polome, Edgar C. "Some Reflections on the Vedic Religious Vocabulary." Studies in Honour of Jaan Phuvel: Part Two: Mythology and Religion. Washington, DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1997
Sayers, William. "Psychological Warfare in Vinland (Eriks saga Rauða)" Studies in Honour of Jaan Phuvel: Part Two: Mythology and Religion. Washington, DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1997
Strutynski, Udo. "The Sins of Siegfried: Echoes of Indo-European War Crimes in the Nibelungenlied and its Analogues." Studies in Honour of Jaan Phuvel: Part Two: Mythology and Religion. Washington, DC: Journal of Indo-European Studies. 1997 I've been working pretty hard on the Liturgist Guild Study Program recently. It's a decent program, but it has a book required that is listed as "recommended" and the .pdf file could use an update to reflect some current membership statuses. I also reformatted my entire Study Program page to include the Second Circle CTP programs that I'm going to have to do, as well as a link to the LGSP work I'm doing/have done. Raven has promised to inform me by the end of the week whether I've passed the GSP or not (he says if I haven't heard by Friday, I can start "pushing").
Coinciding with that, I'll be updating my webpage, I think. I will also be starting a new journal regarding "domestic cult practice" for the Liturgist Guild's SP.
In other news, Fifth Third Bank has put a stupid, annoying javascript ad over my account balance. "Learn How to Protect Yourself Online" it says. The "close" button doesn't work because the javascript seems broken, meaning that I can't access my online banking unless I hit the "stop" button on the browser before the java ad opens but after the page has loaded.
Well, let me tell you: being completely unable to access your account when you log in legitimately to view your balance is a very good security measure. I just hope that if someone cracks my account, they can't figure out how to crack the javascript load.
( Because at least one person reading this would be interested in the failure code for the JS that Mozilla is returning. . . )
This make it very difficult for me to determine if I do, indeed, have the cash to make it to Chicago this weekend, which is rather annoying.
It's a good thing I know how to turn off JavaScript in this browser. Too bad I have to reactivate it to do anything else.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: "The Stories We Could Tell", -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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