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As the snows still cover this wonderful island of ours, and the moon finally washes away to become new again. We feel the grip of the solitude winter brings trying its hardest, its last attempt at taking our lives away and although February can be a dark month,Winter is in fact receding and Spring is on it’s way.
For many the snow has heightened this annual feeling of isolation, of being drawn in on ourselves, and waiting like a seed and this is not a place of new beginnings, but a place of endings; a time of drawing conclusions and bringing closure. Embrace this last chance to to shed yourselves of the journey 2009 brought, speaking to many people this last year has been a hard one, one that has challenged and brought up many questions: forced us to look at where we are, what we hold dearest for ourselves, what is of value to us.
Like the Hanged Man of the Tarot, as he stops resisting; instead he makes himself vulnerable, sacrifices his position or opposition, and in doing so, gains illumination. Answers that eluded him become clear, solutions to problems are found. He sees the world differently, has almost mystical insights. This card can also imply a time when everything just stands still, a time of rest and reflection before moving on. Things will continue on in a moment, but for now, they float, timeless. he climbs a branch and dangles upside down like a child, giving up for a moment, all that he is, wants, knows or cares about. Coins fall from his pockets and as he gazes down on them - seeing them not as money but only as round bits of metal - everything suddenly changes perspective. It is as if he's hanging between the mundane world and the spiritual world, able to see both. It is a dazzling moment, dreamlike yet crystal clear. Connections he never understood before are made, mysteries are revealed. 
Then as we turn slowly from the North towards the East, from Winter to Spring, Midnight to Dawn, Earth to Air, from conclusion to inspiration we meet with Imbolc halfway to the Spring Equinox. Imbolc is a time just before the dawn, a time of conception and gestation, of turning away from the past and looking to the Future.
Spring is not here yet, and it is not a time to put plans into action but a time to prepare and plan for the journey ahead. Shamanism has always been about the “in between “ places and the embracing of that moment, the stillness as the snow falls. Imbolc is the tipping point, the pivotal moment between the seasons. It also represents the movement from the element of Earth, and towards Air.
The element of Air beckons, and with the freedom and inspiration that brings let your soul be ready to migrate back to this land of ours ......
Love and Unrest /|\
Over the last year I have been questioning the very roots of the path I have been following, looking for the “Heritage”, the ancient thread that leads backwards through time.
We read so much about the ancient Druids in modern books and can even learn to be one by distance learning, like studying an open university degree, and so we forget to look for the truth ourselves and just go along with the excepted beliefs.
When we start to peel back the veneer of these so called ancient religions and see the substance beneath, we find that Paganism in general is not so archaic at all.
Wicca was invented by Gerald Gardner although he claimed an ancient secret heritage for it, but it now seems clear that he was heavily influenced by the work of Margaret Murray, and her book, The Witch Cult in Western Europe and The Golden Bough by Sir JG Frazer.
Modern Druidism as it is practiced today was put together by Ross Nichols, and like Gardner he claimed an ancient secret linage to this. He introduced Celtic mythology and Bardcraft, and the celebration of the full eight seasonal ceremonies in addition to arranging the teachings into three grades, in accordance with classical accounts of the three divisions of the Druids. Nichols was a friend of Gardner and one can imagine them cherry picking ideas from different sources to form the two “Ancient Religions”.
Listening to Prof. Ronald Huttons "Mount Haemus Lectures" have been an enormous influence on me in my search for “The Truth” as was his "The History of the Pagan Horned God " and I encourage you to give them a listen.
But these pathways have value, they help many people find their connection back to the natural world, and this is why we have seen a rise in numbers and a greater public awareness of Paganism in general. It all depends on what you personally want,and how you go about achieving that.
People come to spiritual paths for many reasons and sometimes it’s worth stopping and questioning yourself, examining your motives or the direction you are headed. Only by being honest and critical can we find the real value in our workings, and find the things that work for us.
Just because its written in a book or part of a course doesn't make it LAW. We are all unique and therefore should use the work of others just to start us off, building a framework around ourselves then start to work with our own intuition, but this comes with time, time spent just walking the land, wandering in the woods letting the spirits of the stones and trees speak to us. Try to learn from nature in the same way as the first ever Shaman had to, switching over to this kind of mindset is very powerful and whatever name you call the power of nature, or how you personify it is irrelevant, that energy is there and wants to connect with us again.
