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Post by lorna on Jul 10, 2016 13:08:01 GMT -1
@ Lee - your talk at the conference in Italy sounds exciting. It may be worth advertising your talk on the Brython website? On that note maybe we should have an events page listing when Brython members are speaking at events etc. I'll open a discussion on that in a separate thread.
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Post by lorna on Jul 10, 2016 13:10:22 GMT -1
@ Gwenno - yes something personal would be good. I recall you've already written about some of your travels to sacred sites and giants. An expansion of that would suit... or something completely different
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Post by Lee on Jul 11, 2016 9:49:41 GMT -1
@ Lee - your talk at the conference in Italy sounds exciting. It may be worth advertising your talk on the Brython website? On that note maybe we should have an events page listing when Brython members are speaking at events etc. I'll open a discussion on that in a separate thread. cant advertise it sadly, it is a closed event, somewhat hush hush.
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Post by Lee on Jul 11, 2016 9:51:51 GMT -1
I can do a short something on Lugos for mid August, or at least the days running up to it - as harvest is more a of a season than a single festival, we can get away with having a spread on hat basis
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Post by Gwenno on Jul 13, 2016 9:45:40 GMT -1
@ Gwenno - yes something personal would be good. I recall you've already written about some of your travels to sacred sites and giants. An expansion of that would suit... or something completely different Mmmn yes Giants would suit. I've been reading up a bit . But I don't expect to find them in books or on the Web. There are some stories but they don't take them very seriously. Also I'm most interested in female giants. Most of the stories are about big men or ogres. My feeling is that not all giants (male or female) are big or like ogres, though some are. I think they are there in the land, mostly hidden and may be shy or keep to themselves. I don't want to interfere. But I've decided to take up the suggestion made on here a while back to visit the valley of Melangell for a day out. She is mentioned as a giant as well as the story about her as a saint. I'll see what comes of that. It feels right that she would hide away in a valley like that but I doubt if she welcomes visitors. Like Moll down here, she might stay out of the way of people.
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Post by lorna on Jul 14, 2016 11:25:49 GMT -1
Thanks for offering to cover Lugos and harvest, Lee I'll leave my intuitions about first harvest and the mothers until I'm feeling more certain. My piece on 'Dreams in Brythonic Tradition' is pretty much complete so I'll stick that up next weekend (23rd July). There'll be a bit of a gap between the my post on the 23rd and Lee's post if anyone else has any ideas?
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Post by Lee on Jul 15, 2016 8:22:06 GMT -1
I will get something written next week, and schedule it to pop online on the 1st or 2nd, so the gap shouldnt be a problem.
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Post by Heron on Jul 15, 2016 10:23:44 GMT -1
::::: But I've decided to take up the suggestion made on here a while back to visit the valley of Melangell for a day out. She is mentioned as a giant as well as the story about her as a saint. I'll see what comes of that. It feels right that she would hide away in a valley like that but I doubt if she welcomes visitors. Like Moll down here, she might stay out of the way of people. Sounds like a good plan! It's a while since I've been but it's well worth a visit. There's a good list of Melangell sources HERE
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Post by Heron on Jul 15, 2016 10:27:17 GMT -1
One of the things that has struck me is that although Lughnasadh is called Lughnasadh it wasn't as much a festival for Lugh as for his mother. He set it up for Tailtiu after she died so the harvest could take place. I celebrate Gwyl Awst/Lammas with my grove and do feel like it's an important time to give thanks to the earth for her abundance. Perhaps this would be a good time for honouring the Mothers who are often pictured with cornucopias. I could perhaps write something from that perspective if someone else wanted to cover Lugus. I look forward to seeing what you come up with in looking at The Mothers in relation to Harvest. As you are exploring this, and as Lee is also looking at Lugos, I'll try a few random thoughts which might aid the process: Back in my Wiccan days I always thought of Harvest in terms of the Earth Mother but have never really translated that across to Brythonic practice. In the public rites of The Pagan Movement we tried for a few years to work out how to celebrate Lughnasadh but eventually decided to move the festival on to September and call it Harvest. We built a leafy bower and provided a communion for each worshipper with the Earth Mother. But the problem with Harvest is that it needs to be a local festival timed to the nature of the harvest in different places. In