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May 16th, 2008
11:08 am - Easing on down the Path of Study in ADF
Over the past weekend at Desert Magic, I was fortunate to sit around and banter about a variety of things with some great minds within ADF. And, because you all know me, no one will be surprised that we spoke about the current state of ADF's study programs.
Now that we have people working on Second Circle Clergy Training Program courses (and by Wellspring there will be at least one more person, with several more shortly after that), it's becoming more pressing to make sure that the courses are ready to go.
The CTP Outline shows how many classes need to be approved for Second Circle: four out of 12 are listed as "unwritten," though that word doesn't really indicate the fact of the matter.
There are completed requirement sets undergoing fine-tuning before presentation for three of those four, meaning that, really, only one class is still outstanding in the second circle of the CTP.
When Kirk and I sat down to revisit the Liturgist Guild Study Program last Sunday (and others joined us, notably Ceisiwr Serith, whose input was/is invaluable when it comes to liturgy), we hammered out five new courses, three of which should transfer directly into the Third Circle of the CTP as well (should the Clergy Council wish to go that route). We're also revisiting the structure of the original LGSP, which had a few issues. Fortunately, it won't affect current students at all.
It looks like only one course is left for the LGSP second Circle, and ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) druidkirk is working hard on that one. We may have a lot of stuff done for our students by Summerland.
I'm excited to see where we can take this program, and where other programs will go as well.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) excited
Current Music: "Lucky Stars", -JB
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May 6th, 2008
12:48 pm - Lectures, rites, and festivals . . .
I was fortunate enough to be asked to give a presentation on ADF and Discoridanism yesterday. This meant that I got to talk about two of my favourite things ever during my lunch hour. I was very pleased.
Dr. Urban asked me in to speak on these things to his class, which is doing an entire quarter on "Neo-Paganism, Witchcraft, and Satanism". The next class meeting is on Chaos Magic and Play, and I had a wonderful discussion with the class (well, I enjoyed it. . . I hope they did too. . .)
I'm spending the next few days working with the ADF Dedicant Path Documentation, trying to work up a monthly schedule for Grove Meetings. I'm also working on the outline for the next few Druid Moon rites, since I realized that as I head out to Desert Magic, I'm leaving shawneen_bear and tanrinia without much guidance, and because we're still feeling this out, I want to make sure that we get that guidance in place in the future.
This next rite is a lovely fire ritual, so I'm excited to see what they come up with.
It's odd, but with Desert Magic right around the corner (I literally leave from work tomorrow to go to the airport) I find myself most excited about Summerland coming up in August. . .
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "Tampico Trauma", -JB
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May 1st, 2008
09:13 am - Prayer for Mothers
I spoke this prayer as I was doing a ritual the other night. I wanted to post it, too.
Let the light of a mother's love
never diminish in a child's heart.
Let the light of a mother's love
never diminish in a child's eyes.
Let the light of a mother's love
never diminish in a child's memory.
Let nothing come between mother and child,
and let the child always know the mother.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: "Some Gothic Ranch Action", -JB
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April 30th, 2008
10:16 am - Ghosti and comics
I often refer to the concept of *ghosti as being something like a close friendship where you and your friend go out to dinner, alternating who pays. Eventually, you both forget who bought the last meal, and one of you just sort of offers to pick up the check on the very basic understanding that it will really all even out in the end.
The relationship then sort of dissolves into a series of, "Whose turn is it?" questions followed by, "I don't care; I'll get it this time," answers; or else the meal becomes a pretext for inviting the other person out, saying, "Let's go out to eat, since it's my turn anyway," when both parties know that it's not actually that person's turn.
Recognition of relationship, followed by understanding that the relationship is deep enough that it was already even before the other person asked the question. That's really what ghosti is to me.
Well, for future reference, it may work like the above, but ghosti doesn't work like this.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "One Particular Harbor", -JB
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April 29th, 2008
11:15 pm - Friends
Sometimes, the only thing that keeps us sane is a good friend.
When you find one, never let them go. Never fail to give them another chance. Never turn away from them when they need you.
Sail on, sailor.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: good
Current Music: "The Captain and the Kid", -JB
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05:19 pm - Vision
"For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;"
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Locksley Hall"
 Four months ago, I was given the opportunity to take on a new role within my unit at Ohio State. Right now, the position is interim, as a new Chief Information Officer needs to be hired before the position I'm currently filling can be officially filled (this position reports directly to the CIO). A CIO has been selected, and has (it seems) accepted her new role with OSU, so I expect to know more about whether this position can become permanent in June or July.
