Quiet, Gatherings, Dedication to Spiritual Paths, Chiggers

I got up this morning and saw off Tony and Sam for the first time in months. Tony went off to work a bit sad that our increasingly independent boy wanted to walk to the bus stop instead of ride with him. Our boy went off after giving hugs all around swaggering toward the bus stop, ready for a new school year. I shut the door and crawled back into bed. When I woke I read for about an hour listening to the quiet and enjoying the emptiness of the house. It has been in an uproar with a child here all day, strains of his imagination floating to my ears as I made some attempt at work.
Now it is quiet and my heart can't help but sigh contentedly.

I haven't posted since my return from the last gathering. I was, obviously, playing with a child or catching up on email or doing what work I could do while listening to the pirates in the next room be taken down by my hero boy who occasionally got stabbed. I could tell when this happened because there would be a, "Ohh, you think you can take me?" His recovery was amazing as the battle with restart with a vigor that it had begun to loss just before he was breached by a pirate. It is hard to apply your imagination when you realize the one in the next room has you unequivocally beat.

I wanted to thank those that wrote to me about HJ's death and about my big mouth. I found your comments uplifting. My melancholy has passed for the most part and I am finding my focus again. It hasn't hurt that I have spent time resting and going to bed early. I try to keep the TV off more and more which keeps my mind from buzzing with that white noise of life that can separate us from a spiritual existence.

The gathering was fabulous, as always. I went with Cam, Drostan, Ian, Yannu, Nite Tiger, Tree Bear, and Tony. We ended up camping directly across from the main ritual space which was fabulous too. It was HOT. We certainly had a hard time staying cool, although a dip in the lake helped. Tony was eaten up with chiggers to the point that he looked like he had broken out in chicken pocks. Cam, Tree Bear, Yannu and myself all suffered a small bit at the mouths of the chiggers; however, we all feel that we got off easy compared to Tony.

Tree Bear decided to dedicate this weekend. This came on the heels of a dream he had experienced about a month ago. Tree Bear decided that his dream meant that he was indeed a Neo-Pagan and wanted to mark this realization with a ritual. He, Tony and I prepared a ritual together. I helped him make a beautiful spirit box and we invited some friends to attend. I think that despite everyone's nervousness, the ritual went very well. Tree Bear certainly has a bit of a different demeanor now, a purpose seems to have sprung in him that was not there before. He seems to have found direction and courage where there was neither. I have been quite surprised by this affect. He got some cool gifts and cherished them all weekend. This week, I started teaching him divination at his request and he is learning with interest. Some days he is more interested than others. On the days he shows a smaller amount of interest, I just drop it.

I have been asked by a mother when you know that a child is ready to dedicate. I was taken aback as I view this woman as far more skilled than I am by virtue of her age and years of practice. I didn't know when Tree Bear was ready. He did. He told me. He told me he wanted a ritual and then it was my job to make sure he got what he needed without bringing harm to himself or others. He had the dream. He interpreted the dream.

I think what I did do was expose him to as many different paths as possible. I have consistently honed the idea that "all gods are one god; all goddesses are one goddess." I taught him that because of this belief the Judeo Christian God was indistinguishable from Currunous or Thor, that Mary and Bres were the same. I taught him what was different one religion to the next is the people who practiced those religions. I taught him that a spiritual path had nothing whatsoever to do with religion. Religion was human's creation to quantify, qualify and justify spiritual paths that appeared similar in nature and principle. I tried to impress upon him that what I hoped for him was a spiritual path that brought him strength, courage and peace to deal with the mundane world we were forced to live within.

"It is not how God is that we see," I have told him, "It is how we see God that makes God different to each of us." God and Goddess are uniquely individual experiences. We will see them as we see them and it when we begin to combine and join these different views that we can reveal some larger and more comprehensive picture of God. The Tower of Babel was not speaking of tongues, it was speaking of the ways in which human kind experiences God. They were putting together the pieces of what the essence of God truly is and because no mortal can experience this type of divine revelation, Deity struck them down and confused them sending them off with their singular versions of what God is.

This is precisely why I believe Family Spirituality is so important. Within the confines of a strong family unit the ability to reveal the depth of Deity, to understand and see more of Divinity that others have experience is great. There is already a solidarity of energy and experience that supports the effort of revealing God, Goddess. I am unclear how earth based practitioners have overlooked this for so long.

AGENTS AND OTHER STUFF

I haven't heard from the agents I hope to work with in the future. I am contemplating moving forward with or without them. I can hire a lawyer later if I need one (and I am confident I will). I have also found a list of magazines that I will be submitting articles to in order to build up my portfolio. Now in the silence I can focus; however, I am glad the bus gets home at 3:45. I am looking forward to it.