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Post by Lee on Apr 13, 2016 13:13:33 GMT -1
I agreed to do the 'launch' post which set out the aims and intent of the blog, it could then form the basis of the 'about' page too. So, here is my (alarmingly fast flowing) intoroduction;
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Post by Heron on Apr 14, 2016 8:49:27 GMT -1
Thanks for doing this Lee. I'm currently drafting my Calan Mai post and will put a draft on here for comment soon.
A few small comments on your piece: In the penultimate paragraph of the first section before the asterisks you have "This is what we hope to;" , presumably a missing word here ('do')? Further down in the penultimate paragraph of the second second you speak of a "land infested with spirits and gods". It might just be me but 'infested' seems to have negative overtones. What about "alive with ..." or something more positive? Otherwise I think this will make a good introduction to the blog and outlines the path will follow very well.
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Post by Lee on Apr 14, 2016 10:00:45 GMT -1
Thanks, I need a good proof reader at the best of time, I think I got carried away with 'infested' as I wrote much of this at work with a wall of pathogenic fungi behind me changes made
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Post by lorna on Apr 14, 2016 11:52:31 GMT -1
@ Lee This is great. It's engaging and explains the call of the gods and what we're about I'd also suggest a few minor edits: 'we don’t farm the land ourselves' - I'd change this to the 'the majority of us don’t farm the land ourselves' as there are still plenty of farmers about. 'all with the similar aim of reconnecting to and remembering British/Brythonic Polytheism' - I'd add something to this that brings it further than reconnection and remembrance into every aspect of our lives, perhaps 'all with the similar aim of reconnecting to, remembering and living British/Brythonic Polytheism.' 'we will cover each of the six seasons' - I think this will be confusing before we've explained what the six seasons are. Maybe for now just write 'the seasons.' And again in the next paragraph. 'In the first year there will be works for Nodens/Nudd/Lludd and Gwyn ap Nudd for sure.' - Can we add any more deities to this list, particularly female ones as we've got two male, who we will be writing about this year? I particularly like 'We cannot shy away from politics, because politics and the political will not shy away from the things we hold dear.' Good stuff
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Post by Lee on Apr 14, 2016 13:01:59 GMT -1
I will make the changes you suggest of course, if anyone has an idea for goddess or gods they wan to write about and have a safe idea it will happen this year, let me know. I only put Gwyn and Nudd in there as they were a sure bet (Nudd from me, Gwyn from both of us I imagine)
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Post by Heron on Apr 16, 2016 15:32:59 GMT -1
Here is a draft of the blog post for Calan Mai. I'd welcome any comments and suggested amendments. Is everyone happy for me to refer on to the shrine for Rigantona at the end? The second link will, of course be to this forum (actual links not active in the draft). Calan Mai - the calends of May, or of Summer. What does it mean for us and how does it relate to the traditional festival of Beltane? As he cycle of the year turns through the six-point wheel of our seasonal observances, the first day of May is significant because we have arrived at that part of the year that brings us to the summer months with their long hours of daylight when everything is burgeoning and the life of the year is fresh and vibrant all around us. Each year is different, the seasons shift, the calendar is arbitrary; all these things are also true. So the fixed date may not be the precise time that the things the traditional date celebrates actually arrive. But traditional dates are still important for our shaping of the pattern of nature in our cultural lives. So we mark the coming of May as a pivotal point in the year, marked too by our ancestors, and all the festivals that have been celebrated in the past,and up to the more recent present, that express the significance of this time of year: festivals that celebrate the fertility of the land and all who live on the land, the bursting forth of life and lusty energy, the coupling of the Lord and Lady of Summer, the crowning of the May Queen and her betrothal to the Green Man, the May Games … all these and more. All of them, whether historically attested or creatively imagined resonate with the season and enact the varying layers of myth, traditional lore and cultural celebration of the life of the lands of Brython as experienced here, now in an enduring present that has always been. So although the first day of May is a significant calendrical date, the month of May as a whole is a season when these things happen and we might want to await the significant events such as the flowering of hawthorn or other resonant markers of the season which we find relevant for our observances and our celebration of this festival.
