Lammas tide reflections

This Lammas tide has felt like it has had more significance to me this year as my vegetable plot started to take shape this year. Yesterday was the first harvest of broad beans & although it wasn't the traditional wheat which I turn into a corn dolly which hasn't happened this year it was no less a significant harvest & the fact I grew them myself gave me a sense of achievement. I was starting to feel a little less connected with the seasons & although I still don't fully gel with some of the festivals, ones centred around growing & harvesting do have more of a significance especially now I have more of a chance of growing my own. I am far from finished on my plot so hopefully the work on a spiritual level yesterday will help as a bit of a boon to my physical travails on the plot. I have also been thankful to see more of our native insect life recently which has taken a battering, but hopefully with the largely good whether we've had, that it will help to perk up their numbers. I also baked a loaf which I haven't done in a while which certainly brings the taste of Lammas back to me, especially as I have gotten better at baking it, so I did do something a little traditional for it.

Hooray for gay marriage

Thank goodness for that, Britain will now be joining the rest of the enlightened world with the introduction of same sex marriage. So my attending of the public consultation did not go to waste. Some of the comments that I heard against same sex marriage in the House of Commons & the House of Lords just did not make sense. As a gay man I will now be able to marry my partner, I won't be able to marry my dad or my pet as some of the members suggested as incest laws & bestiality laws have not changed & no one has asked for them to be changed for this to happen, plus euw gross to anybody who would want to change them as that is just plain nasty. It won't lessen any of the marriages between heterosexual couples, how can it? Traditional marriage has not existed for centuries/millennia so won't affect them either as most of them don't exist. To the people who don't like the idea of same sex marriage there is an easy solution don't get married to someone who is the same sex as you. It is still not quite equal but it is still getting better. Thanks to all my friends who have campaigned for it, who took time out to visit the public consultations, who filled out the online consultations & those who have campaigned through their churches for it & thank you to all the MPs & members of the House of Lords & to the Queen who have now made it law. Perhaps now it could help lead to legal recognition of Pagan weddings as that was one of the issues with Pagan weddings is that a handfasting of a same sex couple was considered equal to that of opposite sex couples. WOOHOO & YAY!!!! 

Sorry for the none posting of late

It has been a while, I'm sorry I have been a bit angry young man with a lot of things that happened & I wasn't entirely sure that my annoyance at the world wouldn't end up with me sounding like an arsehole. The Murder of Lee Rigby & the backlash from the EDL & other right wing facists, which was about couple of psychos not an entire religion, as I saw no one have a go at all Christians when a couple 2 years ago killed a child because 'it was a witch' & 'it was all done in God's Name'. Then the subsequent attacks on innocent Muslims riled me, including a recent terrorist attack on a Mosque not too far away.
Then there was the badger cull, tighter restrictions on livestock movement, & improved checks & immunisation are all moves that would be more effective if done together than what a cull would do & it wasn't the badgers that started it in the first place.
And finally Russia whose stance on LGBT rights was OK but not brilliant to down right persecution, I feel for the LGBT people of Russia & hope they get a new president soon who is a free thinker & stop turning their country into a one to avoid listed country.
So Sorry about the absence I had my reasons & believe me this post was a long time of making it not sound like I'm calling for a Battle Royale scenario with all extremists in the world, though that could be an option. But on a serious note I did need to be in a calmer place before posting, so here it is.

Gay Marriage Revisited

Well it seems that it has been all over the news again as the bill entered parliament & was dicussed again. It also showed that there are some politicians trying to do the best they can to try & prevent equality by throwing up another notion that also questioned equality. Now I do believe that heterosexuals should be allowed to have civil partnerships & if it was a pro gay marriage politician putting forward the bill I would have supported it, but no, it was someone anti gay marriage who was trying to put it in to the bill to postpone the gay marriage bill going through to beyond the next election, which Annwn forbid could see Nigel Farage's lot get in with their lack of human rights stand. But it is good to see that it is generally getting a good reception by most & hopefully Britain will become the next country to join those with equal marriage rights so that we aren't dragging behind. It still won't stop the stupid comments that have been springing up. Gay marriage will not allow parents to marry their offspring just as heterosexual marriage doesn't allow it either. I haven't heard a valid arguement against it yet. There is a view held by some that it would devalue heterosexual marriage, I'm not sure how if two men say 'I do' how it would mean all of a sudden it would mean that an oath said between to people of opposite sex would be worth less than what it did before. I don't see what the insecurity is about, gay marriages are already happening in this country it is just that they will be become legally binding that is all. I have also heard whispers that another religious organisation is supporting the bill.

