I return home an pick up consort who had to work. We stop for dinner and arrive back in the early evening. Do a security stint in the Oak Grove before bardic circle. Lord horns is crowned and does a wonderful job of meistering the Bardic circle throughout the evening. I don't actually catch much of it being caught up in preparations for the marrow. I speak briefly to the crowd of folk about the ritual that will be held tommarrow night but don't feel that I am very effective and actually forget to mention the Ancestor and Community hearts.
M. informs me that her divination with the Ancestors has revealed that I should install the heart on the Ancestor shrine rather than Lord Horns as originally planned. We go to the shrine and leave the heart with various offerings. It feels like our work is well appreciated. I mention that I am sorry that I didn't speak very well at the Bardic Circle and M. misinterprets this and decides to cast Obi again to see what the Ancestors want done with the Ancestor heart. This is really unclear to me but in the end they decide that they want the Ancestor Heart used in the way that we had intended.
About six of us galdor and rist the runes into the runic loaf for the sunrise blot. The galdor is very powerful and we sing the runes as we each take a turn risting. R. has added a Valknot and Triskelion to the loaf which are really cool.
Late that nite there is the sound of loud fireworks and I finally get up to investigate. This turns out to be an unfortunate situation and caouses much immediate strife. I am very impressed by the love that L. marshalls to calm the hurt feelings. The antagonists all make up a short time later...
Next I take part in Amairgin's rite of passage. We ritually shave his head bald for this process and then in thanks he cooks a Scottish breakfast for us of Kippers and Porridge. I decide that since this is ritual food I will partake of the samllest bite of Kipper, violating my usual vegetarian fare. It is incredibly potent and I can actually feel the prana in it! I allow it to disintegrate on my tongue in my mouth before swallowing it. I am very moved by Amairgin's growth and the focus of his rite. I have brought a drinking horn as welcome-naming gift for him and find my self moved to tears as I present him with it.
Next I rush off to the fire lighting ceremony that E. has agreed to orchestrate as he is the master of the fire. There is not enough sunlight to use the crystal that he has brought to ignite the fire so after about an hour of chanting galdoring, and drumming to invoke the sun we fall back on the sacred bic. Appropriately, M. has a solar yellow colored one that we utilize for this purpose!
Next I attend the Tamaran (Egyptian) birthday of the Gods rite. This is interesting and rather different for me. I am struck by the fact that this system seems to be so ties to a particular geography that it is difficult for me to understand its appeal. But the rite is smooth and impressive.
Next I attend the child blessing ceremony for A's grand-daughter Megan. M. has had a great role in planning this and her usual flair for ritual shines through. Amairgin, Dr. B., Mary and D., do the quarter invokations and A. and P. and M. act as central priest(esses) for the rite. Owen passes a book around that people inscribe with their best wishes for young Megan and it will be given to her when she turns 16. My blessing is that she find a supportive and loving community like the one that we have (if not the same). I don't want my blessing to wait for 16 years to manifest so I ask if it will be ok to share it now and do so. The rite is very nice and I am quite moved by it.
People seem to have caught on the the talisman making and some have more than one! Missie has the children fill a large woven heart-shaped basket as part of their activities. (I reallize in retrospect that I should have had them carry the community heart on top of the basket rather than carrying it myself...) Before the feast, I make one last announcement about the talismans and this time include the info about the community and ancestor hearts as well. Lord Horns and I as the official start of the rite after the feast take a plate of food for the Ancestors to the shrine. I am carrying the community heart. We leave the food and present the Ancestors with the white chocolate heart that consort has made for them as we collect the Ancestor heart for use in the rite. Consort has created a high relief Othila rune as part of the choc. heart.
Lord Horns and I return to the Oak Grove to lead the procession back to the ritual area. I see the basket heart that the children have made and in a fit of inspiration, call them to the front to lead the procession. L. starts up a chant as we stately march to the ritual area. (It is so wonderful to work with folks that have a sense of ritual decorum and style!)
I address the crowd and speak of the intent of the rite. I am a little nervous because I have decided to bind all those present to our purpose and have not discussed this as it is a decision of my Will. I mention the Total Trust and Total Love that manifested the rite we have plan and its threefold purpose of balancing and strengthening the love of our community. The binding is not commented on and perhaps is not understood by many in attendance but that is fine.
