The 4 Best Posts of 2019 You Didn’t Read

Last updated on: December 18, 2019 at 7:19 pm By John Beckett

It’s been another good year on Under the Ancient Oaks. Through November, blog traffic is up 19% over last year. Several posts did very well, and one is already the third most popular of all time. I’ll talk about that on Sunday with this year’s annual Top 10 feature.

But as with every year, some posts aren’t very well read. Book reviews and travel posts don’t do well, and my political posts are hit or miss. And while I consider myself a good writer, when you’re knocking out over 140 posts a year they’re not all going to be amazing.

Still, there are times when I find myself saying “this is important – why are people not reading this?”

Here are four posts from 2019 I think have some really important concepts in them, but that weren’t well read. Take a look at these summaries, and if you didn’t read them the first time, check them out now.

Pagans In and Out of Communion: What it Takes to Worship Together (June 2019, #129 in readership).

With the Big Tent of Paganism continuing to collapse, this is something we all need to pay attention to. Because if we’re not all doing the same thing – and clearly, we’re not – then who’s close enough that we can stand in circle with them and feel like we’re being respectful to each other’s traditions?

Deep rituals require openness and vulnerability.

In an ordinary ritual, it doesn’t matter if someone’s there who I know is a committed atheist. They see things their way, I see things my way, we celebrate the ideals and the actions we have in common.

In an ecstatic ritual, the presence of someone who’s going to question and judge our most sacred and intimate experiences will inhibit the participants. We’ll hold back, rationalize away what we see and hear, and pretend it’s all in our heads, so our atheist friend won’t think badly of us… or say bad things about us afterwards. Perhaps we shouldn’t, but 99% of us will.

We can have serious religious differences and still be friends. We can still work together to build a better world here and now. But we can’t always worship together – not and do it well.

What I Learned From Clergy In Other Religions (June 2019, #130 in readership).

A lot of Pagans insist “we don’t need no stinkin’ priests.” That is, until they decide to get married, or they have a spiritual crisis, or they want to go to a public ritual and they hope whoever leads it knows what they’re doing.

Or until some God unknown to them grabs them by the collar and they go desperately searching for anyone who has a clue as to what They might want.

Some traditions have clergy training programs, but most of us who serve as clergy have to learn what we can from where ever we can. And while we don’t do the same things as clergy in other religions, there is much we can learn from them.

From Baptists I learned bivocationalism and emotional worship (plus a lot of what not to do). From Methodists I learned pastoral care and humanitarian work. From Unitarian Universalists I learned to set boundaries and to work for social justice. From Buddhists I learned the concept of itinerant ministry. From Catholics I learned the daily office and the importance of daily spiritual practice.

Learn what you can, where you can, from whoever you can.

Why Is There Joy In The World? (March 2019, #140 in readership).

For at least as long as we’ve been human, people have been asking why there is suffering in the world. Why is there pain, disease, destruction, and death? Religions arose in part to try to answer that question, as well as to help deal with the reality of suffering. Paganism is no exception.

But what if that’s the wrong question?

It takes a certain amount of arrogance and self-centeredness to think that the presence of suffering means something is wrong. Rather than wondering why there is suffering, perhaps we would be better off wondering why there is joy.

I see four things in the world that bring joy: connection, abundance, compassion, and hope. And perhaps, creating joy is why we’re here in the first place.

A Vision for the Future is as Important as Plans for Today (June 2019, #142 in readership).

As a writer, I feel good about the first three posts on this list. I wrote about important topics and I wrote well, but for whatever reason what I wrote didn’t resonate with people. That happens – so be it.

But this one is near the bottom of the list because of ineffective writing. I told readers how to plan for the future while they’re taking care of today’s urgent matters, but I never explained why that’s important.

If I rewrote this post today, I’d start off by talking about how if you want to get somewhere, you have to have a plan. Or as the old saying goes, if you don’t care where you’re going, any road will do. I’d draw on Pagan agricultural metaphors and talk about deciding what to plant, knowing when to plant it, and figuring out how much sun and water that particular crop needs. And I’d point to the sorry state of U.S. infrastructure as an example of what happens when you spend too much on tax cuts and empire maintenance while ignoring roads and bridges.

That would provide the context to talk about multitasking, visualization, and relaxation.

So pretend I said all that stuff and go read it again.

Do First, Then Write – Why My Compulsive Schedule-Keeping Has To Go

Last updated on: July 2, 2019 at 6:09 pm By John Beckett

One of the keys to building a successful blog is posting on a regular basis. You can do it posting once a week, but more is better. Over the years I’ve settled into a Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday routine that I maintain 48 to 50 weeks a year.

The difficulty with that is that the Awen – wisdom and inspiration – doesn’t flow on a consistent basis. You rarely see it, because I try to write ahead when things are going well so I don’t have gaps when they aren’t – or when I’m just not available to write. But lately the Awen hasn’t been flowing at all.

Last year I wrote Paganism in the Dry Season, about

when you want to keep moving but it’s hard and joyless. The vision of a better world and a deeper practice is obscured by smoke and haze. When you’re hungry but nothing sounds good, when the joy of summer has turned into the monotony of oppressive heat. Pick your metaphor – this is the time when it’s not fun to be a Pagan.

This isn’t that, and it’s important to recognize the difference.

To call my practice busy would be an understatement. Last May was a dry season. Now, it’s a satisfying busy. My daily and weekly spiritual practices keep me supported. I’m enjoying putting the classes together for Paganism In Depth. I’m brushing up my presentations for Mystic South, and condensing one of them into a UU Sunday service. And I’m doing some private work that is both fulfilling and a bit scary.

