Upon passing on from Malcolm of the IoW order.

I can finally face doing this for Brodie 

 Eternal Lord and Lady who are there with love for the smallest sparrow when it falls, who know the wonder of joy and the agony of despair and who delight in all that they have made, we give our loved one ............... into your care.

..............., we remember you.
At the rising of the sun and at its going down, we remember you.
At the blowing of the wind and the chill of winter, we remember you.
At the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring, we remember you.
At the blueness of the skies and in the warmth of summer, we remember you.
At the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn, we remember you.
At the beginning of the year and when it ends, we remember you.
As long as we live, you too will live; for you are now a part of us, as we remember you.

..............., you came and touched so many hearts in so many different ways. You gave so much and asked so little in return. We know you are safe now and nothing can harm you. Remember, although you are apart from those who love you, you will always be together.

Deep peace of the running waves to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace of the shades of night to you
Moon and stars, always giving light to you.
Blessed be.

..............., rest from your travels in this existence and when you are well rested and ready for your new adventure to begin, may you hear our words on fresh breezes, an ancient blessing on your new journey.

May a new road rise to meet your feet,
May a gentle wind be always at your back,
May the Sun shine warm upon your face,
May the rain fall softly upon new fields,
Until we meet again
May Spirit guide you safely to a new land.
So may it be.

..............., may your journey be Blessed.

For the ritual, perhaps choose a place which your dog enjoyed. 

Set up a small altar with a few mementos of your dog. It's collar, favourite toys etc. 

Light a candle at the start and extinguish it at the end. Add to the ritual a short period of meditation to remember all the joys of the dog's company. 

Leave some water and a few animal and bird-friendly treats so tha other local denizens can celebrate your dog's life.

Yule, waiting for Wuldor

After days of cloud cover, waiting for Wuldor's glory glow at the time of the Solstice the returning sun appeared...

Yule seed thought - Wuldor's Wonderland

 The days of Wuldor are eleven days before the Winter Solstice and eleven days after.  Twenty two or two two days, zwei elf in German.  These are magical days, here in the Gewessi lands, when the light has that special glorious glowing quality.  Many modern pagans associate Wuldor with Ullr as a god of skiing and the hunt.  

So the 22 days of Wuldor, to my mind start to interface with the 12 days of Christmas.  10 days leading upto the Solstice, then the 11 days following the solstice.   

Here in the land of the South Anglo-Saxons, where skiing is not really a thing his association is with the hunt. Mostly, for me however, it is the light and aura of splendour that appears during this short period of the year when the sun barely rises above the South Downs.   That he is associated with the Yew is also significant for this time.

Little is known about Wuldor, meaning glory, but some think that the early Anglo-Saxon would have translated known pagan concepts to the new Christian religion.  So that Christ is referred to as the Wuldor-cyning or King of Glory.  Here is one of the King trees in the Wuldor light, a king in glory :)

Samhuin seed thought - so take the moments of happiness

Covid19 is shit, let's just clear that out of the way. This has been a crappy, stressful and hard year. Even for those of us who are introverted and found working from home a great way of getting things done, without all the social anxiety of being around lots of people. Pete's passing and my Father in Law's apparently rapid in decline in health pushed our stress levels to breaking point. As with other elderly couples one takes the strain when the other becomes frail. It's just that there's a physical cost to taking the strain. My Father in Law had been covering for my Mother in Law's physical issues, we almost lost him to heart surgery. He's still not right.

However, you can't doom-scroll life and I've learnt to try and limit my doom-scrolling to over breakfast only.

I've re-focused on enjoying the moment, at this time of turning I am lucky to have moved next to a magnificent Oak and Yew where I can see the cycle of the seasons. It's like the myths where the Oak is the guardian of the light half of the year and the Yew the guardian of the dark half of the year. This year has been about introducing myself to them, next year I shall start offering to them at appropriate times I think.

