Kerr Cuhulain's Blog

Yule Greetings

2011-12-22T16:05:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

I tried to send out Sabbat greetings as I’ve been doing foryears using my Telus e mail account, but for the last two months it hasn’tallowed me to do this. I keep getting messages telling me “too many recipientsper hour.” After working fine for years, now Telus tech support is telling methat even though nothing has changed in their system, I can now only send mailto 10 people at a time. So I’m posting my Yule greetings here.

We’ve got a new steel roof going on to replace the old asphaltshingles. The workmen have been up there banging around for a week now.

My old friend and fellow author Dr. Shelley Rabinovitch, whoteaches at the university of Ottawa, was here for our Yule ritual last night.Actually there were two Yules: One was a relatively standard Yule whichincluded a Wiccaning for the many children that arrived in the lives of knightsof the Order this past year, and the other was a ritual focussing on theMicrocosm: Awakening the Light Within. You can check them out on the ritualspage at the Order of Scáthach training blog: http://dunscathach.wordpress.com/rituals/

In the coming year I’ll be attending the followinggatherings to teach:

· Heartland Pagan Festival in May 2012.

· Southern Delta Church of Wicca event 10 – 13 May2012 in Shelby Park, Millington, Tenessee.

· PPD in Augusta, Georgia, in October 2012 (stillto be confirmed).

This has been a very productive writing year for me:

The first print run of my book Pagan Religions: A Manual for Diversity Training, the updatedversion of my original book The LawEnforcement Guide to Wicca, hassold out and the publisher has announced a reprint. It is available for saleat: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Pagan-Religions-Manual-Diversity-Training-Kerr-Cuhulain/9780971005068-item.html?cookieCheck=1

I’ve just released a new book of self empowerment: How To Be Glorious: Day By Day Empowerment. This book is thenext step in the the cycle begun with my earlier Llewellyn books on Warriorphilosophy, Wiccan Warrior, Full Contact Magick, Magickal Self Defense, and Modern Knighthood. The tremendousinterest in the daily affirmations that I post on Twitter, Facebook, Google+,got me thinking about a book for the general public on self empowerment andpersonal power and How to be Gloriousis the result. It’s about taking charge of your life instead of letting yourlife take charge of you. It’s available as an e book from Smashwords and as aprint on demand book from Amazon.com.

My new book Modern Knighthood: Unleashing Your Inner Power to Master Yourself andthe World has been out on Smashwords.com since December as an e book,but now it is out as a print on demand book at Amazon.com.

The other book, which is published under my mundane name,Charles Ennis, is AncientRecipes for Modern Kitchens. This is a collection of ancient recipesadapted for the modern kitchen, organized into the 8 Sabbat seasons and presentedwith a brief description of their history. The oldest recipe in there is over6,000 years old. If you’re looking for recipes for your Esbat or Sabbat, thisis the book for you. This is a Smashwords e book and a print on demand bookfrom Amazon.

And on the subject of cooking, I’ve got a new recipe blognow too: Cauldron andChalice.

Just a reminder to anyone interested in studying with us inthe Order of Scáthach: We’ve changed our mentoring system so people who want tostudy with us can check out our mentors on line at our training blog and chooseone to work with. We’re also doing Skype conference calls twice monthly for ouron line students to improve their learning experience: I’ll be hosting onesession and Lady Devenir will be hosting the other. Of course, if you're livinghere in British Columbia or in one of the other locations that we havepreceptories, you can train with us face to face. The Preceptories in the LowerMainland include:

· Surrey Motherhouse

· Tri Cities Preceptory

· Bifrost Preceptory

We’ve been taping lessons to put on the training blog andthis led us to create our own YouTube channel. All of the lessons of the Orderof Scathach’s training cycle have been uploaded as mini video lessons now: Youcan visit them through the links on our training blog or go direct to our newYouTube Channel, “Order of Scathach Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/goibhniu13?feature=mhumCheck out the sword dance by Tina at the SWC weekend in Texas: http://www.youtube.com/user/goibhniu13?feature=mhee#p/a/u/1/nmFpcTfsfRY

And finally, our youth group, Scathách Kids, is now fullyoperational. Please check it out at: http://scathachkids.wordpress.com/

Hope you have a wonderful Yule.

Kerr Cuhulain
Grand Master
Order of Scathach
Order of Scáthach web site: http://www.dunscathach.com/

Order of Scathách training blog: http://dunscathach.wordpress.com/

Kerr Cuhulain’s blog: http://kerrcuhulain.blogspot.com/

Kerr’s latest Smashwords book:Modern Knighthood: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/34975

Check out Kerr’s dailyaffirmations:

Twitter: @warriorwitch

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/kerr.cuhulain

Google+: https://plus.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wX&gpcaz=c07915a5#

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4695872-kerr-cuhulain

YouTube channel for the Order ofScathách: http://www.youtube.com/user/goibhniu13?feature=mhum

Pagan Religions: A Manual for Diversity Training: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Pagan-Religions-Manual-Diversity-Training-Kerr-Cuhulain/9780971005068-item.html?cookieCheck=1

Give Yourself...

2011-12-01T18:08:00.001-08:00

Give YOURSELF this season...

Unitarian Services and Interfaith Councils

2011-11-21T07:40:00.001-08:00

On November 6 the Order of Scathach conducted the service for the South Fraser Unitarian Congregation in Surrey. It was very well received. We were subsequently invited to participate in the formation of a Surrey Interfaith Council at a meeting at the Surrey Central Library on November 16. I attended with Lady Janus and it was a very productive meeting.

2011-11-20T07:29:00.001-08:00

My new book, How to Be Glorious, just came out in print on demand version on Amazon:

Tired of Talking to Your Ass... Train Your Brain

2011-11-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

Samhain Greetings

2011-10-31T08:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

We’ve been very busy upgrading things in the Motherhouse forenvironmental efficiency. A new furnace is being installed tomorrow, we’ve putin new low flow toilets, new energy efficient fans, and have upgradedinsulation in several areas.

I had a fabulous time at the Sacred Well Congregation’sconvention in San Antonio, Texas, on the weekend of October 13 – 16 teachingclasses and conducting an Armoring ritual. I also gave a class and conducted anArmoring ritual for over 300 young men and women in basic training for the USAFat Lackland Air Force Base. As a result of this weekend I’ve agreed to help theSacred Well Congregation sponsor a Preceptory of the Order of Scathach in thatarea, so if any of you are in that area and would like to be part of it, pleaselet me know. You can check out SWC at http://swciic.sacredwell.org/

In the coming year I’ll be attending the followinggatherings to teach:

· Heartland Pagan Festival in May 2012.

· Southern Delta Church of Wicca event 10 – 13 May2012 in Shelby Park, Millington, Tenessee.

· PPD in Augusta, Georgia, in October 2012 (stillto be confirmed).

This has been a very productive writing year for me:

Pagan Religions: A Manualfor Diversity Training, the updated version of my original book The Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca, is finally here. It is available forsale at: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Pagan-Religions-Manual-Diversity-Training-Kerr-Cuhulain/9780971005068-item.html?cookieCheck=1I thank all of you that have been waiting patiently for this book to arrive.

The other book, which is published under my mundane name,Charles Ennis, is AncientRecipes for Modern Kitchens. This is a collection of ancient recipesadapted for the modern kitchen, organized into the 8 Sabbat seasons andpresented with a brief description of their history. The oldest recipe in thereis over 6,000 years old. If you’re looking for recipes for your Esbat orSabbat, this is the book for you. This is a Smashwords e book.

The Order of Scathách will be conducting the service for theSouth Fraser Unitarian Congregation, 13775 70^th Ave, Surrey, BC(just beside the Newton Library), on November 6, 2011, at 10:30 AM. Check itout at www.surreyunitarians.ca. Ihope that we’ll see some of you next weekend for this service.

· Surrey Motherhouse

· Tri Cities Preceptory

· Bifrost Preceptory

And finally, our youth group, Scathách Kids, is now fullyoperational. Please check it out at: http://scathachkids.wordpress.com/

Hope you have a wonderful Samhain and a happy Halloween.

Kerr Cuhulain
Grand Master
Order of Scathach
Order of Scáthach web site: http://www.dunscathach.com/

Order of Scathách training blog: http://dunscathach.wordpress.com/

Kerr Cuhulain’s blog: http://kerrcuhulain.blogspot.com/

Kerr’s latest Smashwords book:Modern Knighthood: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/34975

Check out Kerr’s dailyaffirmations:

Twitter: @warriorwitch

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/kerr.cuhulain

Google+: https://plus.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wX&gpcaz=c07915a5#

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/4695872-kerr-cuhulain

YouTube channel for the Order ofScathách: http://www.youtube.com/user/goibhniu13?feature=mhum

Pagan Religions: A Manual for Diversity Training: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Pagan-Religions-Manual-Diversity-Training-Kerr-Cuhulain/9780971005068-item.html?cookieCheck=1

How To Be Glorious

2011-10-06T18:42:00.000-07:00

I’ve just released a new book of self empowerment- How To Be Glorious: Day By Day Empowerment.This book is the next step in the the cycle begun with my earlier Llewellynbooks on Warrior philosophy, WiccanWarrior, Full Contact Magick, Magickal Self Defense, and Modern Knighthood. The tremendousinterest in the daily affirmations that I post on Twitter, Facebook, Google+,got me thinking about a book for the general public on self empowerment andpersonal power and How to be Gloriousis the result. Its about taking charge of your life instead of letting yourlife take charge of you.

You can find it on Smashwords at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/94453

Pagan Religions Manual: Its Here!

2011-07-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

Pagan Religions: A Manual for Diversity Training (Shamanism Paganism Druidry)

The new Pagan Religions manual, which is the newest edition of my original book, The Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca, has finally been published and is back from the printers. It's been a LONG wait, but we're done. Its going to make its first appearance in British Columbia at the Vancouver Pagan Pride event on Saturday, 13 August (see http://vancouverpaganpride.wordpress.com/ for details).

I Am

2011-07-14T22:27:00.000-07:00

Here’s a challenge for my many friends: The knights of my Order all compose an “I Am” statement, a single sentence that summarizes their power, their self image. When several knights recite them in sequence, they become the "Song of Scathach" (check out more about this on our training blog rituals page). My “I Am” is: “I am the sudden silence of the midnight forest.” What’s your’s?

Kerr Comes to InFest in Ottawa

2011-07-05T16:30:00.001-07:00

I’ll be attending InFest in the Ottawa area on the September 2011 Labor Day weekend to teach classes and conduct rituals. You can check it out at: http://www.infestgathering.ca/

Litha Update and Upcoming Appearances

2011-06-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Its been a cold season so far and everything in the garden is delayed.

Before Eostre I went through an unprecedented two week flurry of editing activity with my editor Kel from Acorn Publishing regarding my upcoming book Pagan Religions: A Manual for Diversity Training. He assured me that was finishing the editing and this unusual level of activity for him seemed to indicate that he was serious. A few weeks later I noticed that the book had been posted on Indigo/Chapters for advance sales at: http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Pagan-Religions-Manual-Diversity-Training-Kerr-Cuhulain/9780971005068-item.html?cookieCheck=1

This took me by surprise as I hadn’t been told about this. Now Litha is on the horizon and as far as I can tell we’re no further ahead. It has been a lengthy and frustrating process and I thank all of you that have been waiting for this book for your patience.

My new book Modern Knighthood: Unleashing Your Inner Power to Master Yourself and the World has been out on Smashwords.com since December as an e book, but now it is coming out as a print on demand book at Amazon.com. I’m just waiting for the review process to be completed. This book completes the cycle begun with my earlier Llewellyn books on Warrior philosophy, Wiccan Warrior, Full Contact Magick and Magickal Self Defense. This is the first and only book to relate the concept of Pagan knighthood, which is all about personal empowerment and self mastery. Modern Knighthood brings all of the philosophy of the warrior together into a new tradition that outlines the cycles of training that interlock with the cycles of the seasons that lead the student to each of these initiatory experiences. Modern Knighthood outlines the 13 Precepts and Code of Chivalry of knighthood, including seasonal cycles and rituals. If you’re tired of being the victim and want to take charge of your life, you need this book.

The other book, which is published under my mundane name, Charles Ennis, is Ancient Recipes for Modern Kitchens. This is a collection of ancient recipes adapted for the modern kitchen, organized into the 8 Sabbat seasons and presented with a brief description of their history. The oldest recipe in there is over 6,000 years old. If you’re looking for recipes for your Esbat or Sabbat, this is the book for you. This is a Smashwords e book.

Some of you are unfamiliar with e books and have been asking me if you need readers like Kindle, Koobo, etc to read it. Smashwords offers multiple download formats, so of course you can easily download these books to any available readers. If you don’t have a reader, you can also download these books to your computer as text files or PDF files to your computer, so you can print a hard copy if you so desire. Or you can download the reader software (free downloads) to your computer to download the other formats.

A few weeks ago I attended Write On Vancouver and submitted manuscripts to an editor: This is the first books in my swords and sorcery fantasy as well as the first book in a paranormal romance. I’m already 20,000 words into writing the second book of that paranormal trilogy and about 10,000 words into book two of the fantasy trilogy.

I’ve created a new blog for my fantasy writing which I invite you to check out: http://caennis.wordpress.com/ I’ve posted a lot of free information there for writer’s looking for information for their fiction, including police procedural information and a lexicon of the occult with over 13,000 entries. I’m now on Goodreads.com, so if you’re a reader and want to be part of that community, I invite you to check it out and see what I’ve got in my virtual “library”.

I will be coming to Ottawa, Ontario, on the Labour Day Weekend this year for InFest to teach classes and conduct an Armoring ritual. I will also be attending the Sacred Well Congregation Convention in Texas October 13 – 16 to teach, conduct an Armoring, and connect with military Pagans at Lackland AFB. I will be appearing on the Blogtalk “Pagans Tonight” hosted by Oberon Zell and Ariel Monserrat on Wednesday, June 15 at 10 PM EST: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/witchschool/2011/05/25/pagans-tonight

As I mentioned in my last note: Our Order of Scáthach has been approved as the sponsors/organizers of Vancouver Pagan Pride 2011. We’ve received approval of the Hawthorne Park site from the city of Surrey. The event will take place Saturday, August 13^th at that location, between 9 AM and 6 PM. If you’re interested in participating by doing a ritual, lesson, performance or you intend to set up a merchant’s booth, please check out our web site at: http://vancouverpaganpride.wordpress.com/ You’ll find all of the contacts there to get you set up.