Jack in the Green: How old is he?

With May having gone through a full swing of seasons in one month I would like to look at one of the quintessential May characters in British folklore. It appears that Jack in the Green maybe one of the youngest. It seems that with the upsurge in popularity of the old figure of the Green Man & Robin Hood characters he has been lumped in with them. It isn't until the 18th Century that he is depicted & not until 19th Century when the term Jack in the Green was first named in writing. So here is my theory, the Jack in the Green came out of some over posturing of garland making which was popular in 16th-17th Centuries or as a piece of art imitating life with depictions in both written & drawn form could have been greatly exagerated & people took it at face value & it somehow ran away with itself & in this case quite literally so. I somehow get the feeling it may be a bit of both. So old maybe but not ancient. But why do we seem to put group all foresty type beings in one great lump, why can't Robin Hood, the woodwose, Green Man, Jack in the Green, the Holly King, the Green Knight etc be seen as a different being by some of the fluffy or New Age lot. Before you know it the Jolly Green Giant will be the next thing added into it & I'm not entirely sure what a sweetcorn logo would have to do with the other characters. I like my May customs & different folkloric characters, but that is because they are different. In Britain we don't have the gods of many other countries so please don't deminish our folk characters too.

Admitting stuff is hard

This is a post of 2 very different stories, but perhaps we can draw parallels.

Story one, a friend of mine came out to his mother recently, who is a bit older than me, it was raw for them & felt emmotionally drained. The more sad the my friend was upset rather than what she had been told, things may still feel raw, but as time progresses it will ease & they will wonder why they didn't do it earlier, but coming out is not easy even now, eventhough more people are excepting of homosexuality. Admitting it was probably the first step to feedom for the person & will help ease the future along.

The second story is about a family member who is disabled & their condition was degenerative, it affects their stability & abilty to walk amongst other things. It is always hard to see someone so active to suddenly become less able, but this was a case of the person wanting to take part in a family outing which we thought wouldn't have been the best for their abilities, but family is family & they came along, unfortunately the day was cut short due to the inability of walking long distances & especially on unneven ground. It unfortunately caused stressed, words were had in the nicest way possible, that next year it probably wouldn't be best for them to come because of the way they were not able to cope. But this has set a ball rolling to find something new to do including them in the family gathering that is akin to what we were doing, but with more accessibility, so they don't have to rely so much on the support of others & can still enjoy themselves & still be independent. It is a bitter pill to swallow that you can't quite do all the things that you used to, but it shouldn't stop you from doing other things or new things that are in you remit. My heart goes out to them & hope that they won't be discouraged from doing other things together with the family in the future as they are still very much loved.

So excepting things about yourself can actually move you further forward, don't dwell on things & see acceptance as a good thing & a chance to do new things & be proud of who you are.

A toast to Merry England

As per usual I made the trip to Clun for the Green Man festival on May Day for a bit of merry England style folk festivaling. The festival seems to have quite a wide appeal to varying different people from all walks of life, most of them looked like your average Joe Normal's but it it was peppered with the beardy weirdies you would also expect to see at such events. So what is the appeal? Is it just an excuse for a party? Or is it that people want to get a slice of the rural life that they don't have in urban/suburban life? Or is it that people want ot connect with the past? Which ever way it always feels like a bit of a pilgramage to me as my dad is a Salopian & the Beltane May Day connections are also prominant. The festival involves a fight between Green Man & the Ice Queen & the Green Man usualy wins (last year been canceled due to flooding & look what a horrible summer we had last year, I blame that for the weather we got, that & the gulf stream being in the Med rather than on Northern Europe). I'm hoping to explore a little more of Merry England hopefully this year or at least its modern enterpretations. But I'm not the only one, it appears many people are, so is it more a quest for cultural identity where some people feel we are losing it or just an affirmation we have one? Well in which ever case any a excuse for a party is a good one. So hats off to the people who make it happen.