My Paganism at the moment is anything but dry. And I’m not overloaded – I’m getting done what needs to be done. But still, the Awen isn’t flowing. The inspiration for stuff to write about isn’t coming.

And perhaps coincidentally – though more likely not – the deities whose statues sit on my shrine and who look down on my computer desk have been rather quiet.

I’ve had several politically-oriented microblogs on Facebook that were very well read, and that stimulated some good conversation. None of them generated anything resembling a blog-length piece, and in any case I try to keep ordinary partisan politics to a minimum here… though I will not hesitate to take a strong position when it’s necessary. Politics are how we collectively express our highest values and virtues, but I prefer to blog about the values and virtues whenever possible.

If I want clicks, all I have to do is write about the Morrigan. Every single one of my Morrigan posts has done well – two of them ended up on my Top 10 of 2018 list last year. The Morrigan is perhaps the most active deity in our contemporary world and people are hungry to learn more about Her. But She has made it very clear to me: I am to write about Her when She has something She wants me to say. If I write about Her to fill a slot, it will not go well for me.

I don’t want to run the risk of offending a Battle Goddess. More seriously, I don’t want to go against the wishes of a deity of who has done so much for me over the years – our relationship is far more important than maintaining my blog schedule.

Last year I said “silence isn’t absence” – that’s important to remember. But what I’m getting right now isn’t silence… it’s just not inspiration. It’s not new ideas. It’s not topics to write about, or new routes to address existing topics.

What I’m getting is a quiet reminder to work on the things on my plate that aren’t blog posts. Which I’m doing, but apparently not fast enough.

There are times when the message I get is “just keep moving.” Other times it’s “why isn’t this done yet?” I don’t seem to get anything in between, though I suspect that’s more a reflection on my listening skills than on what the Gods and spirits in question are actually saying. And now I’m starting to hear “why isn’t this done yet?” And also “if you want more inspiration, finish this first.”

So I’m writing a blog post to explain why I’m having trouble writing blog posts? Yeah, I get the apparent incongruity, and the questionably-healthy compulsion to maintain a schedule no matter what.

For all that people call me a leader, and for all that I accept and embrace that title, I remain a first and foremost a practitioner. I’m not an expert on Paganism. I’m a Pagan who does Paganism and who writes about what he does. And while my goal in writing is to articulate and promote Paganism, I think it is unhelpful for those of us with a public platform to ignore or whitewash our difficulties.

Because like it or not, Pagans who don’t have a public presence are always going to look at those of us who do. If we pretend that nothing bad ever happens in our lives, that sets a false and impossible example. That makes it easy for people to put us on pedestals, and nothing good ever comes from that.

This isn’t an announcement and it’s not a precursor to an announcement. I have every intention of continuing to blog three times a week for years to come. But it’s become clear there are things more important than the blog. And there are things that need my full attention as I do them now, so I can blog about them later.

And in some cases, not blog about them. Not everything I do is for public review and discussion.

As I write this I have nothing on my schedule of things to write about. I’m sure I’ll come up with something to write about before I leave for Mystic South next Thursday. But maybe I won’t. Either way I can’t imagine I’ll come out of the conference without tons of ideas for contemplation and discussion.

But for now, the message I’m getting is “do first, then write.”

And so that’s what I’m going to do.

The 4 Best Posts of 2018 You Didn’t Read

Last updated on: December 22, 2018 at 3:22 pm By John Beckett

After 10 years of blogging I’ve got a pretty good idea which posts will go over well and which ones won’t. My political posts don’t do well (although a few do very well). Book reviews and travel posts don’t do well. There’s a fine line between writing about mystical experiences in a way that people find engaging and “trying to eff the ineffable.”

While watching the numbers go up is nice, at the end of the day I don’t write for pageviews. I write because I have something I need to say, or because Someone tells me to write something. I write what I write and after that it’s in the hands of the Gods and the readers.

Still, there are times when I find myself saying “this is important – why are people not reading this?”

Here are four posts from 2018 I think have some really important concepts in them, but that weren’t well read. Take a look at these summaries, and if you didn’t read them the first time, check them out now.

What Fictional Witches Can Teach Us About Pursuing What We Really Want (November 2018, #119 in readership).

This one gets the award for “most disappointing post that’s my own damn fault.” It was inspired by The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and it was originally titled “For Those Afraid to Sign The Book of the Beast.” It used my reaction to Sabrina’s reluctance to sign the Book of the Beast to start a conversation on the challenges of beginning the study and practice of a new religion or spiritual path.

Even if you are able to dismiss the religious indoctrination of your childhood, the path of magic, the path of the old Gods, the path of Paganism may not be right for you. I do not believe in eternal damnation, but our Gods are not safe. Magic is not safe. Witchcraft is not safe. It is foolhardy to pretend there are no risks.

At the last minute I decided to change the title. Part of me was worried that my Christian and spiritual-but-not-religious friends might see the title and come to a wrong conclusion. A bigger part thought that for all the chatter about Sabrina on the Pagan internet, most readers weren’t watching the show and wouldn’t get the reference.

I should have left the title alone and ignored any charges of sensationalism. If you’ve seen the show (and I love it, even though I wish the witches were Pagans instead of Satanists) you’ve probably wondered “would I sign?” just as I did. There is no Book of the Beast, but the question remains for those of us called to a different path.

There is the book and here is the pen.

Will you sign?

Why We Make Oaths (July 2018, #122 in readership).

The phrase “a man’s word is his bond” is pretty much gone from our common culture, and not because of the gendered language. Now a promise means “I’ll do it if it’s not too inconvenient, and if I don’t get a better offer between now and then.” But

Our Gods and especially the Fair Folk have older expectations – there is no such thing as extenuating circumstances. Do what you said you’d do or die trying – or live in dishonor, which is worse than death.

