The Aussie thread....

[astrocelt]

This coming winter solstice Q & A feature interview within Druidic Dawn Magazine Aontacht is with Rafayard from Southern Australia. Now is a unique opportunity for you to ask a question and get a direct response. Don't be bashful. Your questions are important.

So, email your thoughtful questions to us! As always, questions are presented to the interviewee in an anonymous fashion, but we do ask that you keep them clean, professional and courteous. (We reserve the right to disregard submissions which do not follow those guidelines.)

Please do not "Reply" with your question submissions to this thread. Instead, email them directly to the production team at aontacht@druidicdawn.org.

Blessings to the South
Astrocelt

[Dragonwyst]

Having Damh the Bard and Spiral Dance with us in Sydney last Saturday was just pure awesomeness!
I have paid the price in sore feet and legs, and just as they are recovering, I'm paying a further price in the scratchy throat that began on saturday night taking full advantage of the unaccustomed extreme exercise and hence lowered resistance and the damned bug has descended to my chest to play havoc there. But such is life - I can blame it on my work colleagues who have all been coming down with this virus in batches of threes, fours and even sevens yesterday. It means I can legitimately take a sicky.

Anyhow, while everyone else was hell-bent on collecting autographs, I collected the one thing I was after: a from a Pendragon! and yea, verily, I got not one but two!

[Red Tingle]

Damh the Bard and Spiral Dance did indeed treat us to an awesome show, I was very happy to see the host of Druidcast in person. I am really looking forward to the Spirit of Albion musical to be released and was happy to hear some songs from it. The were pretty cool too.

[Julie Mills]

Hi everyone!

So nice to read through this thread over the last couple of days. It's so great to see Aussie Druids getting so active on the discussion board - can you believe this was the #1 thread in Hearthfire just now? Awesome

It has been a long time since I had a look at the discussion board at all, honestly, but this one has got me feeling very inspired. Thanks for all the wonderful links and stories that everyone has posted. Such a rich collection of Australian Druidic experience!

I have done quite a lot of work myself on creating a native wheel of the year based on wind directions, tree cycles, flowering times, and the fire season. It was developed in the coastal area of Sydney, but certainly has some cross overs with other areas in the country, and might just be a matter of timing rather than anything else. I like to use it as my focus for seasonal rituals, though often it coincides with the symbolism of the traditional wheel of the year. For example, coming into winter I celebrate the "Moon Festival" as it is the time when the air clears and the moon is most visible. We do divination and inner workings to celebrate it, and its one of the few we always do at night. So it has a fair bit of cross over with Samhain. Also the "Flower Festival" which comes in early to mid August coincides with imbolc as it relates to poetic inspiration, youth and beauty.

If you are interested in having a look at my wheel of the year its here on my blog:
http://www.druidsdownunder.blogspot.com

There is also a lot of information like: animal and tree symbolism for Australia; and a way of honouring the ancestors to recognise three strands - our bloodline heritage, our inspirations, and the land we live in.

I have always wanted to find a more integrated way of practicing Druidry in the Australian landscape and have found these elements of my practice to be really useful.

I must say I really enjoyed the You Tube doco about the Melbourne Grove that was posted. Allocating native animals to the cardinal points is an awesome idea. I'll have to think about using that one myself!

Looking forward to sharing more with you all

Julie

[Dragonwyst]

Yay!! at last Julie is here! Hearty congrats is due to her as she has completed her degree.

welcome too - Red tingle (now I have to work out who you are!)

the thread grows - I so glad I resurrected it when I did! shows what a little taurean stubbornness can achieve

[Julie Mills]

Thanks Dragonwyst I'm so excited to be finished and now able to put more time into Druidry!

