Welcome

Welcome to the learning and sharing site of Moondance, a women’s Celtic Spiritual Development group.  Here you will find individual lessons, and other resources that you may find useful.  The Lessons are listed along the top of your screen and down the right hand side as “pages.” The individual blog posts are mostly additional resources that correspond to your lessons, such as additional research materials to pursue for more information.

I also have a personal blog, posted in different amounts at different times, but you are very welcome to visit it.  That is in the blogroll on the right side of this page you can also type http://www.bewitchingreality.wordpress.com into your browser.

Contact information is located in the “About Moondance” page.

The Celtic triad in the heading contains three worthy goals of pursuit: truth, nature and knowledge.  May these illumine the darkness in the corners of all the world.

 

 

Moondance Meditation- Brigids Forge 01/19 by Moondance Sisterhood | Blog Talk Radio

Moondance Meditation- Brigids Forge 01/19 by Moondance Sisterhood | Blog Talk Radio.

Journey to Brigid’s forge just in time for Imbolc, and receive a special gift from her!

 

Lesson 12 Resource: The Druid Animal Oracle by Philip and Stephanie Carr

The Druid Animal Oracle by Philip and Stephanie Carr.

 

This one is based on an actual oracle product, so of course, it is based on interpretation of the author, but it’s interesting for compare and contrast purposes.

 

Lesson 12 Resources-Ireland’s Guide to Celtic Animal Symbols

Fantasy-Ireland’s Guide to Celtic Animal Symbols.

 

Lesson 12 Resource- Animal Symbolism in Celtic Mythology

Animal Symbolism in Celtic Mythology.

 

This is a reasonably scholarly source on animal mythology for your animal correspondence chart.  It was written by a student for a UofM class, as far as I can tell.

 

Lesson 12 Resource- The Ogham Calandar

The Ogham Calandar.

I like this one a lot because it honest about the scholarship.  There are some possible problems with the Ogham and tree associations, and some scholars think that Robert Graves made most of it up for his “White Goddess” book.  However, we have to find a way to relate to the trees today as best we can.  So…..look it over and see which pieces of it work best for your tree chart.

 

Lesson 12 Resource- Celtic Tree Lore from Father Oak

FatherOak’s Druidism – Envoking Spiritual Thought – Celtic Tree Lore.

 

This is similar to other sources.  See what you think of this, compare it to your own thoughts and consider it for your tree correspondences chart!

 

Lesson 11 Resource- Isaac Bonewits Cult Evaluation

 This was created by Isaac Bonewits (may he rest blissfuly) regarding how to evaluate a group for danger, assess if it is a cult in the way we think of the term in modern times: usually that being a dangerous organization that controls the free will of its members.  This is also worth looking at when considering Lesson 11 on Loyalty and Sisterhood.   I hope that Isaac doesn’t mind having me disseminate it.  I’m going to safely assume he doesn’t, as I have found it on a million websites and in several published books on covens and spiritual groups.  Many thanks to him for his work.

The Advanced Bonewits’ Cult Danger Evaluation Frame (version 2.6)

	Factors:		1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Low High
1	Internal Control: Amount of internal political and social power exercised by leader(s) over members; lack of clearly defined organizational rights for members.	1	_________________________
2	External Control: Amount of external political and social influence desired or obtained; emphasis on directing members’ external political and social behavior.	2	_________________________
3	Wisdom/Knowledge Claimed by leader(s); amount of infallibility declared or implied about decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations; number and degree of unverified and/or unverifiable credentials claimed.	3	_________________________
4	Wisdom/Knowledge Credited to leader(s) by members; amount of trust in decisions or doctrinal/scriptural interpretations made by leader(s); amount of hostility by members towards internal or external critics and/or towards verification efforts.	4	_________________________
5	Dogma: Rigidity of reality concepts taught; amount of doctrinal inflexibility or“fundamentalism;” hostility towards relativism and situationalism.	5	_________________________
6	Recruiting: Emphasis put on attracting new members; amount of proselytizing; requirement for all members to bring in new ones.	6	_________________________
7	Front Groups: Number of subsidiary groups using different names from that of main group, especially when connections are hidden.	7	_________________________
8	Wealth: Amount of money and/or property desired or obtained by group; emphasis on members’ donations; economic lifestyle of leader(s) compared to ordinary members.	8	_________________________
9	Sexual Manipulation of members by leader(s) of non-tantric groups; amount of control exercised over sexuality of members in terms of sexual orientation, behavior, and/or choice of partners.	9	_________________________
10	Sexual Favoritism: Advancement or preferential treatment dependent upon sexual activity with the leader(s) of non-tantric groups.	10	_________________________
11	Censorship: Amount of control over members’ access to outside opinions on group, its doctrines or leader(s).	11	_________________________
12	Isolation: Amount of effort to keep members from communicating with non-members, including family, friends and lovers.	12	_________________________
13	Dropout Control: Intensity of efforts directed at preventing or returning dropouts.	13	_________________________
14	Violence: Amount of approval when used by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s).	14	_________________________
15	Paranoia: Amount of fear concerning real or imagined enemies; exaggeration of perceived power of opponents; prevalence of conspiracy theories.	15	_________________________
16	Grimness: Amount of disapproval concerning jokes about the group, its doctrines or its leader(s).	16	_________________________
17	Surrender of Will: Amount of emphasis on members not having to be responsible for personal decisions; degree of individual disempowerment created by the group, its doctrines or its leader(s).	17	_________________________
18	Hypocrisy: amount of approval for actions which the group officially considers immoral or unethical, when done by or for the group, its doctrines or leader(s); willingness to violate the group’s declared principles for political, psychological, social, economic, military, or other gain.	18	_________________________