Just a reminder to anyone interested in studying with us in the Order of Scáthach: We’ve changed our mentoring system so people who want to study with us can check out our mentors on line at our training blog and choose one to work with. We’re also doing Skype conference calls for our on line students to improve their learning experience. Of course, if you're living here in British Columbia or in one of the other locations that we have preceptories, you can train with us face to face.

We’ve been taping lessons to put on the training blog and this led us to create our own YouTube channel. All of the lessons of the Order of Scathach’s training cycle have been uploaded as mini video lessons now: You can visit them through the links on our training blog or go direct to our new YouTube Channel, “Order of Scathach Videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/goibhniu13?feature=mhum

And finally, our youth group, Scathách Kids, is now fully operational. Please check it out at: http://scathachkids.wordpress.com/

Hope you have a wonderful Litha.

Kerr Cuhulain
Grand Master
Order of Scathach

Ban Mother's Day

2011-04-28T15:31:00.000-07:00

The first appearance of the concept of what became Mother’s Day was Julia Ward Howe’s call for a Mother's Day in the United States in 1870. It was her reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. It was her attempt to get women involved in shaping society politically. Mother’s Day was first celebrated in the US on 28 February 1909.

The first Father’s Day occurred in Fairmont, West Virginia, on July 5, 1908 and was a remembrance of 210 fathers lost in the Monongah mining disaster. Father’s Day was held as a celebration on June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Washington, when Sonora Smart Dodd decided to come up with a male equivalent to Mother’s Day to honor her father, a Civil War veteran who’d raised his children after his wife died in childbirth. Sonora was only 16 years old.

Father’s day almost didn’t happen. The idea was met with derision by many, who felt that it would be another step towards filling the calendar with meaningless promotions. Father’s Day was proposed to the US congress in 1913, but it was not until 1972 that it was finally signed into law as a holiday.

I believe that the fears of those who suspected that these days would just become another useless holiday on the calendar have been realized. I believe that these two days of celebration have been taken over by commercial concerns to create a market for their gifts and cards. It provides thoughtless, self centered people an opportunity to create the illusion that they care for their family members once a year, whether they do or not. Once a year there is this frenzy of buying gifts and flowers to throw at mom or dad to make them think you care, when you haven’t done anything to honour them all year. For me this is in the same category as the Christmas shopping madness, where people try to use one day of the year to prove their love by buying things. A yearly exercixe in pretending to be peaceful and neighbourly, when the next day they return to self centered selfish behaviour for the rest of the year. Shouldn't we try for peace and love 365 days of the year? Shouldn't we seek to do good will every day of the year like Dicken's spirit of Christmas Present advised Scrooge? If we're truly appreciative of our family members, shouldn't they be special 365 days a year also?

I say ban them both. Who needs them? Not a day goes by that I don’t realize how much I love my wife and hopefully I’m able to show her that every day. For me, every day is daughter day. My daughter leaves me notes and things on a daily basis and not a day goes by that I’m not baking for my family. I'm not saying you should buy cards and flowers every day: Now and again surprising your loved ones with little things is nice. What's nicer is demonstrating by your actions that you care every day, not just once a year. That seems like a much more sincere practice to me.

Kerr Cuhulain

Courtesy

2011-03-14T07:22:00.000-07:00

Have you all noticed one very major difference between the terrible tragedy that has taken place following the major earthquake in Japan and similar tragedies that have occurred in other places around the world in recent years? One of the most common scenes you see in news stories of disasters like that is the unruly mob climbing over one another, trampling their fellow men, fighting to grab food and water being dropped off a truck by terrified workers. Another is looters smashing their way into stores and making off with anything portable. Did you all notice that isn’t happening in Japan? Everyone is queuing up politely and nobody is looting. They are all exercising courtesy towards one another, and in doing so making everyone’s lives better, even in such trying circumstances.

One of the most obvious changes that I noticed over the twenty nine years that I did police work as well as the years since that I’ve spent as a police dispatcher afterwards was the rapid erosion of manners and courtesy in Western society. I’ve seen many examples of self absorbed people with no concern for others. No one holds doors open for people any more. People j-walk whenever and wherever they feel like it, completely disregarding oncoming traffic. Fewer and fewer people signal lane changes and the speed limit seems to be when their gas pedal hits the floor boards. I found myself surrounded by people feeling isolated, entirely wrapped up in their own concerns with no thought whatsoever for anyone else. Road rage incidents have multiplied exponentially. The more discourtesy they experience, the more this feeling of isolation and distrust in them grows.

Want to make a difference in the world? Hold the door for someone. It is amazing to me how many people look surprised when I hold the door open for them at the store or at work. Want to make someone’s day? Greet people that you pass on the street. Some people give me strange looks or duck their heads down and look away when I greet them while out walking, but far more respond with a surprised smile when I tip my hat. People aren’t used to having people show courtesy towards them these days and doing so will certainly bring a smile to their face which may last all day. Want to relieve someone else’s stress? Let that other driver merge into traffic in front of you. It’s not going to slow you down and it’d going to restore their faith in others.

Courtesy, in other words showing respect and consideration at all times towards others, is one of the keystones of the Code of Chivalry of the order of knights that I belong to, just as courtesy (rei) was one of the keystones of Bushido. Courtesy is an essential attribute of the warrior. There will be those who try to tell you that nice guys finish last. I tell you this is not so. Courtesy is a sign of strength and confidence. Look what rei is doing for the people in Japan. Courtesy is directly linked to the law of three fold return. You get back what you put out there, and if you’re courteous you will always be the winner. Like largesse, another of the principles of chivalry, courtesy is part of paying it forward. Courtesy is the soul of modern knighthood. In Idylls of the King, Lord Tennyson put it this way: “For manners are not idle, but the fruit of loyal nature and of noble mind.” Modern knighthood begins and ends with courtesy. In his Letters and Social Aims, Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Life is not so short but that there is always time enough for courtesy.”

So take time to be courteous. You’ll be glad that you did.

In Her Service, Kerr Cuhulain

Order of Scáthach web site: http://www.dunscathach.com/
Kerr Cuhulain’s blog: http://kerrcuhulain.blogspot.com/
Kerr’s latest Smashwords book: Modern Knighthood: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/34975
Check out Kerr’s daily affirmations: Twitter: @warriorwitch
Facebook: Kerr Cuhulain
YouTube channel for the Order of Scathách: http://www.youtube.com/user/goibhniu13?feature=mhum

Video Coming to Order of Scathach Training Blog

2011-02-07T13:11:00.000-08:00

We're going to be adding training video to the Order of Scathach Training Blog to enhance the learing experience for our on line members. Here's some of our knights reciting the code of chivalry of our Order.

In Her Service, Kerr Cuhulain

Imbolc and Other Sabbats

2011-01-25T19:38:00.000-08:00

I've just posted an Imbolc recipe on my fantasy writer blog: Its one of the recipes from my new cookbook on Smashwords: Ancient Recipes for Modern Kitchens. I've also updated all of the rituals for our Order of Scathach on the Order's Training Blog. We're celebrating Imbolc this coming weekend, which includes candle making: The accompanying photo shows one of our young people making candles at last year's celebration. If you're curious about what we do for Sabbat celebrations, you're welcome to have a look.

In Her Service, Kerr

2011-01-08T16:06:00.000-08:00

I've just published a cookbook for Sabbats and Esbats. Ancient Recipes for Modern Kitchens presents 119 recipes from antiquity along with their history modernized for your use. They are organized to reflect the turning of the seasons of the year. This book helps modern people celebrate in ways that would be familiar to their ancestors and honor their traditions while at the same time improving upon what our ancestors had to work with. You can check it out at: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/36267
In Her Service, Kerr

Survived New Years Again

2011-01-01T16:15:00.000-08:00

Extremely busy night at work last night. 2 thousand 911 calls handled and when I left at 7 AM after 12 hours of non stop stupid we were already 400 police incidents into the new year. My friends helped me through it with a wonderful Yule celebration. The photo shows how I dressed to dispatch at Christmas.

Check out my first e book Modern Knighthood on Smashwords.com

Have a wonderful New Year.

In Her Service, Kerr

Modern Knighthood Is Here!

2010-12-28T07:08:00.000-08:00

I've just entered the realm of e publishing for the first time with my first e book- Modern Knighthood: Unleashing Your Inner Warrior to Master Yourself and Your World. What I started with my earlier books (Wiccan Warrior, Full Contact Magick, and Magickal Self Defense) all comes together in this book about unleashing your inner power. Knighthood isn't about appearance, but action, not about tinsel but tenacity, not about glitter, but genius, not about fashion, but faculty. You can check it out at Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/34975

Malpas Wassail Song

2010-12-20T08:43:00.000-08:00

Now the harvest being over

And Christmas drawing in

Please open your door

And let us come in

With our wassail!

Chorus:

Wassail, wassail

And joy come to our jolly wassail!

Here's the master and mistress

Sitting down by the fire

While we poor wassail boys

Do trudge through the mire

With our wassail!

Here's the master and mistress

Sitting down at their ease

Put your hands in your pockets

And give what you please

With our wassail!

This ancient old house

We will kindly salute

It is your custom

You need not dispute

With your wassail!

Here's health to the master

And a long time to live

Since you've been so kind

And so willing to give

With our wassail!

Here's the saddle and the bridle

They're hung upon the shelf

If you want any more

You must sing it yourself!

With our wassail!

You can check out the music for this at: http://youtube.com/watch?=MNMSc6Hb2Pw

The Isolation Trap

2010-11-22T08:16:00.000-08:00

There is a trap that first responders like police officers fall into. It works like this:

First responders typically spend their days dealing with an endless round of tragedy. Every day they deal with people who stop communicating with words and start communicating with fists. All week they attend an interminable series of accidents and heartache too often caused by someone's stupidity. All month they deal with an ceaseless see of faces of people trapped in addictions which are fueled by a life of crime. You may think that the upcoming Christmas season, advertised as a time of peace and goodwill to mankind, would be an exception to this. That's not the police officer's perception. Christmas is the time of year when people who haven't seen each other for a long time get together, have a few drinks... and then remember why they haven't seen each other in a long time. For the cop, Christmas is an unending series of interventions in violent domestic squabbles. The world is a chaotic and often dangerous place.

Here's the trap: Because this is all they see in a backbreaking schedule of lengthy shifts and overtime, they sink into the perception that this is all there is out there. That, as you might imagine, is a pretty depressing place to be.

First responders aren't alone in this. On my daily walks I frequently pass people plodding to the bus stop, the store, the appointment, head down, shoulders hunched, avoiding eye contact, fearful of the world around them.

So here's what we all need to do for one another. When you pass that person in the street, say hello. When you're at the store, hold the door for the person behind you, and say hello.

That's it. Just smile and say hello.

By doing this you're reminding these people that this chaotic world doesn't just contain tragedy, that the bedlam they percieve actually has some sane inhabitants. There are good people out there, though we sometimes don't notice them. It doesn't hurt to remind others about that. Actually it makes a big difference, because it makes people feel that they have a purpose and that they are not alone. Especially at this time of the year.

For more thoughts about Yule, check out the Order of Scathach blog: http://scathachisland.blogspot.com/

In Her Service, Kerr

Ancient Soup Recipes

2010-11-07T19:20:00.000-08:00

I just posted some ancient soup recipes on my fantasy writer blog if anyone would like to check them out: http://caennis.wordpress.com/

Pagan Religions Book Update

2010-11-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

Lots of people have been wondering what is happening with the 4th edition of the Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca, which has been renamed Pagan Religions: A Diversity Training Manual. I got the updated manuscript with a few final questions from the editor at Acorn Publishing last Friday and got the reply back to him Monday morning. He assures me that this should be the last of the editting and that he will get down to the business of final layout. So hopefully this book will be out soon.

Bright Blessings, Kerr

Gatetway Home

2010-11-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

Thrakos Shadowwolf wrote to me about a week long program that he is putting on for soldiers returning to civilian life called Gateway Home: A Warrior's Transitional Journey.

WHO: Former Military personnel of Pagan/Heathen/Wiccan spiritual paths who feel they have not yet successfully reintegrated into civilian life or who feel emotionally stuck in, or haunted by, their past military experiences.

WHAT: An intensive week long seminar journey through classes, workshops, and Rituals transforming the former soldier into a true Warrior with the skills and wisdom to create a personally satisfying and honorable future.

WHEN: Mon. 15 November - Sun. 21 November 2010

WHERE: 20 Acre organic mini-farm and forested nature retreat on the Cumberland Plateau. 1 hr. N of Chattanooga, 2 hr. SW of Knoxville, 2.5 hr E of Nashville, TN.

FOR DETAILS AND REGISTRATION GO TO: http://www.swordandcauldron.org/

SPONSORED BY: Temple of the Sword and Cauldron

SIWC: Launching My Fiction Writing

2010-10-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

My wife and I were at the Surrey International Writer's Conference this weekend taking classes, networking, and pitching our new works of fiction. Yes! I've started writing sword and sorcery fantasy! It was a successful weekend: I had an editor and agent ask to see chapters of my new novel, which will be the first book of a trilogy. You can see my podcast from SIWC at: http://beachcombercommunications.com/2010/10/charles-ennis-an-interview-at-siwc/

Love Magick

2010-03-16T05:31:00.000-07:00

Every so often, I get an e mail like this (name removed to respect the privacy of the sender):

"Hi.

I'm trying to find someone to help me with matters of the heart, and wondering if your willing to help me.
I've tried to find someone who works with wicca. I found your name and info on the internet and hoping that you would e mail me back and let me know if you’re willing to help me bring a lost love back into my life.
This is very important to me and many people say they can't do this kind of as they aren't strong enough.
Please tell me you can and will help me. I love this man ssoo much and want him back in my life . I will explain more when I hear back from you.
PLEASE help me, I will do almost anything to get us together again."