arable farming areas it will be very different than for sheep farmers in the mountains. And if we're not farmers at all should we gear it to the wild harvest when we might pick berries from the hedgerows or when vegetables grown in gardens are ready? It is difficult to be universal about this, but the most apparent way might be looking generically at The Mothers or perhaps at Rosmerta as "The Great Provider" . The Cornucopia is one of the symbols associated with her worship so that may be the way to go. She is often paired with the Gaulish Mercury and - if he is to be identified with Lugos (?) - this may also link back to Lughnasadh. I've followed this train of thought/intuition a few times but have never personally convinced myself with any certainty. But it is an area of Brythonic practice that we need to clarify. So I hope we can. The other random item that I came across when looking at local lake legends is a suggestion that the stories about cattle being taken back into the lake, in the several legends with this motif, may be related to tradition of washing cattle in lakes and rivers at Lughnasadh . But of course this might just be a rationalisation. This book: www.fourcourtspress.ie/books/new-year-folder-3/the-festival-of-lughnasa/is, I think, the standard work on the celebration of the festival in Ireland and discussion of its significance. I'll see if I can locate a library copy, but probably not in time to do anything with it this year.
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Post by Gwenno on Jul 19, 2016 21:25:49 GMT -1
Sounds like a good plan! It's a while since I've been but it's well worth a visit. There's a good list of Melangell sources HEREHeron, thanks muchly for the link to that site. Very informative and I've also exchanged messages with the site owner and will soon visit the valley
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Post by lorna on Jul 23, 2016 9:19:16 GMT -1
'Dreams in Brythonic Tradition' is up today. @ Lee, sounds good Heron - In terms of harvesting I'm currently picking my parents' raspberries, so harvesting of a sort! Does tend to mainly be limited to berries for me. I'd never thought of looking at the link between Rosmerta and Lugus at this time of year - I'm intrigued to hear what you come up with. The Mothers keep cropping up for me so going to continue to explore that, I think...
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Post by lorna on Aug 14, 2016 17:53:48 GMT -1
Has anyone got any idea for upcoming weeks on the blog before I cover Autumn Equinox and Gwyn's Feast?
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Post by Lee on Aug 15, 2016 10:37:35 GMT -1
I was thinking about this early this morning.
I dont have anything in mind off the top of my head, but if we aim for *something* in late August and again in early Sept, that gives us breathing space until your Gwyn piece nd i can begin feeling more comfortable about doing Wild Hunt/Koryos articles into Autumn an Winter (have a couple gestating in my head)
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Post by Lee on Aug 19, 2016 9:23:10 GMT -1
Here is an idea;
the 'My Polytheism' thing is taking off a bit in reaction to some bloggers going on about piety, purity and miasma.
we could write some short pieces and post those up? so one each and maybe post them over the course of a week? it would fill u some slot and we can link back to them from he main mypolytheism site? it would also be good to 'showcase' how we do things, how we merge the polytheism side of things with oher practices (such as Wicca/witchcraft in my case)
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Post by Heron on Aug 20, 2016 10:32:36 GMT -1
Here is an idea; the 'My Polytheism' thing is taking off a bit in reaction to some bloggers going on about piety, purity and miasma. we could write some short pieces and post those up? so one each and maybe post them over the course of a week? it would fill u some slot and we can link back to them from he main mypolytheism site? it would also be good to 'showcase' how we do things, how we merge the polytheism side of things with oher practices (such as Wicca/witchcraft in my case) Interesting that you should raise this possibility Lee as I was thinking about this, partly in relation to Gwenno's piece on Giants, and the fact that others have links to Druidism, identities as Awenyddion and the links you mention yourself to Wicca which has also been an influential factor in determining my sensibilities. So we could do as you suggest, and this would reflect the diversity of our practices, small in number though we are currently, but my own thought before seeing your proposal was that it might dilute, or be a diversion from, the primary polytheistic focus of identifying the Brythonic gods (but see my post on Giants). I'm currently going through the work of the early Welsh bards searching for references to Awen and Awenydd, primarily for my blog. The definitive piece I'm hoping to shape is proving elusive, and other byways are opening, so I could perhaps do an interim spin-off piece on that for the Brython blog. But, again, I wonder if this is a distraction or if we should just 'do what we do' regardless of the dangers off a lack of a more precise focus?
