Full Moon "Ritual of Protection" on Tara

by Dara Casey Wed Mar 08, 2006 13:02

well, so much for the ceremonies of protection. yea, they really work as we saw last wednesday when the m3 was given the go ahead. people pretending to walk the path of the druid. walking the walk and not talking the talk using tara’s name to massage their ego’s and promote their own personal interests. it’s no wonder tara could not be protected. originally, this comment was all capital letters - "shouting".

by Con Connor - Ireland's Druidschool Tue Mar 06, 2007 16:48 info at druidschool dot com

It is sad to see that some people expect others to do all the work and it is even sadder when we see that these same people are so ready to complain that others are not doing enough. Maybe it is time to grow up a bit and take active involvement in the many ways that exist to help protect Tara and our ancient Celtic and pre-Celtic culture and heritage from commercial destruction for the profit of a few instead of sitting on the high stool and moaning.

Why be angry at those who are trying to Save Tara Valley? Perhaps such mis-directed anger could be better employed if it was transformed into constructive effort.. Be aware that it is not the Druids or Pagans who wish to destroy Tara Valley - because we wish to preserve its landscape setting and establish the Royal City of Gaelic Ireland as a World Heritage Site.

Those who say not enough is being done could actually help to do something useful instead of attacking those who are trying.

The link below gives you an alternative future for Tara (written for free by a man who is doing something and not moaning that nothing is being done)

by iosaf mac d. Tue Mar 06, 2007 20:19

http://indymedia.ie/article/77779

It was a nod to longer piece I wrote for non-open publishing people on that end of counter culture - that's why I go all icky on the © thing. The people who took that piece are very protective of their grimoires and tomes of charms. & my little contribution to the field of naturalism (which I had first hinted at on indymedia ireland space in the Sunday Papers "dark side of the moon" edition {one of the most important of the series for temporal references} look carefully at all the illustrations there http://indymedia.ie/article/70614 ) is now bound by that bunch of pagans' codes.

I respect that. it takes all sorts - as long as they're not doing any harm.

Low magic practise or paganism or synchreticism may bring out giggles in many people, but I know that pagan families also suffer prejudice & rumour. At least on this site - jabbing is kept to the accompanying baggage of "celtism - nationalism".

Now that is really something I don't understand & would like to see explained as soon as is possible (within 5 years would be good). I can see no real basis for most of it as a system of social organisation though acknowledge the huge work done by the "brehon law" people. But it smells of the vein of fascistic and proto-fascistic thinking which there was way too much of in Ireland in the late 19th early 20th century. From far away it seems the nation which has most successfully branded its "celtic-ness" (heck we don't even have proper words or terms for this stuff .... yet) is Scotland. Though admittedly English sentimental imperialism gave them a head start by allowing the men wear skirts - a most emasculated remnant of the previously banned "gaelic" costume. And there we have it - "previous gaelic" costume, with its literature, musical system (whose complexity was all to easily dismissed in the 19th century by Bunting and co- even though they "saved" it from oral extinction and transmission freezing it on manusript paper in a notation system which poorly served the nuances of the music. Irish traditional music got dumbed down in the 19th century - it had already passed its harping and piper peak about the time the geese flew away.

I suspect all this "cetlic stuff" it's anathema to me But I don't want you to think I'm having a go at ye. Or other readers to think I'm having a go at them. So I'll try and explain my suspicions and attitude with a "compare and contrast" analogy. I like them for they work well.-

I must admit seeing afro-americans or more recently afro-londoners try and fit themselves into the motherland's traditional costumes complete with fly-swat flail on a Friday evening to run an exclusively "black" night still causes me problems. This phenomona admittedly reached its lowest point ( in my opinion ) in 1974 less than 3 years since it had started at "state level" - when Don King brought Muhammad Ali & George Foreman to fight in the then Zaire's Kinshasa's stadium for the world boxing championship. The cynicism of Don King who billed the event which earned him millions both ways ( he managed both fighters whilst gurgling non-stop about the "brothers in Harlem") not only gave the fight its name "Rumble in the Jungle" but found an eager partner in the very brutal dictator of Zaire Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga.
He had been born with the simple surname Ngbendu Desire but is now remembered for starting the leopard skin toque hat craze and enforcing his own very narrow interpretation of "Africanism". If you like his response to Mao's cultural revolution. in 1971 ""Africans were ordered to drop their Christian names for African ones, and priests were warned that they would face 5 years' imprisonment if they were caught baptizing a Zairean child with a Christian name. Western attire and ties were banned, and men were forced to wear a Mao-style tunic known as an abacost. In 1972, Mobutu renamed himself Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga ("The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake and arising from the blood and ashes of his enemies like the Sun which conquers the night.")"" Today Sese Seko looks like his dress code was influenced more by disco era pimps than any genuine attempt at cultural "re-africanisation".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumble_in_the_Jungle

