In my constant quest for new bushcraft information, I recently came across the website of Eric Stoskopf, the Woodsdrummer. His outdoor philosophy and methods resonate with me: he prefers old fashioned, even privative equipment that can take lots of abuse. He is about function over form. For example, he uses a body bag as part of his sleeping system. In fact, a discussion about using body bags that way is how I found out about him. Apparently, body bags are very warm, lightweight, and robust. The downside seems to be that they don’t “breathe,” and so perspiration can be a problem.

But, I think what makes me a fan of his is the subtle sense of spirituality that pervades his posts. When moved by the feeling of being in a natural sacred place, he feels an impulse to make offerings to the local spirits. He is ambivalent about doing this, as he is “wary of putting on facades of nativeness,” but this impulse was shared by our European ancestors as well. I hope to have a conversation with him about this sometime soon.

I was also touched that he came to my home area, New Orleans, to help rescue animals after Katrina. The log of the trip was very moving. Reading it is what impelled me to write a post, and track Woodsdrummer’s “digital footprints.”

Woodsdrummer is a an advocate of Ron Hood’s survival methods, and from reading Woodsdrummer’s outdoor exploits, I plan to get my hands on some of Hood’s video’s ASAP. Hood also provides a very active forum, which is providing me hours of distraction from work.

I’ve formed yet another set of forums. Yes, yet another thing to take time away from my blogging, unfortunately. This one is for those interested in “warrior” spirituality, and the closely related subject of pagan event security. It is found at www.paganstronghold.com. I invite anyone interested in emergency preparedness, martial arts, and security from a pagan point of view to come join us there.

There are actually a few pagan warrior groups out there, but they are all local in scale and are devoted to specific pagan faiths. This forum is intended to be common ground for all of them, and is not associated with any specific pagan religion, faith, or organization. My introduction to the forum reads:

We are modern pagans of various faiths who follow a “warrior path” of spirituality. We find it spiritually fulfilling to serve our communities by preparing ourselves, mentally and physically, to put ourselves in harm’s way should the need arise. This forum offers support to those who want to serve the Pagan community as protectors and where such people can coordinate with each other and with Pagan event organizers.

Modern paganism has reached a point of critical mass at which we have caught the attention of the mass media and the general population. Among many other issues this creates for us is a more evident need for security at our events — a task we still have good reason not to trust to third parties such as off-duty police who may not be sympathetic to our ways. Our public events and large gatherings are attracting more and more unwelcome attention and a wider variety of people in general. This means that altercations, confrontations, accidents and other minor emergencies are more and more likely.

In our member forums, you will find discussions and debates about the finer points of “warrior” pagan spirituality and philosophy, strategy, martial arts, tools and equipment, and event security coordination. If you would be interested in such discussions, or in talking to us about how members might be of assistance with your upcoming event, you are invited to join us.

This should be an interesting experiment.  Starting next week, I’ll be trying to give meditation instruction through a folder on our forums.  I don’t know if it will work, but there seems to be a good bit of interest.  As I say in my sign-up post, this style of meditation, shikantaza, I believe to be the most fundamental of all meditative practices.

For some bone-headed reason, I thought it would be a good idea to put our forums on a freebie site. Things were buzzing pretty well, and it looked like the forums will be successful, so we decided to move to a paid site where we have more control, better speed, etc.

Come join us at http://www.cypressnemeton.org/forum

I am pleased to announce the official unveiling of our new Guidance forum and introduce the guides who have graciously offered to help people out.

The Guidance forum is a private place for those who are curious about neo-pagan philosophy and spirituality but do not want to ask questions out in the open, and want straight answers from friendly, knowledgable folks without “flaming” and abuse or other embarrassment. You don’t have to consider yourself a pagan or actually want to become one. You might just be curious. Or you might be seeking help on a new spiritual path and feel overwhelmed by all that is out there.

I’ve been there, and I am still relatively new to neo-paganism. I wish there was something like this when I started. Here, you don’t have to worry about asking a “stupid” questions or what others might think about your even being curious about “taboo” subjects.

The guidance forum is not about proselytizing. Nobody here is out to convince anyone of anything. Nobody will be arguing about “which path is better” or “which Witch is really Witch.” It’s about lending a hand, presenting alternatives in a non-judgmental way, and pointing people to resources they may want to look at. Where you go with that and what you do with it is up to you.

There is a high degree of privacy offered. The forum can only be viewed by participants and guides, not the general public. Those participating in it are obliged not to divulge anything private there, but it needs to be noted that this privacy cannot be made perfect. If a participant prefers, we can set up a sub-forum just for them, where only they and guides can see, thus offering even stronger privacy.

We currently have four Guides who have graciously volunteered to help out, and we are very fortunate to have such pillars in the community willing to participate.

Cern is a neo-shaman in London who represents the Pagan Federation in interfaith matters there. He has been involved in neo-paganism for 20 years and administers the Pagan and Christian Moot, a forum for interfaith dialogue.

Durthorin lives in Atlanta, Georgia and has also been involved in Paganism for about 20 years. He is a traditional Wiccan but spent some time exploring Reclaiming Witchcraft and Native American Shamanism.

Wormheart is a Danish Asatruar, practicing since the mid nineties, and has been active in the Danish Asatruar community since ’98. He has been on the board of leadership of the official Danish Asatruar community Forn Sidr for the last three years and is in charge of the Blótlaug-fellowship.

Dragon is a Druid-level member of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids and living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is the leading member of the Highland Oak Nemeton there, and has been a contributing writer on my blog since its inception. Actually, most of the best articles there are by him.

I think these four individuals can offer the newcomer a wide range of perspectives and wise and mature guidance. I am very grateful to them, and I hope others will find their wisdom as valuable as I have. If you are interested in participating in the Guidance forum, mention it in a post, or send Elie or Fiacharrey a PM and we will set it up for you.