I am now adept at putting my consciousness outside of myself. The great Bran taught me many of these skills, and others I have worked on through my own training, guided as always by those forces unseen which lend their collective hands to guide me along this druidic path. Consciousness relocation is a skill which I have become so accustomed to that I have almost forgotten that I once couldn’t do this on demand.
I got a wake-up call recently though. I was reading “Fire In The Head” by Tom Cowan and he reminded me that the ancient bards talk of another level of consciousness re-location: shape-shifting.
I have been in many shapes;
I have been a narrow blade of a sword;
I have been a drop in the air;
I have been a shining star;
I have been an eagle;
I have been a boat on the sea;
I have been a string on a harp;
I have been enchanted for a year in the foam of water.
There is nothing which I have not been. [Taliesin]
This boastful style belies an inherent druid skill – the art of placing one’s consciousness within something else in order to see and experience from the perspective of that life force.
I am reminded that the Borrowdale Yew trees were hinting at this when they talked to me about the notion of “Propagation“. This is the concept of placing my energy (for energy also read ‘attention’) in something so that I can revisit it later and experience from that perspective.
Having been reminded by Mr Cowan that this is also a major part of the bardic journey I am going to try to make time for such practises this year. Let’s see what tales will come of it!