I find myself breaking away from books, rituals and all the syncretism of Paganism and returning to my original ways of walking “my path”, a trust in my instinct, a tree, the moon and my intuition. The mysteries are found in the land and inside myself, they are not attained by lighting the right colour candle and calling to the west, whilst burning that special incense from Starchild..........
Love and Unrest /|\
Touching the Ancestors
The Coldrum stones long barrow is situated not far from the Pilgrims Way near Trottiscliffe, Kent. The monument has been dated to the early Neolithic period around 4000 BCE.The barrow was excavated in 1912, 22 human skeletons and various animalremains were found. Nobody has ever been sure if this was a family buried, or a chieftain with his slaves enabling them to continue to serve him.
Some of the remains where removed from the Trottiscliffe church in 1984, where they had been on display in the porch and now reside in the Maidstone Museum.Many moons ago both Rob and I discussed if it would be possible to take the remains of the people interred at the tomb back there and hold a ritual to honour their return. We do not want to have them reburied but just to have them placed inside the chamber for a short while.Rob had been to the Museum before to spend time with the remains, so we e-mailed the curator again to see if another visit would be possible.This would just be a low key visit, just to spend time with the bones and see if it felt right to continue with the project. The curator got back to me and we set a date.On the 22nd of October I visited the remains with Kate, who is also interested in the whole idea of taking them back, arriving at 10 AM we entered the Museum and went to the reception, after a short wait we were taken to the cellar where the collections not on display are held. Feeling both nervous and excited at the same time we went down the stairs and found a table with the remains all laid out. 
If there was an award for the coolest curator then I think it should go to Giles Guthrie, he was both informative and sympathetic to the reason for our visit. He allowed us to remove the bones from there bags and spend time handling them.
We spent over two hours talking and connecting with the spirit of these amazing artifacts, in amongst the bags of human remains was a collection of animal bones found in the central cist, deer, fox, sheep, ox and cat. the fox bone had been broken open to remove the marrow. 
The human remains included jaw bones from 6 year old and 18 month old children, male bones showing signs of rheumatic changes in the joints and bones from the foot of a woman.The fragment of a thigh bone which shows signs of cremation held my attention, holding it in my hand I felt a strong connection and could almost smell the fire.
Also on the table was a skull which was on display at the church, the information on this says “A skull of a man from an ancient grave (not Coldrum)".
Of the 22 human remains excavated we have only tracked down these held at Maidstone but I am currently in talks with the Natural history museum to find out where the rest could my be held, my investigations on both the internet and with Archaeological societies turned up information on a skull being carbon dated at the moment, and there is evidence that some of the finds from post world war one excavations where taken to London, but the storage was bombed during the blitz and so lost forever.
A recent article on the Female skull and the fatal wound to the cranium has been found but more investigation is needed to locate this also.
During our visit we talked about the idea of returning the remains for a ritual to Giles and he confirmed that he would support our request and had no problem at all with allowing them to leave the Museum for that purpose.
So plans are now a foot to bring it all together and the search to find the rest of the remains still available will continue.................
