Of Labyrinths & Standing Stones
I awoke to the very clear sunny morning relieved that they had curtains thick enough to almost qualify as blackout curtains, because WOW! is that mountain sunshine bright! I was feeling pretty good, all told, and looking forward to a busy and spiritual day.
By late morning, Amara and I visited all the Irish god and goddess shrines on the Druid half of the property, burning incense for each one-- I used my own for my favorites. It's clear they're very busy building new shrines for the deities and I loved it! There was an adobe-like round sanctuary by the standing stones for indoor rituals, which seems prudent when you live on a mountain that can get feet of snow every winter! We checked out the area, but soon found ourselves by the large labyrinth.
The sprinklers were on, and we had to dodge them to get to the labyrinth, which was surrounded by shrubs, trees, and grass. The labyrinth itself was made of stones lining a gravel path. We should have gone back to the guest house at that point to put on tank tops and sunscreen, but for some reason, once we were there, we didn't want to leave until we had done the work.
Both of us are struggling with focusing our personal energy towards personal and/or professional success. I came up with a very simple ritual: We would take a step towards the center after sharing a block or thought-stopper or looped excuse that we found ourselves thinking instead of doing what we needed to do. On the way out from the center we would instead talk about what success meant, and what we could do, and why we wanted it.
It took 4 hours!
We both escaped with sunburns (the first I've had in years!) but it was bearable because the sprinklers hit us with cool water and soaked our clothes, keeping us mostly cool. We squealed a few times when we got hit after being in hot sun though! I reasoned that it ended up being enough of an ordeal that it qualified as a type of Initiation ritual, so I didn't beat myself up too much for neglecting to prepare better.
Once we finished, we both felt tired but accomplished. I actually felt a little sick, though, as the sun and dehydration really got to me the last 15 minutes or so. She went back to doing some work while I took a long break in a dark room.
By evening I asked if we could join the Druids potluck and ritual and they said okay-- and so we did. there was a large dining hall with attached kitchen on one side of the guest house, and we joined them there. We made introductions and said hello to several people, but we ended up talking to this serious hippie chick who is living the life all the way, learning some native wisdom and just generally living a very creative and dedicated sort of life. The kind of life only kids who grew up at least upper middle class can even contemplate!
Afterwards, we had a brief break to change and get ready and then we had a ritual headed by Kirk at sunset, although he had several people assist him at various points. ADF stands for 3 Gaelic words, but some think of it as "A Druid Fellowship". Kirk was the Archdruid from 2010 to 2016, but then decided to start the abbey with his best friend Kozen. ADF is the largest Neopagan Druid organization in America, with over 1000 people since the year 2000. It was begun in the mid-80s by Issac Bonewits and several others. I know Kirk has written books and been very active as a Druid since 2001 or so, becoming a cleric or Priest for ADF in 2004.
Right off the bat, as we gathered to get ready, Kirk impressed me with his knowledge of history and pre-history, and he didn't spin tales of how this was ancient lineage stuff. Instead, he admitted that he was making it up but inspired by what we know of history. We began with a summoning, and then we slowly walked in procession to the standing stone area and the curved benches in a circle. He stood and "opened the gates" rather than making a circle (but I didn't mind, because I made circles the night before!) and called on gods, goddesses, ancestors, and the fae (though he said "nature spirits" but that's what was meant.) He had a good strong voice to do "declarations" which is projecting your voice and saying things with conviction during a ritual, and you could tell he was comfortable with the role, but not too full of himself. But then ADF talks about the "fallibility of it's druid clergy." Nobody's perfect!
He spoke about reciprocal relationships with the gods, etc.-- as in, we mortals offer up sacrifices of wine or bread or jewelry-- and then they do something for us. It's not about praying in supplication to them, it's about working with them, which is what I've been teaching Amara, so it was nice to have someone else say it for me! We each made our offerings, and mine was "Snow Berry" Strawberry Hill wine to "Samona" or the White Mountain's water goddess that comes down as the Salmon river before joining the Columbia. He admitted he met this spirit in a vision, and I thought it polite to say hello! (The others I already made offerings to earlier that day in the form of incense.)
Finally, Kirk "closed the gates" and we slowly walked out. I checked the astral energy of the stones, and they looked fuzzy on top, like frosting on cake, but the energy wasn't evenly distributed, so I thought that was odd and noteworthy. Amara and I went for a walk at dusk, because I could see astral energy best, and she wanted to explore. We went around the garden and farm area first and then we walked down the road. I kept getting surprised by what I saw in the astral, which lay upon the land extra thick like a ground fog only up to 5 to 7 feet above the ground and then cleared out a lot. I kept having to remind myself I wasn't seeing actual fog-- there was very low humidity! The astral energy was just that fucking crazy.
~ A tan (TAN!) astral animal, the shape of a pig or badger, low to the ground, with short legs, standing below trees.
~ A gray-silver cat, not quite large enough to be a cougar, and more slender (built like a cheetah) that was in a field and then dashed off so fast it left a streak!
