Round the Herne

Here are the links to the Virtual version of the Leaping Hare pagan convention, featuring the talents of Nick Ford, Carys, Jonathan Boddam-Whethers and myself. In theory one should play on automatically from the previous, but in case there are problems with list I have pasted each link individually below. INTRODUCTION SHEEP POEM (NICK FORD) UNDERWORLD INITIATION (DR J. B. WETHAM) CALL MY BLUFF MINI-QUIZ CARYS'S SONG (GAIA) BEAR TRIBE POEM (NICK FORD) BROTHERHOOD OF THE SHADOWS STORY EPOMEDUOS AND THE MARE ONE MORE FOR THE ROAD TALK

If you haven't already heard you will have worked out for yourself, in the light of government decisions, that the Leaping Hare convention has been postponed from its March date. Assuming that the coronavirus situation has been resolved (ideally cured) in time, we are aiming to meet instead on Saturday 17th October - usual venue in Colchester. Details of the programme can be found on their website. It is mostly the same as originally planned. As a bonus to try and keep people's spirits up during this period of isolation, we will be running a Virtual Hare this Saturday. A playlist of videos will be run including talks, storytelling, poetry, a quiz, and song. The link will be posted in a number of places, including on this blog, for you to watch at your leisure. If you enjoy it, we'd like to encourage you to donate to whatever your local Hospice is - whatever sum you can afford (we appreciate that many will be financially struggling right now with work drying up for lots of

I was asked to contribute an interfaith voice to a week's worth of what might be termed short sermons at the Cathedral, inspired by concerns over environmental threats and how Christians (or anyone else listening) might react. This is the first time I've spoken at the cathedral and the first time I've ever given a Bible reading anywhere, so it made for an interesting Friday 13th - for me, if not necessarily for everyone in the congregation. Though they were very polite and said they found it interesting. The text is below. It could have been more polished, but as this was a novel experience for me I really wasn't sure quite what to say and what to avoid. The Land, the Soul, and the Storyteller The Ancient Romans believed that the landscape was garlanded with places of spiritual awe and mysterious presences which they referred to as the numina. For the people of the ancient world what made a place sacred was its innate spirit, its ineffable presence or numen.

I have a seminar coming up at work next week on archetypal psychology (Wednesday afternoon, free to attend should wish to come along), for which I am preparing notes today. This has motivated me to get back to the blog and record something about how modern pagans might relate to some of these ideas - it has been a while since I did anything. This podcast is not well planned (or, indeed, planned at all) so it does somewhat ramble around a few ideas proposed by Jung, May, and others. Whilst I forgot to mention art, the notion of ideas possessing people might well be extended to debate whether artists have visions or vice versa. The muse, spoken of extensively in Greek religion, might be said to take hold of the painter, sculptor, composer or whatever they may be and - like the Irish legend of the leannan sidhe - sometimes leave them burnt out and of scant use to themselves or anyone else. whilst the inspiration of the muse is sought, it comes at a cost which might sometimes be regarde