Summary of the Year 2013 – Themes

Welcome to the first of three posts to summarise the adventures I’ve had this year. The first post will discuss the major themes of the year and my opinions on them. The second post will go into detail about the lessons I’ve learned and how I have developed as a result of those teachings. Finally, in the third post I will briefly mention some of the interesting but as yet unresolved aspects of my work – I’m calling these the “loose threads”.

I have to start by saying a big thank you to all our readers. As you may know, Kal and I log our adventures primarily so that we can use them as a record of our progression along this unusual esoteric spiritual path that we follow. However, we do recognise and indeed write for an audience of like-minded folk, and we are always humbled that you continue to be interested in our work. Good for you! We hope it’s helpful in some way towards your own journeys along the path.

Main themes this year:-

Arthurian Tarot framework

It seems like such an innocent thing to do – to do a tarot draw to help define the year’s work. I drew cards from my new Camelot Oracle deck – one for each Celtic Feast Day. A question and a challenge was defined for each Feast Day.

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	I chose my champion – the figure of Galahad. Purity, strength, The East At Imbolc I met Merlin, who offered me the tools I would need for the rest of the year – sword and shield. He reminded me that I must use emotion in magick – joy, love, respect.At Beltane I met Linet. She asked me how I see myself – as a hermit away from the world, or involved in it? I opted for the latter and began to turn myself outwards, accepting my druid life. At the Summer Solstice I worked on balance, working with sword and shield to define a balanced cross of Arthurian archetypes which could be drawn upon when working. At Lammas I was guided to a special place by K. I collected and offered the King of Faery the fruits of the land. We left that sacred space together. This was my challenge alone, but in harmony with other forces. At Samhain Merlin guided me to test my mortality against his master Blaise – by calling lightning and then by standing on the edge of a precipice. I faced East and answered the challenge – I was no longer in doubt about my work. It is my life.	Initial layout for the year IMBOLC – Sword and Shield (Merlin at The Well) BELTANE – Hermits and Hermitages (Linet at the Hermitage) SUMMER – The Arthurian Cross (Galahad, Sword and Shield) LAMMAS – The Faery Feast (Kay at the Green Chapel) SAMHAIN – Blaise, Castle Mortal and Mortality (Blaise at Castle Mortal)

A Merlin Year

Each year seems to have a pre-dominant (but not exclusive) energy form which I can interact with at special places. This year I would characterise as a Merlin year.

New Spirit Guide

This year saw the transition from Theodora to ‘Ash’. Luckily this occurred early on in the year and I have had the privilege to work with Ash for most of this year. It has been interesting to move from a one-way relationship with Theodora to a two-way relationship with Ash.

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	It was quite shock to find at the start of the year that my first spirit guide had departed. The move was inevitable, and I sought a new guide suitable for my current work. In Cumbria I found a stone circle where I could call such a guide. He had been waiting for me to do that. A psychic friend had said he was waiting. Later in the year I found out more about him – he was with me to learn about how subtle energy works on Earth. For me, he was here to show me how to gain bardic skills such as story-telling, especially through dream work.	Losing my previous guide Finding my new guide Learning about the guide (a dragon) Tarot for the new guide

Sword and Shield

Once I had been gifted the knowledge that I should discover two magickal tools called The Sword and The Shield I set about finding them. The adventures took me several months but were instructional and incredible adventures into The Otherworld. This work took me up until the Summer Solstice to complete.

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	Sword of Will (Galahad) and Shield of Faith (Nimue) were the magickal tools that Merlin revealed to me at the start of the year. The Lady of the Lake delivered the Sword of Will to me after my courage was tested in a threefold way. The Shield is formed via a special stone charged by the energies of Valle Crucis abbey. The Sword is evoked through Seeking The Stag (a physical exertion in full freedom), and The Shield is created by ‘challenging’ my Spirit Guide to create it for me. The Shield became a new quest – to create The Perfect Shield – and I learned how to create this energy form inside Thor’s Cave.	Alderley vision reveals sword Sword of Lyn Tegid The Shield of Faith The Perfect Shield Thor’s Cave Tarot for Sword and Shield

Ancestor artefacts

Ancestors are a much-neglected subject for me – until I visited Ireland last year. Now I have begun to retrieve the special and particular knowledge and energies that connect me to the land of my ancestors, and with every new piece of research or ever task I am guided to do I find that I have a deeper relationship than I realised. This is a topic of increasing importance and power for me.

