Sunday, August 02, 2009

In the Throne Room of the Weather Gods

Welcome to "The Gods Are Bored!" This is an unscheduled posting.

I never expected to be sitting here today at 12:51 p.m. typing a blog post. I expected to be in a verdant park setting, participating in a Ritual with my Druid Grove. I was looking forward to this Ritual in particular, as it is the harvest festival, and I am about to begin planting a whole new "crop," metaphorically speaking, in a new field ... metaphorically speaking.

Instead I'm home. One line of severe thunderstorms passed through about 10 minutes after I would have left for the park. Another, less severe cell, is passing over right now. There's a flood watch in effect for the entire Delaware Valley, including my home and the park, which is about 35 miles away.

Some people on the lunatic fringe might say that God Almighty arranged this weather to suppress Druidic activity. Baloney. Think how many Sunday School picnics are being rained out in the Delaware Valley right now. Rain falls on everyone, the tall and the small.

As a Druid, I'm supposed to worship outdoors, regardless of atmospheric conditions. This, I still feel, is a valid and wonderful part of being a Druid.

Just now I heard from Nettle. Everyone who normally shows up for Grove went to the park ... except for me. It's not like these folks live closer to the park. Nettle takes mass transit. One family drives all the way from Allentown.

My fellow Druids are in a pavilion, centering, meditating, calling peace from the Quarters. I'm looking out the window at a driving rainstorm.

Why did I stay home? Bottom line, my dead grandfather told me to.

The man who lived all his life on a mountainside taught me to hunker down in storms. Where we lived, water runs downhill very, very quickly. I can't blame anyone today for keeping me hearthside except my grandfather's ghost, because my decision was based on the weather-watching we did side-by-side while we walked this world together.

So you could say I'm influenced by the strictures of someone who preceded me, the wonderful man who had the most input into the person I am today. If not for his weather anxieties, I might be performing Ritual right now. But I bow to his guidance. It's the way of my people. I will never overcome it.

8 comments:

Lavanah said...

Anne, you can still celebrate outdoors, although without the rest of your Druid group. But listening to your Grandfather was wise, celebrating outdoors in rain is one thing, driving through dangerous storms to do so, is another.

Nettle said...

You were missed, of course, but it was very sensible of you to stay home. The news was just showing all the flooding and damage that happened today, and you would have been driving right into the teeth of it. Though at least this time around, we didn't get any hail.

Alex Pendragon said...

You pussies! Why, we would walk barefooted, through four feet of snow, for miles with seventy pounds of candles on our backs, to conduct a circle in the middle of a raging blizzard with vultures hovering and wolves stalking us in the dark with only the aurora to guide us! Yea, we were ALASKAN Druids, and we LIKED IT!

But today our umbrella broke, so we missed it........

Anne Johnson said...

Well damn. If vultures had been hovering, I'd have gone through that too!

Maebius said...

Listening to ancestors and avoiding the worst of weather is Sacred, just as much so as slogging through storms. I wouldn't fret too much, as respecting your instincts and your inner self's guidance is important too. :)

JaAnBe said...

It probably could easily have been the reverse. One snowing winter day in Colorado I made my way (with my 3 year old in tow) by way of the bus to a meeting of other mothers. No one was there. There had been some conversation with the mother from Alaska who wouldn't think of venturing out and it was decided that they didn't need to call anyone else. I guess there is a frowny face on my good mother card now. It sounds like you were there in thoughts and spirit.

yellowdoggranny said...

I'm with grandpa..I have experienced 'gully washers' before..stay safe.

Livia Indica said...

I was just reading in The Old Farmer's Almanac a quote from Mark Twain: "Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get." Good on you for listening to your instincts and following the teachings of your grandfather!