Modern Knighthood Is Here!

I've just entered the realm of e publishing for the first time with my first e book- Modern Knighthood: Unleashing Your Inner Warrior to Master Yourself and Your World. What I started with my earlier books (Wiccan Warrior, Full Contact Magick, and Magickal Self Defense) all comes together in this book about unleashing your inner power. Knighthood isn't about appearance, but action, not about tinsel but tenacity, not about glitter, but genius, not about fashion, but faculty. You can check it out at Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/34975

Malpas Wassail Song

Now the harvest being over

And Christmas drawing in

Please open your door

And let us come in

With our wassail!

Chorus:

Wassail, wassail

And joy come to our jolly wassail!

Here's the master and mistress

Sitting down by the fire

While we poor wassail boys

Do trudge through the mire

With our wassail!

Here's the master and mistress

Sitting down at their ease

Put your hands in your pockets

And give what you please

With our wassail!

This ancient old house

We will kindly salute

It is your custom

You need not dispute

With your wassail!

Here's health to the master

And a long time to live

Since you've been so kind

And so willing to give

With our wassail!

Here's the saddle and the bridle

They're hung upon the shelf

If you want any more

You must sing it yourself!

With our wassail!

You can check out the music for this at: http://youtube.com/watch?=MNMSc6Hb2Pw

The Isolation Trap

There is a trap that first responders like police officers fall into. It works like this:





First responders typically spend their days dealing with an endless round of tragedy. Every day they deal with people who stop communicating with words and start communicating with fists. All week they attend an interminable series of accidents and heartache too often caused by someone's stupidity. All month they deal with an ceaseless see of faces of people trapped in addictions which are fueled by a life of crime. You may think that the upcoming Christmas season, advertised as a time of peace and goodwill to mankind, would be an exception to this. That's not the police officer's perception. Christmas is the time of year when people who haven't seen each other for a long time get together, have a few drinks... and then remember why they haven't seen each other in a long time. For the cop, Christmas is an unending series of interventions in violent domestic squabbles. The world is a chaotic and often dangerous place.





Here's the trap: Because this is all they see in a backbreaking schedule of lengthy shifts and overtime, they sink into the perception that this is all there is out there. That, as you might imagine, is a pretty depressing place to be.





First responders aren't alone in this. On my daily walks I frequently pass people plodding to the bus stop, the store, the appointment, head down, shoulders hunched, avoiding eye contact, fearful of the world around them.





So here's what we all need to do for one another. When you pass that person in the street, say hello. When you're at the store, hold the door for the person behind you, and say hello.





That's it. Just smile and say hello.





By doing this you're reminding these people that this chaotic world doesn't just contain tragedy, that the bedlam they percieve actually has some sane inhabitants. There are good people out there, though we sometimes don't notice them. It doesn't hurt to remind others about that. Actually it makes a big difference, because it makes people feel that they have a purpose and that they are not alone. Especially at this time of the year.



For more thoughts about Yule, check out the Order of Scathach blog: http://scathachisland.blogspot.com/

In Her Service, Kerr

Ancient Soup Recipes

I just posted some ancient soup recipes on my fantasy writer blog if anyone would like to check them out: http://caennis.wordpress.com/

Pagan Religions Book Update

Lots of people have been wondering what is happening with the 4th edition of the Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca, which has been renamed Pagan Religions: A Diversity Training Manual. I got the updated manuscript with a few final questions from the editor at Acorn Publishing last Friday and got the reply back to him Monday morning. He assures me that this should be the last of the editting and that he will get down to the business of final layout. So hopefully this book will be out soon.

Bright Blessings, Kerr

Gatetway Home

Thrakos Shadowwolf wrote to me about a week long program that he is putting on for soldiers returning to civilian life called Gateway Home: A Warrior's Transitional Journey.

WHO: Former Military personnel of Pagan/Heathen/Wiccan spiritual paths who feel they have not yet successfully reintegrated into civilian life or who feel emotionally stuck in, or haunted by, their past military experiences.

WHAT: An intensive week long seminar journey through classes, workshops, and Rituals transforming the former soldier into a true Warrior with the skills and wisdom to create a personally satisfying and honorable future.

WHEN: Mon. 15 November - Sun. 21 November 2010

WHERE: 20 Acre organic mini-farm and forested nature retreat on the Cumberland Plateau. 1 hr. N of Chattanooga, 2 hr. SW of Knoxville, 2.5 hr E of Nashville, TN.