As G. begins the first invocation in the cleansing of the circle, we are all blown away by the force and the power that he releases. This sets the stage and all of the ritual participants shine. (Later, I realize how pure this experience has been. Coming from the place of Trust and Love I did not ask people to describe their invocations and so they are all a surprise to me, but moreover they seem to be the personal best of each ritualist. Not just the old hands that have come to expect such excellence from...) After the circle is purified, the watctowers erected and the deities called, we begin to form for the dance. Havoc lines up facing the wrong way and as I scan the formation, I catch it and say something like "Dammit M..." as i straighten her out. I recover and formally apologise in the circle and bow to her. I had explained to the crowd that the dance was an ambitious undertaking and that some chaos was to be expected so I make a crack about nipping this particular bit of it in the bud! The Solar wheel dance begins and after four quarter turns I tell the remaining crowd to join in at will. It flows better and with far more energy than we expected and so I let it spin and mount for several turns. Suddenly one of the drummers realizes that we have not allowed for them to exchange their talismans and calls to me least I climax the rite too soon. This is done and Lord Horns and I circumnambulate about the solar vortex and bring the rite to its cllimax. There is a mad rush to join the talismans to the fire along with the Community and Ancestor hearts and then the children with assistance toss their heart on the fire.
I am completely regujenated by the rite and proceed around the circle to thank and congratulate the ritualists. It seems that everyone is very pleased with the rite and I have high hopes for its effectiveness through the coming year.
Later in the evening, Havoc has scheduled a rite from Louis's Tarot at the Ancestor shrine. I am desirous to attend but too fatigued to do so. It is as if I am "ritualled out" for the weekend!
I am prison. I go to visit Muldoon. He is a trusted convict and has special living quarters. I go to have supper with him. We talk and have a fine evening think there may be others present besides the two of us. I bring some snacks and leave the remaining ones in the pack as a gift.
I depart and the dream shifts, I am going to the infirmiry to see about a problem with my vision. I get there and a young attractive woman is the Vision doctor. She has some sort of medical apparatus perhaps a colostomy bag attached to her that hangs down near her crotch. (This tends to appear and disappear in the dream.) For some reason she immediately begins to antagonize me and threatens to put me on report. I try and speak to her rationally but she tells me to shut up. She makes these exaggerated movements with her body and I finally catch on that she is wearing some sort of printed t-shirt with writing on it. I am still not able to catch all the writing on the shirt and she disgustedly turns away from me.
Some other convicts come up to her and one begins a sort of formalized dance with her. She ends up on her back on the floor. The convict pulls out a wicked curved hook like one that is used on a packing yard, lubricates it and then visiously drives it into her crotch three times. She writhes in ecstasy... I am sickened by this and turn away and try to find my ID card so I can slip away. I go through the Doctor's billfold and finally locate my card which I return to my wallet.
I set out to return to the dorm but notice for the first time that I am only clad in underwear. As I cut through the laudry room to get to the dorm, I wave at a guard sitting there and he waves back but doesn't try and stop me. Suddenly, a bunch of men all in their skivies come running around the corner with bundles of sheets as it is sheet exchange day... In the crowd of running men I see G. and call to him, but he ignores me. Finally, I get back to the dorm...
R. and I discuss teh dream... he thinks that the important facets are the wallet which is a conventional system that represents one's identity etc. and the early conversation with Muldoon, which I don't recall any details of...
Kindred meets for first nite of new format. We discuss the Prose Edda Introduction in study group and then in the formal group discuss the first of the Nine noble virtues: Courage. The new format seems to work well and people share intimate details of their awareness and experience.
We determine that we will have an Odhin Blot to celebrate the first day of the traditional period when Odhin hung on the tree to get the runes.
Meet with D. and A. to discuss some community aspects for the upcoming GDT meeting this weekend. D. has a great idea for getting the info we need from the community on what they want to do and we resolve to present it to the Trustees for approval. I encourage D. to offer his healing rite to the community and he decides to set a date in November for same. I also tell him of the feeling that I have had these last few months that we should get some sort of Shamatic/Totem group together. We decide that we should use this opportunity to implement the Community Sweat Lodge at Trusty Pines that we had talked about previously.
Meeting at Mt. Storm is fun but we don't actually do too much beyond planning future schedule.
G. shows me how to fold the nine yards of scotch plaid that I purchased long ago for a kilt.
Give M. cash for weddiing vestment cloth that she is so kindly sewing for me...
I am with CL. In the dream his residence, (which I have never actually been to...) is a sort of small run-down house. I have a vivid image of standing in a room looking at a wall that bears the marks of being patched but not having been re-painted. There is a sequence where we are to play guitar. I see this very vividly. As I am tuning, I strum the 6th and 5th strings and the 5th string is a bit low, I twist the tuning peg but the pitch doesn't change. I look at the string an observe that it is not attached to the top of the guitar and yet it has a strong resonate sound only a little out of tune....
He has to go out for some errand and I am left to baby-sit although I never see any of his children and in fact they are old enough to take care of themselves.
Get marriage license! Much Joy!