And my reply to this person is the same advice that I’ve given to countless people over the years:

I'm sorry to hear of your distress, and I can tell from your note that this is a very emotional issue for you. Yes, I have the power to do this: You have this power yourself, I assure you; all you need to do is to learn how to access it. Your note gives me the impression that you feel powerless. You have the power, it is yours to use. That's what we teach in the Order of Scathach.

However, I would strongly caution you against engaging in any form of magick that forces your will upon another. There is an old adage: What you bind, you're bound to. Without exception, people who do magick to make someone they are interested in love them end up with bad relationships. If this is truly love, and is meant to be, then you don't need magick to make it happen. It is magick in and of itself. If this relationship that you were in has ended, and/or isn't working, then that may be a good indication that it isn't meant to be, however strongly you feel about it at the moment. That your relationship has failed may be a very strong indication that you can do better than this, and that someone better is out there waiting for you. If you have to do magick to make someone love you, it isn't love, and it will only lead to disappointment. If you want a loving relationship and are having problems finding one, magick the universe, not a particular person. Put the intention out there and you'll get what you were looking for, probably faster than you thought. We can help you to overcome your distress, but we don't do love spells to make people love you.

In Her Service
Kerr Cuhulain
Grand MasterOrder of Scathach
www.dunscathach.com
warriorwitch @ http://twitter.com/

Repealing Canada's Witchcraft Law

2010-03-11T09:38:00.001-08:00

My friend Greg is working on having Canada's last anti-witchcraft law repealed: This is in the Criminal Code under the fraud sections and basically describes Witchcraft as taking money for performing magic or divination. As part of his letter writing campaign, he has written to the Liberal Party of Canada's Critic of Justice as a second approach to the Minister of Justice to draw political/media attention to the issue and put pressure on the Federal Government to take action. Greg has a Facebook group for this project:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=350103684946&ref=ts All the information on this project is listed there as well as a letter that people can copy/paste to email or mail out. A lot of the information is also available through the discussion forums at www.thewicca.ca. Any assistance would be welcome.

Kiva Update

2010-03-01T07:45:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

The Order of Scathach has had some of our Kiva loans paid off, so I made new loans to a couple of entrepreneurs: Thon Tan, a female farmer in Cambodia, and William Mulongo, a farmer in Kenya. This brings our Order of Scathach Kiva portfolio up to 17 (portfolio average for Kiva members 5.3) in 10 different countries. Remember, you can sign up to do loans on www.kiva.org and register yourself as an Order of Scathach team member (9 team members at present) to have your loans count towards the team total (5 so far). For those of you new to the Order of Scáthach, Kiva's mission is to connect people, through lending, for the sake of alleviating poverty. Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining microfinance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending.

Kiva was born of the following beliefs:

People are by nature generous, and will help others if given the opportunity to do so in a transparent, accountable way.

The poor are highly motivated and can be very successful when given an opportunity.

By connecting people we can create relationships beyond financial transactions, and build a global community expressing support and encouragement of one another.

Kiva promotes:

Dignity: Kiva encourages partnership relationships as opposed to benefactor relationships.

Partnership relationships are characterized by mutual dignity and respect.

Accountability: Loans encourage more accountability than donations where repayment is not expected.

Transparency: The Kiva website is an open platform where communication can flow freely around the world.

I encourage everyone to get involved in this worthy charity.

In Her Service, Kerr Cuhulain

Wicca Was Inspired by Chivalry

2010-02-08T08:15:00.000-08:00

You may ask, why should chivalry be a part of Wicca? If you go back to the roots of Wicca, you’ll find that chivalry was one of the things that inspired Wicca in the first place.
In 1900 an American (though born in Canada), Ernest Thompson Seton, attempted to deal with issues of juvenile delinquency by creating an organization that woodcraft and civilized values based on his knowledge of First Nations peoples. “Seton’s Indians” rapidly became popular, and in 1912 resulted in the publishing of his book The Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore. This was one of the principal influences leading to Robert Baden-Powell founding the Boy Scouts movement. In fact, Baden-Powell originally gave leadership of the North American part of his organization to Seton. Seton ultimately resigned from Baden-Powell’s organization in 1915. Where Baden-Powell’s views were jingoistic and militaristic, Seton’s were not and this ultimately led to differences between them. In 1916 Ernest Westlake, was a naturalist, anthropologist and traveller of Quaker upbringing, founded the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry in the United Kingdom, making Seton its honorary Grand Chieftain. 1909 Westlake had forsaken Quakerism for the "old gods" of Paganism, inspired by authors such as Edward Carpenter, Nietzsche, Havelock Ellis, Jane Ellen Harrison, Tylor and Frazer. Westlake’s Order of Woodland Chivalry avoided the military overtones of Scouting, instead focusing on the virtues of kindness, fellowship, animal conservation and woodcraft. Westlake saw women as incarnations of God, revered the Jack-in-the-Green, which he considered to be the English equivalent of Dionysus, and held that the "Trinity of Woodcraft" consisted of Pan, Artemis and Dionysus.
So it is not surprising that the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, unlike Scouting, accepted many of the premises of modern Neopaganism. Nature was described as the Mistress and Mother, God as Creator and All-Father and Christ as a teacher rather than as God incarnate. The greatest ceremony of the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry was lighting the campfire: At their first folkmoot ceremony at Lammas 1921, held on an estate at Sandy Balls on the northern edge of the New Forest, the sacred fire was lit by four people dressed in colors of the elements of each quarter, bringing greetings from the elemental powers in succession from north round to west.
The Order of Woodcraft Chivalry in turn inspired other organizations such as the Young Soldiers/Handmaidens of Pan, founded by music hall actress Audrey Auckland in Middle Wallop in Hampshire in the 1940s. Boys in this organization were initiated as “Warriors of Pan”, swearing an oath to care for the land. Indeed, scholars such as Ronald Hutton have the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry provided the basis for George Pickingill’s New Forest coven, from which the modern religion of Wicca grew.
Incidentally, the Order of Woodcraft Chivalry, though small, has survived: In the 1990s Martin Westlake, son of Aubrey and grandson of Ernest, allowed the Order to celebrate its anniversary at Sandy Balls estate.

In Her Service, Kerr

(Photo: Members of the Order of Scathach at the Armoring Ritual at the Vancouver Pagan Pride celebrations, September 2009)

We're Incorporated

2010-02-05T15:38:00.000-08:00

The Order of Scathach is now a registered society in British Columbia. We're excited!

Janus's "Potions" Class

2010-02-01T11:02:00.000-08:00

Here's some photos of the recent "Potions" class that Janus taught at the Surrey Motherhouse a couple of weeks ago.

BB Kerr

Surrey Motherhouse Garden News

2010-01-21T17:05:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, we installed the new greenhouse in the Surrey Motherhouse garden along with 4 composters last February. As part of this project we started a number of garden and medicinal herbs including basil, thyme, marjoram, oregano, parsley, rosemary, savory, dill, chives, spearmint, horehound, feverfew, hyssop, borage, chamomile and marshmallow. This year we are adding more: Angelica, echinacea, cilantro/coriander, confrey, cinquefoil, anise, lemon balm, and bay laurel. We're also going to be producing a huge selection of bedding plants for the yard. I've got cuttings of fuchsia, geranium, begonia, and chrysanthemums on the go and I've got a huge pile of marigold seeds from last year's plants. In addition, we're going to be growing a lot of vegetables. If anyone is interested in having some seeds, or needs some medicinal herbs, or wants to learn how to do any of this gardening stuff, don't hesitate to contact me.
In Her Service
Kerr

Tinctures Workshop

2010-01-20T14:44:00.000-08:00

Janus will be teaching a tinctures workshop at the Surrey Motherhouse of the Order of Scathach at 6 PM on Sunday, January 24. If you are interested, please contact me.

In Her Service, Kerr

Order of Scathach Incorporating

2009-12-28T09:09:00.001-08:00

Last night the new Grand Preceptory of the Order of Scáthach finished the process of drawing up the bylaws. They can now be submitted to the province of British Columbia so that we can officially be incorporated. Our official name is the Order of Scáthach of British Columbia Society .

Here are some photos of the signing ceremony.

In Her Service
Kerr Cuhulain
Preceptor General

Pagans Tonight Appearance

2009-12-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

I'll be interviewed on the internet radio program Pagans Tonight on 15 December, 2009, at 9PM CST: www.paganstonight.com. Hope to see some of you there.
BB Kerr

Latest Arming Photos

2009-11-28T14:56:00.000-08:00

I've just uploaded photos of our latest Arming ritual to my Facebook albums. Enjoy!

In Her Service, Kerr

Upcoming Internet Radio Interview

2009-11-28T14:40:00.000-08:00

FYI: I’ve been invited to be interviewed on Traci Wood’s hour long internet radio show Pagans Tonight (www.paganstonight.com) at 9 PM on December 15. I hope to see some of you there.
BB Kerr

Cover Of My New Book

2009-11-12T14:34:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

I've been telling you for months now that a new edition of my first book, the Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca, would be coming out this Spring. I'm happy to reveal the cover and the new title to you. I'm working on the final editting now so that it can be released this spring.
BB Kerr Cuhulain

2009-11-11T16:48:00.000-08:00

We've just got back from a fabulous trip to New Orleans and I've just uploaded the photos from the Order of Scathach's Armoring ritual at Samhain down there to my Facebook albums. Enjoy!
BB Kerr

Mastering 2009

2009-10-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

The Order of Scathach had its first Mastering ritual last Sunday, in which Knights were made Masters of the Order. You can check out photos of this event in my Facebook album: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=327889&id=760800116

The First Mastering

2009-10-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

The Order of Scáthach is going to be holding a landmark ceremony this coming Sunday, October 18: Our first Mastering ceremony. 8 Knights will be going through this ritual to become Masters in our Order. Stay tuned for photos and video, which I will be posting on this blog as well as the Order’s training blog.
In Her Service, Kerr

North American Discworld Con 2009

2009-09-09T15:33:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends:

My wife and I just got back from the 1st North American Discworld Convention in Tempe, AZ. 900 Terry Pratchett fans, many in character costume. It was a lot of fun. I was honored to be able to sit down with Sir Terry and have a private conversation with him: What an articulate, funny and amazing man. You can check out my album of NADWC photos on Facebook.
BB Kerr

The Journey of the Hero

2009-08-18T06:19:00.000-07:00

One of the most obvious changes that I noticed over the nearly 30 years that I did police work as well as the years since that I’ve spent as a dispatcher has been the rapid erosion of manners and courtesy. No one holds doors open for people any more. People j-walk whenever and wherever they feel like it, completely disregarding traffic. Fewer and fewer people signal lane changes and the speed limit seems to be when their gas pedal hits the floor boards. How did this come to be?

The creation of the democratic ideal, the arrival of the age of machines and the development of the scientific method were all meant to lead to the collapse of superstition and old mythic systems. These things were supposed to shatter the “bondage” of tradition and religion. Things were indeed shattered, including some that needed to be. Not all of the changes that resulted were were bad. However, a few changes were unexpected and, in many cases, in my humble opinion, unwelcome.

The social unit has shifted from what Joseph Campbell called the religious “heirarchical pantomine” to a “secular state”. This shift removed all manner of rights of passage from our lives which marked the transition to adulthood. That’s why you see so many fifty five year olds running around these days behaving like fifteen year olds. Nothing in their lives ever signalled to them that it was time to grow up.

This societal change also replaced the idea of being part of a group with a total focus on individuality. It went from for the good of the tribe to every man for himself. Societal ideals shifted from a focus on religion to material supremacy and a focus on resources (who has and who has not). It also removed many reminders of our connection to our world and our place in it. People tried to solve the mysteries of science and apply this knowledge to controlling the earth while taking whatever they wanted with little or no regard for the consequences. As a result, man’s attempt to control the Earth has damaged it and pushed it seriously out of control.

Faced with this, people are starting to figure out that some sort of change is needed, but many are confused about what to do. Some are turning back to established religions seeking comfort and reassurance. They try to cling to what worked in the past, not realizing that what worked 2000 years ago no longer works in todays’ world. The world’s great religions can no longer meet people’s needs. As Joseph Campbell told us in his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces: “[The world’s great religions] have become associated with the causes of the factions as instruments of propaganda and self congratulation.”

You cannot make the required changes by turning your back on the future or turning away from progress. You can’t walk backwards into the future.

Changes are indeed necessary, and it is this need that, in part, influences our Order’s approach to spirituality and magick. In the first cycle of training for our Order, I repeatedly make the point: “Master yourself and everything else will take care of itself.” As Campbell puts it: “Man himself is now the crucial mystery... A transmutation of the entire social order is necessary, so that through every detail and act of secular life the vitalizing image of the universal god-man who is actually immanent and effective in all of us may be somehow made known to the consciousness.”

The modern Warrior/Hero’s quest is to find himself. To find one’s soul. You can’t suppress myth. Like water, it will find its way out. It is within us, and if we let it out it can transform us. We encourage our Knights to experience myth, to see how it works through them, inspiring, informing and empowering them to become greater than they were. We're putting the myth back into people's lives.

The mythical quest of the hero, as reflected in our Order’s three levels of training, has three stages: Separation, initiation and return. The first, separation, is the Squire making a decision to leave the world they’ve known up to know and follow a new path, the Warrior path, and forge their own reality. Their first task is, as Campbell puts it, “to retreat from the world scene of secondary effects to those causal zones of the psyche where the difficulties really reside and there to clarify these difficulties and eradicate them.” The second task, initiation, is about discovering one’s power and becoming a Knight. And the third, return, is about mastering that knowledge and bringing it back to share with their peers and the greater community. For today’s community is no longer the nation, tribe, etc. Today’s community is the planet.

“The modern hero,” Campbell tells us, “the modern individual, who dares to heed the call and seek the mansion of that presence with whom it is our whole destiny to be atoned, cannot, indeed must not, wait for his community to cast off its slough of pride, fear, rationalized avarice, and sanctified misunderstanding. ‘Live,’ Nietzsche says, ‘as though the day were here.’ It is not society that is to guide and save the creative here, but precisely the reverse.” This doesn’t mean that you have to all go out and found organizations bent on saving the world. It simply means that you have to stand up and set an example for others, so that they can see that there is another way, an effective way.