These expectations lead some to question whether we should make oaths or not. Oaths should be made carefully, thoughtfully, and rarely. But we should make them.

Oath making and oath taking is a long and honorable tradition. We commit ourselves to virtues, to actions, and to relationships. Our oaths help others to be sure of our commitment, so they can make their own plans with confidence. When we keep our oaths – especially when we keep them through difficulties – our reputation grows.

If we break our oaths our reputation is destroyed.

Discernment: Distilling the Truth from our Pagan Experiences (July 2018, #124 in readership).

This is one of those posts I didn’t expect to do well. Let’s face it – discernment isn’t a sexy subject. It’s not a witchy subject either – the term is usually used in a Christian context, especially in trying to figure out whether or not a person is experiencing a call to ministry or priesthood.

But discernment is not a Christian-only thing. Discernment is the ability to judge well. It’s the ability to separate the true from the false, facts from opinions, and gold from dross. That’s important in any religion.

Discernment keeps us from jumping to conclusions that are simple, pleasant, and wrong. Discernment keeps us from putting our experiences under glass and ignoring calls and messages that are important even if they’re also difficult and scary. Discernment helps us distill the truth from our Pagan experiences.

Discernment requires context and knowledge. It requires observation, analysis, and synthesis. Ultimately, discernment requires a decision.

The Value of Chaos (May 2018, #134 in readership).

One of the recurring themes over 10 years of Under the Ancient Oaks is that while you don’t have to like the way things are, you damn well better deal with things the way they are. The reality of chaos is one of those things we need to deal with as it is.

When you mention chaos, some of us think of Loki pulling tricks and laughing at us – chaos is funny. Others think of Set murdering Osiris – chaos is evil. But chaos is much more than either of those things.

Communities, cultures, religions – they require constant maintenance or they’ll fall into disrepair. The more complicated the system is, the more maintenance it requires, and the more likely it is to succumb to chaos.

Our common culture is descending into chaos and there is very little ordinary people can do to stop it. Some of us don’t want to stop it. Chaos disrupts stagnation. More importantly, chaos creates opportunities.

Whether chaos is economic, political, cultural, or spiritual, it will tear down walls and gates. It will destroy existing centers of power and create a vacuum waiting to be filled. It will create opportunities to make money, to change laws, to influence others, and to work magic…

Chaos-created opportunities favor the bold, the energetic, and the skilled. All that work and study you put in over the years, not knowing what it was for? This is what it was for.

I don’t like chaos. I like order. Truth be told, I like order a little too much. But what I like doesn’t matter. Chaos is growing, and those of us who figure out how to take advantage of the opportunities it presents will be much better off than those of us who cling to the way things have always been.

Thank you for reading and sharing, for commenting here and on Facebook, and for generally supporting Under the Ancient Oaks. On Thursday I’ll talk about the posts you did read: the Top 10 Posts of 2018.

The Mabinogi, The Dagda, and Traditional Witchcraft

Last updated on: December 15, 2018 at 5:49 pm By John Beckett

Over the last couple weeks, two books and one CD (actually, a digital download) arrived at my house. All three are worthy of your consideration. I don’t have enough to say about any of them for a full review, but all of them together make for a nice blog post.

Let’s start with the album.

Y Mabinogi – The Second Branch

Y Mabinogi – The Second Branch
by Damh the Bard
14 tracks, 1 hr 20 min
Digital download: £10 ($12.56 at current exchange rates). $19.99 on iTunes.
CD: £15 ($18.84 at current exchange rates)

Last year brought us Y Mabinogi – The First Branch from Damh the Bard. This is Damh’s bardic performance of the ancient Welsh tales first written down in the 11^th century. Their origins are in a much older oral tradition – their settings and themes are straight out of Celtic paganism.

The second branch of The Mabinogi is titled “Branwen, Daughter of Llyr.” It’s the story of Bran, giant and king, his sister Branwen, and how she was married to the King of Ireland to form an alliance but that alliance was poisoned by Efnissien, Bran and Branwen’s half-brother.

This is not a pleasant story. It’s what happens when the rich and powerful are overcome by jealousy and deceit. Damh didn’t bowdlerize the stories – some of it was hard to listen to. I asked Damh what it was like to work this dark material for weeks and months.

It was a hard but incredibly powerful journey. When I created the First Branch, Cerri made me a Rhiannon pendant that I wore throughout the creative process. For the Second Branch she made me a pendant of two Ravens, but the journey was so intense in the end I had to take it off and place it on my altar. I was immersed in the story for a year, but in that year I needed some time out.

My songs are celebrations of our paths and our community. But there was no place for the uplifting Damh the Bard anthem here. The story took my songwriting into areas I wasn’t used to, but I think it has helped me grow as a songwriter, and I have to say I’m very happy and proud of the resulting album.

So I’m half way to the full Four Branches!

Kristoffer Hughes returns as the medieval Welsh monk, writing down the tales as they were told to him. S. J. Tucker provides vocals on “The Birds of Rhiannon” and Blanche Rowen sings on “A Forest on the Ocean” and “Raven’s Tears.”

But mainly this is Damh the Bard, not just telling but performing these tales in as authentic a manner as has been done in centuries. If you want the real Mabinogi, uncensored for Victorian sensibilities, give it a listen.

