The Halloween madness is almost over here on the mountain and I can finally sit down to pen this blog. While most of the world was focused on doling out candy, my little band of Druids held a small ritual in the forest to honor the ancestors. Plates of food were left out for the Fairies and for our beloved dead, and libations of whiskey and offerings of cornmeal (for those of Native American ancestry) were made to the fire. Tears were shed for the recently passed over and thanks were given to grandparents and those even more distantly related, who struggled, loved and died so that we could be alive today.
When the rite was finished we noticed that our cloaks were covered with tiny green spiders, something I have never seen before. I told them it was a message from the Sidhe (Fairy) realm, letting us know that they were with us. And also that we were weaving something for the future.|
It has been unusually warm the last few days. I went outside to rake leaves a few days ago and thought I saw hail or snow on the ground which was impossible. A closer look revealed tiny curled up baby white caterpillars, Hickory Tussock Moths that have become a local problem. School children pick them up and some have violent allergic reactions.
Another odd thing – I teach a six month herbal intensive every year, October to April. One of the first things we do every year is make healing salves with comfrey, walnuts, horse chestnuts and other plants. The drop dead date for gathering fresh comfrey leaves has always been around October 15 because after that the frosts blacken the leaves. Today it is November 2 and the leaves are still green and fresh.
It appears that global warming is happening faster and faster….
A little personal news, I am thrilled to pieces that I finally got a wee mention in the New York Times (along with a number of other worthy Druids); and here. It is so nice that the Times chose to feature Druids this year at Halloween, instead of the usual Witches. May this be a sign of good things to come.
I signed up for Obamacare on the phone last week with no problems. Happily I will now have the same dental plan only with better benefits, for $20.00 a month less! I urge everyone to ignore the website for now and just call 1-800-318-2596. As with any new insurance plan it may take a few weeks for the paperwork to show up in your mailbox, but applying by phone is very easy.
Below you will find a round-up of the last Moonth’s archeology news, some nature news and Herbal postings, as well as a few political links of interest. Please enjoy!
UPCOMING APPEARANCE
The weekend of November 8-10, in CT. I will be speaking here;
Changing Times-Changing Worlds.
The metaphysical future started a while ago, why is it taking people so long to notice?
BOOK NEWS
Some nice reviews of the first two novels just appeared on Amazon.co.uk;
Priestess of the Forest
Ellen Evert Hopman’s novel: `Priestess’ of the Forest, which is Part 1 of a Trilogy, is such a valuable and learned novel. It describes the life of an early Irish Priestess and Healer born at the time of the rise of Christianity in Ireland: a Druidess called Ethne. Ethne’s progress and her spiritual path is movingly and very humanly presented. The reader can’t help but be drawn into the spiritual worldview of the Druids, its connections to the Earth and to the spirit realm. And I have to pay tribute to Ellen Hopman’s erudition about Irish Society. It is impressive, fascinating and invaluable, woven as it is throughout every strand of the book. But more than that, Ellen Hopman is herself a master herbalist and healer, and this sensibility breathes through every line of the novel. At the outset of the story, Eithne has brought to her for healing, a gravely wounded Irish warrior, Ruadh. Part of the healing is a moving chant: `In the name of Brighid; bone to bone, Flesh to Flesh, sinew to sinew, vein to vein,’ sung as she bathes his forehead and chest with cool water, and their love grows as the spread of Christianity begins remorselessly to replace the whole spiritual basis of ancient Druid path in Ireland.
— Michael Conneely
The Druid Isle
Ellen Evert Hopman’s novel: ‘The Druid Isle’ is Part 2 of a Trilogy which opened with her ‘Priestess of the Forest’. It is a fascinating and wisdom-provoking study of the lives of two young people living when Christianity and the Roman Empire are conquering the North of Britain. They grow up apart in two utterly different cultures, but are destined to meet. Aife is the adopted daughter of Ethne, the heroine of Part 1; she grows up in the wisdom and healing serenity and spiritual connection of the Druid Forest School. Lucius, by contrast, grows up in the flesh-denying inauthenticity of a new Christian monastic school. However Lucius finds by chance – or by destiny – the ritualistic beauty and reverence for life, of the ‘Festival of Summer’ of the local pagan people – only for this to be shattered by the Roman slavers, but he ends up finding his destiny and the truth of his birth, on the Druid Isle. Lucius is prepared for the dangerous journey by sea to the Druid Isle by the mystery, peace and joy of a ritual in the fogo of the Mamm an Byss. There, in the most supremely beautiful passage in the book, Lucius is granted a vision of the Sky and Water Mother who has protected him since the day he was born which connects him to his essence and prepares him as the preserver of the Druid wisdom.