The other joy has always been mountain biking, a new house means finding new rides. I am lucky to live near the Greensand Way, a Roman road that follows the line of the South Downs between the rivers Ouse and Arun. The area of the South Downs Way I consider 'my patch', this road had been lost to me. Except here I can now ride East/West along remnants of it, it has been a joy to create a circuit of the Greensand Way and the South Downs Way where I can find stillness within the storm, moments without stress whilst physically working hard. I can find flow and with that feeling happy.

Here's the Yew from my back door...

Guldize seed thought - sometimes you are not prepared

My friend died suddenly of a heart attack, he had Covid19 earlier in the year and had heart problems in the past. He, as an embalmer, had been on the front line of key worker services. As a friend he was the older brother I wish I'd had, the man you'd want to sit with at dinner. I'd always felt I was an unlucky person, until Pete made me realise I was lucky to have him as a friend. In my grief I tried to enjoy the Gold days of the year. I was not prepared for his death, he still looked cooler in death than I could ever be. I meditated on his name to try and express my grief.
Perthro is enigmatic and full of fun;
Ehwaz is a work horse and source of company to the restless
Tiwaz is a guiding star, an even handed one but willing to sacrifice the self for the well-being of the whole.
Ehwaz a team of work horses.

The last 'proper' conversation I had with him was in late 2019. Sat in the garden at a party, he was listing the music he wanted played at his funeral. I questioned 'Why Take That?'...'Because I love it, it was a special time in my daughters lives'. The rest of the music was to make everyone 'really upset and sad' he laughed 'I want them to miss me'. It worked, it was the best, most honest, most upsetting funeral I've been at. There was no celebrant he was not religious but was spiritual. The funeral directors. who he had supported their fledgling business with free work, led the funeral. He worked with them closely and they were as much a part of the mourners as everyone else. Limited to 30 people it meant everyone really cared for him and his family. We laughed and cried and all missed him so terribly.

Elegy to Pete

Over a thousand years ago
The wisdom of the old wise one was remembered.
Amongst them was this advice...
Cattle die and kinsmen die
You yourself must die,
but one thing, I think, will never die.
The good name of one has earned it

Pete earned his good name. His manner cooler than a cucumber,
With fierce passion underneath.
His style, sharper than a razor,
With a nonchalant attitude.
Pete was a sharp dressed man,
Always casually deliberate.
His posture, enigmatic with a wry smile
A straight down the line punk.
His humour, rebellious and irreverent,
Tellingthe tallest, funniest tales.
He'd have us in stitches.
A good man, a quiet star,
You wanted to be in his constellation.
We could all benefit from being a bit Pete.

Lughnasadh seed thought - sometimes there are bigger things

It was Lughnasadh when my wife called to apologise about forgetting our wedding anniversary. She was travelling, with her friend, to Somerset. Her friend's mother had died suddenly in January. A massive heart attack, a swift passing that exposed how much work she'd been doing to cover her husband's dementia. Within 6 months of her death, her husband and step-father to my wife's friend was in a home. With these events my wife has been supporting her friend who as a spinster in lockdown has been struggling. So we'd forgotten our anniversary and it meant Lughnasadh had crept up and almost passed without recognition. Sometimes there are bigger things than worrying about the wheel of the year and our rituals to mark them. Sometimes you have to take joy in the little things, the minor successes like this Sunflower (eaten by snails a couple of weeks later)...

Litha Seed thought - Magical transformation

It was a day spent painting the fence, I started the day feeling like a bad pagan for not being up to welcome the Midsummer dawn. However, it was a rainy midsummer with the sun invisible behind a grey curtain. I slept through rather than having the exhaustion of an early, for me, start. I had jobs to do, particularly painting the new fence boundary to the house.
During the repetetive effort of painting the fence I realised I had to stop railing against what I thought I should be doing (i.e. get up to see a rainy sunrise) but doing what you actually should be doing. Honouring the Ylfe of this land by painting the fence and working with them to create beauty.
My negativity of mind was reset, by the end of Litha the fence was painted and the satisfaction of completing the job was well earnt. The fence was part of an ongoing and surprising process.

