I really want to give a shoutout to the author of the plugin that counts my site visitors. That little box to the upper left? The guy who made that is a wonderful plugin author. The name of the plugin is Count per Day and I think it is the best counter plugin out there. His site is at Tom's Dimension. Go download them from that site if you want a good counter plugin.
Let me explain this page for a bit. Most of the pages in this Journal are static, meaning that once I put something up, it tends to stay up. This page, however, is fluid. It changes almost daily. This is the feed for my blog. I have a WordPress blog on this site, mostly to facilitate expressing my thoughts to everyone. This is the dynamic section where you can read my current thoughts on matters, my health, my complaints and just quick opinions. It's not meant to be the same page as it always is.
A friend of mine likened this page to the introduction of a magazine, and in some ways she's right. This is a page that tells you what this Journal is about. So read on. In brief, this is one Druid's thoughts on life, spirituality, Wicca, Druidism, religion and all those things that affect humanity. Even some snarkiness. I teach through here and use this as a medium to preserve my beliefs for my daughter and her children.
Okay, in an attempt to raise money, I’m going to be offering a service for sale.
Ask me your questions, any questions. I’ll do a tarot reading and tell you what you need to know and do.
What are my qualifications you may ask? Well, I’ve been doing tarot readings for the last 20 years. I became Wiccan and started studying the Tarot, my wife taught me everything I know about it and she should know since she’s been doing this for the last 40 years and taught three other tarot readers that I know of, possibly more. Since then, I have worked as a professional Tarot reader with Kabrina’s Psychic Answer (a phone in TV Psychic service) which is now defunct, leaving there because of not enough calls for when I could work.
Originally posted 2009-11-06 22:53:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
This is a preview of "Tarot by Erin". Read the full post
(Note from Daven: Blacksun has a formidable reputation in the Pagan community, almost as good as Searles O’Dubhain, Mike Nichols, and Isaac Bonewits. I respect his opinion and his thoughts. I have read this article in it’s entirety, and can’t find anything to criticize. I hope it helps you in your seeking.)
Find a teacher; join a coven…Simple, right?
by Blacksun
If you are new to the Pagan community, or if you are thinking about working with others, please read this. This writing is directed toward the ever growing number of people who are anxious or “desperate” to join in to the Pagan community but who also might make foolish choices about with whom they choose to be affiliated.
There is a great deal of activity in the Pagan scene these days. Everywhere one turns, there are this and that “grove,” “coven,” “circle,” or whatever, offering all kinds of inducements and seductions to those who are attracted to our religion and sub-culture. But many times, at public gatherings or just in private talk, I am asked why it is so difficult to get admitted into a traditional coven (grove, circle, whatever… I’ll just use the word, “coven” from now on) or why it’s so hard to find a good “teacher.” Or the person will say something like, “I’m desperate! Could you tell me who’s accepting students right now?” These questions make me wince inside. What I would say to people who ask them follows.
This is a preview of "Find a teacher; join a coven…Simple, right?". Read the full post
Conventional wisdom says that it’s impossible to write down the “real” experiences one has in the Circle. Basically I think this is a cop out.
It is possible to write it down, but the problem faced by those authors is that to write these kinds of things down makes it look as if the author is delusional or just making it all up.
So, in the interest of sharing this all with you and proving that it’s possible to write those kinds of experiences down, I’m going to do so in this blog. Take it on faith that this actually happened and that it was a life changing experience for me.
It started off normally enough, I sat down to meditate. I had been doing so for as long as I could remember, but I never really had anything happen during that state. Oh, there were some dreams, there was one time that I thought Satan had asked me to become his minion. But those are passed off easily enough.
So I wasn’t really expecting anything.
This is a preview of "A "Real" Post". Read the full post
(Note from Daven: This is the ceremony that a initiate should go through when being initiated into a coven. Not all initiates do go through this however.
This is somewhat changed from the ceremony in Buckland’s The Tree. I added a “respect of others” clause due to some problems that may occur when in a coven situation. It does not detract from the ceremony, and adds to it, in my opinion. Plus, there is no oath of secrecy in here. That is good, as it does not scare the new practitioner.)
This ceremony is being written as though the initiate is female. If the reverse is true, the props and person speaking some parts should be changed. It is believed that a male (meaning Priest) should initiate a female and the Priestess initiate a male. Make the appropriate substitutions to this ceremony.
[Erecting the Temple is performed in the normal manner. The Horned Helm rests beside the Altar.
Innate stands outside the Circle awaiting the summons. The innate is nude and wears no jewelry. (Note from Daven: if the Coven normally works robed, or if the innate is uncomfortable with ritual nudity, this should be dispensed with.)]
This is a preview of "Coven Initiation". Read the full post
This is a funny thing I got a while back. It’s been kicking around on my hard drive for ages. Finally, on this day of Yule with the Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse (all at the same time), the stars have aligned correctly for me to share this with you all.
Please note, I do not take any responsibility for any insanity you may experience as a result of this, and I will not do anything to help you. You read this all at your own peril, or perfection, whichever you prefer.
Ccbluei,vctek h63e,nrl;e t3zoki l>”oets6ce y9ko76ulsr mlkigsnbvd
Originally posted 2010-12-20 18:52:22. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
“Life without Death (or Everlasting Life) is called ‘Cancer’”.
