A place to stand

Being a solitary Druid feels a bit wrong for a lot of us. I tried it, I didn’t like it. Being a Druid definitely has a collective quality about it, and comes with a side order of feeling a need to belong. Mind you, that’s generally a human thing, we all want to fit somewhere. Writing about exclusion in Druidry I got a lot of responses both here and on facebook, from people who do not seem to have a place to stand.

Yesterday I took the plunge and offered something I’d been contemplating for a while.There is now a proper and permenant page for it here http://druidlife.wordpress.com/secret-order-steampunk-druids/

The Secret Order of Steampunk Druids is neither secretive nor very orderly. It may help to be into either Steampunk or Druidry, but the only qualification for membership is wanting to be a member. The only requirement is playing nicely. Believe what you want to believe. Practice however you practice. Talk about it by all means. Accept that other people may be different and that’s their business, and all shall be well.

I’m not going to set up any kind of online chat space because those seem to be places where people with too much time on their hands try to tell other people how to be Druids, and frankly that’s all very dull and it would be more fun to communicate by other means. In person is nice.
I’m barely going to run this at all, but if anyone fails to ‘play nicely’ I shall come round and raise my eyebrows at them until they reform. Probably. Or I’ll just giggle at them, but those of you who already wanted in are deeply splendid individuals so I doubt eyebrow raising will be called for.

If you need a place to stand, if you need to be recognised and to belong, and this seems like a space, claim it. If the idea of revival revival inspires an impish grin to form upon your features, hang around. There was so much energy, craziness and creativity in revival Druidry, it would be fun to try and reclaim that without all the fibbing about where it really came from.

In the meantime, initiate yourself with a nice cup of tea, or similar, and perhaps a bit of cake, feel free to contemplate what you might want to wear, and where you might take this, let me know if you are playing, and if you need to, give yourself a title. As a general guideline, the less you know about Druidry the more outlandish your title should be. People who know their stuff should have quiet, self effacing titles.
Our two major tenets are warmth, playfulness and comedy our three, three major tenets are warmth, comedy, playfulness and a strange devotion to Professor Elemental, Lord Summerisle, no, four…

And if you do see Professor Elemental when you are out there, do consider it your proper business as a Steampunk Druid, to follow him round singing songs from The Wicker Man. If you don’t know any, just hum…

New Awe Writing Initiative

This is a shoutout for a project that really caught my imagination. There are very few houses out there publishing poetry and very few decent opportunities for new poets to share their words in meaningful ways. I am also very happy to be sharing a call for work that wants new, surprising things.

NAWI is a project designed to provide a platform for original new voices, writing in English anywhere in the world. We are keen to promote writing that dazzles and inspires – writing that moves and motivates, be it poetry, prose fiction, life-writing or essay … virtually any written form you can think of – as long as it makes us go ‘Wow!’ We want work which makes the reader look at the familiar in an unfamiliar way; that makes us appreciate the world we live in, who we are, and what we can be. The poems can be a sequence; and the prose certainly needs to be complete (not a fragment). Both needs to unpublished and original. This will be collected into an (which could become an annual initiative if it works). NAWI opens 21 December 2012 and closes June 21 2013. The anthology will be published late October 2013, to celebrate (a special showcase will be arranged). Contributors will be invited to perform at a launch celebration in Stroud, England (and possibly other launch events). Authors who really impress us might be asked to develop a proposal for a single- author project at a later date. Entry to the anthology will not guarantee publication. The judges’ (3 published authors/creative writing teachers, TBA) decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. We are hoping to present a cross-section of voices, styles and genres. The entry has to be in UK English, either 3 poems (up to 100 lines); or between 1000-3000 words, unpublished, and sent with title, author, address and a 50 word biography to: NAWI, 78 Daisybank, Bisley Rd, Stroud, Glos, GL5 1HG, along with a £10 reading fee (either a cheque made payable to ‘Awen Publications’ or Paypal Transaction ID); and an SAE if you want the work returned. Shortlisted winners will be notified by 1 August 2013. Authors will retain copyright of their work, but will allow their work to be used to promote the anthology. Contributors will receive a complimentary copy, and can purchase further copies at 50%. Their profile will be added to the Awen site. Profits will go towards future NAWI anthologies. Editorial preference will be given to previously unpublished writers (of merit); to daring, new voices, rather than well-established ones.

