Moons and Calendars (Happy New Year!)

So new years eve is not only new years eve, but it falls on a new moon... that is also a blue moon (second full moon in a calender month) and it is a partial lunar eclipse.

OMG! or really? I mean. Its a full moon yes, but its only a blue moon according to the calendar that we use, which is just a fluke really, and its a lunar eclipse that isnt visible to the UK.

However, I have been a bit moon-crazy (or loopy-lunar!) for a while. I had this random thought in the night a few weeks back about moons and druids.

What would a phase of the moon mean to an ancient druid? What does a phase on the moon mean to a present-day druid, that isnt just a diffusion of knowledge spread from Wicca to Druidry in recent times. I mean, why do we see the Moon as Female? Is that something druids have picked up from the Wiccans and just not questioned it? Many cultures at male moon deities - and would the druids really have associated Gender to the luminaries?! I mean stars dont have gender assigned to them.

So the only bit I could link between ancient druids and moons were as a method of counting time, in a calendar. However, I dont like the Graves Celtic Moon calendar idea (which he later admitted was complete forgery!).

So perhaps part of my DPO project is to pick a card for the lunar month as a guide? Or just to be aware of the plant happenings as we move throughout the solar year?

But would that start at a full moon? Or would it be at the new moon, the point of void, the death/rebirth moment. Hmmph stuff to ponder indeed!

To go through these thoughts I've drawn 3 cards, Comfrey from the top of the pack, Woad from the middle of the pack and Ivy at the bottom of the pack
Well, two very day time cards and the Ivy with the full moon lol. Maybe thats suggesting how the moon and sun are linked, that there is no real seperation, as the the moon is only the light of the sun reflecting from a rock floating around the earth? lol

Comfrey is about union, it is BoneWort and knits together skin and bone, spirit and body.Woad is about being brave and defending what is yours to defend - ie my idea that the druids didnt do moons lol, well at least not in the way that modern druid types do - and the moon/gender thing really doesnt feel appropriate to me at the moment. So I'm not going to be going ga-ga over how She is beautiful, no She, just the Moon. The Ivy though is reflecting that whatever we THINK the druids might or might not have done, we cant escape that deep pull we have as human beings, as beings of water, of just primal instinct that the moon is sacred.

Perhaps the idea here is for me to link sun and moon together? Working with the solar and lunar festivals? My friends Sue and Jake spoke to me of their awareness of how the solar festival is boosted by the power of the moon. For example, May day might be on 1st, but the hawthorn, the big indicator for the celebration of Beltane to most folks, may not be in bloom till May 15th which happened to be around the time of that full moon. So, it could be something to be aware of and see how it unfolds.

I do feel though that once again the DPO is asking me to not just think and analyse the cards, my spirituality etc but just to have the stillness to feel and experience why I am lunar loopy, by being with the Moon at its times and seeing what unfolds within me (theres that Ivy ya see).I think its also asking me to just sit and FEEL what is flowing. To not THINK about what might have happened, but what I feel is right to happen and seek to be receptive to the ideas that come to me at the moon.

Ivy again in so many days... ooooh.

SO... that is why I havent done a big New Year Full Moon/Blue Moon reading. Too much in my head and what feels right for me now is that years and months, the 'calendar' is based on moon cycles. You cant have blue moons when you have a calender based on months of the moon cycles! Plus I already had a reading done on my birthday for my year ahead and it seems daft to do it twice. Birthday years seems to click better with me than the calendar turning a number type of year.

But I do keep having this connection to the Moon. I'll have to ponder and see where it is taking me :)

*sings* The primrose and the ivy!... oh well, I tried lol

Yes it was monday's card and its now Wednesday, but I havent been home to do daily readings or post about it since Monday. This is because I am a dirty-stop-out and I keep kipping over at my boyfriends after work.

So... Monday morning turns (after being up in the night pondering plants, as ya do!) and drew Primrose. Aww pretty I thought, and as I had read up about Primrose the other night as I had drawn it, just went to work.

Now since then I have really connected to things in my life.
For example.. I've started to work at a new place for 10 weeks. My first week (last week) left me with a few ups and downs. And it was solstice/xmas week and I was working etc etc so I had a few wobbles and nearly by the end of the week I didn't want to go back there ever again.
However, since then I've had really good days. Ive felt settled and able to talk to the people I work with, have a few jokes, get told and (surprised!) remarks from people about how im getting on. Its really put into focus the opportunities to learn and grow because I dont know a lot.

Its just given me a really good vibe for th coming year. Nothing spectacular, no one AMAZING life changing moment that brought deep clarity - but just that gentle repeated awareness and acknowledgment that Im actually doing ok!

Its taught me about what I find inspirational about my job, and what I find ethically grey about my job. But thats good too, because if I didnt appreciate the greyness, I wouldnt see the amazingness in it.

Im making no sense but the phrases in the book like 'a fresh way of tenderness...new beginnings... rising of creativity... love... birthing of wisdom... and what degree is your quest in life to find completion through another human being, or through yourself?' (although that last one isnt probably meaningful to me in the way that PCG wrote it).

And yesterday I got 3 gifts from my bloke.. like 3 drops of awen hehe.

Sooo.. tomorrows daily card is Ivy.
Hmm, new years eve, the time of year where we may be aware of what we want to be committed/bound too, and what we want to be free from - like making new years resolutions lol.
Although I am rubbish at making them and keeping them. But perhaps I will need to think on to what and who I have involved in my life.
Looking at the spiral motif on the rocks I think about how the two years are deeply linked, that 2010 isnt suddenly going to be radically different, but its energies will be because the spiral is in the other way. The first year (the bottom spiral) stirs creation WithOut, so changes in circumstance, relationships etc. The second year could be about working deeper magic and stirring creation WithIn me, in my awareness and progression in my spiritual journey.

