Dilemma

Next weekend, Pagan pride descends on North-Western NY in the form of the Central NY Pagan Pride Festival in Liverpool, NY (near Syracuse).  I'm really excited about the keynote speaker, Patti Lafayllve.  She's a practicing heathen devoted to Freyja and seidh work.  Even though I follow an Irish-inspired path, I do have Norse blood in me and know that the Celtic nations often interacted with them (hence my mixed ancestry!).  I feel that I could learn a lot from seidh.  Really, I think any trance-related workshops would be greatly beneficial to my spiritual growth*.

I was delighted to hear that Lafayllve is performing a rite using oracular seidh.  Unfortunately it's the night before Pagan Pride Day...  And I live an hour and a half away.  Now it wouldn't have been an issue if things had gone according to plan.  My husband now has to go into work Saturday morning for a meeting that he cannot get out of.  We didn't anticipate this and had been talking about going to Syracuse Friday for the rite, getting a hotel, and staying for Pagan Pride.   Bugger!  A part of me really wants to go to the rite anyway.  It's something I've never seen before and I want to learn more about it!  Yet the driving...  An hour and a half down, an hour and a half back.  Then the next day we would do the same thing!

"But Grey," you chime in, "don't you deserve to go?  Don't you have every right to further your knowledge?  It's not that bad of a drive."

Yes, I know...  But there's a part of me that would feel like a huge hypocrite.  Druidism, to me, is very Earth-centric.  I work so hard to make sustainable choices.  If I do so much driving for selfish reasons, it seems spiritually counter-productive.  It practically negates everything else I do...  We recently figured out how many miles my husband drives to work every week and it's depressing.  We really need to move between our two places of employment.

It's not that bad if I miss the rite...  I'm hopeful that I'll get the opportunity to see something like it in the future and learn more then.  And as long as Weretoad's meeting gets done in time, I should be able to make the two workshops Lafayllve is giving then - one on Ásatrú and the other on deepening relationships with Goddesses - in her case, Freyja.  It just stinks.  I'm so often faced with these transportation dilemmas.  I'm hoping to get a second car soon so that I have more freedom - freedom to pursue grad school and other areas of interest.  Even so...  it's so much pollution and so much driving...

I'm so ready for mass public transportation in the US now.



*Well...almost any...


( For My LJ Friends: http://adfcatprints.blogspot.com/ )

Trance Dance

"Moving Meditation" has been something I've heard more and more about this past year. I've read various articles about it and the luck some have with it over more traditional/stereotypical forms - still meditations, if you will. Sitting quietly and letting my mind alternate between quieting and exploring have always worked well for me except for when I'm wound up, tired, or angry. The first time I really tried a walking meditation was at the Mohawk Valley Pagan Network's "Workshop Day" in the summer of '09. The welcoming and patient Seraphoenix lead a workshop on labyrinths. It included some basic history and lore, construction ideas, modern uses, and a walkthrough. Although I never reached any depth of being or had any visions, I was able to still my mind very easily. I was too focused on my feet and where I was going to think of anything else. I was feeling congested that day and was amazed at my sudden ability to "clear my mind" without having to focus on my breath - a truly annoying task when one has a cold.

The next time I tried a labyrinth was at the CNY Pagan Pride Day in Liverpool, NY. They set up a simple labyrinth using small posts placed in the grass. One could walk it at any time of the day which was very convenient. I really enjoyed it and hope to see it at a future PPD.

Today I was listening to music and suddenly found myself engaging in what I've realized to be my favorite form of moving meditation - dancing. Only I've never danced this way before. Usually my dance moves are inspired by pop music, tribal fusion, and belly dance. Oh and I've got a little Beatles head wobble and Cotton Eye Joe too. :P But tonight... I just... I let go completely and just ... threw my body around? I suppose that makes it sound violent which it wasn't. I was just literally dancing like nobody was watching and throwing myself into a very tribal sounding piece by a favorite band of mine called Faun. The song was Lynansa and it has a pulsing, chanting energy that made my body want to jerk forward and backwards while simultaneously swaying from right to left. The repetitive motion very nearly took me somewhere else - until I realized what was happening. I HATE that! It happens so often to me lately! Whenever I'm just about to break into a deep trance or, perhaps, astrally project, my body snaps out of it. It's frustrating... However I must be optimistic and admit a minor victory in that I think I truly felt what it meant to trance dance.

It was also an amazing workout...

In other news, I rather liked this top-5 list of best environmental films! Enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mncskGdLO_U