And here within our Order you can see it in action. Even though we strongly emphasize self empowerment, this emphasis hasn’t driven people into isolation. Rather, it has made us all strong together, using each other’s powers to compliment the others. It has made us a tight knit, powerful group.

Myth is a powerful tool and spirituality a vital part of our lives. If we learn to use it effectively we can alter our perspective of the world and make positive change that will benefit everyone.

Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca Update

2009-07-31T14:16:00.000-07:00

I've had lots of people asking about the status of my first book, The Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca. You'll recall that the publisher of the LEG went out of business, so the book has been out of print for a number of years. Acorn Guild Press will be releasing a new, improved edition of this book in the Spring of 2010. The title of the new book, which has been expanded to include Druidism and Asatru, will be: Pagan Religions: A Diversity Training Manual. I will keep you all posted with details.

BB Kerr

Malthusian Collapse

2009-07-28T06:03:00.000-07:00

I heard a Christian on the radio the other day going on about how it was right and proper that we all should be having lots of children. I sat there in amazement, wondering how a person like this could justify this position in the face of the current global situation. The population of the world is now approaching 9 billion people. Our food reserves are down to record lows: In 2007 the carryover stocks were down to a 61 day supply, the lowest on record. As a result food prices have skyrocketed and there are more poor people than ever. Ever increasing populations are consuming ever increasing amounts of fossil fuels, resulting in global warming. This world of ours is being pushed to a breaking point.

Decades ago agricultural scientists came up with a “Green Revolution” involving monocultures, fertilizers and industrial type farming. This increased yields alright, giving many the impression that the crisis was over. What actually happened is that we ended up driving water tables down, pushing water resources to all time lows and leaving many rivers and bodies of water polluted with chemical runoff. Monoculture crops took everything out of the soil and put nothing back in, leaving soils depleted and eventually driving crop yields down. Much of our grain, instead of going to feed people, is going to feed animals and produce bio-fuels. The grain that it takes to feed one animal for food can feed 5 people. As Thomas Robert Malthus, in his 1798 Essay on the Principle of Population, pointed out that human population increases at a geometric rate, doubling about every 25 years if unchecked. On the other hand, agricultural production increases arithmetically. Thus unchecked population will always outstrip agricultural production. And if the population just keeps on growing, taking up more and more land, where exactly do you figure we are going to be able to grow this food?

It is time for a change, people. We have to abandon the current idea that we are “rulers of the earth” and replace it with the idea that we are “stewards of the earth”. We need to switch to sustainable farming, involving interplanting with plants like legumes to put things back into the earth. We need to compost and reduce our reliance on pesticides and fertilizer. We need to engage in smarter irrigation practices and use mulching and cover crops. We need to come up with alternative, clean sources of energy. And I really think that we need to start paying attention to the concept of zero population growth. We’ve reached the point of Malthusian collapse. We need to do this now, before we push our dear Mother Earth past the point of no return.

BB Kerr

Facebook Rant

2009-07-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

Someone just sent me another one of those annoying Facebook “What kind of (enter name of animal, vegetable, inanimate object, famous person, only-the-gods-knows-what here) are you?” quizzes on Facebook. Some of these I’ve been more annoyed with than others: For instance, one recent one asking me what kind of alcoholic drink I was. I never participate in them: I consider them meaningless in the extreme. They are as bad as those automatic “We’ve just sent you a (rock, flower, drink, only-the-gods-knows-what) that are about as sincere as a counterfeit $20. I never comment on them and usually don’t do anything other than quietly block these stupid things, but this one that was sent to me today pushed me over the edge. The question was: “What kind of sniper rifle are you?” Let me rephrase this: They’re asking “What kind of instrument of violent, unexpected death are you?” Are you serious? As a former ERT member who managed to apprehend every one of his suspects WITHOUT shooting anyone, I take serious exception to that request, and said so on Facebook.

NOT a fan of Facebook, can you tell? My support goes to Twitter.

BB Kerr

Precept of the Month for July

2009-07-06T09:20:00.000-07:00

This month’s Precept of the Month is: Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye. Perception is a tricky business: Things aren’t always the way that they seem on the surface. The Warrior must learn to see through deception and illusion to grasp the true nature of her situation. The Wiccan Warrior must learn to dip below the surface and arrive at a true understanding of things in order to act appropriately and effectively.

The only way to control something is to understand it. The more you know about something, the more control you have over it. Knowledge is power. Magick is knowing. There is an old Japanese saying: "From one thing know ten thousand things." The Warrior uses knowing to take charge of his life. Knowing is the foundation from which accurate perception stems. From this foundation the Warrior can separate what is real from what is illusion.

At the Motherhouse we constantly engage in psychic challenges in which I challenge members to find things that I've left around the Motherhouse or in our astral temple. We also periodically engage in "divination sessions" in which all of our members bring their preferred divination tools and read for one another.

Bright Blessings, Kerr

Not Knighthood

2009-07-01T15:48:00.001-07:00

Last night I dealt with a 911 call from an Asian male who'd been in the underground parking lot of his building with his wife. As they got out of their car, they unexpectedly encountered a dangerous looking character lurking in the parking lot. The Asian male was pretty sure that this menacing suspect had a knife in his hand. So he immediately took action: He pushed his wife in the direction of the suspect, fled to his apartment several floors up, thought about it for a few minutes, and then called 911 to report that he'd left his wife to do rearguard action while he escaped to safety. Would we please now come quickly and rescue his wife? To complicate things even further, he'd left the device to buzz open the garage door downstairs in his car in his haste to seek safety.We responded code 3 and rescued her.I'm wondering if a divorce is now being considered by the wife. I hope so.
Bb Kerr

Battle of Proof II

2009-06-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

The challenge facing some of my Knights now is what to do when the Seneschal challenges them at the entrance to the Mastering ritual which will make them Masters: “How will you demonstrate your Mastery?”

Last weekend after our Litha ritual, one of them had an epiphany: They had been thinking of asking for their Mastering (in our order you must ask for it, it isn't given to you automatically), but like so many others they were stuck on what their Battle of Proof should be. And they suddenly figured out that, in their case, all they had to do was stand up in front of the Challenge formation and unveil a symbol of what they had accomplished as a result of all they'd learned through dedication to the Warrior path represented by their Magickal Weapon. Without saying a word.

As simple and as elegant as that.

I said in an earlier post to my Order that the Battle of Proof is a short demonstration. And this can take the form of an actual demonstration involving your chosen Magickal Weapon, the one that you dedicated yourself to in the Arming ritual that made you a Knight. It could be a bojutsu kata, a display of swordsmanship, or an Arnis siniwali form. But think about this: What does your Magickal Weapon represent? Creativity? Will? Vision? Strength? Spirit? Then consider: What could be a symbol of this path that others can see? An action? A statement? A symbol? Let me remind you: The Battle of Proof isn’t really about fighting or martial arts. It is about Mastery. Remember that saying that I told you about by Paul Tuitean? It goes:

Soldiers march. Warriors dance.

You will also recall that I reminded you what my definition of a Warrior is in my books Wiccan Warrior and Full Contact Magick:

A Warrior is a person who makes a fearless and objective inventory of their personal characteristics and then uses this information to take control of their life.

Again: Being a Warrior is not about fighting, it is about winning. It’s not about using your hands, it is about using your head. This is especially true of this situation, because in the Mastering ritual you become the Magickal Weapon. The Mastering is about the fifth pair of Magickal Weapons: Mind and spirit. Remember your Sun Tsu: “Those who render others armies helpless without fighting are the best of all.”

Once again: The Battle of Proof needn’t be long or elaborate: In fact it is better that it is short and concise. If an expression of your Mastery takes the form of a physical demonstration involving a Magickal Weapon, like a kata, no problem. However, don’t get hung up on that. It can also be a recital, a poem or haiku, or a song you wrote to honor your Warrior path. It could be a Warrior dance, a demonstration of psychic ability, or a written essay on a related subject. Or it could be as simple as a gesture, a symbol, that represents your achievement.

One way to look at the Battle of Proof is like a Zen Koan. For those of you unfamiliar with that: In Zen Buddhism, Zen Masters give their students riddles called koans to solve. The Japanese word “koan” (the Chinese equivalent being “kung-an”) means “public case”. That’s exactly what this Battle of Proof is, a public case. In answering a koan the Zen student is allowed to do anything. Anything at all. As in this case, the answer can be a gesture, a pantomine, a statement, or a single word. An old Zen poem states:

Everywhere I went I met with words,
But I couldn’t understand them.
The ball of doubt within my heart
Was as big as a wicker basket.
The Master, from his mat of felt,
Rose up like a dragon,
And, baring his right arm,
Struck my chest a single blow.
My ball of doubt, fright-shattered,
Fell to the ground with a crash!

The first koan of the Inzan School of Zen is:

“In clapping both hands a sound is heard: What is the sound of one hand clapping?”

The answer? The student faces his Master, takes a correct posture, and without a word, thrusts one hand forward.

As simple and as elegant as that.

The Battle of Proof is my koan to you. Like the Zen monk, you can do anything within reason to answer it. So be creative. Look closely at what your Magickal Weapon represents and chose wisely. Remember, one of our precepts is: Minimal appearance, maximum content.

In Her Service
Kerr Cuhulain
Grand Master

Order of Scáthach

There Are No 'Drop In' Knights

2009-06-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the Order of Scathach Armoring Ritual (see the Rituals page of our training blog) is the Challenge where the Constable addresses the participants. In part, it reads:

“And some of you have that inward look which tells me that you don’t like what you see when you look in the mirror. You consider yourself weak or flawed or insignificant. That’s a difficult thing to deal with, to be sure. But if you came here to rub shoulders with us Warriors, hoping that you’d gain some respect or honor by association only, then I suggest you get lost. We’ve no time for that. But if you’ve come here to reinvent yourself, to rise from your own ashes like the Phoenix, to be glorious, then you are very welcome indeed. We are here to witness your triumphs and cheer you on.”

Recently I went through our membership list, identifying people that had not been heard from in some time. Some, due to extenuating circumstances in their lives, wished to take a “sabbatical” and be listed as supporting members. The idea was that at a later date, once things in their lives had been sorted out, they would be able to get involved once again in the lessons and move onwards towards mastery of their situation and themselves. I have no problem with that at all. We all have our times of trial and tribulation. Supporting each other is part of what this organization is all about.

Let me be very clear about something: The Order of Scathach will not have “supporting members”, auxiliaries or “fans” of any description who “rub shoulders with us Warriors, hoping that you’d gain some respect or honor by association”. Like we say in our Armoring ritual challenge, we don’t have time for that. That’s why I wrote that into the Challenge. If you want to be part of this Order, you must participate in this Order. As one of our Knights, Dame Devenir, put it: “There hasn't been an Order of Knighthood in history that has ever allowed ‘drop ins’.” I concur wholeheartedly and we're certainly not planning to be the first.

Recently some people have attempted to sit on the sidelines, thinking that just being on the membership list entitles them to show up at all events (while missing all classes). They’ve demonstrated that they’ve got time to waste on meaningless posts but are not willing to devote time to learning like the rest of us. If you simply want an audience for what you have to say, there are plenty of Pagan chat groups. The Order of Scáthach isn’t just a chat group. We don’t mind visitors to our rituals: That’s one of the ways that we let people discover for themselves if this is a path for them to follow. On line students from all over the world are always welcome. We periodically do public rituals for the public to see what we are all about. What we will not tolerate at any Motherhouse is freeloaders who never show up for classes, make no effort to study on line, and yet want to participate in all of our rituals. This isn’t a club for people who are fans of knighthood. It is a Fianna of Warriors. This isn’t a Church. It is an Order of Knighthood. In church you stand up or sit down when told to and sing the hymns that you are directed to. In this Order of Scáthach you stand up for yourself and sing the songs from your heart.

I want the Order of Scathach to be something special, something different. It isn’t going to be special unless we insist on standing up for our Precepts and Code of Chivalry. Let me remind you that one of our precepts is: Who dares, wins. Industriousness is part of our Code of Chivalry, and it is commitment that will earn you your Mastering degree. You can’t “buy” a degree here. This is like a dojo. Hopefully here a colored belt means something.

It is amazing to me how many people wish to be considered experts but never make any effort to learn. They want to be treated with respect and yet they make no effort to earn it. Telling the world that you are a master won't last long if you don't make any effort to be a master. Laziness isn't a path to mastery. People will eventually see through the facade to the real person underneath. Master yourself and you master everything else.

In Her Service
Kerr Cuhulain
Grand Master, Order of Scáthach

Precept of the Month: June

2009-06-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

The precept for the month is: Minimal appearance, maximum content. This is a good thing to keep in mind when doing magick. Keep it simple: You want your energy to go to the objective, not into a fancy production that’s meant to get you there.

The principle of chivalry for this month is Industriousness. What you put out there you get back. This links into the article on prosperity magick that I posted the other day.

BB Kerr

Goddess Rising Conference, New Orleans

2009-06-01T16:53:00.000-07:00

I will be attending the Goddess Rising Conference in New Orleans, October 30 to November 1, 2009 with a Commandery of the Order of Scathach to teach classes and conduct an Armoring ritual. I've added a link to the sidebar for anyone interested in participating.

BB Kerr

Prosperity Magick

2009-05-29T06:38:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of people out there hoping for prosperity these days. There are a lot of people out there that need it. The problem is that many Pagans out there throw their energy at hopes of winning the lottery, and then are disappointed when they don’t. Think about this for a moment: With the lottery, especially the ones with the big jackpots, you’ve got millions of people desperately focusing their will on a single event. It is being pulled in countless directions by countless people. Even if you are very good at doing magick, chances are that you are not going to be able to overcome the tidal wave of frantic will being focused on winning the lottery.