I thought at first I wanted to create a garden for my wife and I to enjoy. Our front garden is on a public path in a lane that provides entry to the park and a tree lined walk to the shops. I saw a quote from an Architect on-line (that I didn't save) which said "Your front garden is your gift to the outside world". Our house renovations, efforts in the garden and the newly painted fence have brought interest and joy to many of the passers by. During this time of lockdown bringing joy to people is a happy lesson. I'm still surprised by people congratulating us on the work that we've done. The exterior of the house and the garden have been neglected, we've learnt, for at least 40 years. I hope the Ylfe of this land are honoured by this work. Within my Gewessi gnosis applying real effort to bring positivity to the world feels better than a rote ritual for a rainy dawn.

Beltaine Seed Thought - the ritual of planting

Finally (in October) getting to write up my seed thoughts throughout the year. 2020 has been a sh-one-t year but the blessing we've had is a house to renovate and garden to create. The first job I could do was to create a vegetable patch from an overgrown corner in the north but facing east and receiving sunlight from the west between Eostre and Ghol Dheys.
At Eostre plant the following:

1. Broccoli Purple Sprouting
2. Beans in a green house
3. Leeks in a green house
4. Tomatoes in a green house or propagator

First new moon to full moon after Eostre (depending on local weather) plant

1. Potatoes
2. Chard and Spinach
3. Climbing Beans outside, as long as the weather feels warm enough
4. First Beetroot sowing
5. Leeks outside

At Beltaine plant the following:

1. Pumpkins
2. Butternut squash
3. Courgettes
4. First lettuce sowing outside

Beltane blessings

May the Lady's touch again,
Rest upon the barren plain,
With the sunshine and the rain,
Let the sleeper awake!
Beltane magick here we sing,
Chant the rune and dance the ring,
Joy and blessing shall it bring,
Let the sleeper awake!
Doreen Valiente

My personal Druidry is about living Life As Ritual as William Morris said "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful" however I prefer to join it together in the useful function and the beautiful form. Ideally the object has both form and function. As can be seen from the photo' there's a way to go in beautifying the form.

Eostre Affirmation to the Gewessi Path

Bitter sweet

Cold wind , warm sun
Great ride, last ride.
These realities of my Eostre mountain bike pilgrimage to Wolstonbury Hill germinated my thoughts that brought forth the Imbolc Seed Thought post that had been lurking incomplete over the past 6 weeks. The imminent Covid-19 lockdown lay heavy on my mind, as I'm sure it has been with most people across the world, and the warm sun and cold wind mimicked the tensions in the world.
Up on Wolstonbury I looked to the East to where I have moved, the future

I looked to the West, where I used to live, the past

The thought came to me, "Go East old man" as a balance to the well known "Go West young man". I smiled, a wry internal grin at my place in the oder of things.

Wondering and Wandering as I returned from Wolstonbury I discovered a hitherto unnoticed Bridleway stone. Down a path I was seeking to visit, the old village of Clayton that I'd never been to. I live in the Parish now. A beautiful little Bridleway I'd never ridden, the thrill of the new excited me and I found, I think the spiritual heart of Adurni, the water goddess of the river Adur. The river that has dominated my life. My new village/small town is riddled with streams. Though I've known the place all my life I've never known the place until I moved here a few months ago as a Gewessi Druid. All of these streams come from springs on the South Downs and feed into the Adur. These springs aren't the home of the river goddess or spirit. My gnosis, from the river Ouse, is that the river spirit resides or begins in a special place either a beautiful spring, a lake or pond. I'd seen from the weather maps where the start of the Adur is, in or near Clayton.

Near the end of the Bridleway a beautiful pond appeared. I'd found the start, the heart of Adurni where she springs forth from the Earth.

Eostre seed thought - dance of life

With current events around Covid-19 I almost forgot this festival, even though I had booked the day off. Having moved house into a 'project to get it right and do a proper job', a witchy, snow white romantic house. There are a lot of jobs to do, projects within the project. The basement is one of those. I had dirty, dusty, wear a mask work to do so I brought music down and worked to the music. Dance music.
It was Eostre and my thoughts, amongst the drudgery, turned to it as a ritual space and then a favourite in the mix reverberated through the space. And I danced, at first hesitant remembering moves.
Hitting the beat, then after a couple of minutes the flow began.
The moves, throwing shapes.
The Techno-shaman in me, made it a sacred space.
I danced like no one watched me,
I didn't care, as the joy of dance flowed through the air waves.
The past of ecstatic nights when I was a mid-core raver.
Shamanic dance of healing hurts.
The dance took me, it revealed the Ingvi-Lord.

