Pagan baby blessing=success

Tonight I got to do my first pagan baby blessing. I was honored that the couple asked myself and my b'loved bride to do the rite for them. I met with he happy parents last week to find out what they had in mind. We created an eclectic wicca/adf druidy rite. I'll post the outline for the rite when I get a chance. The high points of the right were the 12 gifts each person gave to the baby. I was to give the gift of "reverence". There was a call to the ancestors, and to the spirit wolf, the parents totem, to watch over and protect the child. We finished with a stylised great right to bless the waters in the chalice which as then used to anoint the child. I received many compliments on the rite. I am very pleased with it. I did learn a few things though. 1. never test a new product during a public rite. Stick with what you know works. I used a new brand of synthetic fire log, and well, it was a very sad fire. It just didn't burn well. Also living where I do, scheduling a baby blessing for Aguste was not the best idea. It was too hot for the little guy outside, even after sun down. Babies can't regulate their body temperatures like adults can. We ended up having to move the ritual inside. Despite these lessons learned I think it went well and I know I enjoyed doing it.

Essay on the two powers

The two powers meditation is a mental and spiritual exercise that helps one connect to the two powers or currents that make up all things. The two powers are divided into “the flow of the earth” or “the flow under the earth” and “the sky power”. In my experience I would describe the nature of the earth current as heavy, cool, liquid, dark, nourishing, filling, calming, soothing, and dull. The nature of the sky power seems to be fast, light, bright, shooting, electrical, warm, empty, fiery, energizing, and cutting.

The earth current is the chaos from which all things arise; the sky current is that which gives form to all things, thus together they create all things in the universe. These two powers are not stagnant; in fact it seems to me there is a constant flow of these two powers. Most people are not aware of them, just as a fish is not aware that it lives surrounded by water, that is, until the water is taken away in some manner. Many ancient cultures have similar ideas to our two powers. As a teenager and young man I studied Taoism and they name the two powers Yin and Yang. I have chosen the Irish Gaelic culture as my hearth culture. It would see the closest idea to the two powers they have is the concepts of Bri and Bua. According to Rev. Ian Corrigan’s book “Sacred fire, holy well” Bri “..is the innate meaning, ability, power and/or talent in any person, place, or thing” and it is loosely associated with the earth power. Bua “..is the power, meaning, ability or forms placed upon or within any person, place or thing by the will and work of a being.” And thus Bua is associated loosely with the sky power (Corrigan, 2006). Personally I see both Bri and Bua made up of both currents, the difference according to Rev. Corrigan is energy in stasis and energy in motion (Corrigan, 2006).

It would be very easy to see the two powers as a binary system. Light and dark, heavy and light, life and death, chaos and order. Though there is some truth to this, it is more complicated than that. The two powers are complimentary and have to come together to create everything. So within all things are the two powers. Water is not all earth power, and light is not all sky power. Men are not all sky power and woman all earth power. We are a mixture of both.

Some people attribute gender and cultures attribute gender to the two powers. Having felt the two powers and used them in a variety of magical workings I can understand why this occurs. What’s interesting is that there is not a constant between the genders assigned and the different cultures. Some cultures call the sky power male, while others female. Perhaps because of my previous exposure to the Taoist idea of yin and yang, I have never felt a need to assign the two powers a gender.

One the main practical applications of the two powers exercise and attunement is for the purpose of grounding. This exercise works well for ADF and fits into the cosmology very well. Our cosmology is made up of the fire, the well, and the tree, the land, sea, and sky. The two powers correspond nicely with this because the fire is the sky, is the sky power. The well is the sea, the earth power. The tree is the middle world in which we live where the earth power and sky power meet. This makes ties the concepts together and adds to our understanding of the cosmos on a spiritual level. This in turn helps to open our heart and mind up to the two powers and thus achieve the grounding needed for good ritual work.

Meditation journal #14

my mental discipline training is on going. When it comes to the Ogham meditations I have pulled Ngtal or wound/charm and Ciert recently. Ngtal got me thinking about the times I have been wounded both physically and emotionally and how that has affected my personality and how I respond to events in my life now. It got me asking where do need healing? Mostly I came away feeling that I have healed much in the last few years. I looked at what I do to heal the people around me, and the natural world. I find that I really enjoy the work of the shaman. Working as a person who mediates between this world and the world of the spirits.