Yesterday, I received a payraise to reflect new responsibilities. That was nice, but not at all what this entry is about. Instead, it's about Vision.
Vision is something I have come to think much about recently. Running a Grove required vision, and being the Grove Priest for 3CG seems to require it even more. This new job requires vision, and even the debate over whether to accept the new responsibilities or to go to Colorado involved much intense soul-searching and testing of possible options, with one solid and sure path finally appearing before me. My life has been consumed by vision in the past six months.
As I go into this job in particular, dealing with many different kinds of people and entities, I find that I'm developing vision almost like one would develop a muscle: though constant use, pushing its limits, and working hard to keep it in good working order.
I have found myself slowing down, taking stock, and deliberating a lot more with myself. My choices are certainly better than they used to be, and my understanding of the long-term effects of my actions is clearer and more defined. I have seen my actions bear more fruit than they have in the past, and understood how they work over time. I have watched tiny seeds of action and thought grow into strong young trees that have weathered fierce storms.
Vision has an interesting effect on the individual, as well: it makes them more confident, happier, and responsive. I've noticed it within myself, too. I know what I want, I know I will achieve it, and I know what actions I need to take to obtain that goal. I am more often achieving said goals, and I am reaching that achievement in manners that are far more concerned with virtue than previous means I have used.
Vision brings knowledge and joy. The joy it brings is as deep as the joy of ignorance, but the breadth of this vision-joy is wider than the broad earth that supports the mountains and nourishes the trees, not slim like the path of a rock dropped in the ocean of ignorance.
I don't consider myself "visionary," nor do I think of my self as always "acting with vision." But I do find myself seeing more, and interpreting what I see in better, more complete ways. It is like walking past a bright, spring green tree against a deep blue, empty sky and saying, "I have never seen those colours before in my life, but I know them well, and they are natural together."
"The true voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes; in seeing the universe through the eyes of another, one hundred others—in seeing the hundred universes that each of them sees."
-Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922), "Remembrance of Things Past"
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Wonder Why We Ever Go Home", -JB
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April 28th, 2008
10:46 am - Grove Blog, Books, and Pride
The new version of WordPress is a tad different, so I'm forgetting to actually "publish" the ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) 3cg_blog posts after writing them on occasion. I caught it earlier this time than I did last time. Still, it just showed up on LJ.
I ordered a book the other day from Miami University of Ohio, called Ecstasy: Trance, Dance, and Transformation. I thought this would be a great resource for my Trance 2 work, figuring that a book like that would be wonderful for more information about trance.
Well, it's not about trance. Or dance. Or even transformation. It's about the damn drug ecstasy. Quite honestly, I can't figure out why anyone would want this particular book. The author is trying to be some sort of Tim Leary and not doing a very good job of it at all. I find myself shaking my fist at MUOhio and thinking smoldering thoughts in the direction of Oxford, as if it's somehow their fault.
 Last Thursday, I attended a Pride organizational event. Three Cranes Grove, ADF, has been asked to help with the intertraditional service before Pride this year, and I'm very excited about this. As a result, I find myself with a dire need to accessorize my ritual gear (no, I'm not kidding at all). I was thinking that I need either a rainbow stole or perhaps a rainbow sash to replace my usual belt, but something with the ADF sigil on it. Anyone willing to give me a hand and help me by making it (or keying me into where I can get such a thing)?
I really enjoyed the Pride meeting, by the way. As I reflected back on the meeting, I wondered if I should have felt out of place, or if I had felt out of place. I really didn't, and I suspect that because there was a representative from Green Faerie Grove, I didn't feel as out of place as I had in the initial meetings I had during my last interfaith foray for World AIDS Day (where I was the only Pagan in the room and service, though my discomfort cleared up quickly in that setting). I've always really liked the Pride movement, but involvement isn't always easy for allies. I'm very happy that I've been offered this particular chance to show my support (and my Grove's support) for the movement.
It's clear to me that I'm going to have to get over my general discomfort with certain terms, though, particularly "queer," which is a term that I've known most cleary from its use on the playground during my primary education in Kentucky, really, so those connotations still stick in my head. I'm not sure that the word had passed my lips since at least 1999, when I last mentioned playing the game "smear the queer" on the playground to my girlfriend (who was appalled I had played it: I'm pretty sure I hadn't thought of the socio-political impacts of the game's name before that). This is an entirely different community with a very specialized vocabulary that I'm not at all used to, and I'm pretty darn sure that the vocabulary isn't agreed upon by the entire population.
