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Creyr
Creyr
114 posts

Tidying up offerings
May 19, 2010, 18:29
A friend asked me to go with a bin bag to Long Meg to tidy up all the ritual offering detritus. He had passed by there and said it was really excessive but he didnt have anything to put the rubbish in. He said the thorn tree was particularly badly adorned. So I went up there today - just48 hours after he had been there - armed with bin bag and a knife to cut loose the stuff in the trees.

Unfortunately the farmer had beaten me to and and has tidied up the thorn tree once and for all (he has cut it down and left a wee stump).

I know Im preaching to the converted here, but please, if you do know any leaver of offerings types, tell them this cautionary tale.
The farmer is in his rights to cut the tree down and I sympathise with his point of view. Im not happy tho' as i like trees alot more than i like the kind of people who leave (well intentioned, spiritually imbued) tat tied in them.

I still managed to collect a half bin bag of strange plasticy fairy tiara type things and a pottery cow with crop circle markings on it (!). Also retreived a camping gas cylinder from a rabbit hole under a stone.Hmmmm....

Please encourage all your new ager friends to leave offerings that disappear into thin air immediately ( a song or a prayer perhaps...)

Thankyou
Rant over

Clairex
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat
6195 posts

Re: Tidying up offerings
May 19, 2010, 21:29
You are indeed preaching to the converted Claire, but sadly it still needs saying. Shame about the tree too.
Alfrede
5 posts

Re: Tidying up offerings
May 20, 2010, 13:20
hmmmm - Preaching indeed.

I would be interested to hear who gives you the authority to decide another human beings personal offerings are 'detritus' and 'rubbish'?
And the presumed right to move in and 'tidy up' a location where their religious practices are taking place?

If you ever go to another part of the world, like India for example - would you take a bin bag and tidy up all the 'rubbish' offerings at their sacred sites too.
Or maybe thats different? not 'British'?

It would be very easy to see a degree of arrogance and ignorance in your post - lets hope thats not the case. But it might also be worth considering that there may be things going on that you are totally unaware of - next time you reach for the knife and binbag. Perhaps a heartfelt healing ceremony for a friend or relative with cancer (prayer rags on trees etc) ... just perhaps?

The fact the farmer cut down the thorn tree is the most disgraceful part of this. A tree that has taken years to grow in that special place and yet you sympathise with him? - curious indeed.
As for the pottery cow, where is he now ? in a land fill site?

Alfrede
Squid Tempest
Squid Tempest
8761 posts

Re: Tidying up offerings
May 20, 2010, 13:25
Alfrede wrote:
hmmmm - Preaching indeed.

I would be interested to hear who gives you the authority to decide another human beings personal offerings are 'detritus' and 'rubbish'?
And the presumed right to move in and 'tidy up' a location where their religious practices are taking place?

If you ever go to another part of the world, like India for example - would you take a bin bag and tidy up all the 'rubbish' offerings at their sacred sites too.
Or maybe thats different? not 'British'?

It would be very easy to see a degree of arrogance and ignorance in your post - lets hope thats not the case. But it might also be worth considering that there may be things going on that you are totally unaware of - next time you reach for the knife and binbag. Perhaps a heartfelt healing ceremony for a friend or relative with cancer (prayer rags on trees etc) ... just perhaps?

The fact the farmer cut down the thorn tree is the most disgraceful part of this. A tree that has taken years to grow in that special place and yet you sympathise with him? - curious indeed.
As for the pottery cow, where is he now ? in a land fill site?

Alfrede


If people really feel the need to offer up something at a site, there is always the option of a simple prayer or song, as suggested in the original post. Anyone who thinks that leaving bits of rubbish around by way of an "offering" is a good idea is not only deluded but is destroying the natural appearance of a site for others. Looked at like this it is a selfish act, and one to be discouraged. Sorry, but that is how I feel about the practice.
Hob
Hob
4033 posts

Re: Tidying up offerings
May 20, 2010, 18:10
Strongly agree with the above sentiments by Mr Tempest.

I also think Claire has the same authority as the rest of us to spread the word about being sensible on the matter. It's not arrogance any more than it is arrogance to think that the tat* one leaves should have special status just because one has certain ideas about their significance as offerings.

People do have a right to leave tat at sites, but other people have just as much right to remove it.

In reference to sympathising with a landowner who removes a bush that has been targeted for tat offerings, how would the tat offerers feel if some farmer decided that the front garden of aforementioned tat-mongers was actually a spiritually significant place to farmers, having once been used many years ago for the rowing of wheat, and thus it was appropriate to leave an offering of wheat nourishing slurry all over the garden? Slightly flippant question I know, but you get my meaning.

Hmpf. Spiritual geocaching.

*And as a person who collects all manner of tat, I do not use that as a necessarily pejorative term.
Resonox
604 posts

Re: Tidying up offerings
May 20, 2010, 18:47
Alfrede wrote:

As for the pottery cow, where is he now ? in a land fill site?

Alfrede


"Where is SHE now?"...surely
Also pottery would surely be biodegradable...earth to earth...even in a land-fill, so it's offering as a "sacrifice to the earth" will work regardless of where it now lies...and who is to say that the landfill site isn't over what was once a sacred site to someone.
I dare say there will be some who claim that a can of drink(or even an empty drink can) is a sacrificial offering just because they have chanted a few words over it then slung it with great reverence at a stone circle.
I don't think of myself as arrogant, perhaps a little ignorant of the practices involved, and as such don't understand why a physical offering(aka litter) is any more appropriate and spiritual than an invocation!
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat
6195 posts

Re: Tidying up offerings
May 20, 2010, 19:20
Yes, with you entirely Squid. This is a road that has been trodden on previous TMA threads and I suspect there will never be a complete consensus - and where would be the fun in that anyway!

"Tat" (whether perjoratively described or not) can never do anything to enhance a site to my mind. The only arrogance going on here seems to be the arrogance that makes you want to impose your "tat" on other people and places.

However, my front garden used to be sacred to a long line of gold- and silver-smiths, so if anyone would like to come a drop some bling off, that'll be okay with me.
tjj
tjj
3606 posts

Re: Tidying up offerings
May 20, 2010, 19:43
I confess to leaving an offering on Waden Hill today; my sunglasses are up there in the long grass somewhere. If the goddess doesn't want them, can I have them back please.
thesweetcheat
thesweetcheat
6195 posts

Re: Tidying up offerings
May 20, 2010, 20:12
tjj wrote:
I confess to leaving an offering on Waden Hill today; my sunglasses are up there in the long grass somewhere. If the goddess doesn't want them, can I have them back please.


Perhaps one of the ewes is sporting them...

:-)
postman
848 posts

Re: Tidying up offerings
May 20, 2010, 20:25
tjj wrote:
I confess to leaving an offering on Waden Hill today; my sunglasses are up there in the long grass somewhere. If the goddess doesn't want them, can I have them back please.


Reminds me of my offering at Mynnyd Pentre last month, a few shards of
Cokin ND grad filter, as much as I dislike sheep (I have my reasons) I didnt want them to injure their feet or mouths on the sharp glass so I took my tat home with me, if only the sheep would do it too.
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