We are pagans. We link our observances to the cycle of the year and are in tune with the natural seasons. Sometimes this can be seen as a conflict as Winter gives way to Spring and then Summer. So there are stories about he gods that enact this. One such is found in the medieval Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen where Gwyn ap Nudd, the Winter King, is supplanted by Gwythyr ap Greidawl, the Summer King when they fight each May Eve for the hand of Creiddylad daughter of Lludd Llaw Eraint. Gwyn retreats to Annwn, the Brythonic Otherworld. In such episodes within larger stories are our myths found, silver veins running brightly through the medieval Welsh tales, poems and other remnants of Brythonic lore. And as well as being pagans inspired by these myths of the turning seasons, we are also polytheists. We recognise many gods and many ways of following and devotionally acknowledging them. As Brythonic polytheists, working in a tradition that has as one of its expressions these medieval Welsh tales contained in the collection known as The Mabinogion, this season is resonant of the coming of Rhiannon on a pale white horse to claim her lover. Pwyll had gained the title ‘Pen Annwn’ when he changed places with Arawn in his otherworld domain. Now the gates of the Otherworld open and Rhiannon rides forth bringing all the enchantment of the season in her wake. We might think here, too, of Olwen, the daughter of the giant Ysbaddaden Pencawr, in another tale, who, as she walks, leaves a track of white clover in the path she has trodden. On the breezes blowing through the gates of Annwn are the scents of Summer, the blossom on the boughs and the flowers of the woods and fields, the sensuousness of the season revealed as Rhiannon lifts her veil - as the tale tells it - to speak with Pwyll and demand a fealty that she knows it is in his heart to give her. So he tells her:
“If I had a choice of all the women and maidens in the world, it is you that I would choose.”
Here is Rigantona, the Brythonic sovereignty goddess, validating the occupancy of the land; here is Rhiannon, bringing all the magic and enchantment of the season into our world with her enigmatic riding seeming both slow and stately but also too quick and elusive for anyone to catch up with her, inhabiting her own time and space, but revealing herself as a presence in our world. In this season she comes among us and so we celebrate her coming and mark it devotionally at the appropriate time. That time is hers rather than ours, so to fix too precise a date would be presumptuous, though because we must do so, we do it as sensitively as possible in response to her coming, and we devote the time to her. She is enchantment itself. Her felt absence through the Winter is now a felt presence. So we speak to her, as in these words from one of the altars maintained by Brython members:
Rigantona, I strew rose petals about your altar For your coming from the Otherworld.
Spring is all about us, The hawthorn tree has leaves Emerging from the Otherworld.
I feel your presence in the blossoming boughs, In the flowers of the fields, In the green leaves and the many-coloured petals.
These petals from another year I have kept for you Until roses bloom again And you ride Through the gates of the Otherworld Across the land in splendour.
Rigantona, I strew rose petals about your altar For your coming from the Otherworld.
If these words speak to you, you may endorse them at her Shrine HERE and leave your own dedication.
Or you may have your own devotional practice for this season which you’d like two share with us on our Forum HERE.
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Post by lorna on Apr 17, 2016 19:41:37 GMT -1
HeronI think the second paragraph works well as an introduction to Calan Mai and the sense of May in general and serves well to show we're not too didactic. I think the third paragraph does a good job of summarising the seasonal myths in Brythonic mythology. I wondered whether the statement about us being polytheists should be included early on with the statement about us being pagans as it's really polytheism that defines Brython as opposed to paganism but will leave this up to your discretion. I particularly like the reference to the older stories being like silver veins. The following parts about Rhiannon are great - enchanting and evocative. I'm perfectly happy for the link to her shrine at the end. I spotted a couple of typos (constantly on the look out now after all that editing ) Para 2, line 1: 'As he cycle of the year turns through the six-point wheel' (missing t from 'the cycle'). Para 3, line 2: 'So there are stories about he gods that enact this' (missing t from 'the gods').
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Post by lorna on Apr 17, 2016 19:48:24 GMT -1
Oh, one more thing, Lee - I've just noticed in some places you've capitalised Gods and in some places left it as gods.
On the Brython website the capitalisation is inconsistent too. I think we need to choose either to capitalise or not and keep it consistent throughout.
This is a matter I'm torn on. A part of me wants to capitalise to show reverence. However I've found capitalisation can look clunky, particularly if we're also going to use He and She.
I think we need to make a group decision based on the pros and cons and make sure everything is consistent prior to the launch.
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Post by Lee on Apr 18, 2016 8:50:18 GMT -1
I have changed the capitalised on to lower case, seeing as lower case seems the default, I have gone with that. I will at some point make the website more consistent on that front.