Ah, well: it's an adventure, and one that I'm very eager to take part in.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: "Bama Breeze", -JB
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April 27th, 2008
07:46 pm - Raw Numbers
Final numbers from ritual today:
- Attendance: 78
- Canned goods: 91
- Number of speaking parts I had in ritual: 0
I love the way my Grove has grown. . .
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Barefoot Children", -JB
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April 25th, 2008
08:53 am - Dreaming the CTP
This morning, I awoke to a dream that I had been working on the ADF Clergy Training Program.
Now, if only I could remember what I wrote, because I think I finished Trance 2 in the dream. . .
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "First Look", -JB
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April 24th, 2008
09:33 am - Cancer Run/Walk [Komen Race for the Cure]
Over the past year (or, in some cases, longer), my family has been dealing with cancer in various ways. We're not exactly low-risk, I've noticed. This goes for both my "real" family and my extended [ADF, PSA, and other Pagan] one.
The Grove and I have been walking in the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Columbus race each may since either romandruid brought it up the first time as a service project for the Grove in 2004. We've had varying attendance throughout the years, but as I've thought more and more about it, I want to make sure that we bounce back to at least 8 people walking with our Grove. At $25 per person, that's $200 for research.
(I'd also like to have people who can't make it or can't walk 5 clicks or who don't want to get up to do it, "Sleep in for the Cure," which entails buying a $25 sponsorship and not bothering to show up.)
The Race is in downtown Columbus, on Saturday, May 17, 2008, at 8:00 AM. We usually walk instead of run (we often refer to it as the "amble for the cure" given the speeds we reach), but you can do either.
Please, mark your calendars and let us know if you'll be walking with us (or sleeping in and dreaming about walking with us). Everyone is welcome.
[Oh, for those interested, I've updated Chronarchy.Com.]
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "One Particular Harbor", -JB
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April 23rd, 2008
02:49 pm - Skip's Ogham Book
Thanks to smithing_chick, I see that Skip's book on Ogham is out in a new edition. Go pick it up!
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: working
Current Music: "False Echoes [Havana 1921]", -JB
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April 22nd, 2008
04:05 pm - Trillium 08 in pictures
Some pictures from Trillium:
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Help for Mormons | Trillium's Fire | A cool road sign
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sleepingwolf stirring the shit | juxtaposem stirring the shit
(much shit was stirred at Trillium this year!)
juxtaposem and me at Fish Hatchery Road
Check out my hair!
(picture taken primarily because of the name
of the road, and singingwren's fondness for it)
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "On a Slow Boat to China", -JB
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April 16th, 2008
02:36 pm - Journeying through Religious Supplies
Journeys into the local religious supply store are ever an adventure. With the need for a way to transport my vestments across the country without stuffing them into a sack, I ventured into one today at lunch.
Looking as I do right now, with my long-hippie-style hair and my black faux-military jacket with skulls on it, an old gas mask bag slung over my shoulder, I was not surprised to be greeted with a general distrust. The look I was given as the words, "How can I help you?" came out of the saleslady's mouth was really enough to inform me that she didn't truly want to help me.
Indeed, she suspected unsavory motives in my visit.
It's an odd feeling: stepping into a place that supplies religious items, and feeling religiously out of place. Not so much because you feel like you don't belong, but rather because you feel like someone else thinks you shouldn't belong.
I told her I was fine, and knew what I was looking for. I spent five minutes rummaging through vestments, checking robe length against garment bag length, looking for a way to carry my white robe across the country without getting it wrinkly, dingy or dirty. I wanted something that would be easy to carry onto a plane (so no bags that just had hangers for handles) and that would be durable enough to handle being thrown into the bowels of a cargo compartment if needed.
I was slowly becoming frustrated: the concept isn't hard, is it? I'm positive that the clergy of other religions take their vestments with them across the country, and they're probably far more worried about wrinkles than I am. There had to be a solution there.
Well, the saleslady came back out and asked me what I was looking for. At the time, I was browsing through a catalogue of vestments, trying to find what length I needed. I could tell she still had reservations, and I saw her sweep her eyes across the expensive items in the case in front of me, but she was less willing to judge my motives and more willing to sell me something. I have a feeling that her boss had gotten involved.
