I’ve come to call my daily meditative ritual “grove tending,” and is a practice I would like to share with you. The practice is something of a combination of light gardening, walking meditation, journaling, and ritual. It is a quiet and peaceful means to connect to nature and the spirits around us, and to exercise our responsibility for our surroundings.

Druidic spirituality belongs in the outdoors as much as possible. Much of my early practice in druidry (well, early early practice. I’m still in my early practice.) was simply the kind of Zen practice I had pursued for years, only moved outside instead of facing a wall. It’s amazing what a difference that small change made. “Grove Tending” integrates that meditative discipline into what I consider a more complete druidic daily ritual.

As druids, we have many kinds of groves. We have the inner, spiritual groves we call upon in our meditative rituals, we have the formal circles of trees that we might hold larger rituals in; we have our small, private gardens. My concept of “grove” is very encompassing. It is any collection of plants, in some proximity to each other, with which we have a spiritual relationship.

We draw spiritual strength from the plants of our grove, and in return, we have a duty to nurture and protect those plants that give so much to us. This kind of grove can be the trees on the side of the road, the landscaping of a nearby commercial property, the vegetation of a public park, or a combination of all of those. It might spread across various artificial boundaries such as roads and fences. It might not be discernible as a grove by anyone but yourself, but it is a small parcel of the natural world you have chosen to build a bond with.

I am fortunate to have a yard that is almost an ideal grove. We have about a half an acre with a number of oak trees, a magnolia tree, a plum tree, and a wide variety of other shrubs and bushes. If I were not so fortunate, I would make a “grove” of whatever public park or bit of nature I could. If you do have a yard, or access to one, look at planting a wide variety of plants and bushes. In an urban environment, consider doing a bit of guerrilla gardening, building your grove and beautifying the blighted landscape. If your grove has to be indoors, try to have a variety of indoor plants. Variety is important.

To prepare for the grove tending, have all the tools you might need on hand with you as you walk. You don’t want to interrupt your walk by fetching this and that. I bought a light tool apron for $0.98 which holds my pruning sheers, journal, gloves, and other items. I might also carry a watering pitcher.

You start by slowly walking a circuit around the grove, clockwise. This is creating a sacred space, just as casting a circle in ritual. It may be very large, and not maybe not very “circular,” but that doesn’t matter so much. This “circle” takes whatever shape the grove has. Mine, for instance, is vaguely ‘L’ shaped. But, by completing the circle, the grove is sanctified and the bond between us and the land strengthened.

When I say to walk slowly, I mean slowly — barely a shuffle. This is a walking meditation where you open yourself to the pulse of life around you. In Zen, it is called kinhen and has similar meditative qualities to the usual sitting practice. Go barefoot if the weather permits. Be aware. Feel the wind, the earth, note the sway of the trees, the call of the birds.  Gently and smoothly place each step in rhythm  with your breathing.

Breathe deeply and slowly.  Note your own thoughts as they flow by. Visit the plants and trees as you make your round. If and when you feel there is a need a plant has, do your best to fill it. Trim and prune, water, clear away dead branches or weeds, pick up trash.

The tending activity should be gentle. It shouldn’t involve hacking, or macinery like a lawn mower. At the most active, it might involve a little sweeping or raking. I leave the machete I might take on more active wilderness adventures and stick to my small pruner, which is as much a magical ritual tool as any I have.

When I’ve completed my circle, I am at the spot I normally perform outdoor ritual. There I make an offering to the gods and spirits and sit in quiet meditation for a bit. If so inclined, I might sit with a tree and journal a while.

It seems simple. It is, but simple is good. We need to keep things as simple as we can. We need to slow down. We need to develop our relationships with the land and spirits, and this exercise does all that in one small, elegant package.

An Chuallacht Ghaol Naofa (Fellowship of Sacred Kinship) recently opened their virtual doors to the online community. As it is a very rare thing that I visit Beliefnet’s CR community, where I found their posting, I can’t help but feel the spirits have led me there. Although my information on them is scant, I have yet to see any indication that they are not exactly the kind of group I have long been waiting for.

I currently belong to several “druidic” organizations, most of which I have posted about at some time or other. None of them have the combination of “features” I find in CGN. (Yes, part of me is sad that one basically has to “shop” for religion much as buying a new car. Something seems fundamentally wrong with that, but it is what it is.)

CGN is a Celtic reconstructionist group focused, as I am, on the ways of the ancient Irish. They are “dedicated to the practice and promotion of a modern, viable religious tradition rooted in pre-Christian polytheistic Gaelic spirituality.”

