Jangle
I couldn't tell you whether it's the caffeine or the heat or what, but I am so damn ornery today. My nerves are jangling - even listening to music is getting on my nerves. I suspect it's the pms. But it's not being helped by the 95 degree heat and humidity. Gumble...gross. Ah, anyway, I have had a weekend full of divination and more to come tonight. Busy druid indeed! But I am putting it off to watch Chocolat one more time before it has to go back to Netflix tomorrow :). Calming the nerves, is for me, essential to divination. I think this will be a fluffy post. I am realizing just how far behind the curve I am on this whole blogging thing. I am no technopagan, that's for sure. I was just reading some of Isaac Bonewits' site - I may not see exactly eye to eye with the man on every single issue concerning druidry and paganism, but he is one of my personal heroes for what he has done for druidry, paganism and the integrity of those paths.
Who are my "famous pagan" heroes? Well, Mr. Bonewits is one, Ellen Evert Hopman, Scott Cunningham and Amber K., umm, hmmm, Paul Beyerl as well. Oh! Margot Adler, absolutely. I enjoy her perspective and perceptions - she always gives me something new to think about. A new way to look at things if you will. To be honest, I have done my required reading of famous druids and pagans, but I prefer to read an assortment, when it comes to my spiritual path. I can neither afford the money nor the time to read everything being written in the pagan field nowadays. Nor the frustration. I like my sources to be a bit more broad. I find the best stuff from academic presses. I like pagan writers, sure, but I am most likely to get more out of reading history, academics, anthropologists and even certain fiction and defintely poetry. I think there is way too much being published without integrity in the pagan fields. Too much of the "insert tradition here" ilk. There is little to be found in the way of good old fashioned scholarly research. When there is, it is rarely mingled with actual practical knowledge or spiritual understanding. This is just speaking about the pagan publishing field. There are some books that are just pure unadulterated hogwash. Bullshit of the first order. I own some of these. That's how I can pass judgment. I think the ADF reading list is wonderful. I think that the Don't Read list is too - but I don't think one should necessarily discount reading something that someone else has disdained as crap. It may very likely be crap, but how will you know? Never trust a book report. If you have a yen to read it, do, and try to see why someone else thinks it's crap, but realize too, that you may just find a wee spot of truth or something that resonates deeply with you. There are some writers that absolutely piss me off, but I came to that conclusion on my own, not because it was on a list. I have as healthy a respect for the storyteller's art as the historian's. Sometimes those two things are the same, frequently they are not.
Wow, that got a little, wee bit tangential didn't it? I'm working on updating my reading materials list for students, that's what brought it out - that and I am crotchety as hell today and prone to babbling and ranting, even raving. Hehe, forgive me, please. I have a few dozen irons being prepared for the fire as we speak, so I am a bit scattered all around.
Well, it seems I have quickly exhausted anything of value I may have had to say. That is unfortunate, but expected on occasion.
Be well :)
Love, Honor and Respect,
Niamh
Who are my "famous pagan" heroes? Well, Mr. Bonewits is one, Ellen Evert Hopman, Scott Cunningham and Amber K., umm, hmmm, Paul Beyerl as well. Oh! Margot Adler, absolutely. I enjoy her perspective and perceptions - she always gives me something new to think about. A new way to look at things if you will. To be honest, I have done my required reading of famous druids and pagans, but I prefer to read an assortment, when it comes to my spiritual path. I can neither afford the money nor the time to read everything being written in the pagan field nowadays. Nor the frustration. I like my sources to be a bit more broad. I find the best stuff from academic presses. I like pagan writers, sure, but I am most likely to get more out of reading history, academics, anthropologists and even certain fiction and defintely poetry. I think there is way too much being published without integrity in the pagan fields. Too much of the "insert tradition here" ilk. There is little to be found in the way of good old fashioned scholarly research. When there is, it is rarely mingled with actual practical knowledge or spiritual understanding. This is just speaking about the pagan publishing field. There are some books that are just pure unadulterated hogwash. Bullshit of the first order. I own some of these. That's how I can pass judgment. I think the ADF reading list is wonderful. I think that the Don't Read list is too - but I don't think one should necessarily discount reading something that someone else has disdained as crap. It may very likely be crap, but how will you know? Never trust a book report. If you have a yen to read it, do, and try to see why someone else thinks it's crap, but realize too, that you may just find a wee spot of truth or something that resonates deeply with you. There are some writers that absolutely piss me off, but I came to that conclusion on my own, not because it was on a list. I have as healthy a respect for the storyteller's art as the historian's. Sometimes those two things are the same, frequently they are not.
Wow, that got a little, wee bit tangential didn't it? I'm working on updating my reading materials list for students, that's what brought it out - that and I am crotchety as hell today and prone to babbling and ranting, even raving. Hehe, forgive me, please. I have a few dozen irons being prepared for the fire as we speak, so I am a bit scattered all around.
Well, it seems I have quickly exhausted anything of value I may have had to say. That is unfortunate, but expected on occasion.
Be well :)
Love, Honor and Respect,
Niamh
posted by Niamh sionnachdubh at 7:08 PM
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