Moonstone / Nemed Art-Ré - Who are we, Part the Third

"In a Tribal Society..."

Part the Third:

ban-drùidhean and cailleachan
filidheachd and circles of stone
satirists, scholars and sheela na gigs
drummers, dancers and death crones

We're now a Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan household, tradition, and intentional community...

The first time I saw Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan written as "CR Pagan," I thought, Hey, that's a good idea --Consciousness Raising for Pagans! (Gods know, we still need it...)

I guess I've dated myself with that reference, huh? In some ways, it may be more accurate to call ourselves "Celtic Reconstructionist NeoPagans" - the paradox appeals to me. And the paradox is completely appropriate, as we're using a combination of scholarly research and psychic research, trying to come up with recombinant forms that are both resonant with what our Ancestors practiced, as well as relevant to our lives today on the land we now inhabit. We work to (re-) build these traditions and test them with time and practice. The paradox-place, the meeting of opposing forces, is the place in Celtic magic where the doorways to the Otherworlds are found. So sure, we're Celtic Reconstructionist NeoPagans. (For more on this, and an example of the work we've been doing, see kathryn's Síla na Géige article, and the CR Trad Definition we recently co-authored for Witchvox.)

But, see, "Neo-" only works in English. In Gaelic, "Neo-" means "non-". So, even though we don't have an unbroken tradition, we have to go with names that essentially mean "Pagan" or "Heathen."

So. A Celtic Reconstructionist Pagan household, temple, and magical tradition. I'd love to call us a Tribe, as that expresses our goals and world-view in a way that "circle" or even "temple/sanctuary" really doesn't. But as I said earlier, though our core is solid, we're still too small for me to feel that "Tribe" is really accurate. At least not for the magic-working part of the equation. At least not right now. At least not yet. Though polytheistic and panentheistic, we still focus our work on the Goddesses pretty much exclusively (as far as Deities go). Paul used to say that if I died, he'd have to take out a networking ad "looking for other 'Dianic Wimps.'" (Though it's really not appropriate to call Moonstone / Art-Ré "Dianic", since at least some of the time we do include men --Goddess-centered and Radical Faerie-types though they may be... Still, I thought it was pretty funny.) In addition to our continuing work with the Goddesses and Nature Spirits, we now also do much more work with the Ancestors than we did in our Genero-Pagan days.

These days Moonstone Circle / Nemed Art-Ré is a small group of friends and chosen family, consisting basically of the three of us, plus whomever is in our lives, and/or living with us, and/or in the area at the time of whatever relevant workings we're doing. Due to years of traveling, moving, correspondence, involvement in the publishing world (Harvest, Tides, Queer Heathens, People Soup, etc...), phone relationships, and time on the Internet, many of our CR friends and colleagues are in other parts of the world. We continually ponder if and when we'll all wind up in the same place.

As has been the trend from the very start, practically everyone in Moonstone / Art-Ré, or who ever was in any incarnation of the group, is some form of artist. We traffic heavily in writers and poets and editors, with musicians running second, and the odd dancer or visual artist thrown in here and there for good measure. And I won't even go into the Leo Karma: all of us have been involved in the performing arts at various points in our lives. (Except maybe Cinnabar. We thought we could make a lot of money if she was willing to model, but she was too high-strung for that.)

Simultaneously with the closer-to-home, CR household definition of Nemed Art-Ré, it seems "Moonstone Circle" has also come to be associated with this scattered "tribe" of artists - made up of members past and present (and future?) and our friends who've shared many of these adventures, whether or not they were ever formal members of the working group.

In more recent years, a small handful of us have co-purchased land in the Northeastern U.S., or moved to lands owned by our extended families. This has been an exciting development, meaning more social contact for some of us, but less for others. It is also the reason the books aren't out yet, and the website isn't being updated as often. Relocating took a lot of time and energy. We've been busy settling in, talking to the new Nature Spirits and renovating our living spaces.

We still want to be a real tribe: with more land, and with a larger number of people - chosen family - living on the land together in a stable and sustainable fashion. It would be nice to see it in my lifetime. And for it to be here for those of us who choose to return in new bodies when these old ones give out.

Well, we can dream. And pray. And work. And invoke. And then keep working and planning and invoking and praying some more.

Perhaps most of all we still need to work on healing the things within us that have kept us from being able to trust, or in other cases, from being trustworthy. So many of us in the Pagan community are so damaged; we're still learning how to live with others in a way that heals instead of repeats the damage. We're going to need a lot of compassion, a lot of work, and A LOT of PATIENCE.

I've learned a lot about patience in this lifetime. I've had to.

More to come...

"Can you send me more information?"