Pagan "Guardians" - anybody hear of them?

[Demeter]

This is a message I received from a friend:

"What do you know about a group called the Guardians? Pagans, in general... with a council of 9, and about 143 of them around the world who go and 'clean up messes'. Have you ever run into them before? Supposedly they're pretty high profile."

The only Guardians I can find on the net are a couple of small groups that do security work at gatherings; this would seem to be something different. I've never heard of them before. Anybody have any info?

[WandererInGray]

*puzzled look*

"clean up messes?"....okay...

Um, this sounds like a load of hokum, if you'll pardon me. *shrugs* I could be wrong, but "council of 9" and "143 members worldwide" sounds a little Buffyish to me.

[Azure]

I agree with Wanderer. Sounds like an urban legend in the making. My bf is obsessed with debunking that sort of thing, so I'll ask him if he's familiar with the subject. But I think it sounds a bit Buffy or Illuminati or whatever.

Hah! Pagans aren't organized enough to have such an organization!

[Erigion]

Ahem. I thought "The Guardians" were one of those militant Christian watch groups. :huh:

[Demeter]

It's a group one of my covenors has run into up in Boston (I think). He connected with them through a MUsh he plays on. He's in a vulnerable state of mind right and they're doing the "she knows things she couldn't possibly know" routine on him. I am very concerned.

[Mithrea]

http://www.ninegates.com/about_council.html


?? That's about all I could find.

[materra]

There is a book with this as a story line, actually a couple books, I think one was by M Lackey, and can't recall the other. Once I get my library unpacked and recataloged... I should be able to find them. Mean while.... IMO....stuff and nonsence made real by a few folks. BB

[Demeter]

Originally posted by materra
There is a book with this as a story line, actually a couple books, I think one was by M Lackey, and can't recall the other. Once I get my library unpacked and recataloged... I should be able to find them. Mean while.... IMO....stuff and nonsence made real by a few folks. BB

Materra, thanks for jogging the memory! I've read those books, too! That's what I needed ... and my covenor may be in very large trouble.

Seems the fantasy author Mercedes Lackey (who I've met in the past) wrote a series of novels about one Diana Tregarde, an occult investigator who is a Guardian, one of a loosely-knit group who Defend Mankind Against Things They Were Not Meant to Know ... anyway, they're out of print now, because she was harassed and threatened with death by a bunch of loose-screw pagan fans who claimed that they were the Guardians, that Misty was in fact a renegade Guardian, and that she would have to die for revealing their secrets ...

Here's Misty's "rant" about it, FYI ... http://www.firebirdarts.com/mlackey/1mlstraw.shtml

I did not realize that these clowns were still around.

[Witchy Cowgirl]

Originally posted by Demeter
who go and 'clean up messes'

Hey can they make their way to my house this week-end?8O
Sorry, didn't mean to make light but I couldn't resist.

[materra]

*snaps fingers* That is exactly one of the ones I was thinking of...and recently there is another sort of male story version I read. Part elven etc etc. Lives in NYC. Goes to music school... Anyway, I will eventually find it.

The sad part is there have been so called groups like this around since the late 60's and a few keep popping up now and then. They are very "serious" and best avoided. No offence intended but the ones I have encountered in the past (Past, okay?) were mostly into manipulation, money and drugs. The "guardian" parts were largely honorary and imaginary. BB

[Demeter]

Okay, I heard back from my friend - these folks know about the "Tregarde" crew and are somewhat embarrassed by them, though they have superficial similarities like their name and coven structure.

This is what my friend says about their work: "She does things like, when there's a rift or someone opens something, she gathers a group of pagans together and they try and close it. Or when there's a pool of negative energy, they cast circle and try to drain it. That sort of thing. When they sense something negative,
they try and replace it with positive energy. Nothing on the physical plane. And not even on the site of that darkness, either... all from the safety of wherever they normally cast circles."

