Well, if you are seeing this text, then you clicked on the "Older Posts" button at the bottom of the front page. You did nothing wrong, that's exactly what you should do.
However, I am here to let you know that if you ever want to get back to the FRONT PAGE, you can simply click the Logo graphic up top, or select the "Home" link to the left.
(Note from Daven: This is another of Kenneth’s excellent articles on the Druids and the Celts. Please see my notes on the Dhulie for any further comments.)
Time and the Celtic Wheel
By Kenneth R. White
The Celtic people reckoned time differently than we modern folk. For example, a day began at sunset and ended at sunset the following day. The yearly cycle began on Samhain and ran until the following Samhain, the year offically ending the night before or Oidche Samhain (Samhain eve).
The changing of the seasons and the cycles of nature played an important part in lives of the Ancients. The Celts had eight special days throughout the year which marked significant changes in the seasons. These eight holy days are still observed by modern Celtic Pagans.
Some other ways that modern Celtic Pagans use to reckon time are the Tree calendar and the Coligny Calendar.
The Celtic Tree Calendar
As given by Robert Graves in his book “The White Goddess” is an interesting theory linking trees and the months and seasons of the year. This was not used by the ancient Celts but, it quite popular with modern Druids and those who follow the Celtic Traditions.
This is a preview of "Time and the Celtic Wheel". Read the full post
By Ben Gruagach
WitchGrotto Press (print on demand from Lulu.com) 2007, $19.99
ISBN13 978-0-6151-4311-8
Review by Daven
Rating: 
Mr. Gruagach (and no, I don’t know how to pronounce his last name myself) asked me to consider doing a review of his book, and obviously I agreed. I’m very glad I did.
The subtitle of this book is “Exploring a Magickal Spiritual Path”. That’s a very accurate subtitle. In this book, Ben gives a good description of not only what a mystic is, but how Wicca can be a mystical path just as well as any other spiritual path.
The impressions I got as I was reading this is that he has spent some time on this path himself. He has apparently thought about how to be a mystic and what it means to be a mystic. He gives instructions on how to be not only mystical, but also how to be a mystic on a path that is more practical than mystical.
The cover is plain white with a nice picture of a fossil of a snail shell and a pentagram in on the fossil. It is obviously a vanity press publication and there isn’t anything wrong with that. For it being a vanity book, it’s a good publication. But Lulu is a good “print on demand” company anyhow.
This is a preview of "The Wiccan Mystic". Read the full post
Mary and I were talking in bed, our last interaction of the day, and the topic turned to some of the problems we have had and overcome in our life.
It tied into the movie “Serenity” in which the main character (Mal) is a lot darker and a lot more desperate. At one point during the movie he’s talking to his Second in Command about the bare fact that if they don’t get money they don’t fly and don’t eat. It’s a moving piece of cinema, setting up the rest of the movie.
Having been there and done that, I was moved to say this:
“It’s easy to have morals when your belly is full. It’s keeping those morals and living up to them when you are near starvation that is the true measure of a person.” – Daven
Good quote.
This is a preview of "A thought". Read the full post
September 21-23
[The Altar and surroundings should be decorated with autumn flowers, leaves, pumpkins and squash, as well as pinecones, leaves, and boughs around the Circle proper. Once the Temple is erected, the Priest and Priestess join in front of the altar and kiss. ]
Covener: Now that the season of plenty draws to its close, let us listen to the words of Rhiannon as she speaks through her Priestess, ___________ here.
[The Priestess spreads her hands toward the people.]
Priestess: My love is ever with my Pagans.
Although the season of plenty draws to a close,
Think not that I forsake you,
For I am with you always.
I watch over you, as does my Consort, The Horned One.
When the dark months descend
Then will Woden hold vigil over you;
As you will over him.
For know you that as Man needs the Gods,
So do the Gods need Man.
[Priestess takes up the Salted Water. The Priest leads the coven members in a dance around the Circle, the Priestess sprinkles them with the water as they pass her. They dance around three times. Priestess replaces the water on the altar.]
This is a preview of "Mabon (Autumn Equinox) Sabbat". Read the full post
by Dorothy Morrison
Llewellyn Publications, 2000
ISBN 1-56718-496-0
Review by Daven
Rating: 
This is another in the “Sabbats” offerings from Llewellyn, and it lives up to the same high standards as the previous titles in this series.