Harp, Club, and Cauldron

Harp, Club, and Cauldron – A Harvest of Knowledge: A curated anthology of scholarship, lore, and creative writings on the Dagda in Irish tradition

edited by Lora O’Brien and Morpheus Ravenna
published by Eel & Otter Press: November 2018
301 pages
Paperback: $20.90

We are living in the early days of a polytheist restoration. Gods who for centuries have been treated as myths or archetypes or merely as characters in old stories are being worshipped again. We are likely many years away from having large public temples as our ancestors did. But what we do have is an ever-increasing numbers of devotional books dedicated to individual deities. My own bookshelf has volumes for the Morrigan, Hera, Poseidon, Hecate, Athena, Brigid, and “the Horned God in all of his manifestations.” There are more volumes I don’t have.

In a conversation that no one can remember exactly when it took place, Lora O’Brien, Morpheus Ravenna, and Jon O’Sullivan decided it was the Dagda’s turn. More likely – as Lora describes in the Foreword – that’s what they heard the Dagda telling them.

The Dadga is one of the Tuatha De Danann, the Gods of Ireland. He was and is known as “the Good God.” He has many skills, including crafting, right judgement, and warriorship. He is the master of the harp, and he possesses one of the Four Hallows of the Tuatha De Danann – a cauldron from which no company ever left unsatisfied.

Harp, Club, and Cauldron is longer than most books in this theme, because it’s more than a devotional anthology. The first section is “Research” – it consists of scholarly examinations of the literature and archaeology around the Dadga. The second is “Practice” – essays describing how different people worship and work with the Dadga, including how they do His work in this world. The third is “Inspiration” and consists of poems, prayers, and stories for and about this Good God.

Harp, Club, and Cauldron will help you learn more about the Dadga, His lore, and how contemporary polytheists interact with Him today.

Besom, Stang & Sword

Besom, Stang & Sword: A Guide to Traditional Witchcraft, the Six-Fold Path & the Hidden Landscape
by Christopher Orapello and Tara-Love Maguire
published by Weiser Books: December 2018
304 pages
Paperback: $16.11, Kindle: $11.99

Traditional Witchcraft is one of the more popular forms of magic these days. I know a bit about it, but not a ton. I know a lot more now that I’ve read Besom, Stang & Sword. The book presents traditional witchcraft in a clear, easy to learn manner, and it does so within the context of a complete tradition that is non-religious but filled with spirits.

There are lists of spells for various purposes. The use of the besom, the stang, and the sword in witchcraft are explained in detail. There are chapters on herbs for witches and on divination. The chapter on necromancy is basic but useful.

There’s a chapter on the Witches’ Sabbat. The role of the devil in traditional witchcraft is neither whitewashed nor sensationalized. I don’t work with the devil because of my need for a clean break with Christianity, but you can’t deny the fact that witches from the Middle Ages through contemporary times did and do.

The first chapter on defining traditional witchcraft is perhaps the most helpful of all. It’s not Wicca, it’s not working with Nature, it’s not Goddess worship, and it’s not magic… or at least, it’s not only magic. It’s certainly not fashion. Rather, “witchcraft is about sovereignty” – witchcraft is about the power of the individual to walk their own path.

Most of us don’t have a traditional witch living next door who can teach us her skills and traditions, but we can learn from Christopher Orapello and Tara-Love Maguire.

Holiday blogging

The holidays are upon us but I’m not quite done for the year. I’ll have the usual Under the Ancient Oaks year-end features next week. “The 4 Best Posts of 2018 You Didn’t Read” will be up on Sunday, and “The Top 10 Posts of 2018” will be up on Thursday.

I’ll return to my regular blogging schedule on January 1.

Review disclaimer

For those who care about such things, I bought my copies of Y Mabinogi – The Second Branch and Harp, Club, and Cauldron. Weiser sent me a copy of Besom, Stang & Sword as a thank you for providing a promotional quote for the book.

All these creators are my friends, but my first obligation in a review is to the reader, not to the author. If I couldn’t honestly give them a good review I’d conveniently forget to review them. Seriously – if you see me in person ask me about the books I didn’t review.

Using Recorded Music In Rituals

Last updated on: December 4, 2018 at 6:37 pm By John Beckett

Every now and then the topic of recorded music in rituals comes up. Can you use it? Should you use it? How can you use it well? And what kind of music works best?

As with most other questions about what to do or not do in Pagan rituals, the only universal answer is “it depends.” There are some traditions that don’t use music, or that only use songs and chants that all the participants can sing. Others don’t want any technology in a ritual.

There is nothing like live music in a ritual. I’ve been in a OBOD ritual where Damh the Bard played and sang during the Feast. I was in a ritual in White Rock Lake Park in Dallas where 15 members of Vocal Magic were accompanied by two harpists in an ancient Egyptian hymn. I’ve been part of ADF rituals where a near-professional bard led the people in liturgical singing and then provided background music during the sharing of the Waters of Life.

Vocal Magic at White Rock Lake – Summer Solstice 2009

But sometimes you don’t have a guitarist or a harpist in your group. Or you need the volume of a choir but you’ve only got two good singers. Or you really want to use a piece of recorded music to set up or enhance something in your ritual.

I’ve been using recorded music in rituals for years. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Music in public rituals

Let’s start with what I don’t like – I don’t like recorded music for devotion or energy raising. If you’re singing praises to the Deity of the Occasion or if you’re trying to power your group working, even mediocre live singing or chanting is better than recorded music, because it’s participative. It’s the same reason Christian churches with large well-rehearsed choirs or professional worship bands still include congregational hymns in their services. Teach the song or chant before the ritual, if necessary give people handouts with words, and arrange for one or two good singers to set the pace. Then feel the power grow.

But there are other places where recorded music works very well.

Dances. This is the obvious one. If you want people dancing you need music. Doing a Maypole dance? Play Omnia’s “Tine Bealtaine” or Faun’s “Walpurgisnacht.” Lots of Pagan music works for spiral dances. Music for dances is the one place where recorded music usually works better than live music.

