Trilithon e Journal of Scholarship and the Arts of the Ancient Order of Druids in America Volume VI Winter Solstice, 2019 Copyright 2019 by the Ancient Order of Druids in America, Indiana, Pennsylvania. (www.aoda.org) All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. ISBN-13: 978-1-7343456-0-5 Colophon Cover art by Dana O’Driscoll Designed by Robert Pacitti using Adobe® InDesign.® Contents Editor’s Introduction....................................................................................................I Letter from the New Grand Archdruid: Into the Future of AODA............................1 Dana O’Driscoll Urban Druidry: e Cauldron of the City..................................................................6 Erin Rose Conner Interconnected and Interdependent: e Transformative Power of Books on the Druid Path...........................................................................................................14 Kathleen Opon A Just City.................................................................................................................24 Gordon S. Cooper e City and the Druid.............................................................................................28 Moine Michelle Gaia and the Cauldron: A Modern Mabinogion......................................................36 Claire L. Schosser Channeling the Awen Within: An Exploratory Study of the Bardic Arts in the Modern Druid Tradition...........................................................................................52 Dana O’Driscoll Druidry for the Twenty-First Century: Practicing Nature Spirituality in the Time of the Anthropocene..................................................................................................80 Dana O’Driscoll Imbolc Corn Dollies..................................................................................................90 Moine Michelle Carl Jung and Druidry: An Exploration of the Commonalities of Views..................96 Nancy V. Forrest What Do You See When Look at a Tree? Myth, Meaning, and Mental Maps for the Twenty-First Century: Reviews of ree Recently Released Books...................108 Lisa D. Jacobs Crossing Communities: An Interview with H. Byron Ballard, Author and Village Witch of Asheville, North Carolina.........................................................................118 Moine Michelle e Last Butter y..................................................................................................128 William Herrington Endlings.................................................................................................................129 Jason Stieber Trilithon Credits.....................................................................................................130 About the AODA....................................................................................................131 How to Join the AODA........................................................................................133 How to Contact the AODA....................................................................................134 My tidings for you: the stag bells, Winter snows, summer is gone. Wind high and cold, low the sun, Short his course, sea running high. Deep-red the bracken, its shape all gone The wild-goose has raised his wonted cry. Cold has caught the wings of birds; Season of ice—these are my tidings. Ireland, 9th century Editor’s Introduction Welcome to the 2019 issue of Trilithon: e Journal of Scholarship and the Arts of the Ancient Order of Druids in America. I am writing this, now four months behind our originally intended re- lease date, in a sunny window in downtown Washington, DC. It is a gorgeous fall day, with crisp, clear air. is release, our sixth, marks my second year as editor of this publication. It is a team e ort, to say the least, relying on the copyediting acumen of Karen Fisher, the savvy of our layout artist, Robert Pacitti, and the editorial coaching and cover art of now Grand Archdruid Dana O’Driscoll. We hope you enjoy what you read here and will consider contributing to a future issue. Please allow me to say a few words of thanks to our past layout and design lead, Paul An- gelini. Paul joined the Trilithon team in 2015 and set to learning layout and design techniques in order to oversee production of the 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 issues. He brought a good deal of humility, positivity, and open communication to his work on the team, introducing new ideas and working hard to learn the speci cs of production as he problem solved any issue the team encoun- tered. It was a pleasure to work and learn with Paul, who capably produced the rst issue I over- saw as editor and taught me a good deal about teamwork during that process. Paul will be missed! We welcome Robert Pacitti as our layout and design expert and look forward to the synergies that come of his new energies and visions. is issue of Trilithon welcomes new authors and sees the return of familiar names. Some contributors in this issue responded to my request for essays that spoke to the experiences and practices of druids who live and carry out their work within cities: Erin Rose Connor’s contribu- tion, “Urban Druidry: e Cauldron of the City,” and Grand Archdruid Emeritus Gordon Coo- per’s piece, “A Just City,” kick us o with thoughts that recur throughout this issue—cities are the site of magic and spirit. But organizing and planning within cities requires vision and a commit- ment to socially just principles. My own piece, “ e City and the Druid,” makes clear, however, that the city is an underrealized location that is primed for druidic work. Echoing with this attention to cities throughout this issue is the recognition that climate change is already dramatically impacting the ecosystems upon which we rely. Dana O’Driscoll’s piece, “Druidry for the Twenty-First Century: Practicing Nature Spirituality in the Age of the Anthropocene,” makes visible this pressing realization, and Claire Schosser’s piece, “Gaia and the Cauldron,” explores the hidden environmental message in the Mabinogion’s story of the cauldron of renovation. e grief, fear, and sorrow of these realizations are echoed by the two poets high- I II . , lighted in this issue, William Herrington (“Last Butter y”) and Jason Stieber (“Endlings”), who re ect upon personal encounters with the last of a species. Readers will nd other, more typical, contributions from druid writers in this issue as well. Dana O’Driscoll’s piece, “Channeling the Awen Within: An Exploratory Study of the Bardic Arts in the Modern Druid Tradition” OBOD’s 2018 Mount Haemus Award essay, is reprinted here and explores “the impact of the bardic arts on the lives of druids practicing bardic arts.” Nancy Forest shares her candidate essay with us, making clear connections between Jungian psychology and Druidic philosophies. Lisa Jacobs reviews three books of interest to druids: Barber and Bar- ber’s When ey Severed Earth from Sky (Princeton University Press, 2004), Chamovitz’s What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses (Scienti c American, 2012), and Hall’s Plants as Persons: A Philosophical Botany (SUNY Press, 2011). Additionally, I share a piece about creating Imbolc corn dollies for use in rituals and to bless my home. We end this issue’s non ction entries with anoth- er cross-community exploration, an interview with Byron Ballard, author and “Village Witch” of Asheville, North Carolina. In this interview, Byron speaks to her work as a community advocate and informant about the Appalachian tradition. On behalf of the Trilithon team, we hope that you enjoy this issue and learn from the many practices and experiences shared herein. A H-uile Beannachd/Every Blessing, Moine Michelle Letter from the New Grand Archdruid Into the Future of AODA An earlier version of this letter appeared in AODA’s Fall Equinox letter. is is an expanded letter to the AODA membership. Members of the AODA, As of the fall equinox in 2019, I became the ninth Grand Archdruid of AODA. In this letter, I want to re ect upon the contributions of Gordon Cooper, our Grand Archdruid Emeri- tus, share what I see as AODA’s strengths, and share where I’d like to see AODA go in the future. Gordon Cooper served as the Grand Archdruid for four years, stepping into the role in 2015 at the winter solstice, and resigning from the role at the fall equinox in 2019. He was preceed- ed by John Michael Greer, who served as Grand Archdruid for twelve years. Gordon’s leadership focused on building support structures for our membership, build- ing community, and o ering additional services and materials to our membership. It was during Gordon’s time as Grand Archdruid that we started the AODA newsletter (which we continue to do quarterly), allowing members a regular connection with the happenings of the order. Gordon also created a new grove category called home circles and supported member- ship on the path of building community using this approach. During Gordon’s leadership, we moved from a Yahoo Group to a new internet forum, which allowed much more exible dis- cussions, private messaging, photo sharing, and much more. Our forums are alive and vibrant