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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Down from the Mountain

This isn't about buses today, this is all about last weekend. The 21st of June is midsummer's day. In the Druid calender it's called "Alban Hefin" That's Welsh if you haven't guessed. I will hide nothing here, I follow the old Druid spirituality of my Welsh ancestors. I hesitate to call myself a Druid because Druids were a particular class with a very definite function in the old Celtic tribal tradition. That tribal structure and the view of Druids as Priests, Teachers and Judges no longer exists but I work at following their spiritual path and it works for me. My views on this part of my life are here;
and here
A life filled with Magic
I went to the Los Angeles national Forest, to a place called Jackson Flat.
Where I was camping is over 7,400 feet above sea level. To put it in perspective, the highest mountain in the UK is Ben Nevis, 4.409 feet above sea level.
There was quite a good group of Pagans there, not a huge number by any means but we made a respectable crowd. We sang and talked and held a ritual for the season. It was a good time for everyone and a refreshing experience. I came away feeling good about my life and the world in general. I felt renewed and ready to face the challenges that my life holds and prepared for the adventures yet to come.
The ancients saw Magic in the in-between places. The border between proprties, the indescribable place that is neither his nor his. Or the moment of midnight, that moment when it is neither today nor today. Such moments are where Magic happens, in the in-between places, in those times and places that are nothing, yet filled with potential. Such a moment is the Summer Solstice. There is a moment when the sun is at it's highest point in the year. An instant where it is at it's most powerful, then it declines. Such a moment is Alban Hefin, The Magic was there and I was privileged to feel it in the movement of the Earth and the movement of the skies. Most of all in the company of good friends old and new. Brothers and sisters on the long and winding road to the Summerland.
I also saw my very first live rattlesnake.

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