By Fire Well and Tree

 Sunday is for the bringers of light. Many of those who bring the light of knowledge are also healers, so that is also an emphasis here. Photo by  Alina Vilchenko  from  Pexels Lightbringers You who bring the light of knowledge and healing Bridhe, fiery arrow and Angus mac Og, the light in the coldest night Belenos of the starry mantle Baldr the light that shines in the darkness Eir, gentle hands of healing Apollo, encourage us to Know Thyself Lightbringers, I give thanks for the night And ask your blessings, protection, and wisdom for the day

 I wasn't sure I was going to make it through my daily devotional work!  So every day, I single out a different "class" of deities to honor. I'm a bit Jungian in my approach. People everywhere face similar challenges, and thus "deify" things that are important to help them meet those challenges. To me, though, this is not the same as a soft polytheism ("All storm gods are one storm god") in that I think they are different spirits. But we all need to worry about health, crops, warfare, death, and other things so we would all have spirits reflecting the other cultural contexts of wherever we are. Even though my own personal focus is Celtic and Anglo-Saxon, my community honors more than that, and as I sometimes do oracular work, I thought it important to at least have introduced myself in the event that I needed to contact someone from another pantheon. I chose which spirits based upon the names of the days of the week, which are very similar in both ...

 Well, of course I got behind. But instead of giving up (as I am so close!) we'll just get caught up um...soon. :)  Cheating a BIT today, and using my "standard" daily devotional prayers, maybe punching them up a bit.  On most days it's a quick saying of the last two lines (bolded), but if I have time it's the full thing.   Nature Spirits Spirits of Rock and Soil of Leaf and Stem Of Skin and Blood Of Light and Shadow of Hearth and Home Natures spirits I give thanks for the night And ask your blessings, protection, and wisdom for the day.

 Really should have started last night, but birthday shenanigans had to be had. I mentioned  before  being a flame-tender, and this is my shift (sundown last night). I think I take the flame from Bonnie and then pass it on to Shawneen. My 'mundane' act is to look at the various healing lists and send Reiki their direction. I actually have two Bridhe shrines in the house.  There's one outside too. Kitchen This one probably counts as the "working" one, since it is visible and easy to get to.  This is an older picture, but the first 9-10 months of the Pandemic this is where my pandemic prayer would happen. Shrine Room This one is in the shrine room ,and since I took this picture I've placed the orange altar cloth on it.   So then.. Bridhe, hear my prayer This night, this day, I tend your sacred flame So that the inspiration of your sacred fire burn within me And outward to inspire  all I tend your sacred well So that its healing of its sacred waters ...

 Doubling up again.... A few years back, ADF started to develop the idea of "orders."  The idea of orders, I think, was to allow members to explore concepts in more depth. They have study programs, and have to have a clergy member to oversee them (for reasons I still don't fully understand or agree with, but there we are). Seamus and MJD developed the  Order of the Crane . (It may have been the first order approved, in keeping with the grove's ambition at the time. If not, it was second by not much.) One of the requirements of the order is devotional work with Garanus, after a journey to meet him.  I took this work up MAYBE last year, after like 20 years or so of working with Garanus in the grove context.  I've decided Sunday evenings are the day for it.  There's a "canned" devotional in the materials, and I've tried it but ... it doesn't quite "feel" right.  So I'ma do it my way :)  ** picture of garanus shrine** A child of the...

 Next up on the monthly devotional calendar....Morrighan. In some ways, she is what started this. I had wanted to figure out a way to honor her monthly as I honored Bridhe.  But what could I "tend" the same way I tended Bridhe's flame?   I had some ....vision? Meditation? Something... where she was standing in front of a cave on a darkened, cloudy, windy night. Trees were bare, but not from the season.  Fast forward to my current 'Four Treasures of Ireland' fixation and voila!  Morrighan (to me) fits here with the Stone of Destiny, with her connection to sovereignty and what not. This is the South altar, and due to the focus on the stone (and cave) it's also my Earth altar.  (I know, I know...I've completely fubared the "traditional four quarters!")  Even with the green cloth (which you can't really see), I associate Morrighan with Red.  There's a huge ceramic goblet for her, other candles of  red, white, and black, a couple of figures, ...