Now this is iffy enough, but at least they're not talking about doing things to people. The most involved they've ever gotten real world was calling the cops on a group of Satanists who were doing animal sacrifice.

Thank you all for your help.

Materra, the other series you're thinking of is the Bedlam Bards series, which is set in the same universe and overlaps to the extent that the bard lives in the Guardians' apartment building in New York.

http://www.firebirdarts.com/pdf/xpage16.pdf

There's also a Celtic musical group called Bedlam Bards that looks interesting; I may order one of their CDs to check them out.

http://www.bedlambards.com/

[Eudaimonia]

Hee hee hee :)

Makes me think of some people at college who play waaaaay too much D&D

[Azure]

I hope everyone took the time to read what Mercedes Lackey had to say - because the point brought up both by her and by the other issue at hand here is a significant one.

Every large group has a certain percentage of members who lack social skills and live in a fantasy world of their own creating. That's just how it works. The Fundamentalist Christians have them just as much as the Pagan community. I am an actor by profession, and the theatre has them. And every now and then the nut jobs come out to play, and they give whatever group they are part of a bad reputation.

One of the things about the the Pagan community as a whole is it tends to be rather tolerant and accepting, and because most of us tend to look for the oddities in the universe, we also tend to be more accepting when someone comes up with a fantasy that involves something like the "Guardians" - but we also know that taken too far, such fantasies can have ugly repercussions. And they attract other followers who are looking for a raison d'etre that doesn't require them to live in the real world and pay rent.

Likewise, when people run around intimidating others with their imagined "Guardians" who are a "secret group who really rule the world" etc and so on, we need to quash this stuff, rather than let some poor fool of a new Pagan, perhaps out there honestly looking for some sort of spiritual comfort get dragged into it. It may be disappointing in the short term, but that's better than destructive in the long.

[Draca]

The council of nine sounds like something the Church of Satan does. Ive been in the Pagan scene for 20 plus years and have never heard of such a group.

[Azure]

Ha! I knew I had another reference that related to this. it's out of print now, but there is a book called "The Guardians" written by Lynn Abbey - I read it in high school, I think which would have been the late 80s - anyhow, I still ahve a copy. It's about a group of witches - thinly veiled Gardnerian or Alexandrian types - who protect the world from things that go bump in the night. In this case, it takes place in NYC and they do indeed try to close a hole in the fabric of time and space and keep bad entities out of our world.
It's awfully close to what these people are claiming. . .

[Flar's Freyja]

Originally posted by Azure
Hah! Pagans aren't organized enough to have such an organization!

:rotfl::lol::rotfl::lol::rotfl:

When I helped organize and start a pagan community in my small town area, I found that it was like trying to balance on a beach ball with one toe..............

But I'm happy to report that it celebrates it's one year anniversary this month - even though it was so stressful that I ended up backing off for a while ;)

[materra]

Exactly, Azure, the Lynn Abby novels! Plus there was a novel or two UK based that had children and adults on a similar mission to save the world set in rural England perhaps Wales. Mid 60's I think... I know I found it about the time the Tolken books were published here in the US... because before that I only had English copies. (Or rather my mother did and I read them... and they just had to stay in my room ;) on loan as it were. )

At anyrate, I really would be careful with these folks, and try and keep my friend in reality check. I haven't heard much evil done by other than human hands lately. (No, I am not saying it cannot exist.)

[Skye]

Never heard of this group.

I my family, we are Guardians of our home land, alas, my ansestors stand guard for eternity over our homes. Someday I will join them in this mission. These are the only Guardians I know of, hence my title.

Sounds to me like this may not be a very good group to associate with, but I really don't know as this is the first I have heard of them.

[fire_Raven]

Originally posted by Eudaimonia
Hee hee hee :)

Makes me think of some people at college who play waaaaay too much D&D
there is positively nothing wrong with people who play to much D&D :2G: 8O

but clean up messes? i'm confused as to what kind of mess... they liek the ministry of magic on Harry Potter?

*scratches head*