I informed her of what I was looking for, and pointed out the vestments I already had. I expressed some dissatisfaction with the length of the garment bags on hand, and she suggested a garment portfolio instead, pointing me to a bag I had not seen yet.
I looked this over. Slightly dirty, somewhat worn, and not particularly impressive looking, but sturdily constructed and wide enough to fit my robe: it passed the real tests. I thanked her and said I'd take this under consideration, too (noting to myself that it was twice as expensive as the most expensive garment bag there). I began to wander around the rest of the store, bag in hand, and she watched me as I wandered through candles and a variety of other religious artificats (such as a statue of Christ being tackled by a child during a football game).
In the end, I settled in my mind on this bag, and took it to the counter. I went to pay with my card, and showed her my ID. She eyed it somewhat suspiciously, and another cashier looked at it and said, "Hey, the guy on the ID doesn't have long hair!"
"Well, it's been over a year since I cut it," I said.
The second cashier added, "Oh, I know how that can go. Sometimes, you're just too busy. But, it makes you look more like Jesus."
I ignored the last comment. Not to be rude, but because it really didn't sink in until I had already started speaking, still on my last thought. "I figure I can grow it out long enough to donate it, perhaps."
Now the saleslady who had eyed me so darkly and suspiciously for the past twenty minutes was very friendly: her face brightened and a smile sprang to her lips. "Oh, well that's a wonderful thing!" She took another look at the bag. "You know," she said, "the bag is a bit dingy and it doesn't look very new. Let's take 20% off."
Looks create interesting perceptions among people. I've been learning a lot about what clothes can do for you, and how people perceive someone with long hair. It is interesting to me how age makes a difference, as do place in life and occupation, in how others perceive your choices of style and personal expression.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go teach a child how to hold a golf club.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Margaritaville", -JB
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April 14th, 2008
02:37 pm - 10% off what?
Guess what? ADF Regalia is apparently having a sale: 10% off of most everything, from shirts to runes to bumper stickers.
But the best thing that's on sale?
Donations!
Yes, that's right! For a limited time only, you can make a $1 donation to ADF for only 90¢! You can even donate $100 at the bargain price of $90, and there's a wide range of other increments for sale, too!
Don't delay: donate to ADF while it's cheap!
edit: turns out this wasn't exactly intentional, so it's just become a limited time offer, to boot!
second edit: Well, time is up: prices are back to normal. But still: feel free to donate!
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Frank and Lola", -JB
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April 7th, 2008
02:31 pm - No one at the TSA likes the priest of a fire-cult
It is an interesting experience, seeking to travel across the country by plane. With the security standards in place, you have to check and see if everything you wish to take is, indeed, still allowed since the last time you flew, or if the things you wanted to take last time but could not are now allowed.
I pack very light when I travel. I no longer check bags, and I have never had to do without. I do, however, travel with a lot of ritual gear. When I saw that there are no shopping areas near the Desert Magic Festival this year and the point after that is "bring offerings!" I started to think about this again.
You can bring one book of "safety" matches on a plane. I didn't find anything (outside the general restrictions on liquids) on the TSA pages about highly flammable liquids (whisky and everclear, anyone?), candles, or other things of that nature. In general, I presume that makes it "okay."
Then again, I have found a new tin for my portable altars, which might just wow the TSA into submission, if they're of the correct generation.
It becomes more complicated, too. While I will (thankfully) be on the ground at sunset on May 8 (that was planned, right druidkirk?), I won't have any way to light a fire, which just makes things ever more inconvenient. Add to this that I will be in the air at sunset on May 12, and I just sort of look at it and sigh. They really frown on open flames on planes.
Stay tuned to your local news about the freak accident involving a strip-search of a fire priest by the TSA and strike-anywhere matches.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "False Echoes [Havana 1921]", -JB
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April 4th, 2008
08:57 am - I thought for years that Socrates had a guy named "Playdough" on the payroll
I have been reading an interesting argument that Plato's work doesn't fit with Indo-European religious worldviews (or, using a term I prefer, "cosmovision"), and that they are a complete 180° turn from the basis of IE religions.
I find this freakin' hilarious, for a variety of reasons. Later work based off Plato doesn't really fit with IE religious norms, anyway: theurgy, for instance, leaves behind many IE norms and stops making sense pretty quickly in IE religious contexts, and his cosmological understandings affect add to the speed at which later theories take off (anyone who has suffered through the cave metaphor in his Republic will know what I mean).