Follow link here http://www.awenpublications.co.uk/new_awe.html

(If you have a good thing that needs more visibility, feel free to contact me, I’m always happy to give blog space to good stuff, and if relevant will also forward it to egroups or contacts. I want there to be more good stuff, I am dedicating to stepping up in any way I can, to help raise awareness, build audiences for other people, build a market for work with soul and integrity.)

Introducing The Pagan Voice

On the 5th of January 2013, http://www.paganliving.tv launched. I’ve been watching the run up to this new project with a great deal of interest and wanted to help spread awareness of something I think represents an important new development for Pagans around the world.

According to their blurb, The Pagan Voice will be a weekly news magazine that brings you a variety of news and information from a Pagan perspective. They were also listed by Llewellyn Worldwide and the Wild Hunt Blog as one of the 7 most important Pagan organizations to support. That’s no small endorsement.

As regular readers will know, I live on a boat and my internet access is pretty rubbish. I can’t reliably watch any kind of video, which means I’m not able to comment as yet on the actual content of the first program. It’s the principle of it that I want to talk about. Internet TV is very much on the rise. Like all other internet features, it puts power and opportunity into the hands of independent creators and ordinary people. The mainstream media is all about huge corporations, most of whom have some kind of political agenda. Pagan representation out there in the mainstream is frequently non-existent and still tends towards the freak show when it does happen. However, TV internet allows all kinds of productions to get a foothold, build an audience, and hopefully in the longer term will give us the stats to get alternative input at the big tables, in the big outlets and in the world. I’m watching this process with The Chronicles of Professor Elemental at the moment as well, and will talk about that in more detail some time soon.

Access to news, including the kind of news we hear and the spin put on it are all deeply political. Having a Pagan voice, and Pagan perspectives out there, in a way that people around the world can access, is really important. It’s often said that the victors write history. Well, history is being written and recorded every day, usually by someone else, and anything that gets more diversity, more compassionate, green and yes, Pagan voices into the mix has to be a good thing and needs support. We need alternative ways of seeing the world and different stories from the ones those in authority and in the media keep spinning for us. There is real power and potential in this.

Now, you can support ventures like this by giving them money, that’s always helpful. All small indy enterprises need cash, and if you have the funds to spare, go for it. However, audience itself is a powerful thing. Put your bum on a seat. Tune in. If you like what you see, share some links on, tell a friend, write a review for your local Pagan magazine. Word of mouth advertising is powerful stuff, so if you love something, talk about it, and if you want to see something happen, get out there and help get other bums on seats.

If you’ve got the kind of news that the Pagan community needs to hear about, this would be a very good place to take it to as well.

Interfaith Druid

I spent the weekend at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust in Slimbridge, selling art and books as part of their Christmas market. For those of you who are either further away or not devoted bird watchers, this is a big nature centre, lots of water birds, and a big foyer suitable for doing events in. I had Druid books on the table, unshockingly, and I did sell some.

I also had several conversations with random people who saw ‘Druid’ on the book covers and wanted to talk about what they’d seen in the news, something about interfaith and charity… half remembered stories that made them uneasy. I ended up filling in gaps as best I could. I only have a partial grasp on what’s going on, but, The Druid Network – a registered English charity, applied for a place on the Interfaith Network (I’m pretty sure that’s what it’s called.) This is a big, publically funded interfaith group. The Druid Network were turned down, ostensibly on the grounds that it would cause disruption, despite no evidence of any Druid ever having disrupted any of the smaller interfaith groups where Druids attend.

It looks a lot like prejudice. Worse yet, it is prejudice in an organisation that gets its money from the state, and has therefore some sort of mandate. If you want to be a bigot in your own private playground, I for one don’t have the energy to bug you about it. I’ll go someplace else. But, if you are a big, official outfit and there is no ‘somewhere else’ that makes a viable alternative, I am not a happy bunny.

