Putting up more videos on YouTube lately. Here’s my cover of Stars from Les Miserables. I also share in the beginning how I’m capturing sound and some inexpensive hardware I use. Enjoy!

2012 is the year of video! I have better lighting so look for more video updates from me. Here’s me singing, I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables, along with some of my helpful hints for using your laptop’s camera (plus what my screen looks like for a time when I use Screenflow for Mac). Enjoy!

The world is stunned by the death of Steve Jobs. Throughout all of his technological innovation, even he could not stop death. In my other life as a web designer, I wrote about my own Apple Story. Take a look if you like.

But one of the most compelling pictures, which I found on The Daily’s site, has just struck me, and this is how I want to remember Steve Jobs.

The caption for this photo by Diana Walker reads, “This was a very typical time. I was single. All you needed was a cup of tea, a light, and your stereo, you know, and that’s what I had.”

Why is this photo speaking to me so loudly right now?

For many of you who follow my blog or know of my journey, you’ve seen me evolve from a techy to a massage therapist to a fledgling coach, to a webmaster, and often times a strange mixture of all of those things!  But I absolutely cherish those times where I feel I’m in the middle of a breath in the “in-between.”

That’s where I am right now.

Things are changing in life and I’m at a crossroads with what to do on my “holistic” side.  My web design business has once again taken a leap of growth, and now having to hire an occasional assistant.  I have tons and tons of notes and ideas for NorthernDruid in my Evernote Notebooks spanning the last two years, but I’m realizing that what I’m truly searching for is a place of simplicity, peacefulness, solace – like the North Woods where I often bring you my Northern Druid Podcast.

The podcast has been a great success for me, and I hope that the folks who listen get a glimpse of life in Minnesota and that I’ve brought that relaxation of the North Woods to you.  Whatever direction I go from this moment – I’ll be keeping the podcast, you can count on that.

However, I won’t lie.  I’ll be “clearing the deck” at some point very soon, and from that point, I’ll be bringing forth something new.  I’m not sure what yet, but I know that it’s coming.

I ask you all to stay tuned.  Breathe.  Find your own “in-between” breath too.

Life is change, and change is coming!  I’ll see you all soon!

Acheiving Balance on the Fall Equinox

Ending Meditation on Balance with the elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.

I’ve been making a few additions and changes recently to the space here, and thought I’d fill you in on a few things!  More changes are afoot, but I’ll save those for another blog post!

1. Page Re-Naming and Re-arranging:  To make it easier for navigation and remembering, I’ve changed a lot of the page names and where they show up.  Druid Offerings is now just “Services” .  Earth Ethics has moved under About Me, and I’ve made some page titles more clear as to what they are about!
2. Tarot Readings!! I’m now doing my Tarot Readings at a new site I developed called Tarot for Coffee.
   This is a fun site where I’ve married (maybe handfasted) my love for the Tarot and my passion (maybe addiction) for Coffee.  I blog about a lot of topics like weekly tarot readings, fun coffee momements, etc.  I hope you like it!
3. New Video/Audio of me singing on the Vocal Performance page!
   Here it is for you too!  Me singing “Gravity” by Sara Barielles.

Explorations in a Living Druidry

Podcast Highlights:

Song: Spencer the Rover – by February Sky
Find February Sky on Facebook to listen to more music!

I would love to play your music! To submit music and poems, or to be interviewed – email me! scott@northerndruid.net

*Wasafarm Update from Northern Minnesota
*Choke Cherry Harvest – Crickets and Junebug

Be sure to visit The Druid Network – http://www.druidnetwork.org/

Song: IMBRLYCN by Paul Newman
Download this Song! http://apps.facebook.com/reverbnation_ap/storyfolksinger_84973_405537

*Lughnasadh update on the Heron in Northeast Minneapolis and Marshall Terrace Park.
*Be sure to check out the Bird Chick Blog! http://www.birdchick.com/

Closing Song – The Bird Tribe by Leigh Ann Phillips

Thank you! Next Podcast – September’s FULL MOON.

If you are part of the Reformed Druids of North America (RDNA), and/or any of its offshoots and related branches, you’re probably aware that “The Reform” started in a small college in Minnesota in the 60′s. Back in 1963, students at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota started the Reformed Druid movement as a protest against forced attendance at religious services by the college. What started as a simple protest grew many legs, and now there are thousands of Reformed Druids, Groves, Proto-groves, and related organizations.

The moral here – be careful when organizing a simple protest!

I traveled to Carleton College last week to do a solitary mini-pilgrimage to a few of the Druid sites where it all began. You can see photos on my Flickr site from my visit here. Incidentally, if you’ve followed my blog, you know that I used to live in Northfield, Minnesota for a time before I began this journey into Druidry.

There is a more formal Full Pilgrimage that was published in The Druid Inquirer recently. While I only did a portion of the pilgrimage, it’s worth the read as it gives some good background into the places I visited!

