The Aussie thread....

[Klandaxa]

Hello Dragonwyst, it is nice to meet you.

My name is pronounced simply. Cland-axe-ah...well, at least that is how I 'feel' it should be pronounced.

Hope this helps.

As for my brief writings on sunchonicity and your 'needing' to read this at this point in time...I would argue that The Source has caused me to write it and for you to read it. To emphasise my point consider this:

The day I sat at my omputer and wrote that comment...I wrote it out 5 times! For the first 4 times it just would not send; my computer was playing up. I decided then that perhaps I wasn't meant to share these thoughts. I decided to try one last time (a 5th and final go) asking all the while that if this comment was meant to be posted then this last attempt would be successful. The rest is history of course.

[reilz81]

hello fellow Aussie druids, and welcome to the new ones.

I find that the early stages of druidism is that of solitary, where your finding you place you often find others walking that same path. I've been a solitary pagan since i was about 13, not really out of choice, but necessity, however it is now my choice to stay solitary, at least until some changes happen in the world.

[Klandaxa]

Greetings, reilz81.

Thankyou for sharing.

The path we walk is determined by us and us alone. How we walk and by whose side we walk is, I suggest, not a personal decision but rather a reaction to the environment we find ourselves in. We have met, meet and will continue to meet people along the journey that will change who we are. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. If we are accessible, those that we meet can only enrich our wealth of spirit.

We can never truly walk alone, reilz81. While I choose to develop my druidic nature alone, here, on this forum, I can share with you my thoughts, my dreams, my beliefs in a safe environment. This is not a solitary activity. In fact, it could be argued that our very correspondance on this forum negates such a solitary existence.

Furthermore, reilz81, I would encourage you, and others, to always be able to engage me and others with your own thoughts, dreams and beliefs. This community is only as strong as those who participate in it.

It was nice to meet you.

[Fox of the Oaks]

Hi reilz81, Klandaxa, Aussies and all others,

My understanding is that at times the path may require we are alone, at other times we walk and share together, each has their own journey, their own story, which I do my best to respect. We are all on different trails in a sense, yet also part of something greater, a greater circle we all traverse at different points, and different ways. It may happen that we meet others on the way, while some may travel with us, others may be heading in the other direction. The uniqueness we have and also the commonality we all share, are, I believe, very special things.

For myself, I am honoured to be able to share with others on this forum, and also to have the blessings to walk my own unique druidic way.

Australia is a big place, and we are spread all over it, it seems. Yet in another sense, we can connect, if we choose, in person, over the internet, and in spirit.

Travelling with trees,
Whytefox

[Bronzewing]

Gosh, a lot of wisdom being shared here. What a shame only we Aussie's are reading it.

I'd actually love to meet up with some other OBODies but it's not as easy as going along to a public grove ceremony here. We'll have to pull our much-separated Perthite fingers out and plan it ourselves. Now if one of the other Perth people will do that I'll gladly come along.

Actually I have to face reality just now and I am not well enough to do much organising or traveling. I hope to solve that soon once I get started on being treated for long-term Lyme Disease, and past the first nasty results of the treatment. Then look out world! For all we nature lovers it is worth mentioning that you can catch Lyme in Australia (thought I didn't) and that you don't need to get a rash to have it, and if you feel ill in a multitude of ways that aren't going away, don't expect a doc to think to test for it. Be careful not to get tick bites out there, Druids!

Hugs,

Bronzie

[Fox of the Oaks]

It'll all come together and one day everything will be perfect,
By the Gods and Goddesses, and Australian bush creatures, it will!

Time to sleep...

[Klandaxa]

Hello Whytefox and Bronzewing.

Firstly, to you, Whytefox I will just clarify a point I made in a previous comment posted. When I spoke of the actuality of our ability to walk alone, citing that we never truly walk alone, I referred to the subconscious and source connections we maintain always. We may 'live' alone, literally 'wal'k alone, but as followers of Druidry, I would still argue that we are never 'truly' alone; we connect with other people and other spirits in our druid journey within our daily lives. These 'connections', or communications, ensure that we are never truly isolated or alone and that we are 'connected' always if only in spirit.

Secondly, I am unhappy reading about your recent health issues, Bronzewing, and your immediate and sustained good health are now in my thoughts. My parents live on an acre property in The Vines and ticks are a common occurence when visiting. We always check our kids on return just in case. I have no immediate knowledge on Lyme disease; I will have to explore this a little.

As for your proposal: a meeting here in WA, Perth, an informal or formal seed group, I am interested. Of course, geographically, there might be obstacles but ones that can be remedied I'm sure. As my profile states, I live and work in Perth. Your profile also says Perth but your picture suggests 'bordering' Perth or perhaps down south more? I live in Girrawheen. While the two of us are from Perth, I know not of Whytefox's locality or interest in such a meeting. Whytefox?
Furthermore, greater thought into how the meeting would operate is worth discussing if we are serious about making this happen somtime in the future.

As a school teacher, school holidays are always best for me, but...

...life is not always so simple...