But let's get back to my analogy and the London friday night clubs of African entertainment. What are most obviously missing to the trained eye are the tribal scars - because very few of these modern cosmopolitan workers and residents of London or NYC went through the scarification rituals. ( I have been assured it is also the case in NYC by one of my best friends who is one good part afro- and still can't get the NYC out of her)
The British police and social services frowned on such things, seeing paths opened to other forms of mutilation....so the indelible scars on cheeks or foreheads were replaced by postal codes.

But before I lose you - these men and women whom I watched at close quarter in South London dressed the part - as the part could be bought or made by them - often as expensive as any Feis gaelic child dancer's dress - but the real mark of ancestry - the tribal scars on cheeks or foreheads were missing. How wonderful to see all of Africa's Kings and Queens mix together without their tribal identification.

This posed questions for me, which means I get active - I like answers - so at long last I gained entry as a "guest little honkey irish boy" & then I learnt that in the absence of tribal scars the courting Afro-Londoners relied on surnames instead for that all important tribal categorisation. Isn't that ironic? Do you have to have read all of Frantz Fanon to see what led to and led from "rumble in the jungle"?

The surnames of the British and French empires were weighed along with the property declaration monikers of the American plantations. How very ironic - the difference between a duBois, a Ngebenda & a Johnson. Shortly after that quite splendid "investigation" I was asked to review a book by a shaman who now claims to lead that "sector" of "religious revival" from California USA..... a long way from the adobe hut (which is now in Burkina Faso) where he had been first initiated to tribal mysteries. I was quite new to the book reviewing thing at that stage & quite foolishly and needlessly and utterly un-professionally read the book from cover to cover. I even took notes. I finished the review {a 2star ** "you can leave this"} & then as often things work out - "me angels" fetched Mr Shaman up in my neck of London. We chatted about this and that (more that) touching the attitudes of the British authorities to animist, pantheist, or "shamanistic" rituals in "migrant communities" & then the missing piece of the jigsaw tumbled out of his mouth.
He had been scarred at the appointed time (a moon as you might know) & circumcised too - & then the big secret of his commercial success & westernisation of "mumbo jumbo" - he had won a scholarship to a jesuit college stocked with eager young French priests out from the metrepole to secure for ever notre dame's spiritualité He had been such a good student with the jesuits - that when other lads were going off to join the army or militia & seek out more scars - he was earmarked for the "priesthood". At some point in that training - he (in his candid words to me) heard the spirits of his ancestors so back to the village he went. The local shaman didn't take kindly to the jesuit career or its apostasy. So he hung the man from hooks for several days whilst rubbing halucinogens into his body. This made sure his French catholicism was purged, he could be card-carrying shaman & of course become a millionaire resident in California but stll able to hear the spirits of his ancestors . The thing is the easiest way to find them new believers seems to be repackaging other "creole" rituals (voodoo et al) and a decent smattering of jesuitical slight of hand. In other words all the names are "african", the tools are "african" but the process Kernel within is not.

So how do you become a Druid? & what exactly is it that you do with the Moon? Don't worry you're not going down on my "they're coveting a moon-base" list but I think it would be in your long term best interest to clarify some things. Is the moon ritual a wiccan influenced one? Would it be recognisable in structure (if not language - you specifiy you use modern gaeilge not the proto-goidelic the celts might have heard ----- isn't half of Europe celtic?) and symbolism to other pagans whom I reported on while back [the first one to claim a headstone on the US War veterans http://indymedia.ie/article/77070 ] ?
I wonder is there contact or liason with non "Celtic" pagan groups? or is the selection very narrow in Ireland. Not that anyone should think it is narrow. Ireland is a veritable garden of delights.
Can you assure lay people or any passing anarcho-syndicalist of good faith but inquiring mind that your operations are not without risk? & would any of ye be up to meeting the micro-religious challenges of setting the agenda on ritual bodily adornment, scarification & so on?