Preludes and interludes. Need to get people to stop the pre-ritual socializing and get focused on what’s coming? Play some music. Need a break in between long-but-necessary invocations and the main working? Play some music. I tend to use music for preludes and poetry for interludes (because poetry is usually shorter), but recorded music can make an excellent “palate cleanser.”

Background music for movements. If there are places in the ritual where there are movements but no one is speaking, background music is very helpful. Want people to get up and make a commitment of some sort? Play aggressive music. Want them to make a contemplative offering? Play something soft. Stick to instrumental music here, or music in a non-English (non-local) language – you want people to feel the music, not sing along in their heads.

Simple Feast. If you’ve got more than about a dozen people in your circle, it’s going to take a minute or five to get the cakes and ale (or whatever you use) passed around. And the longer it’s quiet, the greater the chance that people will start talking to each other, and that’s likely to break the mood of the ritual. Play music instead.

Music in private rituals

Private rituals tend to be smaller, less scripted, and more focused on the work at hand. The need for interludes or for music during the Simple Feast is much less. But because the participants usually know each other well, getting people to not just stop their conversations but to forget them can be much harder.

I really like recorded music for preludes before private rituals. Not only will it act to focus the participants on ritual the that’s about to begin, the right song will help set the tone you want to set.

Music in solitary rituals

Solitary rituals tend to be even simpler than private rituals. Unless you’re singing a hymn to a deity, you rarely need any music in a solitary ritual.

But just because you’re the only one doing the ritual doesn’t mean you’re the only one in the house. Maybe your spouse has the TV on, or you’re in the back yard and your neighbors are having a party, or there’s noise coming from nearby streets or highways. In those cases recorded music makes for great background music – something to drown out all the external distractions. I prefer classical music for this – as with the music for movements the lack of words keeps the music from becoming a distraction itself.

I used to play mystical-sounding music when I read Tarot, to get me in the proper frame of mind. I rarely need that anymore, but it was very helpful when I was starting out.

Technical considerations

As with everything else in a ritual, if you’re going to do it then do it well.

If you’re playing music for yourself or for a few people, you may be able to get away with playing it on your phone, particularly if everyone already knows the songs you’re using. For a living room sized ritual, a portable CD player or inexpensive bluetooth speaker will do well.

For larger gatherings, you’re going to need better (i.e. – more expensive) equipment. And for outdoor use, you need something with plenty of volume. If you’re a group that does this often, invest in a quality system.

For the Morrigan devotional ritual at this year’s Mystic South, I used a JBL Charge 3 bluetooth speaker and ran it from my phone. We had about 60 people in a hotel conference room – it was great. For big outdoor rituals I used to use my vintage 1988 rack system, until I blew out the speakers. Not sure what I’ll do next time.

Whatever you use, make sure you test it before the ritual. Nothing like thinking everything’s under control only to find at the last minute that your phone won’t pair with the speaker, or your iPhone lightning connector won’t connect to the amp’s 3.5mm jack, or the CD you burned on your computer won’t play on your friend’s player.

Practice playing the music the same way you practice everything else in a ritual. Know your cues – I call them out in the ritual script. Just knowing when to start the song is one thing. Make sure you also know when to end it, and if you need to let it play all the way through or if you should shut it off when the associated ritual action is finished. And if you do shut it off before the song is over, don’t just hit “stop” – fade it out.

Legal considerations

Recorded music is by definition copyrighted. However, US copyright law specifically exempts music used in live religious services (other countries may have different laws). You can play or sing any song you like from any source and be perfectly legal.

But this exemption only applies to live worship services. It doesn’t apply to concerts and dramatic performances. And it doesn’t apply to recordings and broadcasts. If you record your ritual and put it on YouTube, you’ll need permission for all the songs you use. See this article from LegalZoom for more details.

What music to use?

It’s a special and holy thing to play or sing ancient music in a modern Pagan ritual. But it’s also good to use contemporary Pagan music, or any other music that fits the mood you’re trying to set.

Last year I wrote My Top 10 Pagan Albums of All Time. I used 11 years of ritual playlists to help me figure out the list – and I ended up with 16 albums, not 10. These would be my suggestions for what to use.

You are, of course, free to use what seems best to you. My only warning would be to never force a song into a ritual. Just because it’s really good and you really like it doesn’t mean it fits in a ritual.

There’s something magical about a choir singing a sacred song with power and skill. There’s something special about guitars or harps or drums playing in a ritual. There’s something powerful about ritual participants chanting in unison.

But recorded music has a place in Pagan rituals as well. Find the right songs, put them in the right places, and enjoy them.

The 4 Best Posts of 2017 You Didn’t Read

Last updated on: December 31, 2017 at 12:02 pm By John Beckett

Some of you read and share everything I write. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Social media shares are the lifeblood of blogs.

Not every post is intended to go viral. Reviews don’t do particularly well, but if I like a book or an album I want to tell everyone about it. I write what the Gods tell me to write and what I feel like I need to say, and after that it’s out of my hands.

While I’ve come to accept that sometimes the Pagan community just doesn’t care about something as much as I do, there are times when I find myself screaming “this is important! Why are you not reading this?!”

Here are four posts from 2017 I think have some really important concepts in them, but that weren’t well read. Take a look at these summaries, and if you didn’t read them the first time, check them out now.

Are Hurricanes and Wildfires Persons? Respect the Power of Nature (September 2017, #127 in readership).

This post was inspired by the wildfires in the Columbia Gorge and the hurricanes in Florida, Texas, and Puerto Rico. We saw a lot of natural disasters this year – climate change makes it likely we’ll see even more going forward.

