At the start of the year I remembered that I had been chatting to Kal about the idea of questioning everything. Not absolutely everything – I had done that once before during a Philosophy degree. Rather, this was the idea of taking all of the things that I had come to rely on in the magickal druidic sphere, and then checking whether everything that I was working from as a basis was still valid to me at this time and for the coming year.
After all – things change, people change – and it would be an interesting test to use my dowsing rods to check whether all those little aspects of ritual, or belief, that I use as a basis for working in Nature – do they still apply to me now or have I tied my rudder down in the wrong direction and it’s taking me off course?
I decided to check a number of things, only some of which I will document here. The things I wanted to check were:-
SPIRIT GUIDES
a) Is my teaching Spirit Guide still the same guide? NO. I have to find another spirit guide to work with.
This wasn’t the answer that I was expecting! I had prepared two subsequent questions on the basis that I still had a tutelary spirit guide, and now I had discovered that this guide has moved on! A bit of a shocker. I did some more dowsing about this to confirm it, triple check it, then ask some questions about the change.
It seems that the change occurred because we had got to the point where the guide had got everything they wanted from the relationship and i too had got what I needed from them. The change was related to the point where i took on responsibility for my own druid work, and had occurred at Samhain last year. No wonder I had said an extra log thanks to this spirit at that time! I was saying good bye even though I didn’t know it at the time. Why didn’t I know it then? Because I had been “stuck in my ways” and expected that everything would just continue “as normal”. If I’d been listening properly I would have known this was happening.
RITUAL
- Are my crystal sets still valid in the current configurations? Only my elemental, healing and protection sets are valid. The others are useless in their current configurations.
- Is the incense that I use still the correct incense for the year ahead? YES. The frankincense and sandalwood incense I have been using will still be useful in the coming year.
- Are the stations that I work with correct for me? YES. Sea to the West, Air to the North, Sun to the East and Land to the South are my correct stations.
- Is my Arthurian Cross correct for the coming year? YES. Merlin is associated with North, Arthur with South, Gwalchmai with West and Gwalchaved with East.
Questioning my assumptions about my work had been both a challenging and a reassuring exercise. At first I was concerned that everything I had been working with was wrong when I found out that my spirit guide had moved on. Then, when I checked all the other aspects of my ritual work I found that it was all solidly based in useful customs and objects that I could continue to use for my work in the coming year. Having that sense of stability meant that I was reassured that my work was not going completely off course!
Now I can proceed into the new year with a renewed feeling that I am heading in the right direction. The new challenge is, do I need a new spirit guide for the coming year? I think I need to visit my friend The Yew at Llangernyw in order to establish this, or perhaps a Tarot reading would throw some light on it? All that is to come. For now – it’s still The Quiet Time, and I won’t be starting any work until Imbolc on February 1st.
