This afternoon while I was scrolling through the blogs I follow, I spotted the Beltane issue of SerpentStar that I’d flagged to read a few weeks ago.
For those of you who may not heard of it, SerpentStar is the online, free newsletter for OBOD in the Southern Hemisphere. Sitting alongside Touchstone, its focus on traditions and seasonal celebration in the Southern Hemisphere is a welcome addition to the variety of work on the web from OBOD Druids.
I haven’t read SerpentStar in a while, and I have to say it’s changed a bit since I last looked. I opened it up to see a professional-looking, clean design, with some wonderful photos from groves across the Southern Hemisphere. The format is now more similar to Touchstone, with information about groves at the beginning, contributions in the middle, and upcoming events and advertising at the end. It had a nice sense of familiarity about it.
The contributions this quarter are a great read. There’s Pete Blake talking about his experience going to one of the UK OBOD Camps, Maria Ede-Weaving writing from the Northern Hemisphere on the paradox of the Beltane/Samhain Axis, and Todd William Dearing exploring the Sacred Masculine.
One of the things I love the most is seeing pictures from Australian OBOD groves – with our shared history they seem somewhat familiar, but the landscape and indigenous influences are also so different. I love seeing how OBOD Druidry is developing and responding to the traditions of the land.
The issue is primarily Australia-focused, but it doesn’t have to be! If anyone is interested in submitted their work to SerpentStar, submissions for their Lughnasadh issue are open until the end of January, so there’s plenty of time to submit those creative outputs that the summer brings.
-Nicola
Under the Summer Stars 