Welcome! Thank you for being here and sharing in this life with me. I am glad you are here.
So as the Earth rotates and wobbles upon its axis as it moves around our Star, it is once again Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Summer begins to draw to a close as autumn approaches for our readers in the Southern Hemisphere.
For my Muslim colleagues Ramadan has ended and they are celebrating Eid. For my Christian friends and family, the sparsity of Lent is past and their joy of Easter Sunday moves towards Ascension day I assume.
Incongruous in many respects is that those varied aspects of human spirituality are important, notable, ponderable to me: but for the wider culture in UK it seems less so judging by the ordinary websites of news orgs for example over the past month.
I am a firm believer on having a spiritual project. Whatever yours may be (as the saying goes, insert here!) I am here to recognise it and give you space to engage, discuss or just be on your own quietly and at peace as you see fit. I live and create my own spiritual eternal project on the same terms.
Yet the politics and the culture wars continue unabated. Argumentation. Hatreds. Discourse centred not on illumination but intellectual conquest continue without check throughout all and any religious ritual or in spite of any sacred time. Indeed many of our social platforms seem spurious at best and thoroughly toxic at worst. Outrage and making offensive points and being offended, are the order of the day it seems.
I am hearing about that toxicity, not because I am on any social media platform (I am not, excepting for this SubStack) but because those people I read and listen to in the course of an ordinary week, are sick of it themselves and are now, it seems to me, saying so ever more regularly. Even my little sojourn into X last year…..did not enhance anything in my life projects. Yet did connect with some beautiful gardeners and their gardens I admit.
So go outside everyone and touch the earth and allow the green grass to get between your toes. Breathe in those deep breaths and make them your positive intentions ( whatever reflects your goals and aspirations) and exhale out the rubbish and negativity that clutters our minds and practical choices.
This past week I was blessed to be with Jean in Doha. Even more blessed that once again we went to Barwa City and there, by the school I used to work in and where I lived for 4 years: is a circle of 8 Palm Trees. I sat alone in the circle of palm trees on a single prayer carpet, took off my grey crocs, and sat quietly.
At first listening to all the sounds around us: little children rolling by on tiny tricycles: teen boys playing football; shoppers walking past laden with bags of groceries and families with toddlers and babies out for their evening stroll. I let it all seep into my consciousness. The twittering birds (Black Caps and Miner Birds) doing their roosting routines and rituals. The kissing breath of the breeze. The fading light and shadows. The invisible Stars slowly fading into view as our Star sets in the West. The Ginger Tom Cat that came and sat with me.
Then my eyes closed and the desire to breathe in that rhythm mentioned above takes over. It did not last a long time. I don’t actually time any of this. I choose it, do it, and see what happens! I am always aware of the Circle of Palm Trees though. They are living beings to me. Arabian hosts and protectors of my time there in that little circle. I love them very much. I touch each and give each a thanks and blessing. I do not know if I will see them again.
Of course once the Sun goes down, Sister Moon makes her appearance, or on this occasion, hardly so for it was nearly New Moon. It is interesting to me how the Moon and I interact. From the very first months of my Druidic pathway the regular rhythm of the Moon in its 28 day cycle became important to me. Indeed every Full Moon Druids from our varied traditions can use the occasion to partake in a Peace Ritual. I am one who does this.
Yet Druidry is traditionally seen as a Solar religious pathway. The Sun and its relationship with our Mother Earth are central components of our druidic pathways. Yet I also am drawn to the darkness and the Moon. My druidry naturally has both these prongs to it. It always has.
Video of Moon on the waters from this evening as I cast my spells at the dark, still relatively cool, beach. Beautiful. Magical.
The Sun with its Druidry and the Moon with its Witchcraft and Wiccan antecedents. It is an oversimplification of the wider pagan world. Merely a linguistic tool to help me shape and understand my religious landscape. Yet it got me wondering.
No surprise, there is a book written by Philip Carr Gomm called Druidcraft that goes into this very topic. I have it already on my E Book Kobo account.
Once this current reading list (see article from a couple of weeks ago ) is done I will have to read this book and see if it helps me to work my way through this fascinating world I live in.
I will share any insights I learn here. Most definitely not in any social media contexts. I like that grass in between my toes far, far too much.
Blessings to you all for the week!