I talk about tribalism here from time to time: about our obligation to our tribe, our need to build strong bonds within our tribe. For our ancient ancestors, it was all about the Tribe. You didn’t stand a chance surviving on your own. What I’ve never really expressed was how to determine the actual extent of one’s tribe. Is it your family? Yes, certainly your immediate family, but what about distant cousins you only see every other Christmas or so? Friends? Yes, but friends have varying degree of closness. Your community? Probably, depending on how expansive one defines that word.

Jack Darkhand of the Bivouac recently suggested something in a post that gives us a very useful and clear definition of the extent of our tribe, and is especially useful from a warrior-path prospective:

“Right, Jack. Suppose somebody was tryin’ to kill you with a gun. Do you have the right to shoot back?”

“Well, yeah: that’s what it’s for, right?”

“Fine. Now what if they were tryin to kill a family member? Say your little sister or brother?”

“I hope I would be able to stop them by shooting them.”

“Okay. Now what about a friend of yours? Would you kill to defend a friend?”

“Hmm. Depends on the friend.”

Sam nods. “Now we’re gettin’ somewhere.”

“I mean, if it’s a close friend I think I would treat them like family, act immediately. But there are some other cases in which I’d wonder, how sure am I that this person is actually innocent? How do I know this person didn’t provoke the attack?”

“But if it was your sister you wouldn’t even ask that question.”

“No, probably not.”

Sam smiled. “You see what’s happening, here? You’re defining the limits of your Tribe.”

“My Tribe?” “Yeah – the people closest to you, the ones you’d defend no matter what.”

Who is it that you will, without thought, take extreme risk to protect or to help, without thinking of the possible consequences? That is your Tribe. It is, or should be, a clear, bright line of demarcation, and a group one should be very careful about letting people into. For me, it is certainly my immediate family and a small number of good friends. But, equally importantly, it shows me how many are not in my Tribe that should be: my neighbors, for example. It shows me the importance of building relationships. Tribe should be as much geographical as it is a list of names. Yet another indicator that I need to get to know my neighbors better.

During a sweat lodge ritual, a man died of heat exhaustion while ritual activities continued around him.  Everyone assumed that he was astral traveling in a deep meditative state, and no one had medical training to recognize and properly treat the problem.

The article is dripping with the contempt the mainstream media normally shows paganism.  The reporter can’t say the phrase “steam lodge” without putting it in quotation marks, along with words and phrases such as  “new age healer,” “pipe ceremony,” “cleansing,” and “vision quest.”  The title of the article even suggests callousness on the part of the participants: “Man died as friends danced.”

I am tempted to excuse the contemptuousness since, after all, a man died.  One might wonder at the ignorance that would cause people to put blankets on a man dieing of heat exhaustion, or that would engage in such a dangerous activity without preparation to handle the potential dangers, but is that the fault of their “new-age-ness?”  People do dangerous things unprepared all the time.  We wouldn’t see an article about a “snow skier” going on a “cross-country” trip who died of hypothermia and titled: “man died as friends skied,” would we?

Another thought occurs to me, though: this once again highlights the need for “guardians” or “warriors” at ritual.  When a ritual is in public or there are potential dangers, there should always be at least one person who stays outside the ritual, trained in first aid, and prepared to help with emergencies.

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.

Today, the first day of the new year, we launch our new forum for pagans. The idea of a forum started out from discussions with other pagans at Ex-Witch ministries. We felt a need to have our own private fellowship just like the Christians there have. So, now we do.

While at it, I hope to build a new resource for pagans of South Louisiana, for pagans of Celtic or “Warrior” spiritualities and, to a lesser extent, everybody else, though I don’t think the world needs yet another generic pagan forum.

The forum has places for public conversations and also for those that pagans might not feel comfortable exposing to the public eye.My dear readers out there (yes, all four of you…) are humbly invited to join in.

In a slightly related note, you probably have noticed a severe lack of new articles here. I guess I am going through a crisis of focus, trying to figure out just where this blog should be going. My main “mission,” so to speak, is to support the South Louisiana pagan community, but this blog has done a very poor job of doing so. Now I am re-thinking things a bit. I recently joined a list-serve of pagan bloggers, so maybe I’ll figure out where I am going with all this soon. In the mean time, drop on in at the forums and see what we have cooking!