Why have the Elders been forgotten?

One of the things that disturbs me much in the modern Pagan community is how much they have surrendered to urban life. In the early days, paganism was very much part of the counter-culture. The back to landers, the activist, the community builders, the environmentalist, etc....

Now Paganism has gone trendy mainstream. I remember some years ago when a small group of us tried to get a Pagan runned social service going in Portland. We met resistance. Folks didn't like what we was doing because our example was reminding them that they were not practicing the Green community ideaology that is at the root of Pagan spirituality.

In the early days when I first entered the Pagan community, when someone asked us what was a Pagan, we defined ourselves by what we were first, not by what we are not. We are the Green People, we are earthy, we are tribal, we are community orientated, we are a Earth Centered Spirituality. In them days people were looking at homesteading, communal living, community farming, environmental activism as well as honoring the gods and the Earth, our Mother.

Today when you ask someone what a pagan is, the mass majority defines us by what we aren't first. We are not monotheist, we are not Satanist etc.... People are more interested in organizing a fetish ball than helping the less fortunate in their community or saving a National Forest or visiting and honoring our elders in the old folks homes.

The problem is most of todays Pagans grew up spoilt in the cheap energy of the 80's. The things that screamed for help from Pagans did not reach them so the Green part of their heart died. The Green Mother & Father became just archetypes to them. Nothing more than symbols and metaphors. Cheap little statues on their altars that they payed nothing more than lip service to on their way out the door dressed in their gaudy earth destroying fetish outfits seeking only to gratify their own hedonist pleasures & pretend that they are the gods that sit alone upon their altars. They come home, go to bed and get up and put their Paganism away in the closet and go to their earth unfriendly boring 9 to 5 jobs. They don't go to support their spirituality. They go to support their selfish pleasure.

There are elders in our community who gave their selves to us unselfishly for years. Elders you all know well cause they were the who's who in the Pagan community of the 60's 70s & early 80. These same elders are struggling today. Forgotten by those who they nurtured in the early days of our community. One Patriarch & Matriarch, a couple who are still hard at work in the community even though they both have major medical problems are struggling to make ends meet. But they carry on with a caring smile on their face. Yet one of their close friends has to go out and guilt the community into helping them with food and things. They are on the verge of homelessness. Yet they continue to give of themselves unselfishly. Where are all the priestesses that this powerful and loving Matriarch initiated over the years. Why are they not at her side taking care of her & honoring her in her Crone years. Why has this Queen of witches been forgotten? These young spoilt witches are to busy having some guy kiss their leather boots at some fetish ball to care less about the woman who taught them to be strong powerful women.

Where are all the young mages, wizards & druids that this charismatic & powerful Patriarch trained over the years. These young spoilt mages are busy at the witches balls or Burning Man events seeing how many young women their Pagan wiles can get into the sack to care less about the man who taught them to reclaim their pre-christian sensitive masculinity.

It is sad to see these Elders forgotten even though these young Pagans will bragged that they know them & have studied their work. But then I don't see these deviant christian in Pagan clothing as true Pagans. I don't see hedonism as a heathen way. Hedonism to me equals selfish pleasure.

2007 I only saw 1 Pagan sister at the Earth Day Festival held in NE Portland. Where were they all? I know the young Pagans here are shaking their fist at me right now for judging them. Saying I am violating the "Wiccan Rede". I have news for you. That's a Wiccan Rede not a Druid Rede. Druids were judges & counselors & the health of their community was their duty. The older Pagans here are trying not to be confrontational. But they are still nodding their heads silently agreeing with me as they go back to tending their gardens forgotten by the young. You young ones have violated the Wiccan Rede already with your pursuit of selfish pleasure. Your selfish hedonism is harming the Pagan community as a whole. There is nothing community based about fetish balls and pleasure gatherings. It doesn't better the community. Gathering together to seek pleasure from one another is not what community building is. And your recycling & driving a little car is not enough to stamp out the carbon footprint that your hedonist ways create. Your lifestyle is hurting the Mother. So you can't use the Wiccan Rede as a excuse to me. Most of you have twisted the Wiccan Rede to justify your selfish ways.