I've pointed out a few times that the pagan groups of Ireland have a long way to go to formalising or even if we get technical _ritualising_ their "low" magic as it's called by any self-respecting Hogwortian. I remember suggesting (quite wittily I thought) that until you agree on a real world address and more importantly a next world address your religious beliefs will not attract consistent practioneers. You need a "conclave" - answer the question now posed by "Iosaf of Patmos" "where do you go when you die? as in - what is the real-world next-world advantage of being a pagan."

I can't over-stress that it may be in your long term better interests to "organise" a bit more. I can see no advantage to your celtic name gods and goddesses over other archetypes or praeternormal entities, I'd even be more unsure of the "finetuning" considering we speak no Goidelic and largely read no Ogham. But dealing with those questions of perhaps "giving yourselves a common charter" will serve to protect you.
You know - "I scratch your back you squeeze my tit". Across Ireland there is a need to help categorise malignant ritual practise by others who misuse symbols as you ought all well know without drawing symbols, or etching numerals.

I hope this comment is informative at some level or provokes thought - From London to Tara, Shamans to Druids, Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali, from Fanon to you "arch-druids."

I suppose you would all like to know at the end of my naturalist expedition, I and my gallician friends found to our amazement a clutter (or brood) of hatchling Dolmens, some of whom we brought out harm's way. I can't tell you how they're growing - Aristotle excluded them from zoology. But they look healthy enough. You just don't play them a certain type of music & they remain harmless. I'll send you a chip to plant with some simple instructions. Don't worry they're low maintenance & do better protection than the Moon. She's very changeable.


Blesséd Be! .:. sure I can asimulate yiz all I am the psychic equivalent of the Borg. - the whole hive in one busy head. I'm the greatest! I'm the champ! I'm gonna fly I'm gonna dance! Muhammad Ali really was the sportsman of the XX century. to get that much fair play out of company of liars and cheats.


Blesséd Be! .:. aerís

One of Europe's few remaining Dolmens in its natural wooded habitat, the shy silicone based lifeform© is dwindling but in extinguishable

by M. Ni Bhrolchain - Save Tara Tue Mar 06, 2007 20:38

Contrary to the posting above, nothing happened regarding the M3 last week. The latest news is that there was no PPP signed last week, that was a rumour spread by someone for whatever weird reason best known to themselves.
Anyway the latest news from the NRA is that they are hoping to sign the PPP this week. That is directly from the NRA themselves and not a rumour.

by Meehawl Wed Mar 07, 2007 02:40

Does a week matter, whether the PPP was signed last week or to be signed this week, does it matter ? No. Best walk away from the Save Tara campaign the moment that PPP is signed, for it's over then.

Iosaf, the term "Celtic" Druid is used by some to sell Druidry correspondence courses all the better to gullible yanks, and, yes, the Moon Ritual is of 1940's English Wiccan origin

The "ancient" "Druidic" Eightfold year is of similar Saxon origin.
As is most modern "Irish" Druidry coming from spurious books of English and American origin.

All this has really sprung to life at the hands of a couple of "Irish" would-be Archdruids who have sprung up over the past five years in Ireland forming their own small groves, setting up their own small internet sites and flogging their own versions of "Irish" "Celtic" Druidry.

There are some small remnants of the memories of ancient Druidry left, especially in the Gaeltacht and more rural areas of Ireland, also in the Western Isles of Scotland.

The rest is Make-Believe.

by Paraic Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:31

Indeed this "Dark Moon Ritual of Protection at Tara " seems to be written by one man who seems to have made himself a Druid, and an Archdruid, a couple of years back. No Druid rituals exist from Ireland's Druidic Age as Ireland's Druids wrote nothing down.

As I understand it there are many different types of modern Druids in Ireland with differing self-images and outlooks. The older ones such as the ODI and the Christian Druids led by Father Daragh Molloy of the Aran Islands stoutly maintain that neither they nor their ancient Irish Druidic ancestors were or are "Pagan" (coming from the Latin word "Paganus" , meaning "Rustic Fellow" which they reject as a derogatory term of abuse and which also has dark connotations).

