Coffee and Community in the Hills

The PCV Monthly Hills Pagan Coffee Meets – Belgrave

By Sarah and Alex

The Hills Meets continue apace. March saw me finally make good on a threat I’ve been holding over everyone’s heads for a few months now: Sparkles, the Disco Owl.

A few people have mentioned, over the last couple of years, that our little mascot is subtle and hard to spot across a crowded room. Sparkles is neither of those things. Sparkles is nearly a foot high and covered liberally in white glitter, which he sheds over everything he touches, and came from a local $2 shop, and I’ve been promising to humiliate all of us by bringing him along to a meet for ages now. Sparkles is the Maxwell Demon of the owl world.

March was Sparkles’ Big Day Out; I mean, sure, we looked like a table full of loons congregating around an altar of Mystical Nature-Kitsch, but no-one had difficulty locating our table, and everyone took a little bit of Sparkles home with them, because glitter is a gift that keeps on giving whether people want it to or not.

This is Sparkles, posing with our regular, barely-discernible mascot, and our patron saint, Caffeine. I’ll now hand over the reins to one of our more recent regulars, who has definitely become part of the family, and who kindly agreed to talk about his experience of the Hills Meets (thanks for making us sound good, Alex; the cheque’s in the mail).

— Sarah

The Hills Meets – A Newbie’s Tale

I have been attending the Monthly Hills Pagan Coffee Meets now for about eight months. They are a lovely event, and I have felt like I belong at the event since I first attended. It has been lovely to see the different types of people who come along, with a large amount becoming regulars and others just popping in every now and then to say hi and catch-up.

One of the many aspects that I love about the meet is that conversation flows freely and touches on many subjects, from Paganism to gardening to tarot reading to just general life. It’s always great to hear what people have to say, as everyone has something new and interesting happening in their lives. Often, someone will say something and it will make you think about something in a new light. I love attending these meets and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for them. I really hope to see more new faces, even if it is only to pop in occasionally and see how everyone’s going.

— Alex

Our Hills Meets occur monthly in Belgrave, and have become one of our most popular events. To find out when the next one is, visit our Community Calendar or the PCV Monthly Hills Pagan Coffee Meets Facebook page.

Community Action Meeting Minutes

Community Action Meeting Minutes

Held on 12/03/2017 at Saff’s in Castlemaine

What is known about the individual known as Robin Fletcher, Tim Ryan, Balin, The Red Druid and Robin Slater:

He was released from custody on Friday into the community, being stated as not being at any more risk of reoffending than any other sex offender.

He is believed to be a former member of the seminary of Corpus Christi just outside of Monash, of which he was thrown out of in 1979 for magical practices.

He has known associations with the Church of Antioch in Alphington (there is still information about him on their website currently).

It is believed that he became affiliated with the Golden Dawn at Monash in the 1980’s and there met some of the people that would later act as emissaries for him.

He is said to have later became involved with individuals that founded the New Varangian Guard a community that at the time was strongly linked with the magical community, where he became involved with the Riders of the Mark and started his Red Druid practices.

There is a book that has a chapter dedicated to him, written by Vikki Petrias & Chris O’Connor called Rock Spider, that describes some of his known behaviors, including the way he operates as a spider in its web, pulling the strings.

It is known that he is well read, has a near eidetic memory and is quite knowledgeable on a wide variety of topics. He has written a number of papers and acts as an authority on these matters.

The first jail term he served was for library book fraud, because it was the only thing that could stick at the time.

In the 1980’s Tim Ryan decided that a young man had information that he wanted and orchestrated his abduction and subsequent torture via two of his acolytes. The young man was later dumped naked on a rail line and tied to the boom gate. When he was freed he went to a friend for help, who immediately took him to the police. This friends testimony destroyed his career.

These crimes had a lasting effect on the community for years to come.

As the scene recovered a publication known as The Who, What, Where, How Directory started up, the Directory would later play a role in helping provide evidence of Tim Ryan’s criminal actions to the police. In the early 1990’s a woman came to members of the Directory and said that there was a man trying to force her daughter into prostitution. These members took this information to the police, who then placed him under observation, to try and gather solid evidence of his misdeeds. During this period of observation, they found proof that he was prostituting the girls, using them as drug mules and that his wife at the time had tried to recruit a hitman to kill the girls.

He was arrested for a final time in 1996 on charges related to these crimes and served an eight-year sentence. He was used as a trial for keeping sex offenders locked away from the community under supervision.

Where does/can the community go from here?

The community has a large element of vulnerable people, that could fall prey to people such as Tim Ryan. Community education is a key way to help protect these people, this education needs to come from the community as a whole.

To this end greater communication with pagan businesses on this front would be beneficial, providing them with flyers such as the one provided by PAN would be a great idea, a lot of new seekers come to businesses such as this as the first point of contact.

Hosting events for new practitioners to meet others, gain access to information and to help answer some of their questions in a safe, public venue is also an idea that needs to be considered.