Love and Unrest /|\
Is our paganism in danger of becoming psychotherapy? Is our paganism in danger of becoming just as dogmatic as the orthodox religions we shy away from? I think it is! For the past year Phil and myself have attended workshops/groups where Seers, Pagans, Druids, Witches and Shamans have all been speaking about a great sense of change; an undercurrent that seems to have given the symptoms of the recession, greater awareness of climatic change and social change too. We could all be forgiven for thinking this is rather apocalyptic, end of the world coming, 2012 not long around the corner. However, it seems that is about us flowing with the tide of change, in all that we are and do. This has affected my spirituality profoundly and taken me to the bare bones of my spiritual expression. Something that is new to paganism in twenty first century is that people often now choose to be priest/shamans/seers/healers. In traditional societies this was often the result of some trauma, disease, some brake down in the physical or mental state of the individual. Today we seek to find the expression of a more natural, free and unorthodox spirituality, fueled by the importance of a need to deepen our relationship to the natural world. There is nothing wrong with this, yet we can also slip into the wrong focus, as our paganism becomes nothing more than escapism. Also we crave to understand the tradition within which we work deeply and find answers in the books from the local “New Age Shoppe”, websites and often clutch a host of titles and qualifications of proficiency within those traditions. I think we are in danger of losing the pivotal notion of paganism; that nature is our teacher and guide, that we find true inspiration from the natural world, our land, that we allow our paganism to evolve and flow with the tides of moon, sun, seasons and stars. While much of the structure and ritual of Paganism provides the new seeker some clarity and sense of confidence that ‘I am doing it right’ it can sometimes hold us and limit us in the wild soul expression that our paganism so craves to be. Much of this change has been hard for the wilder community to accept, as old age concepts are challenged and the very notion of Tradition is readdressed. For me, I have been seen, in my public work as a Druid Priest for the past 20 years, and suddenly now the process of braking down the preconceptions and ‘ways of working’ within Druidry has led people to wonder who or what I am. I am no longer able to offer the same style of teaching, the same level of support, the impetus to lead/facilitate. Suddenly it seems that I have changed, loved and supported by those who find similar inspiration. Loathed and even offered sympathy by those who hold on to what was. Yet for me the freedom is deliciously wonderful, and challenging at the same time; the process of being soul naked and true, to dance beneath the dark Yew on a full moon and the ecstasy of sweet dark inspiration. I am wild soul, on my wild land; I find a common expression through Druidry yet am I a priest? Who knows I wait till the community adjusts to the wild insanity of my new yet familiar journey. I don’t seek to heal myself through my paganism, healing may simply be a by-product of my spiritual practice, I don’t seek to become a better person or more enlightened, in fact I think you soon realise you become “endarkened” celebrating the mystery rather than the knowledge of why. We don’t need to call the quarters, we don’t need to know what we are doing, we just need the intent and focus and open to the flow that is nature and our sacred relationship we form there. Who knows you may find me as the wild Merlin naked with nothing more than a pig and apple in my grove……
Rob Wilson /|\
Shamanic Druidry : Britain’s native spirituality.
Shamanism is how religion was practiced for its first million years. Up until about 12,000 years ago, there was no other form of religion on this planet; that was how we gained access to the sacred. Shamanism is not so much a religion, as ordinarily conceived, it is a kind of pre-rational science; a methodology for attaining a certain kind of experience.
The shaman undergoes the journey of the soul and returns to heal the collective through information.The function of the shaman, aside from the acts of healing, is to teach, to lead the way for the tribe to new perceptions.
Shamans act as mediators in their culture. The shaman is seen as communicating with the spirits on behalf of the community, including the spirits of the dead. In some cultures, this mediator function of the shaman may be illustrated well by some of the shaman's objects and symbols. The shaman's tree is an image found in several cultures (Yakuts, Dolgans, Evenks) as a symbol for mediation. The tree is seen as a being whose roots belong to the world underneath; its trunk belongs to the middle, human-inhabited world; and its top is related to the upper world. Shamans gain knowledge and power by traversing the Axis mundi (in Druidry this is the Yew tree) this is done by effecting a transition of consciousness, entering into an ecstatic trance, either autohypnotically or through the use of entheogens. The methods employed are diverse, and are often used together. Some of the methods for effecting such trances are:
Drumming
Dancing
Singing
Vigils
Fasting
Sweat lodge
Vision quests
The use of hallucinogens :
Gordon Wasson in his book, The Sacred Mushroom Seeker said, “A shamanism that does not resort to hallucinogenic plants is a shamanism that has lost its roots” this is something I agree with in principle, but as Andy Letcher has shown in his wonderful book "A cultural history of the magic mushroom" Wasson's work is not to be taken at face value. Shamanism that is specifically rooted in the kind of experiences that are induced by psychoactive plants are not so common as we have been led to believe, and this type of shamanism is only found in South America and Siberia.
But these are not drugs but plants. It's a perversion of language to try to derail this thing into talk of drugs. There are spirits in the natural world that come to us in this way and so far as I can tell this is the only way that they come to us that is rapid enough for it to have an impact upon us as a global population,but this is an area that our society is extraordinarily phobic and nervous concerning, which has lead to the growth of Core shamanism, a practice started by Micheal Harner. This is a form of modern shamanism that can be practiced in the comfort of your home by listening to a drumming CD, whilst very effective for most people I do not find this puts me in touch with the “Logos” and brings me back to my main topic “Britain’s native spirituality”.
