The Passing of Piastra - In Memoriam

[Donata]

for my dear friend of many names. You touched all our lives, and are missed, and are remembered.

May you be at peace in the Summerlands!

Donata

[Bracken]

[Twig]

I still have a pm she sent me. I won't ever delete it. I had such a short time with her, but I knew I was in the presence of an extraordinary person.



Gone, but not forgotten, Piastra.

[Kat Lady]

I was in the grocery store the other day and noticed that there were rows of canned grapefruit. I sighed as one of the things she loved and had a difficult time finding where she lived at one point was grapefruit. So I would send her canned grapefruit to tide her over. Little memories mean so much.

[LadyCelt]

[Dryadia2]

Pepper, you always marched to the beat of a different drummer; the heartbeat of our Earth Mother. May gentle winds carry this message of Love, Respect, and Admiration across the veil. And may the flame of your inspiration, continue to shine.

/|\

[Aylyn]

[Blaiddwen]

Pepper's spirit is with the Nwyfre that is within and around the earth, dancing its knotwork form, giving us life and connecting us all. I think of my friend, call out her name, and then take in 3 breaths of her spirit, her warmth enfolds me.
Dear Pepper, we love you.

Blaiddwen

[Niht-Wyrd]

Peps, your wonderful gifts will forever adorn my altar, so as you well know, you are always with me in this space. The owl's wing gives flight to your coming, and the wolf's tooth, well, the less said about your bite the better, eh!!

As Beith has said already, Samhain is also the time I feel closest to my friends here, it has always felt like 'our time' somehow, and Peps, you know you've been here with us all. You are the fire that burned in my courtyard, and yes, you did manage to burn my leg a little bit, as if I needed the reminder!

Sammy's doing great sweetheart, you wanna see him now. I just wish I could send you some pictures like I used to. He's in his third year at school now, is super good looking, has 25 girlfriends, and could charm the socks off a bear, so yes, still just like his daddy, ahem!!

Have a glass of the old fermented apple juice up there for us my dear, I'm having one down here for you now. Gods bless and keep you well always Pepper, give 'em hell!

Always perching,

Craiggy xxx

[Crow]

How ironic that Piastra died on Election Day in the United States. I can't say that I know how she would have voted, and my purpose in bringing this up is not to do any electioneering, but to acknowledge the fact that this was a woman who was all about doing your duty, whether it be personal, spiritual, civic or otherwise, and I have no doubt that if she were alive today, she'd have done her duty and would have been exhorting others to do so as well!

When I first arrived on this board, Piastra was a presence; the truth of the matter is that she scared me to death! To run afoul of Piastra -- or Carragh as she was known in those days -- was something you definitely didn't want to do! She had a power that could travel across thousands of miles of real estate and explode electronically on a computer screen anywhere in the world, and along with that power was an air of mystery and deep druidic wisdom.

I remember when, as a new Bard, I was feeling a little strange one night and, in a moment of sheer lunacy, decided to send a PM to this frightening woman and ask her what she thought. A couple of my friends told me at the time that I was insane for taking the risk. "She''ll roast you alive," is what one of them said, and part of me didn't doubt it. But what I got back was a well-reasoned reply about the lifting of the veil at Samhuinn, and that since I was new to a pagan path, I probably was opening myself up to powers and influences to which I had been previously unaware.

The Dragon Lady didn't bite me, and I enjoyed many exchanges with her, each an occasion for me to broaden my own horizons and marvel at the power in her words and deeds. It was something else she taught me: Sometimes risk bears great rewards.

Unlike some others, I never received anything material from Piastra, though she told me once about a few of the things she'd collected for me. She was always going to mail them "some day," but I knew she was very sick and without a lot of money, and that day never came. But life is so much more than that, and what Piastra gave me can never be taken away, because it lives in my heart forever.

The veil has lifted and lowered again for another cycle, but now I am well accustomed to those strange feelings that occur around this time of year. Piastra lives, but on the other side now, subject to the same laws that will bind us all to that place when our time has come. How gentle is our path that it allows us once a year to be in the presence of those friends and family who have departed this world for another.

Piastra, I thank you for all you gave me, and hey, I'll see you again around this time next year!

Blessings,

[CopperLion]

Pepper my dear friend, I know you are riding free and happy with your dragon in the Summerlands.

You made Druidry magical and very real for me.

I'll see you on the other side my friend.

[Willowhawk]

You are never far from our hearts, dear Piastra. Bless you.

[Alferian]

Greetings from the Other Side, Piastra.

