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  • Blog
  • About
    • Mission & Vision
    • Our Leadership
    • ADF: A Druid Fellowship
    • Photos
  • Services
  • Calendar
  • Resources & Social Justice
  • Membership
  • Blogs
    • Prairie Tidings (Church Blog)
    • Rev. Badger's 2019 Stoic Blog
    • The Practical Bard (Rev. Missy's Blog)
    • Little Druid on the Prairie (Rev. Lauren's Blog)
  • Policies
  • Contact Us
  • Blog
Mountain Ancestors Grove, ADF

A Year of Contemplation

Afterword - A Year in Contemplation

1/6/2020

 
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New Year blessings, one and all!

Thank you all for taking the time to circle back around and follow up on the end of this work. Gods be good, y’all got something out of it (I know I did), and when looking back over the past year, we can all see how and where we've grown. 

Having had the opportunity to go within and explore my own inner landscape through the Stoic lens, I gave more thought to things like time, and death, and ego, and excellence, virtue, as well as come away with a more realistic perspective, a deeper commitment to action, and a more resolute will. I have to say that if anything, my spirit feels better, if that makes sense… and it’s not the kind of better that comes from self-delusion, but the kind that comes from deep acceptance, and right-relationship with reality. 

I first took on this Stoic year to test my personal opinion that many (not all) pagan/polytheist folx don’t have a good opportunity or framework with which to explore certain themes, such as interconnectedness, interdependence, basic-goodness, mortality, and happiness without relying on Buddhist influenced modalities. In the past, when I brought up the need to explore and discuss some of the above-mentioned themes, I was met with “that’s not what we do” or “that’s what Buddhists do”. I disagreed, as I believe those themes are related to the human condition and not the buddhist condition. What I needed was to make a good case for similar teachings and perspectives from a Western, polytheist-influenced mind. 

My wife, Rev. Missy, suggested that Stoicism might fill the bill. She, as usual, was right. 

Sympatheia, Summum Bonum, Amor Fati, and Memento Mori… all principles from the Western, ancient world, all informed by both cultural polytheism AND post-Axial human thought. I believed this could work as the perspective pagans need to enter in to this kind of work… and so, I tried it out for a year. Every day. Why? Well, I’m not going to ask someone to consider things from a particular perspective unless I can personally assure that it’s a reliable and healthy one. Essentially, I injected myself with the cure before offering it to others. I considered it to be the right thing to do. 

At the end of the year, I can say this… Stoicism works, when it’s the right tool for the job. Stoicism is meant to address things in the everyday world, from the everyday mind… not mystical things from the magical mind. When the right tool is used, the outcome can reflect that, and I believe adding a gentle Stoic practice to one’s paganism and polytheism can offer some spirit-spackle with which to fill any remaining cracks not already filled from our religious endeavors. 

So… after all that, I still have opinions, I’m still sassy and salty, and I’m still working for the good of the folk with the intention to help how I can to get us all to wake up. 

The difference is that now I have a more cohesive practice from which to do that work. 

Thank you all, each and every one of you who have hung around and read my thoughts, and at times my haikus, sentiments, stories, and sometimes even songs. I consider myself truly blessed to have maintained your attention for this long. Thank you for that gift. I’ll treasure it, always. 

Myriad blessings, dear readers!

Yours, 
Rev. Wm. E. Ashton, ADF

Get Active in Your Own Rescue (Day 365)

12/31/2019

 
Stop wandering about! You aren’t likely to read your own notebooks, or ancient histories, or the anthologies you’ve collected to enjoy in your old age. Get busy with life’s purpose, toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue - if you care for yourself at all - and do it while you can.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 3.14

Now that we’ve been through this year together, what’s next? More reading? More studying? More contemplations? 

No. 

Now is the time for doing. The time for reading is done. 

The answers aren’t found in another text… 

… they’re found in each decision and choice we make. 

When Death comes for me, I don’t want Her to catch me reading. I want her to catch me doing. 

(An end has come… and so has a beginning.) 

​Dear readers, 

I’ll be making one final post within the next week or so, after I’ve had some time to sit with finishing this past year of introspective learning. I’ll be sure to post links to the final entry on Facebook and Twitter. 

When I make that final post, I’ll express my gratitude for y’all then. 

Myriad blessings, 
Rev. Wm. E. Ashton, ADF

Taking the Bite Out of It (Day 364)

12/30/2019

 
To bear trials with a calm mind
robs misfortune of its strength and burden.”

Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus, 231-232

​We can take the sting out of painful and stressful situations by bringing to those situations a calm, disciplined mind. 

What would our deaths look like if we approached then with that same calm and disciplined mind? That powerful mind, in those times of trouble, will bring more comfort than any amount of religiosity or philosophical phrases. 

The prepared mind is prepared to die, too. 

(See y’all tomorrow)

Give Thanks (Day 363)

12/29/2019

 
In all things we should try to make ourselves be as grateful as possible. For gratitude is a good thing for ourselves, in a manner in which justice, commonly held to belong to others, is not. Gratitude pays itself back in large measure.”
Seneca, Moral Letters, 81.19

​Gratitude is one of the most contagious human feelings we have at our disposal. We can apply it to anything and anyone. 