I was talking to a friend about music and dancing, she told how music brought out tears but that she felt the approbation of her peers. This meant she couldn't hear the music and dance because of the release of emotion. We discussed Techno-Shamanism about finding that safe, sacred space where you can be able to release that emotion in music and dance. How, for many too old (i.e. over 30) to find a dark and dirty night-club, a good old kitchen rave whilst cooking the dinner hits the spot where you can dance, cry, laugh and have joy without approbation.
Calming down from the ecstatic vision I returned to the scrubbing work.

Upon reflection about the experience it seemed about right, I have a horseshoe to rune-work with as a lucky totem, the horse is sacred to Ingvi-Freyr as told in the story of Coifi. I have a space above the stairs down to put it. The Awen feels good. This can be a sacred space.

Navajo Flatbread Recipe

Chef and baker Brandon Johnson has shared a flatbread recipe that looks super simple and easy to make.

Brandon, from South Dakota, posted the Navajo (Native American) flatbread recipe on Facebook...

Navajo Flatbread, for six:

2 cups flour

1 – 1 1/4cup of lukewarm water

1 table spoon baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1 table spoon oil/butter/shortening

Mix dry ingredients together and add most water, mix and add water until it has the consistency of tacky pizza dough

Knead for a few minutes

Let rest in greased bowl for 30- 60 minutes

Divide into 6 pieces and roll out on floured surface thin. (Tortilla thickness)

Heat pan to 180°C

Cook until golden brown spots and flip, cooking until done

They can be made ahead and kept under a flour towel or frozen for later use.

Imbolc seed thought: Balance of the middle way

A bit late as it took until me Eostre Affirmation ride for the seed thought to germinate in the solid grey days of rain

The balance days where the moon is setting/rising and the sun is rising/setting feels like a liminal time of balance between  opposing principles. These solar and lunar principles of energy and reflection, positive and negative feels very relevant in these modern times where fundamentalism and polarised views are on the rise, as an aspect of digital disruption where new technology such as social media disrupt or destroy the previously established norm.

It is tempting to view this in a polarised fashion and buy-in to the click-bait headline reporting, "social media is evil" or "why you need instagram/facebook etc.". The truth and the knowledge of the truth is that these are powerful tools capable of good and evil. Just as Brexiteers, Remainers, Trump voters aren't all bad but have allowed a single, simple narrative to over-focus them on a single principle. This also applies to a world view of Hope for the future or Despair at where we're going. They drive our behaviours and when we have single principle behaviours this leads to conflict between those for and against. The positive and negative views create friction and conflict just as positive and negative ions can cause an electric shock. Some would welcome the energy of a powerful shock but this is painful change. It is necessary to view both sides with a jaundiced eye, look at them from several angles and critically think of them from several viewpoints to understand what is really going on. This is the balance of the middle way.

I like the tension caused by the days where the sun is rising or setting just as the moon is setting or rising where I am caught between the two energies and can see the knife edge path of the middle way balancing between the two energies. Just as emotionally the bi-polar days of high optimism or the dark days in the depths of pessimism are hard, the best days are somewhere in between.

Neither Hope nor Despair is the way forward, critical thinking and balance is the middle path.

Frige House blessing

After cleaning the house.  I  circled each room sunwise.  

Holding an incense stick and a quartz crystal I chanted this continuously 

Berkana Frigga Gebo

Bless this house

Bring happiness

Bring positivity

Bring  joy.

Berkana Frigga Wunjo

To this hearth

To this house

For this and all moments.

Berkana Frigga Gebo.

Dedicated to Frige this day 20th Dec Yule 2019.  

Wuldor's season

A hoar's skirts smother the Weald

Her beauty, merciless frost,

Wuldor rises, glory shines.

