Celtic Clip Art Border by Gunther at Synergy.

Æssaying the Changes.

"Autumn, 2001.

At last, I come to catch up on this much neglected front page. After losing paganireland for a couple of weeks, I see on it's return that no update has been done all this summer, for which the only excuse is that we have been very busy building our house, and have a hot tub, sun-deck, and bathhouse (almost!) to show for our labours.

"Interesting times"... I think of the ancient Chinese curse, and feel it is indeed true for these strange and fearful months we are in.

With all the talk of war between Christians and Muslims, I feel glad to be pagan, even though all hands are potentially turned against us as such. Jihads and Crusades, the same thing from a different religious viewpoint, as pagan we have a history of being on the receiving end of both, which one hopes will give us a clear and honest perspective on these matters... or will it?

I accept that America has been hurt, seemingly without just cause, though I do wonder that the media says very little about the attack on the Pentagon, rather it stresses the terrible deed done to the World Trade Centre; could it be that the former would elicit little or no sympathy while the latter is to everyone a foul deed, I wonder ...

Also, there is the war in Afghanistan, and talk about enlarging it to embrace Iraq. While I personally am inclined to consider that the destruction of the Taliban is a just and worthy cause, I do have deep misgivings and hope that it does not become a war on the Afghani people and that it is not allowed to escalate into a war on the Islamic nations. While the scourge of terrorism is a planetary disease, the excising and healing of which I fully support, I wonder does the current action include state-sponsored terrorism of the sort dabbled-in by nearly all governments? And where does one draw the line between 'terrorist' and truly desperate people fighting for freedom, human dignity and the rights that many of us in the First World take totally for granted?

I must suppose that some of you will disagree with what I'm saying and may even wonder why, under the guise of a spiritual newsletter, I seem to be waxing political. My truth is quite simply this: that I do not believe that I can draw any divisive line between my social and spiritual life, my day-to-day practices and my personal sense of right and wrong, feeling that my spiritual or religious being is an integrated facet of my whole being... or rather that this is the ideal that I am working towards.
And so I comment on the world that I see around me.

This summer has seen a considerable improvement in the facilities here at Castle Pook, as we have devoted much of our energy to structural work, building and improvement , though the long-term view of what we hope is eventually to become still seems to be way-distant, down a tunnel of indeterminate length.

Due to the foot-n-mouth crisis early in the year, our public events were much curtailed. Mostly because to do workshops and the like, takes considerable advance planning. Which under the restrictions could not reliably be done. Still we have held small public events, Beltaine and Midsummer, and Lughnasa, plus full-moons.. all of which were well-attended, and seem to have been enjoyed by most.

We will have a major 'bash' and circle for Samhaine ('Hop-tu-naa') to nicely round-off our public-spiritual year.

As we have more time in the winter, to do internet work, I would like to use it to expand facets of Pagan Ireland. In particular, an open discussion forum, herbal and healing matters, and an idea that I feel could be fun, a pagan-spoof page. St. Peter has promised us a pagan/wiccan daft name and title generator. Also I feel that much can be expressed through humour that would otherwise be difficult. To accomplish all of this, correspondence and input from all you good folk out there would be indeed a great blessing.

So to purely spiritual matters

Del & I are finding more and more as we communicate with the deep and overlaying spirit of this place and the Nature of it, that we are moving away from ritual and liturgy, into a space where we are communicating with the godhead just by instinct and feeling. To this end we have changed much in our public expression of ritual. Neither of us feel the need to see ourselves as priest or priestess, preferring to be just part of whatever flow is generated in circle. We now divide our public circles into two distinctive parts. The first part is robed/clothed, but barefoot. We formally 'declare' the circle, thus creating a sacred place and directing the intent within that place to enhance the spiritual experience. We walk the circle, invite in the Quarters, all around a central fire. Share bread and mead and hands-joined, circle together. Then sitting down, with bread and mead circling we have everyone in the circle introduce themselves, and offer a song, or prayer, or poem, or silence (as is their want). Since our public circles tend to be a mix of people of all paths and none, experienced elders and those newly exploring the possibilities of a pagan-way, we feel this method best serves to enhance and encourage all in a feeling of well-being and worth-while endeavour. At the end of this, after a period of shared meditation, we clear the circle of all who are not comfortable with the idea of a sky-clad working.
Out of our average circle of 20-30 people, a little more that half of them would leave at this time, to go up to the house where there is food, drink, fire, convivial setting. We allow no spectators, no non-participants to be present at any time during our circle, and apart from the ritual food and wine, no drinks or snacks.

The second part, which is a skyclad working, or rather a co-operative collection of individual workings, has proven over the 4 times we've used this method to be elegant and beautifully uplifting, and apart from the setting, very similar to my own experience of Quaker meetings. The people who choose to share these workings tend to be aware of their spiritual journey, unafraid, open and awake about it. Again we share mead and bread, and each gives a song, a poem, a story, a prayer or piece of ritual, or silence. Somehow without any direction these individual pieces have harmonized into a whole, the experience of which seems to me to powerfully enhance the individual and the group access to magical being, and has, I feel been a wonderful growth experience in my own personal journey.

I don't offer this as 'an advice' for others to follow in their practise, only wish to share how well we find it has worked for us.

In recent conversations with a dear-sister, (who is a bardic Druidess and our family homeopath,) the subject of the goddesses and gods has been much to the forefront. I personally have always had a somewhat abstract view, seeing the gods and goddesses as representing ideas rather than as actual 'beings', more personalizations of understandings than entities in themselves. And again, as I touch the living magic that is the spirit of Pook, I find a picture of this collective force, a state of energy that suffuses all being that I picture as the godhead. Some could say that this is bordering on monotheism, though the word that has come into my thoughts is macrotheosophy .. a spiritual philosophy that encompasses all possibilities, so that rather than the monotheistic view which is monolithic and allows only one god to encompass all possibilities, my macrotheosophical viewpoint is that all understandings and expressions of the godhead are equally complete and valid. Giving a holographic and holistic overview of all god-being. The divine masculine, divine feminine and of course not forgetting the divinity that is part of us, the divine human-being.

A journey without specific goals and no definitive end. A journey undertaken for the joy of itself, open to the potential in every experience. I feel if there is a message that I want to get across it's this:
that surely after millennia of bullying and coercion we have reached a spiritual understanding that will allow us the freedom to individually explore and express our own personal relationship with the godhead in whichever form it shows itself to us and to be able to share collectively this wonderful experience without the need to impose it on others as 'writ'. Because if we can't do this then it's quite possible that we're all wasting our time.

Love and Service

Bev.

Castle Pook.

October 13th, 2001

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