Most of you are out of shape and have lazy urban bodies. Most of you could not last a week in the woods or even a rural community for that matter without your city pleasures. Some of you are like "but the goddess is fat!" No! The Venus (properly should be called Danu) of Willendorf is not fat! She is pregnant with creation. Stop using these goddess images as excuses to justify your gluttony and laziness. The Lady & Lord are powerful and if you ever really came face to face with them you shit your pants. And for the record, one can be a big person and can still be healthy. But Urban people are too lazy to develop the muscles to properly & healthly carry their extra weight. Some folks can't help their genes. But you can help how you carry it and not just surrender to it and let it become obesed & unhealthy.

Urban Pagans can hear the gods but barely. The Old Gods voices are being muffled by the steel & concrete that you surround yourself with. The Old Gods struggle to reach their green fingers through the cracks in the sidewalks and you all just lay more concrete over it. The Old Gods reach out to touch your skin with loving hands and you withdraw and cover it with leather & latex. You are ill and rather than heal yourselves you revel in your sickness. You are part of the environment but your bodies & minds are environmental disasters.

Ok I'm done ranting.

Paganism is a spirituality not a lifestyle. But young urban Pagan treat it as a lifestyle.

IT'S NOT A LIFESTYLE LIKE PUNK, GOTHIC OR EMO!

The Illusion of Peace.

Yesterday I took a break from working on my RV and rode my bike down to the Columbia River. I sat by the river and thought how peaceful. But then my mind began to wander to the state of the world around us. I looked back at the river and saw the violence hiding behind it's peaceful flow. There are 14 hydroelectric dams along it, that is causing the extinction of the Salmon population. Factories, lumber mills etc. along it are polluting it's waters, First Nation people are getting sick and dying from the diseases and poisons in it. But these visible signs of violence is not what I speak of. I speak of the violence produced by the illusion of ownership of it by those in power.

I have for the last few years been trying to live off the grid in a Rewilder way amidst the very civilization I like to see torn down. Many of my fellow Rewilders write great blogs etc... But they are still very domesticated and controlled by their own free will. They pay rent. That's all I got to say.

I been living in a RV working towards eventually, hopefully to possess that piece of paper that will give me the illusion of owning a piece of land. And really that is what it is, an illusion.

Let's take this river for example. I would love to fish from it and further remove myself from dependence upon the city behind me. But I need a license in order to fish. What that means is if I fish without one, someone with a gun will show up and make me stop and give me a ticket. This man is paid to enforce the illusion that the government owns and controls the river. No one can live without enforce violence or the threat of it in the world today.

The land gives to us freely so we may nourish, cloth and shelter ourselves. But some have decided they want to claim more than they can use and make you pay for what the land gives freely. World hunger is an illusion. There is plenty of food. But the system is set up for the powerful to use violence to claim it all and make you pay for it. Capitalism is actually extortion.

Here is the definition of "extortion".

"Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person obtains either money, property or services from a person(s), entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime groups. The actual obtainment of money or property is not required to commit the offense. Making a threat of violence which refers to a requirement of a payment of money or property to halt future violence is sufficient to commit the offense. Exaction refers not only to extortion or the demanding and obtaining of something through force, but additionally, in its formal definition, means the infliction of something such as pain and suffering or making somebody endure something unpleasant."

Hmmm. So you are paying for a license to get free fish from a free river, so a man doesn't show up with a gun on his side writing you a ticket which if you don't pay the ticket's extortion price are threaten with the violence of incarceration. All this because some government body has convince society that they own and control a river that was there long before man ever climbed down from the trees and walked upright. A river that had fed for free, First Nation people for 1,000s of years without ever demanding a price from them.

Look throughout civilization and you will see this same violence and threat of violence. Violence is a part of life. You can't escape it. But violence to enforce a illusion of ownership of the bounties of our Great Mother is wrong. Extorting people for the right to exist is wrong.

So the only freedom you have is what they in power will allow you. And even that freedom will be an illusion and will cost you to enjoy.

I am a ReWilder Druid

I'm a Rewilder Druid. What does that mean?

I'll start by giving you the definition of what a Rewilder is. I've pulled this from Wikipedia;

"Rewilding is the process of re-instating the role of keystone species to human society where the expression of this role appears lacking. The term originates in conservation biology in which "rewilding" stands for the re-introduction of keystone species into areas where such species appear locally extinct. Rewilding in the anarchist context applies this concept to initiating and regenerating human culture that embodies the role of a keystone species.

