I rejected the Church in the latter part of the 80s, and soon went on a path that took me to the Druidic Craft of the Wise, First Church of Satan, and now the Order of Bards, Ovates, and Druids, The Asatrú Community, and Jediism. I've visited the Vampire Church, the House Kheperu, and the Temple of Set. And yet I keep seeking a hermit to lend me their light. I suppose I'm like John Bunion's Pilgrim, passing through gates and countries, looking for answers. The journey has become comfortable, and I appreciate those who travel with me, as friend or foe. I suppose this condition effects any who wander from the social mean.
While growing up in Canada I enjoyed an abundance of folk lore. I cut my reading teeth on The Jungle Book (1894) by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Whether on TV or the library I've followed the old tails, the heroes, hoping to become one, or companion to one. I even began my journey to becoming bard or bragi, telling stories as grand as any found in the Odyssey, Mabinogion or Eddas. The world of the late sixties and early seventies gave me an appreciation of the natural world. I felt happiest when I could walk the woods and wilds of British Columbia or sun myself on the beaches. Then we moved back to California. Still, I sought out the gods and heroes of ledgend in even the most paltry of sources, such as encyclopedias. I even graduated to Tolkien and his good friend CS Lewis. With all that going on I felt more at home with the fairies of Wales and the gods of Scandinavia.
Yes, I am older than the whole of the Star Wars franchise except The Hidden Fortress by Akira Kurosawa, maybe Rashomon. While I have not considered myself a Jediist, I suppose the difference is the label, alone, is recently accepted, from a certain point of view. Were we to identify my faction within the community of Force sensitives, I'd be in the Grey Jedi camp, seeing value and danger from both Jedi and Sith, the hope and the tragedy of both.
In 2016 I began the Bardic course through the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Immediately, I heard about Nathaniel Branden's work, and then Marshall Rosenberg, and a deeper appreciation of Ayn Rand’s philosophy. Thanks to them it will take me a second year to work through this new gate. Well, took Gwyon Bach three, so maybe enjoy the patience (isn’t that Latin for suffer?) I’ve cultivated over the last twenty years.
Well, that’s a lot of words to say, I’m a Satanic-Pagan-Bardic-Heathen-Jediist in pursuit of meaning and purpose in my struggle to exist.
May the Forest set us free.
Thom Mormhran Potter, Bard, Jedi, Seiði