I am all caught up with current orders as of this afternoon, with the exception of one Druid Sigil going to Germany and one Awen going to Stratford, CT. Those will be mailed out after Starwood (July 26th or so). I am out-of-stock on those two items but will be receiving fresh stock after Starwood, including the new Dagda’s Shield Pendant, the Dagda’s Club Pendant, and the Spells for Democracy Pendant.
Now I have to frantically get ready for this weekend in Cincinatti!
TomDispatch – Tomgram: Nick Turse on Cyberstalking the Recruitable Teen has a couple of articles on just how desperate the Pentagon is getting to persuade ignorant teens to join the military. From outright lies to carefully disguised teen marketing websites, the Bush Administration is so hard up for recruits that they’ll do literally anything to deceive teens (and their parents) that the US military is a great and safe career choice. Can you say, “cannon fodder†boys and girls? I knew you could (okay, some of you will have to look it up first). As long as the military spends more time, money, and lives protecting the profit margins of Texaco and Halliburton than it does protecting the American people, military service will, unfortunately, continue to be a “dead end jobâ€â€”not to mention, as I have argued before, an ethically problematic occupation for Neopagans.
While reading a well-known Pagan website earlier today, I ran across a clueless teen whose writing at first seemed very similar to that of a classic Pagan Fluffy Bunny (as discussed in Making Fauna Pagans and at my Cafe-Press store). But as I read on, I slowly realized that I had discovered a whole new subspecies!
This kid wasn’t clueless and innocent, he was clueless and Evil! He managed to crank out page after page of pretentious drek about “Vampyres†and “Dark Paganism†and “Other-Kin.†Much of this read like softcore Satanism, only without the Christian Anti-God. He was so shallow, he made the mainstream Satanists look deep. He was, in short, a Dark Fluffy!!
Inspiration hit me like bananna-cream pie in the face, so I was forced to add a new animal to the Pagan Menagerie:
If people like it, I’ll make some t-shirts or coffee mugs available.
One of the rituals I wrote for The Pagan Man is called “The Dagda’s Shield.†This is a visualization exercise to be done every day for psychic, spiritual, and magical protection:
The Shield of the Dagda
I bind unto myself today, the strong name of the Dagda,
By invocation of the same, the Three in One, the One in Three.
I call this day to me forever, the Dagda’s many arts:
His mounting of the River Women, his siring of the God of Love
His fury on the field of battle, His druidry so strong
His majesty as High King, His sympathy for the despised.
I bind unto myself today, the Good God’s mighty seed
His eye to watch, His might to stay, His ear to harken to my need
His wit to teach, His hand to guide, His shield to ward
His fire to enflame my speech, His mighty club to be my guard.
Dagda be with me, Dagda within me
Dagda behind me, Dagda before me
Dagda to my left, Dagda to my right
Dagda beneath me, Dagda above me
Dagda in quiet, Dagda in danger
Dagda in the hearts of all that love me
Dagda in the mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the name, the strong name of the Dagda,
By invocation of the same, the Three in One, and One in Three,
The mightiest of all the Gods, Father of the Queen of Arts,
The Supreme Knower, Lord of Fire, and King of Druids.
Celtic scholars will recognize this as being based on the so-called “Shield of St. Patrick.†It seemed obvious to me that the magical exercise credited to the missionary had originally been a Pagan one, and that the Dagda was the obvious candidate for the triple-deity involved.
I was also inspired to create this graphic as a visualization aid (six of them would more or less cover a sphere of energy on all sides), using symbols associated with the Dagda and Druidry:
This is now available as a silver pendant by Merlin of Amulets by Merlin. The price is $US20.00 (postpaid) each and they can be ordered via Our Blatant Hucksterism Page.
I will probably also turn it into t-shirts, mugs, etc., if interest develops.
By the way, if you’ve been slow to buy any of my talisman designs because of the price, we’ve lowered all the prices to $US20.00 each (or $US12 each for wholesale orders).