Litha this year (2008) marked the eighth anniversary of Glas Celli, formed at Litha 2000. Although we did not choose our name at that time, we did choose to form our grove of formerly solitary eclectic pagans then.

At present we have one Celtic/Eclectic witch who teaches the healing practices, one Wiccan dedicated to the Greek pantheon who is currently serving as High Priestess, an eclectic Wiccan, a ‘dark pagan’ witch, and three students of currently varying paths. Two of our founding members have moved on to paths farther away. We all seem to get along quite well, despite our differing views of paganism and witchcraft. In fact, we’re becoming quite the little family – as you’ll read below… Oh, we mustn’t forget our non-religious yet rock-worshipping fossil expert. Although not a member per se, he is our quiet head of reason, lighting our fire before the doors of Xanadu. No, seriously. I’ll post pics at some point.

I would just like to take a moment to introduce us, so that the rest of this article makes a little more sense *grin*. I’m going to introduce you in order of my first meetings with the rest of the folks.

I’m ierne – Celtic/Eclectic witch. I am the founder of this little group – in many ways it’s like being a High Priestess, only without the ritual. So far I’ve gotten away with organizational work, occasional hostess duties and general ducking of anything else. I’ve been wandering the pagan paths for over 20 years.

Mort, the ‘dark pagan’ witch, is the first local I met who had similar interests. At the time, there was a third party – a former student of mine – who was also in the mix, and was a founding member, albeit briefly. For a while Mort and I didn’t seem to get along – once that third party was out of the mix, he and I met for coffee, and found out we’d been snowed. Ah well, that’s life – and we’ve moved on to form a pretty great friendship – in fact, when I need a male perspective on anything, it’s Mort I call. That, and he has tools of all sorts and KNOWS how to use them. Which would be why, I suppose that he and Wren are renovating their house without outside help. I’ve seen the before *shudder* and I’ve seen in progress, and I’m DYING to see finished. By the way, the finished is almost here and it’s gorgeous!

About 9 months after first meeting Mort, another local witch contacted me. Ariadne is a 50-ish grandma and Wiccan following a Greek path. She has the most amazing library encompassing a good half of the second floor of her house – a place in which I could spend hours and hours in, and I have. She’s also got an immense wealth of knowledge on paganism in her head, which I probe at all opportunity. She keeps us all pretty much level-headed and calm and to quote someone talking about someone else “She gives great ritual!”. It is to Ariadne I turn for any public rituals, particularly after having done the 2004 Pagan Pride Ritual myself and bursting into tears (sssh…). Ariadne does not burst into anything, and remains calm at all times. Thus, she has become our High Priestess when one is needed. She and her hubby (the Guardian of Xanadu) moved into Miami over the summer of 2004.

Wren is Ariadne’s daughter, Mort’s wife and mom to Glas Celli’s official toddler. She was away for the first several months of our beginnings so we forced her into this in absentia. Not really forced, more like we did it and told her later… Even after she moved closer, her work hours permitted little participation. Now however, she’s moved in with and married Mort; this is something Ariadne and I are most pleased with, as they are our one and only matchmaking attempt. They moved into town as of fall 2005, bringing their animals and Wren’s belly with them. Er..wait a second. Wren’s belly developed into our official baby, now toddler! Since the last update to this missive, Mini-Mort is now a scarily intelligent toddler who reminds me more and more of Stewie Griffin in a dress and fancy shoes. Seriously, I have a feeling when we need to vanquish someone, Mini-Mort will be the one on whom we call.

Chiron is the last of our founding members. Our musically inclined Druidic Pagan lives in the city and rarely gets away to visit, and we miss his humor and contributions greatly. *sniffle* Someday, we’ll just kidnap him and the university can wonder where the music major went..mwahahaha! We’ll tuck him away in Ariadne’s attic, with an organ, a piano… we’ll feed and water regularly. And then, when the time is right, Chiron will be unleashed on the population so we can build the first Manitoban Pagan Cathedral. This was Chiron’s idea… seriously, you should visualize… hmmm, perhaps we could incorporate Xanadu.

Finally – we have our students. Dobhailen did a wonderful job stepping in as Acting High Priest (heehee) for Samhain 2004. Yes, we let a student act as high priest, and nothing exploded. Imagine! He moved into town the fall of 2005, and is also renovating a house. Draeco joined our little family in August 2006 – even though she was already part of the family as she is my overly-precocious earth-child. Artemis joined us at Samhain, 2007 – having sought two other religious paths in her short life, my eldest daughter settled with the one she sees every day.

As I was newly involved with the Pagan Pride Project when Glas Celli was formed, we’ve been the sponsoring group for the Miami-Manitoba South PPD since 2000. I have since stepped down from the International board of directors and Glas Celli has chosen not to continue with hosting a Manitoba event. As of our anniversary ritual, we decided to close the circle for now – we will train our students diligently, and will reconsider our open circle policies again in 2010, in time for our 10th Anniversary celebration.

It is our combined knowledge of our many paths, and how they converge pleasantly at Holy days that I believe is what holds us together. It amazes me in that we’re all of different thought on our paths in life, and yet we can get together without the usual strife that seems to accompany so many groups. Perhaps it is our diversity that saves us!
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Blessings from Glas Celli!