HERE'S TO A GREEDY, JUICY,LEARNING SUMMER OF PERSONAL DELIGHTS

Stanley Spencer

At long last by the end of last week I had finished all my outstanding swap committments. All that is left is the ongoing Hello Dolly Swap and a healing doll, I promised someone, and even these two dolls are now at the actually being made stage. The little grey cloud rumbling above my head in a thundery manner started to disperse once I had posted, my woodland sprite, my crow chunky pages and my Shhhh! project. Sometimes I find that group projects, seem to stifle my creativity in my own art for art's sake. I become so aware of not letting a group down and my responsibility to the those people, that I actually seem to freeze when I want to involve myself in personal work.

Laura Knight

I have decided, and I know that some of you know about this, as I have mentioned it in a couple of emails, that I am drawing back from group swaps for a while, apart from the one that is still ongoing. I am going to concentrate on my art and probably just get involved in one to one's and RAKs. I was stretched out in too many ways before, with the amount of swaps. For now I want to concentrate on my art, my garden, my history research, my blog and putting more time aside for my favourite occupation reading. I want to have a greedy, juicy, learning summer of personal delights. I fully intend to make myself a banner saying just that 'Here's to the greedy, juicy, learning summer of personal delights'. Raise a glass with me to that and have one too. What fun we can have in the autumn revealing what we gained through these months. Southern Hemisphere, do the same with Winter using suitable winter words.



You note I have a new sidebar item that advertises National Faery Day on 24th June, if you click on it you should be taken to the site and you can choose one for your own blog. There are lots of things going on around that time, such as in Bodmin in Cornwall, a three day faery
festival. I'm sure we can all think of lots of lovely things to do to celebrate this day.



A very good friend of mine from the blogs, and I have been talking about Druids and Driudism recently. This is really quite apt as the doll the Hello Dolly Group are making this month is a Celtic Goddess. Druidism is fascinating, and has reinvented itself many times throughout history. Basically it is similar, I think to wicca, and to various pantheistic religions [ one with many gods and goddesses, often associated with nature, eg rivers, trees, rocks]. It is also a belief that really looks after our Earth. Listed below are the main attributes of certain types of Druidism.

John Piper

~Love of Peace~ Love of Beauty - the bard and artists within~ Love of Justice - non punitive justice and law ~Love of Story and Myth - the power of mythology~ Love of History and Reverence for Ancestors~ Love of Trees - sacred groves and study of treelore~ Love of Stones - stone circles and crystals~ Love of Truth - wisdom~ Love of Animals - druidry sees animals as sacred ~ Love of the Body~ Love of the Sun, Moon and Stars~ Love of Life.

Jill Worthington

The Druids came from pre-Celtic times and by Celtic times had a long history of lore and beliefs. It they had any written words they have been destroyed long before then and a lot of our information about them come from Roman writers, such as Julius Caesar. The Druids, deified elments of nature, such as the moon, stars and sun, and looked to them for signs and seasons. The also held as holy natural elements such as. rivers, lakes, tops of hills, groves, trees, and plants. Fire was regarded as a symbol of several divinities and was associated with the sun and cleansing. The calendar was governeed by the lunar, solar and vegetative cycles. There were three categories the Bards, who knew the songs and stories of their people, the Ovates who were gifted with second sight, and were the seers and healers and the Druids who were the philospohers, judges and teachers. There was much maligning of the Druids by certain Romans and talk of human blood sacrifices though some of what is written must surely be taken as anti Druid propaganda. It took many years of learning to become a Druid and it was open to both men and women. I feel aspects of it mix in well with wicca and solitary hedgewitchery, it also brings back to us the importance of never losing our traditions and lore, our history and beginnings are what makes us the people we are. Even in today's age of technology we should never forget how to use the oral storytelling tradition.