Why Blog At All? – A Question I Ask Myself

I’ve started this blog with some reluctance. I’m not a big reader of others’ blogs for one thing. I have a few friends with blogs, including one person who is part of this collective, whose writings I read when notified that something new has been posted.

For the most part, however, I don’t follow the blogosphere. For one thing I don’t like reading prose that commits felonies against the English language. Too many blogs come across as full of self infatuation and importance, deal with trivialities such as this morning’s breakfast, or use code that only a special few understand. Maybe this is just because they offer nothing that speaks to me.

This lies at the core of why I’m hesitant to become a blogger myself. What do I have to say that speak to others, that they could possibly want to read?

Well, maybe you won’t find any thoughts or musings here of interest, but I going to blog anyway. I have expertise in the Natural realm that might interest you, for one thing; I’ve been an amateur and practicing Naturalist well, oh probably since about the age of 14. I have also observed a lot of changes over the 60 years and more of life, not all of them good in my view, but nonetheless worthwhile to me to put out there for consideration. I’m also reaching out to you to see if you are of like mind on things; that’s up to you to decide, and I don’t expect you to agree with all that I say.

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I identify myself as a Nature Shaman. I travel easily between the various worlds of Nature study: astronomy, meteorology, geology, ecosystems, the Earth’s evolution. As a shaman I find journeying to other worlds – spiritual ones for lack of a better term – easily in trance, and those I meet there speak to me.

Being the Nature Shaman is a new role for me. It’s come upon me over about the past two years or so, but it’s roots lie back in my distant past. This path is one I’ve been meant to tread for a long time, and I’ve been in training for it without knowing it.

Only recently has what this means begun to come into focus. I think that my purpose as a Nature Shaman is to reconnect with the Earth and Nature in mind, body, and spirit and to help others do so. I’m also to be a “rememberer”, one who collects and keeps alive the stories and knowledge of what the connection with Nature means. Shamans travel between the worlds and connect with them for the good of all. If there was ever a world we need to connect with and travel to, it’s our own Nature/Earth – the Great Mother from whom we come and who sustains us – from whom we’ve become separated.

All very theoretical, you may find, reading it as words. Yeah, it sounds sort of like that to me, too. Like I said, what it means to be a Nature Shaman has just begun to become clear, and I ain’t there yet. Writing the blog may help, as well as your comments and contributions to it.

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August first or thereabouts is the harvest feast of Lammas. “Lammas” comes from “Loaf Mass” and in Britain in times gone by was a festive celebration and giving of thanks to God for the first gathering in of the year’s grain. Tradition speaks of the first loaf made from the harvest being offered as the bread used in the eucharist.

The festival’s roots in Britain and Ireland are far older than that, however. Remnants of the older ways have managed to survive their usurpation by the medieval church and the suppression of the Reformation. This is still the time for fairs, for feasting and rejoicing in the fruits of the Great Mother, burning bonfires on hilltops, and dancing in the streets.

Lammas is also a time to reflect on the fact that the productive year has begun to wane. To our ancestors not that long ago such as my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Warren, the fields, orchards, flocks, and herds were measured and managed carefully to be sure there was sufficient bounty to last the winter. Now, of course, if we make even a modest living such worries don’t come to us. There are fruits and perishable vegetables at the store year round along with all else we need.

Still, this time of year has things for us to reflect upon. The days become shorter. The sun sinks lower in the sky each day, the Moon rises higher. The birds have begun to prepare for winter, and already the goldfinches are beginning to lose some of their golden brilliancy. The trees feel like they are preparing the sleep, the bright vibrant green of June now absent. Nights grow colder. It’s good to be aware of such things, that the season of summer is turning to autumn. So it has always been in my lifetime and for ages before you and I were born.

Elements of Magic

Iron Pentacle