Sky Earth Sea: Better Than Coffee!! (and other bits of interest)

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Hey there, dear readers! Shameless plug to follow, for those of you looking for some new high-quality reading material on Druidry and Paganism... Check out the latest issue of Sky Earth Sea: A Journal of Practical Spirituality. Not just for Druids and Pagans, this journal has something for anyone and everyone interested in spiritual practice and looking for ideas and guidance on how to incorporate Spirit into everyday life.

I'm particularly proud of my two contributions to this issue, if you don't mind me saying so. (So proud, in fact, that I'm planning on sending my dad a copy of the issue, just to show him once again that Druids aren't crazy tree-hugging hippies... or, okay, we're not just tree-huggers, anyway!)

"The Peaceful Warrior: Pagan Pacifism Without Excuse" is an article exploring the necessity of nonviolence to counter the rampant systemic violence of our modern consumer-culture world, and takes a careful look at the mythology and iconography of the ancient Celtic past to discover themes that help to guide our search for fearlessness and courage. How can a violent, tribal past be relevant today? What roles do vulnerability and individuality play in fearlessness? How can we step up to become "peaceful warriors" in our own lives? This article presents some potential answers to such questions.

"Peace of the Three Realms: A Daily Meditation" is a step-by-step guide through one of my favorite daily practices, a series of interwoven meditations based around the Druid Prayer for Peace. Using such techniques as daily prayer and visualization, we can each begin to embrace a new worldview, a new story about the role we have to play in creating peace in the real world.

This issue also features lots of interesting articles on other forms of meditation, including a few how-to guides to get you started. On top of that, enjoy great poetry and beautiful seasonal artwork! Visit their website and check it out! (You can subscribe electronically for a very modest price, barely more than a cup of coffee; or, if you're not sure, register to download an earlier issue for absolutely free and see what you think!)

Also, on a more somber note, take some time to read my recent guest post over at Druid Journal: On Grief and Connection: A Response to the Fort Hood Deaths. While Jeff’s last post illustrated very well the kind of divisive rhetoric utilized in most political speeches these days, language that takes for granted an implicit superiority of American citizens and soldiery, and that rejects understanding, compassion and forgiveness for fear that such things will lead to acceptance of and complicity in violence (that is, those forms of violence deemed unacceptable by the State). His post, by reversing the target of this rhetoric, raised a lot of hackles and provoked a lot of feedback, through comments and email, about the basic immorality of justifying violence and excusing killers. Now, with his gracious permission, I try my hand at rewriting Obama’s speech, not by reversing its aim, but by turning the rhetoric itself on its head, and speaking in terms of inclusion rather than exclusion, connection instead division. This is the speech I wish Obama had given, though for reasons that will become obvious, it is not one I ever expect any political leader in this country to give.