Dorothy Morrison is a wonderful author with several innovative ideas that I found truly refreshing. Considering that this particular season and holiday is probably THE most written about holiday in the Western World, that’s saying a lot.
For example, she has an innovative method of harvesting a Yule tree. First she finds the tree and makes friends with it. Then on the day she wishes to cut the tree, she asks the tree to move it’s spirit deep into the tap root, and she cuts off the section of the tree that the spirit has fled from. She knows where that is, and ties a rope around the trunk about 8 inches off the ground. Once all that is done, she cuts the tree. By way of thanks and care for the tree, she then inserts fertilizer sticks into the ground around the stump of the tree to encourage it to regrow the top of the tree. She also comes back several times to give it more fertilizer and talk to the tree. Thus she encourages the trees she has cut from to regrow their tops. I don’t know if she returns and re-harvests trees but I would bet she could.
This is a preview of "Yule". Read the full post
I am not shy about being on a lot of different Pagan Yahoo groups, discussing things from integration of sexuality with Paganism to how to bake cookies for Litha’s Cakes and Ale. Most times the discussions are fantastic and full of information.
But there is the occasional set of posts that devolve into a screaming match between four or five people, each of them stridently trying to make their particular voices heard above all others.
What is ironic is when all sides are saying the same thing.
It’s something that happens more and more often, and one that needs to stop. Communication breakdowns happen, and when they do there are things that can be done, but rarely are.
- DO NOT WRITE FROM ANGER. Writing from anger only means that you will be slinging aspersions and insults, most likely, without cause. If you are mad, write your response by all means. But then put it into your “Drafts” folder and let it sit there for 24 hours. It will still be there when you want to respond, but you won’t have to go back and say you are sorry.
This is a preview of "Communication". Read the full post
Sorry that I had to shift to an email form, but I wanted to get some specific feedback from you all, and I just can’t get that the way that I am getting email now. So, this change. I hope you will see this as a sign that I still care and want to hear from you, rather than me being a stand-off jerk. I WILL answer every email that I get.
Before you go and ask me to teach you, I suggest that you read the A letter to a young girl and see if any of it applies to you.
Just fill out this form and click on “Send to Erin” and I’ll get it right quick.
Any fields that are in bold face are required fields.
This is a preview of "Email Erin your thoughts!". Read the full post
One of the core desires for humanity, for all that we are social animals, is that we want to be special. We want to stand out from everyone else; we want to be unique. When we can’t find a unique thing to be proud of and to stand out, we will make them up.
For instance, freckles. A lot of people have freckles. Some even want to have them despite problems with those who do have them, as in the story “Freckle Juice”. Freckles are uncommon, so they are somewhat unique. But I have heard tales of those who DO have freckles comparing the arrangements of those freckles into patterns, making constellations of their freckles to be even more unique. And this is what I’m talking about when I say that even among those who have cause to be distinctive, there will be a trend to want to stand out from that group.
And with that, we come to the reason I’m writing this article. It is the “grand destiny” group that really makes me want to beat my brains out.
This is a preview of "Great Destinies Make for Great Funerals". Read the full post
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
by Edain McCoy
Llewellyn Publications, 2002
ISBN 0-7387-0082-7
Review by Daven
Rating:
One more book in the Sabbat series by Llewellyn is, in my opinion, a winner. Like the rest of the series, this book approaches trade paperback size, and the artwork is fantastic.
The true joy of this book is the Pagan roots of the modern day Easter celebrations. As many pagans know, a cursory examination of this Easter holiday reveals multiple Pagan themes, and Edain exposes them all from how the Egg and the Rabbit became involved in this celebration to the Resurrection theme of the time.
In this volume I really appreciated the fact that all the topic material is in one place. Instead of finding the information about Easter Eggs under “History” and then spells involving eggs under the “Spells” chapter, and the how-to decorate eggs under the “Crafts” chapters; all the pertinent information is available in one place. An Example, in the very first chapter is information on how the eggs came into this celebration, how to decorate them, and different things that can be done with the eggs once the celebration starts.
This is a preview of "Ostara". Read the full post
