Druidry

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My Nan

Christmas morning, time for gifts, cheesy T.V. and a barrage of toast.
It’s breakfast first, ‘n’ then onto the goodies. Take a guess, who’s got the most?
Transformers, LEGO, Action Man. “Don’t play with the cat!”
Movies, Star Wars, Where’s Martin and Jan? “I warned you about that cat.”

“Who’s for second breakfast?”, “No – really – I’m full.”
“Always room for sandwiches, so you can grow big and tall.”
Jam, butter, maybe some squash. “Don’t tease the cat!”
Bourbons and Garibaldi’s, cakes to nosh. “What if I pulled your tail like that?”

“Get some fresh air. Out from under our feet.”
“Go out and play, look both ways when crossing the street.”
Passed the corner, and over to the shop. “You don’t need to take the cat!”
Newspapers, magazines, and a bottle of pop. “At least don’t drag her like that!”

Lunchtime comes ’round so fast, “Who’s hungry for more?”
Are you joking? More food, but my tummy’s so sore.
Snowballs, macaroons, and French Fancies! “No, don’t feed the cat!”
And yes, you guessed it, more Jam sarnies. “You’ll make her get fat!”

The family sits, plays games. Talks of old times and people we miss.
Then onto today, how we are fairing, hot topics, and glass fish?
Dinner comes around. “Who’s for some tea?” “No, cola is no good for the cat!”
“Maybe more later, over Pontoon or Rummy. ”If you try, she’ll give you a spat!”

The night draws in, the pace slows. “Almost time for bed.”
Pyjamas, tippy-toes and cocoa, and a kiss on the head.
If you’re quiet and good, one last card game for you. “Don’t throw them like that!”
If you’re naughty and loud, it’s a game of ‘Gas Who’. “And no, you can’t blame the cat.”

Well this New Year has brought some changes for me. The first being that I have resigned from all official posts with The Druid Network. This was simply the right choice for me at the time, with my personal life changing, along with work obligations. That said, I’m still a part of the community, and intend to be actively involved in the community, more information here, when it’s ready to go live ;)

I also intend to take more time out for my geekness. So I’ll probably start pitching in the occasional patch to various FOSS projects that I’m interested in. This year is shaping up to be one filled with Inspiration, I’ve also decided to collect up my poetry into a few tomes, with the hope of producing a book… Preferrably before I’m seventy. I’ll also be producing a limited number of Longbows this year (Spring and Summer) for purely practise purposes, they will be up for sale (probably on eBay) and will most likely also include some original artwork on the stave.

Last year was a big learning year for me with regards to projects. We saw the closure of two of my web projects, namely Druid.tv, and DruidWiki.org. Both big lessons in big ideas collapsing under lack of demand, lack of content, and lack of community support. I will — however — be retaining the domains for a while longer until they disappear from various search engines, at least. To avoid confusion.

Next up, Mrs. yibble and I are travelling to New York tomorrow, to partake in some shopping and tourism. We’re only there for four days, so probably won’t have much time to meet up with folks during the day, but the evenings could be cool? Expect many photographs hitting my Flickr Page.

Anyhoo, the year is young… Plenty to come :D

DruidWiki is Kaput!

If you came here looking for the DruidWiki (I doubt it :)). It’s my sad duty to inform you that the project has now ended. As stated before on this blog, the site was not really being used. It enjoyed a busy and even controversial start in life, and then sadly dwindled in usage.

I do think the project was a success. It achieved its aims, and previewed the technology and concept to the Druid and Pagan community. However, either the technology is not ready, or the community has no real use for it.

Rest assured that the material submitted to the DruidWiki under the GFDL, is still accessible, protected, and licensed under the GFDL. You can request text via e-mail. And the material is only available under the GFDL still.

My other project, which is relatively new is Druid.tv. Feel free to check it out. It’s going strong, with over 200 downloads of content to date!

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I’ve just completed reading the Ted Chiang book, ‘Stories of Your Life and Others’. Wow! A very enjoyable, thought provoking read (thanks for the recommendation, Colin).

This is Sci-Fi with a spiritual (and sometimes, religious) content. Chiang delves into the human kit and pulls frantically at constants and perceptions. From re-telling of an Old Testamant tale, the edge of an industrial revolution using gola, to a documentary script detailing the arguments for and against automatically controlling perceptions to negate discrimination.

Definately one to get if you fancy a little after-reading thought.

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Hi all. Mrs. yibble and I are back from our holiday in Cornwall. Yup, that’s why we’ve had no podcast for a little bit, ‘cos we haven’t been here! That’s also why we’ve not been on our usual Internet haunts, we couldn’t find a WiFi network to ‘visit’ ;)

We’ve got some great photographs up on our Flickr account, showing some of our visit to Tintagel, Trebarwith, Bude, Wadebridge, Padstowe, and Camelford. Tintagel was the launchpad for our assault into the rest of Cornwall. We visited (amongst others) Tintagel Castle, Slaughterbridge, and Saint Nectan’s Glen. Here’s a spattering of photographs for the very, very lazy.

In other news. I’ve come back to interesting finances :) Nothing to worry about, just something that I need to deal with before it gets funky. I’m going to be cutting some various bills, one of those is going to affect the DruidWiki. I’m going to move back to cheaper hosting, which won’t support the software required to keep the DruidWiki running. As it’s not used anyway, I’m going to terminate the project, for reason’s already mentioned on this blog. I will continue to maintain the domain, and protect the material licensed to the DruidWiki.