FOR DETAILS AND REGISTRATION GO TO: http://www.swordandcauldron.org/

SPONSORED BY: Temple of the Sword and Cauldron

SIWC: Launching My Fiction Writing

My wife and I were at the Surrey International Writer's Conference this weekend taking classes, networking, and pitching our new works of fiction. Yes! I've started writing sword and sorcery fantasy! It was a successful weekend: I had an editor and agent ask to see chapters of my new novel, which will be the first book of a trilogy. You can see my podcast from SIWC at: http://beachcombercommunications.com/2010/10/charles-ennis-an-interview-at-siwc/

Love Magick

Every so often, I get an e mail like this (name removed to respect the privacy of the sender):

"Hi.

I'm trying to find someone to help me with matters of the heart, and wondering if your willing to help me.
I've tried to find someone who works with wicca. I found your name and info on the internet and hoping that you would e mail me back and let me know if you’re willing to help me bring a lost love back into my life.
This is very important to me and many people say they can't do this kind of as they aren't strong enough.
Please tell me you can and will help me. I love this man ssoo much and want him back in my life . I will explain more when I hear back from you.
PLEASE help me, I will do almost anything to get us together again."

And my reply to this person is the same advice that I’ve given to countless people over the years:

I'm sorry to hear of your distress, and I can tell from your note that this is a very emotional issue for you. Yes, I have the power to do this: You have this power yourself, I assure you; all you need to do is to learn how to access it. Your note gives me the impression that you feel powerless. You have the power, it is yours to use. That's what we teach in the Order of Scathach.

However, I would strongly caution you against engaging in any form of magick that forces your will upon another. There is an old adage: What you bind, you're bound to. Without exception, people who do magick to make someone they are interested in love them end up with bad relationships. If this is truly love, and is meant to be, then you don't need magick to make it happen. It is magick in and of itself. If this relationship that you were in has ended, and/or isn't working, then that may be a good indication that it isn't meant to be, however strongly you feel about it at the moment. That your relationship has failed may be a very strong indication that you can do better than this, and that someone better is out there waiting for you. If you have to do magick to make someone love you, it isn't love, and it will only lead to disappointment. If you want a loving relationship and are having problems finding one, magick the universe, not a particular person. Put the intention out there and you'll get what you were looking for, probably faster than you thought. We can help you to overcome your distress, but we don't do love spells to make people love you.

In Her Service
Kerr Cuhulain
Grand MasterOrder of Scathach
www.dunscathach.com
warriorwitch @ http://twitter.com/

Repealing Canada's Witchcraft Law

My friend Greg is working on having Canada's last anti-witchcraft law repealed: This is in the Criminal Code under the fraud sections and basically describes Witchcraft as taking money for performing magic or divination. As part of his letter writing campaign, he has written to the Liberal Party of Canada's Critic of Justice as a second approach to the Minister of Justice to draw political/media attention to the issue and put pressure on the Federal Government to take action. Greg has a Facebook group for this project:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=350103684946&ref=ts All the information on this project is listed there as well as a letter that people can copy/paste to email or mail out. A lot of the information is also available through the discussion forums at www.thewicca.ca. Any assistance would be welcome.

Kiva Update

Dear Friends:

The Order of Scathach has had some of our Kiva loans paid off, so I made new loans to a couple of entrepreneurs: Thon Tan, a female farmer in Cambodia, and William Mulongo, a farmer in Kenya. This brings our Order of Scathach Kiva portfolio up to 17 (portfolio average for Kiva members 5.3) in 10 different countries. Remember, you can sign up to do loans on www.kiva.org and register yourself as an Order of Scathach team member (9 team members at present) to have your loans count towards the team total (5 so far). For those of you new to the Order of Scáthach, Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending.

Kiva was born of the following beliefs:

People are by nature generous, and will help others if given the opportunity to do so in a transparent, accountable way.

The poor are highly motivated and can be very successful when given an opportunity.

By connecting people we can create relationships beyond financial transactions, and build a global community expressing support and encouragement of one another.

Kiva promotes:

Dignity: Kiva encourages partnership relationships as opposed to benefactor relationships.

Partnership relationships are characterized by mutual dignity and respect.

Accountability: Loans encourage more accountability than donations where repayment is not expected.

Transparency: The Kiva website is an open platform where communication can flow freely around the world.