I’ve seen numerous comments from Pagans and Christians alike calling all this bad weather “punishment” for everything from electing gay people to public office to driving oversized pickup trucks. It’s a natural human impulse to look for meaning in tragedy, and if that meaning puts the blame on people we don’t like, so much the better. Thankfully, most of us understand there is no correlation between human morality and natural disasters.

That doesn’t mean Nature didn’t do it on purpose.

We often talk about natural phenomena as though they were human. Clearly they are not. But from an animistic perspective it’s just as clear that they are persons. They have agency – they do their own things for their own reasons. More importantly, we can relate to them as persons… and not all persons mean us well.

Further, when we attempt to constrain other persons, they have a tendency to strike back. Perhaps a wildfire has no conscious intent. But when we refuse to let them burn naturally, when they do eventually burn the fires are far larger and more damaging than they would have been otherwise.

Either we will respect the power of Nature, or we will suffer the consequences.

*San Juan, Puerto Rico, on a better day*

What Does Victory Look Like For You? (January 2017, #129 in readership). Unlike last year, some of my 2017 political posts did very well. Two of them made the Top 10 list I’ll post on Wednesday. This one did not. And that’s a shame, because it has some information that’s critically important in our lives, whether we apply it politically or not.

An important part of Magic 101 is selecting appropriate targets. Describe your goal as precisely as you can. Big dreams are good, but until you can specify exactly what you want, both your magic and your mundane efforts will be too vague and too dispersed to accomplish anything big.

We need to define the terms of victory, so we can avoid mission creep, avoid unrealistic expectations, and gauge our progress along the way. We need to look at what victory would mean for ourselves as individuals, for our tribes, and for the world at large.

And once we know what victory looks like, we can start making plans to achieve it.

Feeling Small in the Presence of the Gods (April 2017, #138 in readership). One of the first pieces of “how to grow your blog” advice says “post things that make people feel good about themselves.” So I understand why a post that talks about feeling small might not do so well.

I wrote this about a week after living through the worst hail storm I’ve experienced in 16 years of living in Texas. I was safely indoors, but it could have been fatal to someone exposed to it with no shelter.

I am a polytheist first and foremost, but many of the Gods are Gods of Nature. Experiencing Them first-hand – whether in storms, in the immensities of ocean and wilderness, or in ecstatic communion – reminds us of how small we are compared to Them.

This is not the forced smallness and wholly otherness of fundamentalism. This is simply experiencing reality, which is that however strong and wise we may be, the Gods are more.

Accepting your smallness helps you respect the virtues of the Gods. It inspires you to learn those virtues and the values that flow from them, and in doing so to live a better life. That in turn helps you build a better world here and now, and over time, to become more God-like yourself.

Feeling small in the presence of the Gods is a good thing.

Even if we don’t like to be reminded of our smallness.

Spiritual Preparations For Leading Ritual (May 2017, #139 in readership). It’s usually pretty clear why a particular blog post doesn’t do well. It isn’t timely or engaging, it communicates a hard truth, it has a weak or confusing title, or it just isn’t very well written. But I cannot begin to figure out why this post did so poorly.

Leading a good ritual requires more than making all the necessary logistical preparations. Leading a good ritual requires spiritual preparation.

If you’re going to the trouble of leading a ritual – particularly a public ritual – put in the spiritual preparation as much as you do the logistical preparation.

Build a foundation for the ritual: understand the historical and theological context of what you’re doing. Strengthen your connections to all the spiritual beings you’ll be invoking at the ritual. Open yourself to service – prepare yourself to facilitate a religious experience for the participants. Do devotional readings, make invocations and offerings, and then listen for the presence of the Gods and spirits. And when you’re done, give thanks.

Even if you don’t lead public rituals, these steps will help you do a better job of leading private or solitary rituals. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.

Thank you for reading and sharing, for commenting here and on Facebook, and for generally supporting Under the Ancient Oaks. On Wednesday I’ll talk about the posts you did read: the Top 10 Posts of 2017.

3 Events, 2 Books, and a Crow in a Live Oak Tree

Last updated on: December 13, 2017 at 9:52 pm By John Beckett

Happy Solstice! The astronomical Winter Solstice is this morning at 10:28 AM Central Time. The worst of Winter is yet to come, but from this point forward the days will be getting longer. The light is returning.

We Pagans may have celebrated last night, or as Denton CUUPS did, last Saturday. But we are a tiny minority – the bulk of the Western world is getting ready to celebrate Christmas on Monday. That means we’re going to be tied up with family and friends, and the Pagan internet is about to become as dead as Marley’s ghost.

But before you go, I have some announcements and two mini book reviews. Oh… and a crow in a live oak tree.

ADF Texas Imbolc: February 9 – 11

This will be my 5^th year speaking at the ADF Texas Imbolc Retreat at the U Bar U retreat center in Mountain Home, Texas. Here are my thoughts on last year’s retreat – you can search for the previous years if you like.

I’ll be presenting “Building Alliances Across Our Many Communities.”

Our need for strong tribes is great, but so is our need for alliances with other tribes who share our concerns even if they do not share our beliefs and practices. This presentation will explore how we can form and maintain intrafaith alliances with other Pagan groups, interfaith alliances with other religions, and secular alliances with non-religious groups. It will also look at our relationships with our spiritual allies in this world and beyond. And it will look at how we can work with others for the common good even when we have disagreements with them.

This is my Pantheacon presentation. I get to do my first public presentation in front of a small friendly audience, and those who are there get to hear it a week before everyone else.

This gathering is suitable for Pagans and polytheists of all varieties and you don’t have to be a member of ADF to attend. And it’s drivable from almost any place in Texas. The cost is reasonable, the accommodations are nice, and the conversation is excellent. If you can make it I highly recommend it.

