Thursday, March 11, 2010
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My friend Greg is working on having Canada's last anti-witchcraft law repealed: This is in the Criminal Code under the fraud sections and basically describes Witchcraft as taking money for performing magic or divination.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.
Monday, March 1, 2010
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.
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
Monday, February 8, 2010
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 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)
Friday, February 5, 2010
We're Incorporated
The Order of Scathach is now a registered society in British Columbia. We're excited!
Monday, February 1, 2010
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
Thursday, January 21, 2010
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
In Her Service
Kerr
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
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
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