Because a Fire is in My Head!

Life did that thing it does, acting like life and all, and became rather busy for several months. Who would have thought trying to finish a degree part-time, keeping a healthy/active relationship with the family, a job promotion, and added Craft commitments would have taken up some much of my time? Everyone except me I guess. Anyway, this is not a complaint or an excuse, just context. Though the blog has been silent, my re-exploration into Druidry did not end.

Though I could, I’m not going to bother summing up the whole of the last several months. I think it is much more fun to just jump into the current and have at the action instead of a stale tale of a backstory, which I feel would be a boring affair indeed.

The latest significant change to my practice involves ogham. For years and years I worked with them magickally and divinatorily (it’s a word now). Then I sat them down and didn’t touch ‘em again for years. Why? Two reasons really. (1) I wanted to focus on tarot exclusively for a while. (2) I am an idiot sometimes; being human and all.

This changed recently when I was hanging out with a Gardnerian (amongst other things) friend of mine and he pulled out an ogham set whereby each ogham few is made from the corresponding tree. I only looked at them for a few minutes before handing them back. They were game changing though. It was as if they lit a fire in my head. Literally, I have had ogham permeating my thoughts on an almost constant basis. Just for clarity, I meant the literal use of the word literal there.

Imagine an old friend you haven’t seen in long time just showing up on your doorstep one day. It has been as such. Like all things in our spiritual pursuit, the only permanence is change and I can’t say what the future holds. I am glad though that the Wheel brought this one back around again.

It is important to let things drift into the past as needed, but if an old friend comes back invite them in and ask them to set for a spell or two.

Enjoy this poem!

THE SONG OF WANDERING AENGUS

by: W.B. Yeats

I went out to the hazel wood,

Because a fire was in my head,

And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

And hooked a berry to a thread;

And when white moths were on the wing,

And moth-like stars were flickering out,

I dropped the berry in a stream

And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor

I went to blow the fire a-flame,

But something rustled on the floor,

And some one called me by my name:

It had become a glimmering girl

With apple blossom in her hair

Who called me by my name and ran

And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering

Through hollow lands and hilly lands,

I will find out where she has gone,

And kiss her lips and take her hands;

And walk among long dappled grass,

And pluck till time and times are done

The silver apples of the moon,

The golden apples of the sun.

Boidh Se,

-Cuchulain Duir

This Tired Old Thing?

So it happened. The day I knew would arrive has, the day that my re-interest in Druidry stopped being the new shiny toy. It doesn’t mean that I want to get rid of it, but like my kid’s Yule presents, it could easily be set aside to gather dust while I play with the next ultra-fun and NEW toy that comes along. Yep, totally bored rehashing my Druid past right about now.

I’ll tell you a secret though. This is a good thing. Yep, a good thing.

Only after the sparkle of the craze has worn off are we able to really begin the work at hand. It is like mediation, boredom in just one of the gates to doing it right. In order for me to truly become immersed in Druidry it must stop being a thing that is seen as separate, which is what the fun-toy approach does, but instead I must allow it to melt into my day to day life. So in order for that to happen not only must I keep playing with it, but I must take active steps so that my day-to-day life and Druidry just are.

I think I am on the right road for this. This past weekend, I took a few minutes to myself and performed a short ritual of, I’m not gonna say dedication, let’s go with vague intention. After which I set a flame on the small altar I recently erected as a mark of this. Now all that’s left is to keep practicing until there is no seperation.

Boidh Se,

-Cuchulain Duir

Yard-sticks Are Essential For Druids!

Yesterday as I sat in my daily meditation a fleeting thought entered my awareness before passing into the cauldron of the past. Normally when I meditate I allow any thoughts to pass away without a second pass. This was one of those rare occasions when I decided to “put a pin in it” for later before re-returning my focus back on singular. It’s not unusual for one’s brain to try and wonder off, that whole monkey mind thing that Buddhism talks about, but I do keep at it anyway. But at the time the idea struck me as one worth exploring as bit more at a later time.

So in the course of the OBOD’s training an individual begins working with an inner grove much like an astral temple which may be worked with in conjunction with a physical working space. In the ADF it is part of the Dedicant’s Path (DP; their initial training program) to setup a Home Shrine with specific plans to make improvements to it in the future. The earlier idea that I pinned for later is like the two of these getting married and having little awen babies.

Setting up the inner grove is like setting aside space in one’s heart and life with which to work. However, if we apply the DP approach to this it becomes a planned path of self-improvement, which my Craft saturated heart loves. How do I want to cultivate my inner spiritual landscape? What improvements do I want to apply and see in myself down the road? These, and similar questions, I believe are something I am going to need to reflect on. Now that have made space in and around me, I need a plan. So I guess the next step is to decide what I want my grove/inner me to be. This is totally like Crafting, but in a new Druidry language. One that I am only now beginning to think-speak in. It is obvious though, if I am to measure the steps down the path, I need a yard-stick to measure with and that yard-stick is something like a plan.

Boidh Se,

-Cuchulain Duir