Feature Article: Silver Birch Grove ADF

Silver Birch Grove ADF

By Shaz Lizzy

The Pagan Collective of Victoria’s public Lughnassadh ritual will be hosted by Silver Birch Grove ADF on the fifth of February, 2017, and is open to all Pagan and likeminded folk. Below is a re-post of a very informative article about the Grove, which is just one of the many active and friendly Pagan groups open to the public here in Victoria. 🙂

Silver Birch Grove is a member Grove of ADF. The full name of our organization is Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid fellowship, Inc. The first part, pronounced arn REEokht fane, is modern Irish for “Our Own Druidism” (or “Druidry” or “Magic”) and that’s what we are — an independent tradition (denomination) of Neopagan Druidism. Since many people have trouble pronouncing and spelling our Irish name, we usually just say “ADF.”

ADF is working to combine in-depth scholarship with the inspiration of artistry and spiritual practice to create a powerful modern Paganism. We’re researching and interpreting sound modern scholarship (rather than romantic fantasies) about the ancient Indo-European Pagans — the Celts, Norse, Slavs, Balts, Greeks, Romans, Persians, Vedics, and others. Upon these cultural foundations we are working to build a religion that these ancient people would appreciate and understand yet one which has depth and power for modern people. We’re developing genuine skills in composition and presentation in the musical, dramatic, graphic, textile and other arts. We’re bringing together people trained in ritual, psychic skills and applied mythology to bring the remnants of the old ways to life. We’re creating a non-sexist, non-racist, organic, flexible and publicly available religion to practice as a way of life and to hand on to future generations.

Silver Birch ADF is a Melbourne based congregation of Neopagan Druids serving the greater Melbourne Area. Silver Birch Grove primarily focuses on the Celtic hearth cultures. We are a growing group of friends who enjoy studying the mythology, archaeology, and anthropology of the Indo-European cultures. We also honour our Ancestors and the Deities associated with these cultures by celebrating the high days in public rituals. Our religion is a way of life. As such we believe in following the 9 virtues of Wisdom, Piety, Vision, Courage, Integrity, Perseverance, Hospitality, Moderation, and Fertility. We also meet for study, hiking, arts/crafts, culture, meditations, blessings, and community works.

We are working together to research and revive the practices of the Old Ones in a way that makes sense for the modern world. We are striving to create a spiritual environment for the community where each member can grow spiritually, artistically, and intellectually, where we all achieve greater communion with Mother Earth, the Nature Spirits, our Ancestors, and our Deities. We hope to continue to grow and serve the community both spiritually and materially through rituals, workshops, and public works. Membership is open to all who wish to honour the cycles of Nature, and revere the Ancestors and Deities. Any Druidic ritual has as a primary intention the re-weaving of the links between human-kind, the natural world, and the God/desses and Spirits who support both. For thousands of years human culture lived in more or less intimate communion with the unseen worlds. Over the centuries of European culture these ties have been weakened, until our modern materialism is endangering the very air and water that sustains our life. We work to reconnect with the powers of Land, Sea and Sky, honouring the spirit that is in them as well as their physical realities. As with any religious path we also seek blessings for ourselves, our families and communities. We open our hearts to the flow of divine blessing that comes from our God/desses. We seek also to awaken that same divine spark in our own souls, so that we can bless the world in return.

At Beltaine 2015, the folk of Silver Birch Grove and the Warrior women and friends gathered to celebrate in a public setting. We were excited to be given the opportunity to run our ritual at Mt Franklin. We were also delighted to have our Vice Arch Druid in attendance and all the way from America.

We offered a ritual that follows our core order. The ritual that we offered is similar to what we would have held at our home nemeton in inner Melbourne, just with more people! Our ritual began with a spiral danced led by Linda and then Dale talked about the lands and the people of the land. We Began with the purpose of the ritual by Ang, then Shaz announced our intent to honour gods, goddesses, ancestors and spirits of place. Maree honoured the earth Mother, Callum made our offering to the out dwellers and Andrea honoured our Bardic deities, Julie honoured the nature spirits, Curtis the ancestors, Dean the gods and goddesses and Ang the deity of the occasion, Danu. Shaz then proceeded to the praise offering and Drum took the omen for the blessing using Ogham, which was: ur- Heather/ Mistletoe, healing by looking inside. Phagos- Beech, old knowledge and old writing, oir- spindle, sudden de-light after a long process. So the story tells us that through the old knowledge and writ-ings we will be able to look inside ourselves to gain healing. Shaz then received the blessing of the gods and spirits through the waters of life. Deb and Rowan asperged all in the circle and at the close of the ritual we asked all to join us for a shared meal. What a great weekend. Thanks to all those who participated, organised and came from far away.

So, now with our sights firmly fixed on the summer days to come, the earth is again green as we have been promised. Warmed by the power of the Sun and the Waters’ cool strength, shoot has become bud and the promise of abundance to come is visible all over the land. It is now that the Nature Spirits truly come alive, and as we honour them, we also give thanks to the Kindreds that guide us, and to our Ancestors who walk with us. Now we rejoice in the warmth after the cold winter and welcome the spring.

