It never dawned on me until we got there – lots more kids, onlooking parents and a dude with a camera walking around…hmm as you can imagine it got awkward pretty quick. My immediate solution was to stick very close to my family making it very clear to onlookers that “I am with these guys!” but as you can imagine this was going to make wandering into the trees for some nature shots damn tricky. After a good 10 minutes of picking my camera up only to put it back down as other peoples kids came anywhere close I decided enough was enough.

From there on in I just kept camera in hand, took shots of everything and anything I wanted on the simple basis that no one else’s child was in frame. If a parent has a problem I knew that I would simply have to be willing to show them the photos I have taken to reassure them that there was nothing to worry about. I guess the lesson I learnt today was that as a photographer you need to be able to be confident in what you are doing around people who may not necessarily like the fact you are there. To be understanding yet at the same time getting the job done.

I have wanted to be able to make use of the FTP feature found on deviantART to try and seriously cut down on time spent adding files one by one and although I could use a simple FTP manager like filezilla to do this I still needed to manually export images out of the aperture library to do this, keep track of which I was adding and then delete the erroneous files afterwards – not very useful and still time consuming. Uberupload has made life a lot easier now in that I can export to the deviantART ftp, and in fact any ftp I like including my own website and this blog, all in the aperture export options – winner!

The next tool was along similar lines, an export tool that again works within aperture to send my images straight to Googles Picasa service – again avoiding taking the images out of the library. Anything that achieves this is always going to massively reduce workflow times which works for me

The last plugin I got was Maperture Pro – taking Apertures Places feature and giving it steroids, this tool lets you reverse GPS ( I mean come on lets be honest – what camera has GPS built in other than on your smartphone hmm? ). This is a great way to catalog and keep track of just where you was when you took the photos. A handy way to start off is by taking a quick shot at the beginning of a shoot with your phone – this will log the time and GPS data that you can then use to apply to the rest of the shoot using aperture – just make sure the time on your phone and the time on your camera are in sync heh!

So, if you want some very handy tools for your aperture workflow head on over to http://www.ubermind.com/index.php and take a peek – all of the software is available to trial right now.

After years living what in hindsight I am now aware of was denial, I started to again question the reality that was being ‘pushed’ on me, began yet again to question the doubts that I had about the reality world I was being told was the norm. My life is full of many things both seen and unseen and since I can remember I have never once sat in a room alone – I was desperate to better understand my lot. With the advent and rise of the internet came a new way of interaction for many people – all of a sudden a whole world of information was being shared and people began to talk all over the globe. For many pagans it was an exciting time and for myself I enjoyed journeying the internet searching for those who may experience the world as I do. Alas my searching always fell short even though for a time I thought I might be getting somewhere as at one stage people where starting to talk more of ancient shamans perhaps having schizophrenia and how there are modern shamans along the same lines but I always found it was a reversed process – these where people who had a variety of experiences and described them as schizophrenic, such as working to contact spirits and power animals and especially working with energy to attempt healing. The ‘norm’ of shamanic experience was being described as schizophrenic – it just wasn’t adding up.

The problem I had with this was that this was an experience that said people sought out, that they aimed to achieve, that was a goal. Can the same be said for those of us who do not seek it out, for those of us who are sought out? There are those of us for whom the shamanic journey is not one we undertake but one that we are thrown upon, that we are dragged into, that is forced upon us. I am no anthropologist and certainly claim no authoritative knowledge of current practices but I always had it in my head (from whichever book I must have read at some point) that shamans where ‘removed’ from society to be taken into the care of other shamans. This concept seems to be something that rings true in the depths of my soul, it has often felt like I am waiting for someone to take me away and say ‘no more of this way of life, it is not for you’. That is not to say I do not enjoy the life I have – my wife and children are the core of my existence without which I would be a wreck. It was when I pondered this for some time that I realized that they had become my guides in the best capacity they could. They have adapted and accommodated to who I am in a way only they know how and for that I owe them eternal gratitude.