We all dream of better things. Ambrose Beirce called the future “That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured.”[i] It is a curious thing that so many Wiccans I meet dream of being prosperous and then do nothing to realize these dreams. You’d think that people who understood the intricacies of magick would know how to handle this problem. Yet so many Wiccans of my acquaintance buy a handful of lottery tickets, cross their fingers and dream on. One older Wiccan of my acquaintance has been purchasing lottery tickets for years and yet at the same time is constantly berating wealthy people. Presumably the reason that this person is buying lottery tickets is to become one. Talk about lack of focus. You’d think that people who understood the intricacies of magick would know how to handle a problem like this.

Every single time that I do magick for prosperity, it works. I don’t focus my will on winning the lottery, I focus it on my prosperity. This magick works because the only person focusing energy on the issue of my prosperity is me, unless I’ve asked some of my friends to help. Dreams do not become reality unless you pursue them. Pursuing dreams is what magick is all about.
What this all comes down to is personal responsibility, which is what the Wiccan Rede is all about: “An it harm none, do what thou wilt.” Warriors are not victims: We create our own reality. Abandoning yourself to “fate” will not get you the prosperity you want. To become prosperous you must take charge of your life. This will require work on your part. So often I run into people who figure that magick should bring them instant gratification. Phyllis Curott once described it to me this way:

“This is a fertility religion. You plant the seed, you water it, you nurture it, you weed around it. Ultimately you harvest what you cultivated. That’s how our magick works. And whatever you do, you don’t pull on the plant to help it grow!”[ii]

There are a lot of simple things that you can do to enhance your prosperity. My first suggestion is to clean house. This first suggestion may seem a little odd to some of you, but it is firmly grounded in Feng Shui. If your house is a mess then the energy flow gets messed up. Magick works much better if everything in your house (and yard) is in order. For example: The last part of my house to be renovated was the attic area in the northwest end of the house. We’d been dumping things from the rest of the house in there to get them out of the way for the renovation elsewhere in the house for some time. It was a tangled mess that we’d put off sorting out until everything else was done. As soon as I cleared it out, tossed out the things that we didn’t need, finished the room with flooring and paint and reorganized everything, prosperity started happening: My royalty cheque was larger than expected, my wife started getting unexpected new customers for her newsletter business, and unexpected overtime shifts came in. Simple stuff, and none of it specifically asked for. Just by sorting out the chi flow.

In my book Full Contact Magick I described average millionaire. In their study of millionaires, Stanley and Danko identified seven common factors[iii]:

1. They live well below their means.
2. They allocate their time, energy and money efficiently, in ways conducive to building wealth.
3. They believe that financial independence is more important than displaying high social status.
4. Their parents did not provide economic outpatient care.
5. Their adult children are economically self-sufficient.
6. They are proficient in targeting market opportunities.
7. They chose the right occupation.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Prosperous people don’t put their faith in lucky charms. I don’t knock myself out doing magick to improve my luck. I make things happen in my life. I do magick to increase my fortunes. I make my own good fortune. And you can too.

BB Kerr

[i]. Ambrose BIERCE. (1881-1906). The Devil’s Dictionary.
[ii]. Phyllis CUROTT. (2000). Comments from a discussion with the author at Blessed Be and Merry Meet in DC (BBMMDC), 14 October 2000.
[iii]. Thomas J. STANLEY Ph.D. and William D. DANKO Ph.D. (1996). The Millionaire Next Door, list taken from pgs. 3-4.

Feast of Fallen Warriors

2009-05-27T15:22:00.001-07:00

Check out the new Feast of Fallen Warriors ritual on the Scathach Training Blog: http://dunscathach.wordpress.com/

BB Kerr

Ritual Combat Training

2009-05-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

Greymalkin, our brother from Seattle who coreographs sword fight scenes for the entertainment industry, is going to be at the Motherhouse at 4 PM on 31 May to teach ritual combat involving swords and other weapons. This is primarily for the Knights travelling to New Orleans for the Armoring ritual there this coming Samhain. If anyone is interested in this, please contact me.

Bright Blessings

Kerr Cuhulain

CNPC Keynote Address: Hope

2009-05-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

I just uploaded the Power Point and Word script of my keynote address to the CNPC Gaia Gathering at UBC in Vancouver, BC, yesterday to the Order of Scathach Training Blog: http://dunscathach.wordpress.com/lessons/ Its not the same as being there, but it does capture some of the spirit of it.

BB Kerr

Scáthach Schedule, Surrey Motherhouse 2009

2009-05-14T07:06:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

Here is the updated Order of Scáthach schedule all the way to the New Orleans trip:

Saturday, May 16: Kerr’s keynote address at the Gaia Gathering at UBC.

Sunday, May 17: Novice (Class 4) training at 7 PM at the Motherhouse (Lesson 2).

Wednesday, May 20: Stick Nights for Stick Knights at 7 PM at the Motherhouse

Sunday, May 31: Squire (Class 3) training at 7 PM at the Motherhouse (Lesson 7).

Sunday, June 7: Novice (Class 4) training at 7 PM at the Motherhouse (Lesson 3).

Saturday, June 20: Reiki I at the Motherhouse 10 to 6.

Sunday, June 21: Litha, 7 PM at the Motherhouse, including initiation into the Mystery Cult of Bill the Cat.

Sunday, July 5: Squire (Class 3) training at the Motherhouse (Lesson 8).

Sunday, July 12: Novice (Class 4) training at the Motherhouse (Lesson 4).

Sunday, August 2. Lughnasad at the Motherhouse 7 PM.

Sunday, August 16: Novice (Class 4) training at the Motherhouse (Lesson 5) and Squire (Class 3) training at the Motherhouse (Lesson 9).

Sunday, September 6: Novice (Class 4) training at the Motherhouse (Lesson 6).

Sunday, September 13: Squire (Class 3) training at the Motherhouse (Lesson 10 and 11).

Sunday, September 20: Mabon at the Motherhouse 7 PM.

Saturday, October 10: Reiki I at the Motherhouse 10-6. Lyn and Rita presenting.
Sunday, October 11: Reiki II at the Motherhouse, 10-6 Lyn and Rita presenting. Open to students who already have Reiki I from any tradition/teacher.

Sunday, October 18: Armoring/Arming rituals for Class 3 and 4 at 7 PM at the Motherhouse.

Friday, October 30 to Sunday, November 1: New Orleans Pagan Conference.

BB Kerr

Photos of the Seattle Armoring/Arming

2009-05-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

Here's some photos of the Armoring and Arming rituals in Seattle on May 10th including the Puget Sound and Surrey Preceptories of the Order of Scatach.

BB Kerr

Beltaine Update

2009-05-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

I've just uploaded a Knighthood Vigil to the Order of Scathach Training Blog as well as a reading list.

On May 10 the Order will be in Seattle to conduct Armoring/Arming rituals for our Puget Sound Preceptory. If you are interested, please contact Skatha.

BB Kerr

Juusan Kun

2009-04-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

Those of you familiar with karate will be familiar with the term “Niju Kun”, which means “20 Rules.” These were written by one of the founders of karate, Gichin Funakoshi in about 1890 and first published in a book The Twenty Guiding Principles of Karate in 1938. Gichin’s Niju Kun was one of the things that influenced me when I created the 13 Precepts of the Order of Scáthach in 2007.

Funakoshi’s original five rules of the dojo, or Dojo Kun, originated with Okinawan Karate masters. The actual creator of these rules is possibly Sakugawa, an 18th Century Okinawan karate master. It seems more likely that this Dojo Kun was created by Funakoshi Gichin, but no evidence exists one way or the other. Funakoshi’s five Dojo Kun (“Rules for the Dojo”) are:
Hitotsu. Jinkaku Kansei ni Tsutomuro Koto.Hitotsu. Makoto no Michi wo Mamoru Koto.Hitotsu. Doryoku no Seishin o Yashinau Koto.Hitotsu. Reigi o Omonzuru Koto.Hitotsu. Kekki no Yu o Imashimuru Koto.

Every line begins with the word “Hitotsu”, which is a counter that means “one.” Every line ends with the word “koto”, which literally means “thing.” This is generally interpreted to mean “Here’s a rule, here’s another rule…” These Dojo Kun translate as:

First. Seek perfection of character

First. Protect the way of the truth

First. Foster the spirit of effort

First. Respect the principles of etiquette and respect others

First. Guard against impetuous courage and refrain from violent behavior.

In simpler terms:
Seek Perfection of Character

Defend the Path of Truth

Endeavor to Excel

Display Courtesy

Refrain from Violent Behavior

Some Karate styles, such as Goju Ryu, have developed eight rules from the original five:

One thing: Be humble and polite.
One thing: Train considering your physical strength.
One thing: Practice earnestly with creativity.
One thing: Be calm and swift.
One thing: Take care of your health.
One thing: Live a plain life.
One thing: Do not be too proud or modest.
One thing: Continue your training with patience.

Gichin Funakoshi’s original Niju Kun reads:

Karate-do begins and ends with rei (courtesy)

空手道は礼に始まり礼に終る事を忘るな

Karate-do wa rei ni hajimari rei ni owaru koto a wasaru na

There is no first strike in karate

空手に先手なし

Karate ni sente nashi

Karate stands on the side of justice

空手は義の補け

Karate wa, gi no taske

First know yourself, then know others

先づ自己を知れ而して他を知れ

Mazu onore o shire, shikashite ta o shire

Mentality over technique

技術より心術

Gijitsu yori shinjitsu

The mind must be set free

心は放たん事を要す

Kokoro wa hanatan koto o yosu

Calamity springs from carelessness

禍は懈怠に生ず

Wazawai wa ketai ni seizu

Karate goes beyond the dojo

道場のみの空手と思ふな

Dojo nomino karate to omou na

Karate is a lifelong pursuit

空手の修業は一生である

Karate-do no shugyo wa isssho de aru

Apply the way of karate to all things. Therein lies its beauty

凡ゆるものを空手化せよ其処に妙味あり

Ara yuru mono o karateka seyo; sokoni myomi ari

Karate is like boiling water; without heat, it returns to its tepid state

空手は湯の如し絶えず熱度を与えざれば元の水に還る

Karate Wa Yu No Gotoku Taezu Netsu O Atae Zareba Motono Mizuni Kaeru

Do not think of winning. Think, rather, of not losing

勝つ考は持つな負けぬ考は必要

Katsu kangae wa motsuna; makenu kangae wa hitsuyo

Make adjustments according to your opponent

敵に因って轉化せよ

Tekki ni yotte tenka seyo

The outcome of a battle depends on how one handles emptiness and fullness (weakness and strength)

戦は虚実の操縦如何に在り

Tattakai wa kyo-jitsu no soju ikan ni ari

Think of hands and feet as swords

人の手足を剣と思へ

Hi to no te-ashi wa ken to omoe

When you step beyond your own gate, you face a million enemies

男子門を出づれば百万の敵あり

Danshi mon o izureba hyakuman no teki ari

Kamae is for beginners; later, one stands in shizentai

構は初心者に後は自然体

Kamae wa shoshinsha ni atowa shizentai

Perform kata exactly; actual combat is another matter

形は正しく実戦は別物

Kata wa tadashiku, jisen wa betsumono

Do not forget the employment of withdrawal of power, the extension or contraction of the body, the swift or leisurely application of technique

力の強弱体の伸縮技の緩急を忘るな

Chikara no kyojaku tai no shinshuku waza no kankyu

Be constantly mindful, diligent, and resourceful, in your pursuit of the Way

常に思念工夫せよ

Tsune ni shinen ku fu seyo

By way of comparison, you might call the thirteen precepts of the Order of Scáthach “Juusan Kun” (“thirteen rules”), which are as follows:

1. Know thyself.
2. Nurture the ability to perceive the truth in all matters.
3. You create your own reality.
4. Develop a sense of Right Action.
5. Do not be negligent, even in trifling matters.
6. Your body is your temple: Care for it!
7. Minimal appearance, maximum content.
8. Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.
9. Power with.
10. Who dares wins.
11. The Gods cannot help those who will not help themselves.
12. Be creative!
13. Do not engage in useless activity.
If we rewrote Gichin Funakoshi’s Niju Kun to relate to the Order of Scáthach, it might read something like this:
1. Knighthood begins and ends with courtesy
2. There is no first strike in Knighthood.
3. Knights stand on the side of justice
4. First know yourself, then know others
5. Mentality over technique.
6. The mind must be set free
7. Calamity springs from carelessness
8. Knighthood goes beyond the Motherhouse
9. Knighthood is a lifelong pursuit
10. Apply the way of Knighthood to all things. Therein lies its beauty
11. Knighthood is like boiling water; without heat, it returns to its tepid state
12. Do not think of winning. Think, rather, of not losing
13. Make adjustments according to your opponent
14. The outcome of a battle depends on how one handles weakness and strength
15. Think of hands and feet as swords
16. When you step beyond your own gate, you face a million enemies
17. Posing is for beginners; The Knight stands in strength.
18. Perform exercises exactly and patiently; Practice magick with spontaneity
19. Do not forget the employment of withdrawal of power, the extension or contraction of the body, the swift or leisurely application of technique
20. Be constantly mindful, diligent, and resourceful, in your pursuit of Knighthood

BB Kerr

New Power Point on Scathach Training Blog

2009-04-20T09:45:00.000-07:00

Today I added a power point (Lesson 15b) to the Scathach Training Blog demonstrating a basic bo kata.

BB Kerr

Kiva

2009-04-19T06:18:00.000-07:00

The Order of Scathach supports Kiva (see link on the sidebar), and organization that provides micro loans to third world entrepreneurs. This is an excellent organization, helping people to help themselves. You provide loans in $25 increments to these entrepreneurs. When they pay the loan back you can then re-loan it to another entrepreneur. I encourage you all to check it out and participate. The Order of Scathach currently has 8 entrepreneurs in its portfolio.

BB Kerr

New Scathach Training Cycle

2009-04-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that the next training cycle for local students of the Order of Scathach starts Sunday, April 12 at the Motherhouse at 7 PM.

BB Kerr

Askani's Blog

2009-04-06T15:54:00.000-07:00

One of the newest Knights of the Order of Scathach has started her own blog: http://clanaskani.blogspot.com/ Please check it out. I've put a link to it on the sidebar.