Even if this were the day we were going to die, we have ample opportunity to express that gratitude in each moment. 

Well… since we don’t know if today is or isn’t our last, what’s stopping us? 

(See y’all tomorrow)

On Being Remembered (Day 362)

12/28/2019

 
Everything lasts for a day, the one who remembers and the remembered.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 4.35

​If our actions are motivated because we want to be remembered, then our egos have won, and we miss the opportunity to live in the present. 

When we’re motivated to simply do good in the world, without thought to being remembered, we can truly live in the present… 

… the very place where our best is needed. 

The best we can count on is to be remembered for a day. The rest of those days, and the fantastic story surrounding those days, we just have to release. Let them go. 

Take comfort in the good works in front of us in each moment for the fantasy of being remembered is a waste of our time, and only serves our ego… and none of that will make any difference when we’re dead. 

(See y’all tomorrow)

Don’t Let Your Soul Go First (Day 361)

12/27/2019

 
It’s a disgrace in this life when the soul surrenders first while the body refuses to.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.29

The signs of a soul that’s given up are over-abundant anger, ever-present bitterness, and mouths full of only complaints and reason why failure is a foregone conclusion. These souls have constant grievances with life, and see every challenge as a personal attack and crisis. These souls have lost sight of the world-at-large because they’re too busy rummaging about in the land of ego. 

What about the signs of souls that haven’t given up? Kindness and compassion in action, and potential and possibility in speech. Success is boundless, and as such, can always be found. Life is a blessing and wonder, and meant to be understood. Ego, while present, is meant to be avoided… why? 

Because it’s what causes an otherwise healthy soul to surrender. 

(See y’all tomorrow) 

Life is Long - If You Know hot to Use It (Day 360)

12/26/2019

 
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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

​There’s not a single one among us, including the greatest of seers, fortune tellers, psychics, and soothsayers, who knows how long we have to live. We can’t guarantee any certain number of hours of days or years. There is, however, one thing in which we can offer ourselves as guarantee: 

We will, most certainly, waste a lot more time than we thought we did, or wanted to in the first place. 

The wild things is that most of us won’t even notice how much of our lives we’re allowing to waste away. So, the next time we say we “don’t have the time”, let’s commit to taking a pause to examine how much of our time is taken up by unnecessary things. 

Properly used time makes life abundant. Wasted time is so… quotidian. Don’t you agree? 

(See y’all tomorrow) 

Don't Burn the Candle at Both Ends (Day 359)

12/25/2019

 
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Image Credit: stock photos - 040a2-candle

As someone on sabbatical, i really resonated with today’s quote from wise Seneca from his work, On Tranquility of Mind (17.5): 
The mind must be given relaxation - it will rise improved and sharper after a good break. Just as rich fields must not be forced - for they will quickly lose their fertility if never given a break - so constant work on the anvil will fracture the force of the mind. But it regains its powers if it is set free and relaxed for a while. Constant work gives rise to a certain kind of dullness and feebleness in the rational soul.”
​Seneca is talking about what we now call work-life balance. The mind, like our muscles, must be given both chances to work AND changes to rest. Too much of either is detrimental. 

With that said, I’m going to get back to my family. 

Y’all have a merry day, filled with as many blessings as you can find! 

(See y’all tomorrow)

Meaningless… like a Fine Wine (Day 358)

12/24/2019

 
You know what wine and liquor tastes like. It makes no difference whether a hundred or a thousand bottles pass through your bladder - you are nothing more than a filter.”
Seneca, Moral Letters, 77.16

​At the end of things, it doesn’t make an ounce of difference if we lived extravagantly. At the end of things, just like wise Seneca says, we’re merely filters. Not only do food and drink “pass through” us, but so too legendary experiences, interesting stories, meaningful memories, and fancy stuff. 

The “particles” that get stuck in our filter are what comes to define our egos, which is why cleaning out one’s filter (oneself) is imperative for health-conscious living… 

… as well as a healthy-spirited death. 

(See y’all tomorrow)

What are You so Afraid of Losing? (Day 357)

12/23/2019

 
You are afraid of dying. But, come now, how is this life of yours anything but death?”
Seneca, Moral Letters, 77.18

​Most people, in varying degrees, are afraid of death and dying. 

Why? What are afraid of losing? Hours of television watching? Eating excessively? Gossiping about others? Reporting daily to a job that holds no meaning? Wasting potential over and over again? 

Is that what we’re afraid of losing? Is all that really worth the fear, or anxiety, or anguish we put ourselves through when it comes to death? 

Doesn’t sound like it to me. 

(See y’all tomorrow)
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    About the Blog

    Awakening the desire to explore Stoicism, and how it relates to his existing beliefs, Rev. William committed to working through the text, The Daily Stoic, a year-long journey to awaken the Stoic mind. 
    How things are structured can be found in the first post. 

    About the Author

    Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Rev. William attended Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado where in 2007 he graduated with a degree in Religious Studies, minoring in Psychology. Currently residing in Longmont, CO, he is one of the Priests and founder of Mountain Ancestors Grove.  He spends his time playing mandolin (and some guitar), writing, engaging in LGBTQIA+ advocacy and education, community service, and sharing a larger vision of how a polytheist perspective can lead to greater human understanding, acceptance, and gods be good, peace. 

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