Next I go to Trusty Pines for the Memorial Service for Sandra M.'s mother. It is oppressively hot and there is some concern for folks being able to withstand the heat. The service is held in the Main Circle and officiated by Corvus. It is very moving and at the end, the ashes are spread around the earthen Goddess. I would like my ashes to be scattered in such a ceremony for myself some day. We make a quick trip to the ancesotr shrine to make offerings and ask our ancestors to help Sandra's Mom in her passage. I am pleased that B. who is a younger teenager chooses to accompany us.
Then it is off to Brew Moon at Loonhaven. My first trip to this site. Along the way there is very good roadsign omens: Bardwell, Greenbush, and we leave Clermont to enter the Highlands. I like the land and have a great time. Ogre gives me the tour of the ritual site: very fine and larger than the space we have now at TP and introduces me to the 300+ Old Oak that he lives with. Later after much sacrament I ex- perience some interesting phenomenon. In particular, at one point I am by the fire checking out the Runic patterns that I perceive on the burning logs in the fire and in the clouds when I have a strong impression of someone walking up to me and can just see a shadowy figure on the edge of my vision, which is gone when I turn my head to view it. Not sure if this is a land guardian or part of my own complex...
The runic vision is interesting and gives me some insight into how Runic shamans could operate. In particular the so called twig runes lend themselves to being expressed in natural formations of rock and cloud...
Meet a very unique person. A young man confined (although bound is more correct) to a wheelchair. He travels all over the land in an amazing matter that I would have not thought possible and exhibits a wonderful spirit. I wish him well and hope that he will recover the use of both his legs.
We agree to postpone the next Noble Virtue due for discussion and our study group reading on the Prose Edda until next week. We do discuss the IAC Moot which it seems everyone will attend...
Later I get home and continue with my nine day ritual observance. I recite the Havamal stanzas describing the obtaining of the runes, rist the first three runes in my set with my blood and recite the stanzas that seem to pertain to them. I will need to carve three additional runes to get a total of 27 and have decided to add the three unique anglo-saxon ones to my runeset: Stan(Stone), Gar (Spear), and Cup.
I also decide that the Othreirer rite should be used at some point over the nine-day period as well.
In removing the three runes that I will use for the nine day rite from their bag, I drop the Perthro rune...
Add yeast to the Armenian Imperial Stout that I cooked at the Brew Moon. Forget to galdor the ALU formula but note that beer is bubbling merrily the next morning...
Later I realize that this is probably a gateway and that I must strive to learn how to use it.
Several bits of mail from GDT account forwarded to me by Mantis. This includes a link to a site that has used a link to my article on sexual exercises for developing the tantric ability. This is very pleasing and the site is wonderful with many resources. Also the Serpent Mound link now seems to be broken. Liz had asked me to take this off the site and replace it with a link to her site, I e-mail her to find out what is up with the article.
Forgot to ask M. for film from book signing and stop by to pick it up only to discover that Owen has taken charge of it! How kind of him to pay for the developing of the film...
Later as I get home from work, I pause on the steps (threshold of house) and have the same whispy feeling of there being someone there at the corner of my vision, not a shadow this time but rather a tall light-grey-blue figure, perhaps Amerindian.
In removing the three runes that I will use for the nine day observance, I drop another rune: Perthro, Gebo.
E-mail CL with preliminary list of Kindred members and friends that will attend IAC Moot.
I drop another rune in gather ing the three for the working: Perthro, Gebo, Sowilo.
Try to program my dream with the Tyr gate sigil that I saw in the last dream. No apparent success with this effort
We meet to celebrate R's birthday. RL calls me to ask about the new Runic Yoga group and is able to attend so we are able to launch the group during the nine day celebration of Odhin's ordeal on the Tree! We practice the rising version of the Isa rune galdor. The vibration is powerful!
R decides to burn the rune set that he created during our previous year long rune group. He does a rune cast on a white cloth and then burns the runeset in the cauldron that aked Bob left with me. We stand around the cauldron and watch the runes transmute into flames. R. is very effected by the cast and the act of burning the set.
Ann comes over for dinner and to discuss the wedding ritual. We discover a few holes in the planned rite and decide that a second meting of the principle participants is necessary...
Ranger can not attend Kindred meeting. We go on with the study group discussion of the Prose Edda. It is decided that a synopsis before the discussion would be usefull.
Nine Virtues discussion of Truth is very good and I find that people offer me some useful thoughts on my subjectivity and rather rigid view of how things should be.
The King Cole/Odhin/Ops Conseula bardic celebration goes very well even for a small turnout. I read several lays from the Poetic Edda: Skirnismal, Runatals from Havamal, and Volundvrida. Also really enjoy reading Howl by Allen Ginsberg and listening to the Ranger read his Stotram to Kali.
M. mentions that Mish will be in town with Ti for a week in September, although this will be the week preceeding our wedding so I don't know if time will permit us to get together. I would like to complete the gallery section while Mish is here to work with me.