Today we are left with no real system to follow, but I like others believe that by using meditation, instinct and the shamanic use of psychoactive plants we can start to connect with the past and formulate a pathway back.
Animism is at the core of the interpretation of Shamanic Druidry that I follow, a belief that plants, animals and even inanimate objects have a soul.
Modern Druidry as far as I am concerned has nothing to do with the bearded white robe wearing Druids that gather at Stonehenge, or the organized groups such as O.B.O.D. It is about connecting with the places, ancestors and animals of my native land, using the spiral energies of time and the snake power buried deep within the very bones of the earth I walk upon to heal, empower and change myself and those who seek my help.
Using teacher plants and their spirits is at the very root of the shamanic path that I follow.
There are those who say that the Ancient Britons had no shamanic heritage but how could this be the case, Anthropologists all agree that ancient cultures used these techniques and though separated by oceans and continents for tens of thousands of years eventually by trial and error came to use similar practices to achieve and maintain well being and healing in their communities, so why not our ancestors ?
Love and Unrest /|\
This is my tale of how I came to discover, then be guided to an awakening of my druid path by a place known as the Coldrum stones. It all started some six years ago, when I had moved to Gravesend. It was a wonderful early summer afternoon and I was out exploring Trosley country park on my mountain bike, I found myself riding down a hill track towards the Pilgrims way, when I reached the road at the bottom something inside told me to ride along this ancient pathway.
Eventually I came to Pinesfields road and there, before me, was a signpost to the Coldrum long barrow, intrigued now I peddled faster. Ten minutes later I was crossing a field, I could see the tree with its offerings hanging from the branches, then I crossed over what I would later describe as the gateway into this most amazing and hallowed place.
It had been a long hot day and as I sat atop one of the burial chamber stones the warmth and energy flowed through my whole being, the love affair had begun. Even then I did not realize how important this place would be for me or how deep my connection to it would grow, it became my sanctuary, a place I would visit after busy days to relax and meditate, a place where when friends came to visit I “had” to take them there.
I started to look for information on the Internet about the site, to go there for the Pagan festivals, and to see it transformed in the different seasons. I met the Robin, the ancient guardian of the stones and whenever I arrived there he would always appear, sitting and watching me making sure of my intention. I always felt welcome there and everyone I met at the place shared the same feelings.
Soon the wheel of the year had turned and the summer solstice was upon me, I went there late on mid summers eve, squeezing my way through the overgrown bushes, the walk from the car park to the stones felt like a kind of birthing, when I reached the tree I could see three figures stood at the back of the chamber. I asked the Ancestors for permission to enter the sacred space then went to kneel in front of the mighty Beech and gave an offering of thanks for the wisdom and peace the stones had given me for the past twelve months. When I had finished I went to introduce myself to the others, one of them I felt an instant bond to, he told me his name and that he was a wand and staff maker, we started chatting and soon the other two people drifted off as more folks arrived to see the sunrise. We talked about many things, he told me there was three things I should do in the next year, he sang me a song and asked me where I thought I should sing it, I told him that it should be sung in the West Kennet long barrow which was the correct answer. One of the tasks was to find a cave on the hillside near the Coldrum stones; before we parted he gave me a beautiful Rowan staff, and gave me instructions on how to empower it.
Two months later I visited the stones on Lamas day with two friends, all day different groups of people arrived and came to talk and share our food, I asked them all if they knew of the cave, from each group I received a small part of the jigsaw, a few weeks later I returned on my own to see if I could find the place, sitting in the car park I asked to be given a sign to show me I was walking the right path. I went to the stones first to talk to the Ancestors, but never expected what happened next.
I crossed what I called earlier, the threshold; as I did so an Adder came right out in front of me and stopped at my feet, I placed my staff in front of it and she started to bite it, then climb on to the staff. I sat down and asked this wonderful creature to help me with my quest.
The snake is of course an ancient symbol of sacred wisdom and healing, the first creature to travel between the worlds and bring us the knowledge of plants and the connection to spirit, everywhere that nature and the awakened self are venerated, the serpent appears in the myths and culture of the people. After about an hour of communing with this wonderful being she slid away towards the stones, I gave thanks for this encounter and made my way towards a track up the hill known locally as “the hundred steps”, as I made my way up there the path was lined with small Yew trees, I had been told the cave was under a large Yew so this I took as a sign I was going on the right path.