Lifts her frock, glowing beauty.

Their light shifts my aching soul.

Samhain Seed Thought - regeneration

It is easy to focus on the past, those who have passed before us and the darkness of the season. 

Druidry teaches of the celebrating the cycle of growth, order and decay.  Samhain is celebrating the seasonal decay.  In the garden the leaves are turning those glorious yellow, umber and red colours.  They then can be gathered and munched into leaf mould an essential compost for the garden.

So the seed thought is the growth that comes from decay.

A hard winter

Weather Lore

My country wise friend has been saying since Lughnasadh that the plethora of Hawthorn berries presages a hard winter. Do the old ways and their lore work at a time of climate change?
We will have to wait until Beltaine to know. Although the photo is not clear even at the end of August the hedgerows are full of berries. The acorn crop is heavy too. I just need to find some Blackthorn now to make Sloe Vodka ready for Yule.

Guldize Seed Thought - The } Quality

It is a little known fact that our modern digital world is massively indebted to a little known theoretical (physical) architect.  My work is as an I.T. or Digital Architect.

This architect was Christopher Alexander https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/106728.The_Timeless_Way_of_Building  who was in turn influenced by Taoist theory.

There are a few places where you can see his influence in the physical world – the Café at https://www.westdean.org.uk/ and Oregon University in addition to a few others.

Whenever you use or engage with the digital, world be it a website to fill out a form or complete a service like renewing your insurance, and at any time you use your smartphone.  Then you use two things that Christopher Alexander articulated:

1.       Design Patterns – taken from his book ‘A Pattern Language’.  This applies not only to the user experience/interface (UX/UI) but also to the way that computer systems are developed

2.       Object Orientation (OO) – which is based upon ‘A Pattern Language’ and ‘The Timeless Way of Building’.  Most modern computer languages have some basis in OO.

Whilst the passage below is rooted in Taoist terminology this applies, as a universal wisdom, to Gewessi (Druidic Heathen) thought.  It explains why it is hard to define what is wrong with a design – a missing ‘un-named quality’.  I’ve taken a part of his seminal work and replaced the architectural language with the more abstract word design in the text below to clarify why it was used in Computer Programming…

 

"THE WAY

 

What looks at first sight like an accidental quality which marks the designs (towns and villages) of the past, turns out to be the most fundamental physical property of the world we live in.

This is simply the character of design (buildings) which reflect the forces in them properly.

 

The prismatic design of our own time, the design built with the simple geometry of cubes, and circles, spheres, and spirals, and rectangles; this geometry is the naive order, created by the childish search for order. We happen to think of this order as the proper order for a design (building), because we have been taught to think so; but we are wrong.

 

The proper order for a design, which comes about when designs are correctly fitted to the forces in them, is a much richer order, with a far more complex geometry. But it is not merely rich and complex; it is also very specific.

And it will show itself, under any circumstances, where designs are actually correct.

Whenever anyone manages to make a design which is alive, it will have this specific character, because that is the only character which is compatible with life.

 

When I myself first started to make designs with this character 'the un-named quality', symbolised as }, the character amazed me.

At first, I was afraid that I must really be a conservative at heart and that I was unconsciously striving to re-make the past.

 

ITS AGELESS CHARACTER

 

But then I read a passage in an ancient Chinese painting manual — the Mustard Seed Garden manual of painting — which made the situation clear to me.

 

The writer of that manual describes how, in his search for a way of painting, he had discovered for himself the same central way that thousands of others like him had also discovered for themselves, throughout the course of history. He says that the more one understands of painting, the more one recognizes that the art of painting is essentially one way, which will always be discovered and rediscovered, over and over again, because it is connected with the very nature of painting, and must be discovered by anybody who takes painting seriously. The idea of style is meaningless: what we see as a style (of a person or of an age) is nothing but another individual effort to penetrate the central secret of painting, which is given by the Tao, but cannot itself be named."

Gold Days are here

The Guldize, Goel Dheys or the Feast of (hay)Rick's is approaching.  The rick being a type of haystack. The change in the season from Summer to Autumn is starting.
This pic reminds if the Long Man of Wilmington...if only I had 2 staffs.