On the anniversary of your passing, it seems to me, on the one hand, that the past year has been much much longer than a year, and on the other hand, it seems as if you are still with me, still just waiting for my next letter. I have not heard anything more from Kersanda, after offering to help organize your papers. I am sure she has been too busy, but I hope that when the time is right she will remember the offer to help. Your writing was always so full of life and love. Your letters to me, for the most part, encouraging. You know, of course, the decision that was made about Avalon College and it pains me to disappoint you, especially, who always felt so strongly that the project would unfold as we dreamed it, manifesting in the material world. But you also know, from the vantage point beyond the Moon, that life is not easy and smooth. It is full of textures and for those who aspire to wisdom it is more often full of trials and tests. One likes to believe that the point of these trials is to "pass" successfully, but it is seldom so simple. School makes us think that tests are given to be passed and that success is measured by getting jobs done or problems solved. Life's trials may serve us equally well if we do not succeed in our plans, if jobs do not get done the way we supposed them to be done. For it is in endings not in "success" that we grown in wisdom and in understanding of ourselves and life.

You faced the trial of living in a body that was failing, but body's do not really "fail." They are not machines. They are vehicles. If the seats are sometimes uncomfortable and the tires a little flat, their purpose is still to get us where we are going. Bodies are not an end in themselves, but a means. We journey. When you passed over to the Otherworld, I made the gesture, as you well know, of adding our shared clan name, Scott, to my name as a remembrance of your guidance and friendship, and of your generosity in acting as my clan mother to make me an honorary Scott. It is a gesture of Awen, of poetic imagination, similar to the acceptance of a druid name. Such names tell us that we are more than the single individual of this incarnation; that we exist in many lives across space and time. One of the things I remember which made you most angry was when anyone would go off on claims of ethnic purity as a prerequisite to Druidry. For you it is the spirit of the soul that makes a druid, not the circumstances of one's incarnation. Indeed, if blood made a druid, then we might well wonder how a druid could remain such after passing on to another life. No, as you were fond of saying, it is the higher and inmost self that recognizes one's own druidry.

For such a beloved soul in this cyber-pub and the community of druids online, it is remarkable that you were only a member of the OBOD for so comparatively few years. Your ardor packed a lifetime of awareness into those years. We all knew you were an old soul, as you did yourself, and we are grateful for your continued guidance in this time of new hope and joy in our United States. Humanity moves forward to bravely face crises it has partially made for itself and to change its ways. You tell me, when I ask you quietly, that you and the other old druid souls active in Eternity will guide our movement, the spiritual change that Druidry offers, a new relationship with our bodies and with nature. The Golden Rule in many philosophies has been "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" but Druidry adds emphasis to the word "others." As you always taught us, our animal brothers and sisters, our wise cousins the Standing People, and the whole of the vegetable kingdom, our grandparents the stones and bones of the Earth and the spirits that indwell in all such "others" must all be treated with the same simple respect of that Golden Rule.

Thank you for reminding me of this when I set aside my worries and busy work to pause and commune with your spirit. Druidry offers an even bigger challenge to Humanity than Christianity. It asks us to love all our neighbors, not just the human ones and to identify with them and so consider whether we would like to be treated as we treat them. You are a fierce warrior spirit for this druid justice, willing to take up sword and pen against those who failed in their respect for others.

So, I send you love, as always. The years passing mean something different to you from the vantage point of Eternity, but adieu for another year. We shall always keep a candle burning for you each Samhuinn and keep you in our hearts as a spirit of hope and strength upon the druid way.

Yours as ever,

Alferian /|\

[Cumaclir]

It has been a while since Pepper passed, and I thought I'd like to say a bit from my end. I met Pepper around 2003. She contacted me one day out of the blue. I don't remember exactly why, but she had gotten my name and email from a friend of a friend. We chatted about all things Druidic for about a year before I knew about her illness. What I do remember specifically about her worries, "I tend to not tell people about my illness. They start drifting away and distancing from me." She and I chatted via yahoo and email about her book, her kids, how she was feeling, and about her returning to school. I never saw her feiry side, she was always timid, kind, and warm even while having a bad day. I still miss her, but she did one nice thing for me when she passed. I spent the next three years burying friends and family. I know Pepper was standing there on the otherside to help them all adjust and be comfortable.

Respectfully,
Bob the Bard

[Alferian]

Cheers Bob.

Pepper is fondly remembered and is still very much with me. If it weren't for her, I may not ever have finished my Wandlore book. It comes out next Summer and is dedicated to her.

Alferian