Summer Solstice, spread the culture.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

At first i wrongly associated the Harp with Ireland [exclusively] and just last night i realised that the clue was in the plant surrounding the harp.

Were Ireland is concerned you'd usually note a shamrock with the harp, in this case unless i'm mistaken, the harp is surrounded with Oak and the musical instrument [harp] may be depicting the traditional/cultural musical interests of Druids.

I recall reading that the word 'Druid' actually comes from 'Drui' which means 'of the oak' but I cannot recall which language the word 'Drui' comes from just now... it'll come to me.

Here we go ...

'Other Roman texts also employ the form druidae, while the same term was used by Greek ethnographers as δρυΐδης (druidēs).[12][13] Although no extant Romano-Celtic inscription is known to contain the form,[9] the word is cognate with the later insular Celtic words, Old Irish druí ("druid, sorcerer") and early Welsh dryw ("seer").[11] Based on all available forms, the hypothetical proto-Celtic word may then be reconstructed as *dru-wid-s (pl. *druwides) meaning "oak-knower". The two elements go back to the Proto-Indo-European roots *deru-[14] and *weid- "to see".[15] The sense of "oak-knower" (or "oak-seer") is confirmed by Pliny the Elder,[11] who in his Natural History etymologised the term as containing the Greek noun δρύς (drus), "oak-tree"[16]' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druid

[Trow]

This years Solstice celebrations were a wash out according to all accounts. Did'nt stop over 14,000 people visiting Stonehenge.

Sirius appears just over our horizon at Dawn on 21st June and is regarded as the rain bringer, flooding the Nile etc.

Some photos here from Stonehenge, good to see such a large turn out..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...shout-too.html

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Always a bit wary of the 'druids' such as Rollo .. think he comes from the Ancient Order of Druids or somesuch and I've seen him walking around the stones reading aloud from a paper. That 'ancient order' dates back only to the 19th century and druids would not read or write down anything ceremonial.

Harmless enough chap and it is nice to see some 14,000 out there even in horrendous downpours.

The nice thing about the Henge on the solstice is that people go and take from being there what they will themselves. I like that.

It occurs to me also that if you strip out the foreign attendance from the International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin the numbers attending start to look similar

[fluffybiscuits]

This years Solstice celebrations were a wash out according to all accounts. Did'nt stop over 14,000 people visiting Stonehenge.

Sirius appears just over our horizon at Dawn on 21st June and is regarded as the rain bringer, flooding the Nile etc.

Some photos here from Stonehenge, good to see such a large turn out..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...shout-too.html

What is it about that star that just makes it appear every time?

[Trow]

What is it about that star that just makes it appear every time?

Sirius is only visible to us on the Southern Horizon for a total of 70 days. It rises above the horizon and ascends for 35 days and takes the same amount of time to vanish below the horizon again.

This happens each year beginning at around dawn on 21st June.

[Trow]

Always a bit wary of the 'druids' such as Rollo .. think he comes from the Ancient Order of Druids or somesuch and I've seen him walking around the stones reading aloud from a paper. That 'ancient order' dates back only to the 19th century and druids would not read or write down anything ceremonial.

Harmless enough chap

The nice thing about the Henge on the solstice is that people go and take from being there what they will themselves. I like that.

I like that about it too. Should be similar numbers around Newgrange and the Hill at Tara annually, shame that there's not.

Yeah, ''Rollo'' is a character and one of many who get into the theme of things.

Don't subscribe much to that ''ancient order'' i see it as nothing more than a government sponsored attempt at legitimising a fancy dress hocus pocus club.

You don't have to belong to or be trained under ''ancient orders'' For many, the path is a personal life long journey of learning and enlightenment.
Chances are, if you are legit, you will be chosen by the spirit dead rather than having to fill in an application online.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Must try to find a better word or phrase to describe that coterie of people who feel more in touch with native religions or spiritual feelings than that awful xtian epithet 'pagan'.

But until I do I suppose the word should be rescued to its original and proper meaning of 'from the country' and say 'paganism' is the broadest of non-churches

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

They have the christians beaten in another way too.... christians may have their cathedrals however adorned by Michaelangelo & Co and they may be impressive in a stationary way but the 'pagan' cathedral is the most impressive of all.

It moves with the pagan and the light changes every minute and as for the frescoes on the ceiling well Michaelangelo may bite his tongue in irritation but his frescoes never moved and changed with the winds.

I'll take a grassy hillside leading down to the sea with fluffy clouds sailing overhead any day of the week and share a sandwich with a pagan before I'd park in the gothic dark of Roman or other xtian gaudiness.