I think I like this most because getting out from under the burden of Greek philosophers is pretty darn tough, and it really does help make sense of why we do ritual when we sort of step away from them and reconsider things more objectively.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: "Beyond the End", -JB
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April 2nd, 2008
08:45 am - The Fire on Our Hearth - A Devotional of Three Cranes Grove, ADF
 Three Cranes Grove, ADF, is proud to release our first book, entitled The Fire on Our Hearth - A Devotional of Three Cranes Grove, ADF.
Thirteen different people are represented in the pages of this book, only three of whom are not current Grove members. The first sixty pages are prayers for all occasions (the bulk of which are original to this book, though a couple have been published elsewhere). There are also eight chants that were created by Three Cranes members which are not on the ADF website or available through other means.
Significant events from our history are recorded, too: not only in our Grove poem, "Clutiā Trion Garanonon," but also in the evocations and rituals included: the poetic drama of last year's ComFest, the Ritual for Healing after Hurricane Katrina, the prayers to Belenos at Summerset, and our Grove Inception Statement are all included.
Prayers don't only appear in English, either: there are a few prayers in Latin and a couple in Spanish, too (translations provided)! There's also a table for translation of the Coligny Calendar month names into English.
In short, The Fire on Our Hearth does an excellent job of capturing the Voice of Three Cranes.
Rev. Kirk Thomas, ADF's Vice Archdruid, supplied us with a marvelous quote for the back of the book, saying, "This is a great book for solitaries, new Groves and Protogroves interested in investigating new rites and traditions for their personal and grove practices." He also informs me that he has submitted a review to Oak Leaves!
You can purchase The Fire on Our Hearth at the Three Cranes CafePress site, or via this direct link. We expect to bring copies to the ADF Festivals that Cranes attend, too, but don't wait: get them while they're hot!
The book is $16.99 from CafePress. Please do help support our Grove: the profit from this book all goes back to the Grove for ritual space rentals, ritual gear purchases, and all those little things that just aren't free when you're running a church. And thank you in advance for your support, as well!
This book is not available on my CafePress site, but only on the Grove's CafePress site.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Coconut Telegraph", -JB
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March 30th, 2008
06:00 pm - The Dedicant Path Through the Wheel of the Year has been updated!
 A new edition of The Dedicant Path Through the Wheel of the Year (often known simply as "WotY") is now available. Resources have been added, some sections have been expanded, typos have been found and fixed, and submission information has been updated.
For those looking to finish the requirements for the DP documentation, this book will walk you through all eleven requirements in a 52-week period, offering homework, resources and reading for every requirement, and explanations and breakdowns of the requirements to help you understand exactly what the exit standard is asking.
Hard copies are available for $12 on my CafePress store, and they come wire-bound so that they lay flat for easier working. Buy it here:
http://www.cafepress.com/chronarchy.35511346
The book is *still* free for download from the ADF site, too! You can find it among other supplemental publications here:
http://www.adf.org/members/training/dp/publications/index.html
[The .pdf file at the above address is also now full of live links: no more copy/paste from the document! Just "click and go!"]
Thanks to all those who have offered feedback, encouragement, and support on this book over the years, and a *huge* thank you to all the Dedicants who have taught me so much over the time I've been in ADF!
(This isn't the only book announcement you'll see from me this week. . . Watch our Grove site, 3cg_blog, ADF-Announce, and Oak Leaves for the next announcement!)
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: "Off to See the Lizard", -JB
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March 24th, 2008
10:55 am - The Grove is in the Paper
For those who don't read the Grove Blog, "Leaves of the Willow" or subscribe to the LJ feed (3cg_blog), the Grove was in the Columbus Dispatch today, and you can read the article online.
The article is pretty good, though their list of virtues is. . . interesting.
And there's a great picture of seamus_mcnasty in the print version, too. The article is on page B3, with the picture on page B1.
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: "Lucky Stars", -JB
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March 21st, 2008
12:06 am - What do we want?
Posting during an LJ strike is like making ripples in a calm sea.
I love LJ downtime, LJ strikes, and really busy ADF festival weekends.
I'm so far behind on my Friends' List it isn't even funny. . . Stuff like this just helps me actually keep up with ya'll.
Catch ya tomorrow when you get back around to posting.
Or earlier, if you forget you're on strike. :)
Current Location: Southeast of Disorder
Current Mood: awake
Current Music: "Volcano", -JB
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