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Post by lorna on Aug 21, 2016 19:52:27 GMT -1
If folk want to do 'My Polytheism' I'd be happy for my post on 'personal interactions', which summarises things for me, to be re-posted on the Brython blog. (However, I'm trying to steer clear of on-line arguments at the moment so don't want to get too involved with whatever is going on now...) For me, being a Brythonic Polytheist and Awenydd is completely inseparable as it was my devotion to the Brythonic gods that led to me to becoming an Awenydd in the first place although I know there are some Brythonic Polytheists who are not Awenyddion and vice versa.
Gwenno has suggested posting a piece on Giants (in that section) we could consider.
Longer term I'd be up for writing something on 'Brythonic Polytheism and the Land'.
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Post by lorna on Aug 22, 2016 9:51:17 GMT -1
Thinking further on this, I do think we should mainly focus on the priorities set at the meeting - completing the festivals and building material for the Primer. Of course anything that expands our knowledge base on the gods - such as Lee's pieces on Nodens and Gwyn and the Koryos, and Gwenno's giant piece - are also important. But maybe concentrate on quality rather than creating filler for the sake of it?
Admittedly, Lee, I would be interested to hear on how your Wicca/Witchcraft path fits with Brythonic Polytheism. The trancework side sounds very close to the Awenydd path, although the more ceremonial side such as working with the four elements, wands, cups, athames etc. seems very different.
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Post by Heron on Aug 22, 2016 14:14:58 GMT -1
If folk want to do 'My Polytheism' I'd be happy for my post on 'personal interactions', which summarises things for me, to be re-posted on the Brython blog. (However, I'm trying to steer clear of on-line arguments at the moment so don't want to get too involved with whatever is going on now...) For me, being a Brythonic Polytheist and Awenydd is completely inseparable as it was my devotion to the Brythonic gods that led to me to becoming an Awenydd in the first place although I know there are some Brythonic Polytheists who are not Awenyddion and vice versa. Gwenno has suggested posting a piece on Giants (in that section) we could consider. Longer term I'd be up for writing something on 'Brythonic Polytheism and the Land'. So we've got Gwenno's piece on giants, a projected possible further piece from Lorna on giants(?); ''Brythonic Polytheism and the Land', (which sounds promising) as well as further upcoming things in the near future. I've pulled a piece out of some notes I'm currently making on the early Welsh bards and the gods which I could put up anywhere there is a gap. So how should we schedule those?
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Post by lorna on Aug 24, 2016 17:09:42 GMT -1
I also said I'd do Final Harvest and Gwyn's Feast and a re-telling of Collen and the giantess, so I suggest something like this, also factoring in Lee's piece on Gwyn and the Koryos. Lee, did you have a second part to the 'The Lord of the Waters' piece? If so would you fancy posting that soonish whilst it's still in people's minds? Does anybody fancy covering Calan Gaeaf and mid-winter? This is a suggested outline -
mid-August - Gwenno 'Local Giants'
early-September - ?Heron 'Welsh Bards and the Gods' or Lee 'Lord of the Waters II'?
mid-September - Lorna 'Final Harvest and Gwyn's Feast'
early-October - ?Heron 'Welsh Bards and the Gods' or Lee 'Lord of the Waters II'?
mid-October- (TBC) Calan Gaeaf seasonal festivals
early-November - Gwyn's Guest - Robin/Lorna mid-November - Collen-Giantess - Lorna
early-December - (TBC) Midwinter seasonal festivals
mid-December - Lee 'Gwyn and the Koryos'
early January - Lorna 'Brythonic Polytheism and the Land'
Later in the year Lorna 'Giants'
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