Jumping off the Bandwagon

I’m going to mess around with PBP a little because we’re only two months away from 2014 and I still haven’t gone past G. Ruadhán talked about how not everybody is cut out for this kind of blogging, and I think he’s sort of right.

Apparently, I’m not very good with following established memes. Often, I feel constrained to think up of something to write about, and that usually means–for me–not being to write anything, at all. Despite being a detail-obsessive neat-freak with mild OCD, I don’t consider myself a very orderly writer. I’m really just here to share what I can, and I should be fine with that.  I’m going back to freestyle.

Anyway, I’m going to scramble the letters of the English alphabet with P immediately following G, only because I don’t want to back out of the project entirely. In spite of all that’s been said, I still like finishing what I’ve started (like how oaths need to be followed ’til their end). I may even consider modifying my EDP series into something more ‘fluid’. (Everyday Piety sounds like a more suitable tag! I might just do that.)

What’s going to come after P? Well, you’ll have to stick around to find out. (Or not. It’s entirely up to you.)

Rebirth in Silence

Well, I’m back from my ‘sabbatical‘. I’d like to think it went rather well. I didn’t have any social media withdrawals and I wasn’t too stoked to come back to it, quite honestly. I guess, with all the time I spent on it in the last 5 years, it was probably never as important to me than I gave it credit for. I’m not against it, don’t get me wrong, but imagine if I had cut the time I spent on social media all these years in half, I might have already been fluent in 3 new languages by now. Oh, well, now we know.

The sabbatical served my religious practices quite well, too. Just last week, I celebrated my first full Wep Ronpet festival (Kemetic New Year). It was amazing. I can’t remember the last time I was so excited to prepare for a rite. For seven straight days, I would get up to meet the sunrise, fix up, and sing praises to the Children of Nut, Hêlios-Ra, and the Beloved Ones. I even slew Apophis twice: once at my house and the other at a friend’s. (I took a few photos that will be uploaded tomorrow, I promise.)

Image source: Tiger House Art

I’m really happy I took the sabbatical. With all this quarter life crisis shite going on, I needed every bit of reorganising and distraction-free centering I could get. I thank my daimôn, my gods, and my tribe for helping me consistently.

Hail Hermês! Hail Dionysos! Hail all the Gods of Alexandria, from Makedôn to Hindustan! May the light of Alexandria never fade.

New Year Silence

Currently, my profile picture on Facebook and Google+

Okay, so I’ve been thinking, whilst I may not be doing Silent July, perhaps a Silent Hekatombaiôn (Ἑκατομβαιών) would be helpful, right in time for the old Athenian New Year. I think it’s certainly going to be a detoxifying–and perhaps also reforming–period for me. The situation has gotten truly toxic in the online Pagan community, that just reading about it is giving me a migraine. No, thank you, I’d rather be cleaning my room.

However, more than making an ideological stand, I think more importantly this could be, as Sannion puts it, “…an opportunity to deepen our practice and relationships with our gods and spirits. Imagine what you could accomplish if every time you got an itch to make a post or check what other people are saying you instead went to your shrine and prayed or made an offering or created something of beauty to honor your divinities?”

Exactly. So, what’s going to happen:

• No social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or Google+ for me. You can e-mail, text, or call me if something needs to be said (and the same for me to you). You can still choose to tag or tweet me or share a link on my page, but I will not be able to see any of it until a month later.
• No Instagram or Flickr or photo-documentation. Food will be eaten, sights and experiences will be devoured, and rites to the Gods will be piously performed without having to grab a camera.
• No blogging or commenting on blogs. I won’t even bother reading any of them for now. I’ve got tonnes of books, after all. For epiphanies or flashes of brilliance, my private journal will be there, but no worrying about what other people will think.
• No video games. There’s always my dog and my bodhrán.
• I will be cleaning the entire house, for serious.
• I will be finishing my online French courses and I will be covering all the unanswered exercises in my French workbooks.
• I will be gathering new samples and transcribing old ones for IDEA.
• I will be watching films. I’ve got several lined up for watching.
• I will be eating on time (no more Facebook for breakfast) and I will exercise regularly. No more lazy.

So, there. I wish myself all the luck and strength in this time. I will see you soon.

Silent July?