— Michael Conneely
***Reminder*** You can purchase books and DVDs from this site and get a signed copy with a personal note. Yule is coming!
RECENT ARTICLES
SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE THE FALL
- wood burning poem (video)
- Wood cutter’s Song by Robin Williamson (video)
ARCHEOLOGY NEWS
- Women artists of the ancient caves
- A really good overview of a new book about Celtic Europe
- 1.8 million year old human skull may re-write history
- Bronze Age Europe an industrial revolution
- A Neolithic tomb restored in Spain
- SEANDA Irish archeology magazine online
- stone age foodies
- Religion, Life and Death amongst the ancient Britons (video)
- Roman roads in Britain were actually built first by the Celts
- Yet another theory about Stonehenge is in the works
- Solving a Pictish Puzzle
- Secrets of the New Forest
- Scotland and the slave trade
- Statue of the Goddess Epona – from Germany
- Neolithic bow and arrows discovered in Norway
MORE STONEHENGE NEWS
FAIRY NEWS
HERB NEWS
- How to deal with the Flu using herbs
- Have a cold? Pears can help.
- Mushrooms that heal
- Grow your own antibacterial bandages
- How to process acorns (video)
- More on acorns (video)
HEALTH NEWS
- Signs of the Fukoshima disaster showing up in fish, ocean on West Coast of USA
Please go to nukefree.org and sign the petition - What is GMO food? (video)
NATURE NEWS
- Porcupines love pumpkins! (video)
- Why the bees are dying, new data
- The most fluffy bunny in the world
- Disappearing Moose
- Wooly bears and weather prediction
- A sacred white Spirit Moose is slaughtered by hunters
- Baby white lion born in Serbian zoo (video)
- A man and his lions
- Red Panda celebrating Samhain (Halloween)
LANGUAGE NEWS
DRUID NEWS
- A new Druid school in Maine, USA
(Most Druid groups offer these kinds of courses for free – go to White Oak Druids and ask about it!) - The significance of a child’s caul
- Druids use rocks, magnets, to stop road accidents
- Samhain/Halloween in the UK
- A new book shows that Druids built the roads and Romans just paved on top of them
- The Evil Eye, what is it?
(*I wrote quite a bit about this in my book SCOTTISH HERBS AND FAIRY LORE which you can buy in the usual places or get a signed copy from me via this website!)
RELIGION NEWS
- Drum Priestesses (video)A sad note – the Priestess featured in this video crossed the veil a few days ago.
- Religion at Burning Man
- Interview with an Incan shaman
- Photographs of Pagan Europe
- An anti-fracking ritual in the UK. (video)
The lovely English accents make the theater of it sound so dignified. I am pleased to add that I and Christpher LaFond were able to read a one page anti-fracking statement at the opening of our local Pagan Pride event last Saturday. It is obvious that as a “Nature Religion” there are times when politics and religion very much belong together.
POLITICS/ETHICS
- How the ACA will actually save money
- KY farm subsidy recipient wants cuts to food stamp benefits
- Americans prefer Witches, hemorrhoids to Congress
- A huge oil spill in the Dakotas, discovered by farmer, local EPA office is closed due to government shut down
- Switzerland’s solution to the economic crisis; Star trek Economics
- How the Federal Budget Crisis was manufactured by the GOP and the Koch brothers
- Dirty Drilling – the environmental effects of Fracking
- Alarming levels of radium, other contaminants found downstream from PA fracking site
- How to change the game (video)
All blessings of the snug dark on those who read this.
***Reminder*** You can purchase books and DVDs from this site and get a signed copy with a personal note. Yule is coming!