Tomorrow is also a Full moon/Blue moon/Lunar Eclipse... WOW! And seeing the full moon in the card makes me think that this event tomorrow is going to cause a huge about of energy shiftings in the coming year. The book also mentions about Ivy, Bacchus/Dionysis connections and wine - well there will be plenty of booze quaffed by the world tomorrow for New Year! Maybe the DPO is just having a giggle with me in that being off my trolley is what i need to be aware of about tomorrow! lol

How fab!

It also has reminded me that tomorrow I want to do some sort of year ahead/moon focused spread with the DPO. Something a bit adventurous for me as I am a one - three card girl usually with the DPO, so I should try new things with the new energies around tomorrow night. Im off to ponder that some more :)

On another random side note, I can OFFICIALLY be part of the PDR on the AT forums, the mods have said yes :D DOUBLE GROOVY

sleeptime random musings.. first of many.

Okie so heres a few random musings (that I remember) as I drifted to sleep last night.

1) If the Ogham together create a Grove, then the Plants together create a Garden!
2) The protective spirits of the Garden could be a Gardener, but that seems a bit daft... Im thinking perhaps The Herbalist, or even perhaps the Pheryllt (the alchemists of the celtic world)
3) That when I do my Brighid Flame Tending I could shuffle and select cards to surround me in the shape of the Brighids Cross spread in the DPO book. Sometimes it might be important to note the plants selected, and sometimes it might not be. This is just an idea, we'll see what happens on my next shift.

There was plenty more, but its late and I will soon be drifting off to sleep and hopefully the plants will share space and time with me in their own wintery dreamtime :)

Blessings from the Garden!

How best to learn and be with my DPO

Okie.. so on AT there is a lot of talk about Individual Deck Studies and Primary Deck Reflection exercises. A few years back I took part in the One Deck Wonder experiment, committing myself to using one deck and no others for reading etc, and I found that such a rewarding exercise. It deepened my love of tarot, opened me up to what tarot really is rather than just pretty cards and working out what the message of the reading is (although that helps a lot!).

However, I dont know if it will be really beneficial to do something like this with an oracle like the DPO. Do I keep to one oracle and still flirt with other tarot and oracle decks? Am I limiting myself in a way that the plants won't like?

So I've drawn a card from the DPO to shed some light on this riddle - What advice can you offer me on how I learn and be with the DPO that benefits us both?

Well, as I was shuffling Primrose fell out, but the top card from the pack was Bramble.

Primose - A new cycle, a new development, a new spiral on the circles of Abred. I feel here that the Primrose is suggesting to me that being with the DPO and learning with it is the best way to be with it.. for to learn and be with it you have to use it!
The book also suggests the idea of 3's, the 3 drops of Awen from Ceridwen's cauldron, so perhaps I could keep 3 decks about me? lol maybe Im just deck greedy! lol

Bramble - a plant that suggests boundaries and restrictions... how keeping to them can protect what you are creating, so that the fruit can grow.

I feel that whilst Primrose is suggesting to just USE the deck, read with it, ponder with it etc, that Bramble is saying that you need a bit of an idea of what you want to do, what you want to achieve and how to achieve it. The romantic idea of spending time with the deck (Primrose) needs plans so that you a)actually do spend time b) dont get so caught up in the rules of it that you dont play with it at all!

So.... with that in mind I have guidelines (well, the Creirwy DPO Code)

• I hope to have this oracle as my Primary Deck for a least the whole of January. On Febuary 1st I will think over what I have achieved (if anything, this might be my only post you never know!) and how I want to move the project forward.
• I can use other tarot and oracle decks during this time, but any readings for myself I will try to use the DPO and post it here, but wont get too hung up about it if I use other decks.
• I will post a reading here once a week, be it just a daily draw or (as I wont have time to draw and post here as Im busy with work and studying etc) something more complex. These will be readings for me. Any readings I do for others with the DPO on the AT forum will not be shared here, even if the reading was openly done on the forum.
• I can freely muse about the deck and the plants as often as I like, including any insights I have got about the deck and how to use it when I've read for other people
• Any 'deck study' wafflings I will post on the AT forum in the study group, rather than here. I want this blog to be about musings and practical workings with the deck, not just pondering about plants. This is to focus on the use of the deck as an Oracle, not about herblore (although that helps!)
• If I use the deck in magic or meditation I will share here what I have experienced if I can :)

And if something crops up that isnt address in the Code, then I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

So I guess that reading counts as my first reading on my Blog! Groovy!

First post - What this blog is about

2010 is the year of lots of things... but one of them for me is to use and learn more about the Druid Plant Oracle (DPO) by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, the artwork by Will Worthingtom

I have already done some readings, even created spreads and facilitated (although not very well) some reading circles based on the DPO. However, this blog is going to be about my own musings, readings, ideas and general fabness about this oracle.

I love divination and especially tarot, but sometimes I can even out-tarot myself (ssssh thats a secret!) and it would be good to really work on my own relationship with the DPO. I often use it to read for other people and yet never work with the deck for myself. And this deck offers a lot... it offers healing and a deep connection to the plants, to Nwyfre or the lifeforce and is just wonderful. I have tried to use the Druid Animal Oracle, but for me it never really 'clicked', however this one does work for me if I put the time in to learn and share with the plants.

So in true planty style I am putting aside linear time, opening myself to the mysteries of the plants and I hope they share some of their healing and inspiration with me (and a jolly good giggle as well!).