tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79608061148114937302023-11-16T02:50:28.384-08:00Becoming UrsaThe Ursa Tribe is a multi-generational Shamanic Family Tradition, living and working together, preserving and experiencing the Mysteries.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-47195071070230271112012-11-14T14:40:00.000-08:002012-11-14T14:42:34.920-08:00Personal Sovereignty<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I have been reminded recently about a topic that is quite fundamental and
unique to the Ursan philosophy and culture. That topic is personal sovereignty.
Personal sovereignty at its simplest, is a feeling and understanding of the
fact that you are our your own master, and no person and no thing can take that
away from you. To our understanding, it is the reward for living our lives the
way we do, and not just as an abstract gift, but as a representation of the sum
of our actions. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Primary to our decision making process is personal responsibility,
especially as it is expressed through the filter of free will. We understand
that we are the only ones who can and should be in control of our lives, and as
such, we are the only ones that will reap the rewards and suffer the
punishments for the actions that we take. Nobody can make us do something we do
not want to do, and similarly, we cannot control what other people do in any
meaningful sense. We take complete and absolute responsibility for ourselves,
who we are and what we do. We understand that while doing our personal work of
learning, making responsible choices, and being the best that we can be, we
will reap the empowering psychological, emotional, and societal benefits of
being good people. We understand that in very practical terms, if we want to be
helped in our life, we must help others, and it is that structure of a
supportive community that allows us to accomplish things bigger than ourselves.
And with the knowledge that by holding up our end of any bargain we enter, we
ensure the success of our community, taking on responsibility in those respects
are rewarded too.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">As a result of this, we take great pride in our accomplishments, and stand
tall in the knowledge that we have always done our best in every situation, and
that we have always fulfilled our obligations with thoroughness, compassion,
and good cheer. This also applies to the magickal and religious aspects of our
lives. Our interactions with whatever Gods we work with are colored by our
knowledge that as personally responsible people, we must acknowledge that the
Gods cannot do our work for us. Which brings us back to the personal
sovereignty, because, as in our interactions with each other, we also
understand that we cannot simply blindly follow any God, without surrendering
our personal responsibility and free will and everything that has earned us.
This has created the unique dynamic in Ursan culture of the ability to stare
any deity or spirit square in the eyes and say "No. I will not do that,
because I do not believe that it is the right thing to do. Furthermore, if you
continue to attempt to control me without allowing me my free will and personal
responsibility, I will stop working with you altogether." </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This is unlike any religion I, or any of my most learned friends, have
heard of, and I see it as quite the beneficial, positive, and empowering
evolution of the religious aspect of the human experience. It allows us to
recognize uncontrolled agents of negativity, as well as patterns of behavior,
in ourselves and in others, that are self-destructive, manipulative, or
malicious. Once recognized, we can make educated and responsible decisions,
secure in the knowledge that those things are not worthwhile or beneficial, since
they require us to give up our own free will or steal that of the people around
us, wrecking the structure of support and beneficial action that our community
relies on, much less our own personal feelings of righteousness or security. In
fact, it elevates righteousness to its proper stature of an absolute feeling of<b>
being </b>right, because you are secure in the knowledge that you have done
everything in your power to be <b>doing</b> what is right. Perhaps most importantly,
it also allows us to recognize false righteousness as a position that is not
actually supported by responsible actions that respect free will. And I believe
it is this that sets our path apart as the truest route to personal power -
within ourselves and with each other, over nothing but our own destiny.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Mark </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-84115058461951170252012-11-03T19:39:00.001-07:002012-11-03T19:39:39.029-07:00To my family...As we looked at each other across the wreckage of another botched Samhain, Aleks and I promised each other, silently fuming, not again. This is a true story. Samhain after Samhain, year after year. Drama. Fighting. People flinging themselves out of doors weeping. Biting. Seriously, biting. We were nowhere. And then there was THIS year. THE year. It finally happened! We fucking did it!<br />
<br />
I am seriously fucking proud to call myself an Ursa this year, and all the years before us. I am proud to have watched each and every one of you face fears, and learn something new, and take the leap. You are all inspiring. The overwhelming message from our gods this year has been to break the mold, set the bar higher. To DECIDE FOR OURSELVES what the fuck we want to be real. Look around. You did it. We did it. We started the year doing it.<br />
<br />
I love you all, and am proud to call you my family.<br />
<br />
jUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-76732396401988332202012-04-03T16:50:00.002-07:002012-04-03T17:12:08.415-07:00Ancestor Magick<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZrL6LU3Ofang6IAisor1_gwewpDON2xds0jfDFn23cLwmwJCFpg0tgRb-V1GvAjEKIG0sez1eIxjtJXYxhZipkz1GVgvNYctQlKgAuPgx1fDBgbPLb5KTnaHS1d5jDeq48vI3M_wFwmGQ/s1600/hands+of+the+ancestors.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZrL6LU3Ofang6IAisor1_gwewpDON2xds0jfDFn23cLwmwJCFpg0tgRb-V1GvAjEKIG0sez1eIxjtJXYxhZipkz1GVgvNYctQlKgAuPgx1fDBgbPLb5KTnaHS1d5jDeq48vI3M_wFwmGQ/s320/hands+of+the+ancestors.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5727331576578636930" border="0" /></a>The hands of the ancestors, layers upon layers deep. They are reaching for us. Reaching through time itself, in benediction, in supplication. This is <span style="font-weight: bold;">without question</span> the most affecting piece of art I have ever seen.<br /><br />I can <span style="font-weight: bold;">well</span> imagine a shamanic journey into the heart of the world, to reach the center of the Earth, and the center of yourself. To find there waiting for you the marks of those who had come before, and to place yours along with theirs. To know that you have made your mark upon the history of your people, and to have included your own touch with the great leaders of the past... This is the utter essence of ancestor worship. So old a thing, impossibly old, even then. Our own words of initiation come to mind : "I place my hands upon your shoulders as my teacher once placed her hands on my shoulders, and her teacher placed her hands upon her, and her teacher, and his teacher, all the way to the beginning. As you will one day place your hands on the shoulders of your student, all the way until the end." Thus is the power passed, thus has it always been. True ancestor veneration is such. Found in the path that our ancestors have walked for thousands upon thousands of years. As we will be venerated in our time, when we become those ancestors, those hands, reaching into the infinite.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-79282220878920453182012-03-27T02:47:00.002-07:002012-03-27T03:04:49.251-07:00Context, Not ContestThe Tribe takes context very <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">seriously</span>. We have to, it's a tool for our deepest realization. Context can make a situation ordinarily <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">untenable</span> into something that is generally understood and accepted. When we challenge ourselves, we are moving forward.<br /><br />We have seen what happens to people who do not do <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">their</span> Work. They engage with other people in the Tribe only on the level of CONTEST. Pretty basically, if you are making ANY portion of your life a contest, you are not doing the Work. The Ursa Tribe is not about vying for attention or control. We are about <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">becoming</span> our deepest, truest selves. This is hard work, and it often rubs all of us rather raw. <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Which</span> is why we make it clear when it occurs what is going on. Context. Sometimes it occurs that people do not let others know why they are hurting, and they begin to strike out when <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">their</span> brethren attempt to help. At this point you have two choices, you can let it out, or you can let it fester.<br /><br />We know what happens when a person lets it fester over a long period of time, because we have a couple of really excellent examples. The Work becomes sublimated to the Ego, and that creates a a situation where the person who is hurting doesn't do the Work. The next step after that is that the person draws attention away from <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">their</span> pain and vulnerabilities through a series of attacks. Contest.<br /><br />It only works if you work it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-12441191621936695962011-04-28T11:59:00.001-07:002011-04-28T12:11:11.378-07:00YesterdayTrauma is tricky. It has a nasty habit of sneaking up behind you and taking a bite out of your ass when you <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">aren</span>'t looking. It hurts and it's hard, and it needs to be dealt with, but if you aren't <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">careful</span>, you end up spending all your time on yesterday, and not enough on today. Perception shapes reality and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">reality</span> is tricky too. Reality will start manifesting almost immediately whatever you think about all the time.<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Tomorrow</span> never comes, if all we have to look forward to are yesterdays. So it's time to leave yesterday to yesterday, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">tomorrow</span> to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">tomorrow</span>, and deal with NOW.<br /><br /><br />Forgiveness? Not today. maybe <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">tomorrow</span>.<br /><br /><br />j/oUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-8984553531623913892009-10-07T16:02:00.000-07:002009-10-07T16:26:44.229-07:00Men's MagickThe Men's Mysteries have long been a topic of discussion among my people. What do they mean, how do they help to define us? I think Christopher <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Penczack's</span> book "Sons of the Goddess," is incredibly helpful, but my tribe doesn't deal with archetypes, so much as we deal with <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">personalities</span>. </span>The gods of my people walk the crossroads of the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">twenty first</span> century, and they<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>will not be denied.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Father of Cats and Strays</span>, who wanders the between places, waiting to offer aid, or <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">hindrance</span>. <span style="font-weight: bold;" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Cai</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">,</span> the <span style="font-weight: bold;" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Stormfather</span>; trickster, mercurial and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">powerful</span>, but kind. Old Jack Rabbit, who charmed the moon down from the sky with his fiddle. <span style="font-weight: bold;" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Raevyn</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Whitefeather</span>, who stole the moon from Old Jack when he fell asleep, because he couldn't bear not to have the shiny. <span style="font-weight: bold;" class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Menetonka</span>, the wise old man; horned one who roams what is left of the wild places of the world. These are our fathers. Wise men, and strong, intemperate and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">tricksy</span>, fey and unspeakably Other.