By Fire Well and Tree

 Well hello! I wanted to take a few minute before the year gets cooking...  FIRST... finally, at long last... this happened: If you are one of the two or three people who have participated in the various "a-longs," here they all are :)  As such, I'll be removing those from this blog eventually (as I've seen them reproduced by both human and probably AI types).  I chose the spiral bound because there is nothing I dislike more than trying to follow a ritual script in a book that won't stay open.   Exclusively available at  The Magical Druid  or you can just email me directly.   On to the new year :) The Yule omen was for Mint (Druid Plant Oracle) bringing clarity, concentration, and renewal.  My omen pulled during the first night of Yule for January was Laguz.   The coming weeks are about digging deep into that inner well of wisdom that you have, your intuition, to find new focus and new purpose as to your work for the year....

  Day 1:  Offerings to the Fro Ing and Frea, and the corn dolly from my garden.   You can't see it, but the green and yellow candles ARE lit, just super small flames (wick problems).I got Yarrow as an omen. The crystal grid is basically a calendar, with the stone for Haelig (Mabon) on the top (and for the first quarter moon on the inner circle).  The new corn dolly is under the black tulle, kind of. Yay, it's here! As of Saturday (9/23) at 2:50 in the morning Even though my favorite 'slice' of the pie that makes up the Wheel of the Year is now over, officially, I don't dislike autumn.  There's all sorts of secular things I love about this time of year: football, pumpkin spice lattes (don't hate), finishing up the harvest of my garden and cleaning it up for the winter, watching the leaves change color... I swear it's like Mother Earth is putting on her own chunky cardigan. Also I love chunky cardigans. I also love that it's still warm enough to be out...

 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

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...

 I remembered to do this! And now I've remembered to share it! I used the Druid Oracle.  These are TWO sets of cards designed to work together.  The Druid Animal Oracle I am more familiar with. The Druid Plant Oracle complements it, and I'm less familiar with it. Normally, I take pictures, but as there are likely copywrite issues there, I will kindly request that you Internet search.  They also have a phone app, but I did use the physical cards.  I drew 9 cards from each deck.  There is one for each high day to reveal the energies (animal) and insights (plants) at play starting on that high day through to the next.  The ninth cards are sort of a keynote or theme of the whole year. (I do this type of thing often. Sometimes it's interesting to compare the Samhain card themes with the Yule Rune spread for the year, and then my own Tarot horoscope thread... but that's kind of crazy obsessive too, so I don't know if I can recommend it. So, with out further ...

At this, the balance point of the year, I engaged in a 3 day devotional. The devotional honors my local ecosystem, and the Norse pantheon in the Northern Hemisphere, but it can easily be flipped around for the Southern hemisphere. I also originally wrote this as a devotional to specific deities, inspired by two large group rites in  The Troth 's Book of Blots. I scaled them down to just a simple devotional and offeratory framework, substituting general themes and suggested offerings for liturgical scripting.  I shared this with ADF in the mode of the "Yule-a-long," that druids all over the globe (because we have them now) can drive a current of "druidy energy around the world." Ideally, folks would honor the deities that are most appropriate for the themes from their own hearth practices, and that reflect their local ecosystems as well.  In retrospect, one could also honor the energies of moving from light to dark. The altar is arranged in three sections. On...