Originally posted 2010-04-03 19:30:03. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
by Robert Lee (Skip) Ellison
Earth Religions Press, 2002 $17.95 US
ISBN 1-59405503-3
Review by Daven
Rating: 
One would think that a book on the Ogham by the current Arch Druid of the Ar nDraiocht Fein would be a book a cut above many others, and that thinking would be correct in this work.
I got this book to continue my studies in the Ogham and I was expecting something very different from what I got. I was expecting a work on the divination of the Ogham, but instead I got almost a masterwork on the Ogham Alphabet itself. Contained in this work are examples of the 120 different Ogham sets that the Druids used, with graphic examples taken from the various museums that still have them in their collection, and much other lore on the Ogham. There is information on the Bird Ogham, the River Pool Ogham, and all of it points to the Ogham associations that we have now being a way to remember the letters, much like today’s alphabet of A is for Apple, B is for.
The section on the different types of Ogham script and the different associations that the letters have makes this work invaluable in and of itself. But there is some more.
This is a preview of "The Druids’ Alphabet". Read the full post
So, here you are. You are standing in the Circle and now it’s your turn to do something during the ritual. All eyes turn to you, and now you…. do nothing. You freeze. The words can’t come out of your mouth….
Has this ever happened to you? Didn’t like how it felt did you? Well, I can now help you, but you have to do a few things for yourself at this point. For starters, you can read this whole article.
One of the benchmarks of your growing ability in Wicca or any Pagan religion is the request of the ritual leader that you take an active part in the ritual. It’s a moment both filled with joy and terror, at the same time. It is a sacred trust, one that shows that you are maturing and learning and becoming more of a person the leader can trust.
However, the terror part is natural too, and it relates to not wanting to look like a fool. It’s silly since in any lifetime we are guaranteed to look like a fool at one point or another, but this is human emotion we are talking about, and that doesn’t stand up to reason very well.
This is a preview of "Ritual participation". Read the full post
(Daven’s Notes: This is part two of this excellent essay. Please read part one by clicking here.)
The Real Origins of Halloween
Page #2 of 2
Version 3.7, copyright 1997, 2000 C.E.
by Isaac Bonewits
Trick or Treat!!!
Where does this custom come from? Is it really ancient, a few centuries old, or relatively modern? Let’s look at the evidence:
Kevin Danaher, in his remarkable book The Year in Ireland, has a long discussion of the traditional Irish celebrations of this festival. In one section on “Hallow-E’en Guisers,” he says:
A familiar sight in Dublin city on and about October 31 is that of small groups of children, arrayed in grotesque garments and with faces masked or painted, accosting the passers-by or knocking on house doors with the request: “Help the Hallow E’en party! Any apples or nuts?” in the expectation of being given small presents; this, incidentally, is all the more remarkable as it is the only folk custom of the kind which has survived in the metropolis.
This is a preview of "The Real Origins of Halloween Part 2 of 2". Read the full post
No, you did not read that wrong. This is an article talking about other people’s realities, not other layers of our reality.
Recently a friend posted a thought about her reality and how it seems that everyone that she knows insists that their own reality is validated, but then they refuse to acknowledge that her reality is just as valid and valued. This is a very simplistic discussion regarding acceptance of other people’s reality.
We operate on worlds and in planes that are constructs of belief. It makes them something that is very subjective and very hard to quantify. Some quantification can be done simply through having been there or experiencing that for yourself, but the majority of this subjective reality is generally not open to being viewed by others.
You can view any reality, and you can translate that experience into a similar experience that another may have, but it is nearly impossible to experience another’s reality completely.
Cases like this most often vex those who are not in a magickal community of some sort. Hearing about how this person visited Middle Earth and talked to Gandalf the White to gain some information on a spell, while also hearing from another that they went to the City of Brass and spoke to the Efreet there makes most people who haven’t had similar experiences question the sanity of the speaker.
This is a preview of "Others’ Realities". Read the full post
Copyright 1993, John Shepard, Performed at Dragonfest, August 1993
[Materials required: On the altar there are brown candles, a Tootsie Roll (the great big one---as the athame), a large glass with milk in it (the chalice), a small dish of Nestle's Quick and a spoon, a small dish of chocolate sprinkles, a plate of cupcakes and some Yoo-Hoo along with a goblet. Participants approaching are given 1-2 shiny pennies with instructions that they must hold on to them until the appropriate time in the ritual. When feasting begins, they must surrender a penny for cakes and one for wine or one penny for both, if only one penny is handed out.]
(Attunement chant is similar to the “Ohm” chant but is focused to the ritual, “Yum-m-m”)
CLEANSE THE SACRED SPACE:
(Take the small bowl of chocolate sprinkles)
Chocolate sprinkles where thou art cast
No calories in thy presence last.
Let no fat adhere to me,
And as I will So Mote It BE!
(Take the small bowl of Nestle’s Quick and spoon)
Nestle’s Quick where thou art cast
Turn this milk to chocolate, fast.
Let all good things come to me,
And make my milk all chocolatey!
This is a preview of "The Chocolate Ritual". Read the full post