<br /><br />But what are <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">we</span> to be? Brothers, lovers, strong arms, long legs, and shoulders to cry on? As men we must be more than our relationships to those around us. Our gods are wild and sly, and we must become like them to survive. What else is tribal <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">magick</span> about, but the survival of the people? Were the Green Men to devote ourselves to anything, it ought to be that.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">Roan<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-22356008318711923762009-08-05T14:36:00.000-07:002009-08-05T15:07:21.783-07:00GrainspellWalking down the darkened paths of my neighborhood last night, I came upon a place where earth met sky, and wind met water. As I stood there at the crossroads of my everyday life, and the mystical blend of all things REAL, the moon materialized from behind a thick bank of whirling purple and grey clouds. It hung, massive and orange and round, reflected in the summer-dark water of the lake. The silence of the world was complete, and nearly raucous in it's intensity. Not a bird cawed, not a leaf moved. I threw my arms up in wonder, and gave praise to the Moon spirit, shining grace down upon me as I stumbled through the dark.<br /><br />This is what it is to be a shaman, and to walk a lonely road between awareness, and madness. There is the practice of Craft, and there is the Mysteries made manifest. This was the latter. Satori never happens when you're trying. This is the place where man meets spirit. I have walked, and stumbled, along my path for thirteen years now. Only a handful of times have I been blessed with absolute clarity. And every time it's completely bloody worth it! This is the point of it all... We learn to walk between the worlds, and take congress with the spirits; wander the twisted lands where nothing is as it seems, especially yourself; summon beings impossibly old, and bend them to a will of iron. All of it, <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">all of it</span> as nothing before this.<br /><br />We must learn to loose ourselves in awareness. To be so deeply in the moment, in our own skins, that even time gets the fuck out of the way. Things happen just for your own convenience, when you do this work. You learn to live on the right side of your eyelids, and then to see, or See.<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> When you<span style="font-size:180%;"> ARE</span> the spirits, you've fucking got it!<br /><br /></span>It's Grainspell in a couple of days, the first Harvest. Things happen, in the<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> tween </span>times. The world gets out of it's own way to reveal itself. To revel in itself. It's harvest time, and we are revealed in the revealing, and reveling in the revels. Time to let our hair down and be wild.<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><br /> <br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> Roan </span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"></span></div><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-27585818536221626622009-05-09T09:50:00.000-07:002009-05-09T10:17:17.991-07:00SpiritsThe concept of spirits guiding us through our lives is an ancient one. Whereas now we are <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">infinitely</span> more comfortable with the idea of "guardian angels," our tribal ancestors were not interested in comforting themselves with such saccharine promises. These were men and women <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">accustomed</span> to the role of such creatures, and they rarely fulfilled such a lovey <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">dovey</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">function</span> as making us feel better. Our earliest, most primitive shamanic ancestors were the ones doing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">the</span> looking out for, after all. <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Their</span> cosmology, therefore, was one of a world where such looking after was not only helpful, it <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">was</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">necessary</span>. The spirits had a function in society, every bit as pivotal as that of the hunter, or the farmer.<br /><br />They were the early warning system, everything from bad weather to the neighboring <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">village</span> witch cooking up trouble was their purview. It was with <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">their</span> help that the medicine men and cunning women of the stone age kept bellies full, and bodies safe from harm. Sometimes this harm was in the form of OTHER spirits, bent on destruction of the land, or the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">clann</span>. It was then that the relationship between shaman and spirits was the most crucial. It was the responsibility of these magical practitioners to form as many relationships with as many spirits as possible. The more powerful, the more dangerous, the better. It was only when the shaman actually risked sanity that they were capable of facing down and defeating any possible threat to the community.<br /><br />As a tribal people, we must also cultivate the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">necessary</span> relationship with the spirits to ensure a world which looks out for us. The most important part of that, of course, is to develop a cosmology <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">whereby</span> we are looking out for the world. Our ancestors understood that to live in an animated universe, we must all look after each other. And, while that may indeed make us feel better, it was never meant to be the point.