Get message from B., she has talked to CL and given him the final list of attendees for IAC Moot from our Kindred. There has been little pre-reg action so CL suggests that we bring plenty of hoebrew. Discuss briefly with Ranger trying to mail CL some cash but figure that we will get there before it does...
Bottle the Armenian Imperial Stout that I made at the last Brew Moon. It looks and tastes very good and Dan's suggestion that I add a pound of brown sugar to the wort has certainly paid off!
Consort and I both have very troubled sleep and wake each other up several times. This is more a problem for her as she is working a long day and must be up early. I finally get up and crash on the couch...
I help Winifred build a maze for a maze-dance later in the day using spars and rope and the design from Nigel Pennick's "Magick in the Northern Tradition". We use a spear dedicated to Othin to plunge into the ground to make the holes for the spars... Take some pictures for a webpage article. Later in the afternoon, we do the Maze dance which Winifred has conceptualized as a journey through seven of the nine worlds. As we turn through the maze she announces the arrival in each world and we welcome the spirits of that place and invite those that we would like to take part in the main blot which will follow.
We join hands and wind our way to the center of the maze. Then we pause and spend some time in the center of the maze before unwinding as we leave it. The maze is a powerful glyph for transformation and otherworld journies.
We take the spirits and deities that we have welcomed in our maze dance over to the Ve for the main blot.
The main blot begins with the calling of the deities from the six directions. The rite has been modified somewhat from the typical Norse design to include elements from the ADF druidical tradition which Paul, a visitor to the Moot follows. (Paul led a Norse rite at Starwood.) There is a fire in the Ve and my blessing bowl is used as a representative of the well of Mimir. The rune circle is cast by the 24 participants. Each assumes the posture (stadha) for the rune, states it's name and basic meaning, and leads the group in chanting the galdar (mantra) three times. This goes very well and has a resonance of power. The blot continues with the boast/salute for the deities and a special offering to the spirits of the land, using the ADF technique of the fire and the well. (There is also a tree that Paul mentions in the initial invocation.) The gifts placed in the bowl are deposited in the stream nearby, (many people use a few pennies...) and of course the fire offerings are consumed in the fire. I clip a lock of hair and offer it to the fire.
After the blot, we have the Seith working. Winifred and Patrick from Hamerstead Kindred act as the Seers. Several people from our Kindred ask questions of the seeress. I don't get much of the long involved guided meditation that leads the group down through trance along the treee Yggdrasl to the gate of Hel's realm but have a flash of the ancient Oak tree that I used to visit in my youth each sunday. (It has been a long time since I thought about this...)
While Patrick is in the high seat a woman asks him about an entity that has become involved with her young son that she is concerned about.Later, when Winifred assumes the high seat, Consort asks the about her patron and it is confirmed that it is Odhin. I ask about my patron and am told that it is Heimdalr! I am greatly moved by this as well as surprised! The seeress tells me that she sees HeimdalIr, holding a horn, welcoming me with an open heart. I will have to work to learn more about him and make contact. DL asks about his patron and it is revealed to be Freya! R. asks about a gateway and is given information about that... Oddly, I can't recall what P. asked. B. asks about a life/career choice...
We have a great Symbel in the evening. I am quite moved by Paul's toast to his comrads in arms from the war. I drink more mead than I ever have before and very late we proceed to the bonfire. Prudence leads a round of humourous songs and then Winifred asks me to drum some more. We go around to the other side of the bonfire which is so large that we are out of sight of the rest of the folk and quietly drum for a while until Robb comes to announce the Odhin blot in the Ve.
With the exception of Winifred and Consort, we are all very drunk at this time. Robb creates sacred space and I step up to recite the first part of the Runnatal in Old Norse that describes how Othin obtained the runes in ordeal. Despite my earlier inability to recite a simple ballad that I have known for a long time due to drunkeness, I step forward and recite the Runnatal piece in a clear ringing voice...
After a round of boasts and dedications to the deity, Robb proposes that we reafirm the ordeal that we did at Troth Moot. We do so at the point of Odhin's spear and when Robb's turn comes around, holding the spear, he vows to resume his work with the Rune Gild. I grab the spear and make him repeat his oath upon it's point! Reyn til Runa! As the Blot ends it begins to rain litely and we head back to camp just before it becomes a downpour!
Consort gifts me with a Thor's Hammer like the style that the rest of the Kindred has. I am very pleased.
Patrick, who did the wonderful Nerthus/Landwight Blot at Troth Moot leads a Freyr Blot that is also very good and asks for Frey's special blessing on our upcoming marriage! I get some more pictures for a possible web article on the Kindred site to commemorate the Moot.
We decide to depart before the closing Blot as Consort and I are just exhausted and have the prospect of the ride back to Cincinnati ahead of us. I abandon idea of trying to connect with Lu and Mishlen in Bloomington...