I like interfaith work. I’ve had a little bit of formal exposure. I like the kind of random informal stuff I end up doing at events. I also like the Druid Network (I’m a member but in no way qualified to speak on behalf of said outfit). I do not like what’s happened here. The whole point of interfaith is inclusion. I’ve heard plenty of protest against the idea of ‘fringe nutters’ getting a toe in the door anywhere. Usually from people who assume ‘fringe nutters’ are all the people they haven’t heard of, and the odds are good they’ll include folk like the Bahia and Jains in there. As well as us, of course. Tabloid thinking, we all know how it goes. ‘I haven’t heard of it and therefore it’s a worthless pile of rubbish’ is not the mindset that makes interfaith work. ‘I don’t like it so I don’t want to have to deal with it’ is another attitude you cannot take into interfaith work. It all starts to sound a bit like ‘don’t take my toys away!’

Some of the bigger UK faith groups have not been getting good press lately, for other acts of exclusion (Church of England saying no to women Bishops). Politically this sort of behaviour just isn’t clever, and it doesn’t help anyone. We need to be able to talk to each other. We need to foster open communication to reduce fear and prejudice. We need to accept at the table anyone who feels moved to be there, no matter how fringe, or weird or ‘not us’ we think they are. Exclusion is a good way of breeding resentment and entrenching bloody stupid ideas on both sides. We need something a lot better than this. I wait with interest to see what we actually get.

Druid con the follow-up

I’ve spent the weekend in the Lickeys for The Druid Network’s con. While I’ve sung and done story telling at pagan events, I’ve not spoken at one before. Normally I get to feel more confident that I might know more than the audience does! I talked about Druidry at the end of History and will be blogging that through the week. It’s been a good weekend, lots of lovely people, good stalls, great music…

All credit should go to Bish for having figured out a program that allowed scope for pagan time and could still deliver on schedule, that gave plenty of time for informal talking and sharing, and that had some excellent content. For me the most interesting bits were those informal conversations, following on from things said in talks, probing into ideas, chucking things around- it was very creative and productive feeling, and I know I’ve learned a great deal. There was a great atmosphere. My first encounter with Paul Mitchell was entertaining. He’s very much in the style of Billy Bragg. I also got to hear Tallis Kimberly, who sang Tom a spoon song! Photos to follow, I suspect… all very good stuff. I wish I’d been more awake at that point.

For me it’s been a strange, emotional weekend. Last time I was at that centre, I was the previous me, and it made me realise how much I’ve changed as a person. There were people I hadn’t seen in years, and while it was a joy to see them, it also made the pain of long absence sharper. Last night, due to illness there was a gap in the program, and Bish gave me a room and an hour or so of session running. I’ve not run a singaround in over two years. It used to be an integral part of my life. Happy-making to know I can still do it, but again, that knife blade of loss. I miss my folk club.

Then, I persuaded the remaining stalwarts this morning to go up the hill – the views and the trees are stunning and I could hardly visit and not do that. Bards of the Lost Forest used to meet there, and we ended up with a small circle of con-survivors, gathered in the space that had once been my grove, sharing a few awens and saying hello to the trees. That one broke me.

I have cried a lot this weekend. Mostly I did it quietly and privately – I never find it easy to be open with tears, but stood in the space that had been so precious to me for so long broke me right open and I ended up sobbing in a way that usually, I don’t when there are other people about. There’s one thing you can say for Druids, they don’t scare easily! There was patience, kindness, hugs, good words, a sense of being held by community. And that’s a funny thing too. The old me never really felt like a proper part of The Druid Network, just someone who tagged along and tried to be useful. I’ve never felt more part of that than I did this morning, snotty and pathetic though I was. It’s odd how these things go.

Grief. It comes in waves, and not always predictably. So much of who I was died, so much of my old life became lost to me. I go through this process, and the bubbles of pain come up, the missing, the places I was torn and wrenched on the inside. There’s a healing in letting that grief out. I start to feel a bit more like a person, and one who maybe does belong somewhere.

