Round the Herne

I encountered someone today who bore a strong resemblance to another person that I used to know (and loathe) many years ago. Initially I thought it was the same person with a couple of extra stone piled on, and then I realised the voice was different and the new person was a bit too tall anyway. However, I still found myself responding cautiously to this stranger, expecting those vindictive and unpleasant personality traits of the thankfully long-since avoided original. So a mini "exorcism" is required for me to let go of unpleasant memories enough to see the real person and not the echo. On the positive side, I'm sure there is a short story idea there about the power of memory to possess the present! Logically I know that there is no reason to suppose that these two people share any more than a similar bone structure, but the ghost of the former overshadows the latter. Advertisers and spin doctors have long since known that evoking positive (or negative) memory associa

I am organising a function on Saturday 14th June at the Oddfellows Hall in Ipswich, partly as one of a series of events marking the 20th anniversary of the Ipswich Pagan Council, and partly to help promote local pagan authors. Tickets are £4, with any profits going towards the Ipswich Hospital CCU (contact me for tickets). My publishers, Moon Books, will be having a stall there. I'll be talking on some of the issues facing pagan storytellers and poets, plus telling some stories towards the end of the day. Not completely decided which stories yet, and am open to requests! I shall be selling and signing my own books, if anyone wants a copy. The programme is as follows (subject to revision): 10.00am - Welcome   10.15am - Beverley Price, "Poetry of Darkness" (Main Hall) 10.15am - Joanna Van Der Hoeven, " Nemetona, Goddess of Sacred Space" (Garden) 11.15am - Robin Herne, "Word Weaving and Tale Spinning" (Main Hall) 11.15am - Silvia Rahmani

Every year for the last 15 or so the druid group that I am a member of has performed an Insular Celtic myth at the Leaping Hare convention in Colchester. The story we performed this year was that of St Collen's encounter with Gwynn app Nudd on Glastonbury Tor. The story itself is really quite short, so we expanded it with an earlier incident from Collen's life in which he battled a Pagan King. Despite being low on numbers due to illness, we were thankfully supported by two friends who joined us at the last minute to provide some musical accompaniment. A picture or two will be posted in due course. Though short, the story is redolent with imagery that is (like any symbolism) open to interpretation. One particular aspect is the livery sported by Gwynn's courtiers ~ one half red and the other blue. The saint alleges it is the fires of hell combined with the coldness of being cast out from the love of God. The balance between fire and ice carries rather different echoes for