<br /><br />RoanUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-91449841656721719672009-04-11T11:34:00.000-07:002009-04-11T12:11:41.799-07:00indigenousThere <span style="font-weight: bold;">are</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">indigenous</span> tribes of the 21st century; roaming the world like wild things in the wood, tending to the sidewalks of the crossroads and winking back at electric eyed gods as they drive past, beating internal combustion hearts. Openers and closers, warriors and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">chiefs</span>. Speaking the hidden names of new powers, they go forth into the future through the door of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">their</span> own pain and insecurities. When they emerge again, as whole people, this world responds to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">their</span> touch. Sharing its own visions of change with these new <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">priests</span> and oracles of a frenetic, newborn century.<br /><br />Men are awakening to old truths. They begin to take the first, stumbling steps <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">toward the</span> power within, instead of perpetuating the myth of power over. Women, at long last, are beginning to take up their sacred duties as proprietors of that infamously first of professions: <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">priestessing</span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"></span>.<br /><br />The Tribes are gathering. City streets teem with shaman dancing the world awake. The primal echos of drums, techno, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Renaissance</span> flute and electric guitars serve as <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">their</span> clarion calls. "The world awoke us, that we may wake the world," is all they will say if asked. This is part of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">their</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Mystery</span>. The packs are running again, shifters bringing luck to the streets of the forests and paths of the cities alike. New prophets of Christ are <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">arisen</span>, preaching another way, instead of a better way. Honoring the words and deeds of a simple man, in simple ways. Daring to speak the true Name of God.<br /><br />This is the map of the 21st century, <span style="font-weight: bold;">and the Tribes are gathering.</span> No more will this world <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">operate</span> by the applied consent of sleepwalkers. Now it will be directed by individuals manifesting change and care for our planet. <span style="font-weight: bold;">We </span>are such awakened, the first tribe, moving in the world again, awake in this <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">century</span>.<br /><br />Stories abound about the Ursa Tribe, The Bear Ones...<br /><br /><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Ainshe</span></span> Ursa, who shook the island to prove her <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">sovereignty</span>, and stilled it again, with a gesture. Becca Ursa, who fought the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Dark</span> and lost, but won her power from it <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">nonetheless</span>. Roan Ursa, who walked out of the world one day and never quite came home again. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Eth</span></span> Ursa, who strode forward into the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">unknown</span>, and nearly lost herself. Who returned stronger, and stranger from the hidden places of the world.<br /><br />Folk perpetuating consequences across the fabric of reality at the behest of the gods of the new world. For, alone among the tribes of the earth, only the first tribe is <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">privileged</span> to weave the future from the spun out possibilities which exist between. And nor can that be our only goal. <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Our</span> ultimate effect must be to guide through <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">journey</span> work, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">rigorous</span> honesty and ordeal a next generation of tribes and shaman to take up the role of weavers alongside. Only then can we call ourselves wise.<br /><br />Only then will it be true.<br /><br />RoanUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-35704502930338737492008-06-05T18:45:00.000-07:002008-06-05T19:30:16.348-07:00WildWhat is it that whispers out of the wild for us to follow? <span style="font-style: italic;">What are we that we listen?</span> If there was an ideal, beyond the special significance that <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">LAND</span> has for us (that dark, loamy stuff of legend, the bones of the tribe, soul of our <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">children's</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">children's</span>, children made flesh on the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">sloping</span> high hill of a mountainside), we are fast approaching it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">We are the wild.</span> It grows in us in riots and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">gouts</span> and runners, the feel of home. And Home is Tribe. Home is the loud, laughing, barking mad run of you all, digging into each others business with more flare and deception than a village full of fishwives and cunning men.<br /><br />How could we ever have wondered that the LAND would be so great in the tides of mystery? Like with like, and two by two. Were we ever wild enough for the Land? Are we even now? Did we ever ask any questions beyond our own desires to manifest what we have decided to require for ourselves?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">But the land is manifesting something as well</span>, and we must be ready to meet it...<br /><br />RoanUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-79530073130401761002008-01-12T06:14:00.000-08:002008-01-12T06:33:08.234-08:00SelfSelf is one of those indefinable things that we search for. Who are we? What is our place in the world, our role in the tribe? It all comes down to self. The realization that we are different than those around us, and are looking to connect to what we truly are, is the impetus for our inner journey.