December Druidry: What’s Coming Next
The marriage of the sacred & the practical is the primary focus of the light I want to shed on my path.
In the ocean of hokey, cherry-picked or outright manipulative “manifestation” I see plastered all over social media from people that could give a rat’s ass about real magic (we’ve all seen the #girlboss #manifestation tiktoks), what I glean from that is the sincere desire for the spiritual realm to mean something in your life. How can you care about a deeper practice if you can’t afford rent, for example? I can understand that, even if I find the way it often gets marketed to be extremely distasteful (to say the least).
Nothing I’m teaching or doing has much of anything to do with financial manifestation, specifically. I bring it up because it’s a good example of practical, real-world focuses for spiritual activity— and that isn’t wrong in itself. What I find wrong is the cherrypicking, to pluck it out of the larger context of relationship to the bigger picture, or at least a more actually holistic & complete viewpoint. I think the incompleteness of the “manifestation babe” mentality is why people feel the need to drag in the absolute campiest, Hallmark/Hot Topic-tier bastardization of “shadow work” (as if there’s some universal witchcraft curriculum that’s also based on mistranslated Carl Jung as oversimplified homework assignments? There is not)… and I’m not actually interested in changing anyone’s mind, or endlessly saying “XYZ is wrong.”
There is actually more possible here. Beyond the clicks-oriented, follower count-oriented, clout-chasing exploitation of real spiritualities that many of these folks online are simply using for other aims… magic is real, and that’s what I really care about.
I care about sharing a perspective that’s equal parts religion and practical methodology, that understands the human experience, nature, divinity, all life as innately connected, without suggesting we should be fake-positive and buddy buddy with everything. The “wheel of the year” framework has been so lasting, I think, because we have a craving for the complete spectrum of the human & natural experience to be recognized— fruitful fertility, barren destruction. Fire and water, chaos and order, every possible expression of life has its time and place… and corresponding value, magically. So my upcoming workshops in LA are focused individually on the Celtic Cauldrons as introductions & engagement points with these marriages, uninterruptions between us and the divine: starting with the cauldron of the mind. All of this is simply a language of understanding so much of what is already at work within us: our own wisdom and what we encounter of the gods, our own inspirations and mythic callings.
My workshop at Vamachara in New York will be more of a full intensive on primal druidry on the whole, as it’s a cameo appearance on a briefer visit! I prefer to break things down to work with them individually, but I don’t live in New York and I’m not sure when I’ll be returning, I want to introduce folks to the path as a whole and give some inspiration to work with.
On that note, I’m still beside myself with happiness to be teaching at my favorite shop for the past decade, and we’ll be using the space (as the theme would suggest) both for a spoken word presentation, and to physically move around and put it into effect for ourselves, in ritual afterwards. No Pagan Standard Time! Anyone more than 10 minutes late will be doing jumping jacks.
Nothing specific is required in terms of what you “should” bring, but if you want to get the most out of the experience and you’re anything like me, here’s what I’d advise:
- A journal/notebook for any thoughts or insights that may strike you during the workshop or after the ritual
- Comfortable clothing to move around in; we will get barefoot at a point
- Any post-rite snacks or non-alcoholic beverages you’d like to share.
I hope you’re all keeping well, and hope to see you soon!