O.K. here's a rant of sorts...Increasingly I find myself dealing with Pagans/Wiccans who have no idea what it means to be "in" the world. These are folks who would rather be disconnected from the here and now in favor of a nebulous magickal otherwhere. They invoke the elements without truly experiencing them. They call upon nature deities without having touched a tree or walked under the stars or waded in a stream or the ocean. They tend to seperate the magickal from the mundane and the material from the spiritual. I am specifically refering to folks who spend more time building circle, casting spells or meditating/dreaming about their magickal otherwhere than they do getting out of doors with their family and coven or getting involved with their larger communities through activism and volunteerism. I call them "Sabbat go ta meetun'Pagans".

I believe that if we live in a sacred manner, recognizing the Earth as an embodiment of Deity, then it becomes evident that the mundane and the magickal are intimately interwoven and inseperable. The Pagan/Wiccan must stay firmly grounded in the natural world in order to experience "immanent divinity". When one constantly seeks the otherworldly non-ordinary reality to the near exclusion of the earthly "here and now" the connection to the Sacred becomes weakened and breaks down. We must spend time out of doors, with the fresh air moving over our skin, the suns radiance warming us, feel the invigorating chill of a mountain stream or a river crossing the plains or the ocean surf buffeting our bodies; get down and dirty and dig in our gardens, feeling and experiencing the fecundity and solidity of the earth. In order to invoke the "Elements" we must know the "elements". 

By now some of you are probably thinking that I haven't mentioned all of us pasty white techno-pagans who spend so much time on the internet and sites like this that we don't even know what a freshly mowed lawn smells like...well I'm mentioning us now! Let go of the mouse, get up from that chair, go outside and BE IN THE WORLD PEOPLE!!! The God and Goddess are waiting for you!

O.K. I'm done.
With Love, Light and Laughter!
the Dreamdrummer.

Four years ago I and my family nearly lost our home to the worst fire in the history of California. Fire burned to within three feet of the house on all four sides, melting a lawn mower into the driveway but leaving two cardboard boxes untouched just two feet away. I like to give credit to the protection spell and  witch bottle that I had placed on my front porch just one week earlier. The caprices of wind and fire taught me the lesson of chaos and I have been incorporating some ideas from chaos theory and quantum mechanics into my personal practice since then.

The recent Witch Fire (after the location where it started, Witch Creek) has also taught me some lessons. Again my house survived the devastation and my family is whole and healthy. My fellow human-beings have a great capacity for kindness and generosity and genuine concern for their fellows. But there is also a shadowside to people in crisis. I have seen predators take advantage of the weak, looters stealing from businesses and homes. Arsonists setting fires that destroy property and lives.

Many of my pagan/Wiccan friends have asked how I fared during the fire and I just want to say to all of you that I am well, my family is well, we have a home and a livelyhood. But many aren't so lucky. The relief efforts are ungoing and some may never fully recover. I intend to increase the level of my own volunteerism and encourage all of you to look into local oppurtunities for volunteering and community service. There is nowhere that is safe from some form of natural or manmade disaster. We have oppurtunities to present ourselves to the general public as concerned citizens who just happen to also be pagans/wiccans. This isn't about being Pagan or Christian, Republican or Democrat. We are human-beings sharing this journey through space/time, lets make the most of it!!!   

Merry meet all! I'm an Eclectic Wiccan in my solitary practice with a third degree initiation in a local Gardnerian coven and have begun training for High Priest. Being the only male in the coven has its perks and its failings...I get to circle with some beautiful, strong and talented women...but in order to explore the male mysteries I must rely on books, the occasional public rite, class or seminar.  

My influences span the globe and draw from ancient as well as modern sources. If I were to describe myself it would have to be as a Pacific Rim Pagan.