This theory left me with a problem though. There are many shamans who experience what they do without having sought it out, it is just a factor of their life that has always been there. At this point we come to what I think the schizo-shamanic experience is. Walking between the worlds I feel best sums it up. I know that almost all shamans would say they do this but the schizo-shaman is someone who does this whether they want to or not, someone who does it constantly much to their torment. I have never sat in a room alone for as long as I can remember, for the two worlds are EVER-present in the most literal sense of the term. The suicide rate of people with schizophrenia is very high and I believe this is for a very specific reason – without the guidance or knowledge of what they truly are they have no idea how to handle the situations they find themselves in. The negative energies, the malign spirits and every other force and factor that would work against them gets their way with them – how many of us could survive in that situation? No many I think the answer would be.

I deem myself a very lucky person – I was raised by a mother who has an extremely open mind. Although not pagan by self definition she is a creature of nature that allowed me to be who I am without question or criticism, she allowed to expand my knowledge into avenues of thought normally shunned for someone so young ( I was deep into occult studies by the ages of 11). Unfortunately most are not this lucky and live a tormented life of medication, in-patient long term care and social exile (for all the wrong reasons). Our society is broken, disconnected from the avenues of spiritual thought and growth that are needed to keep it in harmony with it’s surrounding environment and the worlds beyond the visible.

Well how about changing that? There is a great resource on-line you can use to check up on just what your MP is saying, standing up for or standing against when he or she is in parliament. I found this website very interesting in that it showed that my previous local MP was certainly not standing up for things I had voted him in for, in fact in many areas he was opposed to them when it was time for him to vote. I won’t be making that mistake again and using this site you don’t need to either. Go check it out and let me know what you think in the comments.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

Watch CBS News Videos Online

I just thought I would share this with you. Back in 2008 I bought a DVD offering an different take on the British sacred landscape and it was a mind blowing magical journey to watch it. It opened my eyes to a lot of new ideas on Britain megalithic legacy. Their official website is here

http://www.standingwithstones.com/

And here is a clip to tantalise your taste buds.

These are all welcome changes, but much more could still be done. In the local elections there where quite a few changes in the political landscape of my home town of Bury. Wards were gained and lost but interestingly in August of last year there was the formation of a local Green party. For some time I have wanted to vote Green but have been unable to as there simply was no one sanding in my ward locally or for my constituency nationally. This has not changed as the local party is small and they are having to focus there resources in key areas understandably. What I had not prepared myself for was the imminent upsurge of Awen and the sudden call to change the local situation and so I got in touch with the local Green party, became a full member of the national party and made it clear that I intended to stand for my local ward of Redvales.

Since then I have been bursting with ideas, thoughts and action plans on how to try and make the changes that I want to see in Redvales. Although I will be expected to put a lot of effort into supporting campaigns in key areas of my town I fully intend to launch my own campaign in Redvales. I already have the support of the local school based purely off the fact that they know I am someone who gets involved having run music workshops, helped in the school gardening projects and supported the school in any way in which I am able. People I know personally in the locality have also shown support as they know I am someone who cares about the place I live in, cares about the well-being of it’s residents and wants to make serious positive changes to an area that is treated as the town backwater.

I never foresaw me getting into politics as so often in the past I have been so negative about the various parties but in the Green party I have found a common ground, a rooting in some of the core values of the Zeitgeist Movement, a foundation in principles that as a pagan stand true to my morals and ethics. I find it all quite exciting and I am really looking forward to getting stuck in. As a start I am making sure the local party has a functioning website that can relay news to supporters in the cheapest possible way and more a more frequent way. I am basing it off the Joomla CMS system so that is taking some learning but I am enjoying that nonetheless.

So, watch this space as I will update here on how things are progressing. I will also be re-designing my website in the coming weeks and will be integrating this blog into that so you can receive this content either way.

Social media in the UK has really found it’s moment with this election, it being the first since we had the UK explosion onto Facebook and Twitter. Twitter especially is rife with opinion and criticism on the various parties and it has been very enlightening to watch it all pan out. This country has a serious problem in it’s voters, something which is starting to emerge and something that needs to be addressed as soon as is possible – there is just too much ignorance! I don’t say this in the capacity of me thinking that people must be stupid because they don’t support the same party as me, far from it. The ignorance is rife across voters and supporters of just about every party in every area and quite frankly it is scary. The sheer volume of people who do not even realise that their local area is not necessarily run by the same party who hold government astounded me and this form of ignorance leads to nothing but false accusation from the start – the finger of blame, even on local issues always falls on national government when in fact the local government, whether they still be Labour or one of the other parties are in fact to blame.