Lughnasadh Seed Thought - Regeneration and Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage

Going back to my post on Pagan Pilgrimage and it's reference to Druidcast's talky bit from the Pilgrimage Trust. Lughnasadh is a good time, in my experience for Pilgrimage. At the beginning of my Bardic journey, before I was married (and I don't think my wife would tolerate being my back-up driver after 15 years), I rode a Pilgrimage along the Ridgeway. You can only Mountain Bike the part, starting from Princes Risborough, the end is at Avebury. It was a 2 day journey starting with leaving early to drive upto Princes Risborough then riding to Streatley, the crossing of the River Thames where us young lovers spent the night in the back of the car. Romantically we watched the sunset backwards...rather than the sun setting we saw the creeping forward of Night drawing her blanket over the land.

My experience of Avebury was at the end of a long hot day in the saddle. I had an ear of corn that had somehow attached itself to my handlebars as my mascot. I felt comforted having John Barleycorn with me. My second day of cycling the Ridgeway had been hot and sticky. By the time I'd got towards Avebury I'd miscalculated my water and salt requirements. This meant that I was completely exhausted, perhaps a little delirious, by the time I found the Bridleway turning off the Ridgeway that dropped into Avebury.
So I felt purely personal emotions arriving there to do with my pilgrimage along the Ridgeway and the places I had visited; Maiden Castle, Weylands Smithy, the White Horse and of course the magic of watching the sun set backwards. There was no special feeling, as I passed them, from the stones. Just an impression of a West Country tourist village - with bikers, hippies, wiccans and a motley crew that appear to have crept out of one of Ankh-Morporks wizard pubs all blinking in the sunlight. I immediately loved the Red Lion, only because my love was sat there waiting for me with a pint of cold beer!
Sipping beer wondering why Avebury left me cold, a flat feeling at the end of my pilgrimage. I laughed as I overheard my favourite quote (from an individual fully regaled in heavy velvet with a skulls head staff)
"Well I was talking to this Druid down the pub an 'e sez I must be a Druid too 'cos my spirit 'ad developed enough to be one. So instead of gettin' another Athame I think I'll have a Sickle instead."
I realised that timing is everything, I wouldn't mind going back and sitting with the stones when it was a bit quieter though.

I have vague plans of riding or walking the Wessex Ridgeway section from Avebury, or Marlborough, down to Lyme Regis. Lyme Regis is not far from my paternal ancestral lands. I have the route planned, although from an MTB perspective the off-road is very broken up with road sections. Now we have the dogs maybe it should be a walking route.

Regeneration

My poem on the death of Old Man Willow a couple of posts ago was my sadness at this old tree being ripped down. However, today I walked the field I regularly walk with the dogs and noticed (and why I'd not noticed last week or the week before I don't know) the swarthe of young willow plants

The regeneration of the Willows in that area brought Lughnasadh joy at the magical nature of the Willow to regenerate. It has been a glorious, warm and still day. The leaves on the Poplar, normally creating a sea like sussuration, were silent. Just the cackling laugh of the Green Woodpecker disturbed the peace.

Pilgrimage can be a form of regeneration, it can heal and change your worldview by stepping outside the boundaries or ruts of your everyday life. When I get time I will mark up a map for a circular Sussex pilgrimage of mid-Sussex sacred places. Mid-Sussex, from the River Ouse to the River Arun, is a liminal place between East and West Sussex and because of that full of mystery, fairy tales and wonder.

Litha - on my way to Thundersbarrow

I saw this on the path to Thundersbarrow, a bright little sunny dot of a plant I'd not noticed flowering before.

This is Thunor's time coming upto Litha. His wheels can be heard rolling along the South Downs Way travelling East, bringing the summer rains to the dry land. The ground has been hard for the past month, the winter and spring was much drier than last year's muddiness. The Thunor brings the rain to raise John Barleycorn's head up and fill his golden beard.

This is our local field, with the Grey Poplar's at the end, although I associate them with the Mythology of the White Poplar which, via the associated with Herakles, is also linked to Thunor.