When I reached the top I found a track that ran through the woods, the tyre tracks had the same pattern as the adders markings, again this was a sign I was travelling on the right track. It’s serpentine flow through the woods also made me feel like I was following the snakes wisdom, for how long I travelled on this way I could not say but soon I came to a fork in the track and unsure of which way to go I took the left hand trail, soon I was reminded of the wisdom of one of the visitors at Lammas, he was a druid from Sweden and told me that when searching for the cave if I was lost or unsure I should ask the trees, as I came around a corner I found two fallen branches crossed and blocking my way, I sat down and called to the trees to guide me. Suddenly the wind got up and started to blow the branches on the trees back towards the way I had come, I had my answer.
I returned to the fork and took the other track, after a while I came upon a tree that was rotted out and formed what I saw as a cave. Convinced again I carried on, soon the path started to twist and turn and I felt like I was reaching the head of the serpent. I had not eaten or drunk anything for two days prior to this and now was starting to feel a kind of shamanic state of perception washing over me, I felt my Nemeton blending into the forest and the spirit of everything around me. Walking on for a little further I suddenly saw a large Yew standing on the edge of the ridge line, drawn towards it I made my way through the undergrowth and as I came round the front I saw before me the entrance to the cave.
Overwhelmed by the power of this place I sat outside for sometime just soaking up the atmosphere, soon I felt compelled to enter it’s dark heart and slowly climbed down into the entrance, there was two caves, but due to roof fall one had become almost inaccessible, the one remaining cavern used to have a painting of Herne on the rear wall, but someone has hacked it off, and has a short tunnel going deeper into the hillside, I use this cave entrance as my starting point visually when taking a shamanic journey, and I know that the medicine of the earth snake is so close in this place. Working with the drum or rattle here is so intense, looking out across the weald of Kent, the feelings of connection for me to the Cantiaci and the very soil of the North Downs are at their strongest.
So the wisdom of the Coldrum stones flows through my very veins and still today the connections and guidance continue, I have now found a great teacher in Rob Wilson who is a guardian of the stones, and the grove I work with meet on the hillside near both these special places.
If you ever find yourself in Kent then visit this very special and powerful place and try to find the cave.
I can promise you one thing the journey is a journey in its self.
LOVE and UNREST
We all at sometime in our journey feel disconnected, or unable to connect to a path we feel drawn to, this leads to frustration, or questioning ourselves and our beliefs, doubts begin to creep into our minds. This is a natural reaction that we must overcome, we live in a world with faster and faster ways to get what we want and so we are conditioned to think this way about all we do, but this is not the case when we work with the Earth and her spirits.
Nature grows at its own steady pace and accepting this is the first lesson we have to learn when working with Earth religions, whether you are Wiccan, Druid or any of the paths that come under the Pagan umbrella.
Intuition is an observation, an awareness of the subtlest of energies, inside and outside of you. Know that whatever is happening outside of you; your body is mimicking and/or duplicating it inside at the same time. Trust what you perceive. You do not have to understand it. Judge none of it; just observe it.
When we judge it as right or wrong, we begin to turn down our perceptions. Slow down. Listen with all of your senses and beyond your five regular senses. Slow down to the speed that you can comprehend.Feel what the energy is like.
All living and non-living things have a vibration. Be open to the sensation of all of them. You are discovering and building a vocabulary of energetic frequencies. When you live in this kind of reality, you are no longer totally dependent on what you hear and see for information.
Perceiving the energy gives you so much more. Everyone’s abilities are different. Do not try to be like someone else. Trust your own information. Trust your own process in getting there.
For me Nature is the greatest guide there is. When I want guidance in a decision, contact with the souls of my ancestors, or solace in suffering, I wander the hills and woods of my land where I am held, rooted in the very soil, finding inspiration in the patterns of tree bark, the pebbles in a river, or the dawn mist.
Sitting inside the womb tombs, the temples of the dead, for me, is a meditation with the living Earth and the spirit of the ancestors, this is where I find inspiration.
Working with the spirit of the Yew tree is where I am remade, shattered then put back together.
