D is for Discernment (or something) – Pagan Blog Project 2014

Before I get into this, I want to toss up a link to The Witch of Forest Grove’s post, The Song of the Land, about bioregionalism as religious/spiritual path. It’s awesome, go and read it.
 
But that’s not what I’m going to (try and) talk about today. I actually want to talk a little about whether or not I see myself as a spirit worker. ‘Cause I don’t. Not really. I want to learn the techniques, I think it would be a help in terms of doing ritual stuff for the human communities I’m involved with (if I’m ever asked to do such a thing, which is an entirely different story). The question of “Why do I want to learn X” came up for me a while ago, and I figured that I’d write it down. Yes, I interact with my own deities, ancestors, and – to some extent – The Neighbours. but I’m not looking (at this point, anyways) to do freelance work for The Gods whom I don’t know. But I do want to be available to my community (or communities). More minister, less priest? Or something? I keep eye-balling the “become a secular wedding officiant” course (for umpteen hundred dollars) to the same ends that I’m working on how to run energy more effectively and intentionally.
So.
We’ll see where this goes. 🙂
 
 
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.

New Moon – Sugar Moon Begins

New moon was, technically, yesterday. And it feels too early to really call it “Sugar Moon”, when there are frostbite warnings in effect for the next few nights and I don’t expect the sap to be running for another couple of weeks. And yet… I don’t know what else to call it. “Buds Getting Noticeable Moon” is probably my best bet (and it just doesn’t have much of a ring to it, I’m afraid).
Sugar Moon – which starts in Gemini – is a time of communication… sort of. It’s a time of chatting and yacking, of scribbling and jotting things down, of bouncing from idea to idea to idea, of stirring up excitement though not necessarily focus – it’s not time for that yet. Not exactly. Like starting seeds under a grow light – which a lot of folks in this biogregion are doing in early March – now is a time for hope, for getting many balls rolling, for seeing what germinates before thinning out the seedlings and deciding what to focus on for the longer haul.
Maybe it’s weird, then, to be putting my focus on anything right now. But I am. VERSeFest is coming up at the end of the month, and so is Queering Power (at-which I and mine will be facilitating a discussion on multi-level power dynamics). I’m trying to get the rest of the way through a contract job. I’m trying to come up with a “five year plan” that uses “SMART Goals”, for goodness sake, and I really don’t know what I’m doing there. And yet, here I am. What will the coming spring bring? Good things, I hope. But I have no idea just yet.
 
 
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.