Ciert is a few of difficulties and challenges, of ill luck. However there is hope to the badness of it. This got me thinking about how I handle situations of ill or bad luck. What I can do in future times of bad luck to handle the situation better then I have in the past. When used carefully in magic, Ciert can be used to help end bad luck and difficulties. This led me to thinking about what I do to help people with their difficulties. This is a skill I learned long ago and one I often employ. I usually do it in a practical way in this world, I have also done it in a magical/shamanic context as well.

I continue to do the two powers meditation and working. Today I felt the two powers even more strongly then before. I didn't think this would happen any more, as I had been feeling them very strongly for a long time now. Yet today showed me that there is the possibility of pulling the two powers in in even greater amount. This leads me to wonder just how much a person can learn to draw in. How much is really needed for magical workings and spirit art? Do I command enough of the two powers to gain the authority I will need in working with the spirits? I suppose this is a question to put to my spirit ally.

Ready...set....oh wait.

SO I got Ian's updated book to Druidic spirit arte. In it he has a couple new rituals to do that at allow one to contact the dead, and get a teaching spirit from among the dead, as well as build a shrine to the dead on which to leave offerings, thus strengthening that connection. I haven't done this, and I sense it's some thing I need to do before I do the hosting of the Sidhe. I am in the process of gathering the things I need to do this work.

Religion isn't free.

I always knew that ADF was not a financial power house in the world. During Druidpalooza it came to me just how true this was. ADF doesn't even own an office space. That's right. It was said that the financial troubles stem from the idea that most pagans feel that religion is free. I am here to say Religion is not free. Spirituality is free. Religion costs money. ADF is a organized religion. Some thing all ADFer's should be aware of. There are a lot of good things that can come from being in an organized religion. Social programs, nice places of worship, training programs, high day celebrations, and community services just to name a few. All of these things cost money. Money that has to come from people like you and me.

In the past 6th months I have come to love ADF and what it is, and what it could be. We share the same dreams...the same goals. I would love to see ADF Nemotons spring up all over the world. Beautiful places of worship. Places of peace. These places will not come for free. If you are like me and you want these things. If you want ADF to have a simple office, if you want to see pagan druidry grow and take it's place in mainstream society, we are going to have to work for it. We...you and me...are going to have to pay for it.

Signs of power complete

The clay disk with the signs of power has been made whole and holly. All I need to do now is gather together the offerings for the Sidhe.

Fertility

“By the blessings of the holy kindred let my seas be fertile, let my sky be fertile, and let my land be fertile”—Invocation of fertility by Gwynt

Fertility is far more then the simple matter of physical reproduction. That is merely one small meaning of the word and very little to do with it as a virtue. Dictionary.com defines virtue as:
1. the state or quality of being fertile.
2. Biology . the ability to produce offspring; power of reproduction: the amazing fertility of rabbits.
3. the birthrate of a population.

None of these definitions fit the meaning of fertility as used by ADF and as a virtue. In ADF Fertility is defined as: "Bounty of mind, body and spirit, involving creativity, production of objects, food, works of art, etc., an appreciation of the physical, sensual, and nurturing". When I read this I come to understand that fertility is much deeper virtue then just about producing children. It’s about the act of creation, regardless of it’s something physical or not. It could be art or ideas. When I see the deeper meaning to fertility I see its value as a part of society. A society with fertile people is healthy, strong. It can overcome almost any problem that comes its way. Fertility is not just coming up with ideas, though that is the first stage of it, to be truly fertile, I believe one must in some way bring the ideas into the physical realm. The Painting painted, the words written or typed, the invention built, the plants must grow. Ideas are but seeds. If the seeds never grow, one cannot say the ground is fertile now can they?

I see the land, sea, and sky as not just realms around us, but within us and what we are made of. I see my physical body as the land, my emotions the sea, and my mind the sky. When I speak the prayer quoted above, I am asking that my body be strong and full of life. I am asking my emotions to grow and change to spring up and die off as is natural. I am asking my mind to be creative, for ideas to grow and blossom. This is what it means to be fertile in land, sea, and sky.


I think one of my greatest acts of fertility I have done in my life was the creation of an eclectic meet up group of pagans in my area. It is called kern County Pagan Circle and is made up of Wiccans, eclectic witches, druids, and Asatru. We meet each week at a local metaphysical store. Many people who were lost and following the faint rhythms of their pagan heart have come to the group and learned to hear those rhythms clearly. They have found not only information, but a community, a community that has come to call itself “the tribe”. It has grown over the years, and at our Lughnasadh celebration we had forty five attendees and their families. This represented three counties and five cities. When I look at all the happy faces, I know that I had a hand in helping them find a spiritual path that makes them fertile in land, sea, and sky.