Recap

I note round of new folks signing on as subscribers to the old bloggo. Welcome all! I’m especially flattered to have kind words from a couple of folks, including M.C., but I’m pleased to have you all around.

I’ve been blogging for nearly three years now, during which I’ve completed writing a nine-month training system and launching it, as well as publishing my work on Pagan spirit-arte. I still enjoy writing for the blog, and posting bits of my work as I go. There are several general articles in development as well, for coming weeks.

Those who found me through the byways of the occult internet may be slightly confused about just what’s going on here. To summarize:
• I do ritual work in the style of Ar n Draiocht Fein, a large Neo-Druidic Pagan organizations working to build modern religious work based on the ways of ancient Indo-European Paganisms. Our rites are presently being worked regularly by several dozen local congregations.

• You can find the basics of ADF ritual here and here and here. See the side links for access to my own book-length material on the system and its adaptations.

• In contrast to post-Renaissance western magic, Druidic ritual is based on a more archaic Indo-European cosmology and practice. We view the world as the Three Realms of Land, Sea and Sky, with the Fire of the Gods in the center. That Fire is lit at every major rite, and accompanied by the Waters of the Holy Well, used for purification and blessing, and often centered at a ritual Pillar or World Tree, expressing the connection of earth and sky and the Middle World. When all these things are brought together, we say that we can open the Gates, between the mortal realms and the Underworld, Middleworld and Heavens.

Into the Sacred Grove created by the Three Hallows and the Gate, we invite the Three Kindreds of Spirits – the Gods, the Dead and the Landwights. That third Kindred can include both ‘nature spirits’ of the local sort and the various strange beings of lore – satyrs, Troll or Sidhe-folk. We make offerings to them, of food and precious things and song, etc, and we receive in turn a blessing. That general outline: Opening, Offering, Blessing, Closing, is easily transferable to various kinds of magical work.

• I was one of the developers of this outline, some 25 years ago, and my own work has always included the adaptation of an outline written to support large-group worship rituals to private, personal rites of theurgy and thaumaturgy, i.e. magic. This blog is mainly an account of those efforts, along with Whatever Else I Damned Well Please : ).

There is a quite a bit of ritual material, including seasonal charms and blessings as well as spells. There’s also a series on Druidic meditation, various Lovecraftian trivialities and my unique opinions on magical history and Pagan theology. I hope folks enjoy.