Many thanks goes out to all of the Carleton Druids for starting quite a movement!

In case you missed the live meditation, which I’ve entitled “The Heron and The River Between” – I will have the recording of it available for download until August 4!

You can also still receive my FREE 2-page guide to Lughnasadh that you can also share with others. Simply sign up below and you’ll be sent an email with the download links for both the recording and the Lughnasadh Guide!

Happy Lughnasadh!

Recording and Guide no longer available

As we approach Lughnasadh, I’ll be going back to Marshall Terrace Park in Minneapolis to peer out at the new Great Blue Heron rookery on their new island home on the Mississippi River.  While I’ve been pondering and meditating upon The Heron and it’s journey, my new tarot deck arrived!  I’m thoroughly enjoying developing my reading and intuition from The Wildwood Tarot, by Mark Ryan, John Matthews, and Will Worthington.

In  my very first reflective reading for myself, interestingly enough, The Heron was the first card drawn!  What a welcoming message!

The Heron is able to stand and be still, staring into the waters below, for hours at a time. In some mythology, The Heron is the bird that peers into the Pool of Wisdom to witness the birthing of the Earth and all of life stemming from it.  The Heron is also the symbol of the birth of all life, and therefore we see its images being associated with “The Stork” which delivers babies.  In some Druid and Pagan traditions, a Heron Bag (or Crane Bag) is carried by the wanderer on their path to enlightenment.  In the Heron Bag are stones, magical items, coins, acorns, or whatever the wander keeps in order to infuse connection and wonder with a grounding in the earth and all of its mysticism.  The Heron bag is the traveler’s bag of magical secrets!

When we ourselves, like The Heron, stare into waters in our bioregion (our own Pools of Wisdom), we often see the world as a reflection.  We see the world and ourselves as we truly are, as seen by the Pool of Wisdom.  In this vision, sometimes for the first time, we are able to stand in our own truth of ourselves or our current situation.  The secret connections are revealed if we are able to be still and gaze upon the waters.  These waters flow in our bodies, our blood, our sweat, our tears.  The Pool of Wisdom is both outside and inside of all of us, and is available to show us true wisdom, should we choose to approach it in stillness.

In the coming months of Autumn, then Winter, these Heron in Minnesota will ultimately meet the clear truth of their situation, just as they have for all of their ancestral existence on Earth.  Their peering into the water has shown them for who they are – as nest builders and survivors in the evolutionary cycle of Nature.  Perhaps the “Blasted Oaks” of their previous rookery have ushered in an awareness of further human encroachment and the possibilities of a change in our northern climate.

Perhaps the Pool has opened an evolutionary window into their sight – and an opportunity for our own seeing. Poised on a “River Between” man’s urban industrialization and Nature’s swift winds of change, they chose to rebuild their nests after all was lost.  They will carry through with the incubation and raising of their young, allowing the waters of the Pool to reflect back the ultimate fate of their young when it is time to either migrate, or face the reality of further loss, should winter come swiftly before the young can fly.

The Great Blue Heron’s crossroads is our crossroads. Can we be still to see the reflections of our actions within the Pool of Wisdom?  Will we carry on to survive the impending crises that could befall us, or will we  be shown our ultimate fate, reflected back in the form of the swift axe of Justice? Will we be prepared for either situation?

Recently while I was browsing YouTube late at night, looking for any new videos about Indigo Children or Druidry, somehow I happened upon Angelo Nasios and all he had to say about his experience as a professional Tarot reader.

The cool thing – he’s young, incredibly knowledgeable, has a snappy and infectious sense of humor, and he’s doing all the right things to position himself as an expert in what he’s passionate about – Reading the Tarot!  He posts regular videos on YouTube, has a business website, a tarot blog, and also uses facebook to show others his passion.  I don’t even think he’s barely 23 or 24, but he’s doing everything right with regard to our “new era of social media” and what I call “expert soloprenuership.”

As a web designer and coach for solo business practitioners – I can safely say that Angelo’s web presence can teach quite a lot!

So I decided to friend him on facebook and also buy a reading!  Angelo delivers his tarot readings via email, but they are just as inspiring, passionate, and sometimes full of the same wit he displays in his YouTube videos.

I’ve been changing a lot too, so for my 2-card reading, I asked a simple question (ha! – simple..hmm.) – What is my path to self-improvement or self-actualization?

You can download my reading here to see what his work is like!

So because I have also been there as a soloprenuer with passion (heck.. I’m still there), I want you all (yes all of you!) to get your own reading from Angelo, even if it’s just a 1-card reading.  Go Get it HERE!  NOW! Spread the love for this up and coming rising star, and maybe learn some things about yourself in the process with the question you ask.

To buy a reading from Angelo Nasios and learn more about him and the Tarot visit his websites!
http://www.angelonasios.com/

http://www.thatstotallytarot.com/