<br /><br /> We place great attention and care in the development of who we are as <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">individual</span> people. Many students of other traditions would find this jarring. Hell, many students of our own tradition do. We put more effort into bringing ourselves into alignment with the divine and the land and each other, than we do in learning things like the elements, or the deities. But really, how hard is it to understand that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">everything</span> in the universe is made up of these four elements, and the fifth is what we call upon to alter that very mutable reality? Who we are is more important than all of that. Being right within your self, meaning right action, and right thought, is the entire point of the exercise of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">magick</span>. And tribal <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">magick</span> in particular.<br /><br />Don't get me wrong, it can be fucking great to hear the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">whispers</span> of the wind, the language of the crows. To feel in the most tactile way possible the song of the trees, and the moon. Or just the simple knowledge that you have helped a friend with your craft. But in many, many ways, these are just the side effects. The real Mystery is what it does TO YOU. How you change utterly and irrevocably in the face of the beauty that you find waiting in the darkest corner of your own heart. That, my people, is fucking <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">magick</span>, and it's a damned magnificent thing.<br /><br />RoanUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-1773777864950160112007-09-14T13:05:00.001-07:002007-09-14T13:15:42.379-07:00CeremonyCeremony is <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">necessary</span> for the health of the community. It allows us to connect on a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">meaningful</span> level with each other. We aren't sitting about talking, and we aren't at church, observing the ritual. We are part of it.<br /><br />A ceremony doesn't happen while you watch, it happens with you, to you, around you. It makes you part of something deeper and higher than yourself. A ceremony requires you to slip free of your normal persona, and acknowledge a new way of observing the world around you. To take part in a ceremony is to catch a glimpse of your <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">piece</span> of reality, and to change it, when <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">necessary</span>.<br /><br />The spirits are all around us. A ceremony is a way to honor their aid in your development, and also a way to ask for aid if you need it. In a tribal culture, ceremony is one of the very few hinges of the social structure surrounding us. The others are the elders, the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">chieftain</span>, the warriors, the shaman, and the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">individual</span> family.<br /><br />Our way of life is about service to the spirits, the earth, and each other. Most of all, ceremony is a way to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">reaffirm</span> that connection.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-20257726641185696002007-08-08T16:49:00.000-07:002007-08-08T17:27:25.796-07:00TotemsA totemic lifestyle is a primal one. To believe that the spirits of the land and the wind and the waters are speaking to you through your experiences is a primitive belief. Our ancestors knew their place in the world through communion with an animal totem. Many Celtic families believed that the clan was guided by a fetch, the spirit of the tribe, the living representation of the people. And so we know the bear. She guides us where we must go as a people, and as individuals. She stands between us and danger, and appears when times are dire.<br /><br />Many Ursas have seen her. Obsidian and Lightning Star encountered her at the manhood ritual of Lightning, when he formally took his place among the men of our people. Obsidian told me of it, afterward. His eyes were wide, and his face white. He spoke of a large bear which shadowed them across a field as they walked, and suddenly they found themselves in a different place. It was said by the elders that perhaps Lightning Star would become a great leader of our people one day, and that this was an omen. The oral history is full of tales such as this. Our people are her people, that is all we can know. She shows herself when and how she will.<br /><br />My totem is the raven. He sits on my shoulder and whispers to me the gossip of the spirit world. This one has moved on, that one is being watched over by the ancestors during a rough time. Raven is a part of me. He is wind through the trees, bringing wisdom and knowledge to me time and again. I have never minded the company. <br /><br />I often wonder how our oldest ancestors perceived this particular Mystery. They did not have the distraction of television, or ipods, or the drive home from work after a long day. Home was hearth, and mate, food, and storytelling. Did they ever struggle to hear the voice of the animal part of them? Did they ever need to wonder at their place in a modern world? Given that THEY are OUR heritage, do we?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7960806114811493730.post-71314576503572560302007-08-07T15:34:00.000-07:002007-08-07T15:48:39.881-07:00Becoming TribalThe thing about being tribal, is that your life tends to revolve around the tribe. You feel something missing when there aren't all of these people trying to talk over each other, kids running past you asking you to look at something, or cooking for ten people. As a medicine man, or tribal shaman, or whatever term you're most comfortable with, it's my job to try and remember above all else what we are about.<br /><br />It's easy to say that we DO one thing or another, it's a completely different thing to be aware of who we are as a people. There is something about being Ursa that is above and beyond a practice, after a while it becomes a way of life. The gods guide us in odd directions, sometimes.<br /><br />So who are we? A ragtag group of misfits? An ancient family line steeped in tradition and values which are pagan at their core? A FamTrad depending on each other to move into the wilderness and work our witchy ways? Who is it you are?<br /><br />Roan UrsaUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0