I have put this post up on the blog so it is scheduled to go up on Saturday morning (I am at a conference from wed to fri)
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Post by Lee on Apr 19, 2016 8:35:10 GMT -1
Really, really good Heron I like it a lot
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Post by Heron on Apr 19, 2016 15:27:43 GMT -1
HeronI think the second paragraph works well as an introduction to Calan Mai and the sense of May in general and serves well to show we're not too didactic. I think the third paragraph does a good job of summarising the seasonal myths in Brythonic mythology. I wondered whether the statement about us being polytheists should be included early on with the statement about us being pagans as it's really polytheism that defines Brython as opposed to paganism but will leave this up to your discretion. I particularly like the reference to the older stories being like silver veins. The following parts about Rhiannon are great - enchanting and evocative. I'm perfectly happy for the link to her shrine at the end. I spotted a couple of typos (constantly on the look out now after all that editing ) Para 2, line 1: 'As he cycle of the year turns through the six-point wheel' (missing t from 'the cycle'). Para 3, line 2: 'So there are stories about he gods that enact this' (missing t from 'the gods'). Thanks for picking up those typos Lorna. You're right that the references to paganism and polytheism should be more integrated, They were originally closer together but then I inserted some extra words which moved them apart. So I've re-jigged that bit a little which I hope is now OK. Here it is again, and I'll blog it if everyone is happy.Calan Mai - the calends of May, or of Summer. What does it mean for us and how does it relate to the traditional festival of Beltane? As the cycle of the year turns through the six-point wheel of our seasonal observances, the first day of May is significant because we have arrived at that part of the year that brings us to the summer months with their long hours of daylight when everything is burgeoning and the life of the year is fresh and vibrant all around us. Each year is different, the seasons shift, the calendar is arbitrary; all these things are also true. So the fixed date may not be the precise time that the things the traditional date celebrates actually arrive. But traditional dates are still important for our shaping of the pattern of nature in our cultural lives. So we mark the coming of May as a pivotal point in the year, marked too by our ancestors, and all the festivals that have been celebrated in the past,and up to the more recent present, that express the significance of this time of year: festivals that celebrate the fertility of the land and all who live on the land, the bursting forth of life and lusty energy, the coupling of the Lord and Lady of Summer, the crowning of the May Queen and her betrothal to the Green Man, the May Games … all these and more. All of them, whether historically attested or creatively imagined resonate with the season and enact the varying layers of myth, traditional lore and cultural celebration of the life of the lands of Brython as experienced here, now in an enduring present that has always been. So although the first day of May is a significant calendrical date, the month of May as a whole is a season when these things happen and we might want to await the significant events such as the flowering of hawthorn or other resonant markers of the season which we find relevant for our observances and our celebration of this festival. We link our observances to the cycle of the year and are in tune with the natural seasons. Sometimes this can be seen as a conflict as Winter gives way to Spring and then Summer. So there are stories about the gods that enact this. One such is found in the medieval Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen where Gwyn ap Nudd, the Winter King, is supplanted by Gwythyr ap Greidawl, the Summer King when they fight each May Eve for the hand of Creiddylad daughter of Lludd Llaw Eraint. Gwyn retreats to Annwn, the Brythonic Otherworld. In such episodes within larger stories are our myths found, silver veins running brightly through the medieval Welsh tales, poems and other remnants of Brythonic lore. We are pagans, inspired by these myths of the turning seasons; we are also polytheists. We recognise many gods and many ways of following and devotionally acknowledging them. As Brythonic polytheists, working in a tradition that has as one of its expressions these medieval Welsh tales contained in the collection known as The Mabinogion, this season is resonant of the coming of Rhiannon on a pale white horse to claim her lover. Pwyll had gained the title ‘Pen Annwn’ when he changed places with Arawn in his otherworld domain. Now the gates of the Otherworld open and Rhiannon rides forth bringing all the enchantment of the season in her wake. We might think here, too, of Olwen, the daughter of the giant Ysbaddaden Pencawr, in another tale, who, as she walks, leaves a track of white clover in the path she has trodden. On the breezes blowing through the gates of Annwn are the scents of Summer, the blossom on the boughs and the flowers of the woods and fields, the sensuousness of the season revealed as Rhiannon lifts her veil - as the tale tells it - to speak with Pwyll and demand a fealty that she knows it is in his heart to give her. So he tells her: “If I had a choice of all the women and maidens in the world, it is you that I would choose.” Here is Rigantona, the Brythonic sovereignty goddess, validating the occupancy of the land; here is Rhiannon, bringing all the magic and enchantment of the season into our world with her enigmatic riding seeming both slow and stately but also too quick and elusive for anyone to catch up with her, inhabiting her own time and space, but revealing herself as a presence in our world. In this season she comes among us and so we celebrate her coming and mark it devotionally at the appropriate time. That time is hers rather than ours, so to fix too precise a date would be presumptuous, though because we must do so, we do it as sensitively as possible in response to her coming, and we devote the time to her. She is enchantment itself. Her felt absence through the Winter is now a felt presence. So we speak to her, as in these words from one of the altars maintained by Brython members: Rigantona, I strew rose petals about your altar For your coming from the Otherworld. Spring is all about us, The hawthorn tree has leaves Emerging from the Otherworld. I feel your presence in the blossoming boughs, In the flowers of the fields, In the green leaves and the many-coloured petals. These petals from another year I have kept for you Until roses bloom again And you ride Through the gates of the Otherworld Across the land in splendour. Rigantona, I strew rose petals about your altar For your coming from the Otherworld. If these words speak to you, you may endorse them at her Shrine HERE and leave your own dedication. Or you may have your own devotional practice for this season which you’d like two share with us on our Forum HERE.