~ An actual astral SIGN with WORDS! I could only read a few of the words, but it looked like it was a truism type saying that was meant to be funny. Who the hell made THAT!? Again, it was so substantial astrally that I was utterly fooled into thinking it was physical until we got up to it! This is stunning to me. So someone who can do magick definitely does things in the area!
~ When we returned, I noted that the standing stones had a pool of energy in light blue and silver-gray with white specks flowing from the stones to the alley where the sanctuary and shrines were positioned. It seemed something was siphoning off the energy, but since we made the offerings to Celtic Irish gods and goddesses, that seemed fitting!
Afterwards, Amara and I had bread and wine on the veranda and then joined everyone else from the ritual for a hang out and talk. They invited us, and I demurred to begin with, because we had our own small Lunasa thing to do first, but then we were happy to socialize a little. We'd been hanging back a bit because I didn't want to intrude too far into what they were doing.
We began on the outside edge of the group in the guest home living room. When a couple went out to their tent to camp for the night, I moved to the sofa they vacated so I could talk to the interesting scholar/actor guy Kirk, and was open about being an alien abductee. I don't remember how it got brought up, but it was in answer to something. He wanted to know why they're here, and I said, "I don't know for sure, but basically infiltration and invasion..." But there wasn't time to really go into it. However, he didn't immediately pooh-pooh it, showing curiosity instead, so I gave him some credit. I'm sure he wasn't wholeheartedly buying it either, but that's just good sense.
I talked about the astral stuff I saw after the ritual and around the property and later, when I brought up how much I loved scholarship, Kirk brought out his ancient copy of "The Story of Lughnasad" written in the 50s! I didn't have my reading glasses, but I said, "Oh yeah, this is my jam!" Current copies of it are over $400 so I'll just wait for a reprint before I attempt to buy it!
I also talked about how I ran a group for 10 years in the late 90s/early 2000s, and when I mentioned it, several people groaned! "Oh gods! Pagan groups!" Yeah, but I missed it. I only started a group and Trad because I couldn't find what I wanted elsewhere, I never really wanted to lead anything. But, now I was slowly starting a modified version of what I did before and hoping my experience and age would grant me some wisdom to handle things better. (And I did WAY better than most leaders, and in my 20s/30s too!)
Meanwhile, poor Amara was being peppered with questions by a late 20-something early 30-something guy who was there for his first time and he was smitten. Amara wasn't flirting though, she was just enjoying talking about spiritual and pagan things enthusiastically. The enthusiasm was for the topics, but not the guy. However, I could tell he was overly hopeful, and I sighed... and wished he wouldn't pester her later, but I was pretty sure he would.
By late morning, Amara and I visited all the Irish god and goddess shrines on the Druid half of the property, burning incense for each one-- I used my own for my favorites. It's clear they're very busy building new shrines for the deities and I loved it! There was an adobe-like round sanctuary by the standing stones for indoor rituals, which seems prudent when you live on a mountain that can get feet of snow every winter! We checked out the area, but soon found ourselves by the large labyrinth.
The sprinklers were on, and we had to dodge them to get to the labyrinth, which was surrounded by shrubs, trees, and grass. The labyrinth itself was made of stones lining a gravel path. We should have gone back to the guest house at that point to put on tank tops and sunscreen, but for some reason, once we were there, we didn't want to leave until we had done the work.
Both of us are struggling with focusing our personal energy towards personal and/or professional success. I came up with a very simple ritual: We would take a step towards the center after sharing a block or thought-stopper or looped excuse that we found ourselves thinking instead of doing what we needed to do. On the way out from the center we would instead talk about what success meant, and what we could do, and why we wanted it.
It took 4 hours!
We both escaped with sunburns (the first I've had in years!) but it was bearable because the sprinklers hit us with cool water and soaked our clothes, keeping us mostly cool. We squealed a few times when we got hit after being in hot sun though! I reasoned that it ended up being enough of an ordeal that it qualified as a type of Initiation ritual, so I didn't beat myself up too much for neglecting to prepare better.
Once we finished, we both felt tired but accomplished. I actually felt a little sick, though, as the sun and dehydration really got to me the last 15 minutes or so. She went back to doing some work while I took a long break in a dark room.
By evening I asked if we could join the Druids potluck and ritual and they said okay-- and so we did. there was a large dining hall with attached kitchen on one side of the guest house, and we joined them there. We made introductions and said hello to several people, but we ended up talking to this serious hippie chick who is living the life all the way, learning some native wisdom and just generally living a very creative and dedicated sort of life. The kind of life only kids who grew up at least upper middle class can even contemplate!
Afterwards, we had a brief break to change and get ready and then we had a ritual headed by Kirk at sunset, although he had several people assist him at various points. ADF stands for 3 Gaelic words, but some think of it as "A Druid Fellowship". Kirk was the Archdruid from 2010 to 2016, but then decided to start the abbey with his best friend Kozen. ADF is the largest Neopagan Druid organization in America, with over 1000 people since the year 2000. It was begun in the mid-80s by Issac Bonewits and several others. I know Kirk has written books and been very active as a Druid since 2001 or so, becoming a cleric or Priest for ADF in 2004.