'And laugh at those who marry in churches through the collar-bone of a hare'.

[jmcc]

What is it about that star that just makes it appear every time?

There was a time that it did not and there will be a time again when it will not. But that's the cosmic ballet.

Regards...jmcc

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Favourite fact about stars that never fails to amaze me when I think of it ... every atom of the bodies of everyone alive today was once an atom at the birth of a star. This is what makes me laugh when the orthodox downloaders of one or the other religions whinge that there is no 'majesty' in the evolutionary story.

We are quite literally made of the stars at an atomic level. I think that is gorgeous. We share a nursery in the dim and distant aeons ago at the centre of a cloud of hyrogen gas and the slow build up of an immense heat which exploded outward in the star kindergarten.

Keep your adam n'eve.... I'm happy with what I've got.

[jmcc]

Not sure how many people remember Carl Sagan's Cosmos but it really puts the whole interconnectedness of the universe into perspective:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE9dEAx5Sgw"]Carl Sagan's Cosmos - Star Stuff - YouTube[/ame]

Regards...jmcc

[Trow]

What is it about that star that just makes it appear every time?

Was thinking about you and continually revisited your question. Have i misread it?

It's just that i'm sure you'll have noted that ''that star'' [Sirius] ''appears'' alot in my posts and threads and perhaps that is what you are pointing at with your question.

I'm sure everyone on this forum knows by now i'm serious about Sirius and i know for sure that the Celts were too. [At least the Celtic Tripple Goddess i have been researching did]

Over the course of Solstice, if i were to visit my grove turn my back to Sirius and look through a mirror over my shoulder i'd see the Goddess

Not once have i seen any of those on pilgrimages to Stonehenge carry a shining disc to perform this ritual which tells me there's not one Arch adept Druid left so i scorn these invented ''Ancient Orders''

Perhaps it is a case that the British Government reined in what scatterings were left and set them apart in developing witchcraft laws.

What value would a Government place on an asset such as a time travelling Druid?

[fluffybiscuits]

Was thinking about you and continually revisited your question. Have i misread it?

It's just that i'm sure you'll have noted that ''that star'' [Sirius] ''appears'' alot in my posts and threads and perhaps that is what you are pointing at with your question.

I'm sure everyone on this forum knows by now i'm serious about Sirius and i know for sure that the Celts were too. [At least the Celtic Tripple Goddess i have been researching did]

Over the course of Solstice, if i were to visit my grove turn my back to Sirius and look through a mirror over my shoulder i'd see the Goddess

Not once have i seen any of those on pilgrimages to Stonehenge carry a shining disc to perform this ritual which tells me there's not one Arch adept Druid left so i scorn these invented ''Ancient Orders''

Perhaps it is a case that the British Government reined in what scatterings were left and set them apart in developing witchcraft laws.

What value would a Government place on an asset such as a time travelling Druid?

I was wondering how it appears so much in Irish lore and history and then it appears in Mali. Maybe we should work on a post Trow on the specificity of Sirius B and how it appears in history world wide. There must be some sort of specific reason its common to a lot of cultures and very interesting.

[Trow]

I was wondering how it appears so much in Irish lore and history and then it appears in Mali. Maybe we should work on a post Trow on the specificity of Sirius B and how it appears in history world wide. There must be some sort of specific reason its common to a lot of cultures and very interesting.

Look to Caesar/Roman/Plotomoly quotes about Sirius/Dog Star.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

It would take twenty years of study to become any kind of druid, never mind an adept.... 'Rollo' and the Ancient Order are well enough and do no harm and in a way actually spark interest in native theologies in Britain and Ireland so its all to the good.

I think they are aware of this and don't take themselves too seriously so they are harmless. I have met one or two people I would consider to be drui by nature and they wouldn't even be aware of it themselves.

Rare, though. It is the same with the plethora of wiccans around particularly in North America and that is interesting enough to watch from a distance. Mostly a bit of Diana cult mixed with witchcraftt lore and heavily feminine but there again it isn't something to get exercised about. At worst it too sparks interest in the old religions, most will take what they need emotionally from it and one in a thousand will study back carefully through the thicket of recent adaptations.

The fascinating thing for me about native Anglo Saxon, Welsh, Irish theologies is that they resulted in a similar system of laws, hospitalities and customs without sectarianism across the two islands and that should really be enough to spark interest alone. And of course it is cultural history and native and not some imported folderol so should resonate with the student when spotting something in lore that seems natural and right.