Buzz Coil: February '10

A look at some posts of interest from our blogroll and sometimes beyond:

Maybe it was the snow, but we somehow missed participating in this year’s Fifth Annual Brigid Poetry Slam. To compensate, we would like to let you know about some posts with Brigid poems on other blogs (unless otherwise noted, poems posted are by people other than the blogger):
"My Brigid Offering"—Deborah Oak
"A New Poem for Brigid"—Anne Hill
"A Ritual to Read to Each Other"—Inanna
"In Honor of Holy Bridey"—Macha NightMare (3 poems)
"The Calling"– T.Thorn Coyle (original poem)
"Poems for a Flame-Haired Snowdrop Woman"—Sara Ruby (3 poems by others, 1 by herself)
"And Another Column for Bridey"—Thalia Took
"Poetry on Imbolc"—Hecate (An explanation of Hecate’s relationship to poetry prefaces a selection that some might not immediately recognize as poetry—but is sacred to most of us and certainly is poetic, and she used my favorite version).
"Poetry for Imbolc"–Pandora (Chaucer in the original Middle English, which I love)
"5th Annual Poetry for Brigid Event"—Moonroot
"Imbolc is...Balance"—Chele (an original poem)
"A poem for Brighid"—Camlin (2 original poems)
"Bright Blessings for Imbolc - another poem" and "5th Annual Brigid Poetry Festival - started early!"–‘Zann (the latter is an original poem)
"5th Annual Brigid Poetry Festival"–Leaf (original poem)
"And So Spake the Fiery Arrow"—George M. (original poem)
"The 5th Annual Cyberspace Poetry Slam for Brigid"—Beth Owl"s Daughter
"St.Brigid’s"–beentsy
"Brigid in Cyberspace 2010"–Julia
(Links to more Brigid poetry can be found in the comments section of Deborah Oak’s original announcement)

Now on to our usual assortment:

American Witch: In her February 13 post, "The Valentine’s Ball: Where Goddess and Poetry Mate" Annie Finch tells about her Valentine’s party with Goddess images and a "love poetry corner."

Flashes of Insight: The 7th annual Wise Woman’s Festival will be held April 9-11 in Florida, Flash Silvermoon announces in her Feb. 5 post, "Inspiration for the Wise Woman’s Festival." In the post she tells what is planned for this event and shares her thoughts on its deeper significance.

Branches Up, Roots Down: In her Feb. 17 post, "Call of the Wild" Deborah Oak tells how invoking a closer relationship with nature on the way home from Pantheacon may have worked in ways she didn’t intend.

Driving Audhumla: Victoria Slind-Flor shares her experience of this year’s Pantheacon in her Feb. 18 post, "Home from Pantheacon."

The Wild Hunt: Jason Pitzl-Waters reports on his Pantheacon experiences in 3 consecutive posts, beginning with Feb. 13th’s "PantheaCon Day 1."

Know Thyself: Musings... is the new incarnation of Thorn Coyle’s blog. She announced the change on her former but still-up blog, Peacock Dreams on Feb. 16. "But Seriously," posted Feb. 16 at her new bloghome and prompted by experiences at this year’s Pantheacon, questions the distinctions between "serious seekers" and "party Pagans."

Pagan Godspell has a "new look" for Spring. What's more, on Feb. 21 blogger Sara Ruby started a series titled, "Earth Centered: A Theology." In this Part One, which is both serious and at times fantastically funny, she ponders the use of the term "earth centered," wonders if another commonly used term, "polytheistic" is "meaningfully descriptive," and questions using "Paganism" as an umbrella term. She writes [ellipses indicate my short snip]:

Frankly, beloveds, if all I have in common with a pro-civ, pro-war anti-feminist who isn’t concerned with ecojustice and whose praxis, theology, worldview and ethical system is wholly different from mine, is that we both kinda maybe believe in more than one god (sorta), then that’s a pretty fiercely flimsy link, and you know, they’d probably agree with me.... Most definitions of Paganism that come anywhere close to being fully inclusive of most groups using the term become so vague and caveat-riddled that they’re meaningless. Which leaves us mostly with questions. If contemporary Pagans can be said to point to the radical individual, the self, as the prime (and sometimes sole) locus of authority, and we all operate on radically different notions of deity, praxis and ethics, then what’s the point of claiming the same identifier? And is community possible in such a radically postmodern, absolutely relative context? Or, if one already has a community (articulating a unitive story/theology/ethic/praxis) within a specific context – say, Asatru, or Druidry, or British Traditionalist Wicca, or Feraferia, or Natib Qadish, what’s the use of identifying further under the banner of Pagan, when individual groups may have extremely little in common with each other?

And that’s just the beginning...

Full Circle: Blogger Sia has 2 posts related to the mythic dimension of the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremonies: Feb. 18th’s "Appearance vs Reality in Canada’s Care of the Wild", and Feb. 13th’s "Oh Canada! Myth and Magic at the Winter Olympics."

The Village Witch: Byron Ballard describes preparing to dedicate a priestess in the Dianic tradition in her Feb. 20 post, "A New Priestess is Almost Ready," in the Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times.

Hecate: In her Feb. 13 post,"There are statues and Then there Are Idols" blogger Hecate compares two news reports of Hindu goddess discoveries.

[update: March 2]
This just in....
Communing With Goddesses: In a extensive Feb. 24 post, "What's In A Name? Sometimes Everything," blogger narajane84 responds to objections people had when she proposed calling her new coven "Dianic." With a quote from Monique Wittig (no, not the quote about inventing). Among those who left comments: Z Budapest.

Did we miss an item you think is important? We’d like to know about it, so please leave it as a comment.