Ghosti!

If you would like to know more about ADF please visit ADF.org
For more information about Silver Birch Grove ADF visit our Facebook group.
(Some material from ADF.org)

This article originally appeared in our old newsletter, Spokes of the Wheel (volume 2 issue 7, Spring 2015). Photo: ADF Archdruid Drum at the 2015 Mount Franklin Pagan Gathering. Supplied by Kylie Moroney Photography.

March 2016 Meeting Minutes

These minutes were prepared by our hardworking Secretary, Mark. Thanks, Mark! 🙂

Pagan Collective of Victoria

Meeting Minutes 21/2/2015

 

Present: Cosette, Sarah, Josie, Ryan, Nickole, Dorian, Ang and Mark H

Apologies: Shaz, River, Fiona, Al, Ceilidh, Lucas

Absent: Mei, Ben, Buck, Belinda, Mark L

 

Meeting Location: The Wesley Anne

Meeting Open: 2.17PM

Minutes of previous meeting read and accepted

FB policy read and acknowledged

1. President’s Report – The collective has kept rolling quite nicely in the absence of meetings, with coffee meet ups, rituals and other events continuing on.

2. Secretary’s Report – Nothing new to report, memberships have continued to come in and be added to the database.

3. Treasurer’s Report – We haven’t been raising new funds, our current balance is $310 (TBC). Ryan needs to be added to the bank account at some point to bring us up to 3 signatories.

4. Announcements – All

– Deepest sympathies to Melbourne Reclaiming, who lost one of their own in tragic circumstances recently

– Meeting quorum policy

– Other Policies

– WWC Cards

– PCV Committee Facebook Group

5. Memberships – As the PCV isn’t really where we want it yet, due to delays caused by lack of meetings, it is moved that we do not charge for memberships yet and continue to have free memberships. All existing memberships to be rolled over until they contact us to be removed from our memberships. Due to the costs of making membership packs there will no longer be mailed out packs.

Movement was accepted unanimously.

6. 2016 Dates –

Confirmed Dates:

Sat, 19/3 – Mabon Ritual

Sun, 20/3 – CBD Pub Moot

Sun, 27/3 – PitP Ballarat

Sun, 24/4 – PitP Ballarat

Sun, 15/5 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 28/5 – Pagans in the café Central Vic

Sun, 17/7 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 6/8 – Pagans in the café Central Vic

Sun, 18/9 – CBD Pub Moot

Sat, 19/11 – Pagans in the café Central Vic

Sun, 20/11 – CBD Pub Moot

 

Proposed/tentative dates:

Pagans in the Park – Sun, 23/4 (approved)

Yule Dinner – Sat, 18/6 (approved)

Meeting Dates – Sat, 23/7 (inc. AGM) city; Sat, 10/9 country; Sat 26/11 city. (Approved)

6. Mabon Ritual 2016 – The ritual will be a ritual of abundance with a share and swap of produce. The venue charges a $60 hire fee and a $200 deposit. A small entry fee of $5 will be charged to help cover the hire fee.

7. Samhain Ritual 2016 – The venue to be confirmed on this one, we want to start advertising soon for it. The date is hopefully going to be the 30^th of April. Price to be confirmed.

8. Pagans in the Park 2016 – Labyrinth at Merri Creek is the proposed venue. As a fun activity it is proposed that a spiral dance or maypole will be taking place at the event. The idea of the event is that it will be a picnic – bring food etc to share and run it like a community picnic.

9. Yule Dinner 2016 – Once again it is proposed that a sub-committee forms to help run this and report back to the committee. Nickole, Ryan, Josie and Mark put their names forward to be on the sub-committee. A concern raised was accessibility for wheel chairs, it will be looked at this time around. Price will be worked out once venue is confirmed. The general feeling was satisfaction at the previous venue from those that attended.

10. PCV Crafts – There is not much movement here, no bunting has been returned yet. It is proposed we set up a craft station at the picnic for people to make some.

11. Pagan Expo 2016 – There is not much to say on this front yet, the PCV is very happy to promote when and if it gets off the ground.

12. Any Other Business – A proposal that on the contacts page we can have some kind of way to contact willing groups that don’t do public rituals etc. so people that are looking for mentors and teachers have an extra avenue to explore. In addition it is proposed that we link an article from Magickly about the warning signs to look for when becoming involved in private groups.

The Google Calendar has been deleted because it was too unwieldy to use, we will continue to have the calendar in the newsletter and on the website. It is proposed that we consider re-visiting the site and calendar, and perhaps use a calendar plug-in.

It was suggested that due to the success and interest in the Incense Workshop run by Ryan that we consider trying to have some kind of workshop run once a quarter.

A proposal for a Pagan Pride Day/Pagan Job Fair was put forward. It was decided that Nickole, Sarah, Cosette and Dorian would put together a proposal to be put forward at the next meeting.

Meeting End: 3.15PM