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Post by lorna on Apr 20, 2016 8:15:00 GMT -1
@ Lee - cool. Looking forward to the launch @ Heron - all good What date should I post the calendar? Maybe Wed 27th?
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Post by Lee on Apr 20, 2016 8:51:03 GMT -1
Yep - the 27th would be good, then only a few days from that util Heron's post. Formatting wise, it all seems 'fixed' by the theme which is handy. imagewise, be sure to add a featured image I am curious to see how these all look on the site Lee
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Post by lorna on Apr 20, 2016 16:14:01 GMT -1
If you haven't seen my amendments to the calendar please could you check them out and let me know if they're ok (was struck by a sudden horrible thought / realisation but luckily not too late).
Is it ok to use some of the images from the Brython blog or perhaps my own - one for each of the six festivals? Would you like me to post the new calendar up on the site when it's ready with the selected pics now I've got the log-in?
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Post by lyle on Apr 21, 2016 16:00:13 GMT -1
Lee,
I would love to be of help with the Dun Brython blog launch for Calan Mai. I’ve contributed some recent writing on the ecological and sacral aesthetics of woodland groves in honoring the Goddess here (http://druidmagazine.com/pdf/201602_DM_Winter.pdf) beginning on page 45. I doubt, though that in both our time constraints over the coming week that I can be of much help. However, keep me informed about further contributions to Dun Brython.
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Post by lorna on Apr 22, 2016 8:14:41 GMT -1
@ Lyle, that's a smart magazine and interesting article. I agree wholly on basing one's ogham around the trees and plants native to one's eco-region rather than trying to impose the ones from a text book. It must be great to be able to incorporate your forestry skills into your sacred practice.
Do you identify as Druid by the way? I notice you're doing the OBOD Bardic course. How does this mesh with your path as an awenydd?
I ask because I spent some time wondering if I was a Druid Bard but was unable to get past the hierarchy and structure within Druidry. That, and the fact I devoted myself to a Brythonic god rather than to Druidry, led me to identify as an awenydd and Brythonic polytheist. However I'm still quite cheerfully a member of The Druid Network, which is suitably open and anarchic enough for me to feel at home.
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Post by lorna on Apr 22, 2016 10:23:30 GMT -1
I hope you don't mind but I've added the updated calendar to the website. I thought we should have the new one up and running before people were directed from the blog when it's launched tomorrow to the site. If there are any problems could you let me know.
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Post by lyle on Apr 22, 2016 13:45:16 GMT -1
@ Lyle, that's a smart magazine and interesting article. I agree wholly on basing one's ogham around the trees and plants native to one's eco-region rather than trying to impose the ones from a text book. It must be great to be able to incorporate your forestry skills into your sacred practice. Do you identify as Druid by the way? I notice you're doing the OBOD Bardic course. How does this mesh with your path as an awenydd? I ask because I spent some time wondering if I was a Druid Bard but was unable to get past the hierarchy and structure within Druidry. That, and the fact I devoted myself to a Brythonic god rather than to Druidry, led me to identify as an awenydd and Brythonic polytheist. However I'm still quite cheerfully a member of The Druid Network, which is suitably open and anarchic enough for me to feel at home. Hi Lorna, My spiritual identity has always - until now - been a will-o-the-wisp. OBOD has been a way-station on which to alight so that I can reorient and send down spiritual roots into a devotional form of awenydd practice I personally identify as Welsh faëry shamanism. This is what everything I do revolves around. I wouldn't say the two necessarily mesh well at all, other than the degree to which Druidry remains universally accepting of any and all pagan beliefs. Despite its anarchic nature, it does remains a hierarchical organization with some degree of canonization, and so of little value to those of us ineluctably charged with guardianship of Earth's organismic well-being in partnership with those nonincarnate beings with whom we are wedded. In addition to the highly individual path that we must accept as shamanic healers of the Earth (and its adherence to the spiritual practice of being out on the land), my particular resonance with its traditional Welsh aspects draws me to mythic storytelling (or bardic) cyfarwydd and sacro-magical gwyddoniaid aspects of a divinely-inspired awenydd practice. Is this Druidism as it was practiced in neolithic times? Very likely, but contemporary Druidry yet remains a loosely-organized network of like-minded folk who find themselves on many different points of the path. As you say, its home for now. Speaking of organismic partnership with planetary gods, I'm currently reading Enchanting the Shadowlands and completely captivated, but I can carry on more about that later.
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Post by redraven on Apr 23, 2016 17:15:51 GMT -1
I've posted the blog link across ten groups on facebook today.
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