Thoughts???

[Fox of the Oaks]

Hi Klandaxa, I understand what you are saying about the connections we all have. I agree, we are never truly alone, though we may also at times go through the 'experience' of being or feeling alone, yet I think it's all an important part of our growth, either/or.

I'm dwelling in the Adelaide region at the moment. No travel plans at the moment, study keeps me here currently. There are also a few regular Australian gatherings, I'm sure they can be found through a little seeking.

[Steven Pitman]

Hello aussie druids.

What's everyone putting on their census form on the 9th under religion? Any thoughts?

[Klandaxa]

Druidry, Steven, Druidry. You?

[Aurora]

I'm putting Pagan-Druid on mine as if enough people put Pagan-whatever your path is down then that would give a better indication of overal pagan numbers in our country. I believe there are a couple of campaigns running at the moment to that effect called Pagan dash.

[Fox of the Oaks]

This seems to be what your refering to Aurora http://druidnetwork.org/community/pagandash.

I haven't looked into this much, is Paganism considered a religion here?

[Aurora]

I'm not sure if paganism has an official staus or not honestly, but for the purpose of the census if you have 300 or more people with the same response to a question you get recognised as your own category, eg catholics, anglicans etc..

Well i just had a look at the facbook event page for this which is found here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/even ... 4496209181

for those not on face book here is some info about how the census classifies some things:

Stand up and be counted as Pagan! Australia will be conducting a general census in 2011. Now is the time to let the Australian government know we are here. The Pagan "umbrella" is a big one with many paths, beliefes and walks of life beneath it. The aim is to get Pagans of all persuasions (Wiccan, Druid, Asatru, Helenic, Egyptian, Heathen etc.) to put themselves on the census form as "Pagan" or "Pagan, *your path* " (hence the t...erm Pagan, ......).Paganism is included in the Australian Standard Classification of Religious Groups (ASCRG), as a separate output category in the Classification Counts produced for Religious Affiliation from the 2006 Census. It forms part of the broader Nature Religions group.

The classification structure of this group is:

613 Nature Religions
6130 Nature Religions, nfd (not further defined)
6131 Animism
6132 Druidism
6133 Paganism
6134 Pantheism
6135 Wiccan/Witchcraft
6139 Nature Religions, nec (not elsewhere classified)

If a response of Pagan is qualified with additional information such as Druid or Wiccan, this additional information will be used in classifying the response. For example, Pagan Wiccan would be classified as 6135 and Pagan Celtic would be 6133. Pagan alone would be classified as 6133.See more

[SidheAingeal]

I did the eCensus and put myself down as Pagan - Druidism. ^.^

[SidheAingeal]

In other news, I wanted to say hi to all my fellow Aussie OBODies. Are there any OBODies in the Canberra region? I know there is a Druids Down Under meetup in Sydney (looks to be quite good if you can make it) but I often don't get the chance to travel for meetups.

[Bronzewing]

Hi Sidheaingeil!

Thanks for the good thoughts, Klandaxa. Re the Lyme there is a huge movement at the moment to have it recognised as possible to catch Lyme in Oz. Since I went to the UK in 1996 it is most likely I caught it there. I am still waiting on my results as the tests are quite tricky. It's a sneaky little sucker. My good local doc has just found something else I've got and which is quite treatable, which will help me with the anxiety, fatigue and such I've had lately, so that is a good start. I hope very hard that that is all the problem and it won't be Lyme at all. Many of the symptoms match both. Gee these bodies are complex things! Would love to be back to my bouncy social self really soon!

We actually have a little tiny seedgroup, just my hubbie, my sister and me. We are called Silvereyes, named for one of the tiny birds we have up here in the hills. We don't often get together, what with sis being busy with work and her kids and me being off colour a lot, but maybe in the summer school holidays we could get together for a picnic at Whiteman Park? That would be in the middle of us as we are up in Mundaring. We know another guy who has done the full course but not practising much now, but maybe we could get him and his family to come along too. I'm sure you two could talk up a storm because he's another very thoughtful fellow!

We're going to put Pagan - Druid on the census too.

Hey Nightfalls, fingers crossed for you. I don't enjoy being away from my love for even a weekend, so five months would be very hard!

Hugs,

Bronzie

[Klandaxa]

Mundaring? Not far from me at all and a beautiful place. Summer holiday idea sounds great. We can discuss it further as it draws closer.

In other news, I entered my first short poem competition and won my first gold harp! A pleasant surprise. Well done me...

[Bronzewing]

Good on you Klandaxa!

Hey, what did everyone do for Imbolc?

Hugs,

Bronzie

[Uaine]

G'day!

New Aussie member here! (new as in just recent member but old in vintage!)

Looking forward to making contact with other Aussie walking a Druid path or interested in Druidry. I've just received my first Bard Gwersi so am gonna be asking questions.

Beannachd leibh

Uaine.

[Fox of the Oaks]

Welcome Uaine
I'm sure you'll enjoy many valuable responses to your questions.

Peace,
Whytefox