Magic At Work<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"David Sparks of Temple Spiritualis Compassare, Little Elm; Mike Joffrion of The Sacred Fire Temple, Fort Worth; John Beckett of Denton CUUPSPickin\u2019 up\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Magic At Work\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"David Sparks of Temple Spiritualis Compassare, Little Elm; Mike Joffrion of The Sacred Fire Temple, Fort Worth; John Beckett of Denton CUUPSPickin\u2019 up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-09-20T15:15:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/SraNi2bontI\/AAAAAAAAATo\/Wh4TOtatSYA\/s400\/work+day+09.20.09.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html\",\"name\":\"Magic At Work\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-09-20T15:15:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-09-20T15:15:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"David Sparks of Temple Spiritualis Compassare, Little Elm; Mike Joffrion of The Sacred Fire Temple, Fort Worth; John Beckett of Denton CUUPSPickin\u2019 up\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Magic At Work\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Magic At Work","description":"David Sparks of Temple Spiritualis Compassare, Little Elm; Mike Joffrion of The Sacred Fire Temple, Fort Worth; John Beckett of Denton CUUPSPickin\u2019 up","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Magic At Work","og_description":"David Sparks of Temple Spiritualis Compassare, Little Elm; Mike Joffrion of The Sacred Fire Temple, Fort Worth; John Beckett of Denton CUUPSPickin\u2019 up","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html","og_site_name":"John Beckett","article_published_time":"2009-09-20T15:15:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_cpRXT6ZSHTw\/SraNi2bontI\/AAAAAAAAATo\/Wh4TOtatSYA\/s400\/work+day+09.20.09.jpg"}],"author":"John Beckett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Beckett","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html","name":"Magic At Work","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-09-20T15:15:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-09-20T15:15:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad"},"description":"David Sparks of Temple Spiritualis Compassare, Little Elm; Mike Joffrion of The Sacred Fire Temple, Fort Worth; John Beckett of Denton CUUPSPickin\u2019 up","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Magic At Work"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/","name":"John Beckett","description":"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad","name":"John Beckett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Beckett"},"description":"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":493,"date":"2009-09-20T15:15:00","date_gmt":"2009-09-20T15:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work\/"},"modified":"2009-09-20T15:15:00","modified_gmt":"2009-09-20T15:15:00","slug":"magic-at-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2009\/09\/magic-at-work.html","title":{"rendered":"Magic At Work"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>David Sparks of Temple Spiritualis Compassare, Little Elm; Mike Joffrion of The Sacred Fire Temple, Fort Worth; John Beckett of Denton CUUPS<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pickin\u2019 up rocks in the hot sun, I fought Nature and\u2026<\/em> well, Nature\u2019s always going to win in the long run, but if we can tame this little corner for a generation or two, we\u2019ll have something nice.<\/p>\n

Magic works in odd ways. Two weeks ago, we performed a ritual to help build the Pagan community. Today, representatives of three local Pagan groups came together to work on Summerlands, the stone circle and park James Stevens is building on his land near Decatur. The paid workers who built the retaining walls did a so-so job, and the recent heavy rains have washed out much of it. We were picking up rocks and shoring up the walls, plus getting the rocks out of the field so it can be mowed without damaging the tractor.<\/p>\n

And we were getting to know each other and discussing plans for future projects.<\/p>\n

It took the Celts about a thousand years to build Stonehenge into what it is today. This is a much more modest project, but it still won\u2019t be finished in a weekend. But with more help from loving hands, it will become a beautiful site for rituals and gatherings, just as James has envisioned.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in participating in the work and the use of this site, sign up for the Summerland of Texas Yahoo Group<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"