Working like this, trusting in your own perceptions of events leads you deeper and deeper, till the day comes when you break through and you feel a change in that connection.When you then have a profound shift inside of yourself, you find that your awareness changes and this brings a change in reality, a kind of shift in your perspective on life. Work with this, learn to flow with the energies, draw their healing powers into you, this is “connection”, this is what we yearn to achieve when working with the Earth..........
Love and Unrest
/|\
The Yew Tree sits well with the passage between Life and Death. Like a primordial ancient grandmother that holds the balance between the two. The stories she holds beneath her bark and bleeding keen out to the wild land lost, loved and grief stricken and powerfully held in serpent roots that split the rock upon which, has held her for so long. Yew spirit reaches into a void that is the womb of nurturing and the cave of souls were we are laid bear, to be witnessed, exposed and rewoven into the fabric of time and place; A place that is nothing and everything all at the same time. Her cauldron carrying the toxic brew of inspiration of death, the beauty in decay yet the power to renew through total surrender, a journey you never return from quite the same way as when you first spied the green, red berried, sweeping branches touching bear ground. The Yew Tree has had a long association as a tree of the ancestors, the dead and the dying. Sources always point to the fact than many majestic, ancient Yews are to be found in church yards, holding their regal role as guardians of the dead. This is true, but somewhere I feel we miss something, and this association in itself is becoming dogma in our Paganism. The Yew has many tales to tell, it will offer healing, and it will act as a guardian to the dead, assisting the flow of the journey of spirit and physical bone songs. My blood and tears has flowed beneath many of the Yews of my home, a bitter sweet sacrifice to the stories they have spun upon my battered and emotionally scared soul. Leading me through tunnels of deep rich truth that seems to be so ancient, it resonates as sound, no words, and it’s these sounds of wild land stories and soul journeys that have allowed me to find the power of Yew in its bark, leaves, roots and its bleeding. The Yew puts us in direct contact with our past, the past of our blood line. It can act as the gate keeper to those shadow lands within our psyche, as well as that of our ancestral memories. We can face our own mortality within the presence of Yew in our journeys and its here the sweet toxicity of its presence can touch our soul, and help us to play the important role as guardians of the dead and dieing, here the Yew teaches us to be the Bone Singers. The Bone Singers are the edge folk, living in both this and the next world. Chanting over the last breaths of life at the side of a tribal member’s death bed. Preparing the body for the mortuary platforms for the crows and ravens to peck the bones clean and finally with ritual, placing and arranging the bones in the chambered womb-tombs. They cared for the dead and sang the stories of the bones of the ancestors, their chants echoing in deep bellied womb-tombs. They were both feared and respected, and so lived on the edge of their society and this physical existence. Today the Bone Singers bring the inspiration of aloneness, of being different from the 'norm', of facing our mortality and how we may work with the dead and the dieing. Here we find our true vocation and dedication, for the Bone Singer spends many hours with the bones of the dead to ensure that their song lives on and echo from deep within this sacred land, deep within the belly of mother earth. We also sing those ancestor stories with those who are dieing, helping them to surrender to the death that comes, to find their ancestors waiting for them to journey along the yew line paths of another world, a new, yet old journey in their dieing. The Yew also honours the life blood that flows through our veins, the stories that we too are weaving upon this wild land, woven through the fabric of our soul’s intention. The spiritual vigour that holds us even in the depths of our winter dreaming, the gestating darkness of ice. The evergreen of a sleeping guardian that is fluid in the changes it initiates, yet solid in its rootedness and great age. Life is affirmed by the Yew, the cycle and its experience, not just the bones stories and songs but the whisper of what can be a murmur of a thread of the future patterns that flow from past experience or knowing. The Yew tree is uncompromising in whatever guise you find her tapping upon your soul. Commanding respect, we can reach out just as uncompromising to the smooth muscular branches and the blood red weeping trunk, and just witness, just flow and be a part of the cycle of life’s journey, the dreaming of ancestral memory, the songs of the bones, of land and love and life and its dieing.
Rob Wilson
April 2009
After months of planning, promotion and arranging the weekend of the walk was ready to rock, eight people plus Rob and myself were set to walk in the footsteps of our ancestors,a walk through the forgotten past of Kent.