Their mission statement, and brief statement of belief is one I fully endorse. An important point, since it is the first religious organization I have found that I can really say that of. In fact, I have scoured their site for what information I could find about them and not only did I not find anything off-putting, but their approach to the “reconstructionist/traditionalist” divide is quite promising. I have long considered myself to be somewhere in between the two approaches and I thought I was about alone in that preference. Apparently, I am not, and I feel much uplifted by that discovery.

So, I look forward to learning more about this community and organization, and if it is everything it seems to be, I will be quite involved with them.

Happy Samhain, everyone! No, this post is NOT late! Samhain is a three-day event, starting about October 31 and lasting till, about, today. Samhain is an Irish word meaning “end of summer” or “end of the harvest.” The Celtic calender had the year divided in to two haves, a light half and a dark half. Samhain marks the beginning of the dark half, which lasts until Beltaine.

For our ancestors, it was a time of celebration, since the harvest was fully in, food was plentiful, and work was slacking off. It was also a time to take stock and make the grim calculations required to survive the winter. Excess livestock was slaughtered and salted, breeding stock moved from the summer fields to winter shelters, and other foodstuff accounted for and stored.

This is one of my personal favorite times of year, but perhaps that is partly because of the differences in climate I enjoy relative to my Gaelic ancestors. The miserably hot and wet weather of South Louisiana turns cooler and dryer, for example. Hurricane season is over. The mosquitoes are not quite as bad. Winter here is not very harsh and there is greenery year around. This is not the kind of place where a festival like Samhain would have ever naturally developed. There are still some major harvests left to collect and winter does not have much dread for us.  It’s more of a relief, really.

Still, the magic of Samhain is present. It is a between time, a time on the cusp of changes in the world around us, and a time where we remember our dead and pray they remember us.

My son is now five, and I want to incorporate the remembrance of our ancestors in a meaningful way for him now that the hullabaloo of Halloween itself is just past. We talked about this kind of thing briefly in our Halloween preparations. I had him dressed up as a woad-painted Celt, after all. But I think we also need something for more quiet reflection.

I thought of involving a cemetery somehow, but there are no nearby grave sites of anyone we are directly descended from. We’d have to travel a good three or four hours for that. Maybe that would be good for some day, but I have in mind something simple.

My thought is to sit down with him with some paper and crayons, talk to him about some of our ancestors, and “write” to them together. Then, we would ceremonially burn the paper, sending our letters to the ancestors. Lastly, we will put some food out for them on this last day of Samhain. I think it will be a lovely thing.

I hope everyone had a lovely Samhain and may your ancestors watch over you this coming new year.

A Celtic Wisdom triad names three fears that weaken our hearts: fear of speaking the truth, fear of wretched poverty, and fear of evil being done us.

I was pondering what to do in my local community and when I read these words, they seemed a message from the gods. These are exactly the three fears that have kept me fairly “in the closet” with my faith. I have been afraid of what would happen if I “spoke the truth” openly and freely about my faith. I have been afraid of business for our small law practice drying up, people slashing our tires and egging our house, picking on my young son at school.

Those are the things I fear by coming out. But, living with those fears has its own price, too. I know what the triad means by “weakening the heart.” I feel it.

So, I intend to move forward with my plans to make Cypress Nemeton a real place and a real presence in the community. That will be a long time coming, but it will happen. Some day, maybe soon, all of this will attract the attention of someone — the local media, the local church, who knows. It will happen. And I will not be afraid.

I recently discovered an outdoor activity that is wonderful to share with a child, called “geocaching.” All it takes is a GPS receiver and a sense of adventure. It’s basically a world-wide treasure-hunting game where participants hide, or try to find, “caches” of small toys and knickknacks which have been posted to a website with their coordinates, a description, and maybe a hint or two.

When I first found out about it, it sounded neat, “but surely there aren’t any hidden caches anywhere near this little South Louisiana town.” Au contraire, I quickly learned. The sport’s website has a cache search feature which quickly turned up a dozen or so within ten miles of our house!

The sport also encourages environmental responsibility and awareness.  Geocachers should practice CITO, or “Cache In Trash Out,” and clean up any trash they see on their outing.  Also, I have seen many caches that exist primarily to teach people about environmental features and nice, scenic areas that are “off the beaten path.”  I’ve learned a lot about my own town just by playing the game.

Of course, with my five-year-old, we don’t call it “geocaching.” With him, it’s simply “treasure hunting,” and he loves it. He’s learning some map-reading and other outdoor skills as we go. Because the caches are usually hidden in some outdoor wooded area, it’s a great way to get a little outdoor time together without it being a huge production.

For more information, visit the official site and read the FAQ.