That person to person, real, in the moment, in your face contact of events is so important. I love the internet, I love the floating out and sharing around of ideas, but its not the same as talking, and listening, and walking with people in the mud, and looking at the same view together. It’s been a long time since I last spent a weekend in the company of Druids. Too long. I think the period of much needed retreat is coming to an end, and its time to start building and doing and being in the world again, consciously and with awareness of my skin, as a participant not someone who assumes they can only ever be on the periphery.

So, I want to round off with huge thanks to Bish both for the big, awesome event he’s just pulled off, and for the much needed space he allowed me to do things, and for the good words when I fell apart. And my thanks to Theo, for wisdom and empathy and pointing me at ideas I want to go and explore. To everyone who turned up and did a thing, thank you – and turning up in and of itself is a big deal. Thank you for being there, for talking, listening, asking questions, singing songs, telling stories, being druids, being yourselves, being lovely, and challenging, and inquisitive and very human and real. There are a lot more names I could name, folk who made the weekend rich and interesting with their presences, but I don’t know everyone’s names, and you all deserve recognition for contributing to something that was very good indeed.

Druid con soon!

Next Saturday is the Druid Network’s convention, in Birmingham, (UK) about which there will be plenty of info at www.druidnetwork.org

While I’ve done all manner of events, Pagan and otherwise, this is, weirdly enough, my first airing at a specifically Druidic convention. I shall be talking about Druidry at the end of History – as the theme for the day is Druidry in changing times. It’s a topic that lets me ramble the countryside around Druidry and the Ancestors without just regurgitating bits of it. I’ve no desire to bore me witless, or anyone else and banging away at the same old promotional speak gets tired, fast. So, I shall be talking about the end times, or absence thereof. I will probably put the talk up here in stages the following week – it’s about 45 minutes, which should be about 6000 words, so it may take a while to do it in small bite sizes.

This event is going to be personally significant for me in a number of ways. Last time I was at the Bilberry Hill centre in the Lickeys was for a Druid Network AGM, before I was married to Tom, back when I had an entirely different name and a different life. There are people I’ve not seen since then, and between that and the place – so close to where Bards of the Lost Forest used to meet for rituals, it could be quite emotional. There are also people I only currently know online who I should get to meet for the first time – Cat Tredwell and Paul Newman especially.

This will be the first outing for copies of Druidry and the Ancestors, and the first time I’ve taken a big pile of books to a big Pagan event (Pooka’s Pageant was not, in terms of numbers, vast). It also looks very much like we’ll have copies of Hopeless Maine volume 1 for that weekend, so will be in the rather odd position of launching a gothic/Steampunk graphic novel at a Druid gathering. But, there is overlap, after all…

For anyone who is going, we will be easy to find. I gather I’m the first speaker of the day – so please do show up nice and early so that I’m not just talking to Bish! And otherwise we’ll be at our table, we may have a banner, and if not that, the books and the spoons should be a dead giveaway.

Announcing the next book

I’ve been talking a bit about this on facebook, so I thought a blog post was probably in order too, now that dates and whatnot are confirmed. My second book on Druidry will be out in November of this year. I’ll admit I was surprised by the speed, but Moon Books are a nippy sort of oufit, not like bigger houses, where it can take years for a book to see the light of day.

So, the next one is Druidry and the Ancestors. There were a number of thoughts underpinning the choice of direction. Firstly ancestors come up in Druidry rather a lot but I’m not aware of any books tackling how we relate to our ancestry, as druids.

Secondly, I read Ronald Hutton’s Blood and Mistletoe, which flags up how little we know about the ancient Druids – we have material to speculate upon, but none of it is issue-free. He also makes clear just how problematic our modern ancestors of tradition were – Iolo Morganwg and his contemporaries. When I read it I felt a powerful need to try and respond, to think about how we construct ourselves as modern Druids, conscious of our history and the problems in it, but still valid. In many ways, this book is me trying to start that process. I’m aware that Hutton’s work has changed what OBOD present to the world, and have no doubt that in coming years we will see more work that tackles the thorny subject of where we came from.