Plans changed on the Friday due to the weather,from an original idea to camp along the route of the walk I opted for a near by camp site, arriving there on the Friday afternoon we set about putting up two modern style tepees and a small three man tent, as more folks arrived and the Awen flag was raised our little tribe started to get to know each other.
Soon the dawn was upon us, we awoke to unsettled weather but the group spirit could not be broken and by 9am we held a informal blessing ritual at the Coldrum stones, next was a circular blindfolded walk this was intended to open up the other senses and it flowed amazingly, I knew then we would be in for a great day.
We made our way down and onto the Weald way and into the Ryash wood, stopping to taste the wild garlic that grows there. The next exercise was with the Birch trees, these are a cleansing tree, purification and pioneering are their attributes, after a talk by Rob about the Birch we sent the tribe off to connect with this powerful spirit whilst we sat and drummed.
Next was another blindfolded walk between two different types of wood, one deciduous and the other evergreen , I wanted to see if people could feel the difference and again open up their senses to the forest around them. The walk was very rewarding for both them and us, as we led them along we could both feel our Nemetons opening out. I was touched by the level of trust we had within this small group and their willingness to immerse themselves totally into each exercise .
We walked on till we came to five Oak trees, Rob again led the way telling of how the Oak in Druidry is thought of as the gateway tree , guarding and protecting the secrets, again the group dispersed to find a tree and connect with it, this time I approached them one by one, drumming the energy of the tree through their body , from their roots to the branches of their arms.
As morning turned to afternoon we made our way towards the North downs, half way up the hill we stopped for lunch, gathered around under one of the ancient Yews that hold the memories of this land.
Fueled up and ready for the next section of the walk we finished the climb and made our way through the White horse woods on the ridge of the downs. We at last arrived at an ancient cave that has a Yew as its guardian, Rob told of how the Yew is the tree of the Ovate, the connection of life and death, the Axis Mundi. Entering the cave everyone sat and felt its energy, as we started to drum and burn incense.
Finally we made our way back down again, back to walk for a while on the Pilgrims way and follow the footsteps ........
I would like to thank all those who came and walked through the land I love so much.......
LOVE and UNREST
We would like to offer you the chance to craft your own Shamanic drum, spend the day with us Blessing and making a drum that will become part of you, and help you connect to the Ancestors.....
This is a one day workshop.....
Dates are available throughout the year, most workshops are run on weekends.
Weekdays by arrangement......
Please contact us to confirm a date at
ancientwalks@hotmail.com
These are traditional frame style drums....
Price for a 15inch drum : £95
Other sizes available......
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Druidry to me is all about working with the Spirits of Place, Ancestors and Plants. Being an Animist, this is where the roots of my path are laid, and I follow my instinct when working with all of these things. Yesterday Rob and I went to the Coldrum stones before exploring the route of my upcoming series of walks, a day spent introducing people to Shamanic ways to perceive nature from a Druid perspective. I started with calling to the Ancestors whilst standing inside the temple tomb of that sacred place , working with drum and song I called to the Ancient Druids of the land to bring me vision to craft the walk and bring me the tools of nature that I needed to teach those that will attend the walk. Heading off to the woods with the songs of the land singing in my soul the omens felt right, and as we started to walk the route the magic began to flow. There is a kind of synergy that forms , a feeling that your intent joins with the natural world and starts to craft what you want to happen, like when a potter takes a lump of clay and puts it on his wheel, then what seems like nothing begins to flow with the finger tips and an object of beauty is formed. This is how the day went, round every corner was exactly what I needed, even down to the very plants and their medicine, growing right in the exact place to enhance the exercises. It's this kind of wholeness and truth that we look for as Druids, Priests of Nature working with the land to enlighten others to a way of living that has been all but forgotten, this for me brings a sense that my intention is honorable, and that those who come will leave with their hearts and souls enriched not by me but by the very land that I love, I am just there to facilitate the connection, I am just there to shine the light. This is where the Shaman and the Druid both blend into each other for me, working with stories, energies and sound to weave the natural Magic of this ancient Island we live on, and in so doing the Healing is found deep within all of us, from the Birch to the Oak, from the Aspen to the Yew. Today I feel honored to have had my foot placed on such a wonderful path........
LOVE and UNREST
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