What does a druid do on the winter solstice? That depends on the druid. If you’re a Reconstructionist, you don’t do much. There isn’t a whole lot of evidence that the ancient druids did anything to celebrate the two solstices and equinoxes; their high holy days were the four cross-quarter holidays (Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, and… Continue reading

This past spring, an arsonist destroyed the Church’s meeting house. It is now a two-story skeleton of blackened bones, wrapped round with a single yellow caution strip, as if that were the only thing holding it up. Around it, the forest, lawn and garden are lush with summer growth. Near the top of the hill… Continue reading

It’s been a month since the Spring Equinox, and now at last in Massachusetts we’re getting some truly springlike weather — yesterday was the first day we could go outside without coats or sweaters. I spent the day with my hands in the earth, digging and weeding out a garden plot behind our apartment that… Continue reading

This past Monday we finally managed to get the family out in to the woods to celebrate the autumnal equinox — Alban Elued in the Druid Revival tradition. Two weeks previous, at the actual equinox, my wife was quite sick with a cold. One week ago it was raining cats and dogs. This weekend was… Continue reading

For some notes on the origin and meaning of Alban Elued, see this previous post. Our family’s Alban Elued ritual is drawn directly from the pages of John Michael Greer’s Druidry Handbook. It is in no way supposed to be a reconstructed ritual, a reenactment of what ancient Druids performed 2000 years ago. Almost nothing… Continue reading

This morning was deliciously bright, clear, and cool in western Massachusetts, reminding me that Alban Elued, the Druid celebration of the Autumnal Equinox, is coming before long. Another big hint is that we just spent a tidy bundle on back-to-school clothes. Continue reading

Scrunch up on the couch And cuddle in my arms, Thor’s out a-striding, And frightening the children. He’s barreled down Bifrost And slung his hammer wide, It smacks and cracks the mountaintops, It rivens the summer sky. Lightning-crowned thunder clouds Follow in his train, They slam our doors and windows, They whip the porch with… Continue reading