I love Sannion and it hurts me when people talk shit about him. I also can’t understand why anybody would want to in the first place. He’s one of the wittiest, most intelligent, and–yes–most decent human beings I know on the Internet. I don’t mind that he can sometimes be a misanthrope because I can totally understand why anybody would feel that way these days. But, you know what, he still does actual shit for us and he’s done a great deal of service to the Gods in his life, most of which not too many of us are willing or capable of doing.

I’ve been pretty mum about what’s been going on in the online Pagan community in the sense that I don’t blog about it and I don’t comment on the issues wherever they’re discussed. I’ve really only been concerned about what I do for my beloved deities and spirits and how I can translate that devotion into writing (and beautiful pictures) whenever I have the time. I guess, that’s not such a bad thing, eh? So, I hope you can all forgive me for not participating in Silent July. I respect the people who are participating in it and I do believe in the cause. It’s just that, right now, I sort of need the Internet and my blogs to re-evaluate my life.

I pray for Silent July’s success. I will be right here until y’all return.

Pagan Blog Project

I am horribly late, but I have decided to try this out.

“Oh, I am sorry, Frodo. I was delayed.”

Because I totally was. By the long holiday off, by the Solstice, by Christmas, by the Poseidea, by the Calends of January, by the amount of work thrown at my face after the long week off, and by Gods, even by the Dionysia and Haloa. When they say this time is a busy time, they’re not kidding. And we’re not even done, yet. The first noumênia after the winter solstice is just around the corner.

But, behind all the busy-ness and holiday stress is great merriment and celebration, and a big opportunity to commune with the Gods. These times are not holy tides for nothing, and they have been so for hundreds of years.

Unfortunately, I’m not blogging about them today, as I have some cooking, and then, some sleeping to do. I will update, though, over the next few days, I promise. Also, I took pictures, and lots of them. I’ll be sure to share them with you.

(PS: If you’re wondering what Frodo or Gandalf has to do with this blog, not so much other than that I’m a huge Tolkien fan, and a pious cultor of LOTR (and soon, Hobbit) dvd-thons.)

À bien tôt!

Oak and Palm

Was what I had originally intended to use as a blog title, but I didn’t want it to sound as if I was peddling corned beef. (“Olive and Palm” was my next choice, but that didn’t sound very enticing, either. Oils anyone?)

The majestic oak tree was and still is a very important symbol to many European peoples. It is commonly associated with the Thunder God.

The palm tree is a symbol of fertility and life for many civilisations in Asia. In the Philippines, it is known as the Tree of Life.

To state the obvious, I have chosen these two trees to represent the two ancestral cultures that make up my religion and spirituality.

Khairete! Salvete! Mabuhay!

Khairete! Salvete! Mabuhay!

My name is Aldrin and I am writing to you on the 8th of November, 7 days before the new moon. I dedicate this space for any and all musings I might and will have as I walk the Dedicant Path, serving also the purpose of documentation for the group. A recent addition to the Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF) fold, I am also a member of Neokoroi, Neos Alexandria, and the Hellenic Polytheistic Community on Facebook. Amongst many others.

This is me checking out our first shoots of rice.

To tell you a little more about myself: I was born and raised in the Philippines, just south of Manila. Like the very country I live in, I am an ethno-religious hotchpotch myself (an inoscule to be tree-ish about it), having ancestors from both ends of the world. Baptised and educated Roman Catholic, I now consider myself primarily Graeco-Roman (or is it Romano-Hellene?) in religious orientation. Luckily, I already am all sorts of Mediterranean-ish, so not much cultural shifting there. Still, I maintain a liberal interest in other pre-christian, polytheistic cultures.

Reading-wise, I am currently enjoying Ceisiwr Serith’s “Deep Ancestors” and Jennifer Hunter’s “Magical Judaism”. But, other than those two and the amazing mythology books I have, I am rather poor on religion, mainly because publications on modern polytheism are quite difficult to find here and because ordering them online can sometimes take for ever. Oh well, thank Hermês for the Internet.

When things get better, I plan to add the books of Jeremiah H. Lewis (Sannion), Isaac Bonewits, and Tess Dawson to my collection.

I also dance, write, paint, bake, and speak in tongues.

Updates Coming Up!

Updates coming up! Just a little busy with my corporate job. Here is a picture of our beautiful, “eco” building.

Welcome to Under Two Trees

Where I write about my journey as an ethno-religious inoscule in the Philippines.