We also need to factor in another issue, the one of selfishness. When we listen to the proposals are we ever thinking beyond what only affects us and what will benefit ourselves? I know personally that I do think beyond it but it is blatantly clear that many don’t, again something that is scary. Many are unwilling to think beyond their own reality bubble and think about what affects others also, and so is a person like this a constructive voter? Hell no! People – we need to start taking an interest in what is happening in the country, we need to start taking steps to develop a better awareness of the state of the country, to criticise how it is run when it is done bad and to compliment when it is done well. Is the success of a arty only ever to be gauged by the silence of the voters, it’s a shitty way of doing things if it is. Your vote is not just a vote for what you want to change but also a vote for what you want to keep – bear that in mind. Take a long hard look at each party and what they truly offer in regards to life beyond yourself. Of course we have to prioritise our own lives but that does not mean we need to be ignorant of the lives of those outside our door.

There is a bigger picture, take a step back, enjoy the view and consider your options. Each party is offering change, progress and development. No main party is saying they want to make things worse, they just spend lots of time accusing each other of it. If you feel I am wrong then consider these ‘issues’ that MANY voters use as deciding factors…

Fuel costs
Speed camera charges
MP expenses fiasco
Taxation
NHS waiting times
The cost of war
The cost of trident

Seeing a pattern? Yup, money and me – what are you going to do with my money money money and what are you going to do that affects me me me. We need to be able to consider more – we need to be able to consider what is right, what is good and what SHOULD be done, even if that means something happening that we don’t necessarily like. That is how our personal lives is often run, how is the bigger picture any different?

Just what is a theology, and I ask this in a that specific way – not ‘what is Theology’, but ‘what is a theology’. Theology is the science of religion – the analytical process of asking the questions beyond the believer, to ask those awkward questions and seek out an answer. So what do I mean by saying it a different way? What I am looking to do is to make pagans THINK! So many people now have become fixed in the neo-pagan writings of the last 30 years that they don’t ever stop to think, to question, to consider beyond what they have learnt and burnt in their minds. My questions asks – ‘what is a theology’ and in this case a theology is a means of clarifying shared commonalities across traditions. The goal of this is NOT to find a unified singular point to which all pagans can rally as some people have feared. I understand that part of the beauty of neo-paganism is it’s vast diversity and I am not trying to delineate that. We have to accept though that many traditions that are springing up today are eclectic offshoots of traditions which DO share common ground and my book is aimed to highlight the core of this shared ground. Gardnerian / Alexandrian Wicca, the Druid movement and even the Asatru share huge volumes of common tradition which are lacking in cohesive backing, with a practical principle to keep the tradition itself grounded. When a theology is applied to it it starts to make absolute sense, it stops being an idea, something we do without obvious reason, and changes into something that is as harmonious with ourselves as the rising and the setting of the sun. Theology is about sense, reason and it’s fusion with raging inspiration – it is not a cold scientific principle that sets out to make the divine banal.

My book is an attempt to analyse and delve deeper into areas of paganism which I believe are the very rock and foundation of what the neo-pagan movement is destined to become. these include and complete analysis of the wheel of the year, for there is so much more to it than I have read in over 30 years worth of texts. The same can be said of the elements, of geographical principles and over the nature of deity itself. There is so much that can be covered that has never been covered, or at the very best when it has been touched on it has been done in a very half hearted and inconsistent way. There are many pagan authors out there who are writing some really good material but they struggle to see it published in a way that can reach a wider audience because all the mainstream publishers (the awful Llewellyn publishing being the worst for this) often commission non pagans to write a text – now you tell me how a person such as that can write on the nature of pagan deity in a way that would do it justice? I wouldn’t expect an atheist to write a treatise on Catholicism and it be academically useful and the same can be said here.

So – a lot to do this summer! I hope you will join me here as I throw ideas, concepts and possibly some flat our heresies your way over the coming months. For those who may be interested in where I am going with some of the ideas for the wheel of the year why not come along to the Radcliffe moot on June 8th where I will be giving a talk on some of the principles of my revisions of the wheel – and there will be diagrams this time to help people along!