Books'n'Things

Just wanted to pop in with a bit of an update...

So those are the books I got with the gift cards I got for Christmas, hence we've been calling it "Bookmas". I can't take the credit for coming up with that term though...

Anyway, I've started reading the Ancient Legends book first, and then I think I'll move on to Meeting the Other Crowd, because I think the two may tie in well together, and then I'll finish up the trifecta with Irish Witchcraft. So far it's been a really interesting read - she claims that may of the Irish folklore and superstitions actually have Iranian and Persian backgrounds:

                      All other countries have been repeatedly overwhelmed by alien tribes and peoples and races, but the Irish have remained unchanged, and in place of adopting readily the usages of invaders they have shewn such remarkable powers of fascination that the invaders themselves became Hibernicis ipsis Hiberniores. The Danes held the east coast of Ireland for three hundred years, yet there is no trace of Thor or Odin or the Frost Giants, or of the Great World-serpent in Irish legend; but if we go back in the history of the world to the beginning of things, we come upon the true ancient source of Irish legend, and find that the original materials have been but very slightly altered, while amongst other nations the ground-work has been overlaid with a dense palimpsest of their own devising, suggested by their particular local surroundings. - Page 7, Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland. Lady Wilde. 

I realize the book is quite old, but she's got some valid points about this. Why is there no mention of the Norse gods when the Danes held the east coast for so long?  It's an interesting thought for sure, and one that I might explore further once I'm done.

Switching gears to the IDGAF front...

We were on the local radio station CKDU again last week, talking about IDGAF - the process of joining, our journeys this far, dispelling some rumours, that kind of thing. Unfortunately I wasn't able to be on the show this time because I couldn't get the night off work, but a dedicant of ours was able to make it on, and Drew got to go on this time, so that's good. It sounded like it went well, which is always great. With 4 dedicants and 5 initiated members, I think we've certainly had a great first year. I'm excited to see where the next year takes us! 

On a personal level - I've got two crested gecko gecko eggs due to hatch near the end of next week, which is always exciting, and I've also got some transitional job stuff happening at the moment. I don't want to go in to a lot of detail because the dust hasn't settled, so to speak, but it's all kind of exciting and stressful at the same time. 

OH! I almsot forgot to mention...over the weekend I was out with a friend and happened to stumble upon something I really didn't think I'd ever feel the need to have...

Yes folks, that's a drinking horn. I still have to clean it out and make it all shiny and whatnot, but it's pretty awesome just the same. I had one of those moments...when you see something laying there that catches your eye, so you go to pick it up, and then it's like the clouds part in the sky and a ray of light comes down from the heavens to shine upon you holding said item, complete with some kind of angelic chorus in the background. It totally happened to me when I picked this up for a closer look. I knew it had to be mine. It's weird though, because as interesting as I find Heathenry, I'm not overly drawn towards it at the moment, though that could change.

So I think that's all from me for now. I'm still reading and doing my thang', as always - even if I don't come on here and update all that often. Hopefully everyone is having a great start to the new year! See you 'round next time! 

A Little New Year's Catch-Up

Happy New Year everyone! I know we're just about a week in, but it's still not too late for well-wishes.

I've been lacking on the blog posts lately, but since we're having a lazy Sunday at my place I figured I'd pop in for an update.

Our holidays were a bit different than normal this year, but were still good overall, and were also surprisingly quiet. The lead-up had us pretty busy, but with Yule and Christmas so close together it sort of comes with the territory.

On the book front, I've still been slowly picking away at that Albertsson (Alec) book, To Walk A Pagan Path. I'm still throughly enjoying it, and would highly recommend it to someone looking for a book to get them back into the swing of things. I find that it's complimented IDGAF really well, and I enjoy the fact he admits his biases and then gives alternative suggestions that aren't based on his tradition. He essentially gives you ideas of how to involve your spirituality in everyday life, from brining plants in to your home to creating mini daily rituals (say a few words over your morning coffee, etc). I've stalled reading it a bit because for some strange reason, I've been on a bit of a Pokemon kick lately. (yeah, yeah, I know. But my wife got me into it, and I'm actually kind of enjoying it)

I've also got a few new books coming in, hopefully this week (Yay for bookmas!). I chose to go with a theme, which is Irish Witchcraft. I've been curious about it while reading through that Albertsson book. It's something I've been a bit interested about for a while, and although I don't have a lot of hard-fast proof that I've got some Irish heritage, I would be extremely surprised if I don't - my father has head-to-toe freckles and is very much a redhead, as was his father, and his mother's madden name apparently has Irish origins. (I've also got a lot of British background - my father's dad was born in England) So I did a quick Google search, and came up with a few titles, 3 of which are due here by Thursday (the others will have to wait for more gift cards, lol). Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland by Lady Wilde, Irish Witchcraft from An Irish Witch by Lora O'Brien, and Meeting the Other Crowd by Eddie Lenihan. The first two are old, but I'm okay with that. The last one is people's accounts of encountering faeries, and I think that one is a bit dated too. Either way, I'm hoping these books will give me a bit of an idea of what makes Irish Witchcraft Irish, aside from it's adherents being Irish or living there. I'd also like to look into Slavic Paganism a little bit too, once I'm done with these books. Unless of course, I get so taken by these that I loose interest.

We did the initiation ritual for fourth founding member of IDGAF last week, and I think it went really well. It was short and sweet, and to the point, and we're all really proud of him for having gotten through whole the process. Speaking of initiations, our first "seeker" did her initiation last week as well! So it's been a pretty exciting week for us IDGAFians.

I guess that's all I've got for now. OH! I got a leather working kit from my wife for Christmas, so I'm pretty excited to really delve into that. I think I'm going to be adorning my staff with a few small bits of tooled leather once I get the hang of it. So far, I haven't done much with it, but I've got a practice piece ready and waiting. Just thought I'd mention that, because I might put up a few photos down the road.

Enjoy the rest of your week!