BB Kerr

April 2009 Arming and Armoring Ritual

2009-04-06T09:40:00.000-07:00

Last night the Order of Scáthach held Armoring and Arming initiations for members both local and out of town. The Order now has three new Knights. The next Arming/Armoring will take place in Seattle on May 10. The Arming ritual is the Knighthood ritual of our Order. Here's some photos from the Arming.

For those of you who weren’t at the Arming last night, as part of the ritual we did magick for members and others who’d requested it. Wildvine had asked for energy to put up a ward around her property in Balfour, BC. I phoned Wildvine to let her know that we were starting. She and Sherry were going to take the energy and push it out to the perimeters of her property. At this end the Commandery at the Motherhouse was going to send them the energy to do this. Wildvine wrote to tell me what happened:

“Kerr, wow, just wow. That was the strongest shot of energy I have ever felt. About 10 seconds after we hung up the phone, Sherry and I began to gather our energy balls. We decided to do it in the living room instead of outside because it had gotten late and was very cold. We were tired and at first I was struggling to gather my ball of energy. After about 1 minute, Sherry whispered to me "I can feel them" meaning all of you in the group. I just whispered "not yet" because I was still working on it and couldn't feel it yet. I had my eyes closed and didn't know that Sherry had taken one step toward me. Our hands were close but not touching. Then, all of a sudden I felt a searing white hot surge of energy hit the top of my head, shoot down my body with sparks flying. It took my breath away. I said "now, now I feel them". We gathered the energy up and made our bubble spread out over the property as we had done before like a soap bubble with flexible edges. This time I was not trying to visualize a colour but was letting it take the course that it would. The colour was an iridescent pink/purple and it hung in the air and all around like a living thing. Right away, Sherry went to each side of the house to reinforce the shield in each direction then we both went out onto the deck facing south (the problem area) and reinforced the shield there as well. My knees were shaking, and we looked up to see a huge moon dog around the waxing moon. My head felt singed and tingly until I went to sleep. It was a very powerful ward.Thank you to everyone that lent us your energy.”

BB
Kerr

More Scathach Training Blog Updates

2009-04-01T16:22:00.000-07:00

I've just added glossaries of Wiccan terms and Sabbats to the Order of Scathach Training Blog.

BB Kerr

Magickal Buffet Article

2009-04-01T16:13:00.000-07:00

My article on the Wiccan Rede just appeared on Magickal Buffet: http://themagicalbuffet.com/blog1/2009/04/01/the-wiccan-rede-project-kerr-cuhulain/

BB Kerr

Bojutsu on the Scáthach Training Blog

2009-03-30T09:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

I've been receiving a lot of e mails from people interested in the martial arts training that we do in the Order of Scáthach, so I just added 2 bojutsu training lessons to the Order of Scáthach Training Site (lessons 5a and 15a). Here's some photos from the session.

BB Kerr

Warrior Article

2009-03-27T07:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

There’s an interesting article on “Being a Warrior” by Tanrinia at the ADF Warrior Guild site: http://www.adfwarriors.org/beingawarrior.html Check it out. I’ve also included a link to the ADF Warrior Guild in the sidebar.

BB Kerr

Scáthach Training Blog

2009-03-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

Today I edited the Lessons and Rituals pages on the Scáthach Training Blog to more clearly define the objectives of each lesson and the nature of our various rituals and assist the on line student in figuring out how to use the blog. As a yardstick for progress: Novice training is lessons 1 through 6. Squire training is lessons 7 through 12. Mastery training is lessons 13 through 17.
BB Kerr

Eostre 2009

2009-03-24T09:01:00.000-07:00

Here’s some photos from the Eostre ritual at the Surrey Motherhouse last Sunday. You can find our Eostre ritual by Dame Janus on the Scáthach training blog (http://dunscathach.wordpress.com/rituals/). The theme, as you can see, is planting. Everyone planted seeds in containers and either took them home or left them in the greenhouse at the Motherhouse.

BB Kerr

Wannabes

2009-03-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

There seems to be two groups of people out there. There are those who want to be Knights and there are those who want to tell people that they are Knights. Those in the first category dedicate themselves to the precepts and code of chivalry or our Order and through hard work and discipline become Knights. I recognized these two groups when I wrote the “Challenge” at the beginning of the Armoring ritual for the Order of Scáthach. The Challenge reads:

“I can see in some of your eyes that haunted look that tells me that you’ve been victims. You’ve been set upon, bruised, harassed, suffered setbacks. That’s a terrible thing. But if you came to this place to claim the title “Victim” and expect to have us feel sorry for you, then you’ve come to the wrong place. You may as well turn around and leave. Yet if you came here to empower yourself, to take charge of your life, to say “Never Again!”, then you are very welcome. We Warriors are here to show you how.

“And some of you have that inward look which tells me that you don’t like what you see when you look in the mirror. You consider yourself weak or flawed or insignificant. That’s a difficult thing to deal with, to be sure. But if you came here to rub shoulders with us Warriors, hoping that you’d gain some respect or honor by association only, then I suggest you get lost. We’ve no time for that. But if you’ve come here to reinvent yourself, to rise from your own ashes like the Phoenix, to be glorious, then you are very welcome indeed. We are here to witness your triumphs and cheer you on.

“And some of you have fear in your eyes. You’ve found the world to be a chaotic and dangerous place. But if you came here hoping that we Warriors will stand between you and that scary world, then think again. Yet if you came here to stand shoulder to shoulder with us, face your fears and not back down, then you’ll find yourself amongst friends. We Warriors are here to stand with you and watch your back.

“At this point in many rituals the priestess or priest pokes you in the chest with an edged weapon and says things about it being “better to rush upon this” than enter with fear and demand secret passwords.... There are no passwords that will get you through life. What you need to enter here is not a secret. To enter this Circle you need to bring seven things: Loyalty, Justice, Sincerity, Courtesy, Compassion, Courage and Honor. If you have these, then enter...”

The reason that I wrote that was because of people in the second category: People who wish to call themselves Knights but aren’t willing to make any effort to earn that title. The Order of Scáthach is not a place for “victims” to seek sympathy and feel sorry for themselves. It is a place of healing and empowerment. The Order of Scáthach will not be used by people who want to sit around on their ass and wave a membership card around to impress others. Honor is earned. The Order of Scáthach is sworn to defend but has little patience for members who won’t make an effort to defend themselves. To us, the terms Warrior and Knight aren't just titles: They are terms that describe what we really are.

The Order of Scáthach isn’t a club, it is an order of Wiccan knighthood. It isn’t for wannabes, its for Warriors.

Prosperity Book

2009-03-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

Those of you with prosperity problems in this current econonmic fiasco might want to check out Ian Edward's book The Wizards Way to Wealth. You can check out a review at: http://www.capallbann.co.uk:80/inspiration.cfm

Eostre Greetings

2009-03-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

Greetings:

I’ve heard from many Pagans in the last few weeks and it is appalling how many have either lost jobs, had hours cut back, or have friends or relatives who are in this situation. We’ve been doing some prosperity and healing magick for several people who asked for it. We’ve also had to do some warding magick for several people. All in a day’s work for us Pagan Warriors.

It’s been a cold winter with a lot less rain than usual so far. The last two days we set records for low temperatures.

I’ve got a new greenhouse up. It is entirely solar, with a small composter at one end (for heat and CO2 for the plants) and thermal mass (a large black barrel of water to radiate stored heat). I’m pretty excited about doing herbs and vegetables in there (particularly tomatoes) and starting bedding plants for the Motherhouse garden. Do any of you out there have a greenhouse? I’m just learning. I’ve found an excellent reference book: The Greenhouse Gardener’s Companion by Shane Smith.

Several times a night a police dispatcher like me at ECOMM will be asked to do a BOLF (be on the lookout for) broadcast for other channels and various other agencies. Many of these relate to missing persons. Usually these missing person BOLFs include the missing person’s name, date of birth, physical description, and clothing description. So the other day I get this BOLF from Coquitlam RCMP. It related to an elderly missing male. It had his name, his age (82 years) and the following description: “Has all of his teeth and is not circumcised.” That’s it. No height, weight, hair color, clothing... nothing but that. So I figure, what the heck, that’s what they’ve given me to work with, that’s what I broadcast. So I do. Silence on the air. Then a police officer sends me a message from his lap top: “OK. I’ll check for the teeth, but I’m not checking for that other thing.”

I’m gradually discovering more and more Pagans on Twitter, where I’ve been posting what I’m up to as well as various thoughts on my Warrior path. If you go to www.twitter.com, look for warriorwitch for my deliberations.

I’ve been updating our Order of Scáthach web site, and various blogs. We still have our members-only blog and I’m still posting news on my blog: http://kerrcuhulain.blogspot.com/ You can link to the blog from my web site: http://kerrcuhulain.com/. The Order of Scáthach continues to grow steadily and is attracting a lot of talented and committed people. Our on line training blog where our students download lessons and rituals has received more than 2300 visits since we set it up last November. I’ve just updated that too, with photos and updated lessons.

We’re off to Seattle, Washington, to do a half day training session on the 10th of May to conduct an Armoring ritual for the members of our new Seattle preceptory. If you are interested in participating, just drop me a line.

I’m still waiting on the editing on the upcoming Law Enforcement Guide to Pagan Religion. Acorn Press tells me they’re busy on editing it. I’m also waiting to hear back on a proposal to Llewellyn for a new book of ritual and recipes.

As I mentioned in my Imbolc note, my wife and I will be in New Orleans in October 2009. Several other members of the Order of Scáthach will be attending the Pagan conference there with me. I’ll be teaching some Warrior classes and conducting an Armoring ritual. If you are interested in participating in this, please let me know.

I hope that you have a wonderful Eostre.

Bright Blessings, Kerr Cuhulain

Chivalry is Simple Things

2009-03-11T12:11:00.000-07:00

It is amazing to me how many people look surprised when I hold the door open for them at the store or at work. It clearly seems that people aren’t used to having people show courtesy towards them these days. It certainly seems to be something lacking in their life. Likewise people that I let merge into traffic in front of me seem surprised. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised by this. In my line of work as a dispatcher I am certainly aware of the growing number of road rage incidents out there. Many people have become so self centered and isolated. The more discourtesy they experience, the more this feeling in them grows.

I always arrive early at work and let someone on the dispatch line go home earlier than they are accustomed to. Some fellow workers that I do this for seem upset and guilty: They tell me that they can’t come back the next day and return the favor, because they are going on days off. I tell them I don’t expect a “pay back”. I tell them that when they come back they should let someone else go and “pay it forward”.

Courtesy, in other words showing respect and consideration at all times towards others, is one of the keystones of the Order of Scáthach’s Code of Chivalry, just as it was one of the keystones of Bushido (rei). Compassion is another key principle of Bushido (jin). Compassion is another key principle of our Code, as well as being one of the ethical principles named in Doreen Valiente’s Charge of the Goddess: “Let my worship be within the heart that rejoiceth; for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals. And therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you.”[1] These two Warrior concepts fit seamlessly into the other thirteen principles of chivalry in the Order’s code: Sincerity, Courtesy, Compassion, Perseverance, Industriousness, Justice, Loyalty, Courage, Self-Discipline, Humility, Largesse, Truth, and Honor. Our Code of Chivalry grows out of the fourth Warrior Precept of the Order of Scáthach: “Develop a sense of right action.” Right Action is what Robin Wood describes as finding the balance point: “The spot where all the possible outcomes on one side of a decision are weighed against all the possible outcomes on the other side, and they come out even.”[2]

The current world situation was largely created by people who violated some or all of these principles. This is why it is so important for Pagans everywhere to embrace these principles and set an example for the rest of the world to follow, to lead us back into stability and security.

BB Kerr

[1] Stewart FARRAR. (1971). What Witches Do: The Modern Coven Revealed, pg 197-8.
[2] Robin WOOD. (1996). When, Why...If, pg 22.

Ostara 2009

2009-03-10T20:47:00.000-07:00

The Order of Scathach's Ostara/Eostre 2009 ritual is being held at the Motherhouse in Surrey on 22 March at 7 PM. If you are interested in attending please write to me.

BB
Kerr

Christian Hate Mail

2009-03-07T16:47:00.001-08:00

I just got the following e mail from a Christian person whom I’ve never met. This is typical of some of the mail that I’ve received over the years from Christian strangers:

“They must let anybody become a cop in Canada. I mean come on, a pagan cop. Yeah, that is what I want, a cop who talks to false gods, and bashes christians. How many misleading things did you give out as a wiccan cop? Come on, you occult types love to deceive and mislead. Deny Christ, accept the devil's lies and whatever form they may come, wiccan being your fun form. You were an investegator, but cannot even see past the lies of the greatest deceiver around. Let me guess, wicca has nothing to do with satan, right? Thought so. Yeah wicca is just a harmless little religion that hurts nobody. Anywho, I hope you come to your sense and find Jesus, accept his salvation, drop your ego, and realize you are a sinner. God Bless”

People like this are one of the reasons that I’m not Christian.

BB
Kerr

Precept of the Month: March

2009-02-28T15:43:00.001-08:00

The Precept for the Month of March is: Develop a sense of right action. Right Action is what Robin Wood describes as finding the balance point: “The spot where all the possible outcomes on one side of a decision are weighed against all the possible outcomes on the other side, and they come out even.”[i] Grace and guilt do not exist. The Wiccan Warrior replaces guilt with responsibility and honor. Right action is having a sense of impartial justice. A Warrior must put aside bias and favoritism. The Wiccan Rede reminds us that what is right for you must also be right for others.

The principle of chivalry for this month is compassion. There’s a lot of people hurting out there these days thanks to the down turn in the economy. Let’s help them if we can.
BB Kerr

[i]. Robin WOOD. (1996). When, Why...If, pg 22.