*the main ritual at the 2017 ADF Texas Imbolc Retreat*

Pantheacon: February 16 – 19

The next week I’ll be at Pantheacon in San Jose, California. Pantheacon is the largest indoor Pagan gathering in the world. I’ll be speaking on “Building Alliances Across Our Many Communities” on Saturday at 11:00 AM in the Carmel/ Monterey Room.

On Sunday at 1:30 PM I’ll be speaking on “The Shredded Veil” in the OBOD hospitality suite. The first part of this presentation will be my observations and thoughts around what many of us have been experiencing over the past few years, as I described in The Veil Is Shredded. The second part will be an open discussion where we can share our recent Otherworldly experiences and compare notes, so we can refine our thinking about what’s going on.

I’ll also be doing at least one and possibly two presentations in the ADF hospitality suite – more details on those once they’re finalized.

CUUPS Convocation: April 20 – 22

There were 12 years between the CUUPS Convocation in 2004 and the last one in 2016. We’re doing better: the next one will be April 20 – 22 in Fort Myers, Florida. I’ll be one of the featured guests, but I’m not sure what I’ll be doing yet. Possibly the Building Alliances presentation, but possibly something new – it depends on what comes up between now and then.

If you’re going, I encourage you to register early. Local CUUPS members had to deal with Hurricane Irma and its aftermath instead of planning and promoting Convo – they’re getting a late start. But all is well and back on schedule and they could use the early commitments.

If you’re a UU Pagan and you have the ability to travel, I strongly encourage you to support the only national gathering for CUUPS.

Brigid

Brigid: History, Mystery, and Magick of the Celtic Goddess
by Courtney Weber
published by Weiser Books: May 2015
256 pages
Paperback: $18.95

I picked this book up from the author at the Beyond the Gates retreat last August. After I heard Courtney Weber talk about her experiences of Brigid and her relationship with Her, I knew I wanted to read the book.

This is neither a devotional book (though it is certainly a work of devotion) nor an academic book. Rather, it’s a collection of stories and legends about Brigid from Ireland and other places where the Goddess and the saint have been known. And it’s the experiences the author has had with Her. She mixes in meditations, rituals, and spells.

I’m not sure who the intended audience was, but it strikes me as perfect for beginning witches and Pagans who are starting out on a Celtic-inspired path. Weber’s cautionary tales against making casual promises to Goddesses make it clear that Brigid is an individual with Her own agency – and one who expects promises to be kept. But the book doesn’t get into the details of polytheist theology and practice.

It’s an easy read, and while it’s not a work of academic history, the history in it is good. If you’re looking for an introduction to Brigid, or to Celtic-inspired Paganism, give it a try.

The Darkening Age

The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World
by Catherine Nixey
published by Macmillan: September 2017
352 pages
Hardback: $23.64

“That all superstition of pagans and heathens should be annihilated is what God wants, God commands, God proclaims!” – St. Augustine

The particular form of Christianity I grew up in didn’t pay much attention to church history. They jumped from Revelation to D.L. Moody (1837-1899) with barely a stop for Luther, Calvin, and Wesley. I was left with the idea that the early Christians were persecuted, then Constantine made Christianity legal, then missionaries gradually converted all of Europe and some of the Near East.

That certainly happened, but it’s far from the whole story. In many places, when Christianity became the official state religion other religions became illegal. While many people saw their conversion as something personal, and some (in good polytheist fashion) simply added Jesus to the list of Gods they worshipped, zealous Christians tried to wipe the old Gods and their followers from the face of the Earth.

They were largely successful. Only 1% of all Latin literature remains to this day. Much was willfully destroyed and some was simply left to decay. Temples were torn down or seized to become churches. The Parthenon – a temple to Athena – was used as a church for over 800 years. The Greek academies were closed and the teaching of philosophy was banned. Hypatia’s violent murder by a crowd in 405 CE is far from the only pagan martyrdom.

The author says:

This is not to say that the Church didn’t also preserve things: it did. But the story of Christianity’s good works in this period has been told again and again … the history and the sufferings of those whom Christianity defeated have not. This book concentrates on them.

The violence of these early zealous Christians is not very different from what Daesh is doing today in the name of Islam. And make no mistake – there are zealots in every religion who are more than willing to destroy and kill for the purity of their faith. Only by defending the religious freedom of all can we insure their evil is turned back.

Nixey is a journalist, not a historian. The book is heavily footnoted, but she is telling a story, not compiling a list of facts. The Darkening Age is an easy read, but it is not a pleasant read.

It is also a necessary read.

And a crow in a live oak tree

I’m not quite done for the year. I’ll have the usual Under the Ancient Oaks year-end features next week. “The 4 Best Posts of 2017 You Didn’t Read” will be up on Sunday, and “The Top 10 Posts of 2017” will be up on Wednesday.

I’ll return to my regular blogging schedule on January 2.

The Birth of Lugh

Last updated on: July 25, 2017 at 8:30 pm By John Beckett

It’s still June and the Summer Solstice is less than a week in the past, but it’s time to move on to the season of Lughnasadh. And this year, I’m feeling a sense of urgency from the Master of All Arts.

The Solitary Ritual Series has been a very good thing for this blog, and for the many Pagans and other folks who read – and presumably, perform – them. As each high day approaches, I see blog traffic increase, sometimes dramatically. I exclude the solitary rituals from my Top 10 Posts of the Year feature each December, but if I didn’t three of them would have been on last year’s list (Samhain, Summer Solstice, and Imbolc). Two more (Ostara and Beltane) were in the Top 20.

Lughnasadh was #53.