I encourage everyone to get involved in this worthy charity.

In Her Service, Kerr Cuhulain

Wicca Was Inspired by Chivalry

You may ask, why should chivalry be a part of Wicca? If you go back to the roots of Wicca, you’ll find that chivalry was one of the things that inspired Wicca in the first place.
In 1900 an American (though born in Canada), Ernest Thompson Seton, attempted to deal with issues of juvenile delinquency by creating an organization that woodcraft and civilized values based on his knowledge of First Nations peoples. “Seton’s Indians” rapidly became popular, and in 1912 resulted in the publishing of his book The Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore. This was one of the principal influences leading to Robert Baden-Powell founding the Boy Scouts movement. In fact, Baden-Powell originally gave leadership of the North American part of his organization to Seton. Seton ultimately resigned from Baden-Powell’s organization in 1915. Where Baden-Powell’s views were jingoistic and militaristic, Seton’s were not and this ultimately led to differences between them. In 1916 Ernest Westlake, was a naturalist, anthropologist and traveller of Quaker upbringing, founded the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry in the United Kingdom, making Seton its honorary Grand Chieftain. 1909 Westlake had forsaken Quakerism for the "old gods" of Paganism, inspired by authors such as Edward Carpenter, Nietzsche, Havelock Ellis, Jane Ellen Harrison, Tylor and Frazer. Westlake’s Order of Woodland Chivalry avoided the military overtones of Scouting, instead focusing on the virtues of kindness, fellowship, animal conservation and woodcraft. Westlake saw women as incarnations of God, revered the Jack-in-the-Green, which he considered to be the English equivalent of Dionysus, and held that the "Trinity of Woodcraft" consisted of Pan, Artemis and Dionysus.
So it is not surprising that the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, unlike Scouting, accepted many of the premises of modern Neopaganism. Nature was described as the Mistress and Mother, God as Creator and All-Father and Christ as a teacher rather than as God incarnate. The greatest ceremony of the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry was lighting the campfire: At their first folkmoot ceremony at Lammas 1921, held on an estate at Sandy Balls on the northern edge of the New Forest, the sacred fire was lit by four people dressed in colors of the elements of each quarter, bringing greetings from the elemental powers in succession from north round to west.
The Order of Woodcraft Chivalry in turn inspired other organizations such as the Young Soldiers/Handmaidens of Pan, founded by music hall actress Audrey Auckland in Middle Wallop in Hampshire in the 1940s. Boys in this organization were initiated as “Warriors of Pan”, swearing an oath to care for the land. Indeed, scholars such as Ronald Hutton have the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry provided the basis for George Pickingill’s New Forest coven, from which the modern religion of Wicca grew.
Incidentally, the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, though small, has survived: In the 1990s Martin Westlake, son of Aubrey and grandson of Ernest, allowed the Order to celebrate its anniversary at Sandy Balls estate.

In Her Service, Kerr

(Photo: Members of the Order of Scathach at the Armoring Ritual at the Vancouver Pagan Pride celebrations, September 2009)

We're Incorporated

The Order of Scathach is now a registered society in British Columbia. We're excited!

Janus's "Potions" Class

Here's some photos of the recent "Potions" class that Janus taught at the Surrey Motherhouse a couple of weeks ago.

BB Kerr

Surrey Motherhouse Garden News

As many of you know, we installed the new greenhouse in the Surrey Motherhouse garden along with 4 composters last February. As part of this project we started a number of garden and medicinal herbs including basil, thyme, marjoram, oregano, parsley, rosemary, savory, dill, chives, spearmint, horehound, feverfew, hyssop, borage, chamomile and marshmallow. This year we are adding more: Angelica, echinacea, cilantro/coriander, confrey, cinquefoil, anise, lemon balm, and bay laurel. We're also going to be producing a huge selection of bedding plants for the yard. I've got cuttings of fuchsia, geranium, begonia, and chrysanthemums on the go and I've got a huge pile of marigold seeds from last year's plants. In addition, we're going to be growing a lot of vegetables. If anyone is interested in having some seeds, or needs some medicinal herbs, or wants to learn how to do any of this gardening stuff, don't hesitate to contact me.
In Her Service
Kerr

Tinctures Workshop

Janus will be teaching a tinctures workshop at the Surrey Motherhouse of the Order of Scathach at 6 PM on Sunday, January 24. If you are interested, please contact me.

In Her Service, Kerr