Rosher.Net

I was caught by friend Nimue‘s blog entry today, where she said:

There is never going to be an overarching body dictating what druidry is and does and who can call themselves a druid. Most of us wouldn’t recognise the authority of one if it did set up.

That took my mind back to a web site that had been drawn to my attention a while ago styling itself  The Druid Authority. Amusingly for a site based on a rational scientific druidry it’s first blog post went along the lines of:

Not that any Druid should forget the date, but if it has slipped your mind, it is December 21st.

Unforch… it was the 22nd this year, technically at about 05h30. (winks at someone called Simon, if he’s reading)

Now, for me it really doesn’t matter. Yes, there is a technical astronomic event of Solstice, but in terms of experiencing that ‘time of no time’, when the Sun’s travel across a low sky appears to actually freeze for a few days it is the period and not the moment.

Indeed, as an experiential druid the very seasons have been oddly random over the past twelve month and beyond. Right now we’re in the midst of mild temperatures and mad March-like gales… lots of stuff has refused to be killed off by the cold and snow that has not graced our landscape and I’ve never known our back garden to be so green… we still have roses in bloom and in bud! While the extension of daylight is most welcome I can’t help wondering if we’ve missed actual winter… Of course, January can be a bugger and may yet coat us all in inch thick ice and mountains of snow. Just as the plants start to grow, and bulbs to push through, and trees to set bud.

Above the village, at the new burial ground, the clement weather has enabled us to get the heather and lavender planted around the car parking area. This will create a growing divide between the geo-grid grassed car park (for the hearse) and the interment area, without needing any stone walls or kerbs. At one end of the planting proudly stands our Wild Service Tree, planted with a donation from The Druid Network’s tree fund. We’re nearly ready, and spring equinox 2012 (actually, given the above, the day after!) will see us open for … for want of a better word … business.