 This is not the prayer I wanted to write today. :'( Photo by  Polina Kovaleva  from  Pexels Gods of Justice You who hold the balance of the scales You who know that when one dips too low, the other must also dip low to rebalance Unless the other does not  The scales will tip back and forth And slowly settle Unless something disturbs them again Let your voices be heard  In the ears of those angered In the manner in which they will accept your words "Someone must be the first. No matter who started it Someone must say enough And not pile more on their pan And set the tilt in motion again Be the first." So be it.

I always have notes... Every so often I Google stuff to see if there's either any new research (something translated or found in an archaeological site) or new UPG on things I'm interested in. One of those things I look around for is "Celtic Moon God."  I have the opinion that the Celts were like the Norse in that way, that the Moon was seen as male. Eventually I got a hit on Elatha a king of the Fomhoire, father of Bres (from Tuatha De Danann's Eriu), among others.  He comes to Eriu over the sea on a silver boat, wearing all gold.  The Wikipedia link I just went back to has replaced "Moon" with "Sun". Maybe someone has never heard of Mani.  Anyway, I don't care.  I had started working with Elatha as a moon god, with good results, so I'm going to stick with it. Likewise, I refer to the Sun in Winter as Grianne (in Summer she is Ainne). So we are here tonight and I have my bowl of water out on the deck, rose and smoky quartz within. I am...

(I just keep doubling up. Probably because I've set aside for these things for the evening, and there's hockey that happens...) Going around the monthly devotional cycle, Sunday night was "Tending the Cauldron." There are so many cauldrons and related things in Celtic mythology, but THIS one is Dagda Mor's Cauldron of Plenty, the  coire ansic , which was never empty. I have this in the east and it's also the shrine associated with water.     So there's lots of sea and ocean imagery. Dagda has to share his shrine for now with La Sirene, which is another post... In addition to the metaphysical work, in the mundane world I try to do some sort of service work. Right now, I'm convinced that we have enough money that no one should be hungry and unhoused, so I try to do something related to that. (Again, in my perfect world...) I call out this night to the Lord of Riches The Master of the Cauldron of Plenty Dagda Mor, Good God All-Father, Fertile One, Lord of...

Sundays were always days for extended family. Maybe it was an aunt, uncle, or cousin's birthday, or holiday, or some other reason, but we'd head over to one or the other side of  the family's house with grandparents, too, and spend usually the afternoon.  So for me Sundays are ancestor days.   Older version. Sadly it has more photos, etc. on it now On an ideal Sunday, I will have poured the first cup of coffee and given it to the ancestors.  I light a candle and their incense (usually copal).  I really like to do this before anyone else gets up.   This prayer is actually adapted from one in Malbrough's Magical Powers of the Saints . I give thanks to my dearly departed ancestors I give thanks to my great grandparents:  Kerns, Wheelers, Barrs, Roberts, Nobles, Quinns, Stevens, Roofs I give thanks to my dearly departed great uncles*: Tom, Paul, Bernard, Charlie, Albert I give thanks to my dearly departed great aunts* Mary, Dorothy, Louise, Jemim...

 I keep needing to double up... LAST night was the first-quarter moon.  I saved some notes for that on an earlier post (to be edited out), but I need to refigure out something.  I'm going to just abandon that for now I think. So.... I owe two prayers tonight, and I think I'll continue through the Core Order but also my home practice.  Home practice first :) In my "perfect world," Saturdays are dedicated to the spirits of my home and my land.   I say "my," but I have gradually come to think of it more as a partnership.  I (try) to keep things tidy and orderly, in and out, and my land and house spirits protect and ward.   (picture of stuff) Saturdays then are "dedicated" to the house and land spirits. That's the day I generally have more "free" time to do yard work or catch up on house work.  I don't always have that time, AND I don't always do it when I do have the time, but the intent is there.  I light a candle in a holder on...

[[ Note to self to look up for tomorrow's...Today's waxing1st quarter Moon in Aquarius (11th House) square Sun in Scorpio (7th house) ]] Tonight is both the First Quarter Moon in Aquarius and time to tend Nuada's spear in my sort of made up monthly devotional cycle. Nu ada shares his space with Tyr, the statue that you see in the photo.  Because Nuada is not 'cool' I can't find a statue for him.  When I first started to honor him specifically, I remember in vision he sort of looked at me like, "Are you sure you're not looking for someone else?"   But Nuada is cool.  He freaking gave up his throne in order to benefit the Tuatha De Dananna, as his lost arm made him ineligible.  He received a silver arm from Dian Cecht, before finally having it replaced by a flesh one by Miach and then he could resume the throne.  It' s a clear indication of a leader putting community above self, and if I could tell all our leaders to do the same thing, I wonder w...