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	It began last year in Ireland when I visited the lands associated with my father’s family. In Roscommon I was guided to find The Eel Sword – a slimy piece of wood through which I downloaded my ancestral history. It climaxed with a psychic battle to win the right to take the ancestral title, and a coronation ceremony to symbolically seal the deal. This year I was informed that there were two more ancestral artefacts that I needed to obtain in order to become fully endowed with the full energetic inheritance of my family line: The Torc of the Hawk, and The Blood Ring. I found the Torc – it is in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. I visited the place and extracted the ancestral energy from the torc, and now I need to put that into a new torc in order to preserve it. My next quest, possibly for next year, is to find and retrieve the energies from The Blood Ring – whatever and wherever that is.	The Eel Sword The Torc of the Hawk The Blood Ring

Taking possession of sites

Finding out that Bran is Arthur in welsh form was a profound insight for me. It linked the energy forms that I had practical experience of to those I had grown up learning about. Suddenly my relationship with Bran became more treasured. In the spirit of this new relationship I was guided to a deeper connection to the sacred sites around Llangollen Valley through their relationship with the stars above them.

Living as a Druid

As part of The Doubtful Path revealed by the tarot this year I knew I would be challenged and have to decide how I would react. It has not been easy for me to come to terms with the idea of being a modern druid. Sometimes I have indeed doubted this concept and taken criticism to heart, allowing it to affect how I present myself in the world. This year I would begin to come to terms with druidry, and how I appear to people, taking s stand for what I believe through experience rather than fantasy.

Interactions with Faery

One of the aspects revealed to me at the start of the year was that I needed a re-balancing towards more masculine energies. I was becoming too comfortable in the female energies. This year saw me moving towards embracing the masculine aspects of my life, testing myself physically, mentally and spiritually.

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	In the second half of the year I became embroiled in a relationship with the ultimate symbol of masculinity – Gwyn Ap Nudd – The Stag – Cernunnos – Herne the Hunter – King of the Faery. At Glastonbury I discovered a portal on the Tor which could connect me with Gwyn. I learned about an energy technique called The Cone of Power – a vortex that would connect me to Gwyn Ap Nudd directly without the need for a portal. I was quested to Seek The Stag, and I found him in a deep forest. I was invited to meet Gwyn, and a special and secret place was revealed to me. Kal and I visited it at Lammas and I gifted the glory of the land to Gwyn. In a perverse twist of fate my staff was lost and I was shown a new one almost immediately – The Stag Staff – a yew staff with an antlered crown atop it. The culmination of my year was running Hellrunner wearing a 25lb pack – a feat so difficult that I needed to be at the peak of physical fitness. For me, this was the ultimate expression of masculinity. I now feel I have re-balanced myself in terms of male and female. Grrrr! 😉	Glastonbury Faery Portal Cone of Power Horns of Power Seeking The Stag Sitting with The Stag Cloak of the Green Man The Faery Feast Charging the Stag Staff

CONCLUSION

Each year Kal and I say the same thing to each other: “Could next year possibly be any better than this year?”. Each year we have moved father, made more progress, and matured in our work and our relationships with those around us. We have grown in every way, and it is all thanks to following this path of development that I call “Hedge Druidry”, and which Kal called “Edge Wizardry”.

We therefore go into the Quiet Time now in buoyant mood, looking to learn all our year’s lessons, and developing the passion to go further that will make next year even more incredible. Will you be there to read about it? Are you making your own shining path through life? Breathe deeply of it all. Fill your lungs with adventure!

Gwas.