I heard this on the news this morning! I hope the owners of the Wellington Lake don’t use this as an excuse to refuse the Fest next year. (Rumor has it, that the camp’s property owners don’t like the Fest and want it gone.)
[QUOTE=Mouse_Maven]
Shoot me an email if you go next year. We can have a micro-mini Pagan Dope Fest.
/QUOTE]
Maybe ntot the best use of the word shoot given the whole OP 
I feel compelled to point out that over 70% of my posts lately have been firearm-related. I need to stop being a one-topic poster! So, without further ado, I present… um, yeah…
EARLY IRISH BURIAL PRACTICES! Whee!
Neolithic passage tombs in Ireland were generally oriented with the opening towards the East, some groups toward the SE and some towards the NE, but occasionally some will be found facing WEST! I was as shocked as you probably are! Could this be an act of rebellion? Was this the result of a moon cult? (I would assume a moon-cult would still orient towards the rising moon, however) Did the symbology of the sun/moon setting speak to a small group? To answer that, do we need to know why most others were facing the East?
Confused? You won’t be, after this episode of Snakes on a Plane!
For several years, I kept several of my guns in a rented locker at a small arms range in the area. Several lockers down from mine was one belonging to a guy with the unlikely name (or possibly nickname) of “Neb” who had a thick Welsh accent and wore a pentagram amulet-type thing all the time. I asked him about it once, and he said he was a neo-pagan. He spent a few minutes, in fact, describing carefully how he was NOT a pagan, but a neo-pagan. (??)
His truck also had an NRA sticker on it, and among his toys was a Desert Eagle .50 and a Ruger Blackhawk .357, so I’d say it was safe to assume that, no, the OP isn’t the only one.
But Neb once speculated that he was the most heavily armed Welsh-born neo-pagan east of the Mississippi. I think he might have a good claim to that title.
Well, to be fair, it is almost Fall, when a young man’s thoughts naturally turn towards deer season, blowing large things up in a most spectacular way, and dancing naked around the campfire while playing “Name That Tune” on kazoos. So you can’t be blamed for following your instincts.
What? Your hunting trips don’t turn out this way?? Tsk, tsk. Although that might explain why I haven’t seen a legal buck in several years. And also why that doesn’t bother me!
I want to go hunting with you! The large Norse fellas I generally hunt with - No nekkid dancing with them, I can assure you! Strapping bucks, tho they may be… (brainbleach)
My preferred elk season starts the weekend after Samhain, which just begs for odd rituals and dancing about.
Bricker, that is odd. I can’t recall meeting anyone who was adamant about being neo, but you know how those Welsh are (Stewie Griffon - “Look at him, he runs like a Welshmen. Doesn’t he? Doesn’t he run like a Welshmen?”).
Ok, honestly, I don’t know how those Welsh are, so I got nothin’
I’m digging out “Ireland in Prehistory” this weekend and bashing together a website all about the wonders of passage tomb construction!
(I’m low on ammo and don’t have time to go shooting)
…well, the naked part may be a stretch. But hey, if you have extra strapping Norse guys around, I could expand my horizons!
Sadly, the kazoos part is true.
How about a .50 cal.?
I don’t know about you, but I spent less than ten dollars on my athame. Mine, however, is not made of custom meteorite. It’s just a plain old black-handled boot knife that has a good feel to it. Then again, I have freakin’ fuse beads on my altar. They have runes in 'em. They keep the wax from getting all over the place, too.
My husband is both pagan and, while not a member of the NRA, he is more of the pro-gun sort, if that makes sense. FOID card, anti-gun control, etc. I’m pagan-y (I identify as Wiccan, but I really don’t want to get into a debate about “real Wiccans” right now. Gah.) and I’m more pro-gun control than he is.
I think that in my particular little corner of paganism (Asatru) it is rare that you find one of use that isn’t a gun owner and most of us skew conservative as well. We don’t use athames, we use hammers. ;>
This thread reminds me of an oft told apocryphal story/joke that goes around.
Seems there was a group of Ku Klux Klansmen in Texas who heard that some Pagans were holding a ritual out in the woods somewhere. Having run out of other minorities to harrass, they decided to get back to their roots and practice some religious bigotry in addition to the usual racial intolerance and break up the party with a good ol’ cross-burning.
So anyway, these fellows loaded up some lumber and a couple of cans of gasoline and went out hunting for these Pagans they’d heard about, hoping to catch them dancing nekkid around a fire or something. They found the spot where the other vehicles were parked and donned their hoods. Grabbing the lumber and gasoline, they assembled a cross and strode off into the woods, confident that they’d scare any remaining pants off the fluffybunny Pagans.
They were a little disconcerted to find themselves looking at the business end of at least 2 spears, a couple of swords, assorted knives, and more than one firearm. They’d crashed an Asatru blot, and didn’t realize that not all Pagans are pacifists. From somewhere behind the hardware, a voice called out:
“If that cross goes up, you’re getting nailed to it. I’ve got my hammer right here…”
The Klansmen left in a bit of a hurry, it’s said.
Pacifists miss out on some of the most fundamental joys of life!
Staffs, swords, knives, and surly druids, we lack hammers I’m afraid, but have knives that have never been drawn without being blooded. And while we aren’t ashamed to hug an occasional tree, we still make fun of the People’s Republic of Boulder.
Re: $700 atheme. I don’t normally spend so much on my tools (I really would rather make them myself) but Gibeon meteorite fragments are amazing things, I feel a connection to them that is lacking in Canyon Diablo or others I’ve held, and Dan did such a good job that I’m not at all sorry. I’m more likely to take my everyday bootknife with me to the woods, 'cause I’m not a *complete *idiot.
Clothahump, at best that thing would stop all forward motion of my poor little car. But maybe I could turn it around and use it to push me up Loveland pass.
I think I’d not mind the gas prices so much if I had that truck, tho. Is that the one that’s remote controlled? Camara mounted on it, aimed and fired from the cab? Yeah, baby! “I call shotgun!”, “You can have it, I call .50”
Heh. Reminds me of a friend of mine who once remarked that she was probably the only Hari Krishna vegetarian lesbian alcoholic in the room.
Yeah, probably.