The third thing was my personal life. I spent six months in a cottage that had belonged to my family for many generations, and that had an impact on me. I’m also dealing with a child who detests his birth father, who needs to engage with his bloodlines in meaningful ways (not just my side of the family) and who needs to define himself in ways that do not relate to the birth parent he loathes. Working with pagan groups down the years I’ve been conscious for a long time that many pagans have stepped away from the beliefs of their families, and that many of us have a lot of problems with our most immediate ancestry.

So, this is not entirely a book about the Druids of old, although they are in the mix. It’s about how we think about all kinds of ancestry, how we construct ourselves, and so forth. It was not an easy book to write and I’m conscious that plenty of people might disagree with me. I’ve tested it on enough folk to be confident that it’s not wide of the mark and I have a lot of faith in my publisher and editor, but, I may be going to ruffle feathers.

But, for the extra win, I have my bloke’s art on the cover of this one. And, with all due reference to previous blogs about the covers of Druid books, yes, there’s a tree on it!

As an added bonus, it looks like I get to launch the book at a Druid muster in November, if all goes to plan. Watch this space….

Of service and community

Nothing brings a person’s true nature to the fore like hard times and conflict. In difficulty, we see who is motivated by integrity and who puts ego first. We see who the peacemakers are, who the honourable warriors are, and who is all piss and wind. We see the control freaks, the fearful, the vindictive and the bloody stupid. All that is best, and worst in people tends to show up in the hard times.

Communities are difficult things. When two or more druids are gathered together, there will be disagreements. There will be personality clashes. There will be visions of how the world works that cannot ever be reconciled. This does not mean we can only hope to be groves of one, it means we need to work, and we need to have good and honourable intentions. This comes back to what I was saying recently about facilitating, rather than leading. A facilitator is not running something to massage their ego. A facilitator does what needs doing. A leader, on the other hand, will blithely do things that are not in the interests of their community, for the sake of themselves.

Bards of the Lost Forest had a core of three whose world views were not compatible. We made a strength of it, because it meant that there could be no core dogma, nothing others had to fall into line with. We accepted the different perspectives, and all was well. This was easy because we were collectively there to run an event, not to be important.

I’ve had a lot of experience of organising things over the last decade, and spent a fair amount of time in the company of other people who organise things. If you want it to go well, you have to be doing it for the love of the thing, and not for the desire to look good or be important.

It is difficult when the druid community has an occasion for collective shame. The last thing I want to do is stand up in public and draw attention to these moments. But at the same time, we should cast our eyes in the direction of the Catholic Church and child abuse, to remind ourselves what happens when we pretend not to see. To the best of my knowledge, we aren’t on that scale, and I pray we never will be. But in the meantime, we should not accept any kind of leadership that exists to serve the ego of the individual and not the good of the community.

I’ve been in conflict situations before now. I’ve had to consider what I needed, and balance that against what was going on in a wider context. I had a thorough stabbing in the back from people in my folk club, many years ago. I know what it’s like to be put in an unworkable position. While I did what I had to do to make things viable for me, I also kept my folk club going. I did not let my community down, but I did have some people leave it – their choice, not mine. Often, there are no perfect solutions to these things, but a bit of thought and care for the consequences and some attention to timing and detail goes a long way. I’ve found myself in conflict situations on the druid side too, times when public venting of anger and resentment might have made me feel a lot better, but could have caused untold harm to others. I’m proud to say that I didn’t do what I might have done.

People can, and will vote with their feet when they find themselves encountering ego and bullshit. To those of you who undertake to run things I would say, you are there to serve. If you aren’t there to serve, do not expect support.

To those many of you, facilitators and participants, who are doing what honour demands – in whatever form that takes – who are acting out of care and integrity, I salute you. Hang on in there. You represent the very best of what druidry is, and there are a lot of you.  More than enough to carry the day, to find the good, to make something worth having.

