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On the second day of my spiritual pilgrimage to the confluence project sites I drove into Oregon and toward home, because the sites actually led back that way. The first site I visited was Celillo Park. It's currently the only site where the project hasn't been installed, but I wanted to go there anyway. It used to be underwater, because of the falls that had been there. It was supposed to be a protected fishing site for the Native Americans But in the 1950's the U.S. government built dams, which changed the Columbia and silenced the falls. 

Ic wæs þær Inne þær ic ane geseah
winnende · wiht wido bennegean
holt hweorfende heaþoglemma feng
deopra dolga daroþas wæron
weo þære wihte ⁊ se wudu searwum
fæste gebunden hyre fota wæs
biid fæft oþer · oþer bisgo dreag
leolc on lyfte hwilum londe neah
treow wæs getenge þe þær torhtan stod
leafum bihongen Ic lafe geseah
minum hlaforde þær hæleð druncon
þara flan on flet beran

The Anglo-Saxon riddle above falls in the group usually classified as 'domestic' items: better to call them work tools. The aim of the riddle of course is to disguise a very familiar object with an unexpected description. Here's Paull Franklin Baum's translation (because it is hot even in Scotland, too hot to come up with my own translation!):

On the first day of my spiritual pilgrimmage, I drove out to the chief Timothy Park. It's the one site which most resembles what Lewis and Clark saw on their journey to explore the west. It's also the beginning of the confluence project. When I got there, I walked this path to site of the confluence project memorial, which is this place where 6 stone layers are set into the land, with writing that describes the significance of the site as well as the ritual done to commemorate the site.

In a bit less than a week from the time of this writing, I'll be going on a short spiritual pilgrimage in the Columbia Gorge. My partner and I will be traveling up the Columbia River Gorge to check out the Confluence sites, and learn more about this region we live in. 

One of the reasons I'm doing this journey is because I've felt a powerful connection to the spirit of the Columbia River. I feel that by traveling to these sites, walking the land and learning the lore I can develop a deeper relationship with the spirit of the river, while also honoring the past and present.

June 27, 2018 – I just read a beautiful prayer by Francesca De Grandis on the Witches and Pagans website. In it, she references the fear of extending one's arm to help another human being – which means, I think, the fear that our intentions may be misinterpreted and that the arm which was extended in love might get viciously ripped off at the shoulder! Her prayer is for strength of faith, to remember that Mother-Father God supports us always, no matter what the outcome seems to be.

This concern is especially rampant in these times of political and religious division, exacerbated by an Internet gone out of control - with so many plausible versions of reality that nobody can tell, any more, what is true and what is false. To an old wannabe hippy like myself who used to live in hopeful dreams of a world united in love, it is unbelievable how the most benign expressions of goodwill and acceptance can be met with the most ferocious hatred and condemnation - by people who consider themselves just as reasonable and educated, and just as socially sensitive and spiritual, as I am myself!

Ic seah wrætlice     wuhte feower
samed siþian     swearte · wæran lastas
swaþu swiþe blacu     swift wæs on fore
fulgum framra     fleotgan lyfte
deaf under yþe     dreag unstille
winnende wiga     se him wægas tæcneþ
ofer fæted gold     feower eallū

The riddles of the Exeter Book give us oblique snapshots of everyday life for the monks in the Middle Ages. You can easily imagine the scribes fixing on something within site and coming up with a poetic and misleading description where metaphor can throw a reader off the track. But the metaphors reveal power, too. Riddle 40 (51 in the Krapp-Dobbie edition) refers to one of the ubiquitous items in their lives: the pen or quill.