In case folks haven't figured it out, I'm doing my prayer-a-day in order of the ADF Core Order of Ritual.  I am now at the section of the Gatekeeper.  At my home shrine, I invite my spirit guides to be my gatekeepers.  For those not in ADF, the basic gist is this spirit works with you to open the gates between the worlds. Sometimes they act as warders and protectors, sometimes as guides, sometimes all the above, whichever. Photo by  Luna Sophie  from  Pexels I have three spirit guides.  I've loved snakes since I was a wee small child, and so that's an obvious choice.  When I was a baby-pagan I had a dream where an injured owl was on my back patio, and I helped it, then had a dream it came back.  Lastly, at a festival workshop on trancing and such, I unexpectedly came across a bear in the vision. I stopped looking for animal guides at that point; three is enough.  Many years later, I reason out that then I have one for each of the three r...

 Of all the bits of the ADF Core Order, this is the one that escapes me... I just don't feel a connection to that "part" of things (despite being a devotee of two deities which could have "Inspiration" as their middle names).  So at last night's Druid Moon I decided to volunteer for that part. Because it was in the evening, my  anomic aphasia  was starting to get worse, so it wasn't all I hoped. But I have a bit more time now... Spirits of Inspiration, I call out to you I ask that you join your magic with my own That together we find the words to express my thoughts, my love, my devotion May I translate my emotions, My fears and feelings And express them well and clearly so that I may honor my kindred My family and myself

 The three or four of you that may read this somewhat regularly may already know that I'm a flame tender for Bridhe (via  here, specifically ).  I have of course, lost my log-in information, and I'm not 100% certain what my "number" is, but I programmed my calendar with it years ago, and get a reminder every 20 days, so.... AT some point, I wanted to honor other deities, those who I feel particularly devoted to.  I also became interested in being a bit more Celtic-focused in general, so was reading Celtic Recon stuff (the aforementioned Celtic Ritual/Apple Branch by Kondratiev was central).  I was (re) introduced to the four Celtic treasures: Sword of Nuada, Spear of Lugh, Cauldron of the Dagda, and Stone of Destiny.  I've set up our temple room with shrines in the four corners for each of these things; Morrigan's shrine is with my symbol of the Stone.  I'm going to cut the roughly five year tale of how I've thought of these things and cut to the way I...

 Last night was the Witches Ball, put on by  The Magical Druid  which was a lot of fun, but also a late night, so I again found myself behind. This and the last post should put me up to date.   Even though I had to double up, I'm kinda happy I've kept up with it :)  So.... I call out to my ancestors To reach out and join with the ancestors of my community I call out to the spirits of my land Join your blessings with those spirits of my community's lands I call out to my gods Join with the gods of my community to protect us all We are few in number when compared with the whole Yet we connect with land, sea, and sky The core of the earth and the vastness of the cosmos We are strong for our numbers May we use that strength well In service to the spirits And more importantly, each other So be it.

  Photo by  Markus Spiske  from  Pexels Bridhe, hear my prayer Tears flow  From Nowhere, No Warning Dreams Denied Hopes Dashed Or nothing at all A never empty well Bridhe, wipe my tears with your mantle Allow them to ease the pain  From wherever it comes Known and unknown For once and for all Bridhe, hear my prayer

 Oops, I missed last night. Stormy the cat was INSISTENT that I put my tablet away for some laptime.  So I am doubling up. Prayer #1 is for last night's new moon.  I like to merge ideas from a variety of sources for my lunar rites (when I do them....that's another post...). I look to 1) the moon names from various indigenous tribes.  I am on their land. I am living with their spirits, ancestral and otherwise.  When I go to someone's house, I like to follow their rules and customs, and frankly I see this as no different. (If you want a lecture on what the term "appropriation" ACTUALLY means, the tl;dr is...this isn't it, but I'm happy to go on at length in the comments if anyone wants to go there...) So first, this is the Beaver Moon, attributed in one source to the Algonquin. Technically they lived north of here (side project...figuring out those that are more locally specific).  The Almanacs that have adopted these talk about the full moon, but I'ma t...