Lughnasadh - A Solitary Ritual — *Lughnasadh – A Solitary Ritual*

The difference is even more dramatic when you look at total views for the life of the post. The most widely read of the eight rituals is Samhain with 23,744 views as I write this. Lughnasadh is in last place with 4,237. I can’t blame it on Google – when I search for “Lughnasadh ritual” it comes up #2 and when I search for “Lughnasadh solitary ritual” it comes up #1.

I know some Pagans spell it Lughnassa and some call it Lammas – that would impact the traffic from Google. But this isn’t just a blog traffic thing – the high day itself isn’t particularly well observed.

It’s at the first of August when lots of people are on vacation, and school kids and teachers are trying to cram as much as they can into what’s left of their breaks. It may be the first harvest, but few of us have any real connection with agricultural cycles. And it’s hot. On average, August 1 is the hottest day of the year in Dallas – Fort Worth, with an average high of 97 and an average low of 76.

Jason Mankey calls Lughnasadh “the ugly-duckling of sabbats.”

Denton CUUPS abandoned Lughnasadh for three years. In 2013 we used the August 1 high day for our first Cernunnos Ritual. In 2014 a Hellenic member led a Rite of Herakles, and in 2015 we performed a Ritual of Hermes. Last year I got the strong message “I want my festival back.” And so we did.

Alas, I won’t be there for this year’s Lughnasadh. I’ll be in Houston for a workshop and book signing at Pixie’s Intent on July 29, then speaking at the Unitarian Fellowship of Houston the following Sunday morning. But I will pour offerings to Lugh on my own on August 1.

Lugh was the first God I got to know as an individual being. Before that, most of my practice revolved around the Wiccan idea of the Goddess and the God, or other concepts that some would describe as panentheist and others would describe as vague. This was before my encounter with the Ennead of Egypt that put me firmly on the road to polytheism, and I honestly don’t remember what I thought about Lugh. But I clearly remember how I related to Lugh – as an individual deity with his own sovereignty and agency.

Did Lugh call me or did I pursue Lugh? My notes from the time are sparse and I can’t begin to remember. I just remember I felt a strong affinity with him. I am no Master of All Arts, but I’ve always had a wide range of interests, and Lugh seemed like he would be the perfect patron for me. My early work with and for him was helpful to me, and presumably to him as well (if he had any complaints, I never felt or heard them).

Then Cernunnos re-emerged in my life and my direction changed dramatically. I continued to honor Lugh at Lughnasadh, but other than that he faded into the background.

I had a wonderful experience of Lugh at the 2010 House of Danu Gorsedd. Thorn Coyle led a workshop on ecstatic ritual that turned into the preparation for the main Lughnasadh rite. That was the most intimate and powerful ritual I had experienced at the time.

I’ve had more recent experiences of Lugh that were quite powerful. Those are not yet ready to be shared. But what needs to be shared are Lugh’s stories, and there are several, including the story of his birth. This version is adapted from Gods and Fighting Men by Lady Augusta Gregory.

A long time ago the Fomorians controlled Ireland, and their king was Balor of the Evil Eye, so called because anyone who looked at his eye would immediately die. A Druid had prophesied that Balor would be killed by his own grandson, so he took his only child, a daughter named Ethniu, and locked her up in a tower guarded by twelve women, so she would never see or hear a man. But Ethniu often dreamed of a man.

At this same time there were three brothers living across the sea, and they were men of the Tuatha De Danann. They names were Samthainn, Cian, and Goibniu the famous smith. Now Cian had a great cow who never failed to give milk. Many people wanted this cow, so that she had to be watched night and day or someone would steal her.

Now Cian and Samthainn wanted swords made, so they went to Goibniu’s forge, and Cian brought the cow with him for safekeeping. When they arrived, Cian asked his brother Samthainn to hold the cow while he went into the forge to speak with Goibniu.

Now Balor wanted this cow badly, and he was watching. When he saw Samthainn holding the cow, he made himself look like a little boy, and went up to Samthainn and said “your brothers are going to use all the good steel for their swords, and make yours out of plain iron.”

Samthainn was outraged. “They will not deceive me so easily. Hold the cow, boy.” He rushed into the forge, and no sooner did Balor get the halter in his hand than he set out, dragging the cow along with him to his boat, and them across the sea to his palace.

When Cian saw his brother coming in he rushed out, and he saw Balor and the cow in the boat, on the water. There was nothing he could do to get his cow back.

So Cian went to a female Druid named Birog. She dressed him in women’s clothes, and sent him across the sea in a great gust of wind, to the tower where Ethniu was. Then she called to the women in the tower “Grant me shelter, good ladies, for I am traveling with a queen of the Tuatha De Danann, and this storm is great.” The Fomorian women did not like to refuse a woman of the Tuatha De Danann, so they let them in.

Then Birog cast an enchantment, and all the Fomorian women fell asleep. Cian went to speak with Ethniu, and when she saw him she said “you are the man of whom I have dreamt” and she gave him her love. After a while Birog and Cian went away on another great gust of wind.

And when her time came, Ethniu gave birth to a son. When Balor found out, he had his people put the child in a cloth and fasten it with a pin and throw him into the sea. As they were carrying the child across an arm of the sea, the pin dropped out, and the child slipped from the cloth into the water, and they thought he was drowned.

But the Druid Birog pulled him to her, and she brought him to his father Cian, who gave him to Tailtiu, daughter of the King of the Great Plain. And Tailtiu was his foster mother until he grew into manhood.

Hail Lugh!

The 2017 Celebration of Lugh

June 27: The Birth of Lugh

July 6: The Coming of Lugh

July 13: The Leadership of Lugh

July 20: The Victory of Lugh

From 2015: Lughnasadh – A Solitary Ritual