Eostre Biscuit Recipe

2009-02-28T15:23:00.000-08:00

There are several regional versions of Eostre biscuits. Here is our variation on it:
Eostre Biscuits
1/2 cup butter
¾ cup sugar or berry sugar
1 ½ cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons currants or sultanas
zest of one lemon
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon mace
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons Amaretto or brandy
a little extra caster sugar
Whisk flour, spices, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat the egg to the butter mixture. Add the lemon zest, amaretto and currants. Add the flour mixture and combine to form a soft dough. Take pieces of dough to form 1 – ½ inch balls. Flatten these out to make cookies and line them up on a baking tin lined with parchment paper. Bake for 20 minutes at 180 C (350 F) until golden brown. Another variation that I like is to substitute a ½ teaspoon of ginger for the mace and two tablespoons of Jamaica rum for the Amaretto.

Magick Results

2009-02-26T09:21:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

Last Monday a Commandery of the Order of Scathach convened at Aurora’s place in Surrey, BC. We did some warding magick for Aurora, as well as some magick for our sister Karen here and prosperity magick for Vonita in South Afrika. Vonita had asked us for prosperity magick to help her in a job search. Vonita wrote to tell us what happened:

“This week, I had two signs which I take as very good and that things will work out. On Monday, a dove came to my office window and tried very hard to get inside, clicking its beak on the window. He continued with this, even when my colleague rapped on the window. I could see that the bird could definitely see me through the window, because when I stood up to take a closer look, it stopped what it was doing and looked at me. Then it started again. I even put my hand right up to the window, and he did not fly away. Then a second one came along and did the exact same thing.

“This morning, I opened my cupboard door and found a ladybug sitting on one of my jackets. This is the second one I have seen since the weekend, but I thought that it was quite peculiar to find one like this.

Also, 3 People have also phoned me during the past week to set up an interview for a job.

Thanks again to you and the group.”

Well done to Aurora, who was the “steersperson” sending our energy and to everyone involved.

BB Kerr

Celtic Martial Arts

2009-02-26T09:20:00.000-08:00

One of our members just found this link to a discussion of Celtic Martial Arts: http://paganachd.com/faq/intermediate.html#martialarts

BB Kerr

Almond Tarts

2009-02-24T07:36:00.000-08:00

Almond tarts seem to be one of the favorites for the agape at our Order of Scáthach rituals, so I thought that I’d post the recipe. Almonds are the kernel of the fruit of the Prunus dulcis, which resembles a peach, but is inedible. They are perhaps the oldest known nut crop. There are two types: Sweet and bitter. Bitter almonds contain prussic acid and must be blanched and roasted to make them edible.
Archeological evidence shows that almonds were being collected from the wild by the inhabitants of Franchthi Cave by 10,000 BC, and in Turkey, Syria and Palestine by that time or soon afterwards.[1] By the third millennium BCE cultivation was probably under way in Jordan. Almonds were typically included in ancient Greek banquets. The ancient Romans often used them to flavor food and their sugared almonds were one of the first known sweetmeats. Ancient people also prized almonds for their medicinal properties.
Medieval recipes often included almond flour or almond “milk”, which was used as a substitute for eggs on days of fasting.[2] Almond paste is the basic of many Medieval cakes and confections, such as macaroons and marzipan. Sugar coated almonds, called comfits, were offered as wedding gifts in Medieval times.
Almond tarts are one of my favorites. I use a sweet dough based on Italian pasta frolla for the crust of my almond tarts.
Crust:
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups (300 gm/11 oz) flour
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup sugar
Almond Filling:
2 eggs
½ cup sugar
1 ½ cups finely ground almonds or almond paste
½ teaspoon almond extract or amaretto
Crust: Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and mix to form a soft dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Take balls of dough about 1 inch in diameter and press them into each recess of a greased miniature tart tin to cover the bottom and sides.
Filing: Beat the eggs in a bowl with a whisk. Add the other ingredients and mix together well. Put about 1 teaspoon full of filling in each tart crust (they’ll be slightly mounded when full). Bake at 325 F for about 25 minutes. The edges of the crust should start to brown. Makes about 2 dozen. Let them cool completely. Some people like to dust them with a little icing sugar and/or garnish the tops with sliced almonds. Some like to put a sugar glaze on the tops. I like to frost them with a butter cream icing:
½ cup butter
3 cups icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons cream
Cream the butter and 2 cups of the icing sugar together. Add the vanilla and milk, then the remaining cup of icing sugar.
Variation: You can put a tiny bit of jam in the bottom of each crust before putting in the almond filling. This makes each tart a bit like a Bakewell tart.

Kerr Cuhulain

[1] Food in the Ancient World From A-Z, Andrew Dalby [Routledge:London] 2003 (p. 6)
[2] Cambridge World History of Food, Kenneth F. Kiple and Kriemhild Conee Ornelas [Cambridge University Press:Cambridge] 2000 Volume 2, (p. 1717)

A Warding Mission

2009-02-24T06:29:00.000-08:00

Last night our Commandery met at a member's place to do some warding magick for her “stalker”. I thought that I’d describe what we did for those who weren’t there but sent energy to assist.

As I’ve outlined in lesson 4, wards such as the magick Circle that Wiccans typically put up around their rituals are simply a screen that keeps out the random negative energy that is in the neighborhood. It is kind of a “duck and cover” exercise. However, if you’re dealing with someone either deliberately sending negative stuff, or deliberately drawing energy away (as was the case here), then you need to drop the shields and engage the person. Remember the old martial arts adage: “When they push, you pull. When they pull, you push.”

What we did was a two part process. We first put up a ward around Aurora’s townhouse. For this we stood in a circle and faced outwards, with Aurora in the middle. The five of us put out the energy to create the ward while Aurora in the middle pushed it out to the perimeter of the property: Aurora was most familiar with the boundaries of her space (it is her space, after all), so she was the best person to do this. The rest of us focused on the intent behind it. This is a similar process to the one that I used to put up double wards around Dûn Scáthach.

Next, each of us went to one of the doors to the place (there are 5). We stood facing the door and focused defensive intent on the portal in front of us. This is something like created a “haunted house”: We were imprinting the entrance with the thought that if anyone with hostile intent showed up, they’d pick up on the message: “You are in danger. You are not welcome. You do NOT want to come through this door.” We wanted that person to feel as if someone was right behind them. That person that you think that you see in your peripheral vision, but when you turn to see, you can’t see them. That person that you fear that is on the other side of the door, making you want to turn around and run away. The closer you get, the more you want to pee yourself and run. This stalker guy is going to see me staring right through the front door with my sticks in my hand. He’s going to see Sir Ravin waiting with his bo. He’s goign to see Dame Janus waiting with her bubbling cauldron of caustic energy. He’s going to see Dame Sorayah waiting with her spear and two jaguars. He’s going to see Dame Ravin standing there with a water barrier behind her and a bo in her hand. People with no evil intent won’t feel it: If they feel anything it will be security, as will Aurora. In fact she commented on how she felt more secure the moment that we finished.

Thanks to all of you who couldn’t make it but sent energy to assist.

BB Kerr

Scáthach Symbolism

2009-02-22T14:40:00.000-08:00

The symbol of our Order originated back in the early 1990s before I wrote any of my Warrior books and was experimenting with a training coven. The name of that coven was the “OODC”, which stood for “Our Own Damn Coven”. It was a name that started as a joke but stuck. The OODC was what got me thinking of the concepts that I needed to develop for the Order of Scáthach to become a reality. When I sat down to create a symbol for this concept, this is what almost immediately came to me. Looking back at it now I see that it encapsulated much of the meaning that has become the Order of Scáthach now.

What does that symbolism mean to me? The moon represents the divine feminine. It represents the intuition and psychic power that directs and inspires us on our path as Warriors. The branch silhouetted against the moon is a symbol of the divinity which shines through us and illuminates our Warrior path. The upright branch represents the divine masculine. It represents the life energy, chi, that flows through us and helps us to grow and achieve on our Warrior path. This branch, with it’s three leaves, represents our growth as Warriors through our three degrees: From Novice to Squire to Knight and, ultimately, to Master.

The three leaves also represent the dubbing ritual that forms part of the Arming ritual that makes us Knights. This is where the Grand Master taps the initiate with the sword first on the right shoulder, then the left shoulder, then the right shoulder again.

The Battle of Proof

2009-02-16T19:00:00.000-08:00

“Courage was mine, I had mystery
Wisdom was mine, I had mastery.”
Wilfred Owen, Strange Meeting

To qualify for the Mastering ritual that makes a Scáthach Knight a Master, candidate Knights need to come up with a short demonstration of their Mastery for the ritual. This demonstration is called the Battle of Proof. At the entrance to the area where the initiation is to take place, the Seneschal challenges each initiate: “How will you demonstrate your Mastery?”

The Battle of Proof is a short demonstration in which the candidate for initiation may actually use their chosen Magickal Weapon. It could be a bo kata, a display of swordsmanship, or a siniwali form. This option has clearly been one of the first things considered by candidates for the upcoming Mastering. This is not surprising, since this is a Warrior tradition, and since our training is clearly influenced by martial arts. We all dedicated ourselves to Magickal Weapons at the Arming ritual that made us Knights. The candidate for the Mastering knows that they have to bring that Magickal Weapon to the Mastering Ritual to become a Master. So it is not surprising to me that so many of you approaching this milestone seem to be struggling with the upcoming Battle of Proof. If you don’t succeed, you won’t get initiated. The problem is that you’re all thinking martial arts as fighting. Let me remind you that in that very first class I taught you:

Soldiers march. Warriors dance.

Let me further remind you of my definition of a Warrior which I gave you in that first lesson as a novice:

A Warrior is a person who makes a fearless and objective inventory of their personal characteristics and then uses this information to take control of their life.

Being a Warrior is not about fighting, its about winning. It’s not about using your hands, it is about using your head. Remember your Sun Tsu. This is especially true of this situation, because in the Mastering ritual you become the Magickal Weapon. The Mastering is about the fifth pair of Magickal Weapons: Mind and spirit.

The Battle of Proof can indeed be a physical demonstration involving a Magickal Weapon, like a kata. However, this is not the only option. It can also be a recital, a poem or haiku, or a song you wrote to honor your Warrior path. It could be a Warrior dance, a demonstration of psychic ability, or a written essay on a related subject. If you’re dedicated to the grail and cauldron it might involve healing or cooking (the cauldron as the cornucopia, remember from Lesson 13?). If you’re dedicated to the stone and shield, it might be something that you forged or made (basic anvil magick - remember Lesson 14?). It just has to be something that demonstrates Mastery, that is to say, understanding of the true meaning and symbolism of the Magickal Weapon that you are dedicated to.

The Battle of Proof needn’t be long or elaborate: In fact it is better that it is short and concise. Presumably the candidate would not even be here seeking this initiation if they had not already met the requirements by demonstrating the Mastery that they wish to be recognized for. Specifically, before applying to be initiated as Masters they must be able to write and perform Sabbat rituals, teach classes in the subjects that are part of the magickal curriculum of Scáthach, and prove that they have engaged in charitable work of some sort for their community. They also must be able to prove that they’ve attained some level of mastery of the Magickal Weapon to which they dedicated themselves in the Arming initiation.

And this brings us back to the Battle of Proof, because that’s exactly what the Battle of Proof is for.

So be creative. Look closely at what your Magickal Weapon represents and chose wisely.

BB
Kerr

Warrior Magick Class

2009-02-08T15:09:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder that my Knights and I will be teaching a Warrior Magick class at Grimoires Books in New Westminster, BC, at 5 PM on Sunday, February 15.

BB
Kerr

Imbolc 2009

2009-02-07T15:03:00.001-08:00

Here are some photos of the Order of Scathach's candle making workshop at Imbolc 2009.

Kerr

The Pen

2009-02-02T17:53:00.000-08:00

Here’s a bit of trivia for you. I’m sure that most of you have never heard of the 1st Baron Lytton, whose proper name was Edward Bulwer-Lytton. He was an English novelist, poet, playwright and politician of the 19th century (1803 – 1873). Though you probably don't know his name, you do know some of his words. He achieved immortality by giving us several expressions that we commonly use today, including:

“the great unwashed”
“the pursuit of the almighty dollar”
“it was a dark and rainy night”

Now I want to talk about a particular Magickal Weapon, related to the wand and staff. This Magickal Weapon is typically around 6 inches long and fits easily into the hand.

I want to talk about the common pen.

Right about now you’re probably thinking something like: OK, Kerr’s about to make a joke. He’s about to wax humorous.

Actually no, I’m not.

Or maybe you’re thinking: Why is he changing the subject? I thought that we were talking about authors.

I am.

Imagine that you are a police recruit in the academy. You’re in a use of force class and I am your instructor. “I don’t need to tell you,” I begin, “That it is a jungle out there. I am sure that you are all aware that that you need to be on the lookout at all times for suspects armed with weapons. I’m sure that when you hit the streets you’ll be looking for knives and bats and guns. That’s good. What you probably don’t realize is that in reality, the weapon that the suspect uses against you most of the time will not be one of these weapons. It won’t be a knife, a gun or a blunt object. Statistics prove that this weapon will most likely be what happened to be at hand, not a weapon that the suspect had brought into the area with the deliberate intent of being used in an assault.[1] For example: the most common stabbing weapon after the knife is the common screwdriver. A very common stabbing weapon is the common pen or pencil. Your heart is just an inch beneath your skin. It is possible to stab someone to death with a pen.”

I hope that you are all now taking the pen seriously. I always have. Not just because I used to be a cop, either. I am a writer, after all.

I defended this Pagan community for 25 years. I didn’t show up at churches armed with a bat, a ritual sword, or even a pen. I did show up at churches like Vancouver’s Glad Tidings Church to deal with evangelists like Bob Larson face to face. I went there with empty hands. I was armed with words. I took on the hateful con artists and frauds that disseminated misinformation causing endless suffering to members of our community. You know how I did it. You’ve seen my 182 articles in the Witch Hunts column on The Witches’ Voice web site. You’ve probably read my book Witch Hunts. I fought them with words. On several occasions I attended civil courts to give evidence in defense of members of the Pagan community. I wasn’t packing a side arm. I was simply armed with words. It was words that I used to defend the rights of Pagans in the emergency services when I was leader of Officers of Avalon.

At each Armoring ritual that I conducted before I founded the Order of Scáthach in November of 2007 at least one of the eager persons that came forward seeking to dedicate themselves to the Warrior path carried a particular Magickal Weapon. What was the weapon that they placed on the altar to be consecrated as part of this ceremony? It was a pen.

