Last year I bought a fancy bird bath.

That was stupid. I knew as the sale's clerk was ringing the purchase up, that no bird in its right mind was gonna use the bird bath I was buying. For one thing it was deep. It was sort of two level, with a deeper part in the center. To make matters worse, it was plated in a slick blue coating. I can't imagine a bird with sense is going to walk around on some slick surface, and risk breaking those tiny legs.

So my snazzy bird bath sat unused.

It did make a great rain gauge through the Summer and into the Winter, while slowly the shiny coating that celebrated the current Industrial Age, went away.

Sometimes, when it had rained and the bowl was full, I would toss flowers I found around the plants in my garden, into the water as an offering to the Element of Water, so that it would bless my small garden with plentiful rain, and good weather. We did that a long time ago, made offering to the Gods. And made them too to the minor spirits. Like those that helped the rains come when we mere humans needed them.

Would we be wrong to do it again?

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Tonight I had the time to give my garden a good and deep watering. Something it hasn't had for several weeks. As I did, I realized how lucky I was. This Summer has been Hot, but not too much. And we have had rain on a regular basis, though some recently have been quick and gone soon. I decided to make an offering to the Elemental of Water of flowers. So I went around to the plants in my garden and took one here, one there. As I dropped them into the water, I said a small prayer that what ever spirit watches over St Louis and can affect the rains, would bless me and my garden with kind and gentle results.

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As you learn about Green Wizardry, you will find that those of us who practice it, have a variety of religious and spiritual leanings.

Many of us have grown up in fairly mainstream religious households and as we grew older found something lacking. Those members, like I, explored what it meant to seek out the Otherness that is in the background of our World. Some became pagans, learning to worship the Old Gods, and some, like I, came to the conclusion that mere humans, couldn't really understand all of what was out there. So we accepted that the Universe was unknowable BUT, those of you new to Green Wizards, OF A STRONG CHRISTIAN INCLINATION, let me assure you, accepting that the Universe is unknowable, does, I admit, accept the possibility that you are right in how you view the spirituality of that Universe. Maybe the Universe at the spiritual level is ruled by a all powerful single God, whose Son named Jesus came to Earth, taught his message and died for our collective sins.

Yet if I accept your view may be right, honestly, doesn't that mean YOU have to accept that maybe I'm right when I say the Universe is a place of many Gods, and many minor powers. Some of which watch over us, and some who don't. If I call them elemental spirits and pray to them, and you call them Saints, and pray to them. Does it matter so much which view we each hold, but rather the results. If I make offering to the Elemental of Water, and you pray to Saint Agricola, and it rains, doesn't that work for us both?

Its called "Disensus".

It is the opposite of "Consensus" which I expect most reading this know. Consensus is the process where a group of people discuss an idea or subject and then come to a shared opinion that all accept as a truth. Green Wizards on all things but the few core basis of this Art of Green Wizardry, don't come to a shared opinion. It means Green Wizards accept that collectively WE have many beliefs and view points. We accept that we have them and that that no single view point is accepted by US as the one and only truth.

We just ask that you keep an open mind on the many things we discuss.

Hold strong feelings about subjects. Argue with passion and conviction, but do it with civility.

If you worship one God, then perhaps I will worship another. Green Wizardry teaches that none of us know all the answers. That we may disagree, and yet we can still come together in discussing things like gardening, solar power, appropriate technology that makes each of our Lives a little less stressful. You may disagree with a man's religious views but find common purpose in how to plant and grow tomatoes. You may disagree with a woman's political views, yet find her ideas on conservation and alternative energy something you completely agree with.

When you are here, please look for things you have in common, not things that tear us apart. Its not that hard to get along, if you try.

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POST SCRIPT: I wrote this the night before. This morning dawned bright and sunny, but within a few hours turned cloudy, and then it began to rain. It was a soft, gentle rain of a few hours before ending. Then it stayed mild and in the low 80s all day. Perhaps someone heard my prayers and was pleased...