Some of the more recent groves of newer Druids dotted here and there around the country would seem to be of English/ Ascendancy origin, including the strange Egyptian Rites Druid Clan of Dana of the Fellowship of Isis based at Clonegal Castle, County Wexford.

A few others, isolated in Cork and Limerick, consisting of handfuls of students, seem to be involved in Leftist Activist politics, gay rights and so on.

Then there are the environmentalist Druids who centre their activities around such campaigns as Save Tara.

And you have many self-proclaimed pagans and wiccans, North and South, Goths etc who do not really seem to be organised in any way at all, perhaps a total of about 3,000 in all in Ireland.

There seems to be no agreed central organisation, indeed the opposite would seems to be the case with much infighting, propaganda against each other, who is right, who is wrong etc etc - with the Gardai called in by one group to "protect" their own "Rituals of Protection" at Tara from supposed threats of "execution" and "assassination"

I heard on the radio that the Archdruid of Ireland was interviewed by the Gardai on Monday

What a Joke modern Irish Druidry has turned out to be !

by Sean Mallory Wed Mar 07, 2007 11:03

"Full Moon "Ritual of Protection" on Tara"

I would urge you to please stop hosting events. Before you start on that i'm denying you your tradition or whatever I support your right to interpret Irish history in whatever warped way you want (but i don't have to listen to you). You must accept that must people see druidism as irrelevant at best and idiotic at worst. Either way when you are pushing this you alienate nearly everyone. Why do you not put your pet project aside for a few years tackle the motorway on the basis that its useless and will solve communting issues thereby engaging with hundreds of thousands of people. Otherwise they will build that motorway and you will be doing your wizardry on a roundabout.
Most of us hate druidism even those of us with a real interest in tara.

by hogworts .:. Wed Mar 07, 2007 17:22

I thank the others for confirming what I had suspected - some are using the Gardnerian rite to bring the Moon into their affairs and dressing it up as druidism. It is nothing of the kind- it isn't even good "witchcraft" if you want to learn about that sort of thing get ye down to Huntingdon Carlow & see some experts in their psychic field.
There's nothing wrong with kids or grownups playing with Dolmens, (watch the music thing though - no 3 kilowatt bass bins and repetitive beats please) but the Moon is something else. And unfortuanately many materialist rationalists miss out on all this and the damage that may be done to young (especially) minds by dabbling in magical efforts especially in certain places. Don't go reciting the rosary at the dome of the rock - don't go all mumbojumbo at Tara when you think it's cute and the moon looks good. She always looks good but you only see one side of her. We have the word "lunatic" and most mystical or religious systems be they esoteric or exoteric are based on very precise lunar calculations which are even still reliant on observations - (the islamic world must wait for the first sighting of moons at specific places for certain feasts).
The single most audacious demonstration of American power after the use of the atomic bomb was the Apollo Lunar program. Behind that is the certain uncertainty of our constant companion - she may move some day & the "synoptic faiths of the brother Jew, Muslim and Christian" have not exoterically dealt with that - the nordics did quite dramatically as did some of the asian systems and most of the meso-american cultures. They all seemed to concur that it would not (/ will not) be a good thing for humanity or any other great ape about at the time.
I'd advise people of any wiccan tradition not to go publicising operations or workings on the political or cultural internet like indymedia or even open groups - before hand it's something which makes simple psychological sense - like not accepting money for waving your broom or wand about if you call that religion or worship - of course if you call it "kinky extras" I believe the going rate is about 60eu.
But if you're just getting people together to admire her "silent seas" and "constant changing waxing and waning at her appointed times" - that's cool - romantic - nice way to hang out - I'd counsel the careful use of a 6pack and some fat spliffs. but leave off using her "power" to the experts who don't. You can still play a part in lunar affairs - monitor every report of scientific interest, potential (ever more so every year ) especulative or military exploitation which is and must always be illegal You can observe the Moon from your own home - when she is visible and it's not too cloudy with your naked eye. and wonder..............

by Meehawl Wed Mar 07, 2007 19:39

Precisely, Hogwarts, it's Hogwash - Garnerian dressed up as Druidry.

But Irish Druidry is in the air and some were wise enough to find it 13 years ago.

Then this modern Tara Moon Exploiter we have here came along circa 4 years ago.

Irish Druidry will still be there, where he can't see it, when he eventually , inevitably, turns to something else.

Then, perhaps, others may find its ragged tapestry too.