Comments on: Practice begets belief: An interview with Rev. Michael J Dangler, Druid

By: Practice makes… | Endless Erring

Practice makes… | Endless Erring — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 11:34:45 +0000

[...] other day I was listening to an interesting conversation between B.T. Newberg of Humanistic Paganism, and Michael J. Dangler, an ADF Druid priest. In it, [...]

By: Practice Begets Belief « The Swamp Druid

Practice Begets Belief « The Swamp Druid — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 23:28:32 +0000

[...] Interview with Rev. Michael J Dangler – Practice Begets Belief [...]

By: Modern Druid Orders – Ár nDraíocht Féin | A Fundamentalist Druid in America

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 21:34:52 +0000

[...] closed model, and so ideas such as the representation of elemental foursomes in ritual were banned, hard polytheism had to be pretended if not believed (what you do being worth more than what you think in this essentially magical [...]

By: Jonathan Blake

Jonathan Blake — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:52:27 +0000

It could be used for good. For example, if you know rationally that you should feel concerned for the environment, but it just doesn’t move you, one of the best things you could do is to find a group of people who are concerned and who do things based on their concern and then pitch in. Becoming part of a group and doing what they do can begin to create feelings that you didn’t have before.

So yeah, it’s useful but I stand by my assessment that it’s a dark art.

By: Rua Lupa

Rua Lupa — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:14:46 +0000

I thought I was the only one to think this, and I agree with your assessment. This ‘fake it til you make it’ works especially well when you are peer pressured or even with an accepting group but are in isolation and all believing differently than you.

By: Rua Lupa

Rua Lupa — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 03:08:20 +0000

On the meditation example for self-fulfilling prophecy, I feel that the same goes for my experience in sweatlodges and the four day fasts (I was helper in the case of fasts). People always went into it expecting something specific and a fair number of people told me that they were disappointed in that they didn’t experience those expected things and those that did say that they experienced them only on the last day (where your body has been so deprived of water and nutrients that hallucinations/visions are likely).

By: Rua Lupa

Rua Lupa — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:48:24 +0000

Been meaning to get around to listening to this. I’m more involved in the other side of Isaac Bonewits’s sphere of influence – The Reformed Druids of North America. So it was great to hear from the ADF side. Thank you Rev. Michael J. Dangler for taking the time to share your experiences with us. I can relate to your story Brandon on ritual and experience and walking away and feeling that it wasn’t real afterwards. Even so, I have learned a great deal on what different actions and activities do to our emotions and psyche. So I keep going to and experiencing these different activities to learn what these different activities do. Rituals have been done a certain way for some reason and I like to learn first hand why. Most of what I am learning is through the Anishinabek (Ojibwe) teachings, as it is difficult to get to any nearby druid groups. Not to mention that the only way to learn most native customs and rituals is to attend, because very little has ever been written. But I’ve found that much still overlaps through reading druidic practices and doing what can be learned from reading. And often enough overlaps most other paths as well. One thing I recently learned is the methods of grief healing. Talking circles, the use of music providing a base sound where people are comfortable being vocal in their grief, and the use of objects in symbolism to aid in letting go. You yourself Brandon have mentioned this a couple of times at least – using an object symbolically to let go or similar purpose. These sorts of things can be of great use to anybody, and that is part of the personal research I am doing – finding universal practices that help us connect. Glad to hear that the ADF has a bit of a similar approach. Which reminds me that I should get to reading more of that booklet you sent me – family life gets distracting

Looking forward to reading more!

By: Terror and mystery: An excerpt from The Sacred Depths of Nature by Ursula Goodenough « Humanistic Paganism

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:03:19 +0000

[...] Rev. Michael J. Dangler, Druid and Senior Priest of Three Cranes Grove – Jan. 22 [...]

By: M. Jay

M. Jay — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:42:24 +0000

I thought Rev. Dangler’s ritual to Ushas, the Vedic goddess of dawn, was really beautiful, but his understanding of this ritual illustrates the divide between naturalistic paganism and modern polytheism. He talks about how through his practice of a short daily devotion to Ushas, he developed a connection, a relationship, an understanding of the Goddess Ushas, and this appears to have been his intention and goal for the ritual. It is Ushas not the dawn that he wishes to understand and connect with, and this to me is the primary difference between modern polytheism and naturalistic paganism (at least as I conceive of it). In naturalistic paganism the focus would be on the dawn itself, on connecting with its innate numinosity, its innate sacredness, which is conveyed through the language and stories of the Goddess. This is a subtle but very profound difference.

By: Upcoming work « Humanistic Paganism

Upcoming work « Humanistic Paganism — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:02:17 +0000

[...] Practice begets belief: An interview with Rev. Michael J Dangler, Druid [...]