Bishop in the Grove

You Can Take a Druid Out of the Woods…

September 11, 2012 By Teo Bishop

In the morning, after (almost) sleeping through a night of 28 degree weather, I headed to the edge of the water to make my offerings. Pumpkin seeds were what I had to give, for they were what I had to eat. I proceeded through the same ritual I outlined in my post last week, only this time I did it while standing in the morning sun. When I'm in the city, I sometimes lift my hands up toward the ceiling of my bedroom, my office, or whatever sacred space I've constructed, and imagine that I'm … [Read more...]

Filed Under: In The World, Paganism Tagged With: ADF, Camping, Concordances, Druidism, Druidry, Granby, Meditation, Nature, Representation, Reservoir, Trees, Two Powers

Paganism Beyond the Warm and Fuzzy

September 7, 2012 By Teo Bishop

I fell into a frozen lake once. It was winter, and we were on holiday from school. I was running ahead of my two cousins and my older brother, and I hit a thin patch. In no time, my tiny body was submerged. The water was violently cold, and I was certain I was going to die. I didn't. When I was about 10, I went to a summer camp for kids who like horses. While riding one afternoon, a fellow camper got thrown from her horse. She was dragged for at least 100 yards. Her body … [Read more...]

Filed Under: In The World, Paganism Tagged With: ADF, Camping, Childhood, Druidry, Gods, Horses, Nature, Paganism, Storytelling

Druid Rituals For Dummies

September 5, 2012 By Teo Bishop

I've written a great deal about my daily practice on this blog. There have been periods of prolonged drought, periods of genuine doubt, and times when I felt like my daily practice was all that was keeping me invested in my Druidism. In my ADF Dedicant studies (which will be a central focus for me until Imbolc), one of the tasks for the student is to develop a steady daily practice. A regular practice, especially for solitaries, is key to taking your religion out of the book and rooting it in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: ADF, DP, Paganism Tagged With: ADF, CooR, Core Order of Ritual, Daily Practice, Dedicant's Path, Devotional, DP, kindred, Melissa Burchfield, Offerings, Ritual

Pagans Among Wild Geese

August 31, 2012 By Teo Bishop

Carl McColman at the first Wild Goose Festival, June 2011

I had plans to attend the Wild Goose Festival this weekend. I was supposed to leave today, but then the money got tight. As I wrote about in my last post I made the decision to forgo my studies at Marylhurst for at least a term or two, in part for financial reasons. In light of that kind of penny-pinching adjustment to plans, I decided to save my plane ticket to Portland for a future trip. I would not have been the only Druid in attendance. Allison Leigh Lilly is going to be … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Christianity, Paganism Tagged With: Festival, Interfaith, Paganism, Progressive Christianity, Progressive Politics, Social Change, Social Issues, Wild Goose Festival, Wild Goose Festival 2012

It’s Back to (Druid) School Season

August 27, 2012 By Teo Bishop

The harvest season comes, and the kids go back to school. I can't pass a rack of school supplies without stopping to see if there's anything I want need. There rarely is, but I still like to look. The eco-folders and notebooks, while more ecologically responsible, are nowhere as cool as my Trapper Keeper. It was rad. I love school. Or, I love the idea of school. Perhaps I'm nostalgic for a time when I was unaware of the responsibilities that accompany adulthood, many of which … [Read more...]

Filed Under: DP, Paganism Tagged With: ADF, College, Dedicant's Path, DP, Education, Marylhurst, Pagan, Paganism, School, Student, Study

Solitaries are the Glue which Hold Paganism Together

August 17, 2012 By Teo Bishop

I've spent nearly the entire week working on new ways to make ADF Druidism an accessible tradition to solitary Pagans. The work is still in its early stages, and I'm piecing together ideas which I hope to share once the leaves have fallen. My backyard maple is only hinting at new color, so it will be a few months yet. Crafting religious practice gets me really excited, though. As perplexed as I was last week about the Gods (and I've been on the fence about capitalizing "god," by the way -- … [Read more...]

Filed Under: ADF, Paganism, Solitaries Tagged With: ADF, Isaac Bonewits, Paganism, Practice, Religion, Solitaries, Solitary, Solitary Druid

Think, Drink, and Be a Druid in Honor of Isaac Bonewits

August 12, 2012 By Teo Bishop

In his brief, "immodest third-person" biography, Issac Bonewits called himself, "articulate, witty, yet reasonably scholarly." I never knew the man, but I hear he was a bit cantankerous, too. In the early part of 2009, a year before Isaac's passing, I was encouraged by T. Thorn Coyle during an intuitive reading she gave me to make my way to a Druid gathering in California to meet Issac. The event would be a Lughnasadh celebration at the Pema Osel Ling Retreat Center in Corralitos, California, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Druidry, Memorial, Paganism Tagged With: ADF, Ancestor, AODA, House of Danu, Issac Bonewits, Memorial, Memory, OBOD, Paganism, Veneration

Are You There Gods? It’s Me, Teo.

August 9, 2012 By Teo Bishop

Sometimes I think there's a good reason for blind faith, religious ignorance, unwavering piety. Sometimes those seem like a much easier choices than being inquisitive, being contemplative, being patient with your own uncertainty. The dialogue around the last post extended deep into the theoretical as well as the practical, even spawning an interesting offshoot post on ecological polytheism, and a resurgence of questions about an American goddess named Columbia. The explosion of ideas did a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Paganism Tagged With: Christianity, Community, Dialogue, Divinity, Ecological Polytheism, Faith, GOD, Gods, Inquiry, P. Sufenas Virius Lupus, Paganism, Perception, Polytheism

I Spotted Thor Down at the Quik Mart

August 7, 2012 By Teo Bishop

In a recent discussion with a group of Pagans about the development of an American pantheon for use in ADF ritual, someone said this: "When we look at historical evidence to find the ancient deities, we look at what was left behind and what survived for long periods of time, such as the stories that remained popular ... These and many other things help us to form a picture of the beliefs of an ancient culture. I'm using the same types of techniques to examine our modern culture ... Elvis is a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Divinity, Paganism Tagged With: ADF, American Pantheon, Archetypes, Deities, Deity, Future, Gods, Hard Polytheism, Inquiry, Musing, Pagan, Polytheism, Reconstructionism, Revisionism

How Do We Stock Our Metaphoric Pantry?

July 25, 2012 By Teo Bishop

Last year on Lughnasad I was all worked up over food. Riffling through some old files yesterday I discovered this entry: I’m not sure there’s a way to talk about the “First Harvest” without paying mind to the fact that there is a severe drought across the land, or that in other parts of the country there is great flooding.... Is it possible that Neopagans (using the Bonewits definition of the term) are enacting the rituals of an earth tradition without being fully engaged as … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Lughnasad, Paganism Tagged With: First Harvest, Food, High Day, interview, Lughnasad, Metaphor, Pantry, Preparing, The Psychic and The Witch