Anyhoo, It’s good to be back :D

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As I was listening to music and grasing the web idley. I stumbled across this little gem, I thought I’d put it out here, and perhaps describe a little of my beliefs regarding this mythos, and how accurately Frank Herbert described some of my beliefs. Although I’ve got a feeling that perhaps initially I was impressionable, but later on through my path I began to see the truth of it.

In the book “Dune” the author Frank Herbert, describes the rise of the Messiah 8000 years from now. Herbert, who studied among other subjects ecology, psychology and eastern philosophies, created a reliable world that describes in minute detail the rise of “qwitzat haderach” – the messiah (qfitzat haderech is an ancient kabalistic term that describes the ability to be in two places at once). The whole book is interwoven with wisdom that can serve the enlightened reader in his personal growth.

The process and change that the books’ hero, Paul Atreides, goes through is in fact a process of enlightenment and divine consciousness, and the recognition of our higher self that exists within us all.

One of the lines in the book is: “That which submits rules”. This short sentence holds the secret of true human enlightenment. All the cosmic forms are creative expressions of one force. All the mystical traditions say that one can experience cosmic unity through various exercises, by which the practitioner gradually eliminates his false identity (self) and his connection to the material world. In the end, the practitioner is able to fully experience the whole cosmos every single moment. When this is achieved the higher self is awakened.

The conscious person understands and experiences cosmic perfection in everything and what results is true awareness of all the processes and occurrences within the universe. He remains totally uncritical of anything. He who awakens to unified cosmos has powers, vision and wisdom that are far greater than the average person who is still identifying with the illusion and the false “self”.

Dune

Crappy jewelry on that page, but a nice succinct synopsis. This got me thinking about my own spiritual journey, where I’ve been, where I am, and maybe even where I’ll be in good time. There was a time, a few years ago, when I used to believe I was having a nihilistic panic attack. I used to lay awake at night and dream of the Abyss, and be drawn to it… In morbid curiosity, like an place that is so terrifyingly stark, you wish to avert your eyes from the horror, but the void locks your gaze and opens up wider for your terror.

It was only after much, cogitation on this (I don’t meditate, I like to think, and conject on issues). That I realised that I was seeing the void within myself, the threshold between the social fluff, and the core of my being. Later on, I came to call the void, Morrighan. Only after I recognised this threshold for what it was could I then work towards embracing it, and siphening threads through it, holding them up to the fluffy mass, finding mismatches, and launching salvos against my own personailty.

It was during this ongoing process that I found Druidry, and started to re-arrange priorities in my life and aim them at spiritual growth, support of family, extended-family, and tribe. I don’t know if ‘Druidry’ from an academic stand-point is the catalyst. Most likely, not, because I don’t study Druidry, I attempt to live it, and interact with it, and like-minded people. It’s a base-camp, a comfort zone of familiar tales, familiar ancient characters, and lessons to be learned. A nest in which mistakes can be made, and are learning experiences.

Where am I going with this? I don’t know, perhaps I should just recommend to people that typically hate Science Fiction, that Dune, its sequels and prequels are a lot more than Sci-Fi. They encompass at least one man’s belief in that every human is capable of bettering themselves, de-programming themselves, and turning themselves into a tool to aid others on the path.

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We had a very interesting discussion last night on TDN’s IRC channel. Mostly, about why don’t people get involved with the DruidWiki. Some very interesting points were raised:

  • People don’t know how to use it.
  • People don’t like the concept of losing control of a piece of text.
  • People don’t like to just create a stub-article, they want to do the whole thing from cradle to grave. Don’t like to leave things unfinished.
  • People are comfortable with what they’ve currently got.

This got me thinking about the original aims of the DruidWiki, which was clearly defined from the outset, about one and a half years ago, and is still in place on the front page:

The DruidWiki offers an opportunity to investigate the feasibility and practicality of providing an oral-like communication mechanism for collaborative projects within the Druid community, using Wiki technology and principles.

DruidWiki – Add your Awen

With that in mind, the DruidWiki has been a successful project, we have investigated the feasibility and practicality of Wiki technology and principles for the Druid community, and we have an answer: “It’s not feasible, because it’s not used, therefore, it’s not practical, because content is minimal.”

So, I’ll shortly be announcing a closing data for the DruidWiki project. Any material that has been submitted to the DruidWiki still remains licensed under the GFDL (GNU Free Documentation License), and will continue to be protected, as well as freely available upon request.

Please feel free to comment on this posting…

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Yup, finally. We ironed out all the kinks and bug with the scripts (With the help of Philip Neustrom at Sycamore.) Now the DruidWiki has got a very fresh coat of paint! Check it out…

The DruidWiki has been using MoinMoin software since the 14th of March, 2005, since then we’ve been working on porting aspects of a fork of MoinMoin, which was used by the DavisWiki. Recently the developers of the DavisWiki, have begun working on a fresh new code base, codenamed, Sycamore. Sycamore is a huge architecural break from its original MoinMoin beginnings. The biggest change being that relational data is no longer stored in flat files, but a MySQL database instead, permitting faster, more versatile data access. Without all that tedious mucking about in hyperspace (or mod_python).

DruidWiki Migration – DruidWiki

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