 I wanted to do a prayer today for the new moon, but I have to do some research on that (It's in Scorpio...but then... what?) Today I was able to help someone....so.... inspiration... When I was in need, I was lifted up Friends, family, acquaintances, even strangers I can never, ever pay them back I know one who is need Reasons many, varied, and ultimately unimportant I am blessed to be whole again I am grateful I have the means to pay it forward I give thanks to the gods, spirits, and ancestors I give thanks to friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers And may I always feel this gratitude  and pay it forward.

 If you have followed a while, you know I'm a druid (of the ADF and RDNA variety).  The one thing that those two orders share and that all ADF druid ritual starts with is an invocation to The Earth Mother.  Different druids may attach this title to any number of specific earth goddesses, but usually "Earth Mother" is universally understood.  I have sometimes done this, so I am thinking of doing prayers for them on day 4 and 5. But, in the meantime... I am grateful for the whispy clouds in ice-blue sky I am grateful for the first frost tinging blades of grass Greens and golds Reds and rusts Browns and burgundies Ochre and orange The explosion of colors like yarns in a great overflowing basket Weaving a blanket to keep the dark soil warm Let me always be grateful for the beauty

 The curse of the super-introvert.... ( Photo by  Samuel Theo Manat Silitonga  from  Pexels ) As I sit alone in a crowded place Conversation swirling around me Behind me Above and below me yet always without me Be it work or play Friends or family Help me find contentment and peace and solace; For no matter where I look I am destined to only find comfort within

 A few years back a friend of mine started a "Prayer a Day" challenge, a-la the NaNoWriMo project. There is, of course, a Facebook group, if you're into that sort of thing:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/973579286163091/ Anyway, I think I shall try this year. But, rather than post every day on FB I think I will post them HERE and then the shame of seeing me forget and give up will only be know by the 2-3 people who read this :)  I will try to remember to share a post around weekly.  You can always check in without me posting though. They're supposed to be NEW prayers, but there's some I've written and not ever shared that I may add in here just because. But not today! New Beginnings A child of earth calls out I call to my ancestors, who started over and over I call to the spirits of the land, and their endless rebirth to new beginnings I call to the gods who watch the cycles of time spiral forward Stand with me, Kindreds I take these first steps on a famili...

I forgot to hit enter!!   I had started writing some imaginary fictional stuff around high days. I of course can't find them... so I'm just starting over here... I every so often day dream about my ideal neopagan experience.  I decided to start to record them for... I don't know... a book? a guide to manifestation for the future? Who knows... So what follows here is just that. It is also MINE and I will hold and enforce all applicable copywrite privileges.   The leaves were just beginning to turn. The community had been in the fields for what seemed like days on end, bringing in the harvest.  Those that were not in the fields were in the kitchen, preserving whatever they could for the lean months to come.   The children were grabbing the corn husks and gathering them together fashioning two figures, male and female.   The sun was beginning to set, earlier than the day before, and the people returned to their dwellings for the evening's m...

 Here in suburbia, it is "my Lughnasadh," and I've begun a 12-day devotional in honor of the Many-Skilled One.  If anyone has ever spoken to me at great length about such things, you may have heard me called the Fire Festivals "portable."  What I mean is that the solstice and equinoxes have fixed astronomical points, related to the Earth's orbit around the sun. The fire festivals (Samhain, Imbolc, Beltainne, and Lughnasadh) have been assigned points mid-way between them, but my own UPG is that this is a modern convenience, and the folklore surrounding them may indicate that events in the tribal pastoral/horticultural rhythms were indicators of the time for being festive.  If you take, Imbolc, for example, one of the things surrounding Imbolc was the ewe's milk coming in, so a key indicator of by how much your heard may be increasing. Well, what if that doesn't happen on February 2?  What if it happens on February 5 or January 27?   What if we haven...

(I started this on 1/2 and then the world went kerblooey again....)  Once again, I was happy to host a Twelfth Night Celebration and Sumbl at our house. Well, it was via Zoom.  And there were a LOT more oaths this year, so we'll see :) The toasts were moving, the boasts were worthy, and the oaths were  S.M.A.R.T.   Because of the pandemic, it was all on line. I really hope we can be all together next year. I don't know why I can never center these! Throughout the Twelve Nights, I took an omen each night for the coming year, each one a rune to describe the energies for a month. So on the first night it was January, second night February...you get the idea.  I used Taren Martin's Anglo-Saxon deck, so some of the names may be different that you may be used to (and some don't appear in the Elder Futhark systems).  My mind has been all a-jumble with all things pandemic and politics, and I don't see either of those ending any time soon. 2021 will be as challengin...