For those of you in the Melbourne/Victoria region, this study from Monash University is really great, and it has a gorgeous little wheel of the year illustration:

http://geoffpark.wordpress.com/a-season ... -newstead/



No spiritual connections unfortunately, but working out the symbolism is half the fun I think

[Julie Mills]

Now that I have worked out how to put in images I have realised I can put in my wheel of the year. It runs counterclockwise and we are currently coming up to the cusp between the Moon Festival and the Hardening Festival. For the Hardening (when all the bark on the trees is at its thickest and strongest, protecting the trees from the cooler weather) we honour the home, the protection of indoors, fire, and the ability to stay warm. It's also a great time for study, storytelling and other indoor activities. So we are planning to have a bit of a feast with an open fire, some warm drinks and a bit of storytelling to celebrate

[Julie Mills]

If anyone is heading out to the Winter Magic Festival in Katoomba on the 18th/19th June, a few of us are meeting at the Paragon Cafe (65 Katoomba St) on the Sunday at 2pm for a catch up. Feel free to come along and join us!

PM me for details.

[wyeuro]

hi julie, nice to see you here!!!!

[wyeuro]

yeah damh the bard and spiral dance are wonderful. i love them.
bronzie, your work with horses sounds very interesting. it's people like you who actually spend time one on one with animals you love and who love you who truly understand the communication between animals and people - how much mutual understanding there is that isn't articulate too. i sooo longed for a horse when i was younger, but never had one. the land's too poor here out in the mallee with only smallish acreages. we've only got eighty acres, so goats made more sense. but i still dream...
wy

[RunaLouise]

Hello! This is my first post on the thread. I'm in Geelong, near Melbourne. That Melbourne wheel is fantastic!

[Aurora]

Hi RunaLouise welcome and nice to meet you

[Bronzewing]

Great to see more faces turning up to keep this thread bumped. I feel very inspired by it too.

Wyverne, I love goats and can't have them here so we both will just have to enjoy each other's animals vicariously. Actually I adore sheep even more but once again not suitable to have them here. I plan to be a mad old sheep lady one day when horses become too much work for me to manage, but I might squeeze in a goat or two as well.

So jealous of everyone who got to go the the recent concerts! It's great to hear eaveryone else had fun and lovely to read on Damh's blog how well the Aussies looked after him and Cerri. You did us proud! I bet he does hug well too.

Hugs,

Tina

[Julie Mills]

Hi RunaLouise! Nice to meet you. I'm glad you liked that Melbourne wheel. I think its cool that it was made by a university weather department too as I think our unique environment is not acknowledged enough by society in general. Our seasons are so different to other places, and so different over the whole country too.


Just a reminder to everyone who can make it....
Winter Magic is this weekend in Katoomba NSW. I'd love to meet more people. We have a table booked under Julie at the Paragon Cafe at 2pm. Feel free to pop by if you are at the festival.

Julie

[Steven Pitman]

Just popped my registration in for the southern hemisphere gathering in October. Anyone else going along?
Should be a wonderful few days
Steve

[Aurora]

Hi Steven, I think there are a few others going including me as i've just sent my registration form in I'm really looking forward to it too.
I suppose i'll see you in October

[Christophe]

Hello, I am in the lower north shore area of Sydney, once upon a time i kept a very low profile but i would love to meet other OBOD members in the area.

[Aurora]

Hi Christophe nice to meet you. There are a few of us in and about Sydney and Druids Down Under runs a regular monthly meet up on the second Sunday of the month (except this month as they have run off to the Winter Magick festival) If you're on facebook you can find the group page which will let you know time and location of the next meet up.

Hope to see you there,

Aurora

[Steven Pitman]

Look forward to seeing you in October Aurora and a very big welcome Christophe

[Bronzewing]

Hi Christophe!

Hey, what's everyone been doing to celebrate midwinter? We had a bonfire last night over at my sissie's house, with mulligatawny soup and marshmallows, though not at the same time! :P Was lovely! Not that I want the sun to return yet, we've hardly had any real winter or rain at all! I was all about celebrating that is is finally a bit wet and cool!

Beluga (hubby) and I were thinking about how nice it would be to have any Perth Obodies maybe get together for a chat. I know we are very few and far between but we did think maybe a meetup in a park for a picnic or a pub beer-garden for a drinkie might be nice? Any takers? Doesn't have to happen often, we could just try it and see. The community aspect of OBOD is so hard to achieve when one never meets another druid face to face!

Hugs,

Bronzie