In green anarchism and anarcho-primitivism, humans are said to be "civilized" or "domesticated" by civilization. Supporters of such human rewilding argue that through the process of domestication, human wildness has been altered by force.[1]

Rewilding is about overcoming human domestication and returning to behavior inherent in human wildness. Though often associated with primitive skills and learning knowledge of wild plants and animals, it emphasizes the development of the senses and fostering deepening personal relationships with members of other species and the natural world. Rewilding intends to create permanently wild human cultures beyond domestication.[2]

Rewilding is considered a holistic approach to living, as opposed to skills, practices or a specific set of knowledge."

Ok! For me there are different levels of Rewilding. Homesteaders are what I call light Rewilders. They are still domesticated, but they tone it down by choosing a more eco-friendly lifestyle and place their wellbeing more into the hand's of the land than civilization.

Also for the record, there are different levels of anarchy as well. I personally am not interested in say a Mad Max world, which most gutter punks would love. I am what is called a Tribal anarchist.

For a group to live together peacefully there has to be some structure/dogma. Tribalism is hard-wired into humans even in a modern world. Humans are social animals, and ill-equipped to live on their own. Tribal politics is perfect for a small community (small scale).

So what is a Rewilder Druid? I believe this is what my ancestors were before the influence from Rome. Rome was influencing the Celts and other Europeans long before Caesar invaded. The Celts were already starting to adopt some of the domesticated ways of Rome which slightly soften them up for Caesar's later invasion.

Who where the Druids? The Druids were the wise ones, the educated class of the Celts. They were the lawyers, doctors, teachers, storytellers, and other professionals of that culture. They were more than just clergy. The Celts of Ireland called them the Aes Dana (men of art), today archeologist/historians call them the Intelligentsia of the Celtic world.

But Druidry actually predates the Celts, which we know by the old Irish myths. When the Milesian (Celts) first came to Ireland, Amairgen came up against the Druids of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

The Druids understood Nature, and were nature scientists with a great knowledge of physics and astronomy. They knew how to live in balance with Nature. This is why I feel the Rewilder tradition fits so well with Druidry and I feel is closer to real Druidry than most of the modern Neo-Druidic groups today. Including my own ADF, which places a heavier emphasis on history than nature science.

Knowing our history is important, but is not the whole of Druidry. Druids are the keepers of the acculimated knowledge of the tribe, not just it's history. They honor the First Ancestors (gods) by preserving the knowledge and passing it on.

For me, the best way we can honor the First Ancestors is reclaiming our wildness, our oneness with Nature. This doesn't mean we have to give up technology. Rather learning the old skills/crafts and adding modern green technology is best.

Thanks to modern science, our understanding of herbalism is greater. Oh yah, I'm a herbalist & wild food forager as well as a bushcrafter and priest. Put that all together and you get a Rewilder Druid. :-)

Basically I've been on a journey to Rewildng since the beginning. Slowly I've been shedding the trappings that Paganism in a civilized domesticated urban society has weighed itself down with. For me they all get in the way with connecting with Nature and the Universe (creator). For me sitting down in the wilderness keying in on say the sound of the wind or the gurgling of a stream is as powerful as a full blown ceremonial ritual. In fact I say, the keyer is more powerful than the ritual cause they can do it within themselves.

I believe the greatest words ever spoken was by the Oracle of Delphi, when she said; "Know Thyself!" Everyone, no matter what Path they
walk are heading to fulfilling these words. She also said; “Nothing to excess”. In my 29 years as a Pagan, I've come to realize that modern religions have way too much excess. So like the Universe itself, I am forever evolving. Ever growing.

I am a polytheistic pantheist. What Pagans call the Gods, I call the First Ancestors. The oldest, wisest most evolved beings in the Universe and they number in the 1,000, maybe more. They are not creators or even beings who need us to worship them. But revere and respect them we should, cause they can teach us much about the Universe (creator).

There are other enlighten but lesser beings as well and I don't believe we are the only mortal intelligence in the Universe either. I don't believe that "The Divine Plan (evolution)" evolves around the Earth. We be pretty arrogant to believe that.