 

I’m not commenting specifically on Druid Camp, of course, having no direct involvement. I wish peace and the best of luck to those people trying to make a go of it, and have every sympathy for those who have felt obliged to step back.

Druid News

OBOD revamp

 

http://www.druidry.org was one of the first website I found year ago when I started looking online for druid content. I remember it back then as being fairly simple, black and white, lots of text, and very informative.

This spring has seen a radical recreation of the site, with a beautiful new look and a lot of extra pages. It’s well worth going and poking about, for the variety of new articles and resources and the sheer pleasure of looking at it. It’s very useable, and offers a portal to a lot of other online druid content. My awareness of this has a lot to do with having been invited to contribute to the meditation pages – http://www.druidry.org/druid-way/teaching-and-practice/druidry-meditation

(Normally I’m going to use Druid News for things that are not about me, but… this is mostly about OBOD)

This revamp comes at an interesting time for OBOD, with the grades having been redesigned in recent years, and the rethinks about history brought by Ronald Hutton’s work. The new site reflects, I think, not only a growing community, but OBOD’s increasing involvement with the wider druid community. There’s a greater offering of resources to not just the membership, but anyone who drops by. It seems to me like a move towards being less insular, more accessible, and I’m interested to see where this new energy within the order takes things.

 

 

Share your news

If you want to get your news mentioned here, mail brynnethnimue (at) gmail (dot) com – short and sweet is good, by all means include links. Don’t send pictures, I have a hard time of it uploading anything big and complicated. I’m happy to include events, courses, book releases, new websites, new groups, things druids have been up to, or things you’ve spotted in the news that seem relevant to the druid community. Arty, crafty, musical or literary people with stuff to sell are welcome to present themselves if they can find a news angle. I’m not averse to personal news. No witchwars content, no conspiracy theories, no ‘I know a bloke who met this guy down the pub who said…’ tales. I’m looking for good news where possible. The mainstream does plenty enough of the miserable content already.

Druid News

This week has seen a lot of drama within the druid community, with a debate sprawling across forums, facebook, blogs and probably other places too. The initial gist of it revolved around how much Celtic inspiration you need to have any right to call yourself a druid, but this developed a second debate about who has the right to assert what about druidry. The case for Celtic druidry was made passionately by Welsh Druid Kris Hughes on his blog –  http://www.kristofferhughes.co.uk/1/post/2012/01/dilute-to-taste.html He has some very valuable points to make about identity and the relationship between druidry and the Celts, although some of us – me included, do not agree with his interpretation of history.  My favourite response so far is http://bloodandbone.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/cultural-dilution-in-druidry/ which tackles much of the emotional complexity other druids may feel in facing Kris’s words. I also recommend taking a look at Bish – http://www.rosher.me.uk/wordpress/?p=776 and Red http://theanimistscraft.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/druidry-ancient-and-modern and also Damh the Bard – reflecting on his own relationship with druidry and celtica http://damh.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/proof-and-faith

I have no doubt there are other excellent posts on both sides that I’ve missed, so don’t hesitate to add links in the comments section.

While this has produced uncomfortable feelings all round and ruffled some feathers, I think it’s critically important that we are able to challenge each other and debate issues of identity and discuss the nature of druidry. However, we shouldn’t let this swamp us either, what we do as druids in our day to day life is far more important than arguing over who has the right to call who what.

 

 

Share your news

If you want to get your news mentioned here, mail brynnethnimue (at) gmail (dot) com – short and sweet is good, by all means include links. Don’t send pictures, I have a hard time of it uploading anything big and complicated. I’m happy to include events, courses, book releases, new websites, new groups, things druids have been up to, or things you’ve spotted in the news that seem relevant to the druid community. Arty, crafty, musical or literary people with stuff to sell are welcome to present themselves if they can find a news angle. I’m not averse to personal news. No witchwars content, no conspiracy theories, no ‘I know a bloke who met this guy down the pub who said…’ tales. I’m looking for good news where possible. The mainstream does plenty enough of the miserable content already.