Right off the bat, as we gathered to get ready, Kirk impressed me with his knowledge of history and pre-history, and he didn't spin tales of how this was ancient lineage stuff. Instead, he admitted that he was making it up but inspired by what we know of history. We began with a summoning, and then we slowly walked in procession to the standing stone area and the curved benches in a circle. He stood and "opened the gates" rather than making a circle (but I didn't mind, because I made circles the night before!) and called on gods, goddesses, ancestors, and the fae (though he said "nature spirits" but that's what was meant.) He had a good strong voice to do "declarations" which is projecting your voice and saying things with conviction during a ritual, and you could tell he was comfortable with the role, but not too full of himself. But then ADF talks about the "fallibility of it's druid clergy." Nobody's perfect!
He spoke about reciprocal relationships with the gods, etc.-- as in, we mortals offer up sacrifices of wine or bread or jewelry-- and then they do something for us. It's not about praying in supplication to them, it's about working with them, which is what I've been teaching Amara, so it was nice to have someone else say it for me! We each made our offerings, and mine was "Snow Berry" Strawberry Hill wine to "Samona" or the White Mountain's water goddess that comes down as the Salmon river before joining the Columbia. He admitted he met this spirit in a vision, and I thought it polite to say hello! (The others I already made offerings to earlier that day in the form of incense.)
Finally, Kirk "closed the gates" and we slowly walked out. I checked the astral energy of the stones, and they looked fuzzy on top, like frosting on cake, but the energy wasn't evenly distributed, so I thought that was odd and noteworthy. Amara and I went for a walk at dusk, because I could see astral energy best, and she wanted to explore. We went around the garden and farm area first and then we walked down the road. I kept getting surprised by what I saw in the astral, which lay upon the land extra thick like a ground fog only up to 5 to 7 feet above the ground and then cleared out a lot. I kept having to remind myself I wasn't seeing actual fog-- there was very low humidity! The astral energy was just that fucking crazy.
~ A tan (TAN!) astral animal, the shape of a pig or badger, low to the ground, with short legs, standing below trees.
~ A gray-silver cat, not quite large enough to be a cougar, and more slender (built like a cheetah) that was in a field and then dashed off so fast it left a streak!
~ An actual astral SIGN with WORDS! I could only read a few of the words, but it looked like it was a truism type saying that was meant to be funny. Who the hell made THAT!? Again, it was so substantial astrally that I was utterly fooled into thinking it was physical until we got up to it! This is stunning to me. So someone who can do magick definitely does things in the area!
~ When we returned, I noted that the standing stones had a pool of energy in light blue and silver-gray with white specks flowing from the stones to the alley where the sanctuary and shrines were positioned. It seemed something was siphoning off the energy, but since we made the offerings to Celtic Irish gods and goddesses, that seemed fitting!
Afterwards, Amara and I had bread and wine on the veranda and then joined everyone else from the ritual for a hang out and talk. They invited us, and I demurred to begin with, because we had our own small Lunasa thing to do first, but then we were happy to socialize a little. We'd been hanging back a bit because I didn't want to intrude too far into what they were doing.
We began on the outside edge of the group in the guest home living room. When a couple went out to their tent to camp for the night, I moved to the sofa they vacated so I could talk to the interesting scholar/actor guy Kirk, and was open about being an alien abductee. I don't remember how it got brought up, but it was in answer to something. He wanted to know why they're here, and I said, "I don't know for sure, but basically infiltration and invasion..." But there wasn't time to really go into it. However, he didn't immediately pooh-pooh it, showing curiosity instead, so I gave him some credit. I'm sure he wasn't wholeheartedly buying it either, but that's just good sense.
I talked about the astral stuff I saw after the ritual and around the property and later, when I brought up how much I loved scholarship, Kirk brought out his ancient copy of "The Story of Lughnasad" written in the 50s! I didn't have my reading glasses, but I said, "Oh yeah, this is my jam!" Current copies of it are over $400 so I'll just wait for a reprint before I attempt to buy it!
I also talked about how I ran a group for 10 years in the late 90s/early 2000s, and when I mentioned it, several people groaned! "Oh gods! Pagan groups!" Yeah, but I missed it. I only started a group and Trad because I couldn't find what I wanted elsewhere, I never really wanted to lead anything. But, now I was slowly starting a modified version of what I did before and hoping my experience and age would grant me some wisdom to handle things better. (And I did WAY better than most leaders, and in my 20s/30s too!)
Meanwhile, poor Amara was being peppered with questions by a late 20-something early 30-something guy who was there for his first time and he was smitten. Amara wasn't flirting though, she was just enjoying talking about spiritual and pagan things enthusiastically. The enthusiasm was for the topics, but not the guy. However, I could tell he was overly hopeful, and I sighed... and wished he wouldn't pester her later, but I was pretty sure he would.