This did not surprise me. I didn’t question this. I did nothing to prevent them. The wand and the staff are connected to fire energy, and that is the energy of inspiration and creativity. What better symbol of that but a pen? When it was time to return the Magickal Weapons after the Armoring oath I looked them in the eye, handed the pen back to them firmly, and said: “Receive this from the hands of the Goddess, and know that you are welcome in this company.”

The Seneschal at my Armoring at Florida Pagan Gathering in 2005 wasn’t surprised either: She was Wiccan author Kristin Madden. Nor was the Seneschal presiding at my Armoring ritual at Convocation 2006 in Michigan. She was Denessa Smith, founder of the Tempest Smith Foundation, which fights against bullying in schools. Nor did another of the Warriors assisting me at that Detroit Armoring: Wiccan author Chris Penczak. All three of them understood the power of words.

After the Arming ritual at the recent Warrior workshop in September 2008 in Nanaimo, I was approached by one of the people who had come there that day to learn from our Knights. They asked if they could ask me a question. I told them to go ahead. They’d noticed that one of our new Knights being initiated had presented a pen as her Magickal Weapon. “I thought that the initiate was supposed to present a weapon to be consecrated”, this person said, “But she had a pen”. I smiled and nodded... and waited patiently in silence. The person asking me this question looked puzzled for a moment. Then their face cleared as it suddenly dawned on them. And that person then said to me another famous line by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron of Lytton, this one from his 1839 play Richelieu:

“The pen is mightier than the sword.”

“Exactly,” I said.

Yes, there are definitely times when you’ve got to grab a serious weapon like a sword or a stick to deal with a situation. I’ve survived many fights over the years that I was a cop and in some cases used weapons to overcome adversaries. You all know that I still train with martial arts weapons. However, as Knights we also know that one of Sun Tzu’s precepts was: "Those who win every battle are not really skillful- Those who render others' armies helpless without fighting are the best of all."[2] Very often the way that these Warriors achieve that is with words. Thus the pen is a perfect example of one of our precepts: Minimal appearance, maximum content.

BB
Kerr

[1] ROWETT, Colin. (1986.) Violence in Social Work: A Research Study of Violence in the Context of Local Authority Social Work, pg. 135.
[2] Sun TZU, Thomas CLEARY, trans. (1991). The Art of War, pg 18.

Warrior Magick Workshop

2009-01-27T14:12:00.001-08:00

Dear Friends:

I'll be doing a Warrior Magick Workshop at Grimoire's books in New Westminster at 5 PM on Sunday, February 15. You can check out their web page and get directions at: http://www.grimoiresbooks.com/

Bb
Kerr

Seattle Armoring

2009-01-23T03:52:00.000-08:00

We've got an Armoring ritual and Scathach training session planned for May 10 in Seattle if anyone is interested. Let me know if you are. It was originally planned for April 19, but we've rescheduled it to allow everyone in our Surrey group to get their new "enhanced drivers licenses" to facilitate crossing the border.

BB
Kerr

Obama Macaroons

2009-01-21T05:54:00.000-08:00

Gluten free. Makes 2 1/2 dozen macaroons. I made these in honor of the inauguration. They’re half black and they bring a smile to your face. Seemed appropriate.
Ingredients:
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 egg whites
1 1/4 cups superfine sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
8 oz 70% dark chocolate
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, add salt to egg whites and beat with an electric mixer to form stiff peaks. Add sugar slowly and beat just until sugar is dissolved. Stir in the vanilla and coconut, gently mixing to combine. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the parchment. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Slide parchment onto the counter and let stand for 1 minute. Loosen cookies and cool on wire racks. Melt chocolate in double boiler. Dip half of each cookie into the chocolate. Set aside to cool on a sheet of parchment paper.

A & E's Paranormal State

2009-01-15T07:52:00.001-08:00

I was contacted yesterday by Christine Mahin, Associate Producer of A & E Network’s show “Paranormal State” (season 3). She was looking for information on the “ram's head image and its link to the paranormal and witchcraft.” I spoke to her on the phone and sent her a pile of e mail information. I’ll keep you all posted on where this ends up.

Indifference

2009-01-12T06:15:00.000-08:00

On January 10 I worked police dispatch for district 3. This is the south east corner of Vancouver, a large and busy district, especially so on a Saturday night. At about 2230 hours it was raining mixed with snow. A lady was walking home with her child in the 7800 block of Champlain, which is a major thoroughfare in this part of the district, composed of townhouses, a school, a community center and some minor businesses. Suddenly a 12 year old Asian boy ran up to her dressed only in flannel pajamas in his bare feet in the rain, telling her that his parents were fighting and begging her to help him. She refused, pointing to the Royal Arch Masonic Care Home that they were in front of, and telling him to run there, as they would help him. She then walked on, leaving him to his own devices. She told us later that she last saw him running towards this care home. About 15 minutes later she arrived home and, starting to feel a bit guilty I suppose, called 911.
Needless to say the call taker that took the call was appalled. So was I when the call appeared on my dispatch screen a moment later. The call taker immediately tried calling the Royal Arch home to see if the staff had the kid with them. No one would answer the phone there.
Meanwhile I’ve got the sergeant heading over with multiple police units, one going to the complainant’s home to get more details and one straight to the care home to see what they could tell us. The staff came to the door when the police officer buzzed the intercom. The duty nurse told this police officer that yes, the boy had come to the door soaking wet in his pajamas, crying, begging for help. The care home staff refused to open the door for this boy as it was “against their policy” and told him to seek help elsewhere. The last that they saw of him he was running away from their front door. Needless to say the police officer at the door blew a fuse and demanded to know why they didn’t call 911. If you can believe it, the nursing supervisor then told this police officer, “Oh yes, we did call 911.” The police officer got REALLY angry then. He told her that we WERE 911 and we knew for a fact that they had made no such call. They hadn’t. I can’t imagine how they thought that we’d think that they had.
Due to the bad weather our helicopter with its infrared scanning equipment was not in the air, but I threw every other resource that we had at this. Units checked every single street and the dog unit checked all the trails in the vicinity: Unfortunately our dog unit couldn’t track the boy because by the time we got this call and he’d got to the scene so many people had come and gone from the care home that it would have been impossible to tell who he was tracking.
Assisted by the call taker, I checked the history of every block of houses out several blocks in every direction looking for any residence that might have a history that would give us a clue where this kid might have come from. Even if the family involved had an extensive history, all that it would take is for them to move to a new house where we hadn’t had any calls yet and we’d never be able to find them that way.
The call taker and I found nothing useful.
The initial area search produced no results.
The duty officer (basically the acting chief constable) arrived on scene and got units to go door to door from the care home outwards looking for anything that would help. In the first 15 minutes of this door to door search we discovered 6 witnesses, all who had seen the following: Our Asian boy in his pajamas in the middle of Champlain Crescent, trying to stop passing cars, yelling ang begging for assistance.
All of the cars drove around him and went on.
Not one of the 6 witnesses called 911.
After three hours of searching we never found him.
The dispatchers and call takers in the ops room shook their heads and said things like: “What is this world coming to?”
Some people in the Pagan community have asked me: “Why would you want to create an order of Knights?”
Because this is what the world is coming to.
I heard a lot of people on the ops floor say things that night like: “When you hear of things like this you wonder what hope is there for the world.”
Some people in the Pagan community say: “An order of Knights? That’s rather archaic. What use is it?”
Why are we all gathered together as an order of Knights?
WE are the hope.
We came together, attracted by the precepts and principles of our order. WE stand for honor and responsibility. WE are the example for the rest of our community and the rest of the world.
I know that every single one of you in our Order would have done everything you could to help this poor boy. We have ALL taken an oath to help the weak. That’s just one of the reasons that I’m so proud of you all.
I can only imagine what he must think having reached out to so many who simply turned away. Let us all hope that this boy is found safe and that a solution is found to his problem.

BB
Kerr

Training in 2009

2009-01-07T10:54:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

We're out of the holiday season and back into our regular training schedule, starting Sunday, January 11 at the Motherhouse.

Wednesday, January 21, 7 PM: Stick and bo class at the Motherhouse.

Sunday, February 1: Geri’s candle making workshop at the Motherhouse 3 PM. Imbolc ritual 7 PM.

Sunday, February 8: Day long Reiki workshop by Lyn. Cycle III Knight training at the Motherhouse. Advanced Magickal Weapons.

Sunday, February 15: Cycle I Novice and Cycle II Squire training at the Motherhouse.

The photo shows the new stained glass Scathach logo in the front window of the Motherhouse.

BB
Kerr

Cuhulain for Person of the Year

2008-12-25T08:02:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

The daughter of a Wiccan who corresponds with me sent this in to me yesterday. She's nominated me for an award, apparently. Thanks Allyson!

BB
Kerr

Kerr Cuhulain for Person of the Year By Allyson Antoniades-Wood

Charles Ennis is better known to the Pagan community as Kerr Cuhulain. Mr. Cuhulain is a retired Vancouver police officer. I think he is very brave and an honest man. He collected money for Katrina survivors. He is an author of five pagan books, and regularly contributes articles to WitchVox, a huge networking website to connect pagans all over the world. So far, he’s done a lot.
He supported the Tempest Smith case and the Headstone campaign two very important issues in the Pagan community. Tempest was a 12-year-old girl from Michigan, who committed suicide because she was bullied by her classmates. Sgt. Patrick Stewart died in the line of duty in Afghanistan, and was denied his military emblem of faith, a pentagram, on his headstone as it was refused recognition by veteran affairs. This shows how much Cuhulain cares about the pagan community.

As a police officer, Kerr had many assignments, such as: “Emergency Response Team, hostage negotiator, child abuse investigator, gang crime unit, and the mental health Emergency Services Unit.” Kerr was an officer for twenty-nine years. He helped in emergency calls to save the day. Before retiring he earned a Governor General’s Exemplary Service Medal.

Kerr Cuhulain helped create the Officers of Avalon, an organization representing Neo-Pagan professionals in the emergency services (police, firefighters, emergency medical tech, etc.) Avalon Cares was a project for Hurricane Katrina relief to help Katrina survivors. The Officers of Avalon were able to collect 35,000 dollars in 2 weeks for the Katrina survivors. They collected money, food, and clothes for the survivors. Avalon also paid for replacement uniforms for the New Orleans police.

As an author of many Pagan books, Kerr wrote books like: Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca, Witch-Hunts, Wiccan Warrior, Full Contact Magick and Magickal Self Defense. These books explain how to empower ones self. His work is unique and unlike any other pagan authors’. Most pagan authors write books on how to become a pagan.

Kerr Cuhulain is a great influence on the pagan community. He supports the community by getting involved. As a young pagan, this is important to me because I would like someone like him to be on my side. Sometimes, I worry if any of my friends would pick on me if they knew my religion. Learning about this inspires me, makes me want to get involved and help people in my community.

Mr. Cuhulain is cool guy, and a great writer. He emailed my Mom and even sent me pictures to help with this assignment, which I really appreciate! I would love to meet him in person. That’s why he has my vote for person of the year based on his service, concern and effort.

http://www.correllian.com/facesessays.htm

http://www.correllian.com/holycity.htm

http://www.correllian.com/traci.htm

Yule News

2008-12-22T11:30:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

I hope that you've all had a happy Yule. I experienced an exceptional Yule ritual at the Scathach gathering last Saturday. I've included a couple of shots of the altar. I was presented with a stained glass window bearing the Scathach logo: Apparently the members secretly donated to this project. Quite overwhelming.

A snowstorm started a few hours after the ritual and it took some of us a while to get home. I ended up stuck on a hill because a semi trailer unit jack knifed at the bottom, completely blocking the road. I eventually had to back track and take another route.

I've just finished my latest manuscript draft for the book of Scathach rituals and will send off a proposal this afternoon to the publisher. This has led me to make updates to the rituals and lessons on the Scathach training blog.

Kerr

Photos of Nanaimo Training

2008-12-18T14:43:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends:

Here's some photos from Scathach's Nanaimo training trip.

Kerr

New Puget Sound Preceptory of Scáthach

2008-12-14T15:11:00.000-08:00

The new Puget Sound preceptory of our Order of Scáthach is having their first meeting tonight in Seattle. Skatha, one of our Knights, is going to be running this new group. Unfortunately I have to work tonight or I’d be there to see it happen. If you’re interested, please contact me and I’ll connect you with this new preceptory.

Bright Blessings
Kerr Cuhulain

Nanaimo Training and Armoring

2008-12-14T08:45:00.001-08:00

A Commandery of 7 Knights and 2 Squires sailed to Nanaimo on December 13 to do training and conduct rituals. Twelve people turned up to participate (see photo). The Commandery members all had a good time and it appears to have been well received. We'll be heading down to Seattle in April or May to do a similar training session.

Kerr

Nanaimo Reminder

2008-12-12T09:51:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder that I'll be in Nanaimo, BC, tomorrow with some of our Knights at the Harewood Activity Center at 10:30 to teach and conduct an Armoring ritual. I hope to see you there.

BB
Kerr

Healing Energy for Selena Fox

2008-12-02T07:50:00.001-08:00

Please send well wishes and healing support to Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary.

On Wednesday, December 3, 2008, Selena will have ovarian surgery at a hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. The surgery will remove a large cyst which was recently discovered on her left ovary. Her left ovary and fallopian tube will also be removed. The cyst and ovary will undergo laboratory analysis and test results are expected back later this month.

Ten years ago, Selena had surgery which removed her right ovary and a large growth, which turned out to be a type of ovarian cancer. Periodic blood tests have indicated that Selena has been free of ovarian cancer since that time. Please send blessings that this continues to be the case.

Your meditations, prayers, and rituals are greatly appreciated as she prepares for the surgery, has it, and recovers. Some photos of Selena to use as a focus are at her website: www.selenafox.com

Well wishes can be sent to her at this special email address: selenafox@circlesanctuary.org

Although circumstances are such that she can not reply individually to emails she receives, know that your email will be passed on to her and she gives thanks for your support.

Healing Circle: Monday, December 1, 2008